Twilight [cont / Dusk] [open to apprentices]

OOC: Feel free to rough Roaringpaw up at anytime, if you so wish:3

Meanwhile back in Shadowclan territory, Roaringpaw was following the scent trail that was leading him dreadfully closer and closer to Skyclan. His pelt prickled with unease, anxiousness weighing heaving on each pawstep he took. He silently prayed to Starclan that his fellow clanmates weren't doing anything dangerous.

When their scents passed by the border, his heart dropped. His fear rose, twisted into terror when he heard a yowl of a cat before it got muffled. The tiny medicine cat apprentice shakily crossed the border, hoping that he would not find a scene covered in blood.

Seeing his clanmate pinning down a Skyclan apprentice with unsheathed claws and a deadly pointy-teeth hold, Roaringpaw's instincts screamed to stop the conflict before anyone else got hurt. He bounded in, his kit-like appearance making him feel small compared to the big apprentices. But that didn't stop him from approaching the dangerous scene.

"Wait, stop!" His naturally loud voice roared, possibly accidentally alerting any cat nearby of their presence. He went up to his fighting clanmate, not realizing how dangerous it was for him to approach the fighting pair. "Let him go Rowanpaw."

Echopaw was still hiding in their place when she heard something rustling where they came from, another warrior or apprentice from Skyclan? She tried to make herself not go deeper in the hiding place to hid from all of this when she saw a familiar tiny scrap of black fur rushing towards them with wide eyes. When Roaringpaw shouted alerting everyone to his presence she stood up her amber eyes and her white spot showing through the green. Then darted back inside making a loud noise.

What was Roaringpaw doing here?! He can`t be here, this did not concerned him! He will get hurt if he gets involved. Not knowing any battle moves will just get him hurt, no herbs will save him in the middle of battle against an enemy cat.

Oh StarClan, oh StarClan, they'd actually done it! She swallowed, squashing down the shakiness in her voice and hoping nobody could pick up the traces of anxiety washing off her. Now... They just had to play hard.

Before she could even speak, another voice piped up, a voice she hadn't accounted for. Roaringpaw?! Yewpaw felt her hackles rise.
"It's okay," she rattled off in a hushed hiss, careful not to raise her voice too loud. She waved her tail to gesture all the other apprentices closer. "This kittypet won't get hurt as long as he does what we say."

The words came out so much more confident than she felt. She leaned in to speak into the stranger cat's ear. "If you scream when my clanmate lets go, you're mouse-dust, you got that? So are you going to play nice?"

Oh StarClan. It was like something she would've said in one of their nursery games not too many moons ago, but this was real. She wouldn't mess this, she couldn't mess this up...

Bearpaw watched as Roaringpaw raced into sight, demanding that the fight be ended. What was he doing here? Had he been invited and simply come later than everyone else? No, that didn't make sense, he was the medicine cat apprentice... This had nothing to do with him, he would have only gotten under their paws. Well, he was getting under their paws anyways, it seemed. He tried to beckon Roaringpaw over to where he and Echopaw were hiding. "Roaringpaw, what are you doing here?" He hissed, "You're going to get hurt!" In truth, Bearpaw didn't particularly care if Roaringpaw got himself injured, but he wasn't about to say that.

When Bearpaw called Roaringpaw to get back, the medicine cat apprentice was still. He felt stiff and highly reluctant to crouch in the small, compact space by his sister Echopaw. The tom didn't understand what Echopaw wanted from him, why she was acting so weird around him ever since they became apprentices. But now wasn't the time to worry about that- he needed to know why everyone got out here in the first place so he could prevent any fights with Skyclan.

Roaringpaw wouldn't be able to forgive himself if he didn't try. So he took a deep breath in to prepare himself to convince his clanmates to stop this, and addressed them all.

"I can't let you all do this." He answered, his naturally loud voice projecting to all the cats. "I'm sorry Bearpaw, but I won't hide, not until this I know why you all are so eager to start a battle with another clan." His yellow eyes blazed with determination. "I won't let anyone of you get needlessly hurt!"

