[mystical-maniac]

Username: mystic-canine
Cat Name: troutchaser
Clan: twigclan
Rank: warrior

Gender: female
Age: 21 moons

Prompt: (words=327) troutchaser made a hard choice when she was a apprentice

troutpaw was hanging out with her friend littlepaw around a old dock when her friend jumped into the water. littlepaw was a great swimmer unlike troutpaw. "come on trout! it's fun!" littlepaw called out "who ever saw a trout that can't swim?!". troutpaw was not about to jump into the cold water just because she had a fish for a name. she dipped her paw into the water but quickly pulled it out. "i am not going to swim in this freezing cold lake" troutpaw hissed. "you are really missing out..." littlepaw replied

troutpaw was laying down on the dock watching littlepaw swim around. "you get used to the water! it's really fun!" littlepaw yelled. "i think i see a fish!". troutpaw was getting bored and she was about to return to camp but something made her stay. she started to look for prey that was hiding in the rocks. she had just caught a mouse when she heard splashing in the water. she sat the mouse on the dock and looked out into the lake. she saw that littlepaw was struggling to stay afloat and as she got closer she noticed that her friend was stuck in a patch of seaweed.

troutpaw was very scared, littlepaw was her friend. she had two choices, she could run back to the clan for help and risk her friends life or she could jump in and risk her own. troutpaw did not have much time to think. she could not sit and watch her friend drown, but would she be willing to risk her own life? troutpaw stared walking and than running and with one huge leap she found herself swimming. troutpaw swam over towards littlepaw and with a few swipes from her claws littlepaw was free.
in the end troutpaw made the right choice. she felt like a hero and to littlepaw that is exactly what she was.

[WolfstormSC]

Username: WolfstormSC
Cat Name: Dawnflame
Clan: Stormclan
Rank: warrior

Gender: Female
Age: 43 moons

Prompt: Something that will always haunt Dawnflame is the thought of leaving her kits behind so that she could have a better life.
Why had she done it? Where were these kits now? Were they even still alive?
She will never know the answer to any of these questions, not now and maybe not ever.
All she can remember is their faint scent of the salty ocean and the unmistakable odor of their father who she had barely known, yet was willing to give them up for him.
She remained heartbroken from this, a scar that will forever be placed on her heart.
She will forever walk on this earth, not knowing what happened to her kits, her own flesh and blood. It was a crime against starclan to even commit such a thing. She felt awful about it but tried to remain happy for her peers.
Perhaps she'll see them again one day, someday. (155 words)

[clouds-move-on]

Username: ☁Lady Raincloud☁
Cat Name: Fennel
Clan: Lighthouse
Rank: Loner

Gender: she-cat
Age: 23 moons

Prompt:

"You shouldn't be here anymore."

Fennel's eyes rested on her brother, as he lay curled up in his nest. He was the one to have spoken. She let out an annoyed sigh as he did so, and said testily. "And where do you think I'd go if not just come back here?"

The fluffy red tom muttered something to himself. He stood, glanced at her, and began to walk in circles, carefully seating himself down in his nest again, and looking up at her through tired eyes.

"I'm not going to force you to leave, your my sister." He meowed. "But you don't have any traces of the illness yet. If your lucky, you can leave now before you do have it."

"Your not leaving." Fennel said, seating herself with a huff on her nest. "I shouldn't leave either! If the plague really kills all of us... so be it. But most of out family is still alive, we can-"

"We've been searching for what we can do and we're not finding it fast enough!" Her brother snapped, jumping back up to an upright sitting position. Fennel flinched back, her ears lying flat on her head as he shouted. "We've already lost three cats, and everyone but you has caught the illness! There's nothing more you can do but leave... I don't want you to die, too."

Fennel caught onto something his his words, and didn't stop for a beat. "Your not sick, and your not running away. You think I'll abandon everyone just to save my own skin?"

"Not of your own accord, never." Her brother replied. His voice was beginning to lower. He shook his head slightly and fell back in his nest again, saying. "Of course you wouldn't Fennel... your the bravest and most selfless of all of us... but we've all agreed you should go."

