Closed Thread Have You Herb?

Brightpaw slowed his trot to stretch as he reentered the camp. First his front legs, arching his back, then his back legs. Time was hard to keep track of in the woods, even in the camp, as the canopy can block out a majority of the sunlight with the exception of the dappling on the forest floor that seeps through the leaves. Scanning the clearing for the freshkill pile, his ears perked up when he spotted his sister. He hurried over to her, tail raised straight up as he approached. 
"Piperpaw!" He called out in an overexcited manner as he came to a halt next to her. "Hi! Hey! I'm here! I showed up!" He plops his hindquarters on the ground to sit next to her with a goofy smile plastered to his face. "Soooo how have you been?"

Piperpaw instinctively bapped her brother's head as he sat down, claws sheathed. She hadn't really seen him in a while... already he had lost weight, and put on some muscle. Instead of milk and the moss of the nursery, he smelled like dirt and grass from the moor  - something she had become intimately familiar with, as seemed all she did was scrounge for random plants under the gaze of Rowanglade.

He wasn't just her brother anymore. Brightpaw really did look like an apprentice now - on his way to being a warrior. But some things never change - mainly his personality.

"I've been waiting, you furrball." She pretended to pout, then almost immediately cracked a grin. "Well, I can barely smell anything with how many herb's I've been preparing." She admitted with a purr. "I don't know how Rowanglade does it. I'm sneezing up a storm over here." Her tail curled around her contentedly.  "I want to know what you've been up to! How's your mentor? What did you see on patrol?"

Despite the distance, he was still her brother - and she loved talking to him.

He shook his head back and forth after her playful swat as if he trying to shake off the strike. "Well, you don't smell like those gross bitter, medicinal plants. They're so pungent that once when I was chasing a vole or a mouse or some little prey like that hid in some and I couldn't smell it anymore." His nose scrunches up at the memory of the odor. "Maybe Rowanglade has just loss all sense of smell and that is why she can put up with it." He snorted and leaned back as if he expected another attack for daring to insult Piperpaw's mentor.

"Cloudflare is pretty nice actually! It feels a little weird getting ordered around by a sibling but he is patient. Doesn't get upset if I mess up and is a good teacher." He confessed and took a pause to look over his shoulder as if his mentor would be there to catch him. "As for the patrol, it was actually pretty boring. Border patrols always are. No trespassers, which is good I guess, but we never even see other cats ever. Not even a cat from a different clan." He groaned a bit more dramatically than he actually felt.

He cocked his head to the side, directing the questioning back at his sister. "What about you? How has your lessons with Rowanglade been? Do you like it? Do you wanna talk about what you've been learning?" He didn't know a lot about the medicine cat, or even medicine cats in general. From what he had seen they mostly keep to themselves and their work, maybe even interacting more with other medicine cats than the warriors of their clan.

"I don't? That's a relief." She had spent more than a moment grooming out all the nasty smell she could from her paws, but maybe she was going to go noseblind - as Brightpaw had suggested. "And don't go around saying things like that about Rowanglade! She's sensitive... except for her sense of smell, obviously." Piperpaw hoped her brother picked up on her joke, rather than the scolding. The older Medicine cat wasn't that thin-skinned. They could take a few jabs.

"If there is no one at the border, that just means you are scary enough to spook all the other clans off." She assured him. "I would rather see you bored than having to be patched up. Which I'm... okay at."

Honestly, her own misgivings about her abilities hadn't gone away when Rowanglade had asked Badgerstar for her to be their apprentice. She felt overwhelmed learning all the herbs; answering questions wrong all the time - still unable to find herbs on her own - cracking under pressure. Maybe she should have been a warrior. Then she at least wouldn't make others suffer in the same way.

"I'm worried. I didn't realize how much stress I'd be under as a Medicine Cat. What if Starclan doesn't like me? They could always say no - then I'm back to ground zero as an apprentice." She didn't often voice her worries to her mentor, but this was her brother. He could help... maybe.

