A Warrior at Heart [Open/Waffles]

[Flower]

It was a beautiful Newleaf day. It wasn't raining, the plants were growing leaves again, and the air felt warm again. Prey was plentiful, apprentices were out training with a smile on their face, and camp was peaceful.

"Auuuugggghhhh! I'm never going to get this right!" 

Well, almost peaceful.

Minnowpaw was glad that it was Newleaf. She welcomed the warmth and the lack of cats coming in and out of the medicine den complaining of frostbite. It wasn't quite late enough in the season for cats to complain of allergies, either, so the medicine cat den was relatively empty. That left Batflight to keep Minnowpaw company and to teach her the trade of herbs and how to apply them, which the apprentice was pretty good at.

What Minnowpaw was yelling about this time was her inability to make a nest properly. "Stupid grass! Stay in place! How am I supposed to make cats comfortable if I can't even get the frame right?!" Minnowpaw was angry with the grass, of course, but more frustrated that her paws wouldn't cooperate with her mind. 

Her sister was so much better at applying blame to herself rather than inanimate objects, but Minnowpaw had just complained a while earlier that Flintpaw would make a much better medicine cat. "Batfliiiiight," Minnowpaw whined to her mentor. "Help."

[waffles]

:.BATFLIGHT.:

Newleaf was upon the clans. Of the four seasons that the forest brought, newleaf and greenleaf were her two favorites, or at least they were the two she preferred. They were the best seasons for stocking up on herbs and usually the less busy of the seasons when it came to illness. And just like the usual newleaf, the cats coming in and out of her den were few. Besides the occasional cat with a thorn in their paw and the constant needs of the elders, the dark brown she-cat found herself with time to spare.

Spare time left her with more opportunities to train her apprentice. Oh, Minnowpaw. She was still surprised that the younger she-cat had stuck around this long. Minnowpaw had the heart of a warrior, and Batflight still suspected her apprentice yearned to be one. It was one of the reasons she would send her off to train with the other cats her age. The other being that Batflight could handle so much of Minnowpaw at once.

Batfliiiiight"

The she-cat finally turned around at hearing her name. Minnowpaw was trying and failing at making a nest. "Yes?" she asked, moving closer to inspect the apprentice's work. "Calm down. Getting upset over it just makes it worse," she snapped before pulling out several strands of grass that were part of the problem.

[Flower]

"Yes?" Batflight replied to Minnowpaw's cry for help. Minnowpaw flinched slightly; she knew that her attitude annoyed her mentor at times, and she felt guilty for getting over emotional about it. "Calm down," her mentor snapped at her. "Getting upset over it just makes it worse."


Minnowpaw's guilt left her as she rose up in irritation herself. Hey, Batflight didn't have to bite her head off! Minnowpaw's mood only worsened as her mentor simply fixed her mistake rather than teaching the apprentice how to do it herself. How was Minnowpaw supposed to be a good Medicine Cat if her mentor wouldn't even teach her the necessities?

"Hey, this would probably be a bit easier if you actually taught me this stuff," Minnowpaw snapped back. She knew that her reaction would probably make things worse, but she was too proud to back down and cower at her mentor. "It's not my fault StarClan made me your apprentice," she muttered to herself, studying Batflight's improvements over her own failure. Even if her mentor wouldn't teach her, she could learn by example.

[waffles]

..BATFLIGHT..

"Hey, this would probably be a bit easier if you actually taught me this stuff."

Well if you paid more attention to what I said, she thought, biting her tongue to keep the comment from slipping out. Batflight took a deep breath, exhaling slowly as she tried to push her own irritation down. The medicine cat knew she wasn't the easy cat to get along, but she did give Minnowpaw points for sticking it out. She was still getting the hang of this teaching gig and it wasn't easy. In the beginning, Batflight had not been thrilled by the idea of taking on an apprentice already - she wasn't that old - but the then Minnowkit persisted until she'd agreed.

