Not even the Wind speaks [WC Flood Topic]

The member 'Cays' has done the following action : Dices roll

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'Hunting Dice' : 8

OOC: mobile

As per the orders of his mentor, he hustled to the nursery and picked up the first tiny scrap he saw. He turned to look at Murkpaw and see what he had managed to find when he saw a group of cats making a mad dash for life. He twisted around and watched the river break into what could only be described as a wall of sludge. Panicking, he locked his jaw around the kit in his grasp. And he ran.

Don't drown! Don't drown! Don't drown!

He felt the ground splitting and getting mushier under him as the elder den filled with water and collapsed. Did they get out? Was everyone alright? He didn't know. All he could feel was the speed of his legs and the heartbeat of the poor, crying kit.

In all his failed attempts to capture rabbits, all the times he failed to outrun his prey, he never considered what would happen if his safety depended on it. He ducked his head. He was afraid. Afraid to die. Afraid that the rabbit he called life was running farther and farther away, and that at any moment it would turn a corner quicker than he could handle and escape him. He spotted a tree, ever so close, in the near distance. We're going to make it! We're going to make-!

The water hit him like a monster on the Thunderpath. He tumbled in the churning waves like he weighed nothing. He couldn't see, he couldn't swim, and he couldn't feel which way was up. He opened his eyes. It felt like he was going blind from how horrible it felt in the dirty, gravelly water, like sandpaper or tree bark. He gasped in pain, and then watched the bubbles float past his tail. Bubbles always float up - h e was upside down in the water. Pushing as hard as he could toward the surface, he felt something push against his flank. He hit a rock, and the jagged brand impaled his side.

Screaming, he flailed in the water. After getting so close, how could it end this way? Why did he have to die like this? No, he decided. Come on, Aspenpaw, use your head. You can't die this way.

Using the adrenaline to sharpen his mind, he realized that the rock he had fallen against was a tree trunk. He dug his paws in and started hoisting himself up. The branch in his side was pulled out as he surfaced, floating away in the blood red wave. He was alive, but nearly not so. He had no strength to pull himself up onto a branch. Less than a whisker from the water, he dug in and clung on to the tree for dear life. He did not make a noise, as if the act of speaking would tip the tree. He panted hard and licked the sides of his mouth. Then it hit him.

The kit was gone.

The member 'Grizzly' has done the following action : Dices roll

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'Hunting Dice' : 3

"What are you doing, coming back for me? You should be getting out of here!" Graybriar had demanded, though the tom knew she asked of worry. He returned her deep blue gaze with his own determined hazel one, responding firmly, "I'll be a rabbit's tail the day that I leave you behind."

Finchbreeze came running by, splashing as he ran. "Highstones," he instructed, "Get Graybriar and Briarpaw there safely." and Barleytuft nodded dutifully, meowing hastily to his friend and deputy, "May the wind carry you, Finchbreeze." As quickly as he had arrived, the deputy raced off again to tell the others the same thing.

At that point, Graybriar relented to Barleytuft's help, leaning on him with an unspoken relief and murmuring that they needed to move quickly. Barleytuft nodded, agreeing whole-heartedly. The pair pressed on, starting to make their way out of camp with Briarpaw close beside them. Barleytuft's claws were extended and gripping carefully at the earth beneath the shallow churning water; he intended to be as stable for Graybriar as he could be.

The sound of what could only be described as the earth splitting open suddenly echoed over the moor, sending a shudder rolling down his spine. They had only just made it outside the gorse walls of camp when, against both of their better judgments, Barleytuft and Graybriar slowed - Barleytuft wouldn't have walked a pawstep further without her, anyways - and turned with clear expressions of dread to gaze behind them. Immediately upon seeing the wall of water, Barleytuft turned and began trying to lead Graybriar away. Too clumsily, too quicky, he moved, and Graybriar stumbled to the earth beside him. "Fox-dung," he spat at himself, "no!" Immediately he launched himself at Graybriar, reaching out desperately.

The water reached Graybriar first, sending the poor she-cat sprawling head-over-tail before she disappeared completely under the sudden wave of water. The sound of her voice crying out his name was nearly enough to break Barleytuft. The water jolted him from his terror and off of his feet completely, bowling him over. He held his breath but could do nothing about the flood forcing its way up his nose. It was nearly impossible not to cough, yet he knew if he opened his mouth and tried to breathe he would never see the sunlight again. For what felt like minutes Barleytuft floundered under the water, aware of the flotsam swirling in the current around him.

