Some Random Patrol [open]

Stretching after a long, afternoon nap, Fishstar yawned, and the hopped up onto her announcement boulder. "For all warriors and apprentices who do not have their paws full, I'm arranging a patrol!"

Tawnystorm poked her head out of her den. "I'll come along," she mewed, a small smile on her face. Hopefully Sunpaw would go on this patrol too. It might prove to be a good opportunity to teach him a few new moves. The tawny warrior hopped up on a smaller rock near the base of Sunningrocks and waited for more to come and join them.

Ashpaw awoke from the voice both of her mother as well as Fishstar. Shaking her few of any remaining tiredness, and stretching her joints.

"If you'll have me, I'd like to come along as well." Ashpaw voiced, tailing her mother with a soft smile on her face. She hadn't been very active around the camp, why not make up for it by joining a patrol?

Yawning widely, Sunpaw slipped out of the crevasse between rocks that he'd been snacking on a finch in, wriggling to shake off the moss on his pelt as he silently took his place besides his mentor, Tawnystorm. He greeted Fishstar with a dip of his head, and waited for everyone else to arrive.

Otterpaw crawled out of where he was curled up with Frogpaw, the tailless apprentice was careful not to disturb the sleeping tom. Eyes filled with sleepy, he stumbled out to join his mother and sister on patrol. He greeted his sister with a purr, headbutting her shoulder affectionately before rubbing against his mother. This late in the evening, he didn't have the strength to be his usual grumpy self, just content in the afternoon light after a good nap.

Fracturedpaw's ear flicked at the sound of his leaders voice, he lifted his head and peered out through the den. "A patrol?" He asked himself quietly. Now processing her words, he grinned. The apprentice had been wanting to go out for a patrol for a while now, stretch his legs, catch prey, anything.

He got to his paws, exited the den, and made his way over to the leader and the other apprentices and warriors that had gathered around.

Fishstar surveyed the little group of gathered cats, and then nodded. "Alright, good. I was hoping for a smaller patrol, because where we're going, we certainly don't need a mass of cats scampering around." The RiverClan leader leaped down from the top of the stone and landed soundly back on the ground. She fixed her gaze on the distant marsh for a moment. Somewhere, behind all of the soupy fog that had settled over the territory, lay their destination. "We're headed for our camp today to take a look at the extent of the damage. I think we've spent long enough on these rocks." She swiveled her head around to glance over at the towering forest of Darkstar's territory, her eyes narrowing the slightest bit. RiverClan would not fare well in an attack at the moment, if one came. "We're far too close to danger right now. We need to move back in." With a flick of her tail, she started down a little rocky ridge and towards the stepping stones that led across the river.

A few seconds later, Snakepaw and Stormpaw both scampered over. "We're coming too!" Stormpaw exclaimed, tail-tip quivering with excitement. Snakepaw had no interest in going outside of RiverClan's makeshift camp - he would have preferred to continue napping - but his brother had forcefully dragged him along.

Fishstar rolled her eyes.

"Sounds good." Tawnystorm nodded. With a quick flick of her tail, the warrior began to follow the leader across the stepping stones and into the fog.

OOC: *zaps thread*
CLEAAAAAAAAAAR

IC: No way.

"I'm coming."

It wasn't an offer so much as a statement that brokered no disagreement. They couldn't talk him down from a patrol like this even if Ivyfall dragged him back to Sunningrocks by the tail.

Camp. Not their little tumble of rocks by the riverside, their real camp, his Clan's camp, the camp where generations of RiverClan cats had slept and shared tongues. He'd only ever seen it in his dreams, a shifting island oasis among the reeds and streams, where they were dry from the rain, safe from the cold, with real nests and real dens. Would it be the same when he saw it with his own eyes? Sleetpaw scrambled over their rocks after the patrol and slowed to a hasty walking pace beside the other apprentices. It took all of the discipline from Smokeface's training for him not to bolt on ahead of Fishstar and the others.

Camp. Aside from his little expedition to ThunderClan as a kit, he'd never been more than a few fox-lengths away from the river. He'd never explored RiverClan territory like the warriors had, he'd never stalked through the grasses and cattails or played in the streams like he'd heard in the elders' stories. RiverClan's real home had felt as cold and distant as Silverpelt, but before night fell again, it'd be right in front of him. The idea had always felt more like a fantasy than an inevitability, no matter how any of the warriors or queens or other apprentices talked about it. But it was real.

Despite his best attempt at poise, he couldn't stop the little hop in his step, the impatient lash in his tail, or the way he stared out across the river as he walked, his eyes brimming with wonder. Sleetpaw had to tear his gaze away, glancing to the other apprentices with a light purr that betrayed his excitement. "I hear the apprentice den's full of nice, soft moss. No more sleeping on rocks." He flicked his tail at the others, turning to look ahead again. "I'm calling the middle now, just so you know. If you want to start suckering up, you can have the second best spot."

