camp To be something useful | guarding the apprentice's den

[Snakeblink]

MAYBE I'D BE A SAINT IF I WEREN'T ————————————​

If anyone were to ask how he is, Snakeblink’s reply — that he’s perfectly fine, but thank you for your concern — would most likely fail to convince. His eyes are wild, his movements jerky; if he doesn’t look even worse, it’s only because frequent fishing keeps his fur somewhat clean even as he consistently forgets to groom himself. Most of it could be passed off as his characteristically unfortunate appearance, but closer inspection would quickly reveal it to be somehow worse than usual.

That’s if anyone asked — and thankfully no one has so far. Small mercies.

It's hardly sustainable — but what else is he meant to do? Even wearing himself out is barely enough. He goes on every border patrol the other leads agree to put him on, yet their markings are still trampled and disrespected by Thunderclanners laying claim on Sunningrock; he watches their apprentices like a hawk, yet Ashpaw was still stolen from them in broad daylight. Clearly, his best isn’t sufficient; he must do more. As much as he can bear. He’ll rest later, once they are safe and at peace again.

(The memory of Ashpaw’s disappearance lingers in his mind — would haunt him, if he could bear the thought of her as a ghost. She was his friend, beloved by so many in the clan, and their inattention caused her loss, just like it caused Pumpkinpaw’s—)

(So many threats they did not anticipate; so many dangers they, he, did not properly protect them from.)

Snakeblink will not have any more apprentices be lost to inattention. Which is why the past few nights have found him sitting in front of the apprentice's den, guarding it to the best of his — limited — ability. He can't protect them from everything, perhaps not from anything, but he can at least do this much. If he's going to lie sleepless anyway, he might as well lay himself across the entrance to their den, another obstacle for enemies to go through if they wish to reach the younger cats. Staring into the impenetrable night, twitching at every noise, it almost feels like it would make a difference in the event of an attack. Eventually this hypervigilance will tire him out sufficiently for him to slink back to his own nest and pass out for the few hours left before dawn patrol, feeling a little better for his pointless guard duty and the clan none the wiser about his nocturnal activities.

Except today, it sneaks up on him. The night is very dark and very quiet, with only distant frogsong breaking the silence. His head falls on top of his folded paws and he blinks blearily; it's peaceful and he is so, so tired.

He’s asleep before he’s noticed himself dozing off — and he’s still there, rather than inside the warrior's den, when the sun begins to rise.
​

——————————————————————————————————— so god damn lonely ​

ooc. information.

• 
  
• — Snakeblink • he / him. 40 ☾, riverclan warrior
  — a sleek, skinny tabby with long ears and a scar over his right eye.
  — gay, not actually evil, penned by @Kangoo
  
  
  

​

​

 

[Mosspool]

It was only sunrise and Mosspaw was already behind schedule.

Every day, she adhered strictly to her morning routine, which included sitting and watching the sunrise. For weeks now she had done it and she felt more than a little proud of that. Today, however, the sun had already begun to rise and she was still in the apprentice den. This was the first day in a long time she had missed any of it.

That was due to the large tom that was using himself as a barricade to the entrance. As she stood amongst her sleeping denmates, Mosspaw stared at him. She watched his chest slowly rise and fall.

She could have, of course, just climbed over him, but that would be rude. Then again, it was also rude to lay right in the den's entrance. For a few moments she had simply been standing here, attempting to weigh if those two rudeness's could cancel each other out somehow. She really didn't want to break her routine. With a shake of her head, she decided to just play it safe and try and wake him up.

If he didn't move, THEN she might just climb over him.

"Snakeblink?" Mosspaw poked the warrior with a paw, attempting to wake him.​

 

[iciclefang]

Her first night back in the warrior’s den feels strange. Her nest remains on the fringes, where it belongs as a newly promoted warrior, and the scent is the same. But she feels like a different cat, and when she stares over the rise and fall of her denmates’ flanks, listening to the gentle breaths of sleep, she feels as though she’s undergone some irreparable change.

That she’s separate from them now, even if she knows that’s not the case.

Sleep is hard-won. She is troubled by dreams of Twolegs, of her Clanmates suffering terrible fates. Fernpaw and Smokethroat’s paws snapped in traps, in shiny jaws that break skin and rip fur and attempt to sever bone. When she awakens, the sun is flooding the makeshift den, pale and weak.

Iciclefang rises, sliding easily around the other warriors. She’s not cleared for patrols yet, so she resigns herself to finding something around camp to do. It’s maddening—she’s counting the days where she can rush toward the river again, where she can enjoy the lushness of her territory without limping and wincing.

It’s a tabby shape hunkered down outside of the apprentice’s den that catches her eye. Snakeblink. Her eyes thin into slits. He’s set himself protectively near the opening, and Mosspaw has noticed his self-inflicted station. She prods him with a paw to wake him and get him to move out of her way.

Iciclefang stalks over. Snakeblink is her superior, but something in her is intensely bothered by the way he’s camped out in front of the apprentice’s den—as though he could protect them from Twolegs. As though he could do anything she couldn’t do.

“You’re going to have to explain to Cicadastar why none of the apprentices are working today if you don’t get up.” She hovers over him, her tone harsher than she’d intended. He’d be well within his right to put her in his place, she knows, but she can’t hold the anger that burns like leafbare cold inside of her. Anger that she can’t even properly explain.
​

[ PENNED BY MARQUETTE ]​

 

[otterbite]

Sleeping in was near-impossible for the kit when so much activity began so early! Otterkit hated missing out on things, especially when so much happened outside the Copse at all. Knowing he only got to see a small portion of the life a warrior had only made him want to become one more.

