WaterClan | Camp

“Alright. I can work on scheduling patrols for later in the day. If that’s fine with you, Sharktooth? Let you do the morning patrols.” She mentioned, looking to each in turn

Sharktooth nodded curtly, opening his mouth to scent the direction of the breeze. "The wind is coming from the mountains but all I can smell is salt," he sighed. "I'll take a patrol to the Small Ponds later. Lilythroat, Floracrest, and Thundersong can go with you on the dawn patrol, Turtlestar."

Turtlestar smiled. "Thank you Sharktooth, I'll go fetch them," she mewed, trotting towards the warriors den with gentle paws as to not wake the whole den.

Sharktooth watched Turtlestar leave, then turned to Brindlestorm. "Can you take a patrol out to hunt too? I'd prefer we had a little more fish than not enough."

Turtlestar poked her head in the warriors den, carefully tiptoeing around and tapping Lilythroat, Thundersong, and Floracrest as she passed them, hard enough to wake them up but not enough to hurt.

Lilythroat stirred in her nest and glanced up at Turtlestar, yawning. "Turtlestar?" She sat up and stretched, grooming her golden fur back into place once she settled again. She wondered if Pikepaw was alright after everything. 

Laurelkit wrinkled her nose at the strong scent of salt, snuggling further into Snailnose's fur. "Mom, it smells bad," she whined, paws covering her muzzle. 

Fogpaw emerged from the apprentice's den, followed closely by Driftpaw who went off to find his parents. The former of the two went instead to his mentor. "Sharktooth? What are we doing today?"

Dreampoppy opened sightless eyes, ears swiveling and her nose twitching. All she could smell was salt. She nudged Rainspots, licking her mate's ear. "Do you smell that?"

Autumnsky stretched out and yawned, pale eyes opening and looking toward Sunshadow and Peachpaw. She stood up and nudged both of them awake. "Come on you two, we have things to do."

Flowerbrook peaked into the apprentice's den, looking for Gatorpaw. "Gatorpaw? Time to get up. We need to see if we're needed," she called.

Brindlestorm nodded to Sharktooth, trotting away to find some warriors. “Flowerbrook, Gatorpaw you’re both with me to go hunting. Find another warrior and meet me at the entrance. I’ll tell you where we’re going soon.” She told the warrior, going to the entrance of camp to wait.

Thundersong woke up with a start, but let his eyes lid as he stared at Turtlestar. "Good morning, Turtlestar." His voice rumbled lowly, still heavy with fatigue.

Spiderleap cracked open an eye at his mother, already having been awake from before. He sighed quietly instead, and tried to go back to sleep.

Sunshadow yawned and sat up, rubbing his eyes as they unfocused and refocused over and over again. He looked up at Autumnsky, smiling lightly. "G'morning! C'mon Peachpaw, let's get going.." He nudged the smalled apprentice with his paw, almost rolling her over.

Tidalpaw pursed her lips as she woke up and moved out of the den for fresher air. Her eyes were tired and glossed over, her movements stiff.

"That's the smell of salt," Snailnose explained gently. "It comes from the sea. The wind must be blowing it towards us."

Turtlestar looked back at the patrol she'd gathered. "We'll be marking our border with DuskClan and BrightClan this morning." she mewed, "As soon as we're all ready we'll be heading out."

Dappledsun rose creakily from her nest and yawned, yellowing teeth showing.

Thundersong nodded, exiting the den and waiting for his denmates to do the same.

Perchcloud padded into the nursery, blinking to let her eyes adjust and purring at her mate and kits. "Good morning." 
Toadkit purred sleepily, still relaxed in his nest.

Brookshine's eyes swept across the camp as she looked for her kits, padding over to a sleepy looking Reefpaw and licking her son's ear. "Sleep well?" 
He nodded, then shivered slightly. "I'm glad we're all safe, though," he mewed quietly. 

Swanpaw's eyes scanned the camp, looking for her mentor. Come on, we're losing daylight.

Mottletuft smiled back at Mistkit. "I'm going out of the nursery, to see what's going on. You can stay here if you want," she mewed. Pushing herself to her paws, she left the nursery. Spotting Turtlestar, she went over to her leader. "After the quake, what happened? Is anyone hurt?'" she asked, concerned. She just wanted to be sure everyone was safe before she could truly relax.

Mistkit stayed in the nursery. She looked around at the other kits in it.

"No one was hurt," Turtlestar mewed, "We're going on dawn patrol, circling our border with DuskClan and BrightClan."

Gatorpaw, who was awake, moved towards Brindlestorm, nodding towards her. He swallowed. Hunting is the last thing he wanted to do today, however he couldn’t complain.

Lilyshadow was awake and watching everything.

Willowstreak paused, looking at her mother. She had only just emerged from the den.

Mottletuft relaxed. "Good. Is there anything I can help with around camp? Since I can't really go outside..." A pang of sadness hit the queen, remembering how her kits had died and her body almost ruined.

Peachpaw groaned, rolling away from Sunshadow's prodding paw. She was so tired, but she knew she had her duties, so she slowly pulled herself up. "What do we have to do first?" she asked groggily, barely able to keep her eyes open.

"I do need someone to check if any of the dens have been damaged," Turtlestar mewed, "Do you think you could?"

Mottletuft nodded. "Yeah. If there's damage, who should I tell?" she queried. She hoped there wouldn't be much damage, as the warriors had enough to do.

Sunshadow smiled lightly. "Gathering herbs for winter. We were going to do that anyways, but the gathering and the earthquake got in the way. I could stay and reorganise the herbs is you two want some mentor-apprentice bonding time?" He wanted to sound selfless, but really he didn't want to embarrass himself with his herb gathering because of his lack of senses. It was also cold.

