Shadowstartheleader
Friendship Rank 4
~The world may be dark, we may be lost forever, but we stand a chance as long as we're together~
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Post by Shadowstartheleader on Aug 2, 2019 3:53:02 GMT -5
"Has something gone wrong?" It was a quiet mew from Shadowpaw as he gazed towards Leafpaw while she gazed down at her own paws. She seemed to be very preoccupied and made no attempt to respond to Shadowpaw either, leaving Shadowpaw biting his lip from uncertainty about what he should do or if he even could do anything at all. His gaze turned to Hazelrunner, the awkwardness and discomfort in his eyes clear as he silently pleaded for her help, but she wasn't looking at him, and it went totally unanswered.
His expression fell downcast as he felt an inability to help at all as Leafpaw suddenly seemed downcast, Hazelrunner was only addressing Hawktail and two Riverclan warriors were coming to their flanks and seemed to be a little impatient to get out of the camp--at least the one, whatever aggressive-pelt's name was. He had been looking for a reason not to help Hazelrunner, and Shadowpaw had to wonder how good of an idea it was for him to be involved with their vital patrol. Then again, he himself was on the patrol. Windclan wasn't exactly working with their best resources right now. He didn't know what it was that had gone on in the medicine cat's den, but perhaps they simply needed to find Rainstar, and then she could help put the pieces back together now that Riverclan was in their camp again. Maybe, just maybe, they could all take a breath.Hawktail was ready for whatever was coming from the other Windclan warrior. It sounded like something that was not a good tiding, and he quietly pulled in a breath as she called for them to get a move on. He turned away from her and Leafpaw and prepared to get wet once more, leading the way outside of the camp as he waded into the water again, moving his way out and reemerging on the other side. He then stepped away, turning and waiting for the rest of the cats to come out behind him. Shadowpaw murmured a quiet and absent-minded "thanks" as Applepaw departed from them, now worried about what had just happened in the den instead of the lingering and clouding effect of his father on the camp. To some degree, it might be considered an upgrade in problems?
Shadowpaw was able to get back through the pond with relative ease, his technique just about as novice as before, but getting him through without serious struggle. Once he had reached the other side, he took several pawsteps away and had to shake himself out. It was getting quite cold with all of this water wading and he was feeling the beginnings of a breeze that didn't make it any easier to cope with. Hopefully they would find Rainstar without too much difficulty so that they could get back to camp, warm up, and prepare to catch some food. They needed an easy day, but...he knew just how likely that was. Why did everything have to be so messed up? They had started by discovering that Shadowclan had turned into a pit of savagery, Dawnstar was dead, and they had practically abolished the Warrior Code. Then, they turned their eyes on other clans, stripped Riverclan of their home, stole them and forced them to fight and labor for Shadowclan, totally breaking the piece of the lake territory and throwing it all into disarray. They weren't even functioning as clans, in all honesty. The clans had to exist in relation to each other, but now it was mostly hunkering down in their respective camps and taking care of their own. Getting them to help each other was a fight with tooth and claw, and then to add onto all of that...
She had to snap herself out of her thoughts for a moment as she heard the splash of water, and some cat's nose tugging at her to get a move on. Pulling in a quiet breath, she forced her paws to move and picked up her gaze. She followed behind and watched as the rump of Hawktail left her vision momentarily as Shadowpaw entered the water and reached the other side without any complications. Waiting her turn, she prepared for the cold water and pushed herself through once more.
As she emerged, dripping wet and uncomfortably growing a little chillier, her thoughts drifted back to her lamentations. Now, to add onto everything that seemed to be going wrong, Wildberry, their own medicine cat, was making such a call as keeping from the clan what was happening to Whispersong, the depravity of what was being done to her and where exactly she was. To Leafpaw, it seemed like two pawsteps only ever thinking of your own clan; it was only thinking for your clan when it felt right, and because Wildberry didn't think it would help, she chose not to give them that information. What right was it of her's? How could a Windclan cat claim to be honest and valorous if they were...so blatantly deceitful? From her view, it was a giant smear on the image of Windclan. "Let's continue on." Hawktail urged the patrol as he prepared to venture in some direction. He had to imagine, if something had gone...very wrong, then her scent would be in the direction of Shadowclan. That being said, there were dozens of scents intermingling together here from all of the clans, and it was making it a nightmare, as Hawktail scented the air, to try and identify that of their own leader.
"Okay. Here's what we will do. We're going to spread out somewhat, scenting the air for Rainstar. Stay in twos, and do not go out of sight of another pair of cats. I don't need to mention how bad it would be to catch a Shadowclan patrol unable to call for help. "Leafpaw, go with..." He glanced back at the two Riverclan warriors, his brain blanking for a couple moments as he stared with them. "Jaggedscar. Hazelrunner, we'll speak as we go. Mousepaw, stick with Silverfang." He blinked and turned to march on ahead, when a moment later he awkwardly turned back as his eyes rested for a moment at the silent Shadowpaw, his ears folded back as he awkwardly shuffled his paws about a few pawsteps away. "Uhhh...stick with...Silverfang, as well." He turned away again and silently pulled in a breath. It was an awkward mistake for an older warrior like him to make. Forgetting an apprentice.
Shadowpaw couldn't really blame Hawktail. Shadowpaw wasn't ever on any patrols as he didn't have any important, honestly competent skills to put to the test. He would never survive in a real fight, he probably couldn't defend himself for more than half a second, and his hunting was...okay. It really shouldn't be a surprise that Hawktail would simply...forget him. But...then why did it still seem to hurt him, as his expression saddened and his paws seemed to shuffle on their own as he was awkwardly assigned to go with Mousepaw and Silverfang?
Frogstrike's words seemed to completely roll right over her as she wailed at the mangled corpse of her mother. "No! NO! Mommy, please, no! Don't l--leave me a-alone!" The twolegs emerging from the nest right at the side of the kitten's came to peek at the kitten wailing its head off, and suddenly gave a monstrous shout as it laid eyes on the scene. It suddenly turned tail and charged back through the maw of the nest, to do who-could-guess-what? As it did the sound of another dog's barking began coming from inside the nest, much higher-pitched and yet still fearfully loud. This situation was about to become quite a bit more complicated than it was right now, and they were going to be caught in it. No twoleg was stirring from inside of the kitten's nest, and it seemed she wasn't going to budge an inch from the body if she wasn't forced to.
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Aug 2, 2019 11:39:02 GMT -5
Post by wildcharm on Aug 2, 2019 11:39:02 GMT -5
The look of pure desperation that crossed Shadowpaw’s face as she swept her eyes over the cast of cats around them. She glanced towards Leafpaw lightly nodding her head in silent understanding. She didn’t have anyway to tell him that she understood what was going through the apprentice’s mind. Unfortunately it wasn’t something she could explain to him. All she could do was offer a placating smile, knowing full well that wasn’t what Shadowpaw or Leafpaw needed right now. She carefully moved to take a follow along the other Windclan preparing herself for the plunge into the cold water again. It was the only thing she could really think about that kept thoughts of Whispersong’s fate and Wildberry’s choice to remain passive about it. It didn’t sit right with her for so many reasons. She sucked in a sharp breath as she moved into the water.
Mousepaw was rather conflicted watching the interaction between Leafpaw and Shadowpaw. On one paw he felt rather satisfied seeing that Shadowpaw wasn’t anymore effective on getting her to open up than he was. That satisfaction was almost completely squashed however with his genuine worry with what exactly happened in the medicine cat den. Sighing to himself he trudged into the water rolling his eyes as the Riverclan cats, especially the ugly scarred tom, made a show of getting across the water like it was nothing. You never saw Windclan cats running circles around cats like this. He was starting to get a distinct dislike for these Riverclan cats.
Splashing into the water she dld her best to make it across with as much of her dignity intact with the two Riverclan warriors paddling strongly in front of them with little trouble. Pulling herself up on to the shore she briefly moved to count heads making absolutely certain that all cats were here and accounted for. With tow missing cats heavy on her mind she was feeling the need to take extra precautions to make sure all the cats made it home safely. She gave Hawktail her undivided attention to Hawktail. She frowned intentionally as he didn’t assign Shadowpaw a warrior. Luckily she didn’t have to say anything to him directly as he made an awkward recovery sticking him with Mousepaw and Silverfang.
Drawing in a breath she waited for the cluster to separate themselves out. “Whatever happens our two priorities obviously to find Rainstar, but also to stay safe. Please don’t do anything reckless.” She mewed speaking mostly to the apprentices. “Whatever other problems maybe happening in our clans we need to focus on Rainstar, we owe her that much.” She mewed purposefully, meaning to words mostly for Leafpaw and maybe to Hawktail as well. She couldn’t predict exactly how he would react to all of this once they got away from the other cats.
The tom made no secret of just how unhelpful he was planning on being for the time being. It was completely pointless to do this sort of patrol. If Rainstar had been in their territory they would have found it or her scent would have been entirely washed away by the heavy rains they’d been having. He didn’t even remember catching sight of the Windclan leader during the battle. Of course that was probably because he’d been crouching in the dens terrified like the rest of his clanmates for majority of the battle. His eyes carefully slid to the sulking apprentice. Great now he was going to be kitsitting during this whole thing. “If you are going to be like this the whole patrol you might as well go back to camp.” He muttered to the young she-cat. He rolled his eyes towards Hazelrunner not very receptive to her rousing speech. He was too tired and put out for that.
There was a slight pause as Hawktail awkwardly tacked on an extra apprentice along with her. She gave Shadowpaw a long drawn out look. It was the faint scent of Shadowclan on his pelt or his name that made her uneasy. It was the resemblance to the tom that had reigned over them for too long. Her breath briefly caught in her throat. If the fur color wasn’t where the resemblance stopped she might become sick just at the thought of being near him. She nodded her head to both to of them without much of a word to them.
