WindClan: Life Before 2023's Fire

[Polaris]

Heatherkit smiled at Puddlekit. He liked to talk to him. Both of them liked to talk more than just playing like all the other kits. "I wonder what a gathering is like." He thought for moment. "Maybe at our first gathering we will see Starclan!"
@Puddletail

[Pancake]

@Dawneye

Oddeyes saw the stumbling kit and helped him to his feet. "Hello, Emberkit!" The old white cat smiled down at him. "Hows about I tell you about my sister, Cloudnose?" She paused for a second, recalling all the details of her littermate. "Now, Cloudnose was a very smart, young cat. She always gathered the most moss, or caught the largest rabbit on this wind-blown moor. I admired her for that, but sometimes I got a little jealous. One time, when we were in the trees by the border, I scooped up a pile of leaves and threw it right over her longhaired pelt. She was so mad at me that... She stopped for a second. But now, that's the beginning of another story! Not all of my littermates were jealous of her. In fact, she was the runt of the litter! We looked up to her. She always set a good example. She never complained about doing her duties as an apprentice, and when she received her warrior name, she never let it go to her head. She was a good warrior, a great warrior. Cloudnose died protecting the Clan from dogs. She fought to protect us until the very end. And, if you try, you can be just like her, Emberkit. Loyal and strong, respected and humble, and a great friend to all. She looked up from the kit and out at the entrance to the nursery. "Great StarClan, it's almost sunhigh! I'd better go grab something off the fresh-kill pile before I starve to death! Well, see you later, Emberkit! and remember, if you're ever itching for a story, you know where to find me! She smiled at the kit as she exited the den, heading for the pile of fresh-kill in camp.

[Puddle~]

@wolfnight

Puddlekit tilted his head a little. He didn't know a whole lot about things like gatherings. All Dawnkit had told him was that the clans gathered and shared news. "Wow! I didn't know StarClan showed up at gatherings." He imagined seeing all the other clans and cats in one place. Since he had previously been a loner, he still perceived WindClan as having a lot of cats. He could only imagine 4 times the amount in one place.

[Dawneye]

Emberkit was so excited after hearing the story, he started to walk out of the nursery, wanting to follow after Oddeyes to hear another, he stumbled with every single step @Pouncepaw

[Pancake]

Oddeyes padded out of the nursery and went over to the fresh-kill pile. After a moment of consideration, she grabbed a vole from the bottom of the pile and walked over to a sunny patch of ground, where she started to eat.

[Pancake]

Originally Posted by Dawneye

Emberkit was so excited after hearing the story, he started to walk out of the nursery, wanting to follow after Oddeyes to hear another, he stumbled with every single step @Pouncepaw

@Dawneye

Oddeyes noticed him stumbling after her, and stifled a mrrow of amusement. "Emberkit! What're you doing out here?" she asked as she padded up to him with a vole in her mouth. Seeing the look on his face, she added,"I'm about out of good stories for now... unless you want to hear about Tigerclaw, the deputy of ThunderClan who tried to kill his leader, buuuut I doubt you're ready for that yet! I don't want you to have nightmares! If you want a story, visit the others in the elders' den. I'm going to go eat this vole."

[Polaris]

Heatherkit nodded at his friend. "Yeah, it has happened before. The elders sometimes tell stories about it." He swished his tail thoughtfully, trying to remember the story. "I hope I will be a good apprentice," Heatherkit said. "I mean, I'm not as strong as you or as fast as any of the other kits..."
@Puddletail

[Puddle~]

@wolfnight

Puddlekit decided to encourage his friend a little. "You'll make a great apprentice. Besides, I may be a little bit stronger, but I'm not very fast. And at least you won't be the smallest. That would be Basilkit." He paused, thinking of something else he could add. "Besides, you don't need to be the fastest, or the strongest, or the biggest to make a good apprentice. I believe any cat can be a great apprentice with the right mindset and training." He smiled, hoping Heatherkit would take this advice to heart.

[Dawneye]

Emberkit quietly stumbled back to his nest, exhausted already just from his little walk

[Moonraven]

