Warrior Cat Clans 2 (WCC2 aka Classic) is a roleplay site inspired by the Warrior series by Erin Hunter. Whether you are a fan of the books or new to the Warrior cats world, WCC2 offers a diverse environment with over a decade’s worth of lore for you - and your characters - to explore. Join us today and become a part of our ongoing story!
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Morning grooming? Done. Plants watered? Done. Morning nap? All complete. Laying beside his fast growing plants made him light and happy, though it didn’t outwardly show. He kept his emotions on the inside, not the outside, which meant he permanently looked a bit sad. Stretching ever so carefully, Venuskit stepped over his plants, some of which starting to bloom into beautiful flowers, the kit made his way into the main part of camp. Most of the time he avoided it like the plague, the amount of other cats making his heart thump and the solitude of his plants too comforting. But he had something he needed to check out, first. Deciding early one night he would prefer to sleep in his garden, he had made a little detour around camp and stumbled across a strange little den. It smelled of flowers, wonderful, beautiful flowers. There were flowers outside and even more inside. But someone was sleeping in there, so he didn’t have the chance to explore it.
Today was a new day, a beautifully new day, and it seemed the den was empty when Venuskit poked his head in. Taking a few tentative steps forward, he distantly wondered who it belonged to. But the flowers were wonderful! They still smelled sweet even if it seemed they were a dry. He sniffed them, his chest feeling light again. He liked this den. He liked it a whole lot. Taking a few flowers from the den, he placed them just outside the den entrance to make a sort of path liner, and once he was done and continued to rearrange the flowers until they were perfect. Putting the flowers in certain patterns, or making tiny shapes from the flowers, he was lost in his own world and didn’t notice somebody was at the entrance.
Doestar, returning from a hunting patrol with a squirrel in his jaws, its tail trailing along the earth between his front legs, had noticed Venuskit outside his den immediately. He dropped the squirrel gently on the fresh-kill pile before limping quietly over to his den, careful to set his paws delicately so he didn't frighten the kit or disturb him from his art. He sat down a little way away, tail wrapped neatly around his paws, and watched with a soft smile, unnoticed by the kit intent on the flowers; he didn't mind that he was effectively tearing apart his careful decorations - it was clever, and creative, and soft, and there were plenty more flowers were those came from if Venuskit ended up taking them all out. He'd noticed him once or twice in the little garden he'd set up - and what a sweet, beautiful garden it was - but he'd never gotten a chance to actually speak with him.
When the kit vanished back inside his den, Doestar let out a soft hum of amusement and padded over to sit in the entrance, admiring the arrangements with a gentle gaze. "Quite like my den, do you?" he asked at last, looking down at Venuskit with twinkling eyes.
Lost in the flowers around him, Venuskit didn’t register when a new voice spoke up. A voice he’s only distantly heard. Going to walk back out the den to inspect the outside a bit more, he froze when he saw Doestar. Preferring to look at his paws instead, he felt his heart begin to race and his chest tighten. He was in trouble now! “Sorry...” he said quietly, almost too low to hear. His voice had a near soothing, monotone sound to it. Others had always commented on how flat he sounded, or how emotionless he seemed to look, and he never understood what they were talking about. He didn’t mean for it to be like that—it just happened.
Scared that the leader was mad, Venuskit lowered his head even more, tears welling in his eyes. Why was his heart so loud? Rocking back and forth, he still refused to make eye contact with the leader. But all in all, he was still proud of his work.
Doestar’s expression softened into a comforting little frown; he crouched down slowly, ducking his head to try and catch the kit’s eye. “I’m not mad,” he told him softly, offering a small smile. He wanted to brush away the kit’s tears, but he didn’t dare move in case he startled him. “I think this is the prettiest my den’s looked so far — you’re much better at this than me.”
He glanced at a little arrangement of purple-blue flowers — periwinkle — by his paws and touched it with his tail tip. “What’s this called, do you know?” he asked, voice no more than a murmur. “I’ve been wondering for ages but no one can tell me.”
