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RANK: medicine cat apprentice GENDER: female — AGE: six moons MATE/CRUSH: none PLOTS? open!
What does a cat that ate the canary exactly look like? Perhaps, something akin to Mistralstrike. The corner of her mouth is perpetually turned up in a half-smile, her eyes always have a glint of mischief, her tail flicking just too much. Mistralstrike is, much like her name, a storm that blows in and brings with it much chaos, but also much beauty. Named for the cold leaf-bare storms like the one she had been found in, the she-cat is not frigid like one much assume but instead coy and reserved, always observing but rarely interacting. This attitude lends itself to her perception as an arrogant or rude she-cat, but that is not the case. She simply prefers to watch and wait for the perfect opportunity to pounce. Her siblings were found alongside her in SwiftClan's leaf-bare territory by Heathersong, a she-cat she adopted as her mother. Her siblings, Flurryshake, Tempestsky, Galestep, and Vortexsong are all her dearest friends no matter what kind of scuffles or arguments they get into. She knows, that if push comes to shove, they will have each other's back. She has never known anything but SwiftClan, one of the few cats that can boast such a claim, but because of this she has a creeping sense of curiosity about what the rest of the world might be like. She hears that other clans do things entirely differently like learn how to fight or dig - dig! What kind of cat needs to dig? Her curiosity is one of the few things that can force her to shed her mien of dispassionate observation, though it often leads to her leaping head-first into trouble, heedless of the consequences.
Mistralpaw's thoughts wandered as she sorted herbs, making notes of their current inventory and what they would need to gather next time either of them went out of camp. She made another mark in the dirt with her claw she she tucked away another bundle of comfrey, glad to see their stock of the poultice-making herb was high. Though she was careful and precise with her work, she couldn't help her thoughts from moving to Firetooth. She didn't see much of her mentor much anymore. Apart from the occasional training session that typically devolved into fighting, the two worked pretty much separately. She was glad for her extra training with Earlybloom in WinterClan, as without it she was sure Firetooth would be overrun. Since her job as his apprentice was to lighten his load and he didn't seem interested in actually training her to do that, she depended on the Witch's training to help out.
She was still frustrated with the tom, but her anger which had once burned hot as an open flame was now nothing more than a dull ember, buried under a pile of ash from what might have been their relationship. She knew he would never open up to her, and she to him, and was content doing as much as she could without having to interact with the tom at all. She shook her head and focused back on her work, sliding the last bundle of freshly-pressed herbs into its nook before transferring the list of herbs she would need to pick to a beech leaf she could take with her. She stood up and began to exit the cramped medical den when she looked up at a sound from outside of the den.
It was a long walk from Sunclan. The Medicine Cat in question had been missing since the early hours of dawn, before the sun had even risen over the mountains. Now it was nearly evening as the tom staggered into Swiftclan's makeshift camp, his expression completely blank as he dragged himself almost instinctively towards his den, either oblivious to or ignoring the silent, shocked stares of his clanmates. It was no surprise why. No cat could possibly miss the deep, open wound across the front of his neck, held together haphazardly by cobwebs. His ginger chest was dyed an even deeper shade of crimson with his own dried blood. His chest heaved as pain stabbed through him with every step, but Firetooth refused to stop moving until he reached home. He wasn't going to die. Not yet. Not here. Not before he saw her.
"Tell them yourself."
That phrase repeated over and over in his mind, even as his vision swam and he struggled to stand upright. Looking up from his aching, blood-soaked paws, Firetooth could make out the blurred figure of Mistralpaw standing just outside the hollow, and his summer green eyes met her icy blue ones for a single moment. The last thing Firetooth saw before his legs finally gave out beneath him was his apprentice's terrified face upon seeing his condition. It was an expression that he would remember for the rest of his life.
