ShadowClan Leader's Den

[~Kitty~]

The kit slowly woke up from her nap! Time to explore! The kit wandered around the den! She rolled in the bedding and played with it. Then she saw a rabbit in the den, she sat down to eat.

[~Kitty~]

Slowly she leaves the den.

[Ziera]

// @Undertaker

Talonstone's former apprentice stood at the mouth of a den she never would have predicted visiting. At least, not willingly. Should Sparkpaw be intimidated, bashful, afraid? ...Huh. Odd. She wasn't any of those things; how rare for Spark's intuition to prove false.

The Bengal she-cat felt intense nothing the moment she left Adderfang's corpse behind, felt that same nothing on her trip back to ShadowClan, continued to feel nothing right now-- but that was an internal malfunction to sort out later. There was a job to be done.

Sparkpaw padded into the dimmed enclosed space, dipped her head in a picture of respect. "Dawnstar. I have news of one of your missing warriors." Strange how level her voice was, how much it mocked her with recollections of Talonstone's controlled tones. Spark waited for her leader's approval to continue and gathered her wits.

[ChillCat]

Ravenpaw padded up to the entrance of the leader's den. They had something to tell Dawnstar, and also something to give the leader as a present. "Dawnstar? It's Ravenpaw. May I come in?" @Undertaker

[Undertaker]

Originally Posted by Redtalon

// @Undertaker

Talonstone's former apprentice stood at the mouth of a den she never would have predicted visiting. At least, not willingly. Should Sparkpaw be intimidated, bashful, afraid? ...Huh. Odd. She wasn't any of those things; how rare for Spark's intuition to prove false.

The Bengal she-cat felt intense nothing the moment she left Adderfang's corpse behind, felt that same nothing on her trip back to ShadowClan, continued to feel nothing right now-- but that was an internal malfunction to sort out later. There was a job to be done.

Sparkpaw padded into the dimmed enclosed space, dipped her head in a picture of respect. "Dawnstar. I have news of one of your missing warriors." Strange how level her voice was, how much it mocked her with recollections of Talonstone's controlled tones. Spark waited for her leader's approval to continue and gathered her wits.

Dawnstar's ears perked up with Sparkpaw's arrival. She kept her level gaze on the apprentice after she spoke about a missing warrior. Dawnstar didn't much care what happened to those who went missing, if they had no loyalty to ShadowClan why should she waste her time thinking about them. "Go ahead and speak." She meowed, tone flat and dull.

Originally Posted by ChillCat

Ravenpaw padded up to the entrance of the leader's den. They had something to tell Dawnstar, and also something to give the leader as a present. "Dawnstar? It's Ravenpaw. May I come in?" @Undertaker

"Come," The order came out smooth and light, once the large she-cat parted her maw in a yawn. Dawnstar gave a soft hiss as she sat up and stretched herself out. Her muscles stiffened and then relaxed after she shook out her pelt. She had no clue what Ravenpaw wanted but would lend an ear purely due to her interest in the young she-cat. She was putting a lot of faith in the young cat, hoping that she'd turn out as good if not better than Badgerscar. Only time would tell.

[ChillCat]

@Undertaker Real NB hours

Ravenpaw padded up to Dawnstar and hoped she wouldn't take this the wrong way. "Okay, okay, so I pulled this vulture skull off one of the birds in that battle, and I was wondering if you wanted it? It's the coolest bird skull I have but I'm running out of room for more bones so...uhhhh...yeah," they explained awkwardly. Ravenpaw didn't know how to end that awkward sentence as she pushed the skull towards their leader. The other apprentices were going to get annoyed if they didn't keep their collection to themselves.
And even though the original idea was to start cleaning up their collection, Ravenpaw genuinely appreciated what Dawnstar had done for them, and wanted to give their leader something nice.
"I didn't give this just to get rid of it though, I really just think you're cool and all so I wanted to do something to show my...oh stars what's the word-appreciation." Yeah, some words were still difficult.
Okay, topic one completed. The second one was much worse.

"So...you know how some cats aren't male or female? Yeah, that's me. I'm pretty sure." Was...was that it? Just like that? It seemed much more difficult in their head, and much better now that it was over. There were plenty of non-binary cats in the clan, who cared about one more? Gender was weird and dumb and Ravenpaw preferred to spend their time on other things.

[spade]

Originally Posted by Undertaker

Her amber orbs rolled slowly as he commented on her den. Her den was usually dark regardless of the time of day, she liked it that way. It was spacious enough to fit her mass and few others, after their eyes adjusted to the dark. Day, night, Dawnstar could see through either-or, something she wished more of her clanmates were better with. Regardless, Dawnstar hoped that whatever he wanted to talk about was more important than her den.

