[iliri]

Springpaw
long-furred, oriental-shaped, gray-and-orange calico molly with blue eyes; torn right ear
purrks: herbal knowledge - tier 2 | the collector | mind reader | skip the steps[all perm. active; sts for battle training]

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It wasn’t hard to tell that the star-furred tom-cat held a gaping suspicion towards her. She could see it in the way that he was intently staring and locking eyes with her, almost peering into the inner depths of her soul itself, almost as if he was seeing how truly battered and vulnerable it truly was. The oriental-shaped feline found herself briefly biting on her tongue to keep her from calling out his rather intrusive behavior. It was so easy to tell from just watching him alone that he didn’t trust her and to be fair, he had every right to be. Springpaw already found herself growing consistently formative with the idea that this tom-cat was formerly from RiverClan, and it wasn’t hard to tell that he was just as tired of the consistent negligence of ranks being swiped away like a deck of cards. Each cat that kept gaining the newer ranks of being whether a medicine cat, deputy, or whatever, always kept on failing their duties and didn’t seem to even bother to partake in any of the tasks that they needed to complete. It was irritating, and Springpaw knew that even with this information, it wasn’t even as close to being as important as the information that this tom-cat was hopefully going to be willing to give to her as he states, and not be any unfiltered lies that he spews. Springpaw knew full well that even if StarClan was proclaimed to be these all-knowing cats, in reality, they were nothing more than just futile imperfections within her mindset itself. They never were around, and they never did anything to help her clan out except maybe once or twice.

With a deep, strained exhale through her nostrils to keep the whirling thoughts at bay, her lapis-blue eyes set upon Sootkit’s glimmering pair as she kept her lips pierced in a thin line, not allowing them to curve into either a smile or a frown. “I can… tell just… from looking at… you that… you don’t… trust me… you have… every right… to do… that… given how… everything currently is… with your… home clan.” Her voice, no matter how strained or weak it may be, still held a tone. A tone of which she saw as civilized to keep the peace within the watery landscape. Was stating “home clan” the rightful term to use? Could it have been too far for her to state his former home explicitly in front of the tom-cat? Maybe it had, and she just hadn’t realized that it had been just a little much for her to state publicly. However, she didn’t have much time to muster the thought as the star-furred tom-cat in front of her began to bring out three different types of herbs which she inadvertently assumed were going to be the three herbs that he was going to teach her. Curiosity and puzzlement endured the feline as she cocked her head sideways as if to try to investigate the herbs that Sootkit had magically summoned out of thin air. It was almost heart-wrenching to see the herbal remedies placed out in front of a starry landscape. It reminded her a lot of Coldamber when she had first taught her the few herbs after she recently became a medicine cat apprentice.

Back then, she had endured the childlike wonder and curiosity of wanting to yearn for the knowledge of being a medicine cat. It was almost bittersweet in a way, for the fact that it had reminded her of the fact that such curiosity that she had held up ever since she was a kit alongside her bunch of rambunctious siblings. A numb, almost panging ache grew from the deepest pits of her heart from just the simplest thought of her siblings that began to lurk and creep around the corners of her mind like the wretched dreams of nightmares. Her breath had almost grown aloft as her mind grappled with its memories for a split second before reverting to reality, her body feeling light as if she had been standing on a block of thin ice for a short period. Briefly catching herself and half-heartedly blinking away the haze that went over her deep blue eyes, staring down towards the first herb that Sootkit had held out in her direction. Apparently, to her knowledge, the first herb was called sorrel. Brows quick to furrow, her oriental-shaped ears instinctively swerved forward to listen to the brief explanation that Sootkit gave off about the useful properties that the herb. So, the herb was used to help build up a cat’s appetite and be used as a traveling herb.