"Why in the world would they say no to your apprenticeship?" He cocked his head to the side as he questioned his sister in a tone that sounded genuinely bewildered. "I mean its not like you've been using berries to poison cats that you are supposed to heal. I mean unless you have been doing that behind my back. Maybe you are the one behind those mysterious deaths." He snorted playfully, clearly not taking his own words seriously, and shook his head, ears flopping from the force.

His half-brother's sudden appearence startled Brightpaw, eliciting a trill of happy surprise. He stood to rub against his mentors shoulder as he passed to speak with his sister. "A thorn? Have you tried taking it out? You know, instead of walking around on it? Not a medicine cat or even a medicine cat apprentice but that might help more than walking with it in."

Piperpaw purred at her brother's reassurance, but her heart wasn't quite in it. She wanted to be better - better than any medicine cat that came before her. But unlike warriors, who could just train harder on their own, she had to heal others in order to get better at her skills. So no time like the present! She was glad it was her own half-brother though. Any other cat would probably set her mind worrying. At least it she messed up, he was pretty easy going.

"Lemme see." She carefully examined Cloudflare's paw pad. There was indeed a thorn in it - but it didn't seem too deep. Brightpaw was right though - she was glad he had come to her rather than continued to walk around. That would have made it worse. "Oh, it's not too bad. I'll get some marigold for it after I get it out."

After a moment of hesitation, Piperpaw very carefully removed the thorn - causing a little bit more pain than was necessary with her hesitation. Either way, it was out, and Piperpaw kept it in her teeth as she trotted back to the Medicine Cat den to dispose of it, and grab some poultice.

Aspenberry peered over to the group with a sheepish grin, seemingly trying to get the young medicine cat apprentice's attention. She had been out hunting, and had gotten her paw stuck in a small hole. Her paw was fine but she tripped and hit her head. It was embarrassing but she knew better than to just ignore the hit. 

'If you aren't too busy, I tripped over and was just wondering if there is anything I should do? I hit my head but I feel pretty fine', the speckled she-cat mewed while her ears pinned back just a little. She hated that she was interrupting a family conversation. She looked a little awkward, 'I can just go find Rowanglade if yyou are busy-' 

"Oh." Brightpaw looked down at his paws at Cloudflare's explanation of the situation, thoroughly embarrassed at not realizing it himself. He managed to force himself to stop investigating the dirt in favor of looking in the direction that Piperpaw had left, probably towards the medicine cat den to get the marigold like she had said.

"But she shouldn't. I just don't get it. She's so smart and talented and kind. If Starclan rejects her then they're losers who don't deserve her." He declares, as if daring to war with the ancestors of the clans if they even thought about rejecting his sister.

Aspenberry's appearance catches the apprentice's curiosity but her comment is what really gets his attention, causing the ginger to grumble. "You too? How come everyone else but me is injured? Why do I always miss out on the fun stuff."

Piperpaw:

The camp was getting crowded, and she had to catch her breath out of sight of her brothers and Aspenberry. So many cats... so little time. The weight of expectation always sat so heavy on her back - she needed a moment to let of lift before going back out there.

Marigold for the cut - that was easy enough. Piperpaw busied herself with making a salve, trying to distract herself from the waiting cats. Rowanglade always seemed to take such stress with stride where as she just crumbled under pressure. Why couldn't she be more like her mentor?

Trying to brush aside the thought, she gathered up the mashed flowers and cobwebs in a leaf, before hurrying back out. "Sorry - sorry." She placed the treatement infront of Cloudflare.

"Uh wounded... head." She blinked at the older warrior trying to remember treatment. "Do. Uh - does your head hurt? Scrapes or brusing or blurry vision or..." She stopped herself to breathe before she rambled any further.

Aspenberry was taken back by the apprentice's panic stricken behaviour, and kneaded the ground unconsciously. 'If you are busy I can come find you another time' she said to her softly. It seemed as though the young apprentice had little faith in herself, and Aspenberry didn't want to overwhelm her. 'It hardly hurts, I'm sure I'll feel fine. Sorry for bothering you.'

She had no idea if there were any scrapes or bruising, but they could wait for another time. She looked around at the other cats, unsure how to help or comfort Piperpaw.