[This story takes place prior to Willowsong joining Silentclan. It is not a dream like the last story, simply a different time.]
The sun had finally set, after one of Willow's incredibly long training sessions had ended. She had retreated to the medicine den to be retreated upon arriving back at camp, often limping as her paws ached, dry and cracked from how long she had been vigorously training for. Willow entered the medicine den, her ears flicking towards Poppy, who sat in the center of the den with a few yarrow plants before her. "Ah, Willow, you've arrived! That was a little later than usual, Rosemary being a pompous foxbrain as usual?" Poppy asked with a soft giggle, ushering Willow to approach her with a flick of her tail. Willow approached Poppy and sat before her, looking at her. "No kidding. I swear, that cat is going to pay whenever I get strong enough with her teaching."
"That's the confidence I'm looking for, Willow. And to think you're usually so shy. She must have really messed you up these past few times, huh?" Poppy said before leaning down, grabbing one of the white flowers. She chewed it briefly until it was a chunky ointment, guiding Willow to roll over onto her back and stick her paws up into the air. After Willow was on her back, Poppy carefully circled her, placing some of the ointment onto each of her dried and cracked paws, giving each one a soft blow with her warm breath before sitting on her haunches beside Willow's head, her golden eyes meeting hers. "So, what did she do this time? You aren't bleeding a ton this time, looks like a nick to your ear and your usual dried out paws."
"Yeah, we actually got into a scuffle on the way back after I made a comment. I wasn't injured during training, she just put a ton of weight on me and now I'm really, REALLY sore.. Especially my paws! Look at them! They look like the base of an ancient tree!" She wasn't far from the truth. Her paws had several jagged cracks in them, some of them having apparent dry blood in between the cracks. The yarrow had moisturized some of her paw pads, so they didn't look as they did when she had hobbled in, but they still looked in poor condition nonetheless. Willow's odd and spontaneous comments made Poppy roar with laughter, tilting her head back as her laughter echoed throughout the den. Unlike Rosemary's, the laughter sounded joyful and genuine; not cruel and menacing. "Oh my.. You are so weird." Poppy said with a shake of her head. "How do you manage to train when your paws always look like this?"
"Well, Poppy, when you're being trained by some cat who will leave you in far worse condition if you don't participate than if you had participated, you kind of learn to adapt to the pain. I'll be strong one day and I'll surprise her to get her back for what she's done. Don't worry, her training's helping a lot. I just wish she wasn't so cruel about it." Willow spaced out briefly as she rambled, her voice gradually getting more quiet as she went on. The yarrow eventually soaked into her paws, and Poppy allowed her to sit on her back legs instead. "We can deal with that nick on your ear now." Poppy turned her back to Willow and hopped up onto a rock sticking out of the wall of the cavern, scavenging around for a moment until she found some tormentil. She then hopped down and chewed it, walking over to Willow. Her lips parted and she applied the liquid to the ear, her eyes squinting at the foul taste in her mouth. "Bleh.. that stuff tastes awful!" Poppy exclaimed once she was away from Willow's ear. "It'll clean out your wound real good though. After that, I'll get a little water on it to get the blood off it and watch it for a few days, alright?" Willow nodded, flinching at the stinging sensation as infectious fluids were extracted from the wound.
"You may want to sleep now, yeah? You look a little panicked." Poppy asked softly, her golden eyes softening as she looked over Willow. Willow gave in and nodded, looking around. "Do you have that stuff that calms me down? The.. what are they called.."
She had learned the name before, her nose twitching as she tried to remember. Poppy remained silent, wanting to let her guess.
Willow spaced out for a moment then suddenly perked up. "Thyme! Do you have any of that?" Poppy nodded, a smile dancing across her muzzle. "Very good, I'm glad you remembered! I got some set aside just for you~ Just go to your nest back there, I'll bring it to you. Does that ear hurt at all? I could get you some dandelion too."
"No no, the Thyme is enough. The ear wasn't stinging until you put that stuff on it, but it feels fine now. Thank you for the offer,
though." Willow replied with a gracious smile as she limped to her nest, not wanting to put any unnecessary pressure onto her paws. Once she reached the moss, she crawled in and flopped on her side, a sigh of relief escaping her whenever her paws left the ground and laid beside her instead, only the relieving cold air touching them. Poppy approached from the front, gently placing a few leaves in front of Willow, which she quickly took and chewed in her mouth, shutting her eyes as she relaxed. "Sleep well, Willow.." Poppy said softly, leaning down and giving her uninjured ear a gentle lick before returning to organizing her herbs.
A few moons passed, and Willow found herself not limping to Poppy's den this time. She was running, her eyes wet with tears. She flew into the den and almost collided with Poppy, narrowly stopping herself by clawing the ground and slowing to a stop. "Poppy, Poppy.. I-I.. Rosemary said I've gotten way better.. S-she wants me to go up to the assassin rank though.. and threatened to lie to the leader if I declined the rank.. I.. I ran.." Willow's chest was heaving, her legs trembling. "That's the fastest I've ran in my life.. I don't think I've ran from a hawk that fast, and I hate those things!" Poppy immediately grabbed some thyme and offered it to Willow, which she gladly chewed. "Well, you did say you wanted to get better. But you definitely don't want to kill others, you're too sweet for that. I think I got an idea."
Willow didn't speak until the thyme had calmed her enough to stop the crying. "What's your idea, Poppy? You've never done me wrong.." Poppy sighed softly, placing her tail on Willow's shoulder. "Start being bad during training. Purposely fail. The leader will demote you and I can take you in so you can become a medicine cat, alright?" Willow's eyes lit up as she looked at Poppy, her eyes blood shot. "You would really do that for me, Poppy?"
"Of course, Willow. After all, you are my favorite visitor." Poppy said with a grin, touching her nose to Willow's. "You are back awfully early. Do you perhaps want to start looking over herbs with me to get a jump start?" Willow eagerly bounced to her feet,
her tail swishing back and forth eagerly; similar to a dog. "I'd love to! Let's start, all of these look so cool.." Poppy guided Willow over to a section of the herbs, explaining what each one was called and what their functions were. Willow had to repeat each function and name after Poppy to make sure she had remembered. This process continued for a few hours until the sun had set,
and the two she-cat's had grown tired. "I think that's enough for today, Willow. Let's put this plan into motion, okay?" Poppy said,
looking into Willow's eyes. Without hesitation, Willow eagerly nodded. "I will. I can't go back now with how much you taught me in such a short amount of time. Thank you, Poppy.. You're like a blessing from Starclan." The phrase was unfamiliar for a rogue cat,
but Poppy went with it to keep Willow happy. "No, thank you. I'm glad we'll be able to see each other more often. Now, go get some sleep." [1,387 words]
