tunnels WAS TEARIN' AT THE SEAMS (stuck riverclanner)

[MUDPELT]

// TL;DR Mudpelt fled the hunters into WindClan territory, and in his panic he ran down a tunnel...only to get stuck. He is not deep in the territory, near Fourtrees area

The patrol is on edge, it's clear to see. But the borders need to be checked, and checked again. They can't let fear of the twolegs trampling their land keep them from being a clan, from being warriors. So they put on a brave face, try and quell their pounding hearts, and venture out from the safety of camp to the river. Mudpelt and his clanmates try and keep the conversation lighthearted. They tell jokes, lightly chat about the river's latest new budding loves, discuss training, when suddenly they all halt. The stench of twoleg suddenly grows stronger, and everyone's blood runs cold as a twig snaps in the darkness of a willow tree. Someone yells to scatter, and scatter they do. The chocolate-furred warrior shoves Fernpaw back in the direction of camp, right into the safety of a bunch of reeds. He's about to follow when another warrior accidentally barrels into him in his desperation to flee, sending Mudpelt onto the pebbly ground with a grunt. He hoists himself up, and hears another snap. It's closer. Fear courses through the otherwise brave tom and he sprints straight ahead, paws soon finding the cool stone of the twoleg bridge. His patrol is on their way back to camp. They're safe. He has to run.

Panic drives him forward, onto the edge of the moors where he can hopefully find a quick hiding spot. He's desperate, amber eyes wide with terror as powerful legs send him faster and faster. He feels awkward and clumsy out here on the open, rolling fields, where dips and rabbit holes threaten to trip him up. he grunts as a swath of heather swats him in the face but he keeps running, searching for safety. He comes up on a spot where the earth opens up and threatens to swallow him in darkness, and he doesn't even hesitate. The RiverClanner dives in. A diet of fish keeps his pelt sleek and glossy, but that can only get him to squeeze so far in before he's halted. Grunts escape him as large paws scrape miserably at the dirt, doing nothing but kicking dust into his mouth. He splutters, coughing up whatever earth he had just breathed in before he is left to do only one thing. "HELP!" He calls miserably, voice dulled by the underground, but perhaps amplified through the cobweb of tunnels the moors concealed.​

 

[Echolight]

Riverclan, Thunderclan, Shadowclan, Skyclan… Echolight had heard of the groups sure enough, but had yet to meet the cats from them- or to quite understand why they all seemed to hold a certain rivalry for each other.
Unlike the poor tom stuck underground, unbeknownst to her so far, Echolight knew the moors better than the back of her own paw, carefully able to weave through the bushels of Heather and spiky foliage, up until she was almost out of the territory.
Help!
The sound was muffled, but there. Scarred ears perked curiously, when suddenly she felt something thump under her paws.
Carefully, the molly picked her way down the short trail that would lead to the entrance of the tunnel, where her gaze was met with an earthy toned rear-end.
"How peculiar, stuck?" She called, only waiting a moment for an answer before she spoke again. "Alright, just stay still otherwise this thing could collapse on you!" With that, the lanky molly ducked into the tunnel, her own large frame making it a bit of a squeeze. "I’ll loosen the dirt a little bit, and then see if you can move backwards!"
The action was quick enough, careful ivory paws pressing against damp earth before she took a pawful from each side, "Try now" she prompted, scooting back out of the tunnel with a shake of her pelt. Ugh, how she hated tunnels.
"Speech."
​

[ WHAT A TIME ]​

 

[hyacinthbreath]

"Did you get his big ass out of the hole, Echolight?" Hyacinthbreath calls from the distance, the lead warrior tilting her head in amusement to watch the big-bodied RiverClanner struggle to get into their tunnels. This is why she never had a male mate, she found toms to be dumber than rocks in situations like these. Though, not all toms. Her apprentice, Coldpaw, actually uses his brain when he needs to. He'd never put himself in a situation like this. Though, being a RiverClanner only made it easier for her to judge.

"Tell me if he doesn't come out? I'll just make him hold his breath and yank himself out once I collapse the top of the tunnel. Now that he's found the tunnel, we've gotta get rid of it anyways." Hyacinth mumbles begrudgingly, the Tunneler pacing back and forth anxiously. If Sootstar found the guy on their territory, she'd flay him alive. "Hurry up." She rushed the molly, nervously glancing around to make sure Sootstar didn't magically appear. If she did, she would just play the loyal warrior and explain her intentions away. That's how it would always be.​

 

[SOOTSTAR]

Despite Hyacinth's wishes, Sootstar emerged from a nearby tunnel like a rabbit in a hat.
The scent of fish was difficult to ignore... she almost thought that perhaps her own felines had aimed to dip their paws into the river. But no, the foul stench came from the fur of a brown tom, who was most certainly not WindClan...

She arrives too late to have heard any of her clan-mates previously made comments. Emerald eyes narrow, it's clear to see she is unamused by this whole ordeal. "Once he's out he doesn't go back to RiverClan until we get an explanation out of him." She says to Hyacinithbreath as a lead warrior, but Echorbight was well able to hear her... she had spoken with clarity.

Judging from the RiverClan tom's position... he had entered the tunnel from within WindClan and had gotten stuck. Good. Sootstar didn't know if any tunnels led to RiverClan hunting grounds yet... if so, she did not want RiverClan to discover that fact first. ​

---

 

[MUDPELT]

Still struggling, Mudpelt begins to think no one will ever come to help him. I'm going to die in here! WindClan warriors generations down the line would discover his bones and wonder, Who did this finely structured skeleton belong to? They'll never know he was Mudpelt, valiant warrior of RiverClan, defender of the raging wat-

Is that a voice?

