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 Posted: Mon Oct 22, 2018 10:45 pm
 Silverstreak's first priority would always be her family. When she was a kit and even an apprentice, she had the freedom to be footloose and free, but when the river began to lessen, before it dried up altogether... She had to face up to what was happening. She started hanging around her brother, Stormsong and their parents more. Her parents just had a second litter, producing between them two more she-kits, Dawnkit and Duskkit. Silverstreak did everything to make sure that her mother had enough to eat in the months that she was nursing them, but maybe in the end, it wasn't enough. Cloudheart and Mistyeyes died a little after one another, just after their kits made it to apprentices.
Silverstreak had immediately stepped up to help her sisters. She always made sure that if there was food, they would eat it. She knew her brother was aiming to do the same. They both went out hunting together more frequently. Silverstreak just hoped that it would be enough to see her sister's into warriors. Silverstreak had a weird relationship with the notion of her own mortality. She wouldn't die until she saw her younger siblings happy. However, she would die if it was between her or them.
Today was hardly any different. She was headed out of the camp to hunt, when she saw a striking tomcat nearby. Dawnstride. In truth, she didn't know much about him, but she couldn't deny that he was a handsome tom. She didn't know how to think about herself, about a future that she wouldn't get to have, now that she was focused solely on her family. But... Maybe SunClan would allow her the chance to walk with the ginger tom, so long as it was for the sake of feeding her family in the end. After all, eight paws were better than four, right?
So, she approached him.
"Hey Dawnstride," She mewed, a hesitant smile on her maw. "Would you like to join me? I'm going out hunting."
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Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2018 1:59 am
Dawnstride spent a lot of time in the trees further up-mountain. He enjoyed the roots of the trees the most. They were essentially nature-made perches, hefting their way stubbornly through the rubble and rock. Their hunting grounds were a strange place for him, overflowing with love, but tainted by a peculiar undercurrent of regret that he always had trouble placing. He knew it wasn't his fault that the river had dried up. He wasn't to blame for the shortage of prey that followed. He didn't carry the weight of his mentor, or any of the other cats that had wasted away as he had earned his warrior name and joined the struggle to feed their withering Clan.
He did, though. The tom could feel it every day. Each time he looked into the eyes of their apprentices, it grew heavier. Each bit of fresh-kill he managed to bring back alleviated it some, but not enough. Now that he thought about it, Dawnstride thought it just might be that every time he had a successful hunt, he also suffered the tiniest amount of guilt: that each vole, mouse and shrew whose life he ended was then unable to go out and live that life. They would not have the chance to seek the mates nor have the young that would grow up to continue the cycle and sustain them all.
Perhaps that was the source of his regret. Were they all in some way responsible for the death of the mountain? Did they abuse its resources, and thus SunClan saw fit to punish them by taking the river away? The tom's tail twitched, emerald eyes squinting as they turned upward. Seemed a bit harsh, in his opinion. They could at least have sent them some kind of message first, yet Sunseer had said nothing...
Silverstreak's words took him by surprise. It showed in his ears, a quick fluttering before they focused in her direction. After a moment, his gaze followed. There was that guilt, again: it struck the moment he caught himself thinking about how lovely her eyes were.
"Hello, Silverstreak," he meowed instead. If he missed her hesitation, it was because he was too busy stone-facing through his own. "Of course I'll lend a paw. Lead the way." He hopped down from the root with a shake that bristled his fur from neck to tail-tip. If he stopped thinking about it, hunting was good, safe work. So it just wouldn't. And...somehow, that would break him out of his melancholy. Good plan. Foolproof plan. No issues with it at all.
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Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2018 8:25 pm
Silverstreak found her tail curling upward, the only outward sign that she was pleased, though it was followed by a shy, uncertain smile.
"Great." She mewed, sending a momentary thanks up to SunClan. At least she could have little moments of happiness, like this, and seeing her sisters become warriors.
She was headed out of the camp, relatively silent. Was silence normal? Should she try to strike up a conversation?
"My sisters, Duskpaw and Dawnpaw, always seem so lively. It's easy to envy them for their easy-going personalities." She mewed finally. "Dawnpaw especially, she seems so determined to bring back an owl or something larger, every time she goes out with her mentor. I wish I had her determination for such matters." She smiled a little and looked at Dawnstride. "If we catch an owl, especially out midday like this, I'll be thrilled beyond compare." She added.
She considered for a moment that Dawnstride and Dawnpaw had such similar names, but she doubted that Sunseer would appoint another Dawnstride to the Clan. Besides, they seemed so different, at least in looks. Silverstreak hadn't spent enough time with Dawnstride to decipher whether their personalities were similar.
"Shall we head to the owl tree?" She inquired as they continued on.
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Posted: Sun Nov 11, 2018 8:57 pm
The tom joined Silverstreak in trotting out of camp, only tilting an ear in her direction when she opted to break what he'd considered a companionable silence. Dawnstride found he had little objection to her talking, however. Despite his own lack of an apprentice, it pleased his heart to hear about them. Their survival and training was essential to the future of the clan.
