Meetings usually didn't move this fast, and the young keeper could feel the tension and distress rise like electricity in the air around him. He was used to more... ordinary meetings, but nothing about this seemed normal. It was fine, he had never had too much trouble falling into pace with his clanmates, it was the chaotic, inorganization of it all that he detested and disliked.
Then again, he supposed only a fool would expect more of these cats.
As Roosterflame started to speak again, Batblood's ears angeled to listen, but his golden-yellow gaze continued to travel around the camp, watchful for any more outbursts of emotion he needed to be prepared for. His question was answered twice by the orange and white warrior, once to Astardance, and once to Batblood. "but that's not the only reason to keep them there..." Whatever, debating this seemed useless, and (ignoring the fact that it was answered significantly less kindly to him) he chose for the sake of his sanity not to try and show the reason behind his argument, despite it seeming obvious to him. Keeping kits in their den during certain types of meetings was far from unusual, and the best way to keep them from overhearing certain things unless someone wanted to have a meeting in the woods.
Sure, the dens weren't soundproof, but the less focused the kits were on the meeting the better this all would go. Even if they would still be able to hear some things from inside the nursery, their minds would be more distracted than if they were out here, and they would also be out of the grown-ups' way while they tried to clear and clean up this whole mess.
He quickly looked out over the camp again, taking in everyone's expressions and body movement, searching for anything he might need to take note of or react to. Nothing new, but his gaze caught for a second on a kit. A pause as the dark-furred Keeper looked at the hairball, but it lasted no longer than a heartbeat before he went back to observing everything else. But no matter how short his glance at the kit had been, the thing hadn't gone unnoticed, and after a bit of searching around in his memories for why in hell it looked both more familiar than every other kit in the nursery while it also feeling like he hadn't seen it in moons, he recalled it as being the same kit Cinderpaw and Bushtuft - Bushpaw, at the time - had buried back in the times of Batblood's apprenticeship. Another one Starclan had tossed back to them? They seemed to be a dime a dozen these days - Cinderpaw, Houndspirit, Astardance... he was forgetting a good handful of them- and seeing as no one else was reacting much either, Batblood didn't pay the situation any more attention.
Instead back to listening, looking for an opportunity to fix at least something, as sitting here, feeling passive was becoming beyond unbearable at the moment. He felt the subtle scent of rain, and a short while later it started dripping on his fur. Wonderful, what fine weather Starclan was blessing them with. But as Roosterflame went on trying to say what Batblood and many more others had already guessed... there was something more happening than the drizzling rain and echoing thunder in the distance... Batblood licked his shoulder a little, then adjusted himself where he sat, and after a heartbeat licked his chest fur. His pelt... was behaving strangely. Usually, he made a point of always keeping it smooth and glossy, giving him that healthy looked he liked and outlining his muscles a little better.
Now it was standing up in a way that wasn't caused by fear or stress, but that he still couldn't control...
KRACK!!!
A flash of blinding light, heading for the ground, flung from the now clouded skies and striking right into the Thunerwillow almost right above Batblood's head, immediately followed by a deafening sound. He staggered back, eyes squeezed shut and ears flattened against the back of his head, his expression twisted into one of pain as if it was him and not the tree being hit. Ears ringing from the sound and eyes stinging and burning after having watched the impossibly right light, Batblood was left crouching on the ground, trying to regain control over himself again. For a few moments he couldn't hear a sound - whether because of being momentarily deafened or because no one dared do anything - but feeling and smelling his clanmates' panic and distress.
The pause didn't last, as his clanmates voices quickly returned, screaming and shouting, some out of fear and anxiousness, some trying to quiet everyone else by making themselves the loudest one... it was all a mess.
Someone finally seemed to realize a bit of what he had been talking about in the begging of the meeting, and Cinderpaw quickly started to usher all the young cats into the apprentice's den, while warriors gathered around, many eager to help, but far too many still just causing more chaos. Then Drippingleaf started up and argument with a few others and Batblood took in a deep breath through his nose as he tried to gather his strength. Stars, this thing is giving me war flashbacks to the time after Dawnstar.
More fighting, more tossing around opinions in a pointless battle that served them no good as of now. Really, did these cats have nothing better to do than argue right now? Did they really find this moment, when the lightning had just struck the Thunderwillow, they had lost the how-ever-manyth leader in just a few seasons, and when everything seemed to be one giant mess... did they really find this moment to be the best one for something like this.
"Yeah ok ok, and that's enough!"
His voice, more powerful and authorize than maybe ever, rose over the clearing as the dark-furred Keeper got to his paws and raised his head. He was large, not usually so, but noticeably larger than most.
