Disclaimer: I don't own the Warriors series!

Title: Red Pearls

Summary: Brightfur just wanted to be a medicine cat. Her mentor, Ravenwind, has very different ideas on what that means- for her and for ShadowClan. With Ravenwind controlling her every move and more than willing to kill to keep it that way, Brightfur will need more than just luck to live to tell the tale.

Chapter Title: A veritable buttload of potential medicine cats

...

"Take a good sniff," Brightfur told the kits as she set her leaf bundle down. "Don't hesitate to touch them, either, but be careful. Even a bit of juice can get you sick."

Maplenose thumped her tail against the ground nervously. "Why would medicine cats keep deathberries, anyhow? Can't they seep into other herbs?"

"Only if you keep them together," she replied. Brightfur had no intentions of spilling Ravenwind's little passtime, but it was absolutely part of her decision to show the kits such deadly things. Ravenwind had yet to speak to her since the visit to Slatestar's den, and Brightfur wasn't going to take any chances. At least before I had a fairly good guess on who she would be targeting next. "And we stock them in case of cats who don't want to fight anymore. We also have foxglove."

The queen gave a hearty shudder. "I never knew medicine was so... dark."

Don't get me started! "Now, it's not often that poisons are weaponized, but when they are deathberries are usually the most commonly used. Foxglove and poppy are easy to jumble up, and other plants tend to smell much sharper than these. If something horrible should happen, I want you to know that it's the seed that'll kill you. If you're ever in a situation where someone tries to make you eat them, don't eat the seed."

Hazelkit pawed curiously as the fleshy surface of the berry. His little eyes were squinted. "It's red!"

Brightfur's tail twitched with impatience. "It is."

Dewkit sniffed at his own. He was much more hesitant to touch it. "What if you do eat the seed?" he asked. "Do you die?"

"It's pretty likely."

"How would you stop it?"

Brightfur paused. Why am I being quizzed on this by a five-moon-old? "Well, I'd use yarrow. It makes cats vomit."

The little tom shuddered. "I don't like throwing up. It makes my tummy hurt."

"Don't touch any little white flowers and you should be fine."

"I dunno why you're telling us all this," Hazelkit announced, flopping onto his side. "Maplemama told us warriors don't kill warriors! It's against the rules!"

Brightfur whisked the deathberry away from him. She'd hate for him to accidentally sit on it. "In an ideal world, they don't."

"What about coughs?" Dewkit pressed. "How come I don't get anything when I cough?"

"You cough because of the fire, Dewkit. There's nothing to give for you that would help with that- we can soothe it, but we can't cure it. And you get plenty of honey to help with the sore throat, don't you?"

"But if you could! What would you give me?"

This was getting rapidly out of hand. "Juniper berries, for breathing. I fed you some before, when you were little. Do you remember?"

He reluctantly nodded.

"If there's no berries, I'd give you tansy. I like to use that more on the elders; they grumble less when the plant looks pretty."

"The yellow poofballs?"

Brightfur stared at him. He remembers what they look like, just based off that? True, the elders had a steady diet of things like poppy and tansy, but there was also a laundry list of other issues she medicated. Dewkit must've paid close attention to what came in and out of the dens. "Yes. That."

Maplenose wound her tail around Dewkit, eyes glowing. "Well, look at that! We've got a regular medicine cat here."

She felt herself tense. Half of the reason she'd asked to be Ravenwind's apprentice was because cats told her of her "gift". I can't have a kitten in the den! Ravenwind would destroy him! "He's very wise," she meowed awkwardly. "But that doesn't mean he has to be a medicine cat."

"Oh," said Dewkit. He looked crushed.

Mouse-dung, Brightfur thought, sensing immediately she'd said the wrong thing. Maplenose glared at her, drawing Hazelkit and Dewkit closer to her with a scowl. "Well, thanks for showing my babies deadly plants," the queen meowed. "Let's never do it again."

Deeply embarrassed, she quickly grabbed her things and left.

"I get the comfrey root, I do. But why chervil?"

