camp MOVING UP TO HIGHER GROUND [patrol return]

[SCORCHSTREAK]

༄༄ There are not many things Scorchstreak is afraid of. Dogs, she can handle. A journey into the mountains is fine. But a collapsed tunnel—there is no defense against its destruction. There is only death. And Mouseflight… will certainly be dead soon. They cannot waste time. The calico pays little mind to Smokestep or Pinkpaw as she races through tunnels and across moorland on her way back to camp. Once dappled paws cross the threshold of the heather tunnel, the deputy comes to a stop at last. "Tunnelers," she calls out, golden eyes slicing through the camp. She sees some familiar faces, but those who are required must be summoned to her now. "A tunnel collapsed near the horseplace. Mouseflight was trapped. He is still alive, but he won’t remain that way if we cannot dig him out soon." This is an emergency, and she hopes that her words are construed as such.

"We will work through the night to dig him out." It is perhaps too much work for so few cats, but taking it in shifts may help to conserve the tunnelers’ energy. It may be harsh, but so is the reality of the situation: if they do not work quickly, then their clanmate will die. "Bluefrost. Marmotbite. Whitedawn." She looks from face to face, attempting to meet each of their gazes as she calls their names. "You will work during the daytime. Take breaks as needed, but every effort must be made to save Mouseflight." The tom had gone to the mountains to save the clan—surely no WindClanner would hesitate to save him in return. "Sootspot, you will be with Smokestep and I. We will work through the night—save your energy now, and we will begin at nightfall." For once her voice is not filled with contempt when she speaks the smoky-furred tom’s name, but still she wonders how foolish it may be to bring him along to help. He could so easily sabotage the entire rescue operation… but would he?

Satisfied with her two assigned rescue teams, the deputy gives a flicker of her tail and turns toward the camp’s entrance once more. She may be tired, but she must show the other tunnelers where they’ll need to dig in order to get Mouseflight free. "I’ll lead the way," she adds quickly, attempting to gauge the potential danger of returning to the tunnel that had collapsed partially.

࿐ ࿔*:･ﾟ she’s a growing bed of thorns

• ooc: returned to camp with @PINKPAW & @SMOKESTEP and assigned shifts to dig Mouseflight out!
  
  DAY SHIFT: @BLUEFROST (Brackenpaw), @Marmotbite. (Ferretpaw), @whitedawn
  
  NIGHT SHIFT: Scorchstreak (Pinkpaw), @SOOTSPOT, Smokestep
• 
  SCORCHSTREAK ❯❯ she/they, deputy (tunneler) of windclan
  ༄ small, slim flame-streaked calico with fiery golden eyes. stoic and shrewd, but clearly cares deeply for her clan.
  ༄ mate to bluepool ; sibling to rattleheart & rabbitclaw
  ༄ mentor to pinkpaw
  ༄ peaceful and healing powerplay permitted
  ༄ penned by foxlore

​

​

 

[Bluepool]

The tunnels. Bluepool had tried before to will herself into one. She remembers staring at that dark maw, the entrance to the underground and no matter how much she willed it in her mind she could not force her legs to move forward. Her whole body had siezed, her mind racing with possibilities and visions of death and rot, of earth closing around her, of a burial far too soon. A situation much like the one that Mouseflight found himself in now.

Her mate's urgent voice stirs her from the spot where she rests in the sunlight. Her paws scramble underneath her and within moments she is rushing towards the flame-touched molly, concern in her golden eyes "Is there anything I can do to help?" She asks, her voice urgent, her worry evident in her knitted together brows and the way she bites at her lip. She despised the tunnels, everything about them terrified her, but for her, for her she just might be able to will her weak mind into doing it.

( ➸ ) test my worth in blood

• 
  
  
• 
  BLUEPOOL WINDCLAN LEAD WARRIOR ; SHE / HER ; SISTER TO SOOTSTAR & MINTSHADE
  

  A small framed moor runner with a blue toned pelt and black stripes. Her tail is cropped and her eyes are golden in color. On her chest, she sports a large 'X' shaped scar.

  ✦ Difficult in battle. A skilled fighter + isn’t above using dirty tricks in order to win
  

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[SOOTSPOT]

He is numb to the news, so numb that it took a moment to register how he should look at the mention of a clanmate trapped in the tunnels. Sootspot blinked swiftly, eyes growing wider with each consecutive flutter as he moved closer to the Deputy, his tail lashing in an attempt to rid himself of the faux anxiety he portrayed. Mouseflight was better off dead to the chimera, convenient as it was the tunnels swallowed him whole instead of some harebrained scheme, but to deny his rescue now would be to kill himself too... though with how dangerous a collapsed tunnel was, the opportunity was still there. It was that which made his heart stutter, the brief realisation that he would be damned if he condemned Mouseflight to his fate and damned only a little less if he tried to help the warrior. The lump in his throat grew dry, when he tried to swallow it, it seemed as acrid as a herb forcefed to him by Scorchstreak. "Very well," he dipped his head, overly polite. "My skills require no such thing as a promise; he shall be free by moonhigh, should the others not rescue him first."


