[iliri]

Springlight
long-furred, oriental-shaped, gray-and-orange calico molly with blue eyes; torn right ear
purrks: herbal knowledge - tier 2 | the collector | mind reader | skip the steps[all perm. active; sts for battle training]

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Orangeblossom’s jumpiness caught the attention of the herbalist off guard, making her naturally large ears twitch cautiously as she watched his movements with a glint of curiosity in her deep blue hues. The fair share of interacting with a cat like this oddly reminded her of the day she first met her former mentor, Rabbitchatter. Thinking about the brown tabby made her stomach curl uncomfortably. Just the thought alone about the relatively chipper tom-cat almost just made her realize how fast time had truly passed. She was only just a young, naive, curious molly who bore little knowledge about the implacable dangers of the world, and he was only there for just a brief moment to teach her one of the very things that every cat should know: hunting. It wasn’t like it was a skill that she had forgotten about, but it was something that she hadn’t used in a particularly long time. When was the last time she was ever placed on a hunting patrol? 16 moons ago? Her memory of the time was relatively fuzzy, but her companion's chipper output reminded her of that very tom-cat that was her former mentor, and being one of the few to destroy the fragile trust that she developed with him. Her small, barely notable smile faltered as the crippling thought pushed through the darkened atmospheres of her mind, her shoulders slinking forward as each of her limbs felt light. Every futile promise that Rabbitchatter made had broken and never had a chance to mend themselves properly. She never had a chance to see that… city he spoke so commonly about.

A sharp jerk of her head focused back towards the orange-coated tom as he greeted her, her lips instinctively curling upwards as he expressed his gratitude. Furthermore, her placing a spot next to him wasn’t anything more than a simple act of kindness. He looked as if he could use the company, and if she was being honest, she wouldn’t mind lending a shoulder to chatter with while the meeting was taking place. “Of… course… you looked… like you… could use… some company… no one… would want… to sit… alone… when a… meeting is… taking place.” The herbalist inquired, flashing the tom-cat a relatively tired smile, showing the crooked outer of her sharp canids as she expressed her gratitude towards him. Out of the corner of her peripheral vision, she easily spotted the way his little nub of a tail wagged vigorously like a dog in sync with his upbeat demeanor. It was a peculiar sight to see, but it wouldn’t be anything worth verbally mentioning to the tom. She wouldn’t want him to suffer from second-hand embarrassment now, did she? The mood was almost quick to switch as the relatively optimistic tom-cat expressed his interior thoughts about having a bad feeling about this meeting. To be fair, the medicine cat painfully agreed with his implications. The way Bumblestar looked while she waited for everyone to gather around easily gave off the impression that this meeting was not going to go well. The raised hackles, bristling fur, and lashing tail gave it all away too easily. “Can’t… blame you… for thinking… that… so do I.”

Her response was almost a mere mutter to herself, as she wasn’t certain how well Orangeblossom would take to her thoughts about the upcoming diabolical events. But it would be better to express herself out than to keep to herself. Letting your feelings out and about was better than bottling them up, all that caused was unhealthy turmoil for anyone in particular. Either way, at least she wasn’t the only cat who thought this meeting would possibly delve into chaos and cacophony of blistering madness. Cats often decided to show out their true colors whenever a meeting unfolded, and their true colors indefinitely weren’t the pretty ones of the bunch. All it was was just a bunch of valiant narcissists who thought they were better than others when in reality, they were just far too swallowed up by their ego and arrogance to realize their wrongdoings. The white tip of her tri-colored tail twitched reproachfully, expressing her quiet worries about what was to come for this meeting. She wasn’t used to feeling this tense, even though she had been thrust into many situations where she found herself feeling her soul weave away and leave with a continuous ringing in her ears from the sheer amount of blood, sweat, and tears poured into her hard labor of work, but this was just something else entirely. Anything that Bumblestar expresses out of her mouth could lead up to anything. There could be demotions, troubles, and deaths. Anything out there that her leader could mention out of the blue. A sharp exhale slipped past her nostrils, easing the tension in her muscles a little bit.

The sight of her companion’s extended paw caught her off guard, each vigilant thought that cascaded her mind now a blur as she focused on the paw, realization slowly hitting as her mind grew to postpone its thoughts. It wasn’t hard to catch the brief moment of confusion along Orangeblossom’s face before it instantly switched to a moment of giddiness. That wasn’t something that the medicine cat saw often, as happiness only seemed like more than a mile away. All she saw in everyone that she encountered in the clan were cats sulking and being exposed to the horrid exposures of the world. Her thoughts on the matter dwindled as she focused on the healing paw, carefully inspecting the flaps of skin slowly mending together to heal themselves up. There wasn’t any indication that she would need to use some burdock to help ease down any forms of inflammation or infection. A tired smile slowly crept towards her lips as she craned her head back to look up towards Orangeblossom, noting the infectious smile plastered on his face. Did this tom-cat just magically make anyone happier everywhere he went? “Thankfully… it seems… to be… healing… alright… just give it… a few… more days… and the… flaps of… skin should… be hopefully… mended together… and you… can… remove the… bandaging.” Springlight informed, jerking her head back as she focused on his emerald-green hues, cocking her head to the side slightly as she continued. “Don’t… fester… about… keeping me… up late… it’s an… occupational… hazard… anyways… I deal with… it often.”

