Ivypaw woke the next morning with a start. She had bad dreams all night of her mother's friend, Lakecloud. It had been a long rest of the day for her when the patrols came back after the fight. Nightpaw, as they call her, had to come and stay in the medicine den for the rest of the evening and she fell asleep before she could go back, so we let her sleep here.
The air smelled like dew and cedar. It would be easy to live here; there was hardly a single thing wrong with the atmosphere of the cats, except for a grouchy few that always seemed to be in a bad mood anyway. Then she remembered that Brackensnow had ordered Berryheart to come and get his wound re-dressed before he went out on the dawn patrol, but it seemed too early for the dawn patrol to be setting out. I could go and get it prepared anyway, I have nothing to do so might as well make myself useful.
Ivypaw slipped out of her nest and stretched. She went to the store that seemed almost identical to the one back at home, only the lingering scent of the dead medicine cat lingered. The light of dawn streamed through a gap in the cedar bark. She found the poultice that Brackensnow had made for him last night and sat it out of the rock where the medicine cat kept his herbs that were set aside for special treatment.
The white and brown tabby medicine cat was beginning to rise from her nest. "I see that you're up earlier than usual." She yawned and trotted over. "And have already prepared for our first patient." She looked at the rock. "I might have you do some battle training with me later, if we get all of our cats looked at." She flicked her tail over to Rainpaw. "Why don't you try and make friends with her. It'll be good for you to get to know these cats. Rainpaw seemed like a pretty nice young lady when I talked to her. Rosepaw seemed easy to cope with, too. And I did notice you looking at her brother; I have to admit that you do have good taste in your liking." She nudged me jokingly. "What was his name again? I know I heard his mother calling him."
"I think she called him Dustpaw." I mewed. "He does seem pretty cute, but I can't think like that if I'm going to be a medicine cat, right?"
Brackensnow looked at her paws. "StarClan has allowed some medicine cats to be in love. Not all medicine cats take a mate. The other medicine cats might think that the old belief that nothing should put you in-between serving your clan and their connection with them. Our warrior ancestors are gracious, and they think that you can love everyone differently and for different purposes, that the old rule was to heart-breaking and that by putting the medicine cats in longing and grief that it would make them farther from StarClan, so that is why they changed it."
Brackensnow knew a lot about StarClan and the medicine cat code, of course she was a medicine cat so she would have to know. "Brackensnow," Ivypaw began yawning. "Can you tell me more about StarClan and the medicine cats?"
She looked at me as if my question was hard to answer. "Ivypaw, are you sure that you want to be a medicine cat? You know that I would enjoy having you as my apprentice, but Soulfire would want to train you, too."
"Well," she meowed. "I think that I know where I stand now that I've known the truth about my mother, and piece by piece I'll figure out the whole story, but for now I want to learn about medicine cats. I'm sure even if I do choose to become a warrior it couldn't hurt to know about the role a medicine cat plays in the clan."
Berryheart came through the entrance with the cob web from last night still on his shoulder. "I've come for my herbs." He sighed.
"Here, let me put some fresh herbs on there." Brackensnow un-wrapped the cob web off of his shoulder and checked the wound. Flesh was separating his fur apart, but Berryheart had kept it clean last night. The medicine cat turned around and picked up the herbs and held them on with one paw while she wrapped the web back around.
"Am I good to go?" Berryheart chuckled half-heartedly.
Brackensnow sighed. "I guess, you great fur-ball. But remember tonight to not sleep on that side. I don't want it to get infected before the skin has time to grow back."
He headed to the entrance and turned his head. "Good luck finding a kit who wants to be a medicine cat, Brackensnow." Berryheart called and then went out the entrance.
The medicine cat went off into the herb store and laid out some leaves. Then she began to question me. "Which leaf is this and what do we use it for?" she poked her claw at the first bundle.
"That is water mint and it is used as a substitute for catmint if you run out, it is good for stopping white-cough before it turns into green-cough."
"The second one is and used for what?"
"Catmint is for treating white-cough and green-cough that is found near two leg nests and abandoned two leg dens."
The she pointed to a root. "Burdock root is for rat bites."
Brackensnow pushed them behind the rock. "I see that you catch on quickly. Now let's go see if any of the kits can catch on as quickly as you can." She went back in the store and got a web and poppy seed.
We headed out into the bright sunshine. The snow had melted overnight. The two queens were sitting outside of the nursery. One of them I hadn't seen last night; she was a light cream colored she-cat. Blazekit was watching as two older kits were play fighting with each other. There was a white and tabby she-kit with a brown chest sitting next to her. She looked as old as the other two, but she wasn't as big as them. She might be the perfect one.
"Hello, Brackensnow." Burningcloud addressed the medicine cat. "Long time no see! Have you met Lilypool?"
