The Hunt (For Herbs) [Closed]

It was simple to say that Leopardpaw didn't want to be doing this, not one tiny bit. He sat brooding outside of the medicine cat's den, his tail thumping the ground as he waited for Adderpaw to join him. He wanted to be working on his training or at least getting to show off his skills but no, Lichenstar had ordered that he took Adderpaw out hunting...And had also assigned Mothpaw to go with them. Ugh, it was worse enough that he had to be wasting his time looking for herbs of all things but he was going to have Mothpaw bumbling with them... Mothpaw wasn't bad company, at least he had this blind adoration for him but that didn't make him less annoying as he was clingy like a sticky moss. He had tried to fight back against the order but...Ah, Lichenstar was a bit scary when she put her paw down and he had quickly relented. Whatever, hopefully this wouldn't be to terrible.

With a grunt, Adderpaw pushed herself out of her den, carrying several large leaves gently between her teeth. She would've preferred the company of someone less... abrasive on the herb patrol, perhaps Wolfstorm or Crakepaw. But Lichenstar had someone else in mind... And she supposed it was better than nothing, as she had quite a bit of herb gathering to do. She placed a leaf in front of Leopardpaw, glancing around camp for the larger, fluffy apprentice she would often see by his side. "We need to head out soon. Where's Mothpaw?" She asked shortly, growing impatient as her tail began to thump on the ground.

Mothpaw came barreling over to the medicine cat den, nearly tripping over his paws as he skidded to a stop by Adderpaw and Leopardpaw. "I'm here!" he wheezed, slightly out of breath from his sprint. It took him a moment to register Leopardpaw's presence, at which point he affectionately clonked his head against him. "Leopardpaw! I didn't know you were going too!" he purred.

Leopardpaw glanced over at Adderpaw as the she-cat exited the den, eyeing her as she put a leaf down in front of him and questioned where Mothpaw was. "I dunno, maybe we should just go without him," he said rather quickly, raising a paw to poke at the leaf that had been put in front of him. ...What was the leaf for? They were suppose to be hunting for herbs, why did Adderpaw just hand him one? However, at the sound of thumping that was growing louder, he sighed as he planted his paw on the leaf to keep it from being blown away as Mothpaw barreled over to them. Ah, great. He rolled his eyes as Mothpaw took notice of him and clonked their heads together. He winced at how hard Mothpaw's head was - a little surprised as he would expect it to be hollow with how much thoughts didn't end up in there. "Yeaaaah, how great, what a joy to be doing this" he groaned, rolling his eyes before he turned to look at Adderpaw. "So, what is the leaf for? I don't see how its going to help us find more herbs or whatever we are suppose to be helping you find."

Adderpaw simply shook her head at Leopardpaw's sentiment, knowing Lichenstar wouldn't be very happy with either of them if they did that. Her gaze shifted when she heard large paws bounding towards her, and she had to quickly move backwards to avoid being trampled by Mothpaw. She winced a bit when Mothpaw hit his head against Leopardpaw's, knowing that it probably hurt the smaller tom. She shook her head, dismissing them both as she pushed a leaf over to Mothpaw with a forepaw. She wasn't entirely convinced he wouldn't shred it to bits, but it wasn't optional. "The leaf doesn't help you find anything, it helps you carry things. If you tried to carry a mouthful of herbs with nothing but your teeth they'd get damaged easily and you'd probably lose half of them on the way back to camp." She said as she picked up two of her own, padding towards the camp exit and flicking her tail, motioning for the two apprentices to follow behind her.

Mothpaw purred in agreement with Leopardpaw, flicking his bushy tail against his flank. "Yeah, this'll be fun!" He gingerly picked up the leaf Adderpaw had pushed in front of him and cheerfully trotted after her, tail waving. He'd never been herb collecting before! This was going to be so much fun!

Huh. Alright then, he guessed that make sense. He leaned down, picking up his own leaf as he padded after Adderpaw, doing his best to stay on the other side of the medicine cat than Mothpaw. He sure wasn't eager to do this but he had to at least play along - enough to make Lichenstar content. "Okay...So...Herbs," he mumbled through the leaf, glancing around at the ground beneath them as they left the camp. "...What exactly are we suppose to be looking for? I...Don't know what any herbs look or smell like, I haven't really cared for them," he questioned, trying to ignore Mothpaw's claim that it was going to be fun. It wasn't, he didn't want to be here and he wasn't sure that either of them would be help - because Mothpaw was dumber than a rock and he honestly didn't give a thawing frost about it. Least amount of effort that could be passed off as actually trying sounded good enough.