The twolegs emerging put him in an uncomfortable situation. All his instincts were screaming for him to flee, get out while he had that chance. That tiny spark of good in him thought was compelling him not to run away, but dart out as soon as the twolegs disappeared. These weren’t her twolegs and the dog’s barks inside the den were enough to compel him into action. As he was running all the tom could think about was the fact he was going so far out of his way for a kittypet! Frogstrike moved like he had never moved before. Ducking he moved to snatch the kit up again prying her away from her mother’s corpse. He wasn’t going to wait to find out what the twolegs were planning on doing. He hadn’t survived this long by waiting around.
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Shadowstartheleader
Friendship Rank 4
~The world may be dark, we may be lost forever, but we stand a chance as long as we're together~
Posts: 617
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Aug 2, 2019 13:02:20 GMT -5
Post by Shadowstartheleader on Aug 2, 2019 13:02:20 GMT -5
While she did not seem to take much of what Hazelrunner had said to heart, her attention was quickly snatched by the Riverclan tom-cat muttering something in her direction. Her lip twitched the slightest bit as the tom-cat seemed to just throw right at her paws a way to take out everything that was going wrong and focus it on one cat. She watched as he rolled his eyes as her shoulders stiffened and she sucked in a breath. These sorts of fox-hearts were the reason that the clans were being put into their own corners so restrictively and didn't seem to want to help each other. If they could just work to cooperate and not complain and moan about the other clans and how annoying they were, then maybe they could actually unite without a headache and truly end the problems they were facing. But they did. They omplained and focus on whatever negatives they could find--cats like Jaggedscar. It was prickling a particular nerve in her pelt at the moment.
"You'll have to pardon me for coming out here with such a mood. Its just that I want to do something to save my leader, instead of letting her get killed." It was a venomous statement that she delivered with a pointed glare at Jaggedscar, before she turned about and began padding away at a normal pace, not waiting for Jaggedscar to follow after her on the hunt for Rainstar's scent. Her pelt prickling hot with lava at the arrogant fox-heart's way of thinking and speaking about them, she felt no remorse as she stalked away on her own.
Shadowpaw would of stewed quietly in whatever he was feeling until he was told to stop if something else hadn't grabbed his attention, but Leafpaw speaking seemed to manage to wrestle his attention for a few moments. He hadn't caught Jaggedscar's muttered comment, but his eyes widened a little as he heard what she said before turning away and leaving them in her dust. He quickly glanced around at the gathered cats to catch sight of who she was speaking with.
It took him off guard as the she-cat, almost as soft-spoken as him, completely abandoned any sense of tact and caution with the Riverclan cat. They had already been operating on a slippery path with the Riverclan cats as Hawktail had pointed out, and it had seemed to him that of the cats here, Leafpaw was the last one they needed to worry about compromising the relationship with Riverclan. Because of that his jaw gaped a bit and his mind whirred as he tried to figure out what drove her to say such a...such a horrible thing.
Hawktail's mouth dropped and his eyebrows narrowed as Leafpaw spit talons at Jaggedscar, his heart skipping a beat as she completely disregarded the importance of them getting along well to insult Jaggedscar and the greater clan completely. "Leaf--Leafpaw! Get back...Hey!" He barked at the apprentice, trying to order her back here to apologize for what she had just said, but she wasn't even acknowledging what he had said as she continued onwards. Did she even realize he had assigned her with Jaggedscar? Or did she just not care? She was stepping on a volatile pair of paws, and his ears twitched as she completely disregarded him and left them standing in her wake. He didn't seem to have authority over the apprentices.
The kitten began screaming as Frogstrike pulled her from her mother, and she fought and thrashed against him as he tried to take off away from the twolegplace. She made a harder fight than a clan kit might have with her plump kittypet form, but she couldn't exactly stop the grown clan cat from taking her away as she cried and tried to fight to get back to her mother. "Let me go!! I h-have to s-stay with her!" She wailed as she stared back at the mangled body. She saw that a twoleg had emerged from the nest next door, someone she would recognize if it weren't for the tears blurring her vision, climb over the fence with ease and hurry to the body of her mother. Then, it turned to look at them and emitted another yell, seeing the two of them and suddenly began heading for the two of them, seeming to prepare to climb over the side of the fence departing the yard altogether. She obviously wasn't afraid of twolegs in the way that Frogstrike always would be, so it didn't increase her anxiety, but she noticed it seemed to increase the intensity and strength of the cat hauling her away. "N-no...p-please...I h-have to...she has to be okay..." She choked as she squeezed her eyes shut, and her fighting finally came to an end.
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Aug 2, 2019 17:12:23 GMT -5
Post by wildcharm on Aug 2, 2019 17:12:23 GMT -5
Hazelrunner went completely still as the apprentice snapped at Jaggedscar, not having heard the tom’s comment before that. Standing motionless she felt her heart drop from her chest. She couldn’t believe her own ears. How could Leafpaw even say something like that? She knew just as much as any cat how much it meant to keep the cats of Riverclan on their side. A low blow like that was sure to have much further reaches than the she-cat could imagine. The tom would no doubt love to run and tell Otterstar of how quickly the Windclan cats were to throw the death of Shadestar back into their faces so quickly.
The tom had expected some sort of backlash from his comment, if she had any sort of spine at all, but he physically recoiled at the momentum her sharp words carried. It really felt as if he belly had been sliced right open. Instead of wilting back or learning to leave it be he instead peeled back his lip in a snarl watching her as she stalked away across the moor. He didn’t pay Hawktail’s calls any mind either. It was a frail attempt by the warrior to rein the clearly out of control apprentice back under control.
“Good to finally know what you Windclan cats really think of us.” His words were low and dangerous as he slid his yellow eyes towards the two warriors. There was pure burning hatred and contempt covering up any of the old scars that Leafpaw might have reopened. If the she-cat was willing to insult their whole clan than he was not above it either. In fact her little outburst proved a long held belief of his. Windclan was not doing this out of the goodness of their hearts. They didn’t view Riverclan as anything more than a bunch of helpless kits who weren’t a clan without their leader. That’s how he took her actions at least. He snapped his head towards Hazelrunner as she seemed to move ready to go after the apprentice. “Worry about your own tails!” Stalking forwards he lashed his tail from side to side.
“Hawktail take Jaggedscar with you. I’ll talk to Leafpaw.” She mewed ignoring the tom’s remark as she swiveled directly in front of him to slow down his path. She charged across the Riverclan ground leaving the rest of the cats behind and whatever she urgently needed to say to Hawktail left unsaid. The tom had already demonstrated he had no control over the apprentices. She caught up to Leafpaw looking down towards the slightly smaller she-cat. She then turned her eyes ahead. “That was uncalled for.” She mewed with a wrinkled brow, a bit of disappointment slinking into her tone. That was all she said at first not knowing whether to be appalled by action or understanding of where she was coming from. In the end she was stuck somewhere in the middle. Leafpaw’s state of mind didn’t excuse her actions, but it also didn’t negate her feelings either.
Silverfang’s expression seemed especially shaken by what Leafpaw had said. It was an insult that landed a rather painful blow to her as well. She watched the exchange the end of her tail twitching. “I hope you know that we did everything we could to protect our clan and our leader.” Her voice quivered as she righted herself and looked towards the two remaining apprentices. Without another word she turned and stalked off as well, the emotions boiling just beneath her own pelt.
Mousepaw’s mouth was dangling open as he watched in an uncharacteristic moment of anger from Leafpaw. What in the name of Starclan had gotten into her? Had she gone crazy? This wasn’t anything like her at all. Before he could even make a move to get to them bottom of it the cats were already starting to split off. Hazelrunner hurried off after the apprentice and Silverfang had already turned to moved away with a few biting final words. He frowned thinking for a moment before reluctantly moving to trudge after the Riverclan she-cat. He didn’t want things to be any worse than they already were for the cats around them. Still he couldn’t help, but cast a concerned look off to the side as he watched Leafpaw move ahead through the thin tree line.
His jaw kept an iron tight grip on the kit’s scruff. The appearance of the second twoleg was all the motivation that Frogstrike might need to push past his discomfort. The kit’s wails were drown out by his own momentary panic. He wasn’t going to stick around to find out how they might feel towards forest cats. Hurtling up and over the fence he had neither grace or balance with his landing, just enough speed to carry them both up and over. The Shadowclan cat didn’t stop to take the kit into much consideration in all of this. He had been raised in Shadowclan after all and a cat’s feelings were almost entirely irrelevant next to survival. He just kept running and running as fast and as far as he could feasibly go while being weighed down by a kit.
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Shadowstartheleader
Friendship Rank 4
~The world may be dark, we may be lost forever, but we stand a chance as long as we're together~
Posts: 617
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Aug 2, 2019 22:47:04 GMT -5
Post by Shadowstartheleader on Aug 2, 2019 22:47:04 GMT -5
Shadowpaw was in a daze as the tensions seemed to escalate between all of the present cats, and finally they split off their own ways at Hazelrunner's command. He was stunned by what Leafpaw had said and he wasn't very surprised as the Riverclan warrior responded vitriolically to the comment, but it didn't keep him from flinching as Jaggedscar took heavy offense to it not just from Leafpaw but as a position the entire clan held. His ears flattened back and he tried to open his mouth and say something to the contrary, but the near-rage that was rolling off of Jaggedscar in waves left him paralyzed as to say anything. He caught the gaze of Silverfang as the she-cat pointedly mentioned that they had done what they could to save their leader. There was a pointed toxin to her words that could be triggered if the Windclan cats weren't really careful about how they responded to this situation. Jaggedscar was not going to listen to anything they said, but...perhaps Silverfang would at least give the rest of them a chance and hear what they had to say.
He quickly cast an anxious glance after Hazelrunner as she hurried towards Leafpaw, not wanting his friend to leave him behind in a moment like this. Hawktail's awkward placement stuck around in his brain and he finally turned his gaze to where Silverfang was heading off, sensing some amount of anger prickling at her pelt as well. He slowly pulled in a deep breath. He needed to be extremely careful not to turn the Riverclan cat's anger on him. He wouldn't be able to handle a furious Riverclan warrior, as tough looking as Silverfang was, angry at him in a tense time like this. And too many cats took their anger out on him when given the opportunity to take it out.
