Wolffang reluctantly padded into the nursery. Twilightstar had moved in here, and he had come to talk with her. It would've been better if it had been in her den, or somewhere more private; after all, this was a conversation that was best left between leader and deputy, for the time being. He didn't know why he felt so nervous; that was uncharacteristic for the powerful gray tom. It wasn't often that he felt disconcerted about anything. Trouble with ShadowClan? He'd keep his claws unsheathed and shred them if he had to. Battles or dangerous situations? He'd keep his head held high and power through them. But right now, he somehow felt a little anxious when it came to talking to his leader.
As he wove his way between the queens and kits, he found himself lucky that, for the most part, there weren't a lot of cats and kits in the nursery. Hopefully, there was a corner where he could talk to his leader or something like that. After all, he really didn't want to have anyone overhear this. Maybe I should ask if we can move somewhere else, he thought. But then he remembered how tired and wounded Twilightstar was. If she isn't up for it, then we'll talk later, he told himself. Yeah, that made sense. After all, he didn't want to barge in on her privacy... or her rest.
Wolffang soon caught sight of her familiar fluffy lilac-gray pelt, which was traced with scars. He'd never say this out loud, but it was quite clear that she was the oldest leader. And it wasn't just with how tired she looked. She'd clearly been at the head of multiple conflicts: one eye and one ear were missing, with only half remaining of the other, with two toes and her tail-tip being entirely gone as well. And upon seeing her, he suddenly remembered why he felt unusually anxious. It's because everything feels as though it's on the line. Not just his deputyship: his social status within the whole of WindClan. A small burst of anger rose within the tom. He'd just tried to serve them loyally his whole life. He'd fought for them, risked his life, wished for them to be strong... but the Clan he knew almost felt different. Wolffang had to figure things out, and fast. Perhaps this talk would help.
"Twilightstar," he began, hoping that he worded it right. He also didn't want to disturb his leader if she was tired. "I wanted to speak with you, if you don't mind. Because... well, after that meeting, you said that you wanted to speak to me." He found that his bright yellow gaze had been drifting down to his paws, and he snapped it back up so that he was facing her more directly. You're not a kit, worried about being scolded, he told himself firmly. The tip of his thick-furred gray tail was twitching, but he didn't stop it. "It's alright if you don't want to do it right now, since you're tired. If you need rest, then that's fine. We can wait until you've... recovered a bit more." Wolffang took a couple of pawsteps backward.
His pelt tingled somewhat as he self-consciously wondered if any of the queens or kits were watching... or if they were overhearing. Wolffang glanced over his shoulders just to make sure. We probably shouldn't talk here, he decided. "It might be best if we spoke in private, if you want us to keep this conversation between us," he added with a respectful dip of his head. "However, again, we can wait until you're ready if you need some time to rest after what happened." Wolffang really hoped that he wasn't being too pushy here. He had also wondered if he should mention the patrols, but they were doing a much better job at reporting in now than they had before. Wolffang decided not to bother his leader with that.
As soon as the young cat stepped forth, Twilightstar started the ceremony. "Spirits of StarClan, you know every cat by name. I ask you now to take away the name from the cat you see before you, for it no longer stands for what she is. By my authority as Clan leader, and with the approval of our warrior ancestors, I give this cat a new name. From this moment on, she will be known as Specklepaw. With her new name, she'll need a mentor to train her. Embershard, you will be that mentor."
With that all done, Twilightstar swiftly got down to the more important matters. "If you haven't already heard, I've had a litter of kits. I'm sure more than enough of you are curious and I'm going, to be honest, as I can be with all of you. Just as I hate being lied to lying to all of you would be rather hypocritical of me. These kits are not full WindClan, and I don't rightly know who father them my memories are... fuzzy at best. I've never been one to care about bloodlines, where you came from, or who your parents are, I believe that a cat can make their own decisions and be whoever and whatever they want by using the life that they've been gifted with to walk their own path and make their own destiny. Some of you may not agree with me, and you are free to have your own opinions and think of me what you want. None of you seemed to have a problem with any of the kits with mixed bloodlines, I hope that you will not have a problem with mine."
For as long as she's been a leader, these have been queens worried about their kits and not being full clan cats, she dismissed these worries with a flicker of her tail. Twilightstar's never heard anything from any of her clanmates about the outsiders she brought in, and she never heard anything from her clanmates about kits who had a parent outside of the clan. They were trained and taught to be valuable members of their clan. Twilightstar would hope that her clan would treat her four kittens the same. Admitting that she had no clue to who fathered the litter was hard enough. She felt the clan would treat the four kittens the same as any kits within their clan.
"Dawnstar happened to be around when I had the kittens, I misjudged how much time I had left and ended up kitting earlier than expected. Vultures caught a whiff and attacked, I lost one kit due to my carelessness. Dawnstar and ShadowClan assisted, but for a price. We're expected to bring them prey to their border for the next four sunrises." Twilightstar paused there to listen to any words her clan had to offer before continuing.
