Talk It Out [Stormwatcher/Birdchaser]

After he'd voluntarily joined her hunting patrol, it had solidified what had been on Wolfblossom's mind since becoming deputy and hearing about what had happened between her clanmates after Crookedpaw had been stolen away by twolegs, trapped by their strange devices. She wanted Crookedpaw back, but for the moment there was little she could do on that front but to hope that Blackbear was successful... And didn't get herself captured as well.

What she could do, however, was talk with her clanmates. Stormwatcher was the first one she rounded up, finding him outside of the hollow. "I'd like to speak with you, as well as Birdchaser." She said to the tom simply, before turning and heading back towards the hollow, glancing back once to make sure that Stormwatcher followed.

"Birdchaser, can we speak?" Wolfblossom called to her sister as well.

(Bold is his thoughts, they are often meant to be read as a this is what he is really thinking about it vs what he is saying)

Stormwatcher had been rearanging the nests to make their warrior nests more comfy.  If they had to stay out here in this temp camp, might as well try and make it the best as possible for himself...

Oh right and his clanmates too he supposed, but that was more an afterthought.


He heard pawsteps approaching and nodding at Wolfblossom's request.

He had a feeling he was gonna get chewed out again for who knows what this time... it wasnt his fault that the overgrown kit got stuck in a trap... it was a honest mistake and he had even gone above and beyond what he would normally have done in trying to free his little friend.

Why the leadership kept liking to grill him over this he had no idea... maybe they just like making me feel bad he pouted inwardly not at all looking forward to whatever Wolfs meeting was about.


He sat there awkwardly while they waited for Bird to show up... do dah do dah doo... umm what to even talk about??

ermm... thanks for smacking that raccoon for me, it was not happy at all to have us around

I knew wolf lady would make a great deputy.  I really hope she doesnt get captured cause I need her around to keep the crazy raccoons off my back... and cause she works super hard... lots of yummy food wherever she goes

(also im assuming this is once the deputy thing happened?? we had talked about it back and forth... and idk what we ever went with but yeahhh just ignore any soupness ... there is no soup in ba sing say)

He pawed at the ground a bit bored while they waited for bird to show up.  He actually had no idea what rank she was now... was she like half leader or something???

At this point he wasnt even trying to be a jerk about it, he was just so poorly taught in clan life passed from one mentor to the next after they either died or claimed he was "not very trainable" and pawned him off to the next young warrior who wanted to give an apprentice a go... they were in for a rough time as Storm as an apprentice was not very trainable indeed.  Opting for naps over hunting and making flower crowns over fighting training.

hmm but the point of all that was he honestly had no idea what to call bird... she had gotten really mad at the name birdstar and he didnt even mean to make her that upset... hmm Maybe he should just call her bird for now... or better yet see if wolf would use her name first.

yeah lets go with that... when in doubt mooch off the wolf's answers


he tapped his paw on the forest floor wondering why he was being called over... he was pretty paranoid and his self serving side told him it was because they probably wanted him to do more stuff around camp.. ugh how awful that would be... or maybe they wanted him to do elder duty or something ...

As bird approached he panicked slightly... what were u supposed to do to a leader again... err half leader half deputy?? Did you bow or something?? (Again his clan tradition knowledge is 0 to -1000)

He did an akward tip of the head while doing a weird half bow half curtsey half who knows what he came up with little thing.

"greetings! ...

leader person thingy majig ... umm I have no idea what im doing hopefully you dont know that.

he hadnt ever really had to talk in a meeting with just the two high ranks.  He hadnt really talked with a leader at all before even really.

He usually also tried to dodge deputies as they were the ones usually assigning chores to do (he did know that much at least).

Golley... was he supposed to like ... lick their shoulder like apprentices did when they first got their mentor??? he really hoped not... he had to do that tons given how many mentors he went through.

He never actually went to his moonstone because he changed paws so many times. People just sorta frogot he hadnt been and assumed some other previous mentor did that with him. That was fine by him, as he heard it was a long walk and he wasnt about that if it meant getting an extra nap or maybe some time to eat someone else cathch from the pile.

... He was pretty sure that at some point someone thought he looked kinda old to be an apprentice and decided to graduate him without doing alot to check if he actually had all the reqs for that.

(Probably why his fighting skills were so trash too.)

Thankfully, for everyone involved he opted not to do any shoulder thing.  
(The books had that I promise im not crazy... well im crazy just not in this sense)

"erm... Wolf said you wanted to see me?"

