• Springpaw •
long-furred, oriental-shaped, gray-and-orange calico molly with blue eyes; torn right ear
Purrks: Herbal Knowledge - Tier 1 | The Collector [active] | Mind Reader [active]
_________________________________________________
Crimson. Foxes. Death. It was all engorged into her mind. Skyrocketing into the den faster than a speeding jet, the calico struck her way through the lichen that hung over the den as fear-drenched eyes scanned across the den. Her dream had to have some sort of meeting to it, right? Foxes that smelt horribly of ShadowClan, those vile beings killing her clan-mates and tossing them around like they were simply rubbish was more than enough to stick to her brain like helpless glue. “B-Bumblestar,” she croaked, fighting against the itching in her throat as she shuffled herself towards the leader, fighting the unbridled staggering breaths that escaped her lungs as she approached the scarred molly, trying her hardest to hold still as her lips quivered, eyes twinkling with pure fear and bittersweet panic. “F… f-foxes! F-foxes by border… ShadowClan… dream! I… I had a dream about foxes being in ThunderClan territory… smelling heavily of ShadowClan… I-I think StarClan sent it to me. I’m not sure, but it felt… so surreal.” A quiet shudder surpassed her lips as she felt her voice almost break entirely as she spoke, the eleven moon old feline fighting the bitter taste of panic and fear that thrummetted throughout her body. A part of her screamed for her to explain the dream in more detail; to let Bumblestar know what she truly witnessed, but she had to keep her jaws as shut as she could without rambling the thought seamlessly to the leader. She just had to believe her first.
Hearing Springpaw screaming in the middle of her den at complete random was not something Bumblestar ever thought she would have to experience, and it made her shoot straight up out of her nest, wide eyes locked on the apprentice.
"Woah, woah, hey-" She reached out a paw, but Springpaw was already rambling forward before she could get much else out. For a minute it felt like too much information, and then it registered, and then for another second her first instinct was for doubt to creep into her thoughts. But it only lasted briefly, because while she had no reason to trust hardly a word from StarClan, this was Springpaw, clearly distraught. And Bumblestar trusted Springpaw.
Cursing to herself, she squeezed past the apprentice - leaning in to press a comforting nose to the side of her head - and poked her head out of the den. "Alderstep!" she called, voice level. "I need you in here for a moment!"
Back again to the chronicles of the rat, its herbs, and the roaring fire that produced unbearably delicious-smelling prey. Alderstep might as well be drooling in his sleep. Anybody would if they could smell the dream-smell he could. Sleeping paws twitched as he attempted to chase after the running rodent, in hopes of acquiring his scrumptious fresh-kill. It was right there, by the shining ruins, just within reach -
"Alderstep!"
The russet jolted awake with a broken sob of despair, claws digging deep into the moss that made his nest. He could've won that time. He knew he would've. He lashed his tail in frustration, anger-narrowed eyes scanning the warriors' den for whomever had interrupted his nap.
Alderstep just barely caught the tail-end of Bumblestar's summons, her words echoing in the back of his sleep-addled mind as he tried to puzzle out the meaning. With a low wince, courtesy of his lovely, fresh, new wounds, he pried himself from his warm nest and hurried out of the den. Stars, what did Bumblestar need now? Had better be worthwhile.
He didn't conceal his hiss of displeasure as he nosed through the lichen and - huh. Springpaw? His green eyes inquisitively flicked between both leader and herb apprentice, taking in Bumblestar's gathered appearance and the kid's disheveledness. "Yeah?" he finally asked, paws kneading nervously into the den floor.
Back again to the chronicles of the rat, its herbs, and the roaring fire that produced unbearably delicious-smelling prey. Alderstep might as well be drooling in his sleep. Anybody would if they could smell the dream-smell he could. Sleeping paws twitched as he attempted to chase after the running rodent, in hopes of acquiring his scrumptious fresh-kill. It was right there, by the shining ruins, just within reach -
"Alderstep!"
The russet jolted awake with a broken sob of despair, claws digging deep into the moss that made his nest. He could've won that time. He knew he would've. He lashed his tail in frustration, anger-narrowed eyes scanning the warriors' den for whomever had interrupted his nap.
Alderstep just barely caught the tail-end of Bumblestar's summons, her words echoing in the back of his sleep-addled mind as he tried to puzzle out the meaning. With a low wince, courtesy of his lovely, fresh, new wounds, he pried himself from his warm nest and hurried out of the den. Stars, what did Bumblestar need now? Had better be worthwhile.
He didn't conceal his hiss of displeasure as he nosed through the lichen and - huh. Springpaw? His green eyes inquisitively flicked between both leader and herb apprentice, taking in Bumblestar's gathered appearance and the kid's disheveledness. "Yeah?" he finally asked, paws kneading nervously into the den floor.
Bumblestar stepped back to let him in. "We've got a problem."
