Here Comes the Horde (closed for all applestoat kits)

Appledapple had heard of "family bonding." She didn't remember who-- maybe Dustcloud had said something about it when she cleaned out the nests moons ago as an apprentice. Either way, if she was to keep up as their adopted mother, she needed to make sure that the family would be able to stay together. And with the crazy situation ThunderClan was in, constant patrols in and out, it was basically impossible for all the kits and their adopted mother to hang out together. So she very kindly bullied Stoatstar into sending out a hunting patrol with her and all their apprenticed kits-- sort of a competition to inspire better hunting, as well as a bonding exercise. However, as she tried to lead the very large group through camp, she found herself wondering why she had thought this was a good idea. She already felt worn out. Well.... it was too late to back out now.

"Okay," she told them once they reached a good hunting spot. She sat down, wrapping her tail around her legs. "Are you all ready to do a little hunting competition?"

Reedpaw nodded enthusiastically. It was rare for all his siblings to be together with their mother, even when they were kits. He wouldn’t give up such an opportunity for anything!

Since the deputy ceremony and the disaster it was, Cinderpaw had felt a little closer to Appledapple than Stoatstar. She loved him but he was biased and unfair in his deputy selection. The brown she-cat was happy when the mottled she-cat announced she and her siblings would be going on a hunting patrol together. The warrior wasn't really the "affectionate" type but to be honest, Cinderpaw could relate to that. She wasn't good at showing her love for her family.

When Appledapple suggested a hunting competition, a small smirk drew on Cinderpaw's muzzle. She loved a good competition but mainly because she wanted to win. "What are the rules?"

Softpaw eagerly walked over to the gathering of his family. A hunting trip would be awesome! He wanted to help thunderclan however he could. Let's make it interesting mom... all of us relatively untrained apprentices vs you an experienced warrior? whoever catches more wins? he suggested tilting his head curiously. It was the first idea that came to his head and therefore it was spoken. Softpaw didnt have a concept of a "filter" over what he said or not... it had gotten him in trouble in the past but hey, oh well. He said his piece about it and was told to shut up that was fine, they were probably right causing a big fuss over it was not the correct thing to have done...

but that was who he was couldn't change it sorry ... not sorry.

ooc: (reese's XD) ... sorry couldn't help it the ad played in my head the moment I typed 'sorry ... not sorry

There was that hardheadedness he had so much of, thanks mom (he had gotten alot of it from watching her) and he enjoyed it... the truth was that although he felt minnow was a bit unqualified he was fully behind the young deputy and would do anything Minnow asked of him to move Thunderclan ahead. Need him to clean out the elders den? You got it! Need a hunting patrol Minnow? Right behind you! Need me to chase out these lazy riverclan cats sitting around camp? NOW WE ARE TALKIN!

He sat down with the group and groomed his front paws waiting for any of the rest of their siblings to join up ... if they were planning to.

Heronpaw shook her head gently, a soft smile at her mother and sibling's antics. Anything that involves the words "Appledapple" and "competition" sounds more than dangerous for still-weak Heronpaw, but the young apprentice saw no point in refusing. Her mother would chastise her for being weak anyway. "Appledapple, are you sure about this? I mean.. this leafbare is considerably harsh, are you sure we should turn that into a competition? Someone could get injured." The mottled she-cat left the "me" part unsaid.

Heronpaw had recently taken to calling her adopted parents by their appointed names rather than any monikers, much unlike her siblings. It's not as if she held any grudge for them taking her and her littermates in, giving them homes, keeping them safe; it's just that Heronpaw could feel the disconnection like static in the air before a storm, and she was certain that they could feel it too. She just thought it better to distance as best as she could, maybe regain some of what she had lost as a little kit.


Though Heronpaw wasn't even sure what she was missing in the first place.

Shimmerpaw was nervous. He was never the quickest, strongest, or fiercest of his siblings. But he was not going to let that stop him. He wanted to provide for the clan, and make his parents proud, and this was as good a time to start as any.

Glancing around the ranks, Appledapple nodded. It looked like at least most of the apprentices had made it. Her own apprentice Reedpaw, competitive Cinderpaw, sickly Heronpaw, quiet Shimmerpaw-- even the hotheaded Softpaw. The adopted kits were all certainly very different in personality, but it was obvious to the eye that they were related. They'd all gained a little bit of her own traits, as well. So this competition would be exciting as well as good for the Clan. She grinned, her gray eyes shining.

