[ ✦ there's a bonfire burning tonight ]

My gallery · by **eagle,** » Mon Jan 07, 2019 6:19 pm

"mom, can we go play in the camp?" sweetecho opened her eyes to the young, pitched voice that spoke to her. in turn, she found herself face-to-face with cardinalkit, who blinked up at her with his wide, eager eyes. behind cardinalkit, her own kits waited for her answer, though she wasn't sure she had it in her to say no. not when fleetingkit tipped his head to one side and rainykit kneaded the ground. she knew they were getting older and that, soon, they would be out of the nursery and following their mentors onto the moor, though the very thought made her heart ache. even still, she found herself swallowing around a different sort of pit in his throat when he gaze landed on cardinalkit again. at first, she adored the small scrap like he was her own - he was sweet, and didn't seem to know anything other than what she told him; she never told him that she wasn't his, that the kits he slept beside every night were not his siblings. which made even less sense when he looked more like redstar than her own litter did.
"we'll be careful, we promise," webkit piped up, ears pricked and fur fluff out with excitement. at last, sweetecho nodded, but not without nodding across the nursery to mothtail and her kits.
"go see if boulderkit, autumnkit, and daffodilkit want to go with you. i'm sure mothtail could use the rest." the other tabby queen paused between licking between her son's ears, and sweetecho smiled gently, knowing mothtail heard her. moons earlier, she knew that mothtail had been happy with her son, but had wanted more than one kit. sure enough, when sootstone came back with daffodilkit and another patrol brought autumnkit, mothtail immediately claimed them as her own. she loved them, from what sweetecho could see, just as fiercely as boulderkit, and sweetecho wondered why she never felt the same way for cardinalkit.
heatkit led the way to mothtail's side, and sweetecho could hear the queen's purr of amusement. already, boulderkit squirmed from his mother's grasp, and daffodilkit picked her head up and blinked her eyes. without need for encouragement, the younger kits raced out of the nursery before their mothers could call them back. earlier that morning, aspenwish came by to offer to take marshkit and darterkit to stretch their legs. the eldest kits were the talk of the clan and the center of attention with their apprentice ceremonies coming up quickly.
"finally," sweetecho purred, tone light. "a little bit of peace." further back, poppyhaze was curled around her young kits. it would be another moon or so before her own trio would be causing mischief. "autumnkit didn't want to go?" sweetecho asked after a long moment, when her friend bent down to begin grooming autumnkit's red fur.
"no," mothtail answered, though she hesitated and sweetecho felt the air shift slightly from light-hearted to more serious. for a moment, mothtail seemed to pause and look at autumnkit curiously before giving her a comforting lick, whispering gently to the kit. then she rose to her paws and met sweetecho, whispering quietly, "i'm actually worried about her. i don't think she can see."
at first, sweetecho only blinked up at mothtail. the pair spent moons together in the nursery, ever since mothtail came to the clan. even after piperskip, aspenwish, and sunnywhisker moved back to the warrior's den, sweetecho and mothtail remained and had become close friends and confidants. even then, a topic as serious as this had never crossed between them, and sweetecho could only look past her friend to where autumnkit was still lying, burrowed in the moss of mothtail's nest. sweetecho leaned forward and the mollies exchanged quick, quiet hisses. "what do you mean she can't see?"
"exactly what i'm saying. i think she's blind."
"have you gone to the medicine cats about this?"
"no." at that, mothtail looked back to autumnkit and sighed heavily. "what would redstar do if i'm right?" she asked.
it occurred to sweetecho then that it meant that autumnkit would never be a warrior. it would be impossible for her to hunt with her clanmates or fight off any enemies. the moor was dangerous - starclan help her, even the camp would be dangerous - and she would never be able to fend for herself like the other kits would. still, they weren't savages. "let's figure that out after we get the medicine cats," sweetecho decided, standing up and turning to leave the nursery.
however, mothtail rounded and stood in her way, blocking off the entrance. "she's my kit, i'll deal with it," she hissed, and sweetecho ducked her head only when she recognized the fear and anxiety that made her friend act this way. it surprised her, how fiercely mothtail was willing to protect a foster kit. she never would have done the same for cardinalkit.

gullfeather stared at her reflection in the pool of water in the back of the medicine cat den and sighed heavily. as the days passed, her stomach continued to bulge at the sides. earlier in the season she had been able to pass it off as the wealth of greenleaf that graced the moor, but now she would be unable to deny the truth if asked: she was pregnant with kits. as if it wasn't bad enough that she broke the code, she bore kits from a tom of a different clan. paleflick was handsome, kind, and she'd been careless and foolish. "starclan forgive me," she mumbled, ducking her head and sitting down. it would only be a matter of time until she had a little of kits and no way to deal with them without her secrets being revealed to the entire clan.
as if on a cue, a cat cleared their throat behind her and gullfeather's head snapped up to meet alpinemask's gaze. the older medicine cat regarded gullfeather for a long moment, his head tipped slightly to one side before he stepped forward. "we won't tell gorseberry," he said simply, and gullfeather's heart sank in her chest. he knew. he knew and that was all he said, moving closer only to dip his head to the pool of water to drink. "i thought i would take him out to search for herbs. would you mind looking at poppyhaze and her kits?" he asked when he straightened up again.
"is there anything wrong with them?" gullfeather asked, suddenly distracted and running through her mind to see if there was a recollection that the kits might be sick. poppyhaze's kitting went smoothly and none of the kits showed any signs of weakness.
however, alpinemask shook his head once and shrugged. "not that i know of. but you never know, just in case something comes up." before gullfeather could comment further, alpinemask turned and left. in the front of the den she heard him call out to gorseberry, and gorseberry's subsequent answer. after some time, the pair was gone and gullfeather looked back into the water until daylight stretched into the depths of the den.

the nursery was nearly empty when gullfeather entered. sweetecho and the older kits had taken to the camp to pursue the warmth of the day, and only poppyhaze and mothtail were resting in their nests. however, once gullfeather approached the queens, mothtail's eyes flashed and she spoke, "did sweetecho tell you to come here?" she asked, her tone edged and bordering on hostile. gullfeather's eyes pricked though her gaze flitted to where mothtail's tail curled tighter around autumnkit.
"she did not. was she supposed to?" gullfeather asked in turn, to which mothtail seemed to freeze, caught off-guard.
"no," mothtail said simply.
aware that poppyhaze was watching the proceedings in silence, eyes wide, gullfeather brought herself closer and dipped her head to sniff autumnkit. the young molly didn't hold any scent of sickness, but gullfeather decided to speak to the kit, "are you awake, autumnkit? do you feel okay?"
from the instant autumnkit opened her eyes, gullfeather knew that something was wrong. the pupils of her eyes didn't dilate and they appeared cloudy. all the same, autumnkit yawned and blinked up at gullfeather, her ears angled towards the sound of her voice. "a little sleepy, i just woke up," she said, and gullfeather nodded once, her body suddenly tense and cold despite the warm weather. when silence stretched across the nursery, autumnkit's whiskers twitched and she turned her head, speaking towards mothtail's flank. "mama? is something wrong?"
"no, everything is fine," mothtail breathed, and gullfeather watched as autumnkit's gaze shifted from the fur at mothtail's side toward the queen's face. "i just need to speak with gullfeather for a minute. go over with poppyhaze," mothtail encouraged. autumnkit's eyes squinted and her ears pressed back against her head. she stood, but stared blankly at the floor of the den and moved only when poppyhaze called out to her. she walked low to the ground, slowly and cautiously, and the three mollies breathed out sighs of relief when she reached poppyhaze's dark fur.
mothtail led the way outside, into the bright sunlight and turned to face gullfeather. "tell me i'm wrong. tell me she can see."
"you know i can't say that, because it's not true," gullfeather answered, "i'm sorry."
mothtail shook her head, her shoulders drooping. "what are we going to do?"
gullfeather swallowed thickly and looked back to the nursery. "i'll figure out a way to help her, but you need to help me." there was no telling where these words came from, but they flowed easily from her mouth. "i'm having kits." she didn't think it was possible for mothtail's expression to fall any further, but it did, and she had no choice but to nod slowly.
"starclan help us both, we'll get through this. for your kits and mine."

My gallery · by **eagle,** » Mon Jan 07, 2019 6:21 pm

"take these to redstar, then go to the nursery to check on privetfang and zinniabelly," alpinemask listed off. his back was turned to gorseberry while he spoke, though the younger medicine cat could sense the tension lingering underneath the surface. alpinemask's shoulders were hunched, his head low, and his ears were pressed back against his head. "later we'll go out and look for more herbs. we need to stock up before the snows come in."
"alright," gorseberry answered, flicking his tail while he listened. "will gullfeather be coming with us?" he asked after a moment, when alpinemask said nothing further, too set on preparing the herbs for redstar's wounds. after their leader led the patrol against the fox, alpinemask had taken over most of redstar's healing. this was the first time he sent gorseberry to redress redstar's wounds and make sure that he avoided infection.
"no," alpinemask snapped suddenly, though he turned quickly and caught gorseberry's reaction. the younger tom backed up a step, ears pricked and eyes wide. "no, she'll be staying back to help mothtail with autumnkit," he explained, tone softer. gorseberry dropped his gaze and alpinemask sighed heavily. "i'm sorry, it's just tense around here. and i know that collecting herbs used to be a special thing for you and gullfeather. you're probably tired of me, huh?" he continued, letting out a snort of laughter when gorseberry's eyes snapped up again to meet his own.
"no! it's not like that," gorseberry argued, though alpinemask shook his head slightly and chuckled once more.
alpinemask moved aside and nodded towards the pile of prepared herbs. "go on now, no use wasting the daylight while we still have it," he urged, laughing just until gorseberry was out of the den and out of earshot. then he lowered his head and cleared his throat. "alright, he's gone," he said.
gullfeather slipped from the back of the den where she had been waiting, hiding away from her former-apprentice as the day approached to give birth to her kits. "i hate hiding from him," she muttered, then looked to alpinemask. "you'll keep him busy the rest of the day?"
"of course, shouldn't be that hard," he grumbled in reply, to which gullfeather hummed softly. a moment passed in silence before he nodded to his friend, whiskers twitching. "how are you feeling?"
gullfeather licked her chest fur once, taking her time before answering. "i'm excited to have them, of course, but i'm also nervous. i can't be the mother they deserve," she admitted with a shrug of her shoulders.
"i know the feeling," alpinemask said with a sigh.
for a moment, the pair of medicine cats sat in silence before gullfeather nudged alpinemask with her shoulder. "sad that you can't be a mother?"
alpinemask rolled his eyes and his expression twisted, becoming a mixture of distaste and amusement. "no, i'm glad i can't be a mother. i meant about being what the kits deserve..." he trailed off and ducked his head.
"have you seen your kits yet, or your mate?" gullfeather asked, touching her nose to alpinemask's shoulder to try and comfort him.
"no, not yet," he breathed out, "and we're not going to stay mates. i don't love her."
"i don't love paleflick either," gullfeather murmured softly, only to let out a loud laugh which grew louder when alpinemask shot her a confused glance. "what have we gotten ourselves into? maybe starclan has cursed us all." at that, she stood and headed towards the herb storage, tails and ears pricked. "at this rate, gorseberry is the only hope we have for a medicine cat who will follow starclan's laws."

"what's his name?" patchwing asked. she was seated in the middle of the nursery, her bright green eyes flickering from where gorseberry was checking zinniabelly's nest for anything that might have scratched her in her sleep. when gorseberry sent her a sharp glance, mouth full of moss, patchwing rolled her eyes and kneaded her paws. however, she did lower her voice, more careful of waking poppyhaze or privetfang, who napped on the other side of the nursery. "fine," she hissed, "what's his name? don't make us guess." she gestured to berrypad when she spoke.
berrypad had been helping gorseberry look for a thorn or needle in the moss while patchwing pestered them both, though she sat back on her haunches at the mention of her name and dropped her moss. "don't drag me into this," she whispered back.

wip

My gallery · by **eagle,** » Sat Jan 12, 2019 7:00 pm

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never stop running on and on with the wind
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paragraphstarclan had cursed her, gullfeather thought to herself while she sat over the three graves she spent the night digging. her paws had long-since gone numb and her very bones ached with exhaustion after being away the entire night. she wanted nothing more than to curl up and sleep, though she feared nightmares and dreams of starclan cats who would come down with their jeering. she broke the code and paid a price that was too high. worse than losing her own life, she had to continue to live on while her three small kits would never experience the world. they would never be able to play in the camp with other kits, would never have the chance to be given mentors and have the clan chant their names. their bodies were given to the earth before they had the chance to breathe in life, and the weight of the world rested on gullfeather's shoulders.
paragraphof course, as a medicine cat, she knew from the outset that the kitting would go poorly. the seasons didn't lend to her advantage, but it seemed more fitting that she save the kitting herbs they had gathered over the moons for privetfang and zinniabelly. alpinemask had offered to come, though gullfeather refused, despite his argument that gorseberry would able to watch over dustpaw, who suffered from a broken leg during his training session. gullfeather had smiled at alpinemask and said that she would be fine, that she would be back before dawn. already, the pair had plans in place after alpinemask was set to get his daughter from the border. together, they were prepared to convince the rest of the clan that they found the kits while gathering herbs. surely no one would question them, as it wasn't entirely rare for young kits to be brought into the clan such as daffodilkit, autumnkit, and even cardinalpaw. poppyhaze would be able to nurse the kits until zinniabelly or privetfang had their own kits and a supply of milk. it would work out.
paragraphthat is, until her kits all died and gullfeather had to bury them. on the horizon, the pale sun was beginning to rise, casting shadows across the ground, and gullfeather knew that her time with her kits was waning. her eyes lifted to the sky and her voice came out as a whisper. "ivystripe," she said, her voice cracking when she spoke the name of the medicine cat before her. ivystripe would understand her situation better than most, possibly even better than alpinemask. though gullfeather had never known ivystripe, the mother of marshpaw and darterpaw, she knew the stories of her from cyanslash and gorseberry, about how she had taken a mate without the clan's knowledge. only sweetecho and piperskip were there for her when she gave birth to her kits, though they had been unable to save poor ivystripe. "please, ivystripe," gullfeather whispered to the sky, hoping her predecessor would open her ears to listen, "please take care of my kits. i swear that i'll always keep an eye on yours." no one seemed to know who ivystripe's mate had been, though gorseberry had said that he thought the father must have been from another clan, since no one in quickclan had stepped up to claim marshpaw and darterpaw. the young apprentices, ever since, had been seen as different, forever stuck in the shadow of their mother's death, mystery father, and missing brother, hollowkit, who had been stolen not long after their birth. gullfeather couldn't decide which was worse - to die and watch her kits live on, or to live and have to bury her kits.
paragraph"gullfeather," alpinemask's voice came through clear on the gentle morning breeze, and the molly whipped around to face him. her friend stood tall, sheltering a small white kit between his paws, and he licked his lips once. she watched his eyes dart from her face, likely marked by her exhaustion by being up all night, to the dried dirt and blood on her paws, finally to the three mounds of dirt she stood in front of. "i - i am so sorry," he said at last, after what felt like an eternity. gullfeather dropped her gaze to her paws, glancing up only when the kit at his paws gave a soft whimper.
paragraph"we should get her back to camp," she suggested, taking in a deep breath before she padded forward to sniff alpinemask's kit. "what's her name?" gullfeather asked, even the smallest smile forced.
paragraphalpinemask swallowed thickly, understanding that gullfeather wasn't ready to talk about her dead kits yet. "valleykit," he answered, tone low and tight.
paragraph"she's beautiful," gullfeather purred, though her own skin crawled. the young molly was so small, so innocent, and so fragile. as if she could sense gullfeather's thoughts, valleykit let out a low whimper and huddled close to alpinemask, hiding from the cold air. immediately, gullfeather could sense alpinemask's tension. "you need to get her back to camp. poppyhaze can feed her and she needs to get warm," gullfeather said, though alpinemask hesitated.
paragraph"come back with us - with me," he urged quickly. "sitting out here isn't good for you. i'm sorry gullfeather, but they're gone. starclan will take care of them. you need to let them go," he said, fearing that his friend would stay out all day if he let her. she would freeze by the graves of her kits if he didn't get her back to camp. even then, she stood shivering, but she finally looked alpinemask in the eye and nodded once.
paragraph"alright," she said, pressing herself against her closest friend when he picked valleykit up by the scruff of her neck. the kit let out a small whimper, but allowed herself to be carried. like that, the two medicine cats headed back towards the quickclan camp, alpinemask carrying his kit, and gullfeather focusing on not turning back to look at the graves where she buried her kits.

