FIND MY VOICE [herb gathering]

[HOPEPAW]

⊱⊰ Some of the clan's warriors had assured her that the frost was likely only temporary, and should disappear within a few days. It isn't wintertime yet, so they had told her the weather would return to "normal" before the time came for it to truly grow icy. But it… hasn't. Frost still coats the grass—it's even grown thicker in the past few days—and the sky remains gray and clouded. She's been trying her best to learn as much about herbs as she can, because as the weather gets worse and food gets more scarce, surely she and Gentlestorm will be needed more than ever. But there's only so much she can do, as new to her role as she is.

Trotting along beside Gentlestorm, the girl's copper gaze drifts back and forth across the white-dusted path before them. She doesn't recognize any of the plants that dot the spaces in between trees, but she does recognize the glittering of a frost-touched spiderweb. It's stretched between the mist-laden branches of two bushes, at the perfect height to reach it without having to stretch. "Oh, look…" she points it out to the rest of the patrol as she strides over to it.

The girl swipes her paw through the thinly-stretched cobweb, attempting to wrap the material around her paw. She's seen her uncle do the same thing, though his movements are much more… practiced, than her own. Oh, well, she thinks. In time, she'll hopefully get better at such things. "Do spiders… hate the cold? Will cobwebs get harder to find?" As she returns to Gentlestorm's side, she peppers the entire patrol with her questions. If she's to be prepared, then asking questions is her best option.

an ancient spirit’s song 【❖】 will heal our wounds

• ooc: rolled an 8 for cobweb (1 point)
  mentor tag @GENTLESTORM
• 
• 
  HOPEPAW ❯❯ she/her, thunderclan medicine cat apprentice
  
  ⊱ skinny, thick-furred lilac molly with deep copper eyes. soft-spoken and a bit of a grouch.
  ⊱ daughter of batwing and leopardtongue ; adopted by roeflame
  ⊱ mentored by gentlestorm
  ⊱ peaceful and healing powerplay permitted ; does not typically like physical contact from anyone besides her family
  ⊱ penned by foxlore

​

​

 

[RACCOONSTRIPE]

Raccoonstripe pads behind Gentlestorm and his new apprentice, letting the medicine cats take the lead. Their noses are keener for the spiced scents of herbs and foliage, and Raccoonstripe follows their lead as he checks at the roots of trees and beneath frost-gripped bushes. The earth is hard, solid beneath his paws, and the pads burn with the melting rime. His stomach aches with hunger — he knows as soon as he and Scarletpaw return from this patrol, they'll have to go hunting, and it will be a lot harder to do on an empty belly.

He looks with some sympathy at his mottled apprentice. Despite the hardships ThunderClan is facing, Scarletpaw has not complained about the extra work. If anything, she's put in more effort than he could have expected of her, and he has to admit he's proud. He won't say that out loud, of course... but he hopes she knows it regarless. "Find anything that looks useful? Looks like Hopepaw did," he comments, flicking his dark gaze to the Clan's medicine cat apprentice.

As he does, his eyes settle on something bright amidst the dead browns and reds of the forest floor. The flowers are small, pink with magenta centers, and Raccoonstripe is quick to stride close and pull them up with his teeth. He turns to Gentlestorm, a question in his eyes.

『 out of character. 』 ✧･ﾟ:* 『 about. 』

• ooc: rolled a 13, found bright-eye (2 points)
  apprentice tag @Scarletpaw
• 
• Raccoon . Raccoonstripe, he/him w/ masculine terms.
  — "speech", thoughts, attack
  — 47 moons old, ages realistically on the 5th.
  — mentored by n/a ; mentoring Scarletpaw ; previously mentored Wildheart, Moonwhisper
  — thunderclan lead warrior. gray wolf x howlingstar, gen 2.
  — currently mated to Nightbird.
  — penned by Marquette.
  
  
  lh black tabby with white and dark brown eyes. charismatic, charming, calculating, ambitious, shallow, manipulative.

