Pebblefall was intercepted by Sandwhisker while he was on his way to the medicine cats' den. The brown tom's eyes twinkled as he meowed, "Hey. You're in luck, because Poolripple just stocked up on moss. Plenty of that for us to build your nest with."

Pebblefall waved his tail cheerfully. "That's great. I was hoping to make it now."

Sandwhisker flicked an ear, padding into the medicine cats' den ahead of Pebblefall, who followed the brown tabby inside. He wrinkled his nose at the strong smells of the herbs, and he sneezed softly as he went deeper into the den to get some moss. How does Poolripple stand this? he wondered, sneezing again.

"Hey, take some moss yourself," Sandwhisker chastised playfully, his mew muffled by the wad of moss in his mouth. He nudged Pebblefall with his tail lightly. Pebblefall snorted and batted it away before walking over to grab some moss. Poolripple, who had just entered the den, cast the two friends an odd look, but they both ignored it.

With their jaws full of moss, the two cats walked to the warriors' den. Inside, Pebblefall glanced around for a moment before choosing a spot next to Sandwhisker's nest. The two toms set down their balls of moss, and Pebblefall began patting it into shape.

Sandwhisker sat in his nest, watching his friend work. Trying to help me would only make a mess, Pebblefall figured.

"You know, when I moved in a half-moon ago," Sandwhisker began with a fond glance around the warriors' den, "I thought it was amazing to finally be a warrior, too," the tabby sat aside and mused.

"And?" Pebblefall questioned, not looking up from his moss. It was quite a bit harder to knead it into the shape of a nest than he had thought it would be. It kept springing back.

"And I've come to realise that it's not all that different from being an apprentice in many ways." Sandwhisker stretched lazily, yawning. "I have yet to lead a patrol, and honestly, I'm not that interested in leading one. Other than even that, most things are the same."

Pebblefall flicked his tail as he sat on his nest, forcing it to stay in the shape he wanted. He paddled at the moss a bit more, scowling at it, but stood up when he saw that it wasn't changing its shape anymore. He curled up on it to test it, and sighed contentedly at the softness.

Noting that Pebblefall was done with making his nest, Sandwhisker stood up, stretching his legs. "Do you want to get something to eat? I'm starving," Sandwhisker confessed, his whiskers twitching guiltily.

Pebblefall purred in amusement, flicking Sandwhisker's belly with his tail as he padded out of the den. "One of these days, you're going to turn into a giant furball from eating so much," he teased.

"Look who's talking," Sandwhisker laughed, padded after Pebblefall. "Either way, fancy some squirrel?"

Pebblefall snorted. "No way did any patrol bring back squirrel. Our hunting patrols don't go that close to the trees. Fishbrain," he added with an affectionate flick of his tail on Sandwhisker's ear.

"I know that!" Sandwhisker defended, giving Pebblefall a shove with his shoulder. "I was thinking we could go catch one, silly."

Pebblefall licked his lips. "Why not?"

A short while later, the two friends settled down next to the fresh-kill pile with a freshly-caught squirrel. Sandwhisker took the first bite. "Oh, this is a good one," he said while chewing.

Pebblefall took a bite of the squirrel. The juicy flesh of the prey made his belly grumble, asking for more. "It's very fat. Nice catch," he praised his friend, who had indeed been the one to catch the squirrel.

Sandwhisker let out a snort and took another bite. "I always have an eye for the best prey," he boasted, chewing in an undignified way.

Pebblefall looked down to take another bite and was dismayed to see that Sandwhisker had eaten close to half the squirrel already. "You greedy hairball!"

Sandwhisker snickered unsympathetically as Poolripple called, "Pebblefall!"

A bit puzzled about why the medicine cat needed him, Pebblefall turned around. Poolripple gestured for him to come with her tail, and the grey tom complied, still confused. He glanced over his shoulder to see Sandwhisker finish the last of the rodent, and he shot his friend a glare. Sandwhisker only smirked at him, his jaws full of squirrel.

Once inside the medicine cats' den, Pebblefall asked. "What did you need me for, Poolripple?" He tried not to wrinkle his nose at the pungent smell of the herbs like he had this morning.

Poolripple patted a pile of leaves into place before turning to the young warrior. Her green gaze darted about as she mewed, "I need assistance in collecting herbs."

Pebblefall grew even more confused. "But why me? Why not a more experienced warrior?"

Poolripple hesitated before grumbling, "Does it really matter why I chose you? I just need a warrior to come with me while I collect herbs."

Pebblefall opened his mouth to argue some more, but Poolripple stuffed her tail into his mouth, effectively silencing him, then marched out of the den. Pebblefall followed the medicine cat, confusion swirling around his head, but he decided not to question her anymore. He shared a puzzled look with Sandwhisker as he left camp.

As he headed out into the forest with Poolripple, he recalled her hesitation while talking to him. Poolripple was normally very direct, with no room for nonsense in her words. Her shiftiness was certainly odd.