paragraphwhile gullfeather and alpinemask were out of their den, gorseberry was tasked with watching over dustpaw while the apprentice slept, to ensure that he made it through the night without waking up from any discomfort. gorseberry laid with his chin resting on his paws and his thoughts swirling around one another in his head. piperskip had been to see her son several times, as had oriolepaw, though alpinemask had chased away the hovering mother and concerned brother, telling them that dustpaw needed space for the first few days while he began to heal. for that, gorseberry was grateful - piperskip's overbearing nature had always unnerved him, making him jumpy around the grouchy molly, and he hated to see oriolepaw look so worried. after their sister's disappearance, the brothers had been extremely close, and anyone could see that oriolepaw was protective over dustpaw. it must have pained the darker tom to see his brother in pain.
paragraphthe moon was high when pawsteps sounded outside of the medicine den's entrance, and gorseberry raised his eyes in time to make out a broad frame enter the den. the cat cleared his throat, and gorseberry recognized the flash of oakseed's yellow eyes when paired with his dark coat and wide shoulders. the tom didn't seem surprised that gorseberry was tending to dustpaw, and he tipped his head to one side. "are you going to chase me away like alpinemask?" he asked, and gorseberry recalled that oakseed was dustpaw's mentor.
paragraph"no," gorseberry said simply, "not unless you give me a good reason to. care to sit?" he offered his friend, and oakseed accepted the space beside the medicine cat without hesitation. for what felt like an eternity, the pair of toms sat side-by-side, watching dustpaw's side rise and fall evenly while he slept, a dose of poppy seeds making his sleep deep and restful. though they had spoken over the last several moons, including the meeting in the hollow the moon before, gorseberry couldn't recall ever sharing a time as intimate as this with oakseed, his former crush. indeed, oakseed had been handsome as long as gorseberry knew him. he was a strong, well-spoken warrior who made a cat feel included and important when his gaze was on them. gorseberry had found himself enraptured by oakseed on more than one occasion, though he had never had the courage to speak up. moons later, he found himself with his mind racing across the border, and his friend seemingly in love with screechwing.
paragraph"i wasn't there to catch him when he fell," oakseed said, breaking the silence that stretched between them. it took gorseberry a moment longer than it should have to realize that the warrior was talking about dustpaw. "i've never been good at climbing. it's easier for the leaner warriors like berrypad, duneserpent, or screechwing." gorseberry kept his eyes on dustpaw, allowing oakseed's voice to paint the scene before him while the apprentice continued to sleep, unaware of the real world. "falconflight isn't the best at climbing either, so snakespots was watching them in the tree while we were on the ground. but they were all doing so well, we didn't think that anything would happen at the end of the session, until..." oakseed trailed off then, and gorseberry finally raised his eyes to look at his clanmate.
paragraph"it's not your fault, but you already know that," he said simply. he knew oakseed - he wasn't the type to blame himself for an accident he had no relative control over, especially when it was too late. dustpaw's leg was already broken, and no wishing would make it heal. "you just need to be here for him now, i'm sure he'd appreciate that more than anything. you've done a good job with him." few warriors were given apprentices when they were as young as oakseed had been when redstar assigned dustpaw to him. but redstar clearly made the right choice, and the young tom would receive his full name in due time. no one would be able to deny that oakseed was a good mentor.
paragraphoakseed's smile was subtle, though he turned his head to meet gorsberry's gaze, and his eyes were soft. "it's nice to talk to you like this, you always know the right thing to say, thank you." at the compliment, gorseberry ducked his head and tried to ignore the way his ears were beginning to burn. oakseed's fur brushed against his own, surprisingly soft, though they both seemed to tense in that moment, unaware of exactly how close together they had been sitting. gorseberry found his feet first, getting up and leaning over dustpaw, as if to check the wrapping of herbs around his leg. he saw oakseed shifted out of the corner of his eye. just as gorseberry thought that they both might have been able to pretend that the moment had passed, oakseed spoke lowly, just loud enough for gorseberry to hear. "you know - i never wanted to hurt you back then, by spending time with screechwing. i just didn't know how to let you down easily."
paragraphgorseberry hesitated to answer, frozen in place until dustpaw let out a soft snore in his sleep. "i don't know what you're talking about," he managed to say, though he couldn't help but wince, his words falling flat and entirely unconvincing, especially in his own ears.
paragraph"i mean that i'm not stupid. i could tell that you had a crush on me, and it wasn't just coincidence that patchwing always managed to bring up your name in conversation and -"
paragraph"she said she didn't do that!" gorseberry whipped around to face oakseed with a sense of growing alarm, though he knew he should have seen it coming. patchwing would never be able to keep her mouth shut if she tried. it made sense that she would do everything in her power to slip hints about her friend to his crush.
paragraphthe outburst brought forth a laugh from oakseed, who nodded fervently. "she did, and i started to notice you. but - like i said - i didn't know what to say to you. so i didn't say anything. and i saw how you were after screechwing joined the clan. i'm sorry for that."
paragraph"it's fine," gorseberry admitted, "it was just a crush. i got over it." and he had. he didn't feel the same flutter in his chest when oakseed was around as he used to. their conversation felt comfortable despite the topic, which begged the question: "but why are you telling me all of this?" he asked.
paragraph"because it seemed like you had gotten over it. you're in a fog, but it's not because of me," oakseed mused, his tail flicking and eyes lighting up mischievously. "patchwing said she was asking you about a recent crush before you told all of us that alpinemask and gullfeather were hiding something from you. she said that you wouldn't tell her anything -"
paragraph"so she asked you to ask me," gorseberry filled in, mentally cursing his best friend for her constant nosiness. at this rate, he would never be able to keep a secret from her.
paragraphoakseed's smile grew and his whiskers twitched. "well, she didn't ask me directly. but she hinted at it. i'm more here out of curiosity, i thought you two were really close. why wouldn't you tell her? she's very convincing when she wants to be, and the rest of us could help you." gorseberry blinked at oakseed for a long moment before shaking his head slightly. it had crossed his mind more than once to tell his friends about dusklight, how he slipped away from camp more often than he'd like to admit, to meet the tom who made him laugh even more than his best friends, who seemed to want to know more about him than any other cat had ever tried, and who intrigued gorseberry in the same way. "is it treespirit?" oakseed proceeded to ask, eyes alight. "or flamestrike? are you worried because he's berrypad's brother? i'm sure she wouldn't mind, if that's why you've been so quiet about it." and so on oakseed continued while gorseberry tossed the idea over in his head. if he told patchwing, she would march directly into groveclan territory to find dusklight herself, proabably dragging berrypad along. but someone who was a bit more subtle, a little less likely to drop everything to help gorseberry in all of his relationships might make for someone to confide in without worrying that the entire clan would know his secret by dawn.
paragraph"oakseed -" gorseberry cut the warrior off. "if i tell you, you can't tell anyone else. at least, not yet. not until i figure everything out." oakseed must have been surprised by gorseberry's serious tone, because the humor in his eyes dimmed and his smile dropped into a somber expression. without speaking, oakseed nodded once and gorseberry sighed. "his name is dusklight. he's from another clan and we met -" like that, in the middle of the night with dustpaw sleeping soundly, gorseberry told oakseed about how he met dusklight, and all of their meetings since. the large warrior was silent for the most of the story, but he listened intently to each word, laughing at all of the right times and nodding along, and, along the way, gorseberry found himself thankful that he chose to open up to oakseed about his current feelings, as opposed to moons earlier, or else they never would have shared the moment, and he might not have ever met dusklight. for the time being, all was well, and gorseberry felt lighter than ever.

paragraphthe moment he laid eyes on the four kits, cyanslash decided that he and falconflight would forever be in turtledove's debt and that they never could have asked for a better friend, regardless of what clan she lived in. the pair of mates spent most of the day preparing to get ready to meet turtledove, panthertuft, and the kits at the border, when they would all return to the quickclan camp to get the kits settled in at the nursery. though cyanslash and falconflight met the four kits when they were newborns and named them, they had both been very busy helping quickclan prepare for the brunt of leaf-bare, and were too busy to visit nearly as much as they wished.
paragraph"do you think they'll like us?" falconflight asked when they reached the border. his eyes remained locked on the horizon, awaiting their arrival, and cyanslash flicked his mate's flank with the tip of his tail.
paragraph"you have no right to be worried," he huffed, "technically, they are yours." though cyanslash's tone was light and teasing, falconflight's head whipped to the side, eyes wide when he looked at his mate.
paragraph"if they're mine, then they're also yours. they're ours," he asserted, relaxing only when cyanslash nodded quickly and agreed with him. they had been through the same conversation enough when turtledove first agreed to be their surrogate, and they each vowed that the kits would be treated as if they were biological both of their's, no matter what. not that it seemed to be much of an issue when they met the newborn kits, as they both fell in love with the litter immediately, similar to how they felt that twiteflight was their daughter when ivystripe brought her home when she was just a lost kit.
paragraphas if on a cue, twiteflight's voice carried on the wind behind the mates, "hey! when i told you to go without me, i didn't think that you actually would," she called, and cyanslash stood to meet their adoptive daughter.
paragraph"we tried to wait," cyanslash said, touching his nose affectionately to the top of her head when he spoke, "but you know how impatient falconflight is." at falconflight's voiced complaint, cyanslash and twiteflight laughed loudly before padding back to meet the golden warrior.
paragraph"more likely we knew you would probably be late coming back from a hunting patrol, as you usually are," falconflight purred, letting out a laugh of his own at twiteflight's offended expression from his teasing. he grinned widely, licking her between the ears as he often did when she was still in the nursery. cyanslash looked at the both of them for a long moment, his gaze soft and fond, and found himself surprised at how much time had passed. already, their daughter was a warrior and they would have more kits to look over while they grew up.
paragraphtime passed and the sun inched higher in the sky while the trio waited until, at last, a small group of cats appeared on the horizon. cyanslash stood first, but twiteflight charged across the border to meet turtledove, panthertuft, and the four young kits, cyanslash and falconflight hurrying to catch up.
paragraphthe kits were even more beautiful than cyanslash remembered, and he found himself watching each of them to discover their personalities while the group headed into the heart of quickclan territory, crossing the expanse of fields and moorland until they reached the drop-off that led into the camp. for the curious dandelionkit and boisterous finchkit, twiteflight was more than happy to act as a guide, piping over often to point out different landmarks in the territory and answering all of their questions. "of course, you already know where hazeclan is, but we also border quartzclan past those fields," twiteflight said at one point when dandelionkit asked what other clans were nearby. at the same time, finchkit weaved between the warriors, getting under their paws and adding her voice into their conversations. at one point, falconflight tipped his head to finchkit and whispered to cyanslash, "she gets her mouthiness from you," he teased, deftly dodging when the quickclan deputy swiped half-heartedly at him.
paragraphmeanwhile, cricketkit kept close to turtledove, though his eyes darted back and forth between the three quickclan warriors, clearly curious like his sisters but too shy to make a move. dovekit walked beside her brother and spoke sweetly to falconflight and cyanslash. "we're all very excited to meet you and see quickclan," dovekit said during their walk to the camp, "turtledove has told us so many stories about you and other cats she's met. like redstar and how he's best friends with hazestar."
paragraphat that, falconflight bumped his shoulder against cyanslash's, "you're in luck. he's one of the best story-tellers in all of quickclan," he said, referring to cyanslash. "and when he's not around, one of our medicine cat, gorseberry, also knows good stories, and so do our queens," he continued, noticing the way cricketkit looked up, clearly interested in the promised fables and tales from the warriors.
paragraph"can you tell us about what it's like to be deputy?" cricketkit asked, though he blushed and ducked his head when the attention turned to him.
paragraphat that, cyanslash dipped his head so that he was eye-to-eye with cricketkit, flashing a bright smile. "i can tell you any story you'd like, at any time you want. how does that sound?" when cricketkit looked up, his eyes round, cyanslash decided that it was all of the confirmation he needed.
paragraphahead, twiteflight let out a joyful shout, and cyanslash looked from cricketkit to where his daughter stood tall, her adoptive sisters on either side as finchkit and dandelionkit bounced excitedly. "allow me," she announced, "to welcome you scraps to quickclan. i think you're going to love it here."

paragraphwith cyanslash and falconflight's kits settled in the nursery along with the kit gullfeather and alpinemask found days prior, redstar could confidently say that the nursery was more crowded than ever before. even still, with more kits on the way as privetfang and zinniabelly were due shortly, he found himself standing at the top of quickclan's camp with his newborn daughter at his paws. the small molly was huddled against his legs, seeking warmth and shelter from the cold winds, though redstar needed a moment to compose himself. all of his other kits had been given their apprentice names, but he couldn't stop the guilt that ate at his stomach. with each mate he took, he knew that he was hurting sweetecho, who had never seemed to be any wiser of his other relationships. she'd been distant ever since their first litter of kits - though he supposed that he had been distant as well, too busy on patrols, or staying out of camp to talk with hazestar or meet another molly.
paragraphin fact, hazestar was the only cat who knew of redstar's multiple relationships, the only one who knew the truth about cardinalpaw, and now small ploverkit. he'd confided in him more than once, seeking any ear that wouldn't judge him for his relationships. the truth was that, during the time, redstar didn't mean to hurt sweetecho, or any of the other mollies. he found himself infatuated with them, but he couldn't understand, truly, what it meant to love them. sweetecho was on his mind more often than not, and he cut ties with his different relationships, but another cat caught his eye, and the same creeping feelings of infatuation could be felt taking hold.
paragraphhoneyflower was pretty, no doubt, and she seemed kind. during patrol she made a name for herself by volunteering to take dawn patrols, or guard the camp in the middle of the night, when other warriors would prefer the chance to rest. she was quick to learn and kept up well on patrols, and redstar found himself staring after her, to see if she might take notice of him as well.
paragraphfor the moment, however, there was more to attend to, as ploverkit shivered at his paws. "hey now," he purred, trying to soothe her, "let's get you into the nursery." gently, he picked her up by the scruff of her neck and down the trail that led to the different caves of the quickclan camp. though it was the middle of the afternoon, soft snores seeped from the nursery's entrance, and cardinalpaw was resting just outside, his eyes closed and tail flicking in time with the sounds. at redstar's approach, however, he opened his eyes and stared up at his father and half-sister. before cardinalpaw had the chance to speak, redstar set ploverkit down, out of the way of the wind, and regarded his son, "is something wrong?" he asked.
paragraph"no," cardinalpaw said, blinking quickly. "screechwing and i finished training for the day, and i haven't had the chance to see cyanslash and falconflight's kits. i said that i would play with them and give the queens some time to rest, but the kits are sleeping too." at that, cardinalpaw's eyes dropped to the small kit. "who's that? did you find her on patrol?" he asked.
paragraphfor a moment, redstar was speechless. he'd rehearsed what he planned to tell the queens - something to keep them from getting suspicious and from drawing too much attention to ploverkit. but cardinalpaw's eyes were too wide, too trusting, and redstar couldn't find himself able to lie to his first son. not when he wanted ploverkit to have a place in quickclan. redstar would not be able to watch over her as much as he would like, but cardinalpaw - cardinalpaw might. instead, he flicked his ears towards the lower level of the camp, "meet me in my den, there's something i need to tell you." he expected cardinalpaw to question him further, but his son remained obedient and nodded only once before he picked himself up and hurried away from the nursery. when he was gone, redstar quickly took ploverkit into the warm nursery. inside, mothtail was grooming boulderkit while dandelionkit, finchkit, dovekit, and cricketkit dosed in the next nest over, a pile of fur and limbs. daffodilkit was grooming her out ginger and white fur, and she looked up at redstar through half-lidded eyes. poppyhaze was also awake, and she looked up at redstar when he approached. there was a small white kit at her belly, and a sad smile playing on her face when she looked to ploverkit.
paragraph"all of these poor kits," poppyhaze murmured softly, looking from valleykit to ploverkit. "i won't have milk for them much longer, but privetfang and zinniabelly should have enough when they have their kits."
paragraph"so you'll take her?" redstar asked.
paragraphwithout hesitation, poppyhaze nodded and gathered ploverkit to her when redstar put her down. redstar murmured his thanks, though poppyhaze was already whispering sweetly to his daughter, and he backed out of the den until mothtail's watchful, silent gaze.
paragraphwith that, redstar was thankful to find cardinalpaw waiting in his den, sitting patiently with his tail curled neatly around his paws. redstar sighed heavily, knowing that his son likely wasn't ready to hear the full truth, but knowing that he would need help with protecting ploverkit and the other kits to come. "you know that i love you, cardinalpaw, and am so proud of everything you do and will do. you know that, right?"
paragraphthough cardinalpaw hesitated, clearly wary of whatever was coming next, he nodded once. "of course i know that"
paragraph"i love you, and your mother loved you as well. but sweetecho isn't your mother," redstar said, knowing that he might never say it if not now. immediately, cardinalpaw's expression shifted into confusion as he tried to grasp the information thrown at him. "your mother comes from a different clan, cardinalpaw. her name was redhawk."
paragraph"what - what are you saying? sweetecho is your mate. i'm your son," cardinalpaw said softly, only to shake his head vigorously. "does she know?" he asked, then again when redstar failed to answer immediately. "does she know that you had another mate? that i'm your son but not hers?"
paragraph"no," redstar admitted, dropping his head when cardinalpaw let out a choked noise.
paragraph"what about fleetingpaw, heatpaw, owletpaw, rainypaw, and webpaw?" he asked, "what about them?"
paragraphredstar licked his lips slowly, "they're your half-siblings. like ploverkit is your half-sister." it took cardinalpaw a long moment to connect the dots, but he slumped, seemingly defeated at the conclusion he came to. in that time, redstar made to move closer to his son, to try and comfort him in his moment of pain and confusion, but cardinalpaw glared up at him, his eyes hot with anger.
paragraph"and now what am i supposed to do? i'm sure you expect me to keep your secrets. why even tell me this?"
paragraph"because i want to ask you to look out for your sister. i was able to treat you like my son because sweetecho adopted you," redstar explained. out of all of his mistakes, his kits were not them. he felt true love for his kits, from cardinalpaw to ploverkit, as well as those outside of quickclan. "she isn't going to have anyone. she should have her brother -"
paragraph"half-brother," cardinalpaw cut in, gritting the word through his teeth as if it left a bad taste. "i'm her half-brother. but she can't even know that, because it would expose the truth."
paragraphredstar dipped his head in acknowledgement. "what you do with this knowledge is up to you. i plan to tell sweetecho and the others one day, when they're older. but you, cardinalpaw, i beg you to look after ploverkit. she needs someone in this clan to be there for her, to protect her. i think it should be you."
paragraphwithout answering his father, cardinalpaw turned and left the den, ignoring the calls from lower in the camp, where he assumed fleetingpaw and owletpaw had returned from training and were looking to play in the way that siblings often did. his paws brought him back to the nursery, where the snores had been replaced with light chatter. when he announced himself, poppyhaze's voice welcomed him into the warm den, and his eyes immediately fell to ploverkit.
paragraph"come to see the kits?" poppyhaze asked warmly, and cardinalpaw nodded. "mothtail took boulderkit out into the clearing to play with marshpaw and darterpaw, and gorseberry took autumnkit for her daily check-up. but would you like to meet valleykit and the kit redstar brought back?" she asked, "they're both small and sleeping, so they can't play at the moment, but in a few moons, i'm sure they'll both be as energetic as the others," the dark queen purred when cardinalpaw came closer.
paragraph"ploverkit," he said, repeating himself when poppyhaze made a confused noise, "the kit - her name is ploverkit. redstar said so." he then looked at poppyhaze and forced a smile, "do you want me to watch them for a little while? you could stretch your legs or get prey for you and your kits," he offered, adding when she looked as if she might refuse, "really, it's okay. i don't mind." when she was gone, cardinalpaw lowered himself to look properly at his half-sister, a genuine smile reaching his muzzle when she yawned, showing off the pink of her mouth. "hey ploverkit," he whispered to her, knowing that she was too young to really understand him, "my name's cardinalpaw. our father, he asked me to look out for you. so don't worry, i'm not going to let anything bad happen to you, alright?" as if in answer, one of her small paws reached out towards his nose. "don't worry, he can't be there us, so i will be," he vowed, sure of himself.

