Sneaking off for a Breather

[Shinko]

Briartooth moaned happily as he stretched himself out on the smooth boulder. It was just after sunhigh, and he was taking a well deserved breather. His muscles were more sore than he could ever remember them being.

That's what you get for volunteering to take all of the apprentices out for battle training on your own, then agreeing to take over Panthershadow's patrol so she can go hunting! He chided himself. Then again, after the epidemic of greencough that winter had wiped out nearly half of DarkClan, everyone in the small Clan was forced to work harder to keep everything running smoothly. The sooner the queens start kitting, the better. We need more warriors if we're going to stand a chance of defending our territory.

The sunlight felt wonderful on his pelt, and he was feeling utterly disinclined to move. He was even starting to slip into a doze. Then, a faint rustling behind him was the only warning the warrior had before...

[::Key::Lime/\RainyC::]

Flamestar padded through the forest with his head low. He had such a small clan! It was going to take time for cats to find mates. It was going to take time for the kits to be born. It was going to take time for them to become an apprentice and it was going to take much time for them to be trained and ready to hunt and battle. He shook his head slowly, trying to think of a way to improve his clan when he smelled a different cat other than himself. The orange tabby lifted his ears and looked up. Through the trees he could see the gray pelt of Briartooth. The tom was lounging on a boulder, looking like he was going to fall into a sleep. Flamestar flicked his left ear, the one with a scar on it, and wondered it he should disturb Briartooth's dozing. he shrugged and padded closer to the good humored warrior.

"Greetings Briartooth" He called up. "Tired after a long morning hu? I have to say I was quite impressed when you offered to lead that patrol and take all our apprentices out training!" He nodded, showing respect for the younger cat. "I was just back at camp and those apprentices are buzzing with excitement. They loved your training!"

Flamestar was used to giving praise to the other cats of his clan, it made most of them happy and willing to do whatever they did again. The ginger tom laughed to himself. But I don't think, no mater how hard I try, I'm going to get Briartooth to do that again. And he respected that.

[Shinko]

The tom glanced around, his eyes bleary. When he saw who was talking to him, his ears flattened and he looked a little guilty to have been caught idle when there was so much work to be done. "Ah- thank you, Flamestar. I owed Panthershadow a favor after the way she soothed the fur of those CloudClan cats I accidentally offended at the last Gathering. And you know I love training the apprentices; since I don't have one of my own at the moment, I figured that helping the others was the next best thing." he purred with amusement, "And I was showing them how they could overcome their small size by teaming up to overcome a larger warrior. I'm not surprised they enjoyed it; once they got the hang of working as a cohesive unit instead of every-cat-for-himself, they made me eat more dirt than one of the Twoleg's digging monsters."


OOC: By "twoleg digging monsters" he's referring to a bulldozer.

[alkaryco]

Hollyheart blinked sleepily from beside Briartooth. "Why'd you have to wake me up?" she muttered, readjusting herself for maximum sunlight. She had also had a stressful morning. Falconbite had set her on the dawn patrol (as expected), and then two additional hunting patrols. So when she had come across Briartooth on the stone, she had immediately decided to catch a nap... and avoid her brother. She twitched her tail at Flamestar and gave a large, silent yawn, feeling blood run back into her slept-on leg. "I was having a particularly nice dream about hunting with Br--- I mean, squirrels. Yeah, squirrels. Caught a whole pile of 'em, I did... in my dream... squirrels..."

[::Key::Lime/\RainyC::]

Flamestar flicked his tail with amusement. Yeah, sure. She was dreaming about squirrels... He nodded at Briartooth. "Well it's a good thing, with the few cats that DarkClan has, we must know how to fight together and fight well." He flicked a stray fly of his ear and sat down, swiping a licked paw over his whiskers. "I'm surprised you've never had an apprentice, you work so well with young cats. Surely the mentors thank you and so do I." He gave a little chuckle. "Now all we have to do is teach them how to clean out the elders' den, the older ones are getting cranky." Flamestar looked up at Hollyheart but the question was aimed at both of the cats. "Does DarkClan have any kits in the nursery at the moment?"

