Herb Hunting

Mintwhisker frowned, her tail twitching. “When was the last time briarpaw organized his herb stores?” She muttered to herself. She couldn’t find any of the herbs she needed despite checking and rechecking each bundle of herbs. She knew she’d need to go on a patrol sooner or later, but she didn’t realize things had gotten so bad this quickly. “Aspenpaw,” she mewed, turning towards the young tom, “today we’ll be going to gather some supplies.” This would be good for the silver windclanner- he wasn’t able to leave camp unsupervised for obvious reasons, and a little bit of fresh air would definitely do him some good. “I’ll meet you just outside camp, okay?”

Aspenpaw looked up from his place on the ground. He had been observing an ant colony. They were quietly marching along, carrying seeds and their precious eggs with them. Off to a new home. He hated being so idle and quiet, but ever since the meeting, there was a veil of awkwardness he had placed firmly between himself and Mintwhisker. He knew things now. The way Pansyface said it concerned him. His mentor's mother claimed that she was troubled, and implied that he didn't understand her. What didn't he understand? What kind of trouble was she in? She gave away no such feelings.

On top of that, he was sick and tired of everyone thinking he was frail. Bitterness consumed him. Restricted to camp, out of control, never being allowed to test his strength and his constitution... He wondered if showing Mintwhisker that he was capable would help any. He stood up and followed her out of camp.

As they walked in quiet silence, the bees in his brain started buzzing. How does a cat say "let me walk in my own StarClan-forsaken territory" to his mentor without offending her sensibilities? Tactfully, he sucked in a breath. "I've noticed that I can feel certain things when I'm about to seize, lately," he declared optimistically. "In fact, a few times I've been able to time it out! The bad ones only happen about once every two weeks, and I caught the last one in time and went to lay down all by myself. That's pretty cool..."

A few more steps, and there were a some boulders strewn across the ground. On unsteady legs, he causually stepped up and walked from one to the next. The silver tabby only stumbled once, letting out a sudden "oof" and returning to the ground. He walked close to Mintwhisker but did not look her in the eye. He wasn't helping his odds. "Erm, what are we missing in the herb stock, anyway?"

Mintwhisker's ears pricked as Aspenpaw began to speak. "Excellent," She mewed briskly. Excellent indeed... If Aspenpaw was able to recognize the signs, he could start making steps towards living independently- going out into Windclan's territory alone again, no longer needing constant surveillance. Once Aspenpaw could look after himself, Mintwhisker could go home.
"Being able to tell when you're about to have a seizure is excellent progress. Make sure you can notice and properly recognize the signs- it would be... 'cool'." She couldn't act serious all the time, and it was pretty fun (at least, fun for her) to see how far she could get before Aspenpaw discovered that Mintwhisker really knew how to use slang.

She bit back a laugh as the young tom tripped, managing to turn it into a small cough. "Watch your step." She mewed. "Today, we're looking for Snakeroot, Thyme, and Goldenrod. These are all common herbs and I don't expect to have any trouble finding them, so this will be more of a memory quiz than a herb-hunting challenge."

OOC: aah, i'm so sorry for the lateness, I drafted this post and forgot i didn't actually click publish! I'm super sorry for the delay.

A small, pleasant smile brushed at the usually cynical tom's face as Mintwhisker loosened her words for just a moment. It was a genuine surprise to Aspenpaw, and he wondered if Pansyface's warning to be understanding was right. He opened his jaws to let the scents of the moors in. Thyme had a distinctive smell, and he didn't have trouble pinpointing it. The sun shone bright and warm overhead, and he found one of the three herbs wavering in the wind. He harvested it carefully and allowed himself a moment to mull over his thoughts in his head. He had to say something about StarClan.

"Was your mother's name Pansyface?" he said quickly. "She came to me at the meeting, I think. Lovely she-cat." He revealed no more than this. He figured that his mentor would ask questions, but he didn't quite know what to tell her. After all, Sedgestrike was dead long before Aspenpaw was born, and perhaps she had already been forgiven. Maybe it really did need to be done.

Mintwhisker purred in approval as Aspenpaw quickly found a patch of thyme. "Excellent work." She mewed.
Even though Aspenpaw had become a medicine cat apprentice because he was unable to continue down the path of a warrior, he was already proving to be a good fit for the position. For one, he was adept at memorizing the location and uses of most herbs- something that took most apprentices quite some time to learn -and for another, he seemed to have the right personality for the job. It took a certain type of cat to be a medicine cat, after all, and although Aspenpaw's humor occasionally went too far, he seemed to be friendly and hardworking.

"Was your mother's name Pansyface?" Mintwhisker's ears twitched. Why would her mother talk to Aspenpaw at the meeting? What could she possibly have said? "Yes. She died when I was born."
Mintwhisker didn't want to know what Aspenpaw went through during his dream- every time she received a prophecy, Mintwhisker experienced pain beyond anything she'd ever felt while awake, and she didn't want to hurt Aspenpaw by forcing him to tell her what he'd had to go through. If his dreams were anything like her own, she was sure that the experience was traumatic for him. It was best to let things settle before they discussed any prophecies he could've been told.
"Right," She began, changing the subject, "What do we use thyme for? How does one use it?"

