Camp [♥x] {oh.how.boring}

[Battooth]

Battooth nodded to his new apprentice's sister. "You bet!" he meowed. "And thanks for choosing hunting instead of fighting. You would probably beat me." He glanced back at his body. "I want to know which of my parents passed on this skinniness to me, and I want to give them a good long scolding." ((I don't know if they know about genetics, but apparently Battooth knows a bit XD)) He gave his front paws a quick lick and said, "I guess we can head out now, if Maplestar doesn't need anything. Or we could just slip away unnoticed." He grinned at Lilacpaw and flicked his tail for her to follow, slinking quietly towards the camp entrance.

[>>BLACKiE! ]}]

At Battooth's word of "now", Lilacpaw had immediately shot off with a flick of her tail and ears as well as a quick "Hi!" to her sister. She paused for a few moments to make sure that her mentor was in pursuit. "Well, what're you waiting for?" she called over her shoulder loudly, excitement dancing through her eyes. She was going to be the best hunter in the forest -- she just knew it.

Her lilac colored eyes were sparkling with anticipation of thrilling Battooth with what she felt were her superior hunting skills. Everything needed in hunting -- the agility, the stealthiness, the gracefulness -- Lilacpaw believed she had.

((-MOVING LILACPAW TO THE FOREST-))

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[>>BLACKiE! ]}]

The tomcat turned away as he watched Lilacpaw and Battooth -- the more energetic type of cats -- bound away into the forest. Thank goodness. Now the EarthClan Camp would be a bit more quiet without the two causing a ruckus and wreacking havoc. No, Shatterwind wasn't a rude cat to be thinking those thoughts, he was just cynical and irritable -- almost like an elder, you could say.

But you couldn't really blame him. He had loved the fiery colored she-cat so much that he had thought his heart would burst, but she had ended up leaving him and scoring marks mentally onto his heart, scratches that would never heal.

Of course, most EarthClan cats didn't understand the pain he had gone through. It was rather ironic that Ivorywing, who had never experienced the passion of love, had understood him better than the warriors -- who all were allowed to love and take on a mate.

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[[:; [h] e a r t ::♥]]

"Wait!" Hazelpaw called. "I...wanted to go too." She mewed, but the two cats were already gone,
She bounded after them, her medium length calico fur streaming behins her.\((MOVING HAZELPAW))

[>>BLACKiE! ]}]

Crystalrose watched as Lilacpaw streaked off, not even waiting for her new mentor, Battooth. Amusement passed through her chocolate brown gaze as she padded about Camp. Her eyes searched all the dens for certain holes that would allow harsh gusts of wind to pass through. She found one in the apprentice's den that she quickly patched up with moss and a few leaves for good measure. Satisfied that all the cats would be warm in their dens this leaf-bare, she padded over to the fresh-kill pile.

She saw that the fresh-kill pile was anything but well-stocked. Wincing slightly as a wind passed by, Crystalrose fluffed out her pelt a bit more to cause her a bit more warmth. Any type of warmth was welcome these days. Later, she decided, she would go hunting in attempt to scavenge out some more food from the forest. She knew that Lilacpaw and Battooth were out hunting, but who knew if they would return with anything?

SkyClan would probably be facing the same problems, although they were more accustomed to the cold since living up on the ridge wasn't exactly a warming task. Crystalrose tilted her head to the side as she sat down in the Camp clearing, her tail curved around her frame and resting on her paws -- a normal position that cats often sat in.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Shatterwind moping about. She wasn't sure how to feel about him. It was true that she did feel pity for him, but she also did feel a bit vexed with him. The incident with the orange tabby she-cat had happened a long while ago, so why did he have to continue to carry around bad feelings throughout the Camp about himself? Giving a mental sigh to herself, Crystalrose continued watching Shatterwind. One of these days he would have to pull himself out of this unfeeling trance.

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[Agii♫]

Stumbling in, he blinked a couple times before regaining full control over his body. When he did, he was too late, for he had already stepped on his other paw and landed headfirst onto the soil, haunches sticking up in the air doggedly. He let out a giggle, amused with himself as he gathered himself up, getting to his plump paws. The dark gray apprentice had been rather gay since the Gathering, even with the drama and happenings.

