GAZING UPON A SCORCHED HORIZON / TRACES OF LEAFHUSK

The smell of twoleg is heavy in the air. It is odd, to be wary of the scent he had grown around in through his entire kithood. The smell of wet food travels through the breeze, enticing and making his stomach growl. He flicks an ear, opening his mouth to follow the scent — not to eat it, of course, but to see why it was so strong out here near the loner lands. Were they looking for something or maybe a runaway kittypet?

There is something else in the air, too; one of his clanmates has been here recently, but he can't discern the scent from the rest. . . Amber eyes blink worryingly toward the patrol, but he marches on. He knows twolegs better than his clanmates do, he knows how to be a distraction in case there was a large group around. But as he breaks through the undergrowth into where their scent is strongest, he sees no one around. Roaringsun sniffs the wind again: wet food, twolegs, thunderclan, and finally he's able to tell who it was he sensed before: Leafhusk. Fresh, too.

From the corner of his gaze, the warrior sees the half-eaten can of food, and a shiver runs up his spine. "Leafhusk? Are you here?" He calls out, hoping the Lead Warrior is simply hiding somewhere. . . but deep down he fears he knows what has happened.
˚ ༘♡ ⋆。˚

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ROARINGSUN.BIOGRAPHYㅤ/ㅤTOYHOU.SE
ㅤmale (he / him)ㅤ/ㅤunsure of sexuality, single ; crushing on hawkspine
ㅤ16 moons oldㅤ/ㅤages realistically, every 14th of the month
ㅤwarrior of thunderclan
npc x npcㅤ/ㅤnpc siblings
ㅤmentoring Berrypawㅤ/ㅤmentored by Copperfang and Leafhusk
"speech", 'thoughts', all opinions are in character
ㅤpenned by nocthymiaㅤ/ㅤmessage hypmic on discord for plots!
lion-like in stature, roaringsun is characterized by his golden fur, cream 'mane' and strong legs. long-furred with longer strands on his cheeks, one cannot tell he once was a soft-born kittypet before joining thunderclan as an apprentice.

ooc: continuation of this thread :(
 
⁺₊⋆ ☀︎ ⋆⁺₊ The flame point sniffs hesitantly and swallows a tiny bite of the crushed prey in two-legged garbage. The taste is strangely enticing, and she's on the verge of taking another mouthful. The two legs that went through leave their foul odor on the snow and trees. She forced her mind to leave her stomach.

She has no idea what they want in their territory, but with Leafhusk's abduction weighing heavily on everyone's minds, their motive is eerily plain. The cream fur on her back stood on end. The tense warrior quietly prays that the kidnappers would be swiftly killed by whatever wounds the lead warrior gave them. And let the agony be intolerable.

His hurried paw steps ripple through her low-hanging, long tufted ears. Anxiously, Dwindlingmoth's body snaps to follow him with the rest of the patrol. Small bubbles of hope leak into her chest till she catches up to the lion-coated warrior, and her wide eyes pick through the trees.

"Leafhusk? Are you here?"

Nothing. Not even a tuft of her fur. Leafhusk's familiar scent aggressively stops. "There's no blood… They might not have gotten to her…" Dwindlingmoth notes unhelpfully, unable to look at the missing lead's past apprentice's worried face once more.

  • ooc:
  • Dwindlingmoth is a short tempered newly named warrior with a habit of thinking with her claws before her head. Her respect and compassion for others is hard to earn but her friends have a fierce companion to call upon.
 

Berrypaw isn't sure he's ever been this close to the Twolegplace before. Roaringsun had covered all his bases when showing Berrypaw the ThunderClan territory during one of their first outings, but the Twolegplace hadn't exactly been at the top of locations that needed to be covered. And if he were being honest, Berrypaw might have thought it a bit suspicious if Roaringsun had placed importance on his former home - a thought that he was quick to brush away, but one that plagued his mind nonetheless.