So hearing that her siblings were coming along well? Dawnstride chuckled in spite of himself. "That's good, energy is good." He smiled over his shoulder. "I remember when I had that kind of drive as an apprentice. No prey was ever big enough." Another chuckle. Such feats were easy to think up as a little one, constantly striving to impress warriors bigger and grander than yourself. He was not known for his speed for nothing: as an apprentice, he had dreamed of outrunning coyotes. Granted, that was long before he had ever seen one.
Silverstreak's suggestion made him laugh too, but it was for darker reasons than nostalgia. What owl would stick around here, with everything dead or dying? They were talking about youth, however, and invincibility; something about that was heartening. Made him feel better than he had in a while, and maybe like he could show off a bit, too. So long as he didn't put much thought into why the idea of impressing her appealed to him. "Sure," he found himself saying, with a grin far bolder than he felt. "Let's take a look at the owl tree, see if we can't give the apprentices something to talk about."
Perhaps he might like to take one under his own paw one day - SunClan above knew he had skills enough to teach them. But... The tom shook his head. No, there were other promises that he would have to make to an apprentice that he couldn't quite bear.
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belloblossom rolled 1 20-sided dice:
12
Total: 12 (1-20)
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Posted: Sun Nov 25, 2018 11:19 pm
Silverstreak smiled as Dawnstride spoke for a bit, reflecting on his own time as an apprentice. Hearing him laugh made her pelt warm and she wanted to hear his laughter again, but she wasn't sure how to do it. She would consider this again later.
Nodding, she headed towards the direction of the owl tree.
"Apprentices? If we bring home any prey at all, I daresay the entire Clan would talk about it." She said. "Which makes it all the more enticing a proposal that we do." She mewed, opening her maw to taste the nearby air for any prey scent, however distant. Please, SunClan, she prayed, Let us find something to bring back for the Clan, however small it might be.Anderleit Rolling a D20 to see if Silverstreak finds/successfully hunts down anything, as per the rules in territory.
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Anderleit rolled 1 20-sided dice:
1
Total: 1 (1-20)
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Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2018 2:34 pm
A chuckle caught the smirking tom off guard. He couldn't deny that it would be nice to be the talk of the clan for once...but of course, that wasn't the biggest reason he was out here. Hunting was necessary, that was all. He neither wanted nor sought accolades for it. At least, that's what he kept telling himself.
Dawnstride mirrored Silverstreak, scenting the air through his jaws. He couldn't help thinking that there was something a bit melancholy about it. This might be the last time he tasted the air of their old territory, the MountainClan he had known since he was a kit. But the emptiness there - dry and sparse, devoid of a single hint of river- or prey-smell - was reason enough to remind him of why. If their land could no longer sustain them, was it worth trying to stay?
A glance at his companion hinted that she hadn't gotten a whiff of anything either. "Come on. Perhaps we'll have better luck closer to Owl Tree," he meowed lowly. For some reason, he wanted to see the she-cat remain hopeful. Better, then, to try and be encouraging rather than submit to the truth of things.
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Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2018 2:05 pm
Ears perking up when she heard Dawnstride chuckle, Silverstreak found herself smiling. It was good to actually see others be more inclined to the light-hearted. It was easier to see it in the apprentices who hadn't seen so much death first-paw, but among other adults, like Dawnstride or her brother, Stormsong, Silverstreak found it a rare wonder.
She wanted to make him chuckle again, even laugh whole-heartedly maybe. She wanted the river to come back and for everything to be alright with the world again. She knew that the chances of the river coming back were slim, but the former... maybe.
Yet she couldn't think of anything that would lead to such an outcome, especially when no prey scent yielded to her. Catching Dawnstride's eye, she nodded at his suggestion.
"Yes, let's." She agreed and followed his lead. "SunClan, with all of this searching, watch as we come across the biggest owl... It'll take at least four cats to drag it into camp!" She purred softly at the thought.Anderleit Suppose we roll again when they get to the Owl Tree?
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Posted: Wed Mar 13, 2019 5:45 am
Dawnstride grinned at her, expression sitting lopsided and cocky on his maw. He was actually feeling no such thing, mind; no more than simple unfamiliarity made it appear so. What did he have to smile about? What reasons did he have for laughter? Yet on this patrol, he found himself more jovial than he had felt in moons. He didn't want it to end. And it seemed that not thinking about it - not thinking at all - was the key to prolonging it all.
And so he would. What had brooding ever gotten him, anyway?
He trotted forward, slender ginger tail raised, a stubborn banner for his newfound mindset. "If it does, you'll have to babysit it while I run back to camp," he chuckled at the ridiculousness of it. A fern blocked their path, its verdant roots finding purchase in an old, dead log. "Maybe set our sights a little lower, that we might drag it back ourselves." The tom looked back to Silverstreak, lifting the overgrown foliage aside with a paw. With his ears and the spark in his eyes, he seemed to gesture her make her way over the log before him.
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