the art of uncaring failure [OPEN]

Some might say that Dawnfeather was being a bird-brain.

She was one of the Clan’s older warriors, a few speckles of grey beginning to show on her muzzle. She’d hunted for her Clan, fought for her Clan, and indeed nearly died for her Clan. She’d been stranded months away and yet always found her way home.

And here she was, flat on her back like a kit.

The problem was thus: there was a low-hanging branch that leaned over SkyClan camp. As a kit, Dawnfeather had watched it for hours, seeing birds alight on its swaying form before taking off in a hurry. It was high enough that she’d never been able to reach it, and today, she’d decided, was the day she would.

Hence why she’d been landing roughly on the ground for the past ten minutes.

Dawnfeather shook her pelt off, rolling smoothly back to her paws. That one had been close! If she could just hook her claws into the bark, then she could pull herself up! This was, quite honestly, one of her smartest ideas to date- the perfect way to get back into shape after being ill for so long. This time, she decided, bunching her haunches and flicking her tail, would be the time she’d reach it.

Arcing through the air in a perfect leap, fur ruffled by the breeze, shining claws outstretched to sink into the bark- for a dizzying moment of success, Dawnfeather hung in midair, clinging to the branch and swinging back and forth like a mossball on a vine- and then, just as she started to pull herself up, there was a loud crack-

-and she found herself flat on her back with a rotting branch on top of her. Oops. That had really been a misjudgment, hadn’t it- there was no way this thin and light thing would’ve been able to bear her weight. Dawnfeather hurriedly rolled to her paws, grabbing the branch in her maw. That- that had been her plan all along! The branch needed to come down anyways. Yes.

…she wouldn’t be able to convince anyone of that, would she?

"Well you finally got it." Thornstalker said, she had been off to the side eating a piece of prey to recover from a previous patrol when the actions of the older warrior caught her attention. "Though.. I don't know what your intentions were exactly. Were you trying to climb it or bring it down?" The small warrior asked, looking at the other pale warrior.

Dawnfeather dropped the branch with a small yelp at Thornstalker’s voice, ears blushing a bright red. “Um- yes! Totally! Heh- nothing, er, nothing’s going on here, yes yes. How are you doing today? Good? Is the, uh, prey running well?”

The older warrior nonchalantly scooted the branch out of sight with her paw, grinning sheepishly. “Just, um, checking- uh, keeping up with camp defenses! Yes, keeping up with Clan defenses- you know, all the rules and things that Bloodstrike started? I’m pretty sure we’re still doing that- am I wrong?”

Thornstalker blinked as Dawnfeather seemed to avoid the main part of the question, though she supposed if she was keeping up with camp defenses then the latter of the options applied, but the way she acted was still odd. "Well do you require any assistance? I'm pretty good at climbing trees." Well it was really the only skill she worked on.