She sighed, refusing to snap back and instead inspected the apprentice's work once more. It wasn't that bad looking. "You started out well, but your problem is in the weaving. It looks like you got too excited and made a mess of it," she finally replied, glancing at Minnowpaw.

Batflight heard the younger she-cat's comment. "You know that it's not set in stone. If you really wanted to...well no one would think badly of you if you changed your mind. This isn't the easiest path to follow," she said, her voice soft for just a moment before turning back to its normal tone. "Regardless, you will still be going out with the other apprentices to learn how to hunt and fight. It is good for you to have the skills."

notes; apologize for the shortness

[Flower]

"You started out well, but your problem is in the weaving. It looks like you got too excited and made a mess of it."

Minnowpaw felt a bit better as Batflight pointed out her mistake. Usually that was the direct opposite of what an apprentice would feel in that situation, but Minnowpaw had asked for help, and she really did want to learn how to do things correctly. She eyed Batflight's nest over in the corner of the den, making comparisons to her own attempt, and took notes in her head.

"You know that it's not set in stone. If you really wanted to...well no one would think badly of you if you changed your mind. This isn't the easiest path to follow. Regardless, you will still be going out with the other apprentices to learn how to hunt and fight. It is good for you to have the skills," Minnowpaw alerted at her mentor's softer tone, and immediately felt guilty. She hadn't meant for Batflight to hear her comment.

But instead of the instant apology she usually offered, Minnowpaw thought for a moment. Would she really want to be a real apprentice rather than be a medicine cat? Well, she'd be able to make her own warrior stories, and maybe get a chance to be leader someday. She'd be with Flintpaw more often. Batflight wasn't really old enough to be a mentor, and wasn't very good at it. The pros definitely outweighed the cons, but there was one glaring fact that Minnowpaw couldn't ignore.

StarClan themselves chose her to be a medicine cat. It was a fact Minnowpaw sometimes utterly resented, but she respected her warrior ancestors, and though she didn't know why she was chosen to be a medicine cat apprentice or where she fit into the grand scheme of things, but she had faith in StarClan, and would never let them down, ever. StarClan had never led the Clans wrong before, and Minnowpaw doubted that this would be the end of their winning streak.

The prolonged silence that had hung in the den while Minnowpaw contemplated was broken by her voice. "Nah. Sorry Batflight, but you're stuck with me. Now let me at that again." Minnowpaw deconstructed her attempt and began weaving the outside again, this time with more care and attention. She didn't want Batflight to know that Minnowpaw had any affection for her; it would completely ruin her reputation, even making an effort to push past her mentor in order to begin again.

((Hey, if you could get another member with a WC cat to join in and maybe get injured or something, that'd be good. I don't really want this thread to end at five posts.))

[Nighthunter]

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The tabby striped she cat made her way into the camp. Her vision was fuzzy, and it felt like she was carrying the weight of more then one body. Her breathing was labored as well, though in this case it was from running, and helping her hunting companion along back to the camp. Shimmerstrike and Feralclaw had been out enjoying themselves hunting, just the two of them. Everything was fine, well so she had panicked silently the entire time, but it hadn't been because she was worried about some catastrohpy happening. No she had been more concerned with his motives for wanting to be near her, and that she was more used to being alone then having someone around her. Now she couldn't help but think that maybe she was better off alone. After all both of them had been injured, and it was her fault, she had let him come with her.

Not that in reality she could have prevented it. An aggressive an ornery old fox couple had
gotten them, and the surprise threw them off guard. It wasn't even possible to smell the mangy old foxes, until they were literally right under there nose. In there case though it had been right in there burrow. Looking back on it, that probably wasn't the best place for them to stick there noses, but they had been innocently trying to flush out rabbit, on the hill. Still she blamed herself, if she had known they were there. In fact she wondered how she could have possibly missed them. Shimmerstrike hunted alone so often that this type of thing shouldn't have slipped her notice. A shiver rippled down her frame, when she realized that had Feralclaw not been there, she would have looked far worse then she did.

