ShadowClan Life Before Destruction

[Moonraven]

Originally Posted by Undertaker

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A low growl could be heard bubbling behind the exposed fangs clamped tightly around a lifeless piece of prey as a handsome young tom padded back into the camp, his creamy-white pelt would have been striking if not for the blemishes of dirt coated along his back and left flank, pine needles riddled his paws with a few poking the pads and causing him discomfort. Tigerpaw dropped is kill on the pile of the dead, plopped himself down and took to pulling out the few needles still stuck in his back right paw.

Behind him padded a slightly taller yet slimmer and alluring warrior with the same lovely coat of fur, only unlike him, her pelt was lustrous and without a hair out of place. The two look nearly identical besides eyes and the gender difference. Rosethorn dropped her catch next to his and padding around his body to sit beside him. She watched her son angrily pull needles out of his paw for a few more seconds before speaking. "I told you, this isn't Skyclan anymore, you can't just throw yourself into the air like before." Her tone was soft yet stern.

"I know Mother." Tigerpaw spat rather rudely earning a sour glare from the older she-cat resulting in him lowering his eyes just a tad in a hint of respect. He clenched his jaw to keep from snapping at her any more, annoyed and upset that his beautiful, gorgeous, pelt he spent so long cleaning today had gotten filthy. It was going to take forever to clean again. He hated getting dirty! Instead of sitting trying to calm himself down, the aggravated apprentice went to search for Softpaw.

Softpaw was huddle further away from the rest of the cats in the clear, striped and spotted brown pelt was slightly puffed up and her orange and blue eyes widened as she simply glanced around doing her best not to attract any attention to herself. The recently made apprentice had nothing against the cats here, and she felt bad for the situation they were now in, but the cats here kinda scared her. She was being terrible mean, yes she knows, but she couldn't help her feelings. She was expecting to be treated like she had been in her last clan, so was constantly worried. Her mother left her birth clan and joined Shadowclan before Softpaw even had a day of training with her mentor, now she was stuck here, friendless, mentorless, and had little to no clue who anyone was here. Rosethorn was paying more attention to Tigerpaw these days, so Softpaw found herself on her own more and more. So when she spotted her brother and mother returning from hunting, she swiftly made her way over to her family, just wanting some comforting familiarity, she should have noticed Tigerpaw's foul mood considering the state his normally gleaming coat was in. She was too focused on getting to them in hopes they'd stop leaving her behind over his mood.

[Dirtfur]

Redpaw lied down on the ground of the apprentices' den. Please let this be better tomorrow, StarClan... hoped Redpaw. In only a minute, the exhausted ShadowClan apprentice shuts his eyes closed, resting until daytime tomorrow.

[mochi]

Originally Posted by Moonraven

Lunafrost couldn't recall being so plucky during her apprentice moons, she admired Rabbitpaw's spirit. She thanked starclan for not giving her a difficult of an apprentice to train. Lunafrost moved a little to the side as Rabbitpaw began forcefully shaking her pelt out, knocking off the clutter from her pelt. She looked less dirty now, however, it was very rarely done, the warrior barely ever sees a cat shake like that. Huh? She's like a little dog. The feline thought to herself, resisting the urge to jest about it while nodding her head at the positive answer she received. "Okay, I'll show you some basics, if you've got the hang before tiring yourself out, we'll try incorporating the moves into a mock a battle." She explained, padding a few tail lengths away from her apprentice. "Now watch." Lunafrost leans forward, taking all her weight on two front legs while lashing out with her hind legs in one simple motion. She didn't bother putting as much strength as she normal would into the move had an enemy been behind her since Lunafrost was just demonstrating there was no point in showing off. "Simple, it's called a back kick." She revealed, bringing all four paws back to the ground. Although there was nothing complex about it balance was key factor especially when trying to stabilize yourself on two paws instead of four. "You try."

Rabbitpaw
Rabbitpaw nodded, excitement prickling through her fur at the words 'mock battle'. The apprentice watch with wide eyes as Lunafrost fluidly leaned forward on her front paws and lashed out with her back ones, making the entire sequence look smooth and easy. "Back kick..." She repeated under her breath in awe, filing it into her memory and replaying the move once more in her mind. Her heart pounded in anticipation, and she tensed her muscles in preparation to move.

