attached to the stars [ private ]

[BEAR.]

Oh, how exciting!

Aconiteheart wasn't expecting company on this side of the forest, but it was quickly apparent he had a guest when he caught wind of the scent of pines and roses. Ooooo--

Life in StarClan was boring for the forgotten medicine cat, and any opportunity to interact with another was always welcome.

"Hey! Hey! Hold on there!"

Aconiteheart had to scamper through the bushes to barrel out at what appeared to be a red-brown she-cat. All the better: it wasn't Shatteredstar! .. He didn't know why it would be, they smelled nothing alike. "Hey! What're you doing here? I haven't seen you before--" he hadn't seen many cats, "are you lost?"

[ Dipper ]

[Fawn]

Fawnsqueak felt like he was walking into the void, on and on and on--

There was no end. He would swear that he walked past the same several clusters of trees a couple times over and was on an infinite loop, stuck in this prison of an afterlife or dream-like state. It was dull but not surprising, one more disappointment to add to the building stack of why StarClan wasn't all it was chalked up to be, much less worth the wars fought over this.

But considering it was a dream, he didn't feel the aching strain on his paws despite his distance traveled, though he didn't have anything to show for it either then. It was conflicting. He could simply conclude he didn't care for this place but also found it more tolerable than the ceremonial ridiculousness of the fellow medicine cats.

At a stranger's call, he paused and cocked his head to a side, unable to place the voice. It didn't sound like anyone he knew, nor did it look like anyone he knew. The incoming speed of the cat had him shaken and frazzled, but his demeanor was only mildly disruptive - nothing actually bad could happen to him here, to his understanding.

"I don't think there.. is really a way to logically navigate this place? So," Fawnsqueak eventually said, gauging his reaction before lifting the end into a light, "maybe?" Then, he peered behind him and could've cursed at the sight of the rock he'd passed too many times. StarClan sucked. The reflection had him muttering, "Everyone is lost here."

BILL.

[BEAR.]

"You're in a dream," Aconiteheart had to laugh as he pranced around the young she-cat. Oh, how he wished for her naivety. "Of course there's not a lot of logic here.. it's not real!" He waved his paw wildly in the air, a mini version of Lionstar appearing on the back of his paw, screeching angrily-- it was too loud to understand him. Aconiteheart flicked him away into the bushes.

"This place.. is not real, but there's some realism here. Your companions you left behind, us. We are real." He shook his paw and trotted a few tail lengths from Fawnsqueak. "I've always found dreams to be a little.. cliche? I can show you some more exciting scenery if you'd like!" Anything to maintain her company.

[ Dipper ]

[Fawn]

"Yeah... kind of figured," Fawnsqueak said, remembering the odd ritualistic fashion of the medicine cats touching the stone and essentially passing out the second they made contact. That was still creepy. "But that's not, y'know.. comforting, because when I wake up, they're still going to be there." It wasn't as if he'd dreamed the entire scenario; coming to consciousness would be the next nightmare in a chain of culty religious practices, then he'd have to do it over again in a moon or so.

While mildly fascinating, he didn't care for the demonstration of the illogical nature of their environment since he wasn't sure what the grand meaning of it all was. If it didn't follow the rules of reality, he couldn't expect the residents to have any grasp of the concept. Fawnsqueak was unconvinced, a little skeptical. "I mean, I know they're real. But..." His gaze slid around, but there was no one else to be seen. "I guess I don't get it. How are you.. 'real' if you're not actually, uh, tangible?" Was that the right word? It was a strange thing to explain.

"I'm starting to think all StarClan has to offer is literally these five trees and two boulders, so different scenery would be nice. Definitely better."

BILL.

[BEAR.]

"Oh, they might not be there if they leave without you!" Aconiteheart had to chuckle a little at that, mildly entertained with the thought. "They might get a bit impatient if you don't wake up with them." But being left behind might not be such a bad thing, if that was the she-cat's fancy.

He twitched his ears at Fawnsqueak's question, cocking his head to a side at her. "Well, have you touched me yet? You can feel me.." He reached over to bap at Fawnsqueak's side. "I can feel you! Even if you can't see us as easily in the waking world, we are still there. We're.. just, in another realm." The thought made his ears flatten back. "It's been sometime since I've walked down below, but Stars do I miss it! Training Ebonyfrost was the closest thing I had to being alive again." And even that had its limits. He missed the wind against his fur and the taste of warm prey. Being able to socialize with more than just a cat or so.

