Moons ago, Drizzlecloud became Thunderclan’s medicine cat. On the other side of the same coin, she had been assigned a new apprentice–Springpaw. Together, they got to where they are today… And, call her a narcissist for a second, but she was pretty proud of how far they had come! They had experienced almost everything together, side by side. Battles, healing clanmates, learning about new herbs–she was glad to have an apprentice like Springpaw. In fact, she wouldn’t trade her for the world. Never.
With time, she realized that there were some herbs that Springpaw knew of that she was honestly clueless to. Similarly, there were a pawful of herbs that she never told Springpaw about, as well as some techniques that she had learned from Coldamber.
Together, Drizzlecloud was a firm believer that she and Springpaw could probably fix just about anything. On their own, though, perhaps she was a little uncertain. There were things that both of them knew but the other one didn’t, after all… So, it would do them some good to learn from each other, just in case one of them wasn’t around and disaster struck. It would happen one way or another–it could have happened when Springpaw got attacked during Thunderclan’s last big battle. Drizzlecloud was just lucky that it hadn’t.
“Springpaw, kiddo,” She hummed as she wandered into the den, whisking her tail over her apprentice’s shoulder. “We have some spare time, don’t we? Would you mind sharing some of our findings with each other?”
[ @eris drizzle is gonna call spring kiddo until the day she dies btw ]
__________________
Bump Policy: 72 hours! Often inactive on weekends!
Drizzlecloud Midnightpath Smolderpaw Seedkit
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]
Ever since Springpaw became the next medicine cat apprentice, she has always questioned her ability. Sure, Bumblestar definitely had her own reasons for picking her as the next medicine cat apprentice, but Springpaw had her heavy doubts about it. Such obscure worries had dwindled for the past few moons after she began to learn and experiment with herbs to find out their usages. Alongside her brief training with Coldamber to learn about different techniques and methods for how to deal with certain illnesses and diseases that could take effect at any given moment of time. But… even with such acquainted knowledge, Springpaw could still feel the pressure and fear loom over her shoulders like a great beast awaiting to feast among his prey. She wasn’t quite sure if she could feel ready to take on patients on her own quite yet. Sure, she’s done it at least a few times, but those were with moderate standards, not with anything that could be considered a critical emergency. All this thinking made her head spin and ache like hell, her lips pursing as her eyes stared into the darker depths of the medicine den right in front of her.
Being inside such a place was a heavy reminder to her that she was gifted with a task that nobody else in her clan had received. That she was gifted with the responsibility of helping her clan-mates heal and grow as she learned more and more techniques throughout her time as the medicine cat apprentice. It was exciting, but also aggravating. Not only was it aggravating, but it was heavily time-consuming and all it caused was for her to bare little time with her mentor to be able to tell her all the herbs that she had learned from Coldamber and from simple experimenting. It sounded like a gravely difficult task to start off with, but she hoped that at a given point of time, it would be accomplished and maybe.. just maybe… they would be able to reach the point where Springpaw could take it to the next level.
Drizzlecloud’s voice caught the young healer’s attention as she whipped her head around to face her mentor’s direction, dazzling hues locking with her mentor’s jade greens as she watched the ticked tabby step up beside her. Her words took a moment to process in the young calico’s brain, her tail swishing as a brisk rush of autumn air blew through her thick coat. Did they have enough time for such things? For things such as learning and teaching? Would Drizzlecloud be able to single-handedly take her around the territory and show her new places? The questions hurt like absolute hell to think about, but they stuck around like blood-sucking parasites. Swiping her barbed tongue along her dry lips, the calico nodded, giving her mentor a short, sincere smile as it wormed its way to her lips. “I… don’t see… why not… I could… really use… that territory tour… and training… for cases… we are… not with… each other…” She could've had a better choice of words for her explanation, but she didn’t really have much thought in the matter. She was absolutely ready for whatever her mentor had in store for her.
@something. [ so excited! also expect better replies because I didn’t really feel well making this response ]
__________________
━━━━━━━━┛ ✠ ┗━━━━━━━━ “No disrespect, ma'am, but there's a big difference between pushing yourself as hard as you can and just being reckless. And if being reckless is what gets rewarded around here, if that's what it means to be a Wonderbolt, then I don't want any part of it.”
⊱ my carrd ◦ future roleplay tracker ◦ future character bio ⊰
━━━━━━━━┓ ✠ ┏━━━━━━━━
Lovely. Drizzlecloud purred, whisking right by Springpaw and playfully flicking her apprentice over the shoulder with her tail-tip, only stopping to pause at the mouth of their den. She tilted her head, ear flicking–a wordless motion to head on outside. “Let’s make our first stop Willow’s Rise, how does that sound?”
In all honesty? Yeah, it was a bit of a depressing first location to stop at. The place where their clanmates of the past were laid to rest… Sometimes it left a bitter taste on her tongue. Visiting Willow’s Rise was sad, the area always felt heavy whenever she visited. Perhaps it was just her own empathy for her other clanmates, those who have lost close friends, family–loved ones. She had the pleasure of not losing someone so close to her–not yet, at least. She wasn’t totally sure if she could even say that she had that pleasure, because it just meant that she never really connected with anyone before to feel that loss. Making connections was always hard for her–it made her feel more alienated than she already was. Already felt she was, because nobody in the clan thought of her differently for her impairments. She just felt that they did.
“On our way there, we’ll see if we can find any herbs that we can discuss.” There was no doubt in her mind that they would come across some stinging nettle–it was almost exceptionally easy to find. You could find it just about anywhere in the territory as long as there was foliage and forest around–which, well, in Thunderclan they definitely had that. “And, we can talk about any techniques that we haven’t taught each other yet. I know how to deal with ear infections, how to help mend broken bones with sticks, how to help with kitting… Even when it goes catastrophically wrong.”
