"Never thought of that." But in hindsight, it made sense... "What if the sun's like, the ancient founders? If our stars are warriors in general?"
Sedgeflake plopped down beside Dusklion and peered up at the sky. The indirect light already made him squint, but he was determined to win. "You're ON! I'm gonna show you why you're DUSK lion and not DAWN lion." Cause she fled the sun, hah!
He adjusted his gaze to land on the fiery orb, doing his best to not squint. He had to beat her now!
Ancient founders? That sounded cool. Still squinting up at the sun she tried to picture it - cats so old that every part of them had been lost to time itself... She hoped that never happened to her. She wanted the name 'Dusklion' to be remembered for all time.
Still squinting up at the sun, the deputy let out a guffaw. "Oh you're on, Sedgeflake. Gonna make you Sadflake when you lose, so don't come cryin' to me!" Kneading her paws against the ground she continued to stare right up at the sun, ignoring the dull ache that was developing in her head. She just had to keep holding out... a little more...
...Ooooof.
With the heat bearing down on her and not moving for a bit, she could feel her pelt heating up. The dull ache spread down towards her shoulders and she rolled them back, feeling just a little bit off. Black ringlets started to circle her vision, and though she was stubborn...
Dusklion broke away, not sure if she had beaten Sedgeflake or not as she got to her paws. The ground swayed a bit as the deputy laughed. "That ancestor's... got a mean stare..." she chuckled breathlessly, feeling a bit like she was overheating and woozy.
Ow! Ow! Ow! OK, so maybe Sadflake was more of a reality than Sedgeflake thought and wanted because the sun HURT. His eyeballs were burning up like a salty slug and he couldn't....
quite..
"Ugh!" He had to throw in the towel, ripping his head away from the sun in favor of aggressive blinking and tears. Why'd it have to hurt so bad! Unfair! Hacks!
He grunted between painful blinks. "Must be a RiverClan cat 'cause ain't no way you'd be beat by anything less."
After awhile of blinking and lots of shaking her head (and maybe a stumble here and there), Dusklion finally started to get her vision to return to normal. Okay, lesson learned; no staring directly at the sun. "Must be. Came starin' with a vengeance, that's for sure," she grunted humorously in response and gave another shake of her head.
Still feeling a bit woozy she glanced around them. "Wonder how many moons of my life that took." Stars still sparked here and there but for the most part things were clearing up. Taking a few steps forward and still blinking, however, caused Dusklion to miss where she was putting her paws and -
Yelping suddenly she scrambled backwards, hissing with her fur fluffed up. But there was nothing there except a really bright rock. Lifting her paw pad and turning it over she winced; a weird bubbly like blister protruded from her paw, causing her to flatten her ears."Careful of that spot over there," she grumbled towards Sedgeflake, glowering at the spot as she flattened her fur, "feels like the damn Sun Spirit came back for round two."
"Stars, I hope none. RiverClan needs you for a lot more." Sedgeflake's vision was only now coming back, gradually, but not perfect. He could still see sun spots.
His hackles rose when she yelped, and the sight of the blister made him... relax just slightly. At least it was a rock and not some animal. "Why don't we get out of the heat?" He offered, moving a ways away til they were in a more shaded spot. Movement across nearby roots caught his gaze and Sedgeflake abruptly lunged and pounced, catching a mouse by the tail and killing it.
It was the first bit of prey they'd seen since being out.. and Sedgeflake planned on catching more! But it'd been a while, he was getting kinda hungry, and now Dusklion had a hurt paw. "Look, we're gonna be out here all day and we might as well take a break until your paw is at least feeling better. Split with me?"
Shaking out her paw and trying to not keep scowling over it, the deputy immediately agreed with a nod. She gingerly placed her paw on the ground, a low snarl leaving her when a sharp stinging pain shot up her leg. It wasn't bad, but it would sure suck until she was able to shove it into a stream.
Following him to the more shaded spot, there was immediately relief in not having the sun on her back anymore. The sight of a mouse had her ears perking back up and she wanted to jump with excitement when it was caught. "Finally. Good catch." The sight of the prey reminded her how she hadn't eaten anything since the previous day.
"No arguments here. 'S a good place to stop for a bit. Thanks." Settling down under the shade with her injured paw stretched out a bit, Dusklion let out a sigh. "'M ready for this hot weather to be over. But at least it's good weather to sit 'n share prey." Taking a bite of the mouse, she used her other good paw to shove it towards Sedgeflake, still recouping from the heat and subsequent sun staring.
