by Cradily » Thu May 28, 2020 2:30 pm
OakClan
"Fell asleep on me, did you?" Sunflare joked, nuzzling his mate gently. "I wasn't gone that long. I guess life is just so boring without me, huh?" He purred as he settled down beside her, his long fur pressed against hers, and his gaze rested lovingly on their kits. "Little furballs must be tired out. They're still so young, but they're already so active! Especially Poppykit, he seems to get into everything. Dustkit's very aware of her surroundings, but she's very shy...I wonder if she'll ever get used to me."
Looking up, Riverstripe saw that Elmshade had made her way over and sat down not far from him. When she smiled at him, he flashed a small smile back, but cast an uncertain glance at Lostnight, as if wondering what the black tom thought of Elmshade leaving to talk with him. At the she-cat's words, he pricked his ears slightly before nodding. "Yeah, it does," he agreed. "I can't wait until newleaf comes...I know it's not even as cold as it could be right now, but I'm still over it."
Seeing that his apprentice was dazed, Tigerblaze took this opportunity to launch himself once again at the younger tom. He hoped to knock Jackdawpaw backwards, down onto his back, and to pin him. From there, he could deliver the 'killing' blow to his throat. Though he hadn't started out training Jackdawpaw this way, as it wouldn't have been appropriate when the tom was younger and less experienced Tigerblaze typically didn't like to end training sessions anymore until one of them 'killed' the other. After all, real battles were unlikely to end until one of the parties was either too weak or dead to continue fighting. Real battles were hardly called off just because a cat decided that was enough for the day, so why should battle training?
Splashfeather was silent as Dappleleaf voiced her concerns to her. She was surprised, partially by the sole idea of Dark Forest cats coming down to kill the living, she had never thought of such a thing; but almost more so by the fact that Dappleleaf was coming to her with this. Even though they were both warriors now, Dappleleaf was still several moons older than her, and Splashfeather couldn't help but feel a little humbled that the older she-cat was coming to her for comfort. "Well...I don't know, honestly," she replied at last, her voice low. "I do believe in the Dark Forest--it just makes sense to me, that if StarClan is where good cats go, then there has to be a place where evil cats go too. They wouldn't be let into StarClan, and I doubt they'd just cease to exist. But...I don't think they're responsible for this. After all, if they could always just come down to kill whoever they wanted, why would they only start now? It just doesn't make sense to me." Granted, warriors as skilled as the ones being killed with little more than a bite to the neck didn't make much sense either, but Splashfeather was sure there had to be a more practical explanation. She remembered the first body that had found lying outside the tunnels, back when she was still an apprentice on Tigerblaze's patrol, and shuddered at the memory. "And besides, not all of the bodies have been killed that cleanly. The first one we found, two moons ago, was all mangled and torn apart..." She trailed off, as there wasn't actually any proof that what had killed that cat was the same thing that was killing cats now. The only thing it had in common was that most of the bodies had been found not far from the old tunnels, but apart from that, the style of killing itself was entirely different, and on top of that, the first cat hadn't even been a clan cat, or at least not one they recognized. If the cat had been from EagleClan, they'd never said anything to OakClan about it. But every victim since then had been a clan cat, and so Splashfeather wasn't sure whether there actually was a connection between the clan's victims and the very first one. "I don't know," she sighed at last, but right as the words left her mouth, a familiar, non-clan scent hit her nose and she parted her jaws to try and detect it better. "Is that..." Within a moment of following the scent, she saw her: the brown tabby she-cat, the kittypet who had helped save Bearpaw earlier. "Hey...Hey, I know her!" Picking up her pace, she trotted over to the kittypet. "Hey, what are you doing here?" she asked Artemis once she'd gotten close enough, sounding more curious than anything else.