I dont wanna be here... wolf dragged me along for this. Im really hoping you just wanted to tell me something fast and we can all go about our day here.

"ermm... see any raccoons around lately?"
stars this is akward.. im just trying to get out of this meeting. I wanna go back to bed. Its too early for this and my paws are sore.. ive done more hunting in the past couple days than I had in like moons before all this twoleg stuff happened.

ok maybe thats exaturated a little^^ but he had been trying to actually help out more so than he had been for a long while... it wasnt good for his self interest if the clan got too unstable... best to keep the wheels on the wagon ... especially if you are trying to hitch a free ride on said wagon.

come onnn.... dont give me more stuff to do... ive actually been trying somewhat lately


he waited for birds response to see what this was really gonna be all about

"It should've thought better than to attack a clanmate." Wolfblossom shrugged off the thanks, but she was glad he remembered that they had patrolled together. He was Skyclan, still.

"You didn't." Wolfblossom agreed, a serene smile forming, "Which is why I did. And you knew what you were getting into, picking me as deputy. If you didn't want this..." She trailed off and shrugged, still smiling. Birdchaser was caught, and she knew it.

"I intend to speak to Blackbear when she returns. Regardless of how angry she was - I get it, we're all angry Crookedpaw was taken - we cannot have infighting. Especially not at a time like this." She pointed out. "Should he have continued that fight rather than walk away? Put more on Plumleaf's shoulders and deprive the clan of able-bodied warriors that it needs to survive?" Birdchaser's kittishness made her want to gently smack her over the ears, but it seemed the weather was doing a good enough job at keeping her in line. She made a mental note to ask how she was doing and get her sister to sit still for plumleaf later, but for the moment, there were more pressing matters.

"Regardless of character, I very much doubt there would've been much Stormwatcher could have done in that situation. You saw what the twolegs were like when they invaded fourtrees." Dawnfeather's words still rang in her ears, haunting, terrifying.

"There is plenty enough in the forest wanting to tear us all apart. We do not need one of those things being animosity toward our own clanmates." Hopefully her words would get through to Birdchaser. She was stressed, yes, but this behavior was kittish. And they were no longer kits.

Stormwatcher was very much so surprised at how this was going.  He blinked a couple of times... they werent mad at him? Birdchaser was apologizing? For a second he was speechless standing there so surprised and dumbfounded at this.  Before they all wanted to have his pelt but the time had helped eased everyone's nerves a bit it seemed.

He was so convinced this meeting was gonna be a million times worse.  This was a pleasant enough surprise for sure.  "oh, thanks... yeaa... I didn't wanna fight her"

she would kick my tail he thought to himself... oh right and no clan rivalries good answer wolf 


"youll make sure she doesnt... try to like ... hurt me right?" hmm maybe that was a bit kitish in of itself to be asking them but hey! He didnt wanna have to deal with it, he didnt sign up to have his teammates attack him just cause they were mad at things no one could control.  Go fight off a predator, it was more energy efficient for the clan (and no fur off storms back moreso importantly)

The two seemed to be having a sister moment and he could tell bird somewhat was leery of him even being there.  He didnt have any family, his siblings died awhile ago.  He again wished he didnt have to be at this meeting, his nest was much softer and warmer and it would let these two have their thing without him ... interrupting apparently according to brids look and hesitation to laugh... even though wolf was the one who dragged his tail to this thing.



Hmm bird seemed to be moving on and was questioning his character? hnggggg oh great... this probably means ill get assigned aton of  extra tasks soon so I can "grow my character" that was not at all what he was looking to do, he wanted to do as little as possible, patrols, hunts and fighting were all super hard.  He hadnt been the most helpful warrior at all during Bird's deputyship and she seemed to have caught onto that when she mentioned his character.  He had dodged more patrols than he could count during her time as deputy and now it looked like that was gonna start to be alot harder to do since they had kinda caught on to that.  There was only so many times he could claim he "forgot he had that one" before it got a bit out of control.  

He tried to give a grin ... maybe if I show im somewhat willing to change I can offer to do a little and then ill get away with just having to do a less than what they would have given me if I dont speak up at all.... offer low but be first and maybe i'll get a better deal that way hmm maybe so worth a shot... besides it was worth it for now to keep the clan together, so that one day he could retire (hopefully as early as possible).  The elders had this gig figured out, and the sooner he could scam his way into that den the happiest he would be... maybe he needed to get hurt in some battle or something... but that meant actually getting hurt ick.

