uP HiGH! (open)

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Swiftfire quietly made herself walk up the moors towards Four Trees. She wanted to see the forest territories from a tree height and get away from camp for a while. It seemed stuffy there and she hated the way others looked at her whenever she coughed. When she'd gone to the medicene den for honey to sooth a sore throat earlier in the moon, the healer was no where to be found along with honey. The predicament was nothing to the deputy, so she carried on with her duties.

Now she wearly made it up to the rock in the middle of the arching trees. She always felt tired nowadays and it aggrivated her. Swiftfire's chest was heaving with the effort of the walk and soon she was hacking. When the bout stopped, her eyes streamed, but she determinedly kept on going. The Windclan cat jumped easily onto the bark of a tree and climbed to the third branch she could reach.

When she got there, a soft breeze blew her fur and tostled her tail. Her body felt hot and sweaty and the breeze was welcome relief. Swiftfire lied down on the branch and looked around.

It's so pleasant up here, she thought lazily and was interupted from anymore when the coughing commenced again. Her vision blurred as tears streamed down her cheeks. After the fit was over she lay on the branch exhausted. The world began to tilt, but she was too tired to do anything about it. The deputy of Windclan was becoming a cat stuck in a tree and there was nothing she could do about.

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Cedarclaw had not been expecting to find any cat hanging around near Fourtrees. Nor had she expected herself to go so far from camp when she had only gone out for a little hunting. It was to be her first real hunt in a long time. Her three little kits had been apprenticed, and there was no reason now that she could not go off on her own for a little while. Besides- the lack of the three little fur-balls near her belly had kept her awake in the warriors den the night before. So she had decided to go distract herself, heading out into the frost-bitten moor. But much to the tortoiseshell she-cat's disappointment, there was no prey close by to be found, so she'd gone as far into the heart of WindClan territory as she could, hoping to find something hiding in the trees near Fourtrees. Smelling the Clan deputy had then distracted her, and glancing up, the warrior recognized her pelt high above in the oak.

The tortoiseshell felt a twinge of guilt upon remembering how she'd treated Swiftfire at the Clan meeting. She didn't want to seem rude, but if it was greencough she was either developing or already had, the she-cat had wanted to protect her own kits from it. Still, it must not have been easy for Swiftfire.

Cedarclaw padded closer to the base of the tree and called up to the she-cat. "Swiftfire? What are you doing all the way out here?"

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Swiftfire's ears twitched as she heard a cat call to her. It took her a minute to understand the meaning. Once it clicked, she looked down and saw Cedarclaw. She looked surprised to she the deputy up in a tree at Four Trees.

Her vision began to tilt again and she drove her claws into the bark to prevent herself from falling. At least that instinct was still intact.

She forced herself to look straight at Cedarclaw. "I'm just looking around and taking a breather," she partly confessed. If only this cat knew exactly what was going on with her right now, she'd probably demand her to come down. Swiftfire didn't want to show her weakness, just like before. In her mind, she did not have greencough, just a cold that gave her a bad cough. The deputy forced herself to look intently at Cedarclaw to force her eyes to potray the truth and no distress.

A cough seized her quickly after her stare and words. After it was done, she closed her eyes, wanting the world to stop turning everything around.

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As Cedarclaw looked up at the deputy, her whiskers began to twitch in concern. Swiftfire seemed to be holding on quite tightly to that branch, as the tension was becoming more apparent in her lower legs and claws. The tone of her voice seemed to pass the whole affair off as casual, but the tortoiseshell wasn't so easily convinced. Then seeing the look in her eyes seemed to confirm those suspicions. Something was very wrong.

The sudden bout of coughing almost startled the she-cat, causing her to take a step back in alarm. The cough sounded horribly rough. Without a doubt, it was greencough that had infected the deputy's lungs. Just as she had feared back at camp.

Cedarclaw wasn't sure what to do. Instinct told her to go up to the branch and help Swiftfire in some way, but any cat knew that greencough was horribly contagious. What if she herself became infected? Any yet, at the same time, the warrior didn't want to leave the she-cat in such a predicament. "Swiftfire, you need to get down from there. You're going to fall of an break something that's not a tree limb." The tortoiseshell measured the distance from the earth to the branch with an unpleased look. "Can you manage on your own?"

