private blond duckie // thriftfeather

[cottonsprig]

Cottonsprig rights her posture, a small bushel of chickweed clamped between her teeth. Admittedly, they don't need it; they have catmint and other herbs that would help them in case of dire illness once more. But it's the principle of it, is it not? The betrayal and lying by near omission? To right a wrong regardless of if the wrong was done in good faith? She feels as much, at least - even if these herbs wilt and die in the cold and never see use beyond this moment of retribution, she feels it is right.

Steps in the fresh snow alert her to an approaching cat; yellow as wheatgrass, but smattered in white in the way her apprentice is not. Thriftfeather; another cat wrought with betrayal and lying that he does not yet know of. The chickweed tastes sour in her maw as the correlation stands tall in her mind. There is no correction she can do here, as he approaches aimlessly, likely not seeking her out by finding her regardless. Her truth cannot be handed to him as easily as it could others. He still resides in a cool shade placed by her sister, his lover; and for once, she respects the boundary placed.

"No luck?" she asks as joins her atop the gnoll. "I've found a few herbs, but I haven't scented anything warm since the sun rose."

𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 ˖⁺‧₊˚♡˚₊‧⁺˖ 𝐛𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐭 𝐝𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐭𝐨 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐚 𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠

• ooc // @Thriftfeather

• ❥ MEDICINAL KNOWLEDGE
  
  ♥♥♡ WOUNDS ; can confidently stop bleeding and mend lacerations. will often request that you keep your injury clean and wait it out first.
  
  ♥♥♡ INFECTION ; as a side effect of likely her own doing, very dutiful with technique and treatment shortly thereafter.
  
  ♥♡♡ ACHES & PAINS ; will defer to a dark tunnel and rest. if pain persists, maybe she will offer something.
  
  ♥♡♡ BROKEN BONES ; has never dealt with a broken bone. likely will ask that you never move. ever again.
  
  ♥♥♥ TRAVELING HERBS ; learned well from her previous mentor. will pile even too many remedies to tough the wilderness with.
  
  ♥♥♥ KITTING ; having kittens of her own and helped several others with their litters, she is very well versed with calming techniques and quelling pain.
  
  ♥♡♡ POISONS ; she knows what they are... but that isn't enough, isn't it?
  
  ♥♥♡ ILLNESS ; having worked through two yellowcough bouts, she is confident in her remedies. much else... she's operating on trial and error.
  
  ⸻ cottonsprig is a dutiful and excitable medicine cat. she enjoys company and loves conversation. she'd rather not have too many curious noses snooping around her den... but who is she to quell curiosity?

• 

  ⸻❥ cottonsprig is the primary medicine cat of windclan. a former princess to the moors, she harbors many guilts for her actions throughout her short life. she has no consistent partner, unwilling to commit and settle, and she is training celandinepaw in medicine.

​

 

[Thriftfeather]

The strangeness of once again walking WindClan's territories has yet to fade from Thriftfeather. Everything reminds him of something else. A single scent, a familiar curve in a well-tread path, the loud yellow of a gorse pushing blooms in Leafbare: it can all send Thriftfeather woolgathering about days that had never been as rosy as his recollections. The chill and the subtle bite of hunger that follows throughout Leafbare do wonders to remind Thriftfeather of the tedium that comes with clan life — his mouth parts and his ears pivot in a familiar routine, despite his wonderings.

Prey-scent doesn't find him. It's Cottonsprig — spotted before she is scented — that pauses Thriftfeather, and pulls him from the familiar space between memory and action. The herb she carries is one that Thriftfeather recognizes by sight but not by name: a spindly thing that spreads over the hardened ground from a central point like mold. Held in her jaws, it looks as limp and mundane as any other plant.

He doesn't settle besides her, not fully, despite or because of the casualness in which she addresses him. There isn't a tuft of suspicion on Cottonsprig's pelt — had Thriftfeather done something to assuage that from her, or was it that her trust in her sister was that absolute?

"No luck," Thriftfeather echoes in the same tone as Cottonsprig.

