numвer σf catѕ: 14
ѕervingѕ needed: 4
neхt moonpool viѕit: any time
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Greenleaf had been kind to the cat's of Clayclan, though it felt as if time had flown by faster than ever. And perhaps it had; time and space could hardly be trusted in the beech forest so haunted by ghosts and strange flickerings. Still, whatever the cause, those long greenleaf nights had been cut short by the chill of oncoming leaffall. Squirrels bounded from tree to tree, snatching still unripe nuts as the chilly energy of leaffall began to settle in their veins. Cats too felt this new energy and hurried about their territory, collecting herbs that would not survive the first frosts or chasing after those twitchy squirrels. The time of aimless plenty had come to an end, this all the creatures, who had just one moon ago snoozed beneath beech shade, knew. What they did not know, would not let themselves know in any capacity greater than subconscious thought, was how truly fleeting those good times were.
"Two more steps towards me Gopherpaw- wait not that big of a step! Yeah right there. Okay stop- there's a branch in front of you." Fogpaw's normally cheerful tone was slightly edged with an anxious concentration. His eyes were tightly squinted against both the setting sun and his own near-blindness. The late greenleaf sun shone cold and glaring, hovering between the branches of an oak tree right at Fogpaw's eye level. Even if it had not been right in the apprentice's milky eyes the evening shadows it cast would have made Fogpaw's task difficult enough, distorting the already smudged landscape. "How many tail lengths up is it?" inquired Gopherpaw. His tail twitched with barely-controlled impatience as Fogpaw mulled over the question. At this rate it would be newleaf by the time Fogpaw and he had tracked down their mentors; and that was only the beginning of their assessment!
When Resinstar had announced it time for Fogpaw and Gopherpaw's warrior assessments, Gopherpaw wasn't sure what he had expected. Catching a certain amount of prey maybe, or swimming across the Aspernclan lake, or even racing through the treetops after a tailless squirrel. Well perhaps that last notion had been somewhat influenced by Resinstar's stories; with him telling Bronzekit the same one every day it was little wonder that Gopherpaw had dreamed of the tree-dwelling terror on more than one occasion. In any case, the apprentice had imagined something simple. Mottledfoot had told him not to worry about it; she hadn't even had an assessment. Clearly then Crocusgaze had had something to do with this test.
"One and a half." Fogpaw interrupted Gopherpaw's thoughts by finally coming to a consensus. Armed with this new information Gopherpaw assessed the branch in his mind. He could definitely jump onto it, maybe even clear it. Ryepath had instilled a slightly inflated sense of his own capabilities in Gopherpaw where doubt had worn it down. Together it all balanced out in Gopherpaw's much improved self-esteem. He trusted himself to clear the hypothetical branch, he just didn't quite trust Fogpaw that his hypothetical matched reality. But Gopherpaw had little other options. Previously he had dismissed Minnowpaw's offer of aid on the basis of it being cheating. The whole point of this assessment was to push Gopherpaw out of his comfort zone in depending on a clanmate; that and Fogpaw's ability to maneuver outside of Beechclan territory. Why else would Gopherpaw be stumbling around former Aspenclan territory with a rush leaf wrapped around his eyes, following the guidance of a much younger apprentice that he barely knew.
"Gopherpaw?" Fogpaw's mew cut through the dark once more. "Are you waiting for something?" Was he waiting for something? Gopherpaw still paused behind the fallen branch. Was he waiting for Ryepath to arrive? To tell him that she had come to her senses and realized that traveling together really was better than settling in a clan and subjecting one's self to potential letdown? Gopherpaw felt a rising panic in his gut, one that usually only accompanied a bad bout of dysphoria. But that was not the cause, Gopherpaw was still tom. No this panic, this feeling of being smothered alive, had a different root altogether. Gopherpaw felt himself trembling and splotches bloomed in his darkened vision. The leaf litter jumped up to meet his belly, or more likely he himself collapsed to the ground.
Fogpaw was on him in a second. Gopherpaw could feel the smaller apprentice's pelt pressing into him far before the blindfold had been pulled from his face. "Are you okay?" Fogpaw's mew had lost all the cheerfulness that had masked his anxiety. "Are you sick? Dysphoric? Do you need me to get Ryepath?" Gopherpaw shook his head tightly to he bombardment of questions, even though the offer of Ryepath made him half hesitate. "I just need a moment," he managed around barely contained sobs of a still confusing source. "The webs said today would go so well." Gopherpaw could hear Fogpaw whisper morosely as he tried to catch his breath. The words caught the older apprentice in the chest like the sweeping kick Ryepath had shown him a few suns ago. Fogpaw sounded so small and subdued, two words which should never have been used to describe the lively tom.
