CLOSED Autopsy and Teachings

[Longstorm]

After Gorseclaw left the den, Mistlight looked down at Mustardstorm's twisted body. She felt sad. Sad that his life had been cut short, sad she had not known him for very long, sad that he was so young.
She had work to do.
Mistlight looked up at her apprentice, Frostshine. "This isn't too different from checking over any one of our Clanmates. I told you about feeling for breaks, this is the same."
"We just can't ask where it hurts," Frostshine quipped somberly.
Mistlight nodded with a grim half-smile. "Right. Let's begin."

The healer's den was in a cave dug out in the back of a split in a sizable rock. It was dry, barely any wind got in, and the floor was covered in dry, fragrant pine needles.
Frostshine had joined Mistlight in the den a few moon-phases back. She had discovered that he had been nosing around the remains of Silvernose's herb store in her absence. After she got re-situated in the Clan - after she found out that the rebellion was successful after all, and she was reunited with Redstar, and was able to grieve Silvernose...
After all of that, she offered Frostshine the position of her apprentice. He was hesitant at first but in the end he accepted.
When Redstar questioned why she had taken on an apprentice so soon, she explained to him that this way, if she ever left again (though she didn't plan to, but she didn't know the future), DarkClan wouldn't be left without a healer. Redstar had agreed with that.

Which left them here, Mistlight carefully watching Frostshine gingerly placing his paws here and there on Mustardstorm's lifeless body.
Mistlight had also learned about Skyecho's death, though not from Frostshine himself, him being Skyecho's brother. No, she heard it from Longfur, who to her had previously been Longflight, now an elder. News of her death touched Mistlight more strongly than the news of her mentor's death, surprisingly. Not that Silvernose's death meant less to her. No, she supposed the lesser sting was due to the amount of time that had passed between her seeing him, versus the last time she saw Skyecho.

Those were two deaths that she couldn't prevent. Just as Thornstar was killed both by his sickness and the claws of a rogue, Silvernose died of his age and Skyecho by the teeth of the enemy that overwhelmed her. It was Smokepelt's death she felt sting in a different way.
Mistlight had been told that Smokepelt's death had been long and drawn out, a terrible infection in a deep wound on his shoulder. If she had been there she might have been able to cure him. Then there was the matter of Lightningpelt's early retirement. Mistlight didn't know if she would have been able to help the warrior,  but she still felt she ought to have been there to try.
All these things, however, had one thing in common: they were in the past. Certainly she felt strong emotion towards each and every event, still felt grief, she knew that her life was a path that still stretched out before her paws.

"All I feel are broken bones," Frostshine said, a paw still on Mustardstorm's misshapen head. "He must have died in the stone-fall Gorseclaw said he was in. It must have been over shortly," he commented, looking down at the dead warrior pityingly.
Mistlight nodded approvingly. "That's under the skin," she told him. "But his fur is a mess - let's look on his skin now." Mistlight sat opposite of Frostshine and began to tell him about feeling for external injuries. Frostshine hadn't had too much experience looking for injuries on someone who couldn't just tell him. Broken bones were one thing - bites, scratches, cuts, scrapes; those were all more subtle. Even moreso than usual on Mustardstorm, since he smelled like clay and rain and scarcely looked like himself. All of these things Mistlight relayed to Frostshine.

Carefully feeling for skin injuries on a cold body was less than pleasant. Creepy too. But it was a good teaching moment. Even if it did involve a dead Clanmate.

In the end, though, it didn't look like Mustardstorm had anything but maaaaybe a some scratches from being crushed. His claws were somewhat ragged too, and he seemed to have broken some of them, but that was likely from being crushed too, just as before.
"Well, now we have something to tell Redstar," Mistlight said. "Then we can give Mustardstorm over to the elders."
Frostshine nodded wordlessly.
"You stay here with him, Frostshine. I'll fine Gorseclaw." With that, Mistlight left Frostshine with Mustardstorm.

OOC: tbc...

[Longstorm]

Not too long after, Mistlight returned. "Whenever Redstar gets back is whenever Mustardstorm will be prepared for burial," she said mostly under her breath. "I'd just as soon have him prepared now, here in this den, but Gorseclaw insisted that Longfur and Lightningpelt hold off..."
"I'm not used to thinking of Lightningpelt as an elder," Frostshine said after a short silence.
Mistlight glanced at the tom. She sighed. "Me neither." Another silence.
"...You know what I have to say about that, y'know," Frostshine said awkwardly, meaning what Mistlight thought of herself and what had happened to Lightningpelt.
Mistlight nodded. She offered a sort of smile. Then she said briskly, "We need to collect more marigold. And to go over your knowledge of the herb store too...Speaking of which - tell me what else we're missing from the store. I'll give you a minute to think about it."
So they went on, mentor and apprentice, and though the age difference between them was laughable, they did alright. Just as best as they could.

OOC: CLOSING