Now, with Leafhusk having disappeared, Berrypaw was recounting words that he'd heard from his father in the early days of his youth, words that Berrypaw wasn't even sure how he remembered. If Leafhusk had disappeared so close to the Twolegplace, what were the odds she had simply... left ThunderClan? Returned to a life of comfort with the Twolegs? It was a thought at war with everything Nightbird had taught him growing up, and everything that Berrypaw had witnessed himself: how Leafhusk had proved time and time again how she was dedicated to ThunderClan alone.

"Twolegs are big, though. Would her attacks have done anything if one of them tried to get her?" Berrypaw asked quietly as he paced behind Roaringsun and Dwindlingmoth, sniffing the air for any trace of Leafhusk's fading scent. He steps forward cautiously, surveying the area, and sniffs at the food that has been left behind. He wrinkles his nose and adds, "What is this stuff?"

 
⋆˖⁺‧₊☽◯☾₊‧⁺˖⋆ "don't touch that." nightbird hisses through her teeth as she arrives on the scene to see berrypaw poking his nose far too close to the aromatic tin abandoned in thunderclan's forest. her son was roaringsun's responsibility now, but the young warrior seemed more concerned with calling out for leafhusk. old habits died hard, especially with twoleg stench still lingering amongst the oaks.

it was what had originally drawn her over, after all. but as the scene unfolds before her, her brow dips in concern. where was the lead warrior? her scent mingled uncomfortably with the twolegs, with the tin of food and sense of danger on the air. a frustrated huff passes her nose, tail flicking behind her. the molly wouldn't abandon them all, the situation pointed more towards some sort of kidnapping. in the middle of leafbare, where sound minds and claws were necessary.

dwindlingmoth's seemed to think so, at least. but specifics weren't the most important at the moment. knowing if they had any chance of bringing her home was. nightbird turns to roaringsun, who's specialized insight could be the most useful. "roaringsun, what do you think?" she turns to berrypaw and twilightpaw next. if there were any twolegs still lingering, she wanted them nowhere near this border. "go get flamestar. if you see her, notify roeflame of the twoleg scent. quickly." the leader would need to know about her missing council member, the deputy of any lurking danger for her patrols. there was no sense in wasting time for either. she sends them off with a sharp flick of her tail, scenting the air to try and find any viable scent trail.
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  • OOC ─ sending berrypaw & @TWILIGHTPAW to get @Flamestar
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  • NIGHTBIRD ───‎ ⋆ SHE/HER, TC LEAD WARRIOR, 40 ☾'s
    a small, feathery black smoke molly with one white paw and pale silver eyes. she is mates with RACCOONSTRIPE and has recently left the nursery after raising their five kits; BAYINGPAW, TWILIGHTPAW, TIGERPAW, STORMPAW, and BERRYPAW. nightbird is currently mentoring HONEYPAW and TWILIGHTPAW. her former apprentices include LIGHTSTRIKE †, DUSKBIRD †, and PALEFIRE.​
    peaceful and healing powerplay permitted / / underline and tag when attacking ↛ battle info
    penned by vayle@vayl3 on discord, feel free to dm for plots.

 
Thankfully for the apprentices, Flamestar was not too far away on their trek back to the camp. She and Bayingpaw had been setting out on a hunt, when Twilightpaw and Berrypaw came into view. It was certainly almost never a good thing to see two apprentices running back to camp without their mentors, but after they filled her in, Flamestar sent Bayingpaw's siblings back to camp to continue Nightbird's orders of alerting Roeflame. "We must hurry, we may be able to find a scent trail." The leader declared, before following the trail the apprentices had left behind.

Twolegs had left her clan alone for quite some time...she had been naive to believe they would continue to leave them in peace. Her nose wrinkled in disgust as she came to the scene, the scent of twoleg filling the clearing, making detecting anything else nearly impossible. She smells something else, a strong, pungent smell that she hadn't smelled since kit hood. The leader doesn't acknowledge her clanmates yet, instead she scans the area for the source of the smell....until she finds it. Her gut twists as her eyes settle on the can, its contents clearly nibbled on. The same can that had tricked her siblings into leaving the safety of their den...leaving her alone with their mother. Her gaze darkened for a few heartbeats, before turning to each of them.

