DISAPPEARING SUN \ prompt, fox trap

[WEASELCLAW]

12. After a recent accident the clan has become aware of the danger of twoleg traps. Though they are set up to catch foxes the clan is worried they’ll only continue to trap their own youth instead. Your patrol is tasked with locating and learning how to disable these traps, be safe!

-

He's a large brown blur after a smaller one, his limbs flashing like lightning during a storm. The creature is swift, but he's more powerful, and he uses his muscled hind legs to give a final leap, claws outstretched toward the rabbit.

A squeal decorates the air, and Weaselclaw, in his surprise, lands short of the rabbit he'd been chasing for so long. It is gripped in familiar silvery jaws, twitching and immobile; the frantic prey animal had run headlong into the sort of contraption Sunflowerpaw had been injured in. It's a gruesome sight, the shining teeth clamped against the rabbit's throat. It quivers in the throes of a grisly death, and Weaselclaw takes several steps backward, panting from his chase.

"Another one of these," he snarls, sinking his claws into the earth. He whips around, hoping the fear scent coming from him is fading quickly. He'd been only a heartbeat from meeting a similar fate as the rabbit, after all. "These things seek to steal our prey as well as injure our cats! Enough." His flanks heave with exertion and relief.

Weaselclaw creeps closer to the trap, sniffing the blood-streaked metal. "We must rid the moor of these things." Moor runners don't have time to be dodging lethal jaws sprouting from the earth. They run with the wind, sight on their prize. He looks at the cats behind him with glittering pale eyes. "I don't know how we're meant to get rid of them, but we have to do it now."​

[ PENNED BY MARQUETTE ]​

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[GRAVELSNAP]

The sight of Weaselclaw stopping short in the midst of his lunge for a rabbit catches Gravelsnap’s attention, and they are at the warrior’s side in only a few moments. It quickly becomes apparent what the problem is, and their eyes narrow as Weaselclaw speaks. "They could do a lot more than just injure cats," he comments, dulled hazel eyes fixed on the trap. Sunflowerpaw had been lucky, if this is what they’d been caught in. His gaze catches on the rabbit’s form, smashed, twisted like a bird he’d once seen on black asphalt. A gruesome sight, but one that he finds he can’t quite turn his eyes away from.

Sure, the things are fairly easy to spot when going slowly and being careful, but when chasing a rabbit, doing things slow and careful is not an option—quite the opposite, actually. What if the next cat who gets caught in one isn’t so lucky? Staring at the rabbit, he realizes that he doesn’t ever want to find a clanmate in such a position. Without looking up, he murmurs, "We could try find what sets it off. This one probably can’t, uh—attack?—again." The only problem is, he isn’t sure how these things work, exactly, just like the wind-thing that Vulturemask had led him astray about. And the last thing he wants to do is endanger the rest of the clan because he made a mistake.
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[ DEATH OF A DREAM ]​

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[nightingalecry]

Nightingalepaw has a bird clutched in her jaws when Weaselclaw calls out 'Enough!' His tone is mostly exasperated, however she flinches as she hears it, interpreting it otherwise. Her catch comes with her as she draws closer to the lead warrior and Gravelsnap, eyes fluttering to the silvery contraption that they take turns inspecting. Oh, she lets out a breath around the fowl, calmed by the fact that she hadn't angered the tabby tom. Just this... thing.

She drops the bird a few steps away, keeping it distanced just in case the thing can attack again. Nightingalepaw inches closer to the other two, unsure of how to even address the situation. "Uhm..." she hums, initially adding nothing to the continued conversation. "What did - the rabbit do?" she tries to question, her voice tapering off for a few syllables. She paces slightly closer, "Did it... just - er, step on it...?" Weaselclaw was chasing the damned thing - so unless the metallic jaw had a secret pact with the rabbit to spring close at the wrong time, she can't imagine another way of engaging it.​

 

[SUNFLOWERMASK]

.°☀ AND IF IT EVER STARTS TO FEEL BAD, LITTLE FANG

---

The sound of their patrolmate's voice draws Sunflowerpaw from their searching for prey. There is anger in Weaselclaw's words, and it puts them immediately on guard. Approaching slowly, they peek around the tabby tom, to see --

Oh.

