Blood in the breeze [C]

Bloodstrike had sniffed around the old twoleg place and found only faint traces of Beechfang's scent. He wanted her to at least know that he was still alive and that he was free of the twolegs... again. For hours he circled the borders of the Skyclan territory, hoping to find a patrol or pick up her scent somewhere around here. Heck, anyone familiar would be a relief at this point. The sun was high in the sky when Bloodstrike dared walk the border between Shadowclan and Skyclan. He'd absolutely fight a Shadowclanner and send the sorry maggot back into his smelly swamp hole, but a Skyclanner he hoped he could reason with. If this was the only way to get their attention then so be it. Bloodstrike made a point of scaling a tree and leaping rom branch to branch to the best of his aging ability. He'd never admit it to himself, but even he noticed his loss of muscle mass. He was still big, but he was no longer than hulking horror that he had been in his prime.

He leaped onto one of the branches of Highpine and stared down at the world below. He sat down on the thick limb and relaxed his posture. He didn't want anyone to mistake him for hunting or intending to cause any issues. Finally, a Skyclan scent wafted into his nostrils and he smiled. His tail nub flicked a few times in anticipation as he waited for the patrol to come. "There is no need for alarm," He began softly to whatever patrol was drawing near. "I only wish to speak to a Skyclanner." If he got tackled out of the tree, so be it. He could still take a wallop and shake it off. He didn't intend to meet anyone with claws or teeth today.

The member 'Tara' has done the following action : Dice roll

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'Invasion Dice' :

"That branch will need to be taken down sooner rather than later." Wolfblossom muttered, half to her patrol, half to herself. The deputy made a mental note to tell the limb patrol of the finding, eyeing the already hanging branch dubiously for a moment before continuing. Eventually everyone would be cycled through all of Skyclan's patrols, of course, but for the moment this was a simple border patrol and taking care of broken branches wasn't their focus. "I doubt Shadowclan will be out here during the day, but still, keep an eye out." She added to her patrolmates as they made their way toward highpine. Skyclan may have been neutral among all the clans right now, and Shadowclan had sheltered for a time in Skyclan's camp before, but Wolfblossom was no more fond of the other clans than she was of staying at fourtrees. And the Shadowclan leader had been rude enough at the gathering to garner dislike from the Skyclan deputy.

Shadowclan scent on the Shadowclan border was not what Wolfblossom found however, as she carefully made her way through the trees, avoiding branches that looked unsteady out of habit and caution. A vaguely familiar scent was on the wind, and it wasn't long before the grizzled old tom it belonged to was in view. Wolfblossom's tail waved as she glanced briefly back at her clanmates, a signal to not jump to violence, but still to be cautious. "Been a while, grandfather." She called out to the former leader. Her tone was still guarded however friendly her greeting sounded on the surface. Bloodstrike was... Interesting. Wolfblossom had interacted with him more after his exile than she ever had when he was still Skyclan's leader, and it was a strange realization. Pale blue eyes searched the surroundings, the first time Bloodstrike had shown up on Skyclan borders he'd brought Crowpaw back with him, and the second time Beechfang had followed him with Fogfeather and Dawnfeather by her side. It seemed he was alone this time, and the deputy hid her disappointment that there was no family with the old tom, returning home. And that begged the question as to why the old tom had shown up on their border, didn't it?

"What brings you all the way out here? Avoiding the twolegs, I hope?"

Firepaw stuck to the side of the patrol, padding cautiously when around trees with partly broken branches. He had to admit, he was a bit jumpy. The last thing the apprentice wanted was to get crushed by a rogue branch. For the most part, he just kept his mouth shut, and eyes peeled. Then, suddenly, a new scent. Not unlike Skyclan's, but different enough to warrant his fur bristling. It was a threat.

The patrol pressed onward, giving a wide berth to trees with broken branches all the way until there was a figure in the distance. The figure was massive. Firepaw's ears pressed flat against his head as he prepared for combat, that was before Wolfblossom signaled for them to stand down... to an extent. Straightening up, the ginger apprentice ventured closer, branching off loosely to watch for possible allies of the tom, Wolfblossom's grandfather, as the warrior had said herself. An exiled clan cat was leagues more dangerous than a rogue, grandfather or not, and Firepaw watched their surroundings carefully as the deputy exchanged words with the exile.

Stormwater glanced up at the fellow up in the tree...

Hmm up a tree again? What brought him here asked Wolf who was the lead on this patrol.

Well last time he was up in a tree it was because Dawnhawk put him there and from the fading ex-stars appearance from the last time Storm had seen him, he wouldnt have been surprised if Dawnhawk had come back to repeat the process.

One woulda figured that old blood wouldnt like hanging around in trees anymore given that he was dead up in one while the stars were gone for so long but hey... whatever makes him happy I guess.

Storm stayed quiet though letting Wolf do the talking. He was pretty young when blood was leader, but he remembered him as being the only leader to stand up to the dark forest... brave, but incredibly stupid if you asked storm.

Blood paid for it for a long time as he was stashed up in a tree unable to revive .. .kept up there as Dawnhawk's prize in a sick sense. Stormwatcher had spent most of his apprenticehood messing around and avoiding tasks that blood or whoever his deputy was at the time were giving out so he didnt know too much more than these facts about him.

