Ratflame moved carefully through Shadowclan territory, placing each paw step carefully while the different scents flooded into her nose. One scent in specific caught her attention, something sweet. She began heading toward the direction of the smell.
The stronger the smell got, Ratflame began to pick up on the sound of low buzzing, and as she passed a bush, she spotted a beehive. Her tail brushed up against the pine nettles as she approached, maybe the clan would need some honey?
Ratflame looked up at the hive, tail twitching as came to realize her first obstacle, trying to get the thing down in the first place.
__________________
"To appreciate the beauty of a snowflake, it is necessary to stand out in the cold."
The way my characters act is not to be assumed how I feel I am feeling, me and my characters are separate.
Ratflame moved carefully through Shadowclan territory, placing each paw step carefully while the different scents flooded into her nose. One scent in specific caught her attention, something sweet. She began heading toward the direction of the smell.
The stronger the smell got, Ratflame began to pick up on the sound of low buzzing, and as she passed a bush, she spotted a beehive. Her tail brushed up against the pine nettles as she approached, maybe the clan would need some honey?
Ratflame looked up at the hive, tail twitching as came to realize her first obstacle, trying to get the thing down in the first place.
I'll let you go out in pairs, which means no less than two cats are allowed out of camp.
Ratflame's a rule-breaker. Or, she would be, were Swantooth not the nosy little creep that she is.
They hadn't gone out together, necessarily, but they're in a pair now. She got a headstart because I was moving too slowly. That's all. That'll be the lie, if she has to lie. It's close enough to the truth that it hardly feels like one; Swantooth had caught the end of Ratflame's tail leaving camp, just earlier, and had been sharp enough to notice that the other warrior wasn't accompanied at that time. Not until Swantooth bolted out after her, anyhow.
She doesn't want to lie, especially not for a clanmate she doesn't speak to, but this...this is a necessary kindness. Because having friends matters, and so does having cats who owe you. Ratflame doesn't need to be both of those things to Swantooth, but as of now she is at least one of them.
So any cat caught outside of camp alone will be exiled or executed.
Swantooth grits her teeth, closing in after Ratflame's scent. Together. We're together. One, two. That's a pair. Nobody is a rule-breaker. One, two. What's Ratflame even doing out here, anyway? Swantooth slows. She can see the older she-cat pausing, looking up. It's not long before the faint hum of the hive hits Swantooth's pale ears, too. All this, for some bees? She almost chokes on her outrage. No. No, surely that's not it.
"Ratflame," Swantooth hisses sharply. "Wait up. I almost lost you."
There's no telling if anyone important saw Ratflame leave solo and decided to investigate. Or her, for that matter, so Swantooth figures it's best to speak the groundwork aloud while they still appear to be otherwise alone out here. She doesn't care if the other warrior understands what she's trying to do right away.
"You said you wanted to hunt, right?" Though she certainly hopes Ratflame gets it; it'll definitely make things easier.
I'll let you go out in pairs, which means no less than two cats are allowed out of camp.
Ratflame's a rule-breaker. Or, she would be, were Swantooth not the nosy little creep that she is.
They hadn't gone out together, necessarily, but they're in a pair now. She got a headstart because I was moving too slowly. That's all. That'll be the lie, if she has to lie. It's close enough to the truth that it hardly feels like one; Swantooth had caught the end of Ratflame's tail leaving camp, just earlier, and had been sharp enough to notice that the other warrior wasn't accompanied at that time. Not until Swantooth bolted out after her, anyhow.
She doesn't want to lie, especially not for a clanmate she doesn't speak to, but this...this is a necessary kindness. Because having friends matters, and so does having cats who owe you. Ratflame doesn't need to be both of those things to Swantooth, but as of now she is at least one of them.
So any cat caught outside of camp alone will be exiled or executed.
Swantooth grits her teeth, closing in after Ratflame's scent. Together. We're together. One, two. That's a pair. Nobody is a rule-breaker. One, two. What's Ratflame even doing out here, anyway? Swantooth slows. She can see the older she-cat pausing, looking up. It's not long before the faint hum of the hive hits Swantooth's pale ears, too. All this, for some bees? She almost chokes on her outrage. No. No, surely that's not it.
"Ratflame," Swantooth hisses sharply. "Wait up. I almost lost you."
There's no telling if anyone important saw Ratflame leave solo and decided to investigate. Or her, for that matter, so Swantooth figures it's best to speak the groundwork aloud while they still appear to be otherwise alone out here. She doesn't care if the other warrior understands what she's trying to do right away.
"You said you wanted to hunt, right?" Though she certainly hopes Ratflame gets it; it'll definitely make things easier.
The feline almost jumped out of her skin when some cat hissed at her. She whipped her head around and looked over at Swantooth, her eyes narrowing briefly. Hunt? Yeah she was hunting but she certainly wasn't hunting with any cat.
Her suspicion remained up until the words of one of the many Shadowclan meetings repeated ominously in her thoughts, her blood running cold immediately. Right, she wasn't supposed to be out here alone, how foolish did she have to be? Though the fur along her back bristled she managed to keep her voice even as she spoke. "Yes, of course Swantooth, I probably should've been a bit slower."
Sure, she was concerned about whatever debt she'd have to pay to this cat for saving her hide, but that could wait until later. She was not interested in being the next cat slain by the Shadowclan leader.
__________________
"To appreciate the beauty of a snowflake, it is necessary to stand out in the cold."
