WindClan: Life Before 2023's Fire

[Moonraven]

Ah! She did a good thing! Lionkit beamed like she just saved the world after she heard that she made the white sad cat feel better. Did this count as a good thing for the day. She'll ask Milkmother later before telling her Mama, she felt all warm and delightful inside so it wasn't bad, but she just needed to check and make sure. Everyone was happy when Mama was happy and being good kits made Mama happy, so doing something good would have to make her extra happy so everyone would be extra happy! Lionkit felt so smart. "Yes, exploring is fun," Lionkit spoke for all of her siblings as she answered the now happy white cat's question.

Oh! Was it bath time? Lionkit got distracted by the sight of Leechkit licking up Beastkit. Usually, only Milkmother or Mama gave them baths, it was strange to see Leechkit do it. She watched him for a few seconds and then looked back over to the cat who was explaining what that one word was. The deeper the big cat went into the explanation the further Lionkit's ears fell back. What!? There were vula... vulil ...Vulbirds in the sky that eat cats!

Immediately, Lionkit's eyes grew watery and her tail curled underneath her belly. There were no out now, right? She didn't want to get eaten! Lionkit had the strongest urge to start calling for one of the mothers, but at the last second, she swallowed her cry. Leechkit wouldn't like it if their adventure was short because she got scared. He might not talk to her anymore or worse, ignore her existence. Lionkit quite adored all of her littermates, the thought of even having one of them mad at her was enough to make her want to shrivel up and die. She might prefer being eaten by a vulbird... maybe. The point was she could not have her brother upset with her, so she stuck to sniffling quietly.

She squeaked a bit when Leechkit crawled over her, no longer letting her stay hidden underneath him. Any plans of getting back under her brother were dashed when he sat down. So she settled for waddling over and pushing herself in between Beastkit and Leechkit, she hunkered down low, not daring to look at the sky, and took what little comfort she got from Leechkit as he started grooming her. He was a bit rougher than either mom, but Lionkit was going to take what she got.

She rubbed the water away in her eyes and looked at the white cat when they introduced everyone, only after Leechkit was done being mean though. He sounded a lot grumpier with these cats than he was ever with her and Beastkit. It was funny, but Lionkit didn't think their Mama would like it. She said they should be nice to cats. Snowypaw, Elderflare, and Tawnypaw. Yea! Now she knew names, she'd do her best to remember everyone's names. She bet Twilightstar would be extra proud of her if she did. "Hi!" She meowed to all three cats, all bouncy and excited again at the thought of making her mama proud. Her fears were no longer existent with something new to cloud her mind.

Tawnypaw was weird, didn't she said that everyone knew them? How come she was asking for their names. Hmm, who cares, Lionkit decide to introduce them since Leechkit was probably going to be super mean about it. "I'm a Lionkit, and dis is my brothers, Leechkit and Beastkit. My sister is Midnightkit, but she's not here now. My other brother is Rushingkit, but Mama said that he lived up in the sky of stars with her big brother and some other cats. She said we'll go live with him one day, but not now." Lionkit padded each brothers' flank as she pointed them out.

No one explained to her why Rushingkit couldn't just come down here and live with them. When she grew wings and learned how to fly, she'd go visit him. Actually, maybe Mama or Milkmother knew how to visit him? Lionkit would remember to ask later... maybe. Her muscles momentarily when tense and she felt the fur on her neck shot up, she was cold for a second, but it went away not long after. That was funny, but not like a laughing funny though.

"Peachcat is Peachcat." Lionkit quickly defended herself when Leechkit tried to correct her. She knew who she was talking about, Beastkit did too so there they win. The tiny lilac she-kit looked over to... what was her name again? Ta...Tn... Tatapaw? Lionkit was going with that until someone said her name again. But anyway, stories, Lionkit wasn't sure if she wanted to hear the story after all. "Um, I'm sorry, but I don't wanna hear a story about vulbirds, they sound scary," Lionkit admitted a bid sadly, Tatapaw seemed happy about telling her a story, but Lionkit would get bad dreams, and the last time she got bad dreams she kept everyone up and she felt sad about it. Leechkit got extra grumpy when he didn't get his sleep.

