...ugh. He squeezes the cat a bit more than is probably comfortable so he can get a clear view of the injuries and put some blood back in where it belongs and some skin on top of the scratches.

Well, that gets him to stop squirming, after the initial burst of even more Put Me Down.

He looks at Cam's face for the first time and stares, before pressing a paw against his forearm and gradually increasing the pressure.  Clawlessly, though, at least at first.

This is not going to deter Cam from stopping before he's patched up all the scratches but once he's done that he will set the cat down.

He darts off to hide in a bush as soon as he's able.  This is not particularly effective since they're back in the part of the forest that's quite extensively burnt and the cat is, despite being somewhat red from blood and a little black from ash, mostly white all over.  Cam can see him hunched and trembling through the remaining branches.

Cam... takes a picture of the white cat, and says, "Are you okay? Do you need anything?"

"S'all right," he says, with a heavy speech impediment.

Oh good they can talk. "Oh good, you can talk. I wasn't sure. Did I miss any of your injuries?"

He opens his mouth once but no sound comes out.

"I didn't catch that, I don't know that I have the same range of hearing as you?"

The cat repeats the action.  Twice, growing slightly more insistent each time.

"I can't hear you. Do you want me to take you to Bluestar - are you with her clan or one of the others -"

He stares at Cam for several seconds before giving up and starting to groom the blood out of the most reachable spots in his fur, still wary.

...okay. "I'm going to go show this picture of you," he displays it, "to some other cats till I figure out where you're supposed to be, okay?" And in the absence of a comprehensible response he will take off again and go back to where he was hanging out with Bluestar.

He seems pretty interested in the picture but doesn't manage to produce audible words about it.

The clearing is empty when he lands but before too long someone comes rocketing in his direction.  " - Cam?" they call out, still a fair distance away.

Thataway he strides. "Hi, uh, the cat the hawk got is okay but didn't seem able to talk very well? I got a picture, do you know who this is?" Picture.

"You already saved him?"  He slows down to a lope.  "Where is he?  - That's Snowkit, he's deaf; I'm Brackenfur."

"Oh, deaf, that makes sense. How do you... communicate with him?"

". . . Poorly?  So far.  We'd been working on some signs.  Where is he?"

"I can show you." It's a little harder to find the place on foot but it's not that far.

Snowkit has gone back to crying but stops once he sees Brackenfur, who circles around to be in his field of view rather than risk startling him from behind.  Brackenfur gestures with his tail and Snowkit emerges from the bush, looking significantly calmer but still confused.

"Maybe Snowkit'll like the computer I was going to set up."

"Maybe.  You could show him?"  Snowkit is looking curiously at Cam; Brackenfur illustratively rubs up against Cam's legs and that seems to clear up some confusion.

"Sure, as soon as I know where to put it."

"What about the one with the . . . " he makes a shrug-like gesture with his tail.  "The other Snowkit?"