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Post by berryjuice on Mar 9, 2021 6:05:35 GMT -5
“Uh, well...a lot of my Clanmates might not like the idea of saving WindClan,” said Brightfrost, also keeping her voice low. In fact, as there was increasing evidence that WindClan really had been destroyed- or at least mostly destroyed- she was sure that many of her Clanmates were quite pleased. They might even see the dogs as StarClan’s retribution; that was an annoying thought, especially now that Brightfrost was more sure than ever that StarClan wanted there to be four Clans in the forest. She thought about all the times she had heard Stoneheart and other Clanmates mention how nice it would be to finally be rid of their enemies once and for all. “But we’ll convince them.”
Brightfrost was glad when Jasminefur moved behind her. She wasn’t sure how the elders would react to a WindClan cat strolling right into their den; it might be a shocking sight, despite the message from StarClan they hopefully heard earlier.
Foxmask, a calico she-cat, was the first to note them approaching. She had a well-earned reputation for enjoying gossip; Brightfrost was sure that she had been listening with rapt attention to what had just happened in the camp. She looked up. “I’m surprised you haven't forgotten us in all this excitement. I thought all the warriors would be busy with our guest.”
Brightfrost put the thrush down in front of them. “We thought you might be hungry.”
“We? Don’t tell me you brought...” Foxmask looked and saw Jasminefur. She unsheathed her claws, but remained lying down; it was obvious that, unlike with Paleheart, she just wanted to show aggression rather than actually fight anyone at that moment. “Do you expect us to eat food that’s been in a WindClan mouth?”
Brightfrost lashed her tail, obviously already starting to lose patience with the elders. She had never liked this job much when she was an apprentice; she always felt she had better things to do. “It wouldn’t be right to let prey go to waste.”
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Shadowstartheleader
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Post by Shadowstartheleader on Mar 9, 2021 8:44:53 GMT -5
Brightfrost--again--echoed Jasminefur's thoughts aloud, and he gave a quiet sigh through the mouse in his mouth that resigned to how hard such a task would be. For just a moment, he thought it might be better to run to RiverClan--explain what had happened to them and beg for help, even look for survivors--but Autumneyes interpretation of the sign played back in his head after this thought, and with an uncertain tilt of his head, he wondered if StarClan was saying that he was meant to seek help from ThunderClan, and more specifically, from Brightfrost.
Redstep, a light grey tom-cat with white toes on his front-left paw, tensed up as well as he noticed Jasminefur enter behind Brightfrost. With a quiet hiss he pulled out his claws, watching as the young warrior placed the little mouse next to the thrush just as Foxmask was voicing her discontent eating anything help by Jasminefur. "What if he's poisoned it? How do you know it's safe?" He rasped, suspicious reverberating through his voice. He hadn't bothered stepping outside at the commotion, and he didn't really care about the gossip Foxmask brought back--Windclan was WindClan, and that would never change. "It's not wasting if you can't be sure he's not sabotaging it," The elder harrumphed and turned away from the young cats to reach over and try to pick at a flea.
Jasminefur almost said that if he wanted to hurt ThunderClan, poisoning one or two of their elders wasn't a very smart way to go about it, and that he'd be dead before sunhigh--but he realized just before saying it the elders were surely ready to take it to mean that they weren't important enough to poison, and with an awkward glance at Brightfrost, he found himself unsure of what to say, or if he should say anything. "L-look at it," he pleaded. "I-It's not torn open or anything. How would I poison it?" It was the best he could think of quickly.
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Post by berryjuice on Mar 10, 2021 2:12:33 GMT -5
Brightfrost nodded, though she didn’t have much faith in the elders’ ability to listen to reason and logic. “And I was with him the entire time. There’s no way he could have gone through all the trouble of poisoning a piece of prey without me noticing.”
Foxmask huffed. “It wouldn’t surprise me if you weren’t taking this seriously at all. You’ve always been easily distracted.”
Mintbreeze, Robinpatch’s mate, spoke up. She looked to Jasminefur with a disdain in her eyes; it was obvious that she and her mate shared many of the same opinions. “I’d rather go hunt for myself than accept help from a WindClan cat.” She got up and shook out her fur. “The weather is pleasant anyway.”
