Beyond Enemy Lines

[Spider.]

@BEAR.


Risingstorm nodded his head "Okay on it" he meowed trying to see if any apprentice ran off or needed help to calm down he looked over to see mallowpaw( @kittycatburmise ) scared and maybe hurt he limped over now trying to attempt to calm the apprentice "Hey hey just breath okay take deep breaths and calm you're self " the tom said placing his paw in the apprentices back his he was scared too or at least frightened "just count okay "
the warrior said

[kittycatburmise]

Mallowpaw
90/100

Mallowpaw's eyes flickered to Wolfhive as he ordered warriors to make sure the apprentices were secure. She was included in that group, despite being the oldest apprentice there. She wouldn't run off, but she knew a younger apprentice might. One who saw the ghost and let the flight response take over.

A mrrp caught her attention, and Mallowpaw turned as Wolfhive asked if she was alright. "Yeah. Just surprised." She would be fine. She had seen this sort of thing before, but she was older now than she had been when she witnessed the bloodbath in the clearing. She could handle it better now; it wouldn't occupy her thoughts and haunt her dreams. She wouldn't let this faze her. She couldn't.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Risingstorm limp towards her, felt his paw touch her back. It reminded her again of that scene in the clearing so long ago, of a warrior guiding her away in a futile attempt to shield her from what she had already seen. "I'm okay," she told him. Frustration flickered in her chest; they should be comforting the new apprentices, not her. She was older, she should be the one comforting. But the label of weak and sensitive had been placed on her, and she couldn't shake it off no matter how hard she tried.

@BEAR. @Spider.

[Wingnettle]

Halfpaw
10 moons - he/him

What the...
Halfpaw was crouching like a coward under a raspberry bush, not caring whether their thorns pulled out tufts of fur and scratched his skin. Ok, he knew that being in Thunderclan for only 7 moons was not enough to have a great deal of experience with Starclan and other odd clans stuff, but a ghost?!

He didn't know what to do. He couldn't see this headless cat, but cats around him spread out panicking and squeaking like scared kits in front of something bigger than them.

Oh, but he knew what he feared the most. Seeing his leader freaking out and screaming after his clanmates was something he'd always been afraid of, even though he thought highly of his loyalty toward the clan and the leadership.

He had to do something before his body automatically paralyzed in fear. Then, he was sure no one would find him and he would be left behind. That could not happen! No, he had to demonstrate that he was brave. Just like his mother... and his father, too.

Gradually, he came out of the bus and shook out his pelt, scattering thorns and foliage around him. He scrambled past some cats that whispered between each other, to reach his leader and... and what? He wasn't sure.

"Bumblestar... there is chaos now. What do we do? Our clanmates are no longer under their self control." He told him in a worried tone, lowering slightly his head unknowingly while doing so.

@dino.

[Bonsai]

Dogchase
~Open~

Just like that, they were off. Diving through unfamiliar territory gave Dogchase somewhat of a thrill, even if the fishy smell was unwelcome. Here the air felt stickier somehow than he had ever felt it in the Thunderclap territory. Could Riverclan truly take this all the time? Perhaps that's what made them so grumpy. He made sure to keep to his eyes peeled, taking in everything. In his head he started marking down landmarks. If he ever needed to come back to this part of Riverclan territory he wanted to know where he was going.

Then they came to a stop. They had made it to Riverclan's graveyard. He trotted off a little ways, making sure to keep within line of sight of the group, to sniff around. It seemed to be of substantial size, so not a one off tomb. At a few of the graves he found old flowers and shells. No doubt offerings for the dearly departed. They seem to keep this grave so well, and yet they still took ours. The thought made his blood boil. A low growl echoed from his throat. These fish brains truly had no respect. Perhaps he could give them the same treatment? He slide his claws out and eyed one of the graves that looked fresher. It wouldn't take too long to mar it. He doubted that any of the cats in the group would mind too much.

Calming, himself he took a deep breathe. Was a childish thought. Just because Riverclan disrespected them didn't mean he could disrespect their dead. He forced the fur on his back to flatten and slid his claws back in. Now was not the time for lone warriors to make rash decisions. Things were bad enough as it is. Besides, it wouldn't make him feel any better. Even if he really really wanted to.

A Starclan shattering shriek had him spinning on his paws. A headless cat? Was that even possible. Dogchase didn't have time to think about it. He began to rush back to the group. There was a moment of tense silence. And then more shrieks echoed out across the clearing. The headless cat truly was there! He skidded to a halt as he made it to the group, furiously looking around for their attacker. All he saw was a few cats high tailing it out of the clearing. What was going on? It was almost like he had missed the past few moments because his rper had been sick! "Where's the ghost? And where are they going?" He angled his ears toward the runners' group, his voice came out alongside a husky growl. Why would they abandon the group when they needed them most?