"Well, come on!" Aconiteheart bounded away from her to head into the forest. With his guidance, the scenery melted away as the tree cluster faded behind them, replaced by an expansive forest with a visible trickling creek and several dozen large rocks decorating the landscape. It was reminiscent of SkyClan's old territory, mountainy in nature-- though Aconiteheart wasn't sure this fish-lady would know that. "A little bit better, eh? I know it might not be as uh, watery as you'd like, but the hard terrain's good for your pads! It'll toughen them up so they don't crack as easily."

[ Dipper ]

[Fawn]

Oh.. Fawnsqueak hadn't considered that. "You don't think they'd wake me? ..Or am I, like, not allowed to wake up until you're done with-- whatever this is?" he questioned, honestly wondering and debating it himself; he hadn't been overly-enthused about being a part of their merry herb-group so maybe they would just bail. Not the end of the world, but sort of strange to abandon a cat outside of their territory.

Okay, but he kindamaybesorta didn't want to touch.. this guy. "I don't even know your name," he pointed out. "I don't really think we're on--" that was approximately the time Aconiteheart reached over to bap his side, "--okay, whelp, apparently we are on a touching-basis." As determined by the star-stranger. Wonderful. "Just touching each other doesn't mean anything though," he mused. "Because I could just be dreaming of being able to touch and feel you. It might not actually be happening." It was less of a true counterargument, as he was intrigued by the concept as well as the possibilities it introduced. Whether it was real or not didn't matter.

Fawnsqueak quietly took note of that, Ebonyfrost. He had a name. He had a way to prove if this was a genuine otherworldly experience.

Moving on from that, his head tipped. "You're all-powerful or something, and cats come back from the dead.. occasionally, um-- why can't you do that?" If he missed the living world this badly, a benevolent being like StarClan surely knew mercy if they were as decent as claimed.

Lost in his thoughts, he was nearly left behind by Aconiteheart but when he realized, Fawnsqueak bounded forward to catch up. He still had so many questions--! And now he had even more, as he watched the forest literally shift before him. It was somewhat uncomfortable but eased by knowing this was a dream--maybe a supernatural one, albeit still a dream. "Wait," he blurted, halting in his tracks. In his pause, he lifted a paw to look at the pad and frowned. "...you think my pads are too soft? I thought they were pretty tough.." It was soft, a tad disappointed.

Trying not to get distracted, he focused on the environment. "What are we doing here, anyway?"


BILL.

[BEAR.]

Aconiteheart shrugged at her question. "Can't say, personally.. cats don't usually oversleep during a visit to StarClan, but! They also don't normally wander off from the others, either. As far as you know, they're already awake.. wondering why you're not with them." Ceremonies didn't take terribly long, usually. And he knew there weren't any prophecies or omens floating around..

"Name's Aconiteheart!" He bounced back to Fawnsqueak with a skip to his step, a little restless. ".. Though, I don't think that name would mean a thing to anyone you said that too." Aconiteheart's muzzle pressed into a frown, ears flattening back. ".. I'm serious, it's been so long since I've been around there's a faceless line of cats between me and the SkyClanners that you live with!" Oh, he wished he was exaggerating but alas, his story had ended long before SkyClan made its mark on the history of these Clans.

Aconiteheart couldn't resist a huff of laughter. "Well, between you and me, I don't think they pick very good cats for that. An evil leader or two here, some lesser evil cats there, .. it's not a very good system. Besides," Aconiteheart gave her a weak smile. "Times have changed. I know.. very little of your current Clans situation. I spent most of my time watching over SkyClan by itself until a pawful of seasons ago, and it's jarring to keep up with all the drama.

"The only feasible way for me to adapt to.. everything without being overloaded is reincarnation, and I don't really want to be erased. Struggling to find fragments of memory that you might never recover.. it's a thought more terrifying than this abyss.

