LATE NIGHT DEVIL ✦ CALL FOR HELP


Just like when the pair had left in secret, the night is quiet. A veil of darkness drapes itself over RiverClan's camp, nonchalant as it does, settling over tired eyes and limbs and hearts. It is a respite for most... and it would be for Eveningpaw too, if her heart wasn't so eager to jump out of its place. The inside of her rib cage might as well be fractured with the intensity her vital bounces with.

Everything would be okay, if Eveningpaw hadn't been so stupid.

The territory had never felt this endless, not even when she had left it as a clueless kitten without a single idea on how to orient herself — it keeps dragging on as she thunders through the undergrowth and the shallow rivers, not even bothering to find quick detouring paths. As far as she's concerned, doing so would be a waste of time; and every single second matters more than anything now. She cannot linger or slow down, not even when thorns and other sharp plants cut into her paws.

"Help! Someone..." Anyone, she wants to add, but breath has been stolen from her lungs as she explodes into the camp's clearing. She does not even pay any mind to whoever guards it... they would want her to explain, in detail, and then she would have to do it all over again to the rest of the Clan, because camp guards cannot leave their post.

Eveningpaw's entire body moves with the effort it takes to breathe. She has to regain some resemblance of control, she knows, because she needs to explain. Already, curious and alerted faces alike turn to her — if panic hadn't already settled in, she would be soothed by the knowledge that helpful pairs of paws are always just around the corner. "Puh...please... someone, come with me, get Moonbeam-" Tears tickle the side of her cheeks and trail down her whiskers and snot stains the whites of her muzzle; there is little hope for complete, concrete sentences. They just have to understand and follow her.

"It's- it's Magpiepaw, they're fighting off a fox, and I couldn't do anything, because I..." Because what? She had wanted to fight alongside them, to face that predator head-on... but instead, she had frozen in place, and had allowed him to usher her away into safety. She abandoned Magpiepaw. For all she knows, ze might be dead already.

No! Don't think that. Magpiepaw has to be alive.

The few moments of calm for her heart and nerves are over. Eveningpaw burns all over again, throat and head pulsing in sync with her fear. They have to leave now. "Please! Hurry!"


This thread is open to everyone!

Happens simultaneously with this thread, in which she will be returning with @Moonbeam & reinforcements.
 
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  • "You're kicking me," she murmurs with eyes squeezed tightly shut, shifting uncomfortably as Hazecloud's elbow jabs into her ribs. Sharing a nest was nice but her soft edges had become stiffer since returning to work and at this point, she couldn't tell if it was intentional that she often found feet in spaces they shouldn't be. A harsh sigh escapes her, opening her eyes to look at the gray she-cat as a shrill cry splits through the air. Her paw rests nervously over her mate's shoulders, glancing between her and the camp entrance as the pieces slowly click together.

    That voice was familiar but... more than most. "Haze.... that's..... She doesn't bother to finish her thought before she's on her paws, stumbling on half-asleep limbs towards the entrance of her den and assuming her deputy is following close behind. The lynx point feels the hair on her spine stand on end, the mention of Moonbeam ringing out like a chilling breeze.

    She huffs and puffs to explain as her mother hurries closer, grazing her nose over her daughter to feverishly check for wounds. Magpiepaw. Fox. Couldn't do anything. She withdraws, satisfied that there is no crimson clinging to her pelt. "Show us," they say, knowing that time was of the essence if they intended to see their other apprentice returned home alive. "Don't get involved..." Feels like an important follow-up because StarClan knows if Eveningpaw will suddenly decide she has the power to help the moment she has back-up.

    Reckless... reckless girl who hadn't learned her lesson. Lichenstar cannot find the will to trust her to listen even as they speak now.
  • about

    speech hex code ✧ #6368A5

    ooc notes ✦
    tagging ✶
    penned by tieirlys
  • ˚  ★⋆. ࿐࿔  ✦   .  .   ˚ .      . ✦     ˚     .