​

 

[nightbird]

⋆˖⁺‧₊☽◯☾₊‧⁺˖⋆ nightbird followed alongside the patrol, head down in search of the glorified weeds that would keep illness and injury at bay through leafbare. it wasn't so easy as it seemed. if every plant looked the same before she had been stuck in the nursery for a lifetime, it was all a brittle blur now.

leaves still clung to the ground, broken up by paws treading over them until they painted the growth a lifeless shade of brown. she couldn't scent anything that did not smell like mildew from the melted frost. hopepaw had found something, cobwebs it seemed, raccoonstripe had as well. a pretty pink bunch of petals set between his teeth. she felt as though this would be the best way to ease back into a patrol, but it seemed like nightbird's luck picking plants lived and died in the mountains.

with a lowered brow, the lead warrior pulls away from the crown, scanning until she at least found something green. it was set between a split tree trunk, leaves jagged and full. surely, if it was usable someone would have spotted it by now, and she hadn't recalled seeing it in gentlestorm's den before. thunderclan wasn't really in the position to gamble, however. she sets her nose close to sniff at it, prodding the leaf gently with an extended claw. "gentlestorm," she calls to her friend, pointed ears poking up over the foliage. "do you use this?" she asked, neck craning preemptively to pluck the leaf from the stem.

BURNING SWORD // ───‎ ⋆ GUIDE MY HAND‎ ‎‎ ‎‎☽

• ooc ↛ rolled a 2, nothing usable found. she did however find poison ivy!! someone please stop her.

• 

• 
  NIGHTBIRD ✩ she/her, lead warrior of thunderclan, 38 ☾'s
  ⭃ a small black smoke molly with a white paw and pale silver eyes. currently a queen residing in the nursery.
  ⭃ mate to raccoonstripe / / currently mentoring none.
  ⭃ peaceful and healing powerplay permitted / / underline and tag when attacking ↛ see battle info here
  ⭃ penned by vayle ↛ @vayl3 on discord, feel free to dm for plots.

​

 

[Softsight]

Softsight had wished, in her kithood, that one day she might tread the same pawsteps as a medicine cat did - but it would seem as though that were not her fate, not her cross to bear, as Gentlestorm had chosen Hopepaw to become his apprentice. Softsight had been among the many to congratulate the girl, and her congratulations were not blindsided by envy - she knew that Hopepaw would prove to be a talented medicine cat, that Gentlestorm knew best what the Clan needed. Of course, that didn't mean that Softsight couldn't enjoy helping the newly-ranked apprentice with finding herbs every now and again.

Trudging along with the rest of the patrol, Softsight kept her nose to the ground, hoping to come across a plant here or there that might have gone otherwise unnoticed in previous gathering attempts. The encroaching Leafbare made plants scarce as it did prey, but so far they'd been lucky enough to pick up some cobweb, and it seemed as though Raccoonstripe had found something, though Softsight didn't know what it was. She was about to turn away from her search to offer a hypothesis for Hopepaw's question when she stopped, a blue-ish color catching her eye as she turned her head.

Making her way over to where the plant was, she found herself pushing aside a frostbitten leaf to find berries of some sort, blue in color and looking rather healthy despite the weather.

"Are these berries safe?" Softsight called over her shoulder, not daring to get too close to the berries in case they were something like deathberries.

‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎OOC ᓚ₍ ^. .^₎ .ᐟ.ᐟ INFO ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎

• ! rolled as 19 and found juniper berries :D
  apprentice tag @SWIFTPAW

• 

• SOFTSIGHT ✩ warrior of thunderclan, fourteen moons
  → peaceful and healing powerplay permitted.
  → penned by Archivist → .archivist on discord.

​

 

[DEERPAW.]

Deerpaw followed alongside the patrol, head low to the ground in a hunched over matter. Wide, hazel eyes darting everywhere but the frosted ground, tail held curled slightly up as he crushed leaves with his paws.

