Evergreen Grotto

[Mica]

Birdpaw
ShadowClan Apprentice
she/her | 9 moons | 80/100
[Grey tabby with a dark overcoat, white underside and amber eyes]
Purrks: Lyrebird's Lullaby [PERMANENTLY ACTIVE], Don't Mind if I Do!
⋆˖⁺‧₊☽ The Fool ☾₊‧⁺˖⋆
· · ────────────── · ·
[Lostspark - @Rose ] [Cinderpaw - @Neptune. ] [Wispypaw - @Kix ]
· · ────────────── · ·
As Mama's form bumped into her own and a tongue rasped over her ears, all of Birdpaw's worries were completely forgotten. The small apprentice purred happily, reaching up to nose her mother's cheek. This would be a great patrol! Any time spent with Mama was a great time.

---

The grotto was a lot wetter than it was before, and something about the plants looked a little wrong, but Birdpaw couldn't place it. Well, she wasn't here for plants, she was here for prey!

Birdpaw quickly dropped into a crouch, stalking in the direction of a nice bird scent. The apprentice caught sight of it hopping about in some leaf litter, flipping over leaves and gobbling up what she could only assume to be buggies. Birdpaw had tried bugs, and she could tell you, they weren't great. Why birds liked them so much, she couldn't say. Stalking up on the bird, Birdpaw kept her tail low and her belly off the ground, her paws aiming for parts of the ground that hadn't been covered in slightly crunchy leaves yet. Finally, once she was close enough... BAM!! Birdpaw lunged forward, snagging the small creature in her paws and killing it swiftly. She grimaced at the mud that got on its pretty grey feathers, but it would have to do for now. It was dead! Not like it would care whether or not it was muddy.

[Birdpaw gained +1 finch!]

Moving forward, Birdpaw caught the scent of a mouse nearby too. Checking to make sure she wasn't straying too far from Mama and her siblings, Birdpaw continued into the undergrowth. The mouse was more difficult to find, as its scent was washed by the rain, but eventually her amber eyes caught sight of some scuffling in the undergrowth. Waggling her haunches, Birdpaw crept forward before springing up, landing on the mouse with a thud and killing it with a bite to its neck. She trilled happily, picking up her catch and taking it back to the finch where she left it. But on the way she caught the scent of another tasty piece of prey, and the scatter-brained apprentice immediately dropped her mouse to go after it.

[Birdpaw gained +1 mouse!]

The scent lead a little farther away, and this time it was something watery and earthy at the same time. A frog, if she remembered correctly! Birdpaw could hear the thing chirping away as she got closer, so she slowed her steps and got real low. A few more steps, and... BAM! Another swift kill from Birdpaw! Oh, she hoped Mama would be proud of her!

[Birdpaw gained +1 frog!]

With that the apprentice gathered her catches and returned to her mother and siblings, looking really pleased with herself.

[Kix]

Wispypaw
Wash him deep where the tides are turning
+ she/her + Heightened Perception [hearing, active]

UGH, it was wet and they could feel it soaking the fur on their paws leaving them to feel soggy. On the bright side at least they weren't getting muddy like they were on their last patrol, that was a living nightmare. Silently they had followed after their mother and siblings, not a word spoken. Another difference from their previous patrol with a sibling, it had at least a sliver of a conversation going on. Wispypaw was somewhat surprised at the bit of affection they received from bird, did they end up in the afterlife or something?! Out of the multiple patrols they'd been on with Birdpaw they couldn't recall the other giving them any physical affection, acknowledgment of their existence sure. Whatever, they had a job to do and that was hunting some measly prey to bring back to the sitting rocks at home.