Ashpaw smiled at the affectionate nudge from her sibling, happy to see he's in such a pleasant mood from what seemed to be an even better nap he had woken up from. After so long ago of that day outside the make-shift camp? She's just relieved to know he doesn't hold it against her anymore.

Her pale colored eyes were fixated on her mother and her mentor before her attention was broken by an all too familiar voice; it was that pesky little tom Sleetpaw.

"What's this? You've decided to actually do something productive?" Her false tone of astonishment was her attempt at the language of sarcasm as per usual when addressing such a thorn in her side. Followed by the snarky remark, she gave a subtle chuckle.

"I honestly doubt someone would feed that fox-hungry pride of yours just to have a random place in a den." She rolled her eyes as she voices her second lash of the snark. It would be a lie if she didn't enjoy these playful bickers between her and the pesky thorn. And she was adamant about referring him as the annoying bramble thorn he really is at times.

"Yes, the apprentice den was full of moss," Fishstar responded to Sleetpaw. Her brow furrowed. "Let's hope that the water didn't destroy the whole thing." Turning her attention back to the stepping stones, she made her way across the rest of the river and finally hopped back onto land. The mud squelched beneath her paws and she touched down.

As she moved forward through the fog, patrol in tow, the damage that the flood had caused was already quite clear. Large bunches of reeds that had once stood tall and proud looked as if a giant had stepped on them. Puddles of frigid floodwater were unavoidable. It was a total mess, and they hadn't even seen the camp yet..

When the camp's entrance - or, rather, what had been the camp's entrance, but was now a tangled web of vegetation - came into view, Fishstar could feel unease building inside of her. The moment of truth. Taking a deep breath, she picked her way around the debris and into the camp.

It was not pretty, to say the least.

The mud was so deep that the leader could barely walk from one end of the camp to the other. Broken branches seemed to be jutting out from every angle, and the dens were full of dead leaves, decaying fish, and rocks ranging from the size of pebbles to the size of a warrior's head. All of the moss that had once coated the flooring of the dens had been uprooted and flung around. Fishstar's heart sank. Oh, StarClan.. This is going to be a piece of work.

What would he do without Ashpaw's sass? "Are you calling me lazy?" he mewed with a good-humored twitch of his whiskers, flicking at the apprentice's ears with his tail tip. "You're a she-cat, aren't you? If you're too stubborn for a little sweet talk, that's your loss. But hey, when you're the one shivering..."

Fishstar's interjection put a sobering note over the whole conversation, and Sleetpaw trailed off into a hard silence, suddenly serious. The camp's destruction still seemed like a somber point among the warriors who had lost their homes and dens, and when they came back, that's when the work would begin. They could joke around later. He dipped his head and followed after his leader, hopping from stone to slick stone across the river, his stomach doing somersaults with each leap. He wasn't some drypaw, but he didn't have Fishstar's surefooted grace or her well-practiced agility with these rocks, and the last thing he wanted was to slip and take a tumble into the water to start off the patrol.

He breathed a light sigh as he touched down on the other side, peering through the tendrils of fog that weaved through the sea of grass, sinking his paws deeper into the cool mud. This was his first real time on the other side of the river. With anticipation swelling back up in his chest, he followed after the patrol, glancing from side to side to drink in the flattened bushels of vegetation and stagnant pools of water, where distended blades of reeds and sawgrass floated along the surface, tadpoles darting from beneath the roots of drowned plants and displaced rocks.

When they stopped, he hadn't realized he was staring at the camp entrance until he saw the look in Fishstar's eyes. He bit back his disquiet and pushed through the knotted mesh of sedge and reeds, wading through a shallow stream and into the open clearing. So this was it. The island he'd dreamed about. Sleetpaw stared up at the ancient drooping willow in the center of camp, eyes widening, his breath hitching in his throat. When he tried to step closer, his paw sank into the mud almost halfway up his leg.

Silent, he stalked around the edge of camp, stopping right before a collapsed tangle of reeds that might have been a den before the floodwaters had crashed through. He ducked his head inside, sweeping out the dead leaves and clumps of torn moss that clogged the entrance. Fragments of broken shells littered the slick mud floor, and there was a sitting slough of dirty water near the back of the den, weeds shooting up through the broken camp wall.

He pushed back out of the den, his fur and muzzle flecked with mud, and he couldn't deny the cluster of emotions rushing through him all at once seeing it all in front of him, but there was a glint of anticipation in his eyes as he lashed his tail. "It could be worse," he broached with a light joke, breaking the oppressive silent atmosphere that hung over the ruined camp like a rain cloud. "We could be living in ShadowClan's camp."

