Hawk Watcher [C]

Falconpaw had nudged Sunpaw awake earlier that morning. He could have swore he saw one of his sisters move too... maybe they hadn't? Whatever. "I had my moonstone journey and Flowerthorn told me something interesting." He whispered to Sunpaw as they walked out of camp. The nightguards were... out cold. Wolfblossom wasn't going to like that... But it wasn't like Falconpaw was going out by himself. He wasn't technically breaking rules was he? Besides, Sunpaw was a capable fighter. What were they afraid of? Falconpaw led his brother into Skyclan territory, carefully scanning the treetops for hawks.

"She told me, watch out for the path the hawk takes in the morning. It's laced with dangers I'm sure you don't want to face. So I kind of wonder... maybe there is something lurking around out here. I'm not saying we should fight whatever this is she is talking about, but definitely we should report this back to Birdstar if we find it." Falconpaw climbed the lowest set of branches in the trees and began to leap from limb to limb into other trees. He couldn't help it. He didn't feel quite as home on the ground as most cats. Every now and then he would pause on a branch, survey his surroundings and above for hawks, then move on.

The morning was very early, only just bright enough to see if they weren't Shadowclan cats. Falconpaw had hoped that the hawks were still asleep or at least groggy enough to not be hungry just yet. He needed to find them before they found him and his brother, he knew.

Finally... Falconpaw noticed a very odd lump in the tops of one of the nearly naked trees. Falconpaw's breath caught in his throat, recognizing the shape of a sleeping hawk just below the very very top branches of a thick cherry tree. He swished his tail at his brother, a signal to be aware. The hawk still had it's head tucked under a wing, so it was definitely still snoozing. Falconpaw made extra sure to be quiet as he whispered to Sunpaw.

"Get on a branch wide enough for you to settle in comfortably. We're going to be here for a bit. Once it wakes up, we have to follow it without it seeing us." Falconpaw suddenly smiled, a bit of a thrill at the prospect of stalking such a sharp-eyed predator. "What do you think, Sunpaw? Can we fool a hawk's eyes? Pretend to be snow!" Falconpaw tucked his limbs extra close to him and laid his tail out neatly along the branch. I am snow... I am snow... I am snow...

Graypaw had followed her siblings into the territory, curiosity plain across her expression as Falconpaw spoke of his moonstone. "Huh, they actually spoke to you about something important?" What her brother relayed definitely sounded important, and far more interesting than her own moonstone had been in comparison. Graypaw wasn't necessarily jealous, but it felt like she was simply going through the motions while her brother progressed quickly in his training.

"If there's a threat we couldn't handle out here I bet mom and Birdstar would be thrilled to organize a patrol." She muttered, keeping her voice low. It wasn't hard to find a branch that would support her, and the silvery tabby settled in to wait, watching the sleeping hawk curiously.

Sunpaw had followed his siblings out into the territory, sneaking past the camp guards without a second thought. Sucked to be them, if mom or Birdstar found out, but... they were stealthy - and besides, they were good fighters - so he didn't actually have any worries.

Falconpaw rambled on about the cat he'd spoken to in StarClan... and Sunpaw listened. He didn't believe in StarClan... at least not to the extent that everyone else seemed to, anyway. Were there dead cats up there? Probably, where else would they go? But could they control things that happened down here? Doubtful. Nevertheless, Falconpaw seemed determined to figure out the meaning behind this StarClan cat's words... and Sunpaw was nothing if not a loyal brother. So he'd go look for the hawk, and he wouldn't complain.

He remained silent as Graypaw affirmed Falconpaw's experience, with nothing more than a twitch of the ear to acknowledge that he was listening as he followed them into the trees, instinct taking over and guiding him into the larger, safer limbs. He wasn't a large cat, but he wasn't small, either, and if there were any guesses on if a branch could support him, he wasn't trying it. Once he'd settled down, somewhere slightly lower than but almost directly in the middle of Graypaw and Falconpaw, he finally spoke up. "How are we supposed to follow a hawk without it seeing us?" He whispered. "Isn't their whole thing that they can see prey from forever away? We don't exactly blend in!"

Quickpaw had been the last to wake, only lifting her head when the cold air ruffled the fur that normally was next to her siblings. She caught a glimpse of Sunpaw's tail disappearing, and frowned as she realized she had been left behind. Well that simply wouldn't do. Rising from her warm nest, she moved swiftly to try to catch up to her brothers and sister just in time to hear Falconpaw talking about something lurking, and reporting back to Birdstar. The words made her uneasy, but she stayed quiet as she joined her siblings.

Before long Falconpaw seemed to spot something, and told them to hide among the branches like snow. It shouldn't be too hard, but just in case she carefully chose a nearby branch and settled in it, tucking her paws and tail into the snow around her before lowering her head to the point that she could still see her surroundings but look more like a lump of snow atop her branch. Once the hawk woke, Falconpaw wanted to follow it... Follow it where exactly? And why? Having missed the first bit of the conversation she had questions, but she would wait quietly and just go along with it for now.

Falconpaw hadn't even seen his sisters follow, so Graypaw nearly made him leap out of his skin. Thankfully he didn't. He looked behind himself to see that Quickpaw had come as well. Well... there wasn't anything he could do about it now. He was about to say something when Sunpaw shared his... less than confident attitude about them being able to fool a hawk's eyes. He was surprised. Of all his siblings he expected Sunpaw to be gung ho and good to go. Still... he had a point.

