Welcome to the story.
For now, you'll be Stormrise, a grey and black Thunderclan warrior
... and now you've gotten sick. It's probably when a whole year since you last had to pay a healer a visit because of something unrelated to a battle, but where we are.
Hawkcatcher has not been the medicine cat for long, and she was a normal warrior before that, but to be completely honest, something about the massive, stoic cat unnerves you.
But you are very sick, so there is no avoiding it.
You have to visit the medicine den.
Noon
The sun filters through the roof as you step in but it's still darker than outside in the camp, and it takes you a moment to adjust to the gloom. It takes you one moment more to spot the large shadow gliding between herbs neatly lined up against the wall. Hawkcatcher is perhaps one of the biggest cats you've ever seen, with long, brown fur and those bengal-markings you've only seen on a few kittypets before.
"Hey, how come you're one of the only ones with those fur markings?" Admittedly, you blurt the questions out mainly to avoid having to properly talk to her. Somehow smalltalk seems easier. One of her tattered ears twitches, and she places down the leaves she has been sorting but doesn't look at you. "If you must know, I got them from my father's side. He... was a former outsider, some of them have spots like these."
"But you didn't come in here to ask about my fur. You know I can smell the sickness on you, right?" She has stood up and signals for you to lie down in one of the nests. "What is it?"
You explain that your stomach is turning and don't feel too well and she places down the leaves she has been sorting before turning to you. "I can see that." Her voice isn't warm per say, but not as deep and menacing as you expected if you are to be completely honest. "Hm, I'll bring you something for your stomach and we can go over your symptoms more exactly." You do as you're told and she gives you... some sort of berry that you don't recognize, but you can't exactly do much else than trust that she knows what she is doing. The two of you go over your symptoms more exactly, she gives you a few more herbs and ointments that you still don't know of, and then tells you to try and get some rest. And honestly, with the way your head is aching and the world seems to dance around you... a nap actually sounds pretty nice.
Sunset
You wake up to the lowered sun's light blinding you through the entrance of the den, but also to the growing hot fewer in your body. It feels as if you're just gonna pass out instead of going to sleep again, and you're just about to try and call for Hawkcatcher when something blocks the golden light, and a cooling lump of wet moss is gently pressed to your forehead.
Your half-blurry vision shifts, and you see that it's the medicine cat again, sitting there and quietly tending to you, and the fewer eases slightly. Or at least, it feels easier to handle now.
"Why... did you become a medicine cat?" You rasp. You never spoke to her before (well perhaps, on some patrol or something, but never properly) but she always seemed so...
warrior-like. Scarred from countless battles, a good hunter from what you've seen, mentor to so many apprentices, and even now, when she sits around sorting herbs you can see that she has kept her muscles in shape. She really is the last cat you would have expected to take up the role after Springlight's death.
Hawkcatcher is quiet for a moment, and you have time to question whether you said the wrong thing. "I just meant that hunting and fighting always seemed like your...
thing," you blurt out and she scoffs a little before fetching another herb and more moss. "
'My thing' has been helping Thunderclan. It was setting an example as an apprentice, it was hunting and fighting and training others when I was a warrior, and now it's healing and helping cats who are sick. As I see it, my purpose has always been the same, this is just a different expression of it."
"So... you're like close with Starclan then?" Wasn't it sort of required for a medicine cat to be close to Starclan and all of that? Receiving prophesies? According to you, the question isn't too complicated or surprising, but you notice her flinch. Hawkcatcher, the large, stoic warrior who had fought cats and predators alike, flinches at the mention of Starclan? But she's a medicine cat, surely she has had conversations both with and about Starclan before?
She is quiet for a moment before sighing. "Starclan is powerful. They send us warnings, they watch over us at night, and they welcome our dead. I've witnessed many blessings from them." Some more silence. "They've never played a huge role in my personal life, but they are another way in which I can help my home. ... I have become their messenger. Little else."
Dusk
You manage to get some more sleep, and when you wake up later at night you can feel that your body is regaining its strength. You're still sick, no doubt about that, but you already feel as if you could get up and take a walk a bit. Better not though.
In the dim light of a dying day, you see Hawkcatcher slipping back into the den, carrying an apprentice who seems to have gotten too sick or tired to walk on their own, and placing him down in another nest. "You should come to me when you feel the slightest symptom, ok? I am here to take care of my clanmates, not just fix you once you've gotten sick, and things like these are easier to prevent early on."
Silently you watch the medicine cat speak with the apprentice and feel slightly surprised by the gentleness in her voice. She was fairly gentle to you too, of course, perhaps it is part of how a medicine cat ought to act, but while you get the sense that she is holding back, she is genuinely warm towards the young cat in a way you have never seen her act with older cats.
She finishes up her work with the 'paw before noticing that you are awake again and coming to inspect you as well.
"Are you close with them?" It's a feeble attempt at small talk, but honestly sitting in silence with the massive medicine cat feels worse. But the reply you get is a plain and simple "no". "Oh? I just assumed... you seemed... like warm towards them, and all." Hawkcatcher's tail flicks behind her as she quickly finishes up her work. "They're an apprentice, the last thing I will do to a young cat is to make them fear me."
The work is all done and she gathers her herbs and things again to leave. "The kits and 'paws of Thunderclan are our future. They may be reckless and unmannered now, but one day it will be them fighting to keep intruders out of our territory and the freshkill pile stocked." A pause before she continued. "I've lived long enough to see warriors abandon their duties to our young - their own kits, their apprentices, the ones who looked up to them... When I was an apprentice few of my mentors stuck around for more than a moon or a few, and when I finally completed my training it was no thanks to any of them... so as a warrior, I tried to make sure to help apprentices, even ones who were not my own. ... I still do that, I just don't have as much time as I used to." She shakes her fur and you get the sense that talking about this... drains her. "But I will continue to treat them well if that's what you're asking." With that, she returns to her supplies at the far side of the den.