Though Sunpaw derive quite a bit of amusement from his brother's antics, the tom couldn't help feel a twinge of something odd when he noticed how Ashpaw and Sleetpaw went back and forth with their banter. It was the usual, Ashpaw being prickly and his brother doubling down with his jokes, but this time, he felt frustrated that he couldn't participate. It was a rolling sense of being left behind, he felt disconnected from them, and from the patrol in general. It had never struck him so clearly before as usually cats went out of their way to make sure he didn't feel left out, but here, in a large patrol, there was no room for such coddling. He was patrolling with their leader, Fishstar, and they have bigger concerns than how he felt.

That hardly made it better though. Silently, he stood at the rear of the patrol, his fur pressed against his skin and his ears tucked back with anxiety that he didn't even realise he was expressing. Otterpaw, noticing his fellow apprentice's odd behaviour, gave the tom a nudge with an inquisitive flick of a tail, but Sunpaw shook his head, to ask him to forget that he saw anything. The tom nodded silently, and took his place next to his mother, Tawnystorm until they reached the camp. Sunpaw, noting that he was exhibiting his anxiety, hid it swiftly behind a mask and strode out in front near Fishstar.

Once they reached the camp, both apprentice's forgot all their previous thoughts.

The camp was nothing like either of them had imagined. Sunpaw had grown up with tales about the camp, about how it was with sheltered dens and mossy nests on an island. That queens and elders would spend their days, decorating the dens with shells, feathers and brightly coloured stones that would shine when the light hit it at just the right time. Ivyfall, Tawnystorm, any warrior that had grown up in this place always looked so wistful whenever they spoke of it. And despite how derelict the place was, with thick patches of sinking mud and dens all torn apart, there was an odd sense of comfort that they both felt when they looked out to the grand willow that generations of leaders must have stood on.

This was home.

"Its... Its not like what I imagined." He began, before a misstep had the mud swallow his right foreleg. "Agh, thank StarClan I was born a RiverClanner. Imagine living in mud all seasons long." Otterpaw let our an exaggerated shiver, speaking in response to Sleetpaw's joke.

Sunpaw, on the other hand, thrilled curiously as he batted an pretty shell that he noticed half-buried under the mud. The tom was quick to excavate it, and nudge it towards Ashpaw as to offer it too her. He was determined to chase away his negativity, to force himself to contribute equally, even without a functional voicebox.

Tawnystorm surpressed a gasp as she carefully picked her way around the ruins of the camp. Oh... She could hardly believe her home had been reduced to this tangled, muddy mess of vegetation. She trudged through the mud, finding it surprisingly difficult. The apprentices were right, living in ShadowClan would be a nightmare. She chuckled slightly at the thought, but there was a twinge of sadness in her laugh. She'd lost everything. Toadclaw, Willowbreeze, Goldpaw, Crowclaw, her home. Almost everything, gone. Ivyfall, Ashpaw and Otterpaw - they were the only things keeping her going. She tried to hold back of showing any signs of her devastation as she inspected the remains of the dens. I can't let my emotions get in the way. I've got to be strong. If not for yourself, for them. For your clan. The warrior turned to Fishstar. "Well, there's certainly been damage done, to say the least. It's going to take moons to rebuild all this..." She took a breath, to steady herself. In this present moment, seeing the camp like this had almost crushed her, but she was determined not to let them know. "But if all of RiverClan contributes, we can do it. I mean, it's definitely doable. It may be hard, but it's doable."
If there was a reason she was still alive, the she was willing to wait for it.

(OOC: I'm not sorry at all for Hamilton)

Ashpaw just shrugged off the maw-flapping cat that is Sleetpaw's normal demeanor. Her attention receded back to the friendlier and three times as familiar; Sunpaw.

"Your brother has an ego that can feed a fox, I swear. I'm honestly jealous of the fact you can put up with him like you do, or at least enough to avoid him being the thorn that he is to me." She complained, even if Sunpaw couldn't talk; he made a better conversationalist than his opposite litter mate. Who couldn't learn nor understand the concept of being quiet for more than a breath, but before long her attention was taken away at ... the destruction and mayhem that has been done to their home.

"A ... a flood did all this ... ?" Her voice was shaky, while yes the grey one didn't have a lot of memories here, and most of them being very awkward or very secluded in the den, she still adored this place as her home. Making quick paw work, and hopping down from stone to stone and carefully placing one leg at a time into the rich and thick mud.

"Ew." She groaned, not very fond of mud clearly. But ignoring the gunk, she traversed it slowly but with ease to keep up pace with the rest of the group. Everything was a mess, seeing moss scattered about and mud as far as her eye can see.

As well as disgustingly green water. Or was that just wet moss?