honey in the hair 𖤓 hunting

[kitecall.]

speaking color is #BBE8EF​

➾ KITEPAW. AND HOW CAN WE WIN WHEN FOOLS CAN BE KINGS? † ☼
𖤓 ✟ —— thump, thump, thump- the sound of his paws hitting the ground mirrors the quick beating of the rabbit's heart as it flees from the sudden onslaught. the wind pulls through kitepaw's fur as he runs. it was early morning and his belly claws with hunger, but he know the rules. the sooner that they bring back food for the rest of the clan, the sooner that kitepaw could sink his teeth into his own breakfast. and that ‘sooner’ meant sinking his teeth and claws into this rabbit right now. imagine! catching something this early… it would be an incredible start to the day, and a hope that the rest of the hunt would run just as smoothly. smoothly was the word that kitepaw had been hoping for. as they ran, he could see the rabbit slowly beginning to outpace him, and in a desperate attempt to not let it go, he lunges forwards with snapping teeth. "yes! shit- no-" teeth met with fur, a false victory.

on a dime the rabbit changes direction and kitepaw's paws skid on the morning dew and ash, leaving him with a mouthful of fur and no rabbit. he catches his balance and struggles to quickly recover so that he could spring after it again, desperate to not let it get out of his grasp. alas, because of his slip up (quite literally), in the blink of an eye his target vanishes from his sight and kitepaw finds himself skidding to a hard halt at the nose of the tunnel. "great-!" he hisses in frustration, followed by a soft sputtering of curses as he spits out the tufts of rabbit fur from his mouth. "almost had it too." he adds to further sour his mood as the rest of the hunting patrol draws close. of course, kitepaw knows that he's not going to catch every rabbit he chases, but it's frustrating to know that he's not allowed to follow it down into its burrow. it would be his by now if he could—he knows that he could fit down there, but he also knows he'd likely get a tongue lashing for trying. he claws at the ground, flashing his tail—why is there still fur in his mouth?

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‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎┌── ooc ⋆⋅☼⋅⋆ info ──┐‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎

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• KITEPAW ✩ he/him, moor-runner apprentice of windclan, 7.5 moons old
  ⭃ average sized tomcat with light cream tabby markings. he has a white chest and half face. his fur is a medium length and he has large whiskers. his eyes are a light blue.
  ⭃ highly religious, stubborn and hard-working, kindhearted and charismatic, honest, diligent, foolish and impulsive when frustrated, will speak out when something feels unjust.
  ⭃ open to minor and minor nonviolent powerplay / / underline and tag when attacking ⇌ see his bio here
  ⭃ penned by @DOFFERZ! ⇌ doffloppa on discord, feel free to dm for plots. template credit to vayle.
  
  
  
  
  

​

 

[dimmingsun]

@CELANDINEPAW ​

"Pity," Dimmingsun huffs when he roots his feet in the ground to halt himself. His own heart had picked a rabbit-like rhythm when Kitepaw started the hunt, and although he intended to leave triumph up for the apprentice, his body had itched to move at the first slip. Opportunities have to be grabbed by the scruff like a naughty kitten trying to sneak away, so Dimmingsun had decided to try and cut off the fleeing prey and send it tumbling backwards or into someone else's jaws...

The tunnel is like a mouth, gaping and teasing the patrol. "Maybe a tunneler will catch it. No use in waiting." Perhaps the rabbit would emerge from this same side later on, but betting on chance fills no bellies. It'd be a waste of sunlight to perch themselves here for the remainder of the day.

His eyes are soft as he regards Kitepaw, still trying to get rid of fur stuck between rows of teeth. To get so close yet so far... Dimmingsun sympathizes with feelings of disappointment, but he feels a compliment will raise spirits easier than a scolding or look of disapproval. "Good attempt though."
​

 

[FEATHERSPINE]

Despite the small, festering sense of strangeness that had settled in her gut upon receiving her warrior name, Featherspine still strode with double the pride than she had carried before. It would be a while before he had an apprentice, he knew... but Bluepool (and a hearty helping of determination) had forged him into a warrior worthy of his royal blood. Thus, a critical eye rather than a kind one was set upon poor Kitepaw. Featherspine strode in like a stormcloud, dark and looming, eyes sharp and pupils needled.

"You should have chased it toward other moor runners," Featherspine stated. Her voice was not quite sharpened with disdain, but there was a distinct lack of warmth too... despite the waning nature of his name, Dimmingsun was doing plenty of the congratulating. Apprentices enjoyed their glory, though... ideas of grandeur, where grasping claws would single-handedly catch a fleeing rabbit. There was a reason moor runners typically hunted in groups... a bit of foresight for next time would do Kitepaw no harm. ​

✦ penned by pin​

 

[downyfur]

For some reason, they let Downypaw head the patrol. With everyone back to their duties, they're surprised to find Rattleheart unmissed amid it all, her absence dulled by alternating throes of work and stubborn grief. Now ten moons old, the rest of the tunnelers deemed it fit to share her between one another, passed around like a hefty piece of fresh-kill that everyone was too polite to keep for themselves. They don't quite mind. Every tunneler has their own particularities, and Downypaw subsumes them all without complaint. If they were going to live well past warriorhood, then it would serve them well to familiarize themself with their future peers.

They can see their own paws now, just barely the palest parts of them, but the outline's there. Enough light to see anything means—"We're near an entrance," they guess, a message relayed to the end of the line. The thrum of paws overheard is seldom but not unfamiliar; a large, black-tipped ear swivels towards it, tracking the aboveground trajectory. Nothing remarkable. She crawls forwards.