No, he doesn't bother listening to the newly - ranked medicine cat apprentice chattering away to the plant keeper. He wasn't amongst the ones congratulating the new apprentice, it really doesn't matter to him. Twitching his feathered ears, angling them down as he craned his neck slightly as he navigates the ground trying to spot any... useful plants for Mr.Gentlestorm. Snow has made it difficult to find any herbs... or prey around these parts. Scarce, indeed. He lets himself part from the patrol, with a bored tail flick. The tall, faux tortoiseshell let's himself wonder over to a few trees, poking his head around to see if could put anything worth bring back.

Ah, the spiders has brought a gift to the skeletal creature. Cobwebs. The tom lifts his gaze up to the tree he stopped in front of, at it's base are the silky threads that adorns the bark. The spindly creatures has bestowed him a gift to bring back to the Plant Keeper. "S-sorry..." He mumbles out, softly to the lone spider– that was scuttling around as he destroyed its home with a darkened paw. Deerpaw turns away from the tree, slowly shuffling himself towards the patrol with a slow blink. Careful not to step on the paw that held his silken prize. A feathered ear twitched, letting his neck crane forward towards the cold ground. "Cobwebs." Voice monotonous, while he halts near Gentlestorm, his tail twitching along the snow.

﹒౨ৎ˚₊‧ 𝑻𝑯𝑬 𝑩𝑳𝑨𝑪𝑲 𝑮𝑶𝑨𝑻'𝑺 𝑬𝑮𝑮 ᯓ★ 𝐔𝐍𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐓𝐇𝐘 𝐆𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐋 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐈𝐒 𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐃

• ooc. rolled a 8 (success) & found cobwebs!
  POINTS: 1

• temp deerpaw reference

  

• ( I-I CAN'T H-HANDLE IT! ) ˚₊‧ ♰ ‧₊˚ DEERPAW. ╱ thunderclan apprentice.
  ⸝⸝ AMAB ; HE / HIM ; CURRENTLY 11 MOONS OLD. AGES EVERY 26TH.
  ✶ homosexual, ace / not actively looking — mentoring none.
  ✶ a tall, scrawny longhaired black/dark ginger tortoiseshell tom with low white and hazel eyes.
  ✶ thoughts ; "Speech, 4d4344" ; attacks only
  ✶ may powerplay minor harm ╱ peaceful and healing powerplay permitted
  ✶ smells like mud &. damp earth musk

  all opinions are ic! he's morbid and he sucks </3 ♱

  
  → biography / @ on discord for plots
  — penned by calzone

​

 

[BASILPAW!]

( 𖤓 ) basilpaw treds carefully after the patrol with his head already to the ground. evergreen eyes flick across the path, determination glowing in them as the boy snuffles at various plants, wondering vaguely how he's supposed to recognize something useful versus something dangerous. others ask hopepaw and gentlestorm to identify their found herbs, and so the young tom bends his head again. he's going to find something, starclan willing.

the season has been difficult on the boy. his cream hued fur, once shiny, has dulled with lack of nutrients, and the gleam in his eye, lost during skyclaw's tyrannic rule, has not returned since. gone is the happy-go-lucky boy with a head full of dreams. here to stay seems to be a tired young man, uncertain and dark-eyed. basilpaw wanders a little further from the patrol, stocky body pushing through dried bracken until he finds what he thinks might be something. a large leafed plant, low growing but with a fairly good size to it. purple flowers, bell shaped, sprout from it, although they have wilted slightly in the frost. still, it looks promising.

basilpaw nips the plant close to its root, gathering the leaves carefully and padding back toward hopepaw and gentlestorm. "is this anything?" he asks, and wonders, not for the first time, how medicine cats manage to keep track of all of this.

