DuskClan's Bird Song Trees

"Not too far away from camp there is a small group of these trees. The trees always have birds in them. There seems to always be birds singing in them. It is one of the best places to hunt in the territory. The trees there are easy to climb. If you go there in the morning or after the rain stops you can find a ton of birds there."

Watercloud listened to the fine calling of birds. She decided to go hunting. She dropped low to the hunting crouch and stalked a piece of prey perched on a branch just above her nose. She pounced, easily lifting herself into the tree and quickly ending the starling. Watercloud heaved a sigh of relief and picked it up, trotting delicately back to camp.

Rowanwhisker padded here, glancing around as the sound of birds reached his ears. He turned to Frostpaw and Poppyfall, flicking his tail. "Here we are."
Poppyfall nodded, looking around as well. "It's so weird being in Cloudclan's old territory..." she muttered half to herself. "Anyway Frostpaw, why don't we practice your hunting while we're here if you're up for it."

Frostpaw nodded. She spotted a bird pecking at some seeds below a tree a few tail-lengths away, and carefully stalked it. Then, when she got close enough, she leaped and killed it with a swift bite. Tail high, she clamped it in her jaws and trotted back to her mentor.
"How was that?" she mewed.

"Great work." she praised as Rowanwhisker stalked in another direction after a thrush. "When hunting birds, make sure not to step on anything that might give you away." Dropping into a hunter's crouch, she curled her tail against her side. "This is a good position for hunting most land prey, it'll keep your tail from rustling anything behind you on accident so that you can focus on your paws better." Poppyfall stood back up and gave an apologetic smile. "Too much at once...?"

Frostpaw shook her head.
"No! I'm learning so much." she purred, smiling.
The pure white she-cat copied her mentor and followed Rowanwhisker's movements, stalking the same thrush. She giggled and curled her tail up, killing the thrush before the tom. Then she realized it might have seemed rude and pushed the bird back towards his paws.
Turning back to her mentor, she mewled, "Can we practice battle moves, too?"

Rowanwhisker blinked in surprise and looked at Frostpaw with a sigh. "Nice kill." he praised.
Poppyfall gave him a slight smile before turning back to the apprentice. "I suppose we can do a few... Let's practice targeting enemies first. Close your eyes until I say open them." she meowed, glancing up at the tom, telling him to make sure she listened.

Frostpaw obeyed her mentor and snapped her eyes shut. She waited with impatience so Poppyfall could tell her to open them.

Poppyfall smirked and quickly slipped between the trees, making sure to be completely silent. Carefully brushing past a few bushes, she stood downwind of the apprentice so that she couldn't smell her. Meeting Rowanwhisker's eyes from her hiding place, she nodded.
"Alright Frostpaw, you can open them now. See if you can find Poppyfall." The tom commanded, settling down with his tail over his paws.

Frostpaw opened her eyes immediately, and starting sniffing every piece of nature around her. She hesitated for a moment, shrugging. Then, she kept on going. She slipped into a few bushes to prowl through, but still couldn't find her mentor. She flipped around and continued stalking through the grass, scenting nothing but prey. When she almost gave up, she heard the smirk of Poppyfall and quickly followed her until she jumped out from behind a tree trunk, trying her best to startle the she-cat.
"Found ya!" she purred, heading back to Rowanwhisker.

[url=#96162570] Good job[/url]. You took longer than I anticipated, though you'll get better with practice." Poppyfall mewed. "Remember that an enemy won't stop moving, especially if they've caught sight of you. Be sure to keep up with things around you so that you can figure out if you're being tracked."
Rowanwhisker flicked his tail and got to his paws. "How about we try and hunt a bit more then head back to the camp?"

