Medicine Cat Meeting [8/3 - 8/6]

[roscoe]

"While it is good to be excited," she said gently as she approached her apprentice. "You must remember we as PineClan are different from the other clans. We must look prepared in front of them, despite our beliefs we are all still medicine cats." Her tail swished as she left the camp, beckoning her apprentice to follow.

"I think you will get along well with Bluepaw, however." She murmured, half in thought. "She too is rather excitable. Bluepaw is StreamClan's apprentice under Badgernose. Do you remember the other Medicine Cats?" Bluestream had no doubt Littlepaw could remember all of them for the meeting. If he could memorize herbs, he could memorize a few cat names.

She glanced up at the sinking sun while she waited for her apprentice to answer, a nagging feeling in her stomach. They should have left earlier than this. It wouldn't do good to show up last tonight.

[Cloud of Diamonds]

Brightnose sighed. It seemed Frostpaw was determined to be hostile to her simply because she was a medicine cat. Her logic was little use in this situation. She tried to remember reasons WHY Frostpaw hated medicine cats. She racked her memory. She knew that Frostpaw thought that those who believed in StarClan were blind and stupid. She felt a sudden surge of anger. How dare Frostpaw be so judgemental about cats who had a way of life different from theirs? Breathing deeply, she calmed herself down as they padded towards the stepping stones. Anger would help nothing. "That's good." She replied evenly. But what came next seemed to spring out of Brightnose's mouth of its own accord, perhaps from being hidden and swallowed too long. "I HATE that miserable excuse for a cat!" Brightnose's jaw immediately snapped shut. Oh StarClan, what would happen now?

[Kiddo [le pwnsome]]

Icetail looked up at the sky, the sun was starting to dip below the branches of the trees. She heaved herself to her feet and padded out of her den, past the other cats of her clan, and out through the thorny passage, out into the green grasses of the meadow. They were tall enough to completely shield her on either side, but directly in front of her was a bare patch created by the clan's many entrances and exits through the tunnel.

Silently, she pressed forward, loping easily among the tall stalks of grass, picking up speed as she went, until she was bounding over small boulders that littered the field, through small patches of wildflowers, and occasional carcasses of long dead birds or shrews. No stumbling, bumbling apprentice to slow her down, she could go as fast or slow as she wished, with no one to argue. She liked it like this, free from the impertinent questions and stupidity of a young cat and its ignorance.

But she had seen the way the other Medicine Cats looked at their apprentices, seen the pride and affection sparkling in their eyes, and knew she was missing out on something. But she knew what would happen if she was given an apprentice, there would be arguing and resentment, bickering over trifles.

But then she remembered the looks she had seen new apprentices give their mentors, the wide-eyed admiration, the small cats hanging on their every word, following them everywhere.

No. No apprentice for her.

Icetail increased her speed even further, pelting over the ground, trying to lose herself in her churning legs and the feel of the grass brushing her face as she flew towards the Moonglade, and the comfort of Starclan.

[|| allie]

Badgernose paced back and forth across camp, her paws tingling with excitement as she waited for her apprentice, Bluepaw. What was taking her so long? If they didn't leave soon, they'd be late, and the other medicine cats would be angry with her. Her tail twitched impatiently and she kneaded the ground. It was long past sunhigh, and they had a long way to travel. They had to leave now.

Just as she was heading to the medicine den to check on the young cat, Bluepaw raced out to join her, and Badgernose gave a sigh of relief. They were ready to leave! She bolted for the exit, almost tripping over her paws in the rush. "We're leaving, Cloudstar!" she called over her shoulder, and then vanished into the forest, almost forgetting to slow down for her apprentice.

She stopped as the river came into view. The FogClan medicine cat, Brightnose, and her apprentice were supposed to meet them here, and then they could continue on to the bridge to meet the others. "Now look, Bluepaw," she mewed. "When we meet the other medicine cats, I want you on your best behavior. You're representing StreamClan, remember that." Bluepaw nodded, and Badgernose returned her attention to looking out for FogClan. She hoped she could be on her best behavior for the PineClan cats. Her stomach churned with anxiety. What if she made a fool of herself? And in front of her apprentice, too.