The paw went off a bit in their own direction, hopefully not in the same as any of their family. They had learned how to hunt some time ago and had proved capable of doing so, although it was a bit of a fiasco they had managed to catch and bring home a bit of prey. Hopefully, this round won't be such an embarrassment, if they messed this up they might as well just make their grave here. It sure didn't take long for Wispypaw to catch the lingering scent of a mouse somewhere close by, and if they listened closely they could pick up the sounds of scuttling. Crouched and slowly stalking in the sound direction the paw made their steps light as they inched closer and closer. Soon they got close enough to go for the leap and were surprised to feel two different wriggling bodies under their paws. Huh, they could've sworn it sounded like one sound together but a catch was a catch. A quick bite to the heads of the wriggling mice, the feline got back up and stashed them away to come back to when done.

[ +2 mice ]

How much luck did they have to try again and see what else they could catch before it was time to go? They would surely find out soon enough thought that didn't mean the paw had any faith in their luck. The sound of wet dirt being disturbed caught their attention before they could smell two prey scents mixed. Wispypaw could only guess it was a tussle between two bodies fighting over god knows what. It going to be a bad day for them since it would be dead hopefully. The apprentice slowly approached the two quarreling prey in a crouch, within a span of a moment Wispypaw launched them self at the source paws outstretched. Luck was indeed not on their side as they could only feel contact with the wing of some kind of bird they couldn't tell. Whatever the other creature was had used the chance to escape so only the bird was caught. With a bit of fumbling to pin the struggling bird, they bite its head to kill it. With that over they traced back their path and recollected the mice. Not chancing it they quickly and quietly made their way back to where their siblings and mother was waiting at hopefully.

[ + 1 crow ]

@Rose @Neptune. @Mica

Header made by Marigold

[sleepyyjax]

Darkleaf
they/she - 59 moons

Header: ferretfever

Thank the stars that the restrictions had been lifted. Dusk had passed long ago, and Darkleaf was more than happy to step paw out of the camp. Though sleeping atop the warriors' den was a lot nicer, they still found themselves restless: turning in their sleep. Grey fur blended in perfectly with the darkened forest, as they crept through the shadows. Darkleaf wasn't the stealthiest cat. Nor were they the best hunter, but they weren't all too bothered by those facts. Adequate was alright with them. Bundled close to the ground, they observed as a mouse bounded across the forest floor - NOW!
They gave chase, skirting after it [D20 rolled:9] far too slowly. What were they thinking? The small agile creature took off to a hole somewhere, leaving her far less agile self to ponder why she thought she could chase a muse like that. They gave a small shrug, and continued to venture through the territory. Haunches bundled up as they prepared to pounce [D20 rolled:9] - then they sprung forward, missing it by a hair.
Ughh.. What was with her tonight? Maybe she wasn't a perfect warrior, but she had faith in her hunting skills being decent.

[open ^^]

[Rose]

Lostspark

With the due date fast approaching, - even though Lostspark's roleplayer had gotten an extension - Kat finally decided to wrangle the words to complete this after losing the post twice. Between herself, Birdpaw, Cinderpaw, and Wispypaw, they'd probably caught a good enough haul to bring back to camp. Besides, the last thing Lostspark wanted was to linger out here. Not after what had happened to Mirepaw.

Picking up her prey and trailing after the scents of her children, Lostspark had been about to call out their names when she scented... oh, right, herbs. She could pick a few of the... seven skies. What had happened??? For a couple moments, Lostspark was frozen in place with slight shock at the sight of the gnawed-on herbs. What was eating this? ...Why? Was it just a one-time, off-chance occurrence?

But as Lostspark wandered along, it turned out that it was not a mere one time occurrence. There were more patches of chewed herbs. She'd meant to pick them, not... what was this? They couldn't afford this. Expression turning grim with uncertainty, the former Medicine Cat finally sought out her children to bring them back to camp. She was mostly silent on the trip back, keeping a wary eye out for anything out of the ordinary, except for offering to carry any extra prey that her kits weren't able to.

[ 2 Mice | @Neptune. - Cinderpaw / @Kix - Wispypaw / @Mica - Birdpaw ]