In a flash she kicked off the ground with her back legs, however she overestimated the amount of energy she needed to put into it, and smashed her muzzle into the dirt. Her front legs slipped out from under her at the impact and she once more found herself in a crumpled heap on the ground.

Her throbbing muzzle faded to the back of her mind as she got to her paws, her brows lowered in concentration as she once more got into position. She had a habit - whether good or bad she couldn't tell - of pushing all her pain to the background so she could get the job done. Besides, she wasn't going to let a little bumped nose keep her from battle training.

Several more times she tried the move, and several more times she failed - though not as badly as the first time. And it took her a little while before she could balance on her front paws enough so that they didn't slide out from under her while she kicked out with her back legs. Afterwards, her fur felt warm and she panted a bit as she looked over at her mentor, her tail held high and a triumphant grin spreading across her face. "How was that?"

[Undertaker]

Originally Posted by Moonraven

Softpaw was huddle further away from the rest of the cats in the clear, striped and spotted brown pelt was slightly puffed up and her orange and blue eyes widened as she simply glanced around doing her best not to attract any attention to herself. The recently made apprentice had nothing against the cats here, and she felt bad for the situation they were now in, but the cats here kinda scared her. She was being terrible mean, yes she knows, but she couldn't help her feelings. She was expecting to be treated like she had been in her last clan, so was constantly worried. Her mother left her birth clan and joined Shadowclan before Softpaw even had a day of training with her mentor, now she was stuck here, friendless, mentorless, and had little to no clue who anyone was here. Rosethorn was paying more attention to Tigerpaw these days, so Softpaw found herself on her own more and more. So when she spotted her brother and mother returning from hunting, she swiftly made her way over to her family, just wanting some comforting familiarity, she should have noticed Tigerpaw's foul mood considering the state his normally gleaming coat was in. She was too focused on getting to them in hopes they'd stop leaving her behind over his mood.

Tigperpaw paused in his search for his stupid sister in order to pull out more needles out of one of his front paws. As much as he didn't mind joining a new clan, he wished Shadowclan had picked an area filled with fewer pine trees. The amber-eyed apprentice twisted his head around when he heard the soft paw steps of his sister, he wasn't exactly certain what compelled him to do some of the things he did to her. Sometimes he just couldn't help himself, like now for instance. As soon as Softpaw was within a tail length of him, he rose up to his full height, which was not much but the three moon difference between the two of them was pretty big at the moment.

He was not kind and he was pretty certain he shouldn't have put so much power behind it, but it was too late by then to reconsider his actions. He raised his right front paw and goes to bring it down straight against her head. It would hurt if it connected, could easily knock the smaller apprentice right off her paws, with a loud thwacking noise to add to the damage. "Don't just run up to me, mousedung, you'll get me even dirtier." He sneered while hissing at his sister. Once in a blue moon, he'd feel bad about being so terrible to her, but for right now he just needed to relieve some stress and Softpaw was his only target. "Stupid furball." He muttered, sitting down to try and bathe himself and clean his pelt. "Get over here and help me clean my pelt, that's all your good for." The tom meowed while rolling his eyes.

Rosethorn, of course, merely watched her two kits interact, she didn't seem at all concerned about how Tigerpaw treated his sister. In fact, she silently chastised her daughter in her mind, Softpaw needed to learn to grow a backbone. She figured Tigerpaw would help her with that, plus they were siblings, this was a good bonding experience for them. So the mother stayed out of it.

[Moonraven]

Originally Posted by little-life-light

Rabbitpaw
Rabbitpaw nodded, excitement prickling through her fur at the words 'mock battle'. The apprentice watch with wide eyes as Lunafrost fluidly leaned forward on her front paws and lashed out with her back ones, making the entire sequence look smooth and easy. "Back kick..." She repeated under her breath in awe, filing it into her memory and replaying the move once more in her mind. Her heart pounded in anticipation, and she tensed her muscles in preparation to move.

In a flash she kicked off the ground with her back legs, however she overestimated the amount of energy she needed to put into it, and smashed her muzzle into the dirt. Her front legs slipped out from under her at the impact and she once more found herself in a crumpled heap on the ground.

Her throbbing muzzle faded to the back of her mind as she got to her paws, her brows lowered in concentration as she once more got into position. She had a habit - whether good or bad she couldn't tell - of pushing all her pain to the background so she could get the job done. Besides, she wasn't going to let a little bumped nose keep her from battle training.

