Once again, Duskelle woke to Seapaw standing over her, yelling into her ear. 

   "What?" she grumbled, sitting up.   

   "I can't show you around today, Duskelle," Seapaw said, green eyes wide. Duskelle was instantly awake. 

   "So what about me?" Seapaw fidgeted, her eyes on her paws.

   "I don't know...maybe you can watch me training! Come on, let's ask Sunspring." She padded out of the den, picking her way over Brookpaw and the three other apprentices. One of them was Streampaw and the other two were apparently brothers. Duskelle hadn't learned the others' names yet. She did the same as Seapaw, stepping over the occasional tail or paw. 

   Seapaw was waiting for her. She took off towards the other side of the clearing, or "camp" as they called it, as soon as Duskelle showed up. Duskelle sighed. Why did Seapaw like running around so much? She bounded after the young apprentice.

Seapaw had stopped at another clearing, which was smaller and connected to the big one, with forest surrounding all the sides except for one, where they walked through from the big clearing. Sunspring was waiting.

   "Sunspring, can Duskelle watch me training? She's got nowhere to go." Sunspring looked a bit taken aback to see Duskelle and he took another moment to process what Seapaw had said.

   "What? Oh, uh, yeah, that's alright. She might as well learn some thingamajiggers if she wants ta be in RiverClan!" He turned and walked over to the middle of the clearing.

   "Seapaw, today we're gonna be learnin' the leap and hold move. Ya gotta be fast, daring, and..."

   Duskelle watched as they mentor and apprentice trained vigorously. Seapaw was actually good fighter, or at least Duskelle thought so. She actually had never seen anybody fight, so she couldn't tell for sure. Suddenly, Seapaw's step faltered and flopped over onto her side. Duskelle held back, thinking it must've been some kind of battle move. But when Sunspring hurried to the fallen she-cat with a worried expression on her face, Duskelle bounded forward.

   "What's wrong with her?" The young apprentice's face was contorted in pain and she limply held her front forepaw off the ground.

   "Looks like she sprained it," Sunspring replied, inspecting her paw.

   "Come on, help me heave her to Lilacfeather." Duskelle was too worried to ask who that was. Instead, she helped Sunspring pick up Seapaw and drag her towards the camp.

   "What happened?" asked a blue-gray tom, whose face was drawn with concern.

   "I think she's sprained her paw. Nothin' serious to worry about. Your daughter's fine," Sunspring replied, rolling his eyes. It seemed like he had already been through incidents like this many times before. Duskelle gazed at the tom, Seapaw's father. His amber eyes were wide with fright and worry. She turned back to Seapaw, and continued dragging her to where Sunspring was going, a wide den at the end of the clearing. They finally got there and Seapaw's father rushed inside, yowling, "Lilacfeather! Lilacfeather, Seapaw's been hurt!" 

   A scuffling noise sounded from inside and a cat padded outside. The she-cat's legs and face were striped tabby gray and the rest of her body was covered with shaggy creamy fur. She was beautiful, and she resembled Minnowstar in a slight way, like they had each gotten a different parents' features but still somehow looked alike. 

   Maybe they were siblings. The most interesting thing about her were her eyes. They were deep violet-blue, with large pupils that stared right through Duskelle. But oddly, they were not peircing, or intrusive. They were warm and it was as if her gaze was meant to be inside of Duskelle, meant to be able to scan through her feelings. 

   Duskelle snapped out of her thoughts and turned to Seapaw, who was moaning with pain. Lilacfeather seemed to be RiverClan's medicine cat. Seapaw had told her about these cats the day before. They were not allowed to mate and they could communicate with their ancestors, StarClan, which Duskelle was not sure if she should believe in, and were the sole healers of the Clan.

   "Bring her in," Lilacfeather said, her voice soft and lilting. Sunspring immedietly obeyed, dragging Seapaw inside the den. Duskelle followed.

   "You two, leave!" Lilacfeather ordered, flicking her tail and Sunspring and Seapaw's father.
 
"You," she said, turning her lavender gaze onto Duskelle, "can stay." Sunspring shambled out of the den, half dragging the other tom out. Lilacfeather turned back to the young apprentice and examined her paw. She slid out one claw and lightly prodded Seapaw's extended paw. She got a yowled, "OW!" in response, which made both Duskelle and Lilacfeather wince.

   "Sprained for sure," the medicine cat murmured. She padded to the other side of the den. Little piles of herbs were situated all over the floor, neatly organized. Lilacfeather picked out a few and trotted back to Seapaw. She set a few leaves down at Duskelle's paws.

   "Chew these up for me, will you?" The she-cat turned back to Seapaw. Duskelle looked uncertainly at the bright green leaves. They did not look as if they tasted good. But it was for Seapaw to get better. 

   She sighed at gathered up the herbs in her mouth, then began to chew. It tasted foul and she wanted to spit it out right then and there, but she just made a face and continued. By the time she was done, Lilacfeather was waiting for her expectantly. 

   She spat out the paste, which the medicine cat scooped up and molded into a poultice with cobwebs and the other herbs that she had brought. She carefully applied it to Seapaw, who gritted her teeth. Lilacfeather pushed a lone seed to Seapaw's mouth.
  
"Eat this poppy seed," she said in her musical voice. "It'll help the pain." Seapaw nodded and gulped the seed down. A few seconds later, she blinked and eyelids slowly crept down until her eyes were closed and her chest rose up and down slowly, already having gone into the routine of sleep. Duskelle watched, amazed.

   Lilacfeather noticed Duskelle's stare and said, "I don't know why, but Seapaw's always been awfully sensitive to poppy seed. She falls asleep immediately. Another cat would need about three or four of those for the same effect." Duskelle nodded and cast her gaze downward as she fidgeted. She had no idea what to do now that Seapaw was knocked out. She could still feel Lilacfeather looking at her.

   "I'm Lilacfeather," she said. "And I'm the medicine cat of RiverClan, as you know by now. What is your name?"

   Duskelle looked up. "Oh, uh, it's Duskelle."

   The she-cat slowly nodded. "Alright. Well, then, why don't you stay with me for awhile? Seapaw won't be able to do much for at least three days and she's not going to be content just sitting here. I can show you medicine cat mysteries that no other apprentice knows." She winked at Duskelle.

   Duskelle was glad that Lilacfeather had given her something to do. "Oh, sure, definitely, Lilacfeather! Thanks!"

   "Alright then, come on, let's teach you some herbs! I have nothing to do anyways. They're all stocked up." She swept her tail towards the full piles and padded towards them. Duskelle followed.

   "This here is coltsfoot. This one is yarrow. That one is dock. The one next to it is-"

   "Wait, what's that one?" Duskelle asked, curious. There were very few of a dark little berry. Lilacfeather became visually uncomfortable.

   "Those are death berries. They are...lethally poisonous to any cat. They're only used in the...most extreme conditions."

   "Oh," Duskelle said, slightly wary. The small berries looked so harmless...

   "Look here, this one is horsetail," Lilacfeather said, drawing Duskells's attention away from the poisonous herb. The medicine cat continued on, naming every single herb and what they were used for. They talked for a long long time about herbs were good for which injury. Lilacfeather told her about some times of when huge bought of illness had struck the Clans and the story of how she had become a medicine cat herself. At last, at the end of the day, when Duskelle had to leave to sleep, Lilacfeather bid her goodbye and headed to her nest in the medicine cat den.