Whatever he wanted he looked like foxdung and smelled even worse Storm hoped hed go away soon Birdstar probably wouldnt want an old leader hanging around challenging her rule even if he was her grandpa.

Storm wasnt a fighter though and didnt wanna start anything so he just stood next to wolf wondering what the old elder of a cat would say next to Wolfs questioning

"Been a while, grandfather"

Bloodstrike squinted, desperately trying to remember this one. Nope... nothing was coming to mind. Lovely. He watched as an apprentice and... uhhhh... who was he kidding? He didn't really know anyone anymore. Something about that sent a wave of pain through him, one of longing and loneliness. He pushed those feelings away and focused on what was in front of him.

"No... no twolegs for now. You never can be sure when they will show up though. I'm old, but I still gave one a few new cuts to remember me by after I escaped from them." He carefully tilted downward and began to descend the tree, but it was not in a hurried or threatening manner. Bark fell from the tree as his claws pushed it loose and sent it to the cold forest floor below.

"I was looking for Beechfang. I'm sure she has wondered what had happened to me this whole time. Have you seen her around?" He finally got low enough off of the tree to jump off of it... but he misjudged his joints being as strong as they were back in his youth and paid the price for it. They popped upon impact, and the old tom's eyes widened for a moment once the pain hit him. He rose slowly to his full impressive height, joints protesting the entire way.

"I'm not as spry as I used to be," He said with a pained, embarrassed chuckle. He should probably have retired to an elder's den by now... but the old tom was too proud or that. He'd rather die. His eyes went to the apprentice and the other warrior before going back to his... granddaughter apparently.

"My apologies, but you'll have to remind me of everyone's names. I've been a bit preoccupied, of late."

Looking for Beechfang, so he hadn't seen her recently either, then. "I was hoping you would've seen mom, actually. She made it to fourtrees and told my sister Briarstar had been captured. Her scent went stale not long after. Birdchaser chose me as her deputy and got her lives. I uh... Don't think she knows that yet." Wolfblossom could well imagine what her mother's reaction would be: Horror and fury. And pride, somewhere beneath the bluster. "I thought it was just better sense than to hang around fourtrees close to a gathering... But the twolegs have been taking plenty of cats across the forest. Some return, some haven't yet." She hoped Beechfang wasn't among them and was simply keeping to herself somewhere, but Wolfblossom worried all the same.

He didn't remember her name... Wolfblossom ignored the slight bitterness she felt at that. If that were true than what else was the former leader forgetting? They hadn't interacted much, true, but Bloodstrike also hadn't struck her as the type of cat to forget easily. He was older than any cat in Skyclan currently, she was also sure. As his joints loudly popping and the obvious pain he was in showed. Wolfblossom's eyes narrowed slightly, but she would not be the one to pick at the old tom's pride any more than that display already did. Part of her wondered if there was something they could do - he and Beechfang were family, however exiled and disgraced... But as concerned as she was for both of them, that was not Wolfblossom's decision alone to make.

"Wolfblossom. That's Firepaw, and Stormwatcher." She added, tail flicking toward her two companions in turn, and a look of warning was sent Stormwatcher's way. A silent reminder that he would behave himself and not poke the proverbial bear. She and Birdstar would joke around with him as they liked, Bloodstrike, for all that he was her grandfather, was not a cat Wolfblossom knew well, and a rogue besides. She didn't think Stormwatcher was foolish enough to risk getting himself into hot water, but if he did, Wolfblossom wasn't going to be pleased. Bloodstrike had been civil and polite in the few interactions she'd had with the old loner, and she wasn't interested in testing how far that would go. There were plenty of outsiders to make enemies of without a tom who knew Skyclan like the back of his paw being included in their numbers.

"You wouldn't know me," Firepaw added quietly, "I don't know you." His fur still bristled, but amber eyes betrayed his nervousness in the face of a new cat. Particularly one as physically threatening as Bloodstrike, despite the evident age. The tom quietly sat, watching, waiting. Wolfblossom informed him of new developments, and the apprentice couldn't say he knew much about anything they were talking about. When he thought to himself that he wanted to learn new skills, this had not been exactly what he had in mind.

The old guy looked like he nearly face planted into the ground when he jumped off the tree. His popping joints made storm wince a bit feeling a bit bad for him.

…so he wanted to know where beech was hmm? Stormwatcher actually liked beech. Well not liked her, moreso he liked the chaos that she had brought when she was in the clan. It was so much easier to lounge around all day and do nothing when the clan was focused on the fuming beech. It was a great strategy and had worked well for many moons. Unfortunately all good things must come to an end.


Wolf had given her a glance that said to be careful around this guy. That was fine by him he would let her do the talking but he found it hard to believe that this ex leader was out here just to find beech. There was a nonzero chance that he was here for something else … at least that was storms impression. Blood didn’t do something like this with only the motivation to find someone. At least not from the few times storm had seen things.

I haven’t seen beech in a long long time he offered. He was all for their happy reunion. But he felt that there was something else going on here, he wanted to know what and tried to ask something to poke at just that but made sure to be polite … wolf didn’t want any trouble and neither did he


Are you… looking for anything else? he asked eyes narrowing a little in curious.

Storm was leery of him, he was thinking it might be some ruse to try and go after birdstar. And as much as birdstar teased him he didn’t need further instability in the clan. Instability led to worse options of retirement.

You uhh… planning to stay around here long? he asked a bit suspicious but no hostility at all.