EagleClan
Southstar tilted his head. Mistflower's demeanor had changed; had something made her uncomfortable? He pushed the idea out of his mind as Russetswirl approached, and gave a friendly nod to the former medicine cat. "No apologies necessary," he told the tom when he apologized, before falling silent as Russetswirl reported to him what had happened. Casting a glance at Daydream, he shook his head. "I don't think so. At least, they wouldn't have any good reason to think that, considering we've never done anything of the sort and have been on good terms with them for a while now. It is odd, but..." He paused, his tone becoming more serious. "It has been happening more frequently lately...you know, cats disappearing and being found dead later on. I wish it wasn't so." He sat up, his tail curling more tightly around his paws. "Thank you for telling me, Russetswirl. If we scent them on our territory again, action will be taken, but for now, let's give them the benefit of the doubt and hope they find their missing apprentice." When Acornspots and Deertail approached, he greeted them both with a nod. A pang of sadness shot through him again as Acornspots began discussing Rustypaw with Daydream, but he didn't interrupt; instead he turned to Deertail and was about to ask if he needed something for Foxcloud when he heard Russetswirl offer to help Daydream with caring for the sick. His head snapping back to the medicine cat and his former mentor, he couldn't stop himself from interrupting. "Russetswirl, I don't think that's a good idea. This sickness is already claiming the lives of strong, young cats." They were difficult words to speak, but they had to be spoken. Southstar only hoped he'd be wrong. "I know Daydream has a lot to deal with right now, but we can't have you getting sick too. It'd be better if I helped him. I may not be a medicine cat, but if both of you get sick, then where will we be?"
"I don't mind," Littleflower replied with a smile as she started to head for the den's exit. "That's true, there is a certain...peacefulness to the night. But I much prefer it during newleaf and greenleaf. Nights during leaf-bare are far too cold for me!" As she padded out of the den, she was pleasantly surprised to see a familiar gray pelt waiting outside. "Hey, Swiftbadger," she greeted him cheerfully. "What's up? How's your paw?"
Russetswirl had left Nightwish's side without a word almost the moment they'd joined back up with Acornspots and the others, and even now that they'd returned to camp, he still stuck by the speckled she-cat's side, both of them talking to Daydream about something. She blinked at them, unsure how to feel about how things had gone. She could hardly call her plan a success--she had made Acornspots jealous, but now the she-cat just seemed to be in a bad mood, and given Rustypaw's condition, Nightwish couldn't help but feel bad about the whole situation. Perhaps now wasn't the best time to be focused on trying to make a she-cat jealous in an effort to set her up with the tom she liked, not during leaf-bare when prey was scarce and when their apprentices were growing sicker and sicker by the day--yes, she was reminded again with a pang of sadness of her own apprentice, Gingerpaw, who was sick along with the rest of her family. Part of her wanted to go and ask Daydream about her, but she remained where she was, watching from a distance as cats crowded around the medicine cat. Gingerpaw's condition had only gotten worse in the past few days, as had her parents' and siblings', and Nightwish didn't want to hear any more bad news. Acornspots was already seemingly inquiring about Rustypaw after all, so she figured she could find out from her if any members of the family improved. But as for now, she wasn't getting her hopes up. Besides, Daydream already had enough cats crowding around him without Nightwish on top of them all. And though she didn't want to admit it, a small part of her was made sad simply by talking to Daydream, even if the matter itself wasn't sad. As much as she enjoyed his company, she was always reminded of the fact that they could never get too close. Turning her gaze away, she spotted Messfur and Springheart, who had seemingly just gotten back from hunting, and noticed Springheart looking curiously at the nursery. Now curious herself, Nightwish made her way over to the she-cat. "Hi, Springheart. What's going on?" she asked, following the older she-cat's gaze.
"Hey," was all Darkpaw said in response to Stagleap's greeting. He knew she was there to talk to Quiverheart, not him, after all. When the two warriors began discussing Frostpetal, he followed their gaze to the older she-cat, who did look a bit sickly now that he thought about it. Weird, I thought she looked fine earlier, he thought, but knew it was entirely possible that he simply hadn't paid enough attention to notice. His gaze traveled from Frostpetal to her son, Blazepaw, who had just returned to camp as well and was making his way to the apprentices' den. Darkpaw wasn't very close to the tom; he was a few moons younger than him, and besides, Darkpaw wasn't very close to anyone. But he still couldn't help but feel slightly bad for the younger apprentice. Having lost both his father and, more recently, his mentor, even the slight possibility of losing his mother probably upset him. I'm sure Frostpetal's not that sick, he reminded himself. Still, Darkpaw thought perhaps it couldn't hurt to check on the younger apprentice, and it seemed like Quiverheart and Stagleap had some things to talk about anyway. "I'll see you two later," he said to the two she-cats, waving with his tail before stalking off to the apprentices' den without another word. "Hey, Blazepaw," he meowed, stepping into the den and making his way over to his own nest.
