(✦ — the mountaintop ✦ warriors o & a)

[star star.]

xxxxxECHOLIGHT.
xxxxxxx✦ ⋯ med cat ⋯ she-cat ⋯ tagged: coyoteheart ⋯ mentions: kestrelpaw, willowstep, rosedapple, thunderclash, smokepaw, leafpaw, wolfbite
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It takes Echolight a second to register that Coyoteheart is chuckling beside her, and it takes her a few heartbeats longer to realize that it's directed at her. Embarrassed, she sits up and licks her mouth, trying to ignore the heat flooding into her pelt. This is what she gets for being distracted with her duties.

At his question (more like offer), Echolight looks at him with a hopeful expression. "That would be incredible, actually," she says. "There's a few herbs that I forgot to list for Kestrelpaw to get yesterday, and I'd feel awful having him come back out with me after everything he did yesterday." She understand's the apprentice's hesitation around her, though - she hadn't minced her words very well during their first few interactions, and even though she'd backed off since then she's pretty sure she had overstepped one too many boundaries.

Echolight's ears swivel to the direction of Willowstep's voice. She glances over, spotting her friend calling out the day's patrols, and she feels proud. She still feels concern over her - the new deputy had the tendency to overwork herself as a warrior, and Echolight fears (and knows) the habit will continue on to the new position. She feels relieved more than anything knowing that Rosedapple, leagues closer to Willowstep than Echolight is, will stay on top of their friend's health.

When she looks back at Coyoteheart, she finds her gaze meets his immediately, and she grins at her friend when he speaks. "We got lucky with that one," she says with a laugh. "We could've postponed it though, if we had to." Echolight bends back down to take a bite of her vole when Coyohoteheart speaks. She flicks her tail in response, thinking as she chews. She looks over at the entrance to the nursery, just in time to see some cat head in, and she swallows before speaking. "I think someone just did," she says, quickly scanning camp to- "Yeah." She could spot Leafpaw in the cleaning with Thunderclash and Smokepaw - the latter of whom were looking like they might split off elsewhere - "I'm not usually out here in the mornings, but aren't mentors usually with their apprentices?" She flicks her tail toward some of the mentor-apprentice groups. "I don't see Wolfbite with Leafpaw." Which meant that he had probably just headed into the nursery. It was sweet of Coyoteheart to worry - Tinyleaf's kits were, in all technically, related to him. "I need to check on her later..." - mostly to make sure everything was okay with her and the kits. Sure, Rosedapple had swung by to make sure everyone was doing okay, but Echolight would like to confirm that everything is proceeding as it should with the queen's unborn litter. She tilts her head, thinking, and then shakes the thought from her head.

Echolight glances down at her vole, then notes that Coyoteheart hasn't touched his. "If you're not hungry, do you want the rest of mine?" She squints back down at her vole, quietly mumbling something along the lines of "there's not much left, though."

xxxxxTHUNDERCLASH.
xxxxxxx✦ ⋯ warrior ⋯ tom ⋯ tagged: stormpaw, leafpaw ⋯ mentions: willowstep, cougarsight, lightningjaw, icestrike, sageblossom, whitedaisy, ravenfall, hawkpaw
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Thunderclash dips his head at Wolfbite, watching as the tom walks off toward the nursery. He takes another bite of his vole, listening with half an ear as Leafpaw and Stormpaw chat. When Willowstep calls attention to herself to list out the patrols, he feels himself scowling as she lists him and Stormpaw on a different patrol than Wolfbite and Leafpaw. Sure, it happens. Thunderclash is fully aware that sometimes things don't go according to plan, but this is now going to be the third time he has to change them. He hears Stormpaw say something, something along the lines of that's unfortunate, but he bites his tongue.

It's fine. Whatever. At least Cougarsight isn't on the patrol with him - that would have made his entire day a nightmare. Thunderclash turns his attention back to his vole and tears a piece of it a little harsher than normal. He'll get over it. One more moon of training Stormpaw, and he won't have to worry about constantly coming up with plans for training an apprentice and hoping to StarClan that they don't interfere with whatever the deputy wants to have the clan do for the day. (he knows he's being childish, but come on.) Hopefully, after Stormpaw becomes an apprentice, he'll get a break from training apprentices. Training Ravenfall and immediately getting another apprentice shoved onto him had been a bit... annoying, but it was what it was.

He watches as Leafpaw scuttles away, and Thunderclash has enough of himself still together that he realizes he may have missed her saying something. Whatever it was, it probably wasn't too important - and if it is, he's positive Stormpaw will fill him in on it.

Thunderclash finishes off his vole and stands to his paws with a sigh. Alright then, he thinks, trying to reel himself back in. He's not sure how well he succeeds, as he's sure he's having a bit of a hard time masking his annoyance at this moment, but he's confident enough to know he'll have himself pulled together by the time he meets with the patrol. He quickly scans the clearing, easily locating where the rest of the patrol members are at the moment. "Finish eating," he says, looking directly at Stormpaw. "They can wait until we join them." Icestrike is just chatting with Lightningjaw at the moment, anyway, and Whitedaisy seems to be getting her apprentice.

xxxxxLEAFPAW.
xxxxxxx✦ ⋯ warrior apprentice ⋯ she-cat ⋯ tagged: wolfbite, stormpaw, thunderclash ⋯ mentions: tinyleaf (referenced), willowstep, fangfrost, fairystep, fawnwhisper
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Leafpaw nods in response, quickly swallowing her bite of bird to respond to Wolfbite's retreating form. "I'll be here!" she promises. She glances at Stormpaw as he speaks and she snorts, eyes bright in amusement. "It wouldn't surprise me," she says, half-drowned out by Willowstep's yowl. At her announcement of the four of them being on different patrols, she slumps over. "Aw man," she grumbles, ear flicking as she glances up first at Stormpaw. Seeing his attention on his mentor, she glances over to look at Thunderclash, who looks like he's the gray area between peeved and annoyed. On one paw - she doesn't mind going on a hunting patrol, although she does feel a little nervous being the only apprentice on it. On the other - Wolfbite had already planned something for them to do, and the other mentor-apprentice pair they would be going with had a mentor who wasn't very thrilled when his plans were constantly being changed.