IF YOU LET IT ALONE 𖤓 IT WILL SURELY GROW

• // rolled a 12 (success), found common herbs (comfrey). "#FAC966"
• 
• BASILPAW 𖤓 HE / THEY, APPRENTICE OF THUNDERCLAN. MENTORED BY CAMPIONSONG. SIBLING TO MERLINPAW, WOLFPAW. 8 MOONS OLD, PENNED BY LAVS
  
  
  a cream ticked tabby with high white, and green eyes. a tall boy sporting a chaotically ruffled coat of pale cream tabby. darker ticked stripes flow down his fur, and band around his legs and face. his chest, stomach, muzzle, and most of his tail are white, and he has ferny-green eyes that sparkle with mischief.

​

 

[lovelight]

As Lovelight pads alongside the patrol, her golden gaze sweeps the frostbitten landscape, determination fueling her search. Yet, frustration builds as her gaze darts from brittle leaves to frosted branches, and from one plant stem to another. Everything around her appears withered, stripped of its warmth by the relentless chill. Her heart aches at the thought of her clanmates relying on the plants she struggles to identify and find. She feels the biting cold underfoot, a stark reminder of the scarcity that leafbare brings. As she watches the others discover their own small treasures—a flash of cobweb here, a small cluster of berries there—she can't help but feel inadequate. Everyone else seems to have something to offer, a small gift of nature plucked from the cold earth. In contrast, every patch of ground she inspects yields nothing more than frozen remnants. Lovelight is no stranger to the patience demanded to find resources, but today, it feels like the world is conspiring to keep all usefulness just out of her reach.

Despite her discouragement, she forces a gentle smile as her eyes fall on Hopepaw, who gathers cobwebs and asks questions with enthusiasm. Lovelight admires her former apprentice's curiosity and resilience. There is hope in seeing the young cat embrace her duties with such openness. She watches as Gentlestorm responds to questions, guiding Hopepaw with wisdom and patience. Lovelight feels a surge of pride for both the healer and the apprentice, though a pang of helplessness lingers in her heart. She silently vows to herself to remember every plant, every hint of advice, and every bit of knowledge shared here. Soon, she will contribute more.

[ rolled a 2 </3 ]​

 

[Scarletpaw]

Scarletpaw's tail flicks as she listens to Hopepaw's incessant questions, though she keeps her expression carefully neutral. The chill bites through her fur, and the frost beneath her paws stings with each step. This patrol isn't what she'd choose to be doing, but she understands its importance. Herbs could mean the difference between life and death when leaf-bare settles in fully, and despite her quiet rivalry with Hopepaw, Scarletpaw isn't about to let her clan suffer. Her sharp gaze meets her former denmate's for just a heartbeat. "Don't waste time worrying about the cold, Hopepaw," She says brusquely. "Just focus on what we can gather now." Is it her place to chastise the medicine cat apprentice?…Probably not, but she's aware enough that Hopepaw holds no rank over her either. So she lets a bit of attitude slip through toward her cousins' foster sibling.

She looks to her mentor when he turns his attention on her and she shakes her head disappointedly. "Nothing yet. I don't even know what I'm looking for." She's found cobwebs before, but that's about all she knows about healing materials. While Raccoonstripe checks under bushes, Scarletpaw's eyes scan the undergrowth until a flash of yellow-green catches her attention. That looks familiar. She swears she's seen it before in Gentlestorm's den, but isn't sure what it's called. The plant's thin, bristling stalks poke out from beneath a sheet of frost, the brittle leaves shimmering with ice crystals. She pads over, paw outstretched to carefully brush away the frost and expose the stems beneath.

"Found something," She calls, her voice tinged with satisfaction. "It's not much, though." She leans down, biting through a few stalks and setting them at her paws before nudging them toward Gentlestorm. She'd much rather be on a border patrol or hunting right now, but if gathering herbs would help ThunderClan through this biting frost, she'd do her part.