Graybriar! his head screamed, while his lungs screamed for air. With a determined kick, Barleytuft suddenly found himself breaking the surface. The soaking warrior yowled, "Graybriar!" A wave caught him in the face and he coughed fiercely, paddling at the flood river with inexperienced paws. However, they were enough to keep him just above the surface. "Graybriar, where are you?" Barleytuft called, though his voice was choked with remnants of mud and grit.

Then StarClan blessed him: struggling in the murk not a tail-length ahead was a dark tabby pelt. Graybriar! Barleytuft wasted no time in lunging for her scruff. She was just barely above the surface as it was; her leg would weigh her down and kill her if he didn't get to her.

However, his teeth met their purchase and he held on tight, lifting his chin up high and arching his head awkwardly back to help force his mate's head up and out of the water. "Keef fwimmind!" Barleytuft instructed, though his voice practically a pathetic mewl now. StarClan, help us. If you're there, give us something! he begged.

And they did.

Some strange, foul-smelling, hard black circle of some kind bumped into Barley's shoulder, and reflexively he reached out with a paw to grasp at it. It was a twoleg thing - the strange paw of a monster, it seemed like - but it was floating, and it was hard to drown above the surface. Barleytuft grasped it with one forepaw and pulled it closer, straining his head up to give Graybriar a boost to grab onto it.

The member 'sumashira' has done the following action : Dices roll

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'Hunting Dice' : 6

Murkpaw shifted his water-logged paws in the muddy liquid swirling around them, listening with a slight feeling of displeasure to Finchbreeze's order. The kits? I'm relegated to kit-sitting? He let out a slightly hissing breath as he turned and padded carefully through the dirty water towards the nursery, that other apprentice who was looking about as worried as the rest of them heading there as well.

Fortunately, there weren't too many squirming little annoyances bouncing around, and he snatched one up before turning for the entrance. Idly flicking each paw as he stepped from the relative dryness of the nursery, he adjusted his grip on the dark tabby kit and moved out towards the clearing. Hopefully this kit doesn't make my job harder.

Right at that moment, a titanic crack sounded, vibrating the ground beneath his very paws.

He turned, ears flattening against his head as a primal part of him wakened, urging his paws to move away from there as fast as he could. A glimpse of a wall of nearly black water surging towards him and he threw himself forwards. Half-slipping, he dashed for the edge of the camp, clawing his way up the side and onto the moor, rain stinging his face as his legs moved in a blur worthy of a true WindClan cat. The kit swung from his jaws with terrified mews, and he ignored it, stretching further and further with every bound in an effort to escape. The few scraggly trees he could have been able to reach were just out of his reach, their branches already holding other cats.

Raging water splashed at his tail an instant before he was swept up before it and tossed forwards like a piece of prey. The kit was torn from his jaws as he lashed against the current, murky water obscuring his eyes. He snapped instinctively for the scrap of fur, his jaws closing on the edge of fur before it was torn away again. Hare-brained rabbit-dung-! Thoughts were snatched from him in patches as he fought against the bubbling froth, catching a small gasp of air before he was forcefully pushed under again, rolling before the storm. I was born in murkiness for StarClan's sake! I should be able to see in this! Furiously, he struck out at the water like it was an enemy, keeping his jaws clenched shut against the water stifling him.

Abruptly, he was flung against something, his last remaining bit of air bursting out of his jaws in a cloud of agonized bubbles.

His claws connected against it and he dug them in as hard as he could, hauling himself out with a monumental effort onto whatever it was. Blinking water out of his eyes, trying to see against the rain and dark water splashing his face, the first thing he was the rough branch of what looked some kind of tree. The thing lurched beneath him, and he clung on desperately, snarling defiance at the water trying to rip him off. Every movement he made to try and climb up on the piece of rabbit-brained wood just made it lurch more, threatening to roll over and dump him underneath. So he clung on as best he could, straddling as much of his form on it as was possible. Dump me on dry ground you piece of fox-dung!

