harsh realities | hunting (phase four)

[MIDNIGHTASH]

જ➶ The wind pushes the chill of the storm through her pelt. She can feel it in her bones, and she grits her teeth. The molly has only seen leafbare once and the last time Riverclan struggled to get by because of the river freezing over and barricading the fish. Now they have all this snow coming down in a haze of white that she can barely see through. "I hope we find something!" She calls over the roaring winds as she keeps a good parallel along the river that she wants to keep at least within her sights. Her pace is slow, sluggish at best with all the snow that clogs her way. But she is determined to find something. Right now, she will not return home empty pawed. There are others counting on these patrols to bring something back and so she focuses on that singular purpose. Despite the harsh winds she keeps her maw slightly parted, keeping her eyes open to the world around her. And then it hits her, though faint she picks up the scent of prey. Immediately she starts to follow it and it ebbs and flows with the wind. Yet she keeps it within her grasp and soon she gets to a partially buried clump of thick grass.

Without hesitation her claws extend and she digs, she flings the snow behind her quickly and the warm scent of shrew becomes piercingly strong. With a sudden pounce she snaps her jaws around the small prey. But it is what it is. This is a fortunate find and she whips her head around with glee in her eyes, quickly making her way back to the others to see if they too have had any luck. It's a start but this is well worth it in her eyes. Someone will have a full belly.

/finds small prey worth 1 point and returns home healthy.​

 

[lichenstar]

✦˚.✧˚✧˚✦˚ ✧ ˚✧˚✦˚✦.˚✧

CLAIM THE BURIAL I SEEK IN DREAMS FLOWING RIVER CEMETARY ✧

• The shout for good fortune is shared in the quiet of her chest... there would be no point in shouting back an agreement, a shared yearning for improvement. The blizzard is relentless and does not care for their optimism... Pale eyes trail after what fiery wisps she can see between flurries of snow, hoping at the very least they do not all lose sight of one another and have to send out more paws in an effort to search and rescue the missing. Hadn't that happened last leaf-bare...? Cats seeming to just vanish into the snow never to return?
  
  Oddfish comes to mind... though they are now comfortably adorned with a kittypet collar as repayment for all their struggles. I hope you're staying warm...
  
  She blinks and Midnightash is gone. The molly's frown deepens, glancing back to make sure that her other patrol-mates have not vanished in the small moments she'd spent in reverie. Or maybe they have better fortune and can actually smell something promising through all the icy winds... Lichenstar can't. Her eyes trail the shifting snow, unable to note even a single track as they become covered and recovered in a matter of moments.
  
  If the prey was smart... it was hiding in its homes, like they ought to be.
• about
  
  speech hex code ✧ #6368A5
  
  ooc notes ✦ 20 for health, 3 for hunting. found nothing
  tagging ✶
  penned by tieirlys
• ˚ ★⋆. ࿐࿔ ✦ . . ˚ . . ✦ ˚ .
  
  . ˚ * ✦ . . ✦ ˚ ˚ .˚ ✦ . . ˚ . ✦ . . ˚ ੈ✧˳·˖✶ ✦ ˚ ✦ . . ˚ ★⋆. ࿐࿔
  
  . ˚ * ✦ . . ✦ ˚ ˚ .˚ ✦ . . ˚ . ✦ ​

 

[Snakeblink]

MAYBE I'D BE A SAINT IF I WEREN'T ————————————​

It's so cold Snakeblink has gone past shivers and become fully numb: his paws move without his conscious mind, one step after the other, and his eyes peer through the snow without truly registering anything he's seeing. Only movement, every so often, which makes his ears perk up until he lowers himself further and the shock of wetness against his belly snaps his focus back in place and he realizes no, it's not a prey, only branches agitated by the howling wind; only his patrolmates; only flakes whirling past in illusionary shapes.

His exhale drifts up in a white haze past his face and he shifts towards Lichenstar. His toes alternate between aching cold and a faint burning sensation; when he opens his mouth to speak, his tongue feels thick and awkward. Are his teeth chattering? They must be; he can feel the sting of their edge against the flesh of his tongue, distant as it is through the fog. Damn his thin pelt, and damn this weather.

