"And if you're going to be help then I'd like you both to remember to snip the stem and not to uproot the plant. If the roots are there then it grows again. This is all we'll need from here," gathering the catmint in his jaws, he could taste the sweet flavor rushing along his tongue and it was all he could do not to start chewing it himself. "We'll grab two poppy flowers and take those back with the rest of the stock. It'll be good to have more seeds around unless any cat becomes ill."

"Ill?" asked Sketch apprehensively, he bounded after Mallownose as he descended downhill again and the twoleg nests became farther and farther away.

The forest opened up around Sketch and he was reminded of how very different it was from the gorge in every single way. The trees were in tighter clusters and the grass was nearly so long that it tickled his chin in some patches that Mallownose moved through with ease. He could see towering pine trees further off and the smell of their sap was strong in his nose despite their distance. The sound of chattering birds overhead was clear in his ears, a few swooping past each other and landing noisily amongst the branches where they perched. Ground prey was much quieter, mice scuttling past fallen leaves and voles tucking beneath bushes as the the three cats passed by. He even sighted a squirrel springing past on quick paws and paused to watch it as it wound itself back up the tree quickly. His paws itched to try to spring up after it but he knew it would distract him from following the medicine cats and he'd become very lost, very quickly. He knew he would be hopeless within this territory and if a border patrol found him then they would surely chase him off without so much of a goodbye.

The scents were more amazing than Sketch could have ever imagined and it was unlike any dream he'd ever had about finding Thunderclan, it made his fur prickle with excitement and unease. The unfamiliar was the most amazing thing about the territory, he could hear a river rushing nearby and the sound of trees whispering as the breeze tore through them. It was nothing like Skyclan's territory had been, they had been adept to hunting by leaping through the trees with powerful legs and that had made for their territory to be full of long, clawed trees. Those trees hadn't harbored any leaves and their bark had been as rough as his mother's tongue, most of the grass had been browning and parched until it reached the twoleg nests. The gorge itself had been hard brown stone that heated under the morning sun and sometimes brought the occasional lizard out for a sunning.

His first ever kill had been a lizard and it had been crunchy and unpleasant on his tongue but his mother had praised him warmly. Scratch had been so jealous that he'd spent the whole afternoon stalking every shadow that scuttled past him. He hadn't caught a single scale but he had kept trying until he had became much too frustrated to try again. Scratch had been the first cat that he had ever learned to hunt with, his mom had wanted them to learn to work together so she had taught them to work as a team. It had been hard at first but after some time, he had began to understand the basics. Him and Scratch had become an amazing team together, they had practically caught any type of prey that the forest could have thrown at them.

He wondered if he'd be that lucky here, he wondered if him and Coochie could learn to hunt together in this new terrain. It made him wish even more that Coochie would decide to stay with them, he couldn't imagine losing the only friend that he had made since he'd come here. "We are under the way of a possible outbreak of a disease called Whitecough, these herbs will hopefully help. It's not uncommon for sickness to flare up but we try to keep it down if we can help it." Mallownose had paused near a spiny tree and he was sniffing along the ground before he lifted up a small branch full of blue tinted berries and that kept his mouth shut as they padded along.

He pressed all of the herbs beneath the sharp edged leaves of a holly bush and he lead them towards a small cluster of flowers nearby. Sketch immediately recognized the wide golden heads of the marigold that they were looking for and he sprung forward to nip at the stems himself, it was easy enough to free the big flowers from their standing perch and it wasn't long before he had collected a good mouthful of the bitter stems. He could feel the golden heads against his cheek and he felt silly holding them as he glanced to Mallownose.

"Coochie, go ahead and collect some of the bright red flowers. We could use at least two, but three or four never hurt any cat." he liked to have extra poppy seeds in the stock, it made his job all the easier and the young ones liked the blood red petals that they discarded. "You two stay here with Warmpaw and I'll be back in no time. I'm just going to gather some coltsfoot from Riverclan, I should have grabbed it while we were there but-" a shake of his white head as if he was exasperated with himself. "Always forgetting the essentials. Warmpaw, you can take them to collect the chickweed after you bring the flowers back to the holly bush. There should be a reasonable cluster near the training hollow."

