A Herb In A Snow Stack

[Finch]

Isilme
Dim light made its way through the ominous cloads and reflected on the fresh snow that covored the icy ground below. Such an expansion of this perfectly leveled snow would have taken anyones breath away... at least a few heart beats ago. A orange she-cat sprinted through the snow. At such high speeds, anyone would assume her tail was on fire, when truely, she was enjoying the icy wind that rippled through her pelt. Her burning muscles soon brought her to a slow trot. Palewing was on a herb gathering mission assigned by a elder, who apperently, saw her warrior talents much more capable of this task than that of an apprentice who, 'dily dalyed too much to get any work done.' Her task was seemingly simple; get a specific herb to help her coughing before the frost killed them all. The cold that began before the snow, she assumed, had mostly likely done a great job in killing this herb. When she had tried to tell this to the elders, they broke into a long rant of how lazy warriors were these day and rather than stick around, she simply accepted the task and began her predictable vain attempt to the Pond of Truce where the precious herb was located.

The river that circled the island was easy to spot and as she neared she noticed that the river had frozen over. She paid no attention to this, however, and instead continued with what she had came here for. Opening her jaw she attemped to scent the herb. The elder had shown her what this herb looked and scented like with a sample she still had. The attempt was fruitless, as she expected,  leaving her with the only option to rumage through the snow. She let out an exasperated sigh. This was going to take awhile. 

[Isilme]

Crowtail was supposed to be hunting, but there were no preys around 'who would be out in this cold anyway?' He sighed bored, his long black fur was painted with snow but still he hadn't found anything. "Forget it I'm not hunting anymore" he muttered to himself, he was far away from his territory near the pond of truce. "Well I could have a look there." He meowed not really expecting any response, deciding to have a last try in the neutral territory he started to run.
He was closer than he though and quickly reached the island, the small river that passed there was frozen 'thats why I like the sea, it does not froze' careful not to slip he walked through the ice. "Well it was not that..." Then he lost his balance and went face down in the ice. "That hard." He finished his sentence waving his tail annoyed, he sighed and then noticed a orange she-cat sniffing around the island, maybe it was his luck day. "Oh hello there" he meowed trying to get her attention. "Do you mind helping me a little? I'm not very good with frozen rivers." The big black tom then waited for her anwser.

[Finch]

Palewing turned her head from the snow and gazed at the black tom. His scent easily told her that he was not from Stormclan. Palewing looked at his predicament and her whisker twiched in amuesment. She was starting to make her way over to him when she paused. Was this a trap? He seemed sincere but he was from different clan... but then again this was equal territory and they didnt really have a reason to fight... right? After convincing herself she made her way to the frozen river and slid easily twords him. "You can use me for support." She said. She crouched and attempted to slip her head under him to lift him up to his paws.

[Isilme]

"Thanks so much!" Crowtail meowed happily accepting her help to get back on his paws "I'm Crowtail, you just saved me from a lot of trouble" Using her for support he got out of the frozen river, he sat down and started to get the snow out of his fur while observing her, she seemed like a nice she cat, and was very beautiful too 'wait, I should not be thinking that' he quickly dismissed the though. "There's anything I can do to return the favor?" he meowed kindly staring at her light green eyes, he actually wanted to spend sometime with her and forget his little desaster from earlier.

[Finch]

Palewing who was about to held back to digging in the snow now stared at him blankly. She had expected him to thank her, yes, but not to offer help. She wouldn't be the cat to disinline though. "You could help me dig through the snow... I'm looking for a herb for coughing. Its a plant... with soft, wrinkley green leaves and small yellow flowers..." She turned her gaze back down to the snow and began to trugged a paw through it, reveling shriveled brown grass. 'Its more of a lost cause though...'she thought, then realizing Crowtail still didn't know her name she added. "Oh... I'm Palewing."

[Isilme]

Before she actually finished saying what exactly herb she was searching for he was already digging in the snow. "I know what herb you are talking about, the chance we actually find it with all this snow is very low" He meowed stopping just for a moment to look at her. "Your name suits you Palewing" he said softly and got back to work a little flustered, the winter never bothered him because of his long fur, but he knew that some cats actually felt a lot of cold. "Does the cold bother you?" He asked curiosity getting the better of him, he worried for her well being and was not about to let her get sick for a herb that they would probably not find.

[Finch]

"Hm? No." She said bluntly. She continued digging in the snow for a bit when she realized he probably wanted more of an explanation. She'd never really had been good at keeping conversations, this had always been a fault on her part but she didnt understand how cats could talk so much. "Um, I mean after a while maybe..." she continued lamely, not truly understanding what he really meant.

[Isilme]

He didn't react at her blunt answer, he knew not all cats were talkitive like him and he understood it, so he stayed in silence and focused his energy with the task at paw. His ears picked when she completed her sentence. "Tell me if it starts to bother you, I don't want you to be sick for a few herbs" he muttered giving her a quick look. "Not that I don't want you to find the herbs!" He said right after afraid he might have offended her. "but your life is more important than it" he finished staring at her a little flustered, he normally talked before thinking and it put him in the worst situations.

