DEAD END ALLEY [🌘] PLOT MEETING

Of course, the meeting marches on without preamble, exactly as it's always meant to. Sootstar is tall and proud above them, ash-colored fur shining in slats of sunlight bleeding down from the sky, a beacon of what every WindClanner aspires to be. And she calls Snakepaw up to join her because—of course she does.

Sedgepaw tries not to think about how it should be him up there. Tries, and fails. It's hard to name the feeling that courses through him, spreading across his pelt in a slow, cold wave. It's not exactly jealously. He doesn't care that Snakepaw got his warrior ceremony. They're the same age, had the same training. It only makes sense. It's an emotion that's nothing like the citrus-bright sparks of jealousy that struck him growing up, when someone got a bigger piece of prey, or more praise for their work, or attention for their talents. It's a lowly, sickening thing. He feels nauseous. His claws dig into the earth without realizing. He feels...sad.

It should be up there, too. A warrior of WindClan.

The feeling passes, leaving an ache in its place. Whatever, he thinks despairingly. He'll have to put in some extra work to secure his own warrior ceremony next moon, but that's nothing that he didn't already know. It's just...it's just.

"Snakehiss!" he calls with the thunderous crowd, disjointed with his own thoughts. "Luckypaw! Rumblepaw! Scorchpaw! Frostpaw! Parsnip-paw!"

He hasn't the faintest idea what his warrior name might be.​
 
// retro to losing his mom </3

A trail of dusty paw prints followed Heatherpaw as he joined the meeting a bit late than desired. He had heard the Moor Queen's call as he and @Robinfang returned from their tunneling patrol, a thick layer of dirt coating him to signify where they had been. A deep dive into the tunnels had left Heatherpaw feeling right at home. A sense of belonging in the dark depths, nothing but his whiskers and his ears to rely on.

The channels that lined beneath the hilly plains were as close to a second home one could get. If he were a bit more confident, Heatherpaw might have made his way to sleep within them instead of the clearing with the rest of the Clan. Being so exposed to the sky, the stars, he had come to dislike it.

The whispered reactions of his Clanmates informed him some of Sootstar's initial announcement. A tunnel project, from the sounds of it. Heatherpaw looked excitedly at Robinfang, jaws parted in a shocked toothy smile. His first tunnel project! He wouldn't, for even a second, miss out on participating. Even if he had to do all the chores in camp or clean all the tunnels across the territory.

His attention was pulled back to Sootstar as she called for Snakepaw. The realization clicked quickly, and Heatherpaw thought back to the conversation just a few days ago. Allies. His friend was becoming a full-fledged warrior. Heatherpaw joined his Clanmates in cheering his name, Snakehiss felt just the right fit. Then some more apprentices announced, and the ruddy tom lost interest. Instead be left his mentors side to join Sedgepaw, his approach quiet. Comforting.​
WINDCLAN APPRENTICE ✦ RED MACKEREL TABBY ✦ 9 MOONS ✦ TAGS​
 
Much like their siblings, Rumblekit is nosy about meetings. They're not permitted to attend, too young to race the moors, but today is different; they've carefully counted backwards with the help of older WindClanners, tracking the day that they'd turned three moons and would therefore be apprenticed. As such the black-and-white kit is restless today, paws troubled to stay still as Sootstar calls a meeting to announce the construction of a new tunnel, and to announce Snakehiss as their newest warrior of WindClan.

"Snakehiss! Snakehiss!" They call, mimicking the cheers of their Clanmates without really knowing what it means.

But, as always, there's more, and this more is highly anticipated by Rumblekit, who has kept this the biggest secret possible from their siblings just to see the looks on their muzzles. However, Rumblekit nearly finishes their kittenhood by choking on nothing when theirs is the first name called. They'd expected to be named in birth order, in how they'd always been presented, but this is a rare honour that Rumblekit immediately tucks close to their heart. With eyes so wide Sootstar would be able to see the white ring around them the tall kitten stares up at their leader. She's framed by the sky, proud and shadowed by its vastness and outlined in greenleaf light. For a moment their mind quiets, awestruck.

From this day on until you earn your warrior name, you will be known as Rumblepaw.

Brindlecloud is not one of the visitors Scorchstreak had brought them in their early days, but Rumblepaw knows the orange-spotted tomcat from his easy-going reputation and perpetually determined expression. He's a strong WindClanner, and a kind one to the kits. They pad over to their new mentor to touch noses, tense around the shoulders, but the nervous expression on Brindlecloud's muzzle will be lost to the fuzz of kitten-memory in moons to come.

A part of them is upset that they didn't get the fierce Sootstar herself or the gentle Wolfsong as their mentor, but that hope is tempered by the knowledge of his healing path. At least it wasn't Snakehiss! None of them were so unlucky as to be at the mercy of the black-and-white moor-runner, thank StarClan, but a twinge of jealousy prickles at Rumblepaw's pelt like grasping brambles as Sorchpaw is given Badgermoon as a mentor. Their deputy is, of course, thrilled by this development.

Glacial eyes turn to their mother; while Badgermoon is beaming, Scorchstreak looks downright furious, and a nervous lump settles itself right in Rumblepaw's throat.

Unlike Scorchpaw, Rumblepaw isn't surprised to be paired with a moor-runner. It's logical, duh- they're too tall to fit in the tunnels, fully expecting their ears to meet level with their mother's any day now (it's an exaggeration, but they are quite large for their age), and Scorchpaw isn't that much shorter than them. They're saddened, however, by the knowledge that Luckypaw and Frostpaw would be joining the Tunnelers. Their litter, their quarter, cut evenly in half by fate and the decisions of their smoke-furred queen. At least Parsnippaw would be joining them.

"Luckypaw! Scorchpaw! Frostpaw! Parsnippaw!" They cheer with WindClan, an apprentice, a promise of the next generation.

— information
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  • rumblekit_lines_by_urka.png
    rumblepaw, tags.
    — they/them, windclan moor-runner apprentice
    — mentored by brindlecloud (npc)
    — attack in #a1cad7. entirely unexperienced. will flee.
    — fullbody lines by urka on th.
    — penned by mercibun
​
 
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