The future's in your paws. Shape it well.Roleplay in a cat Clan of warriors. Based off the Warriors series by Erin Hunter. Takes place in an AU before the cats in the books existed.
Welcome to WCC! Here are our latest announcements:
Activity checks take place on the 1st of the month. PM a staff member with the completed form if you missed it.
Newleaf is finally here, and the Clans hope to find reprieve from the tough Leaf-bare.
Gatherings take place on the 1st of the month; keep your eyes out for a staff member's post!
Please feel free to hit up any staff member if you have any questions!
Subject: dripping shadows [c] Sat 9 Apr 2022 - 17:02
If there was a single thing that Rainstrike could say she hated most about the Place of No Stars, was that it was boring. Day in and day out - not that they had a way to count such things - it was the same cold, dank, depressing. Spending over a moon in ShadowClan now had drawn such similarities between here and there that it was growing difficult for Rainstrike to keep her composure. She was bored and she was tired of sitting around waiting for something to happen, so... time to find some entertainment.
She strolled through the ShadowClan camp, eye peeled for something, anything, that she could amuse herself with... and smiling to herself when it came in the form of a brown and white apprentice that started to cross her path. Rainstrike stepped in front of her, impeding the way. "You," she said, authoritatively. "What's your name?"
xaandiir Former Staff
Characters : [P]oppyshine; [Pi]neblossom; [W]hisperear; [C]rookedlight; [L]arkspring; [Wi]llowwisp; [R]ashoumon Clan/Rank : RC T5 Deputy; SC T5; WC T5; SkC T5; RC T4; RC T4; Rogue T1 Number of posts : 3011 Gender : Any Pronouns Age : 25
When Rainstrike stepped in front of her, Icepaw froze like a statue. Her eyes were trained on the white fluffy chest of the Dark Forest cat as her heartbeat began to pick up. It was not often that she was the focus of anyone in ShadowClan anymore, save for maybe another Dark Forest cat, Stagshade. She didn’t think she did anything to earn another’s ire, but clearly she’d done something.
As she finally regained her senses, she took a step back and looked up at the cat before her. Thankfully, her dulled eyes and inability to bring expression to her face kept any fear or disgust from showing on her features. She meowed, “Icepaw.” She didn’t dare ask for hers in return, or be indignant, or even walk away. She felt stuck to the ground like her feet had frozen to the ground below.
"Icepaw," Rainstrike repeated, her single eye flicking up and down the apprentice. "Who named you? A blind queen?" She snorted, glancing side to side... no one seemed too terribly interested in what they were doing - not that any of the clan cats could stop her, anyway. Rainstrike tipped her head towards the camp's entrance. "I'm going to be training you today," she told the apprentice. "So let's get on with it."
xaandiir Former Staff
Characters : [P]oppyshine; [Pi]neblossom; [W]hisperear; [C]rookedlight; [L]arkspring; [Wi]llowwisp; [R]ashoumon Clan/Rank : RC T5 Deputy; SC T5; WC T5; SkC T5; RC T4; RC T4; Rogue T1 Number of posts : 3011 Gender : Any Pronouns Age : 25
Icepaw looked down at her paws. Her mother had always told her about how her name had been chosen for her white paws and how it looked like she’d stepped into the fresh snow outside during the season she’d been born. Of course, Icepaw didn’t dare say any of this to Rainstrike now. Her tail, though it was short, did its best to curl over her paws as she looked back up at the she-cat.
“Yes,” Icepaw mewed hollowly as she stood up. It felt like she never had any true mentor anymore, what with Cicadashriek being assigned and then reassigned to Thalia, the other Dark Forest cat Stagshade taking an interest in training her, and now Rainstrike too. She hoped all of this would amount to something, but she couldn’t be certain. Regardless, she would not fight against the she-cat’s demand. Icepaw followed behind Rainstrike to wherever she was taking her for training. An idle thought in the back of her mind wondered what was going to happen to her.
Unbothered, Rainstrike led the young apprentice out of the ShadowClan camp, with a few of the greasy shadow-cats on their heels. As she'd familiarized herself with this territory long before now, it didn't take them long until they were at their destination, a patch of deep marsh that Rainstrike herself had mostly avoided until now. She didn't hate the water like some cats, but she also didn't relish the idea of going within the depths of the marsh, herself.
