smoky morning haze [closed]

When one had been an apprentice as long as Lightpaw had, patrol assignments were inevitable. Mistyrain’s training and his personal practice had given him reasonable confidence in his hunting skills, and in a strange way, he found things like patrols to be calming. Even as a kit, he’d hated having idle paws. There were times (today, for one) when it meant dragging himself out of camp before his eyes had fully opened, but Lightpaw had long ago decided there were worse things than a few minutes of lost sleep. No, the only bad thing about patrols was the beginning. Specifically, waiting for the others to gather. This was what occupied Lightpaw at this very moment. He had seated himself near the entrance to SkyClan’s camp and allowed his well-groomed tail to settle over his equally well-groomed paws, and was now scanning the crowd in search of the other cats assigned to his patrol.

Clearshine, Hawkstrike, Sagepaw—three near-strangers. Being his half-brother, Sagepaw made a reasonable substitute for having one of his littermates here with him, but they hadn’t spoken much. As for the others… With the exception of Firflower, Lightpaw had yet to be comfortable talking to SkyClan’s warriors regardless of age; there were even times he clammed up around his own mentor. But he couldn’t let that happen today. The pale tabby shuffled uneasily, gaze shifting to his paws. Hopefully they'd see him before he got the nerve to track them down himself. What if he had to wake them up? It was fairly early...not quite a dawn patrol, but close enough that some cats could still be dozing.

"Good morning, Lightpaw. The sun in shining quite beautifully today, isn't it? The fresh scent of trees in Newleaf is so splendid, it's a joy that we'll be hunting in this weather." Clearshine padded over to the apprentice he was assigned to patrol with, offering him a smile in greeting. Though Lightpaw was certainly a center for interest, the new warrior found his eyes drifting up to the trees. The end of Newleaf always had such vibrant green leaves that gave off a refreshing scent, and made him feel like a kit again. Snow was beautiful, but leaves had a majesty to them that no non-living thing could ever quite match. And the way the early morning sunlight shone through the treetops, giving the emerald foliage a golden hue. Even as a warrior, he was barely able to take his eyes off of nature and onto his role. This was one of his first patrols as a warrior, and he was glad he wasn't leading it. He wasn't made for leadsership, and would much rather frolic in flowers than make critical decisions for a group. While he took those things seriously, they bad things never seemed as important as the good ones to him. Whether that made him a better or worse warrior, he couldn't say.

Since the return of the remainder of the clan, led by Tinystar, Hawkstrike’s personality had proven to change dramatically. For the first time since he had joined SkyClan, his mask had started to fuse with his true self, to the point where even he couldn’t tell one apart from the other anymore…maybe this was a whole new him and he still had to admit it. He no longer was the calm and friendly warrior he had allowed the clan to know, but more serious, strict, and while he still showed sincere care and worry for those in the clan, he no longer had any restrains showing his distrust and dislike for the other clans, especially their marsh-dwelling neighbors. Even exiled cats and rogues were higher up on his tolerance list.

While he couldn’t let go of habits of old as easily as other cats, he had forced himself to sleep through most of the night after he had been notified about him being on a relatively early patrol instead of his usual dusk or night ones. It wasn’t easy though, and because of his body not being used to it, he had to deal with interrupted sleep all night long…the last time his eyes opened he decided it was useless to try and fall asleep again with how close dawn was though, and had walked out and waited patiently between the shadows of camp for the time to arrive and his patrol to gather.

He would take a nap or two after the patrol was over, so not being fully rested was not even between his current concerns anyways. If anything, what truly worried him was the purpose of this patrol. He was a skilled and ruthless fighter, but where he exceeded on battle, he always found himself lacking on hunting skill…and as much as his pride wouldn’t allow him to admit it, he knew this dead-well.

His ears twitched as soon as the voices of those in his assigned patrol reached them, causing him to get back on his feet and walk towards them without really thinking about it. It took him longer to process what they were saying than reach them, a stern look on his face “The weather is nice, yes…” He agreed with Clearshine, but his words reflected no positive emotions or even real interest in the beautiful day that greeted them, his mind busy with other things.

He ruffled his long and somewhat spiky coat before sitting next to the newer warrior and apprentice, his forest green eyes looking across camp in search for the missing apprentice “Would you two be comfortable with a quick check on the borders if we manage to finish our hunting early?”.

The chocolate tabby warrior had been obsessing over the borders quite a lot since the last gathering. Witnessing first-hand how much SkyClan had suffered after the flood when speaking about their numbers, compared to the other clans, left him slightly paranoid. They were at their weakest, and in the current situation all clans found themselves in, he couldn’t help but having his thought drift over to thoughts regarding potential invasions from their bigger, stronger neighbors.