With anxiety still stewing in his belly, Shadowpaw began to follow Silverfang up through her territory. He picked up the pace a bit to catch up with her before sucking in a breath quietly as he padded up to just a couple tail-lengths behind her. His eyes were poring directly into her back as he tried to think of something to say--although, he wasn't even certain if he should say anything at all. Leafpaw had intentionally struck a really sensitive and recent wound on the Riverclan cats, and while he really wanted her to understand that he didn't feel that Leafpaw was right, he didn't know if she was going to even want to hear anything that she had to say.
His ears flattened back and his eyes glimmering with worry and nervousness, he slowly parted his lips as he kept a few steps back from her, afraid she would spin around and bite his throat off. "S-she...She doesn't believe its your fault. W-what happened, I mean...She...she doesn't think that." He kept a nervous stare on her. "W-when she cools her head, she will apologize to you, and Jaggedscar, and all of Riverclan if she has to. She's knows its..." His nervous stare finally averted itself downwards, and he came to a stop as his gaze focused on his paws. He thought back to looking around the Riverclan camp, before the incident with Wildberry, and how much the camp had...lost any sense of being a clan's. Lost its hope, and its spark. And though it was like a talon to his heart, he had nothing to say that could contradict who's paws this was to be laid at. "Leafpaw knows what she said is wrong, and that all of this is..." The child of the self-ascended leader shut his eyes as his head pounded and his heart ached. "...that this is Nightstar's fault."
Hawktail was left with no time to protest as Leafpaw ignored him and Hazelrunner took off after her without a hesitation once she had changed the way her organized things. He felt a prick of annoyance from the other Windclan warrior as she took over, but it was too late now. Grumbling something fierce, he had to turn to Jaggedscar as he took it exactly as Hawktail expected. Once the tom began stalking off, he pulled in a loud and deep breath. He began following the cat and quickly tried to break apart this confirmation that Jaggedscar was saying he had received. "Now wait a minute. Leafpaw is an immature kitten. She's untrained and doesn't understand respect yet, and she isn't going to get away with what she said. She'll apologize to you, and Silverfang, and every cat in Riverclan if that is what you would like." It was a desperate attempt to keep this relationship from souring, but Hawktail hadn't really said anything more than the Riverclan warrior could imagine being a lukewarm attempt to save face.
It did not take long, once she was out of sight of most of the patrolling cats, for Leafpaw to acknowledge how bad of a thing she had said. Gritting her teeth as she stomped about on her own, she couldn't help but feel that Jaggedscar deserved some sort of blowback for the absolute scratching post that he expected the Windclan cats to be, but she knew...she knew she had gone too far. Far too far. It had come out of her tongue without a second thought, without a delay in her mind, and a prick of shame pressed against her heart.
It didn't help, however, when she heard the approaching paws of a cat, which sent her fur on end. If Hawktail was here to tell her off about how bad she was making things...but no. She recognized the scent almost immediately after that thought, and she pulled in a quiet, semi-relieved breath, until her friend laid this at her paws. Her hackles raised as, not even turning to Hazelrunner, she continued on, immediately feeling a sense of defensiveness coming onto herself that was an uncharacteristic response for her, almost making it a worse type as she didn't even seem to realize what she was feeling. "Jaggedscar has been half-attacking us every pawstep we've made!" She snapped back quickly, though it came out with a drop of harsh bitterness that she immediately regretted directing towards Hazelrunner.
She exhaled dramatically and turned about finally, coming to a stop as she met the gaze of her friend, and the defensiveness on her face was made visible. She hadn't meant to snap at her. This wasn't her fault. "I...I mean..." She brain finally stumbled as she tried to find the words that she was looking for. Did she point out how rude she was, but less...aggressively? Did she apologize for snapping at Hazelrunner? What was she supposed to say here. Her friend was clearly approaching the idea that Leafpaw shouldn't have said what she said. "I...He can't insult us at every step and then feel like he gets to walk all over us, and if we bite his paws then we're just the mouse-dung he gets to leave in the dirt." It wasn't fair at all that he could say as much as he wanted unchallenged and she had to stand there and take all of it, or even Hazelrunner or the fragile Shadowpaw. Jaggedscar had been wrong about what he was saying and she had bit back at him...admittedly with far too much strength. Still, she didn't verbally address her wrongdoing in the situation.
The kit was simply alternating between quiet crying and choked sobs as Frogstrike soared through the remained of the twolegplace back towards the territories. What could she do now? Her twoleg hadn't been home, and her mom was gone! The dog had torn her completely apart! As she squeezed her eyes shut the image, burned into her eyes, of the eviscerated cat was the only thing present in her mind, and with a louder wail she forced her eyes back open and tried to keep from blinking as long as she could, though it was a horrible pain to do so while tears were streaming from her eyes. "She's dead! How can she be dead?!?! What can I do if she's dead?!?" Her wails wouldn't stop, and it seemed she wouldn't be stopping anytime soon. She wasn't going to make it half a second in Shadowclan, that much was obvious. Where could she be left where she would be sheltered and taken care of?
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Aug 3, 2019 10:54:53 GMT -5
Post by wildcharm on Aug 3, 2019 10:54:53 GMT -5
Leafpaw’s actions whether intentional or not had drug the she-cat back into a much darker place. The memories that she had been trying to bury came flooding back like a torrent of water. Their leader hadn’t just died, he’d been brutally murdered in front of his deputy and many of the warriors including her. With shoulders hunched forwards she frowned to herself. Shadowpaw’s nervous voice didn’t get much of reaction at first Silverfang keeping her eyes fixed dead ahead as they walked. She held her tongue from snapping at the young tom. At first it seemed all he was trying to do was keep this from going completely up into flames. There wasn’t any excuses she wanted to hear that would make this any better. That was the first thing the apprentice had jumped to, so it was difficult for her to really truly believe that some part of her didn’t really think that way.
Her whole forward motion stopped though hearing the tom-cat mutter Nightstar’s name. She now turned to face him giving him a long scrutinizing look, seeming to decide how genuine he was being. “If she knows that then I hope she realizes how horrible it truly is to suggest we sat by and let Shadestar die.” She mewed in a slightly less hostile, almost more mournful tone. “It’s easy to lay blame when you weren’t there to experience it for yourselves.” Silverfang frowned with a slight twitch of her tail. There was a flicker of hope at least in the fact she was willing to discuss it with the other clan cats, especially a Shadowclan cat.
With a slow growl he turned sharply to Hawktail, white fur bristling all over his body. “Groveling isn’t what we need to hear or sympathy for that matter. My clanmates don’t need or want either!” There was no other cat turn his anger on with Hawktail being the only viable cat. “Since the day you all came into our camp you act like we’re fragile enough to break. We survived moons of things that are unimaginable to you or your spoiled kits. So, please spare us all the trouble. It’s clear that there is no hope for our clans to work with one another.” The tom growled sinking his claws into the soil underneath, his whole body coiled up from anger and tension.
The she-cat sighed softly to herself at first, saying nothing to Leafpaw’s initial snap to defend herself. She wasn’t here to start a fight and she didn’t want to berate the young cat either. She stopped and turned to face her friend. She probably be far more upset and ready to lecture her or something like a proper mentor would, but she didn’t that sort of thing working on Leafpaw. Sighing she finally conceded and nodded her head in agreement. Jaggedscar had been making snipes at the Windclan cats ever since they had arrived. She imagined the tom was all too eager to start trouble and drive a further rift between the two clans. “Jaggedscar probably deserved to have one of his ears shredded for all of the horrible things he’s been saying.” She looked at her friend with thoughtful blue eyes.
”If you had called his mother a fish I would have been the first one to defend you.” Hazelrunner assured, not wanting Leafpaw to feel like she was a here to gang up on her. If Leafpaw had said absolutely anything else she probably would have told Jaggedscar to get over it. “But...you didn’t just attack him. Words have a way of taking on a life of their own. Silverfang was hurt by it and now Jaggedscar will probably go running back to camp to tell Otterstar. A cat who shared a camp with us for nearly two moons. Cats like Applepaw will probably hear it as well.” She hesitated picturing the scared little apprentice that she had watched Redsky peel off her side.
She hoped it put some perspective for Leafpaw just how far reaching her words could be. The young warrior gave Leafpaw a long look. Hazelrunner didn’t try to push her friend to scurry over and apologize, but she wanted her to at least understand why even if Jaggedscar deserved to be called to task, that wasn’t the right way to do it. She imagined though that at the very least Hawktail would be demanding she apologize as soon as they met up with him again.
While he should be entirely empathetic towards the kit, her now moving to wailing now that she realized her mother was dead. There was just too much wailing it almost reaching a fever pitch in the tom’s ears. She was making it hard to think, which was the only attribute Frogstrike could really put any stock into these days. Now that he had the kit the first question was what to do with her. He wouldn’t ever see dropping her off with twolegs as safe, they were too unpredictable. The horseplace was the first feasible option, but the scents of Shadowclan were so strong they were almost overpowering the natural stench of the horses themselves. There was only one option here. Why does Starclan enjoy punishing him so much these days? Huffing and puffing the tom pushed himself on past the scattered pine trees and right for the moors. Once they made it on to the rolling hills he knew he’d had enough. Releasing the kit he breathed in loudly his whole body shaking in the meantime. “You need to keep living kit. That’s what she would have wanted isn’t it?” He whizzed, most likely undercutting his message. “I’m going to leave you with some really friendly cats. They’ll help you.” He mewed finally feeling brave enough to get back to his paws, he didn’t know if they really would...but he hadn’t even been able to say no to the little kitten. The Shadowclan medicine cat could only hope that she might believe him enough to follow on her own. He didn’t have the strength to drag her any further.
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Shadowstartheleader
Friendship Rank 4
~The world may be dark, we may be lost forever, but we stand a chance as long as we're together~
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Aug 3, 2019 13:35:21 GMT -5
Post by Shadowstartheleader on Aug 3, 2019 13:35:21 GMT -5
Shadowpaw was still struggling to comprehend how the scathing insult had come from the lips of Leafpaw as he was saying all of this, leaving a drop of uncertainty in the pit of his stomach as he spoke for the she-cat and tried to pull her out of the darkest depths, at least for one cat in Riverclan. She had gone far beyond what any of them had expected and Silverfang and whatever other Riverclan cat that had been tortured by Shadowclan, made to watch the death of their leader and then forced into working for their murderous captors had the right to feel horrible about what had been said--but he knew it was not really Leafpaw who had said those words, that something pushed her past her point of sanity and Jaggedscar just threw himself at her paws ready to tip her over the cliff.
