Exploring for the first time

[me]

It was almost a quarter moon after the gathering, and Singedpaw had gone on several more training expeditions with his mentor, Sorrelthorn. He'd seen all of the borders, and a fair bit of the territory.

But he hadn't really explored this bit yet. It was near the border with GaleClan, on BreezeClan's old territory. It was all rolling hills and waving grass, and seemed to be overflowing with mice. He had caught two of them already, and had buried them back near the river.

Suddenly he spotted something strange between two hills, and went over to look. The smell of BreezeClan wafted around him, even stronger here. A few small bushes intermingled with the grass, but there was a smell of charcoal and the ground was black, and the twisted, burnt remains of larger bushes were scattered around. A sort of shock went through him. This must have been BreezeClan's old camp.

((222 posts!))

[Winterfrost]

Larkpaw...

The scurrying sounds of the animals moving beneath the underbrush make Larkpaw's ears prick, twitch, and swerve as she walked. Her brown and black spotted paws glided over the ground softly and quietly, although she wasn't hunting. Her jaws were gapped, drawing in the wild scents of her Clan's territory. She could smell the delicious waft of prey: birds, rabbits, and mice all scrambling to hide themselves from her presence. She could smell many cats, from her Clan, MireClan, as well as the others. She could also smell the river, which winded its way through the Clan's territory and marked the the meeting place of Clans at the river-jag. But she couldn't smell any herbs in the area, which was why she was here in the first place. The tip of her tail twitched with frustration. She knew Sagesong would expect better from her. Even she expected better of herself. But her mind seemed to be distracted today. Maybe it was because of the blistering heat from the sun that warmed her back as she wived her way through the brambles. Or maybe it was the sense of welcome that the earth beneath her paws brought into her heart. Whatever the reason, Larkpaw knew that she was happy with the job title she held, but also happy to be out of the camp today, even if it meant collecting herbs for her Clan. Being a medicine cat had been her dream as a kitten, and now it was already coming true. She hadn't been at the position for too long and she had already learned so much from Sagesong. It seemed like a whole lifetime ago she had been sitting underneath the nursery's ceiling, gazing at Sagesong from across the clearing and longed to learn what it meant to be a medicine cat. And now she was following the paw-steps of the dream. Larkpaw sighed with content, before concentrating once more on her job. Bounding forward, her paws almost slipped on the watery grass under her paws. Mud squeezed uncomfortably between her claws, but she ignored the feeling. She had a job to do. Head low to the ground, she sniffed, drawing in the scents of the plants around her. None of them were right.

Larkpaw scrambled over the marshy ground, desperately trying to get a better footing. As she stumbled along the river's bank, still scenting the air, she noticed jagged rocks looming before her but her mind would not concentrate on the reason from them being there. Making sure that her head was still bend and that she was breathing correctly through her mouth to scent the right herbs, she raced farther around the bank. All she knew was that she had to collect the herbs that Sagesong had wanted. She just couldn't fail her task. Being a medicine cat apprentice, she was obliged to help her Clan and do whatever it was the Sagesong wanted to her to do. And she would not let her mentor down. Her paws were caked with mud, a very unwelcoming feeling, but she kept moving around to the other side of the river, determined. But then a scent hit her like a badger in her chest. ThornClan. Her ice-blue eyes flickered around her, gazing around the area. The territory she was in was unfamiliar to her. The river and looking for herbs for her Clan seemed very far away now. Another life, she thought again. A shiver raced down her bengal-marked frame. What if Sagesong found out that she'd crossed the Clan borders? How could she be so stupid? Crossing a border! She was a medicine cat apprentice and she'd crossed a border! Larkpaw hissed at her own stupidness. Whipping her head back the way she had came, she turned around and was about to head back into her own territory when the sound of movement reached her ears. Flattening herself as low to the ground as she could get, she hoped that it was only a rabbit. If it was a ThornClan patrol or even a warrior... then she was in for it.

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[me]

Singedpaw had just finished scanning the old BreezeClan camp. There seemed to be nothing else of interest -- just the layer of charcoal on the ground, half covered by dead grass anyway, and a few bushes were all that was left of the ancestral home of cats long gone.

He trotted slowly in a westerly direction, contemplating the BreezeClan cats, when a flicker of movement caught his eye and he looked up, startled, and saw a cat he didn't know. Quickly he dodged behind a tall tuft of grass, but he had stuck his claws out in fear and one of them snagged on a small rock, creating a slight sound. Peering carefully around the grass, he was just in time to see the other cat look around and flatten itself against the ground.

