QuillClan //The curse of Stars and No Stars.

New medicine apprentice

CaribuPaw sniffed the bitter air of the medicine den, her ears flattening with eagerness and excitement. SwanFeather was tending to Lynxkit, who was earlier playing near bramble bushes, only to step on a third which was now deep in the poor kits paw pad. She had let SeanFeather take care of it for now, she hadn't even had a days training!

She couldn't stop quivering with excitement, all the knowledge she would have stored in her head, all the power to heal in her paws, she wouldn't need to kill or injure in battle, just heal the injured and wounded, although she would never walk the path of a true warrior, she would walk the path of a medicine cat.

Her paws brought her to the herb storage, which was hidden inside a small crevice of the den, storing all the delicate and precious herbs inside leaf wraps, the smell of herb grew much stronger here, making her eyes water with the overwhelming scent, she would get used to it eventually.

"Ouch!" Caribupaw turned her head to see the kid licking furiously at her paw pad, and to see SwanFeather spitting out a large thorn. TurtleDusk, the small kits old mother, was leaning over the poor scrap.

SwanFeather whispered something to the queen and they left, Lynxlit limping after. Caribupaw had to bite her tongue to stifle a laugh.

"Are you ready to begin training?" Caribupaw lifted her head eagerly and nodded to the medicine cat, who flicked her tail in a gentle gesture to follow. Caribupaw did so.
"You can start by taking this moss, and giving water to FrostedSnout and Flowerstep."

Her ears dropped slightly with disappointment, why couldn't she start learning herbs instead? Reluctantly, she grabbed the dry moss in her jaws, taking it out to the stream outside the medicine den. Kits were told to stay away from it, although it wasn't very deep, queens were scared of their kits slipping and falling into it, despite it leading nowhere.

Her whiskers twitched as water droplets formed on her muzzle as she dipped the moss gently in the stream, which was cool with glittering clear water. Headed back towards the medicine den, she held her chin high, careful not to let too much water slide out of the moss and onto the ground.

Caribupaw made her way into the back den, which she knew all to well from when she was sick with a nasty case of whitecough as a kit. She heard the raspy breathing and smelt the sour scent of sickness from inside and wished that the smell of herbs drifted inside the den, which wasn't a thought she'd think often.

Caribupaw put her down paw to nudge the wet moss ball towards FlowerStep and FrostedSnout, leaving a damp trail on the ground. She glanced around as she sat, her eyes watching over the two sick felines. Caribupaw wondered what the sickness was, it was most certainly new, and not even SwanFeather knew what it was. All the cats were told to stay away from the sick cats, as nobody knew if it was contagious yet.

"Thank you." FlowerStep managed to rasp as she licked up the water from the moss ball. She could barely make out the small hint of black specks in the warriors eye, which didn't look comfortable. It looked as if ash had snuck it's way into the felines eye, except that this wasn't ash.

"Of course." Caribupaw purred as she brought herself to her paws and pulled herself out of the back den, her ears tilting back to hear FrostedSnout let out a raspy cough. The whole clan thought for sure they were going to join starclan soon, and hunt in their forests, but she didn't think that was likely, Starclan would've sent SwanFeather a message if there was no hope to save the noble warriors. There had to be a way.

SwanFeather was no longer in the den, but she recognized the scent of her new mentor from outside the den, she was speaking to QuillStar in a hushed tone, inaudible to Caribupaw.

She wondered when she would speak to starclan, when she would know if she was meant to be a medicine cat. She really hoped so, it would be amazing to have all of that knowledge. It would be a gift! A gift and knowledge that not many had.

A shadowy figure seemed to suddenly bold in-front of her, making her jump, she took a step back, only to crush one of the delicate twigs which withheld the fragile cobwebs. She yelped, stepping forward quickly. The twig was broken into two, leaving cobwebs torn and ripped by her clumsy accident. She hissed to herself as she began to scoop up the mess. Who had that feline been?

Glancing around a second time, she saw nothing. She was probably hallucinating, or maybe that vole she had stem earlier was messing with her stomach. Cats didn't just disappear like that, so what was that thing?

Was it a sign from starclan? She wondered, her paws working to clean up the last of the cobwebs. Oh well. She decided, the last of the broken twig and cobwebs gone, just as the shadowy figure had gone.