wip

the bros get back together

redstar is proud of his kits but sweetecho isn't happy

dustpaw is going to be alright - brother fluff with oriolepaw

tumblejaw wants to tell marshpaw and darterpaw the truth

sunnywhisker is gone

actions
[ added cats ] valleykit given to alpinemask from meadowspirit of hurricaneclan (proof)
dandelionkit, dovekit, finchkit, and cricketkit are given to falconflight by turtledove of hazeclan
ploverkit is given to redstar by flowerskip of charclan
sunnywhisker given to deimos
[ consumption ] quickclan eats four big fish
[ moonpool ] n/a
[ kittings ] zinniabelly is kitting, the father is a loner
privetfang is kitting, the father is a loner
x1 fennel and x1 borage is used on zinniabelly
x1 chervil and x1 ragwort is used on privetfang
kindleflare tries for kits with bearstar of laurelclan
[ rank changes ] boulderkit is old enough to become an apprentice
[ hunting 1 ] kindleflare, treespirit, falconflight, twiteflight, hollyfur, and hawkrise
[ hunting 2 ] blizzardrush, oakseed, berrypad, screechwing, frostfur, and patchwing
[ hunting 3 ] snakespots, pearsblossom, alderpatch, flamestrike, and brightcreek
[ hunting 4 ] sparrowcall, whitesnow, minnowjump, splashfall, mulestomp, and aspenwish
[ hunting 5 ] redstar, tumblejaw, brackenrose, piperskip, and honeyflower
[ medicine cat duties ] alpinemask uses x1 bindweed, x1 poppy seeds, and x1 cobwebs on dustpaw. dustpaw rests in camp
[ herb hunting ] gullfeather and gorseberry
[ training ] flintpaw, marshpaw, and darterpaw learn agility
cardinalpaw, fleetingpaw, owletpaw, webpaw, rainypaw, and heatpaw learn hunting
[ other ]
[ notes to mod ] here

My gallery · by **eagle,** » Sat Feb 23, 2019 4:19 pm

paragraphthe sun reached its height when the first call came from the nursery and the older kits rushed out to find the medicine cats. finchkit led the charge from the nursery to the medicine cats' den, dovekit hot on her heels, while cricketkit and dandelionkit found gorseberry in the camp's lower clearing, eating with patchwing and berrypad. the pair of kits fell over one another until gorseberry understood them long enough to know what was happening. while his friends took care of the kits, he met alpinemask in the nursery. when asked where gullfeather was, alpinemask simply shook his head and said that it was up to them. gorseberry followed alpinemask's lead, where they found the queen lying on her side, panting while privetfang whispered softly to her friend, coaxing her. poppyhaze ushered the remaining kits out of the nursery to play, leaving only valleykit and ploverkit in their nests with autumnkit watching over them.
paragraphvalleykit, already becoming a curious kit, tried to lean over autumnkit, who was significantly bigger than her despite her blindness. gorseberry watched alpinemask pause and look to valleykit, his paw raised in mid-air, until zinniabelly hissed in pain again, snapping him back into focus. gorseberry, in turn, looked to autumnkit. over the past several moons, he had taken a liking to the young molly. through her disability, she was growing just as quickly as the rest of the kits and he looked forward to seeing the cat she would become in the future. even in her clouded eyes, he sensed a gentle intelligence and, as if she felt his gaze, she turned her face towards gorseberry.
paragraph"gorseberry," alpinemask said suddenly, "go back to the den and get herbs. we're going to need them." gorseberry looked to zinniabelly, who had her eyes closed tightly against the pain. without further hesitation, gorseberry dipped his head and left the nursery. his paws scraped against the stones leading up the path towards the medicine cats' den, though he ignored the twinge. when he crossed the threshold, he heard a secondary cry raise up and recognized the voice as privetfang's. gorseberry felt his stomach drop.

paragraphstarclan had cursed them, zinniabelly was sure of it. out of her two kits, only one had survived, and her son rested at her stomach, though he was not alone. he was joined by privetfang's trio of beautiful kits after the young queen hadn't made it through her kitting. days had passed since her daughter and friend had been declared dead, and zinniabelly was alone in the nursery with poppyhaze. moonlight trickled through the front entrance of the nursery, a sight that had once brought the queen a sense of peace. now, her stomach churned with grief.
paragraphhad starclan cursed them all, zinniabelly wondered, or was it just her? was privetfang cursed, or was she a mere victim, taken too soon? of the two of them, zinniabelly had worried about herself. she was older, had seen more of the word. privetfang was still a kit in her eyes, had only just gotten her way in the world, only to be ripped away from the kits she had loved so much before they were even born. such was the grief and misunderstanding of living when another died before her very eyes.
paragraphzinniabelly wanted to love her son, though she found her eyes straying back to privetfang's kits more often than not. she thought of them as her own, her own son as a stranger. why had he lived instead of his sister? she couldn't understand the intricacies of the world - wasn't sure that she entirely wanted to, either.
paragraphthe brush of paws came from outside of the den, and zinniabelly shifted, her tail falling over the newborn kits, ready to jump to their defense at any cost. she already lost privetfang, she wasn't about to lose her friend's kits either. instead, she recognized pearsblossom's round features and feathery fur through the low light, and her shoulders relaxed. her oldest friend in the clan smiled gently.
paragraph"i thought you might be asleep," pearsblossom murmured softly when she came closer, not wanting to disturb the snores of the nursery full of kits. "can't sleep?"
paragraphzinniabelly shook her head, snorted, "how could i? whenever i do, all i see is her. how she bled out, just wanting to have a family."
paragraph"you'll have to take care of them for her," pearsblossom said. when zinniabelly first met the young molly in ridgeclan, just before it disbanded, she hadn't thought much of her. she was smaller than most warriors, and her thick fur likely made quickclan's territory difficult to deal with. even though zinniabelly spent majority of her time in camp since joining, the winds from the moorland tore at her fur. cats like cyanslash, hawkrise, and brackenrose had shorter fur, and they were able to run faster, less likely to overheat or be blown back. even some of the stronger, more experienced warriors such as blizzardrush and falconflight seemed to have trouble at times, but pearsblossom didn't seem to mind the difficulties. if anything, she seemed to enjoy quickclan more than their previous clan, which surprised zinniabelly.
paragraph"how can i take care of them when i couldn't even save my own kit?" zinniabelly felt helpless, positive that she would only bring harm to her own son, these kits that she hadn't let other cats touch. at first, she had been reluctant to even let the medicine cats too close to privetfang's kits, not about to let another disaster befall these orphaned kits. "their mother is dead, their father is dead. i'm all they have, but how could i be enough?"
paragraph"we'll all be here for them," pearsblossom said. she stepped forward and, out of instinct, zinniabelly wrapped her tail around the newborn kits. it was only when pearsblossom paused that zinniabelly realized her action and forced her fur to lie flat.
paragraph"we'll all be their family. we can't be their parents, but privetfang always just wanted the best for them. right now, they'll die without you. you are the best thing they can possibly have." pearsblossom looked down to her friend's belly, to where the kits were entirely helpless, vulnerable to the world. they would be lucky to have a clan to watch out for them, to have denmates to guide them and be by their sides. at least the kits would have one another.
paragraphbut zinniabelly didn't reply. she merely stared down at the bundles of fur, innocent to the world and entirely dependent on her. but, inside, it was like something was broken. she'd lost her daughter and friend in the same night, and no one had been able to help them. what good was a medicine cat who couldn't save a life? what good was starclan if they didn't have mercy? she let out a deep breath and closed her eyes at last, though pearsblossom didn't leave the nursery that night, and zinniabelly never fell into a restful sleep.

paragraphredstar woke up that morning feeling like there was an itch in his fur that started at the base of his tail. no matter how much he groomed, however, and searched for anything that might be giving him discomfort, he couldn't figure it out, and the sensation grew throughout the morning while he went through his usual routine. he passed the nursery to check in with the queens, though zinniabelly sat mute the entire time, and redstar himself only nodded along with poppyhaze's words, too focused on his own kits. earlier that moon, cleopatra from the empire of the gods dared to meet with him again, this time with two kits she said would be his. that two of their kits should know their father. pinekit and crakekit were small, newborns, and zinniabelly took them in without needing to be asked. for that he was thankful. she didn't ask any questions, and he didn't offer any answers.
paragraphthe feeling persisted the longer the day wore on, though redstar tried his best to let it go. perhaps he was tired or felt that there was a final bout of incoming cold weather from leafbare. by nightfall, redstar's entire body vibrated with anticipation, with the feeling that another bad thing was going to befall his clan. he sat alone in the camp when the rest of the clan went to their nests for the night, to watch the sky of stars overhead. poppyhaze reported to redstar that zinniabelly was muttering about curses, about starclan hating them in her sleep, though he found the notion so improbable when he thought of all of his friends that had passed on and were now a part of starclan. surely ivystripe, at the very least, would have warned him if quickclan truly was cursed.
paragrapha chill raced down his spine, and he turned to see hazestar standing before him, and redstar felt a purr rumble up his throat. he hadn't had a chance to visit his best friend since the gathering, and he made to move closer until hazestar shushed him and began to speak. suddenly, all of his tension throughout the day made sense, as if he had already known of his friend's fate. "hazestar, i -" he managed to choke out, "i love you too," he said, but it was too late. just as he appeared, hazestar's spirit was gone from sight, and redstar barely managed to withhold a cry, not wanting to alert the clan. his body felt drained of its strength and he collapsed to the ground, his nose against the well-packed soil. "don't leave, hazestar, please don't leave." the stars continued to wink down at redstar, though he was only able to close his eyes tightly and wish that he would wake up from this horrible dream. that hazestar wasn't truly dead, that hazestar would come from the shadows to tell him that it wasn't true.
paragraphby the time the word spread from the borders that hazestar was truly dead, along with his deputy, redstar had rarely left his den.

paragraphcyanslash!" snakespots' voice rang across the clearing to where the lithe deputy was sitting with falconflight and their kits. despite any previous reservations cyanslash might have had about their kits, it seemed that he treated them as if they were his own, and they seemed to adore their fathers and adopted sister just the same. finchkit fussed while falconflight tried to groom behind her ears, and cyanslash batted a moss ball back and forth with dovekit and dandelionkit, cricketkit sitting close to cyanslash and watching his sisters. at the call of his name, however, cyanslash looked up and smiled at snakespots, and the long-legged warrior padded over to him. in that moment, dandelionkit took advantage of cyanslash's divided attention and darted forward to snatch the ball from his grip.
paragraphcyanslash glanced back to his kits, his gaze warm and fond. "snakespots," he greeted in turn with a warm purr, "is everything alright?" when snakespots hesitated for a moment, cyanslash's expression shifted minutely and he nodded once. "should we go for a walk, then?" he offered, to which snakespots agreed. cyanslash dipped his head down to whisper into falconflight's ear, and his mate smiled up at him in turn. with that, the pair headed up the path towards the moor.
paragraphthe wind ripped at their fur from the moment they left the camp, and snakespots felt more at ease the further they walked. finally, when they reached a ridge to allow for some reprieve from the wind, snakespots stopped and looked to the deputy, his friend. "i found a mate," he blurted out, and cyanslash's expression shifted to joy. he leaned forward and pressed his nose against snakespots'.
paragraph"you need to tell me everything! who is it?" he asked, and snakespots felt cyanslash's energy as contagious, urging him to speak:
paragraph"her name is oceansplash, she's from hazeclan and... she had our kits recently," he said, and cyanslash's eyes widened even further. "cyanslash - i love her a lot. i love my kits a lot, they're all so perfect." his chest felt warm from just talking about oceansplash. from there, with cyanslash's enthusiastic prompting, he began to tell about how they met, and how quickly he realized that he was in love with her. he fell harder than he thought possible for any cat. after he had finished telling cyanslash everything, he ducked his head slightly and sighed heavily, "and everything is great with her, i'm just - i'm a little worried about hazeclan since hazestar died."
paragraphcyanslash's whiskers twitched, giving away his curiosity. "redstar would never want to break ties with hazeclan. him and hazestar were best friends, he'll keep honoring our alliance in hazestar's memory, if for no other reason." he spoke in a clear tone, free of his own clear personal ties with hazeclan. his own kits were, technically, half-clan, and it wasn't a secret on any level. cyanslash was one of the first and strongest proponents for an alliance with hazeclan, and there was no reason for him to go back on that. it was one of the reasons snakespots felt able to talk to him about oceansplash as well as his own reservations.
paragraph"it's not redstar i'm concerned about. what if this new hazeclan leader doesn't want to keep the alliance?" snakespots asked. he'd spent the nights worrying about his family across the border and what was going to happen to them. he just wanted to know that they would be safe, even if he couldn't be there for them.
paragraphcyanslash moved forward and pressed himself comfortingly into snakespots' side. "oceansplash - she sounds strong. i'm sure she'll be able to handle herself if worst comes to worst, but i wouldn't worry. hazestar left his clan in capable paws, i'm sure. so far, it doesn't seem like anything's changed. there's no need to worry yourself sick. just be happy for your family, because it's the best feeling in the world." and snakespots couldn't find it in himself to argue with that.

paragraphthough redstar hadn't told cardinalpaw directly that the new kits were his, he felt an immediate kinship with pinekit and crakekit when they first came to the clan. his suspicions were later confirmed when poppyhaze told him that the pair were being spoiled with attention from the leader, and it seemed that he left his den to only visit the kits with a particular attachment to pinekit, crakekit, and ploverkit. when she told him that, cardinalkit fought back a harsh laugh and instead hummed, not wanting to give anything away. since his father asked him to look after ploverkit, cardinalkit visited the nursery whenever he could without trying to draw attention to himself. if anyone noticed just how much he visited the nursery, they didn't comment on it. if anything, they probably thought it was sweet.
paragraphone afternoon, cardinalpaw was sitting with ploverkit under the guise of watching poppyhaze's kits, though they were all sleeping soundly after a long morning of play, when gorseberry came in. the young medicine cat appeared surprised to see cardinalpaw there with ploverkit, evidenced by the slight widening of his eyes. "no training today?" he asked cardinalpaw, though he was cut off when autumnkit sat up from her nest, his blind eyes cloudy and unfocused.
paragraph"gorseberry!" she said, waving her tail. without any aid, she crossed the nursery confidently to touch her nose to his in greeting. "you're late," autumnkit said, leading him back into the nursery.
paragraph"i know, i'm sorry," gorseberry said, "alpinemask had me out gathering herbs all morning." autumnkit commented that he should know better, that gorseberry should have been with her, and cardinalpaw watched the pair with a smile. he had never seen autumnkit so animated, nor had he seen another cat visit her. gorseberry and autumnkit continued to talk while he looked over the newborn kits, including pinekit and crakekit, and he sat back when he had finished.
paragraphit was only from a flash of impulse that cardinalpaw spoke up during a lull in their conversation, "gorseberry - can i ask you something?" the medicine cat's ears perked and he nodded, inviting cardinalpaw to continue. even autumnkit turned her cloudy eyes toward him. "do all cats go to starclan? what's it like for them?" he asked, "would it be possible for a cat to choose to watch over living cats?"
paragraphof all the questions cardinalpaw might have asked, it seemed that those were the least-expected to gorseberry, who took his time to run a paw over his ears to bide his time. "not all cats," he said at last, "it depends on the clan and the cat. for us, a good cat will go to starclan and a bad cat will go to the dark forest. other clans believe that their good warriors go to the dark forest, and some have other ancestors altogether," he explained, and cardinalpaw nodded slowly, trying to soak in all of the information as it came. "i've only spoken to starclan cats, i've never wandered starclan's hunting grounds so i can't say exactly what happens there, or what happens elsewhere, but i don't see why i cat wouldn't be able to look over others. gullfeather said that ivystripe watched over her for a while, teaching her about herbs."
paragraph"do you think privetfang is with us now, to watch over her kits?" autumnkit asked after a brief lull of silence.
paragraphgorseberry ducked his head, though cardinalpaw caught the look of pain that passed over his face. gorseberry had been the one to take privetfang and flutterkit from the nursery into the camp for the vigils, and he had been the one to bury privetfang. when patchwing tried to help him, gorseberry told her that he needed to do it on his own while zinniabelly buried flutterkit. he told her that he couldn't save her, so it was his job to see her into starclan safely. "i think so," cardinalpaw said, to save gorseberry the moment. the medicine cat shot him a grateful glance, and cardinalpaw stood. "thanks gorseberry, that made sense. thank you." he looked down to his half-siblings before he turned to leave the nursery. "i was just curious."

