Wandering Mess known as Swamp

First topic message reminder :

Swamp wanders hopelessly. His tail drags behind him and he doesn't care where he is going. In fact, he seems to be going in circles. Mud, leaves and twigs are stuck to his fur and his lifeless eyes scan the surrounding area without even noticing details.

She nods. "Yeah, I think that would be best." Stretching out her mangled paw, she groaned as the juice of the goldenrod stung her back. "Great." "If you feel a stinging sensation while some one else is healing you, that's fine. That's supposed to happen."

He nods and chews up the remaining goldenrod and puts it on her paw. "So stringing is normal, goldenrod treats wounds for pain and infection, poppy seeds are for pain and sleep, and cobwebs prevent bleeding..." He grins; happy to have remembered all that. "Anything else?"

"One more thing. Death Berries. They're a small, black berry that kills a cat before you have time to react. So when a cat is sick, DO NOT give them small black berries you see."

(He said poppy seeds for pain by the way...)
"Death berries. Yeah I figured that one out on my own... Storm. Worst mistake ever I guess." He sighs and looks into her eyes. They calm him. To him they're shouting comfort and kindness. Words that help him handle the fact that his brother is dead because of his simple mistake.

(I erased it.)
She looked back into his eyes and told him it was okay, and that he's here now and should make the best of it. "Great job," she said still looking into his eyes. "You passed the first test of learning herbs. That's enough for today." She smiled and padded over to him, rubbing against him and licking behind his ear. "How about we go for a walk? I feel like stretching out my legs a little."

He nods excitedly. "Ok sounds good. Maybe I can catch something while we're walking... Fooooooooddd" He chuckles hoping he can manage to get food this time. With Snow injured he might be their sole food source for a few days.

She smiles and giggles. "Yes, food is amazing." She laughs and pads alongside him, watching the birds fly by, and the sunlight. "I've never been this happy in my life before." She smiles at him and sighs, but with happiness, not sadness.

He purrs. "I was almost as happy as this once... But it was also one of the worst days of my life. It was the day I woke up and my parents were gone. Storm told me and Lillis they were hunting and would be back soon..." He shook his head. "No, they never were planning to come back. But we had a lot of fun that day. Our first day of real free life... All fun and games till we got hungry."

She listens and says nothing but "hmm..." She listens closely; and shows as much attention as she can. "Did you ever find your parents?" She asks. "Like, their bodies, or were they unknown?"

"nah I never found them... The next morning we found footprints though. They ran away. Probably as far and as fast as the could. My parents weren't much for obligations and responsibilities..." Swamp shrugged. "The only bad thing that came from it was Lillis' death... After that Fellry found me and Storm and practically was a father. I loved him like one."

"He sounded like a great cat. I wish I knew all these wonderful sounding cats." She sighed. "But I don't..." Her mind drifted back to Ripplepaw, and her eyes became foggy. "Just a few days ago, about a day before I met you, my brother, Ripplepaw, left me. We were living in the cave together but I finally told him about how I drove his son away... then he left. So suddenly too... The last memory I'll probably ever have of him is him yelling at me and leaving..." "It hurts me everyday to know that my mistake just drove away my only brother away." He ears drop slightly and she sighs but maintains her speed.

"The best part of that story is you still have a chance. He left in anger, before he thought things through. deep inside he really loves you, I'm sure. Who couldn't? Your a very lovable, pretty ball of fur." He smiles. "You probably could still go find him... Tell him your sorry that you didn't mean to make him run away."

She smiles and blushes at the words. "Thanks, Swamp. I guess you have some awesome advice too." She purrs and smiles at him. "He can't be too far yet... I'll go after him when I feel a little better." She smiles and notices a badger. "Whoaaa, stay away from that, Swamp. Let's go around."

He stares at the badger in shock. "You sure we shouldn't climb a tree or something?" he asks quietly. He gulps feeling scared. He had very little experience dealing with badgers but knew they were rather dangerous and not cat loving.

She glances at her wrapped back and aching wrapped paw. "I can't climb or run very well yet. I'm still sore." She gulps and whimpers slightly. "Let's make a huge circle around it." She backs away slowly from the badger.

He nods, a little embarrased to have suggested such a silly idea. How could he have forgotten about her wounds? "Yeah..." he agrees and back away with her. His eyes never leave the badger and he can feel his heart beating loudly in his chest.

She looks at him and pads a large circle in width around the badger. "It looks like we're just about on the other side of it... if that thing saw us, I'd be done." She gulps once more and looks back at Swamp. "You all right?"

"Huh?" Swamp takes his eyes of the badger and glances at Snow. "Yeah I'll be fine," he tells her, a little louder than he meant to. His eyes shoot back to the badger to make sure it hasn't move and didn't notice.

She nods. "Okay... let's get out of here." She nudges him and looks in the opposite direction of the badger. Walking over to a bush, she smells it and a smile spreads across her face. "Hey, come over here!" She whispers, since they were not too far from the badger yet.

He rushes over to check out her discovery. He's a little calmer now that he feel the badger isn't a huge threat. "What is it?" he whispers. The bush doesn't look very special to him... It just looks rather bushy.

She points at a green plant sticking up out of the center of the bush. "See that plant? This is catmint! It's a really special plant used to cure something called Whitecough, Greencough, or Blackcough. I'll tell you more about those later, but right now we should take this! They're not too common around this area so we should take advantage of this opportunity just in case." She rips the plant with her jaws and smiles at him widely. "Not to mention it can stop bleeding like cobwebs."

"Oh! This is great then!" he says happily. He quickly begins to pull out the leaves. He gathers a large mouthful and looks to Snow. "Are we going to head back then? IF we do... We best avoid that badger."

She nods. "Yeah, that'll be great. We could drop them at the cave and go get some food after. At a different route." She smiles and begins to walk back with him. "Which prey do you like best?" She asks slightly muffled.

He paused a moment to think. What food did he like? Storm had liked rabbits but Swamp could never catch them. "Voles taste good,"he said. "I can do the hunting if I need to. Then when you feel stronger we can look for your brother"

She nodded. "Voles are tasty. For some reason, whenever I hunt a vole, it's always not as big, but when I hunt a rabbit, it's as fat as a baby fox." She chuckles. " If you're willing to catch the prey, I'll have quite a show. Watching you hunt will be amusing. Remember to pull off some of your best moves. Remember I'll be watching." She smiles and looks at him. "And also, don't be embarrassed when you make a mistake around me." She smiles and flicks her ear.