Lifting one large paw, Dawnstar unsheathed her claws and methodically begun cleaning the talons before working on pulling out a needle stuck in the pad that she's been ignoring. She fixated a single golden eye on the mongrel when he mentioned the guppies. A snort alongside a half-smile took form on her maw as he expressed how dull they were. Despite being amused, she retained her bored atmosphere until he mentioned how one of the guppies attacked him.

That was strange, the fish knew better than to mess with her cats. Grimmy could obviously handle some overgrown guppies, but it still annoyed her nonetheless that they had the audacity to lay their claws on her things, especially when she hasn't done anything to them at the moment. Perhaps they did need a lesson. "No, if I'm going to make a cat bleed, I like doing it myself. I get little satisfaction out of it otherwise." Icestar liked doing all the scheming and planning when it came to the other clans. It was dull and boring. "I'll handle it, mongrel. We haven't actually raided anyone as of late..." She muttered more to herself than to him. Practice made perfect.
[Sorry, I utterly forgot I had RPs to do here]

Not quite the reaction he'd been hoping for, but it wasn't totally flat either. Grimhound felt his mouth twist up into a smirk, claws sinking into thr ground beneath him. An invasion, huh? Now that would be exciting, much more so than the dogs. He'd joined ShadowClan too late to really get a chance in messing with WindClan, so this would just have to do for now. The large brown tabby would let the leader handle it, though that didn't mean that any run ins he had on his lonesome would be brushed off.

"That sounds like a marvelous time and all, but don't forget to invite me when you do," the tom purred, lifting a forepaw to wet it with his tongue before drawing it over his ears. He was in no rush to leave the den, but that was really all he'd had to report. The nickname he'd chosen for her would certainly drive her mad, which Grimhound would love to see, but he had other activities on his mind.

So for now, he got to his paws, sending a wink of his amber eyes towards the ShadowClan leader. "As always, a pleasure peach," he cooed before turning and exiting the den, chuckling to himself at whatever reaction that got out of her.

[ just figured i'd wrap this up with him leaving ^^ ]

[Ziera]

Originally Posted by Undertaker

Dawnstar's ears perked up with Sparkpaw's arrival. She kept her level gaze on the apprentice after she spoke about a missing warrior. Dawnstar didn't much care what happened to those who went missing, if they had no loyalty to ShadowClan why should she waste her time thinking about them. "Go ahead and speak." She meowed, tone flat and dull.

// Sparkpaw

"Adderfang is dead." Dawnstar told her to speak, so she spoke. No frills, nuances or hints; Spark presented a fact in such a Talonstone-esque way it might've hurt to think about (if she wasn't so numb.)

The apprentice bent a paw towards her face, struck by the sudden urge to watch the sun from behind glint on unsheathed talons. "She wasn't a regular warrior, was she?" Sparkpaw didn't know where the words came from, but when she started, they kept dripping from her tongue like poison. It didn't matter that Dawnstar seemed disinterested; she asked for this. "Adder worked harder in her lifetime than most shadowcats will ever work in theirs...might even've had a sweet spot for you, but I never found out for sure."

Spark felt her lips curl to show off pretty white fangs. Oh, if Adderfang could hear this now, she would strike the apprentice dead. Ironic. Was it revenge? Oh well, not like Dawnstar cared one way or another. Sparkpaw wrapped it up with a final nod of respect: "I thought you should know she went out fighting. Took out a dog by herself - maybe two. The scents were muddled."

[Undertaker]

Originally Posted by ChillCat

@Undertaker Real NB hours

Ravenpaw padded up to Dawnstar and hoped she wouldn't take this the wrong way. "Okay, okay, so I pulled this vulture skull off one of the birds in that battle, and I was wondering if you wanted it? It's the coolest bird skull I have but I'm running out of room for more bones so...uhhhh...yeah," they explained awkwardly. Ravenpaw didn't know how to end that awkward sentence as she pushed the skull towards their leader. The other apprentices were going to get annoyed if they didn't keep their collection to themselves.
And even though the original idea was to start cleaning up their collection, Ravenpaw genuinely appreciated what Dawnstar had done for them, and wanted to give their leader something nice.
"I didn't give this just to get rid of it though, I really just think you're cool and all so I wanted to do something to show my...oh stars what's the word-appreciation." Yeah, some words were still difficult.
Okay, topic one completed. The second one was much worse.

"So...you know how some cats aren't male or female? Yeah, that's me. I'm pretty sure." Was...was that it? Just like that? It seemed much more difficult in their head, and much better now that it was over. There were plenty of non-binary cats in the clan, who cared about one more? Gender was weird and dumb and Ravenpaw preferred to spend their time on other things.

Sun-colored eyes gleamed with a touch of interest once Ravenpaw presented something a tad more interesting. Vulture skull? Dawnstar hadn't even been thinking about gathering the skulls from the large birds. She had been too focused on harassing the bunnies. She bet a set would look nice probably right outside her den. Perhaps cats would be less inclined to barge in without permission, not that it happens much, but once was more than enough for Dawnstar.

