+10 XP [97 words written]
+10 XP [Patrol sent]
+10% Hunger
Tansypetal felt a bit refreshed after having slept, but still she was tired and lethargic. The tansy she had eaten had seemed to improve her condition slightly.
Still, she thought as she missed the second mouse already since she was just too exhausted to properly hunt, she should probably focus on finding herbs today. Maybe there would be some more she could take to see if she managed to cure herself.
Giving up on hunting, she instead started to scent for herbs, finding some broom, horsetail, and ragwort leaves in quick succession.
[+1 Broom, +1 Horsetail, +1 Ragwort Leaves, +3 XP]On her way back home, she passed by a mouse laying on the forest floor. What was it doing here? Had it frozen to death?
She hoped it had frozen and not succumbed to an illness that could infect her when she ate it, and decided to pick it up.
[+1 Mouse, +2 FP, +2 XP]
Totals:+1 Broom | +1 Horsetail +1 Ragwort Leaves | +2 FP | +25 XP | Level 1 [126/200]
Notes: Tansypetal is still sick and will require two more herbs of your choice to be cured. She loses 10% health again.
Also, please make sure to responsibly keep track of your XP, hunger, and health. It should not be a writer’s task to make sure that you add everything up properly.
Tansypetal is now at 80% HP and 60% Hunger. She will not be able to go out and explore again if you do not give her anything to eat in your next post. tula! wrote:
+15 XP [126 words written]
+10 XP [Patrol sent]
+0% Hunger [Mouse eaten]
The two toms first shared a mouse and then shared tongues for a short while under the midday sun. Usually, at this time of the day it would be far too hot outside, but in leaf-bare it was actually pretty comfortable.
Muddypaws lay close to Sagewhisker, rolled on his back and enjoying the feeling of the sun’s weak rays warming his fur. His mate looked over at him and sighed. “We do have things to do out here, you know?”
The other tom had his eyes closed and murmured something too quietly for Sagewhisker to hear.
“Are you asleep? Oh stars, you’ve actually fallen asleep. Why must I have fallen in love with you of all the toms in the clan?”
Still no reaction.
Sagewhisker thought for a second and then, mischief sparkling in his eyes, started poking his mate in all the spots where he knew Muddypaws was ticklish.
“Hey!” Muddypaws complained, startling awake and twitching from side to side, laughing. “Okay! Okay, you win, I’m awake!”
Sagewhisker purred, satisfied with himself. He quickly licked the other tom’s forehead and got to his feet. “Let’s go, sleepyhead.”
Flicking his tail, he started walking again, leaving Muddypaws to scramble upright and follow after him hastily.
The two hadn’t been walking long when Sagewhisker spotted a cactus wren picking at some tiny holes in the ground a few snake lengths from them. Eager to make up for having dozed off earlier, Muddypaws pointed his tail at the animal and tilted his head in a questioning gesture at Sagewhisker, not willing to make any noises that could alert the animal.
Luckily, the two of them didn’t need to talk much in order to communicate, they understood each other well enough without words, and Sagewhisker nodded in approval.
His body tense, he stalked closer to the preoccupied wren still searching for bugs in the ground.
Once he was close enough, he propelled himself off the ground. In the same moment, the bird raised its head, having heard him push off, called out in warning, and spread its wings, frantically trying to take off. It was too late, though, and a fraction of a second later Muddypaws hit it with his extended claws, throwing the animal to the ground, where it lay disoriented.
A second later he broke his prey’s neck with s satisfying sound and picked it up to return triumphantly to his mate.
[+1 Cactus Wren, +2 FP, +2 XP]Sagewhisker purred in contentment when he came back. “Well done!”
Muddypaws fluffed out his chest fur, happy about the compliment. He knew he was a good hunter, and this catch hadn’t been anything too special, but anytime Sagewhisker encouraged him like this he felt as giddy with happiness as an apprentice commended by their mentor.
“Let’s go back, shall we? After the wren’s warning cry, I don’t think there will be any prey left around here.”
His mouth full of the offending animal, Muddypaws could only nod in agreement, and the two of them started on their way back home.
About halfway back, Sagewhisker spotted a patch of stinging nettle. It had been long since the last rain and the leaves had turned yellowish, but otherwise seemed to be in a good condition, so he picked a few to carry back to the camp.
[+1 Stinging Nettle, +1 XP]Totals +1 Stinging Nettle | +2 FP | +28 XP | Level 2 [249/200]
+10 XP [96 words written]
+10 XP [Patrol sent]
+5 XP [Enemy fought]
+0% Hunger [One free post left]
“Hey,” Ash called out to the strangers as the three of them broke through the ferns separating them from the patrol.
