WindClan: Life Before 2023's Fire

[Barnabas]

Originally Posted by Queenie

(Does Cornkit know about Windykit's power? Just curious if it's like a well known thing yet?)

Cornkit nodded, looking off into the distance, his eyes glossed over as his thoughts slid from one to the next. You are more than capable of taking care of yourself. Did Windykit really believe that? A small glimmer of pride started growing in Cornkit's heart. "Thanks" he mumbled. "What have you been up to?" He shuffled his paws feeling the fur scrape together in an uncofortable fashion. Maybe he was bothering Windykit? Nonsense, he came up to you. Cornkit felt like his head was arguing with itself.

(He could be the only one who does. Windykit doesn't understand that he's different)

Windykit hadn't been up to anything besides hanging out with an older kit by the name of Sprucekit. Nothing really interesting happens to him. The Tom heard a couple of cats talking in the territory, but he tried his best to ignore them. "I met a new friend. His names Sprucekit. He's an older kit who is almost an apprentice. ", Windykit replied. He was one of the only cats who didn't make fun of him for his big ears.

[Sweetie]

Originally Posted by Fae

Coldsong furrowed his brows at the deputy. So now he's lying? Good Stars this guy needed a talking-to. "Oh really? I don't recall seeing you outside of camp since the day we got back home....or much around camp at all." He flicked his ear, squinting harder at Brindlejaw. "Nor have I seen any extra prey on the kill-pile."

The warrior kept his tone low, but there was a serious edge to what he was saying. Coldsong wanted to help Brindlejaw, but if this was the attitude he was giving toward his duties, then he needed to call him out. But first, he waited to see if the tom would spill or build onto his lie.

Wow this Young Blood couldn't have excepted the white lie? Maybe I should just tell him the truth Scoffing inwardly at his thought Brindlejaw thought for a moment that Coldsong would understand. But he was there too...
The tortoiseshell kept quiet for a few moments longer, debating if he should open up or not. "I blame myself for the Coyote Invasion." At last he said what was eating himself up from the inside. The one thing that caused the tom to avoid his camp, his duties. Nightmare's keeping him up and the guilt eating him alive. The thoughts and deaths driving himself crazy.

[Queenie]

Originally Posted by Morgan

(He could be the only one who does. Windykit doesn't understand that he's different)

Windykit hadn't been up to anything besides hanging out with an older kit by the name of Sprucekit. Nothing really interesting happens to him. The Tom heard a couple of cats talking in the territory, but he tried his best to ignore them. "I met a new friend. His names Sprucekit. He's an older kit who is almost an apprentice. ", Windykit replied. He was one of the only cats who didn't make fun of him for his big ears.

(Cornkit can just understand there's something special about it.)

Cornkit's eyes grew big, was Windykit replacing him? He licked his paw and moved it behind his ears remembering what he had learned about how his head works. Deep breaths. 1...2...3... Windykit was no more replacing Cornkit than he was replacing Windykit by playing with Reedkit. "That's cool." He had to admit, being friends with an almost apprentice had to be pretty sweet. "He must know a lot."

[Barnabas]

Originally Posted by Queenie

(Cornkit can just understand there's something special about it.)

Cornkit's eyes grew big, was Windykit replacing him? He licked his paw and moved it behind his ears remembering what he had learned about how his head works. Deep breaths. 1...2...3... Windykit was no more replacing Cornkit than he was replacing Windykit by playing with Reedkit. "That's cool." He had to admit, being friends with an almost apprentice had to be pretty sweet. "He must know a lot."

Windykit looked at him and saw that his eyes grew big. He hoped he hadn't said anything wrong, but when he spoke up again he felt a lot better. " Have you met any kits? Made any friends? ", he asked. He wanted to know if he had made any friends. He wanted this conversation to be more about Cornkit. He really wanted to catch up with him.

[Queenie]

Originally Posted by Morgan

Windykit looked at him and saw that his eyes grew big. He hoped he hadn't said anything wrong, but when he spoke up again he felt a lot better. " Have you met any kits? Made any friends? ", he asked. He wanted to know if he had made any friends. He wanted this conversation to be more about Cornkit. He really wanted to catch up with him.

"I- um, I mean." Cornkit stumbled over his words, "At the Waterbarn. This kit, Reedkit taught me a cool hunting crouch. He was really good at it. I- was no better than a bird with it's head on backwards. He was nice to me." Cornkit's thoughts faded to the nice tom who had been so kind to the scared little furball. Not many cats had ever been that nice to him. They always made fun of his lanky awkwardness. But again, Cornkit found himself missing the inclusion at the Waterbarn. He wondered where Reedkit had gone. They'd got swept up during the commotion of leaving.

