The future's in your paws. Shape it well.Roleplay in a cat Clan of warriors. Based off the Warriors series by Erin Hunter. Takes place in an AU before the cats in the books existed.
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Characters : Falconmoon, Auburnrain, Sagefeather, Asmodeus Number of posts : 3031 Gender : Female; She/Her Age : 32
Subject: Petal Plucking [C] Fri 8 Mar 2024 - 20:32
Falconmoon had agreed to go with Thymelight to gather herbs now that the weather was slowly becoming warmer. He'd done this before, but not for quite awhile now. He remembered that he needed to smell around for the plants. Beyond some basic things that the Asylum taught him... practically an eternity ago now... he didn't have the knowledge that a trained medicine cat did. He could only offer assistance in sniffing out the helpful herbs and avoid the less useful, or even lethal ones. Fuzzy memories of doing this with Beechfang... Beechface then, popped into his head for just a moment. All in all, the Great Ridge looked the same as it did way back then. Perhaps the plants that grew before were in the same spots. "Alright... I'll get to sniffing around. I'll let you know if I find anything that smells different." With that, he set his nose to work. The cold did tend to make odors harder to differentiate, but he was still confident he could pick up on the faint differences between weeds and something actually useful.
Falconmoon has found a rare herb that the medicine cat will get to decide what it is!
He was correct. There was definitely something here... and he had a feeling he might know what it is even in it's early stages of life. "I may have found something you'll like, Thymelight..." He waved her over with his tail to point out his find.
Thymelight was still shaken up, and she had stopped caring about whether or not she was doing a good job at hiding her emotions from the public eye. It was alright to grieve and it was alright to be sad, and that was all she had felt ever since the morning she had lost her uncle. Her trip to Highstones hadn't done anything to improve her mental state either. Still, the medicine cat knew that curling up in her nest and turning into a recluse would only drive her crazy. She needed to find some sort of distraction in order to at least attempt to take her mind off of things, and so she had asked Falconmoon to accompany her to look for herbs that day. She knew that doing something that would ultimately help the Clan would make her feel better about herself, even if it was only a little bit. Thymelight hadn't spoken to the tom personally since before the war, and since it was a topic that most of her Clanmates tried to dance around, she figured that it would make no sense to bring it up. Every so often her mind would remind her of the way that Honeydew had practically growled her father's name, and it had made the she-cat wonder what had happened before SkyClan had charged into battle.
Nevertheless, Thymelight was here to work. She flicked her tail in silent acknowledgement before Falconmoon padded off in pursuit of some herbs, and she looked the other way so that she could find her own. As she weaved through the trees, she found herself noticing the nature that seemed to smile upon her. The she-cat sighed. Ever since she had been a confused kit, the forest and its treasures had been there for her when nobody else was. The sheer beauty of the land that SkyClan called their home had never abandoned her in her time of need, but she had been so blinded by grief that she had ignored it... until now. Perhaps this meant that she was starting to slightly heal, and that planted a seed of hope within her that she hadn't felt in a long time. Thymelight stopped in her tracks when the flowering head of a yarrow plant caught her attention. She gingerly plucked a few of them by the stem and laid them by a tree trunk so that they could be collected later.
Falconmoon summoned her over shortly afterward, and Thymelight quietly padded over to assess what the warrior had found. She peered down at the green leaves before smiling slightly to herself. "Oh, you found thyme! I suppose that's kind of ironic." She slightly tilted her head to the side as she continued to look at the herbs below. "I think it's nice that these herbs are used to calm cats down and help with shock. Sometimes I hope I can be that way for SkyClan."
It's tough when a plant is doing a better job than I am. All I've done the past moon is trauma dump on kits and apprentices and cry in front of Wolfblossom.