New cat? Lionkit stood up a little when another big cat showed up. He was bigger than Tatapaw and Happypaw, another warrior? She had thought Elder was a warrior, but he was an elder apparently, she got it wrong. Elder didn't look all that old though, was he hurt somewhere? The new name claimed all her attention as Lionkit worked on shoving inside her memory. The new cat was Darks. Twilightstar was going to be so impressed with her! "Hello! I'm Lionkit." The kit made sure to say her hellos to Darks just in case he knew her but didn't know her name like Tatapaw.

@Undertaker @Pheasantflight @WarriorzFan @spade @~Storm~ @I draw war cats

[liz]

[ hawkflight - windclan warrior ]

> open for interaction

The molly’s ears burned as she let out an unintentional grunt, trying to maneuver herself with the intrusive contraption Peachfrost had plastered to her leg. Though it seemed, thankfully, no cat was close enough to hear, the lean cat made the hasty decision not to traverse much further into the clearing. The dull pain from her chest to her toes was actually only half the reason that the spotted warrior was so hesitant to drag herself much closer to her clanmates; Hawkflight, in her stint in the medicine den, had discovered the unpleasant world of spiraling thoughts. Aforementioned world led the she-cat to feel very, very embarrassed about her injuries- the ugly splint, the unfounded worry that she had lost everyone’s respect by flunking so hard in her first genuine battle, along with the less superficial brain worm of hesitance, fear, and harshness of having to so quickly accept the brutal aspects of reality.
Her first fight had been a failure, which meant she would have to prove herself to her clanmates once ready, deep down, though, she was terrified of finding herself in any battles again, which simply meant that she was a weak warrior, the hypothetical older cats were correct in their assumptions, and proving her worth was impossible. Hawkflight didn’t know what to make of the duality of emotions; surface level embarrassment clashing with nauseatingly strong distress at the mere thought of her attacker’s face. She’d no clue how to say anything despite being penned inside with other victims of the same few attacks, assuming that lamenting her own worries would be kit’s play compared to her mauled and dismembered clanmates’ stories.
The young cat’s gaze had long since left her leader, having been angled at the ground in front of her for some time. Shoulders gradually being drawn towards her face in an apparent attempt to conceal herself further, the molly began to notice blurring at the edges of her vision and furiously blinked it away, only to have the misting return moments later. Respect could wait; regardless of how pitiful it would be, Hawkflight really, really just wanted a hug.

[~Fierce~]

~Darkclaw~

Darkclaw entered the medicine cat’s den, bringing in a glum mood with her. She looked glum. Her eyes were stained with tiredness and her paws sort of dragged as she walked in. She raised her head, which had been facing the ground, and she looked around. She didn’t see Peachfrost in her sight. “Peachfrost? Are you there?” She meowed, her tail flicking slowly.

@Rockfall

[Poprock]

Originally Posted by Nostalgia

Emberlight had just shut her eyes and was letting her thoughts drift away as Peachfrost’s voice brought her back.

She reached forward and lapped up some water from the moss, thankful that it had been placed infront of her. In her small moment of bliss as the cold liquid quenched her thirst she almost missed what Peachfrost said next.

She stopped midlick as her world suddenly froze.

“What?” She whispered as she raised her eyes to match Peachfrosts. Her one single eye was wide and tearing up. She slowly raised her paw to her face and ever so gently tried to feel her right eye. Instead of feeling her typical fur all her paw touched was raw flesh and a deep gash.

She breathed in quickly as she yanked her paw away from her face, feeling panic settling in. It wasn’t as intense as she had just taken some poppy seeds but she still felt the fear and anxiety take over her body.

Grimhound. Grimhound did this to her.

She was pulled back to the moment when they locked eyes, the only moment of peace she had before he had changed her life forever.

A panic attack had gripped Emberlight like the jaws of a coyote. Quick, shallow breaths. Erratic movements. If Peachfrost hadn't supplied the poppy seeds she was sure the symptoms would be ten times more severe. She needed to act now, needed to be the shoulder to cry on. Needed to be a calm presence to lean into.

She sat herself directly infront of the molly, keeping her face level with Emberlight's. She honed in on her teary eye, channeling all the calmness in the world onto her expression. "Hey I know this sucks, but I need you to breathe with me ok?" She took four deep breaths, slowly filling up her lungs with a loud gulp. "Focus on my whiskers. How many do I have?" She wrinkled her nose, allowing the 24 whiskers to stand out a bit more. If she could get Emberlight to focus on a small detail like this, hopefully it would allow her to calm a bit.

