BEYOND GOOD AND EVIL — DISAPPEARANCE...?

[DOGFUR]

Only a few days after the meeting that turned Granitepaw into Granitepelt, Dogfur's lack of presence was becoming more known. The tortoiseshell had a penchant for keeping away from others or naturally being shifty, but this time the absence of his rattling laughter might be cause of concern. After all, with his rather talkative and opinionated nature, he always wanted someone to know what he was doing. However, Dogfur's nest had not been laid in for a night now. The only thing that remained was a tuft of brown and black fur. If one were to follow his scent, they would come to a complete dead-end in one of the swampy bogs in their territory. Neither had the warrior alerted any other to such a call for leave.

It was wholly unusual.

But at least it was a little more quieter at camp.

​

 

[FERNDANCE]

Avoiding negative emotions like an enemy's attacks had been prevalent in the cinnamon tabby's life, but even she couldn't shake the sinking feeling in her gut as she searched to find her friend. Left and right, up trees and down little burrows, yet the tortoiseshell's scent had been scattered to the wind. Getting to sleep had been difficult that night, only remedied by the repeated promise that she would see a familiar black and orange creature across the den from her come morning time. When emerald eyes slowly fluttered open and such a thing hadn't come true, her head shot up along with her heartrate, piercing her own ears and urging her to stand in a panic, undoubtedly disturbing whoever was cursed to settle near the flea-ridden she-cat. 'He's weird, it's probably nothing.' Someone had tried to tell her, but she couldn't believe it. Dogfur was weird but he was not unfaithful, she saw no reason why he would get up and leave ShadowClan behind without telling his best friends. Star-Killer had been caught, SkyClan had said, but she couldn't help but think of that as she scurried out the Warrior's den.

The knots in her muscles caused her to fall to her haunches again mere tail-lengths outside, feeling as if she had no time to stretch them. Camp was quiet, quieter now she did not have the joyous ramblings of a lovably bizarre cat in her ears, all the same, grief-stricken eyes settled upon the first creature she saw. "Dogfur hasn't been seen in..." Her thoughts rattled around her head and she nearly whimpered in frustration at being unable to get any of them out. 'He's ok... He's just sleeping in a log somewhere... He's ok...' Soon turned to 'Please be ok' as all the possibilities she ran through led to the worst outcomes. "A while." Regaining the strength in her legs, she bound over to that same animal, her usual ditzy air replaced with the vibe of someone who had just lost something irreplaceable. "Please, help me look for him. Our territory's not that big, we can split up or... maybe... oh, I don't know..." Nothing made sense, and she looked to the nearest cat for guidance, hoping they were able to understand anything from her panicked drawl. She couldn't even think about reporting it to Chilledstar, not at the moment.

​

 

[Needledrift]

Needledrift nods - she can't do much else. What was she supposed to say - to gesture - as a response? There aren't enough non-verbal cues in the world to explain the breadth of feeling that was rolling off of her clan-mate, not enough that Needledrift could use to sympathise with. She nods again, lifting her tail like a little banner, willing her fellow warriors to heed her silent call. Dogfur couldn't have gone very far. They probably just... wandered! They were wandering and got a bit turned around and maybe they forgot which way camp was!

Unbidden thoughts of Ghostpaw's bloated body bubble up to the surface of her mind's eye, all pale skin and swollen eyes. She thinks grimly of Dogfur's coal-and-sunshine coat, waterlogged and dredged up alongside a pawful of tadpoles and algae.

She shakes her head, willing those ugly thoughts to disperse. No. They would find him. They would find him.​

she smells like lemongrass and sleep​

 

[CHILLEDSTAR.]

DON'T YOU GIVE ME UP, PLEASE DON'T GIVE UP​

---

it was unfortunate that ferndance had decided that she hadn't wanted to bother with chilledstar with this, because chilledstar wasn't far from finding out. they noticed the lack of insanity from that corner that dogfur and all of his instability sat... it was unnerving. as annoying as they found the tom... he was a shadowclanner. he was apart of their clan, and they cared for their clan, no matter what anyone might have thought. their feelings of unease are only increased when ferndance wants to have a search party. they barley heard it, but they do and their stomach twists. where had he gone? this wasn't like him, they know. he's usually annoying someone with his rambles that made no sense, or even echoing another in a way to bother. it had become something they were used to. it couldn't have been gone just like that... could it have?

"lead the way, ferndance."

they let the lead warrior take control. they needed time to think. what the fuck had happened? they... needed to find him. they had to find dogfur.​

 

[S A B L E T U F T]

can we leave it behind? — Sabletuft wanted to believe this wasn't a defect of ShadowClan the warrior had committed. Although he hadn't known Dogfur... personally, it would be very unfortunate if they found him similar to the way Ghostpaw had been. Part of him wondered if Ghostpaw's death and Dogfur's disappearance were connected at all, even if Chilledstar had ruled it an accident. But nothing could be said until they found a body, he guessed.

"Right behind you." He spoke his support from a few paces beside Chilledstar, nodding his head to Ferndance. She seemed the most distraught of them all. — tags​

 

[Poppypaw ★]

She wants to say 'who cares' when Dogfur's disappearance came up because she didn't think too highly of Dogfur, but then again Poppypaw didn't think too highly of most cats except her mentor, who was cool, and her friends who were also okay. The only cat she thought was worth her attention was herself, because she was the best and anyone who thought otherwise was just wrong. The red and white apprentice stomped her ways over to the scene, head up and ears pinned back as the older cats gathered to go searching and she bound ahead to step in front of Sabletuft who seemed the easiest to convince.
"I wanna go too! Take me! I'm really good at tracking!"
She wasn't. She just didn't want to spend another second cleaning dens and anything to get out of it was preferable.
​