She hoped that neither of them would ever run into such a situation, though. When Coldamber was teaching her about kitting–and how it could all go wrong–she was completely gobsmacked. Slack-jawed, huge eyes–yeah, it was a real shocker. She prayed to the stars every night that she would never have to handle a difficult kitting, and she hoped that Springpaw would never have the unfortunate experience of having to do anything similar as well.
[ Sorry, a meh post, just wanted to get this out lol @eris ]
__________________
Bump Policy: 72 hours! Often inactive on weekends!
Drizzlecloud Midnightpath Smolderpaw Seedkit
Springpaw long-furred, oriental-shaped, gray-and-orange calico molly with blue eyes; torn right ear || thunderclan medicine cat apprentice
purrks: herbal knowledge - tier 2 | the collector | mind reader | skip the steps[all perm. active; sts for battle training]
Willow’s Rise, huh? Springpaw didn’t exactly expect for her mentor to pick a place where the dead were taken to be buried. Either way, she supposed going there would be better than not going at all. Grunting, the small feline lifted herself up onto all fours as she shook away the numbing exhaustion that executed itself through her veins. Staying in one spot definitely made her legs feel numb, especially during the harsh cold winter season. “I don’t… see why… not… I haven’t… had a chance… to see… Willow’s Rise… just yet…” Springpaw explained, shaking off bits of moss as she approached her mentor, focusing briefly up towards her as she glanced out towards the mouth of the den. Stars, they hadn’t really had the chance to truly do something like this, had they? They never had a chance to truly bond like a mentor and apprentice. Of course, there was always the opportunity for them to have a chance to get a moment’s notice of bonding whenever they worked on a patient, but nothing like casual training. It didn’t bug her too much to do something like this, she needed to get out of the clan and clear her head away from the recent events.
Her mentor’s idea of finding herbs that they could discuss about sounded relatively simple by word, but it wouldn’t be an easy task due to the bitter cold. Helpful herbs had potentially wilted by now due to the dropping of temperatures from cold weather. But, it was better to try than not, right? “Well… Coldamber… taught me… a lot of… herbs that… I think that… you’ll need… to know… too… of course… I also found… out a couple… by myself… without the… required knowledge of it… it wasn’t easy… knowing what… they were… but I… know them… now,” Springpaw explained, a smile creeping its way onto her lips after explaining. A small snag of hurt whacked its way into her chest after mentioning the StarClan resident. She hadn’t seen her in quite a few moons. Hopefully, at some point soon, she’ll lay her a visit and maybe teach her some new techniques? Well, Drizzlecloud was already listing down the techniques that she knew, but it would be better for the both of them if she could state out any possible herbs that she knew as well. Like poisonous ones, to be exact. Speaking of poisonous herbs, her curiosity had already begun to get the best of her as she began to yammer on the question that popped up in her head.
“Erm… do you… know what… deathberries… or any… other poisonous herbs… does?… I’d like… to be… prepared… in case… I accidentally… run into… any one… of those herbs… or if they… get into… our herb storages,” Springpaw rambled, lightly pawing at the nearly frozen-solid soil, already feeling an awash of embarrassment hover over her. She knew by now that she should at least have some sort of acquainted knowledge about the deadly herb, but all she knew was that it could kill a patient if ingested. There wasn’t any other knowledge that she knew about the herb; like its reaction after being taken, how long it takes to kill, or where it’s located. It’s better to know more than to know less, after all.
@Omari [ speedrunning time! after this, all that we need to do after willow’s rise is herondive hollow and smallpines! so excited! ]
__________________
━━━━━━━━┛ ✠ ┗━━━━━━━━ “No disrespect, ma'am, but there's a big difference between pushing yourself as hard as you can and just being reckless. And if being reckless is what gets rewarded around here, if that's what it means to be a Wonderbolt, then I don't want any part of it.”
⊱ my carrd ◦ future roleplay tracker ◦ future character bio ⊰
━━━━━━━━┓ ✠ ┏━━━━━━━━
Well, not having a chance to see Willow’s Rise yet wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. It meant–perhaps–nobody close to her apprentice had passed away and been buried there yet. Drizzlecloud was the same, but she was still aware of the location of Willow’s Rise, of course. Sometimes she liked to pass through, pay her respects there. Most times, whenever she sent patrols to this area, she liked to remind the patrol to mind where they stepped–take a moment to remember those who weren’t walking among them anymore.
“I’d love to hear what Coldamber taught you.” Drizzlecloud murmured with a smile–oh, and she had learned a few things on her own, as well! “I’ve learned a few things on my own time, too. Lavender, stinging nettle, yarrow… Just to name a few. There’s a couple more that I could tell you about, though, if you’re interested.” She was certain that her apprentice would be more than eager, though. Ever hungry for knowledge, she was–it was nice to have an apprentice who was so eager and dedicated.
Ah, deathberries. She hadn’t really handled them, if she were honest. Perhaps she had some urges to go out and find some, keep them tucked away in the medicine den just in case they ever needed an easy way to remove someone–but she never followed through and went searching for them. Having those berries in their storage would be like an open call for disaster. “Goodness, I haven’t handled very many cases concerning deathberries. I’m not sure how long it would take for them to kill, suppose it would depend on the dosage, although I know that one berry alone is enough to kill… Coldamber tells me that it’s quick and painless. Like falling asleep. However, if you’re ever looking to get deathberries–any poisons that have been eaten, really–out of the system, stinging nettle seeds can be used to induce vomiting, if they are chewed.” Truly, that was all she knew. Tampering with deathberries sounded disastrous, no matter how many times she felt tempted to seek them out. So, for now, she knew very little about handling them.
“Well, before we get to Willow’s Rise, let’s talk about a few of the things that Coldamber taught me–technique wise. Some of them are a bit, uh, not so pretty to imagine, but after what we’ve seen I think you’re mature enough now to be aware of them.” Drizzlecloud let out a sigh, mulling over the techniques that she had been taught, deciding to speak about the less frightening and/or gross ones first.
