[Deleted]

Herbs sorted. Fresh nests. Pelt groomed. Meal eaten. Clan attended to. Featherpaw blinked around at her dimly lit cave, satisfied. She rose, padding towards her nest of fern, feather, and moss. Settling within it, the she-cat, curled up, closing her pale green eyes. StarClan, hear me. The silver tabby drifted off.

Featherpaw opened her eyes, finding herself surrounded with in the familiar forest of stars. Before her, Littlecloud looked on, curiosity sparking in his gaze. The young medicine cat dipped her head to him. "I need to speak with Snowheart," she told him, her plumed tail sweeping the starry earth behind her. The ancient cat was silent for a moment before replying, "So you do." The small tom rose, padding past Featherpaw, beckoning her to follow. She turned. Even as her paws touched the earth, she lost track of where she was. She closed her eyes.

Featherpaw found herself on the open moor. Littlecloud was nowhere to be seen. Murmuring thanks, she turned to search the moor, lit up by the brilliant moon that hung overhead. She wasn't surprised to see the glowing white pelt of the LightningClan medicine cat several fox-lengths away, though he faced the opposite direction. She started towards him.

"Snowheart!" she called, closing the distance between them in a couple of lengthy bounds.

Character; Featherpaw            
Word count; 217
Notes; ~

[Fate Admin]

Working with Rookfrost was always draining. He was perhaps the one cat Snowheart would admit to disliking. There were a number of cats he had met who could be difficult at times but that didn’t mean he didn’t like them. For some reason he could feel absolutely no empathy for his mentor, perhaps because his mentor felt no empathy himself. Rookfrost was an enigma that Snowheart had long since given up on trying to understand, for he had decided he would very much rather not understand anything about the dark tom. He walked a dark path for a medicine cat and Snowheart could hardly look at him as one anymore. The displeasure of working with and sharing a den with him had become the singular negative to the decision he had made so long ago to turn away from the Warrior’s path to toward the healer’s.

With a suppressed sigh, Snowheart curled up that night in his nest of heather and rabbit fur only to open his eyes to the moor beyond camp. He found himself sitting with his fluffy tail curled over his paws and blinked around briefly. This was not a normal dream. His ears twitched as he came fully alert, rising to his paws, wondering just what would happen, when a familiar voice intoned his name behind him.

He turned to see Featherpaw and purred warmly. That was some relief, he wasn’t about to receive some dark prophecy then. Not that he ever had but for once at the Moon Tree, but it was always a possibility when one awoke to a vivid dream guided by StarClan. “Featherpaw! All is well in NightClan, I hope?” He padded a few steps toward her as she bounded forward to close the distance between them. It had been some time since he had spoken with the younger she-cat and he dipped his head slightly, “I’m sorry I’ve been distant, there was a flare up of whitecough and I wanted to be sure nothing escalated….”

A flash of guilt went through him. StarClan had called him to help Featherpaw and he had been neglecting her. It wasn’t as if Rookfrost couldn’t handle a few cases of whitecough on his own, though Snowheart always preferred to give his Clanmates a more compassionate option when they were ill.

[Deleted]

The stars shone brilliantly overhead, the wide more stretching as far as the young NightClanner could see. In fact, it was far greater and far wider than LightningClan's true home, and the soft breeze was much more welcoming than the strong wind that usually gusted above the heather. Her paws were more accustomed to the floor of the coniferous forest that her clan called home; the bare earth was arguably kinder to one's paws than the dried pine needles that blanketed NightClan territory, but she privately preferred the familiar terrain of her own territory.

"Yes, all is well," the medicine cat replied. "Ghostlight is expecting kits, and the warriors are strong; newleaf bodes well for NightClan." Featherpaw allowed herself a moment to muse, before alleviating Snowheart's apologies. "It's fine," she assured him, twitching her whiskers. "I know you're a busy cat." She hesitated, her tail waving gently behind her, searching for words.

"I know that LightningClan has Rookfrost to look after them," she began, "and, well, StarClan cats are helpful, but I need to train with living cats, too." She continued confidently, meeting Snowheart's gaze. "I wanted to invite you stay and train with me in NightClan. You can stay in my den, and you can return home as often as you'd like. You'll be welcome to our fresh-kill pile, and..." She trailed off, realizing she'd begun to babble. She was a little disappointed that the words hadn't flowed as eloquently as she would have liked, but he would understand. Snowheart was her friend, and somewhat of a mentor.

"I need to be a good medicine cat," she began again, speaking carefully. "For NightClan's sake. I don't think Smokefur is coming back, and I just don't have enough training to do this on my own."

Character; Featherpaw
Word count; 295
Notes; ~

[Fate Admin]

His whiskers twitched happily at the mention of kits. Helping she-cats bring new life into the world had to be the best thing about being a medicine cat. He was glad to hear that NightClan was doing well. His ears flicked back briefly at the mention of his mentor but he pushed his feelings about the dark tom aside quickly. As far as Snowheart knew, Rookfrost had never given any other cat any reason to doubt his abilities as a medicine cat, and he was very capable as a healer, at its very base form. He could mix herbs and apply them, diagnose illness and injury. Yes, LightningClan was lucky to have two fully trained medicine cats.

He withheld a sigh and abruptly ended thoughts on Rookfrost. Didn’t he tell himself he wasn’t going to try to figure him out anymore? For the time being, it was what it was, and until Rookfrost retired or… it was the way things were going to stay. His ears angled forward as Featherpaw continued, asking him to stay with her in NightClan to help her train, “That….” He had never heard of a medicine cat going to stay with another Clan to train their medicine cat before, but the dreams that had helped him train Ivywhisker did not seem to be as forthcoming with Featherpaw. Perhaps because they were close enough that StarClan thought they should just interact face to face like normal cats.

He studied his paws for a long moment. Flashes of worry went through him for his younger siblings, though they were apprentices now and didn’t need so much looking after. Their mentors would look after them, and Icewhisker and Frostfire…. Leaving them alone in Rookfrost’s care made his pelt prickle. Blazepaw and Gustpaw hadn’t entirely endeared themselves to his mentor, and his two younger brothers were reckless and headstrong. There would be plenty of opportunity for them to hurt themselves. He flexed his claws, reminding himself again that they were apprentices now, he had to let them grow up. He wasn’t… Dovesong.

Taking a deep breath, he looked back up to Featherpaw, “I’ll need to speak with Redstar about it… but with Rookfrost there… I don’t think she’ll mind. I know this is important, so I’ll make sure she understands. I want to help you as best I can, and if that means coming to NightClan for a little while then….” His ears twitched, “Ravenstar is okay with me staying with you?” He didn’t really know the NightClan leader at all but every cat talked about how she seemed to hate the other Clans. He wasn’t sure if it was exaggeration and rumor or if there was any real truth to it, but he had witnessed her being quite cold with cats from other Clans at Gatherings, even the other leaders. Maybe she was just like that all the time, what could his Clanmates knows about her day to day behavior? NightClan had a bad reputation in all the Clans, for various reasons that may or may not be true, so Snowheart was prone to thinking it was just that prejudice speaking mostly. And if the other Clans all thought that way about his Clan, he was sure his own leader wouldn't be as inclined to be so friendly either.