Eek! She'd been spotted! A voice suddenly appeared behind her, startling Venomkit into releasing the string of bramble with a loud squeak, falling backwards as she did. In a hurry she twisted back onto her stomach as soon as her body made impact with the hard ground beneath, kicking up dust as she went. The kitten scrambled into a sitting position, scruffy furred and staring innocently up at Rookfire, pretending she hadn't just been trying to disarm camp defenses and copying the lifted paw the larger cat had, prepared to bat at him if her acting failed. This was bad..time to talk her way out of it...or fight if she had to.
The toygress shuffled nervously at the question, momentarily losing her childish confidence. It wasn't that she was scared, oh no, more so worried her plans had been foiled and all future ones would be ruined. No way she could let herself be caught! She'd be permanently grounded and never get to go outside again! Her Mammy was one strict lady! "Nothing!" She squeaked a very convince answer, grinning sheepishly up at the medic. Absolutely nothing, nothing at all!
Quietpaw
Shadowclan apprentice
Purrks: Mind reader(permanently active) and Shadow fiend(inactive)
Wrapping herself into tighter ball with a plumed tail, Quietpaw subconsciously listened as the voice spoke again after mimicking her sighs. What they said made sense, more sense than most cats she spoke to. Unfortunate she'd only been approached at a time where her mind was clouded with all sorts of frenetic thoughts that had emerged in the wake of Lostspark's death..maybe she would be more inclined to pay attention. Even if this cat had no malicious intentions when she appeared, the fragile trust of others Quietpaw held was slowly breaking like an icy lake holding too much weight for far too long. She didn't want to plunge into the unforgiving freezing currents below.
However, there was something Quietpaw just couldn't place which seemed... sincere about this particular cat. Possibly because the words spoken held some kind of depth that was awefully uncommon- especially from strangers, not even her own family held so much weight in a few sentences......still, she had to be cautious, naivety would mean disaster. But..perhaps, what did she have to lose anyway? Surely this cat would be the one most affected if things went wrong.
Sharp, turquoise orbs snapped onto a sudden movement inclined towards her. Recoiling sightly, the dark splotched molly regards the single paw hovering a few inches away with a blend of wariness and unease. It took her a moment to finally decipher the gesture, but she understood. Averting her gaze as the other apprentice looms above her, she makes up her mind. A part of her wants to just hiss at them to go away and continue silently suffering, but the majority is pulling her towards them, telling her to get up and listen, that this is cowardice not maturity. Who is she to defy herself? If anything perhaps she should be pay more attention to what she wants instead of just going along with the flow of life. Hesitantly she pulled herself to her paws, making a half circle around that cat she could now identify more clearly: Hollowpaw. She'd seen them around camp but had never truly spoken..maybe it was better they weren't family. Meeting her blue and amber gaze with reserved emotion. She didn't know what came next, did Hollowpaw?
Shadow Fiend: Inactive
[ black and white cat, blue and amber eyes. face and shoulder scarring. | she/they ]
[ #VGCHollow ]
[ Moving the duo out here cause that’s where Hollow was planning on dragging Quiet to ]
➢ As turquoise eyes met her own Hollowpaw couldn’t help but feel… nothing. Why was she even doing this? Was this the way you made friends in the plain of life? Is this truly what Hawkbite would’ve done…? The Apprentice takes a few sharp breaths to settle her growing doubts before burying them six tails under. “Out.” The word exited out of their maw at high velocity, such to the point that Hollow didn’t even understand herself. But the black and white cat didn’t care in the current situation. She flicks their tail to the den entrance, both paws returning to the ground as Quietpaw stood on her own.
They leave. The den that is, standing in the entrance waiting for the other cat. If she did then Hollowpaw would wait a few heartbeats before speaking once more, with a hushed tone of course. The Clan didn’t need to know everything. Husky voice once more leaving her maw, volume kept to a whisper. “I wished to offer you a walk. Rather than just rotting in the dark. It’s not good for you….in reference to the “rotting in the dark” part. I cannot offer much insight into how you feel or how you should feel, but I can give you someone to talk to with a similar experience. Mine is vastly different than your own….”
