Camp [♥x] {oh.how.boring}

[Agii♫]

"Thank you," he replied earnestly, pulling back his ivory lips in a sweet smile.

Eagledance shook his head. "Oh, no, it's perfectly fine." He swallowed, preparing himself to recite the events of his good two moons' travels.

"Ravenstripe was th' most serene of th' bunch. Always goin' off in the middle of th' night an' starin' at the moon an' watchin' the ravens find their nests. He had a dark coat with lighter silver stripes. I guess I always envied his looks--a highly handsome tom with fur I would've died for.

"Owleye was very outgoing 'n fun. Always made us laugh at the best of times. Very cheery and always jesting around an' rubbing cobwebs on our paws. Even put a slug on Ravenstripe's shoulder once while he was sleepin'. Gave 'im a good fright.

"Elkfoot I guess, was th' one I was most comfortable with. He was m' huntin' partner, and had quite an odd coat. It was a murky sort'a brown, green-brown if y'could say, but not at all garish. 'E 'ad a very serious and sober air 'round 'im, and took everythin' very seriously. One of th' strongest cats I've e'er seen."

The golden-coated tom was getting close to the difficult end of his tale.

"Ravenstripe was th' first t'die. We 'ad a run in with a rival Clan I guess, TwilightClan I think, an' it was a nasty battle. He died from a bite to th' neck. Owleye was very hurt from this, an' immediately attacked the patrol border. Killed the cat who killed Ravenstripe, but then th' deputy came and slaughtered him. Elkfoot an' I made it much farther. We were almost to where we were aimin', which was here, but then' he died from an attack from a badger."

Throughout his tale, he had shown near all of his emotions with sober scenery. Laughing and chuckling at Owleye's part, becoming slightly dazed with Ravenstripe's, and smiling gently at Elkfoot. With the battles, thus the end, Eagledance had to pause in between some occasionally, swallowing hard and allowing his voice to become softer.

A moment after he had finished, the warrior turned to Battooth with a smile, whiskers twitching placidly. He seemed all right, if not slightly dimmed by the factor, however other than that was able to control and hold back himself. It had all happened not too long ago, but not so recent as to he would break down. It wasn't a tragedy, no--far from it--but he would title it as a victory and a story of courage and hope. For indeed, it was, and Eagledance had a right to title it so.

[moon]

A silvery gray she-cat sat watching the comotion peacefully. Her eyes large and were a deep ocean blue, flickering back and forth as she shivered, tail wrapped around her paws which were numb with the cold. The white tip of the tail made it appear as if she had a short tail since it blended in with the snow. Her ears were also white tipped, and she had a white underbelly.

Her ears twitched as she heard a rustle come from the warriors den. A silvery gray tom padded out, his paws the only part of his shimmering pelt not a pure silver color. The she-cat watched her almost identicle twin with intent eyes. The tom sat next to the fresh kill pile, staring at her. His eyes were a soft gray, with a thundercloud gray rimming. He wasn’t bulky at all, he was quite small for a tom his age. Lean, perfect for speed, with small but powerful muscles to give powerful attacks.

The she-cat had much of the same build, but only her figure was even leaner than her brother’s. They sat there staring for a what seemed like hours. The she-cat broke the stare down and started to lick her tail, the snow that was in her fur melted in her mouth as she glanced up to see her brother still looking at her. She stood up and flicked her tail welcomingly.

“Moonpelt come on over!” She meowed as if she was bored. Moonpelt stood stretching, licked his now frozen paws once or twice then padded over to his sister. She licked his ear in affection, he licked her ear in return. He sat down next to her, and curled his tail over his paws.

“It sure has changed.” He meowed to his sister. “Sure has,” She meowed, “But sitting her and sulking isn’t going to make greenleaf come any faster.” She stood up and shook her fur, Moonpelt sighed and stood up too. “Share a vole, Moonheart?” He meowed casually, “Nope.” Moonheart meowed. Moonpelt looked over at her, to see her smiling. “Even though the camp has changed, you sure haven’t.” She meowed, “You’re still as gullible as ever, yeah I’ll share a vole.”

Then she bounded off toward the fresh kill pile. Moonpelt purred, and followed his younger sister.

OOC: I know I'm not nearly as good as the rest of you, but I'll try to keep my posts at a good length. I am also not good at ALL at paragraphs so forgive me if I don't use them.
OOC: Oh goody, I posted this on Skyclan territory, and posted my Skyclan cats here, thank goodness I can delete my posts...

