DREAMS OF YESTERDAY // missing cats

[WILDHEART]

The dreams of a life spent with Patchpaw by his side in the warriors den continued to feed him with hope for the future. Just what would her warrior name be? The time was fast approaching, and once it did he wouldn't have to slumber alone in the large nest that he had secured. Soon they could begin the next chapter of their lives. He longed for the happiness that those days would bring, and for the adventures that awaited them once they became the greatest warriors that ThunderClan had ever known.

Dreams.

Dreams...

He swore that he could detect Patchpaw's scent, though his mind was groggy with the haze of sleep and it phased in and out of mild consciousness. It wasn't until the rays of sunlight caught him that he finally managed to stir into full consciousness, but what he discovered left him confused. A single feather perched on the edge of his nest; elegant and white, soft and inviting, and carrying Patchpaw's scent. Wildheart blinked slowly as he rose up and drew the feather closer, then a worrying thought descended over him. In a flash he was on his paws and he raced to the apprentice den in order to check Patchpaw's nest. Upon placing a single paw inside he realised that it was cold. Cherrypaw's nest was cold too.

The warrior barrelled back out into the heart of the camp and he spun around in a growing panic as he searched for the missing felines. There was no reason for them to be missing, none! "HAS ANYONE SEEN PATCHPAW?!" He voiced boomed out and conveyed his deepening concern. Nothing, there was no sign of them! It drove him to head out through the camp's entrance in order to find a scent trail, and sure enough there was one that led away into the forest.

Wildheart hounded the trail as far as the border, and as he stared out into the lands beyond he was hit with the grim and painful realisation that they were gone. Spotflare, Cherrypaw... Patchpaw. The reality struck harder than any blow and it left him reeling. His future, his hopes, his dreams... they had just slipped away in the span of a single night. Tears began to flow down his features as his chest twisted painfully from the misery that overwhelmed him, and the scream he let out was one of true anguish.

She was gone...
And he didn't even get to say goodbye.

"Why...? Why did you have to go?"
​

 

[RACCOONSTRIPE]

Wildheart’s scream causes Raccoonstripe to jerk awake in his nest, eyes wide with terror. His dreams had been murky with a violent undercurrent. Being stalked, the unmistakable scent of boar wreathed around him like miasma—and a tattered body in the shadows, waiting for discovery. He shudders, clutching scraps of moss with his foreclaws before rising to see what the commotion is.

His former apprentice escapes into the forest just as Raccoonstripe emerges from the warriors’ den. He lunges after the tortoiseshell warrior, confusion creasing his features. Wildheart is following a trail. The tabby tastes the air, blinking as he realizes whose scent he’s tracking. Patchpaw, and… he frowns. Patchpaw and both of her kin.

There’s no sign of blood, which is a relief. Raccoonstripe hadn’t been prepared to find Spotflare’s body torn to shreds by a boar. But Wildheart is right—they’d left. The trail ends at ThunderClan’s border. He sighs bitterly.

“Left in the night without saying a damn word to anybody,” he mutters, anger glowing in his dark eyes. “Why? ThunderClan has been home to Spotflare’s kits since before they could walk more than a few steps.” He’d had his moments when the loner’s behavior towards the apprentices had given him pause; he’d been the sheltering type, but leaving in the middle of the night with two of ThunderClan’s apprentices?

Raccoonstripe pads closer to Wildheart. The two have never exchanged affectionate words or gestures, and the lead warrior can’t give him that now. But he does press his nose to the younger tom’s shoulder. “I’m sorry.” He knows the anguish glowing in his amber eyes is from a love that never could come to fruition now.
​

[ PENNED BY MARQUETTE ]​

 

[Rabbitnose]

He had watched them go when they left, heart heavier than it already had been. He sat by the border all night. He had failed, in his mind. He had failed Spotflare and Patchpaw both. Now all he had left was a feather that Patchpaw had given him as a farewell, and he wore it tucked into the longer fur of his neck. He was a short distance away when he saw Wildheart arrive, and his heart twisted as he realized this was hardest on him. He wanted to say something, but he didn't know what.

He approached quietly, eyes heavy with similar sorrow. "I'm sorry." He said. It's all he could say.

He looks to Raccoonstripe, briefly. Spotflare had only told him, then.... He wasn't keen on breaking the news.

