A Perfectly Peaceful Day [C]

It was weird that Woolywing had never properly spoken to Poppyshine. Not since kithood, anyway. Stars, that seemed so long ago... And in all that time he'd never had a full conversation with his own deputy. Let alone a patrol. Though, these days, Perchstar seemed intent on letting him out of camp as little as possible. He knew she was doing what was best for RiverClan. He was a liability, he supposed. Even after the hours and hours he'd spent training, still a liability. He shook it off. He was on a patrol now! If he spent the whole time moping about how few patrols he got to go on then he'd never get to actually talk to Poppyshine.

He trotted close to her, close enough for the wing of his pelt to brush her occasionally. The wings, to his delight, were quite useful for navigation. Almost like a big, heavy pair of whiskers. "Well! As well as I can be, anyway. Stormdance has been training my senses. I can tell a frog from a toad by how it croaks at this point." He gave a half-grin. "Where are we headed? I don't hear the river. Not that I'm much use at fishing anyway." His mind conjured up an image of him blindly splashing about, attacking water at random until he happened upon a fish. The thought made him laugh to himself. "How have you been? I've always wondered what the life of a deputy was like." He tried his best to make an approximation of eye contact, though with his eyes closed it probably looked quite odd.

He shrugged bashfully, though he couldn't help a proud smile creeping across his face. His hearing was his best sense now, and he'd put a lot of work into it. "I've always been good with animals. I know prey is prey at the end of the day, but it seems respectful to me to know what exactly I'm eating. Besides, accidentally eating a poisonous toad is the last thing I need right now." He laughed. "Ah, you're right. I don't think I'll ever be able to fish like I used to. Though, if I stood underwater with my mouth wide open like a turtle..." He pretended to consider it as a serious option, though if his eyes were intact they'd have a gleam of mischief in them.

He listened intently to her response, giving the occasional nod. He knew the predator attacks were becoming less frequent, probably because of the lack of prey leaf-fall brought, but it was admittedly comforting to hear it from the deputy. "I'm glad things are quieting down. Maybe we finally scared the things off!"

He heard Poppyshine stop and he stopped as well, sniffing the area. It smelled... the same way most of RiverClan smalled, if he was baing honest. He took a few steps, noting the ground beneath his paw pads. It was soft, with twigs and leaf litter strewn about the place. Beech copse, perhaps? The rest of the territory didn't have nearly enough trees to have this kind of flooring. He could sense lots of prey, anyway. Particularly birds, he noted with a smile. He stopped to see if he could recognise any specific birdsong, but Poppyshine spoke again and he abandoned the attempt. "I, er-" He stuttered, caught off guard by the question. Though his training was going well, in terms of navigation, he still failed at most of his attempts to hunt. But he couldn't just say no, not after he'd talked up his hearing like that. "Um, sure!" He replied, feigning composure.

Failing on his own or in front of Stormdance was one thing. Failing in front of Poppyshine was quite another. So he got to work, sniffing the air and moving his ears just like he'd been taught. He doubted there'd be any frogs this far from water, so he focused on the most obvious prey: birds. He could hear lots of them, but the closest was one he knew well. The twinkly, sing-song voice of a robin. He crept towards the noise, head up and mouth slightly ajar. He should be just about under it now. He hoped it wasn't too high up and he wouldn't make a fool of himself.

He bunched up his legs beneath him and wiggled a little in preparation for the jump. Then his legs unfolded and he leapt into the air, claws grabbing at the branch. By the luck of the stars above, he managed to snag its tailfeathers. He pulled, hard, and the disoriented bird came hurtling to the ground with him. It rustled in the leaves and Woolywing knew exactly where it was before the poor bird had even figured it out. He pounced on it, killing it swiftly. "Yes!! I got it!" He celebrated, grabbing it in his mouth. He turned to go back to Poppyshine... then realised he didn't know where she was. He'd been so flustered he just set off hunting, not keeping track of which direction he was going in. He dropped the bird. "Poppyshine? I've, uh, lost you." He'd know where she was when she replied, of course. The few seconds that he waited, though, were full of anxious imaginings of predators waiting for the right time to attack him.

Woolywing successfully caught a robin!

The member 'Snickerdoodle' has done the following action : Dice roll

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'Hunting Dice' : 5

Woolywing nodded gratefully at Poppyshine's call and picked the robin back up, padding in her direction. She was a bit closer than he expected and he nearly bumped into her, stopping when his whiskers brushed her and taking a hasty step back. "Ah, sorry!" He smiled bashfully at her compliment. "Thank you. Stormdance is a good teacher, and robins are easy enough prey. They're proud little birds, they don't fly away easy. They just keep on singing." He was proud of his catch, but he also knew that if that had been a sparrow or a starling it would have flown away long before he reached that branch.

He gave a bright affirmative hum at Poppyshine's comment, though a grain of fear planted itself in his stomach. He took deep breaths, keeping the smile. She'd hardly go far, in fact he could still hear her as she stalked her prey. But it was isolating and somewhat unnerving to be alone outside of camp, and he didn't think he'd ever get used to it. He busied himself sniffing the air for predators, though he already knew there were none. None with an identifiable scent, anyway. He sighed softly.

Thankfully, Poppyshine's absence was momentary and she soon approached him again, dropping her prey at her feet. Stars, she was just full of compliments. He couldn't help but puff put his fur a little, secretly happy about the attention. "Thank you." He purred back, smile wide. "I haven't seen them, of course, but I try to keep them well groomed. They're very useful, you know. For navigation." He took a step forward, wanting to demonstrate, but realised he had no idea how he was supposed to do that. It wasn't like he could just bump into her on purpose, that would be incredubly rude. "If I'm too close to someone, I can feel them brush the wing. Prevents awkward accidents." He explained, hoping he did so well enough that the demonstration wouldn't be needed anyway. "Grebedance did a great job with the pelt, it's very comfortable. Have you thought about getting one yourself? I'm sure they'll be useful for the winter months, especially for us short-furred cats."