Ghosts In the Garden

Batsong was out looking for herbs.  She was indeed quite a ways from home but she couldnt find much in the moorlands of windclan.  No herbs could survive the winters and the harsh winds and winter that lingered for far to long.  She sniffed and poked around figuring that the twoleg place would have some stuff maybe if she was lucky in the old abandon garden.

For a med cat, she felt like she was doing a pretty piss poor job keeping her clan healthy and well.  It was her job to look after her clanmates and now Lynxpaw was dead killed by some roughes, Daisybreeze was dead from a fox,

Whisper and Bracken had just returned luckily!  But she still felt guilty that they were taken in the first place and on top of all that, Russet had lost an eye and Silver had been kicked from the clan.

She felt pretty miserable that she couldnt have done better to do her job and protect the ones she was in charge of.  Not to mention cats wouldnt listen to ehr, Bracken as much as she loved her sister just loved walking around on her hurt paw before she was taken... and then like magic somehow was all well now.  Batsong still had no idea how THAT had happened, she must be a bad med cat if she couldnt fix Brackens leg in a moon and the twolegs had it good as new in about half that time.

She sighed a little digging at something that looked to be maybe of use.  She was so focused on her work however that she didnt realize the scent that was nearby until she was practically right on top of it.  Her eyes went upward and then immedietly widened in pure fear.

Not two foxlengths away lay a sleeping Beechface.  Batsong felt her tummy do twists in fear and terror.  

Batsong had heard the stories, yes all the stories about how much Beechface hated windclan.  The elders taught her a good amount of her clans history during her many visits to them for de-fleaing.  And she had learned quite a bit about windclans past.  Now, in full disclaimer some of her info might be a little off since the elders sometimes contradicted each other but she had the general gist down...

And the general gist was that beechface hated windclan... something about her brother taking refuge there and alot of other skyclan drama that batsong had done her best to keep straight but didnt remember all the details to.


She felt her paws quiver in fear as she slowly tried to back up out of there her eyes locked on the sleeping beechface.

SNAP

Batsong felt her heart stop for a second as she glanced downward upon a twig she had just crunched underfoot

Oh... you idiot!  her mind told her to herself


She may have made it up the fear making her see things, but she could have sworn that when Beechface opened her eyes the half of her face that was scared twitched the whole time.  


Right now, Batsong probably looked like a terrified kitten on the verge of tears and about to pee itself when a hawk was flying right at it.

She huddled down low at least hoping to make herself smaller target.

Speak... speak you idiot tell her you are here in peace! her mind once again screamed at her

But her poor speaking and stuttering were not at all helped by the immense fear she felt right now

"agha aaha she sputtered terrified.


You are gonna die because you cant speak... pathetic, you worthless med cat can you do anything right?

Her lower jaw quivered trying to get her tongue to do something but it felt all tied in knots



Her mind scrambled trying to think of anything that could get her out of this... Briars kits!! that was it maybe! Beechface and her had met once before under very odd circumstances when Briar's kits were born in the middle of a gathering.  Batsong had helped deliver them alongside Beechfang when that had happened.  It was certainly an odd way to meet someone but she had done her best to help the queen through it and they did a good job together as a team.  All the kits made it and so did the mother.  Batsong had actually learned alot about kitting from Beechface during all that.

Would Beech remember that though?? More importantly, would Beech even care?  Well, there wasnt exactly alot of other moves to make.


"b--b...b she stuttered whimpering a little... why did br sounds have to be so hard?


Now, dont get me wrong, Batsong isnt always this cowardly, She stood up to alot of things in her life.  A big Riverclan tom who was talking to her mom Swiftspirit... (Bat only later found out that they had been secret mates).  But before knowing that, she promised the big guy shed bury him if he hurt Swift:

She stood up to the forgotten order and the dark forest too with no problem... but this felt different.... felt scarier.

Beechface was always told to her in stories to have hated windclan, this combined with that the one time she met her Beechface had literally confessed to killing a medicine cat... (not hard to see how these two would make her pretty nervous)


"B..-...briar's k-..kits ... k-kittens she sputtered out finally.

"r-r..remember? she added on trying so hard not to break down crying


she pointed to herself with a trembling front paw.  "f..f-f...friend

((OOC: Eyyy we are free of sitewide being sitewide lol))

After a brief stay in Skyclan's camp, Beechfang had forced herself to move on, forcing her paws to move back toward twolegplace. It was hardly the safest area to live, but the abandoned twolegplace was what she had called home and was close enough for her to keep an eye on her daughters from a distance. After being captured by twolegs, the mad dash to free cats while being grabbed again, and then the shock of stepping foot into Skyclan's camp after so long... Beechfang was exhausted. She had spent a few days doing little more than hunting and sleeping, and now she lay awake, absently listening to the faint rumble of monsters in the distance. To her surprise, no other rogues had taken over her corner of twolegplace. All scents had been stale, except for a few stray mice and squirrels. That was fine.

Pawsteps made her eye narrow in thought, though Beechfang did not lift her head just yet. If it was a rogue, they were being awfully clueless about alerting others to their presence... And she didn't much care to do the same of herself. So she lay there, waiting. They would pass her by, or stumble across her and be surprised.

The scent of Windclan reached her nose.

"You're a long way from the moors, Windclanner." Beechfang's voice had the hint of a growl to it as she uncurled, slowly rising to her paws to stare down at the dark she-cat. Her pelt carried the scent of herbs, and there was something vaguely familiar about her, not that Beechfang particularly cared. The she-cat stumbled over her words and sputtered, practically cowering away from her, and Beechfang let out a low snort.

"Spit it out or get lost." The she-cat continued to stumble over words, hardly making sense for a bit. The mention of Briarstar's kits caught her attention amidst the stream of nonsense however, and Beechfang's eyes narrowed. "What about them?" A sigh escaped her. She did not care for the vaguely familiar she-cat who couldn't even form a coherent sentence wasting her time like this.

Friend? Beechfang rolled her eye, but there was something... She had been at the gathering, if she had mentioned Briarthorn's kits, hadn't she. "Fine, I won't chase you off. This time. What do you want, medicine cat?" She had forgotten the she-cat's name, if it had even been shared in the first place.

Well... this was already going better than she had anticipated... at least Beachface hadn't killed her yet.

Beechface even asked what she wanted??

Batsong blinked a couple of times hmm maybe she did remember her after all who knew.

"I'm j-just looking for herbs she answered quietly.

"My s-sister was taken by t-the twolegs. W-when she got back she spoke of a miracle herb a white flower" she explained

"I have b-been looking for it far and wide" that answered the question as to what she was doing so far from the moors.

Brackenwing was probably refering to some pill but since the cats dont know that it has become batsongs dream to find this mysterious herb the twolegs used

Beechfang listened as the medicine cat spoke, tail slowly twitching back and forth. Did she care that this stranger's sister had been snatched up by twolegs? Not really. She was far from the only cat to have been taken recently, and it wasn't important. But this "miracle herb" as the Windclanner put it sounded like nothing Beechfang knew. White flower... No, the twolegs didn't use flowers in anything, as far as Beechfang knew. But the cutter's did have some strange white pellets they forced down the throats of unwilling cats. They seemed to do something, not that Beechfang had ever appreciated it.

"It's more like a large seed, or those nasty pellets they feed kittypets. If they actually grow into something else, I don't know." Beechfang responded after a moment of thought. "They're not something you'll find in the forest, I've only seen them at the cutter's. Not in their gardens either, there you'll just find normal herbs you already know from the forest." A sigh escaped her. "If you're thinking of raiding the cutter's and risking capture for this herb of yours, leave me out of it."