"Twolegs are too fast...we'll never catch up." Her voice is quiet, heavy with a defeat that her clanmates likely wouldn't understand. She didn't speak of her siblings often, only that they had been kittypets. It had clearly been trying to catch her if it had brought the can...and Leafhusk wouldn't have allowed it to willingly steal her, which means it must have had a monster nearby. "Roaringsun, you come with me. We will ask Orangestar if her daylight warriors can watch for her. Perhaps if they see her in the twolegplace, we can come up with a plan to break her out. The twolegplace is too big to aimlessly send patrols...Nightbird and Dwindlingmoth, keep scanning the area...perhaps there are some signs that she could have gotten away...Starclan willing."
★★★★★★★☆☆

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FLAMESTAR.BIOGRAPHY ㅤ/ ㅤTOYHOUSE
afab (she / her)ㅤ / heterosexual, widowed, formerly taken by flycatcher
41 moons old ㅤ/ ㅤages realistically, every 20th of the month
leader of thunderclan since september 2024
lily x storm ㅤ/ㅤ mother to: falconheart, stormfeather, lilykit, butterflykit, bugchaser, squirrelsong, sunbird, ravenblaze, sparrowpaw
ㅤpenned by Icey ! ㅤ/ ㅤmessage Icey ! on discord for plots!
ㅤmentoring bayingpawㅤ / ㅤmentored: cloudyfur, acornwish, merlinpath
will start fights, will end fights, will kill

longhaired red classic tabby with green eyes, and low white. she has a shredded right ear, and has many scars that are visible in windy conditions.
 
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RACCOONSTRIPE
HE / HIM ◆ THUNDERCLAN LEAD WARRIOR

Raccoonstripe and Stormpaw are behind the bulk of the patrol, and in truth, the tabby has his paws full enough with his apprentice that he hardly notices the strange scents leading to the spot where Leafhusk all but disappeared. He is deterred from scolding his son from poking his nose into a hole without sniffing out the area first; Roaringsun's call is weary enough to pull his attention away. "Leafhusk? Are you there?"

The tabby flicks his tail tip against Stormpaw's flank, moving to stand beside the other warriors. He scans the area, seeing what the rest of them do—no signs of a struggle, no blood or fur, but there's trampled grass and a strange Twoleg object overfilling with partially-eaten slop. The sight and scent of it lifts the fur on Raccoonstripe's shoulders, especially when Berrypaw thinks to stick his face close to it.

Luckily, Nightbird is quick to prevent their son from touching something so revolting… and Raccoonstripe is distracted, again, by the vacant, knowing expression on Flamestar's face. She intends to ask Twitchstar for help, he thinks, and this is the sort of finality he had been waiting to hear. "She was lured by that kittypet slop," he growls, shooting the filthy thing a furious look. "We need to get rid of it. Even if none of us would eat it, it might attract other things that would." Frustration surges through him—Leafhusk was kittypet-born, yes, but how could she have been so foolish?

His jaw clenches as he begins to scrape earth over the Twoleg food. The truth is, no forestborn warrior would have fallen for this. He dares not speak it aloud. Leafhusk is gone, and some part of him wonders if she had gone—at least in part—willingly.

ooc:
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Raccoonstripe is a lead warrior of ThunderClan. He has thick, silken black tabby fur interrupted by a stark white chin, chest, and belly. One ear is ripped to shreds; the paired eye is missing and scarred over. The other eye blazes golden-brown in direct sunlight. Two near-vertical scars slash across a milky chest. One forepaw is ivory; the rest are dark.

Gray Wolf x Howlingstar / sibling to Hollow Tree, Little Wolf, Cobwebtail, Lily Pad, Graystorm, Jackdawflight, and Berryheart / mate to Nightbird / father to Bayingpaw, Twilightpaw, Tigerpaw, Stormpaw, and Berrypaw
mentored by none / previously mentored Wildheart, Moonwhisper, Scarletdust / mentoring Stormpaw
50 moons old as of 02/05/2025
penned by Marquette

 
It is a bad situation as it was already: the disappearance of a Lead Warrior like thin air. But he tenses as Nightbird turns to him with a question of her own. Roaringsun, what do you think? He straightens his spine, a semblance of composure when all he wants is to shake his head and mourn the loss of his mentor — even if she is not dead, it still feels like so. Their time spent together as mentor and trainee was short, but she was the one who'd led them into exile and watched over their safety alongside Burnstorm.