Last edited by verychuu on Sat 9 Mar 2024 - 4:54; edited 3 times in total
Mistpelt
Characters : Mistpelt Clan/Rank : RiverClanWarrior Number of posts : 15086 Age : 30
Subject: Re: Petal Plucking [C] Sat 9 Mar 2024 - 4:44
The member 'verychuu' has done the following action : Dice roll
'Effect Dice' : 3
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Tara
Characters : Falconmoon, Auburnrain, Sagefeather, Asmodeus Number of posts : 3031 Gender : Female; She/Her Age : 32
Subject: Re: Petal Plucking [C] Sun 10 Mar 2024 - 18:25
Her mood had not gone unnoticed by Falconmoon. He wasn't going to bring it up with her at first, knowing that most cats probably at this point were wanting to move on and forget about recent events. However, her comment toward him finding the thyme made him blink in surprise. He watched as she went off to look for more herbs, but that wasn't something he was willing to let go so easily.
"You are a wonderful medicine cat, Thymelight. You were very appropriately named, both as a kit and as a medicine cat. You probably saved me from bleeding to death out there, truth be told." He spoke to her kindly, but there was a firmness there too. He meant what he said, and he wouldn't allow her to make the mistake of thinking he was just being polite or kind.
"We are our own harshest critiques. Skyclan has a history of being hot-headed, a bit dramatic and most of us are downright difficult. You are handling things that would make other medicine cats pull their own whiskers out." Falconmoon set his nose back to work looking for greenery that stood out to him. Once he had, he sat beside it like a trained police dog. "I found something else I think." He paused a moment, then continued to speak. He wouldn't be overly pushy, but if he learned anything form being alone so much, it was that even the strongest cats needed a friend sometimes.
"Is there anything specific that is making you feel inadequate?"
No matter how your heart is grieving, if you keep on believing.
Thymelight listened quietly as Falconmoon spoke. He wasn’t the first cat to commend her for her actions during the war, but Sunfire’s words often echoed in her mind and acted as a praise buffer that prevented any comfort from truly reaching the she-cat’s heart. She remembered how unfazed she had been that day, and how the adrenaline from the war had caused her to glaze over the tom’s harshness like it had been nothing. Now that the rush was gone and reality had settled in, the she-cat had realized that she cared more about such criticisms than she actually should.
She quickly glanced down at the second set of herbs that Falconmoon had found before nodding. “Perfect, we’ve needed more burnet for traveling herbs. A lot of apprentices have been traveling to the Moonstone recently.” The medicine cat commented thoughtfully before turning her attention back to the topic at hand. She didn’t enjoy thinking too deeply about how she had felt recently, but she knew that it was necessary. Thymelight had never wanted herself to become one of those cats that kept everything to themselves until the weight was too heavy to carry on her own, and she was grateful for the fact that Falconmoon was caring enough to ask.
“A lot of things, I suppose.” Thymelight started as she wandered off a bit in pursuit of another batch of herbs. “I think I’m being overly-critical of myself. I know Sunfire thinks I’m weak and a traitor for helping RiverClan’s medicine cat, and I still don’t regret it, but I often think about how I was able to save a stranger but not my own uncle. I wonder… I wonder if that is what I deserve for helping another Clan on the battlefield.” The medicine cat stopped briefly beside a chervil patch and took a moment to study the small green leaves before letting her shoulders fall in defeat. "I just want to move past all of this but I don't know how. Everything feels so stagnant."
Falconmoon kept sniffing for plants while he listened to Thymelight speak, but he found himself more and more distracted from his task as time wore on. There was an ache in his chest as he listened to her. Slowly, finally, he raised his head from the ground and just watched her. Sympathy shot through him when he watched her shoulders fall and it caused his ears to flatten against his head, giving his expression a softness that was rarely seen on the stoic tom's face. He abandoned the hunt for herbs for now and approached her slowly.
"Thymelight," His voice was as soft as whisper. He came up beside her and lifted his chin to put it on top of her head, but didn't dare go any further or pull her into him unless she was comfortable with it. "Sunfire... I love my brother but he is an absolute blockhead sometimes. He sees things his own way and considering another perspective, let alone accepting that he might not always be right in how he views things, is very difficult if not impossible for him. He's difficult with everyone, me included. You pay him no mind, or he'll have you more lost and confused than a butterfly in a thunderstorm. Alright?" His tail reached forward toward her's, but he thought better of it and lowered it back down again.