Carefully, Leafpaw takes another bite of the bird, glances between Thunderclash and Stormpaw, and then peers around camp. Willowstep had said that Fawnwhisper, Fangfrost, and Fairystep would be on the hunting patrol with them. Fangfrost and Fairystep are already together, which doesn't surprise Leafpaw. Wolfbite is likely still in the nursery - should she go get him? or should she wait? - and Fawnwhisper is... nearby Fangfrost and Fairystep. Leafpaw's gaze snaps back toward the nursery as she watches Wolfbite head out. She steals another bite of the bird and stands to her paws, already feeling awkward enough as it is that she'll be the last over there.

"I'll see you after we get back?" she offers, standing to her paws. "Maybe we can do something afterwards!" she says, glancing at Thunderclash from the corner of her eyes. Leafpaw hesitates for a heartbeat, glancing between Stormpaw and Thunderclash, then ducks her head and scurries over to her mentor and the rest of the hunting patrol.

xxxxxMOTHKIT.
xxxxxxx✦ ⋯ kit ⋯ she-cat ⋯ tagged: tinyleaf, lilykit, cinderkit, wolfbite ⋯ mentions: ivyscorch
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Mothkit is, frankly, unaware of what is going on - or at least until something plops on her head. She lets out a startled squeak and then, upon realizing that Tinyleaf had just dropped a mossball on her head and told her to play with her siblings, grins in excitement. She jumps to her paws and bats the ball toward her siblings, before remembering: "Thank you Tinyleaf!!!"

Mothkit barely pays Wolfbite any piece of mind as she excitedly leaps across the den to the mossball. She bats it toward her siblings, eyes bright, and doesn't really feel her spirit diminished when Lilykit leaves the den to go ask Ivyscorch something. Sure, she'd like to play with her sister as well, but! "Cinderkit!" Mothkit calls. She stares at her brother for a moment and then crouches, poorly mimicking the hunter's crouch she's seen the warriors and apprentices do. She pounces, aiming to land on her brother's back. "Play mossball with me!" (during this, mothkit is vaguely aware of wolfbite and tinyleaf speaking, but she's far more interested in the ball of moss tinyleaf had dropped on her head. she has half the mind to make sure she isn't under wolfbite's paws as the warrior exits the den, but that's about it.)

[tauriel.]

Willowstep - female - 28 moons - deputy - apprentice: Vulturepaw - tagged: Mountainstar's hunting patrol(Ravenfall, Stormcaller, Vulturepaw, Honeypaw, and Mistpaw) open

With patrol assignments announced, Willowstep studied her clanmates, noting that although most of the clan seemed to be happy with their assignments, a few of her clanmates did not seem too pleased? Leafpaw looked a little perturbed and Willowstep hesitated, wondering if she should have assigned at least another apprentice to her patrol but ultimately decided against it. Leafpaw was one of the oldest apprentices and it wouldn't do any harm to see how she'd do as the only apprentice. The deputy could always assign Leafpaw to a patrol with more apprentices later that evening. Thunderclash nearby didn't look pleased either but if the gray tom was upset with her patrol assignments, hopefully he would talk with her later. Willowstep's attention rested next on the apprentice's den as she watched Vulturepaw begin making his way out and gave him a friendly nod. "It is," Willowstep replied to Mountainstar, amusement brightening her gaze at Honeypaw's dash to the medicine den. Stormcaller was nearby so with Ravenfall already next to them, the patrol would be ready to head out as soon as Honeypaw returned with Mistpaw. "Honeypaw's enthusiastic," Willowstep mewed, glancing at Ravenfall. "He must be excited for the patrol."

Cougarsight - male - 36 moons - warrior - tagged: Ivyscorch, Luna(mentioned), open

The tom paused, eyes fixing on Willowstep as he listened to her patrols, feeling a slight flicker of disappointment that he hadn't been assigned to any patrols, but no matter. He may not have been assigned a patrol but it didn't mean that Cougarsight was confined to camp. The tom glanced at Ivyscorch, whiskers twitching with amusement. "That's true, a meal might be good idea." He admitted, purring. "I know you may not be able to go out, since you have kits to take care of, but maybe you'd like to go out today?" Today's exploration might be less of an actual exploration, and more of a chance to see if he could see his friend, Luna. He'd met her on one of his explorations and for the warrior, talking with outsiders was fascinating, a reminder of his father's stories his loner days. Eyeing Ivyscorch hopefully, Cougarsight's claws kneaded the ground with excitement. With her kits still so young, Cougarsight wasn't sure how the queen would feel about leaving camp but he wanted to ask. Even if she didn't want to go, Cougarsight couldn't sit still in camp for long. He go out, see Luna, and perhaps try to bring Ivyscorch one of her favorite prey before returning to camp.