[moon]

Moonheart grabbed a small vole from the pile, letting the taste soak into her mouth, as she padded over to where Battooth and a new cat were. She dropped the vole about two fox lengths away from Battooth, waiting for her brother to follow.

Moonpelt followed his sister, sometimes you would assume that Moonheart was older, and that he was three moons younger, following his big sister around. He sat beside Moonheart, taking a small bite into the vole, it was small but juicy. The liquid reminded him how hungry he had been. Moonheart watched peacefully, not taking a bite to eat.

"I'm going to go hunt." She meowed smiply, padding away from her brother who sat there unamused. He sighed and finished off the vole, licking his paw then rubbing his ears, until he was content. Moonpelt's tail twitched every once and a while as he sat there for a couple of moments, thinking things over. Then he stood up, stretching, his silver pelt gleaming in the sunlight.

Moonheart padded out to the forest, welcoming the familiar scents of prey.

[Agii♫]

It wasn't that he was not able to become a warrior.
It wasn't that he was not able to fight.
It was that he had difficulty doing so.
But he didn't mind.
Much.


Today, the apprentice felt was a day filled with new unvisited boundaries; new places to explore, new friends to make, and new songs to dance to. He just hoped his clumsiness wouldn't slow him down all that much. Tripping on several roots and rocks yesterday left him with a small, tender scratch upon his odd paw.

Blinking from his brightly illuminating sapphire eyes, the tom limped over towards a sweet-smelling patch of ferns, brushing his soft blue-gray cheek fur against it. Whiskers twitched joyously as he giggled, liking the tickling feeling it gave him. Twistedpaw turned, tilting his head to the side as he spotted a very large and long-legged tawny tom sitting next to a lean ebony tom, talking in what seemed to be deep coversation. He knew that the obsidian warrior was named Battooth, but did not know the other warrior's name.

He'd ask it later; it wasn't polite to interrupt conversations.

Excited at this, the anticipation of possibly making a new friend, Twistedpaw beamed, stumbling off back to the ferns, pushing past them. Tripping over several of the malicious roots that found joy in making it difficult for him to move around easily, the tom needed not move another foxlength before he spotted a small mass of gruff gray fur.

"Squirrel!" His voice was odd, for it held a sense of imparement within it. Slow and slurred the apprentice talked, with some stammering in longer speech lines, he was occasionally the spotlight of jestering amongst the other apprentices. Pulling his lips from the smile that had crawled upon his wide jaws, the blue-gray tom pulled his shoulder blades backwards, laying low in a crouch.

Claws unsheathed, he pressed his haunches together, and with one high bound, managed to catch the chattering squirrel at its worst moments. Somewhat in a delayed manner, he bit its neck, holding tightly as the craeture then became still in his jaws.

Twistedpaw was highly proud of himself, and expressed it to everyone that might've stolen a glance at the prancing apprentice. Not the best of 'prancers', but it worked just as well if he shifted more of his weight to his good paw. Placing it on the top of the fresh-kill pile, the apprentice looked it over proudly.

[>>BLACKiE! ]}]

The she-cat stepped out of the warriors den, her tail twitching for no apparent reason. She blinked, her chocolate brown eyes wincing slightly as the sunlight poured dramatically through the Camp clearing. The lighting outside was much different from the warmth and the darkness of the warriors den. A few shivers sent through her lithe frame. Although her sleek, cream colored coat was beginning to thicken because of leaf-bare approaching, she was still cold nevertheless. It was as if leaf-fall were in war against leaf-bare and leaf-bare was winning greatly. Glancing up at the sun, she saw clouds drift by in the sky. If one hadn't felt the temperature, one might've believed that it was a gorgeous new-leaf day - despite the golds and reds that had swallowed up the leaves.

She began padding over to the fresh-kill pile, her stomach giving a dainty rumble. Lifting her paws up high, she set them down delicately. No matter how lightly she put her paws down, though, she always heard the crunching of the hardened leaves underneath. Holding her head and tail high, it seemed as if there were some sense of regalness and something almost like /royalty/ surrounding her. Crystalrose was sometimes a very vain cat, but at least she had the attributes of being kind and gentle and fair to make up for her sins.