Hollowpaw falls quiet, mind wandering through hypotheticals and then sorting them into different moss nests. Settling on one that seems to fit the mood of the situation best. “My sisters and sibling went missing over a moon ago. A very different loss than the one I can only assume has shattered you, and your family….but I can relate to how you are feeling, somewhat.” Hollow clears her throat before they continue.
“You are not the only cat to lose, and unfortunately will never be the last. It’s something that this life loves to take and do to cats like you and I, taking away those we hold dear. The best thing you can do is keep them in your heart. In your mind. In your soul. The Stars cannot take the memories, the smiles or love, not even the tears you’ve shed. But you take all of these and hold them close, you have to move forward. The Clan doesn’t stop for one, two, or even three deaths. You will fall behind if you stay in the past…” Where was she even going with this stupid, stupid speech. Hollowpaw felt like she was just spitting out words at this point.
She had never spoken this much and it made them nauseous. The black and white cat focuses on their moving paws. A shudder running down their spine and shaky breath leaving her noise as they begin once more. “Quietpaw, you are not alone. You will never be alone. I cannot promise you any more than that, but I can give you someone to listen. Again, while I keep repeating my words, if you need anything or anyone to hear you when others won’t, just find me.” They fall back into mumbling the statement, it was lower than the rest of it. Blue and amber gaze aimed at Quietpaw’s ears instead of their eyes. Eye contact was a little much after that whole load of words….
Eek! She'd been spotted! A voice suddenly appeared behind her, startling Venomkit into releasing the string of bramble with a loud squeak, falling backwards as she did. In a hurry she twisted back onto her stomach as soon as her body made impact with the hard ground beneath, kicking up dust as she went. The kitten scrambled into a sitting position, scruffy furred and staring innocently up at Rookfire, pretending she hadn't just been trying to disarm camp defenses and copying the lifted paw the larger cat had, prepared to bat at him if her acting failed. This was bad..time to talk her way out of it...or fight if she had to.
The toygress shuffled nervously at the question, momentarily losing her childish confidence. It wasn't that she was scared, oh no, more so worried her plans had been foiled and all future ones would be ruined. No way she could let herself be caught! She'd be permanently grounded and never get to go outside again! Her Mammy was one strict lady! "Nothing!" She squeaked a very convince answer, grinning sheepishly up at the medic. Absolutely nothing, nothing at all!
rookfire huffed a laugh at the kits reaction, the corners or his maw twitching upwards as she startled like he had appeared out of nowhere and not just casually walked up to the kit, releasing the piece of the camp wall she had been attempting to tear out and looking a wee bit like she was about to jump ouf of her fur. "careful" he grinned down at the kit, holding out a paw to help with getting up while slowly swishing his tail to encourage the dust to disappear into nothingness once more. "cats worked hard ta' build this ya know? maybe i should make ya build yer own wee wall huh?" head cocked and tone kept neutral, almost accusatory at first, before switching to a more openly playful approach, he couldnt resist letting them struggle a bit. like a fish on land. just for a moment. playfully. he wasnt mean. not to kits at least. there were certain standards even rookfire aimed to meet at the very least, and being nice to kits as far as possible and responsible was certainly one of them, following closely to not refusing treatment or help to any cats even if he had a personal problem with them but they didnt hurt the clan in any big way. "i think youre too bored hmm? if you promise me ta' leave the camp walls alone i can tell ya about the other clans, what do you think? wanna be the only kit ta' hear about the big battle against riverclan hmm?" he offered, hoping to coax the smaller cat into spending their time on something a bit more useful than trying to tear a hole in the wall and potentially replicate fishkits disaster of an escape. besides,, rookfire could use some pass time and he had already done his best to gather lots n lots of information over the past moons. riverclans past leadership, conflict with windclan and thunderclan, and eventually coming to its peak in form of the three v one that he himself participated in, so why not make good use of it?.