Mistpaw - female - 7 moons - apprenticed to Mountainstar - tagged: Goosefeather, Honeypaw, Mountainstar's patrol, open

Mistpaw frowned, her tail tip flicking with distress as she mulled over Goosefeather's words. Yes she had only been an apprentice for a moon but surely the other apprentices did not have too big of a problem with waking up? Wolfbite and Ravenfall had come to the den to wake their apprentice but that didn't mean their apprentices couldn't wake themselves. Shaking her head, Mistpaw decided to let it go for now. Goosefeather was right, the clan was getting into a routine still so maybe eventually she'd be able to keep up better with the older apprentices. She may be younger and blind, but Mistpaw felt as if she needed to be the best apprentice she could be(change this sentence?). The silver molly was so deep in thought that she completely missed Willowstep’s patrol announcements, startling slightly at the sound of pawsteps, relaxing when the tom spoke, and she identified the newcomer as Honeypaw. A hunting patrol? Happy as she was about being on the patrol with Honeypaw and Vulturepaw, a prickle of apprehension ran through her fur. Mistpaw was still learning to hunt but it was navigating the territory that worried her. Getting around camp was easy. Goosefeather had taught her and she’d had moons as a kit to learn but Peakclan territory was an entirely different story. “Thank you Goosefeather. I’ll keep what you’ve said in mind,” Mistpaw told the medicine cat, turning towards Honeypaw, fur prickling with slight concern as she wondered how much he'd heard. "Hi Honeypaw, the hunting patrol sounds like it might be fun!" As she began padding towards the rest of the patrol, Mistpaw stayed close to Honeypaw's side, trying her best to keep her nervousness about the hunting patrol from ruffling her fur.

[daifuku]

x
𝗦𝗔𝗚𝗘𝗕𝗟𝗢𝗦𝗦𝗢𝗠

LOCATION CAMP. TAGGED WHITEDAISY, BORDER PATROL. MENTIONS N/A.

spacerSageblossom brightened at Whitedaisy's response, settling down beside the other warrior in preparation for their meal. Her plans were cut short, however, by the announcement of the morning's patrols. "Oh, I suppose we could eat later, then, especially if you need to get Hawkpaw," she replied. "Here, I'll come with you." She padded after Whitedaisy towards the apprentice den, making a quick detour to the prey pile to drop off her catch. She smiled to herself as the other warrior called for her apprentice. Sageblossom remembered the days when it was her sleeping in late — there had been quite a few times her mentor had needed to shake her awake. As Sageblossom waited with Whitedaisy, she scanned the clearing to check where the rest of the patrol was meeting. She spotted Thunderclash with Stormpaw, then Icestrike with Lightningjaw. She breathed a sigh of relief knowing that they weren't holding the group up.







𝗕𝗨𝗠𝗕𝗟𝗘𝗣𝗔𝗪

LOCATION MED CAT DEN. TAGGED KESTRELPAW. MENTIONS N/A.

spacerBumblepaw's retreat to the back of the medicine cat den brought him peace, quiet and ultimately a sense of contentment. It wasn't that he disliked any of the cats congregated around the entrance, but the presence of all of them at once was a little bit overwhelming. He sifted through the rosemary with his paws and nose, searching for any other stray leaves and stems that he needed to remove. Satisfied that he had removed enough of the impurities, he picked up the bundle of herbs with his mouth, cringing slightly at the bitter taste.

spacerHe sensed Kestrelpaw's approaching footsteps and scent before the other apprentice spoke. Bumblepaw had his jaws full, so he could only make a muffled noise in response to Kestrelpaw's greeting. Finally, he found the small crevice where rosemary was stored, and he tucked the fresh bunch into the empty crack. With that job done, he could turn his attention to the tom hovering behind him. "Nope, haven't eaten yet," Bumblepaw meowed, rising to his feet. "Wanna go check out what's left in the prey pile? I'm not too picky, so you can choose whatever you'd like."

spacer

[lacke]

xx

𝐠𝐨𝐨𝐬𝐞𝐟𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫

location: campxx mood: content xx tags: bumblepaw, kestrelpaw

as goosefeather dug into the mouse, his ears swiveled at the voices of their apprentices - kestrelpaw and bumblepaw. they were discussing getting some food, and goosefeather kept himself from purring. he was glad the apprentices were close, he remembered the struggle of being an apprentice alone without another medicine cat apprentice. it wasn't horrible, but he wished he had a close friend when he was young. after he finished the mouse, he sat upwards, craning his neck towards the leaving pair. "while you two are out, think of what you guys would like to do today," he mewed. "we could all go collect some herbs, or if you guys have been interested in herbs that you don't know too much about, we can focus on that."

xx

𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐰

location: campxx mood: somber xx tags: thunderclash, wolfbite, leafpaw, willowstep

stormpaw ate in silence, the air radiating off of his mentor filling him with a sense of dread. he nervously watched as the tom nearly ripped into the vole, before turning his attention elsewhere. he had always felt a little worried that he overwhelmed thunderclash, but it wasn't something he could necessarily control. in the mean time, stormpaw would do his best to not stress his mentor out too much - in fact, today... stormpaw was torn from his thoughts as leafpaw stood up, and stormpaws gaze snapped to her. he nodded at her, before hurriedly swallowing his bite of bird. "mhm! we'll figure it out!" he called, watching as she scurried away. he quickly turned his gaze back towards thunderclash, ready to give up the rest of the prey to head on patrol if thats what the warrior wanted. he nods as thunderclash tells him to finish eating, and ducks his head to finish off the bird in another two bites. afterwards, he stands on his paws, giving his pelt a quick shake.