"I'm being selfish," Gopherpaw realized aloud. "Gopherpaw what? No-" Before Fogpaw could protest further Gopherpaw pulled one of his grandmother's classic moves by interrupting him with a raised paw. "I'm not used to clan life anymore," he explained, "I'm not used to cats caring about me that aren't Grainy, or caring about cats other than her. My old clan-" Here Gopherpaw drew a long, shuddering breath. "-they kicked me out after learning I wasn't tom all the time. Cats I had known since birth completely alienating me, all except Ryepath. We searched for other clans. They all reacted differently, few of them well, but it didn't matter. I had her and she had me and that was enough. But now there's more than just us and I don't know what to do." Eyes that blinked back tears and sun searched Fogpaw's youthful face and found understanding there- a quiet, soft understanding.
"My parents didn't like it when they found I wasn't a she-cat," Fogpaw admitted in a low voice, not because to speak louder would bring tears but because of the solemnity that the subject deserved. "They didn't like that I couldn't see right either but being a tom was the last claw. For a while it was just me and the stars." A secret, bashful smile crossed Fogpaw's muzzle as he spoke of the stars that had watched over him. "They gave me a lonely kind of beautiful, my eyes. I saw the feelings of things and knew they were lonely too, especially the stars. It was okay, being lonely together. But then Webwing came and he was lonely too, lonely with me and the stars. There should have been more loneliness, all of us together, but instead there was less. And then in finding Clayclan I became even less lonely even with so many individual sorrows." A wisdom beyond Fogpaw's few moons, or maybe the wisdom was due to his youth, had crept into his mew and hung there in every word until the tom laughed, embarrassed by his own seriousness, and broke the spell.
"I don't know if that was any helpful," he apologized, but Gopherpaw quickly reassured him. "It was," the elder apprentice promised. Gopherpaw pushed himself up to his paws and slipped the rush leaf back over his head, Fogpaw helping settle it over his eyes. "You know what Fogpaw?" "What?" A large grin bloomed on Gopherpaw's muzzle. "I think you read the webs right. Today is going to go well." Though he could not see it Gopherpaw could easily hear Fogpaw's grin as the apprentice instructed, "The branch is one and a half tail lengths. You could clear it in one jump."
With all the yowling that echoed from the Clayclan medicine den, a passerby might have thought Taffytuft's kits had come. But the queen was still pleasantly round and sharing tongues with her mate on the other side of camp. Like all other present Clayclan cats Taffytuft and Gustpond were trying very hard to pretend as if they couldn't hear Ivypaw screeching bloody murder. Wasn't the weather nice? Oh yes, nothing like the just nearly-leaffall chill. It had been so hot recently. When was the next gathering did you suppose? Soon? Oh lovely.
Eventually the formless shrieks stopped as Driftstep dropped the twig she had been using to poke around at Ivypaw's paw onto a patch of damp moss and stomped outside for some air. "I can't do this," the medicine cat whispered to no one in particular. She scanned the clearing for some source of relief but found only Gustpond and Taffytuft's awkwardly sympathetic glances, the kind that older cats gave queens with tantruming kits that was half please-control-your-kit and half guilt at their own thoughts. While Driftstep couldn't blame them, she also couldn't keep her face from flaming. Sending up a prayer for strength to Starclan, Driftstep rounded back into the medicine den.
"Are you going to start stabbing me again?" Ivypaw drew her paw protectively to her chest, her eyes accusing Driftstep of medical misconduct of the highest degree- making a patient cry. Driftstep, however, was far too tired for any of Ivypaw's mousedung. "I was hardly stabbing you," she retorted briskly, picking up the twig delicately with her teeth. Ivypaw flinched, the fur on her spine spiking up even further, before it became clear Driftstep was simply wiping off her tool. Flicking the bloodied moss to a corner of the den, the medicine cat returned the twig to its proper place before turning her attention back to her patient. "I needed to know how deep the glass was, something which wouldn't have been such a big problem had you come to me a moon ago."
