IT WAS ALL THEY EVER WANTED | sneaking out

[badgerstripe]

⋆.ೃ࿔*:･ Nightfall had rolled around sooner than Badgerstripe had hoped. Though she verbally agreed to guarding camp in her former mentor's place, the loathed the idea of just sitting around when they could be doing so much more.

She started out strong, but by the time the moon reached its peak, Badgerstripe was fidgeting and pacing in her own boredom, accompanied with the occasional exasperated sigh or groan. It was clear now that she wouldn't make it through the night; she was falling asleep where she was sitting, for StarClan's sake. What a bummer end to their big day.

"This sucks," Badgerstripe finally muttered. Whether her friends would agree with her or not, she needed something more fulfilling. Her green gaze met the moon for a moment, the stars - the stars that blessed them that day. Then, her eyes lowered to the forest tops, the branches, and their roots. The tips of the branches were budding with new leaves. Now was a time for fresh starts, new adventures. And yet.. here she was.

"Say.." she began, regarding her friends with a thoughtful stare. "How about we go celebrate, huh? Today was our big day. We've been waiting moons for our names. The camp will be fine for one night, don't you think?" With that, the tortoiseshell molly stood up and stretched, from her front paws to the tip of her back toes. "Just a walk. Maybe catch the sunrise. We won't be too far. They won't even know we're gone."

"We're warriors now. We don't need our mentors to babysit us out of camp anymore. We have all this freedom - let's use it! We will only get one night of our warrior ceremony, after all." Her eyes shifted between Lightflower, Phloxdawn, and Palefire. Four warriors could fend for themselves out there, she was certain. With a final grin, she took off from her spot and started trotting past the gorse wall, only sparing her friends that same wonderous glance over her shoulder. "Well? Are you coming?"

‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎┌── SILVER AND GOLD ⋅❁⋅ EVERYONE WISHES FOR IT ──┐‎

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  ooc - @Lightflower @phloxdawn @Palefire
  

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• 
  Badgerstripe ✩ she/her, warrior of thunderclan, 12 moons.
  ⭃ a long-furred blue tortoiseshell with a notable black dorsal stripe and green eyes.
  ⭃ formerly mentored by burnstorm
  ⭃ peaceful and healing powerplay permitted / / underline and tag when attacking
  ⭃ penned by ixora ↛ @.ixora on discord, feel free to dm for plots.
  

​

 

[PALEFIRE]

"You really need to work on your attention span," she remarked idly to Badgerstripe, her tail flicking on the ground beside her as she gazed up at the stars. She didn't mind the long hours of sitting in camp, waiting for the sun to rise. It might be mundane work, but it still felt important to her. They were protecting their clanmates when they were at their most vulnerable, allowing them to sleep peacefully knowing that someone was looking out for them. It was a task that deserved their full attention, and in her mind, didn't warrant the complaining she was currently hearing from her companions.

And then, out of nowhere, Badgerstripe decided to disrupt the pleasant atmosphere by suggesting that they leave their post to go wander the territory. Was she serious? Sky blue eyes narrowed on the tortoiseshell molly in a steely glare. "I think that sounds like a terrible idea," she bit out sharply. Had they honestly learned nothing from the apprentices who decided to attack the owl? It was the reason Lovepaw and Joypaw weren't sitting beside them now. "Howlingstar trusted us with this assignment, we can't just abandon our post." Palefire was determined to prove herself worthy of the warrior name she'd been bestowed only just that night, and wasn't interested in doing anything that could jeopardize that.

"I'm not going anywhere, and neither are any of you. It's mousebrained," she hissed at her friends, looking at the trio like they'd grown horns. "Just because we're warriors doesn't mean we get to do whatever we want. We have responsibilities now. " Even to herself she was beginning to sound like a stuck-up broken record, but honestly. There was no sense in the amount of disregard her friends had for the rules set forth by their leader. Was she genuinely the only one who cared about not getting in trouble? Most days it felt like that. Her gaze fell to Lightflower pleadingly, hoping that the more reasonable she-cat might take her side in this.

 

[Lightflower]

Lightflower was mostly daydreaming. Staring out into nothing as she got lost in her make believe, she wondered about the future, their lives moving forward. Badgerstripe's voice cut through her musings and she snapped her head back toward the group. Leave? She shuffled her paws a bit, uncomfortable. "I dunno, Badg," she murmured, drawing a doodle in the dirt with a claw. A walk did sound nice, but they were supposed to watch over camp. She didn't know if she wanted to bail on their very first assignment as warriors. Palefire spoke her usual reasonable thoughts about it, and she couldn't help but agree.

But... she also didn't want to disappoint Badgerstripe, or potentially listen to her whine all night. This one was going to be a rough decision. Palefire clearly was hoping she would agree with her, her blue eyes pleading with Lightflower's own green. Her tail curled in tight to her legs, and she broke that tense gaze. "It's probably a bad idea," she mumbled quietly. ​

[ MAYBE THIS TIME I'LL WIN ]​

 

[phloxdawn]

The moon casts its beams upon the quartet of fresh-faced warriors- something which must only indicate that StarClan has placed their favor on the crowns of this small group of cats. Phloxdawn is not easily made bored. While Badgerstripe paces around, she casts her eyes about camp, stargazes, and listens to the night sounds around her. Soon enough though, her friend breaks her silence. "Oh, it's not that bad," Phloxdawn vocally disagrees with Badgerstripe, rolling her eyes as if it's the most ridiculous thing she's ever heard. She feels there's much honor in being a night guard in the very first night that Howlingstar had named them all warriors.

