Flash stumbled blindly into a tree, blood red eyes whizzing through her mind as she let tears flow down her cheeks. Sickly, weak, and barely alive, the she-cat fell on to her chin and didn't get up. " H .. he .. help... me... " came her soft, whispery voice. The prophecy ran through her mind again, and she began to sob. Her mother, dead from giving birth. Her father, dead from car accident. Any living relatives, non-existant.
She should be dead. Maybe captured and held hostage.
A loner named Hillary looked over at the oaks.
She searched for the one with a hollow, the one with gnarled branches and roots that picked up like a barricade. She stepped nimbly through to find right before her barricade, a she-cat almost dead.
"W-who are you?" she asked timidly, light hazel eyes wide. Her black fur was puffed up, and she stepped back into the juniper bushes. "Don't hurt me!"
But like a smart cat, she saw this cat couldn't hurt a piece of grass if she tried. Hillary stepped out of the bushes slowly, and padded over, sniffing carefully.
As soon as Flash heard a voice, she began screaming painfully. Her tiny body was marred with numerous scars from trying to kill herself, her tiny face soaked with tears. Pain made her face wrinkle again, and fresh sobs began once more, tears spilling down her face. " I - I .. " Flash coughed, her weak form struggling to stand. " I'm sorry... Don't kill me... please... " she sobbed, tears still spilling.
"I'll help you!" squeaked Hillary, surprised. "I'll have to drag you in my den...please!" She started towards her.
Flash whimpered pitifully, her deep red eyes full of pain and loss as she stared at the she-cat. As the she-cat came forward, she instinctively flinched.
Foggypath had been mourning for her lost kit at the kit's grave when she heard a pitiful screaming and a pleading voice. Frowning, the gray and white she-cat plodded carefully over. " What's going on..? "
A second voice, and Flash began truly screaming now. " NO! NO! NO! " she shrieked painfully, her high kitten voice slowly becoming raspy.
Hillary put her jaws around her scruff, picking her up gently.
Flash was truly sobbing now, pain searing through her body as the cat picked her up. " P - please. I ... I didn't mean to do it! I - I didn't mean it! " she sobbed.
She dragged her over the barricade and into the den. She put her on a moss nest and looked into her herb stock.
" P - please put me down!! I p - promise not to do it again! " Flash screamed pitifully, her weak frame shivering with the cold. Sobbing still, the she-cat didn't try to move when the she-cat put her in a moss nest. " D - don't hurt me. "
Hillary didn't listen but plastered cobwebs over her wounds.
"You okay? Stop squirming.."
Flash listened to the she-cat, horror plastered over her face. " Y - you're one of them!! " she screamed, her voice rising drastically in both volume and pitch.
"W-wha?" squeaked Hillary, fur puffed up. "No, what do you mean?"
She hurried to her stock and stuffed poppy seeds down the cats throat.
Flash struggled against the she-cat, but the she-cat eventually stuffed two or three poppy seeds down her throat. Flash choked, and almost instantly the seeds took effect on her. Seconds later, she was sound asleep.
While the cat was asleep, Hillary did her healing work.
She made creams of dried oak leaves and marigold.
She stirred up a warm weasel blood soup in a dried mushroom bowl, putting little leaves of catmint in. She opened the mouth of the cat and poured the soup in, making sure she swallowed, then closed the gaped mouth.
Flash was out, totally out. She didn't realize this cat was trying to help her, not harm her. As the she-cat did her magick, Flash had terrible dreams of when she had her time in that horrible rogue camp.
Hillary put cotton over her worst wounds and then cobweb over that, then wrapped it around in a strong type of grass.
Flash whimpered pathetically in her sleep, and her eyes snapped open, blood red and glassy. " Eyes of thick blood; Bloodlines run deep; Taken under an influence; Of Good or Bad; To save one cat. " she repeated her prophecy, and instantly fell back asleep.
Hillary shuddered, keeping away and went back to her personal work.
Flash murmured in her sleep again, rubbing her head against the mossy nest. Seconds later, she awoke shrieking bloody murder.
"It's okay!" exclaimed Hillary, jumping back into the oak wall in surprise.