puddles in the dawn [c]

Effect Dice Herb List:

It was rare that Muddythorn heard the first few birds in the morning, but today had woken feeling rested only to find that dawn light was still seeping through the branches. He wanted to make use of the unusual extension to his day, but one glance at Beechface made it clear that the she-cat was still deep in sleep, and he'd be loathed to wake her. Anyways, now that he wasn't technically an apprentice, he could grab a few warriors for a herb hunt. Their supplies weren't particularly low, but Foxfire was still ill and it would be good to have a stock of dry herbs, as the cold weather would soon appear.

He quietly slipped out of his nest, taking a glance at the herb piles. They always seemed to need more and more of the rarer and harder to find herbs, so a little searching would help. As he made his way into the camp, blinking in the bright sunlight, he noticed the damp ground and few light drips of water that fell onto his head from the branches above. It had rained on and off throughout the night, and he was glad it had stopped in time for the day to begin. Muddythorn was initially planning on going alone, but a familiar pelt exiting the warrior's den caught his eye. He hurried over, not wanting to yell and wake up the entire camp. "Dawnfeather! Do you want to come with me? On a herb hunt?" A smile on his face and tail in the air, he was excited to spend time with his little sister.

Dawnfeather’s dreams had faded slowly into reality, until the young warrior suddenly became aware that she was staring up at the sky through the gaps in the brambles. A slow dripping sound accompanied the birdsong as she stretched and rose to her paws, careful to not wake Prima, who slept next to her. A few quick licks to her chest fur was the only grooming she gave herself so early in the morning. She was one of the first wakers in SkyClan, usually up and about when the dawn was just beginning to break.

She paused for a moment in the entrance to the warrior den, watching the golden drips of light slowly fall to the ground, nectar and honey melting into puddles of sunlight. It made a shiver go down her spine at the beauty of it. Dawnfeather padded out into camp, looking up at the colored leaves, water dripping from them like the colors were bleeding into it… not bleeding, just… sharing color.

Her ears pricked at the sound of Muddy’s voice as he hurried over. “Ooh! Of course! That’d be so fun! Thanks for asking me!” She purred happily, gently headbutting her brother, ready to follow him out of camp. “Where we going today, Muddy?”

"I reckon The Great Ridge. It's the best for herbs, and it's where Beechface always goes." Muddythorn said. The rock not only caught the sun, but it also had lots of little crevices within it, meaning it was the perfect growing conditions for most commonly used herbs. For those harder to find, there was a small run-off of the creek nearby. "How's your morning been going? I mean, of course not much of it has happened yet, but I hope this outing is a nice addition to it. Not usually much of an early-riser, me." He said in a friendly manner.

"So how much do you know about herbs?" He asked as they began to leave camp. Some warriors had basic healing training, mostly what to do if they were alone and bleeding out from a wound. What they were told was more shove a cobweb and wait for a medicine cat, however. "We don't want anyone accidentally poisoning themselves!" Muddythorn hadn't really encountered many toxic plants, but he hoped he knew what to look out for. At least he could definitely recognise deathberries.

It didn't take too long to reach the ridge, and much to his luck, the medicine cat soon spotted a large, leafy plant poking out of the rock. Excited for his moment to introduce Dawnfeather to new herbs, he investigated. At first glance, it looked a little like chervil. Only much to his disappointment, when he neared he realised it didn't carry the herb's distinct scent and was, at the end of the day, just a fern. "Oh, and one thing I just perfectly demonstrated... sometimes herb isn't a herb, just a plain old boring plant." He laughed lightheartedly, knowing there would be other opportunities to find useful things.

The member 'kobweb khamosa' has done the following action : Dices roll

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'Effect Dice' : 1

Dawnfeather nodded enthusiastically, following Muddythorn out of camp. “I’m having fun so far!” She purred in response to her brother’s question. The light shining on the leaves captivated her, its swirling, tantalizing patterns…

“Oooh, Hawkuncle taught me a lot about herbs! Not as much as you or Beechaunt, of course. Stuff like cobwebs, poppy seeds, thyme, bindweed (apparently he broke his leg once, sounds terrible!) and what not to eat, like foxglove, yew and stuff. Yeah, it’d be terrible if someone ate some nightshade or something. I always keep an eye on the kits if they’re near the medicine den, just in case. Foxglove does look an awful lot like poppy seeds, doesn’t it?”

Dawnfeather watched eagerly as Muddythorn approached a fern. She didn’t know ferns could be used to help cats! Except… apparently they couldn’t. Muddy’s eyesight wasn’t that good, but he was able to find his way around the territory amazingly well. “Everyone messes up sometimes!” The young warrior reassured him, sharp eyes spotting something interesting.

Oop. Another fern. “Oops. That isn’t ch… ch… whatever I thought it was. At least it’s pretty!”