"What do you mean we?"

"Everyone! They wanted me to go too but..."

"But what?"

Her brother was quiet for a moment before he replied.

"... I started having some of the early symptoms yesterday."

- - -

Fennel stared out at the horizon, atop her favorite perch where she and her brother and sister used to play as kits. It was a large boulder; biggest in the stretch of grassland and swamp they lived in. She could see beyond the rolling grass to the distant hills; at night, the hills were illuminated by the busy lights of a human city.

This might be the last time she saw it- from this location. From this view she'd grown up with and loved.
She could hear the faint coughs from the camp only a few paces away; it was true. Everyone but her had the illness now. She wondered if she, too, would get it in the long run.

"You shouldn't be here anymore." Where her brothers words; they echoed in her mind, mingling with the rising sounds of coughing. She almost felt as her her mind was going numb. She could briefly filly acknowledge what was happening to her people.

She jumped down from the boulder, her steps determined and quickening as she went.
She wasn't running away, she told herself.
She'd head for the city, find Maisy, the cat who's told her her human was a doctor and cured cats of their ills.
She'd find a way to tell him. She couldn't speak their gibberish but she could make him come, she had to.

She was getting a cure.
She wasn't just running away!

She stopped, breathless, and took a last look back. The sun seemed to gleam on each blade of grass, and on the boulder, and on the distant shapes of trees, and on the blue lake before that.

When she returned again, a failure in her quest, there would be no one left to greet her.

[ataraxic_gone]

Username;; dewly_noted
Cat Name;; TawnyKit
Gender;; female
Age;; undecided moons
Clan;; BeachClan
Rank;; kit

Prompt;;
TawnyKit made a dramatic sigh, turning on their side as they stared up at CedarFrost, who's face was pinched as her form shook to an awkward beat. A few more turns in her nest and TawnyKit looked up at CedarFrost, sceptical to the cove mother's honesty and good will.

"This is a serious choice Cedar!"

TawnyKit stood up, staring down CedarFrost with a glare which while mighty for a kit was ultimately ineffective towards adults.

"I have two dads and two mums"

TawnyKit began pacing, back and forth.

"I can't call both my dad's dad and both my mum's mum."

She turned to look at CedarFrost, angrily.

"So I need to come up with a name, for each of them, so that they know just how much I love them."

TawnyKit let out a distressed huff, giving CedarFrost a look that ranged from a glare to a sorrowful look that demanded pity. When none was given to console her she tutted and let out a huff.

"I'll call DawnRush dad and I'll call RedWhisper Pops."

Then with a more tentative thought she continued.

"BerryThorn will be ma and CherryBee will be Anya!"

CedarFrost finally let out the chuckle she had been suppressing for the entire conversation.

"I think they sound like perfect names."

[Kazin]

Username: Kazin
Cat Name: Duskminnow
Clan: Zephyrclan
Rank: Warrior

Gender: dfab
Age: 12 moons

Prompt:

There is no comfort in the growth zone, and no growth in the comfort zone.

At least that's what they've always told Duskminnow. She had never been sure that she really believed that thought, but then again... perhaps her thoughts weren't trustworthy anyway, seeing as she didn't really have a comfort zone. Life was a scary thing, and everything made her nervous. There are just so many what-ifs in life, too many possibilities.

When faced with a choice, Duskminnow would often make the easy one - to turn around, to leave, to act like nothing was happening. She didn't fight battles, not even with herself, usually just letting the others do the hard work. And yet, through it all, she could always bring herself to at least try doing something worthwhile. Hunting was fine, it posed little to no risk, especially if she stuck with the group. Patrolling was a different story, though thankfully the leader and deputy were sensible enough to see that she wasn't cut out for patrols unless absolutely necessary. The one thing she could never bring herself to do, however, even during hunting, was fish. The water was terrifying. The water was where she could harm herself, and the easiest way to avoid injury or emotional pain by water was to avoid it in general.