Waspmeadow nodded at the leader, and went on her way as she tried to complete Fadingstar's request. She hopped spryly from one tree stump to another, scanning the environment in search of cobwebs. Her face lit up when she saw a small hollowed-out rock decorated with the remnants of a spider's old webbing. She trudged closer to the abandoned spider nest and collected as many cobwebs as she could, joining Sharktail in the clearing where he waited.
Poppyburst - RiverClan Warrior
The Collector
Chill of Death
Kitty Softpaws Tier 1
____________________
Poppyburst´s tail tip twitched irritably. Redmire wasn´t going to earn her trust this way, but her Clanmate didn´t know that the tortoiseshell was testing her in the first place. Her forest green eyes narrowed down to slits, an undetectable emotion flickering in them. Turning her back to Redmire, the small-framed warrior headed toward the exit of the abandoned nest.
Though choosing Lionsbeach just to spite Redmire was tempting, Poppyburst wouldn't do that to the russet and black tabby. ´´I want to hunt at Haven Springs while we're still able to,´´ She called back to the other warrior without looking at her. Fadingstar said that they were dropping Haven Springs, so might as well hunt there while they still had the chance. Without looking over her shoulder to see if Redmire was following, the RiverClanner ducked between the boards of the abandoned den and headed out into the territory.
[ @dino. - next post will be in riverclan territory o7 ]
[ you said to move to RC territory but it made more sense to just scoot on over to the Haven Springs thread! less in-betweens ]
Wow, someone was in a sour mood. Was it something she'd said? Redmire snorted as the warrior turned her back and started leaving without so much as a word in response. Maybe her name was Poppystick - for Poppystick-in-the-mud!
Redmire caught up quick and fell into step beside her. "I still don't get why we're abandoning Haven Springs and taking in the whole Range," she grunted. "Haven Springs should be the last landmark at the edge of the territory. There's nothing out past it; it's just barren." And it was FAR, too! A solid half-a-day's trek for basically nothing. "Fadingstar really has bees in his brain."
Of course, there was nothing anyone could do or say about it, because Fadingstar was on a serious powertrip and anything that he could twist into a slight or threat against him, he would.
The springs came into view eventually, and Redmire started the trot across the bridge. "I hope we actually find something. I don't want to have come all the way out here for nothing."
Poppyburst - RiverClan Warrior
The Collector [ Active ]
Chill of Death
Kitty Softpaws Tier 2 [ Active ]
______________________
Poppyburst nodded her agreement, opening her jaws slightly to taste the air. ´´Haven Springs is good for hunting during newleaf and greenleaf,´´ The tortoiseshell meowed softly, catching sight of a water vole and crouching down. Scent blending in with her surroundings and her pawsteps silent as she stalked forward, the tortie leaped.
Landing on the water vole, Poppyburst pinned it down to the ground. She cut off its squeal of terror with a swift, clean killing bite to the back of her quarry´s neck.
[ + 1 Water Vole ]
She padded back over to Redmire and buried her catch to collect later. ´´I don´t blame Fadingstar for wanting to drop Haven Springs, but it has been an essential part of our territory for moons on end,´´ The RiverClanner found herself agreeing with Redmire. While she didn´t agree that her leader had bees in his brains, she did find sense in what the other warrior was saying. ´´Sleepy Thicket, I understand. But Haven Springs? It´s a great place for hunting. I don´t blame Fadingstar for wanting to drop it, but we should at least keep it until we´ve explored the rest of Rugged Range. There could be threats we don´t know about, and we could use the extra territory while those threats - if they´re there - are being dealt with, you know?´´´´
[ @dino. - i´ll be throwing lark in bumble´s den here shortly. she´s bringing falconkit to bumble for shredding the prey pile. ]
It was strange in a way. That a place that holds so many memories for him, one he knew he will likely hardly see in the future, just didn’t make it past his barrier of indifference. Instead he just kept on walking, like he did after Salamanderpaw showed up. Ignoring the words shared between the apprentice and warrior on his patrol as he led them out towards Haven Springs. The hunting was good enough here even if it tended to be bird heavy which means that the growing colder season can mean mediocre hunting. Whatever.
“Salamanderpaw, stay near one of us the whole time. Too much has happened for you to stray. Do you know how to hunt yet?” The lionheart offered shortly, his eyes slowly trailing to the apprentice before focusing ahead of himself again. His ears started to shift around as they approached the assigned landmark. Listening out for any signs of prey while they really started the hunt. Wavebreaker seems the type to not need any explanation, and if he did then maybe that would mean that Seabreeze gets to be all Lionheart again. Annoying. Honestly, being a lionheart is probably the only reason he’s still allowed but at the same time, maybe he should ask to step down for the sake of the clan?
Re: Haven Springs