The light cream she-cat lifted her head and smiled. "Hi. I'm Lilypool. My kits are Leopardkit, Whitekit, and Morningkit." The two toms stopped play fighting and looked at me. The she-kit smiled.
"She looks like she might be interested in training." I whispered in the medicine cat's ear. "I don't think they are far from being apprenticed either."
"Hey, ValleyDung, what's with your fur? Did you fall in some elder dirt?" a white tom was laughing at me. I turned my head away from him. My face was turning red.
Rosepaw walked by and cuffed him over the head. "Watch it, Snowpaw. Think how you would feel like if you had to spend the rest of your life stuck with her clan. Would think that it would be fun?"
"So, what is this one?" Brackensnow was asking the kits. "I'll give you a hint, this one is used to stop wounds from bleeding."
"Cob webs." The she-kit answered. "The other one is poppy seed, and I know that catmint is used to cure the early stage of green-cough, white-cough, and it cures green-cough, too. If you have white-cough it would be wise to use water mint first, that's just a little bit weaker than catmint."
"Wow!" Brackensnow exclaimed. "Do you like what medicine cats do? It seems that you've paid very good attention to the old medicine cat's works."
"Oh, I would love to be a medicine cat, but you already have an apprentice, don't you? Isn't it her?" she flicked her tail over to me.
"That's not my apprentice, she just came with me to train a little bit, she's sick." The medicine cat explained no less enthusiastic. "Would you like to follow your dream of becoming a medicine cat?"
The she-kit looked at her mother. "Can I, Lilypool? I really want to be a medicine cat! Think of how much I could do for my clan."
Lilypool sighed. "I never said I wouldn't let you." She licked her paw and rubbed her daughter's ear.
"You don't know what you're getting into, Morningkit. Do you really want to be trained by those mouse-brains?" Snowpaw jeered at us. "I don't see why we can't go and attack ValleyClan while their precious medicine cat is away."
"That's enough, Snowpaw. I am ashamed of you." A gray she-cat scolded him. "No training for today, go and check the elders for ticks. Come on, Rosepaw. Let's go hunting."
Snowpaw shot me an angry glance and mouthed something to me. I don't want to find out what he said. "Sorry, Grayblossom I won't do it again." The he turned and stalked off.
"Don't dwell on it." Brambleberry lifted my chin. "Some cats are only just out there to make other's feel worse. Only you can make those words mean what you want."
It made me feel a little edgy anyway. I'll just forget it by tomorrow. He's just one of those stupid cats that you can't do anything about.
"Can we go training now?" I asked her. "You promised we would as soon as we get done with all of our chores."
Brackensnow huffed jokingly. "Really; you really want to go training with me?" her eyes teased me.
"Yes, silly!" I jumped up. "I want to be the best fighting, hunting, sort of kind of medicine cat that there ever was!"
"Okay, okay," she laughed. "Let's go and train." She padded away from the nursery with Ivypaw at her side. Rattletail was lying on their SnowRock with the leader, Fallenstar."
Fallenstar raised his head when he noticed us approaching. "Can I help you?" he asked. "Anything you need?"
"Uh, oh, no I was just wandering where you trained your apprentices at." She meowed. "Ivypaw wanted to try and learn some battle moves. I think she might be fit to train now. Her cold as seemed to begin to fade a little, she isn't coughing as much."
Rattletail lifted his head to. Then he peered past us. "Larkfall, will you show the new comers to the training hole?"
Ivypaw looked over her shoulder and stared at the light gray tabby tom that was passing behind us. "Uh, okay, Rattletail." He flicked his tail. "Follow me."
Brackensnow and I followed him out a different hole in the barrier; this path was behind the apprentice's den. We went down a short path that led to a small but cozy training area.
"This is where we train our apprentices at." Larkfall turned around and looked at us. "Don't talk to me or anyone else in this clan, we only have to have you. You better start considering yourselves as prisoners, ValleyDung."
We watched him thunder off, snorting at us behind his back. Brackensnow and I looked at each other with wary glances.
"More of a reason to start battle training." She meowed sternly. "It must seem as though everyone is out to come and get us, but don't let what other cats say to you shape your life."
There were two apprentices training in the clearing. One was Dustpaw and the other was a gray she-cat. They were practicing battle moves. My heart lurched when I saw their mentor's glaring at us.
"Let's j-just practice here, I don't think they look s-so glad to see us." Ivypaw stammered to the medicine cat. "They don't know who they're messing with when they mess with. We are their only chance of survival, so if we decide to go all we'll kill you if you don't do what we want, we can be the destruction of the clan!"
Brackensnow looked at me as if I had already started to poison cats. "No! I will not kill out a clan!"