SAVING PAPER(ALT3)

[J I N G O]

Ivorykit stumbled out of the nursery, looking around the camp. When she decided the coast was clear, she turned and looked over her shoulder at her sister, Briarkit, and mewed quietly as to not wake the sleeping queens, "Come on. No one's watching-- let's go!" and bolted towards the exit/entrance to the ThunderClan camp. She felt her sister at her heels as they tried to get across the camp unseen.

Briarkit followed her sister, giving one rueful glance back at the nursery. She'd much rather be curled up by Robinfeather, staying out of trouble. But Ivorykit insisted on going on an adventure, and Briarkit was completely unable to stop her. She turned back forward again and stalked after her sister, her muscles tensed. She was panicking; what if someone caught them in the act?

[amaterasu]

Unfortunately for the two kits, there happened to be a certain tom heading back toward the camp at that moment. He had a mouth full of herbs so he couldn't see or smell too much. It would have been impossible for the brown and white cat to see someone as small as a kit. That was, until he turned the corner and smacked right into it.
The tomcat dropped the huge bundle of leaves he was carrying (it was meant to make up for the herbs he was supposed to gather last moon) and groaned at the mess all over the camp enterance.

[J I N G O]

Ivorylight gasped as a cat collided into her. She was so intent on getting out of the camp, she was using pretty much only her sense of sight. She wasn't listening or scenting for any signs of cats coming into the camp. She almost hightailed it back to the nursery, but she figured that would get her only in even more trouble. She stared up at the brown and white cat-- Rowanblaze, the medicine cat. She mumbled a quick "Sorry.." and shuffled her paws on the ground.

Briarkit crashed into her sister after her sister had crashed into something. Getting back her balance, she looked and saw Rowanblaze. Yes! she silently thanked StarClan. A chance to see the medicine cat. Briarkit felt a strange tugging in her heart towards the life of a medicine cat, but never had the chance to find out about it. And she could never tell her sister-- she had so many high hopes for the two of them as warriors. Going out on boarder patrols, hunting together... But now maybe she had some kind of chance to learn something about herbs from the medicine cat himself! She tumbled past Ivorykit and mewed in her high pitched voice, "Sorry! We were just ah.. taking a walk. Didn't see you there! Can we help you pick up the herbs? There sure are a lot of them! Maybe we can help you bring them into your den and..." she was silenced by her sisters tail whisking over her face. She was talking too much. Mousebrain... she thought to herself. Now she looked suspicious!

[amaterasu]

Rowanblaze shook his fur, then gave hsi paw a few licks. He was trying to act like he hadn't been startled at all. That was when he realized he had no need to do that, for the two kits were the only ones in the camp.
"Taking a walk...right..." he mewed, obviously not beliving them. It wasn't his place to scold them though. Luckily he did have a reason to scold them!
Starring at his herbs all over the camo entrance, he purred, "That would be nice, if you two would pick these up. Try to use your senses to keep the ones of the same kind together. Just drag them all to my den and I can put them away."
With that, he picked up a mouthful of burdock and headed back toward his den.

[J I N G O]

Ivorykit could feel frustration coming off of her in waves. Now they had to clean up herbs! I guess it's only fair... But still! Ivorykit nudged a couple of the herbs together. There were so many scents coming off of them she wasn't sure she'd ever be able to sort them all out correctly. She let out a frustrated hiss as she poked at a couple of the herbs. She looked over at her sister, who was almost expertly sorting everything out.

Briarkit watched her paws moving as if they weren't her own. She nosed at some of the herbs and pushed them over to a pile of the same kind of herb. After sorting a bunch of them together, she picked up a bundle and looked at her sister, who seemed frustrated with the herbs. She pointed her tail over to one of the bundles Briarkit had prepared and mumbled past the mouthful of herbs "Take one of those. We'll come back for the rest." and headed off to the medicine cats den, dropping them at the entrance.

[amaterasu]

Rowanblaze had been sorting the pile of herbs he had taken. The one thing no one could complain about: his herbs were very nicely organized.
He poked his head out of the den to see that the kits had started bringing over nice piles of herbs. He didn't even have to sort them! He picked them up and put them in their correct piles, then walked out to the camp enterance. There were a few clumps of random herbs, then some nice herbs piles that didn't need organized.
"Nice job." he praised the kits, "Just take those piles there back to my den and you can go back to the nursery."
He started to organize the remaning clutter.

