--- Ridgeclan ☄ [open]

[.:Shuckles:.]

☁ ── ＦＬＩＮＴＣＬＯＵＤ

50 moons ☁ tom ☁ warrior ☁ tags: everyone at the meeting, anyone who wants to try and wake him


Despite being able to sleep like the dead on most days, unable to be awoken without vigorous shaking and loud shouting; for once Flintcloud was easily awake at the unreasonably early hours of the morning that most of the other warriors began their patrols. He supposed it was just as well, he should have known better than trying to stay out later and later into the night hoping desperately to catch something to add to the fresh-kill pile. Too much work, and he didn't even have anything to show for it. He'd stayed up late into the last night, eventually shuffling his bedraggled and frosted pelt inside the warrior's den while being careful not to wake anyone. Starclan forbid anyone see him pulling extra patrols ─ someone might get it into their head that he wasn't at all the lazy tom he made himself out to be. Lately the pile had been less of a pile and...well. It was more of a clump of whatever small frigid prey could be dug from their frozen burrows. "Ugh..." he groaned, turning over onto his other side rather than stand up from his nest. Palestar's voice drifted over in an echo of her usually firm voice, instead sounding exhausted and weary. It took him a few moments, unwilling to leave the warmth of his space in the den but eventually he lifted himself to his paws and shook out his long fur, still damp from last night's melted clinging icicles and the morning dew. Stepping heavily outside, as soon as he'd found a spot big enough for him to sit facing Palestar's den, he flopped onto the icy ground with a huff of air. The huff transformed into a melodic humming under his breath, and soon he was smiling his characteristic grin as the rest of his clanmates joined him. He kept an eye out for his other sister Whisperblaze, but if her fiery orange pelt was gathered there among the other apprentices and warriors of the clan, he didn't catch sight of it.

As Palestar spoke, he caught her gaze and smiled brighter trying to encourage her. Her death had been a shock, and he'd resolved never to let it happen again. Hence why he'd been out later than he'd cared to be on a winter night, and was now yawning with wide jaws in the middle of a clan meeting. Palestar's bones protruded from the same long fur that Flintcloud possessed, the light color of it doing nothing to hide her diminished physique. He set his jaw hard, the words she said becoming background noise with only the words "Back to back patrols" and "dismissed" filtering through. He watched her enter her den, and watched her leave again from where he was still laying with his belly flat on the ground; all four legs and tail akimbo and spread out from under him. It wasn't the warmest or most comfortable posture, nor the most elegant. But in the moment Flintcloud has so tired that he couldn't be bothered to care about propriety, and as he watched most of the other warriors disperse around him too, his eyelids drooped before another yawn forced them to close entirely. So there in the middle of the entire clan, a little ways outside of the leader's den, a loudly and conspicuously snoring Flintcloud went right back to sleep with a smile.

[འབྲོག་ཁྱི]

┌──────────────────────────┐

│
│
⚜ ◦ ⤜──────→ 𝑆𝑢𝑛𝑝𝑎𝑤!​
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the rebels ▪ tom ▪ tagging Fennelswipe? ▪ the commons ▪ form ▪ wc; 253
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│
└──────────────────────────┘

The first rays of pale winter sunlight broke through into the apprentices' den, dancing across the padding-covered heaps on the floor. In one of them rested a white-and-orange tom, his unusually hollow green eyes slowly blinking the residue of sleep away. Even though he was on the small side for a tom of his age, the famine had taken its toll on him. Sunpaw yawned, the sudden inhale of chilly air nipping at his nose. For a moment, he was almost certain that he wasn't going to sneeze, and so it took him by surprise. The resulting sound was rather loud, but trying not to wake his fellow apprentices barely crossed his mind. His emaciated figure shuddered slightly as he sat up, giving his pelt a few soothing licks.

The voice of Palestar, which the cheeky apprentice regarded as slightly nasal and thus straining to the ears, drew him out of the den and into the commons, where some of the clan had already gathered to listen to what the she-cat had in mind. He barely paid attention to the grey tabby's words as his eyes searched the crowd for Fennelswipe. He was hopeful that the tawny male would emerge soon, or he was bound to end up bored. The experienced warrior had introduced his mentee to the rebels, and he was now enthusiastically entangled in their ideology. He wasn't sure of the exact nature of their plans, and he didn't really care - it had all simply sounded exciting and rather daring.