The day they asked her to fish as an apprentice was the day she was faced with the hardest choice.

It was one of her last training days, learning the skill she had been begging her mentor to put off. Fishing, swimming, anything to do with the water. She did convince Blazestar that she didn't truly need to learn how to swim, they only had a pond in the territory so it wasn't as if she would ever need to go in it. Fishing, however, was a skill that the leader felt was too important to pass up. Sometimes the pond was the only source of food, especially as the nights grew colder and the mammal prey began to hide in their dens to stay warm. The fish had no such option, and seemed a bit hardier, a prime selection still teeming under the surface in the fall and in the spring.

Duskminnow spent the first few minutes just watching her mentor demonstrate how he fished, barely listening as she watched the little ripples in the water. Nope. Too scary. Couldn't do it. Not a chance. She barely heard her mentor call her name when it came time for her to actually try fishing.

"Duskpaw!" The call was harsh, finally getting through to her numb mind. "You need to come over here." Her mentor did not sound please, annoyed that he had to call her over three times before she would listen. Absently, Duskpaw had nodded, taking a few zombie like steps over to the edge of the pond.

"Are you sure I have to do this?" She had asked, her voice high pitched and squeaky, gazing at her wide-eyed reflection in the water.

Her mentor only sighed, rolling his eyes. He turned a bit, swinging his back towards the lake and opening his mouth to say something else. "Duskpaw, I think-"

Whatever he thought was cut off by his small cry of alarm. As he was turning, his back paws didn't get traction in the slick mud, made slippery by the recent rains, and Duskpaw's mentor slid into the water, paws scrambling at the slick mud to get back out and breaths coming in gasps, accidentally inhaling a lot of the pond's water.

At first, Duskpaw could only watch in horror as her mentor's head dipped underneath the murky water, no longer visible. The only indication that he was there was the faint ripples of where he had submerged. Duskpaw tried to find her voice, but nothing would come.

The hardest decision of her life.

Taking another moment's pause, Duskpaw slipped into the warm water after her mentor, grateful that it was still Greenleaf and the water was not cold. She took a few paddles, testing out how her paws felt in the water, before letting her mind go blank of everything except helping her mentor. She needed to save him, even if she was scared.

Down she went, thankfully able to find and grab hold of her mentor easily. He was still in the more shallow end of the water, feebly struggling to get his head back out into the air. Though it wasn't easy to sink her teeth in his scruff and bring him to the surface, she did it, surprising herself. She pulled him, coughing, to a drier edge of the pond, finding a rocky edge under her feet to gain traction. She only managed to get him half out of the water, but it was enough - he sucked in a breath of air, sputtering out the water from his lungs.

"Thank you," he wheezed, staring at Duskpaw in awe. "You were very brave, Duskpaw." The pair sat in silence for another few minutes, allowing each other to catch their breaths, their pelts drying in the noontime sun.

"You know," her mentor said, his strength almost completely returned. "You swam like a fish out there. Like a little minnow."

Duskpaw could only look at him in mock horror, but on the inside, she was proud that she had finally faced at least one of her many fears.

[Yellow.]

Username: Yellow.
Cat Name: Falconsoul
Clan: The Kingdom of the Isle of Nes
Rank: Queen

Gender: dfab
Age: 47 moons

Prompt:
ears and the hint of growls that are loud enough to push threw. When nothing makes sense anymore and you just want it to end.

But Falconsoul isn’t a warrior. Sure she was raised to fight and she’s been in her fair share of fights. But she’s a leader, she’s the Queen.

Queen’s aren’t supposed to be on the front lines of the fighting, they are supposed to stay in the back and lead, direct others in the best way. Falconsoul’s never been one to follow the rules.

Today though, she wished she’d followed the rules.

“Almark,” The name comes out as little more than a whisper on the molly’s lips as she freezes at the scene before her. Her brother is laying on the ground, the scent of blood heavy in the air and no signs of life on his body.