That was making light of her current state, and her injuries thought not entirely life threatening, could become so if they got infected. She needed to see Batflight, but didn't want to have to bother her with her incompetence. She knew that it would only put the clan at risk if she ignored her state, and tried to push her anxiety that she was only going to irritate the female medicine cat behind her, and she looked to see if Feralclaw was still on his paws. Shimmerstrike had lead him home to Windclan's camp, but hadn't actually taken account of his wounds. He fought so bravely I'm not sure how much he actually got hurt. My technique must have grown insufficient lately since I have tried my hardest to ignore battle. This of course was her own insecurity acting up again. She was a very talented apprentice, even after her first mentor died and she refused battle with her second, she had learned and excelled in even some higher advanced forms of combat. She was very skilled, and had preformed well on the hill, but she would not see it as enough, because she always saw herself as in the way, or helpless in most situations.

Nope that wasn't something she was reflecting on, now she was more concerned with her shame, and the torn left ear, nearly shredded in fact that she was sporting. As well as a twisted back right leg, most likely a sprain, and several deeps cuts on her back and underbelly. What else from a couple of grouchy foxes. Hiding her need to wince from the sting of everything, she walked into the den careful to look back for Feralclaw. She would track him down and make him go to her if he tried skipping out. The clan needed a kind strong warrior like him, she was expendable. " Sorry to burden you, but Feralclaw could use some help." She left out the fact that she was obviously injured, hoping that she could avoid the full scrutiny of the two medicine cats present and maybe save them supplies as well.

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: 665 words.
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[Silhouette]

Actions//Thoughts//Speaking

[ooc: Feral and Shimmer have a thread, Here where they get attacked by foxes. The thread isn't over yet so we are using liquid time to where after they get attacked. Since you guys needed some hurt cats]

Feralclaw of course didn't look for trouble, trouble looked for him. He was always doing something which caused him to get into a fix. He tried not to but it was inevitable. It just always seemed to happen. Most of the time it was some tom cat getting angry at him for flirting with a she-cat that the other cat liked. Of course that wasn't his fault, he just loved she-cats. Feralclaw, often getting into trouble meant he often was dragging himself to the Medicine cat den to get looked at. Of course minor cuts and scrapes didn't effect him much. Today he had found a bunch of old, nasty foxes. The stupid creatures had taken over a rabbit hole and Feralclaw was of course trying to show off for a she-cat. What else was new? He had convinced Shimmerstrike to go hunting with him and accidentally lead her right into the couple.

Feralclaw could still feel the powerful burst of adrenaline flowing though his body. It made him the great warrior he was. He did not feel that weak and the pain that should have been taking over his body was still being replaced. Shimmerstrike wanted him to go to the medicine cat den. Which of course he wasn't happy to go, the cats would give him weird things to eat and plaster his wounds with sticky cobwebs. It was a horrible feeling but Feralclaw could also feel the blood dripping from the bite on his shoulder. He sighed and followed the already moving she-cat. He felt bad that he lead her into this fight. She didn't seem to be pleased at all and had wounds like him. He could tell she was favoring her back leg and he wasn't very pleased at the sight. In fact, it made him a bit sick. He felt his chest twist and the pain flooded it.

His vision filled with black dots and his head pounded. Now feeling the pain he realized his shoulder was a bit more open and deep then he thought. Also he had some cuts on his back and face. He shook his head to clear his vision but the black dots wouldn't go away. Maybe he even had a concussion but he couldn't remember hitting his head hard. Feralclaw focused on his paws and kept following the she-cat in front of him. He didn't want to seem weak in front of her. Even though she probably hated him right about now. "Sorry to burden you, but Feralclaw could use some help." He heard her say as they made their way into the Medicine cat's den. Of course she was sorry to bother them He thought.