Sunrise slowly [Open]

The den felt cold around the tom cat's body, he cold smell wet from his closed eyes, it must've rained again. His body felt stiff and painful, he lifted his head from his paws and glanced around the den. Sleep had not come easy the previous night. Worry of sickness that was likely to spread around the clan from lack of food kept the tom from sleeping deeply. Archback's stores of herbs were getting low, as well as food, herbs were hard to come by. The tom sniffed his store from where he lay. He had to go looking for some herbs, anything he could find would be good.

Pushing himself up to his paws  he stood for a moment, his body wanting to lay back down. His breathing labored, it was hard for him to breath at times, his rib cage was in an awkward position because of his crooked spine. It would help once he could force his body to move. When the herbs were good he took some herbs for himself to ease his body at times. He knew in the back of his mind, it would be so easy for himself to catch greencough or whitecough with the way his lungs were. He attempted a half hearted stretch feeling his body creak with pain and some bones crack. Move. He told himself taking a few steps out of his den.

It was no longer raining, the clouds still covered the sky, but the weather may just be passing. Was it the rain that caused him to ache more than usual? Most likely. It's not like his body could get worse. When the tom walked he had to take an awkward side step, that he learned as a kit, it was easier to walk this way. The sun was starting to peak its light through the clouds. The earth was cold with wet and there was some lingering frost on the grass. That wasn't good for herbs.  Maybe the tom would be lucky. He heard the bustle of cat's readying up the morning patrols. He gave a nod toward them and slipped out the entrance to the camp, the warrior on guard gave a greeting, and the tom had returned it pleasantly. But he continued to walk afterword.

He felt a cold breeze that felt like it penetrated through his skin, he shivered but continued walking. Archback's muscles seemed to be slowly recovering from the nights sleep. His back ached with him forcing movement, but he consoled himself in the thoughts that it was get better, he just needed to keep moving for a while. The tom was checking the usual spots for some herbs, spotting not much of anything. He sniffed at a herb that had been eaten by some other creature. Cursing under his breath he started to move on, when he saw something. A very small mouse in the grass, probably the thing that had eaten the herb, just leaving the stem.

Food! He thought and quickly tried to take a stance and jumped for the mouse, it scurried away quickly.  But the tom had come down to hard, hurting himself. He had collapsed on the ground, wheezing with a shutter breath. Archback's body automatically panicked, and he tried to calm it. The feeling would pass as it always did, it just would take a few moments. His eyelids closed hard as he struggled for his breath to become even. He had landed in a funny way, not use to trying to hunt for prey, he had learned how to hunt, never having been any good at it, seeing as he wasn't good at running. But the chance of catching food for his clan had made him leap before he could think, and that's what had caused the bad landing.

He opened his eyes and was able to push himself into a sitting position, the breaths becoming slightly more even as the moments passed. The ground felt cold and hard under his paws and he saw the sun was starting to raise more. He hoped that the warmth would come today, but newleaf was struggling to break through the cold. "When will newleaf really be upon us, StarClan?" he asked looking toward the cloudy sky. Could they hear him? Of course they would.