**Elmshadow**
@
Alchemist Kitsune [I'll get both of their collections into the herb storage so you don't have to worry about responding if you have no other need ^^]
His green eyes scanned as his paws moved steadily through the familiar undergrowth. He was looking for green plant with a lighter green top. There were other potentially useful herbs but for now he remained focused. If his searches turned up fruitless he'd come back to stock up on some of the other herbs, or if he only had a couple of the lady's mantle he wanted. But he had to trust that the patrols he sent out would return with the vital herbs he'd sent them for. Though there was something about insanity in that trust. The patrols had indeed not been doing what he truly needed them to do so he wasn't sure he
could trust them to simply do their job. There was only more at stake with these specific patrols as he'd sent out new mentors with their new and, in many cases, quite young apprentices. If the warriors of the patrols chose to be negligent, it could mean more than just a failure to bring back necessary herbs.
He pushed the thoughts from his mind. The other patrols were a concern for when they returned to camp. If any failed to return he'd just have to take his own trip back out again, rather than concern himself with bringing other herbs back preemptively. Suddenly, the thoughts were ripped from him as he moved distractedly through some thick underbrush and an irritating burn lit his ear. His green eyes shot to the side as his afflicted ear flattened uncomfortably. His alarm quickly satiated to irritation as an overgrown stinging nettle plant swayed just in front of his nose. He took a step back, flicking his ear.
How annoying. He was very rarely caught distracted but caught off-guard by an herb was both ideal and intensely annoying. For the transgression, Elmshadow used a claw to strip around the middle of the stalk then bit off the plant firmly. It served to both trim back the obnoxious plant but a bit more stinging nettle couldn't hurt. Shaking his head, trying to banish the lingering sting in his ear from his thoughts, he pressed forward. The brush cleared and a small sun-spotted clearing opened up in front of him. Along the opposite side his eyes landed on a vaguely familiar plant. The last he'd seen it, there'd been a unique starry quality about it which it did not possess here. Rather now it was more wilty with spots of imperfection, but it was undeniably exactly what he was looking for. He let out a breath and flicked his ear as he started across the clearing straight for the lady's mantle. He picked what he could carry without diminishing the patch. He wasn't sure where else he'd be able to find the new herb so preserving this patch as though it were the only felt the safest option.
With a mouthful of the herb, he turned back toward the path he'd taken out here, gathered the stinging nettle among the lady's mantle, then made his way back to the honey comb and Mousepaw. The gray apprentice met him as he moved forward so the medicine cat set down his bounty and meowed,
"Looks like you did well. Let's get back, we couldn't carry much else if we lingered anyway." He gathered the various herbs he'd collected and led the way directly back to camp. The patrol was the smallest of all he'd sent out but they were returning successful; the weather was preserving the live herbs well and it was still some time before the frost came and began to kill things off, so he found his expectations rising fairly high for the other, larger patrols that had been sent out. With the war looming over their heads, he'd need a well-stocked herb storage. He couldn't afford slacking clanmates now more than ever. If the new mentors couldn't manage their first assignment as mentors, displaying a good example of how to conduct patrols for their medicine cat, they'd best expect stiff punishment.
[ +1 stinging nettle +3 lady's mantle ]
#water