"Spotflare told me. I followed them out here to make sure they were safe from the boars. I...." He trailed off. "I didn't know how to tell everyone. Or what to say. I know that Patchpaw was close to you..." He continues, looking to Wildheart. He didn't know what to say.

"I'm sorry."​

 

[BLIZZARD FANG]

BLIZZARD FANG ♂​ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥​

After hearing Wildheart’s scream, Blizzard Fang had woken with a jolt and followed Raccoonstripe out of the den to be of help- and in case there was trouble. The Tom is silent but he takes in the scents for himself, boar prominently lingers in the air but the scent of the three missing cat carries on past the border. No blood, no sign of struggle… Blizzard Fang is in dismay. They had left ThunderClan intentionally? Why?! ”…Should- shouldn’t we chase after them?” He blurts to Raccoonstripe primarily. It was a mousebrained idea, they had clearly wanted to leave but- maybe they could get answers as to why? He screws up his face and gazes into the horizon. Then Rabbitnose speaks, Blizzard Fang looks at the blue and white Tom in complete shock. He had known?! ”You helped them betray the clan?!” Blizzard Fang finds it difficult to muster any sympathy. If Rabbitnose had told the clan Howlingstar’s could’ve tried talking sense into them! He stares, dumbfounded and hurt by the betrayal of Spotflare and the two apprentices.

 

[Sunfreckle]

Sunfreckle wanders over to the shouting, exhausted but curious and he regrets doing so the moment he hears the discussion being had. Of course.
No, he suspected something like this might happen.
He could not help but feel immediately defensive of his mate, even if he agreed in a sense that Rabbitnose should have left it alone and not involved himself rather than attempt to get an authority figure; so on that he humbly disagreed with the senior warrior.
"Helped them betray the clan? They did that on their own, Blizzard Fang. If they had approached me I would have let them leave without a fight either. Spotflare had never adjusted to clan life, constantly coddling his kits and undermining their mentors. He didn't even want them apprenticed.” The red tabby remembers the other yelling at Rabbitnose for Patchpaw’s wandering off and being hurt, it was not his place to do so and he had acted out of line then. All Spotflare did was hover over his apprentice-aged children and it showed, he felt a bitterness rise up in his throat, recalling Mousepaw’s worries that they drifted and him assuring her they had not but in a way they did if only because that was how warrior training worked. That Spotflare felt so entitled to his kits still when he had struggled with letting his go and move forward…
Sunfreckle narrowed his eyes, frowned, his expression tight and his form slouched. He was tired. He had been for so long.
“What could Howlingstar have said that they would have listened to if he felt this life was too dangerous or too hard or he just didn’t like it? Outside pleading or compromise when the issue is not our ways but them. They left in the middle of the night for a reason.." A rare venom laces his tone suddenly, "...cowards."
His tired green gaze roams over to his mate, “...I hope you told them not to come back. Maybe Howlingstar will give you an apprentice who actually cares about their clan next time.” That both apprentices chose to leave with their weak-willed father was a tragedy, but he knew Patchpaw might have wanted the escape regardless; denied her warrior ceremony in a timely manner-something Rabbitnose had lamented to him as a concern in passing that he'd thought nothing of. But to leave the cat she supposedly loved....
He cast a mournful look to Wildheart, wished he could offer some words of comfort but thankfully Raccoonstripe already was trying and he let it go; he didn’t have much energy in him to comfort anyone else right now anyways.
He had helped watch those kits, he had been in the nursery at the time with Spotflare’s constant hovering and he had seen them grow to apprentices; this was a slap in the face for all of that effort to care for them and train them to be thrown back in their faces because life was ‘too hard’ out here or something. Sunfreckle’s gaze darkened and he turned to stumble his way back to the nursery with a dismissive tail flick. He didn’t care, he didn’t care-he did-he cared so much-he hated that he did, and he was already in such a poor spot that this felt like just another blow.
​

 

[HOWLINGSTAR]

Like the others, it's Wildheart's shout that has Howlingstar leaving her den in a hurry, ears pricking with alarm. By the time she is able to blink, his tail is streaming behind him out of camp and there are several cats on his tail, her included. It takes her a few moments to realize what they're following. It's a scent trail belonging to Spotflare, Patchpaw, and Cherrypaw. And it leads right out of the forest into no man's land, where Wildheart mourns at the border.