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[PINKSHINE]

Pinkpaw is hot on her mentor's heels... And she feels like she's done this a lot lately. Maybe not even lately — just a lot. Ran to and from places alongside Scorchstreak, or sometimes not... Because somethings gonna happen, or something will happen if they don't hurry. She doesn't mind doing all that running, though, if it'll help someone.

Following Scorchstreak's hurried explaination, she chimes in with frantic cries, " I almost got buried! too! He saved me! it was the scariest thing ever and Mouseflight's one of the bravest cats ever! " She quiets so she can hear Scorchstreak's plan, though. We will work through the night to dig him out. Oh wow, she'll be so super tired but... it's worth it of course! Mouseflight deserves it and... it'd let her practice for her big important warriors vigil that she really hopes she doesn't have to do but probably will if she's being honest with herself...

The nightshift, that would be her and Scorchstreak's... And Sootspot too, and he was kinda spooky and weird. Hopefully he didn't get any ideas... " I hope he's okay... " she mews, and she angles a weary gaze toward Sootspot, because if he said something like, me too, that means he's not evil and won't do weird things in the dark... He shall be free by moonhigh, he says instead. did that clear his name? She doesn't quite think so...

Bluepool comes. She asks, Is there anything I can do to help? " Um... " another glance toward Sootspot. " Ask StarClan to help us, please? " She didn't used to think about StarClan a lot. Not really, but ...they had to prove that StarClan didn't hate WindClan, right? They had to prove that Sunstar didn't curse them.​

 

[dimmingsun]

When Scorchstreak calls for the tunnelers' attention, Dimmingsun rises to meet her despite the differences in rank. Not in a million years would he go down there; not out of fear, something he would be able to shove down so that it doesn't interrupt, but because the most he could do in relation to the tunnels is block an entrance with his body. Squeezing into one would do little to help anyone... and yet, he feels his body itch with the need to do something. At least Bluepool seems to match his restless desparation too.

"And me?" The question comes easily and without too much weight upon Scorchstreak's shoulders. With a situation as urgent as this, none of them can afford anybody holding the tunnelers up. His word comes quick as a result. "Anything you want me to do."

He thinks of Mouseflight and imagines himself in his stead. Even an experienced tunneler would panic when suffocated under the dirt. Dimmingsun clings to how the world is from behind his eyelids — darkened and warped and scary, and his breath hitches with it.

Pinkpaw's voice cuts through his thoughts, and Dimmingsun finds it in himself to soften up, even with the panic that's threatening to settle in. "They will," he assures before Sootspot could talk, too eager to soothe, unable to wait. "Mouseflight will come back to us."
​

 

[BLUEFROST]

A tunnel collapse. Mouseflight is beneath the soil, crushed, alone in the darkness. Bluefrost remembers Heathermoon tugging her away from falling silt, remembers Sootstar leaving her alone in suffocating blackness during her assessment. She shudders, unable to suppress her fear; from the base of her spine to the tip of her tail, she trembles. She meets Scorchstreak's fiery gaze and gives her deputy a single nod. She's on the day shift—and she will not falter. She has no great love for her Clanmate, but no cat, friend or foe, deserves such a death.

Bluefrost turns to Brackenpaw, to Marmotbite, to Whitedawn, to Ferretpaw, and dips her head. "Let us go now. Brackenpaw, I hate that this is your first foray into the tunnels, but it cannot be helped. Stick close to me, and listen to everything I say very carefully." She inhales, holding her breath, before she begins to pad toward camp's exit.

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

• ooc: talking to @Brackenpaw
• 
• Bluekit . Bluepaw . Bluefrost, she/her w/ feminine terms.
  — “speech”, thoughts, attack
  — 16 moons old, ages realistically on the 14th.
  — mentored by Sootstar ; mentoring Brackenpaw ; previously mentored n/a.
  — windclan warrior. sootstar x weaselclaw, gen 2.
  — penned by Marquette.
  
  
  lh blue and white she-cat with emerald eyes. aloof, dignified, poised, haughty, composed, distant.
  
  

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[Marmotbite.]

MY BODY'S COVERED IN TEETH MARKS
YOUR BITES WORSE THAN YOUR BARK​

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

marmotbite & 18 moons & demigirl & she/they/it & windclan tunneler ​

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Ears witch at the call, a shudder passing through the mollys frame as she listens to Scorchstreak speak. Tunnel collapses are no small thing - once more, she spares only an absent minded thought to her won experiences. Her near-death had been nothing so noble as saving an apprentice, only her on selfish need and desperate desire to escape sootstars claws to join the one she loved. Still, they have lost cats the to earth before - and she finds herself on her paws swiftly, despite her own racing thoughts. " 'course, " she agrees easily, it's her job after all. And Mouseflight is a cat she likes anyways, it'd be a shame to see the big-eared tom die to this. " You - let's go, " she says, tone deadened as she flicks her plumed tail at her apprentice. She doesn't bother using ferretpaws name, and for all that at this point she's once again forgotten it, it's hardly a surprise. Still, she knows that one is her apprentice, and even if they will be going into danger Marmotbite will not leave them behind. She will learn, even if it is on the job.