"Yes! Yes, stuck! Can you help me?" He desperately calls out to the voice behind him. He hates this. The tom feels far too vulnerable - the WindClanner could slice him up like the hares they hunt if she so wished. But no, she's actually quite helpful, and she crawls into the tunnel behind him to scrape away at the tunnel's walls. "Thank you! Thank you!" He practically wails, feeling the burrow around his flanks loosen ever so slightly. She instructs him to try to pull himself back out, and so he attempts to with a grunt, heaving himself backwards to no avail. There's another voice now, one who states they'll simply pull him out of the rubble once they collapse the tunnel on top of him. "AGH!" He yowls in sudden terror, giving himself a harder push. He didn't want to be buried alive! The burst of adrenaline is luckily enough to free him, and he scurries out backwards as quickly as he can before emerging once more into fresh air. The massive tom falls backwards as he loses his footing with a "Whoa!" before swiftly righting himself into a sitting position.

With ears pressing forward and dirt cloaking him, he stares at the lanky she-cat with wide eyes. "Oh StarClan, thank you! I thought I was a goner!" It's then that he notices two other cats nearby, and one is...He gulps. Is that Sootstar? Immediately, his head ducks and his ears flatten. He isn't a dominant cat by nature, and naturally grovels at authority figures. She's one of the scariest ones!​

 

[Dandelionwish]

And here he thought the whole 'RiverClanners eat well cause of the fish in the river' thing was just an exaggeration but this was an awful big tom. Guy sure got a lot of fish didn't he? He wondered what fish tasted like, if it was anything like the smell then he'd pass on that one. Dandelionpaw wandered over at the commotion, he had never really gone in the tunnels and had no intention of doing so. There was something horrifyingly suffocating about being under the ground with earth pressed around you, he felt he would panic if forced to go down one so it was awfully daring of the muddy brown tom here to simply dive in with such enthusiasm. He wondered what had lead the other here, surely it had to be a big deal if he would be so bold as to trespass like this. Surely he knew how clan leader's could be with their borders, his must be similar to their own.
"Reckon ye look alright-nothing busted up I wager?" He seemed fine all things considered, little more dirty than before but that was the sacrifices you had to make when you went shoving your head into holes. "How'd ye end up lodged in one o'our burrows like that? Not chasing our rabbits are ye?"
The sepia point apprentice's words sounded accusing but his tone was light and joking, he highly doubted a RiverClanner would go after a hare when they had much easier prey just waiting in their waters. It wasn't like they'd be able to catch one anyways unless it was one of those rotund ones that had recently started popping up; the rabbits from Honeytwist's dreams.

​

 

[SOOTSTAR]

With one last push, he tumbles out of the tunnel backwards. Sootstar smirks and lets out what is an unintentional mocking chuckle. "A RiverClan cat in a tunnel is like a fish on land. Pitiful and helpless." She would analyze with a smile to her clan-mates, wondering if they'd agree that the show had at least been semi-amusing... even if she wasn't pleased there was a trespasser.

Yet her humorous state is quick to shrivel up and die, the tom was out of the tunnels safely now, yes? Dandelionpaw didn't spot any injuries, not that she gave a damn, so onwards with business. "But yes... absolutely dying to hear why you've crossed our borders. It's not exactly easy to accidentally do..." Considering one from RiverClan would have to cross the twoleg bridge to get across the gorge... she was really interested in hearing how this hare-brained tom would defend himself.​

---

 

[MUDPELT]

A young cat arrives, speaking in funny tongues but his message is clear enough. Mudpelt offers him a bashful grin and stands, giving himself a swift shake before trilling, "No, no, I'm good! Just a, heh, tad dirty! Nothing a quick dip in the river can't fix!" He goes on to ask how he ended up in such a predicament, a sentiment that is quickly followed up by the WindClan leader. His gaze flicks from cat to cat before settling on Sootstar, his brow knitted together worriedly. Instinctively, his head ducks once more; he's absolutely not trying to start anything. "I'm sooo so sorry, I wouldn't have stepped paw on your moors on purpose! Honest! There's twolegs on our territory, dangerous ones. I got split up from my patrol; I had no way to go except for across the river," He tried to explain as fast as he could, once more allowing his gaze to switch between all of the WindClanners nervously. "I, uh, tried to hide. Hence...the tunnel," He finished, gesturing with embarrassment towards the burrow he'd just popped out of.​

 

[SOOTSTAR]

This tom... she reads him falsely or otherwise for an idiot. He may be all big and brawny... but the blue molly was guessing this was a "but no brains" scenario. Nothing to get her tail in a knot over... not today... He didn't end up harming WindClan, just made a fool of himself in front of an entire patrol.

"Twolegs? How frightening." Sootstar would at first dryly respond, she wasn't going to force herself to show sympathy on her own land... Forcing emotions out were border and fourtrees events only. "You didn't cause any harm- mostly..." Similarly to Hyacinith, she wonders if they should collpase this tunnel now... "so you're excused. But if I catch you on our land again I might not be as inclined to believe in your story next time..." A narrow-eyed warning.

"The four of us will escort you back to the RiverClan border. I'm sure you could get back by yourself but... you understand our cautionary measures." She didn't actually care if he understood or not, an escort he would be receiving back to the wetlands.

//gonna get blitz ooc permission rq then likely make a thread!​

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