The sight of a walking-dead cat would haunt Mistralpaw until her last day. She thought she hated Firetooth, despised him for the way he treated her and acted like she was beneath him, but seeing the flesh of his neck laid open against his chest, plastered there by blood, made her mind blank. She stopped seeing, stopped feeling, and started acting. She didn't bother to move him to a nest, but began to treat him right there outside of their shared den. She grabbed a ball of damp moss and cleaned the wound off, carefully peeling the skin from where it stuck to his fur and placing it back over the wound. She applied a poultice of marigold, horsetail, and goldenrod to the gash to help stem the bleeding, then packed it firmly with cobwebs. In this instance, she was glad he was unconscious because the process would be excruciating. After she finished packing the wound, she wrapped it in another layer of cobwebs, then lined his nest with beech leaves and carefully moved him into it with a warrior's help.
It wasn't until he was settled in and his bleeding had stopped soaking through the layers of cobwebs she'd applied that she released a shaky breath. After that, the dam broke. Her legs shook too hard to hold her up, so she sunk to the hard ground next to Firetooth's nest, the shock setting in and causing her whole body to quake. She breathed through it and chewed on a twig of thyme to help it pass, then began the long vigil until her mentor woke up.
Who could do such a thing? To a medicine cat, nonetheless? She knew she should alert Chimerastar, but she couldn't bring herself to leave the den. She called a warrior in to relay her report, but didn't move a muscle. Firetooth had no one - she knew that. His sour attitude did most of the work in driving others away: she knew firstpaw. Still, it was wrong to leave him alone like this. No one deserved to wake up hurt and alone. She had prepared next to her a blend of herbs for him to take once he woke up: juniper berries, a small amount of tansy, chamomile, thyme, and poppyseeds for pain. In those long hours she laid next to him, she alternated praying to StarClan and sorting the herbs for him again and again, unable to bear the wait. What if he never woke up? What if her work wasn't good enough? She snapped like a rabid animal at any cats who tried to enter the medicine cat den, defending the wounded tom like a bear, and refused to eat or drink until she saw him wake up.
He wasn't sure if he was awake or dreaming, alive or dead. There was nothing but darkness surrounding him; he couldn't even see his own body. He couldn't help but wonder if he was in the Dark Forest, the place where all of the truly evil cats go. He wouldn't be surprised, but then, why was he so calm? His answer came as a warm feeling wrapped itself around him, an entity unseen pulling him close into a gentle hug. His eyes immediately flooded with tears as he recognized the scent.
"It's okay," the voice of his father, Creekghost, whispered softly into his ear. "You're going to be okay."
Firetooth stirred slowly as light flooded into his vision, the beech leaves underneath his head damp with his tears. His head was pounding, and everything ached- from his ears to the tip of his tail. As he blinked away the sleep from his eyes, his vision cleared and he lifted his head slightly, glancing around the room. He was in the Medicine Cat den. In his nest. Moonlight filtered in through the moss that covered the entrance, shining on the back of Mistralpaw as she busied herself with herbs. He suddenly sat up as memories of the past day came flooding back to him; Autumngossamer and Sunclan. Though immediately a stab of pain shot through him from moving too quickly, and he let out a hiss of agony before flopping back down his nest. The noise finally alerted his apprentice, and their eyes met once more as she turned to him, and the real revelation struck him more deeply than any injury.
Mistralpaw had somehow managed saved his life. Firetooth was certain that he had never taught her how to treat wounds on the level of his own extreme injuries...and yet, here he was. Alive. Without thinking he brought a paw up to where the wound on his neck was, and felt the thick and secure bindings of cobwebs wrapped around it. He could smell the marigold and horsetail, and took note of the small pile of herbs sitting right next to his bed for him to ingest. And what was more; she had remained by his side while he had been out for Starclan-knows how long. His heart clenched as the recalled what he had said to the Sunclan Soothsayer right when he thought he was about to die: "I want you to make her the best healer in the Forest, if not all of the clans, because by Starclan that kid deserves it." How blind he had been. Mistralpaw already was.
And just like that, Firetooth broke down crying. His body shook uncontrollably as he sobbed and sobbed, with heartbreaking wails that echoed through the small hollow.
