RAMSHACKLED BOY [ reintro, o ]

[RAMWIND !]

MAY I STAND UNSHAKEN AMIDST THE CRASH OF THE WORLD ✧​

there's been a turn in the boy, some could say. still brash, crude, and an overall bully. still the same boy who harrases those smaller and weaker than him, testing the boundaries of his clan-mates and seeing how much they'll tolerate his tongue. his head is tilted heavenwards, an uncharacteristic silence overfalling him. he is amongst his peers now, as in, no longer a cruel apprentice. he'd been held back plenty for his stubborn ways, and foolish choices. picking on timid cats, but ramwind had viewed it as some sort of politeness. the punishments from it still causes him to huff and puff, rolling his eyes and deflating.

but for now, the curled-fur tom is silent. gazing at passing birds, a pondering look crossing his face. replacing his usual sneer. heartbeats pass, before the tom's eyes widen, and body falls from its usual prideful stance. oh. starclan, bless him. he's got to be the biggest fool. there's a harsh beat of a wing behind him, and he just barely manages to watch the crow and its thievery. it's not usual that ram gets distracted, but when he does, the earth seems to punish him for it.

"m'bird..." is all the boy can utter as he watches the blasted dark-devil take away his prey. he stands to attention, but there's no use, and he finds himself sitting with his embarrassment yet again. a foolish hope that no one will see his newest big plunder. it's not like he meant to let his prize leave his sight, but there was a roar in the sky, he swears it. and frankly, he thought he was about to be swallowed whole by some unseen beast. though, he wishes he was now. just because he now lost the bet of the fattest bird caught with some other moor-runners. ​

 

[TIGERFROST]

Tags and Information

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The day is good. Warm, breezy, pleasant. And finally, finally, Tigerfrost feels his own confidence again, feels as if he moves with less pain, strides without fear of injuries cracking apart once more. Over two weeks since the raid. Two weeks, trapped in camp, a prisoner of his own home, permitted beyond the hollow for little more than water and the occasional border patrol. Now, though, he runs. He lurks in the tall grass. He listens, smells, and sees all that darts through the heather and dandelions. The Lead Warrior feels alive again.

Briefly does he pause in his hunting, letting the wind tug at his short fur, whisper scents into his flaring nostrils, promises of a pleasant day. Nearby, he hears a sound, nearly silent. It's the scrabbling of tiny claws against the grass. A mouse among the flowers of a lavender patch. Tigerfrost is a runner, not a prowler, but still he crouches as he has long done before, creeps ever closer to his prey. The wind favors him, blowing his scent away, allowing him within range to pounce. One leap, a paw upon a warm bodied rodent. There's a shrill noise of fear, cut suddenly short. The mouse is a small prize, but rarely caught. Who wouldn't mind a bit of variety among the rabbits and hares of their pile?

But Tigerfrost smells something else, then. Something different. Not a mouse. He lifts his nose, ears twitching, recognizes the scent after only a few moments. Somewhere nearby, another WindClanner lurked. The dusty hued tom picks up his mouse, carried gently between razor tipped teeth. Then, on sturdy paws, he sets out to investigate, to pry into whatever it was this other cat might be doing. He has the authority, after all, to observe his fellow warriors, to insure that they were not doing anything devious in the bushes somewhere. After Dandelionwish, Tigerfrost believes that one cannot be too careful.

But the cat he sights is a newer warrior, not one Tigerfrost has ever been suspicious of. Ramwind. The other's eyes are to the sky, and he does not seem to notice the cunning presence of the sleek feathered corvid nearby, picking at a recent catch, it seemed. Tigerfrost drops his mouse, parts his jaws in warning- too late. Shadowy wings unfurl, and the crow takes to the breeze without much effort. All Ramwind can do is voice a bit of dejected protest, all for naught, it seemed. Tigerfrost snorts. Luckily for Ramwind, it was new-leaf. Prey would be plentiful for the next several moons.

"Suppose you'd better catch another." Tigerfrost suggests simply, flat vocals betraying his location in the tall grass nearby. The Lead Warrior feels little pity for the other WindClan cat, after all, it had been his own distracted nature that had caused the loss of the prey. Tigerfrost, on the other hand, has no intentions of losing his. A paw presses lightly over the body of his mouse, shielding it from any other crows that might be lurking nearby. "Or try again later." Either way, Tigerfrost is sure Ramwind will re-gather his wits soon enough.​

 

[WOLFSONG]

──⇌•〘 INFO 〙 It is fortunate for Ramwind that newleaf has brought new life into the moors; had he lost his catch in the thick of leafbare, he does not think many warriors would look very kindly upon the mistake— or rather, even less kindly, as Tigerfrost seems more unenthused than usual. Even so, it should spare him the wrath of the WindClanners of strict efficiency that they are not on the brink of starvation.

"The prey is so plenty that a crow's theft will not thin our ribs," he says, his gaze on the curlier cat. He tilts his head, a small smile resting on his maw. "Though I assume this was a lesson in focus. What distracted you so?"
​

 

[RAMWIND !]

