Ask to Join The Sun Shines Over the Birds

Don’t compromise yourself - you’re all you have.

✦･ﾟ: *✦･ﾟ:* 💫 *:･ﾟ✦*:*✧*

For a time, Robinpaw missed sleeping in the nursery with Finchpaw, they didn’t even share a den now… but now with Rimepaw in the apprentice den, Robinpaw felt a small pang of relief that she didn’t have to stay up all night listening to Rimepaw anymore. 

Robinpaw had been sorting out some dry herbs in the clearing when she spotted her brother not far from where she sat. She was given a few herbs to sort out by Tigerrush, only ones she knew as of right now. It would be better if Robinpaw didn’t go messing up the herb stores by mistaking one herb for another. 

The young caliby flicked her tail as both a greeting and a welcoming to sit beside her. These were the basic herbs, the warriors knew these ones, at least, she could think. Kits Ear… Catnip… Daisy… poppy seeds, nothing that would be hard to figure out at all.

"Hey, Finchpaw" she greeted softly, she took note of the sigh he let out, was he breathing right? Sure looked like it. "I’m just sorting herbs, you can come over here if you like." She offered, offering Finchpaw a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes.

"Go. I'll be here."

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Finchpaw noticed immediately when Robinpaw flicked her tail as both a greeting and a welcoming to sit beside her. He didn't really understand the joy she found in herbs but he was happy that she was training to be a medicine cat nonetheless. Being a medicine cat meant that she shouldn't be forced to fight. He could protect her better. That was his mission.

At her verbal greeting, the ginger feline dipped his head in return, ears alert and listening. "... Thanks." He whispered. "Are you okay?"

Don’t compromise yourself - you’re all you have.

✦･ﾟ: *✦･ﾟ:* 💫 *:･ﾟ✦*:*✧*

Robinpaw welcomed her brother with a curling of her dappled tail as she continued to focus on her herbs, the sorting was almost therapeutic, finding the difference between the herbs and placing them in the correct place, it eased her mind from whatever seemed to worry it. 

When Finchpaw chirped something about his own concern for her, Robinpaw shrugged "Yes, I'm fine." She stated, almost as if trying to convince herself the same. "I suppose I just miss sleeping in the same nest with you sometimes." Her voice wasn't hollow, just missing something that would have made it as light-hearted as she tried to make it seem.

Her claws hooked a couple of flowers of daisy, pulling them closer to inspect them before placing them in their designated pile, giving them a few pats down for good measure so none of them would go flying anywhere is any wind picked up.

Robinpaw's good ear twitched as she noticed the movement and scent of her parents, she offered them a welcoming smile, small and faint, but there. "Wrentalon! Sunstrike!" She called out, a little louder than needed to get their attention. "Would you like to join me and Finchpaw? I could explain what I know about herbs." 

Sure, Robinpaw was aware that field medicine would have been taught to Sunstrike and Wrentalon, but Robinpaw was more than field medicine, she was a medicine cat apprentice, she needed to know these things, and maybe this could help Finchpaw know some to impress Kestrelswipe in that lesson. But if they decided to simply observe, that was fine too.

"Go. I'll be here."

➽───────────────❥

Finchpaw seemed happy to see his dam and sire approach them, the tom laying his head against Sunstrike's when she sat down next to him. He could feel his mother's anxiety. He wished that he could feel it for her or make it go away. Maybe. Just maybe when they grew up and she could see that they were strong... Maybe then she wouldn't worry so much.

When his father offered him prey though, he gave a blink of acknowledgment and thanks, being too comfortable to move from his position to eat. So he'd do so in a bit.

"Miss you too." The tom told his littermate. Finchpaw was hardly one to talk about his feelings. He didn't like it. It felt too much. Too vulnerable. He didn't think he would be a burden by doing so but he just wasn't a fan. For his sister though, he didn't mind expressing his feelings, especially if it was to reciprocate her's. "I don't mind listening."

Don’t compromise yourself - you’re all you have.

✦･ﾟ:* 💫 *:･ﾟ✦

Robinpaw felt a soft tug in her chest as Finchpaw reciprocated her feelings of sharing a nest, even if not spoken in that way, and even if it wasn't much, it was more than he did with most, and that mattered more to her than if he was specific. However she didn't press, she wouldn't. Robinpaw knew that Finchpaw didn't like oversharing, that was just him, she was just happy to accept that.

Her ears perked as he mentioned he'd be happy to listen to her ramble, or perhaps slightly less than that, about the herbs she had been learning about from Tigerrush. She hadn't quite covered omens or anything yet, the herbs mattered just as much.

"See these leaves?" She brought his attention to round, oval shaped, yet serrated leaves neatly sorted into a small pile beside her, they smelled like they would be delicious and from what Tigerrush had explained, they were. "They're alder leaves. They have a couple of uses." she began, tapping them with a paw and hooking a leaf to bring it over to Finchpaw, sure he wouldn't try anything to eat them.

She didn't smile, but the air around the cats was easy, calm as if it was always meant to be this way. "They're chewed up into a poultice, we the apply it to a wound to ease pain and swelling. They can be chewed to ease tooth pain and prevent complications with toothaches as well." she explained, nosing the leaf back to the pile with her pink nose. "See any other herb that catches your eye?"