The Present Is Dark, But The Future Might Be Brighter

(OOC: It's a New Year's celebration without being a New Year's celebration! It's set at night. No posting order, go wild, but try and be considerate, alright?)

Emberheart looked around, carefully observing everything. It was all coming together, what little she had managed outside of her warrior duties. Which was most certainly a good thing, because the sun would be setting soon and her plan could commence. She had invited everyone to come out to this spot, to just... Celebrate what little they still had to celebrate. Leaf-bare was harsh, and as prey became scarce it took most cheer with it. But there were things worth protecting and celebrating, and that was what she wanted to bring attention to today.

They had lost enough. Lost the battle for Sunningrocks, lost an apprentice. They didn't need to lose hope alongside everything else.

She had invited everyone, with her only request being that they each to try and catch a piece of prey to bring with them. That being outside their duty to the Clan, of course, and she didn't have especially high hopes given the scarcity of prey at the moment. She herself had caught a (thin, but it was more than she had expected) squirrel, her tree-climbing skills proving particularly useful as she set it very carefully in the center of the area she had chosen.

It wasn't anything special, just a squirrel in the snow and a few thistles and a rock gathered near the base of the nearest tree, but she was happy with what she had made so far. And the sun was just starting to set, so all she had to do now was wait and hope some of her clanmates joined her.

Swooppaw had a mouse clenched tightly between his jaws as he raced over to where Emberheart had invited all of them. He was by himself at the moment, so too terrified to move slowly. Soon, he arrived, sighing with relief and dropping his mouse when he saw the warrior. Now that he wasn't alone, his fear evaporated, and his tired panting seemed a little joyful. She said this was to regain hope. He doubted Birchpaw could make it, but he would get some hope for her, at least that's what he wanted. He made up his mind that this would be real fun and make every tragedy seem somehow less tragic. But there was one thing he had to do first.
"Emberheart? Will you be my friend?" He needed one that very moment, and though he new more cats would arrive moments later, he still needed one at that moment. And besides, a new friend could never hurt.

Emberheart laughed. "Of course," she nodded. "I'm glad you could make it, Swooppaw."

After all, a friend was always a thing to celebrate. One more thing to add to the list in her head.

Robinpaw had followed behind Swooppaw, the robin he had caught the other day inbetween her jaws. She remembered Emberheart inviting her to this meeting of sorts, and she had made sure to bring some prey. ”Hello Emberheart, Swooppaw.” she greeted them, dipping her head and dropping the bird.

Weedblaze arrived on the scene, a vole in his jaws. When he was with everyone else, he dropped the prey onto the ground. "What sort of thing is this?" he demanded from Emberheart. "Some sort of kittypet play-hunting?"

Emberheart wasn't entirely sure how she felt as Weedblaze arrived. She had invited him, yes - alongside every one of her Clanmates - and had kind of hoped he'd show up, but she had also kind of hoped he would drop his poor attitude for a while. Unfortunately, it seemed she was only right about one of those things today. Still, she wasn't going to tolerate that sort of negativity at this event. It went directly against her reason for being here in the first place.

"I don't want to fight today, with claws or with words. But at the same time... I don't think you understand the point of this at all. It's not some kind of kittypet game. We've all been through so much recently, with everything that happened. We lost the battle... We lost an apprentice. We lost our medicine cat, for StarClan's sake! This, tonight? This is supposed to be about the things we haven't lost! There aren't many things to be happy about right now, so we should hold on to the ones we do still have. Our friends, our family, our Clanmates. We're never going to win this war, or much of anything at all, if we all lose hope. We won't stand a chance if we aren't even trying! But if you want to be bitter despite all that, suit yourself. I'm the one who asked you to come, I brought this on myself. And honestly, I kind of expected it. But let me ask you this one thing, why are you here at all? Just to make fun of me while I'm trying to keep everyone's spirits up? Because you're doing such a wonderful job of it yourself, aren't you?"

The ginger she-cat paused, waiting for a response. She had, quite frankly, heard enough of Weedblaze's comments towards her at this point, and she was working to raise everyone's spirits as much as she could.

Weedblaze honestly had nothing to say in retort. He was just... blown away. One could see it in his blank expression, his dropped jaw. Her tongue-lashing had certainly shut him up.

Specklefang quietly padded into the clearing they had all gathered in, hesitance in her steps as the grief-stricken she-cat made her way in. The large she-cat had made it in time to hear her previous apprentices words towards Weedblaze, though she flinched as she added her daughter to the mix, she couldn't go anywhere without being reminded of it, could she? With a large white rabbit hanging from the she-cats jaws, she set it down in the middle alongside the other cats prey. "Emberheart is right." She meowed, her voice cracking with disuse, her expression solemn.