       .     ˚     *     ✦   .  .   ✦ ˚      ˚ .˚    ✦   .  .   ˚ .   ✦   .  .   ˚       ੈ✧˳·˖✶ ✦  ˚    ✦   .  .   ˚ ★⋆. ࿐࿔

       .     ˚     *     ✦   .  .   ✦ ˚      ˚ .˚    ✦   .  .   ˚ .             ✦  
 


() it's a sleepless night for the apprentice. his paws ache with use, and his eyes droop in exhaustion, but there is no quieting his mind. mouse-lengths from pebblepaw, splashpaw slumbers, dark frame curled tightly in her feather-woven nest. ember eyes settle on the girl with a fond spark, focusing on her flower-strewn tail that matches his own. after gazing for what feels like several minutes, he remembers himself and glances away, shaking his head. don't be creepy, pebble, she's sleeping, he'll admonish in his head. right next to him, shellpaw sleeps, a soft bundle of fawn and cream, her fluffy tail draped over the side of pinepaw's nest. it's a sweet sight, the contentedness of his sister's dozing form, so relaxed compared to her anxiety filled awake persona.

soft eyes watch the rising and falling of his sister's flank for a while, drowsiness taking over as pebblepaw matches her breath, a yawn stretching his jaws. he's just about to tuck his head beneath his tail and settle in when commotion breaks the relative silence. eveningpaw's voice rings out, panicked and tearful, and pebblepaw is out of his nest in an instant, leaping over the sleeping forms of his denmates to reach the exit. out in the cool night air, lichenstar has already reached her daughter, and the blue tabby tom will beeline for moonbeams' den, ducking his head in to call out to the ghostly she-cat. "moonbeam! eveningpaw needs you, er, or magpiepaw does!" allowing the medicine cat to push her way past him, the older apprentice will follow her towards his trembling sister.

"evie, are you okay?"
he'll murmur, pressing into his sobbing sister and rasping his tongue across her tear-strewn cheek. lichenstar orders the girl to bring them to the scene, and the boy will follow, keeping close to his younger sister. he does not ask whether he is welcome, simply charges after them, ready for a fight or for whatever the night brings.


  • // fetching @Moonbeam and then following as reinforcement " #848DAE"
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  • PEBBLEPAW ☼ HE / HIM, APPRENTICE OF RIVERCLAN. MENTORED BY FOXTAIL. 10 MOONS OLD, PENNED BY LAVS
    80821802_PGjjmLPeTFx5Nwd.png
    a large blue tabby with low white and vitiligo. pale blue fur covers the length of pebblepaw's stocky body, sliced through with darker tabby stripes and spots. baleful orange eyes peer out of heavy set sockets, and his muzzle, paws, and tail tip are dashed with white.
 

He had not heard Eveningpaw slip out into the night. Perhaps if he had he would have stirred too, followed the pair out and been the voice of reason for them. "Let's go back" he would have said "before anyone notices we're gone" because he could not afford to be in any more trouble than he already was. Maybe that's why she had taken someone else, someone who wasn't him. In the night, he wakes and his paws stretch to reach out and brush against familiar pale-fur. It is when they touch nothing but empty moss that his eyes open fully, wide in their alarm before he forces logic to take over the panic. she probably just went to make dirt he thinks, trying to coax the fur along his spine to lay flat as he curls himself back into a ball, fluffy tail covering his eyes and shielding them from the moonlight filtering into the apprentices den.

Sleep does not easily find him again though. As the seconds drag on he worries. More and more his heart twists, his mind races and then all of a sudden - there... Was that her voice? He raises his head from the bed of moss and reeds and he looks out into the camp. More voices... but yes, he's certain now he heard hers as he's pushing himself to his feet, the chance of sleep gone the moment he had realized she was.

A fox she says and his ears flatten against his skull. A fox. He had never seen one but he had heard of them. Vicious creatures, the elders had told him, ones you did not want to be on the teeth end of. Ever. What had Eveningpaw and Magpiepaw been doing going out into the night, fighting foxes, what had they been thinking?.

He cannot bring himself to be mad at her, not when he sees the terror in her trembling limbs, not when he hears the way Lichenstar orders her to stay out of the way. Pebblepaw rushes off to fetch Moonbeam and when he comes back he is offering comfort to his younger sibling. Graypaw, on phantom quiet paws comes to join them on the other side of his friend, his fur brushing hers in what he hopes is a comforting gesture. He does not say anything, but if she were to look at him he would nod once, he would go. He is certain he would not be much use but he would be there. For her, anything.
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    GRAYPAW RIVERCLAN APPRENTICE ; HE / HIM
    LILYBLOOM X LAKEMOON BROTHER TO EAGLEPAW ; MENTORED BY LAKEMOON
    A plush coated apprentice with a pelt marbled in varying shades of gray and white. He has dull green eyes and a tall stature. Most of his personality can be described as carefree though some also say that unmotivated is a more than apt term. His trust and love is easily won through praise but he will do little work to receive it.
    easy in battle + no formal training
 
Since the beginning of her trips to ThunderClan, Moonbeam had found it difficult to properly sleep, dreams finding her and quickly leaving as quick as they came as she found when she was asleep to be restless. It had been odd, her last interaction with Gentlestorm, meeting him at the border as she was ready to go into the forest-territory to learn for another day only to be told to stay home, that she wasn't allowed to come back for now, that it was for her own protection. He'd left no room to ask questions or argue before leaving, moving back towards the ThunderClan camp and since then she'd been both relieved and worried. Glad she was back home but worried about something happening that she couldn't heal, something happening in ThunderClan where he could no longer teach.