Mistralpaw whipped around when she heard his nest shift, and their eyes met. Firetooth...He was alive. She swallowed a sob, her eyes filling and running over with silent tears as her shoulder shook. She'd saved him, she'd done it. He was there, breathing, looking at her...crying? She couldn't understand it. Why was he crying? Likely the shock of his injuries, her logical brain supplied, but she couldn't help but think there was more to it. "Here," she mewed thickly, her voice heavy with tears, "Eat this. It should help with the pain and give your body the strength it needs to help you heal." She carefully lifted the herbs - which were quite wet with their combined tears - to his mouth so that he could take them without having to move too much. "I need to tell Chimerastar," she murmured to herself, though she didn't make any move to do so. She pressed against the tom's side gently, showing him she was there without putting any pressure on his wound, and just sat in silence as he cried.
She didn't say anything - didn't know what to say at all. She had no idea what had happened to lead up to this, but knew it couldn't be anything less than a traumatic event. After long, still minutes passed interrupted only by their combined tears, she carefully got up to fetch some moss-soaked water and a mouse she had brought in while he slept. She placed the moss in front of him, then proceeded to mash up the mouse into a thick paste with a stone so that he could consume it more easily. She finally broke the silence.
"Firetooth," she mewed, trailing off as though she wasn't sure how to continue. "I'm so sorry. I never listened to you, or respected you, or treated you like my mentor. I...the thought of you dying thinking that I hated you was torture. I don't hate you. I don't. I just...I'm not sure how I feel, to be honest. But no matter what else you think, know that you aren't alone in the world. I'm here for you, through thick or thin. You can't get rid of me by dying; that's too easy. Your first mistake was teaching me how to keep you alive." Her humor was distorted by the fresh gush of tears from her eyes, her running nose causing her voice to sound clogged.
"Now, enough of that sappy stuff," she mewed briskly, wiping roughly at her eyes. "You need to take these herbs and have a little something to eat and drink. You can't expect your body to heal you if you don't give it any fuel to work with. Eating is going to hurt, but you're a big, tough tom. I'm sure you can figure something out."
Firetooth let it out. All the emotions he had buried deep, deep into himself; his anger, sadness, joy, and terror - terror that the previous day could very well have been the last day he spent on earth. It all could've been over, just like that. He wouldn't have lived or died as any sort of martyr, and Starclan certainly wouldn't have let him be reborn for his efforts. This was the only life he had, and he had wasted so much of it on worthless self-pity. Glancing up at Mistralpaw as she held the herbs up to him, he ate without any sort of protest, silently appreciating the comforting feeling of their pelts pressing together. They sat together for a while, as his loud sobs dwindled into tired sniffles and his tears finally dried up. The Medicine Cat froze slightly when the young she-cat suddenly got up to fetch food and water, feeling scared and alone without her warmth beside him.
When she returned, her sudden words made him look up at her, staring at Mistralpaw in stunned silence as she began to apologize to him. For the first time since he woke up did Firetooth realize just how much his near-death experience had actually effected her. It was a completely foreign concept to him, that someone might actually miss him or mourn him if he died. He looked between his apprentice and the food for a moment, before finally working up the courage to speak for the first time that day, his voice hoarse and scratchy. "I-I didn't teach you anything," he admitted, staring down at his paws in shame. "I was selfish and stubborn, I took you for granted. Your attitude was just an excuse to be harsh on you. I-I just..." he took a breath. "I was declared Medicine Cat of Earthclan at three moons old. The last one had died with no apprentice...so Solsticestar chose me. At complete random, I learned later. I was separated from my mother, and my siblings grew to hate me out of jealously. Every day there seemed to be another Medicine Cat from a different clan to teach me, but I was mostly on my own. I was...always on my own..." The tom trailed off, and he leaned forward to take a small sip of water from the moss. When he spoke again, his voice was so soft that Mistralpaw strained to hear it.
"I don't know how to teach an apprentice, Mistralpaw, because I never really was one. And every time I look at you...I see another cat forced into a life that they never wanted. I see...myself: the cat I hate more than anything."
Mistralpaw listened, learning new things about the tom with every word he spoke. He had been a medicine cat in one of the demolished clans? Chosen at three moons old? She couldn't imagine the burden and stress a cat that young would have to live with. The whole clan depended on him to heal them as a kitten, but weren't there to support or teach him? She felt the fur along her back rise in anger at the thought, though she schooled her emotions and remained quiet. When he admitted to her why he'd treated her the way he'd treated her, she couldn't help the tears that gathered in her eyes again. He hated himself? She knew he was grumpy, and sour, but she had no idea that was hiding such a depth of self-loathing.
