camp NOT ENOUGH EATING BRAINS ↺ zombie

Feb 8, 2023
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Moorpaw triumphantly holds the largest prey she's ever seized. A sizeable, succulent rabbit, ready to become a feast for a hungry family. Her pulse has yet to dwindle, teeth yet to relinquish their firm grip on the creature's neck. The victory is resplendent, and she intends to bask in every second of its glory. It's a breath she's been holding for far too long. Languishing in quarantine made her thirst for a moment like this, to prove that she's a leech on the clan's side no longer, and instead worthy of walking amongst them as a fully-fledged warrior. Optimistically, her actions today could nudge Sootstar's paw closer to offering her a full name.

The animal's hind limbs drag against the sandy terrain and leave pathetic tracks in its wake. No matter how aloft the apprentice hoists her head and hold on the thing's scruff, it only reduces her flourishing steps into timid waddles. She crosses camp's brambly threshold with her mentor in tow, and as the bulk of her patrolmates scatter, those carrying prey seek out the fresh-kill pile. Moorpaw included.

A hefty fling sends the rabbit tumbling onto the pile, stirring a dusty cloud into the air. In its aftermath, the moor cat smiles sweetly at her catch. Bite marks are vividly visible on its thin pelt, sandy colours betrayed by darkened patches. Great stars, this creature's size rivalled Pinkpaw's proportions. Laughter is hot on her lips as she pivots on her forepaws, pursuing approval in her mentor's regard. "Look'it! It's so big!" Her words border on giddy squeals. "You saw me, right? I was all like, 'whoooosh' (Moorpaw reenacts the killing moment with impressive fervour), and this big fella was all like 'waaaaaaa'!"

Snow-capped paws stumble rearwards towards the fresh-kill pile in her excited fit. Smaller kills are pushed aside and her ankle knocks into her trophy prey, causing a ripple of disturbance in the heap's balance. An excited apprentice lacks any reservations about bumping other cats, and the same transcends to fresh-kill too.

The contact, it would seem, breathed life back into the lungs of her prize catch, as it's stirred from slumber too. Rabbit eyes bulge, legs kicking out in spurred flight once again. Its reaction is rapid and unsuspected, striking Moorpaw with surprise and anxiety in one foul swoop. "AAAAAAAH!" Instinct takes her fleeing a few tail-lengths away, and by the time she circles around to face the situation, it's devolved into an all-out crisis.

The undead rabbit has arisen. "IT'S ALIVE!" she screams, horror piercing her gaze as the thing hobbles around at the pace of a newborn kit. "IT'S ALIIIIVE!"


 

❀༉˖° Boasting was rarely ever worth the energy put into it, in Peonypaw's mind. It only resulted in one specific thing - attention drawn towards you, for better or for worse. Anyone who felt compelled to praise or otherwise feel a spark of pride would dish that out regardless if they were prompted or not, and those who lacked the sense in complimenting the expected would only sneer in response.

Peonypaw couldn't quite decide which side he was on when Moorpaw made quite a show of returning with her prey. It was of considerable size, and its appearance was only aided by the dust clouds that formed after Moorpaw unceremoniously flung the thing into its rightful place. Truly reminiscent of a rabbit with still-beating heart racing across the moor in an effort to escape hungry jaws, leaving behind only a trail of promise if the hunter was too slow or clumsy.

Whatever he might have wanted to say to Moorpaw specifically about her appearance (no doubt the aftermath of fight for dear life) was cut short when her antics caused the prey pile to shift, and in turn, the rabbit to wake.

Morbid as it was, Peonypaw merely twitched an ear and his whiskers in surprise and lunged. An act of mercy, or an act of selfishness, born from not wanting such a catch to go to waste. Evidently Moorpaw lost hold of the moment from the shock, anyway.

The taste of iron coated his tongue when ivory met beige, teeth snapping around the soft body of the rabbit one last time. "Dead enough for you now?"
°
 

"nice catch moorpaw! you'll make a fine hunter!" nodding her approval to the apprentice, quailbreeze found a smile creeping onto her face as she watched the recount of the hunt, the excitement flooding off the young apprentice. it was a good catch, one that a cat of any age would be proud of. laying her head down on her paws to return to her nap, she found herself quickly being awoken by the apprentice's screams. confusion laced her features as she slowly woke, a yawn escaping her jaws. what on earth was going on? it wouldn't take long for her to fully awaken, as the rabbit came barrelling towards her. "quick! moorpaw help me cut it off!" this wasn't her catch, and she wasn't going to steal the spotlight from moorpaw if she could help it.