"i'm ready when you are!" he chirped, hoping it'd help the mood. he instinctively padded closer to his mentor, before glancing over towards the forming patrols. "i know you had planned on doing other things today, but we can do whatever it was after the patrol?" he asked with a tilt of his head. "i trust that whatever you had planned was great." he meowed quietly, hoping to offer the older tom some support.

xx

𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐲𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐟

location: nurseryxx mood: tired xx tags: kits, wolfbite

the queen listened intently as wolfbite explained their plans with leafpaw, taking a few bites as they talked.
when they turned their attention to her, asking how she was, tinyleaf pondered the question for a moment. "everything is going smoothly, i think. i truly feel like they are going to be here any time now, but perhaps its just wishful thinking." she mewed with a flick of her tail. as wolfbite mentioned that she could make a request for prey, tinyleaf couldn't help but let out small laugh. "i'm not very picky, you should know that." she teased, before shaking her head. "truly, i'm okay with anything. you're gracing me enough by bringing me something to eat." she purred, before turning her head to glance towards the clearing, where willowstep was announcing the patrols. her gaze turned to wolfbite as they stood, announcing they would take their leave. "i hope your patrol goes smoothly!" she mewed, watching as they left. once they were gone, she turned back to the prey and finished it off, before nearly plopping back down, letting out a hefty sigh.

xx

𝐝𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭

location: herexx mood: relaxed xx tags: creamflower

dovelight was curled in her nest, mostly trying to catch as much sleep as possible. it was hard, as she was an early riser, and sleep never came easily for her. with the announcement of patrols, dovelight finally shifted in her nest, stretching out her legs and letting out a wide yawn. shortly after, a presence made itself known as a familiar voice sounded at the entrance of the den. dovelight turned her head to look, spotting creamflower, and letting out a purr. "creamflower, good morning." she greeted, slowly standing in her nest and padding towards the queen. "how is everything this morning?"

[believe-hwu]

𝙼 𝙾 𝚄 𝙽 𝚃 𝙰 𝙸 𝙽 𝚂 𝚃 𝙰 𝚁 ! !
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xx[31 moons] [leader] [she-cat] [mentors; mistpaw] [interest; to be determined] [location; camp] [mood; sad]
xx [mentions; willowstep, ravenfall, stormcaller, vulturepaw, honeypaw, mistpaw] [tags; willowstep, ravenfall, stormcaller, vulturepaw, honeypaw, mistpaw]
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Mountainstar's gaze moved over each of her clanmates going on the hunting patrol, noticing Honeypaw & Mistpaw bonding, deciding to let them train together later and didn't interrupt. It would be good for her to learn from him, he'd been doing quite well in his training from what she'd heard so far. She shook out her pelt briefly, seeing her son come out of the apprentice's den with most of the patrol already gathered. This could be a good time to have their mentors assess them, though she knew it would be bit more rough for Vulturepaw & her own apprentice already. Mistpaw had only been training for a moon, and her son would still be having trouble losing his littermates, just like she is. She blinked away any expressions that might've crossed her face at the thought of it.

​𝙸 𝚅 𝚈 𝚂 𝙲 𝙾 𝚁 𝙲𝙷​ ! !
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xx[29 moons] [queen] [she-cat] [kits; n/a] [interest; cougarsight] [location; camp] [mood; content]
xx [mentions; cougarsight, liykit, cinderkit] [tags; cougarsight, lilykit, cinderkit]
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She turned to her daughter now at her paws, giving her a lick on her forehead, her gaze flickering over to her son for a moment. "Of course, Lilykit, but take something for her from the prey pile." Ivyscorch sent him a soft smile as her attention was back on her friend. She loved the idea, but she hadn't asked the queens to watch her kits, and with Tinyleaf so close to kitting, she worried about her kits getting underfoot. She hesitated for a moment longer, before finally deciding and turning back to Lilykit, giving Cougarsight a nod. "Be good for Creamflower and Tinyleaf, I'll be out with Cougarsight for a bit."

𝙻 𝙸 𝙶 𝙷 𝚃 𝙽 𝙸 𝙽 𝙶 𝙹 𝙰 𝚆 ! !
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xx[23 moons] [warrior] [tom] [mentors; n/a] [interest; creamflower] [location; camp] [mood; neutral]
xx [mentions; icestrike, sageblossom, whitedaisy, thunderclash] [tags; icestrike, sageblossom, whitedaisy, thunderclash]
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His attention turned to Icestrike, dipping his head in greeting respectfully, the tom had been a bit older than himself but they got along pretty well. "As long as it doesn't snow that is," he hesitated for a moment at the offer of breakfast, still being a bit self-conscious about his jaw while eating for the most part. "Maybe later though, it seems like everyone's out and about now."

𝙵 𝙰 𝙽 𝙶 𝙵 𝚁 𝙾 𝚂 𝚃 ! !
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xx[15 moons] [warrior] [tom] [mentors; n/a] [interest; fairystep] [location; camp] [mood; neutral]
xx [mentions; fairystep, wolfbite, fawnwhisper, leafpaw] [tags; fairystep, wolfbite, fawnwhisper, leafpaw]
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“It's strange, having been the two oldest cats in the apprentice's den and then being the youngest in the warriors.” He offered with a light tone, gently cuffing her ear with his paw in return. It'd be a lie to say he wasn't interested in his friend, the two had been close practically since she arrived. His attention was caught by the young deputy calling out their names, and flicked her pelt with his tail tip. "Good thing all the snow hasn't melted yet. I bet I'll catch more than you." At her joke, he let out a quite but dramatic groan before chuckling. "Oh, the horror! I get to spend more time with you and Wolfbite!" Fangfrost exclaimed, though any cat could tell he wasn't serious. As the second hunting patrol gathered together, he gave a short but friendly greeting. "Good morning, Wolfbite, Fawnwhisper, Leafpaw."

