That Was Some Bad Stuff

Reedpaw had just gotten a little whiff of Morningpaw's stores. Well, no. That was a lie. He ate some catmint. It was a mostly innocent mistake. While he had mostly healed, he occasionally got some aches and pains and sometimes a wound would open up. He'd gotten so used to living in the medicine den until recently that he had learned most of the herbs. He didn't know them as well as Morningpaw, but he knew the basics. That was when he encountered a strange leaf that he'd never seen before when looking for something to soothe the pain on his flank. It smelled rather nice, and not thinking about the implications, ate it. That happened to be catmint, exceptionally rare and had the strangest effect on cats. He had fallen asleep after eating a profound amount of fish from the fresh-kill pile and was now in a strange world.

When you're in a dream you can't quite tell you're sleeping until you wake up. So Reedpaw slowly stirred, looking to see a towering flower. It appeared to be chamomile. He blinked, simply staring up at it. His mind was rather slow and he started to laugh. He wasn't sure what was so funny about a giant flower, but he couldn't help himself. He began laughing harder and harder. His sides began to hurt and he couldn't breath or get up.

"What are you laughing at?" A voice called to Reedpaw from a few fox lengths away. Standing on the other side of the giant flower was Gingerheart, looking at the warrior-sized apprehentice with a look that made it pretty obvious that she was beginning to think that this cat was crazy. He was staring at a huge flower just laughing. What was so funny about this flower? Yes, it was large; yes it wasn't normal, but funny? She didn't think so. As she watched this strange cat, she slowly padded towards him to get a better look or even catch a better smell of him for it seemed like she was up-wind from his position. Maybe this would help her and even him if he knew she was here.

"N-nothing..." Reedpaw choked out in between giggles. He took a good look at the cat before him and squinted his eyes a bit, a few trailing giggles escaping his mouth. "Gingerpaw?" The RiverClan apprentice had briefly met a small group of ShadowClan cats in his first Gathering.

"Gingerpaw? I'm Gingerheart now!" She mewed proudly, puffing out her chest as she finally stopped in front of the apprentice only a few tail-lengths away now. It was weird that she was seeing such a thing, but she didn't exactly think anything of it. But, how did this cat know her name? Had they met before? Unfortunately, she couldn't remember many cats from the Gatherings other than a few such as Mosspelt who she had even met before the Gathering and the leaders. Other than that, she couldn't remember a soul. That was probably bad on her part. "Uh, how do you know me?" She asked curiously, tilting her head to the side, showing that she wasn't exactly afraid or distrusting of this strange cat which was rather weird, but she just couldn't feel like he was a threat.

"The Gathering, from some moons ago." Reedpaw responded, seemingly over his little episode. "You're a warrior now? That's great!" he said with a smile on his face, though there was some sadness in his tone. Even she was a warrior, and he was still a measely paw.

"Word." The flower added. Reedpaw began to giggle again.

The Gathering? The more the young warrior thought about it, the more she tried to remember Reedpaw. She could definitely see that he was very familiar, but his name would not come into her head. It was slightly annoying not to be able to remember who he was. "Yeah! It really is! But um, what's your name again?" She couldn't help but asking. It was driving her insane not knowing.

"I'm Reedpaw of RiverClan!" he responded, recovering from his laughter faster this time. A chuckle occasionally slipped from his mouth. He still wasn't aware that this was a dream, despite the insanity of it all. He'd probably forget it all by the time he woke up, whenever that was.