The tabby stands gawking, staring out at the horizon in disbelief. They really just...left? Without a word? Raccoonstripe voices what she is thinking. Why? ThunderClan spent moons raising those kits, then training them for seasons as apprentices. What would Rabbitnose and Crowflower think?

The former, however, approaches from somewhere nearby, a solemn expression on his face and when he admits that he knew, she can only feel the betrayal grow stronger. Her fury is silent as she stares down the warrior, eyes impaling him like icicles. "We won't chase them. They've shown their true colors of disloyalty. If they'd so easily turn their backs on their clan as soon as dangers threaten us, they were never ThunderClan to begin with," She mews back to Blizzard Fang, eyes still unmoving from Rabbitnose. There is a tangible hurt that can be felt in her voice. That family, that they had sheltered and trained and befriended, had left them so easily. A part of her wonders if Spotflare had forced his kits to go. He had never quite fit in, even if he had been her friend. But Patchpaw and Cherrypaw had built their entire lives here. It made no sense that they'd leave.

When her pregnant lead warrior arrives to defend his mate from Blizzard Fang's anger, she levels him with a stare. "This is not your role right now, my friend. It's keeping those kits safe. Get back to camp." She orders as calmly as she can, though there's an anger in her words knowing how heavy he is with kits. Is he a mouse-brain? Why would he come all the way out to the border with boars running around? His words still shock her, though; he knows one's love for another would drive him to defend his mate, but how can he be serious? Of course Rabbitnose has blame in this. He led them to the border and watched them leave. She feels betrayed this morning in more ways than one. Give him another apprentice? She's so angry she has to work to stifle a bitter grunt. Like hell she'd give him another apprentice. He escorted his last one right off the territory without a word to anyone! Patchpaw was far from a model charge, but this? He had the power to stop this and let Howlingstar talk to the apprentices, maybe stop Spotflare from taking them away if they had wanted to stay. Perhaps it's the optimist in her that thinks they would choose differently than their now-traitor father.

A sharp pang finds itself in her temple and she has to duck her head for a moment, squeezing her eyes shut painfully. Stress weighs heavy upon her shoulders. Her son is dead, killed by the boars that still ravage their territory. An apprentice is dead, hit by a monster. And now this, all within a half-moon. How much can the clan take? How much more will the strength she forces onto the surface be tested? "They've made their choice. Wildheart...I'm sorry." She casts a sympathetic look towards the young warrior before turning to pad back to camp with her head and tail hung low. She feels defeated, and plans on approaching Berryheart for something to ease this growing migraine.​

 

[BLIZZARD FANG]

BLIZZARD FANG ♂​ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥​

Blizzard Fang’s ears lower as he listens to Sunfreckle’s words, would he have really? Wouldn’t he have at least told Howlingstar? He supposes it’s true that there’s little Howlingstar could’ve said, but what if she had managed to remind them where their loyalties lied? Even if only the apprentices? Regardless, it seemed wrong to him for a clan-mate to withhold such information from their clan. Blizzard Fang resigns ultimately to say nothing more to his lead warrior aside from a respectful nod. Howlingstar is present now, she shakes her head and says they will not chase. Blizzard Fang understands and by now only StarClan knows where they’d be… He drowns out Howlingstar as she informs Sunfreckle to return back to camp out of respect, if there ended up being any huffs or quarreling among his council he would not listen in deeply like a nosy kit. Instead he gives a sympathetic look to Wildheart before sighing, ’Spose, best get back to camp myself… Flycatcher will be giving out patrols any heartbeat.” And work was always a nice distraction from troubles such as these. He turns and trots back to camp. //out!

 

[WILDHEART]

Wildheart drew in a shuddering breath as he found himself falling deeper and deeper into his emotions. The touch to his shoulder from his former mentor is only mildly comforting, but it was what he had needed. He wasn't one for hugs or embraces, except with the likes of Patchpaw, but with her gone he would never allow himself to grow so close with anyone else.

Then he heard it, Rabbitnose's confession. The young tom isn't even sure how to react at first, but he understands the familiar flame of fury bubbling up within him. He longs to yell, to let his booming voice carry forth all the outrage that was building up within him. But he didn't, instead he started to shake from the building pressure inside. He might have managed to keep it in, but it's when Howlingstar spoke that he finally boiled over.