“First, broken legs and tails. This one is probably the easiest for me to explain. You’ll want a sturdy stick, and if it’s too long, you can just break it and try your best to get it shortened down to a better length. Two sticks, preferably on each side–but I’ve used only one stick before. You want to align the stick with the break, so that when you wrap the limb with cobwebs, the stick will keep the limb straight. This will help the bone heal correctly.” Pausing for a moment, she recalled what Coldamber had added onto this teaching. “Coldamber says to use some moss to sort of cushion the broken limb if it’s for a more delicate area–such as the tail. Broken bones require a lot of rest, but to reduce the possibility of stiff joints, after about a week they should slowly return to being more active. Slowly. Nothing too strenuous for a moon.”
Next, hm.. What should she speak of next? She and Springpaw had seen many grievous wounds, so perhaps she could talk about some of the more gruesome topics now. “We’ve dealt with a lot of flesh wounds–a lot. Coldamber told me about layering in the case of excess bleeding that just doesn’t seem to stop. We’ve already come to that conclusion, of course. We can’t rely on that alone–pressure on the wound. Another thing you’ve learned on your own time as a healer. However, she did tell me a useful little trick–when taking off cobweb wraps, it is helpful to apply water to the cobwebs in order to dampen it. This makes it easier to carefully peel off the wrap, and it reduces the risk of tearing off any scabs with it, as that would pull you all the way back to step one in the healing process.”
After she had been given those tips, Coldamber had proceeded to tell her a few… Ah, not so lovely things that she unfortunately had to imagine. Disembowelment and sliced throats.“In the event of especially deep wounds, she suggests using egg sacs or tree sap to hold the skin together before it is wrapped.” That was the easy part to explain, the next… Oh, she had dreaded the day that she would actually have to explain these things out loud, or worse, see for herself. Thankfully she hadn’t ran into these two following examples quite yet. “For example, when someone’s neck is… Ah, for lack of a more gentle term, sliced open. Our first task is to find out if they can still breathe, or, if their windpipe has been damaged.” Ouch. Prickly subject, considering who she was telling these things to. “She says the method isn’t foolproof. She did it very few times. Either way, it’s better than nothing at all. She suggests using the sap–or the egg sac–to make sure that the skin is held together before it is wrapped up. In these cases, our patients should keep away from any strenuous activities for half a moon. Actually, they should reduce movement almost entirely. They also should steer clear of getting wet. Oh, the wound should also be checked regularly to make sure that the skin is still being kept together. There might come the time where you would have to re-apply some sap over top of the previous layers.” There was a pause in her explanations, similar to how Coldamber had hesitated when teaching her these very same things, as well. With a sharp inhale, she looked down to their paws–their similar, white paws as the duo trekked through the territory. “In the case of disembowelment, the same precautions would be taken. She suggests… Ah, carefully putting their organs back in their body and hopefully being able to close them back up with sap. She says that… If organs are not damaged, there is a chance that they could survive, but if their organs had been damaged… The chances are not as high. At that point, it’s up to us to decide whether we want to try to treat them back to health or give them mercy.”Deathberries, of course. Drizzlecloud fell silent for a few moments as she led the way to where their fallen clanmates lay. With a deep inhale, her green eyes slowly drew themselves to look at Springpaw. “I just pray we never find ourselves in such a situation.”
Drizzlecloud’s fluffy tail ran across Springpaw’s back for a moment, a reassuring and gentle gesture. A silent apology, although she knew that it was a lesson that had to be shared eventually. Drizzlecloud preferred that she be the one to deliver such a lesson, so she supposed that now would be the best time to do it–perhaps she wouldn’t have the chance to do it if she didn’t do it now.
“Tough topic, I know. It feels wrong for me to say, alright, let’s move on, but there’s more to tell you. I would say that this topic is lighter, but I can’t truthfully say that it is.” With the topic of kitting came, well, joy of bringing new kittens into the world. But there also came the topics of manually removing kittens in the case of the queen dying, and stillborn babies. “Kitting. Ah, I don’t believe you’ve dealt with this before–to my knowledge, at least. Anyways, though. Usually, kittens are born without much difficulty. Not all queens require one of us to assist them during birth, after all. In most scenarios, best case scenarios, they will simply require our presence for the sake of moral support. For the most part, we will only be there to make sure that the kittens are delivered smoothly, that they are breathing, and to make sure that the queen can stay calm.” For a moment, Drizzlecloud felt the weight of their last topic lifting off of her shoulders. The weight would only return soon, though. She knew that, but she enjoyed the lighter topic of conversation for now. “The queen should go into labor on some moss, to make clean up easier. However, you’ll want to limit their movement, so once they’re on the moss, they should stay there until the kits are delivered. If possible, you should get someone else to prepare another moss bed for the family once the kits have been born, because we will want to discard the old moss nest and bury it–deep in the ground–so as to not attract any predators. Now, while the queen is actually giving birth, we want to keep them calm. I like to do breathing exercises with them, have them follow my breathing patterns–and offer them a nice, sturdy stick to bite down on in case they experience any pain. In cases of pain, we cannot give them any poppy seeds until after the kittens have been born. Giving the queen poppy seeds can put them, and their kits, at risk. As the kittens are born, you’ll notice that they sort of.. Come out in sacs. We want to break open these sacs with our teeth, or our claws, and at that point we want to make sure that their mouths are clear so that they can breathe. At this point, we want to clean them and make sure that they are dry–we will be keeping them warm, as they can’t really hold their own body heat. Preferably they will stay warm next to the queen, but if they’re moving too much, you can let another cat warm them. In the case of both options being out of the question, your best bet is to keep them warm with your tail until the rest of the kits are born.” Drizzlecloud exhaled, loud, and she couldn’t help but laugh. Oh, gosh, this was exhausting. This was probably the most that she has ever spoke in her entire life. She wasn’t much of a talker to begin with, though. “Okay, continuing. If the queen struggles with pushing, you can gently massage their sides to aid them. Once the kittens are born, you are essentially free to go unless there are any complications. Make sure that the kittens are suckling before you go, though.”