Hmm they had met him halfway, had apologized for not having his back at all when blackbear tried to bite him for something not even his fault... maybe the least he could do was to attempt the bare minimum amount of effort.  Stars this was gonna kill him.



with all this in mind he mewed the following,

Uhh yeah, I guess I owe you an apologize too... I'm sorry I lost crookedpaw.  I hope blackbear finds him soon.  But I tried everything... the trap was just too strong.. 

hopefully that will make blackbear relax and get off my back

oh and sorry about misnaming you earlier...  

In all honesty I had no idea you werent leader yet and I have so little clue about clan traditions ... if you really knew how little I understood about clan life you would be questioning if I actually grew up here

(he did grow up here but had been passed from one mentor to the next so his whole knowledge base was a bit skewed, each mentor tried to get the lazy apprentice off their paws almost as soon as Stormpaw had been assigned to them, this also led to the missing of his moonstone which was fine by him, he hated long walks and the moonstone was across the whole forest over by the windclan place hed heard.  He was fine missing that rite of passage but it did lead to him having no clue about how lots of traditions and practices were held.)

(now did storm really care about crooked?  not particularly... he didnt care much for anyone really just that the clan overall was doing well.  So while he "missed" crooked it was more so a missing that the clan was now not as strong as it once was... the individual meant little to him.  Hed lost his whole family it was easier not to care for individuals he had learned. Individuals disappointed and died too young.)


erm, ... maybe I could...  he squinted one eye as if it almost physically pained him to say this next part. maybe i could, do SOME of crookedpaw's tasks till he gets back, at least for a little while 

Stars, that felt unnatural.. asking for more work?? EWWW! GROSS! ... but, as mentioned earlier,  he figured that he would soon be called out on how little he actually did around camp... by extending an initial offer to start helping a little more he hoped that would allow him to be assigned less than if they were the ones that started negotiations on his needed "character building" as they put it.  

umm ... maybe pick up his evening patrol?  thank the stars crookedpaw held the evening shift and not the morning one... Storm was rarely out of bed before sunhigh unless a hunting patrol had come back with lots of catches before then that he could mooch and munch on.

fair? he would scream if they made him take all the apprentices tasks... picking ticks off elders was not a job anyone in their right mind wanted... besides this meeting was about meeting halfway right?

Birdchaser's ear flicked, though her gaze never left the younger warrior as Wolfblossom had spoken. A snort escaped the deputy at her words. That sounded like something grandfather would have said, and the way Birdchaser laughed... Wolfblossom's eyes narrowed at her. She would be bothering Plumleaf about that later. Watching another sibling become more ill with each passing day was not something she wanted.

Birdchaser had listened, despite the snark, however. "Blackbear listens to those she likes. She likes me." Everyone liked her, obviously. Wolfblossom was a likeable cat. And Wolfblossom was fully capable of annoying the problem until it resolved itself, too. Blackbear would fall in line, even if it was only out of sheer self-preservation. "She'll huff about it, I'm sure. There will be no bloodshed." She promised. Blackbear could certainly be intimidating, and with her temper she couldn't really blame Stormwatcher for his unease. Reassurance and making sure the problem didn't continue would have to suffice.

Birdchaser's apology wasn't the most eloquent, but it was enough. And it had been needed. A few days to cool tempers had been needed, too. Whether Stormwatcher accepted it was on him, but it seemed the worst of this petty squabbling was behind them.

"We'll have to figure out something with those traps. They are too well-placed for my liking." She mused, acknowledging Stormwatcher. They could warn cats all day, but with how scattered about the traps were, and with twolegs evidently keeping tabs on them... "I suppose I don't need to tell anyone to stay vigilant now that we know about the problem. My concern is more cats getting caught." Stormwatcher had the most close-up experience without being captured, but how were any of them to figure out what to do about them?

Stormwatcher suggested taking on Crookedpaw's slack now that he wasn't here, and Wolfblossom smiled to herself. He wasn't a lost cause, and he was being genuine in his desire, she thought."That is reasonable." She nodded at the pair of them. "Being short several cats isn't ideal, nor is the extra work, but for now it's needed until they return, at least." If, was the nagging worry in the back of her mind, but voicing it would not be productive, and she was certain she wasn't alone in that thought.

"If neither of you have anything else, I'll get out of your fur." She mewed.