She sat down close to Springpaw, shoulder almost brushing hers in an attempt to be comforting. "Springpaw's had a vision. Foxes, by Herondive Hollow. I don't know how much merit it holds, but I don't wanna be left sitting ducks in our own camp if it's true. Take a patrol out there immediately 'n give everything a thorough once-over, then come back to me as soon as you're done. I wanna know what's going on."
Momentary conflict pulled Alderstep in two directions. On one paw, Springpaw looked, well, awful, but on the other, foxes and weird random hallucinations or visions or whatever. He stood there breathing heavily momentarily, flexing his paws to tuck into the floor with a wide-eyed gaze.
A brief nod later, Alderstep swept his tail behind him as he exited the leader's den. He could go poke Springpaw about her weird dream-thingy later. Foxes were more important, even if they didn't know if the cat-like canines were out there for sure.
@ares @dino. mb if either of you wanted to toss in a reply before he went - thought this would just get this done quicker before mid-september !!
__________________
time is nothing when you've nothing to do, don't you know
Rateye quietly and hesitantly stepped towards the entrance of the den. "Miss Bumblestar, ma'am..? Is it alright for me to enter? I understand if it isn't, I just... I haven't had an apprentice yet and I wanna train one of the next ones." His soft voice rang through the cave. He seemed nervous about this. "I feel like training an apprentice would help me learn more about mentoring and even possibly train one so well that they are just as good as me in combat.
"Cut it out with the formalities, it makes me uncomfortable." Bumblestar lifted her head, one ear angled sideways in mild irritation, as Rateye stepped into the den. "I can probably do that, sure. Is that all you wanted to talk about?"
➢ Entering the den briskly, the cat cleared burn’ s throat after tapping a paw on the dens opening to alert the shecat of burn’s presence. “Bumblestar? I am filled with boredom, do you need anything done around camp? Should I go ask Drizzlecloud if she needs any extra herbs? Sitting still is not something I find attractive, so name something and I’ll get it done” The warrior mews, ears perked to full attention, amber eyes widened as they adjusted to the dimmer light, this den was…quite gloomy if Singesmoke had been one to comment on it’s design. The log that was used at its walls was…an interesting choice.
Bumblestar looked up from poking about her nest, eyes flickering over Singesmoke's form before they landed on the other cat's face. She shrugged. "I can't think of anything to be done right now. If Drizzlecloud doesn't need anything, though, you could look into getting some trinkets for the nursery. Kits could use some baby toys to mess around with."
Ah, so they were both oblivious! Mudhound gave a sage nod at the admission of having no clue what things were called, well used to being completely out of the loop in specific words and the origins of said other words. Words in general were hard ok?
Hard but fun! "Yeah there's some fun words in the twolegplace! I picked up a few that are really fun to say but cats usually get confused when I say them so I dont! The cat who taught me was super old and talked weird though.... I wonder what was up with that." He said he used to live very far away and his twolegs took him in a metal thing like a monster but he was in it for a super long time and when they got out the entire world was different. Mudhound didnt really understand what he meant but they'd liked his funny meowing. "If he was here he'd probably say stuff like uhhhh...." Here they affected a weird accent "Goodness Mudhound youre such a flibbertigibbet! All your malarky is giving me the collywobbles and making me rather bumfuzzled! At least youre not a snollygoster like that whippersnapper Beanstar though. Hrmph complain about the weather and stuff." The warrior grinned at their sister like what they just said made total sense, which to be fair it did, to them who'd been taught what this stuff means.
Ah the weirdness of Mudhound stuck again. Knew what these bizarre words meant but shrimp or even 'elaborate' was enough to stump them.
They then moved on with no explanation.
"Yeah I bet you could beat any jerks up if they tried to make fun of you though." The tripod idly scratched a floppy ear, tongue bleping out "I bet you couldve beat Hornetsting to crying, thatd serve him right." A happier thought about that whole mess perhaps but Mudhound wasnt still happy Bumblestar moved things on.
Plus they got a head bump out of it! Return fire was immediately unleashed with the warrior trying to bump their own large flat head against their sister in turn. Issue is..... The maine coon was quite a bit bigger, had little concept of their own strength, and had a very thick skull. Many could attest to that last one. So the affectionate bump may be a bit harder then warranted.... Oops and not that Mudhound noticed.
"Hmmmm...." The tripod seemed a bit stumped on what to speak on for a moment (how rare) before perking up "Weeeeelll I dont have a ton to talk on left really but what about maybe a wrap up talk about our favorite preys or things we like to do? So were not at least ending on a bad note."
Well. Mudhound was right about confusing cats with those words. Bumblestar could only muster up a confused scrunch of her brows in response, not entirely certain what to think of all that. "Uh... right. Right, yeah, totally makes sense, I... totally know what all of that means." Ahem.