At least her fitful sleep meant that she was easy to wake up, for the sounds of Eveningpaw calling for someone to help caught the girl's attention, head moving up to listen just as Pebblepaw broke through moss and lichen to say that she was needed. Carefully she would move up from her nest, nose touching Beefang's ear for just a moment before she moved out quickly, grabbing pre-wrapped bundle of herbs near the entrance to her den before silently moving out with the group, ears pinned to her head. It didn't matter to her how it happened just simply that it had and now it was her job to right the wrongs the fox had done. Hopefully there would be rights to wrong.

  • --
  • flesh wounds
    ꕥꕥ infections
    aches & pains
    ꕥꕥꕥ illness
    ꕥꕥꕥ breathing
    ꕥꕥꕥꕥ traveling
    ꕥꕥꕥꕥ broken bones
    kitting
    ꕥꕥꕥꕥ poisons
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    SH white masking cinnamon torbie w/orange eyes & small ears
    15 moons old; ages the 17th every month
    homosexual polyromantic ; mated to beefang, crushing on redacted
    currently mentoring none
    "speech", thoughts, attacking
    easy in combat unless in water, focuses on defensive tactics
 

He slept. He slept, whilst his sister was on a walk in pure midnight with Magpiepaw, while his adopted sibling looked on in care. Horizonpaw would forever feel sick, perhaps, for not being awake earlier, for not waking up in the middle of the night to make dirt like normal, for rolling over one extra time so he wasn't stock close to his siblings. Was it his fault? No, but that didn't matter so much when it came to Magpiepaw's life.

Eveningpaw's voice breaks out amongst the night, and his eyes open wide when Pebblepaw is running out of the den. His fur is on end in an instant, their paws beneath him as he stumbles out of the den after Graypaw, bleary eyed and confused. That emotion was gone an instant when he heard what was happening, terrifying fear gripping him as he rushed forward. Pebblepaw and Graypaw were already close to his sister, so all he could do was knock his head against her neck briefly before turning his vision towards Lichenstar and Hazecloud.

He didn't want to go, to see cats dying or bleeding, he didn't want to risk his life. It was Magpiepaw out there, right? Not his siblings... he felt sick at the thought, being so worried and for nothing, and feeling such guilt but not wanting to go. He cleared his throat, the nearly unused voice warbling out a tiny, "Let me go too. I'll walk her back to camp once we get there." Horizonpaw offered, his ears tilting backwards, looking towards Moonbeam.

Please. Please let everything be okay. He prayed quietly, turning to leave with the reinforcements if their parents allowed.
  • "speech"
  • HORIZONPAW he/him, apprentice of riverclan, seven moons.
    SH blue tabby with low white and deep green eyes. he is gangly, with long limbs and a longer tail that give him the illusion of being tall despite being average height otherwise. looks on with slightly anxious but normally happy expressions
    mentored by salmonshade / / mentoring no one
    padding after no one / / littermate to twinklepaw, eveningpaw, and snowflakekit
    peaceful and healing powerplay permitted / / underline and tag when attacking
    penned by dallas ↛ dallasofnines on discord, feel free to dm for plots.

 
જ➶ The sharp cries and calls alerted her to something happening within the confines of camp. The molly's fiery eyes snapping open and staring for a moment yet her fur is already standing on end. Quickly she rises to her paws, tail fluffed and bristling as she exists the warrior den. Shaking moss from her fire stained fur the woman stands there and she sees Eveningpaw clearly panicked. Her head tilts as she steps closer to the apprentice, one mentored by Gladefrost if she remembers correctly and she narrows her gaze just slightly upon the younger. Then the truth comes rushing out in pure panic. Her jaw tightens, clenches sharply as she stares on in utter disbelief at the situation that has happened. Her friend caught up in a desperate fight with a fox and the cause potentially being the one before her. Her gaze snaps to Lichenstar then and her ears pull forward. "I'll come with you." Even if she is a new warrior herself she finds this extremely reckless to have happened regardless of how it occurred.