The member 'Chickenwing' has done the following action : Dices roll

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'Hunting Dice' : 7

Scrambling out of the apprentices' den, Shellpaw was completely clueless to the entire situation. Inch-deep floods were invading the entire camp, and she had no idea what to do. However, nearly the entire Clan were heading in one direction, so she just followed. Her pale blue irises covered a mere fraction of her eyes as her pupils inflated to the size of saucers. It had been raining, hard, the past few days, but this was entirely new. 

As she rushed towards the other escaping cats, Shellpaw felt a large rumble beneath her paws. She saw the numerous cats in front of her turn around and instantly scramble up the nearest tree. Shellpaw looked back, too, her eyes meeting a giant, rushing current. The torrent slapped her mercilessly before she got a chance to do anything, driving her underneath the water as she flailed in an attempt to reach the surface. She soon slammed into a tree, to which Shellpaw dug her claws into as hard as she could, managing to scramble up it with the little breath she had left.

The member '81556' has done the following action : Dices roll

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'Hunting Dice' : 1

Swiftstep desperately attempted to help Quailfeather and Silentstrike get to safety. Nobody anticipated the rush of water that was running to them. He gasped when he first laid eyes on it. "Everyone! Hold on to anything tightly!" he yowled as he got a strong grip on a seemingly sturdy object.

The tom managed to keep afloat and where he was but unfortunately, others were not so fortunate. He looked on in horror as more and more got taken away.

The member 'Middy' has done the following action : Dices roll

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'Hunting Dice' : 3

With Gustpuddle at her side, Spiderfur finally re-emerged from the elder's den, but that brief moment of relief didn't last long. With a rumble she could feel in her very bones, the floodwaters rushed in. Pure terror held her limbs firmly planted in the ground, even as many of her Clanmates turned tail. Before she could say a word, it hit. The next heartbeat she was rolling beneath the surface of the water, being knocked against every piece of debris it had to throw at her. Then - she wasn't sure how it happened, she couldn't see - she heard another crack via her own body, right as her lungs found air to breathe. A piercing screech almost too loud to have come from her tiny form came out. Agonizing pain came from her right foreleg. She could barely move it. She couldn't even think. But she didn't need to, as her other paw got caught on something solid. She clung for dear life, discovering that it was a tree just as she clumsily found a way up without using her injured leg. The senior warrior didn't even have to look at it to know what happened. It was broken.


There wasn't enough time. With her short face, his friend wouldn't be able to keep up with him, and in no situation would he even think of leaving her behind. With a quick "Sorry," Deerpaw grabbed Mistpaw by her scruff and started running, slowly at first due to her weight, but then... adrenaline fueled him. He practically threw her onto his back at the sudden noise, tail whipping behind him. Though he was fast, the flood was faster. It lifted him off his paws and tossed him under. When he felt the she-cat being lifted from his shoulders, he twisted in the water to grab her again. In this fashion he somehow got themselves stuck to one of the few trees on WindClan territory, and although the force of the water threatened to break his grip, at least they weren't being carried away anymore. And he'd never let go. He would do his best to keep her safe. Wasn't that what friends did?

The member 'Night' has done the following action : Dices roll

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#1 'Hunting Dice' : 1

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#2 'Hunting Dice' : 4

Most of the warriors had fled from camp, running to the safety of Highstones. Finchbreeze remained, a few of his clanmates by his side, soaking from head to tail. The rain was constant and only fueled the rushing current more. With a final sweep of the camp, the deputy decided it was safe to finally leave. He flicked his tail to signal the others, and then crested the hill quickly, splashing on his way.

A deafening crack reverberated throughout the territory, it shook the ground and rang in Finchbreeze's ears. "That's not normal..." The tom breathed to himself, head swiveling, trying to find the source of the sound.

A blast of water hit Finchbreeze at full force before he could react, it swept him off his paws in an instant, tearing him away from the camp and tossing him under the water. It was easy to lose his bearings, but Finchbreeze fought harder. Paddiling madly, the young tom managed to stay afloat in the waves, yellow eyes wide in horror as the current engulfed Windclan camp, tearing up bushes and grass. Brookclover... Finchbreeze thought, wondering if his mate made it to safety. The tom tried to fight off the storm in his mind as he swam towards Highstones, scared and wet, but determined.

The member 'lemongrass' has done the following action : Dices roll

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'Hunting Dice' : 1