The member 'Creepy Cocoa' has done the following action : Dices roll

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'Effect Dice' : 1

Muddythorn mostly tried to ignore the way his sister spoke about Dawnhawk, and couldn't help but laugh to himself slightly. The two siblings had bother been somewhat trained by the tomcat, but by the sounds of it had had very different experiences. Beechface could be a harsh mentor at times, although he had gotten over his slight fear of her very quickly, mostly when he realised how worn down she was after being the sole healer of the clan for so long. When poisons were brought up, the medicine cat was brought back to the conversation completely. "Thanks for that. We try to keep stuff like that separate, but kits always seem to find a way to sneak in and cause trouble."

It seemed the two weren't having the best luck so far. At least finding a fern was better than finding a fox. "Ah, chervil. The main difference between that and a bog-standard fern is the little white flowers. It's great for infected wound, and we sometimes use it during fittings as well." It was nice to be sharing information like this with someone, knowing that even the tiniest scraps of knowledge could make it easier for Dawnfeather to help another cat in the future. Not all medicine cats duties were on the front-lines.

The tom began to wander again, this time searching for a nice nook in the hollow of a tree or a crevice of rock. They weren't exactly running low on cobwebs yet, but large injuries could use up so many at once and they were always useful to have around. Just like he had expected, he found a huge network of spiderwebs in a hollow tree, and scooped them up. He felt slightly bad for taking away the spider's home, so he made sure to leave some. The little bugs remade them so quickly it didn't really seem to matter though. Hopping awkwardly on three legs back to where they could stock the herbs (that they hadn't really collected yet) while they hunted. "Cobwebs." He said to Dawnfeather, "Great for pretty much anything, as you probably know."

The member 'kobweb khamosa' has done the following action : Dices roll

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'Effect Dice' : 2

“Chervil, chervil chervil chervil. White flowers, inflected wounds. Got it! Flowers are pretty, but rather common, don’t you think? I mean, Orchid brings with it a sense of… elegance, of rarity and beauty that Flower does not. Flower is pretty… but not in the way, say, Dandelion brings to mind a light and airy creature. Or Primrose makes one think of pose and beauty, or Rose of a deadly beauty, or… oooh!” Trailing off, she spotted some pretty looking flowers- maybe one of those was a herb? The young warrior trotted over and sniffed them.

Unfortunately, they were just regular flowers. Pretty ones, though. She carefully picked some of them up- maybe Beechaunt, or Olive, or Prima would like them! Or Beetlepaw! Dawnfeather happily bounced back to the herb “pile”. “Oooh, yeah, cobwebs! You’re good at finding them, Muddy! I didn’t find any herbs… but I did find these pretty flowers!”

The member 'Creepy Cocoa' has done the following action : Dices roll

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'Effect Dice' : 1

As his sister talked about the different flowers, Muddythorn tried his hardest to understand what she was going on about, but to no avail. It was nice just to listen to someone speak about something trivial, as long moons of training with Beechface meant a lot of memorising and thinking. If anything, being a warrior was largely about physical strength and speed. A medicine cat on the other hand, mostly seemed to rely on memory and keeping calm. As Muddythorn now knew from certain unfortunate situations, even though he could keep his cool in a healing situation, a battle was a completely different circumstance.

"They'd be great to cheer someone up! You could decorate your nest with them if you wanted." They were lovely, even if they were common. Sometimes simple things were pretty. Look, Muddythorn was nowhere near as poetic as Dawnfeather, but he could try.

"AHA! I knew it!" Whilst the two cats had been talking, the medicine cat had been foraging around near where they originally found the ferns, just to check they hadn't missed anything. Turns out, they had. "I knew I could smell it earlier! Well done nose, I was sure you weren't doing me wrong." Nestled in with some of the ferns, large sprigs of chervil grew, hiding themselves well amongst the other plants. "Chervil." He explained, voice muffled by the small bundle of it that he was carrying.

The member 'kobweb khamosa' has done the following action : Dices roll

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'Effect Dice' : 5

“Good job, Muddy’s nose!” Dawnfeather purred. “Chervil is pretty! I’ve smelled it before, I’m sure. Ohmystars, the other day I saw this very pretty flower but unfortunately it was on the ThunderClan border and apparently ThunderClan cats are very territorial. Erm, not that that’s a bad thing! It was a very pretty flower though, pretty colors, shining in the sunset light as the first shades of night find rest from their starry flight.”

The young molly sniffed around the cluster of ferns, trying to discover if any other plants also liked chervil’s home! Apparently only ferns. Pretty ferns, though. They tickled her nose. “I don’t think there’s anything else in this patch, Muddy. I mean, there are ferns! Sorry ferns. You are something else, and you do a good job doing it!” she beamed at the green foliage, a drop of water falling onto her head from a tree. Dawnfeather looked up on bewilderment before remembering the rain last night. Oops, silly her.

The member 'Creepy Cocoa' has done the following action : Dices roll

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'Effect Dice' : 1