Just Like Old Times (SOLO / CLOSED)

Sunlight filtered into the warriors' den through the reinforced thorn barriers outside, shining in Asterspark's face. He squinted his eyes open slowly, shutting them closed again, and finally yawned. He was utterly exhausted. He and his Clanmates had spent most of yesterday cleaning up the camp, getting rid of the debris from the flood and fixing up the thorn barriers around the camp. He didn't want to get up. He just wanted to keep on sleeping. He wrapped his forepaws around his face and nestled into his nest.

Then his stomach began to rumble, reminding him how hungry he was. The cats had all been so busy fixing up the camp yesterday that Scorchstar and Wildstrike barely had any paws to spare, so not as many hunting patrols had gone out as usual. There was a good chance the fresh-kill pile was empty right now. He wanted to sleep, but he knew that the Clan needed to be fed, especially after such a hard day's work yesterday. Someone had to go out there and bring back some breakfast for the Clan, or at least part of it.

Murmuring grumpily, Asterspark rose up his head and stretched out his limbs, yawning a second time. He rose out of his nest next to his brother Poppyheart and shook out his fur, then sat down and gave himself a quick grooming. Once he had picked out all the loose pieces of moss from his fur, he turned to his littermate and nudged his shoulder with a paw. "Hey, Poppyheart. It's mornin'. I was thinkin' we could go out and hunt. Y'know ... just like old times." Well, before family drama had ruined everything between them. The two of them had thankfully rekindled their friendship and brotherhood, so it would be nice to spend some quality time with the handsome russet-and-white tom again.

Poppyheart had been in the middle of a particularly terrifying dream. Images of cold blue and hot red flashed through his mind. He had found himself swirling into a whirlpool of flood water, only to become engulfed in flames in the blink of an eye, yet he had no idea why. Of course the water was from the floods from a few moons ago, but the fire....

He was jostled out of his nightmare when someone prodded his shoulder. He softly gasped and opened his eyes, and it didn't take him long at all to recognize his surroundings. He was in his nest back in ShadowClan camp. He, Mothpaw, and Crowfur had returned with the rest of ShadowClan's warriors -- including his beloved mate Redwing -- after StarClan had sent them and a few other Clan warriors up the mountains a few days ago. Thankfully, his wounds that had been acquired from a tough battle against a massive dog in the mountains had been closed, and they were healing well, especially since Morningpaw had been forced to step down from her rank as ShadowClan's medicine cat by StarClan themselves. The Clan now currently had no medicine cat, and it had made his Clanmates very uneasy. At least Morningpaw still knew what to do to help those in need, so that was good.

Poppyheart looked up at Asterspark smiling down at him. At his suggestion to go out and hunt with him, he shot him a good-natured smirk and snorted, "What was that, brother? I must still have flood water in my ears, because I could've sworn you had suggested we go hunting. You never want to do anything, you lazy furball." He rose up from his nest and shook out his fur, pressing his forehead into Asterspark's neck affectionately with a purr, then slipped out of the den. He chuckled and rolled his eyes when he heard his brother call back, "Aw, c'mon, bro, gimme some credit. I still eat, sleep, and breathe, don't I? Therefore, I'm always technically doing something."

Taking the lead of the small patrol -- which both brothers were more than happy to let happen as Asterspark preferred taking up the rear of most patrols anyway -- Poppyheart padded out of the camp and into the swampy territory. He hadn't hunted in his homeland in quite a while, and it really felt nice to feel the familiar sludge of mud underneath his paws, even if they were a little more waterlogged than usual. Almost immediately, he spotted a lone mouse scouring the wreckage left behind by the flood, searching for food, and he crouched down. He stalked towards it slowly, thankful to Thornbriar for having removed his annoying and noisy Twoleg collar, which would have definitely made it much harder to keep himself hidden from the mouse's senses.

Nearly on top of it now, he bundled up the muscles in his hindquarters before pouncing, leaping clear over a rather muddy puddle and landing on the mouse's back. He bent down quickly to end its life with a swift, sharp nip to the back of its neck. Raising up his head again with the mouse dangling from his jaw, he shot Asterspark a playfully smug glare, inviting him to take his challenge of catching more prey.

The member 'Yoshachu Scorchachu' has done the following action : Dices roll

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'Hunting Dice' : 7

Asterspark watched his brother pounce over the mud puddle to catch the mouse he himself had already detected. He knew Poppyheart would have wanted to have the first catch of the patrol, so that's why he had resisted the urge to drop into a hunter's crouch himself. Catching his brother's challenging glance, he narrowed his own eyes with a twitch of his whiskers. Oh, he'd show him who was the better hunter!

