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Post by theatricals on Apr 4, 2019 18:46:50 GMT -6
She was told to find prey for the Clan with whatever skills she had established for herself so far, but that didn't amount to much--at least, not in the hunting area. Her skills were raw and undefined despite her training, brought on by impatience and the need to get things done as quickly as possible so she could go back to whatever it is she was doing.
Today was different, though. Today, she had actually caught a scent, and that scent wasn't the normal scene of a patrol she would find while exploring. The moon had reached the highest point in the sky, and it was a time where many cats would be either settling in, sharing tongues, or going out for one more patrol. It was rare for only one cat to be out at a time, and considering what happened at the last meeting, finding that one scent made Ivypaw suspicious.
She could actually catch one of her clanmates breaking the warrior code, she realized. The thought brought a strange sort of satisfaction to her, and she kept her nose low as she follow the scent, zigzagging her way through the trees out into the open fields, careful to keep her paws close in case she stumbled over a rabbit hole. However, she came up short quickly enough, as the trail stopped at a slightly larger rabbit hole, and her suspicion quickly changed to confusion.
Remembering one scent from another was still difficult for her, and slowly looking into the entrance, she found that no scent--not the one she was tracking or any other--could be found here. She had lost the trail. The apprentice inwardly cursed, pulling back to return to camp, but she hadn't checked her footing beforehand. Even a short stumble wouldn't have caused much trouble, but when she felt a sharpness stab into her paw and a tight grasp around the base, she couldn't help but cry out in surprise and pain.
Suddenly, all the noises around her were emphasized. The sound of the breeze sounded like a wolf waiting to attack. The rustle of the grass was a fox stalking her for its next meal. They were all exaggerations, but with no way to move, they may as well have been real.
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Post by matchesrulezu on Apr 4, 2019 19:01:21 GMT -6
The sky was clear, the moon was bright, and the stars were glittering in the sky. A slight chill hung in the air since it was still pretty early in new-leaf, but Wolfpeak found it to be a more refreshing crispness. Of course, he was just glad leaf-bare was over. Enjoying the night, he had been relaxing outside of camp, appreciating a moment of solitude when he saw Ivypaw creeping around, her nose clearly leading the way. He watched, silent as he disappeared from view and after a few heartbeats, decided that maybe he should follow after her just in case. It was unusual for even a grown warrior to be out alone so late, especially after the meeting. As he trotted after Ivypaw, following her scent, the thought that he might come under fire and accused of affairs crossed his mind, but the yelp of the young she-cat disrupted those thoughts as he broke into a full run. Wolfpeak came over a small slope and almost ran right into the stuck she-cat, but managed to stop in time. He stood silent for a moment, looking down to see that the she-cat had gotten her foot stuck in a collapsed part of a rabbit whole. With the ground being soft after all of the snow melting and the rain that had been coming through to nurture new-leaf, he wasn't too surprised. As he began looking over the area her foot had fallen through, a grin crossed over his lips as he mewed, "Stuck, huh?"
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Post by theatricals on Apr 5, 2019 17:29:31 GMT -6
When she heard something approaching her, her first reaction was to panic further, but when she caught the scent, she realized very quickly that it was her own clanmate. Without paused, she also made the connection that his scent and the one she had been following was one in the same. With the roots and clumps of dirt still holding her paw down, she wasn't in the mood to play around, and his jokes didn't sit well with her in the slightest. "You're one to talk!" she hissed. "Sneaking around doing who knows what! Try being useful and get me out!" The she-cat attempted to yank her paw free once more, but all she ended up doing was falling deeper into the hole when the ground began to slump further down.
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Post by matchesrulezu on Apr 6, 2019 6:02:41 GMT -6
"Sneaking around?" Wolfpeak repeated, brows furrowed with confusion. After the mess with the meeting, he didn't really want to come under fire via false accusations. He sat back, looking at Ivypaw for a moment, intentionally not helping the young she-cat. Given her attitude, he wasn't in too much of a hurry to help and it was a little fun watching her be riled up. Sitting back, though, he recognized the spot that she was stuck in and he started to laugh. "You were following my scent," he realized, and then continued, "but this was from hunting earlier. I came to check this spot out. So yes, I was 'sneaking around'...to hunt."