"Enough about that!" Aconiteheart didn't really want to linger on the thought. Resurrection was impractical; reincarnation would destroy what made him.. him. Neither were good options in his opinion. "I've always liked helping cats anywho, it wouldn't be very classy of me to ditch when I can be of more use from here." This is where the living came in handy! He didn't need to focus on learning the forest again when he could give his all to the dreamers he came across.

"Your pads are too soft," he laughed softly. "You haven't grown up in the mountains. You're used to.. the dirt and the mush, not hardened stone that rubs your paws until they're tougher than oak." To show her, he lifted one of his paws to expose the calloused pad. "You want to compare?" Fawnsqueak's would look squishy in comparison, he was sure.

Oh! He had gotten a bit off track.. "You wanted a change of scenery, right? Here you are! Welcome to SkyClan-- before it was relocated. The Clan of the mountains, as Grousestar would have said. It looks a lot nicer when it's not on fire, doesn't it?"

He didn't stop there, moving away from Fawnsqueak in favor of following a sharp, leafy scent through the forest. "You're a medicine cat, right? What do you know about raspberry leaves?"

[ Dipper ]

[Fawn]

Aconiteheart. "..Acon..ite," Fawnsqueak repeated slowly, deliberation in his meow. He'd never heard of that name. "What is.. an aconite?" It was a bit like an.. acorn-night but that didn't fit. While his mind kept up with Aconiteheart's extreme pace, his physical being was slower in an expression of contemplation, a lackadaisical pace as he considered the variables of the name. It was unknown to him, unknown to history, absent from all the elder stories he'd heard. Nothing about an Aconite, but what he said after cast the tiniest rays of light on it. His origins being of SkyClan pieced part of the mystery together.

Tuning back into the stream of consciousness, he was puzzled to hear him rattling on about reincarnation which happened to be another subject that he yearned to know more about, assuming it was actually.. a real outcome of death? He was still unclear on those too. "..Is that what it's like?" he mused to himself, quiet and fretful. Reincarnation relinquished control over one's past self and that was.. frightening, if Aconiteheart was correct about it. "But that's like... starting over," came the mumble, lost in his thoughts. "Starting over with no guarantee that you'll even.. know anything about yourself." Was it really you, then? There was nothing truly differentiating a cat who knew nothing about a past life versus a cat who'd never had one.

Tensing up briefly, Fawnsqueak relaxed again when Aconiteheart's attention span of a squirrel caused him to move on from the pad-comparison that he didn't wish to partake in. He didn't... his pads weren't soft! They were.. they were manly! Rugged!

He watched the scenery shift into a mountainous region he didn't recognize, naturally. "Grousestar lived here? And the rest of them?" It was nothing like Lionsrange. Lionsrange was like... ripoff SkyClan for weenies compared to the new landscape. Treacherous, but the geography was stunning. "Wow, it's like.. where the sun goes," Fawnsqueak said in awe, leaning forward in his momentary lapse of forgetting reality had been left behind. Peering for Aconiteheart, he scrambled to catch up while soaking in every detail of their surroundings. He was so distracted that he collided with Aconiteheart's side and let out a 'ommph' as he stumbled back to see what he was looking at.

"Uh, kind of. Maybe.. it's a temporary thing, it's not-- I'm not really a medicine cat," he fumbled his way through the half-explanation that didn't even cover that much in his hesitation in tossing himself under that label. A protest on the tip of his tongue faded after a small, "I'm not..." because he didn't know how to say it. In exasperation, he laughed a breathless, bitter puff of air and asked, "Can't you just-- read my mind or something?" Faster than going through the complexities of that.. whole mess.

Eager to move on, he questioned, "Raspberry leaves? .. I don't know anything about them, other than.. being a leaf, I guess. And belonging to a raspberry plant. Is that even in the territories?" Fawnsqueak was trying to think back to the clans' current stretch of land but couldn't place what he was looking for, so that was a dead end.

BILL.

[BEAR.]

What was an aconite? He glanced over his shoulder in mild confusion at the young female. How-- oh! "It's monkshood, wolfsbane? No?" He quirked his brow when nothing seemed to click. "Aconite is a poison! Very toxic if a cat were to eat it, but I was not named after the poison itself.. the root of the plant is brown and spotted like I am!" He puffed his chest slightly.

