cheese || rta

[CLEARSIGHT]

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➵ Clearsight's so glad to finally get out.

It's been a rough couple of months since his injury. Recovery had been long and arduous, his mind quite literally rattled by the twoleg hound's attack.

In all his moons, he could not remember feeling so helpless. Dragged back to camp between Smokethroat and Coast, unable to even walk upright, slurring every word—and then bound to the medicine den for weeks, Gillpaw temporarily reassigned to another mentor. No patrols, no hunting, not even sunlight permitted, that his head might heal. Just another cat fallen victim to a long string of violence, bloodthirsty twolegs running amok. Walled off, even, from his Clayfur—the time spent with his other half reduced to visiting hours.

For a man so used to his own unstoppable strength, it was frustrating to be so thoroughly stopped.

But the threat's long gone now, and Clearsight has returned to the land of the living. It's a joy and a relief—free to roam the territory again, to spend as much time as he likes with his clanmates. To hunt for them again.

Long, sleek blue fur glistens, midmorning light illuminating stray droplets that cling to his coat. He steps through the camp entrance, a hefty trout held firmly in his jaws, and drops it onto the fresh-kill pile, then picks a sandy spot to sit and groom.

"Morning," he murmurs to a clanmate sitting nearby, golden eyes warm and kind. "How's the day treating you?"
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& we've all got battle scars ✗ ​

 

[MUDPELT]

Mudpelt lounges nearby, attempting to soak in any bit of warmth he can from the lingering sunlight. With leaf-bare just around the corner, he knows he's going to miss this luxury on these nicer leaf-fall days. Between his paws sits a half-eaten fish, and he's chewing away on it, content. Amber eyes flicker up as Clearsight settles down beside him, seemingly preparing to relax as well. He lifts his head from his meal and throws his clanmate a smile, ear flicking. "Patrol was quiet! Gonna take Fernpaw out later for some training. Looks like you had good luck on your hunt." He jerks his head in the direction of the fresh-kill pile, not missing the large fish the warrior had managed to drag back. "I bet it feels good to be out and about again, huh?" He comments, black whiskers twitching. He isn't sure what he'd do if he'd been trapped inside for so long. Beesong is his pal, and he's great! But boy, that would suck.​

 

[SMOKESTAR]

"I see they've finally let you out of that damned den then? Welcome back."
Smokethroat stalked forward on slow, confident strides, pausing to give Mudpelt a nod in greeting as he glanced carefully in the blue tom's direction. It felt like countless moons since he had helped Coast dragged this bleeding and battered lump back into the camp, his injuries had been a lot more severe he had previously thought but then again he wasn't a medic so frankly what did he know. The dark warrior glanced upward to the sky to give a quick gauge of the time before an annoyed huff escaped him and he turned from Clearsight to the brown-pelted warrior and then back again to Clearsight with a scowl, "Have either of you seen Iciclepaw since you got back? I told her to meet me back here by sun high." This APPRENTICE was going to send him into an early grave, if she wasn't purposefully being dismissive or taking her sweet time she was accepting his words with the most passive aggressive responses in turn. He was blaming her for the series of white spites he had found on the inside of his left leg the other night. He'd be a white cat by leaf-bare, mark his words.
"Reminds me, I bet Gillpaw will be pleased to see you out again. He's been a bit mopey since being reassigned."
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[apricotflower]

"I'm sure she'll be coming along soon, Smokethroat, you know what she's like." Apricotflower meows good-naturedly upon her approach, tail raised high in greeting. The tips of her long pelt still drip with the remnants of her latest ... uhh ... impromptu swim, one which still caused her teeth to chatter periodically with the memory, but unlike Clearsight the cream-and-white molly doesn't have a fish to show for it. Shivering aside, however, Apricotflower seem in her usual high spirits as she joins the trio - she offers Smokethroat a nudge of her shoulder against his, and greets Mudpelt with a friendly twitch of her ears.

"Looks like you've gotten back into hunting real fast, Clearsight! Nice job." She purrs to the recently-released warrior.​

 

[GILLSIGHT]

It's as if Gillpaw appears on cue, the black and white tom stepping out of the apprentice den to start his day.

It's been the same routine for the past moon or so - waking up, training with a temporary mentor, and then visiting Clearsight afterwards. He'd rather the routine be different, rather be training with Clearsight instead of burdening Beesong with his consistent appearance in the medicine den, but his real mentor must heal, and Gillpaw must keep up with his training. Afterall, what good would it do, if Clearsight had to exhaust himself with taking extra time to teach him things he should have learned already?

The young tom stretches, blinks away the sleep in his eyes as he scans the camp. He expects to find his temporary mentor, but instead, a different scene is before him. Clearsight, heading back into camp with a fish in his jaws. Clearsight, not in the medicine den. The sight jolts him awake, sends excitement through him.

"Clearsight!" he calls, racing over to his mentor. Cloudy paws skid to a stop, narrowly avoiding colliding into the blue tom. "Y-You're out of the m-medicine den!" A question lingers, begs to be asked: was Clearsight going to start training him again? As much as he hopes so, he hesitates to ask, not wanting to get his hopes up too soon, in case Clearsight's time to heal wasn't over yet.
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