Originally Posted by implimm

She'd spiraled through a long, darkening corridor of her thoughts long before Batglare finally managed to locate her. At first, when he presses himself into where she was tucked away, she draws back by instinct. Her tail curls defensively around her body and her ears flatten, but the slightest sliver of recognition shines in her eyes, and her body loosens again. Hunched over, the apprentice somehow looked even smaller than she already was. And as she wept, her slender shoulders trembled with the might.
It takes the pair a while of being in close confines together and honestly, Elderpaw wasn't even considering the additional miracle it had to have taken for her increasingly (and begrudgingly) patient mentor to stay with her. But the heaviest part of her emotions had finally begun to subside. Eventually, her sobs became wheezing gasps again, and those became little hiccups accompanied by several sniffles. But although she could not continue crying, her heartache felt even worse. After a while, and without looking up, she speaks in a small, wavering voice.
"A... A while ago, when those RiverClanners came to hunt for us," Elderpaw mews, "Midnightstalker... She brought that cat back with her... And said she ran into my dad..." The tabby sniffles. "He went away before you got stuck with me because he wanted me to be someplace... Someplace safer, because we were starving... And cats were eating other.. Other cats." She spoke so quietly and wretchedly, it was almost like this wasn't even Elderpaw anymore.
"She said she ran into him on our territory, though. And that he... He wasn't... Coming home." The last word comes out as a squeak, and the little apprentice sniffles again. "I thought I would have proved him wrong by now. Or that he would have come back home to stay, because everything is better, you know? But what if..." Trailing off, she thinks of what she is about to say and smiles sadly. Finally she lifts her glassy gaze to Batglare. "I never had a chance, did I, Batglare? Newtflecks, his kits... It's all been set from the moment the parents made their choice, hasn't it. They- They don't get to save their parents, do they? WindClan chased my father off. And they were all cheering to tear unborn kits away from their family today. I.."
All of a sudden, her throat tightens up again and she tears her gaze away from her mentor, taking a moment to collect herself again. "I don't get to rectify my father's decisions, and even if he did come home, I just... I can't help him. Newtflecks' kits won't have that choice either." The she-cat gazes at nothing for a long time after speaking, and finally takes a deep and rattly breath. Poor Batglare. After a long span of silence, she suddenly laughs sharply. "Oh! Boulderpaw's mother's dead, and I think he hasn't realized, so, I could use you for that if you're not going to ask Twilightstar to reassign me!"
@Moonraven ]

See! Emotional bomb. Oddly enough, the tom took her...break down? Whatever this was, without flinching at least visibly. He waited until she was done sobbing her eyes out and forced his ears to listen as she began spilling her worries onto him. Perhaps it was because he just naturally tuned anyone who had nothing to do with him out, but he never really wondered where Elderpaw's parents were at. He had been around only twenty moons or so when he had joined WindClan, so he was not familiar with older members of the clan. This father of Elderpaw's must of fell into that category cause he had no clue who the tom was.
There was some visible disgust in his eyes as he heard her speak of cannibalization. He wasn't sure where she got that information from, it didn't matter since it was now stuck inside his brain. Now he had to be extra wary of the cats in the clan come next leafbare. He wanted to ask about the cats eating each other, though, it was too late as she was already moving on to another topic. Both ears pin themselves to his skull as she went on about kits, parents, and her father being chased out of WindClan. If that wasn't enough she dumps Boulderpaw's mother's death and being reassigned on to him.
Something Elderpaw didn't seem to realize was that Batglare was an insensitive, somewhat selfish, slightly emo, anti-social, asshole, with a messy moral code built on the trama of watching his parents get murder. So all of this was a lot for him to handle, his eyes dropped to the ground to glare a crater in it while trying to keep his temper in check. When he was unable to handle some things he naturally resorted to anger like a kit throwing a temper tantrum. If it were in the realm of possibility, Batglare's ears would have steam coming out of them like a kettle ready to blow. His brain was just trying to process everything that was just thrown at him. After what felt like forever, he breaths out loudly through his nose.
"From what I've found living here is that everything revolves around the clan, as a whole. Tearing kits from their parents, as terrible and morally wrong as is it to you, is nothing to the others. If you're going to stay in a clan you figure out how to live for it otherwise you leave." The tip of his tail twitched back and forth with pent up frustrating confusion. "I don't get why these parents need saving and what you're trying to save your father from? You said WindClan chased him out, why was he chased out?" It didn't sound right to him. It was probably before Twilightstar's era, but it still didn't sound like something wimpy WindClan would do without a good reason. "Why the hell do you and these unborn kits need to rectify grown cats decisions? Twilightstar already said that she'd be giving Newtflecks and Flashfury time to decide if they're going to stay in the clan or not. Nothing's set in stone yet, even if they decide to leave and the kits stay in the clan, I don't see why that's so terrible." Maybe it was because he was a jerk, but he felt like she was being a little overdramatic about this.
Elderpaw made it sound like these cats were dying or something and all these opinionated wrong decisions they were making fell on their kits shoulders to fix. If she was really all that worried about her father, whom Batglare assumed this fit stemmed from, as soon as she was made a warrior she could go out and look for him. As far as he was concerned, Elderpaw was well-liked in the clan, no one judged her for her father leaving, and she seemed to like clan life well enough. Whether Newtflecks and Flashfury stay or leave, he was sure these unborn kits would live a similar life. He didn't get why she was taking responsibility for father's decisions on herself. What she should be worrying about is freaking Boulderpaw, the poor tom has been looking around for his mother for how long and Elderpaw hadn't bothered to tell him that she wasn't around anymore!!! That was oddly cruel for Elderpaw. Now Batglare had to go talk to the tom. What a pain!!! At least Elderpaw still had a father to find, not everyone was so lucky.
"And for your information, I can't just reassign you even if I wanted to." Not without a really good reason, that boorish leader would most likely laugh at him and send him on his way. He was sure she gave him this sensitive nuisance knowing that he'd have no clue how to deal with her strange emotional outburst. Elderpaw needed someone who could talk to about this stuff, he'd have to see about finding Midnightstalker since she appeared connected to all of this Elderpaw-ish dilemmas.

- I'm just going to say it, Elderpaw broke Bat. Sorry for the mini-novel, he had a lot going on for this one. (: