Masks and a heavy heart:

"Thank you again for letting me drag you from your warrior duties to help me search for herbs Slatestrike. We need as many as we can find during these cold days." Morningpaw and Slatestrike were walking in the territory on a chilly afternoon. The medicine cat had noticed her herb piles shrinking and that morning, her herbs were running so low, she needed to replenish them quick. She decided to get someone to help her, so she asked the nearest warrior for assistance. That happened to be Slatestrike, who was just walking past her den to go do his duties.

"First thing we need to find is comfrey root. It's the root of plant with wide leaves and small flowers. They can be found mostly in damp areas, or where the damp areas should be." explained the she-cat as she scanned the area they were in. Despite seeming like her normal self, the medicine cat seemed a bit nervous and stiff. The longer they walked the more apparent her body language became. Unfortunately, Morningpaw hadn't caught on that she was letting her inner worries peek out of their hiding place.

Slatestrike would've rather jumped in front of a Monster than collect herbs with some medicine cat.

Unfortunately for him, she'd managed to catch him at the right place at the right time, and he had no choice, unless he wanted to have his ear clawed off by his brother. Head and tail low, the abnormally large warrior followed Morningpaw through the territory. Being a medicine cat was surely the most boring rank any cat could be and just listening to her explain to him what they were looking for made his head want to explode. How on earth could a cat remember so much? And it wasn't even anything interesting, but just about plants!

Grumbling under his breath, Slatestrike's eyes scanned the clearing, his mind beginning to wander as she jabbered on. Turning his head back to the apprentice, he nodded it up and down as if he'd listened to what she'd said, when in reality, he hadn't heard a word. Picking flowers... what a stupid task. "Plants, got it," he huffed with a roll of his deep orange eyes.

OOC: Excuse my lateness! ;-; This was a bad month for me!

IC: Morningpaw huffed when the tom showed his apparent disinterest. Morningpaw understtod that gathering plants wasn't the most exhilarating task by far but it was essential to keep the clan healthy, injury-free, and alive. "I understand your boredom Slatestrike. Despite my rambles I actually do not enjoy collecting herbs. I believe no medicine cat really does. It takes quite a while to do so and can be a headache of a task. However, it doesn't mean I will ever stop doing it. They keep our clan healthy. We must not take them for granted." The medicine cat nudged the tom as she slowed her steps slightly. "How is it like being a warrior? I never got to be one, unfortunately. I sometimes imagine myself if I were still training as a regular apprentice and not one of a medicine cat's..." The she-cat trailed off as she began to lose herself in her thoughts as she tended to do. She remained silent as she waited for a response.

Listening to the apprentice, he could've cared less about what she rambled on about, though his ears perked when she asked him a question. "As good as being a warrior gets," he mewed with an edge to his tone. "I'm sick of doing such trivial tasks and would rather be out clawing some-cat's pelt off, but I'd obviously be punished, which I don't have the time for," the abnormally large tom added, not afraid to speak his mind when it came to what he'd rather be doing. None of these measly clan cats would mean anything in the future anyway, so why should he care what they thought of his twisted mind?