paragraphno one expected graveclan to disband, least of all chanterellestep. he always thought that his clan had been secure, insurmountable, unshaken. until it wasn't. he wasn't even entirely sure of what happened, how he ended up leading his small group out of graveclan territory. one minute he was going about his usual routine, the next he was leading four apprentices across the moorland. the last warrior he'd seen was cormorantface, who told him that grasspaw and hollowpaw should return to their original clan, that they'd been taken from a foreign clan moons and moons earlier, and that it was time for them to be reunited with their mothers. thus became their journey to find the wind-torn moorland and the clan of cats that lived there.
paragraph"my paws are aching." that was rosepaw, who had spent majority of their days together complaining about this, about that, about everything. he was hungry, he was tired, he wanted to go back, as if they all didn't. it took most of chanterellestep's energy not to cuff the younger tom over the ear and tell him to be quiet.
paragraph"we need to keep going," rowanpaw cut in, saving the lone warrior the need. "if we stopped every time you asked us to, we'd still be in graveclan's camp."
paragraph"graveclan doesn't have a camp anymore," hollowpaw added, and rosepaw whined lowly. at that, chanterellestep sent the youngest of the group a sharp look, though hollowpaw merely shrugged. "what? it's true." when chanterellestep asked grasspaw and hollowpaw where their birthclan was, they had each shrugged and said that they didn't know. which, he supposed, made a lot of sense. they had been mere kits at the time, hollowpaw little more than a newborn. what would he know about a clan he barely had time to explore. grasspaw claimed to have fleeting memories, such as her mother's dark fur, or her brothers playing in the camp, though she also said that it might have been a dream, might have never happened, might have just been graveclan she was remembering. as the days progressed, chanterellestep questioned if there even was a quickclan.
paragraphchanterellestep paused and looked over his shoulder to where grasspaw was lagging behind the toms. rosepaw was walking with his head ducked down, rowanpaw was even beginning to drag his own paws, and only hollowpaw seemed to be keeping up well, though his tail drooped. if they didn't take a break soon, chanterellestep feared that one of them might give out from exhaustion. indeed, they had been traveling for days with minimal rest and food. even though it was newleaf, the former-graveclan cats weren't accustomed to chasing down rabbits that littered the sparse fields. "alright, let's take a short rest," he decided, letting out a muffled laugh when rosepaw immediately flopped down onto the ground.
paragraph"finally," rosepaw breathed out.
paragraph"can we try to hunt?" grasspaw asked when she caught up. rowanpaw crept closer to rosepaw and prodded his friend in the belly, earning an indignant squeak. hollowpaw perked up slightly, and chanterellestep glanced between the group.
paragraph"the three of us will hunt," he said to grasspaw and hollowpaw. rosepaw swiped a paw at rowanpaw, who dodged the blow deftly. chanterellestep cleared his throat to catch their attention, and rowanpaw paused mid-assault.
paragraph"do you want us to stay here?" he asked, and chanterellestep nodded once and turned away, beckoning hollowpaw and grasspaw.
paragraph"rosepaw said he was tired, and you should watch him." with that, he led the way further along the moorland, his ears pricked and nose raised to pick up any scent of prey or, better, a possible quickclan cat.
paragraphit was some time before any of the trio spotted a rabbit, but grasspaw and hollowpaw were surprisingly quick on their paws when they did. grasspaw led the charge, hollowpaw hot on her heels when they spotted a rabbit in the distance, and chanterellestep struggled to keep them in sight. the ground dipped and gave way, hiding the apprentices and the rabbit from sight, and chanterellestep had no time to brace himself when he crested the incline and nearly collided with grasspaw's back.
paragrapha long-legged black tom and a pretty silver molly stood across from the pair of apprentices, and their gazes turned to chanterellestep upon his approach. the tom tipped his chin at chanterellestep. "who are you?" he asked, "are there more of you?" in the moment, however, chanterellestep found himself unable to bring forth words, too surprised that there were cats on the moor, that they had gone entirely undetected. he saw the rabbit behind the pair, dead, and it crossed his mind that it must take an exceptionally quick cat to have caught it.
paragraphwhen chanterellestep failed to speak up, grasspaw stepped forward, looking between the warriors. "his name is chanterellestep, i'm grasspaw, and this is hollowpaw," the young molly said, gesturing to the pair of toms in turn. hollowpaw dipped his head at his name, and chanterellestep caught a flash of surprise in the silver tabby's eye at their names. however, grasspaw continued before she could be stopped, "we're traveling with two other apprentices. they're resting on a ridge nearby." as if on a cue, a distant call rose up from back the way they had come, where rosepaw and rowanpaw were still waiting. the warriors exchanged a glance, and the black tom flashed a smile.
paragraph"i think our friends might have found yours," he said, his tail tip flicking from side to side, clearly amused by the situation. "shall we go find them?"
paragraphchanterellestep led the way, flanked by the tom, who introduced himself as nightfall of quickclan. the silver molly, sweetecho, walked between grasspaw and hollowpaw. chanterellestep couldn't withhold his laugh when he learned that they managed to find the quickclan cats, "you know, we've been looking for you," he admitted.
paragraph"for us?" nightfall echoed. "well, congratulations. don't take this the wrong way, but you lot look like you've been traveling a while."
paragraph"why were you trying to find us?" sweetecho asked. grasspaw walked a step behind her, laden down with the rabbit. hollowpaw spoke up before chanterellestep could gather his thoughts, unsure of how exactly to relay what cormorantface told him.
paragraph"grasspaw and i were told that we were taken from your clan when we were kits. graveclan disbanded, so chanterellestep was trying to bring us home." normally, hollowpaw was quiet, a steady and observing presence, though chanterellestep was thankful that he was able to find words now. "rosepaw and rowanpaw didn't have anywhere else to go, so they asked to come too."
paragraphsilence reigned until nightfall cleared his throat, though he seemed to address only sweetecho. "we'll have to talk to piperskip."
paragraphsweetecho hummed her agreement, and chanterellestep broke in, "who's piperskip?"
paragraph"she lost one of her kits a few moons ago. she was taken from the nursery. her name was grasskit. she would be an apprentice now, nearly ready to be a warrior," she said, then turning her gaze to hollowpaw, "a medicine cat died giving birth to kits. one of them was taken too, a tom called hollowkit. he would also be an apprentice." at that moment, a voice called out to the group, and rosepaw charged forward to nearly collide with chanterellestep's flank.
paragraph"we thought something might have happened when the warriors came," he said, sounding relieved. rowanpaw sat back, a long-furred ginger tom beside him with a lithe black apprentice and another, larger tom apprentice. the latter looked up when the cats approached, sharing a glance with the other warrior.
paragraph"these apprentices said there were others out there hunting," the warrior said with a shrug, "looks like they weren't lying."
paragraphsweetecho, however, looked back the warrior to the dark apprentice who was nearly as big as his mentor. "oriolepaw," she addressed him, "run back to camp and tell your mother to meet me with redstar." without a word, oriolepaw followed the order, turning and racing away. when the other warrior shot her a confused glance, sweetecho beckoned the group with a flick of her tail. "i'll explain on the way, this lot looks half-starved and redstar will want to speak to them. he hasn't been very patient lately."

paragraphword spread quickly across camp of the graveclan cats and the kits-now-apprentices that had seemingly returned from the dead. redstar had come from his den for the first time in several days to welcome the group into quickclan once piperskip saw grasspaw and said that, without a doubt, that was her kit. while piperskip asserted her opinion, none of her kits seemed to be entirely certain, and oriolepaw and dustpaw stuck together, the latter still under watch from gullfeather every other day, while grasspaw remained with her friends from graveclan. when it came to hollowpaw, however, marshpaw and darterpaw were slightly more willing to at least talk to their supposed brother, though none of the trio claimed to remember the days when hollowpaw might have still been with them.
paragraphas the days passed, however, the clan moved on to other gossip about who would be the next queen in the nursery, or whether the apprentices would earn their warrior names with upcoming assessments. of the older apprentices, only flintpaw would be in training for another moon at the least, while even his own brother would be trying to advance to become a warrior. naturally, the usually-loud flintpaw allowed a rain cloud to hang over his head, according to nightfall.
paragraphthe only topics that stayed with the quickclan cats for the duration of the moon, however, was wondering about redstar's mental state following the news of hazestar's death, and the nursery that was full of kits but lacking queens to take care of them. for the most part, redstar stayed in his den with either sweetecho or splashfall to keep him company while cyanslash oversaw training and patrols, taking the extra time to check in with the warriors and medicine cats for the daily upkeep of the clan. so, no cat was entirely sure what would be coming when redstar was seen going into the nursery with rookwatcher, only to emerge several moments later with rookwatcher, zinniabelly, and two of the newborn kits. it was early in the evening, just after the final hunting patrol arrived back in camp, and majority of the clan was resting in the main camp, sharing meals when redstar called out for their attention.
paragraph"quickclan!" he called, though all eyes were already on him. "as many of you know, we were blessed to welcome many kits into our nursery these past few moons. several of them will be given mentors and will begin their training soon," he paused, and eyes turned to cyanslash and falconflight, as their kits would be apprenticed any day. "and our apprentice's den is full of young cats learning how to provide and protect our clan as warriors. however, we have also suffered a loss that makes the upkeep of the nursery difficult, and the apprentice's den cannot hold as many cats as i would wish." a confused murmur swept across the clan, but redstar silenced them quickly. "i have spoken to zinniabelly, and we have decided to send rookwatcher and two of our kits to hazeclan to be fostered there. as you all know, our alliance with hazeclan is strong, and these kits will be taken care of."
paragraph"which kits are you sending?" rose a voice from the crowd, identified as duskflower.
paragraph"cloudykit and zipperkit." immediately, the clan erupted. while it was clear that the clan wouldn't like the idea of any kit being sent away, even to a close ally clan that many of the warriors had strong ties with, redstar knew that they would take issue with allowing zipperkit to leave. while zinniabelly was able to speak for her son, privetfang was no longer alive to protect her own. this time the clan was not as easily hushed. of the clan, it seemed that only the former-graveclan cats were silent, and redstar noticed the way the apprentices bunched together, around chanterellestep, as if he could protect them, as if he was a warrior with more experience and expertise than he actually was.
paragraph"i do this with our clan in mind!" redstar shouted above the uproar. his tail lashed, and he found his sadness from the moon dissipating in that moment, and he imagined hazestar standing in the middle of the crowd, watching him. would he find this idea good, or would he think it dumb? "rookwatcher will watch over the kits. they will still be quickclan kits, but this will help cement our alliance with the new hazeclan leader, our symbol of trust. they will come back to us." hazestar, he was sure, would have seen to it if he was still leader. there was no reason for redstar to not think the same of buzzardstar. redstar understood the stakes - that the kits might like it in hazeclan, might not want to come back in a few moons. rookwatcher might want to stay. but it was a risk he needed to take, for the relations between clans, to keep his own kits with him. redstar felt his throat tighten, and he ducked his head. when he looked back across the warriors, his voice cracked from a torrent of emotions washing back over him, grief hitting him harder than ever, anger that his clan wasn't listening, didn't trust his decisions. "privetfang will never be forgotten in quickclan, and she would have made a great mother. but she cannot be here for her kits, and we need a cat who can watch zipperkit. it has been decided." with that, he turned and retreated into his den. vaguely, he was aware of gullfeather's black and white pelt cutting through the crowd to follow him, but he hissed at her over his shoulder, "i need to be alone now," and she didn't enter his den.
paragraphoutside, murmurs continued to reach his ears, but redstar only wanted to hear one voice. "hazestar," he said for the first time since he saw his spirit, "i miss you. i'm trying my best."

paragraphsince she lost her kits, gullfeather rarely liked to be alone. without company, her thoughts become too invasive, the images too harsh to bare, and she could only recall the pain of birth, the sharper pain of realizing all of her kits were dead. however, when she woke to see the sun shining, breaking through the clouds as if to greet her, she thought it would be a good day to go out to gather herbs on the moor. alpinemask mentioned that they were low on kitting herbs, so she decided to head towards the abandoned barn, where they might have begun to grow in the warming days. gorseberry offered to join her, though she told him to stay back. after privetfang, she noticed that he was rather melancholy. she told him to find oakseed and patchwing, to go find whatever tom it was that was making him smile more lately. he'd been surprised, as if he thought she hadn't noticed. but she wasn't blind - she saw the way he came back to the den lately without an herb to show for his mysterious adventures, looking dazed and dopey. he was a bad liar.
paragraphindeed, the day was exceptionally warm, and gullfeather was able to forget the past moons of harsh leafbare. her outlook felt better than it had in moons, even before she knew she was expecting kits. the barn loomed in sight, and the fields around the barn were a lush green, wildflowers aplenty, which raised her hopes even further. she thought about how she would need to rearrange their herbs to make room for the large bundle she was prepared to bring back. it would take some work, but she felt ready for it.
paragraphat that very moment, she found a bright green chervil plant, and she settled herself down to pick the leaves with a careful delicacy. at the same moment she looked down to assess her sizable pile, fleetingly wondering if she should have brought gorseberry after all - it would have been nice to have help - a shadow loomed over her from behind. she turned, only to feel a clean line of pain slice across her throat. warmth soaked into her fur, and she felt her head swim, the impact of the ground rising up to meet her when she fell sideways. her breath was ragged, faraway, as if underwater, though her eyes focused on the trio of cats that stood over her. one licked his paw, which was stained a dark crimson, though the rest of his pelt was a brilliant ginger, sleek and immaculate. a molly to his right spoke up, "you were right, nolan, i think she is a clan cat," and it became harder for gullfeather to keep her eyes open. she considered trying to get up, to make sure she wasn't crushing the chervil, but she couldn't feel her paws. the ginger cat, nolan, must have said something, though she could only see his mouth move until her vision went black, or her eyes shut.
paragraphthen there was the whisper of small paws in the grass, and a high-pitched voice. "mama?" the voice said, echoed by two others.
paragraphgullfeather opened her eyes and, instead of three grown cats, she was greeted by three small kits. "petalkit," she said, to the only kit who managed a breath in the world, "flashkit, batkit." and she knew her time had come.

My gallery · by **eagle,** » Sun Feb 24, 2019 3:41 pm

paragraphtumblejaw's fur was clumped together most days. once, he kept up a meticulous appearance and took care of himself as much as possible. he used to care about the way he presented himself to the clan, if not for his own ego, than to keep his own reputation going. as the seasons passed since ivystripe's death, he thought that the feeling might return to him, though he felt worse with each passing day. his motivation never rose above the distance spark of inspiration. he thought stormclaw might help him feel more like himself, though she didn't. he thought that sunnywhisker might make him feel better, but sunnywhisker had gone off, not even telling her kits where she went. no one had heard from her since her disappearance. not even the faintest trace.
paragraphmarshpaw looked more like her mother as she grew, and tumblejaw's heart ached for his departed mate. late in the middle of the night, he crept from the warmth of the warriors' den, narrowing avoiding stepping on loonlight's tail on the way out. the stars shone brightly overhead, and the camp was awash with moonlight. it was nights like these that he recalled talking to sunnywhisker shortly after ivystripe's death, how he found solace in her company. she was the last friend he truly had in the clan after he'd managed to push the rest of the clan away, and now she was gone too.

poppyhaze, sparrowcall, and co.

boulderpaw visiting the kits ft. daffofilkit trying to show off and autumnkit being bullied

graveclan cats trying to adjust

alpinemask and sootstone friends

gorseberry telling berrypad and patchwing that he's in love

sweetecho loves her kits

twiteflight loves to gossip ft. the young warriors and welcoming chanterellestep

My gallery · by **eagle,** » Sun Mar 31, 2019 6:36 am

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never stop running on and on with the wind
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paragraph"berrypad!" whitesnow called out, chasing after her littermate, with flamestrike and alderpatch not far behind. though the siblings had been reunited with their sister and parents in quickclan several moons earlier, berrypad seemed to be the only one fully equipped to handle the moor. of course, the rest of them were adept at chasing the hares and rabbits, and had grown used to the roaring winds, but berrypad's muscles rippled under her fur until she crested one of the small hills that led the way to the barn. in the distance, the barn's roof sat against the blue sky, and berrypad turned, her chin tilted high.
paragraph"come on, slowpokes," berrypad urged, her tail waving behind her. whitesnow shook her head but pushed forward when flamestrike passed her by, catching up to berrypad. at last, the four littermates were gathered together on the slope.
paragraphalderpatch arrived last, their whiskers twitching and ears flattened back against their head, clearly annoyed by the wind. of the group, alderpatch had always been the least happy to accept change, and the move to their new clan agitated them, though they would likely never say it allowed, out of respect and gratitude for being accepted into the clan. still, however, whitesnow suspected that alderpatch would leave if they had the chance, if the rest of their family wasn't there beside them. of them, alderpatch had always been the quiet one, sitting back to watch while whitesnow and flamestrike bickered, while berrypad did her best to break up their petty arguments. when berrypad had gone missing, alderpatch was on their own, had always been independent. "why did we have to come this far?" they asked, sitting down and curling their tail protectively over their paws, as if to stop the wind.
paragraphberrypad grinned widely at alderpatch, her ears perked. whitesnow shared a glance with flamestrike, who shrugged, just as clueless. berrypad stood up straighter and paced back and forth in front of her siblings, "i have reason to believe that our dear brother," she began, casting a meaningful glance to flamestrike, "has a crush on brightcreek. and i wanted to bring you all out here so we could ask him about it." with a flick of her tail, berrypad met flamestrike's gaze. their brother slouched, his head dropping low, as if he might be able to make himself smaller.
paragraph"i don't know what you're talking about," he said, and whitesnow snorted.
paragraph"she's right," alderpatch said, eyeing flamestrike, "you do have a crush on her."
paragraphflamestrike shook his head, though it was clear that he wasn't to be believed. finally, he sighed and relented. "so what? it's not like i'm the only one," he accused, pointing his nose towards whitesnow. "she's been following duneserpent around on patrols for moons, and you've been staring after treespirit a ton," he said to alderpatch, who met his gaze evenly.
paragraph"he's my friend," alderpatch replied tonelessly, earning a loud laugh from berrypad. "and the entire clan knows that you like patchwing." their green eyes flickered between their siblings, finally landing on whitesnow, who had her head ducked. "if any of you were to say anything to treespirit, i would personally shred your ears," alderpatch concluded with a huff, shifting her paws.
paragraphin that moment, there was a stretch of silence before, finally, flamestrike huffed a laugh and nudged berrypad with his shoulder. "don't look so down, i think patchwing likes you too, you two are always together." berrypad shrugged then, her eyes locked on her paws. flamestrike looked between his siblings before his smile dropped and he offered a sigh of his own. "i do like her it's just - i'm worried that she likes minnowjump," he admitted. immediately, all eyes turned back towards him, and berrypad's laugh echoed louder than before. at that, flamestrike scowled and asked what she thought was so funny. in turn, berrypad shook her head and whitesnow had to answer for her sister.
paragraph"minnowjump is in love with mulestomp," she said. "and brightcreek definitely knows that. so you don't need to worry." flamestrike shook his head again, turning his gaze away from the others, towards the barn. the wind shifted then, bringing a new scent to his nose that made his fur bristle. slowly, he stood and hissed at berrypad to stop laughing. flamstrike shot his littermates a dark look, and slowly began to pad into the tall grass that led towards the barn, where the field had become overgrown in the warm weather. flamestrike took the lead, alderpatch at his heels, whitesnow and berrypad watching from the rear. it didn't take long for him to place the scent as blood, and the silence from the others told him that they came to the same conclusion. suddenly, the shape of the barn looming overhead became ominous, their own territory suddenly dangerous. finally, flamestrike saw the body and he stopped short, his breath caught in his throat. alderpatch came to his shoulder, finding their words faster than flamestrike. they turned back to berrypad and whitesnow.
paragraph"we need to get back to camp," alderpatch said quietly, in case there was an enemy looming in the grass. "we need to get a patrol here. it's gullfeather."

