Gustclan
Number of Cats: 47 (2 of which are kits)
|22F|22M|2NB|
Food Consumption: 8
Visit to Moonpool: It's been a week since the last visit
Number of Cats: 47 (2 of which are kits)
|22F|22M|2NB|
Food Consumption: 8
Visit to Moonpool: It's been a week since the last visit
red sky at night
xxxxThe sun collapsed from the sky, bleeding out as its injuries lead it to fall.
xxxxOr, at least, that was how it looked to Camberfoot.
xxxxHalf the sky was filled crimson with the blood from the sun’s wounds. The sun was truly blessed by Starclan. Goodness knows how many times Camberfoot had seen the sun die – and violently, too – and yet she always rose again in the morning. The sun must have had far more than nine lives. Camberfoot couldn’t help but wonder how.
xxxxHow did the sun earn so many lives? And what beast thought it could keep slaying the sun? Why was it doing that? What did it look like, smell like, sound like?
xxxxWhatever the answers, it was beautiful. Beautiful, yet tragic. To see the source of warmth bleeding out… it was such a beautiful colour too, even if it were morbid to acknowledge that…
xxxx"Pssst!”
xxxxCamberfoot’s eyes snapped down from the sky. Not only had he nearly been about to walk into a boulder, but the patrol was far ahead of him by this point. Bugleclaw had turned and hissed at him once it was clear he wasn’t catching up. Camberfoot curled up a bit on himself, a guilty expression on his face, and just before he bounded to keep up- he caught sight of the other reason his attention was being called for. There, a short way ahead of his father and the other older warriors, was a tabby molly.
xxxxShe was curled up, grooming her front legs, in a sunny break in the shade of the trees, seemingly entirely oblivious to the patrol approaching her.
xxxxMartinwhisker went ahead, by not more than a few strides.
xxxxJust before he opened his mouth to speak, the molly turned her head instead, and spoke in an accent not that different to Moraine’s own. “Hell-o. I thought I smelt clan cats here. I was hoping I’d get to look a bit more presentable before announcing myself, but I suppose that’s just how things go sometimes. If you’ve got decent nests and cute guys my age, I am uuuup for staying here. And I am sure the cute guys would be up for that too-" Did she just wink at him? Camberfoot was sure that was a wink.
xxxxCamberfoot leaned across to his father without thinking, and muttered: “I think she’s a second Merlindash.”
xxxxApparently he spoke louder than he thought he had.
xxxx"She? NOPE! Not today. And I’m Umbrap-…. Umbraheart! Yup, Umbraheart-"
xxxx"What do you mean not today, Umbrapaw?” Shellcloud asked.
-----
xxxxCicelynose couldn’t help thinking she wasn’t the best choice for a hunting patrol. She didn’t like thinking that. She hated admitting there were things she couldn’t do. If there was one thing she knew she couldn’t do at all, couldn’t others argue there were more things that applied to, too? Couldn’t she be stripped of her warrior duties and retired now?
xxxxBut apparently, she wasn’t the only member of the hunting patrol that applied to.
xxxxWhile Cicelynose couldn’t see where the fish were, Vendacethroat couldn’t keep his fidgeting bottom still long enough to let the fish come near him. Cicelynose could tell. While Cicelynose kept splashing her paws into the water, and catching a few shrimps – which she had decided was fine for her to just eat on the spot, it wasn’t like she’d be able to get them back to camp – she kept feeling the patterns of sunlight changing on her side, as he shifted position. She kept hearing Troutclaw snickering from a short way downstream.
xxxxCicelynose’s paws connected with a snail, which she brought up to the service. She twitched her nose, before laying it on the rock in front of her and pushing her weight down on it to snap open the shell. It wasn’t anyweirder than any of the water bugs she’d eaten already.
xxxxThough she could feel the look that Vendacethroat was giving her.
xxxx"What in Silverpelt are you doing, Cicelynose?”
xxxxCicelynose’s ears twitched over to where Vendacethroat’s voice was at that moment.