The two intruders whipped around, the tom dropping his prey, adopting fighting stances.
Ash, Gull, and Sunny stopped some ways from them, tension in their bodies. Ash suppressed a lashing of his tail and forced his ears to stay upright and facing forward. He wasn’t usually one to fight and he wanted to avoid it if the possibility was there.
“I’m afraid you are in our territory. You must have passed the scent marks. I have to ask you to leave and give your vole over to us,” he meowed calmly, addressing both of them with his looks.
“Okay,” the molly snarled. “And if we don’t? This forest is big enough and this is our kill.”
Ash blinked, then sighed. “As I said, this is our territory. We marked it. This forest and all the prey in it belong to us, we need it to survive.”
“And we don’t?” the tom spat.
Next to him, Ash felt Gull stepping forward, hackles raised. “Then we beat you up and take what’s ours.”
Ash winced. Now all chances to solve this peacefully were gone. He would need to speak to his tribemate about undermining his authority later.
“I’d like to see you try,” the molly hissed, her claws extending slowly.
Desperate, Ash stepped forward, trying to appeal to their sense of self-preservation one last time.
“We really don’t want to fight you,” he said as calmly as was possible in this tense a situation. “Please just leave. Take the vole if you must, but don’t come back.”
He thought he saw a look of uncertainty flash in the tom’s eyes, but it was gone before he could be sure it had been there. The black-furred rogue in front of him also took a step forward, her ears folded back.
“Pity,” she snarled. “You should have thought about that before provoking us, then.”
A split second of tension in her muscles was all the warning Ash got before she threw himself upon him, fangs bared, and claws aimed at her face. In his periphery he registered Sunny and Gull entering a fight with the tabby tom but was quickly forced to pay attention to his own attacker. Barely, Ash managed to evade her slap by dropping low to the floor. She barrelled closer, giving him the opportunity to ram his forehead into her chest from below, using the force of his hind legs to push the air out of her lungs. She staggered back a few steps to catch her breath, but with regret he acknowledged that he could not give her the time to recover if he wanted this fight to be over quickly. Gaining momentum, he slowly took up speed, running at her and then jumping on her shoulders, pinning her to the floor with her legs trapped under her own body.
“Shouldn’t have turned your back on me,” he hissed.
Looking over at his tribe mates, he saw that they, too, had subdued their opponent, with Gull resting a paw lightly on the tom’s throat in warning.
“Do you give up?” he asked the two strangers loudly.
The molly underneath him tried to push herself on her feet, wiggling to throw him off, but Ash’s footing was secure, and she quickly realized that her attempts were futile.
“Yes,” she growled.
“And will you leave and never come back?”
“Yes.”
Ash nodded at Gull and Sunny, then released the molly, watching her carefully for any signs of another attack.
Her eyes blazing, she looked at him like she would try to hurt him a second time, but he stared back as steely as she. The rogue blinked first and called out to the tom. “Let’s go.”
The second rogue nodded and tried to pick up the vole he had carried earlier but dropped it again after a sneer from gull. He hurried after the molly and the two of them left without looking back.
They’d need to make sure later that the two of them had really left the territory, but for now Ash had other priorities.
“Are any of you hurt?” he asked his tribe mates, worry in his voice. He himself had not received any injuries, and two quick shakes of the head told him that the other two had also not been harmed.
“I’m glad,” he meowed and moved to get the vole that, luckily, hadn’t been trampled in the fight.
[+1 Vole, +2 FP, +2XP]“We sure showed them, huh?” Gull exclaimed, his voice loud and excited.
“Fights aren’t fun,” Ash reminded him. “Any one of us could have gotten seriously hurt.”
“You’re right,” Gull amended, looking sheepish, though Ash wasn’t sure if he really was sorry for his words.
“Let’s get back to camp,” Ash suggested. “We’ve had enough excitement for today and all of us should rest a bit, now.”
The other two nodded and the three of them returned home, picking up the prey they had caught earlier on their way. Sunny also found some scraps and, following a river for a bit, they managed to collect some dock, tormentil, and borage leaves that they also took with them.
[+1 Scraps, +1 FP, +1 Dock, +2 Borage Leaves, +1 Tormentil, +5XP]Totals+3 FP | +1 Dock | +2 Borage Leaves | +1 Tormentil | +32 XP | Level 0 [55/100]