private WHIMSICAL IS THE WOMAN // HUNTING - TUNNELS

[cottonsprig]

"... It's something my mother did, when my littermates and I were small."

She speaks without saying the former leader's name. Her mother was without a doubt a controversial figure, but many seasons have passed since then... and surely no cat would begrudge Cottonsprig for mentioning a tradition, right? Especially as she shares it with her kin, who has no mother to learn it from. She gathers Honeysucklepaw close, her mentor likely not far behind her, and the rest of the patrol not far back from them. In effect, it is a normal patrol - she's just utilizing her chance to catch something for her niblings (her children, too.)

"The kittens who were on the smaller side got to eat mole first. She used to say that it'd help with seeing underground, since moles are... sort of blind, I think," Cottonsprig looks down at her little cousin's eyes, finding them bright and green despite the depths they're in. Her ear twitches, "Can you smell anything?"

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

• ooc // @honeysucklepaw ( @Cricketcry ) @Mossthorn ( @Grasspaw ) @downyfur
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  ❥ 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?

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  ⸻❥ 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.

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[downyfur]

Her mother. A mother. It's too innocuous of a name for the devil of the moors. But if anyone were to view her through a rose-colored fog, it'd be her poor offspring. Downyfur doesn't say anything about it. Instead, she uses the safety of the dark to practice her poker face.

Eating moles... They recall one of Wolfsong's stories, either from the great golden cat himself or passed down by one of his loudmouths. Something about eating certain animals, or their body parts, and how it'd lend them the creature's blessing. Downyfur wouldn't be all that inclined to share her tunneling skill with the hawk or fox that ate her, but maybe it was all more about having wrested it by force rather than given freely. That checks out, from what they know of Cottonsprig's mentor and his mate.

The medicine cat's question isn't Downyfur's to answer. They're hardly sure if it's hers to ask either; how many moons has it been since she last hunted? (Well, if they accepted the premise of her being alone in her disappearance, it'd mean she had to have sourced her food somehow.) The tunneler isn't entirely sure of why she's here with them too, now that they think about it. Moles weren't herbs, last time she checked. Still, they respectfully keep their mouth shut while Honeysucklepaw answers.​

 

[honeysucklepaw]

Any excuse to hang out with Cottonsprig is a welcome one... though it being the medicine cat's idea adds a certain charm of curious excitement. Secretly, she'd hoped maybe they'd get some time alone so that the dark she-cat could pester the smoky older girl with a slew of questions and updates but... this would suffice for now.

The mention of moles is enough to prove dissatisfying.. though the story she weaves is certainly entertaining. Helping with sight huh... Honeysucklepaw was pretty confident in her own abilities but it wouldn't hurt to improve them with this harmless ritual. "That sounds a little silly," she admits, but humors her anyways by drawing in a deep breath.

It smells of rodent... distantly... but she is not so great a hunter to recognize what kind it is readily, "There's definitely some sort of rat-like thing in here... Are moles kinda like rats?"

mother tell me 𓇢𓆸 will you stay?

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  'absorb the virtues that make us stronger'
• HONEYSUCKLEPAW
  - ward of cricketcry of wind-swept moors
  - she/her
  - orphan daughter to mintshade and gracklestep
  
  a solid pitch she-cat with fern-green eyes

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