"We'll be fine. If we need to fight it we can." He said, hoping he sounded more confident than he felt. He focused his attention back onto the sleeping bird and waited. The sun came up a bit more, casting light across the landscape and onto the creature itself. Once the world had brightened a bit... Falconpaw nearly gasped at the appearance of the hawk. For one thing, it was much bigger than he thought it was going to be. For another... the hawk was...

White and gold.

Spoiler:

Falconpaw had seen hawks from afar before, but never that color. It looks like Sunpaw... and me... This had to be the hawk that Flowerthorn spoke of. It had to be! The apprentice didn't dare move while the bird roused, shaking it's feathers on its entire body and then finally it's head. This was it.... now they just needed to wait for it to fly away. The hawk leaned forward and Falconpaw readied himself to bolt off of his branch in pursuit. The hawk leaned and leaned and leaned... only to launch a thick, long stream of gooey bird poop from it's hind end before settling back onto it's perch. The hawk poop landed an incredible distance away onto the forest floor below.

"That was disgusting..." Falconpaw whispered in shocked disgust. The hawk didn't even have the decency to bury it's poo. Is that what you meant Flowerthorn? Because you were right.. that isn't something I want to face... It was bad enough he had to witness that let alone be the hawk's subject of target practice. After a slight shudder, Falconpaw went back to observing the bird. Hopefully the worst was behind them.

Moments ticked by and it seemed like the hawk was doing absolutely nothing. Finally... some odd movement from the bird. It opened it's beak a lot, over and over and threw its head back like it was trying to breathe. Falconpaw blinked. Was it dying??? The hawk began to flick it's head and look to the ground, it's beak parted. Wider and wider it's mouth opened... until something solid fell from it and fell to the ground below. The hawk watched it's pellet fall, apparently proud of it's accomplishment.

Hawks are foxing gross... Okay so the hawk pooped and puked all within the span of twenty minutes. What else was it going to do??? Falconpaw wasn't sure he wanted to know. He wished it would start flying already. What was taking the bird so long? The apprentice then watched with increasing frustration as the hawk began to preen in the sun. They were going to be here awhile...


Hours... it's been hours and this bird is just sitting here... Faclonpaw was beginning to think this was all some messed up joke. The hawk had done a single jump from one branch to another, but hardly did anything else except look around itself over and over with it's snappy head movements. What the heck was it doing? He wanted to go home. His legs ached from being in the crouched position for so long, he was tired, he was hungry and he was getting thirsty. Not to mention he might be in trouble when he got back to camp... his siblings too. It was nearing sunhigh.

Finally... finally the hawk spread it's wings and took off. Two powerful flaps and it was cruising through the forest easily as fast as a cat could run. "There it goes!" Falconpaw said sharply to catch the attention of his siblings. He bolted after it. He at least had to keep the bird in sight. "I'll watch the bird. You guys look around as we go and look for anything alarming!" But hoo boy was a hawk hard to keep up with. Speed like the wind! What he wouldn't give to Windclan legs right now...

Graypaw noticed Quickpaw had followed them out at some point, and gave her only sister a small smile.

...Could they fight it? Her brothers, probably, but Graypaw wasn't so sure. Her training had... Not been progressing as she would have liked, not that she would admit it to her siblings or Wolfblossom. She simply nodded, trying to bury the wave of insecurity and doubt she felt.

And so they waited. Dawn's light slowly touched the forest, and Graypaw blinked as she finally got a better view of the hawk. It was large, and pale. She had never seen a hawk with that coloring before, white and pale gold. It was beautiful, actually.

For what seemed like hours, the hawk seemed content on the perch it had found for itself, moving only to... Ugh. "Well that's disgusting..." Graypaw muttered, barely loud enough for her siblings to hear. Was Falconpaw sure that this was what his dream meant? Watching a hawk sit in one spot while it did its' business out in the open? Ugh. Gross.

It seemed like forever until the hawk finally moved, and Graypaw nearly jumped out of her skin at Falconpaw's voice. Wide golden eyes followed the hawk as it flew off, taking in the speed of it. "I don't think we can catch it. Look how fast it's going." Graypaw mewed, but her movement betrayed her words as she carefully moved from one branch to the next, keeping the tabs on the pale hawk and their surroundings.

What seemed like half a day passed before the uniquely colored bird Falconpaw pointed out did anything. And then it just proceeded to be disgusting for a little bit, and then boring again. Sunpaw's limbs were cold and stiff beneath him, and even through his thick coat of fur, he was beginning to chill. There was no cover here, up in these tall branches, and the cold wind cut like thorns.

But this meant something to his brother, so Sunpaw endured it without any audible complaint. If Falconpaw said that StarClan told him to watch the hawk, they'd watch the dang hawk. But how long would they have to do so before something happened? They'd been out long enough that someone was sure to notice them missing... and if there was one cat he didn't want to anger, it was his mentor. As if sensing their collective impatience, the hawk was suddenly on the move, and Falconpaw moved quicker than Sunpaw had ever seen him in pursuit. Graypaw was next, dashing from branch to branch and would quickly be out of sight. Sunpaw rose, the stiffness melting away in his anxiety not to be left behind, but he didn't immediately take chase, either. Instead, he hopped over to the branch where Quickpaw was resting, and waited for her to be ready, too.