Grizzlybug has been poking around in the sleepy thicket, searching for some mice and voles to bring home when he heard the sound of a voice. The big fearsome warrior nearly jumped out of his fluff, and had to sheepishly lick his chest fur as he turned around to see a much smaller cat behind him. The massive tomcat blinked at the slightly disheveled young she-cat and offered a friendly smile. He wasn’t much of the ‘get off my land’ type, but technically it was his job to get her off of his land, so Grizz chirped, “hey, kid- how’d you get so far into Riverclan territory without some cat noticing you?” She looked vaguely familiar and the smells of twoleg and outskirts seemed to be just barely tinged with Riverclan. Whether that was from a possible past with the clan or from her trudging through their land, he wasn’t sure.

“Oh, wonderful,” Grizzlybug chirped, glad not to have to run a cat off the territory. He wasn’t a fan of making himself scary and chasing other cats away- especially when they were small. “C’mon then, Ringpaw. The name’s Grizzlybug, nice to meet you!” With that, Grizz turned toward camp and trotted off, keeping a more reasonable pace for the tired looking apprentice. He was glad that the hint of Riverclan on her fur had been her own scent rather than a product of rolling around in the scent line- it always made him feel good to guide cats home. Like a little star cat.

(aw, thank you!! <3)
Grizzlybug smiles abstractedly as Ringpaw repeated his greeting and continued onward, figuring the young returnee wanted to be in camp as soon as possible. He too noticed the butterfly and had an urge to chase it, but he was on a mission to get this cat home! The tom had to think a bit to decide what to tell Ringpaw since so much had seemingly happened, and he eventually answered, “well, I’m not sure how long you’ve been away, Ringpaw, so I’ll just tell ya the recent news. Windclan was attacked by coyotes and we helped chase the mangy dogs out of their territory. They’re settling in now. Thunderclan and Shadowclan had a spat about a broken alliance and Icestar invaded Thunderclan camp as revenge for Duskstar breaking it off- I don’t know if you were around for Flintstar’s time as leader but he’s deputy now and Duskstar took over for some reason. In order to put Shadowclan in their place, Lionstar ordered a raid on them and we fought Shadowclan in their camp to remind them that we are strong. They’ll be nursing those wounds for a while yet so we can expect relative peacefulness for now.” Grizz was happy to be able to report that Riverclan was doing well- probably the best out of all of the clans. Thunderclan was still recovering from the fire and had a direct enemy in Shadowclan. Shadowclan was nursing two battles’ worth of injuries and had to look out for Thunderclan retaliation on the horizon. Windclan kept their nose out of it and continued to recover from the disasters they had been dealing with. Out of all of the clans, Riverclan only was on Shadowclan’s bad side- and really, who wasn’t at this point- and was strong, healthy, and friendly with the other clans.
The trek to camp was fairly short from Sleepy thicket, and they’d soon come within sight of the entrance. Grizz stepped aside to give Ringpaw full view and purred kindly, “welcome home, Ringpaw!”