And on the subject of PineClan cats, what would they do at the MoonGlade? Just stand around and have a nice chat while the other cats dreamed with StarClan? She clenched her teeth at the thought. How disrespectful.

"Keep your eyes out for FogClan, Bluepaw," she ordered. "I think I see them coming now. I'm not sure though..." She trailed off, squinting at three blurry shapes that were far downstream. Wait, three? Why were there three medicine cats?

[Whiskers]

Oh great, conversation about Rowanheart. Finchpaw let out a tiny sigh from behind Frostpaw and Brightnose. He was getting very tired of his father and everything about him, and wondered why did Brightnose have to drag him into this conversation too? From the looks of it it was only to bond with Frostpaw... but that wasn't the way to go about doing it. And why use Rowanheart to create the bridge? If Brightnose wanted to become closer to Frostpaw, she would have to... interest her.

Finchpaw doubted that Rowanheart was an interesting topic at all.

He let Frostpaw speak and he nodded when he heard her quick refusal. She wasn't nasty about it, just blunt. Finchpaw sped up now, to get closer to the two she-cats, happy that Rowanheart would be dropped and they could talk about other things--

"I hate that miserable excuse for a cat!"

Finchpaw stopped walking abruptly, blown out of the water by Brightnose's passionate declaration. He didn't know what to say to that; he felt a loyalty to Rowanheart, a forced one but it was there and this comment offended him for some reason he didn't understand. It wasn't like HE didn't dislike his father. He often felt a burning desire to claw Rowanheart's nose off. Why did he want to defend him then... speak up in his favor? He disagreed with all of Rowanheart's beliefs so this new emotion to defend baffled him. It wasn't logical at all.

But neither was Brightnose's hate, come to think of it. While Frostpaw's hate was justified by Rowanheart's actions, Brightnose had hardly spoken a word to Rowanheart.... in her life.
She had spoken to him today, and before that, to get him into the position of medicine cat.
Did he do something that Finchpaw was unaware about...?

Brightnose's feelings toward his father could be answered if Finchpaw just asked. So, Finchpaw put away his own conflicting emotions. He'd come back to those later.

He flicked his ears and realized that he had stopped and stared at Brightnose for a good minute now. She was probably wondering what her apprentice was thinking. So he clarified this for her. "Why? Why do you hate Rowanheart?" Finchpaw asked with a characteristic tilt of his head.

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[Cloud of Diamonds]

Brightnose was abashed at herself. What was she doing? Was she insane? Yet she still had to reply. Just get it over with, said her logical half. "I hate Rowanheart because...because he seems to be disdainful of his own apprentice. And he seems to think he's so great. That's why." I hate myself, she added silently. Why wasn't she being logical? Why? Finchpaw would hate her for this. Great job, genius, she said to herself. Her senses jarred her back to reality to smell Badgernose and Bluepaw waiting a ways off. They had to resolve this quickly.

[» s a b ø r ]]

"While it is good to be excited, you must remember we as PineClan are different from the other clans. We must look prepared in front of them, despite our beliefs we are all still medicine cats." Littlepaw nodded slightly then meowed to Bluestream, "I understand, Bluestream. What are we going to do while they all sit around and 'speak with StarClan'? Shall we just have ourselves a little nap? Or maybe you could test me with herbs somehow? Or we could talk, we never seem to do that much these days. You're always teaching me and I'm always learning... when I want to anyways..." Littlepaw cut off his sentence, for he felt that it was becoming more of him just thinking out loud.

Littlepaw padded after his mentor, making sure to move as quickly as he could. he was a lot smaller than most apprentices his age and because of this he tended to have a harder time with the physical stuff. He really did hope that he wasn't slowing Bluestream down. How embarrassing would that be?

"I think you will get along well with Bluepaw, however. She too is rather excitable. Bluepaw is StreamClan's apprentice under Badgernose. Do you remember the other Medicine Cats?" Littlepaw smiled up at the she-cat and then said, "Bluepaw. I do hope she is as wonderful as you, she shares part of your name." He smiled up at Bluestream again as if to ask if he had done a good job or not.