Aspenpaw's ears twitched at the sudden change of tone. Fair enough. Less work for him, trying to explain what he had seen. Still, he felt a twinge of curiosity, as he often did. But to press her? That would only cause a rift, he figured, and he wanted desperately for a relationship with her when she returned to SkyClan. She and Pricklebush were the most senior medicine cats in the forest, and he knew they had a lot of knowledge to share. He was a cat with a hunger for the stuff.

"Thyme is for soothing the mind, like if somebody sees a death or has a rough kitting," he said in a half-mumble, "Or if they seize in the middle of the night, of course. You have the patient chew it up." He gently plucked a few sprigs from the plant, deeply inhaling the pleasant aroma. The following silence left him yearning for more. "If you don't mind me asking," he said quietly, "What do you see in StarClan?"

Mintwhisker shifted her weight, turning her scarred face toward the grassy earth. “What do I see in Starclan?” She said softly, her murky gaze muted, her tattered ears flat. “The same as you, I suppose. Sometimes, I only remember the physical pain thats tied to the prophecy, but other times, I remember everything vividly. I’ve got herbs that help me forget, but...” she took a deep breath, shocked by her own willingness to speak, and afraid that Aspenpaw would be too scared to continue down the path of a Medicine Cat, now that he knew that getting a project didn’t get easier over time. “They don’t always work as... as well as they should. If you use them too often, their effects weaken over time.”

The taupe tabby regretted answering the young toms question. She hadn’t spoken to amberdawn about the pain that came with every prophecy- she’d always assumed that the memories were too painful to bring up. After all, the dreams that medicine cats experienced were painful and terrifying, Mintwhisker knew, and she was worried that bringing them up too often would end up hurting both her apprentices much more than her silence would.
Especially Aspenpaw. The first prophecy was the worst, the most traumatic- at least, Mintwhisker’s had been. She hated to force him to remember...

“Right. Goldenrod- where might we find some?” She said abruptly, her tail tip twitching back and forth anxiously.

Aspenpaw shuddered as Mintwhisker spoke with terror and pain oozing from her voice. Her scars were many, not just physically. The tom understood that pain, the kind that lurked within. When he shut his eyes at night, he sometimes saw the snapping of huge teeth and terrible barking. He stayed up, counting herbs, reorganizing, and staring eerily at the moon for countless nights. It was a sickness that rivaled the more obvious one. He saw this hurt in his mentor, and he almost wished he could bear it himself. It was obvious she had been through the Dark Forest and back.

"Goldenrod... well, all over the territory, mostly. Large, open spaces. There's some right over there." As the pair walked along, Aspenpaw's eyes trailed back and forth, from Mintwhisker to the goldenrod to the sky. His mouth begged him to speak. He caved. "Mine was just a little frightening. I know what you mean, though. Not from the prophecies, but from the dreams. Those d-dogs-"

The medicine cat blinked. He never stuttered. Why did his eyes fill with tears and his heart thump against his chest when the dreaded beasts crossed his mind? Had he ever even told anybody what happened to him, verbally, before? He swallowed hard. "The dogs. I always remember it when I try to sleep. I forgot a lot of things from the mountains, but I can't f-forget the teeth. They killed Frozenpaw, I still see her eyes when I shut mine, and I remember being thrashed." Aspenpaw had to stop in place to keep from stumbling. His heart thumped louder and louder, and then he couldn't feel anything.

His eyes froze, glazed over, for just a few moments as his ear flicked rhythmically. After what could only have been seven seconds, Aspenpaw shook his head and turned to look at Mintwhisker. "Did I just do it again? Did I blank?" His teal eyes shot down to the thyme he had dropped in his trance. "I might need some of that later," he half-chuckled.

ooc: he just had an absence seizure if you couldn't tell

Mintwhisker nodded with approval as Aspenpaw found goldenrod without a problem. The silver tom had exceeded all of her expectations. She was considering telling him so when he spoke again.
The taupe she-cat blinked. Just a little frightening? That was... completely unexpected.
Did Aspenpaw receive prophecies differently? Did all the medicine cats?
Was she the only one? Mintwhisker shook herself. It was probably too early to tell- she'd just have to wait and see.

Aspenpaw's trembling voice brought her mind back to the present. "The dogs." He mewed softly. Mintwhisker turned towards the apprentice, her murky eyes anxiously scanning his face. It was easy to forget how much he'd been through- despite his young age, Aspenpaw had been through a lifetime of trials, the likes of which Mintwhisker hoped she'd never have to see.
Mintwhisker would never be a mother, that she was certain of, but she couldn't help but feel a rush of instinct as she peered into Aspenpaw's wide blue eyes. She wanted so badly to hug him, to nuzzle his ears and tell him that everything would be alright, that she'd make sure nothing like that would ever happen to him again.

The taupe she-cat's pawsteps faltered, then stopped. "Aspenpaw?" Her voice was soft.
"Did I just do it again?"
Mintwhisker felt a stab of sympathy. "Yes, dear." Even though he was joking, the Skyclanner had a feeling that he wasn't feeling as jovial as he seemed. Her tattered ears flattened, and she once again fought the urge to draw the young tom to her chest and tell him not to worry. She settled for speaking gently. "It's alright. Come now- let's find that last herb and head back home, hmm? We'll have gathered more than enough herbs once we get some Snakeroot. Remind me- where would I find some? What do we use it for?"