Legacy: Timeless (Book 2)

Chapter 28: Black Globe

Chapter 28: Black Globe

"Here, if we wrap your paw like this..." Scorch frowned in concentration as she carefully bandaged Cedarheart's sprained paw in a fresh comfrey and tansy poultice. The leaves were few, but she'd crushed them with the oil from cobnuts to thicken them enough for the poultice.

"Thanks! That already feels much better!" Cedarheart thanked her, testing the paw on the ground.

"Good! And if it starts to hurt, feel free to come to me. I'll help you out anytime!" Scorch gave a lop-sided grin up at the orange warrior.

"I will, don't worry," Cedarheart purred in appreciation before turning and limping across the snowy clearing to the warriors den.

Scorch hummed happily as she rubbed her paws in the snow to clean them. She felt like she was living again, and she was living in a bright world with dazzling moments and courageous cats. The war- for better or for worse- was a sort of game to her. Especially since she hadn't been allowed to fight in the last few scuffles that had occurred.

Not that any of them had been dangerous, they had mainly been one-sided for the aligned Clans and been the result of her newest strategy. She had realized that full-on battles were too even and unpredictable, they could go either way and that's not what the cats wanted and it had needed to be changed.

Scorch had also noticed that it was harder for the cats to find enough prey to feed them all. So she'd taken on a risky strategy and organized a dangerous system of raiding NightClan's hunting parties; beating their cats and stealing their prey in one swoop.

This was dangerous because- not only did they need a cat to spy on every hunting party they wanted to strike- but it was such a vital blow that Nightwing would be forced to respond whether they were ready for it or not. But other than the strength of the hunting patrols being increased, Nightwing hadn't seemed to take many countermeasures yet.

Scorch loved this game of guessing and wits. A game that she had the advantage of by sensing other cats' emotions. She wondered if the reason Nightwing hadn't done anything was because he was waiting for his spy to come back with a detailed report of the strategy.

Scorch was convinced there was a spy among their ranks. Not only had there been no strange scent around the camp or in the fresh-kill pile, but the method of her poisoning was almost impossible for an outside cat to have accomplished. The problem was, she didn't know who it was yet even though it had been five days since her poisoning.

But that fear had been thrown away, she didn't care. If she caught the cat, they'd be punished. If they killed her, she wouldn't have to worry about them anymore anyways, so why stress out over it? Those were the thoughts she told herself. :ate at night, when she was as honest with herself as possible- for no cat could ever be completely honest- she knew that she was lying to herself and to the world. Next she would find herself reaching for her poppy seeds. Even though they were the reason why she hadn't woken up when her assaulter poisoned her.

But in the daytime, she agreed with the world that lying to herself and enjoying life was better than being honest and broken in pieces. I will never go back there again, there's always hope every morning that this day will be better and one day I'll wake up and what I tell myself now will be reality.

"Scorch, could you come help me with this?" the call came from Flashpaw and Scorch bounded over to her. Flashpaw had been dragging a bunch of pine branches and Scorch grabbed them and helped her. When she grabbed them with her mouth and twisted her head awkwardly to drag them, she felt a pinch of nerves. It was the long-lasting result of the poison.

"Where do these go to?" Scorch asked awkwardly around the branches.

"The medicine-cat den, there were a few holes created by the last snow-fall," Flashpaw answered.