Muddythorn's Medicine Cat Ceremony

Beechface watched as the moon slowly set below the treeline, the night sky dark. Stars glittered overhead, but the jaded medicine cat found no comfort in them. There was little reason to, and sleep had proved to be elusive as her mind spun with thoughts of what had happened in the past few moons. Struck by lightning, the battle, finding the camp bloodsoaked and in ruins... Starclan's lecture rang in her mind, and her lips curled.

She'd changed her perspective, alright. Now it was time to act on it.

Slipping back into the medicine den, Beechface padded to Muddythorn's nest, glancing briefly towards Foxfire's still form. Would he continue to cling to life while she did what she had to? Or would this be a mistake, and he'd die while she was out of reach and helpless to do anything about it? It was risky... So risky. But this needed to be done, and she could not defer this to Bloodstrike or Wolfstar.

"Muddythorn, time to get up." Beechface mewed, poking her nephew's side with a rough paw. It was early... Very early. "Would you mind preparing two bundles of traveling herbs? We need to get going soon." That would be his first hint.

Muddythorn had never truly understood how many interrupted nights of sleep went into being a medicine cat, but there certainly were a lot. So, unsurprisingly, here they were again, with Beechface roughly waking up her reluctant apprentice. However, today was different. Today, the thick-furred brown tom only grumbled a teensy bit, but when he was told to get together travelling herbs, he tried to get to work as quickly as possible. Chances were, travelling herbs almost always meant one thing: the moonstone. He didn't know why yet since it wasn't the half-moon yet, but maybe Beechface needed to know something following all the crazy stuff that had been happening recently.

His paws were still half-asleep as he shuffled through the herbs, only nearly making one or two mistakes. "What are we doing? I haven't missed anything important, have I?" His voice was still slightly raspy from gently snoring during the night. The tom had always had issues with oversleeping - he was almost impossible to wake up, for a start. "I got your..." He was broken off by a large yawn, "...herbs here."

Muddythorn was clearly still tired and wanted more sleep... Beechface could sympathize. Being a medicine cat meant that their sleep was often interrupted, and truthfully, Beechface hated every second of. She hated the responsibility, she hated the demands. She hated the futility of trying to save clanmate after clanmate and watching their lives slip through her claws like water.

"You haven't. You've done well." Beechface said after inspecting the herbs. It was more just to humor him at this point. He paid attention, and had picked up on herbs and the knowledge required much faster than she ever had. A wave of bitterness rolled over her at the thought. She should have never become a medicine cat. Muddythorn was past due for what would happen today.

"Let's go. We have little time to waste." She sighed after a moment, eating her portion of the traveling herbs without complaint. Once Muddythorn had eaten his, Beechface turned, quick steps leading them out of camp. It was time for Muddythorn to move on up, and she wanted to waste as little time going to the moonstone as possible. She could only guess at what carnage starclan would allow to happen while she was gone. If she could've done the ceremony from their den, she would have.

"Oh, uh thanks!" Muddythorn assumed that she was talking about the herb bundles, but there was something in the way that Beechface spoke that made him feel like she was alluding to something greater.

He gulped down the herbs, trying to imagine that instead of foul-tasting leaves, he was eating a nice, juicy squirrel. Over time, he had found this method was the best way to not feel like vomiting them back up. In his hurry to catch up with Beechface, he stumbled slightly over his nest, mind mostly distracted by trying to figure out what was going on. "So Beechface, it's not like I don't love going on spontaneous hikes with you, but what is actually going on?" He asked as soon as he had caught up. His aunt's current walking pace left no room for stragglers, and left him hoping they wouldn't be going this quick the whole time, otherwise Muddythorn was convinced that he would pass out before they made it wherever they were going.

Beechface kept a brisk pace as they left Skyclan's camp, then Skyclan's territory as the sky began to brighten overhead. In the distance, the sun was rising. Dawn. That thought did nothing but make her heart twist, anxiety and a strong desire to get this over with as quickly as possible churning in her stomach.

She kept her eye forward as Muddythorn asked his question, focused grimly on the path ahead of them. He had yet to realize it... Though Beechface hadn't exactly explained before she'd all but pulled him from his nest.

"It's time for you to become a full medicine cat, Muddythorn." She stated, "You pick up knowledge quickly, and you've always had more of a head for healing than I ever did. I know things have been... rough... recently, and you've done well enough. This is long overdue, don't you think?"

Muddythorn's paw-steps faltered slightly at Beechface's words. Somehow, the thought hadn't even crossed his mind.