Dogchase's eyes flickered towards Wolfhive as he gave the command for warriors to look after the apprentices. There was no time to worry about what others might or might not be doing, not when there was a threat right here. He scanned the group, picking out all of the apprentices who he remembered had joined them at the start. Except two. "Does any cat know where Wolfpaw and Morningpaw are?" He had a sinking suspicion that they had left the clearing, but he needed to be sure. The best course of action was probably to move out and they couldn't do that with two apprentices MIA. Had everything truly gotten this disorganized after just a few heartbeats?

[Desert Rain Frog]

SILVERPAW "SILVS"
THE MANGLED TRIPOD

The Silver And White Tripod Was Confused. Ghosts? He Knew His New Mentor Could Be Out Of Sorts, But Ghosts? Then, Lowe And Behold A "Ghost" Was Charging For His Leader. He Wanted To Run For It, Even Trying To, But Lost His Footing And Fell. Gone. The Ghost Was Gone. He Shook His Scarred Head, Eye Widened. The Mangled Tripod Wasnt Sure What To Believe. Real, Or A Trick To The Eye? Something Of The Mist? He Wasnt Sure... What... In StarClans Name... WHAT THAT? He Stood Up, Looking Wildly At The Vanished Ghosts Last Location.

(OPEN!)

[Morrigan]

Nightgaze
Thunderclan warrior

Pelt still spiked but muscles loosening, Nightgaze glanced down at the now panicking apprentice. "Hey, hey, hey, it's ok, that weird ghosty cat is gone. There's no need to start freaking out." Her voice softened in an attempt to sooth Sunpaw. That headless creature had given her chills as well but she couldn't show it or the apprentice would get even more upset. She couldn't have that.

Wolfhive seemed to have the right idea. Giving a nod of acknowledgement, the small warrior got to work on easing the apprentices. Rest her tail on Sunpaw's spine, she lowered her head to eye level quickly. "Everything's going to be alright. I'll protect you, I promise. Just Don go running off, ok?" Nightgaze wasn't the best at comforting but hopefully this would put the young cat's mind to rest.

@Kix @BEAR.

[Kix]

Sunpaw
I'm chasing dreams since I left the womb
+ she/her + no purrks

Sunpaw brought her attention up to Nightgaze now that she was being spoken to directly. She found it kind of nice to see an adult besides her mama and daddy caring for her. "Yeah, yeah you're right, ghost is gone for s-sure" She still felt startled and slightly frightened but now she didn't feel the need to scatter away. If the older hadn't blocked her way she would have made a run for it after Mudhound and Wolfpaw herself. Sunpaw didn't want to stick around an area that was haunted and it wasn't a lie. The ginger molly barely paid any mind to what the hornet was saying since her focus was on Nightgaze for now or the direction that the other hornet went. Amber hues stared intently into the others as they lowered to make eye contact with her. "Won't go running off! No, I sure won't, tailsies promise!" chances where the warrior wouldn't understand that last bit. Sunpaw had a habit of making up her own little quirks when she was trying to pep herself up.


@Morrigan

Header made by Marigold

[Weekend-Wondering]

Rosepaw
Header by @/Dolomedes / Male / 6 Moons / ThunderClan /Bisexual
Chocolate-brown and russet tabby Tom with fluffy fur and bright amber eyes, thin scars on his legs and a large scar shaved across the bottom half of his face that exposes several teeth

“Sure, I’ve got half a face, but you’ve got yourself half a brain, so I’m sure we’ll get along just fine, ey?”
~ Rosepaw, 21/100

✽❀✽

It seemed to Rosepaw ThunderClan was beginning to move. As Bumblestar took a moment to survey their group, the russet and brown apprentice nipped at bits of dirt and grit that had snuck their way into his long-haired pelt. As he grew, both his hair and his self-cautiousness were growing at some alarmingly fast rates, and almost every five seconds, Rosepaw found himself brushing down his fur and grooming his pelt. He was becoming both a perfectionist and a germaphobe, and there was no stopping this. Whatever care Rosepaw appeared to have about his appearance so suddenly was unstoppable, and if anybody ever were to bring it up for some reason, the young tom would simply scoff, maybe offer a little bit of a laugh, even, and tell them that he’s just trying to keep the dirt and crap out of his big fur, fur being it’s own subject. So as he waited, sleeking down the unwanted hair that sprung over his eye, the young apprentice gazed around at the group. It was a decently sized glob of ThunderClan cats, and if anything were to go too terribly wrong, Rosepaw was sure that they could handle it together. Now, Rosepaw himself? He had had a couple of battle trainings so far… he would most likely struggle most because of the emotional turmoil found in it all, not his strength and physical abilities. Of course the emotional part of it was something that needed valuing. Nonetheless, he felt confident that he could take on at least one apprentice and come out with just small scrapes and scratches.