"I'm not participating," she told Softpaw. "This competition is for all of you. It would make no sense for me to compete-- I already know I'm the best hunter! Though I would love for one of you to surpass me someday." She chuckled softly, then glanced to Heronpaw. The smallish she-cat had always been a little sick, but this competition didn't seem like something that would cause a problem. "Nonsense. This isn't a sparring competition, it's a hunting competition. And if any predator shows up, then we will all fight it together. But if you don't feel like participating, I won't force you. Everyone should be careful."

With that solved, she turned her attention to the group of her adopted kits, looking at each of them. "Okay, here are the rules!" she said, raising her voice slightly. "You all have three chances to catch a piece of prey. Whoever catches the most prey wins. If there is a tie, then whoever has the biggest piece of prey between them is the winner. The winner gets first pick of the fresh-kill, bragging rights, and the knowledge that they helped ThunderClan immensely. All of you are helping ThunderClan, every time you go out to hunt. But this is a competition-- and it starts now! May the best hunter win!" Appledapple signaled with her tail that the hunt had begun.


OOC: Okay, here are the rules. Every apprentice gets three rolls of the Hunting Dice. You can do them all in one post if you wish, or you can split them up-- whichever you feel like, as long as you only roll the dice three times.If you roll a 1-5 on the dice, then you catch one piece of prey. If you roll 6-10, you fail at catching one. No predators will appear (they would ruin the contest). Feel free to rp this out however you want, and pm me if you have specific questions.

I am using different rules from those on the site's Hunting page, therefore this topic does not count for the "use the Hunting System" requirement to rank up. Instead, it is just for fun and glory!

Softpaw was the first to jump to his paws hearing the rules.  Oh this is gonna be fun! I cant wait to help Thunderclan

he glanced at his siblings beating you all will be an added bonus he added on chuckling playfully.

Once Appledapple signaled for the hunt to begin he grinned and stalked off searching for food.

He was glad she was doing this, it gave them all bonding time and would make Thunderclan stronger as a result which was his whole goal and mission.

Stalking along he sniffed the cold air hoping to smell anything around.

... there was not much around unfortnuatly the harsh season was pretty unforgiving on things being out and about.  He sighed and continued onward.

Then something sounded a little ways off, the sound had given it away not the smell this time.  It was a squirrel digging through the snow looking for where it had hidden its food stashes earlier that year when there was not snow everywhere.  Grinning Softpaw slowly approached it creeping up behind it.

When he got close he wiggled back and forth on his hind legs and pounced!

(rolling dice here)

He missed by alot! it was really bad. HE WASNT EVEN CLOSE! the squirrel sat there for a couple seconds looking dumbfounded at this idiot of a cat who just faceplanted himself into the snow beside it. The squirrel scampered up a nearby tree and chirmed down at him as if mocking him.
"haha dumb cat cant catch me with that form!" it seemed to chirmp

Softpaw clawed at the ground frustrated anger setting in. Why couldn't he do anything right! he smacked at the snow bank he had just plowed into angerly sending snow bits flying in anger.

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

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'Hunting Dice' : 9

After sulking for a bit Softpaw got back up and continued on his way hmm well he still had 2 more tries so he would just have to make the most of those, he moved along silently through the forest which was becoming more and more familiar to him as his home.  He knew he would do anything he could to push Thunderclan forward and right now that meant not missing his next catch.

He went a ways before spotting his next opportunity, a robin that had landed breifly on the forest floor, it was singing away unaware of his presense... hmm one stupid bird he thought to himself grinning he silently moved towards it

(rolling dice here)

He pounced and this time his aim was true, he smacked directly into the bird and feathers went flying in all directions as he trapped it between his claws. With a quick nip to its neck it was all but over for the little thing. He purred carrying it in his jaws. He was so happy that he had caught something and hoped his catch would feed one of the elders well. Looking around at the ground around him it was quite the messy catch with feathers thrown every which way... but hey, food was food and thunderclan was starving so if he was able to help provide for the family it made him extremely happy.