Sunflowerpaw's ears press flat against their head. It's a rabbit, caught in the same jaws whose clutches linger still in the limping of their own steps. They almost feel grateful, past the sickness that claws in their stomach, that the strange beast only saw fit to prey upon their leg. The rabbit was not so lucky as they were, still twitching and chocking on the blood that pools at its neck. A grisly death, jaws still clamped unmoving around its twisted neck. The rabbit isn't much smaller than they are. The night they'd been caught by the same breed of silver teeth could easily have gone much different. Sunflowerpaw screws their eyes shut, soft breaths coming faster.

Weaselclaw speaks of ridding the moor of these things and -- yes, yes that's a good idea. They'd prefer to never see one again, if at all possible. The beast seemed invulnerable, though, none of their frantic scratching even breaking its stone-hard skin. But there must be something they can do. They imagine their Clanmates, their friends and family, caught like this mangled rabbit, teeth in their neck, and while it does little to calm their frayed nerves, it's enough to strengthen their conviction.

"Find what sets it off," says Gravelsnap. Nothing, they think bitterly, they'd been doing nothing but walking when it had pounced. But Nightingale suggests a more concrete possibility: that the rabbit stepped on it. Yes, that -- that seems right. Their words are small as they confirm, "'S what I did." So it'd make sense if the rabbit did as well.

They open their eyes, exhale shakily, keep their gaze fixed decidedly away from the rabbit. They want to get rid of the trap, of any others that may be lurking, it's just... difficult, to face it directly. They have firsthand experience, though, surely they can be of some help.

---

IT'S EASY TO EXPLAIN 'CAUSE THIS WORLD'S NOT TAME .°☀

⟪ OOC ⟫ ⟪ INFO ⟫ ⟪ REF ⟫

• //​
• SUNFLOWERPAW named by their half-brother vulturemask after his friend and mentor.
  — they/them, 5 moons.
  — windclan apprentice, mentored by wolfsong.
  — reserved yet loyal, distrusts most.
  — mild limp.
  
  primary character, high activity. penned by saturnid.​
• 

​

 

[GHOSTSTRIKE]

---

Weaselclaw wasn't wrong; the traps did no good for Windclan. They snapped closed on anything that touched them regardless of whether it was predator or prey, and if they didn't lose cats to them they'd certainly lose prey. Sunflowerpaw had been lucky not to be found and taken by the twolegs that set them.

"Okay. So we make them think something stepping in them." the dark tabby reasoned after considering the other cats words. "Maybe a rock, or a stick? Whatever it is will have to have some weight to it or it might not be fooled." After all, the blades of grass nor the wind set it off, only the living and moving- things with paws to step into its mouth.
​

---

rogue - male - 29 months - single - a very tall, muscular tabby with dark gray fur and white markings. heavily scarred with dark amber eyes​

 

[Bluepool]

Bluepool cannot help the shudder that steals over her body, like an icy chill had just run its cool fingers through her fur. She had watched from a short distance away and now she trots to catch up. One wrong move and it could've been her brother in law caught in those steel teeth. One wrong move and her sister would be without a mate, their kits without a father. Weaselclaw was right, these needed to be dealt with swiftly, before another cat got hurt. Or worse.

She nods at Gravelsnaps words, uncharacteristically not having much to say as she tries to puzzle out some sort of solution, some sort of way they could get around this problem. Nightingalepaw asks how the trap had been set off and Sunflowerpaw supplied the answer. Bluepool's eyes soften at the fear in the young cats voice but she does not know them well enough to be certain if she would be allowed to comfort them and so she does not. A warrior needed to be strong in spite of their fears anyways. It was a difficult lesson but sometimes it was necessary.

Ghoststrike suggests using a rock or a stick to set off the trap and she nods in agreement. "There is a way to open these traps right?" she asks, nudging the rabbit with a cautious foot before looking back at the rest of the patrol again. "Perhaps we could get this one out and use it to set off some other traps if a stick or a rock wont do" they had freed Sunflowerpaw from a trap like this one, afterall so it had to be possible right. "Do you remember how you were freed kiddo?" she asks, turning to them now. She hopes it was a simple solution and that they wouldnt have to go catch a new rabbit to sacrifice to the traps every single time they wanted disengage one.


// apprentice tag @Periwinklebreeze.
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[SUNFLOWERMASK]

.°☀ AND IF IT EVER STARTS TO FEEL BAD, LITTLE FANG

---

Focus on helping, focus on getting rid of it. They can do that. Ghoststrike suggests tricking the beast, giving it weight rocks and sticks to clamp its jaws around. It's a good idea. It never seems to let go once it's picked its target, so if they can fool it then they can spare a cat from the silver jaws. Bluepool is next to speak, suggesting they free the rabbit to use as bait.