Shaking his coat, Twistedpaw padded towards a peculiar sight, eyes wide with acute interest. It was the new warrior, stretched out on a slab of rock with golden rays of sun playing down upon his exposed ivory stomach. Tilting his head to the side, the tom padded closer. What is he doing? he thought.

As soon as he had come up close to Eagledance, whiskers twitching as they brushed against his, Twistedpaw smiled curiously. "What're you d-doing?"

Blinking open an eye, the foreign feline rested it upon the picture of the apprentice, his upside-down view giving him a very comical scene of the dark gray cat. "Restin'," he replied. His long tail twitched, brushing against the dusted earth placidly as his long onyx and fur-tufted ears twitched. Forepaws lifted to his thick chest, hind legs splayed out, this was a very interesting to be resting in by the standards of Twistedpaw.

The apprentice smiled. "What's your na-ame...?" He re-thought his question, cocking his large-eared head to the side once again. "You're Ea-ea-eagledance, are... aren't you?"

"Sure am," he replied, blinking his piercing tawny eyes as Twistedpaw's jaws opened slightly. Eagledance's lithe paws twitched as he shifted his position to get a better, more clear view of the tom. The long-legged, immensely tall warrior could tell--with great amusement--that this apprentice was awed by this, apparently just noticing his unique accent. The tawny tom beamed, chuckling lightly. "Would you like to join me an' a couple others on a patrol?" he offered with a bright flick of his tail.

His deep navy eyes widened. "Y-yes! Of course! I s'pose Ma-maplestar won't b-be teaching... me for a lit-tle while n-now... T-tomorrow, I think."

[Battooth]

Maplestar spotted Crystalrose watching Shatterwind and trotted over to the she-cat. "Hello," he meowed. "You know he'll always be here, you don't have to stare." The large tabby settled himself down next to the pretty she-cat and continued. "At least, I hope he'll always be here. I'd hate to loose warriors. It'd mean more work for me." He flicked his ears to show he was only joking. "How have you been? I feel like I haven't seen you since the Gathering. Or if I have I don't remember it. Memory's been going as I'm getting older." He purred softly to himself. Maplestar knew that there were cats far older than him out there. He was actually fairly young for a leader. Older than Northstar, yes, but still, he was fairly young.

[>>BLACKiE! ]}]

"You're still as young as ever," Crystalrose purred softly as she pricked her ears when Maplestar spoke to her. She turned her eyes to gaze at him for a few moments before turning her gaze back to Shatterwind. "He's got to snap out of this depression," she meowed, worry and concern for her fellow Clanmate filling her eyes.

"There are plenty warriors in EarthClan, though, and many more to come," Crystalrose added to Maplestar's earlier comment, seeing out of the corner of her eye Twistedpaw eagerly responding to something that Eagledance had asked him. "It's kind of you to take on Twistedpaw as an apprentice," she meowed, watching with a faint glimmer of amusement and affection as the tomcat apprentice stammered as he spoke to Eagledance.

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[Battooth]

Maplestar shrugged. "He needed a mentor, and I've been meaning to have one for a while," he meowed. "I want to make him as feirce a fighter he can be, so no one can say anything about the way he speaks, and how he's always tripping over his own paws."

The tabby's eyes betrayed a glimmer of amusement as he watched Twistedpaw, but also of uneasiness. What would happen if Twistedpaw wasn't trained as much as he needed to be because his mentor had problems with the Clan? Maplestar knew the apprentice had been without a mentor for a long time, and was slightly older than some apprentices, so the large tom didn't want Twistedpaw to have to wait much longer for a warrior ceremony.

Turning the conversation to Crystalrose, he meowed, "You haven't had an apprentice, have you?" He didn't remember the she-cat ever having one.

[>>BLACKiE! ]}]

"No, I haven't," Crystalrose responded nonchalantly. She didn't know what it was like to be a mentor -- how would she feel if she ever became one? Affectionate? Protective? Intelligent? Conceited? She blinked, awaiting Maplestar's follow up to his inquiry.