Gazing around the camp clearing, she felt somewhat dejected when she realized that Maplestar wasn't out of his den yet. It was a bit odd. When she was around him, she just felt... free, as if she could be anything or anybody she wanted to be. She also felt rather giddy and shy around him, although she was like that to most cats she wasn't very familiar with. Somehow, Crystalrose made it possible to feel free and yet feel shy around a tom cat. At Gatherings before, she had heard of two apprentices of SkyClan - Inkpaw and Dreampaw. She had been told that while Inkpaw was blind with love for Dreampaw, Dreampaw returned his affection with hatred. A purr issued from her vocal chords in her throat, amusement at the story growing within her again.

Crystalrose was blithe, although she wasn't completely ruthless. She did know her sense of responsibility to her Clan, and she truly did love Maplestar. But did he know? She wondered.

((And yes, I did ask Battie if Crystalrose can like Maplestar. And Battie agreed because she's spiffeh. :3))

[moon]

Moonpelt's ears turned as he heard Crystalnose pad into the clearing. His gray eyes, rimmed with thundercloud gray, flickered back and forth, as he examined the cats' where abouts. He stood up, shook his pelt and padded out into the forest, ready to do his share of the hunting. His white paws glittering as the snow clumg to his fur. As he reached the etrance, he paused as if expecting a cat to say something to him, but to his despair, nothing seeemed to happen.

Moonpelt's silver coat glimmered in the sunlight as he entered the forest, his eyes determined, his tail held high. If only he had a companion other than his sister, to acompany him when he went hunging.

[Battooth]

A large light tabby shape moved out of his den, his blue eyes taking in his Clan. He blinked groggily as the sun hit him right in the face, and then gathered himself to leap to the top of the Highrock. His claws scrabbled on the ancient surface before he pulled himself the rest of the way up.

The camp was already buzzing with activity, and the tabby spotted a few of his warriors hanging around. The newest warrior seemed to be making friends well, the tabby noticed. Battooth was already bugging him. The EarthClan leader purred to himself. The black warrior had always been like that. When Battooth had been just an apprentice, he had always been bugging the older warriors with overatures of friendliness.

The large tom sat down on top of the Highrock and began grooming his paws, swiping them over his ears every once in a while. A closer look revealed what his mother had been convinced was a maple leaf. Believing it to be a sign from StarClan, he had been named Maplekit, then Maplepaw, Maplepelt, and finally Maplestar, leader of EarthClan.

He was proud of his accomplishments. Proud that he had been in many battles and survived, proud that he had become deputy, and proud that he had become leader, a leader who had been able to deal with his first seasons rather well.

Maplestar yawned again as he finished cleaning his ears, and then leaped down from the Highrock, trotting to the fresh-kill pile. Selecting a rabbit, he dug in, polishing the unlucky creature off quickly, then burying the remains. He swiped his tongue around his mouth a few times, ready for the day to begin.

-----

Battooth listened to the entire story, drinking it all in. "I'm sorry about your friends," he meowed, gently touching Eagledance's shoulder with his tail tip. "They sound like they were very brave." He didn't know what else to say really, so he stood. "Would you like to go hunting? I figure I could show you around and maybe give you a few pointers if you need any."

[>>BLACKiE! ]}]

Crystalrose's mood brightened when she saw Maplestar come out of his den. He seemed rather tired, but then again, so was she. Padding over to him with her paws falling lightly on the ground like the pattering of drizzling rain, she made her way to him in a matter of moments. She stopped when she was a few mouse-lengths away from him, observing him with two chocolate brown eyes, filling her sight with him. Many scents filled her nose - the forest, other cats - but the scent she identified as the strongest was Maplestar's. She admired his coat with the sunlight gleaming on it. "Good day, Maplestar," she greeted in a quiet voice, looking at her leader intently.

Currently, shyness began blossoming within her - highly unusual for Crystalrose. It was rather odd, because normally, she was confident in what she said and what she did, but she was afraid of doing something that would make Maplestar permanently hate her for the rest of her life. She shuffled her paws along the ground, looking at Maplestar and awaiting his answer.

[Battooth]

Maplestar swung his head around when he heard his name. "Oh," he meowed, "Hello Crystalrose. How are you today? Well I hope." He turned and scanned the clearing again, wondering if the dawn patrol had gone out, and if a hunting patrol had left. He realized how few warriors were in the camp and knew they must have left already. His ears flicking back with relief, he turned his attention back to Crystalrose.

