MEDICATE, MEDITATE, SWEAR YOUR SOUL [✦] magpiepaw

[Starlingheart]

Magpiepaw, please- please pay attention what I am showing you is-is very important" she says, her warbling voice light but stern. She knew her apprentices mind had a tendency to drift, that he often liked to be elsewhere, but if anything were to ever happen to her, stars forbid, and he was left to deal with a crisis on his own, she wanted him to be as best prepared as possible. Not that she would ever leave him like that, not on purpose anyways. She was not her aunt, after all.

With snowy white paws she takes down from her herb stores everything needed to treat a wound. Cobwebs, burdock, comfrey, dandelion, goldenrod, horsetail, marigold, oak leaves and wood sorrel. Sickness was just as dangerous as anything else, she knows, but so far she had seen wounds kill more frequently, and it is not only what they dealt with upon a regular basis but it was also the thing she was most knowledgeable about so it is what she would teach first. "Name as-as many of these as you-y-you can" she instructs and then adds "A-and explain- explain their uses if you- if you can. We-we will go over what-whatever you don't know so dont-don't worry" an encouraging smile tugs at the corners of her mouth as she waits patiently for the black and white tom to mull over the herbs, watching his face with forest green eyes.

// @Magpiepaw
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[Magpiepaw]

The dragonfly's wings had a sheen to them that caught the light and drew his gaze and he starred at it perched upon a warm flat stone outside with unblinking eyes, only pulling his gaze away to Starlingheart's stern reprimand; or as close to one as she would get and equally scathing to his heart. He disliked upsetting her, she seemed particularly stressed lately and he wondered if it was because of the kits. No part of him could ever comprehend she might fear leaving the clan with an untrained healer as her aunt had done so many moons before. It wasn't a worry he had any connection to, he'd been found in ShadowClan early on and was too young to grasp the consequences of this or experience it.
With a nod the black and white apprentice looked down, blue-violet gaze narrowing as he examined the plants and other various things spread out on the ground before him; eyes widening suddenly as he realized there were more things here than things he knew. A trick question? No, Starlingheart explains its just to see if he knows. He assumes she wants him to pick the ones he was familiar with from a crowd of familiar things and he paws at the ground tentatively mulling it over in his head. Words were hard, he forgot the names of these more than he felt he should but he tried his best all the same, "Cobwebs, bind wounds." He leans down, noses toward the sticky wad of webbing but does not touch it for fear of it adhering to his face accidentally, "Marigold is for infection, bright like the sun-it burns it out." His paw taps as he sits up, feeling just a little more confident before looking toward the goldenrod with a wrinkled nose, "....I can't remember the name, but it helps heal wounds faster." Slides his paw forward in a gesture to the plant before trailing off to the purple flower next to it, "I don't know what it does, but this was what Comfreypaw was named after." It was hard to miss these bright colored flowers in their dreary marsh territory. He takes a moment or two longer for the rest, odd leaves and curls he is unfamiliar with entirely-he couldn't even begin to guess the name, "I do not know the rest."
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[Starlingheart]

She feels bad for speaking so sternly to him, she knows Magpiepaw is doing his best. But the stress of raising kits as well as taking care of the clan was weighing heavy on her shoulders and the fear that one day she may be gone looms over her like a shadow. He is able to name cobwebs, marigold. Goldenrod he knows the use of but not the name for and Comfrey is the opposite. "Goldenrod" she says, brushing a paw over the plant whose name had escaped him. She gives him an encouraging smile, hopes that it makes up for the slightly too harsh words. "You-you're right about what- what it d-does though. We- we can use it- use it in combination with-w-wi-with any--anything that uhm that heals infection" she touches a plant with heart shaped leaves next, pushes it forward for investigation. "This is- is wood sorrel" she explains "it-it does the same thing as uh as goldenrod"

She waits for a moment, pausing to let him take this new information in and not wanting to overwhelm him with too much at once. "Y-youre right about- about this being comfrey" she tells him, proud that he had caught such a thing when she had yet to teach it to him. "Comfrey has- it has many uses. I've actually- I've used it on you before" she wonders.. "Do you happen to- to remember what for?"

