"Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host. But anger is like fire. It burns it all clean."
After a devastating fire strikes MorningClan, an orphaned Spiderpaw begins her journey to as an apprentice. However, as new truths come to light, and...
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Harsh sun trickled down through the protective canopy of leaves, spotting the ground with flecks of gold. High above, squirrels and birds chittered and jumped from branch to branch, trying to take advantage of the greenleaf.
Well, they weren't the only ones. After Spiderpaw had visited the Pale-tree and spoken to the past prophets, with Petalfrost being notably absent, greenleaf had descended quickly upon the Clan. Maplewhisker, overjoyed that Spiderpaw was staying with the prophets, had accelerated her training to full-speed, and now every day of training would go over multiple things.
Spiderpaw was glad that she had chosen to stay as a prophet; Palebriar and Maplewhisker were enjoyable to be around, after all, and they were both endlessly kind, but without sacrificing their individual personalities. Palebriar had more respectful tendencies; she liked to stick to what she knew. As for Maplewhisker, he was a bit more loose. If Spiderpaw ate prey with him, he would share any Clan gossip. For example, Spiderpaw had learned that Stoatnose was in a sour mood because Comfreyheart and Cherryear had become mates because Comfreyheart didn't love her back.
Since Spiderpaw had made her choice, she had learned so much. She now knew the scents and appearances of every basic herb: alder bark, blackberry leaves, borage, catmint, chamomile, cobweb, honey, horsetail, juniper, marigold, mouse bile, poppy seeds, and yarrow. She knew how to identify deathberries and nightshade, and what to do if a cat swallowed them. She knew the basic symptoms for a few common ailments, and had learned to check up on the health of every cat at least once in a while. She had been brought out with a few warriors to learn how to defend herself properly.
Currently, she sat with Maplewhisker, who was showing her a vole's ivory bones. He gestured with his tail, whisking it over the shoulder. "See how it is kind of popped in here? If a cat gets a shoulder injury of that kind, you want to try and feel if their bone has been pulled from the socket. Then, you have to try and pop it back in." Spiderpaw winced at the imagery, but knew it would be necessary. Earlier that day, they had discussed some of the more complex herbs: goldenrod and lavender, for example.
"And as you can see, the spine is kind of the basis for everything else...that's why cats will be in a lot of danger if a part of it gets damaged. Sometimes, during the leaf-bare, we'll caution the warriors to stay away from any trees with heavy amounts of snow on them. If a branch falls onto the haunches of a cat...there's no promise that they'll walk again," Maplewhisker explained, a certain quality of sadness in his voice.
Soon enough, after that lesson, Maplewhisker brought his apprentice back to the camp. Within the shade of the den, he went over how to make ointments, something that Spiderpaw had started learning a bit earlier in the moon. "Essentially, you want to have them prepared as early as possible. If they're not used in roughly five days, don't be afraid to discard them. You start with how you would start making a pulp..." The tom demonstrated, chewing an herb in his mouth. He spat it out on the ground and squeezed water out of moss. "Then, you want to add in your desired liquid." Finally, he placed the ointment onto an dock leaf. "Let this set inside of the den for about half of a day. This will harden into a thicker substance.