Frostpaw nodded, and agreed quietly with Rowanwhisker. She scented a finch and thrush, then saw the two songbirds dancing in the air a few fox-lengths up. She pressed herself as low to the ground as possible, and then when she got close enough she leaped up, clawing them out of the air and sending a sharp blow to their throats. She nudged them back to Poppyfall & Rowanwhisker with her nose, purring.
"Man, with all this prey the Clan will be full for the season!" she meowed, only to realize too late that she was being a little overconfident.
Ducking her head, she mewed almost silently, "Sorry. Will you hunt, too?"

Rowanwhisker broke into an amused purr while Poppyfall flicked her tail over her apprentice's ears. "With how well you're doing, we won't have to." she answered before glancing to the side. Spotting another thrush, she smirked and looked at Rowanwhisker. "Tag team?"
"Tag team." He agreed, slipping around the back. Poppyfall grinned and crept up on the thrush. When she was a few tail lengths away, she suddenly leaped at it, scaring it in Rowanwhisker's direction. The tom jumped up and sliced it to the ground with a grunt. "Now we can head back." he shook his fur and picked up his two birds.

Frostpaw picked up her finch and starling, kicking the thrush with her paws as they walked back to camp.
"You mfow, I nmever saw ymou in cmamp before," the she-apprentice muffled through the feathers in her mouth.
"Were you in a dmifferent Clman bemfore?"

Poppyfall smiled painfully and took the thrush from her. "Not really." she muttered through gritted teeth. "I was always a Leafclan warrior... but ah... Some things happened a few moons ago, before Duskclan was formed."
Rowanwhisker pressed against her, comforting her as best he could. "What matters now is you're home."

As nosy as she was, Frostpaw ran to catch up with them.
"What happened? My father was from LeafClan too!" she squealed with excitement, not realizing Poppyfall probably didn't want to share her past.

"Er..." Poppyfall shuffled her paws a bit as she walked, staring at them. "Twolegs." she said flatly. She didn't mind that Frostpaw was curious, but she didn't want to talk about her own stupidity that had caused her to be gone for so long.

Frostpaw paused before replying.
"Twolegs? What did they do? Were you hurt?" she asked, branches and dead leaves crunching under her paws as she walked.

She shook her head. "No... actually where I was taken, the twolegs were really nice. They made sure that me and the others were fed.." Shaking her head, she met Frostpaw's gaze. "Basically... two kits were taken, my sister and another kit. I was part of a patrol to look for them but I got captured as well. At first I couldn't get free but some nearby loners helped me out and steered me in the right direction. After a few moons of traveling, I finally came back." she explained.
Rowanwhisker frowned but kept silent. He knew that the she-cat probably wouldn't go into more detail than that.

"Really? Nice Twolegs? Pff, when pigs fly." Frostpaw scoffed.
"Where are your sister and the other now..?" she heard that part of her explanation and frowned.

"They didn't make it." Her shoulders stiffened and she shut her eyes, taking a deep breath to calm down.
"Saffronflame, Dapplepaw, Ivypaw, and I are still here Poppyfall." Rowanwhisker whispered. "It wasn't your fault."

Frostpaw gasped silently. She felt bad for pressuring the distressed she-cat now.
"Oh.. I'm sorry, Poppyfall. They'll still be in your hearts." she mewed, trying to cheer her mentor up after she had stiffened her shoulders and took deep breaths.

"It's fine Frostpaw, really, let's just get back to camp." With that, she quickened her step so she was almost trotting ahead of the two.
Rowanwhisker offered the apprentice an apologetic look before hurrying to fall into step with Poppyfall.

Frostpaw didn't know what else to do, so she also quickened her pace to catch up with her mentor and Rowanwhisker, following them back to camp while nudging her three catches roughly along the ground.