Alright, next section of kitting was the heavier stuff. The weight from before came back, pushing down on Drizzlecloud’s shoulders… But alas, we proceed. “This next bit is a bit heavy, so I apologize in advance. We’ll start with a more likely case, stillborn kits. Coldamber advises to let the queen know of their loss after all of the kittens have successfully been born. When this happens, we can ask the parent if they’d like to spend some time with their kit, and clean them off. If they wish to lay with their baby, then we will let them. We should only intervene if they have been spending a concerning amount of time with this kit–or if their other kits haven’t been getting the adequate amount of attention due to the loss. Then, we take the liberty of removing the… Removing the kit.” Another heavy topic–even if she hadn’t had kits of her own, she was still quite fond of the little ones, as many were. It was a difficult thing to think about. “Ah, perhaps the worst case scenario possible is when you begin to lose the queen. Coldamber suggests waiting a few moments to make sure that unnecessary lives are not lost, as the kittens will be okay to remain inside for a few minutes–but, once you are certain that there is no saving the queen’s life, you will have to manually remove the kits. Coldamber tells me that she never had to do it herself, but… It’s good to have a plan just in case. We would have to carefully cut open the queen’s tummy–near the pelvic area, and hopefully find the uterus where we will… Free them. Once the kittens are delivered, you clean them up as usual and make sure that they begin feeding. If there are no nursing queens around to take up that delivery, then, they can… They can feed from their parent, as milk that had already been produced by them would be accessible even with them.. Being gone.”
It was a deeply heavy topic, she knew this. Another gentle brush of her tail came along Springpaw’s back, offering her yet another gentle reassurance. Her head was beginning to hurt from all of the explaining she had to do just now. Even then, there was still the topic of ear pains–whether that be from bugs or infection. Ah, she needed a small break, though–and thankfully they had arrived at their destination.
“I’ll let you sit with that knowledge for a moment, I know it’s a lot.” She also needed a bit of a break to catch her breath… And Mari also needed a second to rest her brain. It was hurting a lot.
[ @eris this is getting so long and i started to get a headache lol, so in the next post drizzle will give some details on the location as well as ear infections/bugs in ears, and any herb knowledge, too. ]
__________________
Bump Policy: 72 hours! Often inactive on weekends!
Drizzlecloud Midnightpath Smolderpaw Seedkit
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]
cw; minor mentions of gore
It was pleasing to hear that her mentor was as equally inventive in wanting to hear what Coldamber had taught Springpaw. It almost mirrored the childlike excitement that the young calico had once bore when she listened to the enduring information about herbal knowledge and medical advice from Coldamber herself when she was explaining all of the complex knowledge towards her. Even though she didn’t have the slightest idea about what both stinging nettle and yarrow did, she did have knowledge about what exactly lavender did; especially after hearing her mentor speak about it a good portion of times at half-moon gatherings and going into expert detail about its usage. So, with dainty paws uplifted, the calico’s lips wormed into a light grin as she began to speak. “I know… what lavender… does already… but I don’t… know how… those two… work… to be… exact… although… I would… be glad… to hear… what more… that you… know, Driz!” Springpaw allowed herself to let loose a giddily giggle after expressing her brief knowledge of the sweet-smelling herb. If she was being honest, she could’ve almost sworn that lavender was her mentor’s favorite herb from how often she spoke about it!
Moving onto the topic of deathberries seemed to quickly make the lightened demeanor from the both of them decrease in size. Even the simplest mention of the poisonous herb was easy to make a conversation go south. It couldn’t be an easy topic to explain how the dangerous berry worked whenever a random clan-mate of theirs ingested it by accident or on purpose. Hopefully no one would ever think of beginning back those berries if they ever caught sight of them. If they did, she’d be sure to quickly dispose of them so no kit or foolish apprentice that snuck into their herb storages would dare to eat any of them. Her thoughts among this matter finally dwelled away as she sunk in her mentor’s words, her brows furrowing in acknowledgment as she listened to Drizzlecloud explain the herb in immaculate detail. It was disheartening to know that she didn’t know how long it took for it to kill, but was informed that it was relatively quick and painless. It was a little strange to hear given the herb was known to be called an infamous “deathberry”, but she supposed that was just from how quick it takes its victims. Thankfully, Drizzlecloud was quick to add on the fact that if she ever had anyone sneak a deathberry anywhere, that stinging nettle seeds were good for making the patient induce any vomiting to get it out of their system. Other than that useful source of information, tampering with any other poisonous herb like deathberries sounded like a disastrous experience waiting to happen.
An uneasy shiver drew up Springpaw’s spine, making the fur among her shoulders raise indignantly as the thought of the berries ever so slightly crossed away from her mind. It wouldn’t be easy to start thinking of anything else while the topic of the poisonous herbs still struck her mind. But, her mentor’s words of her being prepared to learn about some complex techniques as she was mature enough at least made her distracted to focus briefly on her mentor for a few moments of silence. Hearing her mentor be able to tell her that she was mature enough to know anything complex made her heart swirl and twist itself into something that even she couldn’t quite comprehend. Drizzlecloud thought that Springpaw was prepared to move into more touchy, sensible topics, and Springpaw wasn’t sure if she wanted to feel physically and mentally prepared to hear what her mentor was going to teach her. Being a medicine cat was a tough challenge to face, but she knew that from the moment she had been assigned to be Drizzlecloud’s apprentice many moons ago. Either way, the calico felt at least somewhat prepared enough to hear the potential gruesome topics of any techniques that Drizzlecloud was going to mention.