Perhaps being named for a poison wasn't the best thing to be proud of, but Aconiteheart liked his name and didn't think much else on it. "I don't know why anyone would want to do that! It erases what made you.. you. Everything significant you experienced, every memory, every ounce of knowledge you've obtained-- potentially gone forever. Resurrection is the lesser of the two evils, but.. you run the risk of just being killed again, like that queen that died and came back almost immediately, and.. if you've been dead long enough, you don't know anyone. The world goes on without you, you're left in the dust." All of Aconiteheart's friends were long gone. His brother, Shatteredstar, Ripplesky-- all dead for seasons upon seasons. Interactions with them were minimal. In the endless skies, it was easy to get lost or miss cats.

"Did you think they always lived in those knock off hills?" He laughed. "No! Before your Clans sought Grousestar's assistance, we ruled the mountains! You'll never meet a tougher group of cats. Well.." he flattened his ears back. "We were. Stars, we got the short end of the stick! I don't think.. moving our Clan did us any favors. We were fine here, everything was peaceful.. I mean, not the divorce thing, but otherwise it was fine. You don't need the other Clans to stay afloat." He was rambling and he didn't care, reminiscing about something that could never be again.

This was amusing at least! "You heal cats and you're no longer a warrior. Sounds like a medicine cat to me!" He wasn't fazed by being bumped into, using the opportunity to bop Fawnsqueak on his nose. "We can't do everything! We don't have.. powers, we don't see everything. Most things, sure, but everything would be impawsible!" At his awful pun, he snickered.

Okay, okay. Back to the task at paw.. raspberry leaves. "Of course they do. Here, come on. Come along!"

It didn't take long to get to the raspberry bush: tangled in thorny brambles near the forest edge. "See? Look for something like this.. where the trees break and grass begins. Now the leaves!!"

Aconiteheart reached over to carefully pluck some from the bush, turning on his pads to show the spikey leaves off. "What you want from these is the juices. They are.. hmm, they are an coagulant and a painkiller. They stop bleeding. But you don't usually use them for wounds, you could if you wanted-- but, it's most commonly used in kitting! Sometimes queens have.. complications and these stop it better than anything else."

[ Dipper ]

[Fawn]

Fawnsqueak leaned closer to examine the plant, the jagged edges, trying to draw in its scent to remember its properties. Where the trees break and the grass begins, that was pretty easy. There were plenty of locations like that. "An coagulant," Fawnsqueak echoed and arched a brow, quizzical, also teetering on uncertain of that word's meaning. He didn't know any coag.. related wounds.

Extracting the juice brought a question to mind. "You can't... beat things to get the pulp, right? Well, I mean, I know you can but this one.. cat told me to chew them but then there's my mentor, Otterstone, who sometimes smashes them? I..." It was weird. He still had no idea what to think of the practice.

"...oh. I don't really.. know much about that." The kitting thing was beyond him since Otterstone didn't attend them, he hadn't thought to (it sounded uncomfortable), and when things went wrong.. he had no clue they could be fixed. "So you just--if there's a lot of bleeding.. put the juice on." Sounded simple. Except.. he didn't know what "a lot" of bleeding was.

BILL.

[BEAR.]

"A coagulant!" Aconiteheart confirmed, nodding his head. He had noticed Fawnsqueak's confusion, the stumblys, and felt it necessary to explain a bit more. "It basically means it causes blood to clot, to.. stop, it makes it thicken so it scabs up."

Oh, he had to huff with laughter at that. "I think your mentor is a menace! You don't.. stomp herbs, good Stars! You chew them up. If you smash them, you'll just.. get dirt and grime in them, it's very unsanitary!" He didn't know much about this Otterstone but was wondering who taught HER how to do that. It was.. concerning.

This one seemed bright though, and he beamed at her. "Precisely. It'll be very messy, and not everyone can be saved, but.. if you're quick, chances are the queen will survive!"

Unfortunately, it appeared his companion was waking up. She was fading rapidly, gone almost within a blink of the eye. "Hey, wait--"

But it was too late.

[ Dipper ]

[BEAR.]

╔═══*.·:·.☽✧ ✦ ✧☾.·:·.*═══╗

Back so soon?

