[odessa]

There was a plethora of words being used, none of which particularly appealed to Alderstep's ears. It was like the droning buzz of a bug, bzzzz bzzz...like hornets...bzzz...oh. Alderstep blinked, appearing to have lost some more time. Stars, this was embarrassing. If either of his apprentices noticed, he was going to crawl into a hole and stay there for eternity. Who just...dozes off during a meeting? He did, apparently. Sourly, Alderstep watched Bumblestar go back up the Stormcrest. He didn't have to go up there too, did he? Nobody needed him up there, not really. Climbing would be too much work, and his muscles definitely were not down for more activity. If he could just never go up there, that'd be nice. In fact, he decided right then and there to just stay on the ground. Forever. Perhaps even melt into a puddle while he's at it since he felt so out of it right now.

Ah, and here was the big one. Lost territory. Lovely. All his favorite places to go were swallowed by the earth. Alderstep sighed in melancholy, sitting up when Bumblestar looked at him. (great cats, what if she caught him snoozing off?) His mind wandered for a split second, something horribly, splendidly clever crossing his mind. Suppose, if you will, ShadowClan became too much of a problem, or perhaps they were trying to go to ThunderClan...pushing that tree into the ravine was something so malicious that Alderstep got the urge to look over his shoulder, hoping to the stars nobody knew that he was thinking of dooming cats to fall down the ravine should they be on that tree. The idea probably wouldn't even work, and he couldn't be sure of it until he saw what Herondive Hollow looked like. It was just a dirty trick, and he doubted ShadowClan would fall for it.

Done with that disturbing thought, Alderstep cleared his throat. "I'll, uh, join one of those patrols," he spoke up, wincing at the way his bitten throat seized as he meowed. He'd spent some time during a younger era of his life nosing around by the outskirts, maybe his (dying) familiarity with the outer reaches could be of use. Probably not, though. Either way, he would very much like to be there when the clan was expanding.