Berrypaw is stopped from eating the food by his mother, but deep down Roaringsun understands the. . . temptation, the curiosity. He had been the same, in a way; though their motives were vastly differerent.

"I. . ." He trails off briefly, staring at the canned food sitting on the forest floor, a foreign object amidst the scenery. He notices the way Raccoonstripe looks at it with hatred, and for a moment believes the Lead Warrior will make some anti-kittypet speech; but it doesn't come. "Her scent just. . . stops. She didn't leave the territory on her own. . . she was taken by the twoleg." His voice is as grim as his expression. It'd be impossible to locate her properly. It is not necessary to say this aloud, for Flamestar shares the same sentiment, as does the rest of the patrol.

Roaringsun, you come with me. Speaks the red tabby, and he nods in agreement. Asking SkyClan to keep a look out for their missing warrior would be wise. . . but why does he feel a pit in his stomach when he imagines standing beside Flamestar where oak meets pine? "Berrypaw, you too. Let's go."
˚ ༘♡ ⋆。˚

roaringsun.gif
ROARINGSUN.BIOGRAPHYㅤ/ㅤTOYHOU.SE
ㅤmale (he / him)ㅤ/ㅤunsure of sexuality, single ; crushing on hawkspine
ㅤ17 moons oldㅤ/ㅤages realistically, every 14th of the month
ㅤwarrior of thunderclan
npc x npcㅤ/ㅤnpc siblings
ㅤmentoring Berrypawㅤ/ㅤmentored by Copperfang and Leafhusk
"speech", 'thoughts', all opinions are in character
ㅤpenned by nocthymiaㅤ/ㅤmessage hypmic on discord for plots!
lion-like in stature, roaringsun is characterized by his golden fur, cream 'mane' and strong legs. long-furred with longer strands on his cheeks, one cannot tell he once was a soft-born kittypet before joining thunderclan as an apprentice.
 
⋆˖⁺‧₊☽◯☾₊‧⁺˖⋆ nightbird frowns at roaringsun's words, tail twitching behind her. they couldn't afford to lose warriors now, when newleaf was right around the corner, when a battle with riverclan was so close she could taste it. thunderclan especially couldn't afford the loss of lead warriors with stable heads on their shoulders. she shakes her head with a sigh, glancing to the growth that flamestar appears from.

she is quick to hand out assignments, something nightbird is thankful for. if leafhusk had any chance, they were all better off getting to work than sitting here wondering. she glances to dwindlingmoth before glancing up to raccoonstripe. he was right, even if every thunderclanner turned their nose to the shiny tin, there were predators with far fewer options.

"meet up with us once it's dealt with. another set of eyes won't hurt," she hums, tail flicking against his flank briefly before she heads to meet with dwindlingmoth. if there was any trail left, she'd find it, until then all anyone could do was pray to starclan that leafhusk hadn't ended up somewhere hurt or worse.
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  • OOC ─
  • mZ1kjRK.png
  • NIGHTBIRD ───‎ ⋆ SHE/HER, TC LEAD WARRIOR, 40 ☾'s
    a small, feathery black smoke molly with one white paw and pale silver eyes. she is mates with RACCOONSTRIPE and has recently left the nursery after raising their five kits; BAYINGPAW, TWILIGHTPAW, TIGERPAW, STORMPAW, and BERRYPAW. nightbird is currently mentoring HONEYPAW and TWILIGHTPAW. her former apprentices include LIGHTSTRIKE †, DUSKBIRD †, and PALEFIRE.​
    peaceful and healing powerplay permitted / / underline and tag when attacking ↛ battle info
    penned by vayle@vayl3 on discord, feel free to dm for plots.