Mintshade
The briskness of New-Leaf night air nips at her nose, an irritating feeling but after the warmth of the sun it is a bit more welcoming. The sun has slipped below the horizon for it's nightly slumber, the moon does not appear for it also seems to skip this night and leaves the night in utter darkness. There is no veil of soft moonlight to drench the land in an eerie silver and white, no light to guide someone's paws. The only light is now an array of stares that dance overhead. Most of the clan has returned to their nests for slumber, exhausted after a full day's work with the warmer weather greeting them.
A silhouetted shadow slides from the brambles of their home, prowling stealthily into the clearing. She blends in fiercely with the night, her figure barely noticeable except for a pair of glowing green eyes that crane up to the sky. All is silent besides the distant roar of the gorge that fades into the background. She stills alone in the darkness as she watches the vast Indigo sky stretching before her like a carpet, twinkling stars decorating it in various shapes and patterns. With the moon gone, they shine even brighter than before. Something stirs within her, an invigorating feeling but it's also peaceful. Her heart swells as she watches them flicker overhead.
A faint rustle takes her attention away from the sky for a moment, it seemed she wasn't the only one unable to sleep just yet. "Beautiful thing, isn't it?" She murmurs to them, a rhetorical question but she welcomed an answer nonetheless. "I wonder if all of our dead clanmates are up there." She ponders over StarClan, if these very stars were their loved ones that had moved on into a different life. Mintshade hardly thought about what happens after death, if there was anything. Did her soul go to this new world? Did she get to live carefree and happy with lost clan mates?
The dark molly suddenly feels small and a bit insignificant. She was only one cat—one warrior. This world was huge and spread as far as the eye could see. So many dangers in this life she's seen, but she couldn't deny the blissful moments too. It was a push and pull, likes the waves that lapped the river banks edge. Her nose takes in a deep inhale, fighting off the yawn that wants to escape her before exhaling soundly. She blinks slowly, sleep pricking at her vision. Perhaps she'd lay beneath the stars tonight, to sleep under an open sky and enjoy it till the sun slips back into the sky again. Her eyes grow heavy, about to drift off until a flash catches her eye.
Mintshade blinks as a shooting flash of white dances across the sky. She freezes in total surprise, watching a star leap from it's place and across until disappears before her very eyes. A rare sight, the beautiful thing. A soft smile hides within the shadows of her face, despite the pushing of her cheeks into the bottom of her eyes. So many things this world offered that was taken for granted. She secretly hopes this night would last forever. "Did you see that?" The molly whispers to her clanmate, awe filling her quiet voice as she speaks.
[ open ]
// Feel free to be the clan mate or come up to them. You're also welcome to see more shooting stars or point out constellations! :3
Rosestep was lying on her back with her she was admiring the stars but when mintshade started talking she felt like the world was right
She didnt answer anything enjoying the silence
She also saw the star and after stared at her in shock and smiled
Ashclaw smiled"good, when pinned like this your gonna use your hind paws and put them on their belly, then your gonna push them off like this" he demonstrated
@Octavia!
Ashpaw nodded, and copied her mentor's demonstrations.
__________________
"Do you and Barley have kits?" - Bella
whispersong
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The lilac molly felt a sense of pride in her apprentice's response. That was exactly the right attitude to have, and Whispersong was pretty sure most apprentices wouldn't agree with Slatepaw. They'd rather be learning to hunt, or just exploring. Even as warriors, most cats didn't enjoy an herb patrol. Whispersong didn't mind them, as they were rather peaceful, and she was glad to see the younger she-cat's enthusiasm shining though.
"That sounds like a good plan," she agreed. She had a feeling Slatepaw and Cowtuft would get along quite swimmingly. And the medicine cat always seemed alone; he could definitely use the company of a cat like the apprentice.
"I think so," she said, pointing her nose in the direction of the base of the hills. "Some bigger shrubs and bushes grow around here, so I'm hoping we'll have some luck." As they approached the area, so glanced around, doing a quick scan of the surroundings. It seemed safe enough to Whispersong. "Alright, how about you go that way and look? I'll go a little ways over this way. It would probably be growing on some sort of bush, so be on the lookout for that."
Slatepaw glanced around, hoping to find something that looked familiar to what Cowtuft had shown them. She just had no idea where to look. This was only her second outing in the territory. The ebony she-cat looked towards Whispersong as the comment to split up to cover ground. Her green gaze grew wide with worry. "-But but, what if something is out there," the young apprentice almost whimpered to her mentor, taking another step towards the she-cat. "Could be foxes or other clans, what if is ShadowClan!" she exclaimed with worry, her voice getting a higher pitch than normal.