𝙷 𝙰 𝚆 𝙺 𝙿 𝙰 𝚆 ! !
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xx[8 moons] [apprentice] [she-cat] [mentor; whitedaisy] [interest; open] [location; camp] [mood; bored]
xx [mentions; vulturepaw, whitedaisy, sageblossom] [tags; vulturepaw, whitedaisy, sageblossom]
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She opened her mouth to answer her brother, rolling over onto her stomach, licking her paw briefly before seeing her mentor coming to get her. Four moons as an apprentice, one would think Hawkpaw would be out of the den already. “Alright, I guess you'll need me on the patrol after all. Who's all on the patrol though?” She spoke confidently, following the two out of the den, spotting Sageblossom waiting at the entrance.

[star star.]

xxxxxECHOLIGHT.
xxxxxxx✦ ⋯ med cat ⋯ she-cat ⋯ tagged: coyoteheart ⋯ mentions: kestrelpaw, willowstep, rosedapple, thunderclash, smokepaw, leafpaw, wolfbite
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It takes Echolight a second to register that Coyoteheart is chuckling beside her, and it takes her a few heartbeats longer to realize that it's directed at her. Embarrassed, she sits up and licks her mouth, trying to ignore the heat flooding into her pelt. This is what she gets for being distracted with her duties.

At his question (more like offer), Echolight looks at him with a hopeful expression. "That would be incredible, actually," she says. "There's a few herbs that I forgot to list for Kestrelpaw to get yesterday, and I'd feel awful having him come back out with me after everything he did yesterday." She understand's the apprentice's hesitation around her, though - she hadn't minced her words very well during their first few interactions, and even though she'd backed off since then she's pretty sure she had overstepped one too many boundaries.

Echolight's ears swivel to the direction of Willowstep's voice. She glances over, spotting her friend calling out the day's patrols, and she feels proud. She still feels concern over her - the new deputy had the tendency to overwork herself as a warrior, and Echolight fears (and knows) the habit will continue on to the new position. She feels relieved more than anything knowing that Rosedapple, leagues closer to Willowstep than Echolight is, will stay on top of their friend's health.

When she looks back at Coyoteheart, she finds her gaze meets his immediately, and she grins at her friend when he speaks. "We got lucky with that one," she says with a laugh. "We could've postponed it though, if we had to." Echolight bends back down to take a bite of her vole when Coyohoteheart speaks. She flicks her tail in response, thinking as she chews. She looks over at the entrance to the nursery, just in time to see some cat head in, and she swallows before speaking. "I think someone just did," she says, quickly scanning camp to- "Yeah." She could spot Leafpaw in the cleaning with Thunderclash and Smokepaw - the latter of whom were looking like they might split off elsewhere - "I'm not usually out here in the mornings, but aren't mentors usually with their apprentices?" She flicks her tail toward some of the mentor-apprentice groups. "I don't see Wolfbite with Leafpaw." Which meant that he had probably just headed into the nursery. It was sweet of Coyoteheart to worry - Tinyleaf's kits were, in all technically, related to him. "I need to check on her later..." - mostly to make sure everything was okay with her and the kits. Sure, Rosedapple had swung by to make sure everyone was doing okay, but Echolight would like to confirm that everything is proceeding as it should with the queen's unborn litter. She tilts her head, thinking, and then shakes the thought from her head.

Echolight glances down at her vole, then notes that Coyoteheart hasn't touched his. "If you're not hungry, do you want the rest of mine?" She squints back down at her vole, quietly mumbling something along the lines of "there's not much left, though."

xxxxxTHUNDERCLASH.
xxxxxxx✦ ⋯ warrior ⋯ tom ⋯ tagged: stormpaw, leafpaw ⋯ mentions: willowstep, cougarsight, lightningjaw, icestrike, sageblossom, whitedaisy, ravenfall, hawkpaw
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Thunderclash's ear flicks and he glances down at Stormpaw from the corner of his eye. He feels a tiny stab of guilt - small enough to where he could ignore it, but he lets it settle for a second. Stormpaw shouldn't be having to try and cheer him up because Thunderclash is acting like a kit over Willowstep's patrol assignments not matching up with his plans. It's not like the deputy can read minds - he knows he's being ridiculous.

Thunderclash sighs. His expression doesn't change, but he does seem to loosen up some. He moves his head, this time, to look at Stormpaw. He and Leafpaw were right, of course - they'd figure something out. "We can," he says, tone flat and even. Back to normal and back to business, then. His tail flicks a bit at Stormpaw's comment - he ignores the jumble in his head and finally says, "Thanks." There's a slight bit of humor to the tom's tone; faint enough that you'd have to know Thunderclash to hear it. But, Thunderclash has spent - what, eight moons? - with Stormpaw, so he's pretty sure it's picked up on.

Plans change. It's fine - hopefully after this, things can stay according to the schedule he keeps having to reorganize in his head. Realistically, he could do better to just discard the schedule and just roll with the flow, but that's more his sister's style than his. He shakes his pelt out, centering himself. "Let's go meet with the others," he says, nodding in the direction of where the patrol is gathering with his head. He doesn't wait to see if Stormpaw will follow him; Thunderclash is confident enough that he will. Maybe he can use the border patrol to start assessing Stormpaw - it's about time the apprentice gets the ability to start thinking about his warrior assessment.

xxxxxLEAFPAW.
xxxxxxx✦ ⋯ warrior apprentice ⋯ she-cat ⋯ tagged: wolfbite, stormpaw, thunderclash ⋯ mentions: tinyleaf (referenced), willowstep, fangfrost, fairystep, fawnwhisper
xxx──────────────────────────────

Leafpaw nods in response, quickly swallowing her bite of bird to respond to Wolfbite's retreating form. "I'll be here!" she promises. She glances at Stormpaw as he speaks and she snorts, eyes bright in amusement. "It wouldn't surprise me," she says, half-drowned out by Willowstep's yowl. At her announcement of the four of them being on different patrols, she slumps over. "Aw man," she grumbles, ear flicking as she glances up first at Stormpaw. Seeing his attention on his mentor, she glances over to look at Thunderclash, who looks like he's the gray area between peeved and annoyed. On one paw - she doesn't mind going on a hunting patrol, although she does feel a little nervous being the only apprentice on it. On the other - Wolfbite had already planned something for them to do, and the other mentor-apprentice pair they would be going with had a mentor who wasn't very thrilled when his plans were constantly being changed.