So he wasn’t mad? Venuskit lifted his head, still not making eye contact, but sat a little straighter. Admiring the flower Doestar wanted to know about, he remembered seeing it before. There were so many different types of flowers in camp, so much to learn about and study them all day long. “Periwinkle.” He said quietly, delicately lifting the flower and placed it in the deliberate swirl he made with a vine. “And this one is a chry-san-the-mum.” He sounded it out slowly, still not very good at saying big words. He pointed to a red flower with what seemed like thousands of thin petals. “They make me feel light.” He hummed, growing more talkative as he discussed the plants.
“Chrysanthemum,” he echoed in a whisper, reaching out with his good forepaw and gently touching the petals of the red flower. They make me feel light. Doestar turned his attention back to Venuskit with a small, soft smile. “My favourite flowers are jasmine — they smell so lovely, and I like how small they are.” Tipping his head back to glance around the roof of his den and the small trees beyond, he added in a murmur, “Do you know, in newleaf, I think the mandarin trees around my den are going to grow lots of beautiful, little white flowers — I can’t wait.”
Doestar smiled and watched the kit with calm, kind eyes. More than simply finding Venuskit sweet, he was genuinely impressed by his apparent knowledge of plants and flowers; in his experience, it took medicine cat apprentices moons to know as much as he seemed to know almost instinctively. In a vague, drifting corner of his mind, he started to turn over different possible ways the kit’s knowledge could be put to good use; too anxious for the work of a medicine cat, he thought, but there had to be something else... “Did you really do all this by yourself?” he asked gently.
He had never seen nor heard of a mandarin before—and a buzzing lifted his chest. He was feeling light, yes, but it was different. More quick, energetic, buzzy. Like little bees. “Buzz. Buzz.” He said to himself. Jumping up and down, he gave Doestar a big, toothy smile. Smiling for him was rare, usually he didn’t know when he should or not, but in this current situation it felt right. Natural. He didn’t respond to his question for a few moments, instead staring at the flowers he had placed. “Ya.” He touched a dry flower, looking down at it sadly. “Why is’t dry?” He asked, the smiling falling almost as quickly as it came. “Plant them outside so they can grow better, breathe better.” He shook his head softly. “They is’t not watered.”
Doestar grinned back at the kit, letting out a happy, surprised little laugh at his sudden mood change; he loved that about kits — he always struggled to keep up. When Venuskit’s mood grew more sombre, he wiped the smile from his own face and nodded along seriously. “You’re right, that’s true,” he agreed, glancing around his den with his eyes. “But I like to pick flowers when they’re in the ground or on a bush and dry them out in the sun; it means that, even though they won’t be able to grow anymore, they’ll be around for a lot, lot longer and they won’t...” He caught himself before he said die. “Go away after greenleaf. They can be around forever, really, and they’ll be a different kind of pretty to the ones in the soil, yes, but pretty all the same. And they still smell good, don’t they?”
He smiled and sat up slowly, his back clicking after having been crouched for so long. “You have a garden, don’t you? Would you like to show me? I promise I won’t touch anything.”
“Oh.” Getting the concept, Venuskit sniffed the periwinkle he had recently put down. He understood, now, and it truly was a smart idea. He knew that the end of greenleaf was going to be the hardest time, his precious garden all gone and buried under mounds of snow, but it meant it would grow back better the next time. Lowering his gaze again, he twitched his tail absently. “Yeah...” he murmured quietly. But he had promised not to touch anything—and that meant he couldn’t take it away, which meant it was safe to show him.
Scooting past Doestar and out of the den, Venuskit led the leader towards the back of the nursery where he kept his ever growing garden. Some smaller flowers like daisies and buttercups were already full grown, but the bigger flowers that he had planted a bit later were still in their seedling phase, little green stalks. “They eat the sun.” He said off the top of his head, a habit of his to speak what was on his mind without control. “Pesky weed.” He frowned at a dandelion. Yes, they were pretty, but he did not want them in his garden. “The medicine-cat can use the dandelions, they can be helpful.”
Doestar waited for the kit to lead the way out of his den before padding slowly alongside him. When they arrived at the garden, he was a little overwhelmed for a moment; he’d caught glimpses of Venuskit’s project, but he hadn’t expected it to be... actually incredibly functional and well-maintained. He smiled distractedly at the kit’s cute comment about the flowers eating sun and watched him seriously when he started talking about dandelions. “Yes, they can,” he agreed quietly, limping a little further into the garden and glancing around to check he wasn’t going to crush anything before sitting down lightly and sweeping his tail around his paws.