━ actions & " speech, " & 'thoughts/quotes' ━

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

T H E R E S ━ A ━ D O G ━ I N ━ Y O U R ━ H E A R T

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
@ferretpaw

 

[Brackenpaw]

The tunnels. Brackenpaw had heard about them as a kit, Blizzardpaw had told them about it. They sound scary from all that they’ve been told. Brackenpaw had told herself that she wouldn’t be scared of it, being scared is for babies and they’re not a baby. That’s what she told herself up until Scorchstreak conveyed the dire situation facing them and Pinkpaw had confessed to how scary it was. Mouseflight, a passing face that she had seen before now.

The idea of him being stuck down there, suffocating, her paws couldn’t find enough purchase on the solid ground below them to ground herself. Their mind spun, alongside it so did their vision. Catching the shiver that ran through Bluefrost did little to aid that opening pit in her stomach, swallowing her with dread and anxiety. The apprentice doesn’t hide the fact that she’s trembling, powerful shudders wrack through her. Despite their trembling they nod their head at Bluefrost’s words. The true indicator that she was rattled over this was the fact that there was no bite, no retorts, just a quiet obedience. Taking the orders to heart and striding next to Bluefrost, trying to stay as close as they could already as they padded towards the camp exit.

---

‎‎ ‎┌── Im just a dog ⸙ with no bite ──┐‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎

• 
  ooc.
  
•  
• BIOGRAPHY
  ✩ they/she, tunneler apprentice of Windclan, 7 moons (ages on the 22nd)
  ⭃ a lithe and fragile looking calico that looks like they still need to grow into her ears
  ⭃ Speech, thoughts, attacking
  ⭃ NPC x NPC, mentored by Bluefrost
  ⭃ easy to befriend other kits, gradually harder to befriend every rank after that
  ⭃ peaceful and healing powerplay permitted / / underline and tag when attacking
  ⭃ penned by Juice ↛ @/ouijeejuice on discord, feel free to dm for plots.
  ⭃ All opinions are IC!! Bracken is a little hater
  

​

 

[kitecall.]

speaking color is #BBE8EF​

➾ KITEPAW. AND HOW CAN WE WIN WHEN FOOLS CAN BE KINGS? † ☼
𖤓 ✟—- being a tunneler was a dream for him that had never come true. countless times has he watched them leave on their patrols and him wish he was alongside them, performing a task for the clan that felt special... unique, important. (he knows the job of a moor-runner is important too, and kitepaw could ramble on with reason after reason should he find himself having to... a way he has helped move past his frustration and sourness about his situation.) however, as the patrol bursts back into camp, kitepaw feels something in him shift. "a tunnel collapsed... his voice echos. "mouseflight is trapped..." everything that comes next happens so suddenly and everybody moves so quickly that he finds himself standing there feeling dumb. while kitepaw is always eager to help, he finds himself feeling utterly useless in this situation. what if that had been him? if he had gotten what he had wanted, would he still be alive? no-- this is about mouseflight. there was no need to linger on hypotheticals, both for his own sake and the what-ifs of the tunneler's awful situation. windclan has survived through far worse than a collapsed tunnel, and their warriors were capable. bluepool and dimmingsun take the words out of his mouth, and kitepaws feels it redundant to mimic them. instead, despite his hopeful confidence, he follows pinkpaw's request and sends a small prayer to starclan. "please let them reach him in time."

---

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

• 
  
  
  
• 
  

  

• KITEPAW ✩ he/him, moor-runner apprentice of windclan, 8 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 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.
  
  
  
  
  

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[cottonsprig]

The danger of the tunnels is one that once lived beneath her skin, as if the very existence of the caverns had been interwoven with her own. Sootstar was proud of much more than her starlit path as a leader - she emboldened her lineage, her dutiful two daughters, with praise and fascination as kittens. As apprentices, she used to envy Bluefrost, for her twin gained their mother as a mentor while Cottonpaw obtained the well-trained and yet fearful Icebreath (and placed and placed again, as if she'd never fit in.) She supposes in the time that she had no proper training, her sister must've learned of real, tangible fear - of honest consequences. Cottonpaw, in some ways, had not.

She shakes as she watches the patrol return, Scorchstreak barking orders no different than a hound baying after its meal. Cats part again, and she feels lost. It's in this moment that Cottonpaw realizes her skills are no better than the apprentices pulled along; that in her nearly a year of training beneath Wolfsong, they've weakened to bare minimum in the least. That while she wants to so desperately help her friend... she cannot. She would be a burden to either patrol. And it tears her to pieces, claws at her throat - again, she thinks of Wolfsong in his helplessness, and again she selfishly dismisses his selflessness in favor of herself.

"May StarClan harden your claws," she calls out after the first patrol, holding back the tremor in her voice. They will bring him back. They must...​