Sunny skies but a heavy heart |winter|

[Thundie✖]

Thunderstripe lifted her dark nose into the sunny sky, the snow was melting on the forests floor and the day was wonderful. Her whiskers twitched with excitement as she picked up the scent of nearby prey, holding her head high, she listened for scampering. A little noise caused her ears to shake with excitement.
She saw a large squirrel snuffling around the leaves near her, and watched as it lifted an acorn, Thunderstripe thought curiously about how it was on the search for food, just like her. She frowned, feeling sorry for the tiny beast she was about to kill, but its sacrifice meant her clan's survival.

Thunderstripe inhaled slowly and crouched down, her tail swiped the forest floor without making a sound, her haunches flexed as she leapt upon the squirrel, and she heard the tiny heartbeat give way when she bit down on the neck.

Licking her lips, she lifted the fragile animal in her mouth, and moved it away from its deathbed, she kicked some dirt over it, and muttered a few obscure things.

Thunderstripe was never really a fan of hunting, although she loved fighting, she never knew why, but she always felt it was what she was meant to be doing.

ooc- about 210 words

[MiNTY]

CREEKTWiST

Creektwist glanced around him, surveying his clan mates as they went about their business. He watched as the last patrol left and suddenly everything felt quieter in the camp. Oh well, he had done his job by assigning cats to a particular patrol and now he was free to do as he pleased. Glancing behind him he picked up the rotting pieces of prey that were all that remained of the fresh kill pile and carried them out of camp until he felt he was an appropriate distance away to bury the carcasses of the small creatures. Kneading at the ground using his claws a small hole formed before him, into which he dropped the bodies before using his hind legs to kick dirt over them. He silently thanked Starclan for their lives, even though in the end they had turned out to be no use to the clan. At least is seemed as though the amount of prey was increasing and there was more food to go around and feed the clan. There was just something about seeing his warriors looking gaunt that made his fur bristle. Aspenclan cats were lithe at the best of times, but when they had a limited food source things just began to get ridiculous.

Shaking the mud from his fur he caught scent of one of his patrols and decided to head in the opposite direction to make sure he didn't run into them. He trusted they would be doing their job properly and so decided to leave them to it. Not knowing what to do next he headed in the direction of the Acorn Place, thinking maybe he could do some hunting there, but as he approached his favorite hunting place the scent of Thunderstripe hung freshly on the breeze and his eyes narrowed a little. Following the scent he found the she-cat just as she was kicking dirt over something. "It's good to see someone helping out even when they aren't on a patrol." He commented with a gentle nod in the direction of the she-cat.

[Thundie✖]

[atrb=width,500,true][atrb=border,0,true][bg=686868] Thunderstripe was just finished patting the dirt over the fresh grave when she heard a voice behind her, she jumped a bit, shocked. She made a note to herself to start being more observant, seeing as she'd been snuck upon multiple times that day. Thunderstripe nodded to her deputy, finally registering who it was, she smiled, friendly, Creektwist was a good warrior, and she'd always been fairly curious about him. "Hello, Creektwist." Thunderstripe grinned as he praised her work, and purred, "A clan is an entity in itself, sometimes I like working extra hard to keep that entity alive, I feel it's a thing that most cats should do for their clans, only if they wish to spend their free time this way, of course." She said, Thunderstripe suddenly got the urge to continue talking, "I don't typically like hunting, I always feel there's a need to kill them, but its not like they fought, you know? I feel like I slayed them..." Suddenly aware of how she was jabbering on and probably boring the deputy with her insane thoughts, she stopped talking, and looked down with a little laugh at herself. Her ears felt hot, and they twitched backwards, she lifted a large fuzzy paw to wipe down the fuzz that had stood at the top of her head. w o r d ' c o u n t; -- too lazy to calculate >_< t a g s; Winter:D o c c ; thundie is posted :DD sorry it took me so long to reply.

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[MiNTY]

