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***Alchemist Kitsune*** · #**594** June 12th, 2025, 07:23 PM

Lightningstorm nodded along as Whiterabbit spoke, not entirely certain if oppressing the farm cats and having them give tribute was the smartest of plans, but certain that something had to be done. If the other clans found out that WindClan had suddenly let a band of kittypets take over a part of their territory, they would become easy pickings for sure. The twolegs giving them a hard time was fine. Twolegs were a threat every cat could understand. Barn cats, however, she had to assume the other clans would be far less understanding of. And then in an instant she was sputtering, large ears perked up as she stared in a mix of horror and apprehension at the pale she-cat, the mention of apprentices entering her den obviously not a welcomed one.

"No! No no. No apprentices! I mean... I'm sure they won't mean any harm but... no cats coming in and out of my den as they please. Last thing I need is another pair of paws using my herbs to try and kill my patients while attempting to let me take the fall," the herbalist responded, her voice slowly turning bitter at the memory.

Lightningstorm still remembered it. The lighter, happier days of her apprenticeship. When Cowtuft would allow anyone to enter his den for herbs when necessary. When patrols could simply deposit their found herbs in with the rest of the storage. He worked on a trust based system. One that someone broke... and to this day it still ate at her that she didn't know who that someone had been. She'd had... doubts. Ideas. But nothing concrete. No evidence outside of her gut instinct on the matter. Not that it would have mattered. WindClan didn't care. They were content and satisfied seeing the medicine cat that had lived and burned for them take the fall, almost giddy in their relish of seeing one who had held a position of power falter, even if that position had only ever been used for their benefit.

They had turned on her as well, claiming that she had been the one to set him up. There had been no evidence to this... impossible to find any when the stories they spouted were nothing more than lies. Fabrications created by boredom, paranoia, bloodlust, and the need to have their moment in the light. But the betrayal upon her had left its mark. The medicine cat might have moved on some from her initial, deep rooted hatred of the cats of WindClan. Her paranoia that they would turn on her again at her first mistake.

Well... she was still certain they would turn on her. They had proved to care little for her in all her moons as a medicine cat. If anything, she was certain she knew more of every individual cat within the clan than they all knew of her with their knowledge combined. She was a tool and nothing more. But she was... content in a way now. She wasn't happy. Not really. It was hard to be truly joyful when one felt so distant from every single cat that surrounded them. Even Crowtooth, whom she considered a friend, she kept a healthy distance away. But it was what she wanted. It was easier that way, or so she'd convinced herself.

Ear twitching, Lightningstorm shook herself, unwilling to go down that rabbit hole any longer. Instead, she grinned, turning to Whiterabbit as she turned the conversation back onto more comfortable territory. That of dog hunting and how possible - or impossible - it might just be.

"You say it's impossible, then? To dog hunt? I wouldn't know about that... Impossible things, I mean. I think everything is possible, in some way. Well... maybe not everything. Don't see a cat walkin' on two legs themselves and suddenly livin' it up like one of them twolegs. But I like to think that most things that are thought up or imagined can be made reality within the scopes of what is possible in our world. We just don't know enough about these things, I think. Haven't learned enough to know just how to make it possible.

It's what makes us afraid, innit? That lack of knowledge and certainty that it is impossible? That thing that makes us freeze up and convince ourselves that nothin' can be done about it. I mean, don't get me wrong. You might very well be right but... I just think it's always better to assume that maybe we just don't know how to yet than to give it up as a lost cause," Lightningstorm mewed cheerily, her eyes alight with a sense of wonder as she looked to the clouds.

She would always have a thirst for knowledge. A hope that those things that petrified her and had no good answer weren't so... she just hadn't found the right way to tackle it yet. And maybe she never would. But some cat somewhere else, someday, would. Perhaps it was a silly notion, but it somehow made life just a little less gray sometimes.

@nyme [Whiterabbit]