First topic that they were starting off with was broken legs and tails, which didn’t seem so bad for something that was considered critical for the patient themselves whenever they got a broken bone. Her brows creased as she listened to the information pouring off her mentor like a vice, seeping it in as she began to think about the potentials of her running into any sort of situation with one or two of their clan-mates having broken legs or tails. Well, at least she knew what to do in case any patients ended up with any sort of stiffness in the healing process—get some daisy and use the stems to properly ease it from the stiffness. But, unfortunately, given that it was suddenly leaf-bare and the well-known knowledge that daisies do not grow well in the cold, spotting some in the potential future in case any of their parents end up with a stiffened joint while the broken bone is healing may be unlikely. “Well… I know… something… that can… also help… with… stiffened joints… too… for the… progress,” Springpaw explained, seemingly pleased to know such information due to Coldamber's efficient training. If she didn’t hear such knowledge that she had today, she could’ve sworn that it would risk them both being demoted in a matter of seconds.
Even though the process of explaining how to bind broken bones have been short lived, she could already see the difference in her mentor’s expression as she began to think of the next few techniques to teach her. Were these next ones going to be gruesome and more difficult to take in? Judging from the apparent somberness masking her mentor’s expression, that seemed to be the case. As soon as Drizzlecloud began to speak, the moment of flesh wounds being brought to the calico’s attention made the muscles in her throat tighten up. She wasn’t sure if it was due to the physical trauma that she had experienced a while ago back at the battle of Sunkissed Creek, but she knew that Drizzlecloud had instinctively struck a nerve with the mentioning of flesh wounds. But, thankfully in advance, the information that the ticked tabby was giving the young molly was only telling her other tactics that they could use while working on a clinically bleeding patient. She easily memorized the fact that she and Drizzlecloud had always memorized on putting pressure against gushing wounds to hopefully staunch the blood flow, but instead using cobweb wraps. The information sounded useful, and relatively important for the young calico to remember, for just in case they ever ran into trouble like that with clinically bleeding patients.
Springpaw easily noted the uncomfortable tension that her mentor began to mentally deal with, judging from her sudden lack of wording for a few moments as it seemed she was thinking of how she was going to describe the next techniques of which Coldamber had taught her. Springpaw could’ve sworn that she felt her brain begin to churn in gears as she began to figure out that this one may be one of those… gruesome techniques that Coldamber had told her about way back then. Just as Springpaw was about to assume that her quiet assumptions were correct, her mentor was quick to speak and began to move onto the topic and deep, more critical wounds. Uneasiness clenched itself onto her inner consciousness as she felt it crawl onto the back of her spine, making her tail whisk uncomfortably. Touchy subject indeed, given the fact that the feline that Drizzlecloud was telling this to had suffered a similar injury. The more that Drizzlecloud spoke, the more the dark memories had loomed themselves over her shoulders. Her frigid-cold muscles stiffening as she suddenly hauled herself to a stop during mid-trek, one of her snow-white paws instinctively reaching up to gently caress the gnarly, notable scarring around her throat. Her breathing had nearly stirred, but she made sure to keep herself content and steady to make sure that she didn’t freak.
“Was… that how… you fixed… this?” The question in general rolling off her tongue almost made her stutter, as her throat muscles instinctively clenched to keep herself from making a fool of herself and speaking any further. Her tongue felt as if it were freezing due to the foul, almost eerily familiar metallic taste that was engulfing her taste buds. It was a familiar taste of which she was far used to detecting whenever she worked on patients with crucial injuries. Blood. She hated its acrid, bitter odor, and yet its metallic scent at worst. It always turned foul whenever a wound started to turn infected, and yet, she was almost ashamed of the fact of having moons of medical knowledge to know such irrational scents. It was foolish of her to hold onto a small grudge like that, but the memory felt like it was tugging onto her very core the more that she thought about it. Just as Springpaw felt herself sinking into the deepest crevices of her mind, she hadn’t realized that Drizzlecloud was beginning to speak about another topic of any critical wounds. Disembowelment. The singular word itself made her stomach begin tossing and churning with unease, her ears taking in the grueling information that her mentor was somehow speaking so flawlessly about. The fact that she would have to potentially deal with any situations revolving… any of her clan-mates internal organs felt absolutely revolting to the young molly, but she knew it would happen sooner or later at some point of her medical career.
Even after Drizzlecloud had explained the process of having to deal with any possible complications of disembowelment, Springpaw couldn’t help but find herself critically thinking about how she would have to deal with such situations like that. She wouldn’t know how to feel if she had to be experiencing such grotesquely traumatic events that happened to one of her clan-mates. Sure, death was a natural part of life, but she wouldn’t know how to deal with something as complicated as that. Having to use tree sap to patch up the torn skin after the organs were placed back into the proper place made her stomach feel uneasy. Of course, there was also the option of mercily killing the patient and spare them from any terms of suffering, but it still felt wrong to listen to her mentor describe all of this so casually without much of an issue. Lips briefly quivering, Springpaw nodded to her mentor’s words of hoping that they’ll never have to come across anything like it. If they did, then Springpaw would surely feel herself having the unbridled urge to revolt at the thought of committing such acts. She forced herself to swallow the bile that collected at the back of her throat, allowing her mentor’s fluffy tail to comfortingly run across her back in an apologetic manner. Springpaw wanted to say something in reply, yet nothing submerged in her throat. It was almost like it was clogged, and Drizzlecloud’s next set of words only worsened the churning feel in her stomach.
Tough topic it was, especially with the fact that she had mentioned ‘slit throats’. But the horror wasn’t over just yet, as her mentor had seemingly mentioned that the next few topics that they were going to go over weren’t going to be as light as the other two topics surprisingly were. How were severely critical wounds and disembowelment considered lighter topics? Maybe they weren’t as sensitive as to this particular topic that Drizzlecloud was going to dive into. Just as the young molly had been curious with what it may be about, her heart sank as soon as Drizzlecloud began speaking about kitting. There was going to be a point in time where Springpaw was going to need to learn about kitting, huh. To be fair, she never ran herself into a situation where she needed to aid a queen in kitting, but her mentor thankfully stepped up to explain the scenario in case she needed to help a queen give birth to any kits. It didn’t seem so bad with Drizzlecloud explaining that she would need to be moral support for the queen and just simply require her presence in case the birthing goes wrong. From what the molly got from most of that, she just needed to aid the queen and make sure they are able to properly give birth to a litter of kits. Of course, she’d have to check and see if the kits were alive, of course, which sounded relatively straightforward even though it was a little bit of a disgusting task. But, Springpaw dealt with worse than just childbirth.