Sagepaw rolled over in his comfy moss bed in the apprentices' den, yawning as he roused from sleep. It was such a nice morning, yet he couldn't shake the feeling that he was forgetting something. Something he had to do...What was it? He stretched out his front legs all the way down to his toes then curled back up again, sitting in that loaf position as he blinked the sleep out of his eyes. Usually he wasn't up this early. Did he have training with Daylily? No...did Mintwhisker need his help again? No, that wasn't it either...Suddenly he leapt straight up to his paws with a loud gasp, earning a few annoyed grumbles from his denmates. "Foxdung, I'm late!"

He gave himself the fastest morning fur clean he'd ever done in his life and bounded out of the den, accidentally stepping on a couple tails as he made his way out. StarClan, I hope they haven't left without me! There's two warriors on this patrol, oh I hope they don't tell Tinystar on me-- he thought, racing into the clearing and out towards the entrance to camp. There were three cats already there, surely that was his patrol. It was too early for other cats to be up and about. As he got nearer he recognized his half-brother Lightpaw and the young warrior Clearshine, who had just recently left the apprentices' den. He'd never spoken to Hawkstrike much, he was rather intimidating...but the older tom was also there. The sandy-furred tom skidded to a stop, blinking. "So sorry I'm late! I hope I'm not too late, I overslept, it was an accident, but I'm ready now! Have you been waiting long? Thanks for waiting for me! Sorry again, we can go now!" He rattled all that out almost in one breath, then inhaled deeply again. "Good morning by the way! Hi Lightpaw."

Thankfully, the rest of the patrol didn’t keep him waiting long. Lightpaw barely stifled a sigh of relief as the first cat, a silver-and-white tabby he’d come to know as Clearshine, padded over to wait near him. Clearshine was no less a warrior than the others, but his newness made him a little less scary—emphasis on “a little.” ”Good morning,” Lightpaw meowed with a polite smile of his own. He had never known a season that wasn’t newleaf (though greenleaf, he’d heard, was on the horizon); even so, newleaf in the mountains and newleaf in SkyClan were strikingly different. ”I’m glad it’s warming up.”

Then a brown tabby appeared, and Lightpaw’s mouth snapped shut as if he was embarrassed to be caught talking about something as trivial as the weather. He knew nothing about Hawkstrike, which somehow made the older warrior—the oldest of everyone on the patrol, in fact—seem even more intimidating. Lightpaw sat up straighter, ears angling forward. Hawkstrike could have asked him to climb the Highpine, and he would’ve felt obligated to obey; compared to that, a quick detour along SkyClan’s borders was more than reasonable. Practical, too. His first Gathering had shown him how small his Clan was compared to the others; though they had the fewest cats to guard their borders, they had to be the most careful. ”Fine by me,” he said, giving Hawkstrike a sharp nod.

Just when Lightpaw was thinking, Maybe I’ll have to wake him up after all, a furry brown blur appeared, speeding toward them in a way Lightpaw recognized from his own early-morning lessons. He couldn’t help but laugh as Sagepaw stopped, kicking up dirt. Finally, someone he could afford to relax around. Sagepaw was closer to warriorhood than he was, but family was family. ”Good morning to you, too,” he said as he got to his paws and stood near his half-brother, mouth twitching despite his efforts to hide it. "We were just leaving, I think...?" With the other patrolmembers present, Lightpaw was happy to relinquish leadership to—well, to anyone; for now, he looked toward Hawkstrike.

"Greetings, Hawkstrike. You are correct, a check of the borders would be wise after our hunting today. In addition to its practicality, it would give us an excuse to walk through more of this beautiful forest on such a fine day," Clearshine agreed, smiling warmly at Hawkstrike for a few moments. The older warrior had a quite powerful build, and the darkness of his pelt added a rather fearsome feel to the tom. It wasn't intimidating in the way that he made the younger warrior feel scared, just in a way that he seemed to radiate with strength that could do almost anything. It was a contrast to Lightpaw, who's cream colored fur and smaller size lead to the appearance of youthful innocence. His thoughts were interrupted by the sudden presence of Sagepaw, who seemed to be bursting with a nervous energy. His aura was more vibrant that the other two, full of a young energy that many apprentices seemed to have. He had never been quite like that, always a bit more subdued and observant. But it was a refreshing personality, and reminded him of a waterfall. His smile stayed pleasant as the apprentices spoke, and while he was fully listening, his eyes once again wandered to the trees. A robin rested in a nearby one, the sunshine reflecting beautifully off of its feathers. While he could have spent all day focusing on the way its beak curved, the fragile way it shifted its feathers, and how brightly it contrasted the intense green of the leaves around it, he had a patrol to take part in.
"Good morning, Sagepaw. And Lightpaw's words are true, I believe we are just about to begin our patrol," Clearshine confirmed, his voice gentle. The view of the territory outside camp was enticing, and he smiled at the thought of heading out momentarily. Camp was quite appealing for many reasons, but nothing could quite compete with the freedom that being surrounded by foliage gave. There were no paths, nothing was organized, just treetops far above and undergrowth all around. The beautiful chaos of the world excited him, and he loved how he could live somewhere his entire life and still discover something new everyday. It was perfect. Flicking his tail slightly, he padded just outside of the camp's entrance, trying to gently herd the rest of the patrol along with him. The amazing scent of freshly bloomed flowers and young leaves hit his nose, and he never felt more at home.