Springlight’s rather bland sense of humor always wasn’t the brightest, but she’d at least try to willingly make her companion crack a smile in case that was plausible in any given situation. Her attention towards the tom-cat was quickly interrupted by the sound of Bumblestar’s aggravated voice rumbling through her ears, the calico focusing her attention back up towards the leader as her ears angled themselves forward to listen intently towards what she needed to say. To already top off the bristling madness starting to form, it didn’t surprise the medicine cat that ShadowClan was starting to stir drama again. They had been keeping quiet for the last moon or so and it was already making the calico feel a bit off. Sure, it could mean that they had finally decided to back off before stirring unneeded drama once more, but that seemed to not be the case. From upon the brief mentions of herbs almost getting destroyed, her claws instinctively slipped and clutched into the soft soil beneath her paws. The chilled, cool new-leaf around her felt like a hot rush of blistering madness surging through her veins. Just that fact alone made her feel ticked off, as herbs were going to be needed at this time of the year. What kind of cat with no mind decides to try to destroy one of the needed essentials for survival? Especially with the fact that she and Drizzlecloud would need those specific herbs to make sure cats don’t succumb to any sort of lethargic illnesses of the sort. A sharp puff of air exhaled through her nostrils, small bits of frost dancing in the air to reprimand her lingering annoyance with the other clan. Just from the fact that the shadow-dwellers had been destroying herbs, the other fact would only just inhumanely frighten her core.

The unwilling death of a clan-mate was something she could handle, but to mutilate and eat away at the corpse only to leave pitiful remnants of the body was something else entirely. Springlight’s throat clenched as the air felt forcefully pulled away from her lungs, leaving her in a hot mess of emotions. Goldenheart was no cat that she knew fairly well, but she didn’t deserve to be mutilated and killed in such a gruesome manner. Just the thought of tangled limbs and scarlet tainting the rejuvenating forest floor made her stomach churn uneasily as bile crawled through her throat and clung to the back of her tongue. Its acidic taste staining her tastebuds was a feeling that she wished to not come back to after so long. Her companion sitting alongside her seemed to be as equally as distressed, if not more. It couldn’t be easy for him to take in the fact that something as gruesome as this would occur and tear down at his naturally high-pitched optimism. Carefully, she used a paw to caress his shoulders, her movements slow as she used circular motion into his shoulder blades. There wasn’t much that she could give to help comfort the distressed feline given that they were currently in a meeting, but she would use all of the knowledge that she obtained during her time as a medic to help suppress the horror he had to overhear. “I’m… afraid it’s… not as… easy as that…” Springlight began, her tone mellow as she continued to rub into his back. “Anyone… can be… either the… darkest… in their… times… or the… lightest… it’s not… a easy… composition… to realize… as for… life is… never fair… to anyone… but all… we can… do… is focus on… seeing the light… while… facing our… darkest… moments… in life… and just try… to pull through… as best… we can.”

Springlight rested her blue gaze upon Orangeblossom’s own for only a brief moment, allowing her words to process through his brain as her moments of comfort came to a close, the molly pulling her paw back to rest it around the forest floor and gear her attention back towards Bumblestar as she carefully listened to the rest of the news that the leader needed to express. Her expression remained solemn at the brief mentioning of the remains of Goldenheart’s corpse being buried at the rightful gravesite of Willow’s Rise, only giving a respectful nod. At some point after the meeting is over, she’ll go visit the gravesite and pay her respects to the deceased molly. She wasn’t certain if she believed in StarClan or not, but she’d still hope she went to wherever she went safely. Her thought for the molly’s well-needed honor was soon cast aside as soon as Bumblestar shifted her topics about Sunkissed Creek, a subtle of horror uplifting itself up her spine. All that the former piece of territory did was bring old memories back that she wished to not think about. Sunkissed Creek was supposed to be a peaceful place where herbs were plentiful and water was fresh, but all she memorized it was just a place where she was almost brutally murdered in the paws of one of those ShadowClan rats. She wasn’t realizing it now, but her tail was merely twitching at an alarming rate. With a grimace, the molly used every fiber of her being to resist the temptation. Her trauma was not to be executed at this moment. She was sitting in a meeting, for StarClan’s sake. She briefly eyed Orangeblossom to see if he took note of her slight excursion, hoping dearly that he hadn’t noticed it.