[ @SuspiciousMindz ] WHISPERSONG
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The warrior began to look around, taking a couple steps in the predetermined direction, when she was stopped in her tracks by Slatepaw's voice. She turned back around, blue eyes widening a little. It was understandable that the younger cat would be worried about potential threats on the territory, since she'd probably heard plenty of stories about such things. But it still alarmed Whispersong to think that the apprentice didn't feel safe on something as simple as an herb patrol. Perhaps it would help if she could find some way to assure her that nothing was out of order.
"Here," she said, thinking of an idea. "Remember what we practiced last time we were out on a tour of the territory?" she reminded Slatepaw, referring to their visit to the cliffs. "Close your eyes and smell your surroundings. Does anything seem out of place to you?" she inquired, closing her own eyes to model. She took a deep breath in, inhaling the scent of the familiar grassy surroundings, the faint traces of her clanmates, the distant ones of prey long gone, the sharper sting of the occasionally flower or herb, and, of course, Slatepaw. "It'll take practice for this to come naturally to you, so for now I want you to try and remember to pay attention to things you can smell whenever you're out on the territory," she instructed, "That way you'll know if there's anything out there that shouldn't be there. I don't smell any foxes or stinky Shadowclanners, do you?" she teased lightheartedly, a twinkle in her icy eyes. There was more to it than that, of course, but Whispersong was pretty sure there would be a time to explain all that later on. For now, the short lesson would have to suffice, because they had already taken a while to get to this point of the patrol.
Giving one more encouraging look, Whispersong trotted silently in the direction she'd appointed for herself, looking around carefully for any signs of the bell-shaped blossom. She nosed a couple of shrubs, but none of them had any flowers on the branches. After a few minutes of searching, she finally spotted a sprinkling of bright yellow, tucked up against the side of the nearest hill. She gently tugged a couple of the plants off from their stems, gathering them delicately in her maw, and headed back to where she'd split from her apprentice, curious to see if Slatepaw had been successful as well.
The deputy made his way to the Kit Corrals with a bounce in his step. Basilkit had wanted to learn about Clan Relations, which he taught. No one could fault him for being happy that his son had chosen to attend his lesson. "Basilkit and Magnoliakit, it's time for a Clan Relations lesson!"
Dipping her head graciously at her new apprentice, Dapplebreeze took a seat besides Moorpaw, glancing back up at the lilac warrior atop Breezerock just in time to hear her continue with the news. Mismatched ears perked up with interest as the new Guardians were announced, a small twitch of her whiskers being the only additional reaction to the news. Truth be told, she saw little merit in yet another layer of titles. True, RiverClan, ThunderClan, and ShadowClan had similar positions for their own warriors. Shields, Keepers, and Enforcers ran over the typical warrior in these clans. But WindClan was better than them. They did not need this... unnecessary prestige simply to do what should be expected of every warrior in the clan.
Being a proper WindClan warrior herself, the patched molly decided to not voice her opinion on the matter. If the leader believed that adding Guardians back to WindClan would be a boon to the clan, she would gladly oblige, even if she did not necessarily agree. Even Dapplebreeze, however, could not help her eyes narrowing ever so slightly at the mention of Aspenstrike as one of WindClan's Guardians. Had... had this cat not been a leader in an enemy clan? She respected, of course, Twilightstar's compassion and mercy at having accepted the family into WindClan. The moor dwelling clan was always home to any who were willing to be loyal to it. Their leader had seen to that. But... surely having a home within the clan and being given a position of power over its warriors was... different... The whole thing felt dubious at best.
Her musings were quickly cut short, however, as soon as the lilac leader mentioned the tyrannical ShadowClan leader. Fur bristled in rage at the thought of the brute. The feral fiend that lead the band of blood thirsty rogues who had killed her estranged son. True, she had not been speaking to him at the moment... but family was family. A fact that Dapplebreeze was starting to understand more and more with each passing day. By instinct, the former queen passed a cursory glance towards the lynx point she'd once called daughter. Her little bird. Who no longer knew her, no longer loved her, but still held her heart tightly in her grasp.