As he forced his gaze back up to look at the she-cat once more, the nervousness not having dissipated in the slightest, he took in a sense of the cat's emotions whilst she responded to him. He could see the wound Leafpaw had clawed open in her eyes, and he was trying to figure out if there was a drop of guilt in her voice at the loss of her leader, unlike Jaggedscar, who seemed to be in this for the fun of pecking their pelts. He wasn't good at this--he shouldn't be the one saying this, but the truth was that Leafpaw had hurt Silverfang a lot and he just didn't like leaving her to stew in that. He had to say something or he would of felt like he did nothing to help a struggling cat when he had the opportunity to not be useless.
"She doesn't think that at all. I...You need to hear it from her, but..." he felt he was backing into a corner as the she-cat referred to how horrid of a thing Leafpaw had said while Leafpaw was not present to agree. She would, right? He would of shook the thought out of his head if Silverfang had not been staring at him, but he still pushed the doubt to the back of his head. "She knows that you were in a helpless position. She knows anyone who tried to stop it would have been killed immediately. She..." He pulled in a breath of oxygen quietly as his stomach churned whilst he spoke. "That is what happened. She doesn't..." He trailed off for a time, taking his gaze off of her and looking down at his paws. He thought of back when he was first brought to Windclan and Rainstar worked to gently extract the truth of everything from him. Leafpaw, even being angry about him almost drowning Hazelrunner, never could of told him that it was his fault for watching his...
His heart filled with a painful ache and his face scrunched up a little as a result. The problem was that in a way, he did feel like he sat by, in terror, and did nothing as his mother was slaughtered. He hadn't even told Hazelrunner how responsible he felt. But he had to push those feelings away. Leafpaw wouldn't have suggested he did. "You..." He pulled his gaze back up to meet her Silverfang's. "...know who I am...?" It was a clarifying question which he left open for a couple moments before he received some affirmation. "...Well...I...I was there when...Nightstar killed my..." He gulped, feeling the ache in his heart intensify and his head begin pounding once more. He couldn't wrench the words from his head and out of his mouth right now. It was too strong and too painful right now. "...I..." He tried to pull in a calm breath, struggling to keep his thought coherent and rational as his recollections were flowing through him like a river. "Leafpaw never would say to me that I sat by and watched it happened, because she knows I just would have been killed. I know she wouldn't. And she knows the cats responsible, and the situation Riverclan was in, came down to the same choice. It was stand by or...or die..." his voice fell flat as he finished speaking. He might have been able to put more confidence into it if he had more belief in himself, but he couldn't escape the fact that he felt he could have done something in his situation. Riverclan had the disadvantage that none of them were Nightstar's kittens. Shadowpaw had been sitting with the distinctive feeling that for all of his progress, his terror had kept him from doing anything when, perhaps, he was the one cat who could of done something to stop the madness that Nightstar had began. Because of this, it fell flat as he put forward the life-or-death choice, and his gaze fell again.
Hawktail cursed a storm in the direction of Leafpaw within his own head as Jaggedscar pointedly said exactly what they couldn't stand to handle right now. The truth was that Jaggedscar had almost been trying to push towards that conclusion on his own anyways, and Leafpaw in likely the stupidest thing the apprentice had ever done had just given him the fuel he needed to really take it and run with it. But the idea that Hawktail was just groveling for forgiveness was one that set his pelt on edge, as he simply wanted to keep this from spiraling out of his brother's control. If the situation hadn't been so tense he might have scoffed and chuckled at the mental image of himself grovelling at the Riverclan warrior's paws to keep this from getting worse, like he would ever lower himself that way in front of the fish-pelt.
Yet that put Hawktail in a corner, as Jaggedscar had come to the conclusion there was no future for them and Hawktail would not take any steps beyond what he thought this particular tom-cat deserved to hear--and so, with a dramatic and tired sigh he figured there was nothing that he could...or would say that was going to fix the situation with this warrior in particular. He was going to skin Leafpaw's pelt when he saw her again. He couldn't believe the situation she had put them in.
Leafpaw was holding a breath as Hazelrunner approached closer to the heart of the problem, what she had really said and the long-reaching tendrils that her statement could really take within Riverclan. She was hearing her friend say that she wouldn't have really minded putting it to Jaggedscar in some way either, but as she explained that the leader they formally sheltered was going to hear this, a cat who had been hard enough to deal with already. Yet it was when her mind flashed back to Mousepaw using Applepaw as a scratching post, and how fragile the kit had been wailing about the danger her mother was in that she really seemed to shrink down from any form of defensiveness. Her lips parted as if she wanted to say something right away, but she didn't really know what to say as she pictured Applepaw being told that Leafpaw had said such a horrid thing about his father, and his ambivalence in the matter when it had been the single reaper in his mind since the event.
Her gaze dropped as she was back into a hard corner, not feeling like Jaggedscar himself deserved any sort of apology--but she had said it to him and the clan was going to hear of it the moment they were back into the camp. And then she was going to have to deal with the ire and bile of every Riverclan cat that ever laid eyes on her again. She stared at the moor in front of her paws as she absentmindedly dreaded every direction that this situation could move--at the end of it all she saw herself being spun as the villain with nothing to say that would work as an effective defense.
So she was going to have to face the whole of Riverclan, Applepaw and Otterstar and Redsky included and try to tell them that she hadn't meant anything ill towards them when there wasn't much else that her statement could be interpreted as. She felt her chest beginning to tighten and with her shoulders beginning to sag she felt the want to release tears that weren't coming to her eyes. "I...I can't do anything right anymore..." It was on the edge of being an inaudible whisper, saved by the lack of wind in the moment and the lack of voices around them. "I'm...I'm losing my mind..."
His suggestion of how her mother would have wanted her to carry on rang entirely hollow as she wasn't past seeing her mother dead, let alone coming to grasp at the idea she was really gone, let alone understanding what a life without her meant, let alone dealing with how she was going to continue on without her own mother. He didn't even sound that confident in the idea himself and it left her reeling a little bit as he dropped her onto a foreign patch of land and told her he was abandoning her here. She stared up at him as the tears were paused in her eyes as she couldn't believe what he was saying. "You're going to leave me here?" It was a squeak that was followed by choking back a couple more tears as the tom-cat seemed to be tossing her to someone else's paws.
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Aug 3, 2019 23:12:33 GMT -5
Post by wildcharm on Aug 3, 2019 23:12:33 GMT -5
“Would I hear that from her?” The Riverclan she-cat mewed her frown deepening. The venom the young cat had spit was strong enough to make her doubt whether she would be willing to say that herself. She didn’t know Leafpaw, but maybe that made the insult cut that much deeper. Silverfang’s eyes flickered keeping attention firmly planted on the apprentice as he tried so hard to come to the defense of his friend. It was almost admirable in a way, but his pause and drawn out silence only made the uncertainty in her own mind grown. She couldn’t just simply look past what Leafpaw had said. It was a wound that was already very deep and slow to heal. Feelings of guilt had been swirling around camp like a dark cloud that would not let up. Every cat felt they could or should have done more to save their loved ones or themselves. That was something that the clan as a whole was going to take time to push through, if they even cared to try that was.
The tom’s question was a sudden one, but the Riverclan she-cat gave a reflexive nod. Almost any cat with eyes would clearly know who the tom was. Silverfang was silent even after Shadowpaw had finished talking and had dropped his gaze away from her. She drew in a long breath in through her nose and out through her mouth. It was easy to get swept up in the chaos that was surrounding them. It was easy to forget that they weren’t the only cats in the world that had suffered a great deal. Before he had come to Riverclan, Nightstar’s territory began over Shadowclan after he’d wrenched it from his mate’s cold dead paws. “Thank you for sharing that...even if it wasn’t easy to say.” Her eyes drifted away from the tom. It was swallowing a bitter piece of crowfood no matter what happened in this situation. There was no easy solution that would satisfy all of the cats, especially Jaggedscar who was clearly eager to have a reason to push Windclan away.
“I don’t think it will do any cat any good to jump to conclusions. After this is all over I’ll try to speak to Leafpaw myself.” The she-cat mewed almost as a sort of compromise to save her own sanity. There were so many conflicting thoughts, it was hard to sort out which ones were the best ones. “Are you alright to continue?” She tilted her head slightly looking over Shadowpaw carefully. There was still a bit of hurt and confusion evident in her eyes, but she was willing to at least come forwards to talk with Leafpaw and give her the benefit of the doubt.
Jaggedscar left it at that, having spit out all the venom he could possibly muster. He had his own confirmation bias, everything the Windclan cats were doing lined up perfectly with his personal prejudices. Sneering he whirled around to stalk into the direction of the rest of the cats had gone off in. While he would love to go back into camp to share this all the entire clan. That would have to wait thought until the Windclan leader was found or at least until they were able to get all the Windclan cats out of their territory again. That would be the better time to go back and prove to Otterstar what these cats really were like.
Hazelrunner couldn’t say she was relieved to see the guilt seemingly replace the defensive posture she had before, but she was relieved to see her realize the gravity of what she had said. Her shoulders dropped a little not knowing what else to say. There were no comforting words that didn’t also ring entirely hollow. The situation they’d found themselves in left them between a rock and a hard place. There was no easy solution and it was only going to get uglier from this point forwards. She wanted to tell her friend that was it was going to be okay, but she wasn’t sure it was going to be. It seemed very likely after word got to the rest of the clan. It was going to make a difficult task nearly impossible. She shut her eyes briefly already feeling a wave of despair as those thoughts took over everything else in her mind.
”It feels that way doesn’t it.” She muttered softly looked away from her friend. There was very little that felt like it truly made sense anymore. The whole world around them seemed to be entirely spinning out of control. “Even if we’re doing the best we can...” Her voice trailed off slowly drawing closer to her friend with a heavy sigh.
