Jasper sniffed Blizzard's shoulder carefully as the white tom continued to cough up river water onto the grass. Homer patted him gently on the back, both to comfort him and help him.
"That's going to need treating." Jasper muttered, standing up as Blizzard stopped hacking and looked up at him with pained, half-closed, blue eyes. "Or it'll get infected. The fox bit pretty deep."
Venus offered to clean the blood gently from the wounds on his shoulder and flank, while Homer continued to comfort him, and the others wondered off in search of some sort of medicine.
"Wait." Monty spoke suddenly. "Berries!" He darted over to a cranberry bush, plucking a few berries from the soft, verdant leaves. He was so thrilled about the tiny plants, itseemed as though he had completely forgotten about his brother's death a fewmonths ago.
"What about them?" Jasper asked, a little curious as to what he was doing.
"They can be used as a substitute for medicine!" Monty seemed extremely excited about his discovery. "The old she-cat that lived down our street, she used to teach me about them. The purple ones are to be eaten if someone has a serious fever, the blue ones are to stop pain, the green ones are poisonous, so they should only be used if a cat is close to death and needs to be put down. The yellow berries, you're meant to chew them into a poultice and rub it on a broken limb, and it seeps into the skin and mends the bone. The orange ones are to be eaten if someone has difficulty breathing, or to be rubbed on the fur to kill fleas. These red ones," He pointed down at the small pile of cranberries in one paw. "Are for stopping infection. And I think there are pink ones, and mothers should eat them if they're milk is low, and they're also used to relieve stress if someone is shocked after an event. Oh, and the black ones, you can eat them if you've ingested something poisonous and it'll get rid of the poison-"
"Okay, okay, I get the point." Jasper shoved one huge paw over his son's mouth to silence him as he went on. "You really do know a lot. So these red ones should stop infection?"
"Yeah, we just need to squish them up and rub it on the wounds." Monty bounded away in the direction of the river with the berries in his mouth.
As he arrived, Blizzard looked up hopefully.
"Will those help?" He asked, his voice still ragged from swallowing so much water after falling unconscious.
"Yes." Monty dropped them onto the floor and crushed them under his paw, just as Jasper arrived with Tonks at his side. Kali bounded in afterward, a twig covered in tree sap dangling from her jaws, onlyto drop it with disappointment as she realised Monty had already found somemedicine.
Monty scooped up a good amount of the poultice and held it up to the gash on Blizzard's shoulder.
"This may sting a bit." He muttered as he began to smother it on the tom's shoulder. Blizzard winced, but soon relaxed as a warm sensation shot through his forearm.
"Now we just need a big leaf to wrap around it to keep it on." Monty instructed Jasper, who bounded away to a small bush at the base of the hill. "Not dock leaves though, they're for scratches and stings. And pine needles, or conifers, they're spiky, and they're normally used to scrape grit out of cuts. Oh, or ivy, that's poisonous."
Jasper handed his son a small, round, bright green leaf, which blended in with his eyes. Monty hooked it gently out of his mouth with one claw and lay it over the red pulp, pressing it on firmly.
"It's amazing how much he knows." Tonks murmured to Jasper and Venus, who had come over to join them and watch in awe as the kitten worked. "Weird to think he's only 9 months old."
"Okay, keep that on there, and be gentle on that leg. You don't want to put too much pressure on it, or open the wound again." Monty informed Blizzard as he sat up, flexing his shoulder gently. "Would you like me to look at your leg?" He asked, gazing down worriedly at the scratches on his flank.
"No, it'll heal, it's just a few scratches."
"I'll put a bit of cranberry on it just to stop infection." Monty rubbed his paw in what remained of the red poultice, and doused Blizzard's flank in it gently.
"You all done?" Homer asked.
When Monty nodded, Homer stood up, along with the others.
"Let's get going then." Jasper muttered.
YOU ARE READING
Dark Moon: Tell-Tale
Aventura'One cat, the brightest shade of black there is, shall defeat all evil.' Monty, his brother Marley, Tonks, Jasper, Homer, Venus, Echo and Blizzard must set out in search of a new home. With a dangerous killer on the loose and a horrifying secret lur...