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The deputy listened to Cedarclaw and heard echoes mimicing her voice. Her ears went down and she dared not to open her eyes. She could hear the fear in her clanmates voice since she had coughed. I'm not sick! she thought angerly, but her grip on the tree and her weezing lungs told otherwise.

Hesitantly, she opened her eyes again and looked down at Cedarclaw. A wave of neasea erupted through her stomach. Immediatly, she knew she had been stupid to come up here in the first place. Silently, she cursed herself.

At the question, Swiftfire didn't know what to say. If she couldn't get down by herself then Cedarclaw or another cat would have to help her. Not only would that be embarressing, but would cause her to infect others. "I'll try," she managed to say without irratating her throat.

She retracted her back claws and began slidding down the branch slowly. Quickly, she realized that wasn't going to work. The Windclan cat was going to have to use all four paws while standing. Taking a breathe, she got onto her legs, which ached, once more. Tentatively, she took one step at a time, feeling the cool bark under her paws guiding her. When she reached the point where she could jump to a lower branch, she sprang easily.

Her claws hit the branch and she proceeded forward almost effortless. Then the effort caught up and the coughing began. Swiftfire pushed herself onto the branch and clung as hard as she could as her world blurred. When it was over this time, she was scared. Reality was starting to kick in.

Frantically, she jumped the rest of the way down till she reached solid ground. Only then, her body gave in and she collapsed upon the frost bitten fall leaves. Her breathing came hard, but she sat up with ears pinned down to her head. She had to keep going for she didn't want Cedarclaw to catch her coughing bout. "Let me rest a minute. I'm just tired is all. I didn't have time to eat this morning so my stomach's acting up," she smiled as warmly as she could.

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Cedarclaw knew to be concerned as soon as she heard the deputy's response. I'll try. That could never be good. The tortoiseshell took a few steps closer to the base of the tree, feeling wary of Swiftfire's ability. "Be careful," she muttered, keeping a close eye on her legs, agitated that at least one of them would give out from under her.

As she watched, she watched the she-cat hesitate in how to get down. First, she tried sliding back, but that didn't seem to work. Then, as Swiftfire tried to stand, her belly clenched, anticipating that she would fall. But she didn't. The deputy managed one leap down, and then another. But then the cough kicked in. Alarm flashed through the warrior, and her claws sank out into the earth. She watched as Swiftfire clung tightly to the branch she had landed on, and then seeing the fear on her face once it subsided. A heartbeat later, the deputy stood to resume the remaining bounds from the tree limb to the earth.

Relief passed through Cedarclaw when her paws touched ground, glad that she had made it safely. But it wasn't long before Swiftfire was suddenly falling to the earth, crumpling, and breathing with hard gasps. Alarm flared up again in the she-cat's chest, and she bounded over to where the ginger and white warrior had fallen, putting the matter of greencough aside. Then at Swiftfire's light-hearted mew, her eyes narrowed. "What were you thinking?" she growled, lashing her tail. "You could have fallen! And don't give me that fox-dung answer. I think we both know that's not the reason." Cedarclaw wasn't really angry with the deputy, just rather concerned. If she had fallen... "Do you think WindClan can risk its deputy like that? That was mouse-brained." With an irritated sigh, the tortoiseshell sat down beside her. "You need to be saving your strength, rather than running up trees."

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As Cedarclaw went on her yowling rampage something wanted to scream back at her for being out of turn. Swiftfire bit it back for she knew Cedarclaw was only caring. It had been a while since anyone had really shown any companionship towards her and she ate it up ravenously without realizing it.

She looked up at Cedarclaw through watered eyes as she asked how Windclan could risk its deputy at the moment. It hurt a lot. It was exactly what she was trying to do, make sure Windclan didn't suffer anymore by telling herself she wasn't sick. Swiftfire hanged her head in shame. With a sigh, Cedarclaw sat by her and told her she needed to be saving her strength.

Swiftfire looked up at the warrior beside her and heaved a deep sigh. "I'm trying to help the clan, trying for it can be built up again. Foxstar cut a wound into us and now it is only just healing." she tried to explain her complex thoughts. "I don't have time to rest Cedarclaw, not now when leaf-bare is here-," she was cut off by the feeling of an upcoming cough. She got onto her paws and walked a few steps away before coughing herself to wooziness.

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Nightclaw faced the harsh wind that blew against him. He had seen Swiftfire around and knew she hadn't been well. It had been so long since they had even gotten to chat because everytime he had even wanted to talk to her something would always happen. He had seen her leave camp and had decided to follow her so he could actually get a chance to talk with her. Regardless of her condition he loved her and would stay by her the whole way through.