OOC: Sorry for double posting, but this place is pretty inactive.
BIC:
Cloudstep bounded into the clearing, turning to face Milksong.
"Hey, what's that smell..?" Milksong said.
"I know," said Cloudstep.
"I know you want to kill me."
Milksong shook his head. He wanted to at first, but then closed it out of his mind. He smelled a wary dog. Soon enough, the scarred brown creature lumbered towards them. It hadn't caught up with Grasspaw and Frostpaw. It was going for another run. It immediately leaped on Cloudstep and ripped his ears apart. The stepbrother shrieked and his heart began to slow down. A thump was heard as Milksong began to run towards camp, knowing his own weak self couldn't save his evil stepbrother. Cloudstep let out a last breath of screeching air and collapsed fully, blood burning his eyes. Scratch and Spider appeared in dark, starry figures in front of him. He was in the Dark Forest now, side~by~side his friends. He twined tails and they led the way to find the rest of his family still sleeping and snoring loudly.

Boulderpaw ran after Zebrafire, then saw Milksong and Cloudstep. He took a step back. "What..." he stared.

Zebrafire popped out from behind a rock. She stared intensely, tears trickling down her eyes. She hurried over with a frown, resting her tailtip on Cloudstep.
"He's dead." she shuddered.
She gave him a nice, long lick and then moved to MIlksong. She felt his pulse with her paw and lit up a little.
"He's still alive~! Boulderpaw, help me bring him back to camp~!!" she yowled, licking him furiously and picking him up by the scruff of his neck.

Boulderpaw shot over to Milksong, lifting his back up slightly. He rested it on his back. "Aaah, that's heavy." he mewed, crouching down under the weight.

Zebrafire rolled her eyes and set off towards camp, matching Boulderpaw's pace while dragging Cloudstep along with him.

Boulderpaw started crawling slightly, panting. "He will probably die when he reaches camp..." he protested slightly, before shaking his head.

Zebrafire snarled at Boulderpaw.
"No! He won't~!" she pushed him out of the way and set off full speed towards camp with both of the bodies, a powerful gleam in her eyes that lit the path.

Boulderpaw winced, and raced after Zebrafire, putting Milksong back on his back. "Slow down..." he muttered.

Zebrafire shook her head. She began running the fastest she could towards camp, finally bursting into the entrance, both cats on her back.

Ferretpaw burst into one of the Bird Song Trees clearings then stopped and gave out deep huffs trying to regain her breath. "Fwoo," she huffed.

Finchflight bounded into the clearing. "Hello!" Finchflight greeted Ferretpaw. She smiled and took in the sunshine.

"Hi Finchflight," she mewed to the older warrior.

"Is'nt this rare sunshine perfect?" She mewed, shuffling her paws in the slush. The sun was warm on her back, a rare thing in leaf-fall.

Ferretpaw nodded as she loved how the sun warmed her fur.

Finchflight sighed contentedly. "We should probably savor today," she mewed, a playful glint in her eyes.

Ferretpaw nodded. She knew they'd have a hard leaf-bare, with so many cats.

Finchflight bunched her muscles, a miscievious look on her face. She smiled and leapt, playfully bowling over Ferretpaw.

Ferretpaw was surprise by the warrior as they tumbled in the snow. She quickly got back up and started laughing as her tail swayed back and forth.

Finchflight purred blissfully and pounced once again.

Ferretpaw managed to dodge Finchflight and laughed "HAH!"

"Oh, you won't get away this time!" She leapt, and missed, running into a tree. She purred and jumped back. She this time made contact with Ferretpaw, knocking him over.

Grasspaw ran into the clearing, noticing she'd missed a playfight from lagging behind on the hill that led up to the Bird Song Trees. She quickly joined in and leaped onto Finchflight, bowling her over and playfully battering at her face.

Finchflight giggled. She squirmed, not able to escape Grasspaw's grip.

Grasspaw saw a cougar running through the sky, approaching her. She leaped in fear off of Finchflight and blinked, afraid. She closed her eyes and counted to 10, shuffling her paws awkwardly. When she opened her eyes it was gone. She blinked, eyes watery, as she backed away from her hunting mates and focused herself on an odd-coloured tree trunk, still in shock and fear.

Ferretpaw tilted her head at Grasspaw, as she was frozen in her tracks.