𝐿𝙸𝙶𝙷𝚃 𝐼𝙽 𝒯𝙷𝙴 𝒮𝙷𝙰𝙳𝙾𝚆𝚂 ─── 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘰𝘰𝘯 4.

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐘

"Two sunrises?" Dovesong could barely believe her ears. Two sunrises and they would be going back home! She didn't think that Flowerdawn would agree to going almost immediately. Usually a leader wouldn't take that risk with a formerly injured cat coming along. The journey could be too slow and they could get caught by threats. But the only injury that Dovesong had was a possible concussion and major headaches.

"Is that fine with you, Aspenleaf?" the golden tabby asked, ignoring Dovesong's surprised exclamation.

"Yes, fine. Thank you for telling me, Nectarstripe," Aspenleaf replied. Nectarstripe dipped his head and left the den quickly. Aspenleaf immediately turned around and began to gather up some herbs.

Dovesong watched as he did, the bittersweet tang of herbs brought back her eagerness, and she nearly leaped out of her nest. "Can I help? I'm a medicine cat, too," she added quickly when Aspenleaf gave her a look.

"I guess so," Aspenleaf decided with a sigh. "I'm organizing all these herbs so that we can carry them on our journey back. Think you can do that?"

"Yep. My former mentor and I always organize bundles of herbs for the future," Dovesong explained, coming up beside Aspenleaf. She began to gather herbs and put them in a bundle to wrap.

When she was done, Aspenleaf glanced over to check it. "I was putting each separate herb into a bundle with the others."

"But then there would be too many leaf wraps to carry," Dovesong protested. "I would just keep the herbs in little bundles like this. So if a cat is injured, we have all the right herbs to treat them. If a queen is kitting, we have all the right herbs to treat them."

"We have no expecting queens here," Aspenleaf informed her, looking thoroughly annoyed.

"I was just making examples. Plus, we need to package these herbs as best as we can in as little leaf wraps as possible. This is the best way," Dovesong answered. "There's too many types of herbs to have one wrap for each. And there's not enough cats to carry all of them."

"We'll find a way," Aspenleaf mewed.

"You'll regret that choice," Dovesong muttered, turning back to her wraps so she could redo them. She made a bundle of raspberry leaves, borage leaves, chervil, and catmint. "How's this?" she asked.

"That's fine. Can you do these next?" Aspenleaf responded, sliding a small pile of four more herbs over to Dovesong. Dovesong recognized the herbs as feverfew, lavender, chamomile, and burdock root.

By the time they were done, all the leaf wraps were gone and there were too many wraps to count. We're going to lose at least half of the herbs before we return, Dovesong thought, looking at the bundles doubtfully. At least we have some back at home.

Home.

***

The two days before the third sunrise seemed to drag on endlessly. Dovesong helped Aspenleaf out as much as she could, but Aspenleaf was already extremely independent and unpleasant to work with. Dovesong either avoided helping him or asked and was turned down. It was starting to get difficult to hide her aggravation, but somehow she kept it in.