by Cradily » Thu Mar 12, 2020 4:27 pm
"Let's go, then," Pythontail grunted once the four cats were gathered, and began to lead the other three out of camp. Part of him wished he was on the search party for Mambastride instead; that was more important, he thought, being led by Jaguarstar himself and comprised of only the strongest toms in the clan, save for Weaselpaw, but that was to be expected since the young tom was Mambastride's apprentice. Still, there was nothing he could do about it, and so he led the two she-cats and the apprentice through the jungle in silence.
"I hope so," Silverpaw mumbled, but he didn't sound convinced. He knew by now that his mother just said things that mothers were supposed to say--things that were meant to be encouraging or provide hope, but that didn't necessarily mean they were true. With a sigh, he padded after the cats, his head hanging just a bit lower than before. He had started the morning feeling good, but between his parents' fight and Mambastride's disappearance, his mood had gone south pretty quickly.
"Let's go then," Pythontail grunted.
Rainfall shook her head. "That's fine by me." In truth, she didn't really care where they went. Her focus was more on the apprentices than anything else as they walked along.
Cacaopaw just nodded, seemingly lost in thought. She still didn't understand how Kinkajoupaw could be so excited about, well...everything. But perhaps now she appreciated the other apprentice's positivity a bit more than before. Despite having earlier wondered whether or not anyone would care or notice whether she was around or not, she now felt self-conscious, sensing she had drawn attention to herself, and not wanting to draw any more, decided to chime in. "Yeah, me too."
Peacockpaw gave a good-natured roll of his eyes. "That must be it," he agreed jokingly. He followed her gaze to the birds up above, briefly considering climbing up after them before deciding that they would surely fly away before he reached them and turning to Canopypaw. "I could go for a capybara now myself. What would you two like to catch?"
Whitetail felt his heart sink when Jaguarstar confirmed what he'd been discussing with Spottedstorm just a moment ago--that Mambastride was no where to be found. He was worried for his clanmate, but he also felt a pang of sympathy for Weaselpaw. He knew how much his son adored his mentor, and couldn't imagine how he'd feel if something ever happened to him. He shook the thought away, silently resolving to find the missing camp guard and praying to StarClan to keep him safe.
Fishbelly blinked in surprise at the leader's words. He hadn't even noticed that Mambastride had been missing, but now that he thought of it, he hadn't seen the camp guard in the den that morning. He felt slightly embarrassed as he expected himself to be more observant than that, but determination to find the camp guard quickly replaced the feeling and he nodded in understanding.