Brightfrost blocked the exit of the den. “It’s probably not a good idea for you to leave while there are dogs around.” Mintbreeze looked annoyed that she was being treated as if she couldn’t protect herself. Brightfrost decided to switch tactics. “And...the weather is so nice because StarClan is trying to tell us that things are okay- that Jasminefur won’t hurt you. Our ancestors wouldn’t mislead us.”
She glanced to Jasminefur, wanting to prove herself to him. If she couldn’t convince elders in her own Clan to eat a mouse, he might not think she would be able to convince any cat to help them fight off dogs for the sake of restoring an enemy Clan. She too was imagining him running off to RiverClan to find someone else to help him. But she was sure that she was meant to be the one; she just had to convince him of that.
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Shadowstartheleader
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Post by Shadowstartheleader on Mar 12, 2021 5:17:43 GMT -5
Redstep nodded in firm agreement after Mintbreeze finished speaking, and he cast a glare at Brightfrost when she said that they weren't capable of protecting themselves. It was a strong insult that the elder didn't feel he needed to take from a cat as young as Brightfrost, and his disdain showed clearly on his face. But when the warrior invoked the name of StarClan, he turned his head to the side and gave a strong "Ffaaa!" of disapproval. "Autumneyes is way too young to pretend to understand what StarClan is telling us. If only Tawnybreeze was still here...she'd set this all straight..." His voice lowered as he lamented that the old medicine cat was not here, frankly insulting Autumneyes' ability.
The truth was that Jasminefur was thinking the other way around about the elders--these were the oldest enemies of WindClan that were alive, who had been fighting with WindClan for more moons than he was capable of picturing. That these cats were hard to convince to take anything from a WindClan cat was not surprising to him. He thought he saw worry in her gaze as she glanced to him, and he tried to give her a reasurring smile even though they were awkwardly stuck in the conjoined disdain of three elders.
"You can ask Stoneheart, if you want. I can't stay here without doing something to repay you," Jasminefur murmured gently, trying to appeal to the part of the elders that would make them feel like this was necessary--if he could point out that he had to act like a lowly apprentice in their presence, perhaps they might, in some better-than-thou way, accept his offering.
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Post by berryjuice on Mar 12, 2021 7:25:14 GMT -5
Mintbreeze and Foxmask mumbled in agreement with Redstep. The slight on Autumneye’s ability easily riled up Brightfrost. Part of her feelings were due to her oft-spoken belief in StarClan; she was certain that they would never allow a medicine cat who would improperly interpret their visions. But most of her anger came from how she saw Autumneyes- a kind and talented cat who had always treated her well and looked after her the way a family member might have. Even when Brightfrost felt distant from her Clanmates, she still had a strong loyalty to her old friend. Her fur straightened in anger and she became loud enough for the cats outside to hear. “Autumneyes knows what she’s doing! She’s just as knowledgeable as Tawnybreeze, if not more. You don’t know-”
Brightfrost was startled to feel Stoneheart’s tail brush against her flank as the grey tabby entered the den. For such a large cat, she could move rather silently- though, perhaps Brightfrost not noticing her was more of a result of being preoccupied with anger.
Stoneheart regarded the elders with coolly; it was hard to tell what she was thinking. “I assure you; you don’t need to worry about the prey; it’s been in my view since it was caught.”
She continued with authority. “I would never allow a WindClan cat to exist in our camp without making sure that there was a watchful eye on them. And I am sure that Brightfrost feels the same; she understands well the pain that WindClan can bring.” There was an edge in Stoneheart’s voice as she looked to the fluffy she-cat next to her. Brightfrost hesitated before nodding. She still felt angry at Redstep and the other elders, but she was starting to remember that her end goal was to get the elders to like and trust Jasminefur. However, her emotions were still high enough that she didn't realize what Stoneheart was implying with the last part of her comment- that Brightfrost herself had suffered greatly as a direct result of the enemy Clan.
Mintbreeze glanced to the mouse, seeming to trust it a bit more with Stoneheart’s word- though Brightfrost still wasn’t sure it’d get eaten.
