camp cucumber test |➹| snake in camp

[sparrowsong!]

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// the snake is NOT venomous, and it's a garter snake! completely harmless to everyone except small kits, meant to be a more silly thread with a bit of a scare

The sun was warm today, evident in the way many cats were lounging about in the comforting glow on the ground. Sparrowpaw was one of such cats, splayed out in a way that couldn't help but look uncomfortable, their top half draped on a stone while the rest stretched out behind them.

Truth be told, they hadn't quite made it through their assigned task. The brown tabby had been asked to take out some old moss - which they had - and fetch some new. Somewhere along the way they, well... the sun was warm.

With a faint purr rumbling in their throat, they stretched, limbs quivering with the effort, and they blinked lazily across the clearing. It was about then a sound caught their ear, a small shift in the pine needles. Sparrowpaw sheepishly turned their head. An apology was already rising in their throat, but nobody was there.

Again, the shuffling, and they raised their head, ears perked. Movement caught their eye. They shifted more onto their belly, leaning over the edge of the stone curiously. A beetle, maybe?

Dark beady eyes stared back at them.

Sparrowpaw sprang into the air with a shrill shriek, bounding away with a cry. "Snake! Snake!"​

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[BEARHEART]

(

) Why was it that whenever he tried to have a quiet day to himself that chaos reared its ugly head to greet him? The large tom had been trying to doze when a shriek jolted him out of his stupor and he sprang to his paws in a frenzy of movement. "Snake?? Where?!" Bearheart was ready to fight without much further thought, but he wasn't entirely sure where the serpent was located. So he hurried towards Sparrowpaw in the hopes of guidance. "Show me where the snake is, quickly!"
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[flowercloud.]

Flowersong was doing much of the same, except she had completed a patrol and wanted a few minutes to relax before performing more duties to help the clan out. Sprawled on her back with her front paws slightly crossed on her chest, and her hind legs in the air.

A jolt of fear ran through her as Sparrowpaw shrieked snake. Her large orange body would roll and pull herself to paws, looking with wide green eyes at Bearheart and Sparrowpaw.

"Please don't get too close! Don't let it hurt you," she said, her voice laced in worry. What was a snake doing in camp anyways? Seemed quite odd and unsafe. Were the kits okay???

 

[Johnnyflame]

LIVE AS IF YOU WERE TO DIE TOMORROW​

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The bobtail was on his paws in a heartbeat, quickly making his way over toward Sparrowpaw an Bearheart. Snakes were a familiar foe to the daylight warrior, not the most common of critters, but he'd definitely seen his fair share slithering through the gardens of the twoleg houses he looked after.

When amber eyes finally fell upon the scaly creature though, the tension was quick to bleed from his shoulders.

"Ah, it's just one of the little guys." he said, gesturing for the pair to come closer if they wished. "We get snakes in the gardens a lot in twoleg place. Sometimes their dangerous, but usually it's just these. They can pinch a bit if they bite ya, but I've never seen a cat fall ill from it and usually they're more keen to slither away than take a shot at ya." explained Johnny, reaching out to prod the snake with a paw to demonstrate, and sure enough rather than round on him to bite it began frantically trying to slither away from him.
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[Orangestar]

Sparrowpaw's frantic yowl and Bearheart's thundering paws draw Orangeblossom from the nursery, deputy's ears pricked forward as she crosses the camp. Flowercloud's voice reaches her ears too, though the warrior is far clear of the snake - but Johnny approaches it with practised ease and she pauses as he explains that this snake wouldn't hurt them.

"StarClan above, Johnny, of course you know snakes." Orangeblossom scoffs, though she takes his unspoken invitation to come closer and peer at the snake. Her hackles raise slightly as he prods at the scaly creature, but she relaxes again as, true to his word, it slithers away from his paw. Huh. "How do you tell the difference?"

 

[sparrowsong!]

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Ears pinned, fur bushed, and eyes round, the sight of Bearheart already on his paws has them veering toward him, head lowering and back arching as they turned back to the stone from which they ran. Where? A pale paw frantically gestured in its direction. All around cats are up and moving, hackles raising to handle the threat.

"Get it! Get it!" they pleaded. The first to approach was the calico Johnny, but rather than a furious yowl or the lunge of fangs, he speaks calmly. The little guys. Not particularly dangerous. Even so, their fur refused to fall flat, and they made no attempt to get closer.