It grows louder. Rapid thumping bounces off the cavern walls, shuddering bits of soil off into their fur. Alarmed, they stop, tail flagging. Realization lightenings through her: something is in the tunnel. It's in the tunnel, it's in the tunnel, it's in—

The rabbit barrels into them with the force of a mad dog. Claws sink into moorswept fur and vice versa, blunted nails finding the side of their ribs with a blackening thump-thump. Through the tangle of fur and dirt and cries, needled teeth find purchase through pelt and sink into seizing flesh. After four seasons of hanging on for dear life, the poor creature finally stills.

Only when they breach the surface do they give thanks to StarClan for its life. "Thank you, StarClan, for this fresh-kill that has given its life to us," they rasp. After all, for a tunneler, a full-grown rabbit is heavy, and their sides ache something fierce from the fight. Marine eyes flutter open and gaze upwards for the first time since descent. "Oh." For whatever reason, the sight of Dimmingsun, Celadinepaw, Kitepaw, and Featherspine before her is embarrassing. "Hello." It'd been them chasing the rabbit, hadn't it? Their pawsteps were the ones they heard overheard. "I appreciate you...chasing it in there for me," she purrs, wincing at the rumble in her ribs.

windclan apprentice | "speech." | tags​

​

 

[CELANDINEPAW]

"It's okay. Those rabbits are quite tricky to catch." Celandinepaw mewed behind her mentor's form, cheery intonation as though her voice had been cast sunward, swallowed and surrounded by the purity of light. Wheat-tinged gaze settled on Kitepaw, who seemed quite discontent with how his claws came upon not the downy fleece of the rabbit but on mere, thin air. The former barncat had hardly any experience with how famine drove itself like a stake into the softly-beating heart, how it echoed even in the most prosperous and harmonious of times. So, to her, the failure to get what one wanted was simply an opportunity to seize it later. Though, even the croon of disappointment was drowned out by the realization that another cat had caught it, even as courant prey seemed as though it would outrun its oppressors, and that the mouth of shadow would shield it from momentary harm. The ivory-and-smoke coat of a tunneller pushed through the dark veils that they clung to so much. "Good job, Downypaw!" The golden spotted molly purred, seeing the lope of one's kill not as a missed opportunity, but an overall victory for the good of the clan. Keen ears even overheard the prayer to the stars reverberating against the walls of the burrows, as though they returned to the ground instead of fluttering up to the sky. So, they pray to Starclan for every meal? Who knew a little rabbit's life was so precious? Not me, I guess.​

 

[kitecall.]

speaking color is #BBE8EF​

➾ KITEPAW. AND HOW CAN WE WIN WHEN FOOLS CAN BE KINGS? † ☼
𖤓 ✟ —— he almost doesn't want to face the rest of his patrol. losing a piece of prey was a stupid thing to get upset over, this he knows, but the boy can't really help the way that he feels about it. he licks his lips, casting an almost ashamed glance towards dimmingsun, who kitepaw had seen trying to cut off the rabbit himself during the chase even though they were both a touch too slow in the chase. though much to his surprise (though he should know dimmingsun and the way he acts by now), the warrior's words lack the frustration or scolding that he had expected, and instead kitepaw realizes that he is trying to encourage him…. lifting his spirits as not to sour the remainder of the hunt, it seems. perhaps the warrior's comfort might have helped alongside the reassurance from celandinepaw, but whatever sort of appreciation or relief that kitepaw has briefly found was just as quickly snatched away as featherspine opens up his mouth.

"i know," his answer is brief, equal parts annoyance and equal parts acceptance that he should have done as accepted.. because although he's reluctant to accept the advice from him, kitepaw can at least realize that he knew that featherspine was right. dimmingsun had been right there, ready to cut off the rabbit. if he had simply circled around and lead it back to him— ah, there was no use in lingering on it any longer nor was there any use in staying put and waiting around sulking while there was other prey to be catching. and like celandinepaw had said, rabbits were tricky to catch. ”ill…. keep that in mind again…” he adds admittedly, willing to practice as a team.

kitepaw lets out a soft sigh, preparing to travel on in tow with the rest of the patrol when his head snaps back around. seeing downpaw crawling out of the burrow with his rabbit between her teeth takes him by surprise. undoubtedly it's wonderful that this leg of the hunt didn't end in failure after all as the rabbit could easily feed periwinklebreeze and a handful of the kits in the nursery, but kitepaw has to swallow back the jealousy that downypaw had stolen his catch from him. "guess it worked out after all," the apprentice says, twisting his voice and loosing a purr to sound happier than he truly was. what were the odds doweypaw and her patrol were right there? ready down in the tunnels to catch and kill? perhaps he should try to be more openly grateful. ”glad you got it after all,”

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‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎┌── ooc ⋆⋅☼⋅⋆ info ──┐‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎

• 
  
  
  
  
• 
  

  

• KITEPAW ✩ he/him, moor-runner apprentice of windclan, 7.5 moons old
  ⭃ average sized tomcat with light cream tabby markings. he has a white chest and half face. his fur is a medium length and he has large whiskers. his eyes are a light blue.
  ⭃ highly religious, stubborn and hard-working, kindhearted and charismatic, honest, diligent, foolish and impulsive when frustrated, will speak out when something feels unjust.
  ⭃ open to minor and minor nonviolent powerplay / / underline and tag when attacking ⇌ see his bio here
  ⭃ penned by @DOFFERZ! ⇌ doffloppa on discord, feel free to dm for plots. template credit to vayle.
  
  
  
  
  

​