Glossary [Ctrl+F to search]

[Dreameh]

Fighting Techniques

One of the most important skills a mentor must teach an apprentice is how to fight. warriors are often called upon to defend the borders or protect the Clan from attack, whether by enemy Clans or predators like badgers and foxes. Even medicine cats must learn enough fighting tecnique to be useful in battle.

Back kick
Explosive surprise move to catch opponent from behind. Judge opponent's distance from you carefully; then lasg out with your back legs, taking your weight on your front paws.

Belly rake
A fight-stopper. Slice with unsheathed claws across soft flesh of opponent's belly. If you're pinned down, the belly rake quickly puts you back in control.

Front paw blow
Frontal attak. Bring your front paw down hard on your oppnen'ts head. Claws sheathed.

Front paw strike
Frontal attack. Slice downward with your front paw at the body or face fo your opponent. Claws unsheathed.

Killing bite
A death blow to the back of the neck. Quick and silent and sometimes considered dishonorable. Used only as a last resort.

Leap-and-hold
Ideal for a small cat facing a large opponent. Spring onto opponent's back and grip with usheathed claws. Now you are beyond the range of your opponent's paws and in position to inflict severe body wounds. A group of apprentices can defeat a learge and dengerous warrior this way. Watch for the drop-an-roll countermove, and try to jump free before you get squashed.

Partner fighting
Warrior who have trained and fought together will often instictively fall into a paired defensive position each protecting the other's back while fending off an opponent on either side. Slashing, clawing, and leaping together, battle pairs can be a whirlwing of danger for arrackers.

Play dead
Effective in a tight situation, such as when you are pinned. Stop struggling and go limp. When your opponent relaxed his grip, thinking you are defeated, push yourself up explosively. THis will throw off an unwary opponent and put you in an attacking position.

Scruff shake
Secure a strong teeth grip in the scruff of your opponent's neck; then shake violently until he or she is too rattled to fight back. Most effective against rats, which are small enough to throw. A strong throw will stun or kill them.

Teeth grip
Target your opponent's extremities--the legs, tail, scruff, or ears--and sink in your teeth and hold. THis move is similar to the leap-and-hold except your claws remain free to fight.

Upright lock
Final, crushing move on already weakened opponent. Rear on on back legs and bring full weight down on opponent. If opponent does same, wrestle and flip him under you. This move makes you vulnerable to the belly rake, so requires great strength and speed.


~Erin Hunter's Secret of the Clans

[Dreameh]

Important Medicines And Their Uses

Boarage Leaves
To be chewed and eaten. The plant can be distinguished by its small blue or pink star-shaped flowers and hairy leaves. Great for nursing queens as it help increase their supply of milk. Also brings down fever.

Burdock Root
A tall-stemmed, sharp smelling thistle with dark leaves. A medicine cat must dig up the roots, wash off the dirt, and chew them into a pulp, which can be applied to rat bites. Cutes infection.

Catmint (also known as catnip)
A delicious-smelling, leafy plant that's hard to find in the wild; often found growing in Twoleg gardens. The best remedy for greencough.

Chervil
A sweet-smelling plant with large, spreading, fernlike leaves and small white flowers. The juice of the leaves can be used for infected wounds, and chewing the roots helps with bellyache.

Cobweb
Spiderwebs can be found all over the forest; be careful not to bring along the spider when you take the web! Medicine cats wrap it around an injury to soak up the blood and keep the wound clean. Stops bleeding.

Coltsfoot
A flowering plant, a bit like a dandelion, with yellow or white flowers. The leaves can be chewed into a pulp which is eaten to help shortness of breath.

Comfrey
Identifiable by its large leaves and small bell-shaped flowers, which can be pink, white, or purple. The fat black roots of this plant can be chewed into a poultice to mend broken bones or soothe wounds.

Dock
A plant similar to sorrel. The leaf can be chewed up and applied to soothe scratches.

Dried Oak Leaf
Collected in the autumn and stored in a dry place. Stops infections.

Feverfew
A small bush with flowers like daisies. The leaves can be eaten to cool down body temperature, particularly for cats with fever or chills.

Goldenrod
A tall plant with bright yellow flowers. A poultice of this is terrific for healing wounds.

Honey
A sweet, golden liquid created by bees. Difficult to collect without getting stung, but great for soothing infections or the throats of cats who have breathed smoke.

Horsetail
A tall plant with bristly stems that grows in marshy areas. The leaves can be used to treat infected wounds. Usually chewed up and applied as a poultice.

Juniper Berries
A bush with spiky dark green leaves and purple berries. The berries soothe bellyaches and help cats who are having trouble breathing.

Lavender
A small purple flowering plant. Cures fever.

Marigold
A bright orange or yellow flower that grows low to the ground. The petals or leaves can be chewed into a pulp and applied as a poultice to wounds. Stops infection.

Mouse Bile
A bad-smelling liquid that is th only remedy for ticks. Dab a little moss soaked in bile on a tick and it'll fall right off. Wash paws thoroughly in running water afterward.

Poppy Seed
Small black seeds shaken from a dried poppy flower, these are fed to cats to help them sleep. Soothes cats suffering from shock and distress. Not recommended for nursing queens.

Stinging Nettle
The spiny green seeds can be administered to a cat who's swallowed poison, while the leaves can be applied to a wound to bring down swelling.