"I've pushed my body to the limit and Dawnstar knows that I need time to recover, there's nothing I can do about that. I fear she's going to take advantage of that and most likely going to start up harassing us again. I want the clan prepared just in case. I'll still be up and about here and there, but most of the time I'll be spending in the nursery. I'm going to leave Wolffang in charge of smaller clan matters until then. If it's something that utterly needs my attention, then you know where to find me, but if not, I'll leave Wolffang to judge the matter." Twilightstar's green eye glanced down at the large deputy as she spoke, she was placing quite a bit of trust in him.
"As for the problem with ShadowClan, I know the rabbits are scarce, but I think it would be better if we give them some prey in the end. I fear my debt might come back and bite WindClan in the future otherwise."She was extremely guilty about getting her clan into trouble yet again, as could be seen in the way her ears dropped and her shoulders slumped. "I would like to run some evacuation drills with the queens, kits, and elder, as well as some raid runs between the apprentices and warriors so that if the worst comes we're not all running around like headless rabbits." Twilightstar shifted the weight between her paws and raised both ears, wanting to hear her clanmates' thoughts on all of this.
She stood their jaw hanging, for many reasons... She looked around camp cats that were as surprised as her and only spotted a few. How... am... I... GOING TO RESPOND TO THIS?!? she thought angrily. If I have to I'll claw every last tufts of fur on those shadowclan cats! however... it was somewhat the leaders fault... But who cares! The important thing is that we drive off shadowclan if they try anything! after that she trotted off jaw still hanging until she noticed and quickly shut it.
Swiftfire stalked over the moorland with a fire in her step. An unsettling feeling of failure burned every fur on her pelt, and she wanted to rake her claws over her previous apprentice's ears. But he was nowhere to be found. She had..tried. But her rambunctious little brother had probably wandered off one too many times, and tested his luck just a bit too much.
But still...she had a chance to succeed with Dirtpaw. But he was older than Wildpaw. And he had already had a previous mentor.
She picked up the scent of rabbit. It had been so long since she had picked up a fresh rabbit scent. Crouching, she flicked her tail to Dirtpaw, "Get down!" She hissed softly. "How much do you know about hunting?" Swiftfire asked, glancing over to her apprentice.
Echopaw jumped back up immediately. “You slide to the side and pushed me off with one of your paws.” She said, answering her question, shaking the dust off slightly. @Tiabirb (Sorry it took so long!)
Appleshine nodded, "Yup! Now, I want you to try and use that on me. I'm going to pounce at you..." She crouched, wiggling her haunches as she gathered the energy for the spring, "Now!"
Sending dirt flying, Appleshine pounced, sailing straight for Echopaw with a determined expression.
Echopaw, not expecting that in the slightest, hurriedly scrambled into position and clumsily tried to repeat the move, trying her best to do it while going as fast as she could.
@Tiabirb
"Uh...nothing," Dirtpaw whispered back. "Sleepyslug didn't teach me anything. So, I guess you're my first mentor, because I barely even knew my last one." Dirtpaw was glad he was no longer Sleepyslug's apprentice. He hadn't liked him from the start, and his name didn't exactly help either. Dirtpaw wasn't exactly sure if Sleepyslug had even wanted an apprentice, or why had Twilightstar put them together. He respected Twilightstar, but that hadn't been her smartest move.
"I guess you'll have to get this one. I would just get in the way," Dirtpaw added. "I'll watch." Watching was learning, right?
@Tiabirb
Mushroomkit was in the nursery, absently rolling a moss-ball on the ground. It was times like this he missed his family back at the kittypet den. But of course, he wouldn't trade this for anything in the world. WindClan was awesome!
Even if it was really lonely most of the time.
Twilightstar had recently moved into the nursery, and it was surprising at first. It felt like he was living with a celebrity. Well, he was, technically. She was probably tired, so he hadn't gone over to meet the kits yet. Or say hi to the leader. But he would, definitely. That black kitten- Midnightkit, right? Midnightkit was a pretty name, though he couldn't help but pity little Leechkit. Not that he questioned Twilightstar's naming skills, it could always be worse, {like Maggotkit.... yuck!} And Leechkit was a pretty cool name. Leech's were disgusting, but the kit was cute!
And Beastkit and Lionkit were POWERFUL names! All big and strong- he was glad he was on their side! All he could imagine now was Beastkit stomping around camp and Lionkit being all cool and strong, and growing for on his neck. Like a scarf his old Twoleg used to wear. Only, hopefully the mane wouldn't be the same loud, flashy color the scarf was. It gave him a headache.
And it wasn't like Mushroomkit could judge another kit's name, even if he wanted to, because he himself was named after a fungus.
Twigpaw was an apprentice, this was true. But he wanted to see Twilightstar's kits. He was really excited at the prospect of there being new Clanmates, and he just couldn't wait! But it looked like they were sleeping, and he knew Miststone would not like it if he woke them up. Or Twilightstar, for that matter. So instead he decided to ask a kit about them and get his information there.
He saw Mushroomkit, one of his favorites. He was a bundle of energy, just like him. Twigpaw bounced over to him. "Hi, Mushroomkit!" He meowed, then remembered to keep his voice low or he would wake up sleeping queens and kits, which would not be pretty. He quoted his voice, then tried again. "What are Twilightstar's kits like? Are they cute? Have they walked or talked yet? Tell me everything! Oh, you're so lucky to be able to live with them." He smiled widely at Mushroomkit.
Re: WindClan Nursery