[broken*]

✴. ── ❝ＷＨＩＳＰＥＲＢＬＡＺＥ ❞
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( 50 moons ) ( she-cat ) ( noble warrior ) ( rebel leader ) ( tags: morningleaf, bonefang, rowansight, fennelswipe, mistypaw, sunpaw ) ( location: forest, camp )


the pale orange tabby she-cat knew that her sister was likely to call a meeting once the clan began to stir, to address the famine that the clan was facing this leafbare. luckily, the clan hadnt lost a soul to starvation yet, although part of that likely was that the clan had no elders left or queens with kits, as those were typically the most vulnerable cats to hunger and cold. she shook her head for a moment to clear the thoughts away and refocus on the short-haired form that was beside her. they had gone out in the early hours of the morning, before a single soul stirred within the clan, and had traveled out towards the edge of the clan territory. thats where they had spent the last few hours, in and out of sleep, bodies cuddled up against one another, sometimes talking sometimes just comfortable in the silence of each others presence. as she truly began to wake up and come to her senses, she turned her body over to face the tom, a soft smile on her face.

she looked up to the sky and noticed the sun finally beginning to rise, and so she leaned forward and gently licked his forehead. "we should head back before we're missed, morningleaf." she pulled herself to her paws but her eyes landed on a pretty purple flower that she recognized from the medicine cats den before. she approached the plant and pulled up a few stalks of the flowers; catmint helped cure whitecough and greencough, which the clan was at risk of now due to the heavy cold fronts and lower immune systems. "a cover. we were out searching for herbs because we couldnt sleep and wanted to do something for the clan. i know my sister and palestar will believe it." she continually pressed her body against the tom's as they began to walk back to the camp, and they arrived back just in time to hear the end of palestars speech. the she-cat had to keep herself from smiling as she handed the catmint over to morningleaf, her voice so quiet that no one else would be able to hear her words. "she lost her third life. that means she only has 4 left.. our time is getting closer." she purred in his ear before slipping away into the camp, her eyes scanning for a few specific cats. "rowansight, bonefang, and fennelswipe, with me! oh; fennelswipe bring sunpaw and bonefang bring mistypaw. we're going to the northern corner of the territory to hunt."

❁. ── ❝ ＷＯＬＦＰＡＷ ❞
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( 12 moons ) ( she-cat ) ( apprentice ) ( the good ) ( tags: deerstripe ) ( location: camp )



it was not uncommon for the young she-cat to be plagued with the memories of her families last moments of life and death during the night as she dreamt each night. this last night, for example, had been one of such experiences, likely triggered by the starvation occurring within the clan currently. all she could see was that large hare's body, surrounded by the members of her family as they fed. there were no outward signs of disease, but as they began to feed, she remembers her nose wrinkling in disgust at a foul odor she begun to notice. she at the time was still too young to eat raw meat, so she stayed at the back of the group, just sitting and watching. the scene quickly changed several times after this, showing first the sickness setting in, and then her family members beginning to drop like flies. first her older cousin, than her aunt, than her father, than finally her mother, and she was all alone.

she awoke in a cold sweat, her body shaking slightly with tremors of fear paralyzing her as she had a minor panic attack from the memories. she just breathed through it before finally regaining control of her body and pulling herself to her paws. she heard the clan leader, palestar, begin to start speaking; she must have called a meeting while wolfpaw had been unable to pay attention. she slipped from the apprentices den quickly and made her way into the crowd of the clan before finding a seat. she began to groom herself as a coping mechanism as she listened to palestar talk, trying to settle the spiked-up fur that was still sticking up in odd places/angles from her anxiety. palestar's words caused her to realize her own hunger as her small stomach growled gently, glancing over to where the fresh-kill pile used to be but was currently empty. as palestar ended the meeting and jumped down from her perch, the tabby apprentice's bright yellow/green eyes began to scan the camp for her mentor, figuring they would be going out hunting. she spotted her mentor asking smokepaw to go hunting with him and felt her spirit sink a bit but she was determined to prove herself and so she sought out the brown and white she-cat who was smokepaw's mentor and approached her with a soft mew. "good morning deerstripe. may i join you hunting today? adderstrike took smokepaw with him.." she couldnt help the slightly defeated tone of her voice.

[razzberry]

（ ༄ ） 𝐃𝐄𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐈𝐏𝐄 ─── ！！

▬▬▬▬▬▬ ▬▬ ▬▬▬▬

37 moons ▪ molly ▪ noble deputy ▪ mentors smokepaw ▪ tags ; wolfpaw, adderstrike, smokepaw, flintcloud, whisperblaze [m] ▪ location ; camp

Seated at her place a little ways from her leader, the tabby feline listened as Palestar addressed the growing concern of famine that had the clan rattled. Deerstripe's pale green gaze extended towards the crowd gathered with glowing interest in what their leader had to say. The idea to up patrols and have them back to back was a good idea as far as Deerstripe was concerned. The more prey they were able to bring back with each patrol during a whole day, the better their chances would be of
persevering the famine that plagued them now that leafbare was upon them.

