Firepaw walked behind his mentor. After a few days, his wounds were mostly healed but stiff.
Spottedleaf paused at the edge of a sandy bank, turning. "This is Sunningrocks. We get a lot of new-leaf herbs around here. Sniff around and tell me what you can find."
Nodding, Firepaw opened his jaws and scented for any plants he recognized. He pushed past the smell of prey and focused on the nearby herbs, moving to follow one particularly strong scent he found. At the edge of the river he carefully poked at a plant, looking back at his mentor for confirmation. "Watermint, right?"
She nodded, smiling. "Good. What's it for?"
Thinking back to their lessons, he winced as he tried to remember. "Watermint is for bellyache, right? It's good to use with juniper berries or chervil!"
Spottedleaf purred, her eyes bright. "Very good! You're picking up on this quickly, Firepaw."
He brightened from the praise, parting his jaws to look for more herbs.
By the time sun-high came around, Firepaw was able to identify another patch of watermint, some poppy, goldenrod, and feverfew.
Spottedleaf quizzed him on uses as they walked back to camp with fresh herb bundles in their jaws. "What did I give you for your wounds the first and second time and why did I use them?"
Firepaw spoke around his bundle, trying to think about what he'd smelled from the poultices. "Well, the second time you used goldenrod for the stiffness that had started to settle in and horsetail for the infection that started in a couple of the scratches. The first one I don't remember the smells, but you probably used marigold to try preventing infection, though it didn't work because you needed to use horsetail, and cobweb with both poultices to stop the bleeding and keep the herbs in place."
Her eyes were bright, pride glittering in them like stars. "Excellent, Firepaw! I can see why StarClan chose you. You're a very quick learner, little one."
He puffed his chest, glowing from the praise as they entered the camp.
Both cats sorted their herbs into piles, not adding them to the store yet.
Spottedleaf stopped him from adding the watermint to their stock. "Ah, remember why we don't add them yet?"
He tilted his head, brow furrowing. "I-I don't think we talked about that yet?"
She blinked in surprise, embarrassment flickering in her gaze. "Oh, yes of course. Sorry, Firepaw. Well, we dry the herbs out first so that they can stay in our stores for longer. If we put them in now, they'll become rotten before anyone can use them. We'll set them in the sun so that they'll keep their uses for longer. You can add the poppy, though. The seeds are already dry and won't rot."
Firepaw nodded and took the poppy head, carefully placing it beside an older one so that he didn't knock any of the seeds out.
The she-cat nodded, glancing at the herbs. "I think that's enough for today. I can lay out these herbs so they can dry in the hottest part of the day, why don't you go talk with your clanmates and bring us back some prey in a bit?"
He smiled, dipping his head to her before he bounded out of the den.
Being cooped up in the medicine den left him unable to interact with the Clan, other than Bluestar who'd visited a couple times.
Firepaw looked around, eyes bright as he took in the Clan sharing tongues.
A large tabby, Tigerclaw as Spottedleaf had informed him, spotted the ginger apprentice and beckoned for the tom to come closer.
Curious, the apprentice padded over.
Tigerclaw looked the apprentice over, his eyes glinting appraisingly. "You're Firepaw, yes? Spottedleaf's new apprentice?"
He smiled, nodded. "Yeah! You're Tigerclaw, right? Spottedleaf told me most of the Clan's names."
The warrior dipped his head. "Yes, that's me. So, how have you found ThunderClan so far? And your training?"
Firepaw purred, his eyes bright. "It's wonderful! Spottedleaf is a great mentor and, other than Longtail the first day, everyone I've spoken with have been rather friendly."
Chuckling, Tigerclaw tilted his head. "That's good to hear, then. Go speak with some of your other clanmates, now. I look forward to seeing you grow, young Firepaw."
The apprentice beamed, dipping his head before sprinting away.
Tigerclaw looked after the tom with narrowed eyes, a scheme glinting behind them.
...
Firepaw carefully bit the stem of a leaf, adding it to his small bundle. Satisfied with his work, he left the newer leaves to grow before he or Spottedleaf harvested them. Picking up his bundle of chervil, he happily trotted back to where his mentor was digging up burdock roots.
