pafp BLOOD SACRIFICE || First prey

[Garlicheart]

The morning air is crisp and cool, and Garlicpaw creeps through the marsh with newfound wonder. It seems so different when it isn't sweltering hot out. A cool mist shrouds the land, and crickets sing around her along with the frogs in the pools of water. She decides she likes this weather. This is quiet and peaceful and feels like a whole new world to her. In this new world, she is on a mission. A grand hunt. Her prey is a specific one. This morning she is after Wartstar, leader of Frogclan. The most magnificent frog in the marsh. Big and majestic and probably beautiful by frog standards.

Surely such a divine beast will help Halfshade get better.

Many failed hunts have perfected her stalking, her ability to quietly prowl on wet, squishy ground. She's gotten very good in her opinion. Today was the day to prove her stuff.

Quietly she glided through the marsh, discerning eyes scrutinizing each frog she came across. They were all exquisite, but not as exquisite as Wartstar. She must continue her hunt deeper into the marsh....

It will be worth it in the end. Wartstar's blood and flesh will save her mother.

It takes time and patience, but she comes across a fallen tree trunk, rotting away amongst the water and reeds. Atop this mighty pedestal sits Wartstar, the most beautiful frog in the marsh. A rich shade of brown with a round, chubby body. She was the biggest frog she's ever seen, so that must mean she's the oldest and wisest, to evade capture for so long.

Garlicpaw must be careful. Wartstar is facing her, one wrong move and she'll hop away. She quietly skirts around the log amongst the tall grass, eyes pinned on her target. Slowly and carefully she creeps forward......

Wartstar doesn't suspect a thing, and Garlicpaw sees her chance. She springs forward, catching Wartstar in her claws and teeth and sailing over the log onto muddy ground. It's over in an instant, such a proud beast does not deserve to suffer long. She beams with excitement and pride.... Her first prey! She did it!! All by herself, she did it!!

With Wartstar in her jaws, she raced to find her mentor.

" Dogfur!! I did it!! Look, I caught Wartstar!" She announced excitedly, forgetting the fact that Dogfur probably doesn't know who Wartstar is. "I'm gonna give her to Mama!!" With that, she ran back to camp, likely leaving poor Dogfur in the dust.

Emerging through the entrance, she bounced towards the medicine den carrying her prize. She sets Wartstar down and peeks into the den to call out softly, as to not disturb the residents.

"Mama? I brought you something special! I caught my first prey and I want you to see it!" She chirps excitedly. "I-if you can..." She adds. Her mother has to get better. She has to.


(( @Halfshade ur daughter has brought u frog ))

(( @DOGFUR mentor tag because she cant be out UNSUPERVISED ))​

 

[Halfshade]

The medicine cat den is lonely, cold, to think she almost misses the chaos of the nursery now. Life had heard her speak of her intent to abandon it and pursue her duties as a warrior once more and it had laughed at her, it had punished her for it. Halfshade can't help but feel bitter, uneasy, she had not gotten to watch her kits go out and take to their first days as apprentices, she had not gotten reclaim her duty as a mentor once more, it had all been taken from her in suffocating breath and wheezing gasps. She was morose as she curled in her nest, waiting for Starlingheart to come through, to figure out what it would take to get her out of here, when she hears a familiar and chipper tone call out and immediately her head snaps upward.
Too fast, he spins her thoughts, makes her dizzy, but she manages a strained, "Stay there." Before she is able to focus proper on what is being said. Garlicpaw, her scruffy furred and troublesome little girl, the more chaotic and nonsensical of her litter, the one who took the most after her beloved mate. She'd caught her first frog.
Halfshade fights the welling in her eyes down, the lump lodging itself in her throat, her kits were growing up and she was here, trapped, unable to watch. She couldn't even get close for fear of getting her sick, couldn't even congratulate her with a warm lick to the head and a gentle purr; her throat too sore to get much sound out at all. She wants to cry, but swallows it, forces a watery smile to her maw and keeps herself steady. If she fell apart now it would only upset the young apprentice.
"You did so well, I'm so proud of you." She sounds horrible, her words are rasped, rough and forced, "What a plump frog too, thank you. I'm sure it will make me feel better."
​

 

[Garlicheart]

Seeing her mother fills her with joy for a moment before reality sets back in. Her voice is ragged and she looks so, so unwell. It breaks Garlicpaw's heart to see her like this, Halfshade, who has always been strong and beautiful and confident. Who protected them from those horrible bears even if it meant giving up her life. This sickness left her tired and weak, barely able to even talk and it frustrated Garlicpaw that she couldn't just...Fight the illness hurting her mother.