No. She would not go down that rabbit hole today. Reluctantly, she tore her gaze away, turning her stern blue eyes back upon the leader as she explained the brute's plans. Ears flattening momentarily, Dapplebreeze remained quiet once more. It would have been easy to question Twilightstar's decision had Dawnstar's suggestion would have been more... violent. More in tune with what she knew the bloodthirsty monster to be. But... this seemed reasonable. A good idea, actually. One Dapplebreeze would have been wholeheartedly supporting had Twilightstar mentioned it as her own, so she supposed it would be hypocritical of her to dismiss it simply because the shadow's sovereign had been the one to propose it to the rest of their guiding stars.
But of course, with the good must come the bad. At least as far as the tyrant went. A hare brained WindClanner had dipped their toe in forbidden land. Tested the blood thirsty rats, and there was a very real possibility that might come back to bite them. After all, vermin were known for their voracious appetites. And these rats hungered for war. A sigh escaped Dapplebreeze at these news. She would have to be careful of where she took Moorpaw when out training. It might be beneficial to not take the apprentice out by the ShadowClan border in the near future. Not just the two of them, in any case.
Meeting finally over, the fluffy molly turned to look at Moorpaw, noticing the apprentice distracted for only a second before she turned her eyes back on her. The young molly was quick to get down to business, earning an approving look from the tan spotted warrior, only to have her expression soured at the mention of the patrol. Yes... she'd heard of that patrol. Her son, Ryepaw, had been left behind as well. Honestly... between all of the reassignments and the warriors just leaving apprentices to fend for themselves at a border patrol of all things. Why, it was no wonder Twilightstar needed former ThunderClanners to fill in the new elites of WindClan.
Dapplebreeze was very tempted to have some words with whoever had been so... irresponsible. However, she trusted Fallownose to have gotten on top of that. There was no need to further stir trouble amongst clanmates, no matter how much they might deserve a small cuff between the ears for sheer incompetence. Truly unacceptable behavior. And now that Moorpaw had told her the extent of her training - or lack thereof - she would be rectifying these injustices done to this young, dusky pelted molly effective immediately.
"Well, my dear... if you are already familiarized with the moors, I believe you are absolutely correct. Hunting would most definitely be the place to start for you. Especially if you've already had a taste of combat. Win or lose your spar, I believe that once you have better trained your muscles and honed your instincts to the hunting of prey, you will see just how much hunting and battling have in common when it comes to quick thinking," the warrior mewed with ease, delight in her voice at seeing Moorpaw take a right step initiative wise. Why, even without training, she'd already tried a spar! Perhaps a bit hasty, but marvelous none the less to know she was an eager apprentice, ready to learn. Getting up and stretching her legs, Dapplebreeze turned her gaze momentarily to the sky, seeing the sun still bright as it shone high above the camp before turning her focus back on Moorpaw. "Well... no time like the present. Now, tell me, dear. Do you know where the training hollow is? Why do you not guide us there and we can run through some proper hunting techniques before we try your paws at nabbing that first rabbit?"
"my tiny Brain feels as if its gonna Explode! History Really is a Fun Subject!! don't you Agree Lightningkit?" he meowed, not realizing he was facing a rock when he had twisted his head to talk to lightningkit @alchimist kitsune
Quote:
Originally Posted by Alchemist Kitsune
Lightningkit
Almond shaped eyes were round with surprise as the leader spoke. Twilightstar had just admitted to having been lazy in her youth? That was... such a hard concept to wrap her mind around. True, the leader didn't seem as persnickety as her mother, having kept a fairly cool head on her shoulders when she'd gone to her before. She had also not treated her dismissively or rolled her eyes like others, either, so the curious calico had simply assumed the leader was perhaps on the easier going side. Never lazy, however! Why, she had to take care of a whole clan! Maybe it was an adult thing? One of those you'll understand when you're older moments, no doubt.
The mention of her mentor's death, however, soon removed her shock, replacing it with a modest level of sympathy. Lightningkit had lost her entire family, but... even though none of them had ever returned, they lacked the finality that the bodies of fallen clanmates had, making her unable to even begin to comprehend the pain that it must have been. To lose a mentor and brother to such a violent end. It sounded terrible, truth be told. And it did shed some light into her earlier befuddlement. Her promise was what had made Twilightstar change. She assumed that made sense. Maybe time just changed cats. Which was why history was so important. Time changed clans, but one had to remember and learn why the clans had changed to begin with. Harder to do than when it was only yourself to take note of, she supposed.
I was still rather lazy back then, although I think my only saving grace was my intelligence.