Foxmask grunted. “I guess I agree that he certainly can’t just live here and eat our prey without pulling his weight.”
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Shadowstartheleader
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Post by Shadowstartheleader on Mar 14, 2021 10:10:44 GMT -5
Jasminefur wasn’t really aware of just how much history was between Brightfrost and Autumneyes—their time with the medicine cat’s den was enough to know they certainly weren’t distant, but he was surprised by the sudden outburst of anger from the she-cat. Even Paleheart hadn’t seemed to incite the strength and edge of danger he thought he was picking up. He stepped back instinctively, and as he did so he caught sight of Stoneheart entering and approaching Brightfrost directly.
He hung onto Stoneheart’s words, attentive to everything she was saying. She was there at the border, and more than that, being Brightfrost’s former’s mentor, he couldn’t help but calculate that her word was probably important to his only real WindClan support.
It wasn’t right to say Jasminefur was calm in the midst of these elders’ untrusting judgement. But he picked up the note in Stoneheart’s voice as she pointedly spoke about Brightfrost and her special experience with WindClan. He was a little too concerned with the elder’s hostility to focus on what the older warrior might mean exactly, but it wasn’t hard to imagine it had something to do with Brightfrost’s lack of a family.
“I won’t stay here giving nothing in exchange,” his gaze turned back to the elders, though his quiet voiced shook a little bit. “And if you want me to do something else for you, I can,” His desperation to calm the elders’ nerves about him helping must have shown in his voice, as he almost wrote a blank promise to the elders to calm them.
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Post by berryjuice on Mar 15, 2021 7:14:40 GMT -5
Foxmask looked to the three cats in front of her, her eyes still narrowing with suspicion when her gaze landed on Jasminefur. “Why don’t you take care of our ticks? That seems like a job for a cat like you.”
“And if you don’t do a good job, we’ll know that what you’ve said are typical WindClan lies,” said Mintbreeze.
Stoneheart grunted an agreement and looked to Brightfrost, who had been doing her best to hold back certain things that she would have liked to say.
The interaction hadn’t gone how Brightfrost had wanted it and she was thinking about Redstep’s insult. However, she couldn’t ignore that it probably wasn’t going to get much better from continued arguing. At least they hadn’t tossed the mouse out of their den. “We’ll be back with mousebile,” Brightfrost mumbled before leaving the den with a swish of her tail.
Stoneheart followed and looked to Brightfrost disapprovingly once they were outside. “You shouldn’t need my help to bring food to the elders.”
“They insulted Autumneyes. And they wouldn’t listen to anything I said anyway,” said Brightfrost irritably.
“Respecting the medicine cat is important. However, Autumneyes can look after herself,” said Stoneheart. Brightfrost thought that Stoneheart didn’t get it all- she didn’t understand having friends and wanting to stick up for them. Brightfrost glanced to the medicine cat den; Autumneyes didn’t deserve to be insulted, especially not behind her back.
Stoneheart paused before continuing, “I know that you may not always agree with the elders. But they have many moons of wisdom to offer, and taking care of them is an important part of our code.”
Brightfrost knew that it was difficult to argue once the code was brought up. She didn’t believe in taking the elders’ words to heart when they seemed so blind- but she did believe that they had to take care of the elders, even if they were very annoying. And maybe it would be useful if they could get the elders to trust Jasminefur, even a little bit; really, he seemed better at dealing with them than she did. She sighed and went to fetch mousebile. “I think most of their wisdom involves how to best fight WindClan.”
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Shadowstartheleader
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Post by Shadowstartheleader on Mar 15, 2021 8:19:37 GMT -5
Jasminefur gulped, feeling just hope much the elder was looking down his nose at Jasminefur with this comment. He felt just a pang of anger, an uniñusual condition for him, as he listened to this elder spitting on all of the cats from his clan, so many of which must be dead. He wanted to speak up against the offensive comment, but he knew that that would just be so much better in the elders' eyes, that he refused them.
