already there // o

[fancypost borderwidth=0px; text-align: justify][size=8]Minkpaw was dead.

Nightstream lowered himself into a careful crouch, yellow eyes fixed on the vole sitting in front of him. In the sunlight, its rust-colored fur stuck out against the thin coating of mostly melted snow. The vole was tiny, even for late leaf-fall, but prey was prey, regardless of size. Besides, if there really were bad mice in the fresh-kill pile like Thrushstar had said, they needed replacements.

Death happened all the time in the Clans. Power changed paws as leaders lost lives, stepped down, or vanished, assumed dead. Clans fought over territory and prey and, in cases like BloodClan’s, because retaliation was their only option. Still, Nightstream had never watched someone die. He’d known, of course, when his first mentor had died at a badger’s claws; it would’ve been impossible not to. There was the burial and the vigil and then Foxdancer.

Seeing it was…something else.

Stars, he needed to focus. Tail lifted – weight off his forepaws – Though he remembered the steps (at least for the most part), something about this didn’t feel right. Nightstream hesitated, fighting down the urge to look back; he didn’t want to alert the vole, after all. Prey was getting harder to come by. Scaring it off was downright counterproductive. Thrushstar wouldn’t be happy with him. Foxdancer wouldn’t even be happy with him.

Minkpaw wasn’t his apprentice, obviously – he’d never had an apprentice. Had she been Foxdancer’s, then? Nightstream didn't bother to keep up with that sort of thing. Back when he’d first become a warrior, it had mattered more. Then the -paws had gotten easier and easier to mix up, and…

He fumbled his leap. Abruptly realizing something was wrong, the vole tried to scramble away. It was too little, too late; one quick bite, and the vole was still. Dropping it and pinning it to the ground with a paw, Nightstream let out a short, tense breath. No coyotes; no badgers; neither foxes nor BloodClan.

[spoiler=✨ 12/5][size=8]★ first roleplayed [11/29]
★ minkpaw's death [12/6]

"digging like you can bury"
▪ nightstream | cis male [he/him]
▪ 16 moons | july 23 | ages real-time
▪ warrior of traditional skyclan
▪ foxdancer's former apprentice
▪ generally dislikes half-clanners

"something that cannot die"
▪ domestic cat | health: 100%
▪ ref. | a bulky, powerful black solid maine coon mix with round yellow eyes. water-resistant fur is generally long, but length varies in places.
▪ deep scar across chest.
— injuries: none

"we could wash the dirt"
▪ curious, friendly, generous, honest, trusting
▪ competitive, distracted, forgetful, observant
▪ ignorant, lax, reckless, stubborn, unreliable
▪ furious with bloodclan, touchy about family
▪ all opinions are ic only

"off our hands now"
▪ npc x npc | brother of hornetswarm
▪ single | crushing on n/a | asexual
▪ mentoring n/a | open to an apprentice

"keep it from living underground"
▪ attack in bolded lavender
▪ physically medium easy | mentally easy
▪ no real experience | usually finishes fights
▪ no kill/maim | pm for capture | pm for plots

[size=6pt]links can be found on camp

[fancypost borderwidth=0px; text-align: justify][size=8]Ears twitching at the sound of pawsteps, Nightstream allowed his paw to slip off the vole. He hadn’t been expecting company. Not that he wasn’t grateful for it. Distracting oneself was always easier with others around, and so was hunting. There were worse things than hanging out with a couple of apprentices, especially when said hanging out resulted in a slightly fuller fresh-kill pile. Unless... Of course, he wasn’t the only cat with Minkpaw on his mind. Honestly, he’d be surprised to find a single SkyClanner who hadn’t given her death more than a passing thought.

Falconpaw was the first to approach. Now, that was one cat he could remember. There was something about Falconpaw that unnerved Nightstream – something Nightstream couldn’t quite pin down. Maybe it was the apprentice’s odd manner of speaking, like some sort of poet. Or a StarClanner. Based on the stories, StarClan had always struck him as the kind of place where cats talked in riddles just because they could; they certainly had enough free time for it, they weren’t doing much to help down here. It wasn’t hard to tell what Falconpaw was referring to today, though – how could it be anything else? Nightstream’s paw found the vole again; absently, he started to roll it, briefly forgetting it was valuable prey.

What, no “nice catch”? The joke caught in his throat. ”I know,” he said, looking away. It wasn’t his fault, it wasn’t anyone’s but those stupid, fox-hearted coyotes.

Nightstream had to search harder for the second apprentice's name. Chubpaw, Chervil...was it Cherrypaw? She mentioned a warrior ceremony. He'd heard of ceremonies and suffixes for the dying, but Minkpaw had been all but gone by the time help had arrived. She'd died Minkpaw, unless StarClan really had decided to make her a warrior. ”Don’t know why they wouldn’t. Minkpaw – ” The vole rolled faster still. ”Yeah, they probably could."

[spoiler=✨ 12/5][size=8]★ first roleplayed [11/29]
★ minkpaw's death [12/6]

"digging like you can bury"
▪ nightstream | cis male [he/him]
▪ 16 moons | july 23 | ages real-time
▪ warrior of traditional skyclan
▪ foxdancer's former apprentice
▪ generally dislikes half-clanners

"something that cannot die"
▪ domestic cat | health: 100%
▪ ref. | a bulky, powerful black solid maine coon mix with round yellow eyes. water-resistant fur is generally long, but length varies in places.
▪ deep scar across chest.
— injuries: none

"we could wash the dirt"
▪ curious, friendly, generous, honest, trusting
▪ competitive, distracted, forgetful, observant
▪ ignorant, lax, reckless, stubborn, unreliable
▪ somewhat subdued, touchy about family
▪ all opinions are ic only

"off our hands now"
▪ npc x npc | brother of hornetswarm
▪ single | crushing on n/a | asexual
▪ mentoring n/a | open to an apprentice

"keep it from living underground"
▪ attack in bolded lavender
▪ physically medium easy | mentally easy
▪ no real experience | usually finishes fights
▪ no kill/maim | pm for capture | pm for plots

[size=6pt]links can be found on camp