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[Magpiepaw]

"Goldenrod." He tries, desperately, to repeat the name in his head for it to stick and hopes this time perhaps it will. He has been told its name three times now, surely his memory would cling fast to it for future use. Magpiepaw taps a paw on the floor thoughtfully, listening in and smiling inwardly in delight that he remembered MOST of what he'd been taught so far.
Wood Sorrel does the same as Goldenrod, strange. If they both did the same thing why did both exist? Though perhaps goldenrod had other uses, such as being lovely to look at and that was good enough. Sometimes simply being was a fine reason to be. If goldenrod ran out, then this was a good alternative. Magpiepaw hums approvingly, nosing at the pile of herbs and taking in its bitter and sharp scent. As she asks her question his ears twitch and he lifts his head from the collection of plants.
Comfrey was used on him before? He isn't sure if he remembers but there was only one time he was really properly treated for any injury and that was... "My tail?" He warrants a guess, glancing at it now curled next to him. It had long since stopped hurting but it was still bent in the middle awkwardly in a very noticable kink. "...does it make bones stop hurting?"

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[Starlingheart]

Sometimes, Starlingheart has to remind herself that Magpiepaw is still so early on in his training, she has to remind herself to stop and take it slow. He would not be forced to learn as she had, equipped with nothing but the basics of the basics and then thrown to the wolves, forced to figure it out as she went. She had been grateful to the other medicine cats for their help, but otherwise she had been completely alone. Magpiepaw will never be alone as I was she vows to herself silently. She would not abandon him intentionally, not ever. He takes a guess at what comfrey does and she feels a purr of approval rumbling in her throat. He was a fast leaner, quick to puzzle things out and that pleased her, it would make things going forward easier. "Y-yes that's right" she says "We-we uh we chew the roots of this- this plant into a- a poultice. It has many- many uses." She would not make him take a guess at what those uses were, for there were many and she is certain he had not seen most. "It cuh-can-can be used to uh to treat boken bones, soothe wounds, soothe itching caused by wounds, soothe in-inflamation and-and uh wrenched claws." truly comfrey was one of the most versatile plants in their collection of herbs. She thinks about that when she thinks of Betonyfrost's kit. Perhaps the striped apprentice was versatile as well, if so she would shape into a fine warrior some day (despite who her mother was)

"It-it also soothes stiff joints, so it-we use it a lot on the elders" her nose wrinkles as she thinks about the senior warriors chiding her. 'No no no you're doing it all wrong Starlingheart!' they had said as if they were the medicine cats and not her 'if the root goes there I'll feel it all night!' they were so picky about their nests being fiddled with. She supposed though, that when you were that old you could afford to worry over such things. "Y-you weren't around yet but-but back when I was a uh a kit ShadowClan had a-a biiig fire, we uh we learned then that comfrey- comfrey can also treat burns" she had learned a lot back then about fires. Not that she wants to think about that time. Quickly, she moves on, not wanting to dwell on those memories for too long lest grief engulfs her. "Any uh any questions so far?" she asks, turning her wide green eyes on her apprentice, wanting to ensure he understood everything before they moved on. It was a lot of information to absorb she knows "I-if you uh if you need to take a-a break let me- let me know" if he did that would be completely understandable, but if not they would move on to the other herbs she had set out before them.

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[Magpiepaw]

Bones, soothing wounds, itching and inflammation, wrenched claws, breathing...how amazing a single plant is capable of such things.
Comfrey had many uses and he makes a mental note to tell Comfreypaw about this utility, surely it was a sign she too would be skilled in many things and perhaps lighten her heart; he sees her morosely about camp often though its hard to tell if it is genuine sorrow or just the ambient dread of ShadowClan kind. Would he carry that as well if he was born here? And when did it appear, for Starlingheart's kits seemed perfectly content with life though he imagines the nursery may shroud the sad severity of their home from them.
Magpiepaw listens with a wobbling nod, eyes widening to the story of the fire as he had once heard this spoken to him as a kit as distraction; a great sycamore tree wreathed in flames and smoke so thick it would blind at cat as though their eyes were closed. It was where the Burnt Sycamore got its name, before he supposed it was just an innocuous tree.
It can treat burns as well. Perhaps the fire was a gift to teach, but that seems a bit too cruel of StarClan to bestow a lesson with pain and suffering.
"I have no questions, I am fine to continue." He chirps up, repeating the uses in his head quietly and trying to add to them a rhyme or a description that might assist in him recalling them later. Comfrey, purple, like a bruise...
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