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Follows these topics: (I don't care about time soup the soup is easily defeated by the spoon ;) )
https://warriorclancats.forumotion.com/t55385-the-hunt-for-elmstormhttps://warriorclancats.forumotion.com/t55384-it-s-a-riverclan-meltdownhttps://warriorclancats.forumotion.com/t55348-happy-father-s-day-sprucebark]
Sprucebark had looked over every spot he could think of in Riverclan lands. He had searched around the gorge extra carefully remembering Elm's past incidents there and he had taken lots of helping warriors and clanmates with him to try and find his missing son. Nothing seemed to be working, he was not a pawstep closer to finding Elmstorm than the day he had started. What was worse was he knew that with each passing day meant more time that Elmstorm could be getting further lost and any scent trails would be fading soon to a point of no recovery.
He was reaching the point of desperation, the borders of riverclan were not going to be enough if he ever wanted to see his son again.
His very nature was one of honor and chivalry to the highest amount. With that came the sinking feeling that he had let down his son, the cat he had taken in as a kitten and adopted along with his loving mate Scorchlight. He was supposed to protect him and now Elmstorm could be out there alone and hurt. A panged sorrow and gut punching feeling washed over him thinking about it, what if Elmstorm had a similar thing happen to him that Perchstar had? What if he was stuck somewhere pinned down and unable to move while hunger and thirst slowly etched away at him.
The usually so well composed warrior was beginning to fray at the ends. He closed his eyes shut trying to think if there was any other way but nothing was there, the request he had seemed to be the only available and forced move brought upon him. It was not one he made lightly but he felt it was this or a very real chance of losing Elmstorm forever.
Padding towards the leaders den he felt his pelt bristle with anxiety and unsureness.
He tucked his ears down and called out for his leader,
"Mum? May I ask you something, it's important" he meowed announcing his arrival as he entered the den.
His eyes slowly adjusted to the dimmer light as he settled in. Surely by now, news of him forgoing all his hunts, patrols and other duties would have made its rounds back to her by now. It was not like him, but every spare minute he had of not eating or sleeping had almost all been devoted to either trying to track Elmstorm's scent or talking with clanmates about if they had seen or heard anything - any scrap of a clue would send him bolting to that part of their territory.
"Mum... I still haven't found him" his voice nearly cracked as he meowed his status update of finding nothing.
He held back tears not wanting them at all. Not because he was not open with his emotions, in fact he almost always was around her especially. But rather because somehow in his mind crying meant that it was game over and that Elmstorm was gone gone, he would not accept that yet, not before he asked for one more chance, one final plan to try and bring his boy home.
"I can't find him if I am restricted to our lands." he meowed slowly looking at her.
"I request formally to be allowed to go on a journey into the unclaimed lands of beyond. To continue my search of him"He looked down hard at his paws letting silence hang for a moment of so, is this how terrible she felt when he was captured in that twoleg crate? Is this what it was like when she had to watch him get hauled away by the twolegs? And worse yet... was he now asking her to relive that yet again for him to have this sliver of hope that he wanted to desperatly cling to? He felt so guilty knowing it might be but it did not change the fact that he still wished utterly she would allow for him to go.
He slowly forced his eyes to go back up and meet hers,
"when the twolegs took me... they tortured me: stuck me with needles, tried to make me eat garbage against the warrior code and other horrible things" he explained. He always had held some sense of pride that he never had given in to eating that twoleg kittypet food even though he had nearly starved himself to do so. The thought that his son could be captured or hurt somewhere in the wild was beyond what he could let pass while just being confined to the lands of riverclan.
"I have to try mum... if I don't go now while there still might be some scent trail I might never have the chance again.Perhaps a younger sprucebark would have also belived the stars could maybe give him a lead but that Sprucebark had been let down by the stars once too many times, especially when they refused him to let him talk to his sister when he went with Auntie Perchstar to the moonstone.
All to say, he was set on taking this into his own paws for better or worse.