Several more times she tried the move, and several more times she failed - though not as badly as the first time. And it took her a little while before she could balance on her front paws enough so that they didn't slide out from under her while she kicked out with her back legs. Afterwards, her fur felt warm and she panted a bit as she looked over at her mentor, her tail held high and a triumphant grin spreading across her face. "How was that?"

Lunafrost allowed her legs to buckle underneath her to lay down as she took to silently observing the apprentice's progress. Unlike most mentors who would offer a word of advice, Lunafrost was more interesting in seeing how Rabbitpaw fared without her input. She internally winced at the first attempt, the way Rabbitpaw's muzzle connected with the ground seemed rather painful in Lunafrost's eyes. Instead of getting up and checking on the apprentice, she kept still, nothing beyond the way her tail swung behind her expressed her concern.

Lunafrost had a more independent teaching method, she's the kind of cat who would teach someone how to swim by pushing them in the water. It was not how she was taught it was merely how she did things. A surge of pride swelled in her chest as she saw Rabbitpaw simply got up and tried the move again. There was no whine nor bouts of frustration, Lunafrost liked that she learned from her mistakes without needing Lunafrost to comment on them. She picked herself up after every failure and pushed on. A small smile crossed her maw as Rabbitpaw finally got the move down. It wasn't perfect and clearly would need more practice, but all in all, Rabbitpaw had surpassed Lunafrost's expectations.

"You did very well." The warrior pushed herself to her paws and padded over to the panting apprentice. The she-cat dipped her head to touch noses with the younger cat, it was something she did unconsciously with younger cats. Her parents often rewarded her with such a gesture when she came back to camp and showed them a new move she learned or when she got rare praise from her mentor. It always made her feel like all that tiring work was worth it just for that. She didn't seem to be aware or notice if she was making the apprentice uncomfortable.

"You can relax for a bit, you look tired." Lunafrost took to sitting nearby the apprentice and wrapped her tail around her paws. They'd have to practice it a little more, but for now, she was rather happy with the apprentice. "You learn faster then I did when I was your age. The first time I tried a back kick I pushed off way too hard and ended up flipping myself onto my back." She recalled the memory with some bitterness, her mentor laughed at her. "No sharp pain or aches anywhere?" She asked, recalling how one cat pulled a muscle during training before and hadn't noticed or maybe just hadn't said anything. The repercussions hadn't been good.

[Dirtfur]

As the rays of dawn lit up half of Redpaw's face, the apprentice opened his eye, but only a half way to protect from the brightness of the sun. Is almost time for Redpaw's training with Leaftail, his mentor. The red tom got up and stretched their legs, strolling into the ShadowClan's clearing to speak with Leaftail. Redpaw wasn't excited today, he was filled with apprehensiveness. He still remembers the threats, the leader's dreadful passing, all that. StarClan, please give us a sign of hope.

[Dirtfur]

To wait the for her apprentice to come out, Leaftail watches the clouds goes by. She wasn't bothered by the death of the leader. What is bothering her is the threats, she doesn't want Redpaw to get harm just like her last apprentice. Soon she started feeling distressed. What is taking him so long?!
Thoughted Leaftail. As if gifted by StarClan themselves, Redpaw has finally came out of the apprentices' den. "Hello Redpaw." meowed Leaftail. "Hello Leaftail!" replied the red apprentice. Leaftail gave her apprentice a smile. "As you already know, you will be hunting for fresh-kills outside of ShadowClan Camp, but don't cross the borders, got it?" Questioned Leaftail. As Redpaw nodded, the tom sprinted outside of ShadowClan's camp. What challenges awaited for the red furball?

[pidgeon]

@Spider-Leap

Owlfeather strode around the empty camp. Everybody had been so busy, and she felt a muted sense of pride thinking about how her clanmates seemed to be taking up the mantle and carrying out clan duties as usual.
Still, the fresh-kill pile seemed barren as ever. Patrols had been having a difficult time finding prey, and she wondered if the fires in ThunderClan were scaring it all away. She decided she would gather a hunting patrol.
Looking around the camp, she worried that there wouldn't be enough cats still around to join her. Luckily, though, she caught sight of a gray tom emerging from the warrior's den.
"Greetings, Greythrush," the old tortoiseshell dipped her head in greeting to her clanmate. "If you're not busy, would you like to join me for a hunt?" She croaked. Her voice was tired and a bit weak, both from stress and from trying to keep up with all that needed doing. With nobody to give definite orders, she had felt like she needed to be working constantly.

