TAKE YOUR TIME [ ✦ ] patrol

[Bluepool]

Even here, under the circumstances they have found themselves in, life continues on. Someone must hunt, someone must stand guard and someone must patrol the outskirts of horseplace to make sure that Sootstar and her supporters were not trying to sneak up on them and take them by surprise. She slinks through the tall grass, scrap of a tail flicking for the rest of her patrol to follow her. She turns back to look at them, golden eyes shining in the low evening light. "We will continue along the fence for a little longer then we will head home" home. The word slips so easily from her lips but the barn was not their home. Their home was currently being occupied by cats who, in her mind, were no better than the rogues who had once occupied it. They were not clanmates anymore. If she saw an of them, she would not hesitate to sink her fangs into their throats if the opportunity presented itself. She doesn't bother to correct herself though, the rest of her patrol would know what she meant.

"If you could have taken anything from camp with you here what would you have taken?" she asks, turning her attention to whoever on the patrol was closest to her. it's an idle question, meant to just pass the time while they made their way across horseplace, though while she waits for the answer her eyes do not stop scanning the horizon for signs of their enemies.

// anyone is free to be on this patrol!

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[GRAVELSNAP]

The lead warrior so easily refers to the horseplace as their home, and Gravelsnap has to swallow down the protest that bubbles up in their throat. This place isn’t their home, and it never will be. They cannot stay here forever, even if Sunstride plans to. Even if Sootstar somehow allows it. This will never be the black-patched warrior’s home. Their dark tail lashes irritably behind them as they trail along after Bluepool, though they stay silent as she speaks. Their attention drifts to thoughts of where they could go, if Sunstride plans to stay at the horseplace. Peri has been to the mountains, has been beyond WindClan’s territory—perhaps they can convince Slatetooth to go with them. They can leave this all behind, the clans, the blood, the turmoil. They can know peace.

Bluepool asks them a question, and the warrior visibly flinches. Thriftfeather, their mind shrieks, immediately. Bluefrost. Their apprentice and their friend were left behind. Abandoned. Gravelsnap should have tried to convince them to come with them, instead of running away with Slatetooth and Periwinklebreeze. What could have happened if they had tried? Could they have saved them—could they still convince them, now?

They clench their jaw so hard that for a moment they fear they may break a tooth, then sigh. "My rocks…" they finally mutter, voice carefully soft. It is a silly thing, to be concerned over some pebbles whilst their clan lies in ruins, scattered across the horseplace and the moorland. But the only things they have ever owned were those stones, ever since they were a kit. And they’ve lost them all now, even the ones they received from Bluefrost and Periwinklebreeze. They were special, no matter how simple and pointless they may have seemed.​

[ you put the fun into dysfunction ]​

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[RATTLEHEART]

Though he was adjusting, Rattleheart would be lying if he said that being above the ground on a patrol didn't still feel just the slightest bit wrong. The tunneler found himself practically pressed up against the nearby fence as they walked along it, desperate for some sense of being enclosed and surrounded, even if it was only on one side. It wasn't a mystery to him why so many moor runners disliked the claustrophobia of the tunnels, but he had always thrived in it. Now, as he followed after both Bluepool and Gravelsnap, he felt woefully out of his element. At least their words represented a distraction, even if he did wince alongside Gravelsnap at the momentary slip of referring to the barn as home. He certainly understood it, but he hoped that wouldn't be the case for very much longer... he wasn't sure he could take it.

Much like his fellow monochrome Windclanner, Rattleheart's mind immediately jumped to clanmates when he heard Bluepool's question. Peonypaw. Rumblerain. He wished so desperately that he had just grabbed either of them and ran, dragging them along kicking and screaming to the barn so that they could hopefully come to their senses. He knew deep down inside that wouldn't have worked though - a mere fool's helpless wish - and was still grateful that Redpaw had urged both himself and Venomstrike along when he had.

Still, he knew that wasn't why Bluepool had presented the question to them. It wasn't meant to be more mourning over everything that they had lost, it was meant to be an idle time waster. A casual inquiry, and he was determined to keep it that way. Thankfully, Gravelsnap seemed like he was going to as well. "...I think I would have brought some of the wildflowers I had gathered, if I had known. There's a chance they would have overpowered the scent of hay back at the barn. Probably not, though." His pale gaze then flicked over to Gravelsnap, offering his fellow warrior a smile that he hoped came off as genuine and supportive. "Hopefully your collection is all still there once we're back home." And they were going to get back to their real home, regardless of how much they had to fight for it.
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[ PENNED BY EO ]​

 

[Periwinklebreeze.]

I'M NO BURDEN - NOT SO WORTHLESS
BENT SO MUCH THAT I JUST MIGHT BREAK ​

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periwinklebreeze ❀ 17 moons ❀ demi-boy ❀ he/they ❀ windclan moor runner​

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If you could have taken anything from camp with you here what would you have taken?'

His former mentor has now idea how much her words hurt him - how could she? But as the question is posed, blue eyes shut painfully tight for a moment, that squeezing feeling within his chest only getting worse. Bluepool cannot possibly know the conversations he'd had upon his return - the way his world had broken that same day. Nighty had been the bearer of bad news - so much of it, it'd nearly been impossible to go on. Nighty herself had gotten yellowcough. Could've died, had more of them stayed behind. Hyacinth was dead - had joined the stars, visited her in the depths of her fever. All of his keepsakes - all save for one, had been lost in a battle against rogues he'd been absent for. She'd only managed to recover a single scrap of their brothers fur - the only thing not lost to time. And now - now, even that is gone.

" Nighting-g-galecry, " he says softly - the first to break the unspoken rule it seems the others have figured out. Perhaps it is because he has nothing else left to lose - daisies strewn upon his tail the only pleasant memory he has left of anyone else. She'd been out on patrol - surely, if she hadn't, she'd have gone with him... right? He doesn't know, and it hurts - he can't trust her to have gone the same way he hadn't trusted her not to tattle if he'd spoken of his meetings with their mother, of bluepools words and sootstars plans.

Head turns away in shame, and he goes quiet - perhaps he shouldn't have spoken at all.

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

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T H E ━ Q U E S T I O N S ━ T H A T ━ K E E P ━ M E ━ A W A K E

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[FEATHERSPINE]

Bluepool often purported the importance of having fun, as if it was as important to survival as defending yourself... Featherpaw saw not the use in it, not now that he was an apprentice. But... this question didn't particularly seem like an attempt at unwinding. Everyone on the patrol sounded sad when they answered- for once, Featherpaw did not find herself bristling at the time-wasting, irritated by the discussion of anything that wasn't important.

She didn't know why, though. What was the point of discussing things that weren't important, things that wouldn't keep you alive? A whole host of malevolent things crouched in the shadows, ready to harm and ail you the moment you breathed wrong- she'd learned that fact well, in her kithood. And yet, older cats seemed not to care.

My feather, she thought- a little whispery, whimpering thought. It was babyish, and Featherpaw felt embarrassed even though he hadn't spoken it around. That feather was trampled and trashed, by now. It probably floated in the gorge along with Lilacstem and Lakrfeather.

Nightingalecry, murmured Periwinklebreeze, and Featherpaw suddenly understood why everyone was so sad- they thought of Clanmates, of fractured families. Not childish things like feathers. "Is there any use d-duh... dwelling on it?" His question was quiet, and his words did not quite bear the edge he so often paraded.​

✦ penned by pin​