MAY I STAND UNSHAKEN AMIDST THE CRASH OF THE WORLD ✧​

eyes snap to tigerfrost, nothing unusual. when those with scars talk, he listens. what's more honorable than a marring of a feature? a signal of strength, survival. the subtle movement of the lead putting a hefty paw on his own catch does not manage to evade the newly-named fighter's attention. his teeth grit, but he's a bit smarter than he was a couple of moons ago. he knows not to spit in tiger's face about it. he won't get off as easily as he did with whatever-his-name-was. gone, anyways. so ram was simply just right about him. besides, he's sure it wasn't anything malicious. ram was quite literally staring into nothing and leaving his prize unattended. he wised up a bit, but clearly not too much.

he says nothing, there's not really much to say. he will catch another. he knows that. the moors are flush with prey. a blessing, a relief from harsh winters. eyes move to wolfsong next, a long breath is the only thing he lets leave his maw for the moment. did no one else hear it? see the disruption in the sky? or did he hit his head too many times? "somethin' in the sky. like, somethin' loud." he doesn't know how to explain it, but cocks his head in the direction of the flying beast. all it left was a trail of new, thin clouds. slightly different from the rest. perhaps it's the upside of being a bird, you know what goes on in your skies. don't have to strain your eyes for a glimpse of anything.

and why he was such easy pickings for mere seconds. hesitancy leaves the younger, returning a toothy grin of his own to wolfsong. tigerfrost wasn't as easy to get along with. respectable, yeah. strong, definitely. just not as willing to flash something friendly to ram. "so...none of you heard it..." an echo in his throat as he looks for confirmation. there was something other than a bird in the sky. he's sure of it.​

 

[icebreath]

TAGS — Icebreath is traversing the territory with Cottonpaw in tow when she hears the strange noise and sees the crow take off, though from the distance they're at it's hard to see what it's carrying, if anything at all — especially when she has to squint her sensitive eyes against the sunlight as she looks skyward with pricked, attentively swiveling ears. It's not long after that she catches sight of Wolfsong and a cat she hasn't spoken in depth with for a good while, standing close to where the bird had ascended from. Not that they've particularly longed for Ramwind's company; they often try to keep their head down around those like him, afraid of being targeted as the timid cat they know they are (though they like to think they're gradually growing out of it), even if he's never actually indicated any disliking toward her and she may just be projecting her insecurities. Firefang had given her enough grief back when they were apprentices and she wasn't in a hurry to provoke anyone else, especially when she knows Ramwind to be even bolder than her former antagonizer for the way he'd gone after Yewberry in his youth. Tunneling often kept her away from both him and Firefang during their apprentice days, at least; Firepaw, at the time, had often just had a way of seeking her out.

Under other circumstances, she would be content to keep moving without approaching the others; she and Cottonpaw are out for the sake of memorizing the territory, not to socialize. But the noise unsettles her, both for its unfamiliarity and because she can't find its source up in the sky. With an uneasy flick of her tail Icebreath leads her apprentice over to the group, only then noticing Tigerfrost nearly hidden among the tall grasses with a bit of a start. She dips her head both to him and Wolfsong, a respectful greeting fitting of her superiors. 'Somethin' in the sky,' Ramwind is saying. "We heard it, too. Did you see what made the noise?"

[ obligatory apprentice tag @cottonpaw <3 ]
​

 

[Badgermoon]

Badgermoon remembered Ramwind's spirited apprentice days well: they had roughly coincided with his promotion to deputy, and it had been something of a relief when the brash tomcat had become a warrior. His personality was still abrasive, his manners often lacking, but warriorhood suited him and - in Badgermoon's mind - had softened his edges just a little bit. The black-and-white warrior had been startled by the noise in the sky, not merely a figment of Ramwind or Icebreath's imagination - the crow's theft was only noticed after he had bounded over to his Clanmates, alarm spiking the fur along his spine. "A bird can't have made that noise." he meowed decisively - and probably unnecessarily, brow furrowing and tail swishing.​

 

[TIGERFROST]

TIGERFROST ♂

0/9

WINDCLAN / LEAD WARRIOR
BIOGRAPHY AND TAGS
PLAYED BY SHEOGORATH

HEALTH: ████████████████████​

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Eyes shift briefly toward Wolfsong, always the more amicable it seemed, though the dusty hued tabby would not fault the other Lead Warrior for it. Friendliness had it's uses, particularly when there was a storm cloud like Tigerfrost wandering around. Focus flickers back to Ramwind, who goes on to describe a strange noise. Upon Icewind and Cottonpaw's arrival, the warrior states that they had heard the noise as well. Badgermoon had clearly heard it too, given how he bounded over with a coat fluffed out in alarm. Tigerfrost peers at the sky, and sees nothing but clouds. As far as he knows, there's not a bird that makes a sound that would be so alarming to experienced WindClanners, other than a hawk, owl, or eagle, and those were all quite recognizable.

"It was thunder." Tigerfrost shrugs it off. He must have been too far away to hear it as well, or perhaps he had simply been too focused on his hunting to pay any strange sky noises any mind. Regardless, thunder made the most sense. "I've heard thunder on a clear day before, especially when there are lots of clouds." The Lead Warrior admits. In other words, there didn't necessarily need to be a storm in sight.​

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