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?" 

"Go. I'll be here."

➽───────────────❥

Finchpaw’s hazel eyes met Robinpaw’s golden ones for a heartbeat before he started to focus on the leaves that she was explaining. Sure, the information was useful and any warrior with more brain cells than a mouse would know that listening to a medicine cat’s lecture could bring valuable insights. But he wasn’t only listening to learn, he was listening because he cared about his littermate.

He was interested in what she had to say. He always was. Although he felt that it was his duty and purpose to protect ThunderClan at all costs, if he were to be honest with himself… If his parents or Robinpaw told him to do something else, he wouldn’t put up much of a fight. He trusted them, after all. In this hypothetical he’d be confused but…

The tomcat admired the round alder leaves. They looked so… Normal. He used to assume that the herbs medicine cats used were always colourful and unique, standing out amongst other flora but evidently he was wrong. Some herbs looked surprisingly regular as well. You wouldn’t know their properties if you weren’t a medicine cat. He gave the leaf a sniff. It smelled okay. Not good or bad.

Once the molly finished explaining, the tom simply nodded before shrugging. “Not really.” He responded quietly. “Just show me things in whatever order.” the apprentice offered before becoming silent again, prepared for this to go on until dusk. Not that he would mind. He enjoyed time with Robinpaw. As the calm settled over the two, Finchpaw let himself relax for once, starting to groom himself.

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

✦･ﾟ:* 💫 *:･ﾟ✦

Robinpaw wasn't too upset that her brother didn't pick another herb there were many that she was sorting out, after all they had already been dried and prepared for her to sort, it was part of the reason why she was out here in the first place. She flicked her floppy ear as she examined which one would look interesting enough to remember, or at least smell interesting enough too.

"See this one, with the square stems with the soft, serrated leaves and pinkish flowers?" She gestured to the herb she was talking about, her tail flicking as she pulled one closer to the two of them. "It's peppermint, its the leaves that are really useful." She began, nudging it closer to Finchpaw, the scent was strong and immediate but it was pleasantly sweet, as she had known before. "They can be eaten to ease the lungs as well as being crushed to ease headaches and congestion." Robinpaw added with a soft 'mrrp' sound.

She then turned the leaves closer to Finchpaw and gave a small smile at him. She enjoyed telling her brother all of this, maybe by the time they both have their full names, he will know as many herbs as she does, maybe he could help their clanmates just as much if not more than she can! "When they're crushed they can usually be placed around bad smelling odors to make them smell a lot nicer. Here take a sniff, it's quite nice." she prompted, she seemed to retain all this knowledge like a ball of moss soaking up water, it was clear that she was in her element, she wondered if she could ever had truly been happy as a warrior. She had a feeling StarClan was right in carving the path of a medicine cat for her.