Muffledstone Tides (vm)

[Apollo.]

- Sootkit -
StC - He/him - 22 moons dead
( @silver. - GASP, pretty much reached that post requirement, congrats! )

Never seen them? Thats odd, he could've sworn they grew on Riverclan territory.. well, she probably just never came across them. Sweeping his tail to the side, he sat opposite her with the herbs between them, placing his forepaw bellow (above?) the one furthest on his right.

"Sorrel," he nodded to the leafy green herb, "is handy to build up cats appetites, and can be used to help reduce a cats need for water." the tomkit paused for a moment, thinking back to try and remember where he'd seen it utilised. "Queens are sometimes given it after a long kitting, but it's commonly used in traveling herbs, or to help sick cats want to eat." lots of cats loose their appetite when they're ill, he knew that first hand, so sorrel would probably help them, though that was mostly a guess. "The leaves are eaten along with the first bit of the stem."

He looked up from the plant to the molly, "Scent is weird in starclan, so it might not smell the exact same here as it does in the living world. Questions?" Sootkit wasn't sure that he'd be able to answer every question she threw at him about the herb, but maybe a prompting could help jog his memory.

[silver.]

purrks: herbal knowledge tier 2, agatha kitty, just a scratch [PERM]
265/200

---

Can't think of any questions. His explanation was pretty thorough. Short, sweet, and full of information. That's how she liked it. She didn't need pretty words in her lessons as long as she gained all the new knowledge she could get her paws on. So she shakes her head in response, turning her attention back to the herb he had described. Sorrel... For strength. For travel. To curb one's thirst. Seemed pretty useful and should be easy to find in Riverclan territory.

"Not that I can think of. Ya covered everything I can think of-- what's next?"

( sorry this is late !! )
sootkit | @Apollo.

[Apollo.]

- Sootkit -
StC - He/him - 23 moons dead
( @silver. apologies for the delay, I also hope you don't mind me starting spring and soots rp in this thread! )

Well, she was starting to be a bit more tolerable, now that her incessant rudeness had died down. Sootkit shifted his weight back slightly to allow the same paw to slide in front of the middle plant. He had left a few berries on there when he had collected the tendril, but they wouldn't be helpful in healing, especially because of how bitter they were.

"Raspberry leaves are used to assist Queens while kitting, it helps ease their pain and sometimes helps with slowing bleeding caused by labour." he tapped one of the spiky-soft leaves as he spoke, and it stuck itself on his fur. "The berries aren't as useful, they more or less do nothing and just taste sour, but they aren't harmful to cats." he flicked the leaf off with a shake of his forepaw, and moved it carefully back over to the tendril with a single claw.

"Raspberry bushes are pretty noticeable, even without the berries, they usually grow in sunnier areas." If he knew Riverclans territory past just the camp he may be more help concerning locations of Raspberry bushes, but she should be able to find at least one pretty easily. He gave her a little nod, as if to ask if she had questions, not bothering to waste his breath on voicing it.

[Apollo.]

- Sootkit -
StC - He/him - 23 moons dead
( @eris lets do this :sparkles: )

Sootkit sighed, it seems like Riverclan wasn't the only clan pathetically deprived of herb knowledge. The tomkit had plenty of free time on his paws, and he's not a fool, so of course he checked on the other clans' competence, after all, he was loyal to Riverclan, if one was a threat to them he'd surely tell Birdsnow. Birdsnow, now that was a hell of a leader in the making, he almost regretted not telling her about Thunderclans invasion. Ah, but thats for him to think about another time, and certainly not while he was awaiting a visitor.

You see, half the clans have decent healers, Lostspark and Mossfreckle are shaping up well, and Lightingstorm seemed somewhat confident in their own abilities, however the two clans about to be locked in battle.. lets just say they are less then satisfactory from a healing perspective. Sure, Thunderclan had two medicine cats, but neither had been properly taught anything by living cats, their only real knowledge comes from the dead. What he knew wouldn't be all that helpful, and he still felt unsure weather it was the right thing to do, considering his own clan has no healers at current, but he'd put it off long enough. Once this was over he'd never have to pay any mind to Thunderclan past how best to assist his clan against them.

Sweeping his tail to the side he settled down on the closest, driest, rock to the shore. If this was anything like when Tansypaw appeared in his home, Springpaw should materialise on a rock further in the 'sea'. He used this time to ponder the fate of Tansypaw. She had vanished just as he finished explaining raspberry leaves to her, and when he had gone to go check the starpool in Starclan camp she'd simply disappeared from view. It was chillingly similar to what had befallen his mother, one day she was there, next, she had been spirited away. This send a shiver through his fur, was this a common occurrence, if so, why had he only really noticed it now?