"Your uncle was fantastic, Thymelight. Skyclan is diminished by his loss, but don't think for one second that was your fault. Sometimes things are just out of our paws. Beechfang was a medicine cat once and she took it very hard whenever she couldn't save a life or she felt like she made an error in her judgement. It tortured her. Don't do that to yourself, please. Not everyone can be saved, sometimes it's just their time to go, even if we are not ready. The fact that you helped another clan's cat on the battlefield just shows how kind, compassionate and strong you are. Starclan doesn't punish that. Seeing beyond the lines in the sand that separates us by clan isn't something a lot of cats can do. We are raised from kits and taught as apprentices that we protect our own, we put our own clan above others. That's it. If there was less of that and more compassion in the forest..."
His voice trailed off as his memories flashed through his mind. He protected Bearspirit, a Riverclan warrior, from a dog. He was repaid with claws in his pelt the instant it suited the warrior. Ivystar had no compassion for him either, but only wanted him to die to Skyclan fangs despite the fact that he'd never been a threat to Riverclan himself. No one ever even considered why he made the choices that he did, which never truly felt like choices at all. Only Blossomstep, Ashstorm... and Honeycomb. If he'd been shown compassion and forgiveness early on, they would have seen Falconmoon long before he had actually been named Falconmoon.
"Who knows what we could turn this world into. But I bet it would be a bright one. Cats like you are the first step into making that ideal world real. I want it too." He sat down, his chin still on her head. She could choose to either lean into him if she found it comforting, or pull away if she wished. He would not push it.
"Give yourself time to grieve too. Don't rush it. Your job may be to heal all of us, but you need to remember to allow yourself to heal too. You are also important. Be sad. Cry. Yell if you want. As time goes on, this will get easier. I know it hurts right now, but trust me, this will pass. It doesn't mean Foxtrot is forgotten or that he never meant anything to anyone. It just means you are healing, and that's what he would want you to do too." He really hoped this was comforting and not annoying. It was the best advice he had and it made sense to him. He went quiet then and waited for her to either speak... or not. Whatever she wanted to do.
No matter how your heart is grieving, if you keep on believing.
Thymelight’s body froze up for a moment as Falconmoon placed his chin atop her head, but she found herself relaxing into the gesture as his words drifted into her ears. She decided to leave out the fact that she had practically prayed for Sunfire’s downfall during the battle, but she still silently reprimanded herself for it whenever she thought back to it. She disagreed heavily with most of the tom’s actions, but he was still her Clanmate and the last thing she wanted to do was hold such ire toward a fellow member of SkyClan.
When the topic switched to Foxtrot and her actions at the riverbank, the she-cat found that the sharp feeling of approaching tears was starting to sting her eyes once again. Not blaming herself for her uncle’s death was much easier said than done, but she knew that it was a step that she’d have to take eventually if she was ever going to truly heal. Sadness was hard, and anger was even harder. All of this self-doubt and grief was never something that the molly had wanted for herself. Leaving the nursery and becoming an apprentice moons ago had taught her that Clan life didn't consist of sunshine and rainbows, and she knew that life threw hardships at cats to make them stronger, but this was making her wonder if she had any strength within her at all. It seemed as if every possible bad thing was being dropped on the medicine cat all at once, and the weight of it all was bound to snap her spine if even a singular feather was added to the top.
However, as she quietly leaned into Falconmoon and squeezed her eyes shut to allow some tears to fall, Thymelight could briefly feel the weight become more bearable. Heavy branches were easier to carry with assistance, after all. When had she ever become the type of cat who wouldn’t accept help? This made her realize that she was much harder on herself than she was on anyone else. Ever since she had arrived in SkyClan as a kit, she had only wanted to help cats. Clan life could be cruel and vicious, and she wanted her Clanmates to know that they always had her shoulder to cry on if they needed it, so why had she been so opposed to letting herself be the cat that needed a shoulder for a change?
