Sunlight Gathers

Wolfcall hated the snow. He hated how cold it was, how it made his paws go numb, how it made his dark pelt stand stark contrast, and most of all, he hated how it made everything constantly and miserably wet. But his hatred for the snow and the cold and everything else to do with Leafbare paled in comparison to how the dark warrior felt about this sun. It was everywhere, unrelenting and inexorable, and it was changing the forest more and more each day. There had been no rain - not in what felt like moons and moons, and even the creek had given up and left them, forcing the SkyClanners to send patrols to the river to bring back whatever water they could, for the kits and elders.

That's where he was now, atop the Tallbranch after having sent the latest patrol of warriors and apprentices to the river, armed with balls of moss. He ached to go with them, to wallow along the riverbank and soothe his heat-scorched paws, to drink as much as his belly could fit. But that path was not for him, not today - he had a bigger role to fill today, to check the outer reaches of the territory near Twolegplace, something that had been neglected of late thanks to its distance from both the camp and the river. And he had to choose a couple of unfortunate souls to accompany him. Beechpaw was a given, of course... he'd taken it easy on her lately, not wanting to overwork the fresh apprentice into heatstroke, and today had been one of the days where they'd simply spent the hotter part of the morning in camp. The other, though... his amber-gold eyes scanned the clearing below him, trailing off to watch the patrol he'd just sent off leave the camp before flicking back, to where Bloodstrike had just moved into his line of vision. Perfect.

"Bloodstrike, Beechpaw!" he called, sliding down from the Tallbranch. "Come with me, please. I need you on patrol."

Beechpaw was stretched out near the apprentices' den, attempting to be grateful for the small patch of shade she was in. The heat was simply unbearable. Smokefeather had been one of the lucky cats to go down to the river, and Beechpaw wished she could have joined her mother there. Wolfcall had decided to simply spend the hottest portion of the day in camp, and while Beechpaw was grateful for the respite, she also wished she could be doing something useful. And really, it wasn't much of a respite when the ground was hot enough to hurt to walk on. Yet while Beechpaw would rather have been doing something, the heat was making her drowsy. She was half asleep, though her feathered, tufted ears twitched in acknowledgement of the noise of other cats around her.

At Wolfcall's voice, the apprentice lifted her head, dark eyes settling on her mentor. Patrol? In this heat? Her grandfather had to be mad. Beechpaw rose to her paws and wearily shook out her pelt, padding over to where her mentor was waiting.

"Will greenleaf ever end? This is torture." She was fairly certain that her thoughts echoed what most of the clan had to be feeling at this point. Especially those cats that had longer fur, like Dustpaw. Beechpaw's own fur was starting to grow into it's length, and while it was mostly pale it also trapped in heat like the dark, weird stone on the thunderpath did.

"Where are we going?" She was fairly sure she'd be disappointed in the answer if it wasn't the river, but hearing Wolfcall talk might just keep her mind off of the exhausting heat that permeated the air for more than two seconds. And Beechpaw very much wished that she could force those thoughts to the back of her mind.

Bloodstrike had just dropped off a rabbit, a prey item he had become quite efficient at catching and killing. He wondered how many Skyclan warriors could boast that they could consistently catch rabbits. Upon hearing Wolfcall calling for him, Bloodstrike turned his head to look. Beechpaw too? Well, he supposed he'd spend sometime with his daughter and father. He padded up to Wolfcall obediently and gave an affectionate albeit brief head bump to Beechpaw. He'd ask her how her training was going later.

"I am ready when you are." Bloodstrike said simply. He then stood there, in strong but stoic silence. he could never appear weak in front of his family, especially for the two people he could never stomach to appear weak for. His father and his daughter... the combo could end up mentally giving him strength to endure even the most harsh situations.

He did however, feel horrible for Beechpaw. This greenleaf had been brutal, to say the very least.

"It'll end," Wolfcall assured her, drawing his tongue across the fur at his chest as Bloodstrike padded towards them. He answered her second question to them both, rising and speaking as he headed towards the entrance of camp. "We're going towards Twolegplace," he said simply, picking a path through the shadiest part of the forest. As long as they stuck close to the trees, it was cooler - hardly perceptibly cooler, but something, at least. Wolfcall sucked in a long breath, mouth open and tongue just barely peeking through.

"I know it's the least desirable place to be, so far from our now-only source of water, but this border needs to be checked and refreshed still," he was berating himself for not specifically assigning this patrol to anyone, as typically it was him that liked to check it, but he'd been so busy with Beechpaw that it had slipped his mind. "Besides, I wanted to check something..." he trailed off, shaking his head. "Anyway, Bloodstrike, how has your training with Sweetpaw been?"

Beechpaw relaxed at her father's affectionate head-bump, a quiet purr rising in her chest before she stepped away and glanced up at Wolfcall. Beechpaw realized that she was growing. Neither of the dark toms seemed as tall to her as they once did.

An ear twitched in dismay at Wolfcall's words, twolegplace was in exactly the opposite direction of the river, and was a longer journey. "Wonderful," She managed sarcastically, though her tone lacked any real irritation. Being irritated would be wasting energy.