When Bumblestar caught the group’s attention with a flick of her tail, Rosepaw’s head snapped up and he located her up ahead. She let them all know that it was now time to head out, and with his heart skipping a beat or two, Rosepaw leapt onto all four of his paws. Great- n’ if we find any RiverClan cats scurryin’ ‘round the territory that ain’t even their’s anymore- at least for now- then it outta be real funny watchin’ the, scream an’ scramble around lookin’ for an escape. WindClan n’ ShadowClan ‘ave probably taken a lil’ look around the territory, two, for any lost otter-cats an’ what-not, so I can’t expect much, though. With a small sniff, Rosepaw gave the crowd another quick glance, before landing his gaze on ThunderClan’s cream and brown leader as she led them. Striding along with great confidence, Rosepaw trailed after his clanmates, making sure to hang around the middle of the bundle to avoid drawing too much attention to himself. Attention was pretty nice, but only if it was (A), good attention, and (B), well deserved/undoubtably earned. The idea of making his presence known without any true reasoning made Rosepaw want to gag. The humiliation of it was quite depressing. They avoided the river, which Rosepaw found quite generous of them. He did not know how to swim, and he certainly did not want to find out the hard way. As funny as it would probably be to see some idiot drifting down the river, Rosepaw did not want to be that idiot… for reasons that should most likely be obvious.

Eventually, the russet and brown tabby apprentice found himself trudging along through some unfamiliar forms of soil and earth, and when a damp dip of the soil met his paw, leaving a muddy brown stain on his paw pad, Rosepaw felt a small growl rumble through his throat. His first thought came instant, Gah- NASTY, NASTY- But when he realized that nobody else seemed to be quite as horrified with the new environment as he was, shame devoured him. So awkwardly, Rosepaw mumbled, “S…orry,” To anybody who he had gotten in the way of, before hurrying forward and back into the heart of the ThunderClan crowd with a heated face. As he walked alongside his clanmates, the young tom dragged the bottoms of his paw to remove the mud, but this did not prove to be very helpful at all. Some icky, mildly painful kind of soil stuck to the muddy splat on his paw pad, and hissing quietly, walking decently carefully on three legs, Rosepaw raised the victim-paw up and glared at it. He recognized sand the very moment he saw it, and his heart sank down into the pits of his stomach. Well, obviously they weren’t in ThunderClan anymore… goodness, RiverClan was a bit nasty, with all of this environmental wonkiness going on. The young perfectionist felt slightly nauseous as he came to the realization that grains and globs of sand were now sticking to all of his paws, especially Mr. Mud, and struggling to fight a gag, he took turns drawing his tongue over each one, spitting whenever necessary. It tasted absolutely terrible, and Rosepaw sort of wanted to vomit, but that would be even more humiliating than getting swept by the river, in his opinion, so he fought that as well.

Finally, Bumblestar began to head in a certain direction that Rosepaw had a feeling was going to be a stopping point, and glad to get a better chance to groom his sudden ugliness into oblivion, he pranced after the group. I hate this territory, but ‘ey, my fault for comin’. I’d say it’s definitely worth it, though… ain’t nothin’ wrong with goin’ ‘round an’ takin’ a look at the places that need lookin’. With that reassuring thought, Rosepaw forced himself to ignore the sandy messes that were collecting in his fur, and he followed his clanmates towards the Sleepy Thicket. It seemed to be a generally pleasant place to Rosepaw, and as the russet and brown apprentice looked around, he assumed that nothing much was going on here. Even still, he felt uneasy in foreign territory without everybody’s safety guaranteed, so once again ignoring the burning mental itch to clean himself all over again, he crept around the area, scanning it for anything even slightly out of the ordinary. He looked aorund the area slowly and carefully gazing around until he felt satisfied with the safety of himself and his clanmates. He finally felt at peace, so with a small sigh, he lowered himself to the ground to groom himself. Unfortunately, this peace did not last very long. It was interrupted quickly enough by the screams. Rosepaw immediately sprung up to his feet at the sound of them, gaze burning, looking similarly to a father at the sound of his child’s cry. The young tom-cat whipped around to find the sources of these screams, and they all seemed to be staring in a certain direction, the majority shrieking with their faces full of horror. Rosepaw started to shout, “YA’LL, SHUT. IT- that ‘r Bumblestar’s gon…na…hold up-” Mudhound was screaming? Wolfhive was seeing something? That wasn’t right… those were… at least two of ThunderClan’s best, were they not? Now feeling an explosive mix of unease and annoyance with all of this, Rosepaw followed the direction of everybody’s attention.