Her small glimmer of hope for the next part of this being not as gruesome as this was quick to diminish as Drizzlecloud began to go into… grotesque detail about how labor would work for a queen. Each word made her mind go hazy, the world feeling tilted in its axis as her ears barely took in the brutal information of how she should aid in a birth. She understood that she needed to replace the moss as soon as possible before any predators would become attracted towards the scent. That she would need to do breathing exercises with the queen to try to keep them from freaking out and keep them calm. Of course, a sturdy stick would be needed for the queen obviously so that she would have something to put pressure against. It was a little unfortunate that she couldn’t give poppyseeds to a queen while she was having kits, but it made sense why she couldn’t. She knew the power of what those seeds did, and they could easily become fatal if she gave anyone more than two seeds at a time. The next pouring of info felt a little bit uncomfortable to bear, making the young healer briefly tense up as Drizzlecloud described the way kits looked afterbirth. It sounded relatively disgusting, if she was being honest. Thank the stars above she ain’t having any kits in the future! She wouldn’t even know how to properly handle the probabilities of parenthood.
“Wow… being a… queen sounds… like a… tough job… especially when… having kits… thank… the stars… that I’m… never having… any kits… in my… life,” Springpaw chuffed, a smile sleazing its way onto her maw as she allowed herself to at least bring some amusement to the tour. Half of her wondered if they were almost to Willow’s Rise at this very moment, but that thought didn’t linger for very long as Drizzlecloud began to speak about another thing that she would need to do in case a queen has any sort of struggle with pushing any kits out. Massaging sounded simple, even though the molly herself hadn’t done anything like massaging before. It sounded relatively strange on her tongue to say, but she supposed that it was a technique that her mentor knew how to use whenever aiding in an occasional birth. When Springpaw began to think that was the end of Drizzlecloud explaining how birthing worked, it had only seemed to further continue as her mentor began explaining the next topic, which was something that was considered the most… gruesome of all the topics that she had already mentioned beforehand. Stillborn kits. Springpaw never knew the horror of what it was like to lose a kit, as she was still a mere apprentice, but she knew that it was a devastating pain to endure for a queen. Listening to Drizzlecloud explain the scenarios of what she would need to do during a situation like this made her heart feel heavy, but it didn’t compare to the next set of emotions for the next topic afterwards.
Losing a queen sounded much worse than losing a kit, in all fair honesty. The kits would never have a proper chance to know who their birth parent were in the first place if the queen died either during the birth or after. Springpaw remained stolid as she listened to Drizzlecloud explain the fact that she would have to manually remove the kits if they were still inside a queen that died during the middle of birth. It made Springpaw a little puzzled at first, as she wouldn’t be certain how exactly a cat like herself would get kits out of a queen if she couldn’t push them out. Well, thankfully for Drizzlecloud’s keen knowledge, it had seemed that she would have to… cut open the queen? That sounded relatively difficult to do, and also gut-wrenching. Springpaw wouldn’t be sure if she would be able to handle such a situation like that, since all it did was just make her stomach whirl uncomfortably. The rest of what her mentor stated sounded almost familiar to what she stated about her having to clean the kits after they were born, but they would have to be fed off from the deceased queen if there were no nursing queens around. It sounded… just sad, if she thought about it long enough. No queen deserved to die after having kits, let alone the kits becoming orphaned from the whole ordeal.
By the time her mentor had finished speaking, it had seemed that they had arrived at their destination: Willow’s Rise. The place would’ve looked beautiful if it wasn’t covered by the snow, but Springpaw supposed that it looked fine the way it was. The snow wasn’t that horrible to look at. It looked relatively beautiful, but Springpaw would think that it would look better in the summertime without all the snow covering all the burial areas of where fallen clan-mates lie. “So… this is… Willow’s Rise?” Springpaw questioned, craning her head to look up towards her mentor after asking, feeling unbothered by her mentor wanting her to take a minute to think out through all the topics that she had been exposed to. Sure, it was a little gruesome, but she was still standing tall by herself, if not just only a little shaken up by the sheer weight of the detail in the topics.
@Omari [ now my turn to apologize for this insanely long post lol ]
__________________
━━━━━━━━┛ ✠ ┗━━━━━━━━ “No disrespect, ma'am, but there's a big difference between pushing yourself as hard as you can and just being reckless. And if being reckless is what gets rewarded around here, if that's what it means to be a Wonderbolt, then I don't want any part of it.”
⊱ my carrd ◦ future roleplay tracker ◦ future character bio ⊰
━━━━━━━━┓ ✠ ┏━━━━━━━━
its so lonely here wheres the graffiti
Last edited by iliri; January 22nd, 2024 at 06:56 AM.
It was embarrassing, in a way. She spoke of lavender a lot–highly, even, as if it were a kit or something. But, alas, it was just her favorite herb. If she could, she would thread it through her fur and wear it–it smelled nice! It helped tame her anxieties.
Amidst all of her explaining–explaining of broken limbs, at least–Springpaw mentioned knowing something that could help with stiff joints. She didn’t know of any herbs or remedies that could help with that, in all honesty. There were a lot of things that Springpaw knew that she didn’t, in fact! “Ah, would you mind teaching me about that? How to help… Stiffened joints?” For most, it would be embarrassing and shameful to ask your apprentice to help teach you something, but Drizzlecloud knew better than that. There was always something new to be learned as a medicine cat. Even if Springpaw was her apprentice, they began their journey together without an ounce of knowledge whatsoever. So, truly she didn’t mind taking lessons from her.