Frogstrike couldn’t hold back a loud sigh when the kit squeaked at him. He wasn’t sure how to best explain that those same cats would probably try to kill him if he went anywhere near their camp, not to mention he had yet another poor helpless cat he had to look after back at his own camp. “I’ll take you to their camp.” He offered already imagining how that might go over, none of them ended with him leaving alive. “Things are complicated between our four groups. I wouldn’t leave you if my home wasn’t dangerous for you to go to.” The medicine cat frowned wondering if any of that would actually be good enough to keep the kit’s tears at bay.
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Shadowstartheleader
Friendship Rank 4
~The world may be dark, we may be lost forever, but we stand a chance as long as we're together~
Posts: 617
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Post by Shadowstartheleader on Aug 4, 2019 1:41:46 GMT -5
Shadowpaw couldn't place blame at the paws of Silverfang for being so doubtful that Leafpaw was really going to show the remorse for what she said that Shadowpaw was claiming. Still, it filled him with a creeping feeling of dread as she initially expressed her doubt about the she-cat's penitence. As they were speaking to each other, especially as he struggled to articulate that Leafpaw couldn't really believe what she had said if she was to believe he had been helpless in his own struggle. He just didn't want the she-cat to think that this was something Leafpaw really believed, or that any of the Windclan cats really believed.
But there was a flash of hope in his eyes as Silverfang said that she was going to try to speak with Leafpaw on her own accord. It was something that, honestly, he hadn't expected to come from this conversation. At the very most he expected her to at least be cooled alittle bit, but he didn't even think that his awful social skills would be able to accomplish that much. Hearing her promise to speak with the apprentice if she could was a true relief and his nervousness seemed to visibly dissipate as she said that she would do so.
His held breath seemed to release itself as a tension that he had been sensing seemed to dissipate between them and his uncertainty regarding whether he was under threat of having his head bitten off if he got to close to the Riverclan she-cat. He seemed to straighten up just a little bit and ready himself for the task that they had all agreed to handle. "Yes, I'm ready." he quietly mewed. "Thank you...for giving her a chance. I..." He trailed off as he didn't have the proper words that felt like they would express the gratitude he felt for her willingness to give Leafpaw a chance after what she had said. Silverfang was demonstrating a lot of temperance and providing Leafpaw a lot of grace. He hoped Leafpaw would make amends for what she had said, and that Silverfang could provide another perspective to Otterstar when Jaggedscar sung their hatred of Riverclan. "Let's continue. I've..." He moved on to the task at paw instead of trying to force words out of his mouth that might sound flat. "...got your back?" HE said it almost like he wasn't sure if that was something a a cat would say on a patrol, but that he was testing because he felt like it might be. He might have had 15 moons, but he was almost a kit to this aspect of the warrior world. There was nothing that Hazelrunner could really say to comfort Leafpaw. Jaggedscar was looking for reasons to fight them even though the real threat to the clan was Shadowclan. For some reason, the tom-cat was more fixed on Windclan than them. The world around them felt like it was utterly imploding and Leafpaw was at a complete and utter loss to understand how she could be expected to deal with biting at her side when the real threat was in front of them.
She finally felt the tears really approaching her eyes as Hazelrunner said what she was thinking, that she was trying her best to be a good clan cat and yet was failing to face the world they lived in. As Hazelrunner pulled closer, Leafpaw did as well brushing muzzles and pressing her cheek into her friend's shoulder. "My best...is never going to be enough...for anyone." She choked back a sob, trying to hold the tars back as her friend was there for her even in a moment where she had to criticize what the apprentice had done. Hazelrunner was the best of cats, and...Leafpaw was never going to match up in the eyes of the Windclan seniors. Was there even any point in trying to stay composed anymore?
The kitten was initially unsatisfied as he simply repeated that he was taking her to dump her with some other cats, but her ears perked and her stare intensified as she said something about complex relations between the groups. Then, she fully realized that the clan cat was actually taking her to one of the clans, instead of, say, to another twoleg's den or something like that. Her mouth opened a little as if she was ready to say something in protest, but a tiny speck of curiosity had been arisen within her, and in a kit that almost immediately was to bloom into far more than a speck.
"I...but..." She stared up at him, taking a step closer to him. "But I don't even know them. And I don't even know your name. You're jsut going to leave me? You're being really irresponsible, just leaving me!" She whined out at him again as she held back tears successfully for a few moments. "What do I do?!? She--she's dead! How can I survive at all?!? I don't know how to catch food!" It only took a couple moments for the kittypet to drift off the topic of the clan she was dropping her from, back to her mother. Tears began glistening in her eyes again and she was practically begging him at this point. "Please...I don't know what to do! Take me with you, at least!" Obviously, she had no way to know the hell that awaited her within the Shadowclan camp, if she was brought there.It was a special kind of hell being stuck in this camp, but Whispersong had regained some mobility and quality of life that she never would of expected in the Shadowclan camp. It had been her continuing mystery to discover whether the cats within Shadowclan were staying away from her because of some outside order, or simply because of the continuing, covert and quiet...well, protection might have been a strong word, but...sheltering that Frogstrike had been saving her with. Her senses were on high alert right now, as the medicine cat had told her he had no choice but to leave and search for some desperately-needed herbs--otherwise Nightstar would skin his pelt when he had no more uninjured cats to put to work as his slaves.
She had learned quickly. She had top hide her total and utter disgust for the leader and almost everything going on within this camp. She had been paying attention, obvserving a few of the she-cats who were clearly not warriors any longer and were simply...well...used. It filled her heart with horror and a longing to shred the eyes out from the new Shadowclan leader and leave him floating dead in the river. But Frogstrike had taught her a thing or two. She had to play a game of silence, of total and complete obedience. Luckily, she had not been subject to what she thought she heard going on in the late hours of Moon-high. That was thanks to Frogstrike.
Still, anxiety plagued her every moment of the day. She had heard the whisperings of Nightstar and Petalstream at times. The eyes within Windclan were still completely unknown to her clan and every hair of her being ached to sprint out of the camp and yowl the information all the way back to her clan. It was an awful burden to live with, to know that they were being toyed with and not being able to do anything without getting herself killed. She had tried to approach the subject very quietly one time with Frogstrike, but it seemed to be an area where he was completely unwilling to even chance the utter wrath and rage of Nightstar. Whispersong had told him that she understood, and left it at that. She could not blame him after seeing the complete desecrated and maligned spectre that remained of Shadowclan. Now, she awaited his return, alert and vigilant for any...approachers....until he returned.
(Leafpaw and/or every Windclan cat: )
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Aug 4, 2019 12:21:15 GMT -5
Post by wildcharm on Aug 4, 2019 12:21:15 GMT -5
Her readiness to agree to speak with Leafpaw almost surprised even her. She had worked rather hard to bury and conceal her own sense of guilt for the sake of her clanmates. Maybe it was Shadowpaw laying his own experiences out bare that moved her...at least in a very small way. If he thought that his friend wouldn’t blame him for being a bystander than maybe there was more credit that could be given to the Windclan she-cat.
Silverfang had to push aside a lot of her own personal feelings to agree to talk with Leafpaw and give the apprentice a much needed chance to defend herself before every cat in Riverclan knew about all of this. It might not help much in the end, but the Riverclan she-cat wasn’t so blinded by hurt not to realize how crucial it was to keep good relations with the cats who had been invaluable in freeing them from under Shadowclan’s paw. Hopefully Otterstar would trust her enough as his deputy to wait to hear her option on the matter before blindly believing everything Jaggedscar was sure to spout out. Only time would tell.
Silverfang cracked her first semblance of a smile when the young tom assured her he had her back. It didn’t sound all that reassuring with the little bit of uncertainty he had in saying it, but it was an momentary form of distraction from the storm that was sure to follow. “Good.” She mewed with a nod of her head. Drawing in a deep breath she turned her face in the direction they were planning on searching. She then glanced to look towards the other apprentice that had been almost entirely quiet this entire time. He gave a quiet nod of his head having an unreadable expression clouding his face. She didn’t stop to ask him if he was ready. Drawing in a deep breath she trotted forwards, despite Hawktail’s best laid plans the crack between the two clans had meant each group of cats had splintered off in their own directions.
Hazelrunner swallowed as her friend leaned against her shoulder for support. Breathing in a soft breath she listened to sound of her friend barely holding back an obvious sadness that was threatening to spill out. It twisted her heart painfully in her chest. “It does matter, even if it doesn’t feel like it yet.” She mewed softly as she draped her tail over her friend’s shoulders. This was a time when Leafpaw should be feeling confident in herself and feeling like she was ready to be a new warrior, not questioning her own self worth. These past two moons felt like nothing that had been felt in the clans in a long time. It left a lot of cats, especially the younger generations feeling lost and anxious for the future. Kits were growing up not knowing anything, but these horrible times. “Don’t base your worth solely on this.” Hazelrunner said softly to Leafpaw.
She wanted to be able to dispel all of Leafpaw’s worries, to assure her completely that she was a vital member of Windclan. You belong in Windclan, even if it isn’t your birth clan. She thought quietly as she leaned her head momentarily against Leafpaw’s. Even if she felt her own form of hopelessness she couldn’t bare the thought of her friends loosing their own hope. “If no other cat says it I appreciate how hard you’ve been trying for Ravenfang, Shadowpaw, and me.” Hazelrunner’s blue eyes carefully watched the apprentice, her eyes burning with earnest concern. No matter how she might have screwed up Hazelrunner would always be there for her.
Frogstrike wasn’t made for this. The kit was demanding so much and continued to tug at his heart. That was the last thing he needed right now. What he would have liked was if she would quiet down and trust him, a complete stranger. Talking to adult cats was much less painful. He didn’t feel nearly as much remorse snapping at them or being completely honest. How could you do something like that with a kit who wasn’t old enough to be an apprentice and had just lost her mother. “Kit, take a breath and listen to me.” He mewed with a rather grave expression. “Where I come from is not a place for kits. It is a terrible place. I’m taking you to somewhere they will actually take care and look after you, if you came with me you would most likely die. I wouldn’t be there myself if I didn’t have some cat I had to look after.” The medicine cat frowned as he carefully looked over the kit.
