L00K 4 70P1C

The sun was rising, and an apprentice stumbled through dark pines. Exhausted... exhausted... exhausted... the word pounded in his head, making it ache with a fierce, dull pain.

It was pretty much right smack in the middle of the time when the morning border patrol was heading out, but today it only seemed to consist of Thrushstripe. The deputy moved through the territory simply looking around to see if there was any trouble anywhere... or in other words, he was looking for foxes. That entire situation with [Mapleface] had honestly scared him to the point that he was becoming paranoid, and when he heard the shuffling of another animal close by, Thrushstripe's hair completely stood on end with his claws unsheathed and ready to strike. "Who's out there?" he asked loudly, hoping that it was simply another cat. He wasn't ready to deal with anything else right now but he would if he needed to, especially if it was a fox. He would rip out all of its fur and shred it to pieces in seconds. He would not let anything happen to his clan mates anymore.

Thrushstripe. Lucky mouse-heart.
Wearily lifting his head, Eaglepaw stared towards the dull shape of Thrushstripe. Vision blurry, be blinked and stared at the brown tabby. Thrushstripe appeared to be swaying back and fourth, distorting into unnatural shapes, bending and twisting.
Just tired.
Eaglepaw told himself. Forcing his jaws to open, he tried to speak. His voice instead came out a dry, quiet whistling sound. Closing his mouth immediately with a wince, he instead made his way towards Thrushstripe.

The closer it came, the more the scent was becoming stronger and more familiar. When the young deputy finally realized who it was, he relaxed a little. But what was Eaglepaw doing all the way out here? And why hadn't he answered Thrushstripe? This was quite strange, so the tom met the apprentice halfway. Making his way towards him, Thrushstripe continued to speak. "Eaglepaw, what are you doing here?" It was only when the deputy saw Eaglepaw was he quite surprised. The apprentice was wobbling side to side and looked exhausted. What had he been doing? "Hey are you okay?" he asked, immediately concerned for his clan mate.

Opening his mouth again, the apprentice gave a second dry whistling noise before coughing. Shaking his head, he finally managed to speak-- though his voice was raspy and hoarse. "I just went out to hunt. I--" he paused, coughing again. "I didn't mean the be out so long." Cough. "And I'm fine."

Thrushstripe knew that was a complete lie. There was no way that Eaglepaw was fine. "I don't believe you," He responded quickly. "How about I take you back to camp and we can get you looked at? You don't look good at all..." As a matter of fact, Thrushstripe really was concerned about Eaglepaw. Well, he had been since he met him on day one, but now he was even more worried.

Eaglepaw's tail twitched in annoyance. He narrowed his eyes, then sighed. The pain in his throat was too much for him to keep fighting.
"Fine."
He croaked, tail flickering.