But it would be okay. It's going to be okay.

The absence of a warm embrace hurts her heart. Halfshade's praise makes her eyes water and she gives Halfshade a big smile. She said she was proud of her... She will carry this praise in her heart for the rest of her life.

"It has to!" She says. It needs to. "Y-you'll be better in no time!" She adds, trying not to cry. "It's gonna be okay! And when you're better, we can all go out hunting together!"

She wanted to reassure Halfshade, but she may as well be trying to reassure herself too.​

 

[DOGFUR]

The tortoiseshell breaks into a raspy, half-choked purr when his apprentice brings him the body of a frog. Wartstar—she calls it—and Dogfur cannot help himself but chuckle with glee. What a fitting name! He thinks as he shows crooked, yellowed teeth to Garlicpaw in his own way of showing a smile. "The mightiest there ever was!" He crows, beaming with pride. "I caught several hundred back in my day—but never a star. Garlicpaw... you are so strong and brave. Run along now to your mother, but do not stay long. That cough will infect us all. Ah, if only we were all Wartstars.... there would be no yellowcough. What a life, yes, what a life."

He rambles to himself as he watches his mottled tortoiseshell apprentice race off to the medicine cat den. He will not dare to go near—he does not want to get sick. His laughing subsides and he stares after the path Garlicpaw took with a concentrated and uncharacteristically harsh glare.

​

 

[HONEYJAW]

He's near the den already, when Garlicpaw runs over. Not so close that he risks catching this himself, but close enough to deliver some fresh moss to the medicine cat and offer a few quiet words for those that suffer within. Not many of them are those he would consider friends, but they were clanmates nonetheless. All of them in this together. All of them suffering in different spectrums. Garlicpaw may not be sick, but hearing the way that she talks to her mother– stars, just hearing it is enough to make him ache. He trods slightly closer, enough to peek back in, and his nose nudges at the apprentice's shoulder. Not a good enough substitute for Halfshade. He looks at the sick warrior anyway, seeking her approval, or offering a different sort of comfort. It doesn't matter. He can't do anything at all.

"You'll catch lots more too, huh? But it'll be tough to catch one as good as that. What if we take a few steps back and you can talk really loudly, so your mom can hear the whole story of how you caught it?" Maybe it would make her cry. Maybe crying would be good. Either way, Garlicpaw shouldn't linger so close she would see it.

﹥ˏˋ  OOC NOTES ╱ REFERENCE ╱ 07.02.2023  𝘙𝘌𝘔𝘐𝘕𝘋𝘐𝘕𝘎 𝘔𝘌 𝘏𝘖𝘞 𝘓𝘐𝘛𝘛𝘓𝘌 𝘐 𝘏𝘈𝘝𝘌 ˊˎ＜

• ooc: —

• 

• honeyjaw ╱╱ 36 moons old ╱╱ he - him - his ╱╱ warrior of shadowclan.
  ──── a former loner who joined the clan approximately six months ago (give or take).
  ──── named for the deep honey-brown of his pelt as well as his too natural charisma.
  ──── has an apprentice-aged kid he joined with, def scared of watching 'em grow up.
  ──── bisexual- kinda flirtatious yet never seems to really pursue a relationship. single.
  
  a short-furred dark chocolate point tom with the smallest splashes of white on his forehead, front paws, and tail tip. well-built, but overall average in size and unremarkable aside from his lightly curled ears and the magnetism of his smile. seems to show signs of aging earlier than expected, with a salt-and-pepper dusting around his jaw and muzzle.

