~*Warrior Cats-Family Issues*~

500 Miles

~·Willowpads pov·~

   It's been days since the fire. I've tried to help the best I can, although everyone's doing that now considering... Yeah. I can't pretend I wasn't sad when I heard about the deaths of those cats. From what I have picked up over the last few days, they were generally good cats. Their deaths have taken a toll on their families. Soot has taken Lunas death particularly bad, but I can't blame him. They were siblings. I have noticed that a special someone has been trying to help him. Little Littlefleck has been trying to help. It's almost the same situation with Frozenash, though you can't really tell. She was always the type to snap at you. Snowytree is trying to pretend like nothing happened. Ignorance is bliss. Lightbreeze is... I don't know how to describe it... quiet? Reserved? She's just not the same. She has taken over the 'leadership' from her dad. At first glance, she looks okay, like nothings wrong. I can tell that Lightbreeze is pained and always on edge though. Uxio is the silent crier type. She has looked depressed for days. She cried when she first heard, but hasn't since. I think her negative energy had spread because most cats have become sluggish. As for me, I have been 'assigned' a new job. Well, I more of gave the position to myself. As I said before, I'm trying to help out as best as I can, so I became a kind of healer for everyone in a way. I help the deceased family members move on as much as I can and help those who come back from the forest injured. It's not the most interesting thing I can do, but I suck at hunting so I figured why not. I've always lived mostly by myself, so it's nice to be able to help and talk to other cats. I'm dragged from my thoughts when I hear paw steps coming twords me. I turn my head slightly to see Lightbreeze coming. Her head was facing the ground, but she looked up before she reached me. "Hey Lightbreeze. Coming back again?" I comment, turning fully around to face her. "Yeah. I hope I don't bother you too much." Her eyes seem dull and she is slightly hunched over. I take mental note of this. "No, its quite alright! I do enjoy talking to you. Whats up?" I pipe cheerfully. "I'm just having a hard time getting everyone to listen to me. They probably think I'll end up like my dad, but I'd never yell at someone for looking at me the wrong way! At least not intentionally..." Lightbreeze pauses before adding, "at least Slowstorm doesn't seem to mind... Dullpaws too." I nod, silently agreeing with her. Lightbreeze suddenly perks up a bit. "So, hows it going for you? I know I just saw you, but you never know." The shift in tone caught me off guard for a moment. I stay silent for a bit, musing over what had happened since she was last here. "Nothing much. Fallenlog cut their shoulder pretty bad on a fallen branch, but-" I was cut off when Cloudblaze came hurtling twords me. She seemed out of breath and was breathing harshly. "Condorjaw- attacked- dogs- got away-" Cloudblaze looked about ready to collapse. I immediately ask where Condorjaw is. I don't wait for the full answer. Time is precious in these situations. I sprint to the place where Cloudblaze said, Lightbreeze hot on my tail. As Condorjaw comes into my view, I can see he is in fact not dying slowly, as Cloudblaze made it seem. He was, however, losing blood. There was a sizeable wound over part of his mouth going down part of his neck. Tornmane was sitting next to him with a scratch over his right eye. Cloudblaze, who was just panting and wheezing 2 seconds ago, rushes past me to Condorjaws side. She starts talking to him in quiet whispers while Tornmane, upon seeing the two, rolled his eyes. I jerk myself back. I need to get a grip! I have two bleeding cats in front of me! Admittedly their not dying, but still! I jump into action after mentally scolding myself. I don't know much about healing, but I do know enough that those wounds will leave scars no matter what I do. After instructing them to clean their wound (Cloudblaze helping Condorjaw and Tornmane practically forcing Lightbreeze to help him), I search around for anything wider than a blade of grass. At this point, I don't care much what it is. There are many dry and broken leaves on the ground. I'm starting to panic just a tiny bit. I turn my head and spot a rock near a tiny puddle of water. Moss covers the part of the rock closest to the puddle. I scrape up as much moss as I can before running back. I can see them now. I run past Tornmane, almost trampling him in my rush. I apply the moss to Condorjaws closed mouth as Cloudblaze watches apprehensively. I step back, satisfied with my work. Turning to Tornmane, I utter an apology for almost running him over. He mutters something which I can only assume is a 'its fine'. I examine his now clean eye and tell him that he'll recover. He says a thanks and pads away, leaving me with Cloudblaze and Condorjaw, who has not said a thing this whole time. I look around quickly, not seeing Lightbreeze anywhere. "Do you know where Lightbreeze went?" I ask Cloudblaze. She looks up at me before shaking her head slowly. "No I don't... Sorry." I tell her it's alright. Before I leave, I tell Cloudblaze to not remove the moss for awhile and that Condorjaw should be perfectly fine. I turn away from them to go and search for Lightbreeze. I'm honestly surprised that they weren't injured more considering they were attacked by dogs no less. They were probably the small, yappy dogs. While I walk to Lightbreezes' 'space', I notice a group of cats sitting together chatting loudly. I pay them no mind. I look over to my right and see Shallowwater and Brokencreek sleeping together. Actually, it was more Brokencreek sleeping and Shallowwater laying there trying not to disturb him. I wonder when they'll tell everyone... I look ahead to see Lightbreeze pacing with Slowstorm saying something to her. He notices me and turns his attention away from Lightbreeze, who was now muttering. "Hey Willowpad." Lightbreeze turned when Slowstorm said my name. "Oh thank the stars and everything holy! Willowpad, I need your help!" Lightbreeze practically yelled at me. I tilted my head to the side to let her know I was listening. "How do I tell 22 cats that we need to move somewhere else?" I just stand there. Can you blame me? I'm not exactly a motivational speaker. "Umm... Can't you just tell them out right?" I feel pretty stupid saying this. "That's what I said! The queen bee here though," he jerks his head to Lightbreeze, "thinks that its too blunt. She said nobody would, what were the words? Oh yeah, give a flying crap." Slowstorm casts a side glance at Lightbreeze who huffs and tells him to shut up. Lightbreeze does two more laps before sighing. "Alright fine, I'll tell them out right. I'm only doing it that way though because I can't think of anything else right now!" She walks past me a ways and raises her voice. "Everyone, get over here! I have an announcement and I do not care about your complaints!" A few cats grumble and trod over to where she is. I'm already close enough, so I sit down where I am. Slowstorm comes up and sits next to me. "As your decision maker, I have decided that we must move." Lightbreeze announces. Some of the cats look up hopefully. "Finally! I was wondering when you were going to say that. Took long enough." Rollingtide said. I guess Lightbreeze was expecting some back lash and just froze. Slowstorm cleared his throat. "Thank you for that Rollingtide, you were saying Lightbreeze?" "O-oh yes. Thank you Slowstorm. Back to the point. We are going to have to leave. We have hardly enough food to feed ourselves, there are dogs now with their humans, not to mention the fact that said humans might try and destroy these grasslands too. We need to move as far away as possible from here." This was met with some murmurs, both of agreement and speculation. Lightbreeze stood awkwardly for a moment before speaking up again. "So everyone has agreed that we need to move?" Mostly everyone nodded. Some were hesitant to agree. Others were too tired. "Okay, we leave in two days time. Sound good?" Ashenslip pipped up. "Where are we going exactly?" Lightbreeze turned to face the mountains that were ghosts against the sky. "Away."

(I swear I'm not dead. It took me forever because I still have stuff to do, even in quarantine. I should update before another month goes by though. Over 1000 words)