Flicking his tail in short farewell, he turned to pad back towards the Riverclan border and disappeared amongst the trees. Sketch watched him go with his mouthful of marigold and glanced towards Warmpaw before setting the flowers down lightly. "What's the training hollow like? Do you two collect herbs like this every day? Do they all taste so awful?"

Coochie followed the clan cats orders, trying to be as much help as possible. "Red flowers, red flowers" he kept repeating to himself, able to gather three. He chuckled at Sketch asking so many questions. But whenever the other cats gave him orders he would just keep following no questions asked, they knew best.

Stonepaw

"Only thing you can catch is sleep" he playfully replied to Shadowpaw. He started jumping on some stones sticking out reminding him of how he lost one of his teeth as a kit, chasing a butterfly. He came a long way from that, it didn't mean he didn't miss being a kit, but he would choose apprentice over kit any day of the week.

Mallownose.

"Herbs." snorted the white tom softly as he descended downhill again, his tail lashing from one side to the other, he was muttering to himself like a grumpy old badger. "Herbs! I'm named after them and I can't even remember them, you'd think I'd have half a brain by now and then I go and surprise every cat by having no brain at all!"

Bouncing onto the first stepping stone, the sound of the river flooded his senses as he skirted over their slick surface and into the territory with careful paws. His white form landed on the other side and he could see the territory open up before him with it's damp peaty grass and it's scattered trees. Without need for cover, Riverclan was somewhat at an advantage and had long since taught themselves to fight under the most ridiculous circumstances. Water was one of those ridiculous circumstances, they were the only cats he had ever known of to favor water. His pelt was heavy at the thought of fighting within water, he couldn't imagine how unfortunate it must feel to be so drenched and it brought a shudder out of him. The river had always appeared to him as an angry thing, it was constantly snarling after all and it leapt at the rocks each time he crossed over them. It seemed as eager to get him out of Riverclan territory as the Riverclan cats probably were.

With a mental apology to the grumbling river, he pressed forward on light paws.

The sky overhead was casting warm light on his coat and he could just scent the coltsfoot growing in a tiny cluster near the root of a tree. The long stems were covered in tiny sharp edged leaves that hadn't spread for their last time this season. Coltsfoot was a fickle plant and if he wanted the best use of it then he would have to collect it later in Leaf Fall but he could make do with this for now. Coltsfoot was generally good throughout the seasons and grew in thick bunches, it was almost never a worry that they would run out because it grew wherever it could leach water from. The soil in Riverclan was definitely the richest and it thrived all over, even towards the rapidly rushing water in the gorge. He had never had to travel that far for it but he had recognized that it was there, it was not of his concern but he had made himself knowledgable about the positions of the herbs.

Setting to his task of freeing the hardy plants from the ground, he had to gnaw a little harder to free the thick stems. The tiny yellow flowers fell into a quick pile and he used his paws to arrange them into a neat stack as he pulled himself into his thoughts. He wondered how he would ask Sandfire to hunt with him and if he even had the nerve to do it. It was not something he was particularly good at, he often avoided bothering warriors with his queries unless they concerned their health. She was a respectable young cat and highly appreciated within in the clan for her expert hunting abilities. He thought that he might just compliment that if he did not bite his own tongue first out of nervousness. He could imagine the way she might look at him if he stumbled over his words to try to ask her a simple yes or no question and it made his ears burn.

He didn't even know why he was becoming flustered by the thought and he thought himself a fool. She was just a warrior, another she-cat within the clan. He had spoken to her on several occasions in the same manner that he had spoken to any cat who lived in their camp. He had been taught by Robinwing to know his potential patients and to make himself aware of their habits because if he was not aware then they could be suffering a wound and it may go against their pride to come to him. He had to understand things like that or cats could become severely injured, it was his job as a medicine cat to make sure they got the treatment that they needed. In that time, he had learned of the spitfire hidden beneath a genuine personality. A kind she-cat, she was somewhat foolhardy but she was more likely to get herself hurt in an expedition off the territory than she was to get herself hurt in a bloodthirsty attack against another cat.

