pafp ˙ ˖ ✶ half-lit grass ┊ attempted exploration.

[downyfur]

Dusk's thick blanket has smothered the sun entirely, and through its indigo cover stars begin to peek out like pinprick holes in the fabric. A chilly wind cleaves through camp, smelling faintly of Highstones and beyond. Downypaw lays with their paws politely tucked beneath them, their struggle to stay awake after the day's training aided by their unexpected companion. Rivepaw's voice knows no bounds, not the WindClanners nearby settling into familiar divots in the earth, not the many eyes of StarClan peeping on them from above.

Downypaw resists the urge to flatten their ears at the words coming out of her mouth, because they make no sense. "Rivepaw," they murmur, more intentional of their voice than she. "Lionthroat probably didn't mean it like that. It's probably just a thing to scare kits, and we aren't kits anymore," they gently remind her, hoping to appeal to some prideful core beneath her yawning maw. They curl their tail around their paws, feeling a whirl of nervousness within their chest despite their misgivings aloud. Her presence near them strikes them as a bit odd too; maybe the rest of the deputy's litter were already asleep or on dusk patrol.

Regardless, they pray she doesn't press them further, because they were running out of excuses and willpower. "I mean, I thought all dead cats went to StarClan anyway." What would a StarClan warrior be hanging around an old badger set anyway? Their eyes grow wide with sudden realization. "Or," Downypaw ducks their head a little closer to Rivepaw to whisper, "What if Lionthroat wasn't lying and all the cats that died from yellowcough got stuck there and couldn't go to StarClan?" Big blue eyes blink warily at their fellow apprentice.

ooc: please wait for @rivepaw to post!

Prompt:

There is an abandoned badger set on WindClan's territory that is said to be haunted by the ghost of the creature who lived there prior, your character, along with whoever is brave enough to join them, decides to venture in. Are the rumors true or was it a hoax?

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[rivewhisper]

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// i'm so sorry about being so late omg

Downypaw was.. Rivepaw's favorite sibling from that side of the camp's children. Perhaps that's why the mottled she-cat bothered Downypaw now, about some story that Lionthroat had prompted into Rivepaw's brain. Some would likely start to call her a hare-brain for believing them, but this one just couldn't be wrong. "No, no, I'm being serious." Rivepaw stated, her ears flattening.

Rivepaw was also not exactly a... quiet soul, no. She rose as early as Snakehiss demanded- but she was oft up later, later then even her mentor or her siblings. The moon was perfect for staring and thinking at, but the earlier she woke up, the more tired and perhaps a bit goofy she became later in the day. "I mean, I think they do go to Starclan, but-" Downypaw's voice sounded with an or- and Rivepaw fell silent, blue eyes growing big and round.

Her ears perked sharply, and her head turned, as if this was some big secret. A tiny grin spread on her muzzle. "I think we should go find out. Maybe then Lionthroat won't be so crazy?" Rivepaw said, then turned, heading towards the exit to camp. "C'mon, let's go look, yeah?"

"text"
thoughts​

 

[SEDGEPOUNCE]

The ghosts of the badger sett aren't the only ghouls that young apprentices have to worry about around here. As Rive and Downypaw make their way to the camp tunnel—paws still kitten-soft and not yet honed for stealth, the sky dark enough for rosy shadows to curtain every corner and curve across the gorse wall—a figure looms just at the threshold, waiting. It's not until Rivepaw is just about to step through into the shrouded dark that said creature emerges from it. Sedgepounce bursts into the light!

"Oooh, where are we going, huh?" Whether the apprentices shriek or only startle, Sedge peers down at them with an amused smile, and may even tilt his head back to laugh should their reactions be funny enough. He's not exactly the bastion for rule-following, but he's not so dense as to think that a couple of 'paws fresh from the nursery ought to go wandering the dark by themselves. He's not about to lecture them for trying to sneak out either, though, so maybe they're lucky that he's the one to have foiled their plans.

"Surely we know what could happen if a rogue were to find a couple of lone apprentices wandering around at night, yeah?" Sedgepounce does add, in a burst of maturity otherwise unbecoming of him. Maybe not so lucky, then.​

 

[Halfsun]

If she said she didn't miss Bearpaw and Pinkpaw and all the other kits in the nursery she would be lying. Though she would also be lying if she said she terribly minded that Featherpaw and Rivepaw were no longer there. The two siblings were like two sticks in the mud. Rivepaw especially so. It seemed that everytime anyone did anything even remotely fun she was there to tell them all how awful and terrible they were. It was annoying and Halfkit partially wishes that she and Featherpaw would just lighten up. Maybe then they might actually be cool.