It is only when Bluepool addresses Sunflowerpaw that they weigh in again, wordless this time. Despite the haze that colors their memories of the night they were caught, they still remember how Wolfsong and Vulturemask pried apart the trap's jaws. They look to the trap, push down the nausea from the sight of the twisted rabbit corpse. Hesitantly, they creep forwards. Easier to show than to explain. Moving with such trepidation as though any wrong move will set the trap's jaws upon them, Sunflowerpaw grasps the bloodstained metal in their teeth, begins to tug.

It does little; without someone on the other side, it merely tugs the rabbit closer towards them. They weren't expecting that to be enough, of course. Sunflowerpaw steps back, satisfied with their demonstration, and looks to the rest of the patrol. With a jerk of their head, they beckon the cats closer. They'll need two to disengage it.

---

IT'S EASY TO EXPLAIN 'CAUSE THIS WORLD'S NOT TAME .°☀

⟪ OOC ⟫ ⟪ INFO ⟫ ⟪ REF ⟫

• //​
• SUNFLOWERPAW named by their half-brother vulturemask after his friend and mentor.
  — they/them, 5 moons.
  — windclan apprentice, mentored by wolfsong.
  — reserved yet loyal, distrusts most.
  — mild limp.
  
  primary character, high activity. penned by saturnid.​
• 

​

 

[GRAVELSNAP]

The patrol quickly falls into a discussion of the potentially-deadly trap, and Gravelsnap listens intently. He’s had a paw injured already; he’d like to avoid another month of limping around like some sort of unbalanced kitten. Sunflowerpaw confirms that they had triggered it by stepping on it, and Ghoststrike follows up with the idea of using something to make the trap go off without clamping down on anything living, cat or otherwise. The monochrome warrior hums, intrigued. "So it’s triggered by stepping on it? Any part of it?"

He frowns as Sunflowerpaw demonstrates the way that they’d been set free from the trap, voice flat as he speaks his thoughts aloud. "It takes two to pry it open. But as long as we can get it open, we can… experiment with it." Maybe there’s a way to prevent them from going off at all.
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[ DEATH OF A DREAM ]​

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[WEASELCLAW]

Paws thud, heavy, as his patrol gallops to catch up to him. Weaselclaw flicks an ear at Gravelsnap's observation -- he agrees; at the speed their warriors run, a cat could be maimed beyond repair if they were to be caught in one. A smaller moor runner could be killed. He gazes at the young warrior as they suggest they find out how to set the traps off. "This one probably can't attack again." The tabby nods his agreement. The problem is figuring out how to do so.

Young Nightingalepaw asks if the creature had stepped on it, and Weaselclaw narrows his eyes thoughtfully. "I think so. It was running from me, and the second it touched this thing, it was dead." He frowns, thinking again about poor Sunflowerpaw.

The apprentice in question happens to be on this hunting patrol. The tawny feline confirms: "'S what I did." Stepped on the middle part. Weaselclaw shudders, imagining the powerful jaws closing around his own foot as it had theirs.

He flicks his gaze to Ghoststrike, who suggests putting something on the open traps, and Bluepool suggests they try to reuse the mangled rabbit since it's of no use any longer. Sunflowerpaw demonstrates how to open the trap, but it's clear it takes two cats to force it to open.

The scarred lead warrior meows, "I agree. Let's see if we can open this one, and we'll start putting things inside of them. We can try this rabbit again, though it probably won't be any good for much longer." He puts a paw to his muzzle in thought. "I think stones or sticks might work, as long as it's heavy enough. Someone help me try to open this... it will be good knowledge either way." He goes to take a piece of metal in his jaws, waiting for another cat to do the same on the other side of the trap.​

[ PENNED BY MARQUETTE ]​

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[Bluepool]

The silver she cat watches contemplatively as Sunflowerpaw demonstrates. They walk up to the trap and try to pry it open and Bluepool is about to tell them to stop, lest they hurt themselves but as she is opening her mouth to say so, thankfully, they stop. She looks to Gravelsnap as he speaks and nods her head in agreement. "We can use this one as a test" hopefully without anyone getting injured or worse. She thinks quietly to herself. There was no use in saying such things out loud and scaring the younger cats that were here.

Weaselclaw steps forward to start prying the thing open and he requests someone to help him so she quickly steps forward, grabbing the other end of the trap. She was usually faster than she was strong but perhaps between the two of them they would have enough strength to get the job done.

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