So he rose with the sun as they had, acting like them as much as he could. Though it could be told by how often he blinked his eyes and yawned that maybe it really was too early for him, that he was still too young to be so active. Not that he would listen, he would succumb to a surprise nap later at some point.

Iciclefang's sharp tone might have been enough to snap him to attention. He looked the see the state Snakeblink had left himself in and began to approach. Why would a warrior try to sleep in the apprentices den again? From what Otterkit knew, Snakeblink had graduated a long time ago, before they even made apprentices. Old old history the kit would think.

The kitten would carefully try to clamber on top of the warrior to get close to his ear. "YOU GOTTA WAKE UP! HELLOOOO?" Otterkit yowled loudly, just to make sure Snakeblink knew it was time to get up.​

RIVERCLAN KIT ✦ BLUE-BLACK CHIMERA ✦ 2 MOONS ✦ TAGS​

 

[Eelcackle]

Eelcackle watched the scene with tired eyes. The lanky black tom didn't know why Snakeblink had chosen to lay in front of the apprentices den, blocking them inside. Surely his nest was more comfortable. Was he guarding them?

Crooked whiskers twitched in amusement at the thought. Guarding them from leaving, perhaps. He was completely ignorant to Snakeblinks intentions. He thought the lead warrior had just chosen a bad spot to sleep.

Iciclefang sounds irritated. He doesn't quite know why. She didn't sleep in the apprentice den, she wasn't the one being blocked in, doomed to spend the morning with her fellow apprentices.

Otterkit is more productive, their loud voice waking him up further and likely everyone else too. He couldn't help but laugh a little as he strode over to join them.

And what does Eelcackle do? Swat at the tip of Snakeblinks ear to add to the assault on this poor tom.

"Rise and shine!!" His voice cracked as he called to Snakeblink.​

 

[LITTLEPAW.]

She stumbled out of the nursery and shook the dried bedding from her fluffy coat, ears pointed forwards as she thought that she might have missed a clan meeting with how much yelling was going on. Turns out, there was no ashen beast upon the willow tree, nor were there caterwauls in the camp that suggested a great evil had returned. Instead, the focus seemed to be on the apprentice den. Brought over by yelling, Littlekit's sleep-crusted eyes pointed towards the group with a mixture of disdain for being woken up and curiosity for all the commotion. Past the cloud of fatigue and general cluelessness about clan life past the Nursery, it was difficult to make out what was going on, something about Snakeblink blocking the apprentices in and the others not being happy about it. Littlekit tilted her head, blue eyes blinking slowly as she tried to make sense of the strategies everyone else was implementing. Wordlessly, she strolled up to the Lead Warrior and attempted to bite down on his tail to wake him up. Even if the other's cries had alerted him already, she would still press to chomp down on the wiry appendage because it was funny.


​

 

[Snakeblink]

MAYBE I'D BE A SAINT IF I WEREN'T ————————————​

Living among many cats with varying schedules, you learn to tune out the worst of the noise. Even Snakeblink’s notoriously insomniac brain knows to turn a deaf ear to early chatter and milk a little more rest from woefully short nights.

As a result of that self-preservation instinct, he doesn’t initially register the gentle nudge from Mosspaw: he’s had worse from warriors pulling themselves out of their nests for dawn patrol. Iciclefang’s biting voice has him flicking his ears as he barely brushes against consciousness. Unfortunately for him, it means his bleary, sleep-cottoned mind is entirely unprepared for the extremely rude awakening that is to follow.

He has a second of conscious thought as he is pulled from deep sleep by a small weight clambering over him. In that brief moment of sleepy peacefulness, he manages to think a single coherent thought: what’s a kit doing inside the warrior’s den?

The calm is short-lived.

Three things happen in very short succession, crashing into Snakeblink’s foggy, barely-surfacing brain like a crashing tree on top of a squirrel: while a kit’s shrill voice yowls directly into his ear, the other is assaulted not only by an adult’s hoarse voice but also a swat of a paw, and to top it all up needle-sharp teeth sink into his tail as someone chomps down on it.

Snakeblink jumps straight up and out of his skin with an ear-piercing shriek as his slumber is brutally interrupted by the joined assault. He stumbles to his paws, eyes wild and still a little unfocused, and his head jerks around as he stares at the cats around him, craning his neck to look at the kit hanging off his back and tail.

”What’s going on?” He gasps out, the situation slowly registering to him as he finishes waking up. ”Why am I under attack, what did I do?”
​

——————————————————————————————————— so god damn lonely ​

ooc. information.

• 
  
• — Snakeblink • he / him. 40 ☾, riverclan warrior
  — a sleek, skinny tabby with long ears and a scar over his right eye.
  — gay, not actually evil, penned by @Kangoo
  
  
  

​

​

 

[willowroot]

( ☾ ) "snake, darling," willowroot calls from where she's crouched over a small minnow, gulping it down before patrol. "you fell asleep outside the apprentices' den." the poor tom looks absolutely confused, verdant eyes wide and flicking from face to face as if failing to register the situation he's in. she'll get up and stretch, muscles quivering, before she approaches, sidling up beside iciclefang. "i'm not gonna ask why, you've always got your own reasons for the things you do, but c'mon, let's get you up."

using a dark paw, she reaches out and gently nudges the patched tabby. "your nest is open in the warriors den, sleepyhead." if he allows it, willowroot will aid the tom in scrambling to his paws. "mosspaw, you can tell your friends the door is available again," she tells her daughter, flicking the girl's nose with her tail in an act of affection. if she has gotten snake to his paws, she'll press against him. "were you guarding them?" she whispers, eyes kind but worried. ​

( THE LIGHT YOU GAVE ME )