When she had been speaking of flesh wounds–the especially gnarly kind, she knew that it would strike a nerve, as it had struck one of her own, and it hadn’t even been from a wound that she herself had earned. When Springpaw stopped in her steps, she had a feeling that she already knew what type of question would be asked–and she was right. She didn’t give much of a verbal reply, just a solemn frown before she brushed her tail along Springpaw’s back.
While discussing the ins and outs of birth, all of the good and bad, she had heard Springpaw’s statement about not having kits. It was a bit humorous, actually, but she didn’t reply to it directly until she had finished her big ol’ speech. “It does sound like a tough responsibility to shoulder, doesn’t it? I… Suppose I won’t be having kits, either,” Oddly enough, saying it out loud tugged at her heart strings. She wanted kits. She wanted a family. “But, even so, I admire the queens.”
Drizzlecloud peered up at the large willow tree as they had arrived. Her eyes flicked over towards Springpaw, giving her a smile as a purr rumbled in her chest. Thankfully, it seems that the topics previously discussed hadn’t bothered her too deeply. “Yes, we’re here. Our… Gravesite.” Drizzlecloud carefully stepped forward, padding up towards the trunk of the large tree to see the notches and claw marks that were etched into the bark. “...Gravesite and memorial, you see? For those who died in the last fire.”
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 clear curiosity that was drawn across her mentor’s facial features easily drew Springpaw’s attention, Had Coldamber not yet taught Drizzlecloud how to handle situations such as stiffened or aching joints or chills? Her lips briefly pursed a little against the thought, but didn’t draw much attention towards it any further. Perhaps the starry molly assumed that Springpaw would eventually tell her mentor how such things worked, or the details of each herb that she had told her about. Briefly, the young calico felt embarrassed by the realization of this simple fact, but she didn’t allow it to wallow her down further. “Of course… it’s just… as easy… as dealing with… aching joints… whenever… you are… in a… situation… where you… are dealing with… someone with… stiffened… or even swollen… joints… you use… a herb… called a daisy… which is… usually found… pretty much… everywhere… however… it is… not the… flower that… is used… only the leaves… are used… it’s highly… recommended… to keep the… flower… to know… what it… looks like… for later… on… when we… need to… gather more.”
Were there any daisy flowers around Willow’s Rise? Springpaw would assume so, as she naturally would send cats along the area to search for the necessary herb in case there were any emergencies. Pursing her lips lightly, the molly focused her attention back toward her mentor so she could continue stating how the herb worked. “Well… hopefully we… can find… a few… during our… stroll… but… either way… if we… do come across… it… it looks… like… a white flower… with large… thick, oval-shaped… green leaves… and… like I said… it’s the leaves… that are… usually… used… to aid… in stiffened… aching… or sprained joints… it’s also recommended… to not… tear away… at all of… the stem… when stripping… the leaves… to use for… a poultice… and… after it’s… made into… a poultice… it must… be applied… directly… on the affected area… and be… left for as… long as possible… in order… for it to… take effect and… work… however… I’m not… all that… sure if… the flower… itself as a… proper use… but I’d… like to… test it… out sometime… to see.”
Well, that was a mouthful to spew, wasn’t it? Springpaw was used to allowing herself to spew out such long sentences and descriptive details before her vocal cords had been torn, but now it just felt like a horrendous task to even speak in long ranges like that. Even if she wanted to try to speak more in descriptive ranges, she knew it wouldn’t just be as simple as that. It hurt worse than the Dark Forest to speak and she knew that. Stars, she wished she knew some other way to speak other than using her voice. It was difficult enough to get through the days without giving out any sort of verbal speech than it was to deal with it alone entirely! Her stomach felt like it was boiling with ire with the foul feeling that she was feeling, but she couldn't keep herself far too contemptuous of it any longer, focusing back towards Drizzlecloud as she listened to what her mentor had to spew.
It was a little bit of an amusing response to get from her mentor about her stating that she wouldn’t be bearing any kits. It was a little bit humorous. She never suspected that Drizzlecloud wouldn’t want to have any kits in the future given the fact that she was always so adorned by the young little pitter patters of paws. Then again, it wasn’t like Springpaw could easily see the hard responsibilities of raising young kits and how stressful it can be to raise a pawful of kits. However, even if her mentor had stated she didn’t want kits, it wasn’t hard to tell that she did want kits and wanted a family. Even if the keen-eyed molly could see through that shield that her mentor was covering herself with, it was better for her to not delve too deeply into it either way. Now, since they were currently at the location of Willow’s Rise… Springpaw wasn’t quite certain what to give of the place. Sure, it was their gravesite, but it felt somewhat hollow to be at a place where former members of their clan were buried.
“The place… would probably… look better… if there… was no snow… covering it,” Springpaw purred, flashing her mentor a quick look before allowing herself to briefly explore the place for a short period. There wasn’t much to describe with the gravesite itself, except for it being covered with a blaze of freezing-cold snow. Nonetheless, it wasn’t hard for her to feel remorseful for all the souls who have died and were buried here- either the good or the bad. Well, she wouldn’t be certain that a cat who had died and done bad things would be buried right directly here, but she would be certain that cats who had done good things for the clan would most likely be buried there. “If… you don’t mind… me asking… is there… any herbs… that you know… that I don’t?... Or any… other techniques?...” Springpaw’s curiosity was hurling itself overdrive, and she couldn’t seem to let it falter. She had been hungry for knowledge, and she wanted to yearn as much as she could.
@Omari [ speedrunning time uwu and also, please don’t mind that this is absolutely horrible absolutely did not get any sleep today. ]
__________________
━━━━━━━━┛ ✠ ┗━━━━━━━━ “No disrespect, ma'am, but there's a big difference between pushing yourself as hard as you can and just being reckless. And if being reckless is what gets rewarded around here, if that's what it means to be a Wonderbolt, then I don't want any part of it.”