// rolled an 8, found broom
​

 

[MERLINPAW]

Merlinpaw nosed along the frost-laden path, the surmising alabaster like a deep glare onto her vision, etiolating even the once-vibrant and verdant woodlands of Thunderclan. Leaves curled their fists and rotted into a subfusc brown, protesting the cats' motions with a dying crackle before lying still. The smoke sepia feline felt the ground tense at her every step, hardened and hoar-bitten as it had become. She stopped for a moment, contemplating if there would be anything to uproot in the settling shadows than in the beckoning light. Suddenly did a dull golden gaze catch upon a pop of violet hue, like a flash of prismatic hope through the mires of white, fringing at the tail ends of despair and destitution. Catmint, like the same plant she found before! Keen senses recognized the pungent scent, sweet and comforting and completely misplaced within the wasteland that the territory had become. She deftly plucked at the base of the stem with bared ivories, and trotted back to the ambling patrol. "H-Hope - Hopepaw! I, I f-found this! It's, uh, c-catmint... right? I - I found it, um, days - days ago." The heavyset apprentice padded up to the medicine cats, with a countenance lit up like a starlit canvas, momentary joy propagating upon peach-fuzz features. Why do I have better luck finding herbs than prey? Maybe I should become a medicine cat apprentice like Hopepaw. But I couldn't do all of that healing stuff... maybe I'll just stick to finding plants.

( Rolled a 20 and found catmint (again)! 3 points. )​

 

[vixencrown]

Vixencrown is wary. Herbs are a difficult thing. It wasn't as if any of them really knew what they were looking for except for cobwebs. Speaking of which, she gingerly cupped a paw, pulling an abandoned one that was slightly stiff from the frost, glistening from the light that beamed through the branches from above.

With a light tug, she pulled the intricate web free of its shape, blue gaze turning to hopepaw with no answer for her. Unfortunately. "I don't really see spiders in the winter ..." She murmured, though unsure. It wasn't as if she was exactly.... Around enough to know. "But I was only a kitten last leafbare." She murmured with a shrug.

"Should we really be putting our mouths and paws all over stuff we don't know about?" She asked curiously, hesitant, even. Watching nightbird crane her neck to pick something of who knows what with her teeth, and others gripping with claws, or even their teeth.

Rolled 7 ! +1 point///
​

 

[SQUIRRELPAW]

Squirrelpaw probably wasn't the best cat to help out on a herb patrol since she had the attention span of a goldfish and didn't know what she was looking for at all, but she enjoyed spending time with Hopepaw. So, the blue torbie decided to tag along, and if she managed to find something, it would be a win-win!

The dual-toned molly trotted happily alongside the medicine cat apprentice, her gaze scanning the barren ground for any signs of useful foliage. So far, though, she had found exactly what she had been expecting: nothing. At Hopepaw's question, she hummed thoughtfully but continued looking as she replied, "I kinda hope they do. I hate spiders." Sure, their webs were good at binding wounds, but at what cost? The eight-legged insects were creepy.

Then, an annoying voice had to cut through their idle conversation as if on cue. "Yeah, well, maybe you should just be worrying about yourself, Scarletpaw," she bit back sharply in defense of her friend. Was the dark calico even capable of being anything other than bitter all the time? It was a shame, really. With a huff and a pronounced roll of her emerald eyes, the apprentice returned to her search. It was more than a little annoying to admit that Scarletpaw could find a usable herb when she could not.

---

‎‎ooc ✶ info

• [ rolled a 4 and found nothing :(( mentor tag @Lightflower ]

• 

• 
  SQUIRRELPAW ✶ she/her, apprentice of thunderclan, 10 moons
  ⭃ lh blue torbie with low white and green eyes // slender but fluffy
  ⭃ single, bisexual, crushing on no one // flamestar x flycatcher
  ⭃ sister to bugpaw, ravenpaw, sunpaw, falconheart and stormfeather
  ⭃ mentored by lightflower // adoptive sister to sparrowpaw
  ⭃ peaceful powerplay permitted // underline and tag when attacking
  ⭃ penned by limerence ↛ @limericks. on discord, dm for plots

 

[GENTLESTORM]

