Just Another Day Collecting Herbs (Hawkpaw)

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The sun stretched into Tigershade's cave tickling his whiskers. He twitched in his sleep then slowly stretched out his legs before finally opening his eyes. Standing up he padded to a tiny spring that ran into a small pool at the entrance of the cave, which was the reason for the original Medicine Cat who chose this place for their den. Once his thirst was quenched he padded towards where he kept his herbs and nosed through them to figure out what he needed. He would need to stock up on everything before Leaf-Bare was here. But today he would stock up on Catnip, they would have to go to the twoleg place bordering them to get that. And he would also stock up on the last of the Juniper Berries and some Lavender. And if they have time maybe even some Tansy. With that decided he went to Hawkpaw's nest and gave him a rough nudge. "Wake up, it's time to get to work, there's no time for you to lie around all day sleeping like a lazy old queen heavy with kits." On the way to the twoleg place he would be sure to quiz his apprentice on different herbs to see what he knew and what he needed to work on. Which would probably be everything since he was just a newly made apprentice. But still he wanted to know what he had remembered from his first few days. "Where going herb collecting, I'll be taking you to the twoleg place for the first time. We need to stock up on catnip for the winter. Now tell me what is catnip for?" Tigershade probably wouldn't know after all he hadn't even been a thought in his mothers head last winter when he had to use it last.

Notes // Berrytail // xxx Words // Outfit

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[Berrytail]

Hawkpaw woke up as he got nuged."Yeah,yeah. A second, Tigershade." The tom got up and stretched his legs a bit then shook his fur in a fast move. "Catnip? Um...greencough?" The hound cat said hopefully looking at his mentor.

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Tigershade grunted impatiently as he waited for his apprentice to get up. "Don't yea yea me you lazy apprentice. There is work to be done before the first frost comes in and kills all the herbs. The next few days are going to be busy ones at that." Once Hawkpaw was ready he gave another grunt and turned to lead the way when he heard his reply. "Good, now tell me what could we use if we didn't have any catnip?" He led the way as he talked. When he got to the entrance he told the guards where he was heading then continued on the way. He was positive his apprentice wouldn't know the answer to the question for he had yet to tell him what it was. It was a trick question and he wanted to see if he would catch on.

[Berrytail]

Hawkpaw

"I am not even going to argue with you..." He whispered then followed his mentor."Um...something to ease the cough? I don't know." Hawkpaw said and kept up following his mentor.

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Ah it looked like his apprentice was learning after all. He gave a small smile the first the apprentice had earned. Or maybe not, the question was what else could he use besides catnip for greencough. He let out an exasperated sigh. "I said what else we could use instead of catnip for greencough. You wouldn't of known either way since I had yet to teach you but you could of at lease guessed a herb. Chickweed, Chickweed can be used if no catnip can be found or if there is a shortage of it. It won't work as good as catnip but unless the greencough is horrible bad it will work."[/b]

There it was the twoleg place. He opened his mouth slightly and scented the air. Ah there is was. "Tell me what you smell?" Hawkpaw would have to learn to find it just by smell today eventually he would learn all the best places to find it but on the rare occasions when there was none in the usual places you needed to know it's scent so you can find a new batch.

Berrytail

[Berrytail]

Hawkpaw rolled his eyes at his mentor's remark."Yeah."The tom said no more and followed his mentor.Once reaching the twoleg place he listened to Tigershade and smelled the air."Kittypets,something delicious smelling and twolegs."The brown tabby said what he smelled and waited for his mentor to react.

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Tigershade saw Hawkpaw roll his eyes and quickly turned to stare at him. "It is your wish to become a medicine cat apprentice is it not? Then maybe you should start acting like your interested." From now on until he was sure that Hawkpaw really wanted this he would only give him the simplest most boring tasks. He was not going to waste time and energy on someone who didn't want to be there. He lashed his tail then turned back to face the twoleg dens.

Well, at least he could scent still. "We're looking for the thing that smells delicious that would be the catnip. Now tell me where is the scent coming from?" Stretching out before them where five twoleg nests. He wanted to see if Hawkpaw could figure out which house held the catnip. If he had a good nose he would say the middle house.

Berrytail

[Berrytail]

Hawkpaw stood still for a moment."Of course it's my wish!"He said fast."It's just...Nothing." He said and smelled the air again."Middle house?"The apprentice said a bit unsure."Is that it?"

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Tigershade stopped and looked to Hawkpaw sitting down and curling his tail over his paws once more. When he guessed the correct house he gave a nod of his head. "Correct, but before we go any further lets talk. So you say it is your wish to become a medicine cat. You began to say something then stopped tell me. What is it that's bothering you. It's just what exactly? I am your mentor don't you think I can tell you have been distracted lately?"

[Berrytail]

The apprentice smiled when he guessed the house, but his smile faded listening to Tigershade."I was starting to realize how hard it is to be a medicine cat.I am afraid I can't learn all the herbs,their uses,where I find them,how to so fix a broken something or anything.I don't know how you can do all of these things..."

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Tigershade relaxed, was that all that was on his apprentice's mind? He felt a weight fall off his shoulders. "Oh Hawkpaw, don't you see? All medicine cat apprentices feel that way at first. Why do you think cats who become medicine cat train longer and harder than normal apprentices. We have much more to remember. You have only been training for a moon, moon and a half. You're just beginning to learn Hawkpaw. You must give yourself time. You'll see in a few moons you'll have more confidence in yourself. Now come let us do what we came here to do."]

Standing up he turned and ran straight for the middle house leaping up onto the tall fence with ease. "Ok to get up here you need to run at the fence then leap with all your strength. If you can just get your front claws hooked up here you can scramble the rest of the way."

[Berrytail]

The young apprentice listened to the words of his mentor carefully."Is that so?"He jumped on his paws and shook his head."I'm okay now."He sat still looking how Tigershade jumped o the fence easily."Got it!"Hawkpaw began running and then jumped managing to get his claws into the fence.From there the still small tom scrambled up to the top."I'm here.Now, how does it look?"

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Tigershade smiled, yes Hawkpaw had much to learn but he would learn given time. Once he was on the fence with him he walked balancing on the fence a couple tail lengths before jumping into the branch of a tree inside of the fence and quickly scaling down. "You can climb tree's right? It's not high just a small apple tree. Apple Blossoms are good for healing as well so it's always good to come during new-leaf to collect some. Can you tell me what Apple Blossom leaves can do?" He asked as he padded closer to the twoleg house. Right beside the door next to a large bush was planted a large quantity of catnip. Though a large bucket was placed over the plants to keep the snow and frost from killing it. He brushed up against it and nudged it for a bit before finally knocking it over to reveal the plant. "Ok be careful when plucking the leaves and no matter how much you want to, do not chew them." With that he began picking leaves being careful not to rip them and began to stack them in a pile.