paragraphearlier that day, gullfeather told gorseberry that she would be going out to collect herbs, to which he replied that he would be happy to join her. he was surprised when she told him that she wanted to go out on her own to enjoy the weather and find a bit of peace, that he should find patchwing and berrypad, that he should find the tom that was making him smile. at the time, gorseberry felt his body grow hot, though gullfeather had reassured him that it was alright, what he was doing was fine; that she knew that he wasn't out looking for herbs as he often claimed, but that she accepted it. in that moment, gorseberry decided that he was ready to tell gullfeather about dusklight, about the tom from groveclan he knew he loved. if there was any cat he expected to accept him, it was gullfeather. and so he agreed, and gullfeather disappeared through the camp's entrance for her day of peace.
paragraphby the time gorseberry returned to camp, twilight was setting in, and he expected to see the camp's activities dying down for the night. the queens would have rounded up their kits and taken them into the nursery for the night, the apprentices would be finishing up their meals and also getting ready for the night. he expected to see a patrol of warriors getting ready to leave, he expected that alpinemask and gullfeather would be working in their den, going through their supplies to see what they had, what they didn't, and what they needed to have. instead, gorseberry was greeted with a nightmare which came to him slowly.
paragraphhe saw cyanslash first, the clan's devoted deputy leaning into falconflight, their kits gathered around, their faces pressed into their fathers' flanks. he saw dustear sitting at the edge of the camp, his jaws parted slightly and eyes wide, staring into the middle of the crowd, where many of the warriors were gathered. oakseed found gorseberry first, and his friend immediately rose from his place to block gorseberry's view. by the time oakseed began to speak, gorseberry already knew that horror awaited him, and he braced himself, assuming that it was another queen, a dead kit. an apprentice had been hurt during training, a warrior attacked on patrol. "gorseberry," oakseed was saying, his dark fur turned silver in the moonlight. "i'm here for you. i'm so sorry." gorseberry nodded, brushed past oakseed.
paragraphin the center of the clearing, alpinemask twisted to face gorseberry, and the younger medicine cat felt his stomach drop and his legs buckled. he was aware of cats around him speaking among themselves, but the world fell away around gorseberry the moment his eyes landed on gullfeather's body, stretched out for vigil. he surged forward, collapsing as soon as he was able to push his nose into her shoulder. her body was cold, chilling gorseberry despite the warm breeze that swept across the moorland, and he searched for his former mentor's familiar scent. "gullfeather," he whispered into her soft fur, "come back, please." but she remained still, lifeless, and the night wore on.
paragraphit wasn't until morning when gorseberry moved from his spot, crouched at gullfeather's side. when the moon reached its highest point, many of the warriors and apprentices left for their dens, though several joined gorseberry to spend gullfeather's last night under the open sky. alpinemask spent majority of the night studying the stars, and gorseberry let mothtail groom his fur with gentle, rhythmic strokes of her tongue. redstar also stayed at his medicine cat's side, his eyes hollow, and gorseberry could only imagine what redstar was thinking. in his time as leader, he had lost two medicine cats, two of his close friends. when dawn broke, gorseberry and alpinemask buried gullfeather on the ridge above their camp, leading towards the open moorland and overlooking the camp. next to privetfang and ivystripe, gullfeather would always watch over her clan. when they finished, alpinemask turned to gorseberry with tired eyes. "we need to talk," he said, and it was clear that the couldn't wait. alpinemask flicked his tail, and gorseberry took a seat next to gullfeather's grave.
paragraph"she was murdered," alpinemask said at last, "flamestrike and his littermates found her near the barn, though redstar told them to keep it quiet for now. we don't want the rest of the clan getting nervous." he shuffled his paws and exhaled deeply before speaking further, "you should know that gullfeather had a mate and kits, though she didn't want you to know."
paragraphimmediately, gorseberry felt dizzy, unable to process the onslaught of information. "why not?" he asked weakly.
paragraph"she didn't want to distract you. you had other things on your mind," alpinemask said, leveling his gaze at gorseberry. "her kits died and her mate is in another clan. no one else needs to know this." despite himself, gorseberry's thoughts shifted to dusklight, of his own secret hidden from the clan. as if reading his mind, alpinemask cleared his throat. "it's not a bad thing to have a mate. it's natural to fall in love," alpinemask said, and gorseberry felt a stab of pity for the older tom; in any other situation, gullfeather would have acted as the sympathetic one to give advice, alpinemask going about his own business. but now gullfeather was gone, and gorseberry pricked his ears, coming to a sudden realization.
paragraph"you have a mate," he said.
paragraph"i did," alpinemask corrected. "we had kits, i haven't seen her since then." alpinemask's eyes slid to his paws, and a beat of silence passed before he nodded to himself. "valleykit," he said simply, and gorseberry's eyes widened.
paragraph"did gullfeather know?" he asked, only for alpinemask to nod. then, at last, gorseberry looked at the upturned ground, where they had buried gullfeather's body. "she never asked, but his name is dusklight. he's from groveclan," he said, feeling alpinemask's eyes burning into the side of his head, though gorseberry spoke to gullfeather, hoping that she was listening to him now. "i wanted to tell her about him. how i met him at a gathering and knew that he was different. because he is different. he's special to me. i love him," he paused, letting out an airy laugh despite the sadness that he felt so deeply from the most recent loss, "i've never said that out loud, but it feels right. i love him more than i thought could be possible. whenever i'm not with him, i miss him. i think you would have liked him a lot," he said, dropping his head and closing his eyes tightly. how sorely gorseberry wished he could have spoken to gullfeather one last time, could have had the chance to clear the air between them, so they would be able to rid themselves of secrets. he could just imagine gullfeather meeting dusklight, could imagine her questioning how they got along when dusklight was so energetic, gorseberry so quiet. but he also knew that she would have supported them to the end, if only she was still alive.
paragraphgorseberry felt his throat tighten, no longer allowing words to come out. he let out a stuttering breath, calming only when alpinemask drew close and rested his chin on top of gorseberry's head. "i'm happy for you," alpinemask murmured, and together they mourned gullfeather's loss.

paragraphdays passed slowly in quickclan while majority of the clan set about moving on after gullfeather's death, though the former-graveclan cats focused on settling in and finding their own places. thankfully, they were used to living in large clans, as graveclan was even larger than quickclan at its height, and chanterellestep learned names quickly, passing on information gathered to the apprentices that joined him. whereas the newly-named grassthorn and hollowpaw had the advantage of having family in the clan - though neither felt much of a connection to their kin, as they held no memories of life before graveclan - chanterellestep, rosepaw, and rowanpaw sought their own niches. thankfully, chanterellestep found that many of the younger warriors were surprisingly laid back, led by twiteflight. as it was, two other new warriors also joined them, and chanterellestep wasn't the newest member of the group anymore when canaryleap and acorntail were brought into quickclan.
paragraphbrightcreek led the warriors over the dips and rises of the moor, flamestrike at her side, while the rest gathered around the newest additions. more than once, chanterellestep thought he saw berrypad and whitesnow exchange glances and look towards their brother, though neither said anything, and chanterellestep decided that it wasn't his place to ask. ever since gullfeather died, cyanslash ordered that the patrols stick together, that no cat be left alone in case of emergency. after a long afternoon of hunting, the patrol was content with their catches, and they headed back to retrieve their prey.
paragraph"so," twiteflight was saying, looking between acorntail and canaryleap, "what were your clans like?"
paragraphacorntail opened her mouth to speak, but canaryleap cut in, energetic even after hunting and chasing down rabbits. admittedly, chanterellestep had a feeling that he wasn't the only one surprised by how fast canaryleap was on his feet. "it was a lot smaller than quickclan. there were also fields not much unlike the moors you have here," he was eager to explain and talk about his former clan. "but honestclan was a lot stricter with the warrior code, and we worshiped lions."
paragraph"lions?" that was minnowjump, who exchanged a sharp glance with mulestomp, who shook his head slightly.
paragraph"yes!" canaryleap said, "we worshiped them, and the lions brought us gifts."
paragraphat that, mulestomp snorted incredulously. "yeah, and we talk to tigers who help the queens with the kits," he said, earning a cackle from minnowjump.
paragraphwhile canaryleap pushed between the two, arguing with them to try and convince them that he was telling the truth, cherrydawn spoke up from the rear of the patrol, where he was helping mintstep drag a large hare across the ground. "what about your clan, acorntail?" she asked, and all attention turned to the tabby molly.
paragraphfor a moment, it seemed that acorntail might not answer, though she finally tipped her head up to the sky, thoughtful. "cherryclan was also small, but it was growing quickly. maybe too quickly," she paused, shrugged, continued, "it was a new clan. lilystar wasn't ready to be a leader, she was learning. the other cats were nice but... i suppose it wasn't meant to work out. it was a peaceful clan, who all loved flowers and being nice..." she trailed off then, smiling only when alderpatch nudged her shoulder in a gentle display for them.
paragraph"it sounds nice," they said, and acorntail murmured her agreement.
paragraphthere was a lull until, finally, chanterellestep felt eyes turn towards him. "you haven't told us anything about graveclan," whitesnow said with an encouraging grin.
paragraphbefore chanterellestep could speak, however, mulestomp chimed in over canaryleap's protests about honestclan. "should he? do we want to hear about thieves?" he asked, curling his lip slightly, and chanterellestep had the sense that mulestomp meant his words.
paragraph"mulestomp," twiteflight cut in, her green eyes bright with unmasked anger. chanterellestep glanced between the pair, though mulestomp tossed his head and muttered that he would be going to pick up another piece of prey from where they buried it. when he was gone, minnowjump joining his friend, twiteflight looked back to chanterellestep, who cleared his throat.
paragraph"not that he's wrong," he started with a shrug. "grassthorn and hollowpaw were taken from quickclan, but that doesn't mean that all of our clan were thieves, or that many of us were. there were cats who did some bad things, but that doesn't make a whole clan bad, does it?" he thought of rosepaw and rowanpaw, both still young, who spent their lives in graveclan and were both bright and cheerful, would become great warriors in whatever clan they lived. if mulestomp wanted to judge rosepaw and rowanpaw as murdering thieves, then he was wrongfully misguided. he thought of grassthorn and hollowpaw, who hadn't even known of their birth clan until cormorantface told chanterellestep to bring them home. "graveclan wasn't perfect, but is any clan?" chanterellestep didn't expect an answer, though canaryleap piped up anyway.
paragraph"no," he said, "but maybe we can try to make this one as close to it as possible." the others murmured their agreement.

paragraph"how's your leg?"
paragraphpeckerpaw was lying in his nest in the medicine cats' den, his hind leg stretched out behind him. he cracked open an eye at the sound of flintpaw's voice, and the sleek black tom sat down beside his brother. "i heard snakespots talking to nightfall. said it must've hurt really bad."
paragraph"it was a stupid hare," peckerpaw said, pushing himself up slightly so he didn't have to look up at flintpaw as much. "disappeared right out from under my paws. i didn't see the hole until it was too late." there was no hiding the sourness from his tone, thinking about how close he had been to becoming a warrior with grassthorn, oriolefeather, and dustear.
paragraphas if to echo his thoughts, flintpaw shook his head slightly. "we should be there with them," he said, and peckerpaw nodded. at that moment, alpinemask appeared from the back of the den, his eyes tracking over the pair of apprentices.
paragraph"we'll get peckerpaw back on his paws in no time," alpinemask assured, stopping by the brother long enough to examine peckerpaw's leg once more. he dipped his head, then continued on his way out of the den.
paragraphflintpaw watched him go, making sure he was out of earshot before turning back to peckerpaw. "is there at least anything fun to do in here?" flintpaw asked, earning a quiet laugh from peckerpaw. "no?" flintpaw asked, rolling his eyes then. "then all the more reason to get you out of here as soon as possible," he concluded.
paragraph"they said i should be able to take my assessment again in two moons," peckerpaw said, glancing back to his leg. determination flared in his stomach. neither of the brothers had the easiest time in training. flintpaw failed his fair share of training sessions, struggling with several different skills that the younger apprentices passed with ease. now, peckerpaw failed his assessment and was stuck with alpinemask and gorseberry for two moons. "by then, you need to be ready to take your assessment too. so we can be warriors together." with a grunt, peckerpaw pushed himself to sit up, shaking flintpaw off when he went to help his younger brother, urging him not to strain himself any further. instead, peckerpaw met flintpaw's gaze and held it. "we need to be warriors together, to make mom proud. so we can prove ourselves to everyone else. will you wait for me?"
paragraphflintpaw's yellow eyes seemed to glow in the dim shadows of the medicine cat's den, and the smile grew slowly across his face. "we'll be great warriors soon, peckerpaw. in two moons, everyone is going to know it too."

paragraphredstar was lying in his nest, staring at the mouse fleetingpaw delivered earlier that morning when honeyflower's voice came from outside of his den, asking for entrance. redstar returned he call, allowing her in. the pale ginger molly came in, her ears pricked expectantly, and he regarded her through half-lidded eyes. ever since she came to the clan, he had tried his best to stay away from her - he knew himself well, knew that he had taken too many mates over the moons, and he saw the effect it would have on his kits, on cardinalpaw. the difference, however, was that the other mates were in different clans, far enough away where they couldn't intrude on his duty as a leader, couldn't break his relationship with sweetecho, who left his side long enough to train with rosepaw.
paragraphhe knew that the clan was worried about their leader, who was often presented as strong and sturdy in the face of adversity. but he'd lost his best friend. he'd lost ivystripe, then hazestar, then gullfeather. ivystripe, who fell in love and was punished for her indiscretion. hazestar, who he loved as his best friend, his companion despite the responsibilities that kept them apart and the invisibly boundaries. gullfeather, murdered on their own territory. the lives stretched out before him, and redstar couldn't tell when it was becoming too much until leaving his den became a burden. and in the middle of it all, honeyflower brought herself to him, with soft eyes and gentle words. "i'm worried about you," she said then, stepping closer until her fur brushed against his, and she sat at his side. "you looked tired on patrol this morning."
paragraphhe wanted to laugh, knew that he should brush her off. but her tongue rasped against his ear, and he rested his head against her shoulder, looking for comfort. "these past few moons have been so difficult," redstar said. "so much has happened, i feel so powerless."
paragraph"you need to take care of yourself redstar," honeyflower soothed. "your entire clan is with you. we would all do anything for you, but you also need to lead us," she continued. in the quiet of redstar's den, honeyflower groomed his fur and later shared prey with him. despite himself, redstar recognized that he was entirely infatuated with her, and she with him.

actions
[ added cats ] canaryleap from here, acorntail from here
[ consumption ] quickclan eats four birds and a minnow
[ moonpool ] n/a
[ kittings ] honeyflower and redstar try for kits
[ rank changes ] autumnkit is old enough to become an apprentice - she will be training to become a medicine cat
[ medicine cats ] peckerpaw rests in camp. the medicine cats give him x1 poppy seed to soothe the pain until they can locate elder leaves
[ hunting 1 ] falconflight, twiteflight, dustear, oriolefeather, sweetecho, and hawkrise
[ hunting 2 ] oakseed, berrypad, chanterellestep, sproutclaw, frostfur, and grassthorn
[ hunting 3 ] snakespots, alderpatch, flamestrike, cherrydawn, canaryleap, and brightcreek
[ hunting 4 ] sparrowcall, whitesnow, minnowjump, mulestomp, and aspenwish
[ patrol 1 ] redstar, tumblejaw, piperskip, mintstem, acorntail, and honeyflower
[ herb hunting ] alpinemask and gorseberry
[ training ] flintpaw, marshpaw, darterpaw, owletpaw, and heatpaw learn agility
cardinalpaw, fleetingpaw, webpaw, rainypaw, and boulderpaw learn swimming
daffodilpaw, dandelionpaw, dovepaw, finchpaw, and cricketpaw learn stalking
[ notes to mod ] i just realized that i passed 75 cats. i added squirrels to the fresh kill pile
also,, if gorseberry and alpinemask could not find the elder leaves, that would be chill. (or if they do, can peckerpaw still wind up with a limp?)