[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]

---

The stench that was beginning to overwhelm her nostrils wasn’t familiar to her in any shape or form. Slumber had hit her recently, and sleep was quick to hit her just as quick as she had laid on her moss-bed. The quiet rippling of water echoed throughout her oriental-shaped ears, and the calico was quick to jerk her head upright to question the dream that she had been dragged within. The air smelt painfully familiar of the salts of seawater, and the area that she had awoken atop of felt particularly sodden. Where was she? She didn’t have any thoughts or wanting to wake up in a place where it smelt wet and moist all the time. Did StarClan grant her here? Well, it seemed to be so, as when she was searching around the place, her deep blue eyes landed on a tom-kit who seemed to be awaiting her presence.

It felt relatively unnerving, but also questionable too. What did he want? Did he want to tell her something? Was it important? She could feel the pressure of questions awaiting to be asked ticking at the end of her throat, but she kept herself civil, staring incessantly into the starry orbs of the StarClan resident as she cocked her head to the side. “Who are you?” It was a simple, yet quick question to start them off. She didn’t want to overburden the kit with questions. She didn’t think that she saw this kit before. Maybe she had, and she just didn’t remember. Either way, it was better to know why she was here than just waiting around to find out.

@Apollo. [ maybe to make this quicker, you can have him state the uses of all three herbs in one post? ]

[Apollo.]

- Sootkit -
StC - He/him - 23 moons dead
( @eris sure, that'll be my next post, the one after that will be him sending her home, is that okay? :]] )

She materialised a bit closer than he had expected, perhaps its because he called her here on purpose? He would have to keep this in mind for next time. Thankful he had waited by the dark shore, rather than in his home, Sootkit took a step forward only to recoil slightly. Alike Tansypaw, Springpaw's heartbeat felt deafening, the incessant noise rung strangely in his ears, and he had to will himself to withstand it. He would have to get used to this, especially if he was going to continue to contact the living world.

Sootkit straightened up, attempting to disregard the foreign beating, and focus on the task at paw. "Sootkit," his mew was level, not cold, nor welcoming. He would have time for his logic behind the situation some other time, for right now, he simply did not want to consider them. He would treat her as if she were a Riverclanner, at least until she gave him a reason not to. "I believe I died before you were born."

The black kit got to his paws gingerly, "From my observations you are yet to learn a fair amount of herbs and their uses, unfortunately I only have knowledge of three, but I doubt that you will object to learning them." with a flick of his tail he indicated that she should follow him, he planned to essentially do the same thing he did with Tansypaw before she vanished, perhaps a bit quicker this time. He paused to see if she would do as instructed, or if she was similar to Tansypaw in that way of defiance.

[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]

---

Sootkit. The name rang zero familiarity to the young medic, only further questioning her suspicions as she eyed the StarClan kit quizzically. He looked rather stoic, seemingly fitting his frame as they stared from one side to the other. A small part of her wanted to assume that the former kit was allegedly a former RiverClanner, but she kept her tongue closed. It wasn’t better to just jump to conclusions without bearing any possible reason why whatsoever. Maybe Sootkit was just really fond of the water and made it their meeting place. She wasn’t sure of the proper answer to this, but it was what she partially assumed at best. “I would… introduce myself… but I’m… fairly certain that… you know… who I am… already.” She kept her tone low, not wanting to make it seem like she was some hostile threat or some sort of malicious entity that wanted to cause nothing but chaos.

The place itself seemed interesting, to say the least. Even if Springpaw wasn’t the most fond of water, she found it sincerely comforting to be soothed by its gentle laps against her fur coat. Its cool texture sank into her coat and seeped onto her skin. She probably shouldn’t be enjoying her time here since it was only temporary, but she couldn’t help herself. The water felt nice, after all. Sootkit’s next set of words made the pastel calico stare quizzically at him, her ears angling upwards against his offer. So he brought her here to teach her a new set of herbs? Well, more knowledge was better than none, then she suspected. She had been itching for more herbal knowledge than before and she’d assumed that it would help her out even in the stickiest of situations. Furrowing her brows and giving herself time to think for a short moment, the calico finally allowed herself to nod her head curtly as she focused on the small form of the StarClan kit once more.

“I accept… your offer… Sootkit,” Springpaw replied, allowing herself to lift onto all four paws so she could properly sit herself down against the shoreline. She didn’t want to get too close with the tom, since it seemed that he preferred his personal space. To be fair, she was the same. She didn’t want to be interfering with his own and then suddenly making a fool of herself in the process. So, for now, she’ll remain civil until he explains what herbs he is going to tell her about. “The more knowledge… about herbal remedies… and herbs… the better I… can help… my clan… and others… If I… have to… if necessary.