As the clan was dismissed, the deputy rose to her paws in preparation to send out the first hunting patrol. Her eyes flitted from cat to cat and she was disheartened to see that with most, their frailness and malnourishment was evident. For those who didn't appear as emaciated as others would soon find themselves that way if more prey wasn't brought back. The faint voice barking out orders caught the she-cat's attention and when her line of sight connected with the pal pelt belonging to Palestar's sister, Deerstripe's eyes narrowed. With all the respect she had for her leader, she couldn't care for her sister. Whisperblaze gave off a suspicious vibe and the deputy wasn't going to pretend that she didn't hear the whispers and rumours of groups forming within the clan. The warrior giving out orders to her fellow clan mates was an indication that she might be more involved in those rumours than Deerstripe would like to believe.

A small voice from beside her broke her from her thoughts and had her eyes turning towards Wolfpaw. "Good morning Wolfpaw. Ah I see" the she-cat meowed and lifted her head towards the apprentices den where she spotted Adderstrike with her apprentice. "I've an even better idea. The four of us can go on a hunting patrol, you and Smokepaw can both work on your stalking techniques as well" the deputy meowed and flicked her tail for the young cat to follow. She trotted towards Adderstrike, slowing down as she eyed him and her gaze flicked to her apprentice whom he had attempted to take hunting. "Morning you two. Adderstrike, you and Wolfpaw can join Smokepaw and I for a hunting patrol. I'll find another warrior to come as well. We'll meet by the camp entrance when your ready" she meowed.

With a flick of her tail she was off in search of another warrior to complete the patrol and it appeared she wasn't searching for long before she spied a slumbering figure not far from her. 'Flintcloud' she thought to herself on a sigh. She wasn't surprised to see the lazy tom lounging away while everyone was getting to their duties. 'Perfect. I can give him something to do' she thought and veered off in his direction and a light jog. "Flintcloud" she meowed as she approached the large tom who seemed to be slumbering peacefully. When the tom didn't so much as stir, she stepped closer and raised a paw, prodding him in the side in hopes to wake the sleeping giant.

（ ༄ ） 𝐅𝐄𝐍𝐍𝐄𝐋𝐒𝐖𝐈𝐏𝐄 ─── ！！

▬▬▬▬▬▬ ▬▬ ▬▬▬▬

45 moons ▪ tomcat ▪ rebel warrior ▪ mentors sunpaw ▪ tags ; whisperblaze, sunpaw ▪ location ; camp

The burly tomcat sat near the edge of camp, his hard amber gaze trolling over the cats of Ridgeclan leisurely. He remained in the same location whilst Palestar called the clan to gather and proceeded to spoke words of reassurance and offered a naive solution to their famine in the form of back to back patrols. Sure, it wasn't a bad idea but with the amount of prey appearing in their part of the forest the past couple of moons, no matter how many patrols went out, if there weren't any prey in the area to be hunted, the patrols would come back with nothing. All Palestar was going to achieve was in driving the cats to exhaustion on top of starvation. If they wanted to truly survive, Palestar needed to realize their territory wasn't going to support them anymore, not during leafbare. He'd already discovered that heading further outside of their territory to hunt was bound to have a higher success rate then within the Ridgeclan borders. Fennelswipe had gone out and taken his apprentice with him a few times, beyond the borders of their clan, and they had been successful to say the least.

As cats to began to disperse at their leader's call, movement from the side of camp had the massive fawn colored tomcat shifting his steely gaze towards the two figures slipping into the camp. Whisperblaze and Morningleaf appeared together, and he realized he hadn't seen them since dawn, when he'd awoken himself. They had probably slipped out of camp before that. Fennelswipe watched them exchange words before the pale ginger she-cat who had become the voice of the cats who disagreed with Palestar's current rule called for several warriors, himself included. Lifting himself to his paws, the large warrior turned his head in time to catch sight of Sunpaw, beckoning the apprentice over with his thick tail before continuing on towards Whisperblaze. "If I can offer some insight, we won't find much within the clan borders as far as edible prey goes. Beyond - well that's where we'll find what we need to survive" his meow was deep and gravely, with a masculine rasp to it and his amber gaze flicked from the group of cats who had made up the rebellion.

[XDinosaur]

✖ ─── 𝔂𝓪𝓻𝓻𝓸𝔀𝓹𝓪𝔀

（ ＦＥＭＡＬＥ - ＭＥＤＩＣＩＮＥ ＣＡＴ ＡＰＰＲＥＮＴＩＣＥ - ＬＯＣＡＴＩＯＮ；med den - ＴＡＧＳ； open ）

The medicine cat apprentice awoke from her slumber. She shivered, not wanting to leave her warm nest. However, sunlight poured into the medicine den, disrupting the young she-cat from slacking. Yarrowpaw had a nightmare last night, not allowing her to get a very good nights rest. In her dream, she was with her siblings, adventuring into the forest. They eventually came to a lake that had frozen over. After checking its stability, the apprentices slid across the ice. They laughed, teasing each other each time one slipped and fell. At one point, the siblings became unruly, forgetting that they were playing on the line of death. Yarrowpaw slipped and her weight crashed through a piece of thin ice. The freezing water paralyzed her body, not allowing her to swim. All she could hear was a faint scream of her name from Nettlepaw. Before anything else could happen, Yarrowpaw woke up. It wasn't long before she fell asleep again that night.