He liked that about her though, adventure was a good thing to keep in one's heart and she had the insatiable urge to explore. It was almost like the longing he had to leave Thunderclan sometimes, just the slightest itch in his paws to run somewhere where he would not have to feel Puddlefoot's gaze burning into the back of his neck. The urge to feel the wind in his fur and to breathe in the scent of the unknown, he wanted to find a forest with cats that he had never met, he wanted to see herbs that no cat had dared to use. He had the draw to discovery but he had never acted on those wishes. Thunderclan would be lost without him, they wouldn't recover without a medicine cat, especially with a Greencough scare. Warmpaw needed him to succeed and this was his place, every cat here understood and respected him, there was never any need to leave.

Shaking his head against his treacherous thoughts, he gathered the herbs up in his jaws and turned to head back towards the river before his paw nearly tread something. Blinking in surprise, he lifted his black foot and stared down at the item he'd nearly trod on. It was a simple thing, really, something that a warrior would overlook but something that made a cold stone drop into his belly. It was an omen of some sort, a strange one at that with it's simplicity. A catmint plant. It stood tall and surrounded in damp grass, it looked almost luminous in the sunlight that spilled over it and it looked unnervingly alive.

A prickle of unease settled over him and he pressed his paw to the plant, bending the stem over with a precise movement, he studied the leaves with careful eyes. They were the same thin, toothed leaves and they were covered in a thin fur that collected dew in between its sensitive hairs. It was a normal catmint plant and yet so strange that he couldn't decipher it. It didn't belong here and a chill set into him as he stepped away from it in his discomfort. He didn't know what it meant unless it was referring to the Greencough being particularly bad this season. Was it going to kill him clanmates? Was it going to be so bad that even Starclan was concerned with it?

Troubled, the medicine cat tucked the omen away in his mind before pressing his way back over the stones.

Sketch.

"I can't wait!"

When Warmpaw had described the training hollow, a small thrill of excitement had washed through Sketch and he'd practically started bouncing on his paws. He had never been to a training hollow before, the only training that he had undergone had been with his father and Scratch. It hadn't been rigorous training but it had been basic defensive maneuvers and he had learned to dodge and strike in the way that Skyclan taught their warriors. Leaping was an important skill and he could practically leap higher than any cat, he wondered if that would come in handy when fighting with the other apprentices. His excitement grew as he imagined them going in for a blow at his hind legs and him leaping straight over it, he could prove himself to be as good as a warrior as any cat.

The thought of training with Coochie by his side was a fun one and he had long since decided that he liked hunting with his kittypet friend. He would like training with him even better and he could see a future before them with their lives as warriors. Excitement made him want to purr but he contained it when he noticed the alarm flash in Warmpaw's eyes. His senses weren't as trained to the undergrowth filled territory and he couldn't have heard a bird land in a bush near his paws but he could see a shape moving closer and by Warmpaw's expression, this was not Mallownose returning from his trip into Riverclan territory. It confused him initially and he had stepped forward to get a look before Warmpaw yelled to get behind him.

Sketch stepped back until he was standing at the smaller cat's side and lashed his bony tail from side to side as a strange pair emerged from the bracken. The she-cat was the color of dry soil in the Gorge back home, a dusty brown that seemed to only become disturbed by the pale markings in her pelt and a muscular set to her body. She had a long tail that whipped behind her and a pair of unmistakable golden brown eyes that almost seemed to glow with some internal light. There was knowledge there, knowledge and something else. Something that he didn't quite like to see and something that made his fur rise along his spine. He knew that this she-cat couldn't belong here and he was suddenly very frightened of her.

His claws unsheathed and he tried to make himself look bigger by bristling up beside Warmpaw, his teeth baring at her. Anxiety was setting in and making his flanks heave with each struggling breath and he didn't think he would have the nerve to actually fight them but he had decided that he would try. Warmpaw definitely couldn't fight two strangers alone if they chose to attack and he would feel like a mouse-hearted kit if he didn't do anything to help the flame marked tom. This cat was trying his best to stand up for them and he was going to repay that by fighting alongside him if he had to, even if he was more frightened then a vole being chased near the river.

"I- I don't think you should be here." he spat, his ears flattened against his head and his legs were shaking. "This is Thunderclan territory and you're trespassing."