“What... what else do you know about healing sorts of flowers? Do you know anything about herbs?” He didn’t want to overwhelm the kit with questions and tried to keep his voice gentle and light, but he had to know. To make up for it, he smiled and gestured to the dandelion with his good paw. “You can blow on them, you know, and make a wish. They always come true.”
He didn’t respond for a moment, choosing instead to carefully dig his claws around the roots of the first dandelion, still bright yellow, and uproot it. He couldn’t really measure his knowledge, could he? He settled for a murmured “some stuff.” And started taking out the other one. “They’re not in their poofy phase yet, which is good because they can’t spread.” In front of his paws sat two weeds, the thin roots still clinging to the dirt he had dug up. Covering the holes he made with more soil, he looked over the garden one last time.
“I made a song once, for the herbs, but I don’t need it anymore.” He recalled, forgetting the tune he had made.
“They can’t spread if they’re still yellow, huh?” he asked, watching the kit dig up the dandelion with his tiny little claws. He genuinely didn’t know that and couldn’t help the delight he felt at the realisation he was being educated by a kitten; he’d always thought they were smarter than most warriors. At the comment about the herb song, he suppressed a purr, instead nodding along seriously. Doestar could already feel himself growing fond of him; he loved odd cats that didn’t quite fit in, had always instinctively gravitated towards them.
“Can you show me around the garden a little? I’d love to learn a bit more if you’re alright with teaching me.” He smiled softly, waiting to stand up until Venuskit had told him it was okay.
Shuffling his paws a bit, Venuskit eyed his garden. It wasn’t very big, but he guessed he could still show Doestar around. It the split up into sections, actually, flowers in its own patches, other plants by themselves, and a little hole protected by a leaf to keep the seeds he had yet to plant.
“These are the flowers,” he explained, gently touching the seedlings with the tip of his tail, “there are daisies, and cornflowers and tulips and roses and I found a sunflower seed once. Most of them are still seedlings, though.” He padded to the plant section.
“I found an apple seed, but I don’t think there’s any room to plant it here. Some ferns, oh and moss is growing on my stones.” He murmured quietly, placing a paw on one of the stones that took forever to move here.
Doestar slowly followed after Venuskit, stopping to admire a flower whenever he did and murmur an excited little “oh!” or “ah!” or “ooh!”. He didn’t ask where he found the seeds — didn’t know if he had been sneaking out to collect them, or if someone had been helping him, or if he’d just has extraordinarily good luck around camp; he didn’t want to make him feel like he had done something wrong, or to discourage him from his interests in any way. He was... floored, really, at what Venuskit had managed to accomplish by himself, the knowledge he’d somehow managed to acquire seemingly out of the earth itself.
“We could find somewhere to plant the apple seed together, if you like,” he suggested gently, sitting carefully beside one of the mossy rocks after quickly checking he wasn’t going to sit on anything. “Outside the camp, or near my den. Once you’re an apprentice, you can water it every day when you go out on patrol.” Even as he said it, there seemed something so intrinsically wrong with the thought of setting this kit on the path of a warrior; he was far too sensitive, far too devoted to nature to ever be devoted to battle or hunting. There was something special about him, something old and gentle and quiet. The gears in Doestar’s head turned some more, just at the edge of his consciousness.
Venuskit didn’t respond, he had heard, yes, but he didn’t say anything. “Yes.” He said after a while, gently touching a small flower with the top of his tail. Once your an apprentice. On patrol. He shivered slightly. He didn’t want to become an apprentice, he didn’t want to be forced to talk and hunt and fight with these cats he didn’t even know. He would fail and he could feel it. What was the use anyway? He wasn’t interested in that stuff enough to learn it, anyway. “Oh.” He murmured, staring down at his garden. Being an apprentice meant less time with his garden, which meant they would die and he could do nothing but watch them wilt. Tears sprung to his eyes suddenly, and he clawed at the ground to make them go away, but they continued to fall.