He breathed a tense breath that he hadn't realized he had been holding. He could already tell that following orders from these cats was going to be an exhausting feat. "Of course," he murmured quietly, turning about just after Brightfrost as he turned his gaze back to the ground. He hurried out after the young warrior.
He listened in intently as the two ThunderClan warriors argued a bit. He sympathized with Brightfrost not wanting a cat she cared about deeply insulted like that and wanting to defend her, but he could see strictly from the point of view of the Warrior Code that Brightfrost was meant to care for them, not start fights with them. Yet even still...having to shut whatever opinion she had around them...even the timid tomcat struggled with that at times in his own camp.
"I...I don't disagree with you, Brightfrost," he mewed nervously, worried to turn her irritation on him. "But they...the more arguments you and them have, the more they're going to just dismiss what you say." He didn't add this part, but if the goal was to 'initiate' Jasminefur into the better graces of ThunderClan, it could be a problem if they never listened when she tried convincing them to let Jasminefur pay a bit for his stay.
Jasminefur stifled a dark chuckle at Brightfrost's last comment. You are probably right about that. He thought silently to himself, not daring to utter it in the presence of Stoneheart.
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Post by berryjuice on Mar 15, 2021 13:26:54 GMT -5
Brightfrost frowned; Jasminefur had a patience that she didn’t really have. She felt like she had so many grand tasks she was destined to carry out that she didn’t want to be bothered with small stuff, like earning the respect of grumpy elders or doing apprentice duties. But now it seemed like that small staff was tied in with her destiny, in a way- she needed to get her Clanmates to listen to her, and StarClan’s approval alone wouldn’t make that happen. “I guess you’re right. It’s just hard when they obviously really don’t want to listen to anyone who disagrees with them.” Especially when they’re challenging their belief that all WindClan cats are waiting for an opportunity to kill them at all times, thought Brightfrost.
“But...StarClan needs us to find a way.” She hadn’t really anticipated that taking ticks off of elders would be in their ancestors’ grand plan, yet here they were. She would have to accept it. She soaked moss in the mouse-bile, grimacing at the awful taste that was a part of being an apprentice that she definitely did not miss. Stoneheart watched them quietly as they returned to the elders’ den.
Brightfrost was reluctant to enter, but had a new resolve to deal with whatever the older cats were going to say. Foxmask and Mintbreeze kept their eyes firmly on Jasminefur; Brightfrost felt glad that Jasminefur was apparently pretty experienced in doing these apprentice tasks- hopefully he would do well enough for their standards.
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Shadowstartheleader
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~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 Mar 16, 2021 5:17:10 GMT -5
Jasminefur gave a quiet sigh when Brightfrost responded with a sentiment that he realted to plenty. He remembered plenty of times the elder's in WindClan chewed his ears off with how different apprentices were today, and that when they were apprentices they made sure the nests didn't have a single thorn and how lazy the apprentices today were. He felt her pain here, and he brushed his tail sympathetically against her side without saying anything.
Hopefully they could just get this done with and do well enough that the elders wouldn't complain. That's all Jasminefur could hope for. He glanced around to see if Stoneheart was still following them or not--from the way she chastised the younger warrior, he wouldn't be surprised if now the warrior felt like she had to trace Brightfrost's every step to make sure she didn't start a fight with the elders.
He took in a quiet breath when Brightfrost recited that StarClan was indicating they needed to find a way to...well...to something. He wasn't really sure what something they needed to do. For now, all he knew was that he needed to pick ticks. "Let's just get this over with," He sighed wearily.
Redstep had been murmuring with the other elders about what had just happened--obviously, he had complained about Brightfrost bringing the cat straight here, and now the idea of tolerating Jasminefur even longer repulsed him. But they had food to eat which Redstep had to begrudingly acknowledge would offend StarClan to waste, even if it was brought by a piece of fox-dung.
When Jasminefur reentered, he stopped taking his bite of the larger piece of prey brought by Brightfrost, and focused on Jasminefur once more. The cat noticably shriveled as the three hard gazes all landed on him, and Redstep snorted with amusement as the cat looked down at his paws.