"We can learn together," she whispered after he finished, her voice almost too soft to hear. "You can teach me, and I can show you that you're not alone. Deal?"
"...Okay." Firetooth gave her a smile. It was small and faint, but it was a real, genuine smile. Perhaps the first that Mistralpaw had ever actually seen from him. Leaving the conversation at that, he turned and began picking at the mouse in front of him, devouring it in small bites, as much as his stomach allowed him to handle. As he finished chewing, he looked back up at her again, feeling her eyes on him the entire time. "It was a twoleg trap," the tom finally answered the unspoken question that had been silently plaguing Mistralpaw's thoughts this entire time. "Autumngossamer had been...pestering me to help her find more of a rare herb she spotted outside Sunclan's territory. Instead, I misstep-ed, and the twolegs' sharp, silver web closed around my neck. As much as it kills me to say...I panicked, which only made it worse. If it wasn't for the Soothsayer, I would've died out there."
It was as close to the truth as the Medicine Cat could ever tell his apprentice. No-one could ever know what actually happened; he had made an oath to Autumngossamer. As rude and cold as he was most of the time, Starclan forbid it ever be said that Firetooth of Swiftclan didn't keep a freaking promise. "Now it's your turn," he meowed to the she-cat. "Who's been teaching you?" The question was was blunt and to the point, but it wasn't accusatory. It was obvious that someone else had been teaching her. If not, then he wouldn't be alive right now. It still hurt his pride a bit, having clear proof of how much of a failure he really had been as a mentor. But whoever it was, he owed his life to them as much as Mistralpaw.
"Earlybloom, Witch of WinterClan," she replied, slowly nodding as she took in the events that lead up to him collapsing in front of their den almost dead. "I've been meeting with her almost daily for the last two moons. She's who taught me how to travel with fragile herbs, and the rest of the basics you've seen." She held his gaze unwaveringly, accepting his reasoning with as little judgement as he had accepted her betrayal.
"We should make sure Autumngossamer warns SunClan of the trap," she added a few beats of silence. "Where there is one, there are usually more. Twolegs are dirty fighters like that. No matter how strange the sun cult is, we owe it to them to share this knowledge." She considered the likelihood of these traps being near their temporary territory and made a silent note to mention it to Chimerastar. Chimerastar! "StarClan," she mewed, shaking her head. "I need to tell Chimerastar that you're awake! I know he has to be worried out of his mind." She stood up and looked down at Firetooth critically, assessing if he was well enough to be left alone, and shook her head. "Tell Chimerastar that Firetooth is awake and recovering," she called to the warrior standing guard outside of their den. She sat back down, her side brushing his, and curled her tail around her paws. "He will want to see you and hear what happened from your mouth, I'm sure. How is the pain? I can give you some blackberry leaves if the poppyseeds aren't doing enough right now."
He had been waiting for an update, though he wasn't optimistic about the outcome. The medicine cat was badly injured and though he reluctantly admired Mistralpaw's courage, she didn't know enough to save him. Chim was restless as he waited for news, refusing to stay in his den or the medicine cat's, so he busied himself with cleaning up the trail of blood through his camp. The work was easily completed by sweeping away the fine grains of sand, but he dabbed it clean with moss all the same and shook off offers to help. When the messenger finally reached him, he was perched rather uncertainly by the camp entrance, his paws scuffing in the dust as he waited for the inevitable.
Chim rose to his paws and offered the guard a nod as he hurried into the den, not daring to believe Firetooth was okay until he spotted the ginger tom lying alert in his nest. He shook his head, stress during to anger as his half-gaze hardened.
"What the hell were you thinking? Were you trying to get yourself killed?" Chimerastar snapped, glaring down at the injured tomcat. He didn't wait for an explanation: he already knew his bitter medicine cat must have done something incredibly stupid to end up like this.