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Post by theatricals on Apr 10, 2019 15:18:36 GMT -6
"Whatever!" she snapped, pulling back harder and only sliding deeper into the hole. It could be said she had literally dug the hole for herself, but she didn't have the patience to acknowledge it. "I don't care what you're doing in the middle of the night! Just help me!" The apprentice wasn't so concerned about other predators now, but the more she tried to free herself, the more she twisted her paw into a position that proved to be uncomfortable. She wasn't about to snap a bone just because some mouse-brain warrior decided not to help her.
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Post by matchesrulezu on Apr 12, 2019 16:02:38 GMT -6
It became obvious to him that if this young air-headed she-cat were to learn manners or respect, it certainly wasn't going to be this night. Ivypaw was likely only going to become more belligerent the longer she was stuck and the feeling of fun began to fade. Only observing her for a brief moment, he stepped forward without a word. Digging his paw deep into the earth, he pulled the ground up and away to loosen her leg. "That should be good enough for you to get yourself out now," he said, turning away and flicking his tail as a silent farewell. Wolfpeak had a feeling that any more communication with Ivypaw was going to be more hassle than it was worth, especially when he just wanted to enjoy a quiet night in the first place.
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Post by theatricals on Apr 17, 2019 21:52:14 GMT -6
Ivypaw sunk down lower with a slight shriek, but when she pulled back instinctively, she found that the pressure on her paw had disappeared, and she was able to regain her footing without any further issues. Her paw felt sore from all of her pulling alongside the branches and dirt that kept her trapped, but it was better than the alternative of being stuck longer. She observed it for a moment, not even glancing up after Wolfpeak finished, but once she was satisfied, she was surprised to find that she was being left alone, with Wolfpeak making his exit without so much as a goodbye.
"Hey, hey!" she called out, her limp turning into a short trot as she moved to catch up with him. "So if you were out here just hunting... why couldn't you have waited 'til morning? Seems suspicious to me."
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Post by matchesrulezu on Apr 19, 2019 8:02:02 GMT -6
Wolfpeak didn't break stride as Ivypaw scrambled to catch up with him. "If you have any further doubts, you can take it up with Acorndrop. I don't owe you any further explanation," he replied soberly. While he didn't want the hassle of clanmates sniffing around him and accusing him of betraying his Clan, it also wasn't worth his energy to try to convince the nosy apprentice. It seemed to him that Ivypaw was just looking for a brief moment of glory and if Ivypaw was determined to believe he was a traitor, then there wasn't much he could do to convince her otherwise. This much was obvious to him since he had already provided an explanation, just short of specifying that he was on the dusk patrol, but she still had it in her head that he was out hunting now. If she tried to publicly accuse him, it would just fire back at her.
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Post by theatricals on Apr 26, 2019 13:15:23 GMT -6
Ivypaw held her head high as she responded, "Well, /he/ might find it weird. Ashenstar, too. Any cat can be a traitor." She never saw much of Wolfpeak, but besides it being because they were rarely on patrol together, she thought it was interesting that they never even ran into each other. She knew of him, but not about him. Maybe learning more about everybody would give her some answers. "Seems pretty strange to me, but whatever. I don't care what weird stuff you get into in the middle of the night if you're not crossin' the border." She didn't have the same reservations, but her reasons wouldn't be to meet another cat in secret. What AspenClan didn't know wouldn't hurt them, and she doubted that they'd miss a stray mouse or two.
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Post by matchesrulezu on Apr 26, 2019 15:53:03 GMT -6
"I doubt either of them would think it's that weird since Acorndrop assigned me to the patrol," Wolfpeak replied distractedly, half paying attention as he kept his eye out for owls and other predators that emerged with sundown, only glancing at her when she decided she didn't care. Knowing it would be futile to point out that it wasn't her place to care about what he might or might not be doing, he settled with responding simply. "No sense worrying about anything you don't have control over."
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Post by theatricals on May 1, 2019 21:43:50 GMT -6
"I'm not worried," Ivypaw said matter-of-factly, raising her head and picking up the pace to walk by his side. "I bet Ashenstar knows who broke the code already. When do you think she's gonna call them out on it?" She pricked at the grass as she walked, possibly a sign of anxiety, but from her movements and expressions it was made all the more clear that it would bring her no greater interest than for cats to get caught doing something they shouldn't have been doing. Ironic, since only a couple moons back she had been caught after sneaking out of camp herself.
