WindClan: Life Before 2023's Fire

[vellichor]

A tortoiseshell she-kit, about 5 moons old, stumbles past the barrier and into the camp. She looks around, her pointed ribs showing, her skinny, tiny legs shaking, her blue eyes dull. She smells of something you can't quite name, but then she runs to the fresh kill pile in search of a decent meal.

Before she gets there, though, she gasps a faint word- "Mother..." - before collapsing onto the dirt, her breaths ragged.

[ChameweonRainbow]

Originally Posted by Nighty

Gorseflower smiled as she felt the embrace. She loved her kits and no words could express how deep that feeling went within her. A smile curled on her lips, a sweet and soft one. The cream she cat held the embrace for a moment and then pulled away softly, still gazing kindly down to her kit. "I'll say what. What if we go and play? I can find your sister, Peachkit. Maybe even Leafkit too. What do you say?" She asked smiling. Horizonkit was happy. That was good news, it meant she was succeeding at being a mother. She had forgotten how hard to could be to nurse kits. But this time was definitely harder than the last. Last time she had only had one kit, while the other had been still born. That time had been easier, as Rabbitpaw hadn't been too rambunctious until about five moons when she began getting excited about apprenticeship. Now she was and it had been a few moons since she had discovered she was expecting again.This time there had been three, two daughters and a son. Nothing had gone wrong, but she had never thought about the difficulties of raising three kits instead of one. She would have to balance her time more carefully now.

Horizonkit beamed and grinned; her sharp kitten teeth stark white against her midnight fur. Her eyes grew wide with excitement and happiness bubbled up inside her. "Of course I want to play! And I miss being around my siblings." she purred excitedly. She knew that she would still be really weak and tired for a while but she was happy to be able to play none the less. She gave her mother's tail a big hug and gave her mom a loving lick on her maw. "Thank you, mommy, thank you thank you!" she purred loudly and meowed in appreciation and love.

[SuspiciousMindz]

Soon after the meeting, Blazingstar led Ferretpaw towards the apprentice's den. What she didn't know was that he had already gather enough moss and some feathers for her to make a temporary nest. Hence temporary. There was enough for her to build one, but he was still going to take her out today to gather some while seeing a bit of the territory. As the ginger leader walked up to the den, he sat down a looked towards Ferretpaw. "This is where you'll be sleeping, but there's a small amount of moss sitting there for you. When leaf-bare ends, I'll be able to show you how to get ferns to soften it a bit more," he spoke calmly, as if the scenario behind them had never occurred. With that, the leader gestured her inside and waited for her to return.
[short]
@Spirit

[Nico, nico, Ni!]

@Birdsong374

MothPaw began tasting the air for prey scents, the savory reek of rabbit filling her senses, Tracking the scent to where the rabbit lead, she had felt a little suspicious of by her clanmates scents beginning to fade, she thought the border needed to be marked and continued on, the young rabbit had its bobbed tail poked out from a clump of ferns, she wiggled her hindquarters and leaped after the rabbit, the small creature was to stunned to move and stood still like crow-food, until it escaped from her own distraction, rogue! she hissed under her breath and backed away from the scent that tickled her nose, the taste lingering in her mouth made her gag, she took a few backward paces, surprise edging through her why a rogue was on WindClan Territory, or had the young Molly wondered out of windclan turf, Oh no! she was still with shock.

[Empress Of Evil]

Originally Posted by Lilly

Moonpaw felt as though her lungs were on the edge of exploding as she looked up at Winterwisp. The feeling of needing to please her mentor - and prove to herself that she wasn't just good for staying in the herb den sorting - overwhelmed her body and pushed the feeling of being tired back down. She rose to her paws and stared determinedly at the rocks that were before her. She observed the space in between each, no doubt having a few concerns, but she voiced none of them as she nodded and padded over to them at a brisk pace, slowing as she came up to the start. The white and black she-cat let a few deep breaths flow through her, as if to slow her heartbeat back down, and she readied herself, muscles flexing beneath her pelt.

In a flash, she shot forward, quickly diving to one side to avoid the face of the first rock. Skidding just a hare, Moonpaw jerked her body the other way and narrowly avoided the second. Okay! she thought, a small grin appearing as she dashed towards the next rock. This time, she felt her fur brush up against it, just slightly, and the grin began to slowly disappear from her maw. She jolted quickly the other way and skidded on her paws just a bit, and as she came to round the next rock didn't give herself enough room in between. "Ow!" she yelped as she felt a jab in her side, momentarily knocking her off balance. With her attention distracted, Moonpaw barely noticed the next rock until she turned her head around. A sharp cry came from her as she raced head-first into the large boulder, being ungracefully knocked back onto her haunches. She landed with a loud 'oomf!' escaping her lips and blinked, staring up at the sky above her feeling a bit, well, dazed.

Winterwisp watched Moonpaw dash off, an expectant expression on her face. The black and white she-cat was one of high expectations and didn't like 'average'. She didn't accept excellent either, she only liked perfect. Her expression didn't change as Moonpaw dashed past the first rock without any contact. Her scowl started to form once she approached the second rock. She couldn't see that Moonpaw's fur had brushed against the second rock, but she noticed her technique started to fail as the young cat approached the third rock. Winterwisp growled in frustration softly as Moonpaw eventually got flung back down. Idiot!, Winterwisp thought, flames flaring up in her eyes. She did not at all appear to care for Moonpaw's well being. Her job was to train the apprentice and that's what she was going to do. She would leave anything health related to the medicine cat. Isn't Surgestorm her uncle? I'm sure he'll love to take care of her for a few days and keep her in that stinky den. It'll be wonderful to get rid of her, Winterwisp thought, wrinkling her nose as she remembered the scent of the medicine cat den. It had been only a few moons since she had been in the den, and she had hated every second of it.