My gallery · by **eagle,** » Sun Mar 31, 2019 6:36 am

paragraphcyan, falcon, and co.

apprentices/kit stuff

autumnkit and gorse

sweetecho talks to tumblejaw ft. a lot of tension

My gallery · by **eagle,** » Sun Apr 07, 2019 11:33 am

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never stop running on and on with the wind
▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ( archive ) ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

paragraph"step forward." in the quiet of the barn, nolan's voice rang out loudly from where he had taken his perch. he sat tall, his tail curled neatly around his paws and muzzle raised high, which allowed his words extra power and volume to echo across his followers. to his left, graham was grooming his chest fur with long strokes of his tongue, smoothing the burrs out of his long gray and white fur, though he snapped to attention when layla cleared her throat on nolan's other side. a cat padded forward from the shadows of the barn, their chin raised with confidence, and nolan knew that they picked the right cat for the job. "it's time," he said, and the cat flashed a smile, bearing sharp teeth. "do you know what you must do?"
paragraph"gain the trust of the clan cats, learn their ways. report back to you," the cat said with a flick of their tail.
paragraph"remember your loyalties," layla added harshly, and her eyes trailed across the barn, where other followers stood among the piles of hay. "our mission is simple: to take over the moor, so we can finally have a home of our own."
paragraphseveral enthusiastic shouts rose up from the barn and cats stamped their paws. their time had come. nolan strode forward, his sleek ginger pelt catching the sun through the slits in the barn's roof, turning his fur aflame. he stopped only when he was nose-to-nose with the cat. "go now," he said, dismissing the cat for their task. "go and do our work." and so the cat dipped their head, then turned and exited the barn, ushered out with the praise of the group, that they would lead the charge against the clan on the moor. the moor would soon be theirs.

paragraphthe moor was his, eagleheart reflected, as he glanced across the open landscape; open save for the barn that loomed behind him, casting its shadow across the fields of waving grass. the ground was warm under his paws, though the wind was beginning to become laced with a chill. in the distance, he could make out the tell-tale shapes of cats traveling together as a patrol, though they hadn't spotted him yet. his pads pricked with anticipation, readying himself for the moment they would see him and approached. he visualized them circling, asking him what business he had on the moor, what he was doing there. he ran over answers in his head, things to say so that they would consider taking him into their group. the wind blew, buffeting his ears and long ginger fur, and he wrapped his tail around his paws, holding himself close. there was certainly work to be done.
paragraphhe caught the moment the first cat spotted him, a lithe cat, young but observant - even at a distance, eagleheart could see these types of things. he knew because, he, too, was observant. it was a gift, truly. he saw the way the cat spread the news to the others in the patrol, how the information rippled outward through them until the first cat steered his companions in eagleheart's direction. when they came closer, eagleheart called out to them, "a fine morning, isn't it?" he asked, and the brown and white cat approached with the others at his tail, waiting for any further signal. eagleheart glanced at the cat who had spotted him, a tom with silver fur and muscles hardened beneath his pelt. for his age, he was strong.
paragraph"leaf-fall is coming, i'm afraid," the lead cat said, and his ears twitched, as if trying to gauge eagleheart in the span of a few seconds. in the pause, eagleheart allowed the tom to think about how to address him, his next plan of action. "who are you?" he asked at last, "why are you here?"
paragraph"my name's eagleheart," he said after a moment, smiling as he did so. it was important for these cats to trust him, not to see him as a threat but one of value. "i'm here because my paws brought me here after the clan i was in disbanded." he saw the information wash over the cats. there were five of them in total - the lead tom, the silver tom, a larger gray tabby, and two black and white mollies, one older than the other. certainly it was a story they heard before, time and time over as cats came together and fall apart, were forced to move on. but eagleheart believed that he'd found his place after all, that this moorland would serve him well. "a very sad affair, i'm afraid."
paragraph"my name is splashfall," the lead cat said, "these are flurrywind, duskflower, patchwing, and heatpaw," he said, and eagleheart knew that he had come through in one piece. these cats already trusted him as they would any other traveler. "we're part of a clan called quickclan. our leader has offered a home to refugees in the past, i'm sure that we would be willing to hear your story and consider offering you a place as a warrior, if you want that."
paragrapheagleheart glanced across the line cats, his eyes eventually resting on the identified heatpaw, who met his eyes and didn't break contact. at last, eagleheart dipped his head, "i think i would like that. thank you."

paragraph"she should be here by now," cyanslash said aloud, staring into the distance, searching for the familiar shape of his friend to appear on the horizon. "we should've met her at the border," he said after another beat of silence, letting out a frustrated sigh when falconflight turned his head and hushed the deputy.
paragraph"she's made the journey plenty of times before, she can take care of herself," falconflight soothed. of course, he was excited to see turtledove after several moons without a word. rumor traveled across the border of what had been happening in hazeclan while quickclan was entirely unaware of what buzzardstar was doing not too far away from their own home. it made sense that cyanslash was anxious, even if they could be assured of their friend's safety now that pantherstar was in power - surely turtledove's daughter would pose no danger to her own clan. falconflight supposed that cyanslash was more worried following gullfeather's death, which was a clear murder, though no conclusion had been made as to who would kill the medicine cat. though she often kept to herself, gullfeather was well-liked, and no cat would believe that one of their own had killed another. which meant that danger lurked out on the moor. as if reading his thoughts, cyanslash stood and paced forward, ears angled forward. "if there's anyone who can protect herself and the kits, it would be turtledove," falconflight said, sighing when cyanslash flicked his tail, clearly impatient.
paragraphfalconflight watched his mate stare at the horizon, only to twist his head back to look down towards the camp. after the warm seasons, greenery began to grow over the path that led down towards the dens and lower camp. down there, their own kits were waiting with the promise that turtledove was coming to visit, waiting with snakespots, who had been told the bare minimal. at that, falconflight cleared his throat and cyanslash looked back to him. "what are we going to say to snakespots?" he asked, not missing the way cyanslash wrinkled his nose.
paragraph"that he's going to be a great father, with or without his mate," cyanslash said, tone clearly bitter. the last time they happened across turtledove, she gave them the news that she would be bringing kestrelkit and frogkit to live in quickclan with their father, where the queens would be able to watch over them. when asked, they learned that oceansplash, snakespots' mate and the mother of the kits, wasn't interested in taking care of them anymore, that she didn't want to be his mate anymore. "we're going to tell him that we'll be here for him, and for his kits, no matter what." as the time neared for turtledove to arrive, they told snakespots that one of the hazeclan cats was coming to visit their kits, and would be bringing his kits along as well. at the time, it was the most they could manage to tell him, not ready to crush him just yet.
paragraphfalconflight opened his mouth to speak, but the words evaporated on his tongue when movement caught his eye over cyanslash's shoulder. "she's here," he said instead, rising to his paws. together, the mates rushed forward to meet turtledove, who was carrying the two young kits.
paragraph"it's good to see you," cyanslash said, and the pair greeted turtledove with warm purrs, exchanging nuzzles with her. when they had finished, their attention turned to the two kits, who looked up at them with wide eyes. after turtledove introduced the quickclan warriors, cyanslash dipped his head to the kits. "your father is very excited to see you, and our kits are looking forward to playing with you. finchpaw won't stop talking about all of the games she wants to teach you." as he expected, kestrelkit and frogkit appeared tired from the travel from hazeclan, and he could only imagine just how much they were missing their mother. in that moment, it was the best they could do to lead the group into quickclan's camp, which was a bustle of activity as the evening wore on.
paragraphin the midst of it all, however, it was impossible to miss snakespots when the lanky warrior spotted the group. falconflight and cyanslash put kestrelkit and frogkit down on the ground, just in time for the long-legged warrior to touch his nose to turtledove. "thank you for bringing them," he purred, directing his attention to the kits.
paragraphat the same moment, a call went up from the other side of camp. "turtledove's here!" finchpaw yelled, and it was only a moment later that the young apprentice charged towards the hazeclan molly, launching herself into her flank and followed closely by dovepaw, dandelionpaw, and cricketpaw. without prelude, the four apprentices talked excitedly about their training for the day, about their mentors, about the other apprentices, trying to telling turtledove about the past moons. they talked over one another, finchpaw keeping her voice the loudest, and cricketpaw nestled himself into turtledove's side.
paragraphfalconflight shot snakespots a sideways glance and felt a stab of pity pierce his heart when he saw the tom smiling down at his own kits, grooming their ears gently. the larger warrior caught falconflight's glance and shot him a sad smile. "it's a shame oceansplash couldn't be here," he murmured, and falconflight knew that the time had run out. snakespots needed to know the truth.
paragraph"snakespots..." he said, his voice catching. falconflight felt the lump in his throat and glanced to cyanslash and turtledove for help.
paragraph"the thing is, turtledove brought them here because... oceansplash doesn't want to be your mate anymore," cyanslash managed after a moment's pause. there was a short delay, before the words seemed to register to snakespots, who pulled his kits closer to himself, as if to shield them. he lowered his head, licked their ears again, gentle.
paragraphhurt played over the warrior's features, outlining each muscle of his body, though he allowed the kits to press close, too busy comforting the small kits who had been left behind. "don't worry," he said at last, his voice thick with pain. "i love you and you're not going anymore. i love you, i love you more than anything else," he assured, holding his small family together.

paragraphas the moon marched on, more cats joined quickclan's ranks. along with frogkit and kestrelkit, splashfall brought eagleheart back to camp, who was followed by another warrior, fluffytuft, and then an elder who called herself miranda. quickclan had never had an elder before, and gorseberry took over ensuring that she was well and taken care of after alpinemask entered the den the day after miranda arrived and shook his head, clearly frustrated. gorseberry had been working on helping autumnpaw identify different herbs and getting her acquainted with the various scents that she would use to identify the herbs. irritation radiated from alpinemask, and he shook his head when gorseberry looked at him.
paragraph"that elder," alpinemask clarified when autumnpaw turned her cloudy eyes towards him, curious. "you two will have to take care of her. i offered to fetch her fresh bedding and she scolded me for treating her like she was an elder," he said, and gorseberry couldn't contain his soft laugh. as long as he knew alpinemask, he never knew him to be so frustrated and upset.
paragraph"she is an elder," autumnpaw said, earning only a grunt of acknowledgement from alpinemask, who then mumbled that he would be heading out to search for herbs.
paragraphwhen he was gone, gorseberry stood and nudged autumnpaw back towards studying the herbs. "you keep working on that, i'll go see to miranda." the thought of having his ears clawed by the aged molly was not a welcoming thought, though the last thing the clan needed was for their lone elder to have a chill or cough, lest she suffer or spread anything to the rest of the clan. it was too early in the season for tragedy to strike, and gorseberry prayed to starclan for a moon of peace. surely quickclan deserved a break.
paragraph"maybe you'll have better luck than alpinemask," autumnpaw said, letting out a laugh of her own, "if not, send me. she can't be rude to the blind cat." gorseberry nipped her ear gently before leaving the den and crossing the camp towards the elders' den.
paragraphgorseberry was expecting that miranda would be alone, probably napping. instead, he made out several sets of voices, and was surprised to find that many of the apprentices were gathered in the den, listening intently while the elder spoke. peckerpaw and flintpaw sat together towards the back of the den, and peckerpaw offered gorseberry a warm smile when the medicine cat sat with them. rosepaw was lying down, his chin resting on his paws, and rowanpaw was pressed against him, rowanpaw grooming rosepaw's fur while they listened. hollowpaw was not far off from his friends, though it appeared that he had made an effort to be closer to marshpaw and darterpaw, both of whom were leaning forward intently. off to the side, boulderpaw and daffodilpaw were whispering until finchpaw shushed them from where she and her littermates were seated.
paragraphin the midst of it all, miranda nodded her acknowledgement of gorseberry, who dipped his head respectfully in turn. "and there we were, me and the dog," miranda was saying, and gorseberry settled in to hear the ending of the story. "the dog reared back, barking and howling so loudly that spit flew from its mouth. he kept hitting its body against the fence, making it shake and i had to sink my claws into it to stay on. i was holding on for my life," she continued, and cricketpaw buried his face in dovepaw's shoulder. dovepaw nosed her younger brother gently, soothing, and gorseberry felt his own fir prickle. miranda let out a laugh, "the fence gave out, but it tipped backward, away from the dog. i felt it move under me, so i let go and leaped at the same second that it collapsed. it gave me the extra distance i needed to get to the tree. so i landed in the branches, though i got a few scars from the tree," she paused long enough to bare the side of her neck, where the fur gave way to show the healed scar, prominent even after so long. nearby, rosepaw sat up and let out a noise of surprise, and rowanpaw shushed him gently, resting his head atop rosepaw's. "let her finish," rowanpaw whispered and rosepaw settled, leaning back into rowanpaw's body. "the dog jumped over what was left of the fence, still howling and making the biggest ruckus, and it started to throw itself at the tree. i forced myself to climb up, figuring that the higher i went, i would be away from the dog. i was lucky - one of the branches was over a twoleg nest. so i jumped down and onto the roof. that stupid dog didn't even know that i was gone, it just kept barking at the leaves," she finished, and the apprentices let out collective sighs of relief and cheered for miranda's story.
paragraphit was only a few minutes after miranda had finished, that the apprentices began to talk among themselves, that owletpaw's face peeked into the den. "training time!" she called, and the apprentices gathered themselves quickly. marshpaw and darterpaw charged from the den, cricketpaw, finchpaw, dovepaw, and dandelionpaw hot on their heels. boulderpaw and daffodilpaw followed more slowly, and so the others left until gorseberry watched flintpaw support peckerpaw, the former assuring gorseberry that he would get his brother back to the den safely. at last, gorseberry was left alone with miranda, who smiled at him.
paragraph"what did you think of the story?" miranda asked, and gorseberry padded forward, mindful of alpinemask's distaste of the elder and the claws she hid, but unable to hide his surprise. the apprentices had clearly taken a liking to her.
paragraph"was it true?" gorseberry asked after a moment, genuinely curious. he had only heard the finale, but he was still impressed, even more so when she nodded.
paragraph"i was young then. my joints can't move like that anymore, all that jumping around." her laugh was gravely, her front tooth chipped. gorseberry decided that he didn't mind miranda. "what can i do for you, medicine cat?" she asked after a moment.
paragraph"gorseberry," he informed, and she flicked her ear, either dismissive or acknowledging. in the moment he couldn't be certain. "i never had the chance to come in here and introduce myself. clearly i was late to get to you," he said, and miranda took to grooming her thinning fur. "i just wanted to say that if you ever need anything, feel free to come find me or my apprentice, autumnpaw." he saw the moment that miranda was running through the name in her head, as if trying to compare to a cat she already met. gorseberry beat her to it, "she's blind." he stated it bluntly, presented as fact. miranda gave her chest another lick, nodded.
paragraph"i'll keep that in mind," she said, and gorseberry was sure that it was a lot to take in, to catalog all of the different cats she was presented with in so little time. it must be overwhelming, even more so as the clan continued to grow.

paragraph"cardinalpaw!" the cry of his half-sibling came from the depths of the nursery when the red apprentice padded in the entrance. he tipped his chin up in greeting, his mouth full of the bird he took to the queens, in exchange for them allowing him to stop by whenever he had the chance to step away from his training. as far as he knew, the queens only suspected that he liked playing with the kits, that it was a phase he would grow out of eventually, probably once he became a warrior and had more duties to attend to. they couldn't know that he was there to take care of his half-siblings, who had no one else.
paragraphhe spared a glance towards pinekit and crakekit, who were sleeping in the nest they shared beside zinniabelly. the queen offered cardinalpaw a smile, though she was occupied with grooming charredkit and lagoonkit, who were nestled against her belly.
paragraphploverkit, however, darted out from poppyhaze's side to greet cardinalpaw, who set the bird down and touched his nose to hers. "is that for us?" ploverkit asked, turning to sniff the freshkill. she squeaked and stepped away when cardinalpaw cuffed her ear gently.
paragraph"it's for the queens, not for troublesome kits," cardinalpaw said, nudging the prey towards kindleflare, who gave the young tom an appreciative smile. more than once, he heard warriors and the other queens ask kindleflare who the father was - they had never thought that kindleflare would be a mother. she was headstrong and independent, and cardinalpaw noticed just how restless she seemed to be. kestrelkit and frogkit were nestled against her warm fur and growing belly, napping while their father was out on patrol, though kindleflare's tail flicked rhythmically and her ears were pricked, as if looking for stimuli. in comparison to poppyhaze, zinniabelly, and even honeyflower, she looked as though she was trapped.
paragraph"you're no fun," ploverkit complained, drawing cardinalpaw's gaze back from kindleflare to his half-sister. cardinalpaw purred teasingly, though he was interrupted by rivuletkit, who poked her head up from where she and her littermates were lying across the nursery, not far from their mother. "any news from redstar?" rivuletkit asked, and cardinalpaw offered a shrug at the mention of his father. he knew that she was asking if he heard about when the ceremonies would be, as rivuletkit, tinselkit, and magpiekit were due to be made apprentices any day. magpiekit let out a low groan of complaint at cardinalpaw's next words.
paragraph"sorry," he said, "redstar doesn't tell me that stuff." it wasn't worth saying that he tended to avoid his father these days, that he wished redstar wasn't his father. he looked at other warriors who had kits - falconflight, snakespots, sparrowcall - and wished that they had been his father instead. they wouldn't have gone off to have so many kits that he could barely keep track. once again, cardinalpaw's gaze swept to ploverkit, pinekit, and crakekit. in his sleep, crakekit shifted, his body twisting and he kicked out one of his hindlegs, as if fighting in a dream.
paragraph"can you teach me a fighting move?" ploverkit asked, her eyes wide as she looked up at cardinalpaw, who met her gaze evenly. more than once, he asked himself how he was expected to tell ploverkit the truth, how he could manage to keep this secret from her. she was so young, so trusting, so unaware of all that cardinalpaw had come to know now. he wished he could protect her from the world, so that his small half-siblings would never have to have their innocence crushed. for now, however, he would do what he could.
paragraph"i need to go to training," cardinalpaw said, "i'm already late to meet rainypaw, heatpaw, and flintpaw. and screechwing'll have my ears for it, i'm sure." not that it was true - screechwing was a good mentor, extremely understanding of mistakes. cardinalpaw was sure to be scolded for being late and missing the training session headed for the fields and the barn, though screechwing would surely find something else for them to do, or they would catch up to the others. at ploverkit's disappointed expression, he licked her gently between the ears, flashed a wide smile. "later tonight i'll teach you some hunting crouch, so you can hunt if any prey sneaks into camp, okay?" it was a promise, albeit not a good one. but it was one that ploverkit was happy to take.
paragraph"alright," she said, before rearing up to push against cardinalpaw's shoulder. "now go, before you make screechwing mad. i need you in one piece so you can teach me." cardinalpaw laughed, but went easily, bidding the queens a nice afternoon before he left, off to find screechwing.