Already, several creatures had found themselves at the mercy of the deeper water... Rainstrike counted a squirrel, and a large wood lizard, both floating, drowned, amid the lily pads and marsh grasses. Rainstrike sat back on her haunches at the water's edge, wrinkling her nose as the wet ground soaked into her fur. "Go on then... get that squirrel." It wouldn't be a pleasant experience - though leafbare was over, the standing water still held a chill and would for another moon.
xaandiir Former Staff
Characters : [P]oppyshine; [Pi]neblossom; [W]hisperear; [C]rookedlight; [L]arkspring; [Wi]llowwisp; [R]ashoumon Clan/Rank : RC T5 Deputy; SC T5; WC T5; SkC T5; RC T4; RC T4; Rogue T1 Number of posts : 3011 Gender : Any Pronouns Age : 25
The water looked like deep black holes, even as the sun shone above them. Icepaw stared for a moment at the floating dead prey before she was able to move herself again. She glanced at Rainstrike and then moved to the water. The prey were too far out to simply grab from the edge; it was clear that she would have to go in. Icepaw resisted the urge to shudder and instead moved in. The water was cold and stung her through her fur as she carefully moved in deeper to the marsh. There would be no risk of drowning so long as she didn’t move to the deepest areas of the pool, but the chill felt like threat enough. It pierced through her fur and felt suffocating as the water grasped around her chest.
She arrived at the squirrel and carefully took it into her maw. Thankfully the squirrel didn’t seem to have been dead for too long; it didn’t smell of crowfood yet. Its sour taste from the marsh water still coated her tongue and the water dripped down her whiskers as she retreated to deliver the prey to Rainstrike.
With absolutely no visible resistance, the apprentice moved forward into the muck, and Rainstrike watched with a blank, unamused expression, as she dutifully retrieved the sodden squirrel and returned, dropping it between them. With a snort, Rainstrike prodded the thing with a paw, flipping it over. It was recently dead, probably from this morning. She stared at it, wondering what the squirrel had thought about as it died - had it dwelled upon the things it had never gotten to do, in its final moments? Thought about its kits? Its mate? Or had it perished with its heart full of rage, choking on its own blood, like she had?
The former ThunderClanner wrinkled her nose in disgust and looked away from the squirrel, her singular icy eye narrowing on the apprentice. "You're weak," she spat. "And you will die a meaningless death if you don't change that."
Did she care? Not particularly. Part of her wanted to strike the useless kit down here and now, leave her body to sink to the depths of the marshland. But it wouldn't whet her appetite for causing terror. "Come, child."
Leaving the squirrel there to rot, or be scavenged, Rainstrike turned away and led Icepaw towards the Thunderpath. As they grew closer, the stink of Twoleg Monsters filled her nose, worse even than the stench of the Dark Forest. The hair on the back of her neck stood straight up, and as they emerged from the underbrush at the edge of the Thunderpath, a Monster rushed by, its acrid scent washing over them in a wave of warm, stinking air. It nearly drew a hiss from her, but she contained it. "Have you ever been this close?" she asked, holding her ground as another monster whipped past.
xaandiir Former Staff
Characters : [P]oppyshine; [Pi]neblossom; [W]hisperear; [C]rookedlight; [L]arkspring; [Wi]llowwisp; [R]ashoumon Clan/Rank : RC T5 Deputy; SC T5; WC T5; SkC T5; RC T4; RC T4; Rogue T1 Number of posts : 3011 Gender : Any Pronouns Age : 25
Icepaw did her best to not shiver as the cold water clung to her thick fur. It would take hours, even all day, for her fur to finally dry and let her feel some semblance of warmth, with how the sunlight barely made it through the thick trees that housed their territory. It didn’t much matter. She had listened to Rainstrike’s instructions, and she had almost allowed herself to relax when the Dark Forest cat scowled at her. Icepaw shrunk back despite trying to steel her muscles. I did as you asked… But perhaps following her exact commands were not what she wanted. Icepaw didn’t know. She used to be good at determining what people desired.
She followed behind Rainstrike, keeping up pace and trying not to be a burden on this trip. Water dripped from her fur, wetting their path as they weaved through the forest. She glanced back at the squirrel they left behind, thinking of her clan, but she did not dare grab it to take with them. It felt like a blink of an eye before they arrived at the Thunderpath. Fear filled Icepaw’s body as they drew closer to the hard surface that the monsters stampeded upon. She stopped when Rainstrike did and could scarcely breathe given the choking scent in the air. The cold in her chest grew harder and this time she did not flinch or rear back as the monsters raged past.
“Not this close, no,” Icepaw replied as she studied some trees across the path. ThunderClan lay just beyond the deadly path. She’d never been here before to see any ThunderClan cats patrolling, but she knew it was likely that they lay just beyond. The border felt so flimsy, yet the terrifying Thunderpath strengthened the divide.