CREEKTWIST

As she heard her greeting his ears twitched slightly out of minor embarrassment. "Hello Thunderstripe, must have left my manners back at camp." He replied with a small apologetic grin after taking a few steps forward. He was no expert on any sort of social interaction but he was pretty sure no warriors stood a few fox-lengths apart while trying to have a conversation in the mean time. All in all it just sounded rather stupid and he had always stood by any cat we was sharing words with. Hearing her next comment his pupils widened slightly in surprise. "You already seem to know me quite well Thunderstripe, I spend most of my time out here hunting in the territory anyway, and of course keeping an eye out for any slackers, not that there would be but just in case." He teased knowing fine well he trusted his clan to carry out their duties without much guidance from him. He simply got up early each day and organized a few patrols before going about his own business. "Either that or you're just trying to make me think you go hunting in your spare time so I don't put you on any of the patrols." He added with a pretend shocked tone, although the way his eyes glittered slightly suggested that he was only kidding. Taking a seat he heard Thunderstripe out as she began to explain how she felt about hunting and he nodded gently in response at first before a few moments of silence passed between the two as he formed a reply. "Well it's just all part of the life cycle, if you didn't want to hunt your prey then I'm not sure we could call you a cat." He teased. "Then again we do thank our ancestors for the prey so it's not as though we are killing cold-heartedly, that and we would die out should we stop hunting since we wouldn't be able to eat." He pointed out, flicking his tail for emphasis on his point.

ooc// Sorry it took so long, I was out late last night and had to time to reply.

[Thundie✖]

[atrb=width,500,true][atrb=border,0,true][bg=686868] Thunderstripe smiled silkily at his comment about manners, she shook her head, softly stretching, she licked her lips and sat down. Tipping her head to the side Thunderstripe listened as he spoke of slackers and hunting. She listened, her huge ears twitching and swiveling as she heard Creektwist talk of the life cycle and hunting. She nodded, her eyes closing as she thought. "Y...you're right. But I don't feel as if I'm failing Starclan, more like I'm acting in cold blood.." Thunderstripe's smile faded, she didn't want him to think she wasn't a strong warrior, so she puffed her chest out a bit, only a tad, and felt foolish. She asked herself, Why are you doing this?

[/color] Turning her head on its side she thought of Creektwist. Sure, he was the deputy, strong, somebody that was mate-worthy, for sure. He had powerful yellow eyes, his tan pelt and spots made him look like a dappled forest floor. Thunderstripe tipped her head and grinned. She found his ears funny, in a cute way, she shook her head, feeling like a spaced out idiot, she replied.

"Oh, and you didn't leave your manners... I've just been skittish recently."

Tipping her head to one side, she observed his long tail with black rings and thought of how it looked so exotic. He was an odd looking cat, with an odd name as well, but she thought he was unique, and very sweet, he was fairly quiet, she started to wonder about his ear.




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w o r d ' c o u n t; -- too lazy to calculate >_<

t a g s; Winter:D

o c c ; No problem xD and sorry, Thunderstripe is being a creeper:3.

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[MiNTY]

CREEKTWiST

Ever since he had become the deputy of Aspenclan he couldn't help but notice the increased respect he received from almost everyone around him. It almost seemed to be a little surreal at times. Before when he simply went by the title of warrior he felt more like everybody else in the clan, he just fitted in better and that also gave him an excuse to blend in and remain unnoticed. However, now that had all changed, when he strolled across the clearing in camp cats would dip their heads out of respect and sometimes even make a point of talking to him. It was a nice thing to feel respected, but the respect he had from others when he was a warrior had always been satisfactory for him and even if he was getting more attention now he wasn't about to let that go to his head. He would still show every clan member the respect he had always shown towards them. It was just occasionally he felt like having this position was forcing him to be more social. It was slightly strange for him to be having a decent conversation with another, but she was a member of Aspenclan and any member of his clan who needed his help or even some advice would get it.

The spotted tom offered the she-cat a small smile of solace as she began to speak. Gently shaking his head from side to side he cleared his throat before speaking. "You are a warrior Thunderstripe, who has chosen to live and abide by the rules of the warrior code. No cat who follows such a life could be one with cold blood flowing in their veins, you should trust your instincts more." He told her with an air of confidence about his words. He had never been the best at making others feel better about themselves, but something he did know very well and believed in more than anything was the warrior code, and if one was to follow that there was little chance of you choosing the wrong path. "Well hunting is always a good place to clear your head if you are ever having an off day, everyone does, I wouldn't spend too long thinking about it." He added with a small nod. Maybe Icestar had known giving him such a job would result in something like this, either way he felt he was doing better than he normally would in a similar situation.

Feeling her eyes on his pelt he looked up to meet her eyes and following her gaze he realized just what she was looking at. Almost immediately his scarred ear began to twitch a little, but he pressed his fangs into his tongue and forced himself to make it stop. "I ran into a rogue on a border patrol at one point, serves me right for always standing at the head of patrols defensively, but I didn't let him off with it." He commented, not really looking at the she-cat as he spoke, his gaze settling somewhere far away.