xxxx"What are you doing? You’re scaring all the fish away, and you actually have a chance of catching something good.”
xxxx"I think there’s more fish further down, and I want to see them. I want to fish where the best fish are, so I can catch them.”
xxxx"Nah, be glad we’re not there. You’d scare them off and the whole clan would go hungry, just because of your fidgeting fat butt and big mouth.”
xxxxVendacethroat made a strange noise, like he was being strangled for a moment, and Cicelynose turned her head towards him in confusion, before she heard the laughter. It wasn’t loud, just a quiet chuckle. “No wonder Heronstar wanted Ploverstripe to accompany you leaving the nursery. You could start a war with a mouse with words like that.”
xxxxCicelynose smiled. “Yup. Would do, too.”
xxxxVendacethroat’s chuckling got louder.
xxxx"I like yo- THAT, THAT I MEANT THAT!” Cicelynose started to laugh too. “I did, okay? I… I – "
xxxx"In the hypothetical situation that I liked you too – which I don’t, you’ve got a fat butt – can you imagine the chaos our kits would cause?”
xxxx"Chaotic kits are the best kits.” Vendacethroat was very glad for her smooth save, and he was sure it showed in his tone.
xxxx"Chaotic kits would almost make up for your fat butt.”
xxxx"I think they’d compliment your silver tongue beautifully.”
xxxxCicelynose snickered. “Surely nothing bad could happen because of them and their chaos.”
xxxxVendacethroat laughed again. “Nothing at all.”
shepherds delight
xxxx"Look, I’m taller than you!” Knawelkit declared, stretching up to her highest height, above Witkit. Witkit stretched too, failing to reach as high as her sister had. Their heads barely grazed the lines of sunlight in the mid autumn light, where they painted a pale yellow on the walls of the nursery.
xxxx"Ha, told you!”
xxxx"You’re only taller by an ant’s height, that doesn’t count!”
xxxxKnawelkit puffed out her cream-coloured chest. “Does too. I’m gonna be a much better warrior. I’m bigger, I’m taller, I’m stronger, and I’m olde-"
xxxx"No you’re not! I’m bigger!” Witkit said, puffing her fur out as far as she could. “And you’re only older by a little tiny bit, that doesn’t count!”
xxxx"Does too!” Knawelkit pressed one paw on her sibling’s head, pushing down to raise herself up higher in turn. “Look at that! I’m gonna be brilliant.”
xxxxWitkit huffed, rolling her eyes. “You can claim you’re bigger if you stop acting like you’re older than me.”
xxxxKnawelkit giggled openly, but not so loudly as to wake any of the queens. She knew none of them would want to be woken so early, and that none of them would approve of her picking on Witkit. “Why would I agree to that? I am older than you, and everyone knows it, and it’s not like you can stop me.”
xxxxWitkit pulled possibly the largest pout that the nursery had seen to date, and Knawelkit’s giggling only grew louder.
-----
xxxx"Oooh, I’ve not been in the nursery yet, what’s that like in there?” Umbrapaw asked Ringpaw, who was serving as his guide around camp.
xxxxHeronstar had seen it as appropriate for another apprentice to show the newcomer around camp; she’d thought it might be easier for Umbrapaw to relate without seemingly having to prove himself (though Ringpaw was somewhat unsure on whether that had worked at all). She’d also thought that it might be easier for Umbrapaw to explain about his pronouns and such with someone his own age, as none of the cats really… were sure they understood. Heronstar and Chubtail – and all the other senior warriors – had confirmed they were happy to use whatever pronouns Umbrapaw was asking but… they changed? Because their gender changed? Most of the younger warriors had been entirely unaware that gender even was a thing – Ringpaw and his siblings included in that – and the explanation had been confusing anyway.
xxxx"I’m not sure the queens will appreciate you going in if they don’t know y-"
xxxxRingpaw’s objection was too late, Umbrapaw had already bounded into the nursery. Ringpaw hurried furiously after.
xxxx"I AM UMBRAPAW THE FABULOUS!”
