Lesson Number One [Otterpaw]

[Rin]

Gray ears twitched at the sound of faint birdsong. It was morning, already, and the tomcat was anxious for it. Unraveling himself from his warm nest, he stretched out his limbs, slowly arching his back as he worked out the kinks. He spent a few heartbeats running a tongue over his mangy fur before giving up and padding over to the smaller nest not far from his own. His fur was forever in a perpetual mess, never quite looking nice enough. Not that it mattered. He was medicine cat after all. He had respect without being perfectly groomed.

 The gray tomcat picked his way to the nest and spent a moment staring at the brown shape before him. Otterpaw, his new apprentice. Fogfoot had never considered having an apprentice so young, but he knew that the young tomcat was the perfect choice. The night Otterpaw's mother kitted him, and even before the she-cat had chosen a name, Fogfoot had a dream of an otter in a mass of fog. The ShadeClan medicine cat was confused at first, and even when the queen announced her kits names it didn't fully click. The dream repeated though, and Fogfoot knew that the kit was the choice. Indeed, when the young tom came into the den when he was still a kit and listened to the elder tom's words in awe Fogfoot knew that this was that cat's destiny. Now, all Otterpaw had to do was visit the Sink Hole and be confirmed by StarClan before his peers, but the medicine cat wasn't worried about that.

Silently, the tom pushed down a bubble of bitterness that begun to well up. Why couldn't Otterpaw had been born earlier, and Foxwhisker had chosen him instead of Fogfoot? Then the gray tom could have been the warrior he always wanted to be. He squashed those feelings, grounding them into nothingness. Bitterness wasn't going to do him anything. All it could do was eat him up and destroy him from the inside out. For his clan, he needed to be a better cat.

 "Up and up, Otterpaw," Fogfoot hissed, nosing the apprentice's sleeping form. The tom had to make some serious decisions about what kind of mentor he was going to be. It wasn't like he was a warrior and Otterpaw was one of many. No, the tom would be - should be - his one and only shot. He had to do this right. "You waste the day away with senseless sleeping."

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"Okay, okay. I'm coming, Fogfoot." Otterpaw got up and stretched. This was his first lesson and he didn't want to be late, or having his mentor angry at him. Slowly, he padded toward Fogfoot, and sat back at his haunches. "What are we going to do today?" He mewed, still a bit sleepy, but the sweet scent of herbs made him feel energized. He was always looking forward to this since he was a kit, and he's not going to let Fogfoot to be disappointed!

[Rin]

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Okay, okay. I'm coming, Fogfoot.

 The young medicine cat let out a huff of amusement as his apprentice scurried out of bed. The tom knew he was being difficult, but he also knew that the trouble would be better for the young tom. Fogfoot's mentor had been fierce, even in his old age dealing out punishments in a heartbeat for any transition. While old Foxwhisker had been too proper to out and out brawl with his apprentice, the ginger tom still was in the habit of a firm bop on the head or bite to the tail.

What are we going to do today?

 "We're going to start off slow today," Fogfoot meowed, twitching his tail before padding a few paces and sniffing at his herbs. He nosed some yellow flowers towards the chocolate tom, stopping at his paws. The mangy gray medicine cat stared down at the apprentice expectantly, patiently. "This is to test your instincts. Many plants grow on the land. Some friend to cat, some foe. We as medicine cats must know them all, so we don't accidentally give our clanmates something dangerous. So, what do you think this is? What aliment does it cure?"

 The flower was coltsfoot, something very useful to the kit. Fogfoot also knew he was being sneaky, since the apprentice would likely focus on the bright yellow flower, which while noticeably, wasn't actually what was the healing position on the plant. That came from the leaves.

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Otterpaw tilted his head and sniffed the plant. The plant Fogfoot passed to him has a large yellow flower. Is this... a dandelion? But I don't think so... He thought. He suddenly thought of when he was a kit, sometimes when his denmates caught a cough, the leaves of this would help them cure. "It... it cures cough, right?" But what's its name...?