  • ooc : — ​

  • — ic opinions
    — open to minor/healing powerplay
    — quailbreeze / windclan moor runner / feminine pronouns / biography

 

Harrierstripe is stunned when the rabbit rises from the fresh-kill pile and sprints across camp, a screaming Moorpaw in it’s tow. In disbelief Harrierstripe hesitates against instincts that urge him into a chase, not long after his paws begin to fly after the hare Peonypaw brings his teeth down into it’s flesh. With a cut-off squeal the hare is slain, and this time it will not rise again.

”Hare-brain!” Harrierstripe’s hissed insult is flung at his sister, ”Outsmarted by a rabbit, I hope you’re not named for your wits.” It was not unlikely Moorpaw was use to this type of jibing from her brother, the family never had been one to share love and affection between themselves.
  • >> I think there might’ve been some accidental ninjaing, just to avoid confusion I went with the narration of the post that appears first
  • » Harrierkit . Harrierpaw . Harrierstripe
    » WindClan Warrior
    » He/him
    » A black and chocolate chimera with golden eyes.
    » "Speech"thoughtsattack
  • » A foe who uses jeers and taunts to distract his opponents.
    » Excels in using terrain to his advantage.
    » Fights to overpower and see another day.
    » May powerplay minor harm. Can powerplay healing
 
She listened to Moorpaw recount her tale of its capture and her shock when the rabbit sprung back to life and tried to flee, one last ditch effort at freedom. She wasn't close enough to catch it in time, but there were plenty of cats at the ready to make sure it was dead for real this time. A normal cat might cut Moorpaw some slack, reasoning that she has only just recovered from debilitating illness, the same one that took her father.

Azaleafrost was not a normal cat. She's been twisted by her environment into something hateful and cruel, mercy and sympathy given to precious few.

Guess the inability to make sure something is dead runs in the family, she thinks to herself. Laughing on the inside, yet her face remains ever expressionless, she tries to find the right words to say. It is a struggle. If this had been her, the mockery would be endless. That thought alone stops her from trying to find kind words.

"Be more thorough next time." She says. Not cruelly, since Moorpaw hasn't actually done anything to gain her ire. She was just a silly cat. She fights extra hard not to cast a lingering glance at Harrierstripe. It is almost a losing battle.... But she wins. "Rabbits can be tricky, when they want to be."
 
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Reactions: HARRIERSTRIPE
The first rabbit he'd caught had tasted of anxiety and adrenaline. Stories of what they could do to wandering hunters and his previous failures had his heart beating in a terrible echo. It was much like battle, now that he thinks of it. Hares especially have a certain look about their faces– like they knew what you were and what you were doing, and knew exactly what they were going to do about it. Sparkspirit tries not to make eye contact with them now. Something in them is too wild to understand. Good prey, though. Enough to fill several bellies. Typically that was worth any worries, but today WindClan is not so lucky.

He jolts to his paws, sprung like lightning-struck, his eyes wide from where he had been resting. It wasn't every day that WindClan expected a rabbit attack. His eyes find the piece of prey just in time for Peonypaw's crunch. Despite himself, he winces. The placement wasn't even right. A quick death. A deserved mercy. His heart races even faster. Whatever it is that shuts it down, Sparkspirit can only be grateful. His jaw is tense and his eyes shut for only a moment before he remembers who he was, where he was, and steps up a little closer to the disaster zone. "Nothing at all like you and Smokestar, right Harrierstripe?" Okay, so he's only here to throw fuel on the flames apparently. This, at least, is said with the crooked smile of friendly mockery.
EpC61GT.png

  • OOC.
  • 🗲  .   ˚ .  SPARKSPIRIT. HE - HIM - HIS. 14 MOON OLD MOOR RUNNER OF WINDCLAN. VERY LOYAL TO HIS CLAN. PENNED BY REVELATIONS.  ————
    sparkchibi.png
    ——  a trim mock tortoiseshell tom with mostly black fur splashed with the occasional patch orange. he has a singular white mark on the back of his neck shaped similarly to a lightning strike, and a small scar across the bridge of his nose. his eyes are a shocking electric blue.
    ✦ ECHOLIGHT x ELMBREEZE. ADOPTED BY YEWBERRY. BRIGHTFAM, BUT SOMEWHAT ESTRANGED DUE TO HIS LOYALTY TO WINDCLAN. ————————
  • "speech"
 