The rest of the medicine cats? Well there is Badgernose and Bluepaw of StreamClan. Brightnose and... Finchpaw of FogClan? Yes, I do believe it is Finchpaw. Then there is Icetail of MeadowClan, the poor cat has no apprentice... Littlepaw nodded satisfied with his memory, "Yes, I remember them: Badgernose and Bluepaw of Streamclan, Brightnose and Finchpaw of FogClan, and Icetail of MeadowClan." Littlepaw smiled up at his mentor once again, knowing that his memory had proved right yet again.

[Whiskers]

Finchpaw's ears flicked. Brightnose's answer disappointed him, mostly because it still made no sense to Finchpaw at all. He searched his mind for any other time that Rowanheart had spoken to Brightnose. How had she gotten that impression of him? What attributed to it? It didn't seem like Brightnose to make such a quick judgement of character, though Finchpaw hardly knew Brightnose enough to think this. However, he did know that as a mentor, Brightnose was calm and centered. She would never speak so loudly and so rashly if they were in the den, healing a patient or organizing herbs.

Maybe Brightnose had seen Rowanheart at a gathering and observed his aversion toward Pineclan cats. While avoiding Pineclan was hardly a peculiarity for Fogclan cats, Rowanheart could be downright rude to a Pineclanner if one approached him. Was that where she got Rowanheart's "holier than thou" attitude from? Though her exact words were "thinks he's so great" not "thinks he's better than everyone else."

Finchpaw sighed and his tail drooped. He didn't want to care. It wasn't like him to just drop something (even Finchpaw could be stubborn and pushy, like his brother, sometimes) but he wanted to switch the subject to something more stimulating, something that wouldn't make Frostpaw's blood boil. It was hard to do so, of course, with Brightnose being a medicine cat and himself being a medicine cat apprentice...there wasn't much he could say on that front without starting an argument...

Though there was no harm in a debate, was there?

Then again, up ahead, he saw the Streamclan medicine cats and he knew there was no time for that. Best to just drop it altogether and let Badgernose pick up the conversation, I suppose. Though knowing her, she'll ask why Frostpaw is here...which will lead to talk of Starclan. Which will lead to definite debate.

"While I'm curious how you got that impression of my father, I think, for the sake of the Badgernose and Bluepaw, we should leave the topic of Rowanheart at rest," Finchpaw said curtly and wearily.

[/size]

[roscoe]

The PineClan medicine cat kept walking as her apprentice spoke. She listened closely at each word that spilled from Littlepaw's mouth, wanting to make sure she could answer his questions perfectly. As his mentor, that was her job. Though it did strike her when he mentioned they hadn't simply chatted in a while. Yes, they were both very busy as medicine cats of a new clan. But in never was brought to Bluestream's attention that Littlepaw felt that way.

"Bluepaw. I do hope she is as wonderful as you, she shares part of your name."

She purred a little. "Flattery will get you no where, Littlepaw." So maybe it was a bit of a white lie. Bluestream never would ignore a compliment. "But yes, you got the other medicine cats and their apprentices right. Good job. As for what we will do?" She tried to keep a note of contempt out of her voice, instead replacing it with amusement. "While the others receive their silly dreams, we will sit away from them and chat, Littlepaw. You may nap if you are tired, for this journey is a long one." She had never actually brought an apprentice on this journey. Normally Bluestream would just watch the skies for dawn while the others dreamed.

Up ahead the gray she-cat could see the MeadowClan border. Perhaps they would bump into Icetail shortly, she pondered. It would be nice to have Littlepaw meet at least one of the other medicine cats before they all got together. It would get him a moment to be settled around others who follow (roughly) the same trail as him.

[Cloud of Diamonds]

Brightnose dipped her head in agreement. She spoke quietly. "Yes. I apologize for speaking so rashly, Finchpaw." Brightnose reflected on her apprentice's words. Indeed, they would meet Badgernose and Bluepaw soon, though that might just make things worse. Brightnose knew Badgernose was an avid StarClan believer and would most likely invoke conversation about StarClan, and would also want to know why Frostpaw was there. Brightnose cursed softly. This would require careful handling, and it would be better if the apprentices were her allies. But they were unlikely to have a good opinion of her, especially now. But perhaps they would be willing to cooperate with her in the face of being onslaughted with Badgernose and the other medicine cats' inquiries. Her thoughts mixed and boiled as she padded on towards the StreamClan medicine cat and her apprentice.