[J I N G O]

Briarkit glowed with satisfaction. She headed back to the rest of the herbs and quickly sorted through them again, not feeling like herself but feeling like this is how it should be. Ivorykit was slowly started to pick apart small piles of the herbs. Briarkit ran through and checked them all, and then picked up another bundle and carried it to the medicine cats den.

Ivorykit frustratedly picked up the last bundle of herbs. How in the name of StarClan did Briarkit do this as if she'd been a medicine cat for moons? She shook her thoughts away and just concentrated on getting the last remaining pile to the medicine cats den. She dropped it off right next to Briarkit's pile and wondered if the two of them would ever escape the camp today...

[amaterasu]

Rowanblaze came back to the medicine cat den with the last bundle of herbs. He stepped inside and put his pile of herbs away, then came back to the enterance. He smiled happily at the two kits and meowed, "Thanks for the help. You two can go play now, but stay out of trouble! I don't want this happening again!"
The brown and white tom licked his paw once again, but this time swiped it over his ear. He wanted to make sure the kits didn't try to leave camp. he knew he would be the one in trouble if they did.

[J I N G O]

After Ivorykit padded back to the nursery, Briarkit hung out beside the Medicine cats den, trying to pluck up the courage to ask Rowanblaze if he needed any help. What if he didn't need any help? It'd be so awkward just walking away after that. But she knew that if she stayed out here too much longer Ivorykit would come back and herd her back into the nursery to plot their next escape. So eventually she sniffed in the medicine cats den, inhaling the herb scents. "Uhh... Rowanblaze?"

[amaterasu]

Rowanblaze watched the bold kit head back to the nursery. He was proud that even though he had received his warrior name only recently, the younger cats were listening to him.
That was, all but the kit at his feet. He was about to hiss at her to go back to the nursery like a good kit, but she said hsi name. It surprised him. She obviously wanted something, when he had thought she was just trying to annoy him.
"What is it, Briarkit?" he asked, trying not to sound impatient.

[J I N G O]

Briarkit shuffled her paws and looked down at the ground. Her ears felt hot with embarassment as she felt the medicine cats gaze on her. She felt small and inferior compared to him. How much knowledge he must have of medicine and healing! It was intimidating! "Well... I was wondering... Do you need any... I dunno.. it's kinda dumb... Do you... need any help? Sorting herbs? Or.. maybe collecting them.. or something..." she felt herself rambling and tried to stop it. She held her tongue and waited for Rowanblaze's response, feeling incredibly nervous.

[amaterasu]

The tomcat was stunned by the kit offering to help him. She must have been very bored.
He actually hadn't planned on doing too much today, but he wasn't going to admit that to this little kit. She would probably get bored soon anyway, so she wouldn't even notice.
"Sure, if you really want to help, you can help me move these herbs into the storage." he said. He nodded to the herb piles and then picked one up in his mouth. He trotted back to the back of his den and set the herbs down on the correct pile.
"Just bring them back here, and I'll show you where they go." he purred.

[J I N G O]

Suddenly all of the heat and embarassment flushed out of Briarkit. She nodded her head determinedly and picked up the nearest clump of herbs. The taste of the herbs nearly overcoming her. "This is tansy, right?" she mumbled, bringing the pile over to the storage area. "For coughing?" The words kind of just exploded out of her mouth. She wasn't so sure how she knew what it was. For all she knew, maybe it was wrong. Maybe Rowanblaze used it on one of the cats in the nursery and I simply remember hearing it. And smelling it. It has a really strong scent! she thought to herself.

[amaterasu]

"Hm?" Rowanblaze muttered, looking over at the kitten. He opened his mouth to scent the herb. The scent was very strong and very familar. It was tansy, that was a scent that was hard to forget. But how did the kit know that?
"Uh, yeah, that's tansy. Good job!" he purred, "But, I uh, use that for joint aches for the elders..."
That's how he had always used it. He knew it could be used for different things, but as he strained his mind, he couldn't remember his mentor saying it was used for coughing.
"How did you know that?" he asked.

[J I N G O]

"Uh, maybe I heard an elder talk about it." Briarkit suggested. She didn't often visit the elders... but maybe she overhead some cat talking about a nasty cough they had! And what herb was used on them to cure it. How did she know? She thought about taking it back; saying that maybe she was wrong, but she was quite sure that it could be used to treat coughs.