The last bit about using it to help aid queens wasn’t much information for her to take inventory of learning since she hadn’t bothered to assist in a queen’s kitting yet. Still, after learning all the searing details behind the harsh complications of a queen’s birth from Drizzlecloud, she preferred to stay away from the whole concept of interfering with such problems. If it weren’t for the thought popping up, she could’ve found herself delving into the cacophony of thoughts about how gruesome the details of her mentor told her about how kitting worked and whatnot. A quiet shudder surpassed her lips, making her snow-white paws dig themselves into the cool pebbles underneath her paws to keep herself from having any other uncoincidental thoughts about the techniques that her mentor had taught her about. She decided to think more invertedly about the herb for a little bit, giving only a short nod to note that she was keeping the knowledge to herself. Next up, Springpaw had to keep herself from investigating the herb at closer notice the immaculate detail covering the herb itself. Raspberry leaves, they were called. It seemed that this one had more of an involvement with helping queens in an assisted birth, making her brows furrow forward once more. It wasn’t much useful knowledge that she would proclaim, but she suspected that she would just keep it in mind in case she were to use it whenever she ran into difficult circumstances like a queen kitting.

Springpaw found herself quickly growing suspicious of the hesitance that swarmed the feline right in front of her. It wasn’t hard to tell that the star-furred feline right in front of her was struggling to publicly choose something to say for the last herb that he had in his paws. Thankfully, for her ability to be an explicitly good mind reader, she was quick to spot why exactly he had been so hesitant to state out the usages of the final herb. There had to be something either important about the herb itself or something along those lines of it being lethargic to cats. Springpaw found herself idly contemplating the thought, her white tail tip whisking itself against the shallow ripples of the cool water against her back. The calico hadn’t been much for using such a trait to see through other’s emotions easily, but this was something different. This tom-cat had tried to think out a plan and was trying to hide the actual usages of this herb from the young medic herself. She almost found herself questioning why, but she knew for certain that the answer itself was relatively obvious. He was afraid that she would use its usages against his home-clan, didn’t he? It took almost every urge within her body to resist the urge to curl her nose at the thought. She may be a medicine cat of another clan, but she was no foxheart. She wouldn’t kill anyone unless necessary, and she hoped that wouldn’t ever come down to be the case.

It didn’t take long for the tom-cat to finally give in to his options and state out the usages of the final herb that he had laid out: foxglove seeds. Now, this was something that almost left her stumped. This wasn’t a herb that she had encountered or a poison. Poisons were something that she assumed was crucial to her learning to be a proper medicine cat towards ThunderClan. The more poisons she learned, the more she learned to avoid them and keep them from attacking her herb storages like irredeemable pests. To add to that, it would make it easier to keep track of cats bringing any unwanted herbs back. She would be able to identify its appearance and quickly dispose of it as soon as possible before anything horrible happened to any of her clan members… or if anyone decided to get nosy and snuck into her prestigious herbs only to end up potentially dying because of their idiocy. The oriental-shaped feline had to keep herself from feeling her hackles bristle against the boiling ire that she felt swarming her stomach, using it to fuel herself to think of the effects that Sootkit had explicitly explained to her. Its poison was strong enough to take down two full-grown warriors. That was something that Springpaw was willing to keep in mind, finding herself furrowing her brows against the thought as she leaned down to take a closer look at the seeds themselves. They almost looked identical to poppyseeds except a little darker. Next time she sends out patrols, she’ll make sure to warn any cats that are going out to collect poppyseeds to not grab anything that looks similar to the pain-relieving seeds themselves.

However, it had only seemed that a small lesson wasn’t what Sootkit wanted to give, Springpaw felt her body tense as soon as she saw the tom-kit harden his stare, gazing deeply into her deep blue hues. The blunt honesty and truth that unfolded from his tongue wasn’t much of a surprise to the mere medic herself. She half-expected it, but she hadn’t expected him to be this considerate towards her making any potential rash decisions towards causing the death of either her clan-mates or his former clan. Given how everything was with ThunderClan and RiverClan at the moment, she expected him to speak out so brutally and honestly toward her. Both of the clans had practically been at each other’s throats for moons on end, but Springpaw’s clear initial knowledge of the history between both clans was fuzzy, so she didn’t glower much on what that was all about. Instead, she stared back in the direction of the tom-cat, keeping herself afloat with how she would respond to his statement. “I… understand, Sootkit… but… your quick… interpretations… of me… won’t… come unnoticed… even if… I am… within another clan… I’m not… a foxheart… and I’m… not cruel enough… to commit such… cowardly acts… towards my clan… or any other clan… even if… you assume… that I… am that way.”

@Apollo. [yippie!]