[speedy]

As the day began the dusk light was such that the young medicine cat Swiftheart could just make out the general outline of things. Even so, she was up and about at this hour- she had energy that so far had been unbounded and the extraverted sweetie was out early because she was too restless to keep in her nest once awake.

Blue eyes scanned the territory for the needed herbs that were required of her to gather. She needed Parsley for an elder whom had a bellyache... She was pretty sure that meant near the shadowclan lands.  As medicine cat she knew that the regular borders did not apply to her, even so she did want to be careful to avoid confrontation. Although a past warrior, she was very glad that her new position did not rely on battle so much.  She never really enjoyed battles so much, she would do it if necessary to defend her home or ones she cared for, but the role of medicine cat apprentice now allowed her to focus on things she much prefered anyways, things like caring for her clanmates and getting to converse and visit with them often.

Her white pelt caught the early morning light as the sun was just starting to peak out over the horizon, the skyclan trees made lots of shadows mixed with sun spots of where it could peak in through the tall branches.

She sniffed around looking for her herb unsure where exactly it was just that it was near shadowclan. She hummed an upbeat little tune to herself as she searched.

As she approached shadowclan, she realized that her morning would be their evening since they worked on nocturnal schedules. Even so, she somewhat hoped to meet one of them, getting to know others even if in different clans was always something she was good at. She loved making new friends.

She spotted a figure off in the distance but she wasnt sure if they could see her... or even make out if it was a cat or not.

She waved her tail out to them "Hello? Hello there" she meowed moving closer to where she last saw the movment.

Eventually catching up she recognized not only the figure to be cat but she knew of this cat - it was Dusklight the shadowclan medicine cat!

She didn't know her super well - just knew of her, she dipped her head in respect and then glanced back up with a big happy and eager smile.

"It's me swiftheart, the new skyclan medicine apprentice"
she introduced and figured it might not be a bad idea to remind her of the name in case she forgot since the two hadnt interacted much at all.

"I've heard great things about your healing from my mentor Creeksky" making friends in her own clan seemed easy enough, she was just herself and tried to be super kind to them and it seemed to work - she hoped to stars the skill would be able to transfer cross clans.  She knew that clan lines were sometimes drawn so deeply that it prevented such things, but she hoped to change that.


Medicine cats were meant to be links between the clans right? she figured to herself


The sweet excitable white furred she cat gave a purr and continued talking, "I couldn't sleep all that good, so I got a head start on looking for some things I needed, I know you must be at the end of your long night being nocturnal and all, but if you happened to know where parsley was? We have an elder with a tummy-ache"

[viv]

dusklight

she/her ○ shadowclan ○ medicine cat

won't you come and dance in the dark with me?
show me what you are; i am desperate to know

The burdock root had gone bad.

Dusklight grimaced. Though no one was in dire need of it yet, it was still good to have-- especially for burns, and thunderstorms and fires were most common around this time of greenleaf and into leaf-fall. She'd cleaned out the stock and dipped into the elders' den. Usually, she liked to go out for herbs during the day while everyone else was asleep to make sure that she'd avoid being absent while everyone else was up and milling around-- but this was important, she'd decided. She dug out Snowthistle and tasked her with minding the medicine den for a while while she was out. It'd do the elder good.

She'd spent most of the night digging through the usual spots, though found nothing. Bad luck, maybe-- or maybe another cat had been over and over-harvested while she was letting them grow. Great, she thought a little spitefully.

The sun had started to yawn over the horizon when she finally found a good growth, her paws clumped with mud and her nose clogged with the scents of the forest. Perhaps that's why she didn't scent anyone else around? She was in the middle of digging out the root when she heard someone calling between the trees. Her ears pinned back and her head lifted with a blink.

Though she didn't immediately recognize Swiftheart, neither by appearance nor name, she gave another thoughtful blink when Creeksky's name tumbled from her mouth. Creeksky had mentioned a new apprentice-- she'd brought her to the moonstone once or twice, too. Dusklight took a moment to shake the dirt from her pelt, dipping her head politely and taking a seat back on her haunches.

