Roleplay

"Stagstar is.. was the leader of DuskClan," Applefur explained, brushing his tail against Hollynose's side absently as he spoke. "We fought them and managed to take him down, but before that.. Thistleclaw and Echowish were gathering herbs and Stagstar attacked them for no reason other than his own arrogance. At least, that's how I saw it.."

((Ugh sorry guys I've been in kind of a block/writing limbo recently))

Though he didn't think they could, Flamekit's ears flattened even further against his head, eyes going wide with a terrifying amalgam of awe and dread. He flicked his gaze over to Waspkit and Cranekit, half sure that the Scottish Fold was about to rat him out. But... she said nothing. Well. Interesting. Unfortunately that meant it was his turn to do something good--in this case, respond to their irate leader, whose eyes looked like they were about to burn holes in their fur.

"N-no, Beestar we were just... practicing our, uh, tracking..." Yeah that wasn't a very good excuse at all now was it. But at least he'd said something.

((No words to say here lol))

Hollynose's face brightened suddenly when Lightheart ran to her, and she opened her jaws to respond, when Larkheart cut in.
As Lightheart bounded away over to the tom-cat, she said under her breath gently, "Have fun, light and lark hearts."
She surpressed a giggle, Hollynose was fairly impressed with her own joke. As her mind focused back at the situation on hand, she turned to Applefur and Kestrelkit.

Her fur bristled up at the sound of Stagstar's name. Hollynose's small smile deepened into a frown.
"That cat is a low life. Though I doubt the lesson Beestar taught him will be forgotten anytime soon." The first sentence she said was cold, like a winter chill, but her voice lightened up by the end of her small piece.
"How he became leader, I have no idea. But I'm glad someone finally taught him a lesson! There was a huge battle and everything! Though, I guess you there the whole time, Kestrelkit." She said warmly to the little kitten.
Hollynose took a small peak outside of the nursery, and spotted in the distance, an outline of three kits and an angry looking leader. She whipped her head back into the nursery, comforted by the thought that Beestar had found the trio of troublemakers.

(aw, Wyrm, writer's block is the woooorst. Also, I'm very annoyed... -.- I had my response up and then accidentally exited out of the tab... 0.o)

Beestar's dangerously flashing eyes dimmed slightly from a fierce, metallic gold to a softer, caramel one. Flecks of the dangerous color rimmed her irises still, and therefore Cranekit remained where she was, crouching fearfully against the ground.
With a flick of her tail, however, the leader beckoned the other two kits to her, and Waspkit scrambled over his paws to agree. Cranekit rose slowly and followed a little more gracefully, ears still pinned back warily.
"Listen," Beestar mewed, lowering herself to her haunches to be on eye-level with the three kits now in front of her. "I know that it's often hard to accept the role your Clan needs you to play, especially if that means you have to be confined to the camp."
Her tail crept under Waspkit's chin, who was staring at the ground, and raised his head to meet her eyes.
"You're all vital to DawnClan. You'll all be warriors one day. Just think of it. You'll be able to take down foxes and badgers, even. But none of you are there yet. You have to be patient enough to listen, and brave enough to let us teach you."
She rose, to her full, fearful height once more, voice growing a little sharper once more with disapproval, but nowhere near the icy fury it had once been.
"I shouldn't have to tell you that." She waited for a moment to let her message sink in, and then, upon thinking they'd been scolded enough, swept her tail around and drew them to her.
"Come on. Let's go home."

-o-0-o-

Lightheart glanced back over her shoulder at Hollynose, and, grinning, nodded. "Beestar showed him alright."
She examined the leader's son with newfound interest sparking in those green eyes. She lifted her eyes to Nightclaw, and then switched them immediately to Fawnmask.
A tiny smirk quirked the edge of her mouth, and she sidled up to Hollynose, her whiskers tickling her best friend's cheek.
"Hollynose," she breathed in her ear. "I think the potential for Nightclaw and Fawnmask just increased by a lot."

