Salt on my tongue

Yewpaw lowly stalked out of the apprentice's den, pawsteps light and gently placed. It was a stark contrast to how she was feeling, where every step in her old home sizzled against her pads and made a bloody sunrise flash behind her eyes. It wasn't as hard as it was to come out into the open as it was days after the fall of Stagclan, but each second still tug at her heartstrings painfully, and made her hear Night's joyous mew. Yewpaw looked down. The rough and tumble of the nursery, wrapped in the greenleaf sun, felt so awfully far now, coated in brambles and the smell of Riverclan warriors. What else would Shadowclan take from her? Her father, dead. Her mother, confined to the nursery. Her name had been next, the proper one given to her by Burnt replaced by one he most despised. Her whole clan was in tatters, quite literally ripped to shreds and scattered in the winds. Each cat was trying to make a blanket out of it, oblivious and attempting to ignore the festering rot within.

Dusk lit the clearing in a dull glow, casting shadows over the cats that lived within the hollow. Even if Shadowclan had taken back their 'rightful' lands, her brothers and sisters still resided within, as did her mother. If she would not hunt for Shadowclan, then she would hunt for her loved ones instead. Raising her eyes once more, Yew scanned the clearing for a suitable hunting partner. With any luck, it would be a cat that did not burn a hole through her pelt each time they looked at her.

Yewpaw jumped at the older cat's words, so caught up in her musings that she didn't notice the scarred she-cat walking up behind her. "Even if I haven't seen the whole territory yet, I'm still allowed to leave camp to hunt.." She bad touch disdainfully at the dirty floor, wondering if the ground would simply eat up Yewpaw's newly named mentor. "I am an apprentice, right?"

A small spark of shock ran through her at Thornbriar's mellow accusation. She wasn't actually trying to get a headstart on her sister, was she? After all, it was her natural born duty to protect her siblings as the oldest and most experienced. She had already proven herself too weak to protect a sister, so Yewpaw wasn't about to take her chances with the rest. "Any practice is good. I'm trying to hunt for my family, not turning this apprenticeship into some kind of..." She paused. "Competition."

Yewpaw turned her head towards the arch of brambles, looking on expectantly. "I suppose you want to take the lead? It would be irresponsible to trust some dirty Stagclan cat to lead a patrol, right?"

Yewpaw was reluctantly padding along behind Thornbriar, begrudgingly respecting the older she's words. Just because it somewhat made sense didn't mean she had to act like she liked it one bit. Her shoulder's stiffened at the deputy's question.

"I can hunt just as well without- I don't need to be given a beginners lesson when I can already do just fine by myself. She harrumphed, dissatisfied by her flimsy excuse. So what if she hadn't been taught how to hunt properly? Tons of cats got along just fine with their catches without training- it was insulting to think she couldn't otherwise. It wasn't her fault the clan cats needed to be trained in the ways of stalking and pouncing.

Yewpaw, now with something of a promise to honour, fell silent.

It took a beat or two of waiting, but the flicker of something dark and thin caught her eye. A lizard, trying to soak up the last bits of sun before it disappeared for the night. Yewpaw dipped her head, slim ears angling carefully to her target, pupils dilating as she waited for the perfect moment. Finally, when she thought she had found it, Yewpaw spared a brief second to give her haunches a reassuring little wiggle, and then launched clumsily at the lizard, kicking up a cloud of dust.

A flurry of movement burst out of the grasses ahead, knocking Yewpaw back. The lizard scampered off without a scratch, but the snarling form of a raccoon, which had been ready to bite into it's lovely, juicy lizard, had now set it's sights on the woefully under trained apprentice. It raised a threatening paw and swiped at her, narrowly missing her eyes by a mousetail. She let out a yowl and stumbled backwards into a patch of thicker grasses.



Raccoon:
HP: 30/30
SP: 300/30

Thornbriar:
HP: 40/40
SP: 120/120

Yewpaw:
HP: 20/20
SP: 80/80

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

---

'Hunting Dice' : 10

The small gray mouse twisted and turned through the leaf litter and pine needles, fear billowing off from its tiny form, enticing the significantly larger cat sprinting just mere whisker-lengths away from it. It squeaked when it felt razor-sharp claws rake its hindquarters, but thankfully for the little rodent, the claws hadn't snagged into its flesh, so it kept on running, leaving tiny droplets of blood to fly from the scratch mark the cat caused.