[TheNyanCatMinecart]

[ALL PATROLS ARE DUE JULY 17TH. NOT REPORTING IN ON TIME WILL RESULT IN A PUNISHMENT FOR THE PATROL LEADER.]

~ WOLFFANG ~

Wolffang was still in a bit of a sour mood based on the outcome of the last few rounds of patrols. He’d punished multiple cats for not reporting in at all. Late patrols were one thing, but not even bothering to report was something else on a whole other level. If this went on, the punishment would have to be worse than it already was. His tail flicked from side to side. Surely the other cats could see if he was getting unhappy about the current state of affairs. Late patrols would be punished.

[Prompt: You find a fox caught in a fox trap right on the border. How do you handle it?]

“Nettlespark [ @implimm ], take Coldamber [ @Rainquail ] and Rainingtail [ @windtail ] to the ThunderClan border.”

[Prompt: There’s ShadowClan scent going over the border, and although it’s rather stale, something still feels a little off…]

“Finchbreeze [ @Spoopy Eclipse ], take Leafsky [ @Little Timmy ], Thistlehawk [ @Tundra ], and Fernfrost [ @OliveFlower ] to patrol the ShadowClan border.” Yep, he was still sending one extra cat there because those badger-hearts had been causing way too much trouble.

[Prompt: It’s been so cloudy lately, and visibility is low. And suddenly, you’re ambushed… by a ton of frogs!]

“Leopardfire [ @silverfur & Co ], take Cedarbuzz [ @finnzel ] and Stonemask [ @WinterRabbit5350 ] to the RiverClan border.”

Two more hunting patrols to go, since only Deadpaw had returned from that one.

[Prompt: You find a deathberry tree by the border of the territory, and there’s some prey feasting on the bright red berries.]

”Batscreech [ @Tiabirb ], take Fluffybee [ @Ziera ] and Emberlight [ @Nostalgia ] on a hunting patrol.”

Okay, one more to go.

[Prompt: You find a group of birds searching the territory for worms. However, they get startled pretty easily. Some delicate strategy may be required…]

”Creekdash [ @Wings ], take Breezedapple [ @FrostCat ], Bunnypaw [ @Zesty Mango ], and Sunflowerbee [ @Caramel ] on a second hunting patrol.”

There, that should be it. But as the cats gathered, Wolffang sent out a reminder to them. Eyes narrowed with a stern expression, he meowed, “Do not forget that reporting in late or not at all will result in punishment. If this keeps going, then the punishment will only get worse.”

[Raven~]

Originally Posted by Zesty Mango

Bunnypaw gave a nervous gulp before dropping into her close to perfect stalk getting as close to the rabbit as she could downwind before nervously inhaling silently and sprinting chasing the rabbit who seems completely caught off guard before she pounced and she was on it, she was so shocked that she landed the pounce that she kind of let the rabbit go in surprise, having wounded it some. She stood there with her mouth wide open.

"Great, Bunnypaw!" Breezedapple cheered. Then she realized Bunnypaw had let it go. But it was badly injured by Bunnypaw's claws, and it was moving slowly. She raced foward, quickly killing it. The Breezedapple turned to her apprentice, who was still staring in shock. "Well done! I knew you could do it!"

[~Mothman~]

Originally Posted by FrostCat

"That's really brave," Twigpaw meowed out loud. He scrunched up his nose, thinking. "Should I hate ShadowClan?" It seemed like everyone else did. So that meant he should too, right? Yeah, that made sense.

“No,” said Ashnose firmly, an edge in her tone, “respect them, because there may be a time when we will need their help fighting a battle we can’t win alone.”

[WarriorzFan]

Originally Posted by Moonraven

Ah! She did a good thing! Lionkit beamed like she just saved the world after she heard that she made the white sad cat feel better. Did this count as a good thing for the day. She'll ask Milkmother later before telling her Mama, she felt all warm and delightful inside so it wasn't bad, but she just needed to check and make sure. Everyone was happy when Mama was happy and being good kits made Mama happy, so doing something good would have to make her extra happy so everyone would be extra happy! Lionkit felt so smart. "Yes, exploring is fun," Lionkit spoke for all of her siblings as she answered the now happy white cat's question.