He had unfortunately gotten caught up at camp which had delayed him from leaving but now he had gotten out and followed her tracks. He caught her sent and.. Ceaderclaw's sent too. He had come upon the spot where the two she-cats were. Swiftfire didn't look all that well either. Nightclaw ran up to where the two she-cats were at fourtrees. He nodded in greeting then came to sit beside them. He looked to Ceaderclaw and then to Swiftfire " Are you ok? Is everything alright?" he tried to ask through the bitter coldness that clawed at his fur.

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Cedarclaw narrowed her eyes at the deputy's strange words, but shook them away. She didn't quite understand what was going through her head. Something about Foxstar creating a wound in WindClan. None of it made much sense to her. "For you, leaf-bare is going to be nothing but rest! You can't just go about willy-nilly with that cough of yours..." Then, as if to prove her point, Swiftfire began at it again, stumbling forward for a few steps, and then almost collapsing in the snow once more. "See what I mean?" she growled, frustrated, before making a short bound over to the she-cat, standing next to her in case she did fall.

Her ears pricked at the sound of another set of paws drawing closer. The tortoiseshell's head then whipped around to see another Clanmate heading towards them. Nightclaw. From what Cedarclaw could tell, he seemed pretty concerned with Swiftfire's condition. But the warrior just gave him an unhappy grimace in greeting. "Things will be alright once Swiftfire is back where she belongs. In the medicine den." Her orange eyes flashed from one Clanmate to the next, flicking her tail behind her. "And I don't want to hear any protests from your end," she reminded Swiftfire. If she tried to keep this act up, she'd end up making herself nothing but worse. The she-cat then looked back to Nightclaw. "We may need help getting her back to camp. Think your up for it?"

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Nightclaw nodded and was right on the other side of Swiftfire as fast as he could holding her up with his shoulder. "We will get you back to camp" he said sternly hoping there would be no arguments on the way back. The wind was getting colder so it seemed and was getting stronger, the snow seemed to be pilling down yet.

[Deleted]

Her vision began to grow dark as her coughing fit ended. The warmth radiating from Cedarclaw's body told her the she-cat had marched right over to help. This time she had no strength to protest at the queen.

With a few hard breathes she began to feel better and her vision began to clear. Cedarclaw began to growl at her and for once, she had no comeback.

The smell of a familiar tom came close and she lifted her gaze to take in Nightclaw's form. Her heart flitted for a second before realizing she was exposing both cats to greencough. It was exactly why she had left camp. Better to leave and not harm her clanmates till the worst of it was over. Cedarclaw had happily taken that plan away and reminded her of her responsibilities. She had to be in camp to do them. Swiftfire felt defeated.

The words Cedarclaw said went out her ears before she processed them, except medicine den. She looked on at the she-cat as she told Nightclaw to help take her to camp. They were basically taking her hostage and she had no choice. As both got to their positions, she sniffed at them. She may feel defeated now, but she didn't want to look it.

Her tail trailed on the ground, but then instantly came up as her spine scrunched up. Swiftfire closed her mouth and stopped breathing as fast as she could. A sudden tingling feeling had started in her chest it only meant trouble. Alas, it still forced its way out. She clawed at the ground with her back paws. Forcing her neck down, she hacked at the ground. This was just not her day at all. It was even more embarrassing if she thought about it as well. Cedarclaw and Nightclaw were seeing how she was. Plus, Nightclaw was having to help carry her. It had to be this tom?!

When she was done coughing, a mumble came out. "I'm sorry guys, I really am."

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Cedarclaw, supporting the shoulder opposite Nightclaw, just grunted. "Stop moaning and relax. We'll get you into Swiftbreeze's den, and then you'll stay there and get better." The tortoiseshell sounded confident enough, but under her pelt, she was squirming. Swiftfire could easilly infect both her and Nightclaw just on the way back to camp. And if that happened, greencough could easilly spread to the remaining healthy cats in WindClan.

The she-cat set her teeth firmly together. She couldn't think about that now. They had to get moving and out of the cold. The warrior looked to Nightclaw, gave a nod, and started moving forward toward the moors.

(( OOC: Continued here:
catsoftheclans8.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=medicinecatsden&thread=4508 ))