Disclaimer: I do not own Warriors.

Not much different happened in the next few days. Rainpaw, being the attentive listener that she was, was quick to learn about all the herbs and their uses, so Nightwind devised a test to see if she forgot anything from the beginning. He told her to pretend that he had something wrong with him. He told her his symptoms, and she diagnosed him and prepared the right herbs for him and applied them. She made ointments if she had to and applied them in the proper spot, had him eat certain herbs (if it didn't do anything bad to a perfectly healthy cat) that she got, etc. In the beginning of these practices, there were several things Rainpaw had forgotten, which didn't surprise Nightwind. Over the next couple of days, though, Rainpaw got to a point where Nightwind felt like just appointing her as a full-fledged medicine cat, even though she knew little about the warrior code or hunting, or even where to find all the herbs she would need to use.

It was in the early afternoon. Nightwind found Rainpaw and announced that that was the day she would get to start learning about the "more interesting things."

Rainpaw spontaneously switched to her kit-like side and practically somersaulted around the entire camp before coming to a halt in an upside-down heap at her mentor's paws. Nightwind couldn't help it—he broke out into uncontrollable laughing. Rainpaw grinned innocently, untangled herself, and stood up, going back to her calmer side as she did so. After Nightwind got out of his hysteria, and led Rainpaw to his den.

They settled down. Rainpaw spoke in a quiet, though serious voice, "So what is the interesting stuff?"

"The interesting stuff," Nightwind began, "is everything else. Starclan, the Moonstone, Gatherings--one is coming up soon, by the way--what else there is to being a medicine cat besides the herbs, where to find the herbs, how to recognize them, and I'll also be telling you about the warrior code and hunting."

"But isn't that for warriors?"

"The warrior code is something every cat must know and understand, whether you're actually a warrior or not. Most of the time, you learn its rules by doing things, be it doing them right or wrong. So that we shall learn as we go, but now you must learn about Starclan. Do you know what they are?"

"They're the spirits of our ancestors, right?"

"Yes, but they're also much more. They know our future, and tell us, warn us. But they encode it, put it in a riddle form. You have heard of prophecies?"

"Yes."

"That is what these riddles are. Though while Starclan may also have power over our future as well, they cannot actually govern what we do. I'm sure you've heard the legend of Firestar?" (a/n, not my name)

"Oh, yes."

"Starclan made a prophecy about him coming to Thunderclan to save us. They didn't possess his body or anything to make him go. They sent him dreams, and he decided to go. He was not forced to."

Rainpaw looked confused, but finally figured it out and nodded to tell him he could go on.

"Medicine cats have always had a special connection with Starclan. They are generally the ones that Starclan speak to and give prophecies to. Every half-moon, the medicine cats of all four clans, as well as their apprentices, go to the Moonstone to share tongues with Starclan. The medicine cats receive dreams from them about what is to come, and hear prophecies if there are any. We cannot eat before we go, though we can eat herbs for hunger. We all meet at Fourtrees, then go on to Mothermouth, the cave wherein the Moonstone lies. Once we are inside Mothermouth, we cannot talk until the next morning when we have left. We can eat when we get home. It is sacred, this journey, and no cat from any Clan may dare to stop us from making it. Medicine cats are special—we can ignore the rules about crossing territories' boundaries as long as it is for a good reason and not because we are chasing a mouse across it."

Rainpaw was awed by this. She had never expected even this much difference between what she originally thought a medicine cat was and what they really were.

"Is that enough for one day? Go, get something to eat for me, then you can eat too and go to bed," Nightwind told her.

"Okay," the apprentice replied. She left and came back, dropped a finch in front of him, nodded to say good night, and left.

Okay, I'm trying to avoid lectures about stuff we all know. I couldn't phrase this any other way for it to make sense, so I'm sorry... and I'm forgetting that this should be shorter, I'm used to taking my time. If this were written normally by me, I would take my time and make it potentially up to 50 chapters long... trying to avoid that... I promise, no more lectures, though. I'm hoping I can really get this going by about chapter 7... actually, this chapter ending is great for starting the plot up! I'll try to make things happen... thanks for reading this if you actually took the time to read this pointless note. :-)