"We s-should turn b-back," he struggles to utter, and can't tell whether anyone hears him. "We w-will c-catch our death b-before any prey." ​

——————————————————————————————————— so god damn lonely​

ooc. information.

• no prey + frostbite
• 
  
  
  — Snakeblink • he / him. 57 ☾, riverclan warrior
  — a sleek, skinny tabby with long ears and a scar over his right eye.
  — gay, not actually evil, penned by @Kangoo
  

​

 

[willowroot]

( ☾ ) the night-queen should not be out here. she grits her teeth and forces herself to go anyway. even though gladefrost's kits are depending on her - or perhaps because they are - she ventures into the cold for another time. allied with her leader, snakeblink, and midnightash, the group must be able to catch something. starclan, she hopes so. an illness she thinks could be whitecough bubbles in her chest and the elegant feline turns to cough into the snow. her throat burns, her eyes tearing for a second in the cold. swallowing, willowroot watches as midnightash snaps up a small bit of prey. pride for her former apprentice blooms in the woman's heart. "well done, midnight," she rasps, like they're mentor and apprentice again.

lichenstar snuffles at the earth and snakeblink investigates the undergrowth to no result. "it seems like you've found everything we might get out here," willowroot quips, voice crackling. her chest heaves again in a cough. "i should… go back. i'm afraid i've already caught… something." emerald eyes blink at the tabby lead warrior. she swishes her tail, shuttering slightly. she should not be out here.

THE ECHOING HYMN ☾ OF MY FELLOW PASSERINE

• // rolled an 11 (whitecough), and a 5 (no prey scent). "#91A26C"
• 
• WILLOWROOT ☾ SHE / THEY, WARRIOR OF RIVERCLAN. 46 MOONS. MENTORING ECHOPAW. PENNED BY LAVS
  
  
  a long-haired black smoke oriental with sage-green eyes. smoky long fur coats the length of willowroot's lithe body, cut through with dark ghost stripes. friendly sage green eyes that narrow in an almond shape, and her muzzle and limbs are thin and long due to her oriental heritage.

​

 

[iciclefang]

Lichenstar's patrol blunders into the blizzard, and though some of them emit quips to keep spirits high, Iciclefang is not one of them. The tortoiseshell lingers toward the rear of the procession, her ears horizontal against her skull and her eyes tight against the blustering wind. Her fishing skills had all but gone to waste with the freezing temperatures of the water; her last attempt had earned her nothing but numb, painful paws.

She takes to the frozen riverlands, this time, as her companions do. The grass rustles for Midnightash, and the young warrior is quick to bury her teeth into the piece of prey in question. Willowroot praises her former apprentice, but Iciclefang remains quiet. It would be unwelcome from her, she's sure, and she isn't feeling her usual camaraderie with her Clanmates.

We should have gone to Sunningrocks, she thinks, but perhaps that, too, would have been folly. They'd won that piece of territory back, at the cost of Lakemoon's life, but it would hardly do them any good in this storm. The rocks would be cold as everything else; any prey they'd normally find there would be long-buried.

She tastes the air and sighs, her breath puffing white in front of her whiskers. She's come up empty-pawed again.

『 out of character. 』 ✧･ﾟ:* 『 about. 』

• ooc: rolled a 6 (no prey) and an 18 (healthy)
• 
• Iciclekit . Iciclepaw . Iciclefang, she/her w/ feminine terms.
  — "speech", thoughts, attack
  — 30 moons old, ages realistically on the 17th.
  — mentored by Smokestar ; mentoring Pinepaw ; previously mentored Cicadaflight
  — riverclan warrior. mudpelt x icesparkle, gen 2.
  — former mate to Stormywing ; current mate to no one.
  — penned by Marquette.
  
  
  sh tortoiseshell and white she-cat with ice-blue eyes. confident, capable, proud, dry, conceited, condescending, distrustful.

​