“I know he’d want me to push past this so I can continue to help the Clan, and I want to honor his wishes. I also know that he’d agree with you… and he’d tell me that it’s okay to grieve. It’s just so difficult, being constantly busy with my job and having to keep my chin up in front of the younger cats and only truly having time to let everything out at night in my nest, quietly so that Smokepetal and Hemlockfox won’t be able to hear me. I love being a medicine cat, I really do. I’m so grateful every day that I was chosen for this path and I’d choose it again in every lifetime, but I was so naive when I eagerly said yes. I had no idea how much pain I’d have to endure. I carry not only my own pain, but everyone else’s as I patch up their wounds, feed them herbs, and witness firsthand just how cruel the forest can be.” Thymelight’s voice was quiet and coarse as she spoke through tears.
She slowly opened her eyes and lowered them until she was staring down at her own paws. “StarClan must’ve seen strength in me in order to choose me, and I’m honored, but goodness… how much more can I take?”
Falconmoon held her close as she permitted him. He let her talk and cry and do whatever it was she needed to do. He patiently listened, offering warmth and emotional support. Once it seemed like she was done, he took a deep breath, searching inside himself for the right words. "You are the only one that can answer that question, Thymelight. I firmly believe being a medicine cat is the hardest, and sometimes most thankless job in the entire clan. Being a warrior is easy. Fighting is easy. Killing is easy.
But dealing with seeing your friends and family wounded and sometimes not able to save them despite your knowledge? Trying to convince warriors who are ashamed of their weakness to stay in their nest while they heal? Dealing with their feelings of helplessness and trying to make them see that they are lying to themselves when they call themselves worthless?" He shook his head, slowly removing his chin from between her ears.
"That is a different kind of strength and it's not a very common one. If you enjoy doing what you do and you take pride in helping your clanmates, then continue to do it because it is honorable work. On the other paw, practice your own self care too. If you feel like you've had enough, then walk away from this life knowing that you have done all that you could to the best of your ability. Don't give so much of yourself that you are destroyed, because that would be an even bigger tragedy and a huge disservice to yourself. You don't deserve that."
He stared at her, his gaze soft, while she stared at her paws.
"Don't hide your tears for fear of looking weak either. If you need to cry, do it, regardless of who is watching. What a lot of cats in Skyclan need to understand, desperately, is that a moment of weakness does not mean you are weak. Too many of them try to be "strong" all of the time, and it eventually tears them apart and breaks them until they have no strength left."
He paused to allow that to sink in, but he didn't know what more he could say. He'd let her think about it for a moment. If she wanted to speak, he would listen. If not, he would be patient and let her decide what she wanted to do. They could keep talking, she could keep crying, or they could go back to herb hunting.
Thymelight felt the slightest bit better. Handling her uncle’s death and fully moving on would still take time, but she was relieved to feel some sort of comfort in the moment. Falconmoon was a good cat. He represented the good values that the she-cat had seen in SkyClan for the majority of her life. He was right, too. Being a medicine cat meant that she had to live with the aftermath of war and violence. She had to see it everyday as cats came to the medicine den to rest and let their wounds heal or overcome an illness. It was so easy for her to lose herself in her work, and then tragedies such as this one would drag her back to reality.
Still, she knew she had to be as strong as she could. There was a difference between forcing herself to act fine when she wasn’t and allowing herself to mope around camp like she had no duties or responsibilities. Thymelight had to find a healthy in between somehow. At least now she knew that she had certain cats in her corner that she could confide in whenever she needed it, like her sisters, Honeydew, and now Falconmoon. “You’re a good cat, Falconmoon. Not everyone would’ve stopped to talk like you did… I really appreciate it. I think too many SkyClan cats are afraid of vulnerability. Stopping to process their feelings every now and then would do them some good.” The she-cat sniffled before her eyes landed on the herbs that they had found. Of course she had forgotten that they had come out here for a reason.
“We should get these back to camp. Thank you for helping me today. I’ll remember to ask you when I need to go look for more in the future.” Thymelight commented kindly. She was pleased to know that she’d be heading back to camp with a much better attitude than she had left with.
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