"I do not care about your opinion on Thrushy right now. I do not care whether you want him as a leader, someone else, or whether you give a rat's ass about it at all. What I care about right now, and what honestly all of you should care a lot more about, is cleaning up this mess. Whatever you want to interpret all of that as-""
a motion to the fallen branch, Sparrowstar's former place now dripped away and tossed at the ground like just another dry piece of wood - " doesn't matter right now. If you want to vote about it later like we did before, that's fine. Because the truth is that we've done this very same little song and dance before - y'all remember what happened that time? Well, let me hecking remind you: Because we couldn't keep our crap together, Dawnstar came here and look at how that went."
Stars, he was just so done with all of this.
"So if it's not too big of a challenge for all of you, maybe we should try and get this mess together. That sounding good with you?"
The most rhetorical and sarcastic of questions from a cat quite known for those, but he hardly had the energy to care.
Stormkit nodded, then he smiled a little. The big kit listened intently to Blackfir.
“I’m not sure of the exact phrasing of any of them but I know clans aren’t allowed to take other clan’s prey without permission. Then there’s the one about borders,” the tom spoke quickly. “Then there’s the one about loyalty laying with your clan despite having friends in others as you might meet them in battle,” Stormkit was excited he knew a lot about the warrior code from listening to the warriors talk from the nursery.
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Hollykit [She/Her]
Hollykit listened as Blackfir spoke, then she thought about his question.
“Isn’t there one about you can’t eat what you catch until you know there’s enough for everyone?” Hollykit asked.
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Puddlekit [He/Him]
“Oooh! I know one, ‘Defend your clan, even with your life!’” Puddlekit shouted. The small kit was excited.
**Blackfir**
He smiled quietly as Stormkit started rattling off what he knew, and he was pleased that the kit had picked up a bulk of the most prevalent ones. "Yes, Stormkit, those are all good. Do not hunt nor trespass on another clan's territory. That reduces conflict which keeps us safe. There are indeed a couple about borders, about not crossing others' borders as mentioned before but also that the borders must be checked and marked daily and all trespassers must be challenged. It's up to all of us to enforce the warrior code as it is what keeps the clans safe. And then out of clan friendships..." He glanced towards Puddlekit with a small nod, "Yep, those are one in the same. You are expected to defend your clan, even at the cost of your life and it concedes that you may have friendships outside of your clan but that friendship cannot come before your clan as you may have to uphold the vow to defend your clan even against friendships." His eyes moved over to Hollykit and he nodded thoughtfully. "That brings up a couple important ones. Queens, kits, elders, and the sick and injured must be fed before warriors and apprentices. However, the code states that prey is killed only to be eaten, so with that we don't want to waste what we've killed. Especially during leafbare moons, there is not always enough to feed everybody for every meal so if we waited until we could feed everybody then freshkill would be going to waste and that serves nobody. Do we have any questions so far?"
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Still feeling a bit dizzy the tom saw Thrushkit, but there seemed to be two of her. Maybe spinning wasn't such a good idea anymore. Shaking his head to get his vision back the two Thrushkit's merged to one. Dang it! Someone saw. Moving his tail from side to side he licked his chest in embarrassment. "You saw that?", he looked u, ears flat. His ears perked up instantly forgetting his embarrassment. "My name's Wildkit.", he introduced. Wildkit gave his back fur a quick wash. He looked like a hedgehog.
@Angelique
'Yes I saw it but no one talks to me, and I know what it is to do something embarrassing, so I wont tell. How long untill you can be an apprentice?
Last edited by Dawnstream; February 27th, 2023 at 10:58 AM.
Acornkit jumped up. "BIG CAT SPARROW? DEAD???" She screamed. Her number 1 fav leader was DEAD??!?
Hailhawk sighed. "LISTEN next time, and yes, calm down, Thrushfur is our leader now."
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He/Him, trans guy and bi/pan
Most active between 3-11pm EST mondays and fridays
In school from 7:45am-2:45pm EST mon-fri. weekends vary with my schedule
Not online afterschool wednesdays or thursdays (at karate the whole night)
Very active on discord (shaae_26)
I'm a 10th grader in highschool and I try to be a helpful person on site so feel free to ask me any WCO questions!
~~~~~ Pronouns are He/Him | EST Time Zone | My Birthday is March 1st. | Favorite color is purple. | About Me
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{Jackdawkit} - {Falconkit}
~~~~~
Padding back to camp with the cobwebs and Sootfur likely following behind him, the Keeper could still feel uncomfortable creeping in his fur after the spider. Stars, he hated those things. But at least the patrol was finished and his duty to the clan was complete. "Sundust, the patrol went well" no way he was mentioning a spider as an issue. "We found cobwebs but no poppies sadly."
Re: The Thunderwillow (aka a Batbloody mess post)
Re: Kit Corner