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

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'Hunting Dice' : 2

Softpaw stalked along quietly he had hid his bird catch in an easy to remember spot and would retrieve it after his third attempt.

He stalked along through the forest quietly again looking around for another chance at getting some food. He walked for quite a ways around Thunderclan territory smelling around for anything, the scarcity of prey was clear and he had to travel quiet a ways just to get a shot at finding anything... it gave him lots of time to think. Right now it seemed his clan was hanging on by the edge, Riverclan and Skyclan both pushed us around so much and it felt like they were getting squeezed and bullied by the two larger clans, with Riverclans taking Sunningrocks and Skyclan hogging lots of land as well there was little left for his clan.  He and his friends, his family were all starving and were physically weakened due to the situation, this made him so angry and upset, the riverclan cats they had taken in he saw no differently, he did not view Swan as thunderclan, rather as a riverclan intruder who had long outlasted her welcome, most of his catches would probably end up going to her.  He swiped at the ground in frustration and annoyance.  

Appledapple and Starlingflare had both told him to let the warriors deal with this and to focus on his training, so he tried his best to follow what they had said.  It was just hard seeing his already weakened clan have to take care of others that had been excluded from their own home. Starlingflare said he would take care of it and Softpaw knew that he would, for now there was nothing he could do to help with that problem.  So Softpaw did as they said focused on his training getting ready to become a full warrior to help the clan.

He spotted a white rabbit from a ways away, it had blended in so well with the snow and the only reason that he had seen it was that the unlucky creature had decided to hop around a little and the movement is what caught his eye, he hoped to make that the rabbits last mistake ever.

He dropped low sneaking up on it, he licked his lips... oh it looked so nice and tasty. He would be delighted if he could bring this back to one of his hungry clanmates.

He snuck as close as he could to it getting as greedy as he could, he wanted the distance to be as small as possible so that he would have the best chance when he pounced.

(Rolling here)

It appeared he got too greedy with his approach and the rabbit bounded off before he had time to pounce, he had lost the element of suprise and now the chase would be all that much harder.  Hissing in frustration he bounded after it trying to make up for his already early mistake.  He followed it weaving in and around trees,  unfortunately the smaller animal had a big advantage in the densly wooded area as it could dodge and manuver the terain far easier due to its smaller frame.

It gained more and more distance ahead of him before finally disappearing for good, Softpaw had lost it.

He stood panting breathing hard catching his breath for a long while.  Then in pure anger and frustration he struck hard at a tree with his front paws lashing at it with claws. Afggghhh he grunted annoyed at the loss of his catch.  He was angry at himself, one move differently and he could have been carrying a nice warm rabbit meal home to Stoatstar, or maybe one of the elders who needed it... but no he had messed it all up trying to get too greedy in his approach.  He was angry at himself and kicked at the snow beneath his paws.

Sighing and sulking in his loss he went back to where his bird from earlier was hidden and retrieved it.

He made his way back over to where Appledapple was waiting and set his robin down at her feet.

"I only got one" he said upset with that result.  


He pushed it towards her "I want you to have it... when's the last good meal you got?" he asked her
it was a brief and rare side of him he let out, one that cared.  The truth was he did care deeply for his clan and clanmates, the brash hothead just usually let his anger and angst show first before that.

He sat down next to her hoping his siblings were having better luck than he did, he put the success of the clan ahead of the competishion... it would still hurt quite a bit when one of them improved on his score no doubt, but at least the clan was getting some meals this way.

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

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'Hunting Dice' : 6

Reedpaw nodded happily to his mother's suggestions, and he went off in search of prey. suddenly, he caught sight of a blackbird that was perched on a low branch. it looked like something Stoatstar would enjoy. he crouched and came close enough to pounce. suddenly, he caught sight of a blur of brown aiming for his face. the tom panicked and snapped his jaws around the adder before he even realized what was happening. he stared at the limp adder at his paws and wondered if it counted as prey. hmm... a hungry cat would eat anything, right?

Reedpaw used Killing Strike, dealing all damage and -10SP

Reedpaw
20/20 HP
50/60 SP (-10)

Adder
0/15 HP (-15)
75/75 SP

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

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'Hunting Dice' : 10