Autumnsky chuckled and nodded. "I'd appreciate that, Sunshadow. Come on, Peachpaw, we should get going." She padded out of the medicine den, tail waving behind her.

Flowerbrook blinked and trotted after Gatorpaw and Brindlestorm. The deputy said they needed another warrior... "Brookshine, care to accompany us?" She called to the she-cat, purring. 

Lilythroat stretched out and yawned, rising to her paws. She followed Turtlestar out of the warrior's den, fluffing up her fur. "BrightClan and DuskClan, got it." She sat by the camp entrance, waiting for the rest of the patrol to be ready. It'd probably be best if she had Pikepaw stay in camp. 

Laurelkit listened closely to her mother's explanation and nodded. She perked up upon seeing Perchcloud. "Good morning, Perchcloud!" She chirped, tail waving.

Sunshadow's smiled lightly, then frowned at the mess right beside the rock wall. He sighed and started sortig the piles delicately and sliding them back into their places.

"Report to me the damage when I get back," Turtlestar mewed as she led her patrol out of camp.

Snailnose licked Perchcloud's cheek. "Going to be doing any hunting today?" she purred.

Perchcloud shrugged. "I haven't been assigned anything yet." 

Brookshine glanced up. "Hm?"

"If I could get someone else to watch the kits we could go fishing later," Snailnose suggested softly.

"Patrol with Brindlestorm," Flowerbrook explained and jutted her head toward where the deputy and Gatorpaw were.

Mottletuft went into the nursery. She stopped by Mistkit. "Hey, do you want to help me check the dens? We have to make sure the dens don't have holes and leaks," she suggested. Giving the kit something to do would help with the trauma of the night before.

Mistkit nodded and stretched before getting up. Going over to Mottletuft to help her with the dens.

Snailnose sighed and rose from her nest, her back cracking as she stretched. "Alright, time to get up," she purred.

Sunshadow finished up his sorting quietly and exited the stuffy den. The cool air hit his face as he glanced around for someone to talk to while he waited for his mentor and fellow apprentice to return. He sat down quietly, feeling a small sense of loneliness fall upon him. He didn't really talk to anyone other than Peachpaw and Autumnsky. He sighed quietly and rested his head on his paws.

Spiderleap decided it was finally time to wake up. He padded outside of the den and looked around for his sisters.

Mottletuft led Mistkit over to the elder's den. "We have to look at the walls and branches to make sure there aren't leaks," she said. "If you find any, let me know so we can fix it!" She started on the left side of the entrance. There was a little area where the intertwined branches had broken off, hanging off over the entrance. Mottletuft made a mental note to tell Turtlestar.

Mistkit started to look around it seeing if there was anything. She saw one small hole where a bit of the wall had come a bit lose and reminded herself to tell Mottletuft about it.

Feather wrote:"Patrol with Brindlestorm," Flowerbrook explained and jutted her head toward where the deputy and Gatorpaw were.

"Oh! I'd love to." Brookshine purred and padded over. "Sorry for keeping you waiting."

Rainpaw sat next to the apprentice's den, scanning the camp. The damage was great, and the clan was in a tough spot. Not the best for her.

Brindlestorm nodded, thinking for a moment on where to go. “We’ll head to the Swampy Forest in the northern part of the territory.” She mentioned, noting everyone ready and heading out through the entrance.

Brookshine nodded to the deputy, following her with a waving tail.

Reefpaw watched his mother leave, then padded over to his siblings. "I wish we could do something rather than sitting around in camp all day," he huffed.

Dappledsun padded to the freshkill pile, purring at the says of sunlight hit her pelt. She sniffed at a minnow and pulled it out, quickly scarfing it down.

Flowerbrook sighed lightly, waved her tail for Gatorpaw to follow, and padded after Brookshine and Brindlestorm.

Snailnose padded out of the nursery to get a sip of water from the river surrounding camp. The first thing that hit her was the stench of the water. The smell of salt was so strong her eyes watered. She cautiously touched her tongue to the surface and recoiled in disgust. "Perchcloud?" she called, trying not to let fear edge into her voice.

Perchcloud's ears pricked, and she padded over to Snailnose. "Hm?"

"The water..." she mewed, "Have you ever seen this before?"

Perchcloud frowned, gently touching the surface of the water and bringing her paw to her nose to sniff. "It's...salty," she mewed, looking at her mate with confusion.

Sharktooth padded in from the dirtplace, his nose crinkling once again at the wash of salt scent. The wind is still coming from the Mountains, maybe... "Autumnsky?" he called to the medicine cat as he padded into the den.

Autumnsky glanced up at the deputy from where she'd been counting herbs. "Yes, Sharktooth?" She rose to her paws and padded over, wrinkling her nose at the scent of salt.

He watched her. "You've noticed it too?" he asked softly.

Snailnose looked into the water. The current was different, it seemed to flow backwards. A shape bobbed along the surface. She squinted, watching it draw closer. A dead salmon drifted towards her, gently bumping into the grass lining camp. She pulled it from the water, recoiling from the awful taste it left in her mouth.

"It's hard not to notice it when it coats the entire camp," Autumnsky admitted and huffed. "Might be worth looking into."

Perchcloud's eyes widened at the state of the fish. "We should tell the deputies and Turtlestar."

Snailnose nodded and dragged the large, bloated body towards where Sharktooth stood.

Sharktooth nodded, about to reply when he noticed Snailnose dragging a fish towards them. "What's this?" he asked the queen with curiosity.

"It just washed up," she mewed, dropping the fish. A stream of diluted water poured from its gaping maw.