Ivypaw flicked her tail irritably, avoiding Driftstep's gaze. "It's no big deal. I cleaned the cut every day," she retorted hotly. Driftstep's mew was nearly a scoff. "With your tongue? A cut from glass needs immediate herbal treatment. Professional treatment." "Yeah well I'm here now." Driftstep, who had been mixing a poultice, paused mid-mash. "You don't seem to understand. Since you didn't come to me immediately there's not much I can do. The shard I felt was big and too far embedded for me to remove it. Now all I can do is try to prevent infection and keep you off your paws so the shard doesn't move around further and slice a vital vein or tendon. If you're lucky your body may eventually expel the glass." As Driftstep matter-of-factly ran through her predictions as to how likely Ivypaw was to suffer permanent muscle damage the apprentice's face had grown several shades paler than it's usual black and orange hue.
"Will I lose my paw?" came the eventual, shaky, question. Driftstep either did not notice how Ivypaw was trembling or did not care enough to cushion the blow despite the apprentice's suddenly real fear. "It's not unlikely." "But I thought you were supposed to be able to cure anything." Though Ivypaw tried to reclaim her tone of distaste the uncharacteristic softness of her mew ruined any facade of indifference. Driftstep sighed and kept working the poultice with her paws. "I can only help as much as cats let me help, and even then I am far from infallible. Medicine cats aren't miracle workers." "That's not what Poppypaw said," muttered the apprentice under her breath, not quite quiet enough to miss Driftstep's ears.
Talking to younger cats had never been a strong suit of the Clayclan medicine cat. Being the only kit in a clowder of old feral cats had somewhat stunted her ability to relate to cats controlled primarily by strong emotions, which cats of Ivypaw's age tended to be. Clan life had somewhat helped remedy this weakness but not enough to prevent Driftstep from what seemed to be her millionth sigh of the day. "Look, Ivypaw. I can tell you're struggling with asking for help, but there are cats here that care about you. Taffytuft kept fretting about how upset Mottledfoot is that the two of you aren't speaking the last time I gave her a check up. Whatever happened with Aspenclan or The Fog, I'm sure it's reasonable for you to be upset over it. But cutting yourself off from the cats who are here to help you will only make things worse." By how Ivypaw avoided Driftsteps's gaze the medicine cat could tell she had struck a cord.
"Yeah I guess," grunted the apprentice. She stared at her paws for a few heartbeats longer before asking very hesitantly, "Was Mottledfoot really that torn up?" Driftstep nodded solemnly. "Enough to keep Taffytuft prattling on the entire time I was monitoring her." The medicine cat made a face. "That was unkind of me. But yes, Mottledfoot does care about you. So does all of Clayclan. This place is nothing if not invested in the well being of one another." Ivypaw began to nod along, mulling over what might spell the death of her brooding spree. "Everyone here is really nosy." "That they are. In the best way possible."
The sun had all but set when Ivypaw's visitor came calling. The pale light that framed Mottledfoot made her appear almost ethereal, more similar to the Clayclan ghosts than a living, breathing cat. It was only when her sister stepped inside of the medicine den that Ivypaw could say for sure that Mottledfoot was truly there and not some specter of the apprentice's too-active imagination. "Hey," whispered Mottledfoot. "Hey," Ivypaw mumbled in return. Mottledfoot moved to sit besides her sister without saying another word and the pair remained there, on the edge of conversation, for several heartbeats.
Ivypaw, for all her pointed lack of eye contact, couldn't help but sneak glances at Mottledfoot out of the corner of her eye. Her sister's face was unreadable, if she was as upset as Driftstep claimed Ivypaw couldn't tell. How could one cat change so much in half a season cycle? When had Mottledfoot become so serious? When had Ivypaw become so bitter? The answer, of course, was clear- it had been the fog, and the time spent apart because of it. Ivypaw felt a new flash of rage rise up in her belly at the desolate cloudscape that had robbed her of seven moons of life. She hated it for stealing her moons, her family, her peace of mind. She hated how she still woke up trembling, fearful it had come for her again, fearful that she had never escaped it in the first place.
Without consciously registering it, Ivypaw had begun to cry. By the time she became aware of her shivering sobs Mottledfoot had already wrapped herself around her little sister and Ivypaw didn't have the willpower to pull away. Instead the too-young-apprentice leaned into her older sister's flank and began to sob openly and without reservation. Mottledfoot held Ivypaw tight, rocking her slowly back and forth like Cloudmask used to when one of the kits would scrape themselves playing and come wailing for comfort. Neither spoke- what could be said?- but in that moment, the comfort of one another's presence was enough.