Tansy
A strong-smelling plant with round yellow flowers. Good for curing coughs, but must be eaten in small doses.

Thyme
This herb can be eaten to calm anxiety and frayed nerves.

Warermint
A leafy green plant found in streams or damp earth. Usually chewed into a pulp and then fed to a cat suffering bellyache.

Wild Garlic
Rolling in a patch of wild garlic can help prevent infection, especially for dangerous wounds like rat bites.

Yarrow
A flowering plant whose leaves can be made into a poultice and applied to wounds or scratches to expel poison.


NOTE:
Deathberries
Red berries that can be fatally poisonous to kits and elders. They are NOT a medicine. Known to Twolegs as yew berries. BEWARE!


~Erin Hunter's Secret of the Clans

[Dreameh]

Other Animals

Foxes

Russet-red fur, bushy tails, sharp teeth, and pointed noses. Look a bit like dogs.
Live in dens, often in sandy ground hidden by undergrowth.
Live alone or with their cubs.
Mean, suspicious, and hostile, they don't eat cats, but they will kill for pleasure and not just for prey.
They hunt mostly at night and have a strong and unpleasant smell.

Badgers

Large, with short black fur and a white stripe down their long, pointed muzzles.
Small, beady eyes, powerful shoulders, and sharp claws.
Live in either caves or sets, which are tunnels underground, bushes, or tree roots.
Live alone or with their kits and have a very distinctive smell.
Badgers sometimes prey on young cat kits. Can trample their victims with enormous paws or deliver a deadly bit.
Have tremendously powerful jaws that make it nearly impossible to escape their grip.

Dogs

Size varies from that of a kit to a pony. Fur can be long or short, white, brown, black, gray, or a mix. Can have point or flat noses, droopy or sharp ears. Make loud, angry noises and love chasing cats.
Live mostly in Twoleg nests or barns. Wild dogs might sleep anywhere.
Loud, fast, and sharp-toothed. Many dogs seem to be devoted to their Twolegs and are seen only in Twoleg company. There is a theory that most dogs are too dim-witted to be truly dangerous. Packs of dogs are always to be feared.

Birds of Prey

Winged predators with hooked beaks and sharp, curving talons, these include hawks, eagles, falcons, and owls.
Nest in Hollow or branches of trees, or on the ledges of cliffs.
Extremely sharp vision for spotting prey from a distance. Hawks swoop down form the sky to carry off prey, which includes kits.

Horses/Sheep/Cows

Four-legged farm creatures.
Horses are tall and swift with flowing manes and tails and giant, pounding hooves.
Sheep look like fluffy white clouds dotted across a green field.
Cows can be black and white or brown, and their hooves are to be avoided.
Large fenced fields and sometimes hay-filled Twoleg barns.
Mostly harmless. However, take caution passing through their fields. A galloping horse or stampeding herd of cows would trample a cat without even noticing.

Rats

Brown-furred and beady-eyed rodents, with long, naked tails and sharp front teeth. Not much bigger than kits.
Live in garbage dumps like Carrionplace in ShadowClan territory or anywhere they can scavenge Twoleg food.
Live and travel in packs. Individually they pose no threat to cats, but their numbers are often overwhelming, and bites can cause infection. A single rat can contaminate the whole of ShadowClan.

Twolegs

Tall, smooth-skinned creatures with some fur on their heads. Walk on two legs.
Live in large, boxy nests with hard roofs and floors, often surrounded by tidy gardens and fences.
Also known as Nofurs or Upwalkers. Twolegs ride around in monsters and seem to like dogs. They are to be avoided if possible, as they are capable of doing something unpredictable at any moment, such as tearing down a tree, starting a fire, or locking up a cat for no reason.

[Dreameh]

Words
Catspeak: Humanspeak

Crow-food: rotting food
Fox dung: and insult; stronger offense than mouse-brain
Fresh-kill: recently killed prey
Gathering: a meeting that the Clans hold in peace at every full moon
Greencough: severe chest ingection, which can be fatal in elders and young kits
Greenleaf: summer
Greenleaf Twolegplace: A place where humans visit onlly in the summer (a campsite, resort, etc.)
Halfbridge: a dock
Horseplace: fields and stables near the lake where half-tamed cats live
Housefolk: a house cat's word for its humans
Kittypet: a house cat
Leaf-bare: winter
Leaf-fall: fall/autumn
Loner: cat that lives peacefully on its own in one place but doesn't defend its territory
Monster: usually refers to human machines such as cars and bulldozers
Moonhigh: the time of night when the moon is at its highest--often midnight
Mouse-brained: not very smart
Mouse dung: an insult; stronger than mouse-brain, but less offensive than fox dung
Newleaf: spring
Nofurs: another word for humans
One moon: one months (half-moon - two weeks, quarter-moon = one week)
Rogue: a potentially hostile cat who lives outside the Clans and never spends too long in one place
Sharing tongues: term used to describe cats grooming each other
Siverpelt: the Milky Way
Sun-drown Place: the sea to the west, where the sun sets
Sunhigh: noon
Thunderpath: a road
Tree-eater: bulldozer
Twoleg nest: a human house
Twolegplace: a human town
Twolegs: the Clans' word for humans
Upwalkers: another word for humans
Whitecough: milld chest infection


~Erin Hunter's Secret Of The Clans