xxxxKnawelkit giggled. Witkit looked up with a baffled expression on her face. The queens’ expressions ranged from matching Witkit to complete hostility.
xxxx"Umbrapaw!”
xxxxAnd Umbrapaw ignored him entirely. How did he sense this was going to become a trend.
xxxx"Mum, who’s she, and what in S-" Knawelkit began to ask the other queens – having picked up already that her mother was not the right cat to ask when she was confused.
xxxx"Nuh, uh, he, this mortal shell may have you convinced of-" / “Umbrapaw!” / “-me being female, but, alas, not today!” / "Umbrapaw!”
xxxxAn attentive cat might have seen the youngest clan member’s eyes widen just slightly as that was said, but, alas, only one did…
-----
xxxx"Firepath, Merlindash, we had a… proposition.” Sparrowfoot asked the two toms, as they returned from their patrol, coming back to camp.
xxxxLangoustinefang stood by her side, pressed tight into her, and perhaps that should have been enough warning to the two toms about what was coming, but-
xxxx"What sort of proposition..?” Firepath asked hesitantly, bracing himself for whatever insanity Vendacethroat and his sister had somehow dragged Sparrowfoot into. He knew well enough that the mollies were mates by now, but Sparrowfoot was far too – wait.
xxxxHe knew he’d follow Merlindash’s bragging if it came to it now. Which meant… If he were the serious one in their relationship and he knew he’d get dragged into the nonsense when it happened, didn’t it stand to reason that Sparrowfoot would let herself be dragged in, too?
xxxx"We thought… we could have kits for each other? We thought you might want kits, too.”
xxxxLangoustinefang nodded, following up her mate’s words. “I asked Heronstar already, and she said it’d be fine for Moraine to fill in the last few moons of Ringpaw’s training. She thought Moraine should get some opportunity to do training without having to feel responsible for everything, and so you don’t have to worry about that.”
xxxxMerlindash looked across at his mate. “The one thing I’d expect you to be better at than me, other than being handsome, of course, is being a dad.”
xxxxFirepath pulled a sceptical look at his mate. “I’m up for it, if you’re sure you can stand to be worse than someone else at something.”
xxxx"It’s only one thing out of goodness knows how many.” Merlindash smiled, before Firepath rubbed hard into his side.
xxxx"You two are sickening. You’d better not set that example to the kits.”
red sky at morning
xxxxPearstone wished his mate could be out to see today properly, but she couldn’t. Her kits were due any day now, and Harrierpelt made it very clear that she shouldn’t be walking anywhere where she couldn’t return to the nursery at very short notice, should she need to.
xxxxAt second best, he’d wished that he could stay in camp with his mate. Heronstar had told him clans still need to collect food, and that he was an experienced warrior. That if he went early enough to hunt (as he had) then they wouldn’t face any issues returning in time.
xxxxSo her he was, leading his hunting patrol down to the stream on the far eastern border, next to Lambclan’s territory. Luckily, he’d opted for a section of stream far from where Myrtleclaw had last been sighted, but that was largely a happy coincidence.
xxxxAs the patrol hunted their fish, Pearstone happened to look up to the Eastern horizon. He could see the first rays of the sunlight over the more distant hills, a tiny golden corona over pure black, the sky painted with broad swashes of orange and red, with a dusting of thin wispy clouds in perfect parallel lines above.
xxxxIt was gorgeous.
xxxxPearstone had always preferred sunrise to sunset, and this was precisely why.
xxxxIt was beautiful.
xxxxHe just wished that Moraine could see it.
xxxxBut then – maybe she could? If she had woken early herself, what would stop her finding a spot where she could look out from camp to the painted sky? He hoped so. To miss out on it, and the crisp wind it brought from the west would be a grave pity.
shepherds’ warning
xxxxAs much as Zinniapaw didn’t want to admit it, she was still jealous of her brother. The best case scenario for her dream was that the clan expanded enormously soon, and that Heronstar demanded another medicine cat then, and picked her. But so much could go wrong!
