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Post by shocky ! on Feb 8, 2011 20:31:28 GMT -8
B R E E Z E S T A R The sky was grey and threatening rain, which really wasn't much of a surprise considering that there had been water falling on and off for the better part of the last moon. He couldn't really tell whether there would be another storm today - the sun was setting and the clouds were beginning to lighten, and the past few days had shown him that the evenings tended to be clear. Still, whatever it turned out to be, rainy or dry, it was still cold. Breezestar shivered as he sat perched on the rabbit hill, his slim white paws digging into a damp drift of snow. Luckily for him, his fur was short, and most of his nights were spent moisture-free. Other cats in the Clan, however, weren't so lucky. Their long fur absorbed the water, turning them and their nests into baths of water and itchiness every night.
Usually Breezestar liked it when the weather was gloomy, seeing as it fit his rather stolid personality, but lately it had been beginning to grate on his nerves. He hadn't seen the sun in days, and when his nights were spent worrying about the threat of a stranger and the lack of prey within the Clan, it was hard to live when everything in your life was dark. Though he couldn't discount his blessings that quickly. He was leader now, which was what he had been striving for all this time, a chance to show his Clan that he was capable of more than just fighting. He was smart and experienced, and he would lead them in battle, planning ambushes and winning all of their wars.
His yellow gaze flickered towards Ember Mountain. It didn't matter how many battles they won if the volcano continued to spew its gases into the air, disrupting the natural cycles of their prey. No, AshClan had been forced to borrow some prey from their neighbours, something which irked him immensely. It went against Breezestar's every instinct to follow the warrior code, but it was what needed to be done and it was the easiest, most peaceful solution, so he did it. Life wasn't always pretty, but he knew StarClan would forgive him.
Heaving an immense sigh, the tom stretched out his compact body, shivering slightly as the cold pierced his skin. He was looking forward to greenleaf, but before that there was the Gathering - and a host of other ones, but this was the most immediate - and he had to be prepared for that. Breezestar's game plan was simple; listen to the other leaders, saying little, and use whatever knowledge he gleaned in order to help his Clan.
Simple.
ooc. no table yet </3
open for anyone! :)
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Crewe
soINNOCENTithurts__
[M:0]
[ss:cant take it back]
Posts: 11
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Post by Crewe on Feb 9, 2011 18:37:12 GMT -8
Owlpaw Owlpaw was close to the ground, trying to blend his dark fur into the grass of the hill. He was tuning out the cold that was an occupational hazard of hunting in leafbare; it would only distract the tabby apprentice from his task. His nose twitched once and he lowered himself a little more. His claws dug into the soft ground and he narrowed his eyes.
The rabbit's tail was visible through the grass in front of him. It was downwind, sending its tantalizing scent towards him. It was a scrawny thing, standard leafbare far. That is, for a usual leafbare. But this year's had brought even less prey to the hill of AshClan territory than usual. And so even this scrawny hare was precious to the clan. Owlpaw could not fail in this hunt.
The apprentice crept forward a few steps. He muscles moved through the familiar motions effortlessly; even only a few weeks into his apprenticeship, Owlpaw had spent hours practicing the hunting crouch until he was half worried he might start hunting in his sleep. But the practice paid off now; he was able to move silently over the ground until he was within pouncing distance of the rabbit.
Digging his claws briefly even farther into the ground, he shoved himself into the air and on top of his prey. Closing his jaws around the rabbit's throat, he cut off the warning call that he knew was coming. Snapping its neck with a quick motion of his head, he dropped the dead rabbit and sat down to look it over with satisfaction. It wasn't a bad catch for a new apprentice. Sure, not the biggest of the bunch, but it was food and StarClan knows AshClan needs as much as it could get.
Rolling his shoulders to get rid of the tense feeling hunting always gave him, Owlpaw lifted the rabbit in his jaws and turned to walk towards camp, when he froze. He was facing the hills, where he had come from, low to the ground to avoid alerting any prey that happened to be looking his way. Moving this way, he had failed to notice the cat that was perched at the crown of the hill.
Breezestar.
Owlpaw twitched his ears, eyes widening. The AshClan leader certainly looked the part, overlooking the territory with that aura of stoic authority that the brown apprentice had always admired in his leader. Ducking his head, he readjusted his grip on the rabbit.