Guilt flooded through Doestar’s chest at the sight of the kit’s tears. For a moment, he watched helplessly as he dug his little needle-sharp claws into the earth; then, finally, he moved a tiny bit closer and gently laid his paw over Venuskit’s forepaws to stop him. The thought that he was hurting the kit, that the traditions he stood for and represented as leader were a source of distress... If the system wasn't working, then the system would have to change. “What if… what if there was another option?” he began softly; the words were out before he had time to properly think them over, just a mess of half-formed ideas that were only just starting to form a picture in his own mind – anything to make the kit feel better. “What if you didn’t need to be an apprentice, or a warrior?”
The territory was vast, and it was unfair to ask one or two medicine cats to cover all that area when a dozen cats struggled to do so on patrols. With a garden near the camp, they could grow their own herbs, their own plants – attract a rabbit or two every other week if they were lucky, just as a little icing on top. And the camp could be a little prettier... He grinned lop-sidedly to himself, suddenly buzzing with excitement at the concept of a new rank, a new part of life open to cats that weren’t put on this Earth to fight and kill – the cats with the softer hearts and the softer paws. Thoughts raced through his head at a mile a minute but, for Venuskit’s sake, he tried to calm himself down, forcing the smile from his face and looking down at the kit calmly, even as his heart pounded with adrenaline. “What do you think of being able to tend to your garden all day, every day, and never have to leave the flowers if you don’t want to?”
Jerking his paw away as if it hurt, Venuskit dried the last of his tears. Rocking back and forth, he noted that Doestar’s ideas seemed appealing to him. He had never minded tradition, it was just something that a few old dead cats decided would continue after them, after all. It had made him scared, growing up. What use could he be as a warrior? The only thing he wanted to use his claws for were digging and weeding.
“I won’t have to—have to—become a warrior?” He asked uncertainly, his perked ears being the only sign he was interested. “I like that.” He announced, standing up and bouncing on his toes. “I like that!” He repeated.
Doestar grinned for a heartbeat before forcing it back down and nodding sagely, the soft, sombre frown at odds with the smile he was fighting to hold back. “Won’t have to become a warrior,” he confirmed quietly, tucking his paw back under his tail without complaint when Venuskit didn’t respond well to the physical contact. When the kit started bouncing excitedly, he allowed the grin back onto his face, laughing fondly. “You like it? Well, then, it’s settled – you’ll be our very first Garden Keeper.” The word came out of thin air, but it felt right; he’d heard Ghoulstar mention Denkeepers back when he was still leader of WinterClan, and the name sounded just cute enough to work.
“In the meantime, would you like to get your apple seed and we can find a place to plant it? Anywhere you like – inside camp, outside camp, wherever you think the apple tree would be the most happy to live.” He smiled gently, eyes sparkling.
“Garden keeper.” He repeated slowly, grasping the word tightly in his mind. Garden keeper. It sounded. . . nice. Welcoming. Ideal to a cat like him. Giving a few last bounces, Venuskit made his way to the little hole in which he kept his growing collection of small seeds. Gently sorting through it until he found the small brown apple seed. “She needs somewhere sunny. The apple tree can be greedy when it comes to eating the sun.” He tilted his head, taking the tiny seed between his small teeth ever so delicately. He didn’t want to accidentally eat it, of course. “A hill!” He said, waving his tail and standing just behind Doestar, his head somewhat low. He didn’t know the outside of camp—he didn’t know where to go or what to do, so it was up to Doestar to lead the way.
Doestar watched Venuskit sorting through the seeds with a small, warm smile; the kit had a grounding sort of presence, and already he felt like he could hear the birdsong more clearly, like he could breathe more easily, like the sunlight and the breeze in the treetops and the shadows of the fluffy clouds drifting lazily across the sun felt more real and genuine and now. All of nature was so much more important to the kit than it was to the warriors who forgot to appreciate the trees and the flowers, and Doestar loved the feeling.
"A hill it is, then," he purred gently, flicking his tail-tip and leading the way towards the camp entrance. "I think I know the perfect place just a little way away - not many taller trees to steal her sunshine and plenty of light even in leafbare. Don't want her to go hungry, do we?" He slipped out through the gorse tunnel, shaking the little yellow flowers away when they collected on his muzzle and got caught in his fur, and turned back to wait for Venuskit. It could be an overwhelming experience to find yourself in the outside world for the first time, even for a kit who wasn't so easily overwhelmed by noises and other cats, and he wanted to be as patient as Venuskit needed.