[The Flying Pizza]

Originally Posted by CasperCreates

@Spider-Leap

Owlfeather strode around the empty camp. Everybody had been so busy, and she felt a muted sense of pride thinking about how her clanmates seemed to be taking up the mantle and carrying out clan duties as usual.
Still, the fresh-kill pile seemed barren as ever. Patrols had been having a difficult time finding prey, and she wondered if the fires in ThunderClan were scaring it all away. She decided she would gather a hunting patrol.
Looking around the camp, she worried that there wouldn't be enough cats still around to join her. Luckily, though, she caught sight of a gray tom emerging from the warrior's den.
"Greetings, Greythrush," the old tortoiseshell dipped her head in greeting to her clanmate. "If you're not busy, would you like to join me for a hunt?" She croaked. Her voice was tired and a bit weak, both from stress and from trying to keep up with all that needed doing. With nobody to give definite orders, she had felt like she needed to be working constantly.

Greythrush looked and tilted his head respectfully. "Sure, I haven't been out on patrols in a while..." With that thought of going back out on the dirt, trying to get over his mate's death..yes he knew he had to stop being pathetic and toughen up but no matter what it always returned. "Let's go then.." his voice was slightly cracked.

[Moonraven]

Originally Posted by Undertaker

Tigperpaw paused in his search for his stupid sister in order to pull out more needles out of one of his front paws. As much as he didn't mind joining a new clan, he wished Shadowclan had picked an area filled with fewer pine trees. The amber-eyed apprentice twisted his head around when he heard the soft paw steps of his sister, he wasn't exactly certain what compelled him to do some of the things he did to her. Sometimes he just couldn't help himself, like now for instance. As soon as Softpaw was within a tail length of him, he rose up to his full height, which was not much but the three moon difference between the two of them was pretty big at the moment.

He was not kind and he was pretty certain he shouldn't have put so much power behind it, but it was too late by then to reconsider his actions. He raised his right front paw and goes to bring it down straight against her head. It would hurt if it connected, could easily knock the smaller apprentice right off her paws, with a loud thwacking noise to add to the damage. "Don't just run up to me, mousedung, you'll get me even dirtier." He sneered while hissing at his sister. Once in a blue moon, he'd feel bad about being so terrible to her, but for right now he just needed to relieve some stress and Softpaw was his only target. "Stupid furball." He muttered, sitting down to try and bathe himself and clean his pelt. "Get over here and help me clean my pelt, that's all your good for." The tom meowed while rolling his eyes.

Rosethorn, of course, merely watched her two kits interact, she didn't seem at all concerned about how Tigerpaw treated his sister. In fact, she silently chastised her daughter in her mind, Softpaw needed to learn to grow a backbone. She figured Tigerpaw would help her with that, plus they were siblings, this was a good bonding experience for them. So the mother stayed out of it.

Softpaw was expecting the cruel commentary, that was normal when dealing with her brother. She was not expecting the hit, she didn't normally get hit unless they were sparring with each other and by that she meant him basically using her as his toy. Today, his mood was downright horrible apparently. The little cat buckled underneath the sheer force of the blow, her chin slammed into the dirt and pain blistered in her mouth and throbbed against her skull. It hurt, it really really hurt. Softpaw slumped there winded, the pain wouldn't stop. A small tear shed itself from her blue eye as she remained unmoving, praying to Starclan to make the pain go away.

It eventually became bearable enough to move again, her legs trembling as she climbed to her paws. There were sharp slivers discomfort in her mouth and she could taste the gross metallic blood from where her tongue had caught itself on her fangs. A few more tears formed within her eyes making them watery, yet she did her best to keep them from falling as she sat down on the ground. Her tongue was pulsing with anguish and felt rather swollen, moving it hurt.

She peered at the blurred forms of the cats she called kin, she couldn't make out their expressions thanks to the tears. Softpaw could guess them. She heard Tigerpaw demand to help clean his coat, it took a few gulps as she reached a shaking paw up to rub away her tears. "Erts." She whimpered out as best she could, talking and even swallowing hurt her mouth. Her words came out sounding strange even to her ears. She was a little dizzy and couldn't tell if she had a bump on her head or not. She kept her head bowed and her tail tucked in between her legs, pleading that her mother or someone would help her out just a little bit here.