Unable to help herself, a snort of amusement escaped the lithe calico at these words. Okay, maybe she had overthought it before. Maybe time didn't change anything! Maybe Twilightstar was still secretly lazy and used her position of power to make the entire clan lazy, then she wouldn't seem like the laziest cat around! Alright... that was hare brained, even when compared to her wilder trains of thought. Giving a mild cough to cover up a small bout of giggles she'd almost let slip by, the kit gave a small sorry before continuing to listen to the leader's tale.
Her funnier musings gone soon after, Lightningkit listened with rapt attention as Twilightstar went on, detailing a period of starvation, disease - this part especially making the young kit shudder - instability within the clan, loss of territory, and the leader and deputy swapping places?! What?! Was that even possible?! Well... obviously it was, seeing as how Twilightstar was here and Brightsky was not. And all because... Twilightstar had been a bad deputy? Or so she understood the leader said, but it was still such an odd thing to hear. As far as she knew, Twilightstar was an amazing leader. All of the higher ranks were looked up to by the rest of the clan! True, Lightningkit had nothing to compare Twilightstar to but... from what she knew, both heard and witnessed, the lilac warrior was a responsible, down to earth, helpful molly. The thought of a lazy Twilightstar was as hard to process as the image of a Twilightkit. She was fairly certain Twilightstar had been born the way she looked now. Logic and reason dictating otherwise could go eat a stick.
Attention turned towards her, Lightningkit nodded in response to the leader. It was not as much information as they'd received from the first question, of course, but to be honest it was a fair response. The kit curriculum was fairly new, not having been established until she was a few moons old at least. She assumed gaining any level of knowledge prior to these lessons would have been from gleaned exclusively from mentors or elders as opposed to carefully selected educators. It was probably amazing any cat knew as much as Twilightstar did, although she had mentioned it had been her intellect that had originally gotten her by. Unless she was as old as the ancient senior warriors, which the oriental mix would have had issues being able to tell, to be honest. All warriors looked old to her.
A playful grin spread across her lips as Tinykit began speaking excitedly once again, talking about exploding brains. Erupting into a fit of giggles, the dainty kit poked her denmate with her tail once more, letting him know where she was as he stared off at a rock in the distance. It was good to know she wasn't the only kit in the nursery that got all giddy at gaining new knowledge. Who knows... maybe she'd found a new friend here today as well!
"I'm with Tinyboom. That's a lot of stuff! But... how did you recover? I get that the medicine cat probably helped with the illness but... how did you recover from the starvation? Was it just the lack of patrols that caused it? Were apprentices and warriors really just not hunting because they weren't being assigned to patrols? How did you all survive without food?" Lightningkit asked, her nose scrunched up as she stared up at Twilightstar, curiosity gleaming in her eyes.
Even though it was a lot to take in, Twilightstar was glad to see that both little ones were enjoying the lesson. As Lightningkit brought up a new question, she debated a moment on how much she should actually say about this... she figured it was best to keep the cannibal phase out of the story. "With time and hard work, we got through it." She started, " The lack of patrols was part of the reason, but prey was just that hard to come by even cats who went on solo patrols or rounded up patrols themselves barely brought anything home. It was a very harsh leaf-bare." The leader pinned her ear and half back at the memory.
"By the time I took over as leader, rallying the clan and regular patrols being sent out helped a lot. What little prey was caught and brought home got us through the rough period." Twilightstar wondered if Lightningkit assumed starvation meant death for the clan. "It's not the first time WindClan, or any of the clans have had to deal with starvation. Cats can go survive for quite some time without eating, it's just very demanding on the body. Water, however, we can't survive without for longer than a few days. So long as enough food, even a few mice, are brought in here and their clans have pushed through leafbare starving before."
Twilightstar peered at both kits in front of her, a light smile adorning her face. Both kits were healthy and full of life, it's been a few seasons since Twilightstar has had to see WindClan suffer such an unforgiving leafbare. "So long as we can push through the worst of it, newleaf brings the prey back, and the clan prospers once again."
Quote:
Originally Posted by Yugo.
Cow’kit
The small black and white tom nodded slowly as he watched dustbunny pull out some dirt from his hole. Oh so that’s how you dig…huh neat! his small eyes sparkled as he stood and padded forward slightly to gaze at the recently churned dirt below him. He felt a shudder of excitement run through him. Luckily for him his adrenaline kicked and and overpowered the sensation of wanting sleep. Blinking now wide awake the small fur ball placed a shaky paw into the ground and gently scooped up. He squeaked in surprise at how easy it was. Right now to just… her put the dirt down carefully to the side before moving to take another paw full.
