Of Gardens and Wars [Solo]

Eaglefly went to the medicine one day after patrol having a thorn in his paw. He waltzed in his usual good moon even despite having the sore paw temporarily.

"Batsong?" he called glancing around till he saw the black furred medicine cat sitting nearby.



Batsong's ears laid back defensivly and her eyes looked down to her front paws almost immediately. "Eaglefly?" she sighed glancing away "look I know I made a mistake but I am really not in the mood to be condemned over it right now." he was what the third warrior now to be complaining to her over how she acted past gathering? She knew that it had gotten out of control and had tried hard to make it not become the mess it had become. She had tried what she knew how to do and stand up for herself and her clan.

Eaglefly paused tilting his head as he huffed out his nose. "thats not what I was gonna say at all. I got a thorn" he said holding up his paw to show her.

Batsong nodded feeling now she had been overly defensive as she got it treated in a quick fashion.

"alright, you are all set you can even walk on it, it was nothing too bad since you caught it so early"


Eaglefly flicked his tail "come on, lets go for a walk then you and I. I think you need to get some things off your mind and seeing you sulk around here is doing no one any good" he said nothing else as he left the med den and waited for her at the exit of camp where she eventually did show up.


He led the way until they were out of earshot from the rest of camp. "You seem to have alot of regret. And while regret can be okay to have since it is showing that you are learning from your mistakes it can become dangerous when we let it turn into the only thing we focus on. What you did was controversial sure, it was bold and probably hadn't ever been done before... could it have been handled better? Maybe so. Its too hard to say what would have happened and going down hypoteticals can be just as dangerous. But what is done is done and the past is irrevertable. Tehre is no changing it. So, while it is important to recognize and learn from your mistakes its also important to realize what you did right and not get so lost in it all.

Batsong looked at her paws thinking about all that. "hmm maybe but now a war is coming all because of it ho-

Eaglefly flicked his tail shaking his head "yes probably so. But this is not something you can control now, an action taken by shadowclan now is just that, something done by them. And if they do that we will meet them head on. Batsong... for a long time a war was probably coming.
While the way you went about what you did was maybe questionable the content itself was nothing but straight facts. Nightstar and shadowclan in general has beaten many of our clanmates and left them for near dead. Eaglefly purposfully ran into Batsong giving her a shove over.

Batsong looked annoyed "hey watch where you are goi-

"That, that is what shadowclan does. They shove you around every so often just sort of seeing ... just testing. They wanna know what their limit is" he explained as he ran again into her with another shove. "Figuring out when are you gonna break what are you gonna allow. Oh can we walk all over you??"

Eaglefly went to run into her again but this time she pushed back preemptively
"there ya go... now what you did was rash and bold and maybe even a bit mouse-brained yes. But sooner or later if we didnt stand up for ourselves the outcome of war would have been here regardless. There is some silver lining out of all this though... you finally learned to stand up for yourself during that gathering. Since then I haven't heard you stutter once either. But more recently, you are starting to lose that again. Starting to go back to being invisible and assuming that you are wrong before I even ask you something. Dont lose the only good thing to come out of that gathering. I will tell you, the Batsong that stood up on the rock that night I would fight for. You have a backbone now lets not lose that. ... and maybe while we are at it we can work on your social cues a bit better so we dont have another disastor gathering type thing hmm?"

Batsong glanced at him not having expected so much dumped out like that.

"medicine cats are not supposed to be like that though. We are supposed to promote peace."

Eaglefly nodded "yeah I agree. But its much better to be a warrior in the med den than a med cat at war. You should try and avoid war like you said but when it arrives its okay to be a bit of a monster. And if ... when not if I suppose they come I want you to promise me you can do that.


Batsong must have looked at him like he had grown a third eye and he put a paw up "let me explain, everyone always says you should be kind, helpful, good, harmless, innocent... No wrong they confuse kindess and weakness as the same thing. They are not the same thing. You can be good and kind and still be a monster when you need to be. The difference is learning how to control it."


"hmm interesting take. I had not thought of it quite like that ever before"

"you need to be dangerous."

Batsong looked unsure... "that implies that I should be trying to hurt someone, the exact opposite of what the medicne cats are for

"no what I am saying is you should be capable of doing that if it comes to it. I'm sure when shadowclan comes Nightstar will have a longing for vengeance against you specifically. When that day comes you have to be ready not just physically but mentally as well for what you may have to be forced to do to him"