"Ah...oh, uhm really? Thank you, wow." The shock left him struggling slightly to string a full sentence together. There was something about the fact that not only had he (somehow) managed to earn a warrior name, Beechface had decided that he was worthy of it being a medicine cat's name. "I trust your opinion Beech, but... are you sure? I feel like I barely know what I'm doing and all the other stuff... and I..." He started mumbling, more to himself than anything else. But he soon stopped himself as he remembered what Dappleleaf had said to him - as long as he tried as hard as he could and knew that he couldn't do any more, all would be well. If only life was actually such plain sailing.

"I'll be fine, right?"

"I do." Beechface said. "I didn't think I was ready, when Wolfstar brought me to the moonstone for my ceremony, either. I still don't. This... Wasn't what I'd wanted, and it still isn't now. It was why I couldn't wrap my mind around you wanting to be a medicine cat."

"You wanted this, and you've put in the work, Muddythorn. You're compassionate and level-headed-" Two things she wasn't, Beechface knew that, "-and you took to healing quickly. Skyclan needs that, and there's no reason to put this off." Other than her strong desire to not see the moonstone at all, of course. "Don't sell yourself short." She huffed out a breath, not really sure of if what she was saying would reach him. The reassurance had never worked on her... But then, she and her apprentice were very different cats.

As they approached rolling, open moorland, Beechface picked up her pace. "Quickly now, I don't want to linger around Windclan territory any more than necessary." And I fear what the clan might get up to without us around. She kept that thought to herself, though she didn't know if Muddythorn had picked up on her anxieties. Wolfstar hadn't wanted her own bitterness to influence his views, and so Beechface had tried to keep it to herself. She had a willing apprentice, who would be receiving his full rank tonight. She didn't want to mess that up.

From a combination of a few deep breaths and Beechface's words, Muddythorn managed to calm himself down a little, or at least enough to no longer want to turn around and go home. "Thank you, Beechface. I know I'm on this path a lot more willingly than you are, but you are still an amazing medicine cat, even if you don't want to be. Honestly, at first I saw this as an opportunity because I hated being a warrior so much. Kind of how you feel about healing, I guess. But now I know there's so much more to it. There's something about finding it easy to fix other people's problems that makes most of my own disappear." Mostly for his own sake, Muddythorn usually tried to keep most conversations light-hearted, and actively tries to steer away from anything too serious. However, now was as good as any time to properly talk to Beechface.

"I know you won't believe me, but you have been a great mentor. How else would I be standing here today?" He said as they neared the moors. He was trying to distract himself from gazing at Windclan territory for too long. Saying he didn't have the best memories of that place was an understatement.

At his last words, Beechface let out a sharp, bitter laugh. "Even Starclan, in all their foolishness, wouldn't agree to that." Why would anyone? Her tenure had been made of failure after failure, and marked by more bloodshed than she could have ever thought possible. For each clanmate she kept healthy, there were a dozen things that went wrong. "...Maybe you'll have better luck with them than I ever did." She muttered quietly. Or maybe Skyclan was doomed. She didn't believe that he'd have any luck with the stars at all. Whatever Skyclan did, they needed to do it without their so-called guidance.

Crossing the thunderpath was never enjoyable, especially now with Beechface's reduced field of vision and lack of depth perception, but the two managed. The ground underfoot became rockier, steeper, as they approached mothermouth, the sun's fading rays staining the sky in shades of orange and red above. Beechface finally stopped at the entrance to mothermouth, allowing both of them several long moments to rest. She'd kept a brisk pace on purpose for the full length of the journey, refusing to stop. It had been easier than slowing, giving in to the desire to head back to camp and not bother.

"It's time. Come." She mewed, glancing up at the stars beginning to show in the darkening sky. They held no warmth, no care for the living, but it wouldn't be Beechface communicating with them tonight. She wasn't sure that they'd listen anyways, and in truth, she would be perfectly fine not to. There was no point in doing so anymore for her. Still, she wanted to believe that Muddythorn might do better as she led her nephew into the dark tunnel. Her world was quickly shrouded in darkness, and Beechface hardly noticed or cared when the soft hues of moonlight began to lighten the tunnels as they approached the chamber of the moonstone.

Her lip almost curled at the sight of it, the shining stone as bright as pretty as Dawnhawk's pelt and representing something just as terrible as her littermate had become. They never punished him, and only ever cared to watch innocents suffer. Beechface kept to the edge of the spacious cavern, and turned her face away in disgust.

She remembered that brief flicker of hope she'd felt when Wolfstar had named her, standing in the spot she now stood in. That hope had died long ago, and now, standing before the moonstone, she admitted it fully.

"I, Beechface, medicine cat of Skyclan, call upon my warrior ancestors to look down upon this apprentice. He has trained hard to understand the ways of a medicine cat, and with your help he will serve his clan for many moons." Starclan had never helped her do a thing, much less help her serve Skyclan. She had to fight to keep the disgust she felt for them out of her voice. This night was for Muddythorn, not starry-pelted grandstanders who demanded worship and obedience. The words were a farce, and they always would be. "Muddythorn, do you promise to uphold the ways of a medicine cat, to stand apart from rivalry between clan and clan and to protect all cats equally, even at the cost of your life?"