WindClan will never be as rosy as Thriftfeather had made it in DuskClan — the sharp trepidation that hooks under his ribs had existed in Thriftfeather since his youth. He hides the way his pelt twitches as if flea-bitten with a shiver that is only partly feigned. This: the feeling of being somehow wrongfooted, the over-awareness of the bulk of himself, the instinct to fold himself away when with a peer, is nothing new.

"Everything is different from — WindClan isn't how I remember it," It doesn't feel like a lie until after it is said — WindClan would be easier to swallow if it was somehow a new being altogether. Instead it exists as an amalgamation of the strange and painfully familiar. An amendment, spoken while his eyes track over the horizon rather than Cottonsprig: "Not everything and it isn't — this isn't bad, but... it's different."​

WINDCLAN QUEEN ✦ GOLDEN TABBY TOM ✦ 22 MOONS ✦ TAGS​

 

[cottonsprig]

He places himself nearer to her; not quite together, but close enough to maintain the conversation. His greenleaf gaze does not hold to her, and out of respect, she releases him from her watery blues. Together they look out to the horizon, each poor in their own ways, each devastated by silent horrors that they will not admit. Cottonsprig pulls her tail loosely around her forelegs as if it is a line of defense, for although she does not believe him capable of harming her any longer, she believes his mind sharp enough to dig into hers.

After all; Bluefrost must like him for some reason, right?

He muses on about WindClan and how much it has changed. Her ears twist and she gauges his tone as best she can, as if the mere difference between words will tell her his sincerity. How had he perceived it all? He once followed her mother's rule, dedicated enough to hold fast to DuskClan once it formed - but not enough, she supposes, as he's returned in the end. Was that Bluefrost's will? Had they decided, long before finding Cottonsprig, that he would return when Bluefrost kitted? (How much do you know?)

"No, not bad," she agrees with a softness entirely like her, but she feels the barbs on her tongue still. The boundary is respected, but by StarClan, she wants to shred it if only to know what lies her sister feeds him in order to keep him tethered to her. Or, perhaps, she needs no lie at all. Perhaps he is wholly, entirely, deeply in love with her, like how Weaselclaw loved Sootstar. Envy burns next, and she shakes her head, attempting to focus on the conversation instead.

"I feel like... we lived through too many WindClans," we, she humors, as if he had been there for Sunstar's reign, and hadn't just been a tick upon it. "I can't imagine how ShadowClan fairs; a new leader every season, it feels like. I'm still getting used to Scorchstar..." Cottonsprig rambles and trails off, her tail twitching at the tip, tickling her paws in the process. Quietly, she asks, "Do you miss anything about it?" A pause, "WindClan, how you remember it." A soft clarification, imbued with honest curiosity.

𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 ˖⁺‧₊˚♡˚₊‧⁺˖ 𝐛𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐭 𝐝𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐭𝐨 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐚 𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠

• ooc //

• ❥ MEDICINAL KNOWLEDGE
  ♥♥♡ WOUNDS ; can confidently stop bleeding and mend lacerations. will often request that you keep your injury clean and wait it out first.
  ♥♥♡ INFECTION ; as a side effect of likely her own doing, very dutiful with technique and treatment shortly thereafter.
  ♥♡♡ ACHES & PAINS ; will defer to a dark tunnel and rest. if pain persists, maybe she will offer something.
  ♥♡♡ BROKEN BONES ; has never dealt with a broken bone. likely will ask that you never move. ever again.
  ♥♥♥ TRAVELING HERBS ; learned well from her previous mentor. will pile even too many remedies to tough the wilderness with.
  ♥♥♥ KITTING ; having kittens of her own and helped several others with their litters, she is very well versed with calming techniques and quelling pain.
  ♥♡♡ POISONS ; she knows what they are... but that isn't enough, isn't it?
  ♥♥♡ ILLNESS ; having worked through two yellowcough bouts, she is confident in her remedies. much else... she's operating on trial and error.
  ⸻ cottonsprig is a dutiful and excitable medicine cat. she enjoys company and loves conversation. she'd rather not have too many curious noses snooping around her den... but who is she to quell curiosity?

• 

  ⸻❥ cottonsprig is the primary medicine cat of windclan. a former princess to the moors, she harbors many guilts for her actions throughout her short life. she has no consistent partner, unwilling to commit and settle, and she is training celandinepaw in medicine.

​