It would just only throw a curveball at her if cats started to ask her questions about why she felt so antsy about the whole situation with Sunkissed Creek. It wasn’t something that she’d be very willing to answer, as all it did was uncover old wounds that she shielded away long ago from everyone else. In consecutive silence, she listened to the rest of what Bumblestar needed to say, and now she felt more on edge. Another kill-on-sight order being made was probably going to raise more tensions, but it wasn’t like the calico had anything to state with the matter. It was her leader’s choice, not hers, even if she was a high-ranking member of the clan. She tended to the wounded and aid to the sick, that was her job. The only time she would make abrupt decisions was for sending out patrols, leading her own patrol, or even demoting a cat if necessary. Other than that, she didn’t know what else to succinctly make of herself useful other than going out of her way to collect herbs or check on the nursery or elder’s den to see if anyone needed her assistance. Her thoughts on her own duties weren’t the most prominent at the moment, therefore focusing back up toward Bumblestar as the topic was switched in regards to Haggard Ruins and Smallpines. A lynx wandering around those areas seemed like a heavy issue to deal with, and heavily disappointing. Those two spots were good go-to spots when catnip or celandine was heavily needed, and now with a lynx on the loose, it wouldn’t be easy to collect those herbs without any possible interjection from the lynx or some other predator. A sharp sigh expelled past her nostrils, fueling her further dissatisfaction.

Orangeblossom’s words briefly tugged her way from her thoughts as she listened to him offer himself up for patrols whenever she withstood the chance to let out patrols. A small part of her felt surprised by his quick offering, feeling almost pleased that at least some cats within the clan understood the importance of herbs when they came needed. Sure, the herb storage was currently well-stocked at this moment with herbs that would come in handy in the future, but she had no clear indication of when they may turn wilted at any point in time when they were needed most. In response to the tom-cat’s offer, the calico craned her head toward his direction and quietly nodded her head in rebuttal towards the offer. “I… gratefully thank… you for… offering yourself… for patrols… I will… consider it… done then… for when I… release some… after this meeting.” Springlight inquired, smiling softly towards the tom-cat as she expressed her gratitude towards him. It wasn’t often that cats did such nice things like this, but whenever they did, it always made her day a bit better. “I… appreciate you… being one of… the first few… cats to… offer yourself… for patrols… it’s not… very often… that a… cat contributes… themselves for… a patrol… most often… it’s my mentor… or someone else.” She gave out a relatively quiet chuckle after her brief explanation, the white tip of her tri-colored tail whisking in rhythm to her heightened mood. She wasn’t sure how Orangeblossom did it, but he surely knew a way to at least put her in a better mood.

Her focus on the tom was quickly interrupted by Bumblestar snapping at the warrior who seemingly spoke up about her findings at Herondive Hollow, a whole family of lynxes, apparently. Well, if that wasn’t horrible enough news, then what was? Cats killing at that border and lynxes surpassing through the area made it a difficult spot to want to send any sort of patrols over towards if they were just going to risk suffering the same fate as Goldenheart if not worse. A sharp exhale surpassed through her nostrils, not wanting to take in more of the gruesome information than she already had. Lynxes were a horrible problem to deal with and only just made her mental calculations of splitting patrols even more finesse. But, she decided to look past that and listen to the rest of what Bumblestar needed to state, not much interested in the news of the fact that another cat was getting demoted. Fallingkit. Wasn’t he supposed to become a warrior at this meeting? Well, whatever he did, it must’ve been bad enough for him to deserve the demotion that he got. The medicine cat didn’t bother to give the tom any look of acknowledgment, only focusing on the leader as she listened to the rest of what she needed to state. Lavenderpaw’s foolishness was another thing that Springlight found her stomach unsettlingly churning at. She wasn’t certain how to feel about the fact that she was an apprentice who was going to have kits. It sounded entirely messed up in her own opinion, but it was the molly’s fault for committing such a heinous act of sneaking off to be with a RiverClan warrior and having kits with him. It was ridiculous in its own right.

But, the next set of announcements was the same normal things of reassignments and ceremonies, and Springlight found her hopes at least increasing for this meeting to go normal… if that were plausible, that is. Springlight’s eyes glanced over toward her companion as she tilted her head to the side, her eyes glinting with novelty as she began speaking. “After… this meeting… would you… want… to accompany me… for a… stroll to… Willow’s Rise… to pay… our respects?... You seemed… burdened… by the news… so I… would feel… like it… would help you… suppress that… troubling thought of… yours.” If the tom declined her offer, she’d be fine with it either way. It just felt like the molly needed to go visit Goldenheart’s grave so she could pay her the respect that she deserved. She’d feel guilty just ignoring such an important act to commit.

@Dolomedes