[Shinko]

OOC: Guys, if you are trying to imply a relationship between Hollyheart and Briartooth, keep in mind what's written in his character bio; I'm not opposed to that sort of thing developing over time, but he'll probably take eons to acknowledge it if it happens at all. You'll see what I mean if you read in his history about a cat named Shadowpaw.

BIC: The grey tom looked surprised, and glanced at Hollyheart with genuine bafflement. "Is there something going on here that I don't know about?" he meowed. It wouldn't surprise him a great deal. The big tom felt like he was always the last to know about things. "Flamestar, what are you trying to get at? You're the Clan leader, you should know the answer to that question better than anyone. The queens seem a better source to ask at any rate." Briartooth added, settling for the most literal translation available for the question. For all he knew, that was exactly what Flamestar was asking.

[alkaryco]

I don't have time to reply right now, but no, I'm not ;] I was referring to Brackentail, a redshirt from Hollyheart's past. Didn't realize they coincided. Sorry!

[::Key::Lime/\RainyC::]

The dark ginger tabby chuckled again. He meant to say it that way but just to see what the two cats would do. He flicked the tip of his tail a couple times and rose it up. Waving it with pleasure. "No no no no" He purred shaking his head. "I wasn't getting to that, I was going to check on the queens later but I hadn't gotten to it yet and I wondered if anyone else knew so I would know at least something before I talked to them." Poking fun at his clan-mates was fun, but it had it's boundaries. The orange-pelted cat licked a paw and swiped it over his ear. He got rose his paws and turned to leave but over his shoulder he threw. "Great job my warriors. Briartooth you are a great help to the older warriors of your clan and Hollyheart...." Flamestar paused to think a moment. "Well keep doing what you're doing and the clan will be fine." That last sentience could've meant two things, he was hoping she didn't take it the wrong way.

[Shinko]

Briartooth shrugged, grinnning sheepishly. "It's no problem, Flamestar. After all, everyone is working hard. I'm not going to use my youth as an excuse to shirk. Although-" he added, his tail twitching with amusement, "Many more mornings like this one and you'll find me talking to Blazetail at the next half moon!"

Thoughts of StarClan made the tom's eyes cloud. His mother, Silvermist... and his father, Darktail... and Shadowpaw...

It was Shadowpaw's memory that hurt the most. She had been so young, with so many moons ahead of her. He would have gladly shared all of those moons, matching the black and white she-cat pawstep for pawstep until the time came for both of them to join to StarClan. However, Shadowpaw's time had come too soon, and his duty to the Clan would not let him follow her just yet.

Thinking of his duty made the grey tom drag his mind back into the present. There was no point in dwelling on things that could not be changed. Not even the flashing of a pair of beautiful amber eyes a sweet, sweet scent...

[alkaryco]

Hollyheart blinked at Flamestar. "And I thought you'd be opposed to tackling an eagle," the black-and-white she-cat mewed, looking genuinely puzzled. "In that case, I'm off to die for my Clan, eh?" Hollyheart heaved herself to her paws and looked at Briartooth appraisingly. "Actually, maybe I'll invade the Moonfall and ask about poor old Brackentail," she purred, referring to her father, who had died when she was a kit. The two had been especially close and her dreams were filled with the time he took her out hunting... against her mother's wishes, of course. Now that she was a warrior, in the dreams she caught more and more of the squirrels. Her father seemed proud of her... was he really? Falconbite had been too noble to go on the squirrel hunting expedition and Riverpaw too cowardly. She had caught her very first squirrel on that trip, which was her prey of choice... Hollyheart blinked away her father and continued, "who needs a tail?" She flicked her rather fluffy one with catlike amusement and leapt off the stone. "Ever heard the story of when I went to the Moonpool as an apprentice? Tried to convince the others too-- remember, Briartooth?