Carefully, Leafpaw takes another bite of the bird, glances between Thunderclash and Stormpaw, and then peers around camp. Willowstep had said that Fawnwhisper, Fangfrost, and Fairystep would be on the hunting patrol with them. Fangfrost and Fairystep are already together, which doesn't surprise Leafpaw. Wolfbite is likely still in the nursery - should she go get him? or should she wait? - and Fawnwhisper is... nearby Fangfrost and Fairystep. Leafpaw's gaze snaps back toward the nursery as she watches Wolfbite head out. She steals another bite of the bird and stands to her paws, already feeling awkward enough as it is that she'll be the last over there.

"I'll see you after we get back?" she offers, standing to her paws. "Maybe we can do something afterwards!" she says, glancing at Thunderclash from the corner of her eyes. Leafpaw hesitates for a heartbeat, glancing between Stormpaw and Thunderclash, then ducks her head and scurries over to her mentor and the rest of the hunting patrol.

xxxxxMOTHKIT.
xxxxxxx✦ ⋯ kit ⋯ she-cat ⋯ tagged: tinyleaf, lilykit, cinderkit, wolfbite ⋯ mentions: ivyscorch
xxx──────────────────────────────

Mothkit is, frankly, unaware of what is going on - or at least until something plops on her head. She lets out a startled squeak and then, upon realizing that Tinyleaf had just dropped a mossball on her head and told her to play with her siblings, grins in excitement. She jumps to her paws and bats the ball toward her siblings, before remembering: "Thank you Tinyleaf!!!"

Mothkit barely pays Wolfbite any piece of mind as she excitedly leaps across the den to the mossball. She bats it toward her siblings, eyes bright, and doesn't really feel her spirit diminished when Lilykit leaves the den to go ask Ivyscorch something. Sure, she'd like to play with her sister as well, but! "Cinderkit!" Mothkit calls. She stares at her brother for a moment and then crouches, poorly mimicking the hunter's crouch she's seen the warriors and apprentices do. She pounces, aiming to land on her brother's back. "Play mossball with me!" (during this, mothkit is vaguely aware of wolfbite and tinyleaf speaking, but she's far more interested in the ball of moss tinyleaf had dropped on her head. she has half the mind to make sure she isn't under wolfbite's paws as the warrior exits the den, but that's about it.)

[broken*]

☾. ── ❝ FAIRYSTEP ❞
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
( 16 moons ) ( molly ) ( warrior ) ( interest: fangfrost )( location: camp ) ( tags: fangfrost, wolfbite )
☾. ── ❝ shorthair fawn calico tabby oriental w/ soft-green eyes. ❞


the lean molly couldn't help but add a little extra sway to her steps as she walked away from the white warrior and towards the darker-colored tom who had just emerged from the nursery. she wondered if fangfrost had any idea that she harbored feelings for him that went past that of a normal friendship; not that she was planning on telling him anytime soon. the two of them were close in age, and so she had befriended the tom almost as soon as she was taken in by the clan as an apprentice. of course, if someone were to ask her about any of this, she would just state that fangfrost was her closest friend, which wasn't a lie at all, it just wasn't the full truth. shaking her head lightly to clear away the thoughts, she found herself smiling again at his words. "just because you blend in with the snow, doesn't mean it increases your skills fangfrost." she teased the tom with a grin, slowing to a stop as they neared the patrol leader. "you know you love me! spending time with me is probably your favorite thing." she bumped her hip against him again, before turning towards the darker tom with a smile. "good morning wolfbite. how are you this morning?"

✿. ── ❝ LUNA ❞
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
( 31 moons ) ( molly ) ( outsider - kittypet ) ( location: forest near border ) ( tags: open )
✿. ── ❝ shorthair solid white scottish fold w/ ice-blue eyes. ❞


the pure white cat was not the best huntress, not that she had to hunt to feed herself, what with her two-leg always leaving food out for her. most of the time it was something fresh that he had caught for himself, but with him being gone for a few days, he had left out the dry kibble that wasn't her favorite by any means. she had been trying to practice her hunting skills outside of the clan's territory, not wanting to take away from her friends prey supplies. she truly wasn't very good at it though, and it you asked her, she would comment that she thought it was because of her folded ears; she could still hear normally just fine, but she still felt like she struggled to hear smaller or farther sounds that other cats could hear. she sighed softly, wondering if perhaps one of her friends would be near the border and could maybe try to help her hunting skills.

