Nice to meet you, Pain. I'm Love. (CrowpawxOPEN)

[glowlynose]

All Crowpaw could think about was how he needed to see Finchpaw now. The situation in FogClan was even worse than he'd imagined. Mist"star" had seemed strict when Finchpaw had told him about her, nothing more. Now it was clear that she was a lunatic. Making cats count their sins? Who had ever heard of such a ridiculous idea? It was mad! Oh, and poor Finchpaw was stuck in the middle of the tornado. If Frostpaw wasn't exaggerating, then his poor friend was probably half mad by now. His father wouldn't be much help, he knew that. Rowanheart was sure to be in the middle of whatever Mistpelt was planning. He was among the most devout cats in FogClan.

It was a tragic situation, in Crowpaw's opinion. If he'd known the full extent of FogClan's misery then he would have gone mad as well. Sometimes ignorance truly is bliss. Oh Finchpaw, if I could do anything to help, I would. But I'm stuck here and you're stuck there. Suddenly, Crowpaw wished that the warriors would leave. It would be much easier to ask Frostpaw for help without their ears floating around. As crazy as it sounded, Crowpaw wanted to stick himself in the middle of FogClan's inferno to try and help those who deserved it. That was everybody, he supposed. He just wanted to do something instead of sitting around waiting for his mentor to finally get off his tail and teach him something.

"Yeah, I guess collecting herbs isn't a very hard job. It's a lot easier when you know the names and not just smells though." Crowpaw sighed. He didn't think he'd ever felt so helpless in his entire life. Here he was supposed to be training for the most difficult job in all of the clans, the most difficult to be respected for, and he didn't even know the names of the plants he used to heal. Well, minus one. There were poppy seeds. He knew those, but those were easy. he really envied the relationship that Finchpaw had with Brightnose. She cared about him. Lynxpelt or Red-what'shisface, or whoever was supposed to be his stupid mentor didn't care a whit about him! That was depressing.

"I guess if he remembers I exist he might give me something to do," he mumbled. Crowpaw turned to face Bluefur now. Bluefur would know what to do to cheer him up. "I guess everything, sort of, Bluefur. There's not much to do in camp anymore. Nobody wants me to do anything. They all sort of avoid me, actually. Is it because I'm the medicine cat apprentice, or is it because I'm me? Do they all think I'm too weird?"

Crowpaw was not in a good mood. No, sir, he was not in a good mood at all. He felt lost, abandoned, hurt, confused, angry, and depressed, all wrapped up into one bite-sized morsel of discouragement. Yay. If this was how most cats felt all the time, he was sorry for them. Maybe they wouldn't think he was so weird now that he understood what they felt like. It was a big maybe though.

[/center]

[Slug]

Bluefur bit back the nasty retort he wanted to slander Frostpaw with. How dare she. He only wanted to help Crowpaw, not keep him from escaping. Then again, Bluefur's definition of helping was maul first and ask questions later. It was probably for the best...

But it didn't stop him from putting Frostpaw's name right at the tippy-top of his list, that's for damn sure.

Then Crowpaw spoke and the PineClan warrior was all ears, a frown twisting his maw as the little one continued on. Sometimes Bluefur wished that Crowpaw was just happy and oblivious, so he wouldn't have to see his small friend be so... depressed. And by his clanmates at that! He would have to keep a closer eye on them...

"Crowpaw..." Bluefur began, if a little uncertainly. How would he handle this? What did Crowpaw want to hear...? No, even if Crowpaw was unhappy, he wanted the truth. Bluefur could at least give him that much.

"It's because you're a medicine cat and the fact that they're not use to so much optimism. There's no way around the fact that StarClan is more in touch with medicine cats and seeing as PineClan is full of non-believers...." Well, Crowpaw probably already knew that. "But... I happen to like you just the way you are. Yes, not everyone is going to like you, but all of us are going to have our "enemies" in life, so to speak. It's best not to dwell on them and to just focus on those who actually care about you, Crowpaw."

Bluefur paused, suddenly finding the ground fascinating. "Like me, for example."

It didn't need to be said that if anyone hurt his companion, he'd break their legs and then drag them to the river. The fishes needed to eat too, after all...

But it was probably better that Crowpaw didn't hear that, for obvious reasons.

[Cloud of Diamonds]

If her eyebrows went any higher they would be lifting off her face, felt the young warrior. Rarely did she get into conversations this interesting these days - since Barktail had done his unspeakable deed that she could tell no one of, (she'd lied about where she'd gotten the scars) she'd almost unconsciously spent more time by herself. The only good thing about her life these days was that she had Willowpaw to mentor.

And now this interesting scenario.

She looked at Frostpaw, her head cocked slightly to the side. Surely she was of warrior age, but in a Clan that insane, of course they would never dare make a 'sinner' (as Frostpaw surely was to them) a warrior. Ashstorm felt some slight sympathy toward the silver FogClanner, though she'd never show it.

"Amazing. Well, your Clan bores me, so I won't inquire further. How ya doin', minus being surrounded by crazies all the livelong day? Hunting good? It's not bad here, but the river's all frozen so I can't fish, which stinks."

Even the gray PineClanner was surprised at how casual she was to a member of an enemy Clan, despite her seemingly sane beliefs. Still, unless Frostpaw decided to cross the border, this warrior had no problems with her.

There was some stuff going on between Crowpaw and Bluefur, but she mostly wasn't paying attention. It was none of her business anyway, though she did catch a few words of Bluefur's last semi-speech. Yeah, no cat was ever going to like or be liked by everyone. She was certainly going to get her revenge on that scum one day. "Eh, you're not bad, Crowy. A little odd, yeah, but aren't we all? Hey, you got a nice sister, at least. I never had any siblings."

She remembered with pain her father, the only family she'd ever had. She looked away for a moment as snapping red jaws and Miles's last words filled her mind after so many moons of pushing them away. Then she looked back at the three cats around her - strange as they were, unlike her as they were, they were her family now. She blinked, realizing she'd included Frostpaw in her thoughts. But then, she seemed to be practically a PineClanner.

Ashstorm hoped she was - she was growing to like the green-eyed apprentice.