The WindClan warrior stormed up to Moonopaw angrily. "You idiot!", Winterwisp hissed at the young cat, clearly not impressed with her. "You've got to look further ahead and prepare yourself! It'll make things easier", Winterwisp snarled. It's so obvious. How can't she see that?, she thought, rolling her pale green eyes once again. "If you actually tried, then maybe you would be able to get it right!, the warrior scolded. "Now get up and try again!", Winterwisp ordered, her expectant expression immediately growing on her face again.

[Birdsong374]

@No one for Pres~ ((Sorry for late post, was having internet trouble))

Blue's paw pads ached, and the thought of how long he had been walking crossed his mind. He had long since lost the site of his old home, and the ground had changed to dry stone-covered earth beneath his feet. The partially striped tom twitched his uncut ear as heather fronds brushed it, bringing him to a halt. As Blue caught his breath for a moment, a nearby fern rustled, a rabbit shooting out and almost running straight into him sent the large tom fumbling to his side, tail fluffed to three times it original size. What could have startled that? It certainly didn't see me!

[Starfall]

@alphypoin

[Sorry it's so late
and short. ]

The orange molly pushed her way through the entrance of the clearing, a small, scrawny, sorry looking mouse. It wasn't her best catch, but it was the best she could do at the moment, especially for a sick cat, she still had yet to go see Surgestorm as her brother had ordered, she didn't have time to do so, she had her warrior duties. She padded over to the small fresh kill pile and snorted "With just a few more thousand little rabbits, it'll start looking like a fresh pile....better get to work then." she stated, amusement evident in her voice, she didn't mind all the work, it gave her something to do since she wasn't the best of help around clan. She only had to look forward to hunting, and even then she had to sneak out to catch something, Blazingstar had ordered her to stay in clan and rest, not that she approved of that, but she had to listen, one, because he was the leader, and two, he was her older brother, a little hard to disobey him. Emberdust let out a bone rattling cough, she hunched over and flattened her ears against her head, it was painful, more so than the ones before, she really had to go speak with the medicine cat. After a few moments of ragged breathing and trying to push the stomach and chest pain away she flicked her tail and let out a snort "I'm good, i'll just go out again, try and find another piece of prey, it's good for both me and the clan." she said roughly, her voice was ragged with all of the coughing and with the cold weather, it made her bones ache and it made it 5x harder for her to breathe, but it would never stop her, and it never dampered her spirits.

[Nico, nico, Ni!]

Originally Posted by Birdsong374

@No one for Pres~ ((Sorry for late post, was having internet trouble))

Blue's paw pads ached, and the thought of how long he had been walking crossed his mind. He had long since lost the site of his old home, and the ground had changed to dry stone-covered earth beneath his feet. The partially striped tom twitched his uncut ear as heather fronds brushed it, bringing him to a halt. As Blue caught his breath for a moment, a nearby fern rustled, a rabbit shooting out and almost running straight into him sent the large tom fumbling to his side, tail fluffed to three times it original size. What could have startled that? It certainly didn't see me!

The golden brown dappled she-cat was now more curious than afraid, she nosed through the fern clump to see the rogue, around her age, she didn't seem hostile but not welcoming,"What are you doing on windclan's turf?"she tilted her head softly to the side.

[Birdsong374]

@No one for Pres~

Blue shot to his paws as a female voice came from the fern the rabbit had come from. The tabby point relaxed as a young she-cat poked out of the branches, but his tail remained fluffed out.
"What-Clan's turf? My paws are aching! What's your name?" The silvery-blue tom found questions pouring out of his maw as he brought himself to a sitting position, not wanting to approach the unknown cat. He had to stop himself from mewing more as he glanced to his paws, eventually covering them with his still fluffed tail.

[Spirit]

Ferretpaw followed Blazingstar, her head held a little low. When they arrived a the apprentice's den, she peered up at him in surprise and gratitude when he told her there were already moss gathered for her. Giving a tiny smile, she thankfully pressed her forehead agains his fur for a moment. "Thank you" she mumbled, before standing still for a few moments, not entirely sure what to do now. After a few awkward moments, she understood what he wanted, and lowered her head in slight embarrassment and headed into the den. She were once again surprised at the fact that he had also found her some feathers. He sure was a kind mentor. More than Ferretpaw could have hoped for.
Pushing the moss into an empty space, she used her forepaws to paw at the moss, making a nice and comfortable space for her to sleep. She was certainly going to be the smallest apprentice, so she didn't exactly feel like she needs all of this moss, bus was happy to know it would be soft and comfortable. Until a thought occurred to her. Rainpaw would certainly get back at her for what had happened at the Breezerock. Peering at the small nest she'd just made, she let out a very quiet and sad sigh. The nest would be an oppotunity for Rainpaw. He could easily make it look like someone had 'accidentally' messed it up so she would have to re-do it every night, or 'accidentally' slip a thorn into her nest. Shaking her head, she decided she didn't want to show her fears towards Blazingstar. She still believed Rainpaw would take an even worse revenge if he figured she'd told her mentor about anything he did.
Putting on a wide smile, she padded out of the den. "Thank you Blazingstar" she said once again.

@Suspiciousmindz