Rowanpaw hissed challengingly but dropped the apprentice's muzzle, spitting out the blood that had gathered in his jaws.
"If you make a sound, I swear to Starclan I'll give you something to scream about." He mewed softly in the apprentice's ear.
He turned to the others.
"Now what do we do? There's no way we could've snuck around him- he had already heard us." He turned to Roaringpaw for suggestions, his green eyes wide and innocent. Fighting was for the other clan- these cats were his family, his brothers and sisters in arms. He blinked, looking around them. "We could take him captive," He suggested.

Gorsepaw's eyes were wild in fear. Voices of strangers spun in his mind. They conversed. Then they began to argue. Though, he had paid heed to the voice of the she-cat that kept her weight balanced on his shoulders. He shivered in response to her question and nodded. Please, just don't kill me, the tom thought, his tail lashing with alarm and fear.

The apprentice, who had left deep fang marks in his muzzle, finally let go. The SkyClan tabby sneezed blood from his nose, coughing and sputtering. "I- I won't tell a soul," he whimpered helplessly. He knew their names. That small black tom... He came in and argued with the bengal tom... Rowanpaw... and the smoky black one, Bearpaw. Bearpaw called the other cat Roaringpaw. His eyes glared at the ShadowClan trespassers, but flinched as cold eyes glared back at him.

I won't forget, he thought. You made a mistake saying your names. Gorsepaw hoped the she-cat would ease up so that he could sit up on his haunches. He would try to fulfill their wishes as long as he could to stay alive. I just need to know her name.

Echopaw scooted away as Roaringpaw slid in beside her and Bearpaw she tried burring herself in the leaves. She was heartbroken and ashamed that Roaringpaw found her with them, now they will never be like they were before. "I`m sorry, Roaringpaw." Her voice was mumbled by the leaves as she quietly muttered it, really speaking to herself.

Why do they need to take some cat captive? There was no reason for that! They were just there cause of this so called tribe cats there was no reason to take a cat captive! They will get in some serious trouble if they do that! "No! The apprentice promised that he won`t tell anyone. Why is there a need to take him captive? Haven`t we done enough to him?" She could not keep quiet anymore. This was just wrong to do. This is what it means to be a apprentice? If that`s the case maybe she was not meant to be one...

Bearpaw looked over at Echopaw as the apprentice protested--though he didn't really have any moral qualms about taking a hostage, Echopaw was right. In this case, it was unnecessary. They had come looking for Tribe cats, and stumbled across a SkyClan cat, instead; the damage was done, but there was no need to worsen it. Though, he wasn't entirely sure he believed that this apprentice wouldn't turn them in... After all, once he was back in the safety of his camp, what did he have to lose? A group of apprentices couldn't do a thing to him when his clan was around. Bearpaw didn't even want to think about what their punishment would be like when Leopardstar found out. And it wasn't as though they could claim that Gorsepaw was lying, the proof was there, scratched into his muzzle. So perhaps taking him captive wasn't the worst idea... They would just have to come up with some way to really scare him into silence. "Take him captive, and do what?" He spoke up, looking at Rowanpaw, "We need to really make sure he doesn't talk. I don't know about you guys, but I didn't come out here to get busted for attacking a SkyClan cat and end up cracking Mottleclaw's ticks for the rest of the season."
Bearpaw stepped forward, his pawsteps light as he padded calmly up to Gorsepaw and Yewpaw. "So, what's it gonna take for you to keep your jaws shut?" He mewed; his voice was calm, even pleasant, on the surface, but razor sharp underneath, and his eyes bore harshly into Gorsepaw's. In truth, he didn't know what exactly had come over him, where the confidence had come from, but he didn't really care. He was determined that this apprentice wasn't going to run back to the SkyClan camp and rat them out.