Hawkstrike ears perked up as he heard the voice of the missing apprentice, his attention going from the two cats already with them to the cat that was running out of the apprentice’s den like if she had just found a dog inside. He narrowed his eyes a bit as she apparently tried to mix all words into a very long one to explain her situation, one of his ears twitching lightly. While part of him wanted to be mad at her for being the last one to arrive, she didn’t arrive that late, so he just took a deep breath as he reminded himself of his own days as an apprentice and his own slip-ups “No, Sagepaw, you are not too late. Be more careful next time though” His voice was mostly neutral, though a weird mix of both annoyance and understanding, which seemed to contradict each other and make impossible to tell Hawkstrie’s real mood.

After the two cats that had listened to his proposal agreed with him, a half-smile made its way to his muzzle as he nodded and got up “Good. Let’s not waste any more time then. If we are lucky, we might find some prey that might have their senses and reaction times hindered by drowsiness while they look for food, thanks to how early is it” With a quick flick of his tail he led the path out of camp, noticing none else was apparently willing to take the leading role...not that he minded though.

Ears, nose and eyes were put to work as soon as he gave his first step out of camp, while hunting was never his strong point, he wasn’t about to use that as an excuse for letting any piece of prey escape from his claws. Only occasionally an ear flicked backward to listen to the steps of his clanmtes and make sure they were still following.

(OOC: Sorry for the late reply! Also Ink, Sage is a tom :P)

"Okay, Hawkstrike! I'll be more careful next time." He gave a sheepish smile, waiting for the group's next instructions. Thankfully Hawkstrike took the lead; no one else was willing to step up to the plate and he was the eldest warrior. Sagepaw followed the group outside of camp, keeping his eyes, ears, and mostly nose ready to find prey. Trailing behind a little as he focused on staying downwind and walking as quietly as he could, eventually he stopped at some rustling in the brush. He gasped and carefully waded into the leaves, catching a whiff of a grouse nearby. The old apprentice dropped into a hunting crouch and tried his best to sneak up on the prey, then sprang as soon as it began to flap away to avoid him.

His claws sunk into the flesh of the bird and his weight dragged them both back down to the ground. A triumphant grin spreading across his face, he snapped the neck of the bird and carried it back to the group. "Look, I got something!"

Sagepaw caught 1 piece of prey, using -3 stamina.
15/15 HP
47/50 SP (-3)

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

---

'Hunting Dice' : 5

As he’d hoped, Hawkstrike was the first to leave camp, allowing the rest of the patrol to fall into step behind him. If they were going to pass the borders as the older warrior had suggested, they needed to…well, maybe hurry was too strong a word, but they had a lot to do and not nearly enough time to do it. Lightpaw gave his pelt a final, hasty once-over, then padded along after his Clanmates. Chances were, his fur would be a mess by the end of this anyway. Though he had been on patrols before, the fear of humiliating himself in front of his peers and superiors persisted. He found himself lagging—not as far as Sagepaw, but enough to put some space between himself and the older warriors in the hopes it would ease his worries. Suddenly, Sagepaw vanished…and reappeared proudly carrying a grouse. Lightpaw couldn’t help a small smile. The first catch had been made; now the pressure was on.

An odd shape atop a small rock caught the young apprentice’s eye. When he looked closer, he realized what it was: A lizard had settled in one of the many sunny patches across the forest floor. Inwardly relieved he’d managed to find something so quickly, Lightpaw began the slow crawl forward. He’d learned (partially from his training, partially from experience) that lizards could be tricky; though they looked as oblivious as rocks, a too-heavy pawstep could startle them. However, Lightpaw wasn’t the only creature to spot the lizard. Something swooped down on him from above, tearing through his fur with its talons. He leapt away, hissing, blood seeping from the scratches across his side, to see— "O-owl!" Hadn't Sandpaw fought one of these? The lizard skittered out of sight; with its prey gone, the owl turned its eyes onto the bristling apprentice once more.

Lightpaw attempted to catch Lizard, using 3 stamina. The attempt was a failure...
An Owl appeared! Owl used Talon Strike on Lightpaw, dealing 10 damage and using 10 stamina.

Lightpaw
10/20 HP (-10)
77/80 SP (-3)

Owl
50/50 HP
110/120 SP (-10)

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

---

'Hunting Dice' : 10