And of course, in Mudhound fashion, they followed it up with a tongue blep. And then almost immediately practically body-slammed her. Bumblestar grunted with the force of the returned head bump, staggering before she managed to regain her footing. Stars, what a powerhouse. She was glad they were on her side.
No ideas about new conversation, but that didn't much matter to her, to be honest. She settled back down, flopping over on her side to knead at Mudhound's flank with her forepaws. "Never really thought too much about favorite prey. It all kinda tastes the same to me. Except I haven't yet tried fish, I wanna take some time to do that eventually."
GENTLEDOE She/Her - ThunderClan Hornet
No Current Purrks
It had been a little while since she had time to settle down with Bumblestar alone. The last time had been before she became a Hornet, hadn't it? Of course, a lot had happened which made for little free time. But alas, Gentledoe was a cuddly creature and she wanted her Bumblestar attention. So without much thought, she rose from her spot in the clearing and padded toward the leader's den, hoping that she wasn't disturbing anything. If she luckily wasn't, Gentledoe would then silently shuffle towards Bumblestar's nest and plop down into a comfortable loaf.
• Springpaw •
long-furred, oriental-shaped, gray-and-orange calico molly with blue eyes; torn right ear
Purrks: Herbal Knowledge - Tier 1 | The Collector [active] | Mind Reader [active]
_________________________________________________
Starstruck and obliterated, Springpaw stood still like a tree stump as her dilated eyes dragged across from her leader and towards the familiar russet form of the deputy that eventually stumbled into the den, exhaustion lacing his features. Springpaw’s lips quivered as she listened to the two of them ramble about the vision she conquered, her paws sinking uneasily into the dirt beneath them as her eyes snapped shut to try to control her raging emotions. Panic. Fear. Terror. They all were boiling through her faster than wildfire if it was spreading throughout the camp. Her tongue felt dry as she glanced up towards the broad-shouldered form of Bumblestar, the words tight in her throat as she tried to find a way to compel them out. God, how was she supposed to tell Bumblestar about the dream she saw? Would she even believe her? A small part of her brain screamed at her to tell, to tell the leader about what she had witnessed. “T… T-there was ten at most,” she croaked, her voice wobbly as she focused her lapis hues up towards the leader, “I… I’m not completely sure, but it looked like there were ten at most at the border, smelling heavily of ShadowClan. It felt real. I could’ve easily felt the creatures staring down into my soul and looking like they were stranded there for at least a couple of days. I… I-I don’t know why ShadowClan sent them there. Was it for revenge? Vengeance? I’m not sure.”
Rambling incessantly, her snow-white paws shuffled around as she tried to compensate for the thoughts that rummaged through her head. The foxes were visible just as clear as a stream of water—their rancid stench still lingering around in her nostrils as she remained seated in her spot. She briefly pushed herself closer to the leader, almost mumbling an apology for the sudden movement, but the thought remained plagued in her mind. Those foxes reeked and looked hungry for flesh. “Alderstep better be careful… The foxes looked hungry and weak, but I don’t know if that’s fully it for certain,” she rambled, glancing back up towards the direction of the leader to search her expression to see what Bumblestar had to think of all of this, sincerely hoping that she was going to believe her for the most part.
_________________________________________________
@navarra @dino. [wahhhh deeply apologize for this late response ]
__________________
━━━━━━━━┛ ✠ ┗━━━━━━━━ “Despite everything, it’s still you.”
⊱ my carrd ◦ future roleplay tracker ◦ future character bio ⊰
━━━━━━━━┓ ✠ ┏━━━━━━━━
GENTLEDOE She/Her - ThunderClan Hornet
No Current Purrks
It had been a little while since she had time to settle down with Bumblestar alone. The last time had been before she became a Hornet, hadn't it? Of course, a lot had happened which made for little free time. But alas, Gentledoe was a cuddly creature and she wanted her Bumblestar attention. So without much thought, she rose from her spot in the clearing and padded toward the leader's den, hoping that she wasn't disturbing anything. If she luckily wasn't, Gentledoe would then silently shuffle towards Bumblestar's nest and plop down into a comfortable loaf.
Bumblestar stepped back into camp with a bundle of moss and a few feathers clamped between her jaws - just in time to see a certain larger cat cross the clearing and slip into her den.
Bumblestar's brows furrowed. She watched for a moment from the entrance, wondering if Gentledoe would come back out once she realized she wasn't there. But nope, no sign of the Hornet emerging again. Mild irritation twisted in her chest. It wasn't like Gentledoe was going to try anything, unlike a certain apprentice that came to mind, but still. That was her space.
With a grunt, she padded across the clearing, stepped over the stream that trickled through the center, and shoved her head through the curtain of vegetation concealing the entrance. The bundle of nest materials found a new home just inside the den as Bumblestar arched her brows at Gentledoe. "Someone sure looks comfortable."
Re: ThunderClan Leader's Den
] 