@Apollo. [ of course! definitely down for that! ]

[Apollo.]

- Sootkit -
StC - He/him - 24 moons dead
(  @eris awesome! Sorry for the delay! )

The tomkit gave her an approving nod, both for her more respectful manor and her smart choice to accept. "And others if I have to" her words made him think for a moment, other cats outside her clan? Now that was a change. Wether she meant she'd assist other clans or outsiders was past his knowledge, but it did make him feel a little better concerning the ethics of what he was doing.

No use waisting time, he had thought ahead and brought the herbs down to the shore with him, trying to keep the dark sand out of it as best he could. He shifted them so that the three plants sat between himself and Springpaw, he'd begin the lesson immediately. The sooner this was over the sooner he could go back to helping Riverclan. "Sorrel, helps build up a cat appetite, while helping quench thirst." hovering his paw over the leafy green herb, he was essentially just saying the exact same thing he told Tansypaw, "It can be used in traveling herbs, and is commonly given to queens after long kittings." He shifted his paw and paused for a moment to let her observe the herb, he didn't know anything about Thunderclans territory, so he couldn't say where she could find it but he doubted it would be too hard.

"Raspberry leaves," he moved on swiftly, indicating the the spiky-soft plant with lumpy red berries, "are used to assist queens while kitting, it helps ease their pain and slow bleeding caused by a difficult labour. The berries aren't useful, but they aren't harmful either, they just taste bitter." Raspberry leaves were near second nature to the tomkit, he had seen it used when he was alive and carried that information with him into the afterlife, and he was honestly surprised she had never (to his knowledge) been taught them. Honestly, from the amount of cats showing her herbs you would think someone would've mentioned something about such a simple remedy? But no.

"And finally-" Sootkit hesitated, his paw half between the raspberry leaves and the foxglove plant. He had thought about this already, but he now had to make a choice. He had three, to be exact, each not much better than the others. 1) Tell the truth about foxglove seeds, with a high chance she may use it against Riverclan sometime in the future, but potentially gain an ally in Thunderclan. 2) Lie to her, tell her its a remedy for something completely different, give Riverclan some sort of advantage over Thunderclan, perhaps he may be able to convince her its a way to strengthen a leaders lives and take Bumblestar down a notch. Of course, there is an extremely high chance he gets called out for lying, foxglove is a common poison, and that could result in loosing a potential ally of his or even causing Riverclan uneasicary harm. And 3) simply say he grabbed the wrong herb. Go back to the collection cave and take a random plant out, claim some kind of use for it and bid her farewell. He didn't know the uses for any other herbs in his collection, so he'd be lying through his maw, and if she knew the use of it his integrity would be questioned, and similar results of 2) could ensue. Sootkit gritted his teeth, he had paused for far too long, with still no choice made. Stars damnit.

Taking a small breath to steady himself, raising his paw slightly while placing a puzzled look on his face, as if trying to recall something. "foxglove." His decision was made. "Its seeds are a deadly poison, so strong that even two can swiftly take down a fully grown warrior." taking the pretty purple-bell flowers he shook it slightly until tiny black seeds fluttered out. Nearly exactly the same in appearance to poppy seeds. Serious blue gaze met that of the calicos, this was his most idiotic decision yet. "I am only teaching you these to avoid them, if you end up using them on a Thunderclanner, I will not step in. However, dare turn them against Riverclan and you can bet on silverpelt itself, that my wrath will meet you. Your kin and those you hold dear, their deaths will be entirely your fault, their blood will be on your paws and your paws alone." His decision was to not lie. To tell the truth as much as he felt necessary in every situation. He would not lie, at least not for now.

Stare icy and truthful, Sootkit watched the medic for a moment, letting his prior promise sink in. "Is that clear?"

[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]

---

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!]

[Apollo.]

- Sootkit -
StC - He/him - 25 moons dead

That meeting was a mess. A disappointed sigh escaped the tomkits maw, he'd have to do something or other about the entire thing soon, but to give himself some time to think and plan, he figured this would do some good. Hopefully this time Riverclan will actually have a medicine cat with some manners and respect. Sootkit sat on the shore once more, the same place he waiting for Springpaw (springlight?) two moons ago. The new medicine cat should materialise on one of the nearby stones, with his call already sent, he just had to wait now.

Mistyshard. He felt like he knew her. I mean, he knew everyone. But he felt like he knew her. After all, she was an apprentice when he was alive. Stars. Thats weird. Only a pawful of cats, including Birdsnow, were alive when he was. Two high ranks, one after another. Weird.

[ @starry - misty, not sure what herbs she already knows, but soot knows sorrel, raspberry leaves and foxglove. Sorry for the short starter! ]