"I can handle the pain just fine. But remind me to send Earlybloom a gift basket, or maybe volunteer to father her future kits," Firetooth remarked with a playful smirk, his usual, snarky demeanor finally returning. That is, until Mistralpaw mentioned telling Chimerastar. "Oh dear Starclan no. Please don't tell him, he's gonna kill me anyway." But there was no use. The warrior ran off, and like a storm the Swiftclan leader thundered into the den, demanding an explanation. Firetooth's instinctual response was to roll his eyes, though he couldn't help but feel a bit of surprise and guilt, realizing that Chim too had been worried about him. He didn't think that he and Chim had ever actually gotten along, but the leader was still concerned for him. How many other members of this mismatch clan had he previously overlooked?
"What do you think?" he replied sarcastically, shifting to lay more comfortably in his nest. "As I already told Mistralpaw, I accidentally stepped in a twoleg trap. Nearly slit my throat, it happens." Shrugging and faking cold indifference as best he could, the tom instead turned to chew more of the herbs his apprentice placed beside his nest. Speaking of..."In any case, I think Mistralpaw's proved herself a capable enough healer, if this whole mess is any indication. When I'm well enough to travel again, I'd like to take her to the Moonpool for her Medicine Cat name, if you approve. Obviously I'll still continue her training afterwards, but..." Firetooth looked up at her with a proud smirk. "I think she's well earned it."
'Cause you're a villainous thing / And we can't have you living a lie
635 posts
Post by eventide on Jun 6, 2020 21:46:22 GMT -5
Mistralpaw watched Chimerastar ream Firetooth out with wide eyes, more surprised than anything else. When he finished speaking and she understood his harsh words were out of love and fear than anger, she relaxed her defensive posture. Still, she offered her leader a slight frown. Firetooth began to speak before she could scold Chimerastar and so she held her tongue, not wanting to stress the critically injured tom any more than necessary. When he suggested taking her to Moonpool for her medicine cat name, she realized she'd never been there at all. "If it's okay with you," she began slowly, wondering if this was a conversation better had at a later time, "I'd like to hold on to my apprentice name a little longer. I feel like now, for the first time, I'm really your student. Besides," she added with a teasing smile. "I've never even been introduced to them as your apprentice in the first place. What would they think when a random she-cat shows up asking for their blessing?"
"Accidentally," Chim repeated skeptically. "How does a medicine cat accidentally step into a two-leg trap? Isn't your whole job to look at the plants beneath your paws?" Surely he would have seen any trap before he stepped into it, or scented it, or maybe heard it - Chim wasn't really sure how traps worked, they didn't place them near WaterClan territory, but he was certain there was some way to sense them. The other clans must see a lot of trap related injuries otherwise, and he had not once heard a leader discuss their menace among the clans. His pelt prickled as he stared down at the medicine cat, still rather unhappy with the response he received.
He took a moment to glance sideways at the she-cat, considering, but before he could make his decision she made hers. Rejecting a new name - that was a surprise, but he was proud of her all the same. Whatever had happened between them, the two healers were finally seeing eye to eye, and their clan would be better off for it.
"You don't want your name yet, we won't force it upon you," Chim agreed, offering her a short nod. "But Firetooth is right. You're a great medicine cat, and you saved his life today. Thank you." His voice softened.
"Grandma Blakelystar would be thrilled I'm actually on speaking terms with her again," Firetooth answered Mistralpaw with a completely deadpan expression. There were...reasons that the Medicine Cat hadn't taken his apprentice to the Moonpool yet, the least of which being his personal issues with his deceased kin. "But I suppose you have to meet with Starclan at some point. I'll take you there when I can actually stand up without feeling the overwhelming urge to pass out and die." When Chimerastar began pointing out the - in hindsight blatantly obvious - holes in his story, his green eyes narrowed as he glared at the other tom. "The trap was well hidden." He meowed simply, though the message in his gaze was clear as day to the Swiftclan leader; we both know I'm lying, but I can't or won't tell you what really happened. "I'm safe and alive," he continued, turning back to Mistralpaw with the smallest of smiles on his muzzle. "That's all that matters now."