Yarrowpaw yawned, stretching her foreclaws on the floor of her den. The scent of herbs was natural to her now. She wondered if Morningleaf was awake yet. The apprentice's thoughts were interrupted by a call from the leader. Her ear flicked as she quickly padded out. Eager to hear the words of her respected alpha. Without taking a look to see who all was gathered, Yarrowpaw took a seat outside of the medicine shop. Her leader's words saddened her. Yarrowpaw was a bit thin too. However, she didn't suffer as much this winter since she didn't eat much anyway due to her small build. But this was only the beginning and who knows what might happen. The apprentice was happy the matter was left on a positive note and returned back inside the medicine den where it was somewhat warmer.

✖ ─── 𝓼𝓶𝓸𝓴𝓮𝓹𝓪𝔀

（ ＭＡＬＥ - ＡＰＰＲＥＮＴＩＣＥ - ＬＯＣＡＴＩＯＮ；apprentice den - ＴＡＧＳ； adderstrike, deerstripe, wolfpaw ）

Although Adderstrike didn't mention it, Smokepaw desired to do something useful. The apprentice fancied a direction or command from the warrior. He expected something along the lines of changing nests or even going on either a hunting patrol or a perimeter check. Anything to allow an opportunity for the young tom to prove himself to the clan. Smokepaw's left ear twitched as his mentor and denmate approached. He was frightened a bit by the encounter; had he done something wrong? The Siamese tom felt instant regret for sleeping in that morning. After listening to Deerstripe earnestly, his demeaner changed into excitement. A hunting patrol sounded awesome. Especially with another apprentice and mentor duo. Smokepaw offered a respectful nod along with a warm smile to the tabby deputy before she left. He appreciated the gesture by Deerstripe since Adderstrike came looking for something to do anyways. Or so the young tom figured. It seemed like the deputy always knew what to say. He admired that about his mentor. Communication is an important factor as a leader, so Deerstripe would be a great one. Smokepaw's bright blue eyes trailed to Wolfpaw. The warm-toned grey tabby was noticeably hardworking, just like he was. Born two moons before him, the she-cat was slightly more experienced. However, maybe he can learn something from her. "Hey, Wolfpaw, are you ready to go?" Smokepaw's voice beamed, beckoning her to follow. He trailed past her, his body trembling with excitement. Stepping out of the den, a bitter cold washed over him. His fluffy pelt didn't do much to keep him warm from the freezing temperatures. A shiver escaped his muzzle as he waited for Wolfpaw to join him.

[འབྲོག་ཁྱི]

┌──────────────────────────┐

│
│
⚜ ◦ ⤜──────→ 𝑆𝑢𝑛𝑝𝑎𝑤!​
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the rebels ▪ tom ▪ tagging Fennelswipe, Whisperblaze ▪ the commons ▪ form ▪ wc; 300
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└──────────────────────────┘

After a moment of impatiently observing the clearing, the large tawny form of Fennelswipe finally caught the young tom's attention. He was gesturing for his apprentice to come over, and so he happily pranced after his mentor's hulking form. Just in time to catch the larger tom's rumbling words, he butted in: "I agree! We've been beyond the borders before, there's a lot more to eat, at least compared to our territory." He went on with a voice filled with enthusiasm, the words rolling off his tongue in a way that was pleasant to the ear, even if what was being said wasn't appealing to all within earshot. "Palestar must be more muddled from starvation than I thought; there's barely any prey around here anymore. Back-to-back patrols sound like a terrible idea, even to the kits." Sunpaw rarely meant what he said as truly hurtful, but it wouldn't be the first time that they might be taken as an insult.

Then the talkative tom turned to Whisperblaze, the more or less official leader of their clandestine rebellion. He was never one to mind his words too much, but when addressing the respected warrior, they gained perhaps just a hint of discipline. "Will we go right away? I'm itching to get out of camp and sink my claws into something! At the moment, a little nourishment wouldn't hurt anyone either." Sunpaw's ears flickered slightly to gesture at the lot's sunken forms. The sight might've been disheartening to some, but he was always the optimist: with someone like Whisperblaze at the lead, they could get through this winter. Suddenly brimming with energy despite his famished condition, his tail twitched with exhilaration and his paws tapped against the ground - to anyone unused to the lively apprentice, it must've looked like he was dancing.