paragraphflintpaw trailed at the end of the patrol with nightfall, the rest of the warriors and apprentices leading the way. rainypaw and heatpaw chattered at the head of the patrol while the barn came into view on the horizon, beyond the sea of tall grass. already, leaf-fall was turning the grass brown, and it crunched under flintpaw's paws. tallpeak and flurrywind walked on, discussing the ways to train their respective apprentices. they came to the barn for the mice that populated the area surrounding it - it was a good place to work on stalking and hunting skills that differentiated from the usually agility and endurance that it took to chase rabbits and hares across the moor.
paragraph"are screechwing and cardinalpaw going to come?" flintpaw asked, breaking the silence between he and nightfall. when they walked side by side, flintpaw was often struck by how he was taller than nightfall now, his legs longer, steps taking him further. he and flurrywind were of a height, and flintpaw towered over the other apprentices, though heatpaw was also growing, his shoulders widening. if not for his pelt color, flintpaw reckoned that heatpaw would look exactly like redstar himself - not even cardinalpaw mirrored redstar in frame as much as heatpaw did.
paragraph"i assume they'll catch up when screechwing finds cardinalpaw," nightfall answered with a shrug. "have you spoken to cardinalpaw recently?" nightfall asked after a moment's hesitation, and flintpaw cast him a sideways glance. "screechwing said he seems distracted. he's worried."
paragraph"i haven't seen him much," flintpaw answered honestly. he looked forward, to where tallpeak and flurrywind had stepped ahead, catching up with rainypaw and heatpaw, who bounded ahead, energetic as always. "i've been with peckerpaw a lot. gorseberry doesn't like him being out of the nursery while his leg's still healing." thankfully, gorseberry and alpinemask brought back good news earlier that moon, when they found the herbs they needed to aid in peckerpaw's healing. hopefully, his brother would be able to take his assessment in the next moon, flintpaw at his side. together, they were confident that they would succeed.
paragraph"how's peckerpaw doing?" nightfall asked. "how're his spirits?"
paragraph"you know, it took a shot to his pride that he was outsmarted by a hare, but he'll get over it. once he's a warrior, it'll be better," flintpaw said, unable to lie to nightfall and say that peckerpaw didn't have his reservations. it was hurtful that grassthorn, dustear, and oriolefeather had all received their names while peckerpaw and flintpaw were left behind, though there wasn't any resentment. they just wanted to get it right. ahead, the rest of the patrol had disappeared, though nightfall circled flintpaw, stopping him.
paragraph"it's natural for you to be worried about him, of course. he's your brother, but he's strong. he'll get through it," nightfall said. flintpaw nodded his agreement. others would have lost their spirit, but peckerpaw was restless, looking for his chance to step up again and show that he was capable, more than anyone realized. flintpaw wasn't sure that he would be able to push through like peckerpaw. he opened his mouth to say as such, to say that he was proud of peckerpaw, that he knew that he would be fine in the same way that cardinalpaw would be fine once he addressed whatever was on his mind, but he was stopped by a chill running up his spine and making his fur stand on end. nightfall's ears pricked, the sound of fur brushing through the grass, followed by a foreign, far-off battle cry that came from the direction of the barn. not a heartbeat passed before they heard their clanmates screech, the sounds of battle. instead of training, however, this was very real. together, nightfall and flintpaw turned and plunged into the grass after their friends.
paragraphthe browning grass was stained red, and flintpaw could taste it on his tongue before he was even aware of what was happening before his very eyes. tallpeak and rainypaw fought side by side against two muscled tabbies, and flurrywind was pressed back against another pair, heatpaw behind him, fighting a hissing molly who slashed towards his face. nightfall nodded flintpaw towards tallpeak and rainypaw, who were struggling - rainypaw too small, not sure how to fight, let alone against a cat twice her size, tallpeak unable to handle both enemies on her own. flintpaw took a running start and launched himself onto the cat's back, sinking his claws in deep. the cat spun, trying to shake flintpaw off, though he held fast.
paragraphin those moments, the world came to him in a blur. he saw other pelts emerging from the grass, strange and unfamiliar. he had never seen these cats before in his life, now they fought his friends and clanmates with vicious swipes and unrelenting ferocity. they were outmatched and outnumbered, small chance of winning. they had been ambushed. he saw tallpeak's ginger and white fur stained bright red, flurrywind was fighting shoulder-to-shoulder with nightfall, though both were bleeding heavily. he saw rainypaw try and strike a blow against the tom he held onto, though another paw caught her, sent her sprawling back. flintpaw didn't see heatpaw anywhere.
paragraphhe fell from his perch when the cat twisted again, another cat catching flintpaw's hindquarters and pulled him down. flintpaw landed sideways, his shoulder slamming into the ground, the wind knocked out of him. he struggled to turn onto his stomach, watching the legs move around him as cats fought, saw crimson pools gathering. then he saw heatpaw, not far away, lying on the ground, unmoving. flintpaw's stomach dropped, it had suddenly become a fight for his life.
paragraphflintpaw lashed his tail, kicked out with his hindlegs to try and struggle, but weight landed on his body, overwhelming him and keeping him pinned to the ground. two twisted faces swam into his sight, baring sharp fangs. he struggled again, but his strength was failing, and then he saw a paw raise, claws glinting in the afternoon light. he saw it come down, felt pain radiate outward from his face, felt his own yowl part his jaws and make his throat raw. he saw no more, his vision red from his own blood, though he felt a renewed surge, slashing and struggling. there was no telling how long had passed - moment, the rest of the afternoon, before all of the sounds of fighting stopped, and flintpaw felt only air behind his kicks. he heard panting, heard a new voice that rose up.
paragraph"clan cats," a voice echoed, though flintpaw couldn't see, could barely move from the heaviness of his limbs and the pain. the pain. "my name is nolan. tell your leader that we claim the moor. it is not yours anymore. this is your warning. move on, or die as this cat here." flintpaw fought to raise his head, to clear his vision and see who this cat was, who he was referring to, though it didn't take long. he made out rainypaw's sob of her brother's name. heatpaw was dead. flintpaw was lucky that he wasn't yet. "those of you who can may walk away. save yourselves. tell your leader to make the right choice. i will not be so merciful again." then the voice was gone, flintpaw was left in darkness.
paragraphthat is, until flurrywind and nightfall could be heard, and flintpaw struggled to make out their words, but he slipped from consciousness once, then again. he heard fragments of conversation, heard a call from the distance, made out nightfall calling out to someone, heard another voice, identified it as screechwing.
paragraph"dear starclan," screechwing said, flintpaw heard cardinalpaw sob. then, a voice near his ear, asking if he heard them.
paragraph"i'm alive," he said, barely able to believe it himself. "i'm alive."
paragraph"stay with me," nightfall said, and flintpaw felt his mentor press his nose into his fur. "they're getting help. stay awake."
paragraph"nightfall," flintpaw croaked, "i can't see."

actions
[ added cats ] kestrelkit and frogkit given to snakespots from turtledove of hazeclan; eagleheart & fluffytuft x
[ consumption ] quickclan eats four birds and a minnow
[ moonpool ] n/a
[ rank changes ] magpiekit, tinselkit, and rivuletkit are old enough to become apprentices
rowanpaw and rosepaw take their assessment. if they pass, they will be named rowanfoot and roselight
[ medicine cats ] peckerpaw rests in camp. the medicine cats give him x1 elder leaves (he will still have a limp from the moon he went without proper treatment)
[ hunting 1 ] falconflight, twiteflight, dustear, oriolefeather, sweetecho, and hawkrise
[ hunting 2 ] oakseed, berrypad, chanterellestep, sproutclaw, frostfur, and grassthorn
[ hunting 3 ] snakespots, alderpatch, flamestrike, cherrydawn, canaryleap, and brightcreek
[ hunting 4 ] sparrowcall, whitesnow, minnowjump, mulestomp, and aspenwish
[ patrol 1 ] redstar, tumblejaw, piperskip, mintstem, acorntail, and nightfall
[ herb hunting ] alpinemask and gorseberry
[ training ] darterpaw, owletpaw, fleetingpaw, and daffofilpaw learn agility
marshpaw, finchpaw, cricketpaw, dandelionpaw and boulderpaw learn fighting
cardinalpaw, rainypaw, webpaw, and dovepaw learn hunting
autumnpaw learns herb identification
[ event ] the rogues from the barn attack tallpeak, flurrywind, nightfall, flintpaw, rainypaw, and heatpaw. heatpaw is killed, flintpaw suffers a massive injury to his eyes, the rest are injured. (roll for injury on flurrywind, flintpaw, & nightfall, roll for injury/death on tallpeak & rainypaw). flintpaw will be blinded
[ notes to mod ]

My gallery · by **eagle,** » Thu May 30, 2019 4:38 pm

paragraphsnakespots bonding with his kits

side warrior fluff/relationship development

My gallery · by **eagle,** » Thu May 30, 2019 4:39 pm

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never stop running on and on with the wind
▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ( archive ) ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

paragraphcardinalpaw's paws scraped across the familiar path that led towards quickclan's camp. his pads burned from his race across the moorland, his fur hot despite the cooling winds, and his side ached with the effort of taking large, gulping breaths in his run from the barn. when he and screechwing left camp to meet with their training group for the afternoon, they cardinalpaw never would have expected to find his clanmates recovering from an attack. the images had been sealed forever in his memory - tallpeak, her pelt ragged, trying to help flurrywind, who held his paw out at an awkward angle and wincing as he did so, nightfall leaning over flintpaw, both of whom were bleeding heavily from different wounds, and, worst of all, rainypaw with her nose pushed into heatpaw's shoulder, their brother not moving. cardinalpaw hadn't been given a good chance to get any closer to his half-siblings before screechwing pushed him away, telling his apprentice to get back to camp, to get help. so cardinalpaw ran, and ran, and ran until his entire body ached, and then he kept running.
paragraphwith a final burst of energy, cardinalpaw came to the drop-off that led into the quickclan camp. he caught the familiar sights of his friends and family, the cats he had grown up with as long as his memory served, and those who recently entered the clan. a knot of warriors was gathered in the camp's lower level, visible even from his vantage point. others were scattered, as the other apprentices had taken to sitting in the last rays of sunlight after training, and the queens took the kits out to stretch their legs and play before night came. it was a scene of peace, but was broken quickly when cardinalpaw arrived, and heads turned at the scent of his fear. "cardinalpaw, where's screechwing?" a voice asked, and the red apprentice turned to face oakseed, his mentor's mate. the large tom's expression was twisted with anticipation and worry, and the world swam when cardinalpaw stepped forward.
paragraph"the patrol was attacked near the barn," he managed to pant out. he felt someone press into his side and identified the sharp herb-scent of a medicine cat, and turned his eyes to gorseberry while others gathered around him. vaguely, he made out the voices of other cats asking questions, dawn by the scent of fear, the confused murmurs while the clan regarded one of their own. finally, his eyes settled on redstar, who shouldered through the crowd and looked at his eldest son. "they were attacked, beaten before screechwing and i got to them. they need help," he looked to redstar, "please, heatpaw and flintpaw are hurt. they're all hurt."
paragraphredstar glanced from cardinalpaw to cyanslash, who stood on the other side of the circle. "take a patrol with you," he told his deputy. "only the fastest cats, who can get there faster than anyone else. this is urgent." redstar's voice held strong, though cardinalpaw could see the trace of worry lighting his gaze. so long as he could remember, cardinalpaw could never think of a moment when the great redstar looked scared.
paragraph"brackenrose," cyanslash spoke up, and the lithe molly stepped forward at the sound of her name, flicked her ear. "snakespots and rowanpaw, duneserpent and twiteflight, you're with me," cyanslash said, gathering the warriors to himself. the deputy glanced to cardinalpaw, who leaned heavily against gorseberry's smaller frame, though the medicine cat braced him with his shoulder. "did any of them look like they could still walk?" cyanslash asked, and cardinalpaw nodded slightly, uncertain but hopeful. cyanslash flicked his tail and led the patrol from the gathered cats. in the wake of their leaving, cardinalpaw felt redstar's gaze burn into the side of his head once more, though he refused to meet his eyes. instead, he stepped away from gorseberry and sat down, his legs weak from his run. around him, he heard the other warriors murmuring, though their words were indecipherable to him.
paragraph"cardinalpaw." his name caught his attention, and he looked up at fleetingpaw, who nodded to the empty space beside cardinalpaw. cardinalpaw nodded once, and fleetingpaw sat down. silence stretched between them, and fleetingpaw looked at the warriors around them before he broke the quiet. "we have to be strong," fleetingpaw said, and cardinalpaw looked at him again. he opened his mouth, then closed it again, unsure of what he might say. fortunately, fleetingpaw cleared his throat. "we're the oldest. it's our job to look out for them," he continued, and cardinalpaw looked his brother up and down. of his half-siblings, fleetingpaw had always been the one he felt closest to when they were kits. the one he turned to when he wanted to sneak out after sweetecho fell asleep, the one he wasn't afraid to wrestle with, because he knew that fleetingpaw was stronger than the others.
paragraph"yeah," cardinalpaw said, though his fur prickled. "they need us." in that moment, he was struck by the knowledge that he had, that there was more to the story than fleetingpaw knew. that even if fleetingpaw knew that cardinalpaw wasn't sweetecho's kit, that they were still related, that they had more siblings just across the camp, who needed them just as much as rainypaw and heatpaw.

paragraphlater, in the moonlight, the clan emerged from the half-shadows at the sound of redstar's call. the queens were visible at the entrance of the nursery, their silhouettes whispering in the mouth of the cave, and miranda padded slowly to join them. the warriors and apprentices gathered together, though a space was left at the bottom of the elevated rock where redstar made his announcements. there, heatpaw's body had been placed, groomed by his mother and arranged so that he appeared to be asleep. however, not even sweetcho's loving gesture could erase the signs of battle from her kit's pelt, shoing claw marks in his side, the stain of blood on his gray fur, other patches where his attackers had torn out fur. redstar stood above his clan and his son.
paragraph"on this day, quickclan was attacked on its own territory, by cats who do not belong here," he began. the other members of the patrol had been taken into the medicine cats' den when cyanslash's patrol managed to bring them back. his deputy described the scene when they arrived, how heatpaw's body was already cold, how the others looked lucky to be alive. alpinemask expressed his worry for flintpaw, that the apprentice had lost a lot of blood and might lose his eyesight, though it was too early to tell. the medicine cats and their patients were absent from the clan meeting, as was aspenwish and peckerpaw, who rarely left flintpaw's side until they were assured that he was stable and not at risk of leaving them for starclan as well. "one of our own was taken from us, and his memory will live on, as an apprentice who would have become a great warrior if he had the chance." redstar looked down at his son's body, his fur turned pale, and his heart clenched. heatpaw truly would have been a great warrior, strong and sure. but his future had been stolen.
paragraph"the cats left us a message," redstar continued when he lifted his gaze to survey his warriors. upon their return, flurrywind and tallpeak relayed the message given to them by a cat who called himself nolan, who had led the attack on the clan cats. "they said that we need to leave the moor, they said that our home isn't ours anymore. the home we've had for seasons - they want to take it away from us just as they tried to take our lives. just as they have taken lives." a murmur spread through the clan and redstar lifted his head to the stars. "quickclan - i ask you to help me make this decision. itis not fair for me to decide your fates alone in this dire issue. do you believe that we should move, to find a new home?"
paragraphthe murmur raised in volume, and redstar watched the cats ripple with uncertainty. his eyes landed on cardinalpaw, who sat in the back of the meeting, though cardinalpaw looked away then to whisper to owletpaw who sat beside him. in the middle of it all, twiteflight rose to her paws and shouted above the din, "we can't leave," she shouted, and the cats around her quieted. falconflight nudged her shoulder on one side, encouraging, and twiteflight took a step forward, addressing redstar directly.
paragraph"i've been here since i was a kit, and i'd rather die here than live somewhere else. this is the only home i ever want to know. our friends and family have already died here in the past," the young warrior said, and she looked to heatpaw, but redstar knew that she was calling upon gullfeather and ivystripe, upon privetfang. "let me fight for my home, and i'll make sure that those cats know better than to mess with quickclan again." though young, twiteflight was a popular warrior, and several shouts of approval went up from the crowd. redstar nodded to her, acknowledging her, and then turned to blizzardrush when he stood tall over the gathered warriors.
paragraph"i wasn't born in quickclan, and i didn't have the experience of growing up here," blizzardrush said, nodding to twiteflight respectfully. "but i've been here since the early days, when cyanslash brought redstar to falconflight and i. we had come from different clans, those who failed and disbanded, as several of you have experienced as well." eyes turned towards chanterellestep, to eagleheart and fluffytuft, to whitesnow and minnowjump. much of quickclan came from refugees. "quickclan has always been welcoming of the outcast, of those who have no where else to go because no one else wants us. but we also need to protect our own."
paragraph"because who knows what will happen in the future, who knows what will happen if we try and move?" that was chanterellestep, who stood among rowanpaw, rosepaw, grassthorn, and hollowpaw - those he saved from the ruins of graveclan and brought to safety. when he spoke, adding into blizzardrush, the older warrior shot chanterellestep a smile and flicked his ears, allowing him to speak. chanterellestep hesitated but then looked up at redstar, "i won't go searching for another home again. i've seen graveclan fall apart, quickclan belongs together, and quickclan belongs here." at that, he sat down and the former-graveclan cats started the next round of shouts. in the middle of it all, splashfall called out to redstar.
paragraph"quickclan has lost its way before," splashfall said, meeting redstar's gaze. the leader dipped his head to his oldest friend, and splashfall turned to face the rest of the clan, "redstar, sweetecho, and i are the only known survivors of the old quickclan. you've all heard the story of how quickclan fell. because it cracked under pressure, but we have a strong leader, a capable deputy, and warriors who control this moor. we can't let anyone take anything away from us." the loudest cheers of the night rose to the stars, as if quickclan was ready to battle starclan themselves if they challenged this decision.
paragraphredstar stepped forward, reclaiming the clan's attention. "i hear you, and i will fight alongside you. because quickclan has the strongest warriors i will ever know, and another warrior joins the ranks tonight." he scanned the crowd then, and gestured to rowanpaw, who startled slightly but stood and walked forward when redstar gestured to him, rosepaw nudging his friend to his paws. redstar met the long-legged apprentice found hawkrise in the crowd. "hawkrise," redstar began, "you have overseen the final stages of rowanpaw's training since he arrived in quickclan. can you confirm that he has mastered all of the necessary skills to become a full warrior of quickclan?" when hawkrise voiced an affirmation, redstar looked to rowanpaw. "rowanpaw, do you swear before quickclan of past and present, to uphold the principals we hold most sacred, to protect the clan with all of your body and mind?"
paragraphrowanpaw swallowed thickly, then dipped his head. "i swear it," he answered firmly.
paragraph"then from this moment forward you will be known as rowanfoot. starclan honors your speed and dedication." redstar stepped back, allowing rowanfoot to bask in the clan calling out his name, and it was only when he found a lull beginning to form that redstar called out to the clan. "we have one more warrior to honor tonight, as heatpaw died a true warrior's death, using the last of his energy to defend his clanmates. he has truly embodied strength and courage, and it is our duty to make sure that his memory does not fade. if he were to be made a warrior, i would have called him heatscratch."
paragraphrowanfoot took up the call first, joined by the rest of the crowd, and redstar was able to pick out the voices of cardinalpaw, fleetingpaw, owletpaw, and webpaw over the rest as they grieved for their brother. "heatscratch! heatscratch! heatscratch!"