aimlessly wandering the clearing, white tipped paws forming a repetitive tap tap tap that echoed louder in his ears than it shouldve whilst eyes darted to the clearings mouth and the medicine dens lichen convered entrance every once in a while. it may appear as if he was waiting for someone or something to happen, but that isnt the case. in stead of that, rookfire had simply resorted to dulling his mind to the point of more or less leaving him to exist in peace and quiet without jumping from activity to activity. he didnt like pacing, sure it was nice to turn off his mind for a while but he much preferred doing something more valuable with his time. in combination with this slowly starting to have an impact on his legs, it wasnt something he would choose to do if he wasnt mildly on edge again. almost desperate for a distraction, he suddenly stopped, cool grey eyes darting around the clearing before landing on a familiar kit. multiple shades of brown did in now way stand out amongst the carpet of pelts moving around the clearing due to their persisting ban on going in and out of camp as they pleased. the medic wandered over to her at a pace far slower than his pacing had been, sliding past cats in a almost lazy manner were it not for his posture that spoke of confidence. once stood in front of fishkit, he considered sitting, decided against it and instead stared down at her. "how's the injury lookin? err feeling?" he cut straight to what he was wondering about, not bothering with small talk again, he had learned his lesson last time. fishkit wasnt a cat he wanted to have small talk with, so he may as well cut to the chase.
cool, the biting cool of leaf bare approaching in strides and lashing in his face where it moved in gusts into the medicine den rookfire rested upon slowly warming the soil below his cooling body. deep inside, curiosity mingled with dread, when would the first cat start coughing, how long until he would find out more details about the sicknesses leaf bare brought to the clans. lostspark had told him it wasnt something shadowclan ever struggled with, yet rookfire had always been more on the cautious side and too curious for his own good. whereas a lot of thoughts were wasted on trying to convince himself of all people that the urge to do more medicine cat stuff wasnt because he wanted cats to suffer but simply because he wasnt quite feeling like anything had changed at all since before his naming..
white paws previously tucked beneath his body hit the ground in a quiet repetition tap tap tap when rookfire passed through the lichen curtain that had been hiding him before. limbs cool and slightly stiff, he pushed through the discomfort as per usual, only ever really bothered by the aching of his previously broken shoulder, brought on by cold temperatures and ceasing once he had warmed up again. sharp grey eyes fell on a vaguely familiar pelt before long, mudslide, he had taken a certain interest in the she cat a couple of moons ago but sort of lost track of her some time recently, probably following his naming and the increased work he took on..still, he approached confidently. "hows lockdown been treatin' ya?" rookfire asked, coming to a halt my mudslides side. it was kind of a surprise to see her out in the middle of the clearing rather than hiding in a corner or den to escape the wind rushing through the forest on this day. to be fair it wasnt raining at the very least, the sky was a blinding light grey, one might say a reflection of rookfires eyes as close as nature would get to replicating the eyes he had been born with.
one with too much energy and too many thoughts and too little to do got interesting ideas eventually, in this case, that wasnt quite right since he was doing something important and useful but it was still not the first thing he wouldve imaged doing at some random day in early leaf fall. it was warm-ish today, nowhere near the cool gusts of wind that sometimes came to haunt him and his thin green leaf coat with the sky clear, sun shining down into the clearing and a lack of pesky wind. it was one of the last good opportunities to dry herbs they would probably get for a while now. his roleplayer knows mossfreckle has knowledge of shock freezing herbs to preserve them, but in rookfires mind, they were running the risk of having herbs go bad earlier than needed due to the moisture trapped inside them. bundle of poppies wrapped in a large leaf between his yaws, rookfire traversed through the clearing to pick out the largest flat rook he could find already warmed up by the sun to then push it over to the medicine den and place down his bundle.
white tipped paw briefly resting on the rock and eyes seeking the sky, he determined this a good enough opportunity, unwrapping the leaf and beginning to place the poppy heads on the rock face the sky. the sun would be doing his work in drying them out over time. now the medic only had to wait and protect his herbs, perhaps go check if there were any other herbs he knew could be dried and still used..perhaps lavender or something..there was still space on the rock.. poppies were his first priority right now though so he settled next to the rock, letting the sun warm his dark pelt as it dried the flowers. eyes closed halfway the medicine cat apprentice rested comfortably enough to let his mind wander through nothing-thoughts and keep an eye on the flowers whilst doing so.
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⋆♱Midnightpaw♱⋆
SC App ✶ Non-Binary (They/Them) ✶ 10 Moons ✶ Biromantic
✶Short black fur with bright green eyes✶
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Midnightpaw padded into the clearing, the sun blinding their eyes for a moment before adjusting. They looked around the clearing for a moment before going over to the fresh-kill pile and taking a small mouse. They sat down in an empty area and thank Starclan before taking a small bite into their meal.
Re: ShadowClan Clearing
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