The fluffy tom-cat began to mutter, “I swear, they’re goin’ on ‘bout some ghost… headless? Idiots, absolute idiots… there ain’t such thing, ain’t existent… n’-” Eventually he heard Bumblestar repeating several of his thoughts aloud, as ThunderClan’s elader started to get onto Mudhound for screaming. Rosepaw smirked slightly and continued. “Well, guess it’s good RiverClan ain’t here to make fun’s us all for hallucinatin’, anyway, psssh… n’- oh-?” He shut up when right on cue, a ghostly figure entered his vision. Rosepaw instantly felt his words drown away into a deep, loud and genuine yell, and scra,bling backward, his eyes flashed with… not fear, but disgust and confusion. There was no head. There was no head. Rosepaw was not a big trusted in the afterlife until… well, now. It was in this moment that the russet and brown apprentice made the confirmed the realization that yes, StarClan and the Dark Forest were somewhere out there, and… they could come down. What was death? Literally what was the point of dying, grieving, living, and everything that came in between?! The puzzled apprentice shook these thoughts form his Head blinking in astonishment as he glared at the headless feline-figure.

Rosepaw simply decided that falling into an existential crisis about his entire belief system was a bad idea at the moment, and what this whole group needed was… courage. Obviously, they were flailing aorund and screaming like there was no tomorrow. But who wouldn’t fear this thing? It was bloody, it was headless, it was ominous… heck, maybe it was even worse then getting sand all over your pelt, and to Rosepaw, that was saying a lot. The russet and brown apprentice darted closer to watch it for some reason, and it appeared to be aiming for Bumblestar. No surprise there, she was ThunderClan’s leader. But normally getting chased down by legitimate demons form the afterlife probably was not something most leaders agreed to before signing up for their job, was it? But soon enough, Wolfhive announced that ghosts were unable to hat, cats, and Rosepaw wanted to fall over in relief. He was not trembling, he was not screaming, and really, the young tom was not even breathing. Now that he had been told that he was safe, the confused apprentice had room to rethink his life choices. StarClan was obviously out there somewhere… and he had already been considering that, thanks to the lack of realism in the idea that every single clan was experiencing the same religious delusion all at once, but the Dark Forest, and ghosts, and everything else… no. He had always been confused, confused and doubtful, but never like this. This was the literal peak of confusion.

The horrible image of the headless, gore-coated phantom-like creature stained Rosepaw’s mind, and he tried to blink it out of his head. It was bad enough to be panicking over the fact that he had been wrong for the majority of his life about the afterlife itself, but when the ghost looked as creepy as it did, he was left completely, utterly frozen in shock. Eventually the russet and brown tom-cat felt a painful burning in his lungs, and he made the realization that he was forgetting to breathe. He picked that up again, trying to keep the desperation in it subtle to avoid drawing too much humiliatingly unwanted attention to himself. Then still majorly disturbed, he began to mumble to himself, voice deep and not shaky, but still uncharacteristically fragile. “There, it- the- the it- that… thing, it… oh stars, oh stars…” A fire of anger with the whole situation flooded into Rosepaw’s eyes. What the heck was going on? “Oh, Hell… what is this… what is this?! Get out, thing… leave, jeez…” Shuddering eith discomfort, Rosepaw finally made a move, swinging himself around and backing away from where the main portion of the incident had taken place, though avoiding stepping outside of the primary area fully. Even in this state of absolute confusion, Rosepaw obeyed the rules that were set in stone all the way fork the very beginning. AHHHHHHHHHHH- AHH- D-DAMN- WHAT- His brain was screaming the words that coudln’t leave the apprentice’s mouth, and he was unable to speak. They crashed and burned in his mind, the surviving thoughts still whizzing around lightning-speed. But even still, allowing himself to run on instinct, still staring around blankly, Rosepaw straightened and readied himself to follow the group whenever the group needed following. Oh. My. G… Stars. So that’s how it goes… ain’t it, then…?

✽❀✽

// If anybody’s interested in saying a thing or two to this kid, go for it. Open post here. \\

[twizzypaw]

The adventure was off to a great start. Lavendersong briskly trailed behind her eager apprentice in an attempt to keep up with him, but to no avail. Creepingpaw was quick, his silver and black spotted pelt splotched with the passing shadows of the brush overhead.

"Creepingpaw, this isn't a race you know..." The warrior gently reminded her apprentice, who clearly didn't pay attention as he raced ahead.

Following behind Bumblestar and the group, it wasn't long before the duo paused at the sound of Dogchase's yowls as Lavendersong's ears flattened at the news. A headless cat?! The pitch black cat shivered, her long and voluptuous fur prickling at the frightening alarm. Creepingpaw, noticing his mentor believing this nonsense, snorted. No way in StarClan there's a headless cat... He thought to himself, shaking his head in disbelief.

[Highsnow of Matterhorn]

《 Alpinepaw 》
75/100
she/her | Thunderclan apprentice | 6 moons

Alpinepaw was closely following the whole group of cats. She was looking around in fascination the whole time. It was like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the cats to be exploring.

(OPEN)