"Ahh, thank you," she purred. "You're quite far from Skyclan."

Parsley? Dusklight had to think, frowning. "I won't lie, the herb growth hasn't been very good on this side of the forest, this greenleaf," she mewed. The chervil had come down with a rot at the beginning of the season, and many of the leaves were bad. Borage wasn't much of a replacement option; most of it had been harvested for Tanglerose earlier. Juniper berries weren't ready yet. "There might be some mallow on the edge of the forest, if that'll do for their belly?"

She pointed her nose to the general direction of the growths-- but they were quite a ways away, and there wasn't much to see other than thick tree-trunks that hounded the woods. "I'll walk you there, if you help me dig out this root. I can't imagine you've been in the territory very often," she rumbled with good-natured humour for this last part; pushing up and gesturing to the hole she'd been working on. The root was particularly thick, about two paws wide and dipped in very deep to the earth.

Dusklight scraped white toes over the earth, shoveling some out. "How is Creeksky treating you?" She asked, conversationally.

[speedy]

As she got closer, she realized more so what the other medicine cat was up to. The dirt on her pelt and paws and her digging at the root - 

It had appeared that Dusklight hadn't immedietly recognized her until she had brought up her mentor's name.  And that was okay, she was still very new she had to reminder herself. It did make her want to get to know all her fellow medicine cats more, she knew well that the relationships she could build with them may one day save the life of a clanmate of hers, or save a clan perhaps even.  Medicine cats were supposed to work together! At least, that's what she believed for now.


She sat listening to what Dusklight had to say.  At the mention that the herbs had a harder time for shadowclan, she put her ears back sympathetically and gave a slow little nod of understanding.


"aww, I'm sorry Dusklight." she meowed softly.

She paused a moment and gave her a little smile in hopes to brighten their mood back up of her companion. She glanced at where Dusklight had pointed to where the mallow was - the offer of being shown where it was exactly was very nice of her and Swiftheart nodded thankfully for it. Being out in the maze of the shadowclan swamps was not something she longed for.  Additionally she liked the idea of being with someone else as the buddy system in case something went wrong, and if nothing else, it gave her extraverted, bubbly personality someone to talk with too!

She eagerly agreed,
"oh, yes! We can help each other"


she meowed as she went over and went to the opposing side of the hole that Dusklight had started so that she could help dig at it from the opposing angle.  


"we will have this root out in no time at all!" she purred cheering and began scrapping away the dirt and swampy mixture of earth of shadowclan land around the herb that was needed.


She flicked her tail back and forth at the question and hummed a bit thinking, "I really like Creeksky so far, I am very new to med cat apprentice still and I have a lot lot more to learn, but so far she has been patient with me. I will say that I enjoy this new role of being a medicine cat apprentice much more than I did my prior role of warrior" she explained.


She figured she should include the part of her warrior past to help explain why a new med cat apprentice would have a warrior suffix instead of the standard -paw

She knew very well it was not normal for warriors to become medicine cat apprentices, and it had raised some eyebrows back home about it - some surprised others suspicious all of whom she understood but hoped that in time she could convince her clanmates she was a good choice for it.

"I don't miss the fighting that the warrior life had" she admitted as they worked to dig out this thick root.


she grunted digging at it trying to free the herbs grip on the earth "but this herb root seems to be fighting more than any spar I had to do as warrior training" she giggled jokingly.

"hmm and what about you... remind me once again, did you have an apprentice? There has been so many new cats that I have gotten to know since my change to my new role I have forgotten"




 

[viv]

dusklight

she/her ○ shadowclan ○ medicine cat

won't you come and dance in the dark with me?
show me what you are; i am desperate to know

"It's alright," Dusklight dipped her head into a little nod. "It just means that next greenleaf, we'll have more herbs than we know what to do with." Next greenleaf was a long ways off, though. At least the flower field in Riverclan's territory was always overrun with all sorts.

