Newtbelly found himself sat in the clearing, cleaning his coat. After all, what was there to do? No leaving the camp without orders. He'd stay put. His ear twitched as he noticed the medicine cat emerge from their den - could it be herb patrols?
Much to his delight, he'd guessed right, and his own name soon reached his ears. Wonderful. The tom stopped to stretch his back, before wandering closer to the medicine den - awaiting his patrol mates. Sleepysunrise, hm? The enforcer. Wasn't she younger than him? He definitely recalled her warrior ceremony. It wasn't rare for him to be jealous of the younger enforcers. Just what had they done that he didn't? Not that he held it against them. His respect for Dawnstar was great, and thus it was the same for the team of enforcers. He just found himself... Lost, wondering what the difference was. Whatever, it would just drive him to work harder. He had time yet.
Now those other cats - Squirrelrise and Hollowpaw. He couldn't say he knew either of them. Soon, he would, he supposed.
SQUIRRELRISE she/her. 16 moons. small, scarred russet molly with brown markings and yellow eyes.
[ chill of death, hulk SMASH ]
russet ears twitching at the sound of her name being called for a patrol, squirrelrise quickly makes her way over. she takes a second to glance at her patrolmates, bushy tail flicking in greeting. sleepysunrise - she is..admittedly not extremely familiar with the younger, though she's been on a patrol with her before. perhaps she's a bit intimidated by her. hollowpaw and newtbelly on the other paw.. well, she's completely unfamiliar with the two. she doesn't mull over that for too long, attention turning to mossfreckle when the meddie begins explaining the herbs.
she's unable to stop a nervous frown from growing on her maw when she hears they'll be heading to mourning ruins, the owl nest immediately popping into her mind. while she doesn't think there's a large chance of the owl suddenly appearing, she's still worried and scenarios begin to fester in her mind. shaking her head, she focuses on the herbs listed. blazingstar, lavender, and stinging nettle. mentally reciting the descriptions of each - besides stinging nettle, she remembers that one from a patrol two moons or so ago - she gives a nod.
Sleepysunrise
[ 13 moons | She / Her | Shc Enforcer ]
A patrol. It had been far too long since her last patrol outing, undoubtedly a fault of her own. Mama would be disappointed, she was certain, and Miss Grandmama even more so. She couldn’t have that. The air escaped her lungs as Mossfreckle, one who had been so close to her mama, called her forth. Sometimes she still found herself envying those who had such unrestricted access to not only the den where mama spent so much time when Sleepysunrise had been but a kit, and unforgivingly, the knowledge it came with. Those permitted to penetrate its perimeters would be an inch closer to her mama than she ever might hope to be, Sleepysunrise feared; they could see the den mama once called home, walk the exact pawsteps she had set down; Sleepysunrise was unsure if she had ever even set paw inside the new one, unsure whether she would ever, truly, live up to her mama’s name and Miss Grandmama’s expectations. Especially with the current situation. She couldn’t afford to slip up, now more than ever; she had lost mama already, this time to the supposed claws of darkness that Sleepysunrise still tried to deny. And Mirepaw had betrayed them, turned her back on ShadowClan. So many others were gone. She could lose no one else.
Sleepysunrise had always been one to lack a grand motif of expressions; her face was often monotone as her voice, vibrant, unsettling eyes the most expressive of all. Eyes were the window to ones soul, after all. And yet even they seemed glazed over with a distant feeling, tearing the youngest enforcer away from the here and now with rigid and cold claws, unrelenting and unforgiving, ever tearing into her very being as she failed to truly walk among the present and living any more. Mossfreckle smiled, she could see the movement of his maw; he always had this odd sense to him, something almost… Familiar, or warm, that she could not quite place. Something that, strangely, frightened her. Where the herbalist had always been so kind to shine his warm rays upon her, frigid Sleepysunrise failed to return anything akin, most of all now when her world could consist of her duties and duties only. Her duties, all that mattered.
Her gait remained professional, tired, ears picking up on the toms lilting, soft voice. It reminded her of mama, of the times she could lay in her arms, the times she could simply be with her; perhaps that is why the young white-tufted enforcer could not meet the herbalist’s eyes no matter how she tried. Mossfreckle had been close to mama, Mossfreckle shared a den with mama – he knew what she knew, and was now teaching it to his apprentice, once more. And Mossfreckle was gentle like mama could be. So how was she? She could not answer, she could not return the question, a social concept failed on the younger feline. She blinked at the ground, gaze kept low and movements minute as instead she focused on the instructions she was being given.
Blazing Star, an odd leader-like name. A plant consisting of five narrowly pointed petals whose colour she correctly guessed to be yellow, all bursting from the centre. Her ripped ear gave a light flicker, interested in finding what the medic let slip; treat with care she had noted and understood, it was a given; what interested the knowledge-hungry feline was the tidbit on curing unknown illnesses and help it provided with the shift to leafbare. Miserably, Mossfreckle gave no further information and the enforcer had to bite back on her tongue to stop herself from wasting Mossfreckle’s time by asking for every minute detail, knowledge and usefulness and questions of the given herbs when the herbalist had his own duty to do. Besides, a small part of her had grown unsure whether he was keen on sharing information with anyone other than his apprentice. A painful thought.
