Faraway Days [Closed Patrol]

Mottleheart stood on the edge of the WindClan camp, his ears flat as he stared out at the scorched moor. It seemed so hard to swallow what had happened and while they were lucky that the camp was spared...So much damage had been done He sighed as he straighten up, turning his gaze to the part of the territory that had also managed to go unscathed from the damage. At least some of their territory was safe - hopefully they could survive on the rabbits that still lingered on the other half until new life returned to the part that was burned. His ears twitched as he got to his paws, glancing once more at the burned area of the moor. Perhaps it was worth seeing what damage had been done.

Nightheart padded silently towards Mottleheart, her paws no longer sore from the digging of the trench but she really wish she could say the same of her throat…well, she would just need to keep her amount of speaking down for a couple days, that shouldn’t be that hard. Her eyes slowly shifted from her paws to the scorched territory that could be seen from her spot near the entrance of camp. How bad the damage could’ve been? It didn’t reach camp and she was thankful for that, but what about the rest of the territory? Had I managed to spread somewhere else?

Taking a deep breath “Should we check how bad that is?” Her voice was low and a bit raspy, but she ignored that fact the best she could. She just hopped Mottleheart would say yes, leaving camp on her own to check what was left of a good portions of the moors she loved to run through wouldn’t be an exactly happy experience.

Wildpaw was having trouble sleeping between nightmares about fire and coughing fits. It hadn't even been that long, but it still made him lose sleep. So he resigned to lying around the camp while Raccoonfang wasn't training him. He was lying near the entrance when he saw Mottleheart and Nightheart approach the entrance, preparing to check out the moors after the fire. He nudged the fellow apprentice lying beside him, Quickpaw, telling her to wake up. She blinked as she raised her head, not sure of what was going on since she just woke up. "W-wha?" she muttered. The two apprentices stood up and stretched, padding closer to the two warriors. "We should probably, yeah. Nightheart, aren't you Quickpaw's mentor? This would be the perfect opportunity to get some extra training in," he said, with the blue-eyed apprentice nodding her head in agreement. She was glad for Wildpaw to speak up for her, it was hard for her to do so.

Slatepaw saw some cats assembling. It looked like there would be a patrol soon. In a moment, he had padded over to join them. Sitting around in camp was getting boring and he felt the need to do something after the fire. Maybe they could bring back some prey too. Regardless, he felt anxious. The apprentice's tail twitched as he came over to join the group, "Are we going out?" He asked.

Mottleheart glanced over his shoulder at the voice, his eyes first landing on Nightheart as the she-cat spoke the best he could before spotting the thee apprentices that hurried toward them. He waited patiently as the apprentices all hurried up, letting them say what they needed to before he focused his gaze on the she-cat once more. "That was my plan," he informed her, his voice not nearly as rough as hers thanks to the fact he hadn't gotten near the flames until they were being put out by the strange mist. "I'm happy to let the three of you join as well," the warrior said as he turned his gaze on the three apprentices before him. "Just stick close - we'll be scouting out how much of our territory was damage in the flames." With that, he turned and started to lead them into the charred moor.

Nightheart looked down at the apprentices that hurried at their side with her usual serious expression until she noticed that one of them was Quickpaw, her apprentice. A smile quickly made its way to her muzzle before she nodded as an answer to Wildpaw. Under normal circumstances she would’ve made a couple questions or just started a nice chat while they waited for enough cats to join the patrol, but with her throat in the conditions it was at the time she had to keep her muzzle shut and try to say as much through signs and body language as she possibly could. She probably would need to go to the medicine cats’ den after this patrol to see if they had something to aid her with this problem…the only reason she hadn’t done it till then being that she didn’t want to take away herbs from cats that could need them more than her.

As soon as Mottleheart started to lead them towards the scorched moors, she made a quick signal with her tail at the apprentices before following him, staying as close as possible to him without actually getting on the way as she looked around. She couldn’t help but wince lightly at the feeling of the burnt earth under paws, she just hoped that new grass would grow from this destruction soon, that the damage wasn’t bad enough to keep this part of the moors from returning to its former glory.

"How did this even happen?" Slatepaw growled as he glanced around. The fire had appeared out of nowhere. It had been gone almost as soon as it appeared. Several questions swam through the grey and white apprentice's head. However, nothing made sense and he assumed not one else had answers either. His tail flicked in annoyance. The whole thing had mostly been an inconvenience if anything. He was not sure what checking the extent of the damage would accomplish, but Mottleheart was in charge. Besides, this beat sitting around in camp. Ashstar was far too busy to train with him right now. One of their usual battle session was his favorite. That was the unfortunate thing about having the leader as his mentor, she was busy a lot of the time.

Both Wildpaw and Quickpaw gave a shrug as they walked side by side. "Nobody knows at this point. It could've been a close lightning strike for all we know," Wildpaw stated. Quickpaw remained mostly silent while they continued on, occasionally brushing fur with the orange tom. He had become a comforting presence in her life since becoming an apprentice. "Th-things usually grow back b-better after fire though, right?" Quickpaw asked to no one particular.

Mottleheart's gaze was fixed on the burnt ground, still recalling the roaring flames with a shiver as his short fur prickled. "Ashstar thought she saw a form fleeing from the fire but..." he drifted off, giving a shake of his head as he spared a look at the cats behind him. His eyes focusing on Quickpaw as the young she-cat spoke up. "This isn't the first fire to rage across the moor...Even if its the first in my lifetime," he acknowledged, recalling the tales of the fire that had in the end cost the life of the retired leader Stormeye moons upon moons ago. "Things will grow back but it will take a long while...We are just lucky that the fire didn't destroy all of our territory as we should be able to survive until its regrown."

Nightheart’s mainly calm behavior turned into that of alert and attention as soon as Mottleheart mentioned the cat running away from the fire. It wasn’t anyone from WindClan, she was sure of that, as everyone was in camp during and after the fire, only Ashstar being away and that being one of the main reasons they had gotten to work on the trench that still surrounded part of the camp as a constant reminder of the clan willingness to protect themselves ad those they loved from even the most terrifying of threats…why she hadn’t mentioned this to the clan though?! Even if it was only a rogue passing by they probably should’ve tried to investigate right after, just in case.

“Do you…do you know where…that rogue was?” She tried to speak louder to be clearly heard this time, though soon regretted it as her hoarse voice forced her to stop talking mid-sentence twice and right after go into a small coughing fit. If she didn’t hate the former ShadowClan leader so much, she would’ve compared her way of speaking with that old tom at the current time.