Words Of Wisdom From A Medicine Cat

^^Chapter 4: Traitorstar^^

    I don't really remember what happened after that day. I mean, Shadepaw healed after a moon,  unblinded and healthy. Jetpaw and Lightpaw became Jetsplash and Lightwish. I tried and tried to forget that day, moons ago, but it was just a reoccurring memory. I kept trying to imagine my real parents, but never anything this evil. But maybe Shadepaw was wrong, he had  to be wrong. I wouldn't grow up to be like Slash! 

    My thoughts were snapped into focus when I saw Sunpelt tending to Stormflight's wounds. Sunpelt was grumpy sometimes, especially when cats don't want to be treated. "Look, I'm trying to help you."

    "I'll be fine." Stormflight grumbled.

    "No! You must be treated!" Sunpelt snapped. She wasn't always the stereotypical sweet and compassionate medicine cat, unless she was with kits or elders. She had always been nice to me, and we were like best friends. As a kit I hadn't imagined being best friends with my mentor. She tied a cobweb bandage around Stormflight's back leg skillfully and quickly, "There you go, you're off patrols for a moon."

      "Hey, you were watching that, right?" Sunpelt asked me. I nodded. She picked up a few pieces of horsetail and stored it back into the herb stockage. "That'll be you soon." She smiled. I looked at my white paws and shuffled them in the ground.

     "Where were you last night?" Sunpelt questioned.

   How does she know?

      "I..." I stammered, "I saw Shadepaw leave, and I followed him. It just turned out he was going to drink some water. I just thought he was going somewhere more suspicious."

     "Oh, okay." Sunpelt turned back into her herb shelf. It was miraculous that she believed me, I wouldn't have believed myself. I saw Sunpelt grab an herb, "Do you know what this herb is."

    "Uh, Catmint?" I asked, knowing that couldn't be the answer, the scent wasn't the same.

     "Nope, Thyme."

    "What's that?" I asked, and Sunpelt gave it to me to examine. "It helps cats when in shock. Say, they were attacked or something." The dark green leaves looked like those of dock leaves, and the edges were slightly spiked. "So you eat it?" I asked.

     "Yeah." Sunpelt nodded, unfocused as she tried to get a piece of marigold out of her thick, golden fur. Thyme, I imprinted the herb into my mind as I did with all the other herbs. When I couldn't sleep (which happened a lot), I would take a twig and carve the shapes and details of the herbs I had learned, just to memorize them. Now when I would see an herb I didn't know, I could just check and see if it fit any of my 'memorandums'. 

     I wonder if Slash did this...

    No! I will not ever think about my 'father' again!

    I put the Thyme back into the shelf, when will I be a true medicine cat? I always knew I was rogue blood, why would StarClan let me become one? Sunpelt pulled out another herb, it was a long strand of stem with leaves and tiny flowers that looked like snow covered briars. 

   "It looks kind've like white yarrow." I observed, but yarrow had more flowers than leaves, and this herb had more leaves that flowers, I would have to remember that when I added it to my wall. "It's called Chickweed." Sunpelt muffled through a mouth full of the herb, she set the Chickweed down and I observed the five-petal weed, even looking at each individual almond-shaped petal.

   "How does it help us?" I asked Sunpelt, but I didn't lift my eyes from the new herb.

   "It's one of the cures for Greencough." Sunpelt answered me.