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Post by matchesrulezu on May 24, 2019 20:29:33 GMT -6
"It doesn't matter," Wolfpeak shrugged, feeling like he might just be the only one that remained mostly unmoved by the news. "She may not. This issue remains between her and whoever it is breaking the Code. I'd be inclined to think a wise leader wouldn't publicly out the one doing it. Not if she can avoid it, at least."
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Post by theatricals on May 29, 2019 21:32:31 GMT -6
"Why not?" Ivypaw snapped, finding the suggestion to be utterly mousebrained. "If they broke the code, they deserve for everyone to know. Ashenstar's gotta be mad that her Clan isn't following the rules." It wasn't like Ivypaw paid much attention to that--what they didn't know didn't hurt them. If she happened to catch a rabbit slightly over the border, who cared? No one would even be there to see it, probably. Now if she caught someone else...
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Post by matchesrulezu on Jun 8, 2019 21:40:20 GMT -6
"Oh I'm sure she's upset. I don't think she would have had that meeting if she wasn't," he replied, glancing over at Ivypaw. "But what purpose would it serve to announce the guilty cat to the whole Clan except descent? Think about it: if she came out and said who it was, there would be chaos. Cats would be demanding harsher sentences, questioning her judgment. The guilty cat would be harassed and shunned. Sure, they've broken the Code, but I don't think that kind of sentence would fit the crime. Plus, since now she's made her suspicions known, the guilty cat knows that their name is still safe as long as they stop. If they continue, they're more likely to get caught due to the high alert among the Clan, thus bringing it down upon themselves."
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Post by theatricals on Jun 20, 2019 21:43:31 GMT -6
"Hmmph," Ivypaw grunted, holding her nose high as she gave Wolfpeak a look out of the corner of her eye. "Well when you put it like that..." She wasn't about to admit that the warrior was right, but he had made some valid points--she'd give him that. Shaking out her pelt, Ivypaw did her best to pretend as though she had never brought it up at all. "I wonder if the other Clan leaders have said anything. Obviously it wasn't just RavenClan. I bet the other leaders didn't say anything at all." To be honest, she had been taken off guard when Ashenstar had brought it up publicly, but she wasn't sure she disagreed with the act itself. The other two leaders, however, were a different story.
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Post by matchesrulezu on Jun 21, 2019 21:44:13 GMT -6
The corner of his mouth curled up at her final comments, noticing her change in attitude. At least she was open-minded enough to consider that she might be wrong, although she still had too much pride to admit it. "That's entirely possible," he replied, then looked back over to her with a grin. "And the beauty of it all is that it's not our problem. No doubt it'll be a problem, too. Secrets like that always have a way of coming out one way or another."
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Post by theatricals on Jun 25, 2019 21:38:34 GMT -6
"Not like they'd ever do it at a gathering or anything," she said, rolling her eyes. Although that would be crazy, the predictable drama following it wouldn't be something she'd like to see. As much as the adrenaline rush may be nice, that was a bit too much for her. Aiming to move away from the topic, she asked, "Sooo... you wouldn't happen to know any actual secrets, would you?" Any information was golden to her.
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Post by matchesrulezu on Jul 5, 2019 6:34:04 GMT -6
Wolfpeak was silent for a moment, thinking of everything that Coyotestorm had told him. Of course, he would never divulge that information to anyone. It would die with him. So finally he looked at Ivypaw and shook his head with a grin. "The secrets that have been shared with me are not my secrets to tell," he replied.
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Post by theatricals on Jul 8, 2019 15:26:08 GMT -6
Ivypaw's face turned indignant. "You mean you have some juicy info that you're not gonna share? That's boring. Secrets aren't so fun when they stay secret." She was probably contradicting everything that actually made sense, but Ivypaw wasn't in the habit of thinking about her previous stances on things. They could completely contradict each other and she would do everything in her power to deny it.
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Post by matchesrulezu on Jul 8, 2019 16:35:18 GMT -6
"Secrets aren't meant to be fun. They have a tendency to hurt others," Wolfpeak replied softly, glancing away as if surveying the territory. He felt as if he was looking miles way, but his thoughts were back at camp. Thinking about Coyotestorm and what he had told him, about Fawnrush and her intense grief. "And if you treat them as entertainment, you'll gather yourself the reputation of being untrustworthy."
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