The rocky slope that led to mother mouth left Muddythorn stumbling only a few times, struggling in the low light to get his footing. Hopefully, over the course of the rest of his time as a medicine cat, walking the path would become second nature to him and he'd be able to do it only with the faint stars to light his way. The dark tunnel was just the same as ever, reminding him of his first journey here, then second. Both times he had questioned whether he was on the right path. Both times someone had been there to reassure him.

No matter how many times Muddythorn would visit the Moonstone however, it never failed to take his breath away. There was something about how it looked almost like an ordinary rock until the moonlight hit it, and it bathed the entire cave in sparkling light. Still, he had to contain his wonder just for a few more moments. After all, the ceremony was the main reason they were here.

He took in the words of the ceremony, and could tell that Beechface just saw them as words to be recited. On the other hand, her apprentice wished for them to come true. Maybe Starclan would give him the boost he needed to feel like he could be a good enough medicine cat. Standing apart from rivalry was something he would happily do, especially after the events in Windclan, but it also struck him as odd that his mentor hadn't been as obedient to the rule. But not everyone was perfect, and his aunt was far from a perfect medicine cat.

"I do."

Muddythorn's response was clear, and Beechface took a breath. "Then by the powers of StarClan I give you your true name as a medicine cat. Muddythorn. StarClan honors your compassion and dedication, and we welcome you as a full medicine cat of Skyclan." With the ceremony almost complete, she offered Muddythorn a small smile. He had doubts, she was sure, all cats did. She thought he would be able to overcome them, however.

"There is little else I can teach you, Muddythorn, except maybe what not to be." Angry, bitter, disillusioned. All things Beechface readily admitted to. Muddythorn was none of those things, however, and Beechface hoped he never would be. "I'm proud of you. Now go, I'll be here when you wake." She wasn't expecting anything to really come out of Muddythorn's dreams at all, but that was her own problem, not Muddythorn's.

Even though Muddythorn got no knew name, the ceremony still felt very final, and he was surprised with how comfortable he was with that now. When he had first become Beechface's apprentice, the idea of not being able to change his mind had scared him. Now it was an accepted fact. Before he lay down beside the Moonstone, he murmured one last "Thank you," to his mentor. Just like all the other times he had been there, the sleep came fast and it wasn't long before he was waking on the plains of Starclan.

In the calm of the night, Copperfox, wrapped in a shimmering storm of stars entered the dreams of Skyclan's newest medicine cat. He had been watching over his clan as well as the others the entire time he'd been in Starclan, even welcoming new additions he hadn't expected to see for quite some time yet. He approached Muddythorn quietly and gently brushed against his consciousness as well as his dream body gently to get his attention.

"Congratulations on becoming a medicine cat, Muddythorn. I'm Copperfox, your uncle." He spoke softly. "In a forest full of warriors and sometimes limited food supply, compassion and dedication to the well being of others is exactly what is needed. Medicine cats have to put the good of all clans before their own desires and I have no doubt that you are a solid fit for that description." He sat down on what appeared to be nothing, his fur glimmering with stars with every movement.

Hic copper stripes and even copper colored eyes were far more brilliant than they ever had been in life. "What can I do, in my limited time to share knowledge with you, to help you in your journey as a medicine cat of Skyclan?" He purred. He wrapped his long, fluffy tail around his paws and tapped the tip gently.

So far, Muddythorn had been met with a different cat each time her had visited the moonstone. This time was no different. However, unlike the others, this was a cat he recognised, one he had known in the living world, albeit distantly. His aunts and uncles spanned most of Skyclan and beyond, and even though he was a very sociable tom, he mostly enjoyed the company of others his own age. Like Birdsong. "Thank you Copperfox." The other cat may've just been a deceased warrior, but praise coming from Starclan always came as a surprise, especially with how Beechface had been talking about them lately, and with good reason. But Muddythorn could keep faith; Starclan might not have been as high and mighty as many believed, but they were trying their best, and only had so much power over the waking world.

The last thing Muddythorn wanted was to be rude or abrupt, but he had learnt over the moons that these visits were often shorter than what felt like was needed. So he cute straight to the point. "Do you know how you died?" From what he'd heard, it seemed to be a situation were Copperfox simply went to sleep one night and then didn't wake up. Unexpected, seemingly unpreventable deaths was what scared the newly-named medicine cat. Herbs could fix almost every illness and injury if it was treated fast enough, but how could you fix something you didn't even know was there?