looking for catmint (open)

[Gentle]

THE WORLD WAS a flurry of soft crystals as the clouds released their little messengers. True messengers they were, and good ones at that, for they delivered the warning of the cold days still to come. And for the clan cats reading the signs of nature, they were important. Very important.

As soon as Gentlecall had seen the first snowflakes hit the dull brown grass, she knew she had no time to lose. Her stocks of catmint were very low, and with the upcoming leaf-bare threatening the clan, she decided it was high time to snag some before the other medicine cats did. Not that she didn't wish their clans well, for medicine cats were supposed to stay out of violence and hatred- something Gentlecall did rather well. But it was either her clanmates suffered from green cough or theirs did, and she preferred the latter. And who knew? Maybe she'd run into one or two along the way.

Luckily for her, the twoleg territory wasn't far beyond the borders of ReedClan. Running across some large fields and small thunderpaths, she managed to work her way into a twoleg garden.

Though the orange she-cat knew this was necessary, she was incredibly frightened. And she had a right to be. Twolegs didn't seem to hesitate when a stray cat walked around. They assumed that cat must belong to someone, not even considering the feline's freedom, and was quick to put a collar on it. But the clan cats, even the healing ones, knew more battle moves than the twolegs expected. Beyond the adorable features were steal claws.

Reassuring herself with this thought, Gentlecall began tearing the plant out of the ground with her teeth. She stopped every few moments to scan the area, making sure nothing was approaching. A human was walking a dog farther down the street. A kittypet walked up to its master's house. A bird or two flew overhead. A monster drove slowly by, in fear of the ice that was settling on the thunderpaths. That was the most of it, and Gentlecall was relieved when she had enough and deemed it time to go.

But, as she was collecting the plants in her maw and beginning to head out, she smelled a scent that was all too familiar. It was a clan scent, no doubt, though which one she wasn't sure. All she knew was that there was another clan cat here. Dropping the plant and making a mental note of where it lay, she lifted her nose and grew determined to find the source of the smell.

((I left it pretty open at the end. Anyone can join, though a medicine cat in this particular situation would be more expected.))

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[**Burn**]

MISTYGAZE knew she was no longer in ReedClan territory. Blind she may be but stupid she was not. This trespassing out of bounds was fully intentional on the queen's part, though perhaps it hadn't been when she'd first left camp to stretch her legs. She had never had the life of a warrior and as something of a nursery keeper, she seldom was able to leave camp because there were usually other queens and kits that needed tending. This leafbare however, no kits romped in the nursery and no queens laid with heavy bellies waiting for StarClan's gifts to come upon them. Frankly the absence of them made the nursery a lonesome, ghostly place that Mistygaze had no desire to linger in. Thanks to the strict StarClan laws, it had to be moons since Mistygaze had seen kits in the nursery. In fact, the little apprentice Smokepaw had been the last kit Mistygaze had had to help raise. In truth though, Mistygaze did little other than help the queens deliver their kits and get them used to the demand kits put on them. Having been a mother twice, it only suited her to share her experience. OF course, the clan had intended her forever station as a queen to be a punishment. It had been an accidental blessing when a moon later she delivered her first litter of three. As far as the clan knew though, those kits had drowned, exploring a creek without Mistygaze to keep up with them. That wasn't true but the clan believed it well enough. Several moons later came Mistygaze's current litter, already grown into four fine warriors that made her more than proud. Now though, Mistygaze felt lonesome. No kits to tend and nothing else for her to do, the she-cat had started to simply roam around. THOUGH she was blind, never say this she-cat was lost. Mistygaze knew exactly where she was and that she had just crossed the clan border into twolegplace. There were no patrols to stop her, so Mistygaze didn't particularly worry about it. She could smell dogs, twolegs and other cats starkly in the air but it did little to caution the blind gray tabby. The stink of a monster assaulted her nose as she drew closer to the gardens but she knew those kept to the thunderpath. By smell and feel of the ground under her paws, she knew she was neither on nor near a thunderpath and thus completely safe. STOPPING at the edge of the trees facing the fences of twoleg gardens, Mistygaze sat back on her haunches. She couldn't see the garden fences but she could sense them and when she'd at first been apprenticed to be a warrior, Hailpelt had described the whole business to her. Breathing in, the gray tabby queen smiled softly at the smell she found. Gentlecall, ReedClan's medicine cat, had passed through here perhaps looking for herbs. The cold snow under Mistygaze's paws was still crisp so she hadn't passed any Gentlecall's pawprints. It was odd but the blind queen decided not to think anything of it. Curling her tail around her paws, the she-cat contented herself with simply sitting in the snow, listening to the ruckus of twolegs against the quiet of a leafbare forest. The difference of it all was vastly astounded to a normal cat and even more so to a blind one that survived through sound. [bg=8d849f][atrb=border,0,true]