༄.𖥔 ݁ ˖ — Gentlestorm can't stop the smile that forms on his maw as Hopepaw asks if spiders hate the cold and if they hide when it becomes a lot colder, a thoughtful hum leaves his throat only to speak his answer towards her with an amused twitch of his whiskers "I'm sure... that they don't like the cold much... but I continue to find their webs... perhaps... they go elsewhere... much warmer to... weave them..." And he hopes that the answer is satisfactory enough for her since he truly doesn't know where the spiders go when the tempartures are this unbearable and the frost lines most of the plants that reside within Thunderclan even the bark itself seems to be more slippery.

Raccoonstripe's the first to find a herb and the medicine cat brightens up at the sight of it, he gives an approving nod in the direction of the black tabby though his attention doesn't linger as his mate asks if he uses a plant that she's currently reaching out towards. His eyes widen at the sight of it only to stumble forward to stop her paw from touching and smiles sheepishly at her as he speaks with a shake of his head "I don't... for various reasons... that's poison ivy... refrain from... touching it..."

Softsight succeeds in finding some berries and she seems cautious about them, he nods in her direction to indicate that they're safe only to turn to the sound of Deerpaw's voice as he mentions finding cobwebs. He nods approvingly to the rest of those that had found something worth taking home and he can't help but twitch his whiskers in brief amusement "I should... have the lot of you... on a herb patrol more often." His tone only half joking and he thinks about telling Flamestar later about their success though that would be after they gathered a few more herbs, of course.

MORNING & EVENING, I FELT LIKE I WAS GRIEVING ᨒᨒᨒ UNTIL I SAID FUCK YOU

• ooc —

• 

  MEDICINE CAT KNOWLEDGE;
  — ✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦ FLESH WOUNDS
  — ✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✧✧ INFECTIONS
  — ✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✧ ACHES & PAINS
  — ✦✦✦✦✦✦✧✧✧✧ ILLNESS
  — ✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✧✧✧ BREATHING ISSUES
  — ✦✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧ TRAVELING HERBS
  — ✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✧✧ BROKEN BONES
  — ✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦ KITTING
  — ✦✦✦✦✧✧✧✧✧✧ POISONS
• 
  ✦ a longhaired blue sepia tom w/low white and copper eyes, several scars cover his body from previous fights that he somehow survived
  ✦ gentlestorm is rarely ever a warm individual and friendly to those who he meets, he proceeds with more caution and he's less likely to trust any strangers that come from outside of thunderclan. he tends to be jumpy if suddenly approached or flinches away from swift movement with his claws unsheathed when it occurs, he apologizes for it. his kindness reserved only for those closest to him otherwise anyone else can expect the cold shoulder from the old tom
  ✦ 61 moons old; ages the 27th every month
  ✦ widowed mate of little wolf ; currently interested in no one
  ✦ semi-difficult to befriend/interact with ; quick to strike/attack first if he feels threatened ; peaceful powerplay allowed but proceed with caution
  ✦ "speech", thoughts, attacking

​

 

[THUNDERGLEAM]

Oh, the lot of them- they were flush with herbs! And Thundergleam felt insecurity cling to her as she padded up to join the group, a quaver in her eyes, and nothing in her jaws. Shame, a little... oh, but Father had known nothing of medicine. Of course, of course ... a murderous madman, he would know nothing of healing. And she missed him, still- throat stinging for the chance to ask him, she pushed forward. Pale eyes swept over those gathered - tender blinks gave each of them time, thankful in silence.

Each of them noble, and her ... empty handed. An emptiness dented her ribs, but Thundergleam tried to find some humour. Her eyes curved, slightly- precarious smile bowed, warm. "Gentlestorm, and his army of apprentices..." small, observant. Not given in seriousness, of course. The real chosen one stoop hopeful and hope-named, and Thundergleam gave her a light glance, a respectful dip of the head. "Evidently it is not my calling."

\ rolled a 3 LOSERRR​

penned by pin ☾​