"If you want to give it to me, then it would be my pleasure to take it," Dawnstar answered with a half-smile on her face. It was intriguing to hear that Ravenpaw had a collection of bones, Dawnstar didn't get such... hobbies until she was older. It was rare that she heard cats speak of any type of admiration towards her, the few that do, she often either ignored, go her ire, or she grew suspicious. Flatter got cats nowhere with her, Dawnstar already knew how incredible she was. Those who thought less of her were nobodies. Ravenpaw has already been considered, safe, in a way, so Dawnstar was more willing to take her tripping over her words as genuine. It was cute, sort of.

The topic on gender was different and a change, Dawnstar, although a brute and utter ass at the time, did not judge cats when it came to their genders. Ebonyfang went through something like this as well, it didn't affect the cat themselves or their usefulness to ShadowClan, then she couldn't bring herself to actually care much about it.

"Okay," the large feline responded in a thoughtful tone. "So I am to refer to you as they and them now, is there something that brought about this change?" She was utterly clueless when it came to stuff like this and so was utterly fascinated with it when given a chance to learn. Dawnstar knew she was bad, had her own mental problems, she just didn't care enough to concern herself with them or the thoughts of others. However, she didn't think cats with the sudden need to identify themselves as something other than their birth gender was ill, there were so many different factors that did not revolve around an illness that could bring up a sounder conclusion than there was something wrong with.

Originally Posted by Ziera

// Sparkpaw

"Adderfang is dead." Dawnstar told her to speak, so she spoke. No frills, nuances or hints; Spark presented a fact in such a Talonstone-esque way it might've hurt to think about (if she wasn't so numb.)

The apprentice bent a paw towards her face, struck by the sudden urge to watch the sun from behind glint on unsheathed talons. "She wasn't a regular warrior, was she?" Sparkpaw didn't know where the words came from, but when she started, they kept dripping from her tongue like poison. It didn't matter that Dawnstar seemed disinterested; she asked for this. "Adder worked harder in her lifetime than most shadowcats will ever work in theirs...might even've had a sweet spot for you, but I never found out for sure."

Spark felt her lips curl to show off pretty white fangs. Oh, if Adderfang could hear this now, she would strike the apprentice dead. Ironic. Was it revenge? Oh well, not like Dawnstar cared one way or another. Sparkpaw wrapped it up with a final nod of respect: "I thought you should know she went out fighting. Took out a dog by herself - maybe two. The scents were muddled."

Adderfang? Dawnstar had a vague memory of that she-cat. She still had to determine if that cat had been trustworthy or not. Besides vanishing from the clan, there had never been anything in particular that stood out to her about the molly. Nothing that deserved the lack of trust. With knowledge given to her, Dawnstar assumed the apprentice would be on her way, but instead she kept chatting. Why? The leader brought her eyes back up to meet Sparkpaw's with the strange question.

She didn't answer, instead, she just watched Sparkpaw, trying to figure out where and why she was pestering about a cat who no longer walked this earth. Dawnstar didn't recall asking for Sparkpaw's input on who worked hard and who did not, Adderfang was barely a speck in the back of Dawnstar's mind, another forgotten face that would vanish completely with time. She must not have been much because Dawnstar barely recalled any outstanding work ethic with Adderfang. Perhaps she had been close to Sparkpaw though, which explains why Dawnstar was getting this little talking to. Sweet spot, for her, Dawnstar could have laughed if her face was fixed in such stoic expression.

If Adderfang was too big of a coward to bring that up to Dawnstar, then it was no fur off her back. The molly's orbs flashed with a little more interest hearing the cat died defending her clan. Well, that was something more commendable. "There is no greater honor than dying in battle defending the clan. I'm sure those mice in StarClan will sing her praise." She did not bother hiding her bitterness when with the mice and StarClan. Useless kittypets. She gave Sparkpaw a dismissive wave of her tail.

[spade]

He hadn't wanted to arrive in the den before completing his task, but now that the pelt was off Grimhound slunk into the den, amber eyes glowing in the shadows. He'd only been in here once before, and as always it intrigued him just a bit. Not enough to ever voice it out loud aside from the first encounter with the dim lighting and eerie feeling, but enough to cross his mind.

"That was a wonderful speech. Here, a pelt for your efforts, peaches," came the slick-like-honey voice. The hound dipped to the ground, letting the pelt black and white pelt of Thistlestrike, his victim from the border skirmish, slip off him and onto the ground. There was still a bit of scarlet residue despite the tom's work to clean it prior to present it to Dawnstar.

Standing once more, a familiar twisted grin stretched across his face. "You said you wanted new lining for your nest; I thought this might suffice."

// @Undertaker