✭. ── ❝ HONEYPAW ❞
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( 9 moons ) ( tom ) ( apprentice ) ( mentor: ravenfall ) ( location: camp ) ( tags: mistpaw / mentions: willowstep, mountainstar, ravenfall )
✭. ── ❝ longhair cream tabby kurilian bobtail w/ mud-brown eyes. ❞


although his smaller friend was very good at hiding her apprehension and nerves about things, he felt like he knew her well enough to know that she would be nervous about leaving the camp. he couldn't imagine how she must have felt, losing her eyesight the way that she did; it was one of the reasons why he admired the young molly, she never let her impairment hold her back, determined to be the best warrior. as the pair of apprentices left the medicine cat's side, he wished that he had a longer tail instead of his little stub, so that he could place it over her back to help direct her, but instead, he pressed himself firmly against her side, leaning down to lick her ear briefly. "just stay pressed close to me; i know that you know the camp's layout really well, but i'll take you over to where our mentors are waiting." as she commented about the hunting patrol they were set to go on, he smiled at her, although she couldn't see, and so he let out a brief purr instead. "i think it could be fun as well. i was asking ravenfall to let us train together today, and then willowstep announced we were on a patrol together instead, so it all worked out." just then, he slowed to a stop a few steps away from their mentors, greeting the trio of adult cats with a smile.

❅. ── ❝ COYOTEHEART ❞
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( 45 moons ) ( tom ) ( warrior ) ( apprentice: n/a )( location: camp ) ( tags: echolight / mentions: tinyleaf, wolfbite )
❅. ── ❝ longhair classic tabby maine coon w/ green-yellow eyes. ❞


at his friend's comment about the medicine cat apprentice, he thought back to some of the interactions that he witnessed between the pair, and wondered if there was something more going on there than he knew about. of course, it wasn't his business to ask, and echolight was more than able to talk to him about it if she needed an ear to listen, but he couldn't help being curious. it was just one of those things, looking around at different mentors and apprentices, and seeing the slight tension between kestrelpaw and echolight at times. at her laugh, the large tom felt himself heating up a little bit; it wasn't directed at him, just at a comment he made, but it made him happy that he could be the one to get that sound out of the molly.

at her next words, however, he glanced back towards the nursery just in time to see a dark figure emerging back out of the queens den; wolfbite. he had noticed over the past moon that the tom had grown closer to tinyleaf, hopefully just in a friendly way he thought. "i wonder if i should make an effort to talk to wolfbite... tinyleaf is in a fragile space right now and, while i don't think wolfbite is that sort of cat, i don't want him taking advantage of tinyleaf. she has enough to worry about." he tilted his head to the side slightly as he thought about his own words, wondering if he made such a comment to the other cat if tinyleaf would find out and be mad at him for looking out for her. he didn't think so, but he wasn't the best with social situations and what was normal.. looking back up at echolight, he thought perhaps she may give him some advice on the situation.

"i don't mind checking on her with you, whether it be before or after we go out looking for herbs. i try to spend some time with her each day myself, you see." the tom shook out the concerns from his head as he returned his gaze to his friend at his side, noticing her looking down at her own vole. he heard her mumbled words and, not wanting her to feel badly, gave a slight smile as he leaned forward and quickly finished up the vole for her. "that was perfect, actually. i wasn't the hungriest, but i know its always best to eat something to fuel yourself. i'll probably just put this extra vole over in the prey pile for someone else before we leave."

[senua]

┌── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────────┐
𝐌𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐂𝐚𝐭 | 𝐑𝐨𝐬𝐞𝐝𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐥𝐞
└─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ────────┘
━━━━━━━━━━━━∙⋆⋅⋆∙━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
rank - medicine cat | gender - she-cat | location - camp
tags - n/a | mentions - n/a━━━━━━━━━━━━∙⋆⋅⋆∙━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

With the patrols having been sent off, it certainly put a delay in her check ups on everyone. But all is well, after patrol check ups are probably the best anyway. After finishing her food, Rosedapple figured she should focus on other plans. Gather herbs perhaps? Maybe Echolight or Goosefeather would like to tag along, with Bumblepaw too! There wasn't much else for her to do and she hated standing still - well, it was mixed. If she had little to do then that meant there was nobody hurt.

Rosedapple did a quick little stretch before perking up her head and tail, trotting over to the medicine cat den, "Hello~" her voice sing-songed in the entryway, and much to her surprise it was quite crowded. Not only were all medicine cats in here, but so were a few stragglers, such as Coyoteheart and Kestrelpaw.

"My, my we have a full den today!" She chirped as she wandered in, "And not because anyone is hurt." A smile formed on her face. Back when Brackenstar reigned the medicine cat den was rather gloomy - in fact every day was gloomy. Unaware of who would get hurt, if treatment was even viable with the lack of herbs. "Is anyone busy? With so many leaving camp it seems checking up on everyone has to wait." And so would begin her rambling, "I was thinking of going to look for herbs? Is anyone else planning to do the same? Hmm, but of course i could stay behind if needed as well. Or is anyone here feeling bad?" Her eyes quickly began to scan every cat in the vicinity.

┌── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────┐
𝐖𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐨𝐫 | 𝐑𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐟𝐚𝐥𝐥
└─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ────┘
━━━━━━━━━━━━∙⋆⋅⋆∙━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
rank - warrior | gender - tom | location - camp
tags - the patrol | mentions - n/a━━━━━━━━━━━━∙⋆⋅⋆∙━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Ravenfall was silent for a moment before responding to Willowstep, "He is," and there was a bit of happiness to it. And he would hope for moons to come that little cat kept his energy and excitement. Some weren't so fortunate, "It's a good thing.. I think." He softly continued, "I know some mentors may be bothered by such, uh, energy. But I encourage it." He flicked his ear, before a bit of insecurity rattled his fur and he wondered if what he said could be seen negatively. He didn't want Willowstep or Mountainstar to perceive him as reckless, or a dangerous mentor with the inability to discipline. So he quickly proceeded, "W-within reason, of course.. I don't want it to get him hurt." He let out a small sigh with his eyes closed, before slowly reopening them to see the two apprentices come walking back over, pelt to pelt.