Poolripple said nothing as she led him to a patch of strong-smelling flowers. Pebblefall sat down, ears pricked and eyes scanning for any danger that may come. He snorted quietly several times as the tortoiseshell-and-white she-cat began to dig up the roots of the flowers.

Pebblefall continued to wonder about Poolripple's strange behaviour in the medicine cats' den as he sat there guarding her. Was she hiding something? If so, what was she hiding? For someone so straightforward, to stutter was rare.

He was so deep in thought, he didn't notice that Poolripple had asked him a question. He snapped back to reality when Poolripple whacked him with her tail, making him jump. "I said, do you know what this is?" she growled, flicking her tail at the growing pile of roots.

Pebblefall blinked in confusion. Why was she asking him, a warrior, about herbs? "Er, no," he awkwardly replied, shuffling his paws, and resisting the urge to add 'Why don't you tell me? You're the medicine cat here!'

"Oh. Well, that's fine. This is comfrey root, and it's used for soothing wounds and stiffness in joints. It also helps with itching, inflammation, burns, and it heals broken bones. Sometimes it's used for wrenched claws or shoulders." After telling him the herb's use, Poolripple fell silent again. Pebblefall swivelled his ears uneasily, wondering if he should have paid more attention to that. He had already forgotten the name of the herb.

After a few quiet moments, Poolripple mewed, "Have you ever wondered what these herbs do?"

Pebblefall struggled not to let his incredulousness creep into his voice. "Well, no. Because I'm a warrior. That's your job."

Poolripple grunted in response before asking, "Ever thought about what we do?"

Pebblefall was beginning to get annoyed. He fluffed up his fur and changed his position before replying stiffly. "No. I'm not a medicine cat, and I don't really care what you do."

Poolripple muttered, "Whatever you say, warrior." She dug up the rest of the roots in silence, and Pebblefall focused on his duty.

When she was done collecting the herbs, Poolripple briefly lectured Pebblefall on how to carry the herbs back to camp. Pebblefall impatiently sat through her lecture, eager to get back to camp so he could talk to Sandwhisker about Poolripple. When she finished, the medicine cat swiftly picked up the herbs and set off for camp.

The walk back was, again, silent for a while. Then Poolripple sighed through the herbs and meowed, "Goldenrod has been dying off lately."

Pebblefall bit back the urge to snap, "Why should I care?" Instead, he politely asked, "What does that do?"

Poolripple seemed satisfied at his question. "It treats fish bites to keep them from getting infected. We don't have any other herb with the same use, but we're lucky not to have anyone who's got a bite at the moment."

Pebblefall nodded, not really paying attention. He glanced around at the trees before noticing that they weren't going back to camp.

"Wait, where are we going?" he said, bewildered that they weren't going the way he expected.

"We're going to get some horsetail. After that, I still need to gather some juniper berries and chervil," Poolripple replied, staring straight ahead.

Pebblefall didn't try to mask his sigh as he followed Poolripple. Why me? I'm not going to be a medicine cat...

The sun was sinking below the horizon by the time Poolripple and Pebblefall stepped back into RiverClan camp. Pebblefall's jaw ached from carrying around herbs all day, and he let out a sigh of relief a when he dropped the herbs at the entrance of the medicine cats' den.

He turned to leave, glancing around for Sandwhisker, when Poolripple called," Pebblefall, help me sort the herbs."

Pebblefall stifled a groan before turning around. He tiredly watched Poolripple strip the berries from the branches they had collected, then looked down at the different herbs with disgust. What was the point in knowing all of this?

"Well? Don't just stand there, help me," Poolripple said sharply, and Pebblefall picked up the roots from earlier in the day, stifling another groan.

Poolripple instructed him on where to put which herb, and told him the uses of many other herbs in the process. Aside from his exhaustion, Pebblefall didn't care what uses the herbs had, so when Poolripple pointed to a random herb and asked him its use, he impatiently snapped, "Look, I really am not interested in being a medicine cat. Can you please just let me go?"

Poolripple's brilliant green eyes drilled into him, and Pebblefall angrily stared back. They stared each other down for a few heartbeats before Poolripple sighed. She motioned her tail to the exit, and Pebblefall gratefully bounded out of the den.

He padded into the warriors' den to find Sandwhisker curled up in his nest. Pebblefall joined him, yawning.

"Did you notice how she was treating you like her apprentice?" Sandwhisker commented, his tail flicking idly.

Pebblefall let out a hiss. "Of course I did! I don't get why she's trying to make me learn about herbs. It's not like I'm becoming her apprentice."

Sandwhisker flicked his ears. "I can't see you being a medicine cat. You'd probably mix up a herb and accidentally poison someone," he joked, the ghost of a purr lining his words.

Pebblefall also purred, but he was still immensely annoyed by Poolripple's actions. Why was she trying to force him to learn the ways of medicine cat? She wasn't even that old...

Written by Aquarius.

Edited by Ren and Annco.