The way my characters act is not to be assumed how I feel I am feeling, me and my characters are separate.
She stares hard at Ratflame, searching her. Hackles risen, an unfriendly expression—but there seemed to be a change in it, just toward the end, and then Ratflame was playing along seamlessly. So she gets it, Swantooth figures. Good.
The cream tabby jerks a short, imperious nod. If she were a more talkative cat she'd find some way to be more overtly condescending, maybe even cruel, but as it stands Swantooth just leaves it at a pointed dirty look before slinking closer to Ratflame's side. Rubbing it in wouldn't serve any greater purpose right now. That humming draws her attention again, and she cocks her head back before glancing at Ratflame once more.
"Bees."
Bees. Not, you seemed interested in that hive or should we bother harvesting that honey or careful you don't get stung while we're here. Just, bees. Swantooth's got plenty of strengths, but conversing isn't one of them.
with the other three cats hopefully off searching herbs, rookfire quickly let his eyes roam their surroundings, observing the deep shadows and specks of light, flowers doted in the deep green meadow, thick blades of grass clinging to the last of the prior nights dew, and the round, bright yellow head of a singular marigold flower pocking around a thick bush, almost similarly shaped clutters of pink and purple flowers blooming between dark green, heavily textured leaves. if only a single flower from far away, rookfire was positively surprised by his find of a large group of marigolds just around the bush, varying in colours from a light yellow to a bright orange or deep almost red. the enforcer quickly got to gathering, looking up once in a while when his body tensed and he felt like claws might reach out of nowhere to grasp his fur.
shaded and damp as it was around here, rookfire jumped sideways after observing a couple of bees in the corner of his eye. bringing distance between himself and the insects he knew embarassingly little about was the first priority for now, followed directly by needing to find out more and trying to locate their nest. rook had never gathered honey, but the memory of its uses as a herb were still lingering at the back of his mind. honey brough more memories of two of the cats he very much remembered with distaste, seabreeze and whatever the grey ones name was. grossly stupid cats that should have succumbed to infection or simply never been born in the first place, trying to be what they could never be. medicine cats! stars even in his younger years he had done a better job than these two mousebrains could ever do. rookfire exhaled a huff of rage, briefly shaking his head to rid himself of the thoughts and finally turning his attention back to the bees. one had landed on a shard of glass and despite his very much justified fear of the little buzzing things, he couldnt help but crouch down to take a closer look.
it looked like any other bee he had seen before, by size and general colour at least. what set them apart at first glance were the huge jaws the bees carried on its head, moving open and close around the leaf it was resting on, cutting apart the green flesh like fabric. otherwise, they appeared to be a bit slimmer and darker on top, six legs slightly more spaced out and the top of their body mostly black, only sparingly covered in yellow and orange hairs whilst its bottom was covered in a thin blanket of hair. the yellow things that covered the center of most flowers seemed to stick to these hairs, clumped together around the hairs and rookfire wondered why. why would it not do anything about the pollen sticking to its underside. what did bees even eat? whilst the urge to continue to observe was definitely present, the nagging reminder that he was on patrol and had to collect herbs was more relevant for the moment, so the dark tom turned to continue picking marigolds..
after collecting a good amount, so many he wasnt quite sure if he could even carry more, the enforcer turned to make his way back to around where he had split from the group to stash his finds.
The feline flicked her tail and took a step toward the tree. "It might be nice to gather some of that honey." Ratflame mumbled, while glancing back at Swantooth. "You want to help?" She stood there waiting for a response, sure she could shoot up the tree, drop the hive and get what she could, but she couldn't deny another set of paws may make things easier. It was simply a matter of whether or not her clanmate would agree to her shenanigans.
She/her - 7 moons
Lean, brown molly with dark orange spots, lighter belly, and green eyes
Dreamwalker
A light twitch over her ears and a swift nod were all the responses to confirmation that Adderpaw gave before the spotted molly slipped away. She wanted to stay within earshot and line of sight of the other cats just in case, but her fine-tuned senses quickly focused on finding herbs.
It was an unfamiliar task with a familiar principle, in a foreign place that nevertheless felt like she had wandered through the since birth. It was strange, but the apprentice was sharp-sighted and she still held a clear picture of the herbs in her mind, so it didn't take long before she found a few. Marigold to be exact, and she nipped up the four largest ones growing there before returning to the rest of her patrol. She had a feeling that she could have carried maybe one more, but all of the other ones seemed awfully small to pick yet, and she already had one above the three that Rookfire had ordered.
Swantooth pins her ears back, appalled at the suggestion. No, she does not want to help. Helping means getting far closer and more personal with bees than she has ever felt the need to in her life. Bees. With stingers.
And for what! For—for...
Swantooth peers back up. For honey. That's something useful, right? For a medicine cat? Not that she really knows how or why—same as she doesn't know how or why just about anything in a medicine cat's den is useful, only that it is—, but what she does know is that, generally, the harder it is to get something, the more precious that something is. And being someone who obtained a precious something is good.
Suddenly she can't nod her head yes fast enough. "Fine. I'll help." And of course she'll count this as another favor that Ratflame owes her (she's greedy like that), though she's really not sure how she'll ever collect. Eyes the same color as the honey that they're scoping out crawl back up toward the sound of the hive. She wants the credit for helping, but she doesn't want to risk harm to herself. Swantooth looks back down.
Re: ShadowClan Territory