[Thundie✖]

[atrb=width,500,true][atrb=border,0,true][bg=686868] Thunderstripe calmly listened and nodded at his words, he was right, she was being foolish, she was a warrior, its in her blood to hunt. She shook it off and nodded. He was right. She watched as he continued, talking about how hunting was a good way to clear minds, usually she liked to go somewhere quiet and calm to sit and clear her mind, but every cat was different. Thunderstripe stretched calmly and licked her paw. Only when he seemed to realize she'd been staring at his ear did she feel foolish. As he told her the story, she looked down at her paws and her ears felt hot. Creektwist could tell she was thinking about it, he could probably notice how foolishly obvious she was being. Throwing all caution to the wind, she replied, "I'm sorry. I was staring, wasn't I?" Thunderstripe felt like an idiot as she bit her lip and dragged her tongue over her paw, trying not to notice the look that he took on. She lifted her dark nose to the sunny skies and thought. "It's not bad... being brave." She said suddenly, walking up to him until she was a mouse-tail away, she lifted her nose to his ear and looked at it closely. "I've always seen scars as... trophies. Not necessarily in a good way." Thunderstripe said, pausing and tipping her head to the side, she thought of what she was going to say next, choosing her words carefully, "Trophies that show you can survive. Show that you have guts." Thunderstripe stopped, and stared at him, her violet eyes wide and her ears reaching towards Starclan. Her whiskers twitched and she sniffed the air, she realized how close she was, and felt embarrassed, sometimes she forgot her boundaries. Stepping back, she sat on the ground, curling her tail around her front paws. w o r d ' c o u n t; -- too lazy to calculate >_< t a g s; Winter:D o c c ; No problem xD and sorry, Thunderstripe is being a creeper:3.

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[MiNTY]

CREEKTWiST

It was all there in his mind. He could just see the ginger rogue now, lunging forward with outstretched claws, but Creektwist had made a misjudgment and had not ducked low enough. Although just after the tip of his ear had been sliced clean off he had the tom falling over his own hind legs and losing his balance. This resulted in the ginger stranger lying at his paws and Creektwist had pressed his paws into the toms throat, but not to kill him, just to make him listen to his warning once and for all. Needless to say Aspenclan had never seen that same again. Obviously he had taken Creektwist's warning seriously and hadn't dared to cross the clan borders ever again. Another cat might have done it differently, but being a strict follower of the warrior code he spared the tom's life and there had been no trouble with him since.

Flinching slightly as he heard his clan mate speak he realized that he wasn't on his own and didn't have time to ponder over past events. "No, no, it's fine." He purred with a flick of his tail to brush off the comment. Staring didn't bother him and in a way he was proud of his scar. Whenever others saw him it made them look twice at him and think that maybe this lithe warrior had a lot more to offer than they first thought. Looking around he caught the she-cats violet eyes and held her gaze for a moment before he realized how close she actually was to him. Right on queue Thunderstripe appeared to think something similar as she widened the space between the two.

"That is very true, I hate it how other clans think we aren't as good as them just because our muscles aren't as visible, and anyway, sometimes it's the swift ones who can do the more sneaky fighting." He said, his tone varying throughout his speech. Suddenly though he cleared his throat and narrowed his eyes. "That's not to say I encourage sneaky fighting, but I just don't like being underestimated, and because of this scar I have caught many cats giving me a slightly weary second glance. I don't want others to be scared of me, but it's nice that they realize I'm not a force to be reckoned with." He chuckled lightly.

[Thundie✖]

[atrb=width,500,true][atrb=border,0,true][bg=686868] Thunderstripe nodded along with him, he was right, she'd faced it too, although she was a fairly muscular cat for her clan. Thunderstripe agreed about the sneaky fighting, Aspenclan did it occasionally, but not always, she knew what he meant. She kept nodding as he continued about the scar, "I know what you mean, my own scars have caused cats to cast a wary eye in my direction." She said, nodding towards her chest, were a thin pink line was, it was from a badger when she was young, and carried a lot of weight in her mind. Thunderstripe shrugged off the memory, and continued, "I like cats not trying to pick fights with me, even though I'm a she-cat, I can be pretty intimidating." She finished, she widened her eyes and put on a fierce look, putting her ears a little far back, she stared at him for a bit, with a dark expression.. "See?" She asked, as she lifted her paw to her ear, she decided to see if she could scare him. Thunderstripe stood up, in a stance, her muscles flexed as her violet eyes took on a dangerous gleam, she bared her teeth, as her tail flicked around menacingly, she lay her ear back, in a full combat stance, she unsheathed her claws. She could only imagine what she looked like, she was unsure how scary she was coming off, but she felt like she looked like a muscled tiger, ready to pounce. w o r d ' c o u n t; -- too lazy to calculate >_< t a g s; Winter:D o c c ; --

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