A Thorn in the Heart [Echomist]

"Stars, it's so crowded." Harechaser grumbled, scanning fourtrees for a familiar face. Nightstar and Swiftheart were each talking with someone, Roseburn's multi-colored pelt was easy to spot, but Harechaser's gaze slid away, guilt and grief and frustration mingling on her expression for a moment before she shook herself. Echomist seemed to blend into the shadows themselves... Echomist, perfect. She doubted he would want to stick around fourtrees with it's crowds of cats talking with one another, noisy by virtue of all five clans being stuck in one spot, even though she could tell at least some cats were trying to keep their conversations quiet. It had never been this noisy or crowded in Shadowclan's own camp or even when they'd stayed with Thunderclan, and Harechaser couldn't say why but it unnerved her greatly.

"Echomist!" Harechaser weaved through the crowd towards her littermate, offering him a friendly - if somewhat tense - smile. "Want to come hunting?" Or even just a walk. Anything to get away from the crowds... And the sight of Roseburn.

Echomist sat away from the crowd, his ears pinned back to his head, green eyes staring into the clearing but not really focusing on anything in it. It was way too noisy, there were too many cats. So when a familiar voice cut through the wall of noise offering him an escape he was going to take it. "Of course." He said, his voice remaining neutral as he could keep it at the moment, though it was probably pretty obvious his expression was screaming 'Get me out of here!'

A look of relief spread across Harechaser's face as her littermate agreed to go hunting. Poor Echomist looked about as frazzled as she felt, and she couldn't blame him for that. "It's... A lot, isn't it? I'm feeling on-edge about all of this, to be honest." She mewed, grateful to head away from the ever-crowded fourtrees at last. Her gaze caught sight of Roseburn once more among the crowd, lingering for a moment. A flicker of emotion crossing her expression before she shook her head, staring at her paws for a moment as she walked. Roseburn was certainly a distraction from the noise, but not a distraction from her slowly-increasing anxiety and unease. And certainly not a welcome one. Nearly bumping into another cat, Harechaser muttered a hurried apology and forced her gaze in front of her. If Echomist noticed, she hoped he would just leave it be. She wasn't sure the situation could be fixed, and it certainly couldn't get worse if it was just left alone, right?

"Hopefully we can catch something out here. I can't imagine the prey is any less happy about their home being disturbed than we are." She mewed as the ground became wet underfoot, the welcome feeling on mud against her pawpads and the relative quiet doing a little to ease her own tension.

Echomist let out a sigh as the noise started to fade a little. Some of the tension in his body leaving the further the noise was from him. "Its overwhelming that is what it is." He said lowly. A single glance towards his sibling as she nearly ran into someone but he didn't say much else on the matter. Whatever it was that was bothering her, if anything, he would let her bring it up herself. He wasn't going to pry.

"I'm sure there will be something.. There has to be." He said. He would be surprised if there was nothing, surely there was at least something that was injured out there that couldn't escape.

Finally, Harechaser seemed to shake off whatever was bothering her. Being on familiar ground with a familiar, welcome face helped a bit. "Mhmm, I hope the territory is more livable sooner rather than later." She responded to her brother softly. "I don't know how sustainable our current situation is. I don't think it can last." She admitted.

With a twitch of her tail, the tortoiseshell scented the air hoping for signs of prey. Finding the scent of a mouse, she began to follow it, but it wasn't long before she lost the scent trail within the crevice of upended tree roots, with no way for a cat to find a way to it. "Foxdung." She muttered, turning back toward Echomist.