Skidding to a sudden halt as the cat and mouse neared a strongly-scented border, Sans hissed in frustration and watched helplessly as the mouse fled deep into the safety of ShadowClan's territory where he could no longer tread. He panted from the exertion of energy, lashing his tail to and fro and kneading into the ground in irritation at losing his lunch, but slowly his frustration subsided, almost instantly being replaced with a rather sorrowful longing.

It had been almost half a moon since his exile from ShadowClan, and this had been the first time since living his new rogue life coming close to the border of his old home. He couldn't help but wonder if Poppyheart and Thornbriar were okay. Had Redwing's kits been delivered by now? Were Silent Snows' kits apprentices? Was Scorchstar recovering well enough from all that had happened to his Clan? Oh, how he wanted so badly to know how his former Clanmates were doing. But, of course, he wasn't allowed back into ShadowClan territory.

Sans sighed heavily and backed away a few mouse-lengths away from the border as to not cause a ruckus should a ShadowClan patrol find him so close to it and sat down, staring out beyond the marshes and few scattered pine trees. He could still vividly recall the exact route back to camp from this position. He remembered how much fun it had been hunting with Poppyheart when they were young warriors, before the drama concerning their adopted and biological mothers split them apart. It had been right at that large rock next to the patch of mushrooms that Poppyheart had been trying to catch a lizard, only to slip on the mud and slam head-first into the side of the rock.

The rogue felt an amused purr trying to break free from his chest ... but he didn't let it. There was nothing to be happy about now. He didn't allow himself to feel even an inkling of happiness or content, not after what had happened just before Scorchstar and the rest of his loyalists were kicked out of the territory by StagClan. Stars, how he wished he had never sided with Burnt....

Movement caught his eye, and he turned his head to see a rather large and broad raccoon lumbering through the territory several tail-lengths away, quite deep into the territory. He flicked his ears uncomfortably, his pelt prickling with foreboding. Raccoons could be very vile and nasty opponents to any cat. He hoped that whatever patrol came across its path would be able to drive it away. Just to be sure, he stayed where he was, watching as the creature came closer and closer to a patch of grass, seeming to be stalking its prey.

All of a sudden, it disappeared behind the grass, and a panicked yowl of a cat rose up into the air, startling the birds residing in the treetops. Sans immediately leaped up to his feet, clawing madly into the earth beneath his paws, just barely resisting the urge to plunge himself into the territory and fight off the raccoon.

That's when he heard the all-too-familiar shriek of Thornbriar. He wasn't able to see her, but he most certainly heard her voice. In fact ... the other much younger cat sounded a lot like one of Silent Snows' kits.

To the Dark Forest with the law! He had to help them!

Pelting past the scented border and into the territory forbidden from him, he leaped over the patch of grass and swiftly sized up the situation. He saw the large raccoon trying to attack Thornbriar and Silent Snows' daughter Yew. The two of them were fighting valiantly against it, but he knew very well that one warrior and one very young and very inexperienced apprentice against a raccoon was a dangerous match-up.

Unsheathing his claws, Sans yowled at the raccoon from behind, aiming to catch its attention. It whipped its head around to try and see the attacker from behind, but as soon as it did, Sans slammed his paw hard against the side of its head, his claws slashing through its fragile ear, sending it down to the ground in a daze.

Sans used Front Paw Strike on Raccoon, dealing 14 damage and costing 10 stamina.

Sans
95/95 HP
240/250 SP

Raccoon
1/30 HP
300/300 SP

Thornbriar
40/40 HP
100/120 SP

Yewpaw
20/20 HP
80/80 SP

Yewpaw had just finished recovering from the shock of the badger when a strangely familiar pelt busted through the grassy boundary that surrounded the clearing. The strange cat took a ferocious swipe at the raccoon, and she took immense satisfaction in the way it swayed to and fro, clearly a lot less eager to make crow food out of the mentor and apprentice now.

Though her beating heart and common sense was warning her to stay put and let the warriors who had actually been through even a little battle training take care of this beast, her Stagclan blood roared for a fight and the chance to prove herself once and for all. Launching her smaller body into the fray with a hiss, she aimed for the raccoons unfocused eyes with a angry blow.

The raccoon, thoroughly beat, scampered off into whatever cranny it had crawled out of and left the cats panting for breath. With the adrenaline leaving her system, Yewpaw could finally get a glance at her mysterious saviour.

"Aster-" Yewpaw caught herself. "Sans?"

Yewpaw used Front Paw Blow on Raccoon, dealing 4 damage and costing 5 stamina.

Sans
95/95 HP
240/250 SP

Raccoon
-3/30 HP
300/300 SP

Thornbriar
40/40 HP
100/120 SP

Yewpaw
20/20 HP
75/80 SP