xxxxZinniapaw lay curled up in her nest in the warriors’ den, where she’d taken to spending a lot of her spare time, not wanting to face her other siblings and her failure. Starclan, she was useless. Why did she even stay here? They all knew she was a failure.
xxxxThe one thing she’d wanted to do since she was old enough to understand, and the one cat who could have allowed her to do it… she’d been rejected from what was most meaningful to her, and there was no way to get that back. She’d done everything she was aware she could to give herself a better chance.
xxxxAnd she could feel it in her siblings’ eyes. That pity.
xxxxThey knew! They knew she was worthless, that she didn’t deserve to even – to even stay there! They knew she’d forever be behind them as a warrior and less skilled than them. They knew all the effort of her kithood was useless and had been set aside for a fate she didn’t want.
xxxxZinniapaw buried her head in the nesting, shaking through heavy breathing against it.
xxxxShe didn’t notice the sound of pawsteps. The first she knew of their owner, was the comforting weight of their head against her shoulder, and it was hard to resist leaning back into that, and into the comforting words she was sure would come next.
-----
xxxxThunder crashed outside the old two leg nest, and Moraine lay still in her nest, head lolled back, with three other queens around her, as well as Harrierpelt and Teaselpaw close by.
xxxxThe Thunder was not improving her nerves about what was coming.
[ Umbrapaw joins Gustclan ]
[ Vendacethroat and Cicelynose become mates ]
[ Vendacethroat and Cicelynose try for kits ]
[ Sparrowfoot and Langoustinefang decide to surrogate for Firepath and Merlindash ]
(I am happy for you to select whatever combinations of parentage that you want to, bearing in mind that you can entirely avoid having to look up for torties if you want to…)
[ Lobeliafur and Osierfang are in their third moon of gestation ]
[ Moraine is in her fourth moon of gestation ]
[ Chubtail, Boulderdash, Mosquitowhisker, Pheasantcloud, Ospreystorm, and Garganeywhisker go hunting ]
[ Argusheart, Pearstone, Firepath, Merlindash, Lionfish, and Saffronstream go hunting ]
[ Heronstar, Shellcloud, Bugleclaw and Clarystorm go on a patrol ]
[ Martinwhisker, Camberfoot, and Noctulepath go on a patrol ]
[ Umbrapaw is apprenticed to Tabitha ]
[ Ringpaw and Langoustinefang, Dipperpaw and Droseratail, and Squirrelpaw and Ploverstripe train ]
[ Zinniapaw and Knotfish train ]
[ Minnowpaw and Adoniscloud train ]
[ Teaselpaw and Harrierpelt train ]
[ Umbrapaw and Tabitha train ]
[ Nettleflower stays in camp to mind the kits – Witkit and Knawelkit ]
[ Moraine stays in camp to mind the kits - ]
[ Harrierpelt and Teaselpaw return to camp to mind Lobeliafur and Osierfang’s kittings ]
[ Sparrowfoot, Osierfang, Lobeliafur, Vendacethroat, Cicelynose, Barnfish, Lobsterclaw, Troutclaw, Aspenfoot, and Narwhal stay in camp ]
[ Gustclan consume 2 big fish and 1 rabbit – 8 portions ]
(I thought doing the flowers this post might take away a bit from the “red sky”s, but I like the flowers, they’ll be back in other posts)
[ Vendacethroat and Cicelynose become mates ]
[ Vendacethroat and Cicelynose try for kits ]
[ Sparrowfoot and Langoustinefang decide to surrogate for Firepath and Merlindash ]
