It was quite normal for the newly appointed deputy to stay up into the early hours of the morning, basking in the quiet isolation of his experiments until he passed out, so when Calamitystar prodded him awake, it was easy to tell that Hystericplague was not happy. Not one bit. He was tempted to just go back to sleep and let the leader wait, and some part of his mind was leaning towards that option, but in the end the hairless tom got up, grumbling the entire time as he joined Cal outside. "What, am I an apprentice now? I had training." Medical training, sure, but it was still training. He at least had the basics in self defense down, and he had held his own in the battle a moon or two ago. Or was it three moons ago? Who cared.

The deputy let out a hefty sigh, flattening his ears against his hairless head. He could already feel the beginnings of a headache sneaking in, and that alone was enough to tell him exactly how the rest of the day was going to go. Oh, how he wanted to just crawl back into his warm nest and pretend he never heard Calamitystar in the first place. But it was far too late for that, and the leader wasn't going to let him escape that easily. But, Hystericplague was determined not to give in to Cal too early this time. "Sounds dull," he said instead. "I still don't even understand why you chose me in the first place."

Over his time with dealing with Cal, he had come to learn to not try to predict how the leader would respond to things. Often, Calamitystar was an unpredictable mess, but Hystericplague had always come to expect the usual goofiness in everything he did, except for when defending his previous clan. Now, however, as the deputy watched his friend's expression and voice soften, he was taken back. This was a side of Cal that he didn't know, and it threw him for a loop. Any hesitation that he had was melted away now, and he found himself nodding in agreement. He hadn't truly expected Cal to explain anything to him, but he wasn't going to pass it up.

With just how often the leader seemed to switch moods, Hystericplague wasn't fully convinced of Cal's promise. In fact, there was already a shred of regret in the hairless tom as he rolled his eyes and followed after Calamitystar, at his own pace. In fact, he was beginning to wonder if Cal wasn't as stupid as he seemed, since he seemed to know exactly how to manipulate the former medicine cat. "And I suppose you won't tell me where you're taking me again, will you?" he asked.

Hystericplague didn't expect Cal to actually tell him, let alone ask his thoughts, so it took the tom a few moments to gather his thoughts. "Sure," he simply said, with a small, awkward shrug as he walked along. It was a place that he was familiar with, as he often gathered herbs around that area.

It somehow seemed so long ago, when Calamitystar - Calamityshrine, back then - had found him wandering around on his own, and brought him back to Fallclan with him. It had been a strange encounter, to be sure. "I didn't have anywhere to go, nor did I have anything to lose," he admitted. "I had been trained as a medicine cat since I was a kit, and was given to Eternalstar of Springclan to be her personal doctor. Because of her, I became used to things like that. Plus, it's not like I haven't hurt anyone before." In fact, the time between the two clans mostly consisted of experimenting on other cats, willing or not.

( that's what i figured c: )

Padding alongside Calamitystar, it wasn't hard for the deputy to miss the hesitation in his friend's voice and face. This wasn't a simple training session, then. Hystericplague had witnessed a lot of emotions and expressions from his friend, and so it was rather easy to pick up on the serious note that was so unlike him. Pushing past the usual tickle in his throat, he tilted his head to look at the territory around them and said, "I don't regret it, if that's what you're asking. I do miss the time that I spent with herbs, but I don't plan on leaving here anytime soon."

Hystericplague found himself rolling his eyes at his friend. "Oh yes, I'm sure that it's such a pain," he replied dryly, but there was a hint of a smile at the tip of his mouth. Yes, Cal was a lot to handle, though the former medicine cat had no ill feelings towards him. It was just Cal being Cal most of the time. The absentminded leader. Still, there was something in Hystericplague's gut that told him that he wouldn't like where this chat was going. Something in the leader's words sounded like he was planning on leaving, or at least going away from him. Even so, he followed behind Calamitystar, knowing that this talk was going to be something important.

The deputy let out a sigh, shaking his head at Cal. "Yes, because I'm going to be so much use if it's not safe," he said, although the stories and lore was something that he didn't know about. In his mind, Calamitystar was afraid of there being a fox or something inside. Even so, Hystericplague went ahead into the tea garden, eerie golden eyes sweeping the area for anything that Cal could possibly be afraid of. After a few moments, he turned his gaze back to where he had left Cal. "It's perfectly sa-" and it just so happened that in the middle of that sentence was when his body decided it wanted to go into a coughing fit.