Well, good thing they were assigned then. Plus, if Honeypaw has friends then he doesn't have to worry much about interaction outside of their mentor-apprentice duties. He greeted the two with a small dip of his head.

┌── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────┐
𝐖𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐨𝐫 | 𝐖𝐨𝐥𝐟𝐛𝐢𝐭𝐞
└─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ────┘
━━━━━━━━━━━━∙⋆⋅⋆∙━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
rank - warrior | gender - nonbinary [they/he] | location - camp
tags - the patrol| mentions - n/a━━━━━━━━━━━━∙⋆⋅⋆∙━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

With what seemed to be the entire patrol finally in tow, the cat prepped for them to begin. "Morning," Wolfbite replied to the approaching cats, "Good." They replied bluntly to Fairystep, "I hope you are as well." He continued, and it was the truth. Wolfbite may struggle with it, but they truly did hope their clanmates were well. And if anyone on the patrol seemed bothered in some way that was something they needed to keep a passive eye on. Such absent-mindedness could get themselves or another hurt.

Perhaps they could take this time to watch and judge Leafpaw's hunting skills. "Since everyone is here, let's head out." And with that Wolfbite turned around and began to lead the hunting patrol out from camp and into the mountains for prime hunting, "Leafpaw," The cat began as he looked down at his apprentice, "I want to see how your hunting skills are coming along. I will be leaving you to do the hunting on my part instead." Of course this was a half-truth, they conveniently left out the words 'most of'. Wolfbite was merely curious to see how Leafpaw handled pressure when hunting. He would never return to camp personally empty-pawed on a hunting patrol.

They also wanted to see a glimpse of how a future assessment could look like with Leafpaw.

[Animals65]

Creamflower smiles as she sees Dovelight is still awake and pads over to her, dropping the mouse in front of the elder. "I brought you some food in case you were hungry." she said. "I was also hoping you would tell me a story if you don't mind."

[Catfrog]

𝙸𝙲𝙴𝚂𝚃𝚁𝙸𝙺𝙴
[ male - 35 moons - warrior ] ✦ [ located in camp - tags: Sageblossom, Whitedaisy, Hawkpaw, Thunderclash, Stormpaw, Lightningjaw ]
─
"Isn't that true!" He purred and tilted his head at Lightningjaw's reply "Well, if you think about it, if it snows we wouldn't have to worry about any hawks, and isn't that nice?" At Lightningjaw's rejection of his offer, he simply nodded. "Fair enough, the hunting patrol will probably bring in something better, anyways." He meowed, motioning at the patrol that was leaving camp. "We should probably get a move on. Wait by the entrance, I'll bring everyone else." He gave Lightningjaw a final dip of the head, then hurried away.

He padded toward Thunderclash and Stormpaw soon after, greeting them cheerfully. Something seemed a bit off about their mood, but Icestrike didn't think much of it. "Morning, you two! We'll head out in a moment. You mind waiting by the entrance while I get everyone else? Lightningjaw should be heading there already." He mewed, turning his head to look for the tom and nodding in his direction once he found him. Icestrike doesn't wait for an answer before he's off to collect the next patrol members from where they were near the apprentice's den.

Apprentices these days, sleeping in and holding things up! Rough moon or not... He huffed as he approached, but he's never annoyed for long. "Hey! Are you all ready to leave? One hunting patrol's already left, we should get a move on." He called out to the three without a noticeable hint of irritation, dipping his head to Whitedaisy and Sageblossom. "I'll be waiting by the entrance, so come when you're ready."
─

𝙵𝙰𝚆𝙽𝚆𝙷𝙸𝚂𝙿𝙴𝚁
[ female - 19 moons - warrior ] ♡ [ located in camp - tags: hunting patrol ]
─
Fawnwhisper followed Wolfbite as they lead the patrol out of camp. A hunting patrol, what a relief. She takes up the rear of the patrol once they're out of the cave. Her ears perk and her whiskers and nose twitch as she begins searching for signs of prey in the mountains. Hopefully they could split up at some point. Or catch something big together, she thinks, looking up at the sky.
─


𝙺𝙴𝚂𝚃𝚁𝙴𝙻𝙿𝙰𝚆
[ male - 9 moons - medicine cat apprentice ] ★ [ located in camp - tags: Bumblepaw ]
─
"Okay." Kestrelpaw nods at Bumblepaw's reply, already thinking of what he'll pick. He's a tail-length away from the den's entrance when Goosefeather's voice makes him stop and back-track to listen. He mews an 'alright' in reply. Kestrelpaw went to exit the den again, but stopped at the sound of Rosedapple's familiar, all too cheerful voice. Can't a cat go to eat in peace? He flicks the tip of his tail in slight irritation, but listens to whatever she has to say. Realizing she's speaking to no-one in particular, he pushes through the entrance and hopes no one else comes to hold them up. The pile is picked over when Kestrelpaw reaches it, but he spots a decently sized black bird and leans down to take it. It's nothing special, but Kestrelpaw still can't hold his head high due to its weight. Yesterday's herb collecting still has him sore, despite all the stretching he's done. He drops it at Bumblepaw's feet, relieved to no longer be carrying it. "This was the best thing there. Hope it's fine with you." He says before crouching down to begin eating.

"About what Goosefeather said," He meowed, swallowing a mouthful of fresh-kill. Usually he'd eat in silence, but he didn't want to make things awkward for Bumblepaw, because most cats seemed to prefer chatting over their meals. "What are you planning on doing?"
─