He turned and began scenting for prey, and it didn't take him long to find a frog sitting on a rather large rock. Luckily, it was faced away from him, so it didn't even know it was being stalked. Crouching down, Asterspark slowly stalked up towards it until he was close enough to pounce. He leaped and pinned the frog to the rock with a paw, swiftly biting the back of its neck and watching as it went limp without so much as a squeal to alert surrounding prey of their hunters' presence. He turned his head around and grinned cockily at his brother.

The member 'Yoshachu Scorchachu' has done the following action : Dices roll

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'Hunting Dice' : 5

"Not bad, not bad," Poppyheart mewed with a swish of his tail, grinning back with an air of zealousness about him. "But I bet you I can one-up you. I bet I can catch...." He looked around, trying to find a rather impressive piece of prey to catch by ShadowClan standards. It was then that his gaze fixed on a rare sight: a lithe, furry squirrel searching the waterlogged ground for fallen nuts. "...a squirrel." He heard his brother snort with amusement behind him, and he narrowed his eyes at him. "Oh, don't believe me, huh? Well, wait until I catch this squirrel for the Clan. Then we'll see who'll be the one laughing!"

Turning back to the squirrel, Poppyheart dropped down low to the ground and began his stalking towards the large rodent. He hadn't ever caught a squirrel before, but he could just feel it in his bones that he would be able to succeed this time. Once he was close enough, he pounced, but unfortunately it suddenly darted away just before he could land on it. He scrambled outward frantically, reaching out his claws as far as they would go until they hurt, managing to snag them in the squirrel's tail fur, but it was able to quickly flick it out of his grasp. With a yelp, Poppyheart fell to the ground, and the squirrel shot up into a nearby pine tree to safety. He could hear Asterspark's mrrow of laughter sounding from behind, and he huffed, his pelt burning up from embarrassment.

The member 'Yoshachu Scorchachu' has done the following action : Dices roll

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'Hunting Dice' : 3

Asterspark trotted up to his fallen brother, who was now covered with mud, whiskers twitching uncontrollably with mirth. Once at his side, he helped him back up to his paws by nuzzling and nudging his shoulder and side. "I gotta admit, bro, that was a pretty good attempt. Though, you should probably leave the squirrels to those tree-climbing ThunderClanners and SkyClanners. After all...."

"Asterspark, don't you dare finish that sentence," Poppyheart growled, which only fueled Asterspark's amusement.

"Who needs t' eat squirrels...."

"I'm warning you!"

"When ShadowClanners are more than hoppy to eat frogs and toads?"

"Now you've done it!" Poppyheart whipped around to face Asterspark with a playful glare, and immediately the bluish-gray tom knew he was in trouble, though he didn't care. He had forgotten just how much fun it had been to egg his brother on with his jokes and japes. Still, he turned tail and raced off through the marshes with an excitable squeak, adrenaline and hilarity rushing through him when he heard the russet-furred tom giving chase.

Unfortunately for him, he wasn't nearly as active or speedy as his brother, so it didn't take long for him to feel a body bumping into his side, sending him tumbling down into the mud. He slid on his back and quickly tried rolling back over, but Poppyheart was already on top of him, wearing a rather mischievous grin. "Oh, no, Poppyheart, don't--!" Asterspark hadn't been able to finish his plea before he felt his brother's soft forepaws kneading mercilessly against his rather pudgy belly, and he threw his head back with a squeal.

"This is what you get for egging me on, brother!" Poppyheart yowled over his brother's noisy mewls, resisting his victim's insistent pushes and shoves with all four paws as he continued tickling.

"O-Okay, okay, I'm sorry! I give, I give!" Nearly out of breath now, Asterspark huffed and slumped into the ground with relief when Poppyheart finally subsided his playful attack, and he could hear his brother purring quite loudly.

"Victory for the Great Poppyheart!" After spending a few moments worth of gloating, Poppyheart bent down to help Asterspark climb back up to his paws. "Alright, up you get. I suppose our ruckus has chased off all the prey around here, so I guess we should be getting back to camp."

"Y-Yeah, guess you're right," Asterspark agreed breathlessly. "At least we got ourselves a mouse and a frog, enough to feed the kits. Though, we would've also had a squirrel to add to the pile...."

"Keep it up, brother, and I'll go for your ribs next!"

"Hhck!..." The bluish-gray tom twitched rather heavily, subconsciously taking a couple steps back. "A-Alright, alright. Let's just get these pieces of fresh-kill back t' camp, yeah?"

The two brothers retraced their steps from where they had fled their original hunting spot in their mirth, collecting Poppyheart's mouse and Asterspark's frog, and together they both made their way back to ShadowClan camp, their once broken bond now tighter than before.