Hollyheart, Falconbite and Briartooth were exactly the same age. They had grown up in the nursery together, trained together, and become warriors together. The she-cat could easily say that Briartooth was her closest friend, and she too had grieved for Shadowpaw. She knew that Falconbite and Briartooth had both been padding after her, and she was certain the outcome would have been tragic: a broken friendship between the two toms and one of them left heartbroken. Hollyheart, however, had never fallen in love, and didn't plan to. Kits were just a burden. Hollyheart leapt off into the trees with a goal in mind: to duplicate her squirrel pile from the dreams.

[Shinko]

Briartooth let out a mrrow amusement, "Oh, I remember. Just after Dawnsky retired, but about four moons before she died, right? You were so adamant that I almost agreed to go just to get you to shut up." his gentle purr soften the verbal blow, indicating that he was only teasing the she-cat. "Falconbite was having none of it; threatened to tell your mentor as I recall. Shadowpaw and Riverpaw talked him out of it though. I guess they figured if you were only bluffing and didn't intend to actually follow through with that particular bit of insanity."

[::Key::Lime/\RainyC::]

The dark orange tabby flicked his tail in amusement. He was just a warrior at that time, but he remembered it clearly. "Oh I remember that day. The clan was a buzz about finding you guys. I remember your mentors' faces when they couldn't find you. That was about a moon before I became deputy right?"

He watched as Hollyheart padded off and meowed. "The gathering is approaching. I need to choose my cats carefully." He flicked his ear as the pesky fly came back and sat on it. "You and Hollyheart did not go to the last gathering right?" He knew the answer to that question, but he asked anyhow.

[Shinko]

OOC: I think I just said that Briartooth offended some warriors at the last Gathering and that's why he took Panthershadow's patrol, but I guess we can say that it was a different Gathering if that works better.

BIC: Briartooth flicked his ears, "Nope. As I recall, last moon you said, 'We have enough issues without asking for more. Let's those CloudClan cats another moon to forget your face.'" The grey tom flattened his ears and looked contrite, "I understand and I fully agree, but I didn't do it on <i>purpose</i> you know! "

"It" was a rather unfortunate incident at the Gathering two moons ago. Briartooth was well known as being friendly to all apprentices, even those from other Clans (he loved young cats). After a great deal of pestering, he had finally agreed to tell a group of RainClan apprentices about the battle that had killed his father, Darktail. It had been a border skirmish with CloudClan gone horribly wrong, and no cat was at fault for it. Darktail had been fighting against the cat who at the time was the deputy of CloudClan, but the battle had taken place too close to the cliff near the waterfall. The CloudClan deputy had slammed into Darktail, and at that moment the rocky shore of the river gave way under the combined weight of the two cats, and they both fell to their deaths. Briartooth had been there that day, and seen it all.

This had taken place a long time ago, when Briartooth had only just been made a warrior. However, it seemed that the CloudClan cats were still sensitive about the issue. When they heard him telling the story they almost broke the truce in their rage at what they assumed was his twisting the events to make the death of both cats sound like it was their Deputy's fault. Only the quick Panthershadow's quick interference had kept the situation from exploding.

[alkaryco]

Hollyheart purred in amusement-- remembering the moon after last's Gathering. She had found a rather stupid rabbit and a CloudClan warrior had accused her of stealing prey. Good times, really. She had ended up hurling the hare into his moderately ugly CloudClan face. After the Gathering she had stolen her rabbit back... mmm. That had been a good rabbit. The black-and-white warrior had taken it to camp and ripped off a leg before taking it to the apprentices-- StarClan knows what they did with it. The she-cat flicked her tail in amusement and wondered what had become of the idiot.

[::Key::Lime/\RainyC::]

Flamestar nodded. "Yes Yes I remember. I apologize really, I was just steamed because that CloudClan patrol accused us of stealing their good-for-nothing rabbits when of course we would never steal such a revolting thing." He paused a moment to let of a disgusted hiss and continued. "Then it's settled. I know whom I'm going to take to the gathering." He got back to his paws and flicked his tail to the direction of camp. "Would you like to catch a couple pieces of prey with me and head back to camp or would you like to stay here." he turned around and took a couple paces forward before turning his ginger tabby head to wait for Briarthorn's reply.