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Post by berryjuice on Mar 16, 2021 6:44:46 GMT -5
Stoneheart didn’t enter the den with them, but she stayed nearby. She kept her ears pricked, ready to intervene if she heard Brightfrost yelling again.
Foxmask took a bite of the thrush as well before stretching out so that they could get to work. She had obvious contempt for the WindClan cat being in camp, but she seemed to be of the opinion that if he was here, she might as well get some use out of him. “I think Creekpaw missed a couple of nasty ones on my shoulders last time she was here.”
Brightfrost was annoyed that the elders seemed so dead-set on making Jasminefur uncomfortable, but at this point she was steady in her resolve that they needed to do whatever the elders wanted for now. She set off to work, starting with Redstep. She did her best to do a good and thorough job and she assumed that Jasminefur would do the same; she didn’t want to give the elders anything to count against them.
She tried to distract herself from the awful taste of the mousebile by thinking about how they were going to get rid of the dogs. Interestingly, it wasn’t long before she was hearing a conversation about a similar topic.
“A whole pack of dogs set upon a Clan...it sounds farfetched to me. I’ve never heard of anything like that happening,” said Foxmask. Brightfrost rolled her eyes- it didn’t matter how old Foxmask was; she didn’t know everything.
“Even so, we should be ready. Robinpatch has been talking about running a training session specifically for combat against dogs,” replied Mintbreeze. “ThunderClan won’t be taken down so easily. We’ll be ready.”
“And dogs are pretty stupid. If they even find our camp, they can be outsmarted,” Foxmask agreed. They seemed rather confident that they could defeat the dogs when WindClan couldn’t. Brightfrost thought about what she had seen of the attack in her dream; she felt less certain of their prospects if the dogs did target the ThunderClan camp next. But hopefully that wouldn’t happen; she did think that Foxmask was right about dogs being too stupid to attack the Clans with any strategy.
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Shadowstartheleader
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Post by Shadowstartheleader on Mar 16, 2021 15:08:06 GMT -5
Despite his efforts to keep this peaceful, Jasminefur was unable to hold back a quiet sigh at the condescention present in Foxmask's voice as she saw him as little more than a worker to use while he was here. He had to play on repeat his own advice to Brightfrost, saying it silently to himself again and again to keep himself from speaking up in a way he would regret without a doubt.
He placed himself in front of Foxmask, starting near her shoulders where she had indicated some particularly nasty ones were bothering her. He parted her fur in various places with one paw until he saw the black speck which was likely the flea--then holding the fur to the side he reach down and quickly, precisely bit at the tick, pulling it off her shoulder without piercing her skin, and snapped it without issue, spitting it into a corner of the den to be forgotten.
Then, he realized Brightfrost was doing it a different way, utilizing the moss in a way he hadn't been taught. Blinking at the warrior beside him for a moment, he realized she had left him some moss with mousebile, and he finally realized why Brightfrost had grabbed it--mousebile must have been a repellant to fleas.
He tried not to make a big deal of it, realizing he was not taught the method that Brightfrost was utilizing. Unsure how he should continue, he was trying to make a decision when the elders began speaking.
It was frustrating listening to various cats talking about what had happened like it wasn't that big of a deal--he was exaggerating or lying, it wasn't a problem because ThunderClan would be ready, it wasn't a problem because dogs had less of a brain than mice. It was truly piercing his nerves and giving rise to a bit of anger in the warrior. Come look at the shape WindClan is in, and tell me it matters if they are stupid, or that what I'm saying is farfetched.
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Post by berryjuice on Mar 16, 2021 21:35:52 GMT -5
Brightfrost became lost in thought, thinking about how they might best protect the camp against dogs. Protecting the kits would be a priority, and then getting the elders to safety- though they might want to fight and they needed as many cats as they could get to fight off the dogs. At least their camp was less open than WindClan’s camp, so maybe they would be able to make use of more strategy. As annoyed as she was with her Clanmates at the moment, the thought of them being overwhelmed by dogs filled her with dread.
