[Empress Of Evil]

Originally Posted by Lonestar23

A blonde and white cat padded through the territory, her gait an ambling walk, and she stopped every few seconds to examine the plants that she saw. Some looked familiar, some did not - Caliapaw was honestly glad that Wheatfur had been keeping the herb stores well-stocked. She didn't know every single herb, for one thing, so if something was in short supply was she going to have to carry around a leaf from it to make sure that she got it right. Hopefully soon she would know what they were all for, and she would be able to heal other cats more easily. There was a lot on her mind currently - the death of her first patient, the worry that came from wondering if there were more losses to come, and the tensions brewing with WindClan. That was only going to end in more death and Caliapaw didn't want to have to be the one to watch more cats die.

She was probably in the wrong job, then, but she was here because she'd wanted to save other cats. She was here because Wheatfur had asked her, and she had said yes. Maybe it had been a mistake. There was no way she could live up to the expectations she was sure were already set for her, let alone the legacies of medicine cats before her. She was nine moons old! This was her first full moon in this position, and so far, she'd done a fair job. She'd helped a few cats, lost one. Her gait had now become wearier, heavier in a way that no one would have thought possible for such a young cat. As she continued along, she caught sight of a familiar pelt through the trees. Everpaw, she thought with a sigh of relief. Everpaw was the type of cat you could just hang out with, and it made her feel normal again.

Her best friend didn't give her any special treatment. Or scorn her for choosing the path she had chosen. She could just be another apprentice, which was probably why Caliapaw liked it out here - out here, away from the herby smell of the medicine cat den, she was just another apprentice. When she came out here on her own, that was. When she was with other cats, she felt thrust into her position once again. However, she did really want to talk to Everpaw. The struggle of being alone or trying to carry on a conversation eventually ended, and she ultimately decided to approach the calico. Her gait still semi-heavy, but lightening as she walked towards the other cat, Caliapaw smiled as she grew closer. "Hey, Everpaw." She mewed, her tail twitching lightly behind her while she struggled to make it stand still.

Everpaw wondered whether she should pick the plant and give it to Caliapaw later in case she wanted to keep it in her stores. After a moment of debating what she should do, she decided that she would just leave it and move on. The she-cat liked to be helpful where she could, but it simply wasn’t her job. She didn’t want to load more stress on Caliapaw by not helping out, but she wasn’t the medicine cat and it wasn’t her job to worry about keeping the medicine supplies up, even if a low herb supply would affect her and her clanmates greatly. Plus, she didn’t know if this actually was a yarrow plant. She didn’t want to accidentally pick a plant that turned out to be poisoned and kill herself for the sake of being helpful. She wasn’t quite willing to risk her life for the medicine cat’s herb supply just yet. So with that, she shrugged the thoughts away and padded away, in search of something more interesting to focus her attention on.

The she-cat was examining an interesting looking bush before she heard a familiar voice break through her thoughts and she looked up. Caliapaw was walking towards her, her smile becoming more noticeable as she came closer. “Hey,” she greeted in response. “I think I saw a yarrow plant back there earlier. You might want to get it later,” she said, using her head to point in the direction that she had come from. She didn’t dwell on it, not because she suspected that Caliapaw wanted to be normal for a bit or anything like that, but simply because she thought that ‘herb talk’ was boring. She started walking off and after she’d covered a few foxlengths, she turned her head to check and make sure that Caliapaw was following after her.

“So, how’s life?” She asked after a few moments of silence, turning her head to face the other she-cat. The calico didn’t want to ask the usual questions that one would ask a new medicine cat. Things like ‘How’s the new job going?’ No, Caliapaw was still the same cat to her and she didn’t really care about her medicine cat role that much. She didn’t want to be boring, she wanted to talk about exciting things. She wanted to talk about weird things that only two best friends would be able to laugh about. She wanted life to be like it had been before Caliapaw’s rank had been changed.