A bright smile tugged at his maw as he became more and more confident and comfortable with the digging. His fur bushing up at times when he got a wriggly worm and at others when a beetle or centipede crawled out. He was mystified by all the new little things found in the dirt and promptly sat down to study them. The centipede had many legs and was long like a worm but was definitely not a worm. The beetle had a pretty shell that looked almost metallic in the sunlight. Soon he let the poor animals go back to their hiding places and continued to dig. By now his hole was fairly deep..and without warning he slipped and fell into it.
Shocked the small tom giggled and squirmed his way out. Turning his gaze to dustbunny he mewed. this is really fun and relaxing. Thank you for this lesson. He didn’t know if any other cat had ever thanked another cat for teaching them how to dig but if nobody did then cowkit wanted to show his gratitude.
Huh, and here she thought Cowkit would prove to be the hardest to get interested in this activity. Dustbunny observed as the kit seemed to suddenly lose all sense of drowsiness and took to digging kinda like a duck to water. She was surprised to see that he even mimicked placing the dirt in the pile neatly without her even needing to say anything about it. Cowkit reminded her a bit of Wolfkit, she was hoping that he really liked digging, and she really needed more young cats interested in tunneling. Dustbunny wasn't old, but she wasn't crazy young either, she couldn't help but be a little concerned about the future of tunneling if she didn't find more tunnelers to serve the clan after her.
Warriors, she's found, don't remain interested in tunneling or her lessons for too long. So maybe kits were the way to go then. Her floppy ears twitched troubled as Cowkit began digging up all the creepy crawlies out of the dirt. Dustbunny normally ignored the bugs and worms, although as a kit and into her apprentice moons, she took to eating them. She stopped when clanmates started looking strangely at her or avoiding her. But that was beside the point, it seemed that Cowkit find the dirt critters amusing. She had been expecting a yowl or recoil in disgust, but nope. Perhaps this meant she'd have another future tunneler to train with.
As the kit took a small spill into the hole he had dug out, Dustbunny padded a bit closer as he climbed out of it uninjured. The fact that none of the dirt had collapsed on top of him was lucky, it wasn't anything life-threatening, but getting stuck under dirt could be a scary first experience. "Oh, you're welcome. Relaxing isn't something I hear related to digging, but I'm glad that you enjoyed the experience." Dustbunny purred warmly. "If you really did have fun, I'd be happy to give you more lessons on tunneling in the future."
[Cow's done with his Digging Lesson]
Quote:
Originally Posted by Karlos
➛ hawkkit ;
; they/them | three moons.
--so they were… pretty much… right? hawkkit blinked. not wrong, not right, but a lot of people thought the same as them, so… right! yay! twilightstar continued speaking; attack everyone, but not everyone, only the ones who don't say 'let us talk to your boss'. okay, made sense! bite loners, bite rogues, bite clan cats unless they're here to give windclan all their magpies. now that was something hawkkit could get behind.
but hawkkit felt bad for the medicine cats. they couldn't bite one another! the kitten thought back to cowtuft. he seemed… quiet, and peaceful. was that why? “maybe 'cos… they're supposed to be like… all magical and starclan-y and like… not-biting one another? seems kinda boring to me.” hawkkit shrugged. what was the fun in being a grown-up cat if you couldn't bite anyone? wasn't that the whole point? maybe being a medicine cat wouldn't be too much fun, afterall.
– #20/10
Twilightstar grinned at the term magical, they weren't but she could understand why a kit would assume a medicine cat was magical. "Well, yes, medicine cats are the clans' healers and the voices of StarClan. They're forbidden from fighting since they've been chosen to nurture the clans rather than defend them with their claws and fangs. Because of their positions, we can't challenge or harm any medicine cat at least not without a very good reason. So they're allowed to cross into her territory without... biting them as you put it." It was an odd way, to sum up, a warrior's duty, but fitting nonetheless.
"It might sound like a boring job, but it's very important. The clans would be gone without their medicine cats." She meowed. "Now then, do you know what gatherings are?" Twilightstar figured Hawkkit would, the apprentices must enjoy blabbing about them, and Hawkkit seemed like they were the curious type.
Magnoliakit sat down in front of Fallownose, who seemed fairly perky today. "I'm here," she meowed plainly, looking around for Basilkit. @zeebles @effervescent.
Re: WindClan Clearing