Aconiteheart was hyped to see Fawnsqueak's form reappear in the forest, and he didn't waste time bounding over to greet the apprentice. "Hey!!" He stopped himself from crashing into her at the last moment, claws digging into the ground to pull himself to a stop. "You're here!"

Eons of loneliness had made these snippets of interactions very enjoyable, and though they had only met once, Aconiteheart liked to think they were friends. "Did you use the raspberry leaves? Oh, is the crazy lady still stomping herbs? How're things going down there?" His mind was whirling with his thoughts, wanting to keep asking questions but trying to figure out what he should ask.

".. Do you want to get out of this dump," he beckoned around them, the typical forest that medicine cats usually woke up in. "go to a different part of StarClan? I can show you more-- herbs, if you want-- I don't think you're getting much training from that Ottercat!"

[ Dipper ]

╚═══*.·:·.☽✧ ✦ ✧☾.·:·.*═══╝

[Fawn]

It took a while, but Fawnsqueak eventually wound up back in dream-StarClan, or.. maybe it was just regular StarClan? He wasn't sure, still wasn't clear on the 'how it worked' aspects of this but knew better than to question the locals on inquiries that required critical thinking. "Hi?" he asked, recognizing the voice but not seeing Aconiteheart until he turned.. and oh. He was right there. Fawnsqueak skittered backward with a nervous laugh if only to put some distance between them. "Yeah, man. It's.. been a little while, I guess."

He shook his head regarding the raspberry leaves. "I mean, I'd like to.. I'm not even sure we had any queens giving birth-- if there was, it must've gone fine." The 'crazy lady stomping herbs' brought a flash of a beam to his face, a little giggle after that; usually, he wouldn't be so chipper about Otterstone but it was a combination of Aconiteheart's description and the general carefree atmosphere of StarClan that had him a bit more relaxed.

After nodding his consent to traveling to a different part of the forest to continue their tradition of learning, Fawnsqueak reflected on his previous check in. "Things are ..normal? They're fine. I honestly wish I had skipped the meeting-- uh, not because of you, or anything. I like visiting with you. I just wish I didn't have to waste time at the Starcave to do it."

BILL.

[BEAR.]

╔═══*.·:·.☽✧ ✦ ✧☾.·:·.*═══╗

"Hello!" Aconiteheart beamed at his new friend. His best friend? What were friends? He didn't really know at this point, but he reckoned he liked Fawnsqueak and Fawnsqueak seemed fine with him, so they had to be friends. Logic.

He flattened his ears back at the being-unable-to-use-it. "Aw, well.. that's okay! We can go over something else, um.. what do you know about comfrey root?" Oh, perfect. Yes. This would be invaluable knowledge in the future if the stars were correct.

Everything was fine. Good, good. Aconiteheart couldn't help the stupid smile on his face. Friends confirmed! .. Probably. "Maybe you don't," he mused to himself, twitching his ears at the thought of doing what he did with Ebonyfrost. An invisible guide.. attached to Fawnsqueak until he was no longer needed.

Yeah, he liked that idea a lot. "I wish the meetings were a bit more practical too! We never had to do them when I.. well.. back then, I guess. SkyClan didn't have other medicine cats to chat with outside of our own Clan. Not really, at least. I mean, when we were DuskClan and DawnClan we didn't even do it. We could have, but what's the point when half the time you don't see anyone?" Stupid! A colossal waste of time. They were even still chatting in the waking world.. it was ridiculous.

He was glad he managed to slip into the Fawnsqueak dreams before their loudness disturbed her. Oh, he was a little off topic.. and cleared his throat. "Comfrey, again-- have you used it before? I think it could be useful, too.. if you haven't, that is."

[ Dipper ]

╚═══*.·:·.☽✧ ✦ ✧☾.·:·.*═══╝

[Fawn]

Fawnsqueak's brows furrowed in contemplation. "I.. I know Coyotesnarl talked about it? Like, I'm pretty sure that was one of the things he said, and I think we might also have one back in storage.. but I'm not-- I don't really know what it does." That was the safest approach. It had something to do with mending, possibly..? His memory was shaky, not trustworthy enough to use on a living patient.