Though she had never been much of a fighter, Rattleheart had always considered herself to be at least a somewhat decent hunter. On the days where she was feeling more confident, she'd even go as far as to say that she thought she was a good hunter. She knew how to navigate the tunnels with ease, not to mention how to track the prey that used those same tunnels as a haven when they needed to get away from moor runners or the chill that lingered above. This meant that there had been a fairly significant amount of impressive catches that she had made in the past, the memory of her first rabbit long gone and replaced with something she felt was more important. Or potentially a random fun fact that Venomstrike had chosen to share with her, considering her mind occasionally chose to work in... strange ways, to say the least.

Either way, she could remember the excitement that often came with a catch like Moorpaw's, and a soft amused purr left her throat as the apprentice came bounding into camp, dragging along her surely hard-fought reward along with her. Excessive boasting wasn't a trait that seemed good to encourage, but... this wasn't excessive just yet, merely the celebration of a pleased apprentice. And if she did need to be scolded for it for some reason, best to let her mentor take care of that rather than stepping in. "Good catch, Moorpaw. Looks like it'll feed plenty of us-" Her praise was cut off by the rabbit springing back to life, evidently having some strength still hidden in its injured body. Moorpaw's shouting might have made Rattleheart burst out laughing, if her body wasn't pulled back to put the creature down for good.

Her apprentice stepped in before she could though, prompting a grateful smile in his direction. "Nice work, Peonypaw. Looks like we won't all be terrorized by an undead rabbit after all." Others were also stepping in to offer their own congratulations or condemnation of Moorpaw not being careful, but Sparkspirit's statement sticks out among the rest, prompting an amused snort from her. "Nothing at all like them, because Moorpaw actually stuck around long enough to see it come back to life." Her words are teasing as well, although they hold much less friendly in them than Sparkspirit's had. They're barbed, meant to dig into the moor runner's ego.
[ PENNED BY EO ]
 
  • Dead
Reactions: HARRIERSTRIPE

❀༉˖° Peonypaw listened to everybody voicing their thoughts as he carried the rabbit back into its rightful place, now dead for certain. He looked just like Moorpaw just moments prior when she carried it; Peonypaw was too short to get the hind legs to stop dragging even if he tipped his head way back. He wondered if Moorpaw's neck ached from having done this the entire way back to camp.

His icy gaze fliced to Sparkspirit at the comment, and then Harrierstripe, before leaving the two altogether. That for sure would lead to an argument and he didn't wish to be caught in the middle of it.

Instead he focused on the praise from his mentor, and he blinked at Rattleheart with appreciation. At least she had something positive to say. The others seemed hell-bent on offering critique to Moorpaw, as if she didn't already know- kill your prey. "It's not the end of the world," he offered unhelpfully. Had this been out in the moors and not the safety of camp, the rabbit could have escaped, and yet it would have been easy to track it again with the almost-fatal injury and smell of blood.
°
 

Harrierstripe stiffens in the presence of Azaleafrost but keeps any thoughts of discomfort to himself. Sparkspirit, who he is normally comfortable with, causes Harrierstripe’s jaw to drop in shock as anger burns through his fangs. ”What did you just say?!” He challenges the older warrior, the fur along his spine bristling. Rattleheart’s words only fuel the fire and throw him over the edge from anger to complete embarrassment. Though none of their words intentionally hostile, even spoken with a grin, none are taken well by Harrierstripe.

How the tables had turned…

”It- It’s not-!” He tries to hiss back but he can find no words of defense for himself. Both warriors are shot a venemous look before he turns tail and flees the situation.
  • » Harrierkit . Harrierpaw . Harrierstripe
    » WindClan Warrior
    » He/him
    » A black and chocolate chimera with golden eyes.
    » "Speech"thoughtsattack
  • » A foe who uses jeers and taunts to distract his opponents.
    » Excels in using terrain to his advantage.
    » Fights to overpower and see another day.
    » May powerplay minor harm. Can powerplay healing