Flamekit shuddered a little at Beestar's scolding, but he wasn't usually one to brood so he leaped up first of the kits to follow their leader home. With every step, he tried to commit all the new sights, sounds, smells to memory in an attempt to sear this experience into his brain. It may have been against the rules, but Flamekit wouldn't have done anything differently if he could go back. Okay, maybe he'd have tried to sneak better, but that's it.

"So what did you think of your first adventure," Flamekit whispered to Waspkit, a devious smirk on his face.
---
Nightclaw watched the ragtag party of leader and kits enter the camp with confused eyes. Jeez, what would've happened if they'd encountered the fox he and Fawnmask had sent away just now? A shudder passed through him.

"We've got to keep a better eye on them," he muttered, mostly to himself.
---
Larkheart rolled his eyes at Lightheart's comment--his customary response--and sauntered over to his favorite tree, which overhung the camp, providing shade and a much-needed hiding place for him. In an instant, he was up in the branches, looking down on the camp like some powerful Starclan warrior.

Wait, was Beestar coming back with some kits? How'd that happen?

Waspkit grinned a little, starting to recover from the scare the appearance of Beestar had given him.
"It was awesome!" he whispered back excitedly, tail waving. "Well, except for Cranekit. And for being found. Why do you think she didn't tattle on us?"
Beestar perhaps would not overhear Waspkit's tiny murmurings, but Cranekit was pressing closely behind the two kits and was also on the same ear-level as them.
Her ears flattened with hurt at both of the little toms' words, before she forged ahead, cutting in front of Flamekit and keeping pace at Beestar's side.
She had just been trying to protect them. And she hadn't told on them, so why were they being so mean?
She realized vaguely that she probably shouldn't be lumping Flamekit in with Waspkit's words, but for StarClan's sake, they think the same way. And he started it. And he hadn't even thanked her! He'd completely ignored what Beestar said and was back to being the pushy, ungrateful nurserymate.
StarClan, she hated him. She hated him, she hated him, she hated h-
Suddenly, she became aware of an inquisitive gaze upon her, and when she looked up, it was only to meet Beestar's steady, perceptive eyes.
She swallowed slightly, unable to the hide her hurt, and the leader merely rested her tail gently on the little kit's shoulders.
She was grateful the leader didn't try to speak to her; that would just alert the two toms that she was feeling terrible inside, and she couldn't bear to let them know that they had hurt her.

(wow, Cranekit's getting intense. Poor baby's overreactions 0.o)
-o-0-o-

Fawnmask looked around curiously, her eyes instantly zeroing in on the slumped form of Cranekit, who was being herded in front of Beestar, and then to the two young toms in back of her.
Was Cranekit alright?
She stood uncertainly, tail unfurling. "What happened while we were...gone...?"

-o-0-o-

Lightheart twitched her ears disdainfully and turned towards Beestar and the trio of mischief makers.
"Beestar!"
She bounded over and examined the kits. "Are you guys okay?"
She didn't know Cranekit that well, but she certainly wasn't expecting the tiny cat to explode.
"I'm fine," she snarled fiercely. "I'm fine."
She stomped away towards the nursery, silvery-white fur aquiver with fury. "I'm not going to deal with either of those mousebrains anymore because they obviously can't stand anything I do!"
Lightheart blinked and looked at Beestar, who was giving Waspkit a stern look.
Her son shrank and mewed in a small voice. "What? I never said I couldn't stand her."
Lightheart eyed the leader's son, fully aware of the damage clueless toms could inflict on she-cats, often completely by accident.
Of course, this situation was a little different than most of her experiences, but still.

Flamekit paused at Waspkit's question. To be honest, he had no idea why Cranekit didn't try to throw them under the monster, telling Beestar that this adventure was their idea. Maybe she was finally realizing that it was kits vs adults in such matters as this. Hmm. "You know, I really don't--"

He was cut off as Cranekit shoved past him. What the? He shot a confused look at Waspkit.