"I don't?" he echoed, quizzical. Well, he supposed.. he didn't HAVE to come, and he did have StarClan dreams from the comfort of his nest if that confrontation with Frostflight was legit.. Busy pondering, Fawnsqueak was oblivious to the Aconiteheart scheming while distracted with the idea of Aconiteheart visiting him without having to make this ridiculous trek. Plus, the small talk. Oh stars, the SMALL TALK.

Tuning back in, he was.. lost. Definitely lost. Because Aconiteheart was going on about his own medicine cat meetings or lack thereof and tossing some potentially fantastical Clan names out there while Fawnsqueak merely stood in silent cluelessness. "Ookay," he said, beam tight but still amused. "Anyway.. yeah, they're not.. great." From here forward, he'd be skipping unless something massive shifted in the organization of their social hours.

"So-- about the herbs, though? ..And no, I didn't use it," that was with some sheepishness, a cough, "I didn't think it'd.. be good to, y'know, take that risk and waste a plant and maybe a life."

BILL.

[BEAR.]

╔═══*.·:·.☽✧ ✦ ✧☾.·:·.*═══╗

Oh, this Coyotesmile guy sounded swell. Someone with a little more knowledge than the crazy Otterstomp! Yes, Aconiteheart might have to hit that fella up sometime. Stars permitting, of course!

"Alright, you're gonna love this," he told Fawnsqueak as he headed off to follow the tangy scent of comfrey. "Keep that smell in mind: comfrey is tangy in nature, so it's hard to miss it." And there it was! A flowering bush with hanging purple bulbs. "Okay, so as a general note before we get into this.. never feed a cat purple flowers! They're toxic and will mess them up. With that in mind.."

Aconiteheart pawed at the ground beneath the flowering plant, until he exposed the rich brown root he was in search of. Very carefully, he nipped part of the root to release it from the soil. "Be careful about taking too much from a plant, you might kill it! Comfrey plants like sunlight, you'll be more likely to find them in fields than in the forest."

With the root in his mouth, he turned to set it in front of Fawnsqueak so she could get a full view of the root. "Wash the dirt away with water to clean it. You don't want to go rubbing this into wounds when it's dirty!" They weren't savages!

"And then.. you chew it up, and you rub it into injuries.. like burns, or wrenched claws, or a broken limb. Obviously you can't like, get it ON the bone, but the skin works just fine. It absorbs it into the skin and helps soothe the wound so it's less angry." Hmm, what else? "Oh! And for cats who have inflamed joints, itching, or sprained shoulders-- you can rub that in too, and it'll alleviate the pain and help it heal up. It's um, kind of like the "wild herb", I guess? A master of all and none, except infections and.. actual sicknesses." He was rambling. Hopefully it wasn't too much for Fawnsqueak.

".. Do you have any questions?"

[ Dipper ]

╚═══*.·:·.☽✧ ✦ ✧☾.·:·.*═══╝

[Fawn]

Fawnsqueak could hardly think of a time purple flowers were a good thing. "Isn't lavender purple..? Is-- can cats eat those? Does it even do anything?" Those were common alongside comfrey. Don't eat the purple flowers. Got it. "..Iris, I guess that's purple too. Poisonous?" It was perhaps a lot to ask in a session but he was terrified of inadvertently ending a clanmate's life from his own lack of knowledge. Knowing what they could and couldn't consume was integral!

He watched Aconiteheart pluck off part of its root and swallowed, hoping he'd get the hang of that. "If.. I'm bad at, uh, collecting it, can I bury the flowers to get more of these or something?" Sustainability was almost always in the forefront of his thoughts when collecting, worried about the day where nothing had regrown yet they were in dire need.

Committing that to memory, he reviewed it. Comfrey root--not the flowers--for burns, wrenched claws, ...broken limbs? "So.. the broken limb, you rub it over the broken.. part?" Once Aconiteheart said it'd absorb, that answered the question, and he nodded affirmatively. "Does it actually help it heal-- oh." Both a painkiller and helped it heal, that was surprisingly useful. "Thanks. ..Can cats eat the root?" Maybe a weird thing to ask, but... "Like, can it be for inside-pains-- uh, internal bleeding and stomach aches and that kind of thing?" He was mostly musing at this point, unsure of the herb's limits.

"Yeah," a breathless laugh, "way too many, I think."

BILL.