Something in her mind snaps, just enough to where she can move again, in a zombie-like state towards her brother, muscles taut and claws slipping out. Her eyes are so focused on her brother that she almost doesn’t notice the tom just a few tail lengths from him, sitting but hunched over. He’s breathing but it looks hard and sounds wrecked to her ears.

A snarl escapes her lips as her eyes land on him, though her body still moves to her brother. The sitting tom is an enemy, most likely the one who caused her brother to be laying the way he is. She feels nothing but anger and hate, luckily for the tom her need to check on her brother outweighs the need to attack.

“Almark,” She whispers once more once she’s closer, still eyeing the sitting tom as she lays next to her brother and noses at his fur trying to find some sign of life.

He stirs, just slightly but it’s enough to ease her breathing. “Sister,” He replies weakly, his eyes blinking open and meeting hers.

The tom lifts his head slowly at the words, eyes clouded and movement slow as he starts to stand.

“You dead warrior,” Falconsoul snarls, moving to stand protectively over her brother, who’s wording almost don’t reach her ears.

“Stay, let him go, just stay.” He whispers softly and the molly wants to cry at the way the words come out and the almost hurt look that flashes across the warriors face, he has no right to look that way when he caused the wounds.

“Leave us,” She growls out after, the words like knives on her own tongue as she forces them out, she’d much rather end the tom’s life then let him leave. But now ending his life was an easy and simple choice it was the one she wanted to make. Letting him live even now as her brother laid dying at her feet, was the hardest. It was one she planned to one day take back, but for now, he left.

[Oceanfosh]

Username: Yellow.
Cat Name: Falconsoul
Clan: The Kingdom of the Isle of Nes
Rank: Queen

Gender: dfab
Age: 47 moons

Prompt:
ears and the hint of growls that are loud enough to push threw. When nothing makes sense anymore and you just want it to end.

But Falconsoul isn’t a warrior. Sure she was raised to fight and she’s been in her fair share of fights. But she’s a leader, she’s the Queen.

Queen’s aren’t supposed to be on the front lines of the fighting, they are supposed to stay in the back and lead, direct others in the best way. Falconsoul’s never been one to follow the rules.

Today though, she wished she’d followed the rules.

“Almark,” The name comes out as little more than a whisper on the molly’s lips as she freezes at the scene before her. Her brother is laying on the ground, the scent of blood heavy in the air and no signs of life on his body.

Something in her mind snaps, just enough to where she can move again, in a zombie-like state towards her brother, muscles taut and claws slipping out. Her eyes are so focused on her brother that she almost doesn’t notice the tom just a few tail lengths from him, sitting but hunched over. He’s breathing but it looks hard and sounds wrecked to her ears.

A snarl escapes her lips as her eyes land on him, though her body still moves to her brother. The sitting tom is an enemy, most likely the one who caused her brother to be laying the way he is. She feels nothing but anger and hate, luckily for the tom her need to check on her brother outweighs the need to attack.

“Almark,” She whispers once more once she’s closer, still eyeing the sitting tom as she lays next to her brother and noses at his fur trying to find some sign of life.

He stirs, just slightly but it’s enough to ease her breathing. “Sister,” He replies weakly, his eyes blinking open and meeting hers.

The tom lifts his head slowly at the words, eyes clouded and movement slow as he starts to stand.

“You dead warrior,” Falconsoul snarls, moving to stand protectively over her brother, who’s wording almost don’t reach her ears.

“Stay, let him go, just stay.” He whispers softly and the molly wants to cry at the way the words come out and the almost hurt look that flashes across the warriors face, he has no right to look that way when he caused the wounds.

“Leave us,” She growls out after, the words like knives on her own tongue as she forces them out, she’d much rather end the tom’s life then let him leave. But now ending his life was an easy and simple choice it was the one she wanted to make. Letting him live even now as her brother laid dying at her feet, was the hardest. It was one she planned to one day take back, but for now, he left.

Congrats!

[Yellow.]

Yay! I now have the leader for my second clan and can start working on it, thank you!