paragraphsweetecho had been inconsolable following heatpaw's death, and more than one of the warriors came to cyanslash to complain about her sobs keeping them up in the night. each time, cyanslash brushed them aside, saying that it was only right to let a mother grieve for her youngest son, the one who died far before his time. the one who had been stolen from their clan. it was sometime later that cyanslash announced himself in redstar's den, speaking when he had settled before quickclan's leader.
paragraph"patchwing and treespirit came to me this morning," cyanslash said, shuffling his paws slightly when he spoke. he cleared his throat, took his time. "sweetecho woke them up again last night, and treespirit nearly fell asleep on his paws during patrol," he continued, ducking his head under redstar's gaze. "have you tried talking to her?"
paragraph"she's my mate," redstar said stiffly, and it was cyanslash's turn to level his gaze at redstar. clearly, cyanslash hadn't forgotten the secret he knew, that redstar had multiple mates. though, redstar supposed, he didn't know the half of it, as he knew only of cardinalpaw's half-clan heritage. still, redstar met his deputy's eyes without flinching, accepting the challenge. "i've tried, but she won't even listen to me. our son died, it's hard on her," redstar said, feeling a flash if anger. even through everything, he had never stopped loving sweetecho. they had been through so much, he had done so much to bring her to him over the seasons. he wasn't sure what he would do without her.
paragraph"it's not healthy for her," cyanslash said meekly, and redstar felt his shoulders relax. it was a tough subject, he understood, and clearly not one cyanslash took pleasure in talking about. at last, redstar stood and shook out his fur.
paragraph"i'll talk to her again," he said, brushing past cyanslash and leaving his den. he hesitated for a moment at the entrance, blinking away the bright sun of leaf-fall before he discovered his mate sitting at the very edge of the camp, her head ducked low while piperskip spoke to her. upon redstar's approach, piperskip stopped whispering and flicked her ears. when sweetecho sat still, piperskip murmured her greeting.
paragraph"hey, redstar, anything i can do for you?" piperskip asked, and redstar shook his head.
paragraph"no, no, i just wanted to speak to sweetecho," he answered, and sweetecho raised her head at the sound of her name. piperskip moved away only after a long moment of silence, and redstar took her spot. before redstar could say anything, however, sweetecho piped up.
paragraph"i know i've been waking the others up. i'm sorry. but i can't help it. i get nightmares where i watch it happen to him, to the rest of my kits," she said, her tone surprisingly monotone and quiet. redstar blinked, and sweetecho turned her cheek away. "he's dead now, and no one else understands what it's like. piperskip's kit came back to her. mine can't."
paragraph"our other kits still need you, sweetecho," redstar said after a moment, unsure what she wanted him to say, what anyone might be able to say in this moment. "rainypaw is still in the medicine cats' den. she needs you to be strong for her."
paragrapha beat passed, and redstar watched as, before his eyes, sweetecho seemed to harden. under her pelt, her muscles tensed and her blue eyes turned to ice chips. "and what about all of your other kits?" she asked, her voice dropping to little more than a whisper, quiet enough so that only redstar could hear her. "you've gone on too long, thinking that i would never know, or figuring that i wouldn't care. but i know. i see you more than you see yourself."
paragraph"sweetecho -" redstar tried, turning closer to her, though she turned her face away from him, her fur bristling along her spine.
paragraph"i'm not a fool. it took me a long time to realize it, but cardinalpaw... he looks too much like you to not be your son. and it's not just him. tell me that honeyflower's kits aren't yours, tell me that the kits you brought back aren't yours," she said, scoffing when redstar ducked his head, unable to lie to her. "right," she said, breathing out a laugh that cut directly to redstar's heart. "then i'll be a mother to my kits, and you'll continue to father as many kits as you'd like. as if you'd ever be there for them." with that, she stood and began to pad towards alpinemask's den, though she turned long enough to hiss when redstar trailed after her and called out her name. "no!" she hissed, her ears pinned back to her head. "don't you dare." redstar stopped in his tracks, aware only after sweetecho disappeared of his clanmates watching the proceedings in silence, though he had no doubts that they would whisper later about what happened between the now-former-mates.

paragraphrosepaw rested outside of his den, his head resting on his paws and his eyes closed while he basked in the final moments of sunlight. over time, he'd grown used to the different sounds of the quickclan came, had come to welcome the constant chatter and movement just as he had in graveclan. in truth, it wasn't so much different after all. sometimes he found himself missing all of the old faces, though he had grown accustomed to seeing from his earliest memories. with each day that passed, rosepaw found himself thinking of graveclan a little less, found himself more immersed in quickclan. he watched chanterellestep eat and patrol with twiteflight, cherrydawn, and canaryleap. grassthorn had been around her brothers more, and rowanfoot had been given his full name and moved into the warriors' den after passing his assessment. even hollowpaw seemed to have forgotten, and rosepaw could hear him talking to darterpaw about one of the moves the latter was struggling with in training. even though rosepaw wasn't thinking of the past, he felt indescribably lonely.
paragraph"how was training today?" a voice asked, and rosepaw started at rowanfoot's voice. the clan's newest warrior looked tired from his day of patrolling and keeping up with the warriors. following the attack, redstar and cyanslash ordered more patrols, especially when it came to the fields. the last thing they wanted was for an ambush to take the clan by surprise again.
paragraphrosepaw merely placed his head back on his forepaws and allowed his eyes to fall shut again. "i'm tired," he mumbled after a moment, flicking his tail. he heard rowanfoot's sigh, as his best friend settled back in front of him. rosepaw expected to hear a new story of the most recent adventure rowanfoot and the other warriors had gone on while patrolling; how duneserpent chased a rabbit into its den and the others had to go in after him, only to find that it was a twist of tunnels, and how rowanfoot wished rosepaw had been able to join them. or he would tell about how the older warriors were actually quite kind and, unsurprisingly, knowledgeable, and sootstone taught rowanfoot a new way to catch a fish in the deeper stream across the moor. it wasn't that rosepaw didn't want to hear about his friend's accomplishments - quite the opposite, he loved listening to rowanfoot tell stories and knowing that he was well - but rosepaw wished that he hadn't failed his assessment, that he hadn't been left behind.
paragraphinstead, however, rowanfoot finally said, "i wish you had been on patrol with us today," he said simply. rosepaw expected him to say more, and he finally cracked an eye open when he didn't. he looked at his friend, who wore a somber expression. it was then that he continued, "we always do everything together, it doesn't feel right to be a warrior without you." indeed, they had grown up together, had always acted as a team. it was the reason they stuck together when the rest of graveclan fell apart, how rosepaw found out about chanterellestep taking grassthorn and hollowpaw with him and decided that he would go to, that he would make sure rowanfoot joined them.
paragraph"i wish i had been there too," rosepaw admitted, pushing himself to sit up and address his friend properly. "it just - it really sucks that i failed. or we would be warriors together. i should've been up there with you." when rowanfoot was named a warrior, rosepaw yelled his friend's name until his throat was raw, though it was only later that he realized just how far away the warriors' den was from his. "but i'm trying again, cyanslash is letting me go back out and try again. i need to do it right this time."
paragraphrowanfoot smiled down at his friend, and he leaned down to lick affectionately over his ear. "you've always been great, you're going to do great. i've saved you a nest next to mine. and we'll make sure we can be on the same patrols all of the time. you and me."
paragraphrosepaw grinned, ducking his head and swiping a paw half-heartedly at rowanfoot. "don't be a sap," he mumbled, though he reveled in rowanfoot's laughter. he leaned forward until his forehead rested against rowanfoot's chest, able to hear his heartbeat through his ribs. "i just hate you having all these warrior friends without me. they do know i'm your best friend, right?" he asked, then again when rowanfoot didn't answer. "right?"
paragraph"you say that like it's ever been a question," rowanfoot said fondly, pulling back to meet rosepaw's gaze. "hey, you know that i love you."
paragraphrosepaw purred, "i love you too, even if you annoy me sometimes."
paragraph"and you annoy me always," rowanfoot scoffed, touching his nose to rosepaw's, reeling back when rosepaw answered:
paragraph"good. i try my best."

paragraphthe entire morning, oakseed had tried his best to keep screechwing calm while they traveled to the hazeclan border, his mate a wreck of nerves that grew worse the longer they waited. not that he wasn't nervous either - he was - but screechwing paced along the border, stopping every few steps to glance off into the distance towards hazeclan. "we should've brought gorseberry or alpinemask," screechwing said when the sun reached its height, and oakseed shot the other tom a sideways glance.
paragraph"why would we?" he asked, bemused. "gorseberry's a good friend, but he and alpinemask are both busy. i tried to go in there yesterday to see if there was anything i could help with, and autumnpaw nearly clawed my ears off for getting in their way," oakseed recalled, chuckling softly at the memory. when he inquired what the urgency was all about, he was reminded by the sight of flintpaw, nightfall, and flurrywind still recovering from their injuries, and the browning leaves. the harsh moons were coming just on the horizon and threats still lingered.
paragraph"but what if one of the kits or bearclaw got hurt on the way over here?" screechwing asked, turning to oakseed with wide eyes. "you heard the rumors of what happened in hazeclan, and now with everything that's happening here... you can't be too safe." oakseed padded toward his mate and rested his chin on screechwing's head. he had always been a worrier, from as far back as oakseed knew him, from the very moment screechwing was brought in to camp.
paragraph"you know the news, that redstar met pantherstar, that she's nothing like the last leader," he paused, looking off over the border. it made his stomach to think of what buzzardstar did in hazeclan, right over the border, with none of the quickclan cats having the slightest idea. "and those rouges would have to deal with our kits, and i have a hunch that if those kits are anything like me, they'd better think twice." back in camp, quickclan had been working hard to prepare for further retaliation from the barn cats, reinforcing the camp's defenses inside and outside, as well as stocking up on prey and herbs. with leaf-bare coming too soon, redstar wanted his clan prepared for the worst, and several warriors had come to the conclusion that quickclan would barricade itself in its camp if it came to it. the barn cats couldn't kick them from their territory.
paragraphscreechwing laughed at last, and oakseed felt the other tom relax, allowing the tension to ease from his muscles. "you're right," screechwing said, nodding. "i know you're right. they're going to be great. but i can't help but worry. after what happened to heatpaw..." he trailed off for a beat and cleared his throat. "i just worry. because any of us could be next. i just want us all to be safe."
paragraph"now we know what we're dealing with. no mentors are taking their apprentices near the fields anymore, and the area is being patrolled constantly. they can't breathe without us knowing about it. they don't stand a chance," oakseed assured, though he was no longer positive if he was calming screechwing, or reassuring himself. because, in truth, his thoughts hadn't been much different. he had been so scared when cardinalpaw came back to camp without screechwing, and he thought that he might have had to go on without screechwing, which terrified him to his core. he'd been lucky that screechwing and cardinalpaw had been behind the others, though he was scared that their luck was running out.
paragraphbefore he could say anything else, however, motion from across the border caught his attention, and oakseed turned to see bearclaw coming towards them with the four kits in tow. he nudged screechwing, who perked up immediately, letting out a shout of, "you're here! welcome to quickclan!" before darting off to meet the group, oakseed having to push to follow.

paragraphseveral times a night, gorseberry woke autumnpaw so that, together, they could assess flintpaw's health and progress. of the three toms that were still in the den, the three medicine cats were more concerned about flintpaw. when he was brought in, flintpaw had been unconscious and losing blood fast from several different wounds. at first, their attention had been on the wounds in his side, though it became quickly apparent that the damage done to the apprentice's eyes was also a concern. nightfall said that flintpaw mentioned being unable to see before he passed out in the field, which was reaffirmed when he woke late the next day, unable to open his eyes from the pain and swelling. at last, alpinemask concluded that flintpaw would never see again, that too much had been done from the cat's claws.
paragraphsince then, autumnpaw took a special interest in assisting gorseberry while he worked on getting flintpaw back on his feet, so they could assess what he could do next. for the moment, redstar had yet to mention that flintpw would be unable to become a warrior, though it was also clear that he would have some difficulties. for the time being, however, gorseberry tended to the younger tom, to make sure that his wounds remained without infection.
paragraphafter checking on his wounds and deciding that the proper herbs were applied by the gray light of the re-dawn, gorseberry crawled back to his nest and rested his head among the moss. it only a heartbeat after he closed his eyes that gorseberry felt a paw prod into his side and gorseberry flicked his ear. "go back to sleep, autumnpaw," he muttered, feeling far too tired to move another muscle until morning arrived. however, a familiar voice jarred gorseberry, and he blinked open his eyes against a harsh light of the starry cats around him.
paragraph"is that how you talk to your apprentice?" gullfeather asked, offering her own former-apprentice a gentle smile. "come, gorseberry, we have much to discuss and not long until morning." with that, gullfeather nosed gorseberry to his paws and turned, and the young tom gaped at the sight of gullfeather moving gracefully through the den she once lived in. even more striking was when gorseberry recognized the pretty molly that joined gullfeather.
paragraph"ivystripe," gorseberry breathed out, and the other starclan cat purred in amusement. she touched her nose to gorseberry's ear.
paragraph"it's good to see you, gorseberry. i'm very proud of you, you've been doing a good job around here. quickclan has grown so much in only a few moons," ivystripe said, and her fur brushed against gorseberry's as she exited the den. together, the three cats moved towards the center of the clearing, where several other starry forms were waiting. among the brighter cats sat privetfang, who nodded towards gorseberry, and a group of kits, which gorseberry realized must have been gullfeather's kits and zinniabelly's dead kit. however, there were other cats who didn't glow as brightly, fading as time passed, though ivystripe weaved between them gracefully. "gorseberry, you wouldn't have heard of many of these cats, not even from redstar or splashfall. memory has erased many of these cats, though sharpstar -" she said, nodding to a broad-shouldered tom with massive paws, "- was the first leader of moorland cats. then quickfoot and his son, shalestar -" she paused between a pair of lithe toms, one gray and white, the other a smoky gray, "can be thanked for starting the clan as we know it." gorseberry sought to match names with faces as ivystripe introduced several other cats, finally ending on the cats with names he had heard before: snowstar, who was redstar's adoptive mother; fleetingstar; the leader who followed snowstar and was sweetecho's father; and brightstar, who was made deputy shortly before fleetingstar's death and killed by the clan he tried to lead.
paragraphwhen ivystripe sat down between gullfeather and the kits, and privetfang, gorseberry opened to ask why starclan had come to him when another form appeared, one that gorseberry saw earlier that moon, stretched in the middle of camp while redstar called his name. "i have a message for you, gorseberry," heatpaw said, silencing the medicine cat. he padded forward until he and gorseberry were only a hair's length apart. "the enemy is within quickclan, you need to be wary. because the camp walls can't keep out a threat that's already here," heatpaw said, and gorseberry's head swam with information, both from the different starclan cats, and trying to decode heatpaw's message.
paragraph"i don't understand," gorseberry said, "what do you mean that the threat is already here?" he asked, begging for an answer, but heatpaw had begun to back away, and the starclan cats were fading until, finally, a paw jabbed gorseberry's side and he startled. autumnpaw jumped back, her fur fluffed out.
paragraph"you were making a ton of noise in your sleep," autumnpaw said, and gorseberry sat up to see the first rays of sunlight leaking into the den. "alpinemask told me to wake up - it sounded like you were having a bad dream. is everything okay?" autumnpaw asked. for a long moment, gorseberry regarded his apprentice. she was still so young, still learning the basics, and he sighed.
paragraph"yeah," he exhaled, pulling himself from his nest. his head drooped with exhaustion and his tail dragged along the den's floor on his way to check on flintpaw again. "like you said, just a bad dream."

actions
[ added cats ] rootkit, hootkit, branchkit, and swoopkit given to oakseed and screechwing by bearclaw of hazeclan
heronkit and scorpionkit given to redstar by deerleap of bearclan x
[ consumption ] quickclan eats four birds and two minnows
[ moonpool ] n/a
[ rank changes ] rosepaw and peckerpaw retake their assessment. if they pass, they will be named roselight and peckernose
hollowpaw takes his assessment. if he passes, he will be named hollowfang
[ medicine cats ] flintpaw, flurrywind, and nightfall rest in camp. flurrywind is given x1 elder leaf, flintpaw is given x1 goldenrod and is in need of x1 cobwebs
[ kitting ] kindleflare is kitting. bearstar of laurelclan is the father. gorseberry is there to help, and he gives her x1 chervil and x1 stick
hawkrise tries for kits with genetstorm of eanakhclan
[ hunting 1 ] falconflight, twiteflight, dustear, oriolefeather, sweetecho, and hawkrise
[ hunting 2 ] oakseed, berrypad, chanterellestep, sproutclaw, frostfur, and grassthorn
[ hunting 3 ] snakespots, alderpatch, flamestrike, cherrydawn, canaryleap, and brightcreek
[ hunting 4 ] sparrowcall, whitesnow, minnowjump, mulestomp, and rowanfoot
[ patrol 1 ] redstar, tumblejaw, mintstem, splashfall, and acorntail
[ herb hunting ] alpinemask and gorseberry
[ training ] marshpaw, darterpaw, cardinalpaw, and owletpaw learn swimming
webpaw, rainypaw, boulderpaw, and daffodilpaw learn climbing
dandelionpaw, dovepaw, finchpaw, and cricketpaw learn fishing
plumpaw, magpiepaw, tinselpaw, and rivuletpaw learn stalking
autumnpaw learns herb usage
[ event ] quickclan gives the neighborhood 3 small fish in exchange for honey x1 and borage x1
redstar denies food this moon and loses a life as a result
[ notes to mod ]

[ ✦ there's a bonfire burning tonight ]

[ ✦ quickclan 18 ]

[ ✦ quickclan 19 ]

[ ✦ quickclan 20 ]

[ ✦ quickclan 21 ]

[ ✦ quickclan intermission 21.5 ]

[ ✦ quickclan 22 ]

[ ✦ quickclan intermission 22.5 ]

[ ✦ quickclan 23 ]

[ ✦ quickclan intermission 23.5 ]

[ ✦ quickclan 24 ]

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