Pricklepaw's Moonstone Journey

Dovefrost padded over to the apprentices' den with a bundle of herbs in his mouth meant for Pricklepaw. It had reached the time for the apprentice to go to the Moonstone and the white tom had to take him. He set the bundle down just outside of the den as he poked his head inside to call for the tom. "Pricklepaw it's time to go to the Moonstone." The medicine cat called. Hopefully the journey would be smooth today.

Pricklepaw woke in an instant… or so he’d like to believe. The orange and brown tabby rolled over, groaning, and stumbled to his paws. “What the foxing’s happening… Moonstone… uuuughh.” He grumbled, poking at the bundle of what he supposed were herbs. “Misupposedto eat his?” He moaned, slurring his words from sleep. Maybe he had stayed up too late last night… that was the patrol’s fault, then, not his.

Dovefrost nodded, disregarding the apprentice's lack of energy. It wasn't his issue to be concerned with. Now if it turned into complaining the whole way there, Pricklepaw would find out Dovefrost's patience was not to be toyed with. "Go ahead and eat them. We need to get going." After the apprentice ate them, the Medicine cat nodded and turned to guide the apprentice out of camp.

Once they reached the moonstone the tom stood off to the side in his usual spot for these kind of trips. "Press your nose to the stone, and Starclan will put you to sleep." He told the apprentice curtly. The white tom sat down, his tail curling around his paws.

Pricklepaw leaned down and swallowed the herbs, gagging at the… strong taste. Bleh. He wouldn’t be a medicine cat if StarClan themselves descended to tell him to… right, StarClan. That was who he was meeting with. With a flick of his tail, he followed Dovefrost out of camp.

The medicine cat hadn’t seemed a talker during the trip, and for once Pricklepaw was the same. While he loved nothing more than to hear his own voice (other than maybe compliments and flattery), he was… nervous, almost, about meeting some glittery cat made of stars who would tell him how to live. He sighed as he touched his nose to the Moonstone, and quickly fell asleep.

There was an excitement in Lionspark's paws as she waited for the lucky young apprentice, thrilled that she would be getting to speak to another ThunderClan cat - to see how her old Clan was doing. She stood there, shifting her weight back and forth until Pricklepaw appeared among the starry field. She took in a deep breath to center herself as she stepped forward with a dip of her head. "Greetings, Pricklepaw. I am Lionspark, once a ThunderClan warrior many moons ago. I am here to give you advice or direction if you seek it so," she glanced up with a sparkle in her eyes that matched the stars that littered her pelt, tilting her head with a smile. "Do you have any knowledge you wish to learn?"

Pricklepaw’s eyes shot open. Oh. Oh. Oh. It had worked… not that he hadn’t expected it to work. Still… touching your nose to a glowing rock teleporting you to cat heaven StarClan? It appeared to be true… although it might be that the traveling herbs caused hallucinations. He blinked as he took in… uh… Lionspark’s words. Okay… knowledge… quite honestly, anything he didn’t know wasn’t worth knowing… but… he thought back to that SkyClan rat… “Do you know anything about pelt care? Mine keeps getting snagged in brambles and then I saw this SkyClan cat, and hers was perfectly well kept.” He was perhaps the only cat to ever ask such an odd question… oh well. It was a valid one. If anyone knew how to keep his pelt pristine it would be StarClan. Or that SkyClan cat but he doubted if he’d be able to talk to her without scoring his claws down her sides (if she even consented to talk to him after he’d attacked her).

There was a pause as the question hung in the air before a laugh escaped Lionspark, light and full of joy as she fell onto her haunches. "I...Will admit I never thought that would be your question," she purred in amusement, giving a good-nature shake of her head. "Knowledge from the stars themselves at your pads and you ask for pelt care," she mused before she leaned back, a thoughtful expression crossing her face. "Well, grooming is always the best thing to do to keep it from getting matted. However ThunderClan's territory has a lot more...Undergrowth than SkyClan does so you might always end up with it getting snagged so..." She let herself go silent as she tried to put more thought into it as she gave a shrug of her shoulders. "Grooming after every patrol is honestly all I have. We might be StarClan but its not like we actually have to care for our pelts here. However I am willing to let that pass as your question - anything else you wish to know, Pricklepaw? Advice on anything else?"

Pricklepaw’s face screwed up in definitely-not-anger as the StarClan cat laughed at him… okay, she wasn’t laughing at him but at his question… he’d let it pass because this was a StarClan cat and obviously he couldn’t do anything other than yell at her…  she had solid advice, but he’d already given himself said advice. It was hard, keeping his pelt clean of brambles, thorns, dust, and literal fox-dung… hard to keep himself in impeccable condition in the middle of the fight. At least he had the wits to know when fighting was more important than making sure his pelt was clean.

She’d give him another chance to ask questions? Alright… umm… “Battle strategies. Is there anything that can really turn a fight around?” Perhaps it wasn’t the best idea to ask a StarClan cat about battle strategies (after all, they were dead for a reason) but there was a chance… whateverhernamewas knew something worth knowing. Pricklepaw already knew of the Killing Bite due to Waterlily using it on a fox. He’d stunned a fox before and stopped it from killing his sister. There wasn’t much more he could learn, right? Right?