Lunch Break (closed)

Crunching snow heralded the stygian warrior's return to camp, an even stronger scent of blood following. While this time spent hunting for the clan had done wonders to improve his technique, it still did little to make him enjoy the act. Today he had gotten sloppy, his kills less clean, and more chases than what he was used to. He could attribute that to his pelt standing out so harshly against the snow, or the lack of proper rest, but he wouldn't dare do so. No, even with those drawbacks he needed to be better, that much was clear to him. Dropping his catches on the fresh-kill pile, Sablestrike retreated to a "corner" of camp and let himself settle down. He had already told himself that he would avoid becoming a workaholic like Leopardstar, and these little breaks between hunting patrols were almost necessary to keep his mind intact at this point.

Poppycloud was always watching.

Not in like, a creepy way, or anything. He just barely had anything to do besides watch his clanmates go about their normal lives. So he watched, paying attention to those most sick. The black tuxedo was lucky he didn't get as sick as his dad or his brother - or the rest of ShadowClan - but when he wasn't ordered to be hunting or patrolling, he sat in one of the darker parts of camp (his 'safe space') when he sat down.

It was a struggle finding a safe space in the journey. He didn't realize how much time he had spent sitting down and watching others until that was stripped away from him. The first thing that Poppycloud did when they settled in a camp was choose a place where he could retreat to, when he was too tired to do much else.

Sablestrike, ShadowClan's deputy, came back with a squirrel and a toad, before quickly dropping the fresh-kill on the pile. He was one of ShadowClan's few healthy warriors, so Poppycloud saw him go out hunting often. I wonder what's going on in his head.

At this point, Poppycloud was staring. "Sorry," he blurted instinctively, turning his gaze away. That... wasn't great.