(I am happy for you to select whatever combinations of parentage that you want to, bearing in mind that you can entirely avoid having to look up for torties if you want to…)
[ Lobeliafur and Osierfang are in their third moon of gestation ]
[ Moraine is in her fourth moon of gestation ]
[ Chubtail, Boulderdash, Mosquitowhisker, Pheasantcloud, Ospreystorm, and Garganeywhisker go hunting ]
[ Argusheart, Pearstone, Firepath, Merlindash, Lionfish, and Saffronstream go hunting ]
[ Heronstar, Shellcloud, Bugleclaw and Clarystorm go on a patrol ]
[ Martinwhisker, Camberfoot, and Noctulepath go on a patrol ]
[ Umbrapaw is apprenticed to Tabitha ]
[ Ringpaw and Langoustinefang, Dipperpaw and Droseratail, and Squirrelpaw and Ploverstripe train ]
[ Zinniapaw and Knotfish train ]
[ Minnowpaw and Adoniscloud train ]
[ Teaselpaw and Harrierpelt train ]
[ Umbrapaw and Tabitha train ]
[ Nettleflower stays in camp to mind the kits – Witkit and Knawelkit ]
[ Moraine stays in camp to mind the kits - ]
[ Harrierpelt and Teaselpaw return to camp to mind Lobeliafur and Osierfang’s kittings ]
[ Sparrowfoot, Osierfang, Lobeliafur, Vendacethroat, Cicelynose, Barnfish, Lobsterclaw, Troutclaw, Aspenfoot, and Narwhal stay in camp ]
[ Gustclan consume 2 big fish and 1 rabbit – 8 portions ]
(I thought doing the flowers this post might take away a bit from the “red sky”s, but I like the flowers, they’ll be back in other posts)
- Leader:
Heronstar | 84 | Female
Lives: ★★★★☆☆☆☆☆
Deputy:
★ Chubtail | 80 | Male
Medicine Cat: (1)
★ Harrierpelt | 59 | Male
MCA: (1)
★ Teaselpaw | 11 | Male
Warriors: (29 [+4])
★ Boulderdash | 75 | Female
★ Argusheart | 76 | Female
★ Pearstone “Poirroche” | 58 | Male
★ Osierfang | 46 | Female | Queen
★ Bugleclaw | 77 | Male
★ Lobeliafur | 42 | Female | Queen
★ Moraine on Steep Slope “Moraine” | 53 | Female | Queen
★ Shellcloud | 38 | Male
★ Droseratail | 38 | Male
★ Martinwhisker | 54 | Male
★ Sparrowfoot | 32 | Female
★ Nettleflower | Female | Queen
★ Firepath | 36 | Male
★ Tabitha “Tabbyfur” | 33 | Female
★ Merlindash | 29 | Male
★ Clarystorm | 69 | Male
★ Langoustinefang | 27 | Female
★ Vendacethroat | 27 | Male
★ Ploverstripe | 25 | Male
★ Cicelynose | 25 | Female
★ Knotfish | 34 | Male
★ Narwhal | 40 | Female
★ Adoniscloud | 31 | Male
★ Garganeywhisker -mouse | 27 | Female
★ Troutstripe | 17 | Female
★ Pheasantcloud | 16 | Female
★ Mosquitowhisker | 16 | Female
★ Lobsterclaw | 16 | Male
★ Camberfoot | 16 | Male
★ Lionfish | 15 | Male
★ Ospreystorm | 15 | Female
★ Noctulepath | 15 | Female
★ Saffronstream | 15 | Male
Apprentices: (6)
★ Ringpaw | 11 | Male
★ Dipperpaw | 11 | Female
★ Squirrelpaw | 11 | Female
★ Zinniapaw | 11 | Female
★ Minnowpaw | 8 | Male
★ Umbrapaw | 7 | Genderfluid (Molly)
Queens: (4)
★ Osierfang | 46 | Female | •••
★ Lobeliafur | 42 | Female | •••
★ Moraine on Steep Slope “Moraine” | 53 | Female | ••••
★ Nettleflower | 32 | Female | ••••
Kits: (2)
★ Witkit | 2 | Demi-girl (Molly)
★ Knawelkit | 2 | Female
Elders: (2)
★ Barnfish “Barn-owl” | 108 | Male
★ Aspenfoot tail | 97 | Female
Starclan cats:
Elmkit fang | Died shortly after birth
Myrtleclaw | Decapitated
Dark Forest cats:
Saddlekit stream | Ate poisonous fungus
[Glaceon has permission to use her for plot purposes!]