Oh! Was it bath time? Lionkit got distracted by the sight of Leechkit licking up Beastkit. Usually, only Milkmother or Mama gave them baths, it was strange to see Leechkit do it. She watched him for a few seconds and then looked back over to the cat who was explaining what that one word was. The deeper the big cat went into the explanation the further Lionkit's ears fell back. What!? There were vula... vulil ...Vulbirds in the sky that eat cats!

Immediately, Lionkit's eyes grew watery and her tail curled underneath her belly. There were no out now, right? She didn't want to get eaten! Lionkit had the strongest urge to start calling for one of the mothers, but at the last second, she swallowed her cry. Leechkit wouldn't like it if their adventure was short because she got scared. He might not talk to her anymore or worse, ignore her existence. Lionkit quite adored all of her littermates, the thought of even having one of them mad at her was enough to make her want to shrivel up and die. She might prefer being eaten by a vulbird... maybe. The point was she could not have her brother upset with her, so she stuck to sniffling quietly.

She squeaked a bit when Leechkit crawled over her, no longer letting her stay hidden underneath him. Any plans of getting back under her brother were dashed when he sat down. So she settled for waddling over and pushing herself in between Beastkit and Leechkit, she hunkered down low, not daring to look at the sky, and took what little comfort she got from Leechkit as he started grooming her. He was a bit rougher than either mom, but Lionkit was going to take what she got.

She rubbed the water away in her eyes and looked at the white cat when they introduced everyone, only after Leechkit was done being mean though. He sounded a lot grumpier with these cats than he was ever with her and Beastkit. It was funny, but Lionkit didn't think their Mama would like it. She said they should be nice to cats. Snowypaw, Elderflare, and Tawnypaw. Yea! Now she knew names, she'd do her best to remember everyone's names. She bet Twilightstar would be extra proud of her if she did. "Hi!" She meowed to all three cats, all bouncy and excited again at the thought of making her mama proud. Her fears were no longer existent with something new to cloud her mind.

Tawnypaw was weird, didn't she said that everyone knew them? How come she was asking for their names. Hmm, who cares, Lionkit decide to introduce them since Leechkit was probably going to be super mean about it. "I'm a Lionkit, and dis is my brothers, Leechkit and Beastkit. My sister is Midnightkit, but she's not here now. My other brother is Rushingkit, but Mama said that he lived up in the sky of stars with her big brother and some other cats. She said we'll go live with him one day, but not now." Lionkit padded each brothers' flank as she pointed them out.

No one explained to her why Rushingkit couldn't just come down here and live with them. When she grew wings and learned how to fly, she'd go visit him. Actually, maybe Mama or Milkmother knew how to visit him? Lionkit would remember to ask later... maybe. Her muscles momentarily when tense and she felt the fur on her neck shot up, she was cold for a second, but it went away not long after. That was funny, but not like a laughing funny though.

"Peachcat is Peachcat." Lionkit quickly defended herself when Leechkit tried to correct her. She knew who she was talking about, Beastkit did too so there they win. The tiny lilac she-kit looked over to... what was her name again? Ta...Tn... Tatapaw? Lionkit was going with that until someone said her name again. But anyway, stories, Lionkit wasn't sure if she wanted to hear the story after all. "Um, I'm sorry, but I don't wanna hear a story about vulbirds, they sound scary," Lionkit admitted a bid sadly, Tatapaw seemed happy about telling her a story, but Lionkit would get bad dreams, and the last time she got bad dreams she kept everyone up and she felt sad about it. Leechkit got extra grumpy when he didn't get his sleep.

New cat? Lionkit stood up a little when another big cat showed up. He was bigger than Tatapaw and Happypaw, another warrior? She had thought Elder was a warrior, but he was an elder apparently, she got it wrong. Elder didn't look all that old though, was he hurt somewhere? The new name claimed all her attention as Lionkit worked on shoving inside her memory. The new cat was Darks. Twilightstar was going to be so impressed with her! "Hello! I'm Lionkit." The kit made sure to say her hellos to Darks just in case he knew her but didn't know her name like Tatapaw.

@Undertaker @Pheasantflight @WarriorzFan @spade @~Storm~ @I draw war cats

(I am not an elder, that is just a name, and If I put elder on my form for rank it was a misclick.)

"Hrm, well, the way I see it, If you don't like scary stuff, clan life is not for you." he said bluntly. "Oh. Sorry, that was the wrong thing to say." he said. "Hey Leaderkit. You don't seem scared, and that is good, so let me just notify you of something." He then told specifically Leechkit: "Your Mother has lives, which means she can come back from the dead in certain cases. Your Mother died having you partly because of having you and partly because of sky vermin."