Ooc: Casually jumping in late, I blame exams

Ic: Lynxpaw had followed the others, lost in thought until the pungent smell of leaves andwood alerted him to the presence of a Skyclan cat. Backing off, every instinct told him to leave, but no. Ryepaw was here, and he couldn't leave his brother. He just wouldn't He watched the whole encounter up until the other cat was let go.
"You're all mousebrains" he slunk out of the shadows, fur prickling and a scowl on his face, his eyes glittering with anger but also exhilaration. It was the most excitement he'd had since his encounter with Hollypaw.
"Why should we let him go? He'll just go and tell his whole camp, including the cats we came here to see. We should kill him, here and now, it's the only way to make sure we're safe" His eyes glittered coldly as his unsheathed claws dug into the dirt "He'll get us all exiled, we should just get rid of the threat here and now"
He wasn't generally a bloodthirsty cat, but he wasn't willing to risk it. He wasn't becoming a filthy loner, just because this other cat couldn't keep his mouth shut

Roaringpaw looked around at his clanmates in astonishment. They wanted to take the Skyclan apprentice captive?! He didn't even understand why his fellow apprentices did this in the first place- why in Starclan's name are they doing this? His anger spiked when Lynxpaw suggested they even kill the Skyclan cat. He had enough of this.

He turned around to face Lynxpaw, yellow eyes cold. "No one is going to die tonight." Then he faced the others. "If we take him captive or kill him, this could get worse than taking care of the elders' ticks for a month. We could end up starting a war between our clans over nothing!"

Ryepaw turned to glare at his brother, shocked by his heartless, bloodthirsty suggestion.  With a slight growl, the ginger tabby stepped forward and hissed in a low voice; "Don't be stupid Lynxpaw!  We don't need to kill anyone, that would just get us in more trouble in the end.  Plus, do you want this young tom's blood on your conscience?"  With narrowed eyes, Ryepaw stepped forward and bent down to the SkyClan apprentice's level, hissing in a low tone.  "Now listen here, we aren't going to hurt you.  If you cooperate and stay silent, we will spare you.  If you don't...."  The fully grown apprentice unsheathed his claws, and waved them threateningly in the young tom's face.  Inside though, Ryepaw felt sick; I didn't sign up to attack and capture helpless apprentices!  I thought we were just going to explore and investigate the Tribe cats?

Bearpaw lashed his tail in frustration as he listened to his clan-mates; this could all go over smoothly, they just had to keep their heads on straight. This was, at its core, a misunderstanding that had gotten out of hand. And misunderstandings required careful negotiation. Not murder--for one thing, there was far too many of them, someone was bound to spill the truth before long, and Bearpaw was not about to let his aspirations be crushed by taking such rash actions. "Yes, because there's no way--" he paused as his eyes flicked from one cat to the next quickly, "seven apprentices won't get busted for murder. You mouse-brain, that's a terrible idea." Bearpaw was usually more diplomatic, and less blunt than that, but his patience for this entire situation was wearing thin. To be fair, he barely had a stake in it--he could leave his clan-mates to deal with it on their own... He shook his head to himself. No, there was no telling what would happen, he could end up in just as much trouble as everyone else. So, he decided to stick around. When he spoke again, his tone had turned from sarcastic to entirely calm. "What we need to do is negotiate--do you think clan leaders resort to taking captives and starting wars right off the bat? No, they talk first, which is what we need to do. Okay?"

Rowanpaw's eyes widened at Lynxpaw's suggestion. "What good would that do? I came here to see a tribe cat, not start a war." He hissed to the apprentice.
He nodded at Bearpaw's suggestion, turned to the Skyclan apprentice and half-opened his jaws. He shut them tightly a moment later, however, and awkwardly swung his head back and forth, deciding it was a good idea to keep his stupid mouth shut. It was his fault they were into this mess.

Roaringpaw felt a pang of confusion. "Wait a minute, if you're all here to see a tribe cat then why did you attack a Skyclan apprentice in the first place? I mean, the tribe cats would probably be at the gathering." As he meowed those words, the medicine cat apprentice felt like he was missing something bigger than that. A horrible idea came to mind. "Hold on. You all don't want to...force the tribe cats to leave...right?"