• "speech"

​

 

[COMFREYPAW]

Comfreypaw is startled at Garlicpaw’s enthusiasm—her unruly denmate declares to all of ShadowClan that she’s caught Wartstar, an enormous toad who hangs limp from her jaws. She watches with amusement, thinking back to her conversation with Applepaw. Looks like the winner really is the silly sister and the frog-brained mentor. Ruefully, she cannot remember who among her littermates had been the first to bring prey home. If they had succeeded her, they had not bothered to find her and inform her, and watching Garlicpaw approach Halfshade with her offering makes her chest ache selfishly.

Even sick, even deteriorating and exhausted, Halfshade entertains her daughter. “Thank you. I’m sure it will make me feel better.” Suddenly, her golden eyes are glossy with tears, and she has to avert her gaze from the mother daughter pairing. She has not gone to Betonyfrost since—since the outburst in camp, since Comfreypaw had followed her into the marsh to seek answers, and the desire to push her nose into her mother’s fur is suddenly fiercer than it has been since she was a tiny kit.

“Mother,” she’d say, and Betonyfrost would look at her with those tired, mixed-up yellow eyes and reply, “I told you not to call me that.”

“I—I want to hear the story, too,” she says with a strained voice, offering Garlicpaw, Dogfur, and Honeyjaw a pained smile. “I think that’s bigger than any of the ones I’ve caught before.” Despite her burning sorrow and the jealousy—misplaced, misplaced, her mother isn’t dying of yellowcough!—she settles close to the other cats.

✧ INFO.

•  
• 
  — comfreykit . comfreypaw
  — she/her, apprentice of shadowclan
  — bisexual ; single
  — short-haired charcoal tabby with amber eyes
  — “speech”, thoughts, attack
  — penned by Marquette
  — art by Meadowllark

​

 

[APPLEJAW]

" You caught this? " Applepaw is suddenly there, pushing her way within the small crowd that was Honeyjaw, Comfreypaw, and Garlicpaw. From the latter’s mouth, hangs a plump piece of prey – an offering for their mother, and that much makes sense. The sick needed to be fed. Applepaw herself would not hesitate to bring Halfhsade something from the freshkill pile, her duty as an apprentice, and as her daughter.

What doesn’t make sense, is that the frog had been snagged with Garlicpaw’s own claws. Her mousebrained sister, who’d she’d thought only liked to play with sticks and mud when out on patrol, had managed to catch something like that. Applepaw was supposed to be the first; the one that in the future, Halfshade can sigh fondly about, and tell her clanmates about the first of her kits to catch something.

Now there’s another reason that could never happen, Garlicpaw’s dumb luck. That was all it could be. Garlicpaw doesn’t even care. She’s to stupid to care about feeding the clan, only that the frog she caught had a goofy name.

Comfreypaw is not the only one steeping in her own misery, Applepaw just does not bother to hide her own. She gapes, openly, at her sister, and her heart only drops further, as she cranes her neck to see the terrible state of Halfshade.

She did not care to hear this story, and shooting a final glare at Dogfur, and then Honeyjaw, the apprentice storms off.

ooc ༊ 𝒶𝓂𝑒𝓇𝒾𝒸𝒶𝓃 𝓆𝓊𝑒𝑒𝓃 𝒾𝓈 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒶𝓂𝑒𝓇𝒾𝒸𝒶𝓃 𝒹𝓇𝑒𝒶𝓂

• ooc: out :')

• 

• ( I'M OBSESSED WITH THE MESS THAT'S AMERICA. ) APPLEPAW. kit of shadowclan. eldest sister to swankit, valeriankit, and garlickit.
  —— she / her; confused by the use of others
  —— currently 5 moons old as of 9.3.23. ages every 17th.
  
  longhaired blue torbie with a white chest, paws, and underbelly. A young cat you would describe as " bossy, " Applekit is quick to take charge of any situation she sees herself as the probable head of. A rule - follower to a T, and thinks herself better than the majority of her clan for this. Not ignorant enough to think herself above a warrior, but seeks to gain that status as quickly as possible. Intensely self - motivated to be the best in a mixture of blind, childish desire, and never wanting to be afraid of anything ever again.

​