Herb Gatherer (Spade!)

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[♠ Spade ♠]

The leaves near Lostpaw rustled slightly. The head of a cat popped out through the branches of the bush, large ears flicking around to pick up the sounds of the forest. Poppyfire's pale amber eyes focused on Lostpaw. She would have smiled and greeted her apprentice if her jaws weren't completely filled with herbs. She wriggled out of the bush and trotted lightly over to the young black and white cat. Her small paws and long legs moved fluidly as they carried her slowly forward. She sat down and set her pile of leaves beside the catmint leaves that Lostpaw had just gathered.

She gave the leaves a sniff and nodded. "Very good. These are good leaves," she purred proudly, sitting up again and folding her large ears back in a relaxed way. A breeze ruffled her short brown fur, but luckily it wasn't strong enough to disturb the piles of herbs. She flicked her tail towards the pile that she'd set down. Watermint, used for belly aches, she recited in her head. "Tell me the name of this herb and what it's used for."

When you're training to be a medicine cat, every single moment is a potential training experience, especially going out to gather herbs. She remembered her mentor always drilling her on various leaves, berries and roots whenever they left camp. Oh well, at least she was better then my warrior mentor, she thought with a sigh. Even if she'd started getting lost in her memories, her senses were still alert for Lostpaw's answer.

257 words

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Lostpaw

[/color] she said quickly. She knew by the look and the smell of it that it had to be. She hesitated before answering the second part of the question, however. Head aches or belly aches, head aches or belly aches? the answers flashed through her mind urgently. "H-b-h-b-h-belly aches." she blurted finally, but had second thoughts. "Wait-is that right? Oh, Poppyfire, my head has been emptied today!" she apologized with a quiet chuckle.

Just then, a stronger breeze blew through the leaves and into the clearing, blowing a bundle of herbs off of the top of the pile. Lostpaw leapt on them, forgetting she was missing a paw, fell, rolled, and scrambled to her feet, the delicate leaves in her mouth.

"Heh heh... Woops." she said, her pelt growing hot.[/ul][/size]

[♠ Spade ♠]

Lostpaw's first answer came and Poppyfire was happy to see that she had given the correct answer. "Yes," she mewed simply, waiting for the next part carefully. Her ears tilted forward expectantly as her apprentice stumbled over what she wanted to say. She finally settled on belly ache and Poppyfire gave a proud purr. "Very good!" she meowed with a nod. At her excuse she shook her head. "You seem to be doing fine so far, I wouldn't worry."

When the wind started rustling the piles of leaves, the ticked tabby was about to go hold them down when Lostpaw jumped at them, tripping herself and falling in the leaves. She gave a soft chuckled. "Well, I guess we'll have to resort those, hmm?" she asked, thought her tone was light.

She paused for a moment to think about the fullness of the moon. "Are you going to be ready for the next medicine cat meeting?" she asked casually as she nosed some of the watermint leaves back into their pile. She sat back to allow Lostpaw to finish gathering up the scattered leaves that could be salvaged. If it was leafbare, she would've been angry with the crushed leaves. However, since it was greenleaf, there were plenty more to replace what leaves had been lost or crushed. A gentle smile remained on her face the whole time as she waited for Lostpaw to answer her question.

((Has StarClan accepted her as an official medicine cat apprentice yet?))


237 words

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Lostpaw

[/color] replied Lostpaw enthusiastically, bouncing up and down a bit on her toes. This wasn't the easiest thing to do for cats with paws missing, however, so she didn't keep it up for long, resorting instead to show her excitement through the grin on her face.

"How many more sunrises are there before it's time?" she asker her mentor. It was quite a busy life as medicine cat apprentice, so she had fallen right asleep at the end o every day, never really glancing at the moon to see it's phase.[/size][/ul]

[♠ Spade ♠]

Poppyfire was pleased to observe how Lostpaw immediately went to sorting the scattered leaves, seperating the catmint and watermint as well as what was still usable and what wasn't. She was also glad to notice to excited light in her apprentice's eyes at the mention of the medicine cat meeting.

She loved the medicine cat meetings and found herself looking forward to the half moon very soon after her training started. It was a chance to be close with the medicine cats of other Clans as well as StarClan. And sometimes the medicine cats would share newfound knowledge. It was an all around good time for pretty much all medicine cats.

"Well that's good that you're excited. I'm not sure exactly how many sunrises, but it shouldn't be to long now," she meowed, tilting her head and sitting back slightly. Lostpaw seemed to have this sorting thing down. And it wasn't like there was a lot of leaves to sort out anyways. "I think we'll get a few more herbs and then head back. Once you're finished sorting those out, we'll try and find some tansy and poppy flowers. We're running bit low on poppy seed and the flower heads need time to dry out," she mewed. After a thoughtful pause, she gave a nod and smiled warmly towards her apprentice.

221 words

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Lostpaw

[/color] she paused and looked up. "Do you know of it? It's pretty small, so it might not have been there for long, though."

The apprentice met her mentor's gaze, waiting for her reply.[/ul][/size]

[♠ Spade ♠]

Poppyfire listened carefully as Lostpaw described a small patch of poppy flowers she'd found. Lostpaw must've been going out alone in order to come across the new patch, because as far as Poppyfire knew, the flowers she was named for didn't grow near her. She gave a slight shake of her head. "I had no idea there were poppies growing near here," she commented.

Her puzzled expression was replaced with an eager smirk as she stood up and tucked the piles of watermint and catmint under some nearby brambles. "We can go finish collecting what we need and then come back for these, how does that sound?" she asked.

She'd adopted the strategy from her warrior training. To her, hunting prey was like hunting herbs only far more difficult. But like warriors hid their prey to get more, Poppyfire hid her herbs so she didn't have to carry all those leaves all over the forest.

After pausing to wait for a reply from Lostpaw, she stood up and gestured with her tail for the apprentice to lead. "Show me where you saw the flowers," she mewed. She stood back from Lostpaw slightly to emphasize that she would follow her apprentice's lead.

201 words

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Lostpaw

[/color] she asked her mentor without turning her head, assuming that she had followed.[/ul][/size]

[♠ Spade ♠]

She saw pride flash across Lostpaw's face and remembered the first time she'd found some herbs that her mentor hadn't know about. It was a good feeling when she'd finally done something like that on her own. She automatically fell in behind Lostpaw, allowing her to lead the way to her patch of poppies. She was right behind the three pawed apprentice, ready to catch or help her if she needed when Lostpaw went over the fallen log.

With a graceful leap, she crouched, bunching her muscles before pushing up from the ground, gliding smoothly over the log and landing next to her with a soft thud. Her tail twitched slightly before following again. After they wove around a few thorny bushes, she was relieved to come out into the clearing with the feeling of soft grass underfoot. She took a moment to savor the simply beauty of the clearing in the middle of the clearing before her tan eyes fell upon the patch of flowers Lostpaw had mentioned.

She thought for a moment. It was greenleaf, so they didn't need to stock up just yet. "Well, we only really need two, but we might get more. I want you to practice collecting these. It's something we won't get to do as often as the other herbs," she meowed. She walked over to the flowers and smiled over her shoulder at Lostpaw.

She sat down and curled her tail around her paws, looking quite regal with her graceful posture and oriental build. "Tell me what you know about collecting poppy flower heads, she meowed. More quiz time, it was just one of the joys of being a medicine cat apprentice.

280 words

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