Wolfcall had the courtesy to pick a more shaded route through the trees, at least. The ground wasn't quite as unforgiving as it would be if it baked under direct sunlight, but the dry, cracked earth was still hot enough to be uncomfortable at best as she followed her father and grandfather through the territory.

At Wolfcall's question to her father, Beechpaw twitched an ear in his direction curiously. She'd been kept busy by her own mentor, and she knew Bloodstrike had been busy with his own apprentice just as Smokefeather was with Primrosepaw. Sweetpaw, was the apprentice Bloodstrike had been given? Beechpaw hadn't really spoken to the other she-cat. Generally she was more concerned with her own siblings when they actually had downtime at the same time, anyways. Still, she was curious to hear what her father had to say. Otherwise, she was content to mostly remain quiet on the trek out to twolegplace.

Bloodstrike nodded with a stoic expression. Toward Twoleg place it was, though his concern was more for his long-furred daughter. If she got tired, at least he was big enough to carry her on his back back to camp. His ear twitched as Wolfcall's voice tapered off.

"Check something?" He inquired as he followed after his father and with his daughter in tow. And then Sweetpaw was brought up. Bloodstrike couldn't help but smile, and even gave a short chuckle. "Training is going well. I think she'll make an excellent warrior and she definitely lives up to her name." She really was a sweet apprentice. Especially since he had daughters at about her age, he definitely held a certain paternal protectiveness of her. It probably showed on his face.

The scents of Twoleg place hit his nose... and all he could think about was the cat that died on the other side of the fence and Iniko, the loner he met there too.

The deputy flicked Beechpaw with his tail at her sarcasm, managing an amused half-chuckle despite his shared opinion of the weather. Together, the three of them made their way towards Twolegplace, Wolfcall nodding in approval at Bloodstrike's words. "I've been keeping an eye on all of the first-time mentors," he told him, "you're doing exceptionally well."

He'd taken another step or two when he paused, lifting his tail as a signal for the others to stop as well. Ahead, an impression in the dirt had caught his eye, and with his nostrils flared and ears perked, he approached cautiously, inspecting the track that was unmistakable now that he'd gotten closer - twoleg.

Wolfcall's hackles spiked uneasily, and he gestured for Bloodstrike to come closer. "The scent here is faint, a day or two old, but they don't ever come this far in..." the deputy trailed off as he moved away, searching for more. The ground was dry, and paws as light as a cat's would never leave tracks here, but there were several more of the twoleg's tracks as Wolfcall padded in the direction of the border. "Be cautious, I'm not su-" his words were cut off as the sound of something large moving through the brush sounded not far off. "Hide! Go, up a tree!" he hissed, dashing to the side and towards a bush that was in desperate need of a good shower, but still enough to hide his form.

The sound grew closer, the crackling of dried bushes and the howling of a twoleg - no, not just one, two, three forms pushed into view, yipping and growling among themselves. Wolfcall suppressed a growl of his own, glancing about frantically to make sure that Beechpaw and Bloodstrike had gotten clear.

Beechpaw attempted to duck, her mentor's tail tip brushing against a tufted ear as her whiskers twitched. She had a point about the temperature, though. At least she didn't share the darker fur of her mentor and father.

"Haven't spoken to her much, but she does seem nice. Seems like we're all too busy with training to really get to know each other." Beechpaw was joking, mostly. She had to admit, not getting a chance to talk to certain denmates had been a good thing.

Beechpaw spotted the large tracks, and her lips curled in instinctive disgust at the scent that permeated the air, it wasn't exactly fresh, but it still reeked. Twolegs, Wolfcall said, but why would they be this deep into the forest? Then her mentor's fur fluffed up in alarm.

At his word, Beechpaw turned and scrambled up a tree that was close by. She crouched on a branch of the tree, one a little higher than she preferred, shifting slightly in an attempt to make herself appear smaller... Hopefully, less noticeable. Her pale silver and white fur wasn't the best for hiding in undergrowth, she knew. If Starclan was good, the twolegs would suffer the same shortcomings as most non-Skyclan cats and not look up as they walked. When multiple of them came into view below, Beechpaw kept very still, not wanting to be seen by the weird, loud, obnoxious creatures.

Bloodstrike wasn't expecting the compliment, so he smiled a big smile and walked a little taller. An exceptional job? Sweet! That feeling was shattered when Wolfcall brought his attention to the twoleg tracks. He inhaled the scent deeply into his nose and even parted his mouth, drinking it all in and committing it to memory. The scent filled him with a sense of dread, an emotion he was very unfamiliar with... Then the voices came... Upon Wolfcall's orders, Bloodstrike's eyes immediately went to Beechpaw. He wasn't moving until her own safety was secured first. Once she had scrambled up a tree, Bloodstrike dashed around to the opposite side of a tree trunk from the twolegs and sclaed the bark in near total silence. He drew himself up onto a thick branch and pressed his tail, belly, throat and chin against it. If the twolegs never looked directly at him, Bloodstrike simply looked like another lump on a branch in a whole forest full of twisting knots and lumps on the trees.

He eyed them as they passed, and if even one of them should dare make a move for either of his family members, Bloodstrike and all of his 20lbs of well-muscled fury, was going to drop onto their necks and rend them to ribbons.

((I lost my first post, sorry this one sucks))