Her ears angled in Swiftheart's direction to listen to her over the sound of paws scrabbling at the dirt. She was not very surprised to hear that she'd been a warrior before-- she'd heard of elders retiring into medicine cats before, but she was surprised at how young the apprentice seemed to be. Maybe some Skyclan cats are just smaller, she considered. It's not like Dusklight could judge-- compared to most Shadowclan cats, Dusklight was teeny-tiny, too.

"That's good," she mewed in response. "Your warrior skills might come in useful some day, though. I've had to use my claws as much as any warrior, personally."

She craned her head over to inspect the burdock lodged in the hole. "It is quite big," she muttered. "Maybe we should just chew off a bit and leave the rest to grow." The medicine cat sniffed at it and sunk her teeth into the root. Though she'd intended to do exactly as she'd said, a yank at it unearthed the entire thing--half a tail-length long, though it tapered greatly at its ends. It brought a shower of mud and soil out with it, and Dusklight groaned as she was dirtied up even more.

"Maybe you can take half of it back to Skyclan with you," she offered, studying the thing between her teeth. "I don't think we need this much."

The taste of soil lingered on her tongue bitterly as she spat it out and measured about half, ear flicking to Swiftheart's question. "Oh-- no, not yet," she mewed. "I've not been lead medicine cat for very long yet myself, and Starclan has yet to give me any signs about the new kits." Snowthistle had also told her to hold off for a while longer just in case Cloudstar found out about her and Robinflight, though Dusklight was uncertain if she'd use that kind of leverage against Shadowclan. It seemed wrong. "Dacetail's apprentice, Sunpaw, might be around your age. Have you two met?"

[speedy]

She gave a little nod supposing that the herbs would be back next greenleaf just as Dusklight said, she would know best having been a more experienced med cat than herself. It was reassuring to hear.

As the root gave way and tugged out, a playful squeal sounded from Swiftheart as they both got showered with dirt.  "oh yes! You got it! Good job" she purred happily flicking her tail.

Her white pelt and fur were now very muddied up, the white fur clumped up in places and showed ever mark of mud and dirt she had managed to gather during their digging.

It did not dampen her spirit in the slightest however. 

She hopped back out of the hole with lots of energy and hardly even noticed or minded the dirt in her fur.

she tilted her head as Dusklight spoke, oh wow!? Now she was offering up half of the herb for skyclan uses too! That was very sweet of her and Swiftheart nodded a little bit.  For once the talkative extravert was at a little bit of a loss for words something that did not happen often.  All she could manage to say or think of was a little thanks

"oh wow, thank you" she purred

She let Dusklight hold the herb up and she bit at it half way to cut it into a more managble piece both for carrying and for sharing between their two clans now. She tugged and tugged her nose inches away from her companion in this silly little 'game' of tug of war to split the herb up.  Eventually it gave way and she went tumbling backwards a bit her half of the herb in her jaws.

She smiled akwardly around it.

"go' et" she meowed mouth full of dirt and herb.

She set her part of the herb down to clean off her tongue and blinked hearing Sunpaw's name.


Her eyes absolutely lit up upon hearing it and she nodded lots, "oh yes! I have gotten to meet him.  I really like him, he's quite big for a riverclanner" she purred happily.  He was amazing and she liked him lots already too.


She was ready to follow Dusklights lead now for wherever this mallow would be--

 

[viv]

dusklight

she/her ○ shadowclan ○ medicine cat

won't you come and dance in the dark with me?
show me what you are; i am desperate to know

"Ahh, there's no need to say thank you," Dusklight said through her teeth as Swiftheart began gnawing on the root, trying to hold it steady. It felt heavy in her jaws. "There's no use in letting things go to waste. It's good for plenty of thin-- ah--"

She bit harder and yanked the root back-- perhaps a little too hard, she thought, because in a blink Swiftheart was tumbling back with her half of the burdock. Though she sounded off and seemed alright, Dusklight hopped forward and gave the apprentice a quick sniff and once-over to make sure she hadn't hurt anything. Creeksky would murder her if she sent her apprentice back injured.