Gradually Ivypw's sniffling came to halt leaving her tired and lightheaded and hot. She wriggled out of Mottledfoot's grasp, who reluctantly allowed her to, and shook out her pelt, blinking a few times both to clear her eyes of tears and to avoid meeting her sister's gaze. "Ivypaw-" Mottledfoot tried to begin but faltered over the lack of words for an unexplainable situation. Ivypaw shook her head viciously as if shaking off the cobwebs of her previous vulnerability. "Just don't tell anyone about this," she managed finally, though without the usual bite to back up her words. Mottledfoot managed to keep from flinching at the slight, but just barely. "I won't," she promised. As Ivypaw remained quiet the warrior turned to go, only to be caught just before she left by a mew barely above a whisper. "Come back soon, I guess. Tell me how Gopherpaw and Fogpaw's assessment went." A small, hopeful smile began to creep its way up Mottledfoot's muzzle. "I will."
"Ho Pintostream! Waiteth f'r me!" Moosetracks's lumbering gait shook the earth and sent yellowing leaves tumbling from trees as he chased after Pintostream. Though the somali warrior picked up his pace his stumpy legs were no match for Moosetracks who quickly caught up to him. "What do you want?" Pintostream asked irritably, his eyes still fixed straight ahead. Perhaps if he ignored the other tom he would take the hint and get lost. Of course, such subtleties were inevitably lost on Moosetracks who simply cocked his head in confusion."Crocusgaze toldeth us to hunteth togeth'r?" he prompted the other tom easily, as if perhaps he had simply forgotten.
Pintostream barely managed to swallow his scoff. "Well we can hunt together apart. We-" You. "-won't scare away as much prey that way." A confused expression flashed across Moosetracks's face, not that that was anything out of the ordinary. "How can we doth something togeth'r apart? Togeth'r and apart art opposites. Unless this is diff'rent in thy dialect?" "Must be a regional difference or something," Pintostream replied noncommittally, "But really, back off. You're ruining my vibe." "Thy vibe?" Pintostream scowled and finally whirled around to face Moosetracks. "Aye, mine vibe," he replied, in a mockingly bad imitation of Moosetracks's accent. The confusion on Moosetrack's face slowly morphed into shock and then hurt, but Pintostream only felt the tiniest bit bad about it. If he had to spell things out for this big lug to get it then he would.
"You're far from the brightest star in Silverpelt if you haven't noticed, Moosetracks." Pintostream enunciated each syllable so that his meaning was crystal clear, malice dripping from every word. "Everyone in Clayclan thinks you're an idiot, you said as much yourself. They only keep you around because your brute strength is good for something. If I hang around you everyone's going to start thinking I'm as pathetic as you are. So back off." The fur on Moosetracks's spine had begun to stand on end midway though Pintostream's taunts, and by the end his entire body was quivering. At least that had gotten through to him where all of Pintostream's previous brushoffs had failed.
It was lucky for Pintostream that Moosetracks was not naturally inclined to violence, having been hyper aware of his size from an early age and having been taught by his parents to never attack another cat save for in self defense, less he seriously hurt them. Moosetracks could have easily hurt, even killed, Pintostream had he wished to, but he did not wish to. He simply wanted to make sense of the pain that the older tom, who he had maybe even begun to let himself have a crush on, had inflicted upon him seemingly out of nowhere. Words kept trying and failing to form in Moosetrack's mouth, leaving him breathless, confused, and unable to respond.
Pintostream took his silence as an indication of success. "Look," he continued, a faint smile on his muzzle as if he considered what he said almost kind, "You're an okay guy in the grand scheme of things; you just aren't going to cut it to be a friend of mine. Let's just keep out of each others' way and we can pretend this ever happened. Capiche?" Moosetracks was still to stunned to even nod, but Pintostream didn't wait for him. Instead the tom just turned on his heels and disappeared through the brush leaving Moosetracks alone to deal with his thoughts. Well, not exactly alone, handily Lupinekit had just arrived to make things worse.
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「xxxxxxxxGopher takes their assessmentxxxxxxxxxx
xxx↪ success grants the name Gopherfangxxx
xxFog takes his assessmentxxx
xxx↪ success grants the name Fogcloudxxx
xxxDrift goes herb huntingxxx
Tawny, Bright, Moose, Pinto, Crocus, Rye hunt
xxxxxxxxxxResin, Fog, Mottled, Gust patrolxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxx2 squirrels eaten by the clanxxxxxxxxxx
xxxAdvent prizes to 12/6/18 addedxxx
xxxxTaffy goes into labor (0 moons)xxx
xxx↪ Drift attends with kitting herbsxxx
xxxxxxxxx↪ Rye attends ensuring a safer birthxxxxx」
- leader:
Resinstar | 39 moons | Tom | ♬
Lives: ★★★★★★★★★
deputy:
Crocusgaze | 36 moons | Shecat | ♫
medicine cat:
Driftstep | 33 moons | Shecat | ♪
warriorѕ:
Ryepath | 59 moons | Shecat | ♩
↪ safer births, x2 skills taught, ???