⊱ my carrd ◦ future roleplay tracker ◦ future character bio ⊰
━━━━━━━━┓ ✠ ┏━━━━━━━━
As she listened to her apprentice’s explanation, her chest grew heavy with a guilt that often hung heavily over her shoulders. She couldn’t imagine just how painful it was for her to speak, let alone speak in such long, extensive sentences. The fact that she had even bothered to ask made her feel awful! So, with a frown carved into her muzzle, she brushed her tail over Springpaw’s back, her tail-tip tracing a circle over her shoulder as if to soothe her. “Thank you for telling me, Springpaw. I’ll be sure to remember all of it.”
Springpaw’s voice and the daily pain that came from speaking was a daily reminder to Drizzlecloud–and everyone else, she could only assume–of what had happened to her. It filled her with a deep, boiling hot rage that she had rarely ever experienced in her life. She didn’t have very many people to be upset over in the first place–Springpaw, other than her own mother, was one of the first cats that she had bonded so closely with. Due to their line of work, of course, and them being assigned together as mentor and apprentice… But nonetheless, Springpaw was held in very high regard by Drizzlecloud. If it were within her power, she’d give anything to go back to that day and pummel that sorry excuse for a warrior into the ground. No amount of wishing on stars would ever fix the damage dealt that day.
Blinking away those thoughts upon hearing her apprentice’s voice, she gave a nod and a flick of her tail, signaling that she was free to explore as she saw fit. She followed quietly behind her, giving her some space to toddle about the area as much as she wished to, but never straying too far behind. “Ah, other techniques and herbs? Well… Certainly, yes.”
The last technique that she had to tell her was probably the grossest. Leave that for after. It was much nicer to speak of herbs instead. “Alright, let’s talk herbs first. Beginning with stinging nettle. I’ve only ever used the seeds themselves–spiny and green. You’ll easily find them just wandering about the forest. They grow in clusters, they’ve got leaves that have these barbs on them… That’s where they get their name from, stinging nettles. I find that if you soak the leaves, then they won’t sting you anymore. Again, though, not that I really know much else about the leaves, only the seeds. If they get chewed up, whoever is ingesting them will get sick and–er, spit up whatever they ate last. Good to get rid of anything poisonous that they might have eaten.”
Drizzlecloud went quiet for a moment, allowing Springpaw to take in the knowledge before she proceeded onto the next herb that she had in mind to teach her about. “Next is yarrow. It’s a flower–lots and lots of flowers, usually they come in white or yellow. Little clusters of them. Their leaves are kind of jagged, yet soft, and they smell… Ehm, sharp!” Drizzlecloud was never amazing with explanations, but she certainly gave it her best shot. “I like to use yarrow to help soften cracked pads. Chew it up into a paste and slather some on. Similarly to what you told me, it’ll work better the longer the paste is left on the paw pads.”
“And, I’ll tell you about parsley too. It tastes kind of… How do I explain it–cold? Cold and crisp, I suppose. It’s a leafy plant with no flowers, just crinkly leaves.” Drizzlecloud narrowed her eyes as she peered around the area, wondering if she would be able to find the aforementioned herb. Ah, to no avail, unfortunately. “Well, anyways, we give parsley to queens who produce too much milk–or if she just doesn’t need to produce milk anymore, such as when her kits have been weaned or… More unfortunate circumstances.”
Moving on swiftly from those topics and onto one that was–honestly, not that much better, being straight up gross. “Alright, let me know if this gets too disgusting for you and I’ll stop. Coldamber taught me how to deal with ear infections, and it isn’t pretty. Stars above am I glad that we haven’t had to deal with any of it yet.” With a deep breath and a sheepish, nearly anxious smile, she proceeded. “So, we get some marigold, a twig that is really, really thin, and a whole lot of moss. We have our patient lay down, affected ear pointed upwards–towards us, and then we split our moss into two piles. We want one to be spread out, covering some of the ground while the other pile will be picked apart and used as we treat the infection. First we’ll need to take a pawful of moss from that pile, and we’ll set it to the side.” Drizzlecloud recalled the very words that Coldamber used when explaining this very lesson to her… And it was still very, very disgusting. Oh goodness. “So, using the stick, we want to try to get as much puss and earwax out of the infected ear. I know the explanation is gross, but apparently the smell itself is even worse, so I guess we have that to look forward to. During the process we’ll want our patient to be talking to us, telling us how they’re feeling. We’ll do this until we feel comfortable with what we’ve managed to remove, and with that, we place the stick–and any other ones we may have used–onto the big pile of moss covering the ground. From here, we can ask the cat to sit up a bit, tilt their head downwards over the same moss pile in hopes of getting anything else out of their ear. They can give their head a little shake, too, if they’re comfortable doing that. From here we make a poultice with the marigold. Chew it up as best as we can, and we can mix it with some water to make it as liquified as possible. We want to pour that mixture into the patient’s ear, using a leaf or maybe even some moss to soak it up and squeeze it out with… From there, we let the mixture sit in our patient’s ear and we snag another ball of moss, squeeze it into a little ball, really tight, and we place it near the cat’s ear so that when they turn their head, it will all hopefully trickle out onto that moss. We can use that moss to clean up what’s left in their ear, gently squishing it and placing it into their ear before removing it. We shouldn’t be using too much force here, though. From there, we can dispose of everything that we used so it doesn’t stink up the place.”
Drizzlecloud let out a long, probably exaggerated for dramatic effect, sigh. “If they’re in pain, we can give them some poppy seeds to help reduce it. From there, we tell them to keep their ear dry, when to visit us next so we can check on the healing process, and that they should take things slowly until we tell them that they can return to their normal duties.”
[ @eris this is an exceptionally poor post but i just wanted to get it up hahaha ]
__________________
Bump Policy: 72 hours! Often inactive on weekends!
Drizzlecloud Midnightpath Smolderpaw Seedkit
Learnings & Teachings [P]
absolutely did not get any sleep today. ] 