I wonder if he saw that catch? Owlpaw thought to himself. It wasn't like him to preen and vie for attention, but this wasn't some apprentice that thought he was the best; no, this was the Breezestar,, his leader.
Owlpaw subtly adjusted his course, taking himself a little closer to the older tom. He halted at the crown of the hill as he passed Breezestar. Dropping the rabbit, he dipped his head to his leader.
"Hello, Breezestar," he said, large amber eyes at the bigger tom's paws. Owlpaw was well aware of the effect his wide, staring eyes often had on people, unnerving them and causing them to give him odd looks. The young apprentice knew he could likely work this to his advantage, but wasn't sure how yet. So for the moment he chose to keep his eyes off the ones of his leader.
After all, this was Breezestar. His leader. |
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Post by shocky ! on Feb 10, 2011 19:53:39 GMT -8
B R E E Z E S T A R Beware of life.
Breezestar gazed up at the towering form of the volcano and narrowed his eyes. Nervousness and anxiety were not feelings that he was accustomed too, but over the past few days, the twin worries had slowly been gnawing away at his stomach. When he had become leader after Hiddenstar, he hadn't expect to inherit dark visions and an ominous prophecy. Beware of life. What did that even mean? The story was that Hiddenstar had attempted murder and then resigned from his position as leader, but the tom's death... Breezestar felt his stomach churn. All he had ever wanted to do was lead his Clan in an intelligent and stoic fashion. Now he was stealing and feeling superstitious.
And the drought was a bit of a downer as well. Breezestar flattened his ears as he brought his attention back to his surroundings. No, the lack of water in an already-ashy territory wasn't much fun at all. Yet it would end soon enough, and AshClan would push through it, just like his Clan always had. There was nothing that could stop them. The thought cheered him up for a moment before vanishing. Life wasn't as easy as that, and the black and white tom usually didn't allow emotions to get to him like that. After all, thinking about things didn't fix them. If you wanted to resolve a problem, you needed to act.
A familiar scent wafted down the hills towards him. Breezestar turned to see a young apprentice padding towards him, a rabbit clutched in his jaws. The tom nodded approvingly. Even though they were short on food, it seemed as though some cats in his Clan were continuing to hunt and do their best. He watched with keen moss eyes as the apprentice neared and dropped the rabbit, greeting him with wide eyes. Breezestar twitched his ear. The apprentic was Owlpaw, he knew that – so why had the young cat come to see him? Breezestar might have been a good warrior, but he wasn't exactly the fatherly type.
“Hello, Owlpaw,” he said tersely, noticing with what was almost amusement that the dark tom was staring at his paws. Subconsciously, the spotted cat shifted, muscles rippling underneath of his fur. This leafbare had rendered him scrawnier than usual, but he was still strong enough to lead his Clan – or so he hoped that the other Clans believed. “I see you've been out hunting.” It was a nice catch, he would admit it, but complimenting and coddling the apprentice wouldn't drive him to be better. Breezestar focused his attention on the apprentice and rabbit for a couple of moments before his thoughts slowly began to drift back to Hiddenstar and the drought and, StarClan forbid, the Gathering. His eyes dimmed as his mind wandered. Something in the back part of his mind told him to pay more attention to Owlpaw, but he only half-listened.
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Crewe
soINNOCENTithurts__
[M:0]
[ss:cant take it back]
Posts: 11
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Post by Crewe on Feb 14, 2011 18:22:04 GMT -8
Owlpaw's ear twitched as his leader greeted him. The brown apprentice glanced up as the black and white tom's muscles flexed, admiration flashing across his wide amber eyes. He shot one quick look at Breezestar's face, then back down at his paws. The presence of his leader always made him feel uncomfortable. Sometimes Owlpaw would ask himself why he sought out the older tom, but he always pushed those thoughts out of his mind; after all, what apprentice didn't admire his leader?
I see you've been hunting.
"Yes, sir," he said, trying to match the calm, authoritative tone of Breezestar. It wasn't that close a match, but it was that far off either. "There wasn't much freshkill on the pile at camp, and no one else seemed to be going out, so..." Owlpaw trailed off, ears twitching. The dark apprentice wasn't exactly a conversationalist at the best of times, but now especially he was talking to Breezestar. His leader. And his (already almost nonexistent) social skills had deserted him.
