{T.h.I.n.K.i.N.g. T.o. M.y.S.e.L.f}

[Blacktundra]

Flamingtiger wandered the camp, thinking. Was he to be chosen as RunningClan leader? He licked his flank, and thought about it. He knew that he had a pretty good chance at being chosed, but would he? I mean, come on. He was a small cat, as much as he hated to admit it. What Clan would want a small cat as their leader? He was no bigger than an apprentice! Did they want that as their leader?

[Roraylva]

Blueshadow sat in her nest. She was still within the medicine cat den, and she hated it. Sure, the medicine cat den was pretty, gorgeous even, but she was a bit lonely. The small stream that went through the right side from any cat looking in, on her left, wasn't company of any kind. The thick bush was much less company, and the small pile of herbs that had little usage came with the little missing medicine cat problem.

The sun would sometimes shine through the bush as well, and that would annoy her more then anything. She hated being woken up by the sun shining on her face, making her think there was something she'd have to do. Then she'd realize there was nothing for her to do but just lay there!

She wished that the place around her, and being injured in the first place, was the only thing bugging her....

No one was really coming to see her much! Well, you've only been in here a few days! she told herself. She didn't care though! She wanted some company, not attention! She was lonely, and she was always a talkative cat, with something to tell any cat any day!

She hoped no one would really think she wanted attention, just company. She knew that most of the cats would know about her being injured by now. Surely someone would want to visit her? Or did cats just not like her that much? She hoped it wasn't that, since that'd be horrible. It'd also lower your chances at the open leadership spot.

She knew she shouldn't be thinking about that, but she would be a good leader. She still had some things to work out, she knew that. But she had plenty of good qualities to make up for any of her bad ones. She was fair tempered, and only grouchy under stress, which a lot of cats were.

She had been born in RunningClan, which would help her greatly with the loyalty part. She was usually kind and friendly, when she wasn't under a ton of stress and grouchy. She knew that she wasn't perfect, but she was still nice and everything. Shouldn't she be qualified of being leader?

She heard a few pawsteps outside the medicine den. She breathed in the air around her. While the scent of all the different herbs, especially marigold, which was on her fur helping to clean her wounds, muffled all else, she smelled another cat. One more breath, still filled with herbs of all sorts, she made out Flamingtiger's scent among them.

Flamingtiger was exactly as his name described. He had a fiery orange, close to the color of fire, with bits of red along it, barely visible. That was his flaming part, but the tiger part he earned too. He was fierce as a tiger, with a lot of strength, and had the stripes of one as well. Sure, he most likely had some tabby blood in him, where the 'M' had just decided not to show, but he did loook like a red-orange tiger.

The only part that was weird was that the cat was small. He was very close to the size of a middle-aged apprentice, not that of a full-grown warrior. She'd never tell that to him, of course, since that'd be terribly rude and mean. She just wasn't that to cats within her own clan. Flamingtiger also had a way of attacking cats who did make fun of his size.

Really, Flamingtiger was a great cat, but he would just sometimes let the anger get the better of him. She knew he never meant to, but it happened, and there was no way to change that. She was never mad with him, and wouldn't ever turn on him with her own claws if he turned on her with his. She couldn' ever bring herself to injure a clanmate, especially just because of a coment on her size.

Most RunningClan cats were used to some cats being smaller then others anyways. RunningClan had few huge cats, like in all fo the other clans. They were suppose to be small and lithe, not big and bulky like the forest cats, and in one clan's case the swamp cats. Flamingtiger was small for any cat, yes, but he wasn't much smaller then most warriors that belonged to RunningClan by birth.

She decided to stop being alone, as well as the warrior outside the den. She knew he'd be a great decision for leader, but she wouldn't let that affect her. That'd just be another form of rudeness to her, and she wouldn't do it. She wouldn't get mad at any cat for wanting to be leader. The strange thing was, how would they know who should be leader? She decided to talk it over with Flamingtiger, if he'd come to see her.

"Flamingtiger! Can you come here?" she called to the small tom, hoping he would. It'd be horrible if he said no, because then she'd be lonely, and have no one to speak too about the leadership spot. She decided not to bring up being leader to the tom, but they could talk about how they'd know who the new leader was. It'd be pointless to get in a quarrel with him over who would become leader. It'd be much better to talk about how the leader will be chosen.

She looked over her wounds, giving them a quick wash as she did so. She went to her paw, which had little scratches but still needed a care of some sort. She saw that the cobwebs that had been put on ther yesterday had been torn off by her in her sleep. She'd wished they hadn't, because her paw would hurt whenever they got changed. Besides that, she'd then most liekly just neeed more marigold for her wounds. She let out a groan, one mostly of misery, not pain.

She wasn't in too much pain anymore, but oh how she had been! She remembered being carried by Whitewind to the medicine cat den, and groaned inwardly at that thought. She hated relying on others, for anything but company! She remembered the huge bird that had pummeled down with her, and the small mouse it had been carrying. She had refused to eat the vile creature, but she was sure some other cat would have. It most likely wouldn't have been one cat, but some other cats still would have most likely eaten it by now. She'd only eaten the small mouse that the bird had caught.

She recalled how Windpaw, Whitewind's daughter, or one of her daughters, had come in with no sign of the cat that had been there previous medicine cat. So, instead of having a trained medicine cat, she got the next best thing to heal her. Windpaw. She had to admit though, the apprentice was an adept healer already, having spent all of the days since she could walk in the medicine den. She must've learned something in all that time, and she had.

Windpaw had learned how to put marigold on a wound, and what marigld was best for. She'd also learned how to put cobwebs on a wound, and how to apply it to a broken bone. Of course, Windpaw only being Windkit at that time, she hadn't been able to practice these dfferent things, and Blueshadow had been her first patient. The blue-gray she-cat the cats knew her as hadn't moved or flinched away from the untrained apprentice, knowing how important it wa to Windpaw, as well as her own health. She'd simply sat there, in a nest closer to the stream, while Windpaw put these two things on her scratches, and put cobwebs on her paw as well, with Whitewind watching.

She hadn't been surprised that Whitewind had been watching, because her friend was of course very proud of her daughter for having her first patient to try on. While she had been proud of Windpaw as well, Blueshadow had also been a bit scared of the pain she'd end up feeling. She trusted Windpaw, and still did, but the pain had been horrible! Despite how minimum Windpaw had kept the pain, or tried to keep the pain, she'd still felt some of it. After being Windpaw's first patient, she'd been glad to get some sleep.

She snapped out of her rememberance, which happened ever so often to her now that she was injured, and looked back at the entrance of the medicine den. The sun was shining in the entrance, making a beautiful half circle under the large bush. She could see Flamingtiger's outline when she reached her head over to see outside the entrance, and found that he got his name not only from being mostly orange-red. He got it from the ay his pelt turned to flame in the sun-light. That was something new for the blue-gray she-cat. She sat back, waiting to see if the tom would come to see her or not.

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