Ravenwind snorted in the background. The molly had yet to speak to her- or anyone, as far as Brightfur knew- since she'd returned, and hardly left her nest. Brightfur paused her chewing to explain. "Chervil is good for infected wounds. Addershine's paw has been cut for a couple of days now, so it's not going to clear up quickly. Stopping infection now will save us more herbs for the future."

"Darn rocks," meowed Addershine, looking quite embarrassed under all the attention. He squirmed as Willowthorn took the cobwebs off and gave the cut a solid lick. "Shouldn't Brightfur be doing this?"

Willowthorn glared at him, tongue peeking out. "I think I know how to clean, Addershine."

"She has to do something," Antpaw snorted imperiously. The apprentice had only the slightest grit to her breathing, and would be back to her tasks in a matter of days. "She catches more plants than she does prey."

The silver and white tabby's scruff rose. "So what? All you're doing is laying around!"

"Any cat can chew some plants!"

Brightfur calmly grabbed the last bit of chervil and went over to her, setting it down at her paws. "Then you won't mind helping me, then?" she asked, delighting in the deer-in-the-headlights look all 'paws got when they were pulled aside by the medicine cat. "My jaws are aching something awful, and Willowthorn needs to focus."

Antpaw's mouth gaped like a fish. "But-"

Brightfur cut her off. "You can chew some plants for me, can't you? Just a sprig."

The brown she-cat stared at her a long heartbeat, clearly hoping for her to laugh it off. Brightfur waved a paw for her to go on. Reluctantly, Antpaw took a bite out of the chervil, and almost immediately winced at the strange taste. She gave a few lackluster chews before spitting it out.

"A bit chunky," Brightfur commented. "But it'll do."

Willowthorn watched closely as she smeared the poultice onto Addershine's paw, then as she wrapped it in fresh cobwebs, then as she carefully put it all away. Anxious twitters in her stomach made it hard to breathe. Why can't she just leave already? Desperate to get away, she trotted out of the den without a word, only to find Willowthorn sitting next to her.

"You're a bit bright for a shadow," she snapped, hoping it'd make her go away.

The young warrior tipped her head to the side. "How come you get mad when cats wanna learn medicine from you?" Brightfur opened her mouth to argue, but Willowthorn went on. "I heard about how you hurt Dewkit, and now me. I thought it was important for all cats to know a little bit of medicine."

"Medicine like poppy seeds! Medicine like not eating random plants! Not hovering over me while I do my job."

"I just wanna learn."

"Do you? Or are you just passing it on to Smithy?"

Willowthorn flinched at the loner's name. "Hey, that's low. I wouldn't do that."

"I'm not a frog-brain, you know." Brightfur's tail flicked with barely concealed irritation. "There's no place around here that could get you the kind of catmint you've been getting me. You're sneaking it out of Twoleg gardens."

"Why does that matter? Having extra herbs helps ShadowClan."

"You can't step two pawsteps into that Twolegplace without Smithy knowing. Don't try to tell me he hasn't talked to you."

Her ears flattened. "Fine, whatever, I know him. But we're not friends or anything. He just showed me around a bit. I see Clover way more than I see him." Brightfur stared at her, waiting for the excuses to stop. That seemed to make her double-down. "I'll show you where the catmint is, then. You can see for yourself that it doesn't matter."

A flash of Mabel's bloody eye made Brightfur swallow a gag. "I'm not looking to go back to the Twolegplace anytime soon."

"Scared?" she taunted.

"I'm a Clan cat. I've decided to act like it."

Willowthorn's scraggly pelt fluffed up. "If you cared about your Clan, then you'd be willing to risk it! Besides, I know for a fact it'll be safe. The loners have a thing like a Gathering once every couple of weeks, and the next one is in a few days. I could show you around." She smiled at her, knowing she'd won. "Unless you're chicken."

"We both know I don't know what that means," she said, and sighed. "Sure. Why not. Let's get ourselves killed."

Author's Note: Chapters are a bit slow-going, but they are coming! The next few are important, and the few after that? Monumental. That's when I'm gonna end this one on Ao3 and set up a third "part" to the story, because there's gonna be a short timeskip. Not long, but like... a month? And it feels right.

-Mandaree1