(Someone can overhear this but not all cats)

@Undertaker @Pheasantflight @spade @~Storm~ @I draw war cats

[Willowfern]

Sweetpaw
________
@WarriorzFan

“From my experience, Warriors are almost as annoying as the kits they used to be,” She meowed in reply, looking pointedly in his direction.
“As for the being strong point, I agree, but I must say that from what I know of Dawnstar, she would fight to the last cat to conserve her pride, and I doubt however strong WindClan is, she will continue to terrorize us until she has enough.”
After finishing this, Sweetpaw flicked her tail once again.
“...irony of your name...” he had said, at this, the molly laughed aloud, probably earning herself a glare or two from some of the senior Warriors, a laugh with a bit of grim acceptance in it.
“Irony, yes,” She meowed bitterly, “And also no, you just haven’t seen me on my good days, I can be quite agreeable.”
She shifted her position on the sun-baked ground before continuing,
“I have two sides, I guess. It’s kind of poetic if you think hard of it, but I doubt much thinking is needed for it to be put simply:
I have two sides, ‘sweet’ (which just happens to be my name), and ‘sour’, so I guess you can say you’ve caught me at a bit of a sour time, you could even go so far as to call me ‘Sourpaw’, though I advise not to, as it is annoying to be called something other than one’s own name, is it not?”
The molly blinked, Great StarClan, when would this meeting end, she wanted to finish this boring conversation, she wanted to go pick more flowers to weave into her fur.
But no.
Here she was, conversing to who must be the most boring Warrior in WindClan, who got excited over spending time with kits!
Normally, Sweetpaw wouldn’t get into such conversations in the first place, but some sort of external force seemed to think that it was a good time to unload all sorts of randomness onto this complete stranger.
Also, Sweetpaw usually didn’t talk in such a way to make her seem older than she was, but today just seemed to decide that complete alienation of this cat would be good.
She stretched, and looked Elderflare in the eye,
“I do hope that this meeting ends quickly.”

[WarriorzFan]

Originally Posted by Willowfern

Sweetpaw
________
@WarriorzFan

“From my experience, Warriors are almost as annoying as the kits they used to be,” She meowed in reply, looking pointedly in his direction.
“As for the being strong point, I agree, but I must say that from what I know of Dawnstar, she would fight to the last cat to conserve her pride, and I doubt however strong WindClan is, she will continue to terrorize us until she has enough.”
After finishing this, Sweetpaw flicked her tail once again.
“...irony of your name...” he had said, at this, the molly laughed aloud, probably earning herself a glare or two from some of the senior Warriors, a laugh with a bit of grim acceptance in it.
“Irony, yes,” She meowed bitterly, “And also no, you just haven’t seen me on my good days, I can be quite agreeable.”
She shifted her position on the sun-baked ground before continuing,
“I have two sides, I guess. It’s kind of poetic if you think hard of it, but I doubt much thinking is needed for it to be put simply:
I have two sides, ‘sweet’ (which just happens to be my name), and ‘sour’, so I guess you can say you’ve caught me at a bit of a sour time, you could even go so far as to call me ‘Sourpaw’, though I advise not to, as it is annoying to be called something other than one’s own name, is it not?”
The molly blinked, Great StarClan, when would this meeting end, she wanted to finish this boring conversation, she wanted to go pick more flowers to weave into her fur.
But no.
Here she was, conversing to who must be the most boring Warrior in WindClan, who got excited over spending time with kits!
Normally, Sweetpaw wouldn’t get into such conversations in the first place, but some sort of external force seemed to think that it was a good time to unload all sorts of randomness onto this complete stranger.
Also, Sweetpaw usually didn’t talk in such a way to make her seem older than she was, but today just seemed to decide that complete alienation of this cat would be good.
She stretched, and looked Elderflare in the eye,
“I do hope that this meeting ends quickly.”

"Ok, Half n Half, Good to know." he said with a low chuckle. "I have those days as well, and if you catch me then I am a much different person." he said. "Also, did you listen to me? I did not say kits were exciting. I said they were exciting compared to the rest of my day which was just filled with annoying questions, napping, and nothing else. You seem to have took me for some fun loving kit coddler, but that I am not."