[Arie]

-- @Wings --

Eaglesoul heard the movement of sand and focused there, but then the patter of paws directed him in another direction. The scents were also conflicting and the tom credited his apprentice for his cleverness. He did however hear the crunch of sand as the apprentice took off and he moved out of the way just as the apprentice flew directly over his head and landed in the sand. "Good job! Nearly had me there with the trick. Just gotta be careful with where you place your weight. I could hear the sand moving and that alerted me to your position. You should just go ahead and just jump for me. Either make a load of noise, or make no noise at all. Both a good tactics at distracting your 'enemy'."

[plum]

"He's extremely cool, I mean...! But kinda like, a mean stoic cool... You know?" Elderpaw flashes a grin at the tom. Batglare was cool. He was so much more than cool, too, but she would spare this one from that whole rambling rant for now.
At his incredulousness though, the molly giggles. "Use a stick! But don't tell anybody I told you, Boulderpaw, or else you're going to have one itchy, itchy, iiiiiiitchy pelt when you least expect it." Her tone had grown serious and for a heartbeat, her green stare was pinned right on him as she frowned. But another moment later, her smile returns like the sun behind a cloud peeking back out. "Don't listen to what anybody tells you," she chirps. "At least until you've heard enough about whatever they're telling you about to think for yourself. That's a nice tip. Someone else gave it to me kinda! It hasn't helped me a lot yet though... But it will. Probably." Elderpaw shrugs.
"I expect you'll want a nest, too..." She turns her head to look around the den. "We... Can make you one. By me."
[ @The Cannibal ]

[plum]

She'd spiraled through a long, darkening corridor of her thoughts long before Batglare finally managed to locate her. At first, when he presses himself into where she was tucked away, she draws back by instinct. Her tail curls defensively around her body and her ears flatten, but the slightest sliver of recognition shines in her eyes, and her body loosens again. Hunched over, the apprentice somehow looked even smaller than she already was. And as she wept, her slender shoulders trembled with the might.
It takes the pair a while of being in close confines together and honestly, Elderpaw wasn't even considering the additional miracle it had to have taken for her increasingly (and begrudgingly) patient mentor to stay with her. But the heaviest part of her emotions had finally begun to subside. Eventually, her sobs became wheezing gasps again, and those became little hiccups accompanied by several sniffles. But although she could not continue crying, her heartache felt even worse. After a while, and without looking up, she speaks in a small, wavering voice.
"A... A while ago, when those RiverClanners came to hunt for us," Elderpaw mews, "Midnightstalker... She brought that cat back with her... And said she ran into my dad..." The tabby sniffles. "He went away before you got stuck with me because he wanted me to be someplace... Someplace safer, because we were starving... And cats were eating other.. Other cats." She spoke so quietly and wretchedly, it was almost like this wasn't even Elderpaw anymore.
"She said she ran into him on our territory, though. And that he... He wasn't... Coming home." The last word comes out as a squeak, and the little apprentice sniffles again. "I thought I would have proved him wrong by now. Or that he would have come back home to stay, because everything is better, you know? But what if..." Trailing off, she thinks of what she is about to say and smiles sadly. Finally she lifts her glassy gaze to Batglare. "I never had a chance, did I, Batglare? Newtflecks, his kits... It's all been set from the moment the parents made their choice, hasn't it. They- They don't get to save their parents, do they? WindClan chased my father off. And they were all cheering to tear unborn kits away from their family today. I.."
All of a sudden, her throat tightens up again and she tears her gaze away from her mentor, taking a moment to collect herself again. "I don't get to rectify my father's decisions, and even if he did come home, I just... I can't help him. Newtflecks' kits won't have that choice either." The she-cat gazes at nothing for a long time after speaking, and finally takes a deep and rattly breath. Poor Batglare. After a long span of silence, she suddenly laughs sharply. "Oh! Boulderpaw's mother's dead, and I think he hasn't realized, so, I could use you for that if you're not going to ask Twilightstar to reassign me!"
[ @Moonraven ]

[jackal blackout]

then foxkit had slowly stopped crying and he said "I wished my mother was alive to take care of me." @Puddletail

[rhi]

Honeypelt

Dimtail's honesty brought warmth to her chest. She softened her gaze and looked at Dimtail.
"What are we to do? I just feel so hopeless." The warrior's voice fell flat. She gave her paw a solemn lick as she smoothed it over her face. The wind traveled through the camp, icy with little pellets of rain. She squinted against the unpleasant weather. Looking behind her, she saw the rest of the warriors still tucked into their nests, warm and dry in the den.
Honeypelt let her orange tail graze over Dimtail's shoulder blades. "Maybe we could do more for our clan. We could do more to honor our clan." She paused, whiskers twitching in thought. "What should we do?" She looked into Dimtail's eyes, her irises glinted with desperation.

@Rainquail

*bumpppp im sorry @Rainquail