Orangeblossom got closer next, and their heart lurched. No snakes were safe. "Get it!" they begged again, their voice significantly quieter than before. "It'll hurt you!"​

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[SILVERSMOKE]

Like a bat out of hell, Silversmoke rushed toward the commotion when the outcry of 'snake' reached his tufted ears. His teeth were bared in a near-permanent grimace as he tried to locate the trespasser, the back of his head plagued with woes that it would get into the nursery. Johnny was in the Lead Warrior's bad eye when he began to talk and with a start, the feline swiveled on his forepaws and was soon enough met with the illustrious beast. That was... different from the ones he had seen before. Smaller, thinner, more like a willow branch than a pine. Unsheathed claws dragged clumps of sand closer toward himself as he glared daggers at the creature, finding himself in limbo as he heard the kittypet explain the difference between this reptile and those that congregated in the rock piles. For but a moment there was stillness and calm, a consensus was reached that the snake was not as harmful as the initial outburst had made it out to be. Then, like a skipping pebble, Sparrowpaw upset that balance and begged the snake to be 'got'. Ears flat against his skull, the Lead Warrior stomped forward a few steps.

"Oh for fucks sake." He whispered beneath his breath, entering a hasty hunting crouch. Silver scarcely had time to balance himself before he darted forwards with an impatience brought about by a lack of social grace. Sparrowpaw's anxiety was an enigma to him, he understood the reasons but not how to manage it and the last thing he wanted was for them to feel worse when they'd done a good deed by discovering the intruder in the first place. Confident in Johnny's assessment of it, a paw was aimed at the back of the snake's head to pin it. The appendage hit the earth instead and, fearing a bite, he quickly tried again with his other forepaw, though he was unable to keep a consistent grip on the confused snake. "Keep. Still. You. Wriggly. Fabler." Unsurprisingly, the snake did not stay still. All the lessons he had learned with Johnny were lost as his frustration with the reptile grew.
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[BEARHEART]

(

) So... it wasn't deadly? The confirmation was enough to help steel Bearheart's nerves as he decided to lend a much needed paw to the eradication of the serpent. Unfortunately if the snake had come into the camp once then there was the risk that it would do so again. Alas, it needed to be killed. Seeing as Silversmoke was struggling up at the head-end he then decided to target the snake's tail, aiming to grab it in his powerful jaws so he could drag it backwards before it could slither into cover. Hopefully the lead warrior could deal the finishing blow now that the snake wasn't able to get further away.
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[Johnnyflame]

LIVE AS IF YOU WERE TO DIE TOMORROW​

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It felt good to know something, to be useful beyond just attending patrols and putting in time.

"How do you tell the difference?"

"By havin' way too much time on your paws." he replied to Orangeblossoms question with a chuckle. Watching the yards wasn't always the most thrilling work, but it meant he'd had a lot of time to observe his surroundings, taking the time to 'get to know his enemies' by watching many of the critters he'd end up chasing out.

"I'm no expert on the things by any means, but before we moved across the Great Water snakes were a pretty common thing to see slithering through the flowerbeds and vegetable gardens. Stare at enough of em for long enough and you'll notice the differences." he explained as Silversmoke made his way over to try and corral the thing.

Deciding it would be good practice for them, he didn't interfere. Insted he took the chance to try and teach them all something.

"These ones were the most common I'd see. Usually they're brown or black, but I've even seen a green one once. The one thing they all had in common though were the stripes going down their backs. Straight and bright. They're pretty thin too, and don't seem to have much for teeth from what I've seen of the ones eating worms." he explained, pointing out the bright yellow dorsal stripe running down the snakes back as it avoided Silversmokes attempt to pin its head.

"Now the adders over at the Rockpile, those guys have a stripe runnin' down their backs too, but their stripe isn't straight- it's more zigzaggy, and it's dark."
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[Dizzymoth]

"Well, once you've got that one, make sure there's not anymore around, I don't want the kits getting caught up with one of those - venomous or not!" Dizzymoth called out from the mouth of the nursery. Snakes... she had always been told that snakes were evil creatures, born of earth and poison and death. She didn't hate the slippery little things but she was certainly... wary... and kittens didn't know better as to not mess with them.

She wobbled at the very thought.​

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"speech"​