"Ahh, sorry, Swiftheart," she mewed, nudging her nose into her white shoulder to help her back to her paws. "I'll take you around to the stream, too, to wash off. You're almost a completely different cat," she added, amusedly.

Another quick once-over, and Dusklight stepped along, leading Swiftheart with a flick of her white tail. "He's nice. He is, though I think most Riverclanners are quite big," she said. Their leader was big. Their deputy was big. Most of their warriors and queens were. Though, at Sunpaw's age, it did seem strange that he was already bigger than most of them. She offered, with some humour, "it must be all the fish they eat."

The shadowclan cat wove easily through the thick trees, paws flitting between thick roots that covered the forest floor. "Mind your paws," she echoed back. "The stream isn't very far."

[speedy]

Swiftheart purred grateful for the help back up and pawed playfully back at her new friend once she was back on her paws.  Her eyes widened a bit at the comment and she glanced down hmm yea, her pelt did get a bit dirtied up. 

Her ears flicked a bit at the idea of the stream. "oh, right good thinking thanks" 
The most playful grin flashed breifly over her maw and she smirked a bit happily as she picked a clump of dirt from her white pelt and gently tossed it in Dusklight's direction with a squeal and fit of giggles.

"eeek! look out Dusklight its a mud monster"

Once she was done with her silly games she nodded settling down and stood at more attention and war ready to follow after her guide's side and looked around the marshlands that shadowland called home, it was so swampy underpaw and she took Dusklight's advise of watching her step seriously.


"wow, its so slippery at parts of your land"

she commented curiously pawing at the soft mossy earth below.

"all the tall trees in my home have a completely different feeling, its funny how the same forest can feel so different."

She listened to Dusklight describe the other riverclanners and nodded thinking about that, maybe the fish really did make them grow to be like giants.

She heard the stream before seeing it and a short while later they had arrived to its edge.  She made quick work of things not forgetting that her original reason for being here had been for getting her elder taken care of.  She splashed water up onto her messy pelt and washed away the mud.  Her pelt was back to white once again and now was all clinging much closer to her frame making her look even smaller than normal.

It was actually somewhat refreshing on the warm summer day to get to cool off.

"hmm well I can't swim like the riverclanners, but wanna come join for a cool down?"
It was probably obvious to her companion by now that she was a very playful, joyful spirit that still at times played about like a kit with their levels of energy.

[viv]

dusklight

she/her ○ shadowclan ○ medicine cat

won't you come and dance in the dark with me?
show me what you are; i am desperate to know

Dusklight gave a little nod, seconds before mud splattered across one side of her face. She'd barely heard Swiftheart's 'warning,' yelping and shaking herself hard to try to get it off. Even after a vigorous attempt, mud still dappled the cream-orange part of her face, covering the patch completely. "I think that's enough for right now," she said gently, though not without amusement. A paw wiped at her face before continuing on.


"Well, it's quite a distance away from your side of the forest," she mewed in response. "The wind here blows colder than anywhere else, and-- well, I'm not sure why it's so wet. But it's good for the herbs here." When they weren't experiencing a rot, she thought with an inward grimace.

The stream babbled softly. It drifted in thicker when it'd been raining-- and rain from the other day had kept the stream wide but clean. Dusklight dipped into the shallow end and spent a time cleaning off her paws and wiping her face down. Like a bird in a puddle, she shook and sprayed water in all directions to dampen her fur without soaking it straight to the bone.

Her ears flicked in Swiftheart's direction while she cleaned herself off.  "Ahh-- no, I don't think so," she said. "My fur is so thick, I think I'd just sink to the bottom like a rock." She added this not without amusement, though not being able to escape the bottom of the stream sounded, to her, like something to have bad dreams about it. Dusklight slid back out of the stream and shook herself dry, licking her pawpads for a few beats.


"Here, this way," the medicine cat mewed. "The forest is a little less wet on this side. We're almost at the edge of the treeline, too, where the mallow grows."