“Do you want my name now?” He mewed grimly as he flicked his tail. If he had to he would turn himself into a villain in the kit’s eyes, Windclan probably had already done that well enough, that was if the Thunderclan’s eyes in Shadowclan had been doing their job right. It wouldn’t be long before that cat was found out by Nightstar. As long as he didn’t suspect that Frogstrike had anything to do with it he could care less. Sighing he stood up and started to make his way across the moor, leaving smears of blood in the grass he crushed under paw. “I’m running out of time to get back to her.” There was a note of urgency to his voice that he hoped the kit might understand. Of course he would never admit any form of caring or concern he might have for the she-cat. He had himself almost convinced of it himself. Clearly though, he was doing everything he could to get back to her so he might just be in some sort of denial.
A form appeared in entrance of the medicine cat’s den. Brown eyes peered in to get a better look of what was inside. The stench of blood was almost overpowering. The way the cat was standing made it rather obvious that they had sustained some sort of injury, but were still standing tall trying not to draw too much attention to the fact they were hurt. There was a pause as the tom realized that Frogstrike was nowhere to be found. “You...” He growled with his eyes zeroing in on Whispersong, the only cat in the den. Wavering on his paws he quickly stuck out a paw to catch himself and keep his balance. Upon taking another step into the den it became clear just how severe the wounds really were. “Cobwebs.” The tom managed to croak out before staggering back into the wall of the medicine cat den slamming into the side of it.
(It definitely fits! I’m definitely going to end up having a playlist of these songs)
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Shadowstartheleader
Friendship Rank 4
~The world may be dark, we may be lost forever, but we stand a chance as long as we're together~
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Aug 4, 2019 13:56:57 GMT -5
Post by Shadowstartheleader on Aug 4, 2019 13:56:57 GMT -5
(Hehehehehehe)
Shadowpaw took his place a few steps back, beside the Riverclan she-cat as they turned their eyes to the expanse of territory that was Riverclan's territory. He cast a glance to one side, trying to detect whichever group had headed to their west. It was likely that the plan had been thrown into disarray by Leafpaw's outburst, but he tried to get sight of Leafpaw and Hazelrunner despite knowing Leafpaw had traveled a fair distance bbefore Hazelrunner had taken charge to go after her. Not having much luck detecting them, he pulled in and exhaled a breath, then raised his nostrils to the air and began trying to detect the air for tracks of Rainstar.
His nose was immediately assailed with an overwhelming onslaught of fish and water mixed in with the treadings and scents of various Shadowclan cats who had seemingly been operating in the Riverclan camp. There he could pick up the faint trail of Petalstream. His hackles raised a little bit as he thought of the honeysuckle voice that often held a set of claws ready to tear eyes out behind it. And there was Dustcatcher, quiet, yet big and mean. Riverclan had really been settled in the paws of some of the worst.
He pulled his head away from thoughts of his former clanmates and tried to focus on traces of Windclan. He could detect some from the battle not too long ago, but it had been storming fiercely and it was tough to distinguish them apart from each other, especially when he could count the moons he had been in the camp on one paw. He quietly sighed with a touch of frustration to it. "I...I still struggle a little bit to...to figure out who is who from a scent trail, if it isn't pretty recent. I...I'm sorry...I'm...not very helpful..." It hadn't taken long for his tone to change from having her back to disparaging his own ability to do anything for their benefit. It was a clear sign of the self-esteem that the tom-cat had in himself. He was racking his brain to try and think of the specific scent trail that Rainstar left behind. Unfortunately, he didn't get many opportunities to speak with her personally, but she had been in camp a lot while he was and he would of hoped he would be able to identify some piece of it by this point.
Leafpaw felt her heart pounding as she placed her own value at zilch in front of her friend, but Hazelrunner, rather the apprentice believed what was being said or not, had the way of speaking that made it a little easier to just breath for a moment and try to think. Leafpaw struggled as her friend advised her not to take this as the sole estimate of her value, but in this moment she couldn't help but feel like her statement had planted a totally new image of her in the patrolling cats' heads. Jaggedscar was going to run with it, spread it about Riverclan. Her body stiffened as Hazelrunner mentioend everything that she had done for the select pawful of cats. A little bitterness poked at her heart as she was momentarily brought back to speaking with Ravenfang the night before. He couldn't be that proud of her with how disappointed and upset she had made him by suggesting they had other options when it came to Nightstar.
"When I try and help other cats, I just end up hurting the situation," She mumbled to herself as she pulled back while keeping her gaze on her paws. She couldn't be referring to what she just said--there was no chance in reality that was going to help any cat. She was referring to something that hadn't been discussed with Hazelrunner yet, but Leafpaw wasn't actively thinking of that as she was letting herself sink deeper into a mental sinkhole of negativity. "And I guess I can't even keep my head sane when our allies poke at it. How in Starclan am I going to..." It was her--she was the youth that had a great upbringing, yet was suddenly thrust into one of the hardest follow-up to that that was conceivable. In a weird way, it was a little harder on her than even Shadowpaw--the other apprentice had been raised with the spectre of that oppression present, unable to escape the rigid thinking of his father as he had too much reign to act as he liked. Leafpaw, on the other paw, knew so little of this. When everything around oneself was wrong and one had to keep their head on as straight as they could and navigate it as cautiously as a Thunderpath. It was the rarity for her, not the norm--at least before these recent moons. Now, she was feeling like she wasn't going to stand up successfully against all of the wrong around them. "Its obvious what a warrior needs to be able to keep her head cool, and speak carefully, and walk on her tiptoes around those who would bite our heels, but...I guess I'm just not good at that at all. I...I can't..."
It was a rough extrapolation--Leafpaw had lost her cool one time, and while the statement had been very bad and the fallout was going to be an undetermined amount of very not good, she had taken this and dragged it to a negative extreme that placed her squarely on the wrong end of all of it in her mind--to the point where she didn't seem to think she could even do better given another try.
The kitten finally went completely quiet for a few blissful moments that gave Frogstrike air to speak. She stared up at him with a slightly gaped mouth as he explained it wasn't a good place and that she would die there. Her eyes went wide as they could on her smaller figure and a twinge of fear made its way into her. "W-why do you..." She wanted to ask why it was worth to be in a place like that for a cat, but then she pictured him risking death by a dog just to keep her a bit safer as she tried to get back to her mother. Maybe he was just a really good cat. "W-well...w-what's your name...?" She sniffled as her tears were almost starting once more. She couldn't help but feel a little bit exiled from his attention as he mentioned that he was in a rush, provoking a couple quiet tears to roll down her cheeks from the buildup of all the stress, the danger, and the horror at what she had seen and experienced. "M-Mister, you're...You're paws, they're bleeding!" She didn't leave him any time to give his name before she saw the bloodied pawprints being left by him and she couldn't help but express her concern.
The initial glint in her eyes was fear as Whispersong caught sight of the warrior pushing his way into the den, and she stiffened as she realized with a shiver of horror down her spine that if the moment was here, and Frogstrike was gone, resisting whatever...was going to come would likely lead to her death. It was a huge relief, then, morbidly enough, as the cat stumbled another pawstep and went crashing down on the side of the den. She pulled herself as quickly as she could in her still-healing condition, though her limbs had a flexibility better than a number of days ago. She sucked in a quick breath as she approached the store of herbs, trying to suck up the still-lingering pain from the claw marks on her stomach that were still the most dangerous of ones to reopen.
She pulled what cobwebs she could find and turned towards the warrior, trying to take stock of the warrior's wounds altogether. Once she had, she stepped towards him whilst holding a hard breath, expecting the Shadowclan cat to find some strength to make this situation worse for her even in their condition. Can't be too hard to apply cobwebs, right? She released her breath as she reached the warrior's side, quietly asking him to be still as she pasted them over the largest chunk of wound that she could see before anything else; the prodding was quite unrefined like the medicine cat's might have been, but she applied the cobwebs and then quickly stepped back, trying to get out of their way for any backlash from the pain.
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Aug 4, 2019 17:51:15 GMT -5
Post by wildcharm on Aug 4, 2019 17:51:15 GMT -5
Silverfang opened her mouth to taste the air and try to pick up on any scents that could belong to the Windclan leader. Her ears flattened flat against her head when the horrid stink of Shadowclan wafted through the air. It was already beginning to fade from the heavy rains, but it felt like the Riverclan camp and territory would always have the lingering stench of Shadowclan. She could still pick out the Foxheart of the she-cat among the various scents of her own clanmates in the territory moving in patrols after the battle, trying to reclaim their territory bit but bit. The thing that was rather irritating was how weak of a Windclan scent that came blowing towards them. “I can only say that a Windclan cat has been there.” She mewed softly with a frown as she flicked her tail in contemplation. Well this was already off to a very poor start already.
Mousepaw frowned when the two cats ahead of him both were left standing around without much of a clue about what to do, neither one of them knowing the Windclan leader well enough to pick up on her scent. He moved around the two bewildered cats. “Give me a crack at this.” He mewed abruptly as he moved ahead of both cats. He had contributed very little to the understanding Silverfang and Shadowpaw had reached. It wasn’t something that he was able to speak to. Those weren’t experiences he could share...and he had nothing he could really say anything with Shadowpaw’s revelation that he had been there to witness his own mother’s murder. He didn’t feel like that was something he can actually say anything on. He wasn’t that emotionally blind that he would say something overly arrogant or just running his mouth.
Through the thick and muggy scents of Riverclan he managed to catch a sliver of the she-cat’s faint scent. “I’ve got something.” He mewed abruptly as he finally picked up something that he believed was Rainstar’s scent. Without waiting for permission from the warrior who was in charge of them, he took off rather quickly moving to take the lead of this to hopefully find their missing leader. He felt like now he could move with a new sense of purpose. Finally something he could throw himself into without having to stop to think about much deeper problems that threatened to swallow him up, questioning what Leafpaw was thinking and what all this might come to.