[Finch]

She stopped and looked at Crowtail. She opened her mouth to say something but words never came, she then proceeded in closing her mouth and looking away. Her fur burned. It touched her that some cat actually cared about her well being. Finally after a pause of awkwardness she replied, "U- um. Thanks." Her subconscious screamed at her. This is wrong. You should be enemies. You should be fighting, not talking or helping each other! She pushed the though to the back of her head, "So... What are you doing here anyways?" she asked when she continued with her search. She hissed with annoyance when she discovered the herb she was looking for, only brown and wilted.

[Isilme]

The big black tom didn't knew exactly what to do of the she-cat, she seemed so shocked with his words that he began to think he had said something wrong, until her thanks found their way to his ears, he turned his head at her direction a warm look into his yellow eyes. 'She is different' the though crossed his mind like a flash, and it was his turn to be awkward. "Oh, well, I was hunting you know." He meowed doing everything to not look to much at her direction. "but it's hard to find prey these days so I got very far from camp and ended here, my face in the frozen river" he laughed at the last part waving his tail around. "but you know this part" he finised digging another place and sighed. "Who asked you to grab these herbs in winter? It's not a very sane thing, no offense" he added quickly at the end.

[Finch]

She hadn't noticed but she'd been smiling when he told his story. She had rather quckly warmed up to this stranger. Her smile faded. "Well, an elder... " she'd stopped digging and was now sitting looking up at the dark red sinking sun that had appeared from the clouds, "I guess most are not very sane," she sighed. Today had been such a fruitless attempt.

"You can stop now..." she said turning to the persumably digging tom "I dont think we'll see much when the sun dissappears," she curled her tail around her paws. "Thanks for helping me today," A thought crossed her mind. "M- maybe we could try tomorrow... the sun might melt the snow." She regreted what she had said as soon as it had left her. Snow rarely melted after the first storm in fact in sometimes got worse but for some reason she wanted to see Crowtail again. She braised herself for his reply

[Isilme]

Guilty passed through him soon as she said it had been an elder request 'good job Crowtail, you are the worse cat ever' he though blaming himself for being so stupid. He started to dig harder until he heard her soft meow. He stopped just in time to see the sun desapearing right behind her making the she-cat glow in the orange light. 'Starclan help me...'
"Ahn, it was my pleasure Palewing." He meowed cleaning his throat, he sat down in front of her, his tail waving around in the snow. "I would love to come help you tomorrow too, if you don't mind having me here." He could not bring himself to look her in the eyes 'I can't bring her trouble' the though of her being punished because of him sadned the tom."Be careful on your way home, I will see you tomorrow?" He asked softly, trying not to get his hopes very high.

[Finch]

"Yes, be careful aswell." With that she got up to her paws, turned and trotted back home her head spinning with more emotion that she could understand. Happyness, ccuriosity, worry, embarrassment. Great Starclan what was she getting into?

OOC: Should I make a new thread or continue with this one? If not should I start the thread or you?

[Isilme]

OOC: I guess we can continue on here, it's going around the herb yet lol

Crowtail waited until she had desappeared to get up and go home, his clan was much farther than hers, he was not even sure if it was worth going all the way there just to be back tomorrow, he sighed. "I will just sleep around here somewhere" he started to look for a decent place where he could spend the night in, the she-cat never leaving his mind. He kept searching until he found an empty rabit hole, 'I would not mind if a rabbit was inside' he though, as he laid down to sleep in the cold floor, he could only imagine the she cat envolted in the orange sun light.

[Finch]

Palewing eyes slowly opened to adjust to the dawn light that flickered in the warrior's den, getting to her paws she gave a yawn and licked her pelt until it was free of moss. Exiting the warriors den she felt the sun warm her pelt. The snow had melted leaving only a few clumps of snow. It wouldn't last, of course, and when leafbare started full swing she would be up to her belly fur in the cold substance. Yesterday, after returning to camp with a scrawny mouse as an apology, she told the elder of her failure. Leaving out the fact that she had a helper, she told them that she would try again tomorrow.

Leaving the camp the ground was still moist and cold to the touch. Will he be there? She wondered. What if he gets caught? Has he told anyone? These thoughts had plagued her mind since she left and wouldn't seem to leave her. In desperation to stop her anxiety she broke into a run and slowed down when she reached the Pond of Truce. Looking around she didn't immediately spot the black tom. Maybe he's just late. Thinking back she never said WHEN they would come here. After silently cursing herself her stomach rumbled. She had not had anything to eat since yesterday morning, and now her stomach was coming back with a vengeance. Opening her jaw she caught the strong scent of rabbit. After tracking it down she looked into a rabbit hole to discover a huge black lump of fur. “Crowtail…?”