Spottedleaf tugged the roots from the ground, shaking off dirt that sprayed onto her pelt. She glanced at her apprentice, nodding approval. "Good. Let's head back now."
They padded back to camp side-by-side in a comfortable silence.
Most of the training they could do without anyone to treat was finished. Firepaw was pretty much fluent in herbs and their uses at this point, only mixing up the names or uses every once in a while, and so they spent most of their training time out in the forest to identify scents.
Firepaw laid out his chervil leaves in the sun to dry while Spottedleaf took the roots inside.
He felt his fur prickle in warning before he turned, eyes widening when he saw the patrol entering camp covered in scratches.
He quickly ducked his head into the medicine den, calling. "Spottedleaf! Tigerclaw's patrol came back injured!"
The medicine cat slipped past him without a word, silently beckoning for him to follow as they met the patrol near the camp entrance.
Tigerclaw growled, wincing as he accidentally stretched a bad looking scratch. "There was a group of rouges at the outer border. We drove them away."
Longtail hissed as Spottedleaf lapped at one of his wounds that was caked in dirt. "Didn't exactly get away scot free, though."
Spottedleaf nodded, inspecting the last two cats of the patrol before stepping back. "None of them are fatal, but they're not pretty. Come back to the den so we can make sure they don't end up infected."
The patrol followed the two medics, lingering outside the den so they didn't crowd.
Firepaw cleaned out their wounds carefully while Spottedleaf gathered herbs and cobwebs together.
She came back out with two bundles, dropping one at her apprentice's paws. "You can treat Longtail and Runningwind, their wounds aren't as bad."
He nodded, forcing his fur to lie flat at the idea of treating them on his own. Glancing at Runningwind, he nodded to the tom. "Clean your wounds while I treat Longtail, alright?"
Runningwind seemed amused, likely seeing the worry in the apprentice's eyes despite his attempt at staying calm, but nodded and began to lap at his injuries.
Longtail sat, under Firepaw's instruction, and remained silent while he was treated, watching the tom with an unreadable look.
Firepaw chewed up the marigold, lapping it into the lanky tom's wounds before applying cobwebs to the worst of them. He took a moment to inspect his work before nodding and looking up at the warrior. "You should be alright as long as you don't reopen them. Don't itch at them either, you might accidentally make them worse."
The pale tom hesitated before narrowing his eyes, nodding. "Right. Thanks, Firepaw."
He blinked in surprise, having been certain that the warrior still despised him. Smiling, he nodded and moved on to Runningwind.
The tom's wounds were even shallower, not even bleeding anymore.
Runningwind smiled, ear flicking. "I was too fast for those rouges to land too many hits on me."
Firepaw snorted in amusement, chewing up a couple bits of marigold and licking them into the worse of the warrior's scratches. Backing up, he nodded to himself. "Alright, same instructions for you. No itching or licking at them for now. You should be fine by tomorrow, though."
His two patients thanked him before they left to report to Redtail and eat.
Satisfied, Firepaw picked up the remainder of what he hadn't used and brought them over to where Spottedleaf was working on Tigerclaw, having finished treating Willowpelt. He set the bundle down, looking over the tabby's wounds.
Spottedleaf gave him a quick glance, her tail flicking as she worked. "Go ahead and apply the marigold to the shallower wounds, Firepaw. I've got the worst of them covered."
He dipped his head and chewed up the last of the plant, careful to put them on the wounds that needed them or looked like they might be getting infection.
Tigerclaw dipped his head in thanks as the two cats pulled away, tail brushing the ground. "Am I cleared then, Spottedleaf?"
She shook her head, eyes narrowed. "Oh no you don't, Tigerclaw. If I clear you you're just going to go off on another patrol and reopen all of these. No, you're staying in the medicine den tonight. I might clear you tomorrow, but we'll have to see. Go give Redtail your report, get some prey, then come back so I can make sure infection doesn't settle in."
The tabby snorted, amused, but dipped his head and left to do as he was instructed.
Spottedleaf turned to Firepaw with a smile, her eyes bright. "I know it was rather early to be treating anyone, but you did very well. You kept calm and treated them without much difficulty. I'm very proud of you, Firepaw."
He beamed from the praise as they settled into the den, sorting plants with a comfortable air lingering around them.