Leafpaw quickly pulling back away from her, both physically and mentally almost crushed Hazelrunner to see. It was difficult to watch her give in to her own sense of self doubt. Hazelrunner always had seen it there, but now it almost seemed to her like it was threatening to consume her completely. Hazelrunner took an instinctive step towards Leafpaw before hesitating, respecting Leafpaw’s seeming need for space from her.
Hazelrunner blinked, carefully observing her friend for a moment, completely perplexed as to what she might be talking about at first. She couldn’t be talking about insulting Jaggedscar. Before she could ask her what else might have happened that would make her feel this way she circled back to the incident with the Riverclan cats, piling one negative experience on top of another, practically walling herself in with them. “You’re young Leafpaw. Sometimes your actions might take on a life of their own you didn’t expect. That doesn’t make you any less of a valuable cat.” She mewed softly knitting her brow together a little.
Hazelrunner spoke as if it was from a place of knowing. “It’s important to know how to act in certain situations yes, but we’re all still learning how to do that. Being a warrior doesn’t suddenly mean you’re a perfect clan cat that will never make mistakes and never loose sight of what’s important.” The young warrior sighed softly staying close to her friend, but not trying to crowd her, no matter how badly she wanted to find a way to make it all just miraculously go away. When it was clear it wouldn’t just vanish like she wished it would she sighed sitting down in the sparse grass.
“I know it seems horrible, like everything is going wrong...maybe it is right now but, nothing lasts forever Leafpaw.” That was what she held truest to her heart. Nothing was going to stay entirely the same however much it might seem it will. It brought a sense of hope in the darker times and a somber reminder in the happiest of days. Hazelrunner had come to interpret it as a remainder that staying stagnant and refusing to grow was fighting against change that was always going to come whether she was ready for it or not.
She fell quiet waiting silently to see if anything she said might reach Leafpaw. She couldn’t watch her friend sink down into the darkness and she would jump in after her just as she’d done for Shadowpaw and pull her back up to the light if she had to. Whatever it took she would do.
Frogstrike was more than relieved that the kit didn’t finish her question, it was something he hadn’t forced himself to confront in his own mind, he was far from ready to try and explain it to the kit in front of him. He didn’t realize that his actions had given her enough context to understand why he might keep crawling back to Shadowclan when he could just as easily run far away from it and the rest of this whole mess. While the tom was fully prepared to answer her following question, all she seemed to have were questions, she quickly cut him off before he could even make a sound. Looking down at the bloodstained trail he was leaving behind he sighed and pulled up one of his front paws to get a better look at it. The burning of his pads had settled into a dull ache at this point. He could see the blood oozing through the heavy cracks running across his pad. “Just some damaged pads.” He wasn’t used to one running, or two traversing through twoleg territory so, he couldn’t really be surprised something like this happened. “I’ll patch them up when I have my herbs with me.” He set his paw back down and moved to continue on as if it were nothing huge. “Frogstrike is my name kit.” The small tom added as he gingerly began to pad himself across the moors. Truth be told he felt like he was walking on hot coals under paw, but he wasn’t going to tell the kit that. “What about you then? What’s your name?” He asked mostly to distract her from any further worrying on his behalf.
Whatever the tom might have been in there to do was entirely irrelevant now that he was on his side, only propped up at his shoulder by the wall he was slumped against. He had two sharp claw lines down his shoulders, most of the blood produced from a large gash slicing straight across his belly. “Hurry.” While his voice was weak there was a note of danger to his words. A wounded Shadowclan cat might be more dangerous in some ways than others. Their only goal was to keep living and you certainly didn’t want to be the cat that was failing to do so. The she-cat was moving far too slow for his liking, especially when he was watching blood pool on the floor around him. His orange eyes remained fixed on the she-cat with the intensity of a hunter upon its prey.
There was a loud yowl that rang through the den and out into the camp as she stuck the cobwebs on to his bloody side and underbelly. She might as well have raked a claw down his side for how much pain and misery it seemed to really put him in. Writhing on the floor he lashed out in anger, not with any real accuracy just pure rage. His whole body shook in protest as he moved to stand back up, only to go slipping back down into his own blood and crashing to the ground again.
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Shadowstartheleader
Friendship Rank 4
~The world may be dark, we may be lost forever, but we stand a chance as long as we're together~
Posts: 617
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Aug 4, 2019 18:57:16 GMT -5
Post by Shadowstartheleader on Aug 4, 2019 18:57:16 GMT -5
Shadowpaw didn't say anything immediately in response to Silverfang, deigning instead to focus all of his energy to sifting through every scent that he could detect amidst the messy amalgamation of them. "just...a minute..." He sighed quietly, and finally was able to find something that he recognized--the first one he was able to put a name to was Hazelrunner's trail from the battle. It jumped out the most to him despite the faded nature of almost all of the rain-washed scents, and he set it aside in his mind as he continued sifting through them.
He tried to put himself back in the moments where he had been near the Windclan leader; his mind flashed all the way back to the first day he was dragged into the camp and she had come to figure out what had happened to him in Shadowclan. It was the most distant memory of the leader, and he tried to find moments in his memory where he was more tuned into his senses.
"I..." He bit his lip as he pictured the inside of the elder's den, imagining the leader as she had been staying there for a time. Closing his eyes, he tried to imagine the scents he had gotten from that space, and knowing that only one of them could be here, he started trying to use his memory of the den to find the scent instead of intuition. It would really have been helpful, though, if a Windclan cat gave a chance at this--as a result he was relieved as Mousepaw seemed to break from the shadows behind them and pushed ahead of them in order to try himself. It took the stress off of Shadowpaw to make it happen on his own through his memory.
He quietly sighed with relief as Mousepaw said he thought he had something. Shadowpaw had not found it yet, so he reset his shoulders and followed after the apprentice as he began heading for the direction which he thought he had found the leader's scent headed. As they pulled away from the Riverclan camp as a group he began finding that the less clustered scents meant he could sift through them with less distraction and more clarity, and soon he found the scent Mousepaw was talking about. "I've got it too." he mumbled almost absentmindedly to himself. Here it was, leading away from the camp and...
He cast his glance around him, scanning the direction they were heading. it was obscured by a number of trees and such, but he could see the horseplace, which he had never drawn near before. It seemed like her scent was headed in that direction, back towards the Windclan territory or even more towards the Thunderpath and the twolegplace that lied beyond. His pelt began bristling the slightest bit. "I don't think she was taken by Shadowclan, but...her trail is heading for the horseplace, right?" It was a question directed at Mousepaw as he trusted the Windclan apprentice had the best and most precise grasp of the trail.
There was a long silence on the part of Leafpaw as many thoughts were traveling through her head in response to the things that Hazelrunner had said. She couldn't agree with everything that was being said to her, and she shook her head without immediately clarifying exactly what part she was shaking her head about. "It doesn't matter if I'm young or old. What matters is I should be a warrior, but I'm not because I'm too nervous about fighting and when it came down to the other important job of a warrior I let him get under my pelt and messed that up too." How could Hazelrunner not see the way she had messed up the basic qualifications of being a warrior? She was about 15 moons old and she was still standing about as an apprentice who still lacked nuanced battle training despite being there her whole life. "I flop every time I'm tested. You've seen that yourself twice now." There was bitterness in her voice, not at her friend but at her own failings.
Leafpaw's gaze finally lifted from the floor in front of her as Hazelrunner drew a little closer but seemed to rethink it. She didn't read into it very much, but Leafpaw felt a twinge of guilt for pushing all of this on Hazelrunner as she plopped down into the grass. She slowly lowered herself to the ground along with her and gave a tired sigh. "I...I don't know what to do to change for the better anymore. I thought it was just training, and listening to my mentor, but...our world is upside down now. Training has been inconsistent at its best and yet we need to be ready for Shadowclan." She could see Hazelrunner's point, that everything was bound to change and that meant that Leafpaw and any other cat had the opportunity to better themselves however they could. But it didn't mean she had any direction whatsoever to help guide her on that path.
She swallowed and then pulled in a breath. She looked her friend directly in the eyes, mentally erasing what she had just thought to herself. That wasn't true. "I mean..." She began with a quiet mumble to herself, something of a whine rising up in her throat. "I just want to follow you and your example, because you're such dutiful warrior and every cat can count on you. But how can I can better if everything around us is worse? Everything is trying to get us to lay down and die, and every day...it starts becoming a little easier...to..." She gulped, trailing off before she said something she didn't want to think very hard about right now. And this was back to the ultimate question, a dance she had almost tried to have with Hazelrunner before to figure out what she could do in their world. How was a cat meant to rise up above the darkness when it was surrounding them in all directions?
The kitten approached a little closer as he pulled up his pad to analyze it and then said he would simply patch it up with herbs. She tilted her head at him as she wiped away the tears that had silently dripped down her face. "Are you sure you'll be okay, if that place is so dangerous? What if you get more hurt?" She wasn't inclined to stop asking questions it seemed, and she was going to cost Wrenflight her life at this point. "Just take your friend and come to this other group instead of leaving me alone!" It was interesting to hear a kit who had known him for minutes barking at him about leaving her behind when he was really going out of his way and placing himself in serious danger to place her somewhere safer, but it didnt seem she was apt to stop. Her lecture, having followed him giving his name left her circling the name in her head. She couldn't forget his name if she was going to be wrenched from the paws of her home now that her mother was gone. What if she needed more help? Was he sure this group could help her so much? "M...my name is Cupcake, M-Mister...Frogstrike."
Whispersong had to rear back to avoid a vicious set of claws as she pushed the cobwebs onto his wounds. This cat was going to kill her for trying to help him out, and she had been wondering why Frogstrike was so short and unhelpful treating most cats in the clan. Now it seemed to make a little more sense. She had to wonder how in Starclan's name the cat had acquired this wound so suddenly in the camp, but as he fell back down she realized he was going to make all of the cobwebs tear apart if he wasn't still. "Stop moving and be still!" She hissed more reflexively than with intention, before drawing closer again and preparing to spread the cobweb over more of the claw wounds. "This is going to hurt a lot but you have to be still, or it will open right back up." She didn't give him time to complain or to threaten her, just pressing her paw back against the wound with a wad of cobwebs as she tried to cover up the rest of it.
