Backwritten GARDEN UNGROWN ʚɞ tigerfoot

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SWALLOWPAW

your mortal coil.
SkyClan
SkyClan Medicine Cat Apprentice SkyClan Founder
29
0
Freshkill
145
Pronouns
she / her
Played by
♡ MAXINE
it smells in here, she thinks, as she loiters. skyclan's camp is dull and grey, a home carved out of the gorge where they've lived for generations. the walls of the nursery are the same grey, with green bedding she sleeps on every night next to her mother. every place in the world she knows looks the same, expect for the medicine den. it sits like a gaping maw, with teeth of leaves and tongues of ivy.

bundles of herbs sit someplace (she's never really been in meadowlark's den for long, she's usually given a small herb and ushered out). she mostly saw tigerfoot when she was a little bit younger, pushing things in her direction to calm her down after a tantrum.

in a few sunrises, she will be an apprentice. swallowkit isn't sure how to feel about it, the anxiety prickles in her paws. she stepped outside to feel the cool rock against her skin in an attempt to self-soothe. boredom brought her here. the other kits annoy her, she's an only child, and her father is a come-and-go daylighter. swallowkit wanders in the den, pretending to look lost.

"tigerfoot? 'm bored." she announces, standing stiffly as she stared up at the bulky frame of the cat.

this is backwritten to establish history! set before tigerfoot becoming a full med, hawkstar/flowerclouds promotion etc etc
ʚɞ
 

"Oh! Hello, Swallowkit." Tigerfoot couldn't say that he'd been particularly busy, sorting through comfrey and wilted yarrow, but he'd fallen into a deep enough focus that Swallowkit's arrival startled him. He didn't flinch, of course, or do anything quite so dramatic, but he did allow himself a deep breath before he turned to face her. " Bored? I don't think anything I'm doing today is very thrilling either. " Perhaps they could be bored together.

It had been a few moons since Tigerfoot, though he was technically still a -paw, had begun taking over the primary duties of a Skyclan medicine cat. He had never been a close confidant of Meadowlark's, for a barrier remained between the two irregardless of his efforts, but he knew that she was planning something. He'd been given more responsibilities, a heavier workload, a longer day, but he'd never been told why. He was happy to take the stress off of his mentor, she'd been a starclan-sent help during his recovery, but he wished he knew what was going on.

" Would you like to sort through herbs? the winds were harsh last night and blew them about. " He may have rolled about too much in his sleep and scattered their precariously stacked stores but who was to know. " Do you know the difference between tansy and yarrow?"
 
swallowkit can't recall the last time she's seen meadowlark lingering around the den. she was always an elusive she-cat, ghosting through the walls of the gorge before nightfall. what if she's breaking a code… that'd surely give tigerfoot something to do.

she clings onto his question rather quickly. it's more interesting than her chores in the nursery, or the weird bug she found right before toddling over. her face scrunches up like she bit into a lemon, pondering the question. "they're both yellow? or ones yellow-er than the other." she says, unsure, "i saw meadowlark give yarrow to someone once. to throw up. that was gross."

ʚɞ

 

" You're right, on both counts and with what you remember. " Tansy and yarrow were differently yellow but could certainly be mistaken for one another. " Yarrow is pretty yucky but it does its job, making you puke, very well. It's usually just yellow or white but we sometimes come along pink, even purple, yarrow. I don't really think they're too different but I try to just use the white and yellow ones. " As he spoke, Tigerfoot picked out a few nice examples of yarrow out of their haphazard piles. " I'm sure that you can see the nice separate petals on these ones, unlike tansy with it's much tinier and rounder ones. " Tigerfoot nearly batted a ball-like piece of tansy at Swallowkit, stopping at the last moment to instead just push it over.

" Once you've actually seen the two side-by-side you'll never be able to confuse them. " It wouldn't do to waste anything, much less the ever-important tansy. " I wouldn't say that any herb we use is more or less important than any other, they all have their uses, but tansy is an especially helpful one. " It gave him pause to think of a good example. There were things, like this, that came almost as second nature to him nowadays and he'd never had to tell anyone else about them. Meadowlark certainly didn't need his long-winded explanations.

" If I were.. to do as you said earlier, give yarrow to someone and make them puke, then I could follow it up with some tansy to help their throat feel better. I'd like to have them drink some water first though, wash out all the grossness and.. stuff. " Very smooth, Tigerfoot.

" Did you understand all of that? I hope I didn't go too fast for you. "