It is not expected when she overhears Downypaw and Rivepaw, their voices low and conspiratory as she crouches nearby. Originally, she had been following a bug crawling across the ground. Reaching out a paw to occasionally block its path and watch it scramble around, desperate to find a way around a wall that moments before had not existed. But the bug is spared in lieu of listening to the conversation between the apprentices.

If they were to sneak out she wanted in, she thinks, and had Sedgepounce not interrupted their escapades, she would have followed them right out of the camp. Instead, she stands from her hiding place in the shadows and strides over on legs too terribly long for her age. "Yeah! You guys could totally get eaten and that would stink!" she adds on to Sedgepounces words "But uhm.. maybe if we had a cool and totally brave warrior to take us we could still go?" she says, hoping flattery would work on the older cat. Never mind that she was not even meant to be out of the nursery right now, let alone the camp.

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[downyfur]

The lift of her chocolate ears signaled that it was over, the war was won, and Rivepaw was the victor. Her smile is the smallest of slits upon her muzzle, but it gleams conspiratorially in the moonlight. It gives them a little thrill. "Um..." Their brain scrambles for a last resort excuse, something to scare her (and themself) out of this, but she's already rising. "Okay!" They try for hushed cheer even as nervousness twangs in their belly, finding their paws soon after her.

The difference in their heights now would amuse them if they weren't so focused on trying not to be a stick in the mud. Okay, well, who knows? Maybe this would be a good experience for them, and maybe they could do something about connecting that sett to the tunnels—

"Oooh, where are we going, huh?" "EEEE—!" They chomp down on their scream halfway through. It's a fierce effort to get their fur back down; they probably look like a cloud with how it's all bushed-out now. They hope the dusk and the dark fur on their ears hides the shame burning into them. Blue eyes blink away from the moor runner as he presses the pair further. "Um, well, I guess, I, uh..." Oh StarClan, they never should've let Rivepaw talk them into this! At least they hadn't actually left camp...

They're saved by the most unexpected of saviors. Or at least, Lark-kit tries to save them. Anyone with ears could see that she's just trying to mooch off of them. Though, Downypaw feels an inexplicable wave of concern at the sight of her, for the very same reasons Sedgepounce had (probably) interrupted them. They and Rivepaw might be able to risk venturing out, but a kit? Especially one so new to WindClan territory?

"Um, no. We're just doing...boring stuff, actually." They glance towards Sedgepounce again, hoping he and Lark-kit would both fall for the lie they'd swifty spun up. "Lionthroat asked for some water, and, uh, me and Rivepaw are going out to get some for him. And we're going together 'cause it's safer," they explain, trying their best to put on a nonchalant face.​

 

[rivewhisper]

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Triumph flooded through Rivepaw as Downypaw finally agreed. It had only taken all night, it felt like! Or all day? Rivepaw didn't know, didn't care. She had some ghost stories to go chase. Sedgepounce's scent touched her nose moments before the cat leapt from the shadows. She inhaled sharply, but she didn't start to scream like Downypaw did, blue eyes flying wide. No, instead, Rivepaw fell backwards onto her rump- which was seriously uncool.

She pushed to her paws, shaking out her fur before snapping her eyes up towards Sedgepounce accusingly. "Okay, that was uncalled for!" Rivepaw accused in a whispered-hiss, her fluffy tail snapping behind her. Yes, her winter coat was coming in, and grooming it was becoming a large pain in the rump. Vision dropped towards Downypaw, who was starting to blow their cover. Forcing her fur to lay flat, she turned her eyes back towards Sedgepounce to try and fish their cover story back together when Lark-kit, of all kits, showed up out of nowhere.

A hot breath left her. Her neck hurt from turning back and forth, but there was nothing she could do about that. "We won't get eaten, despite what you may think. And there is no us, Lark-kit. Don't be stupid, kits can't leave camp." Rivepaw chided. Looking towards Downypaw and Sedgepounce again, the apprentice nodded. "We'll be very careful." She promised. "Lionthroat is just super thirsty so we agreed we'll go together."

A thought occurred to her then- if Snakehiss heard about this, surely, Rivepaw would be assigned some hundred chores for the next three days, and while that depressed her... she did really want to see some ghost-cats.

"text"
thoughts​