NO TIME TO DIE // chasing rogues, trouble breathing

[HOWLINGSTAR]

// apprentice tag @skypaw

The dawn hadn't begun as peacefully as Howlingstar had hoped. The sun hadn't even made it halfway up the sky before the patrol had run right into a group of skinny rogues, who hissed and spit but otherwise were quite cowardly. It had been a swift skirmish between them and the ThunderClanners and fortunately, they were outnumbered by the warriors and apprentices. A guttural snarl leaves her as the tabby chases down a creamy-furred she-cat, claws furiously swiping at her tail as she runs her right off the territory. Her clanmates are driving the others off nearby but Howlingstar's fern eyes are locked onto her target. She holds a stolen vole in her jaws and the tabby is intent on getting it back, if she can.

But they reach the border and the she-cat takes off with her ears flat and tail tucked. Howlingstar cannot give chase anymore. She stumbles to a panting halt and wheezes, as if her lungs cannot get enough air in them. Her breaths are raspier than they had been before; what she and her clanmates believed to be exhaustion has become so much more. If someone were to touch her, they may even feel the feverish heat billowing off of her. She gasps more, jaws gaping wide to gulp in oxygen that will not satisfy her no matter how much she drinks. A harsh swallow and she is now sitting, shoulders hunched and eyes squeezing shut. This isn't good. Even she can realize that.​

 

[RACCOONSTRIPE]

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XXXXXYet again, their patrol comes across thin, angular rogues, but luckily there are few compared to ThunderClan’s might. Raccoonstripe’s fur fluffs out, his claws unsheathing as cats pelt after the fleeing outsiders. Howlingstar races alongside them, fierce as any of them, her claws snatching tufts of cream-colored fur from a she-cat who soon disappears over the border. He takes his own careful, hard-hitting swipes at a bracken-colored tabby with clawed ears—this cat had felt Clan cat’s fury before, it seems, as he is one of the first to disappear through the undergrowth and toward other lands.

XXXXXThe tabby exhales, flanks heaving, but his eyes shine with pride at a job well-done. “That lot won’t be coming back anytime soon,” he says, puffing with satisfaction. He prepares to turn to his apprentice, as this is first time on a patrol dealing with intruders. “We showed them, didn’t we—hey!” He turns to see his mother slumped, her chest inflating and deflating with desperate breaths too short to fill her with oxygen. Raccoonstripe pads over to her, concern glowing in dark eyes. “Howlingstar? Do you need to see Berryheart?” His mother is older, but she’s far from being an elder, and on normal days she’s as fit as the rest of them to chase trespassers.

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@RAINBOWPAW apprentice tag
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[skyclaw]

Skypaw stays close to Raccoonstripe during the scuffle, having lost his mentor in the fray. The rogue he faced off with against was as scrawny as the rest, and with the few altercations him and Howlingstar have been a part of thus far, he is prepared and holds his own relatively well. All the same, as they turn tail and skirt off, Skypaw sports a new gnarly scrape across the bridge of his nose, red pearls blooming at its edges.

"You did... alright," Skypaw comments to Rainbowpaw in passing, reinforcing the multicolored feline's mentor's comment (though in truth the chimera cared little to watch the younger apprentice in the fight, so he has no true idea of how well Rainbowpaw did hold his own.) Raccoonstripe speaks just a few paces away and its only then that Skypaw sees his mentor struggling to breathe on the ground. He thinks of when she was stabbed through by the boar, except the wounds she sustained this time, if any, were hardly enough to be cause for alarm.

"I can run ahead and prepare Berryheart," Skypaw offers. His voice is shaky and he fears what may easily be inevitable, but he says nothing to what they all may as well be thinking. ​

 

[BURNSTORM]

Despite the threat of the rogues looming over them like the shadow of a predator, Burnstorm still finds that he is enjoying time spent with his family. His grandmother was always a welcome presence, as was his brother. His uncle. too, despite their rocky relationship when he was born and when he was an apprentice. Despite everything, when they chase the rogues out there is nobody he would prefer by his side than the black striped tom. He was a fierce warrior, there would never be any denying that. The rogues didn't stand a chance against their little battalion. Rainbowpaw and Falconpaw included.

A wide grin erupts on his face as he watches them flee and he is turning to his apprentice to commend him on a job well done when suddenly he notices the state of his grandmother, his leader. She looks frail, like she could fall over at any moment. A frown darkens his features then. The sickness was something that they had all grown accustomed to by now. The symptoms are familiar. His own brother, Skypaw's littermate, lies ill with it and now Howlingstar would be joining him. "Yes, please do. Go, may your paws be swift" he says with a nod in Skypaw's direction, permission granted though he is not his mentor. "Me and Rccoonstripe, we'll help you back to camp okay?" he says, turning his attention to Howlingstar though out of the corner of one eye he looks to his uncle for acknowledgement. He hopes he doesn't mind him volunteering him but between the lot of them he is certain they are the two best options.



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OOC NOTES . ✦ . CHARACTER INFO

• ooc : — apprentice tag @FALCONPAW. ​
• 
  

  ➵ he / him
  ➵ thunderclan lead warrior
  ➵ single ; crushing on roeflame
  
  

  

  - - Burnstorm is a hot headed tom who, above all, loves his clan and his family. He cares deeply and passionately for those closest to him and is one of the most loyal friends a cat could have. Because of his half-kitttypet heritage, Burnstorm is always hard at work, believing that he has to put in twice the amount of effort a normal cat does in order to prove himself as a worthy clan member
  ↪ ISTJ-T 'the logistican'
  
  - - a large, black furred tom with golden eyes
  ↪ toyhouse [ ✦ ]
  
  ➵ skilled fighter and decent hunter
  ➵ LITTLE WOLF X BLAZESTAR ; sibling to Fireflypaw, Howlfire, Morningpaw, Moonwhisper, Duskpaw and Skypaw
  ​

 

[HOWLINGSTAR]

She continues to drag air into her lungs with an ugly sound. She can hardly hear those around her, but when she looks to the side to see her son's face she can understand him better. "Yes. Berryheart," She confirms between gasps, nodding weakly along. She is no fool; she knows she needs a medicine cat and she will not turn away treatment. Still straining for breath, she twitches an ear to show she heard her apprentice as he races off to tell the healer what has happened. "Thanks." She can't say more than that. Still hunching over, she allows her kin to help her as they make their way back to camp.​