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Aug 4, 2019 20:53:26 GMT -5
Post by wildcharm on Aug 4, 2019 20:53:26 GMT -5
Mousepaw lead the way following wherever the scent trail was taking them. It was about the best option they had at this point. He hardly noticed the change of scenery as they left Riverclan territory, the only thing that really marked it for him was the change in smells. Thankfully they left the odor of fish back over the border, but was only to replaced by the stink of the horses coming from up ahead of them.
It did make Rainstar’s scent much easier to follow, but the proximity of the horseplace didn’t make it anymore pleasant to follow. He halted with Shadowpaw’s question as to if this was all leading towards the Horseplace. “I think so.” He muttered seeming perplexed as to why exactly their leader’s scent would lead here. He didn’t smell any other cats, Shadowclan or otherwise intermingling with her trail...at least as far as he could tell. So, the question became why she would come here of all places. It was almost the same distance from here to Riverclan camp as it was from Riverclan camp to Windclan territory.
“This doesn’t make any sense why though.” The apprentice mewed with a furrowed brow. Inclining his head he turned his attention back to the invisible path laid out in front of them. Silverfang frowned looking between them and the looming twoleg structure in the distance surrounded by the huge animals milling about. Mousepaw sighed trotting forwards into the great unknown. All they could do now was to move forwards and continue sifting through the scents. He walked with his mouth open carefully placing every pawstep carefully, now looking more for other scents beyond Rainstar’s. The apprentice walked in an uncertain haze as well trying to decipher just what might have been going through Rainstar’s mind to come here.
Hazelrunner folded her ears back seeing Leafpaw’s initial shake of her head as a sign of rejection of what she had just got finished saying. Hazelrunner stayed silent now, after Leafpaw pointed out the plain fact that she failing both in assessments and now wasn’t doing herself any favors by blowing up at Jaggedscar. It was a blow to the gut to realize that this had been building up quietly in the background for a long time now...but she had pushed it back in her own mind. The warrior had blissfully thought that she had bounced back from her last two failed assessments, but clearly she’d just been holding it in. The look of guilt flashed across her face. It hurt to realize just how little she had truly been paying attention to Leafpaw’s problems. Everything else had gone horribly wrong all at the same time making it feel impossible to keep up with it all. She watched her friend practically crumple as soon as she was faced with sparring off with her. She took a deep breath at a loss for what to say at first. Was anything she could say really going to make Leafpaw feel better in this moment.
The Windclan she-cat gave a slow nod knowing full well just how much the apprentices and their training had been pushed the back, especially her and Mousepaw who she thinks maybe the older cats assumed they should just be ready by now. Ready for the insurmountable odds that even the senior warriors were even daunted by. The current way they were trying to train was failing the apprentices it was supposed to help. “You’re right...it’s wrong of us to expect any of you to be ready after the chaos the past few moons have been. That’s going to have to change.” She didn’t know what she was promising or if she was just stating the facts, but so many things were going to have to change. It remained her of her brief conversation with Tawnyface, pointing out they weren’t going to be able to fight honorably with how ruthless Shadowclan cats were. They couldn’t just wait for the change to happen sometimes they were going to have to make it.
Her posture straightened a little as she looked down at her friend flopped on the grass like a piece of freshkill. “Whatever you do please don’t give up.” She mewed firmly as she crouched herself down beside the other she-cat. “I don’t care how easy it might seem.” She let the wind pick up her pelt as she turned her eyes away from her friend. “Is becoming a warrior what you want with all your heart? Is it something you would do anything for?” Her questions were rather abrupt although not in Hazelrunner’s mind at least they weren’t. There was so much emphasis on becoming a warrior. “If it is than will you at least give it one more chance before you lay down...and...” She trailed off not even wanting to finish that thought even passively. She looked to her friend hopefully seeming to have something in mind at least to help her friend in some small way.
Frogstrike sighed as she continued with the ceaseless questions. How was a cat supposed to think of a convincing cover story when he had a kit yammering in his ear the whole way. The time constraints was his biggest concern, he didn’t have time to slow down and answer everyone of her questions, especially when they just kept coming.There was also the barrier of understanding. There was no easy way to explain it was the cats themselves that were the danger. “I’ll be fine.” He mewed instead leaving it at that. He squeezed it in between that and her continued berating of him for not just picking up and coming with her. Oh why hadn’t he thought of that? He quipped sarcastically to himself. She was only the kind of bossy that could be born from a life of being pampered. “I’ve been working on that for quite a while. She’d love to leave and come here, but it isn’t that easy.” He brushed over the details as quickly as he possibly could. The progress towards Windclan camp was unfortunately very slow. Frogstrike was rather irked that Windclan was disorganized enough to let a Shadowclan cat waltz across their territory with a kittypet in tow. “Okay then...” He muttered finding her name odd since the concept of a cupcake was lost on him, probably some twoleg nonsense. He had to hold his tongue not to add a comment on top of it. “I’m just Frogstrike, I don’t know what Mister supposed to mean. You could be calling me Fox-dung for all I know.” The medicine cat continued on his way being careful where he was placing his pads. This was one of the longest days of his life and a test on his patience.
The tom let out a low visceral growl glaring up at the she-cat. Any objections or ideal threats he had died in his throat to be replaced by another loud yelp as the she-cat put her paw practically right on top of his wound. His struggling wasn’t much slowed down by her insistence to lie still. In fact doing so had only seemed to make the Shadowclan tom angrier. As soon as she moved to cover a particularly nasty wound on his shoulder finally seemed to be just about all he could take. Swinging his large paws before a sudden burst of strength pulsed through him pushing him back to his paws with the sudden strength.
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Shadowstartheleader
Friendship Rank 4
~The world may be dark, we may be lost forever, but we stand a chance as long as we're together~
Posts: 617
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Post by Shadowstartheleader on Aug 4, 2019 22:36:29 GMT -5
Shadowpaw gave a low, thoughtful trill as he looked ahead at the sprawling Horseplace before them. He was trying to figure out what could have brought Rainstar in this direction given that the battle was taking place entirely the other way. As he followed along with Mousepaw, he began feeling that perhaps they were taking off too far of their own accord and should wait to retrieve the rest of the patrol before they went a lot further. However, he didn't say anything until, mixed with the scent of Rainstar in the air, he began catching scents which he did not recognize at all, but did not smell like any clan cat he knew whatsoever. He was beginning to feel uncomfortable and uncertain about how safe this was going to be, wherever they were heading--but it was clear Rainstar had ventured off in this direction. "Mousepaw?" He came to a stop as he looked around them. "I think we should get the rest of the cats..." He trailed off into a quiet murmur as he thought about the tense and split patrol following what Leafpaw had said, trying to figure whether it was not such a great idea to keep themselves packed together. But he wasn't confident that they would be able to handle this on their own.
"Its not...being a warrior that I really want!" Leafpaw spoke with a sense of urgency and impatience, though it was less directed at any other cat and more towards her own shortcomings. "Its just...I want to help. I never felt like Windclan wasn't where I belonged, and you and Rainstar and all the other cats in our clan deserve cats who are at their best, who fight to protect them like the Dark Forest was nipping at their heels, and I fall so, so short of that!" Leafpaw showed her heart once more, not meaning it this way but certainly demonstrating that there was absolutely nothing behind her feelings of failure besides the purest of intentions and wanting to do the best that she could for Windclan. She couldn't seem to acknowledge that just those intentions meant so much, and falling short was what they were going to work on.
"Ravenfang hasn't trained with me for...Almost a half-moon. He doesn't have time for me anymore with our clan the way it is now. Have you seen how exhausted he looks? I don't even know if he can handle one more thing to do on top of all of the rest." She cast a gaze down at her paws, a feeling of intense bitterness filling into her heart as she recalled the last few times he had spoken with her father. She didn't mean to speak with bitterness dripping in her voice, but as she mumbled "Not that he even wants to anymore," it seemed clear that there was something more than just chaotic times going on between Leafpaw and Ravenfang. Ravenfang would have taken it very hard if he heard it to his face, but Leafpaw didn't necessarily mean it as a truth--it was more her own venting at this point. The kitten tried to understand what was keeping him from just taking his friend and leaving, but she couldn't find a real solid understanding of it no matter how hard she tried. It seemed he just wasn't going to come with her, and she harrumphed, a little bit offended by his unwillingness to come with. She was going to get lost in this crazy group of creatures that she had heard many stories about--these cats might secretly be lions, or maybe they were all part of a really weird anti-twoleg attack group, or maybe...
She blinked and turned her head towards him as he expressed his objection to the filthy twoleg term that she seemed so fond of. She gave him a stare like he was crazy--she might have thought he was joking if not for the flat and unhappy tone in his voice. "Why would I call you Fox-dung? Fox dung is gross and smelly and icky!" She said it like it was the stupidest thing in the world and unintentionally highlighted how different it seemed her pampered kittypet culture was from the clan cats'. "Mister is just...I didn't know your name, so I called you that. But if you were a she-cat, then I'd say Miss. Or Madam, if I'm a really fancy tom-cat who is drooling at your paws. That's what my mom always..." She referenced her mother's teachings on it like she had forgotten for a couple seconds where they had come from, but as soon as she said the word, her mother flashed right back into her mind and she immediately cut herself off with another upset whine. "s-she always called me her Princess..." It was a random aside, though in her mind it was a reminder that she was never going to hear the word again now that she was gone forever. Why did dogs have to exist? Who decided her mother couldn't live anymore?
Whispersong had to bite hard on her tongue to keep from hissing and spitting in the tom-cat's face as he almost clawed her face off in response to her helping him. She backed up a couple steps as he forced himself up onto his paws finally with greater balance than he had demonstrated as he stumbled around the entrance, blood streaming out of him. It still was, just in a few less places. He was going to get infected if he kept forcing himself to move like this, but she felt no responsibility to caution the fox-heart and simply backed away while staring hard at him, waiting for him to take his leave.
(Just so you know im headed on vacation inthe early a.m. and my posts will likely be very infrequent until the 14th)
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