She wondered how Jasminefur felt about this conversation. She briefly thought that he could potentially be useful for this. But then again, she wasn’t sure how much experience he actually had fighting dogs. He had helped her and Stoneheart defeat the dog on ThunderClan’s territory and she assumed that he had had to fight some off in order to retrieve Fernkit and get her to safety, but she couldn’t be sure. Still, even knowing how to evade the dogs may be useful- though Brightfrost herself certainly didn’t plan on running away.
She looked to Jasminefur as she thought about him. She noticed that he looked tense. She figured that the conversation about the dogs was bothering him- but there was nothing to be done about that. They would have to deal with the dogs sooner or later; it wasn’t a topic that they could avoid. She also noticed that he was removing the fleas and ticks without the use of mousebile. Why was he trying to make it harder for himself? As much as she hated the foul substance, they needed it if they were going to do a thorough enough job to please these crotchety cats.
She tapped Jasminefur’s paw with hers, trying to be subtle enough that they wouldn’t attract the elders’ attention; they were still busy chattering about dogs and how dogs wouldn’t be any kind of worry to the ThunderClan of their day, before they had lost several of their senior warriors to age, greencough, and battles. Brightfrost pointed to the mousebile-soaked moss and demonstrated how to move it carefully over the elders’ fur in a way that repelled the bugs; she tried to move slowly so that he could see everything.
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Shadowstartheleader
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Post by Shadowstartheleader on Mar 18, 2021 18:14:47 GMT -5
Jasminefur was brainstorming ways to calmly speak up against what the elders were saying, a rare moment where he was thinking about protesting a superior cat's opinion--but it seemed to go unnoticed as Brightfrost suddenly pressed her paw gently against his, and his attention was pulled quickly from his thoughts with a surprisingly hostile glare pointed in the warrior's direction.
His hostility faded in less than a second as he realized who was prodding his attention, a cat who certainly didn't deserve the glare he had given her. He felt an immediate need to apologize, but the chattering of the elders and Brightfrost's silence kept him in an uncomfortable silence as she directed him to the mousebile which she was using to get rid of the fleas. Without question, he mimcked her as best he could, picking the mousebile up and holding it against the cats fur as she was showing him. She was sufficiently slow in the process so that he picked up on how to make the bile work, and he watched as the fleas seemed to be repelled by the substance. But...won't they just return when the mousebile is gone? He quietly asked himself.
He continued with an uncertain disposition, trying to do as best he could what Brightfrost had shown him. His mentor had taught him to be as thorough as possible with the fleas, and that meant picking them one by one--but perhaps here in ThunderClan, things were different.
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Post by berryjuice on Mar 19, 2021 4:46:36 GMT -5
Brightfrost looked annoyed in response to Jasminefur’s glare. I’m just trying to show you how to do this so that the elders don’t claw your fur off. But she didn’t say anything- she didn’t want to call any attention to them and risk the elders noticing that Jasminefur hadn’t been using whatever they considered to be proper ThunderClan flea and tick removal technique.
She did her best to demonstrate and remember what she had found most effective when she was an apprentice. That had only been a moon or so ago, but the process of tick removal wasn’t really something that had tried all that hard to commit to memory. She killed as many bugs as she saw and hoped that they wouldn’t have to do this many more times. Though, now that they had essentially given the elders a license to ask Jasminefur to do anything that they wanted him to...it could be several more sunrises of this.
She eventually stepped back from Redstep once she felt she had done a good enough job and then got to work on Mintbreeze. She seemed to become focused on her work once she didn’t need to help Jasminefur. As a result of convincing herself that she needed to do this for the sake of StarClan and her destiny, she was able to really set her mind to this task, as menial as it was. She looked over each cat’s fur carefully, wanting to make sure they had gotten everything- she didn’t want to give the elders any reason to complain, even though she knew they would complain regardless.
When they were finished, Mintbreeze certainly wasn’t going to congratulate them. She grunted. “I guess this is the most a WindClan cat has ever done- or will ever do- for us.”
Foxmask chuckled, “I couldn’t think of a better example of ‘too little too late’ if I tried.” She looked to Brightfrost and Jasminefur. “Why don’t you two run along? It’s about time for a nap, and we’re certainly not going to get any good shut-eye with an enemy in my den. We'll be sure to let you know if there's anything else you can do for us.”
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