Her maw is a thin like as she shakes her head, ready to go right now. "I can't believe you would think it smart to leave camp in the middle of the night. Whoever was guarding the camp needs to be punished as well." Yes she is implying that Eveningpaw should be given some kind of reprimand, something especially given the circumstances and she begins to leave out of camp, pausing for a moment. A sense of urgency in her step.
 

It is Lichenstar who comes first, and Eveningpaw wants nothing more than to sink into the earth and become one with the flowers and the undergrowth and the dirt; it would make her unassuming, an obstacle or something nice to look at... nothing more, nothing less. Taking on the role of a nature-bound wallflower would minimize the chances of enacting more and more disappointment.

Alas, Eveningpaw's paws remain solid. She remains in the mess she has created.

Lichenstar noses about — only leading to more tears welling up in the corner of her eyes, because despite everything, they still prioritize her safety over her mistakes — and finds nothing of note. There is only the stink of fox and the flooding scents of fear radiating off her... and of course, Magpiepaw. She unwillingly thinks about traces of Smokestar clinging to his bed of moss even after his departure; inviting him and waiting for him to curl up again for a good night's rest, only for someone else to throw it out when it was time to let go.

Pebblepaw comes next, then Graypaw, Horizonpaw... her siblings' and her friend's presence ground her like nothing else. They all worry for her and her heart breaks at the notion — she wants them to have an easy, unbothered life, and yet she keeps adding more and more things for them to mull over, no doubt causing anxiety to eat away at them.

"I'm fine..." she sniffs, leaning against Pebblepaw and blinking appreciatively at him for allowing it. She hates those words- they ring impossibly true, because Magpiepaw had made certain no harm would befall her. She looks at Graypaw in the meantime with pleading eyes that say: please come with me. There is no need for words. He understands, and he nods. If it wasn't for Pebblepaw holding her up, she might have collapsed right then and there out of sheer relief.

Horizonpaw's head bumps against her neck, and Eveningpaw thinks he might be the river itself, considering how comforting it is. For just a moment, she is transported elsewhere... into the calming currents, into waves lapping lazily against her body, into the safety that the water provides.

It is a luxury she does not allow herself for long. Moonbeam arrives and is ready for duty, and Midnightash reprimands her foolish decision. There is not enough fight left in her to talk back... and given Lichenstar's silent gaze telling her a thousand words, Eveningpaw doubts it'd go very nicely anyway. She tells her not to get involved; there is no need to tell her twice.

Finally, it's time- or unfortunately? Eveningpaw is terrified of the many possibilities that could await them... but there is no more time to waste. "Let's go..!"


Out! Feel free to follow her if you want to join in still!
 
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The moment camp was in a quiet lull was when Hazecloud would take her long awaited rest within the willow den. Often times Lichenstar was already waiting for her, with no longer needing to shoulder the responsibility of playing RiverClan's leader and deputy, she wasn't expected to be pulled all across the riverlands. That didn't mean her mate would continue her poor habits of working until she couldn't feel her own paws anymore, however.

The position had forced Hazecloud into the same beat. While paranoia did not coil around her mind the way it had her predecessors she still worried between the hours of the day, forming her own paths of neurotic tendencies to reassure her her Clan was safe. At the very least, her sleeping patterns had hardly changed. The occasional howl startled her, but otherwise the molly had always slept like rocks weighed her down into the nest. Lichenstar's murmuring is hardly enough to wake her, but Eveningpaw's shrilling certainly is.

The smoky queen lifted her head and rose, still dizzy and bleary with sleep. Eveningpaw's explanation left her wondering if she hadn't left her dream at all. Magpiepaw fighting a fox? What had lured them to roam the territory by themselves at all?

Lichenstar found her voice first, while she could only muster a heavy, tired sigh of disappointment. Spring bloom sights blinked away the last bit of sleep that clung to her and with a quick glance at those gathered to help, Hazecloud felt confident they could manage against the danger. Hopefully Magpiepaw was still alive by the time they found zem...

"Keep an eye on Eveningpaw, too." She whispered to Horizonpaw as they began to follow the smaller tabby.

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    Hazecloud
    —⊰⋅ Deputy of RiverClan
    —⊰⋅ She/Her
    "SPEECH", 'THOUGHTS', ATTACK
    —⊰⋅ LH blue smoke with green eyes.