Gloom
Night has fallen and everyone in the medicine cat den is sleeping. Well, almost everyone, because you have been drifting in and out of sleep the whole evening, and are finally woken up by a quiet rustle. The sickness still left in your body has made you unusually tired, but you are still a light sleeper, and open your eyes to just barely make out Hawkcatcher's dark silhouette move about at the edge of the den, quietly mumbling to herself as she counts a few plants, rearrange a few more, before giving a particularly wilted-looking flower a frown and tossing it to the side, presumably to take out later.
You shift around in your den a bit, trying to find a comfortable position again and hopefully get some sleep again.
"I could give you something if you've trouble falling asleep." You hadn't noticed that Hawkcatcher's tattered ear angled towards you. "Eh, yeah, if you could do that it'd be great, actually." The berry she gives you is again one you have never seen before, but you happily take it. It's very late, so if you can finally, properly fall asleep, that'd be great.
"But aren't
you tired?" The question slips out before you can stop it, but she merely scoffs quietly. "That's hardly relevant. Do you think you're getting better?" "I think it's pretty relevant," you mutter, half-ignoring her question. "I've seen you do duties around camp my whole life, and now you keep doing all of that but also work the whole day with herbs, keeping track of everyone, and staying up this late?"
She is once again all done yet doesn't leave right away, and finally, it is as if the massive warrior deflates. "Tired? Perhaps. Regardless, there are things that need to be done." "Can't someone else do some of those things though?" you wonder as you watch Hawkcatcher pick up her things.
"No, I'm happy to take on some more work if it means someone else doesn't have to."
Midnight
No, sleep seems like something you simply cannot reach right now. You've been rolling around in your nest for what feels like forever, trying to find a comfortable position, but nothing comes of it. The berry that you were given helped a bit and gave you maybe an hour or two of sleep, but after its effect wore off you're back to where you started. Well, it's good to be restless, right? It should mean that you're better now. Hopefully.
But once again you make out movement in the corner of your eye and turn your head to see Hawkcatcher slipping out of the medicine cat den. No. She still intimidates you a little bit, but that is it. You get up, surprised by how energetic you feel, and follow her.
"Ok I don't care what you think you need to get done right now, but for stars' sake, Hawkcatcher, it's midnight! You really should stop working for the day."
It's pretty clear that she did not expect to be followed, much less lectured, and for a moment her eyes narrow and you almost regret your words, but then she relaxes somewhat. "I'm not working anymore," she sighs. "I'm, just going for a walk; needed some fresh air." Oh. Reasonable, perhaps. Honestly, you feel like getting out of here to for a moment, just to be allowed to stretch your legs.
"I'll come with you." Where did not only this bravery but also eagerness to be around the older cat come from? No idea, but here we go anyway. To your surprise, she doesn't protest and simply flicks her tail as a signal to follow, and together you pad out into the forest where she sets course towards Firefly Cove. The two of you walk in silence, but she turns to glance at you a bit before you arrive. "Have you ever been to Firefly Cove at night?" You frown. "Not really, I don't usually walk around after dusk" is what you reply, and just before she turns back you realize that you just saw her smile. Small and brief, but it was the first time you'd seen her with that expression. "Well, let me show you exactly how it got its name." You're about to ask when she pushes past the name of the bushes, leading you to the location, and the words catch in your throat. The meadow bathes in the moonlight, but all over it dance hundreds and hundreds of glowing, warm dots.
Hawkcatcher has settled down, tail wrapping over her paws, and peacefully watches the fireflies, giving you time to take it all in before she speaks. "The only times I ever broke rules as an apprentice was to be able to sneak out here at night and watch them, and I try to take my apprentices here at least once as well."
You hum quietly and nod, but no more words are exchanged; none more are needed.
Sunrise
It's only when the horizon turns pink again that the fireflies begin to disappear, that you can also feel tiredness again, but it feels as if very bones are made of rock, which is a pretty solid sign to head back. "Gosh, I wish my mentor had shown me that." You sigh. "Is that why you started going there, because one of your mentors showed you?" It was meant as just smalltalk, but even through the mask Hawkcatcher seems to carry like a second pelt, you can see that you hit a nerve. "No one bothered showing me, I just found out on my own. Like I said, none of my mentors are really worth giving much credit to."
She doesn't say much more for the rest of the walk home, but after a while, you feel another question growing. "If I may ask... how did you learn to be a mentor yourself then? Like if no one ever mentored you properly."
You've reached the camp again, and the clan is slowly waking up as you approach the entrance. It's only then that she speaks
"I think... that we to some extent are destined to become the adults we needed when we were young," she finally breathes, stopping just before you head inside. "I know how to be a mentor because I was shown what not to be, the same way I know loyalty because I grew up with cats who abandoned the clan. And I think I am a better medicine cat for having been in so many battles myself.
When you see something break over and over again, you eventually learn to heal it.
... And I aspire to create a world that no longer needs me."
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I wasn't able to to directly mention a few things relating to the requirements and expectations you laid out, so I wanted to quickly touch on them;
Silentwing Medicine Cat Application - The Hidden Beauty
Re: ThunderClan Medicine Cat Applications
Re: ThunderClan Medicine Cat Applications
Re: ThunderClan Medicine Cat Applications
every single oen of these applications are amazing and I loved reading them! Don't let anybody tell you otherwise 
love u guys. (I decided to be different r u happy now /silly)