However, Badgerstripe then makes a proposal that is mighty tempting. What does the night guard usually do? Surely they don't actually sit here all night long and wait for dawn to show itself before doing anything, right? "Well..." she begins, about to agree with her friend when Paleflame and Lightflower disagree for completely opposing reasons. "It's not abandoning our post," Phloxdawn scoffs incredulously at Paleflame "We won't even go far like Badgerstripe said. Imagine if we caught something out in the territory that could be a threat, too."

Phloxdawn rises to her feet and moves to stand beside Badgerstripe, turning to face the duo who now physically oppose them with an expectant look on her face. "I mean, if you just want to stand there all night, that's fine," her voice rises a bit, as if beginning to slightly taunt them "Don't get all mad when me and Badg end up getting special privileges for our impressive discoveries just because you two wanted to be boring sticks in the mud!"
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[badgerstripe]

⋆.ೃ࿔*:･ The objections from Lightflower and Palefire were met with a disappointed frown. Would they really not come with her? No matter, she would go by herself if she had to. She was determined not to let their big day go to waste.

"Yeah, responsibilities," she responded in a mutter. "I'm sure everybody will be up in arms over one missed night of responsibilities." She didn't mean to be salty, but this day was important to her, and she was assigned a task that a kit could do in their sleep. She was grateful that at least Phloxdawn understood, and nodded along with her. Though she wouldn't ever call her friends boring, she certainly thought it. "Besides, like Phlox said, we're still technically guarding. Just out in the territory. We'll see trouble before they even get close to camp."

Man, these two were hard to convince. "Well, fine. I'll just go by myself." Her words were followed with a sassy scoff. "And Phloxdawn, because she gets it." Her gaze met Lightflower for a second, searching her expression. She knew her friend's weakness; was she really about to exploit it? Please don't let me go alone. Badgerstripe swallowed hard, and muttered, "You'll only slow me down anyway," With that, she turned tail and began her walk into the woods, forcing back the guilt of what she just said to her friend. She hoped it was enough to get her to change her mind. They will thank me later. We'll have the time of our lives. They will regret it if this day goes to waste.

‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎┌── SILVER AND GOLD ⋅❁⋅ EVERYONE WISHES FOR IT ──┐‎

• 
  
  
  

• 

• 
  Badgerstripe ✩ she/her, warrior of thunderclan, 12 moons.
  ⭃ a long-furred blue tortoiseshell with a notable black dorsal stripe and green eyes.
  ⭃ formerly mentored by burnstorm
  ⭃ peaceful and healing powerplay permitted / / underline and tag when attacking
  ⭃ penned by ixora ↛ @.ixora on discord, feel free to dm for plots.
  

​

 

[Lightflower]

The pressure was too much for Lightflower. The fear of losing her friends over something so... silly, honestly, was enough to make her swallow her pride and take back what she'd said before. "You'll only slow me down anyway," Badgerstripe said, turning to walk away. She gave Palefire possibly the most pitiful glance any cat had recieved in moons, and blurted out, "Wait, I'll go too, and burst forward to be with the others. She wasn't proud of the decision, she would probably rather curl up in her familiar apprentice nest and cry herself to sleep before disappointing her friends. She might've done just that if they'd left without her. She was pathetic. StarClan, she needed to work on that. She glanced back at Palefire as they left, genuine regret and remorse on her face, nearly pleading Palefire to go with them. Maybe if she did, Lightflower didn't have to feel so... guilty about the whole thing.​

[ MAYBE THIS TIME I'LL WIN ]​

 

[PALEFIRE]

Palefire's fur stood on end as all her friends turned on her, all of them agreeing to leave their station in favor of exploring, even Lightflower. She saw the regret in her eyes and heard it in her voice, but still she could not understand. After what had happened the last time, the pale tabby was still willing to wander off with their more unruly peers and leave the camp unguarded? A huff of annoyance pushed past her lips as the trio turned to go. Were they really so impatient that they couldn't sit still for a few more hours until they were relieved of duty? It wasn't like they didn't already know what was out there, it was the same forest they had patrolled a hundred times as apprentices. Although perhaps a little more dangerous going out with just the small group of them considering -

Wolves. There were wolves roaming the forest now.

Palefire's heart began to beat rapidly as she watched her friends disappear from sight. Howlingstar had warned them not to go out in groups smaller than three, but what good would that even do? If they ran into those beasts out there they wouldn't stand a chance, especially at night when they seemed to be more active. They could be slaughtered if they went out there by themselves, and she couldn't stand to sit by and watch more of the cats she cared about recklessly put their own lives at risk. She hadn't been able to do anything to stop the last group of apprentices from going after that owl, and look how that had ended. She could still see their bloody bodies littering the moonlit ground every time she closed her eyes. No, she couldn't let that happen again; only this time would be much worse. This time, she could stop them and make them come back before anything bad happened.

A few more moments of silence passed as the young warrior sat alone in the sleeping camp, with nothing but the crickets chirping in the distance and her own raging thoughts to keep her company. But she knew what she needed to do. With a heavy sigh and a heavy heart, Palefire gathered herself and quickly sprinted out the camp's entrance to try and collect her friends before it was too late. Surely the clan would be alright for a few minutes, until she could bring them back. No one would have to know they were ever gone.