Great. What was he to do now? He thought he recognized the cat from the last gathering; it was definitely one of the other clans' medicine cat apprentice. He should chase her off, especially since she was invading ThornClan's territory in a time of war; but on the other paw, medicine cats were granted immunity from all clan feuds. Well, he couldn't just sit here forever...

Coming to a decision, he dashed out from behind the clump of grass, ran a few steps, then pounced and landed directly in front of the other cat. He snarled for good measure, showing his strangely angled and hooked claws and fangs to her, and then hunched his back and tensed his legs into a crouch. "Why are you here?" He said aggressively.

[Winterfrost]

Larkpaw...

Larkpaw almost jumped out of her fur when she heard the voice and a growl. A ThornClan warrior! She spun back around to face the ThornClan warrior, claws scrapping the earth's floor in an unpleasant way as she moved. Apprentice, her mind amended, changing the word "warrior" that had poked into her mind, when she sized him up with her ice blue eyes. She recognized this one from a gathering by scent and markings, but couldn't remember his name for the life of her. He was a light cream colour, with brownish gray coloured face, paws, tail, and ears, the typical Siamese cat markings. Over the brown-gray spots, were darker brown, almost black, and marked up like a tabby. His eyes, now holding a look of menace, were a deep blue hue, many shades darker than her own. Larkpaw allowed herself a sigh of relief, knowing now that it was only an apprentice, although for all she knew more cats could have been lurking in the trees, waiting for the perfect opportunity to attack. Still, Larkpaw was just glad that the apprentice had not decided to attack her immediately; after all, she had not meant to travel into ThornClan territory on purpose. But the apprentice, whoever he was, didn't know that, and he probably would not have believed her if she said it, although she had the position of being a medicine cat apprentice on her side. Frustrated at her situation, she dug her claws into the soil, ranking through it like she would rank through another cat’s pelt in a battle. Larkpaw knew that she would never attack the apprentice, that is, only if the apprentice didn’t attack her. She was a medicine cat in training and wanted to keep the peace. Remembering that the ThornClan cat had spoken to her, Larkpaw was at a loss of what to say to the ThornClan apprentice's question. If she told the apprentice that she had only came into ThornClan territory by accident, he wouldn't believe her. Probably anyway. But if she kept silent, that would be even worse. After all, she hadn't done anything wrong. So keeping silent would probably only make ThornClan think that MireClan was invading ThornClan in some twisted way by sending out a medicine cat. Stupid, but probable. But if she ran away now, she would be in even worse trouble than she was already in right now. So that left only one action: to speak.

“I-I,” she began to stammer before she grit her teeth to keep from talking. Why couldn’t she form the simple sentence? It must have been the nerves because she could feel them gnawing like a badger at her belly. Larkpaw took a deep breath and rose to her full height, straightening out her limbs. She was smaller than the ThornClan apprentice, maybe because she was younger or just because she was a she-cat. Her fur was covered in spots and stripes in such a pattern that she looked far different from a tabby cat. She was bengal marked, the markings forming dark rings on her back and sides, the rings coloured in with a lighter brown, but still darker than her main fur colour. Her muscles were the lanky kind, built for running more than fighting. Her paws were big, like all MireClan cats and her tail was motionless and quiet – not even the tip twitched. She purposely kept her head lower than his as she answered, “Well, I stumbled in on accident. You see, I was looking for herbs for Sagesong along the riverjag and I guess I wasn’t paying much attention to where I was going. I was sort of just following the scent of the herbs and it wasn’t till I scented ThornClan that I realized I’d crossed the border. I mean no harm; it was merely an accident. I should have been paying more attention to where I was placing my paws…. I’m sorry.” She looked down at the ground, shame burning in her pelt. She felt like she was being scolded by her mentor. She also hoped that he would notice that her posture was not aggressive. To clarify her name and position further, she said, never looking away from her paws, “I’m the medicine cat apprentice of MireClan, in case you didn’t know. And my name’s Larkpaw.”

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[me]

Blue eyes narrowed and glaring into hers, Singedpaw kept half his mind on Larkpaw's posture as she spoke, scanning for the slightest hint of an unsheathed claw, a slight shift in weight, any sign at all of aggressiveness or anger. It seemed he had watched in vain, though, and he let himself relax slightly, although still keeping a wary eye on her. "All right," he said cautiously, straightening up from his threatening pose. "Now --" he broke off in mid-sentence, his tail twitching as he thought.