Adderpaw didn't bother commenting on Mothpaw's remark that they'd have fun. From the looks of things, it certainly wouldn't be, but she held her tongue. Harassing the apprentices probably wasn't a good idea. When both Mothpaw and Leopardpaw had their leaves between their teeth, she pushed out of camp and through the stream surrounding camp. "We don't have a very extensive list of herbs today. Most of them are pretty common." She looked around a bit, trying to find examples of the herbs she hoped to find. A small patch of feverfew caught her eye by a nearby stream, and she padded over to it. "This is feverfew. It has small flowers attached to skinny branches. Break off a small sprig if you find any." She gently bit off a small twig with both the leaves and flowers, laying it on her leaf, which she'd spread out next to the patch. A leafy plant several steps to her left was also worthy of note. She broke off a couple of the leaves, setting them on the leaf as well. "This is watermint. We actually need a bit of this, so try not to mess any of it up." Thinking on what the medicine den needed, she recited a short list of herbs they should also look out for. "We also need juniper berries, which are small and purple. You'll find them on a bush- try not to bite into them if you can help it. Fennel should be nearby. It's got small green leaves with a thicker bulb at the bottom, you can harvest the entire plant. Coltsfoot may have white or yellow flowers, perhaps both. It grows on a thin stem, but we only need the flowers." Taking a breath, she looked around, trying to remember if there was anything else. "Oh, and if you see any small red or black berries, for the love of all things starry, please don't touch them. She nodded to both apprentices, setting out with her leaf between her teeth. Hopefully, they wouldn't do too terribly.

Mothpaw listened attentively as Adderpaw listed off the herbs they needed to collect. Carefully, looking at the 'feverfew' spring she collected. It was.... certainly a plant with small flowers. He looked around, brow furrowed in concentration. To him, the plants she'd described... sounded like they could be literally any of the things around him. But do not touch red or black berries. He could at least remember that much. He was on this patrol to help find herbs. He could do this.

A leafy plant caught his attention, was that? That had to be watermint, right? Yeah. Definitely. He carefully plucked a couple leaves from the random plant and gently placed them in his leaf bundle. Mothpaw managed to pick a couple purple berries for his bundle as well, he certainly had already forgotten what they were called, but Adderpaw had definitely said the purple berries were good. Every so often he'd add more random leaves or flowers to his bundle, not sure what they were but, he thought they were similar to what Adderpaw had described? Mothpaw was certainly glad that he wasn't the medicine cat.

Wow, Leopardpaw had not been prepared for how boring herb collection would be. His eyes trailed after Adderpaw as the medicine cat paused at different herbs, calling them out and explaining how to harvest them. Feverfew, watermint, juniper berries...Fennel. His eyes narrowed at the name, a groan escaping him as he couldn't help but think about Fennelpaw. He was going to ignore that plant purely out of spite for the she-cat that had been named after them...And he quickly realized that he was missing more of Adderpaw's words. His ears perked just to hear her mentioning...Not touching berries. Uh, right. He had missed what colored berries but perhaps it would just be safe to ignore them all. So... He paused, trying to think back on the herbs he had actually caught. Feverfew, watermint and juniper berries. Well, juniper was already off the list because he was ignoring berries all together.

So branches and...Leaves.

Great, he sighed as he rolled his eyes. That was going to be so helpful. He could see Mothpaw starting to collect whatever caught his eye and...Well, frost, he wasn't about to be outdone by an idiot like him. His eyes started to scan the area around them, seeing something that looked like that feverfew plant that Adderpaw had collected. He padded over to it, dropping his leaf as he stared at the plant. So...Break it. He raised a paw, gently applying some pressure onto one of the sprigs before it snapped. He watched as it fell to the ground before he picked it up and added it to his leaf. Ugh, this was going to be a joy because truly, what was more exciting then looking for plants.

After Leopardpaw and Mothpaw had set off to gather herbs from her list, Adderpaw walked alongside the River, keeping an eye out for any herb she might need. She noticed several small patches of different common herbs, making a mental note of where they were so when she needed the, she knew where to go to find them. For today, she only planned on finding the herbs she'd listed off before. If she found something that she was short on the stock of, she'd pick it up, but otherwise, she planned to stick to her plans.

The she-cat had managed to accumulate a good amount of herbs within her two leaves. She wasn't entirely sure how Mothpaw and Leopardpaw had fared with their herbs, but as far as she was concerned, she'd had a good day of collecting- even if they didn't find anything. The two bundles were wrapped tightly, held delicately between her teeth as she walked back towards where they had parted. There, she'd wait for the two of them to return as she began sorting through what she'd found and beginning to organize them in her head, mental catalog growing as she went.