Secondly came lavender, a herb largely unknown to her. Tall, with clusters of purple flowers down the stem – its fragrant scent was interest, she wondered if it could be used to cover up nasty smells in the warriors den and cover ones own scent while moving about the grounds that surrounded their land. It was easily remembered and noted, the description, silent hopefulness for additional information that never came. Stinging nettle came last, a herb she was in fact familiar with. Grousepaw had detailed the techniques to gather this plant in little less detail during a herb patrol once upon a time; that to say, Sleepysunrise knew to recognise the plant and how to take care when gathering it, even if her ears remained perked for all of what Mossfreckle said, noting a few more details the former had left out. Wash first, she remembered, and rub in direction of the hairs’ growth; dry in the sun, bring back. It was straight forward enough.
Stepping away from the medicine cat couple with a dutiful nod, Sleepysunrise found Squirrelrise and Newtbelly to already have made her appearance. That left only the last of their patrol before they could set out; briefly, her eyes moved from the warrior to the other warrior – Squirrelrise – what is it with all these names? – and Sleepysunrise had a the distinct sensation that she was forgetting something. Some sort of… Troublesome element, otherwise it would not be on her mind and yet the feline’s worried expression had Sleepysunrise deep in thought for several instances as she sought what the reason may be. ...Ah. It must have to do with the predators that had been running rampant across the territory. She blinked, slowly, pondering how trustworthy and quick to lose their lives this little group might be. She decided she better keep a careful eye on them all, especially the apprentice, or Miss Grandmama would have her head. She couldn’t have them wandering off, getting lost and losing their lives in the process.
[ @sleepyyjax @idia @Aries | @elio - for Moss mentions < 3 bit of a messy post, though ;; ]
Hollowpaw
‘The Hauntress’
Shadow Fiend: Inactive
[ black and white cat, blue and amber eyes. face and shoulder scarring. | she/they ]
[ #VGCHollow ]
➢ The Commander Apprentice remains silent throughout the whole process. Taking note of the cats that were tasked with handling the patrol. Although Hollowpaw did feel like three Warriors was overdramatic at best for one Apprentice but she didn’t truly take offense to it. The black and white shecat makes their way over, skipping the introductory stages and jumping straight to the task at paw. “Leave, now?” Husky voice showing no traces of excitement for her first patrol, it truly wasn’t as thrilling as they expected for being a Warrior Apprentice…plus..nobody spoke to her, why should they start the conversation? These Warriors already probably knew each other, Hollow was the outcast here, best to keep quiet for now.
Scarred maw closing as Hollow turns to the patrol Leader. Nodding with the slightest bit of respect as they fell to the back of the group. The Hauntress gave herself the task of locating lavender first, the other three could have fun with the stinging thingy or whatever. Blazingstar didn’t seem Apprentice friendly either so they would avoid it until they learned more about it and its handling. She was eager to get back to Hawkbite and tell him about her first patrol, despite how boring they may have deemed it, it wasn’t like any of her siblings were around to hear about it anyways…..
__________________
❝ he thought you made it with all of his malice
but he was caught in carelessness
now the time came for a judgment,
and he pleaded for his life. ❞
Stempaw’s ears perked when he heard his name called. With a wide yawn, he lifted himself to his paws. A patrol huh? Guess it was part of his duties. And experience he needed. Wait… Bees? How in the stars do we deal with that? Stempaw looked at Ashthorn, equal parts concerned and excited. Maybe they’ll have to fight something cool to get the honey? He nodded at the patrol leader. “I’m ready.” He meowed, his twitching whiskers the only indication he gave to his excitement.
rookfire had palepaw and silentpaw put up with quite the speed on the way back, not hurried enough to risk one of them dropping part of their herbs on accident but quicker than would be comfortable for a long time. they had wasted more than enough time on the outsider, he didnt need them to be late to report their patrol as well. especially not so shortly after the had been promoted. the thought of bringing more disappointment to the table and having dawnstar and mistlewhisker stare him down during demotion was enough to chase a cold shudder down his spine. skidding to a halt in front of the camp entrance, rookfire shook debris from his pelt before stepping in, appearing as if he had not been exercising the two apprentices for no reason besides not wanting to appear like a slacker. luckily for him, he wasnt greeted by angry stares and was able to wander up to mossfreckle without any comment, dropping his horsetail between two pairs of equally white tipped but differently tinted paws. "horsetail, palepaw has marigold, silentpaw got catmint. we ran into an outsider, didn' seem threatenin' but lingered near the border n asked questions." rook rattled off briskly, recalling the unfortunate way he had handled the situation at first, letting protectiveness over the younger cats take over and peak in anger instead of making a calmer appearance. with a shake of his head, the medicine cat apprentice willed the thoughts away before taking his place by mossfreckles side again briefly stretching out his forelegs until his shoulder gave off a quiet cracking sound and he busied himself with picking sticky pine needles out of his striped tail. there were still patrols missing and his mentor was yet to announce their completion so he may as well spend his time doing something he would have to get to eventually anyway.
Re: ShadowClan Patrol Place