The large she-cat normally did not try to do anything, preferring to waste away in the warrior's den when she wasn't hunting or patrolling for her clan she dearly cared for. But maybe if she could just see for herself that there was still something to fight for, maybe she could leave her daughter in the past.

Birchpaw dragged her paws in the snow as she found the others. She wasn't able to hunt with such an impairment to her tail. She glanced nervously at her mother and dropping her gaze heartbeats later. She'd honestly started to give up. Every time she tried to do something, she made it worse. For once, she wasn't going to go into something to impress her mother. She passed her and went to headbutt Swooppaw's shoulder, giving a soft smile. It was good to be outside again, she practically had to bring down the stars to get out of camp.

Swooppaw's jaw dropped at Emberheart's outburst. Weedblaze had deserved it, but they shouldn't be fighting. Well, that was pretty much what she was saying. He smiled with relief when the older tom didn't respond. This was a celebration of sorts, not an argument. His heart seemed to skip a beat when Speklefang walked in. He hadn't dared talk to his mentor since the battle. She had scared him before with her harsh training methods, but her depressed state terrified him even more. He didn't want to say something wrong, and either cause her to attack him or become so miserable she would never be the same. He smiled at her, trying to give some sort of message that even he wasn't sure of. It just seemed right. Then his whole face lit up.
"Birchpaw! You made it!" he breathed, surprise and delight showing in his features. The fact that she had managed to get here was a small miracle. Turning to the group, he cleared his throat before speaking. "So, what are we gonna do?"

"I couldn't let you bury yourself in the snow again without me, right?" she meowed, chuckling softly. She leaned against him, still weak from plenty of blood loss. It felt comforting knowing that he was always happy to see her. At least she could do something good, even if it was just spending time with another clanmate. Not everything seemed so high-risk for once. For once, she was going to just try and enjoy herself.

Robinpaw’s face lit up when Birchpaw came. ”Good to see you again.” she said with a grin. Obviously, she knew Swooppaw was closer to Birchpaw than she was, but it was good to have a couple friendly faces. She turned back to Swooppaw and shrugged. ”Something fun, hopefully, that doesn’t involve you getting stuck in another bush.” She said, a hint of teasing in her voice. The memory of Swooppaw falling into a bush after catching a bird was still fresh in her mind, and her whiskers twitched with amusement at the thought.

Leafstorm, forever at Specklefang's side, purred with amusement. "Careful with that one, Weedblaze. She could talk the beak off of a crow and still have breath to spare."
He looked around with a small chuckle. "Didn't anyone bring prey? It seems like Sharptooth and I will have to make up for it..." He tipped his grandchildren a mischievous wink as Sharptooth padded into the clearing, her mouth stuffed with all sorts of prey.
With a small smile, Sharptooth dropped the mountain of fresh-kill- three scrawny rabbits, two mice and a plump sparrow -in the snow. "I hope it's enough," She purred, turning towards her mother.

The pawsteps of a ginger-and-white she-cat could be heard as the apprentice padded closer to where the cats were gathering. At first, the idea of a bunch of cats in one place was a nightmare to her. However, once she found out that her mother would be attending, she decided that she might as well tag along. She was an apprentice now, not a kit. She couldn't hide in her den all day long and sleep, she couldn't remain unsocial forever, right? Well, maybe she could, but cats would still try to speak with her anyway. Her plan was to not initiate any conversations like she usually did, and if some cat decided to approach her, then she'd respond. It would be impolite to not say anything if she was spoken to, anyway. In the jaws of a she-cat was a scrawny, small mouse that she had found scrabbling hopelessly in the snow. It had been unable to escape the white hole that was obviously too big for the tiny creature, so Wisteriapaw had decided to take advantage of the creature's struggles.
"I'm s-sorry." She had breathed out before lowering her head into the snow to snap the neck of the mouse. Once it had been dead, the she-cat had shaken her head, "If y-you were a Cl-Clan ca-cat, then you'd u-understand why I h-had to take y-your life."
Then she had silently continued on her way to meet the other cats that had gathered. Once she arrived, her bold yellow eyes scanned over who was there. At least it wasn't the entire Clan in one place. If that was the case then she would've practically drowned in the number of cats. In order to seem polite, Wisteriapaw flicked her ginger-and-white tail in a wordless greeting and dropped her mouse with the rest of the prey.

Tatteredleaf padded in to camp, her fully function back leg got stronger and stronger everyday she practiced. Granted she still couldn't cat much of anything, but today.. oh today she managed to catch an injured bird. She watched as it fell from the tree tops. She managed to crouch and pounce which was more than she was able to do before.

She held the bird in her mouth as she came in to find the group. She dropped the brightly colored bird on the ground. "What are we all gathered here for?" The very scarred asked the gathering group.