"SHUT UP! Spotflare is the traitor, but not Patchpaw and Cherrypaw! They were stolen from us, so don't go lumping them in with their father!" He refused to have such a darkened cloud pulled over his lost love. She had always been strong and loyal, she would have become one of the best warriors in ThunderClan if she had not been denied the right by her wayward kin.

"Rabbitnose... did Patchpaw say anything before disappearing?" His voice was low and even, the snap a short time earlier seemingly had simmered his fury for the briefest of times. Though he made a point of not looking at anyone, it was best to avoid giving himself a target to bite if his emotions flared again.
​

 

[RACCOONSTRIPE]

Howlingstar is displeased. Raccoonstripe sees the anger burning in her eyes as she pins Rabbitnose, then Sunfreckle, with her pinpointed stare. He finds himself agreeing with his mother, and for the most part, with Sunfreckle. He thinks the ginger warrior’s mate is more than a mousebrain—Rabbitnose has never been known for his wits, but leading two ThunderClan apprentices to the border without telling anyone is something else entirely. Still, that’s for his mother to handle; he knows his place. Blizzard Fang departs, clearly dejected at the news, as many of their Clanmates will be.

Wildheart barely reacts to the condolences offered him, but Raccoonstripe hadn’t expected him to. He’s about to leave himself to let the tortoiseshell grieve in peace, but the young warrior snaps at Howlingstar, tells her to shut up. Raccoonstripe’s lips immediately peel back from his fangs, and he pushes himself in front of his former apprentice, nose to nose. “Do not talk to your leader that way.” The fire in his eyes snuffs, and his tone becomes flat and matter-of-fact. “Patchpaw is a traitor. She wasn’t some helpless kit taken by daddy. She was almost a ThunderClan warrior, and she made her choice… and it wasn’t her Clan.” He almost says, and it wasn’t you, but that’s too cruel, no matter how insolent Wildheart is.

His tail flicks, and he gives Rabbitnose a long look before muttering, “Those of us who don’t abandon their Clanmates actually have work to do.” Part of him wishes to stay and learn what, if any, Patchpaw had told her mentor before departing—but it doesn’t matter. She’s as good as any other rogue now, and if she shows up to their border, he will not hesitate to drive her disloyal tail away.

// out
​

[ PENNED BY MARQUETTE ]​

 

[Rabbitnose]

Rabbitnose's eyes widen as Sunfreckle speaks, he wasn't expecting such...Venom, from Sunfreckle. It worried him. But now wasn't the time to reach out to him. Rabbitnose was in hot water, and he had a more pressing matter to focus on. The words spoken by him and Howlingstar about Patchpaw and her family tear into him, and he begins to wonder if they're right. Were they ever Thunderclan? He wants to say yes. But if it was so easy for them to leave- were they???

He doesn't want to think about it.

Wildheart directs his ire to Howlingstar, and then to him. and Rabbitnose grips the ground with his claws as if to ground himself. He cant blame him. Rabbitnose figures he deserves this, if everyone is so angry. He wont shirk punishment.

"She said.... She said she was sad to leave you," He says. " And that she hopes we'll meet again someday. She doesn't have any ill will toward anyone."

His ears lower as he continues to fight the urge to look away. He keeps his gaze towards those present, even if he wants to crawl into a hole by now.

Raccoonstripe speaks and at first, he doesn't get angry. He knows the tom has that affect on cats and he's tried to be patient. It's not like he's a bad cat just because he's an ass sometimes. but it was the words he said as he was leaving that were like a dagger in the heart to him.

Those of us who don't abandon their Clanmates actually have work to do.
He could only assume with the lingering look he received from him that it was directed at him. It caused something inside Rabbitnose to snap.

How dare he.

How dare he accuse him of abandoning his clan. He has been here for most of it's existence, fought for it, bled for it, been ready to give his life for it. He and his mate had their kits here. And he thinks he's abandoning them? The claws gripping the ground were now gripping them out of fury bubbling up inside. He wanted to smack him.

He did not abandon anyone.

Yet for all his fury inside, the only hint that it was there was a simple eye twitch.​