Tawnymoon | 57 moons | Shecat | ♩
Gustpond | 52 moons | Tom | ♩
Brightpool | 45 moons | Shecat | ♩
Pintostream | 35 moons | Tom | ♩
Moosetracks | 32 moons | Tom | ♩
Mottledfoot | 19 moons | Shecat | ♩♩
apprenticeѕ:
Gopherpaw | 20 moons | Genderfluid | ♩
↪ +1 prey caught, ???
Fogpaw | 13 moons | Tom | ♩
Ivypaw | 11 moons | Shecat |♩
queenѕ:
Taffytuft | 50 moons | Shecat | ♩
kitѕ:
~
elderѕ:
~
ghoѕtѕ:
Claywhistle | Tom | Resinstar | ♭
Sorrelstar | Shecat | Driftstep | ♭
Malloweyes | Shecat | Crocusgaze | ♭
Honeyfur | Shecat | Ryepelt | ♭
Momomoon| Shecat | Tawnymoon | ♭
Stormripple | Tom | Gustpond | ♭
Bronzekit | Tom | Brightpool | ♭
Carpstorm | Shecat | Pintostream | ♭
Lupinekit | Tom | Moosetracks | ♭
Flaxpool | Shecat | Mottledfoot | ♭
Minnowpaw | Tom | Gopherpaw | ♭
Webwing | Tom | Fogpaw | ♭
Brushfire | Tom | Ivypaw |♭
Salmoncress | Shecat | Taffytuft | ♭
- ally clanѕ:
Clan Name | Username
enemy clanѕ:
Clan Name | Username
вorderѕ:
North | Jinxclan | vampiress_fox
East | Aspenclan | dispersed
West | Soulclan | krazykitty00
South | Leafclan | dispersed
medicine ѕtore:
Blackberry leaf | eases bee stings- 1
Borage | aids in milk production & fevers- 2
Burnet | traveling herb, stops bleeding- 1
Catmint | combats greencough- 2
Catchweed | sticks poultices- 1
Celadine | soothes damaged eyes- 1
Chamomile | traveling herb, soothes spirit- 3
Chervil | cures infections & bellyaches- 2
Cobweb | stops bleeding, binds bones- 1
Coltsfoot | aids breathing & sore paws- 1
Daisy leaf | traveling herb, eases joints- 1
Dandelion | eases bee stings, painkiller- 1
Dock | soothes scratches & paw pads- 1
Fennel | soothes hip pain, eases kitting- 2
Feverfew | reduces temp, heals headaches- 1
Goldenrod | heals general wounds- 2
Honey | soothes infections, throats, coughs- 1
Ivy leaf | stores herbs, acts as plaster- 1
Lamb's ear | gives strength- 2
Lavender | cures fever & chills- 1
Marigold | stops infection & bleeding, joints- 1
Parsley | dries milk, soothes bellyaches- 1
Poppy seeds | soothes shock, aids sleep- 1
Raspberry leaf | stops pain & bleeding- 2
Stinging nettle | aids swelling, breaks, etc- 1
Tansy | cures coughs & poison, greencough- 2
Watermint | soothes bellyaches- 1
Yarrow | removes poison, heals paws- 1
freѕh-kill pile:
Minnows | x2 | 1 serving
Small fish | x4 | 2 servings
Water fowl | x5 | 3 servings
Voles | x3 | 1 serving
Squirrel | x0 | 2 servings
Shrews | x4 | 1 serving
mentorѕ:
Resinstar | Fogpaw | 4
↪ hunting, battle, climbing, swimming
Crocusgaze | Ivypaw | 3
↪ climbing, swimming, hunting
Ryepath | Gopherpaw | 4
↪ swimming, hunting, climbing, battle
ѕtarclan:
Cat Name | Cause of Death
familieѕ:
Resinstar ♡ Ivy
Driftstep ♡ n/a
Crocusgaze ♡ n/a
Ryepath ⌇ Peregrinestep
Tawnymoon ⌇ Foxfoot
Gustpond ♡ Taffytuft
Brightpool ⌇ Ty
Pintostream ♡ n/a
Moosetracks ♡ n/a
Mottledfoot ♡ n/a
Gopherpaw ♡ n/a
Fogpaw ♡ n/a
Ivypaw ♡ n/a
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