A Thorn in the Side [Bright x Alder] [L0S0V0]

[nightfall]

“Brightnose? Are you in?” Alderheart peered into the medicine cat den, squinting in the dark. The moon was high in the sky, and Alderheart worried for a moment that Brightnose was asleep. Grumbling quietly to himself, he glanced around, studying the carefully sorted herbs on the ground. Despite his age and experience, he never once tried to understand the work of a medicine cat. To each their own, he supposed.

Alderheart let out a small hiss of pain as his left paw pressed against the ground. Ah yes, the reason he was actually here. The thorn. It was buried deep, enough that he couldn’t get it out on his own, and his pride refused to allow him to ask a fellow warrior to help him. Brightnose would at least keep his privacy.

“Starclan’s balls!” He nearly yelped as a flash of pain seared up his leg. Swearing wasn’t something Alderheart did often, but when he did, it tended to be rather… creative. Growling, he sat down and glared at the offending dark brown mark on the soft pad of his paw. It had been so novice of him, not to notice the thorny bush in front of him before it was too late. He’d picked the thorns out of his fur, but he just couldn’t get the one in his paw out on his own. It had been fortunate that no one had been around when he’d crashed into the bush. That would have been mortifying.

A shadow in the corner of his eye made him turn. “Brightnose? I require some assistance.” He made a small gesture at his paw. He hoped it was her. Other than his paw, he also had something else to discuss with her. Something important.

[Cloudbat]

Am I ever anywhere else? Was the reply the medicine cat felt like spitting out. It was inaccurate, anyway. She was often gone - gathering herbs, being forced to talk to some Council member or another (oh look, here was one now), or simply wandering, lost. The last one she did less of now since her confrontation with Frostpaw.

"Yes." She replied simply instead, her back to him as she gathered cobwebs for whatever was wrong. She could smell blood; only a small bit of it, but it was there. She didn't have her suffix for nothing.

Alderheart. From what she remembered of him - admittedly not much - he hadn't been a bad tom before the rise of Miststar. But he was part of the Council now, and none of those cats could be trusted. Yet a very quick smile flashed across her face as she heard his creative cussing. She'd be damned if she showed any levity to one of Volepelt's trusted, though, so when she turned around it was with all the mild humility a cat could express.

"I assumed you weren't here to smell my herbs." She said dryly, immediately ruining the look. However, she then shifted into business mode, dipping her nose to his paw, nearly touching it. "Hold still." she said, before coming even closer and, with a bit of difficulty, putting her mouth into a position where she gripped the small bit of the thorn poking out without also biting into the thick-furred warrior's flesh.

A few quick tugs later, the large brown thorn lay on her den floor and the calico was wrapping her pre-prepared wad of cobwebs around her Clanmate's paw. She didn't think she needed any herbs; why waste them on one of Volepelt's cronies when the risk of infection with a wound this small was low in the first place?

"That should keep you, StarClan willing."

She thought to add the last part even as she began to speak; it would look good.