He would have to deal with this himself... he couldn't take her back to the camp to be dealt with by Specklefeather, or anything of the sort, that would let her know where ThornClan's camp was, and he didn't trust her to stay here while he went to get a warrior. And although she was a medicine cat and therefore granted amnesty throughout all the territories and neutral in battle, letting her collect herbs in the ThornClan territory to help her clanmates would... well, help her clanmates, which were enemy warriors. It seemed the only option was to escort her to the border. Besides -- and Singedpaw felt a thrill of excitement at the thought -- this would be a way to talk with a MireClan cat. Really talk, not just snarl at in a battle or something. Maybe... he would learn something...

He struggled to keep the excitement on his face, but wasn't sure how successful he was. Oh well. At least his voice sounded neutral when he spoke -- "All right. I'll take you back to the border. Start walking, it's that way," Singedpaw said, flicking his tail west and slightly north, in the direction of the Riverjag.

[Winterfrost]

Larkpaw...

Although she could recognize his scent, she still could not recognize his face, thus no name came into her mind. She let the puzzling thought pass her by though - it would not do any good right now to be asking the name of the ThornClan tom cat before her. She knew it should not matter to her what his name was. Maybe it was just her open nature that made her prone to know what to call the cats that she meant. But she kept her mouth shut and didn't act, instead hoping that his name would come to mind as he showed her back to the border. This was unfamiliar territory to Larkpaw so she didn't mind having to follow a ThornClan tom. Remaining silent, she listened to his words, all the while making sure that her posture showed no aggression, that her breathing was calm and normal, and that her claws were sheathed. She wasn't here for trouble and she hoped that the ThornClan apprentice would see and understand. If he attacked her for trespassing.... She shuddered, the movement making her shoulders shake. She wasn't a very good fighter and would probably be the one to end up with a few battle scars to remember. And Sagesong would be more mad if she turned up covered in scratches from a battle. She sighed, her shoulders slumping from their stiff pose. That was Clan life: training, fighting, healing, fighting, death.... Mostly the fighting. Death following it. It wasn't like Larkpaw didn't like living in a Clan; she did, it was just that she wished that the Clans could get along better than they did. They were all cats after all. They all wanted to same things in life: to protect their loved ones, to have food, water, and a safe and warm place to live. Why couldn't they have that together? Wouldn't they thrive better and have more cats in each Clan if there weren’t any more battles?

Realizing that her thoughts were drifting, she shook her head, trying her hardest to think about the present instead of the future. She flicked her tail, a light purr growing in her chest when she noticed that he'd finished speaking. Dipping her head in respect, she mewed to the ThornClan apprentice, "Thank you." She turned to follow him in the direction he had motioned, her paws beginning to prickle. For some odd reason she did not feel like return to her own territory. Maybe that was because she did not want to face Sagesong, coming back empty pawed, or maybe it was something else entirely, but Larkpaw was clueless as to what that was. Pushing her thought into the back of her mind, she followed the apprentice’s slim frame through ThornClan territory. The scent was powerful, and it was being to clog her nose. Squinting through narrowed eyes, her nose wrinkled against the smell, she said nonchalantly, "Sorry but I don’t recognize your face. Your scent is somewhat familiar though. Have you been to gatherings before? Are you an apprentice?" Where they close to the border? Larkpaw didn’t ask that question though but she longed to. But she wasn’t ready to go home just yet. "Again, I’m really sorry that I crossed the border. You aren’t going to tell Specklefeather on me, are you?" If he told his leader, his leader might mention it at the next gathering and that would mean trouble for her Clan… and for herself.

[me]

When he realized that Larkpaw had fallen in behind him, he stopped and nudged her forward with the tip of one paw, then began trotting again, staying on her left side and slightly behind her. Turn his back on a MireClan cat, even an apprentice medicine MireClan cat? No way!

"Oh. Um..." he said, startled by her question. "I'm called Singedpaw, and yes I've been to a gathering. I'm about eight moons old... how old are you?"

At this time, he had pretty much decided there was really no point in further hostility. She really did seem to have just wandered across the border by accident, which was a quite plausible theory, after all, ThornClan hadn't patrolled that border for a few days. One would think that the stream in the way would be enough of a boundary line. But, he supposed, if you came from MireClan, where streams crisscrossed the ground anyway, and were concentrating on finding herbs, then yeah, it was understandable.

But at her next question, he bristled his fur, and turned his claws, which had begun to relax into the sheathed position, into deadly weapons once more, savaging the ground at every step. "Of course I'm telling Specklefeather." He needs to know so that he can order patrols more often, Singedpaw added silently. He felt slightly sorry for the MireClan cat, so he muttered after a few moments, "He's fair. You've got nothing to worry about."

He escorted her uneventfully to the border, and stood guard for several minutes after she had crossed it to ensure she had stayed in her territory before he headed off back in the direction of his camp.