[>>BLACKiE! ]}]

While she had been waiting for Maplestar to respond, Crystalrose had sat down and had turned her head to give her pelt a few licks. Having a fluffy pelt, it was difficult to keep her fur down. "I'm doing well, indeed." she responded, attempting to keep her voice in a nonchalant tone. "You're up late," she observed, then immediately regretted the words. How could she contradict her leader, more so, her leader that she loved? She wanted to open her mouth and apologize, but it would appear weird if she apologized with a delayed reacction. Also, what if he didn't care? Then it would be strange to say 'sorry' for nothing. Thoughts continued to flitter around in her mind.

[Battooth]

Maplestar gave his chest a quick lick. "Yeah," he meowed sheepishly. "I guess I must have stayed up too late last night." He knew he was making excuses, and hated himself for it. He was leader for StarClan's sake! "Have you been out of camp yet?" he asked suddenly. "I'd like to get in some hunting and it's more fun with company. I need to stretch my legs." He hadn't been out of camp in a day or so, having stuck around to see to camp life. "I can leave Hailwind in charge." The last bit was more him thinking than telling the regal-looking she-cat.

[>>BLACKiE! ]}]

Crystalrose's words to accept his request were stuck in her throat, about to come up, but not quite yet. She blinked at him, a surprised look passing through her dark brown eyes. /He/ had asked her to go hunting with him? Of course she would say yes, but it was just such a great shock that he had actually asked her to accompany him.

"Of course," she responded, still trying to keep her tone as if she didn't have a care in the world - as if she didn't feel affection towards her leader. She rasped her tongue over his ear. "If you drop dead when trying to catch a mouse, though, we're going to have to come back to camp," she mewed, amusement glimmering in her eyes for a moment or two before it quickly died out.

Now that she had been near Maplestar for a few moments, she felt less shy, although the barrier of timidness still head, although it was almost crumpled and had fell down (that's a complete metaphor). "We ought to bring in a reasonable amount of fresh-kill," she added, just to fill up the gap of silence that happened when she waitd for him to reply.

[Battooth]

Maplestar laughed. "I've got plenty of lives, don't worry," he meowed reassuringly. He had eight lives left in fact. The missing one had been lost when they had driven out a badger moons ago. He had underestimated it's power and gotten cocky. He had been intensly glad for the other lives StarClan had given him. He didn't think he'd have liked dying so early. "I'll bet I catch more than you!" Now that his grogginess was fading, he was in a more playful mood.

[Agii♫]

He nodded, dipping his large head low solemnly as he acknowledged the warrior's true soberness to his story. It grieved him so to think of such things, tangible in all means, however he let it go. Not from his immediate memories, for he would always keep them, but merely from his present actions and thoughts; the past was the past, and not even StarClan could fix it. He needed to focus on the present--the now.

Eagledance brushed his long tail against the warrior's soft ebony coat comfortingly as Battooth did the same. With a thankful purr and an amusing smile, the tom lifted himself from his previous placid crouching position, and gave his thick golden coat a gruff shake. A few flecks of dirt spattered from his forelegs. Automatically he bent down, swiping his long tongue across the ankle of his forepaw a few times before returning to Battooth's attention.

"Yes, thank you," he replied with a polite smile.

---


The leader was out! The leader was out!

Excited beyond an apprentice's measure, the blue-gray feline staggered away from the fresh-kill pile, bright and pleasant sapphire eyes glistening with anticipation of greeting the leader.

"Maplestar! Maple--"

However, he equivocated when Crystalrose padded up, beating him by quite a long shot. Catching himself and halting his shouts, Twistedpaw shut his wide jaws. Embarassed, he tilted his head to the side quizically before admitting defeat and turning away.

His spirits were immediately uplifted when he caught the new, exotic warrior beginning to rise. Pulling his lips back in a beam, he stumbled and jauntered up to them. He was within earshot when the ebony warrior mentioned a quick offering to hunt. Maybe he could join them as well! That would be a treat.

"C-C-Can I... h-hunt with... you guys?" he asked, staggering the last few steps as he halted in front of them.

[[:; [h] e a r t ::♥]]

A Beautiful cream colored she cat looked around with pale green eyes for Battooth, the tom cat she liked. Her off white coat gleamed in the sun as her long legs brought her quickly and gracefuly to the fresh kill pile. 'Maybe he will ask me to hunt with him', she thought hopefully as she continued looking around for Battooth.