Casting his mind for either a point he could discuss with the older tom without embarrassing himself or a way to gracefully extract himself from the situation, Owlpaw's gaze seized upon the rabbit at his feet. It had been the only one he'd seen for a while despite about an hour of careful searching, and he wondered if it would catch Breezestar's interest. After all, prey was important to the clan, and if Owlpaw knew anything about the black and white leader, it was that he cared about the clan. I mean, how else could he become leader?
"I didn't see much prey out here, Breezestar," the brown apprentice ventured, trying to sound conversational and yet respectful at the same time. "Have you seen any while you've been here?"
In fact, it was odd that the so-called Rabbit Hill seemed so barren. Owlpaw was aware that the volcano disrupted the prey and caused shortages, but he couldn't remember a time when this area, at least, had prey to feed the clan. In fact, he wondered, what if there was something else causing shortages? What if another clan was stealing their prey?
He decided to keep the thought to himself for the moment. After all, if Breezestar was aware of the shortage, as he no doubt was, being the leader he was, he had likely either come up with the same idea or had reason to dismiss it. And, Owlpaw thought excitedly, he might even bring it up at the Gathering! And then the other leaders would be forced to either admit they had been taking AshClan prey or lie, and it was usually rather obvious when a surprised cat lied.
Removing these thoughts to the back of his mind, Owlpaw shivered slightly as the wind cut through his fur. Lack of prey had given him a thinner coat than he normally had during leafbare, and he was by no means glad of the change. And as clouds covered the sun nearly every day now, the temperature was colder than usual.
The dark brown tom usually had little care for the weather, except when it impeded his ability to hunt or fight; for this reason he disliked strong wind and heavy rain, besides the obvious reasons of comfort. But even though the gloomy atmosphere didn't have much effect on his daily life or training, Owlpaw found himself slightly irritated by the dark clouds.
He couldn't tell exactly why, and he wasn't particularly interested in sharing these feelings--as if he ever did--so the small tom kept them to himself and simply waited, eyes on the rabbit at his paws, waiting for his leader to speak. |
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Post by shocky ! on Feb 15, 2011 14:29:58 GMT -8
B R E E Z E S T A R Beware of life.
Breezestar realized that the dark apprentice at his paws wasn't going away anytime soon, so he turned his attention back to the young tom. There was something about him that Breezestar liked, a kind of dedication that he didn't see in many of the other apprentices. Still, if Owlpaw ever wanted to become a respected warrior or even leader one day, he still had a long journey ahead of him, and letting him know that he was on the right track would only be letting him go soft. So he narrowed his yellow eyes slightly and allowed the young cat a slight dip of his head.
Yes sir.
Well, at least he could be respectful. If there was one thing that Breezestar hated, it was cats who considered themselves higher than everyone else. He had recieved his position as leader by earning it, not for any other reason, and he planned to keep it only as long as there were no other candidates who deserved it more than he did. When he spoke, the area around him went quiet with awe, but he never felt entitled to that. He had earned the respect of his Clan, and in turn, he respected them too. The black and white warrior twitched his whiskers subtly, not displeased with their conversation.
"That's good thinking," he mewed. "It was smart of you to take the initiative. I do hope, however, that your mentor won't be wondering where you're at." There was a slight purr in his voice,but it was barely audible. He had, after all, been serious - even if Owlpaw was out hunting for the Clan, it was his responsibility to keep in touch with his mentor so that both of them what was going on. If the apprentice's mentor was searching for him instead of providing for the Clan, this would not work out well in the end.
Breezestar was, however, prepared to give Owlpaw the benefit of the doubt. The tom seemed mature enough not to run off on his mentor, but AshClan's leader had been proven wrong before.
Have you seen any while you've been here?
"A couple of rabbits," he said slowly, stopping to think. "But they were too scrawny to make a decent meal out of." He didn't add that he hadn't chased them because Hiddenpromise's ominous prophecy had been ringing in his head. This was totally throwing him off track, an unsettling feeling that Breezestar wasn't used to in the least. He was in control of everything - that was what made him such a confident leader. Nothing fazed him. He was strong. Stoic. A wall. So why this? "So how is your training going?"
OOC. i feel like i need to assign mentors ;w; right.
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