[Blechk. Short post, sorreh. D:]

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[Battooth]

Maplestar nodded, thinking. "I'll give you an apprentice when there are some to be had. I think Mistpaw and Rosepaw need mentors." He trailed off. The Clan needed more warriors, so to leave the two without mentors would be tough. A thought struck him suddenly. "There aren't any kits, are there?" he asked the pretty she-cat. No kits wasn't the best thing for a Clan. No kits meant no more apprentices, no more apprentices meant no more warriors... Maplestar sighed. With leaf-bare approaching, and the fox wandering around, things would be difficult.

[>>BLACKiE! ]}]

Crystalrose nodded at the mention of Rosepaw and Mistpaw. Either of the apprentices would be fine for her -- she liked them both equally. With the thought of having an apprentice, Crystalrose's ears pricked up in anticipation of having a small apprentice to mentor -- it would be quite fun to do, she thought.

"No, there aren't any kits quite yet," she meowed quietly in response to Maplestar's question. "The she-cats and tomcats aren't really falling in love," she added with amusement as she gazed around Camp.

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[Agii♫]

"Well that's excitin'!" he grinned, rolling over onto his back and righting himself. Once upon his paws, the sleek and well-muscled tawny feline arched his spine, forelegs rolling forwards as he unsheathed his short and sturdy claws quickly, muscles rippling along his shoulders. Jaws parted, rose-hued tongue rolling out and curling at the end as he yawned silently, long fangs exposed as he shut his eyes tight in the very same moment.

Once recouperated from the yawn, Eagledance gave himself a quick shake before stepping down from the slab of stone, long tail brushing against his heels as he did so. Turning his eagle-like eyes to the apprentice he smiled. "Shou'n't we get permission from Maplestar first, then? Don' want 'im gettin' worried 'bout yeh, do we?"

Twistedpaw shook his head eagerly, bounding away from the new warrior and towards the bulky, massive tom. Scrambling to a halt at Maplestar's paws, he glanced up with bright and anxious eyes. "Maplestar! M-maplestar! C-can I go w-w-with Eagledanc-ce... on... on a patr-trol?" he mewed with jubilance.

[Battooth]

Maplestar nodded to Twistedpaw. "Go right ahead," he meowed. "Just make sure to be back before sunset, so you can get some rest for tomorrow. I'm going to take you out and see how you're doing with fighting tomorrow."

The massive tabby turned back to Crystalrose. He himself had never bothered with 'love', although he had seen it many times before. At the Gathering in fact, with Lilypaw and Inkpaw, and he assumed from the rumours, Inkpaw was madly in love with a she-cat named Dreampaw. Maplestar had been told that Battooth's sister Mistheart had liked him, but he hadn't been able to see anything there himself. There weren't any examples he could think of to pull from his own Clan at the moment.

"There will be someday," he meowed. "Not just for more kits in the nursury, but so that cats can find cats they want to be with."

He sighed, and stood. "I'm going to go take a nap," the tabby informed the warrior. "Tell anyone to wake me if they need me." He trotted to his den, and curled up in his nest.

[>>BLACKiE! ]}]

"All right," Crystalrose answered softly as she watched the leader tell Twistedpaw that he could go on patrol and then watched as Maplestar padded off to his den. Being deprived of someone to converse with, Crystalrose looked around for another cat to speak with -- perhaps she could speak with Hailwind or Shatterwind to try to snap him out of his depression.

Padding up to Shatterwind quietly, she looked at him. "Are you all right?" she meowed, tilting her head to the side as she awaited an answer intently from him.

"No," was Shatterwind's stout and sharp answer, much to Crystalrose's dissappointment. She had thought that perhaps if he talked about the orange tabby she-cat to her, he would be able to finally get his emotions out and thus ridding himself of the depression that seemed to cling to him like fur onto a cat's pelt, shrouding him in a black mood.

"Don't you want to talk about-?" Crystalrose sweetly toned question was cut off by Shatterwind's blunt reply of "No," yet again. He padded away, mumbling something about how he couldn't get peace around the EarthClan Camp.

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