And then, even weirder, Cranekit just snapped when Lightheart asked what was going on, blabbering about mousebrains who couldn't stand her. Wait... what?

He cast another extremely perplexed glance at Waspkit. "Yeah, me neither. What the heck is going on with her?" he asked, the picture of innocence even though he knew full well that he sort of insinuated as much when he told her that she was ruining the adventure, but... she had to know he wasn't being mean. He was just annoyed, trying to get her to stop nagging. Did it really affect her that much?

Even though it was probably a bad idea, Flamekit followed, determined to help... or at least clear his own conscience.

(lol. Flamekit's so clueless XD Poor baby XD)

Cranekit stomped towards the nursery, her blazing fury burning down to a few glowing coals, and then unexpectedly, she was trying not to cry as she neared the entrance.
She flung herself down on her nest beside Moss and curled the fuzzy green ball close to her with her forepaws.
She sniffed and buried her face in Moss.
"Oh Moss," she sighed, unable to keep her voice from cracking. "Why is he so- so- Why are they so-"
She flopped her head down helplessly on top of her one true friend and sighed again.

Waspkit, looking extremely guilty, slunk after Flamekit.
"Is she okay?" he whispered, blue eyes wide as he watched Cranekit fling herself down into a circle of moss, her faithful ball of the same plant cuddled to her chest.
Then she saw them and her eyes grew wide.

No no no no no!
She struggled to bring herself to her paws, trying to infuse fire and righteous anger in her heart, but it just gave an odd thump thump thump of exhaustion.
She was so drained. How was she supposed to face off both of them in this state? If they started complaining about her mothering again she was going to start crying!
But she couldn't run. Or could she? No, she couldn't. That would be cowardly and she was not going to cry or quail in front of Flamekit. Her pride wouldn't stand for it.
She swelled to her full, fluffy size, pushing up a forefront of defiance, and lifted her chin to wait for them.

((I've been a little sick lately, sorry for the late post(again) lol Hollynose will now attempt to comfort the kits, with much failure))

Hollynose was caught off guard by Lightheart's words, and it took her a moment to process what her friend had just said.
When she realized what she meant, her face lit up into a wide grin, giddy with excitement. She turned to look at the pair instantly, but saw that a small crowd had gathered by the escape artists in training.
Hollynose held her breath for a second, then glanced at Applefur and Kestrelkit. She strained her eyes at the commotion, and saw the tiny outlines of kits who had been busted. Suddenly, a burst of emotion caused Cranekit to come fuming over to nursery, along with Flamekit and Waspkit, befuddled expressions on their face.

Cranekit looked like she was on the verge of tears, and that surprised Hollynose. She silently laid down next to them, and decided to cut in, if only a little.
"Hey what's wrong with you three?" Hollynose kept her voice quiet and soft. "Your two expressions," She nodded her head at Waspkit and Flamekit, "And Cranekit's fluffy defense tells a different tale then when you all were stuck in the nursery."

'Think Hollynose, think. You gotta say something cool, something cool... Uh uh, hug it out? No, wanna check out my battlescars? Wait, I don't have any those. What even happened?'
Her tongue slipped with the last thought.
"What even happened?" She exclaimed.
Hollynose blushed, extremely embarrassed by her statement. She wanted to copy Cranekit's previous move and bury her head in a pile of moss.

Flamekit glanced at Waspkit and shrugged. "No idea," he whispered. "But I'm going to find out." With that, he puffed himself up and faced Cranekit's glare with the most stoic expression he could manage, which wasn't very good. He was basically glaring back at her, but at least he'd tried.

"What's going on with you, Cranekit?" he demanded more than asked. "You're being weird."

It was probably a good thing that Hollynose arrived to ask her own question, because Flamekit's was, well, not very well-worded and probably would have just made things worse. He stared up at the warrior with wide, innocent eyes. "We went on an adventure, and me and Waspkit had a lot of fun but Cranekit didn't." He finished his statement up with a shrug, glancing sideways at Cranekit to see what she would do.