OH I FEEL OVERJOYED. [open]

[STREAKZ]

owlpaw
these words are all we have, were we talking?

Owlpaw was fighting the exhaustion that weighed him down, but it was a losing battle. The Medicine Cat found his paws dragging through the grasses, his nose dipping toward the earth of the moor as he walked. His green eyes were drooping, and he continually snapped his head up with a grunt and a tired sigh. His patience with himself was slowly wearing thin, and with the fading rays of sunlight finally bleeding away and leaving himself plunged in darkness he couldn't help but hiss quietly to himself. "Fox-dung!"

The apprentice had set out a little after sunhigh, thinking he could gather some herbs for the Clan -- with the rabies outbreak he wanted to keep the store stocked as much as possible and he wasn't much help in camp yet as untrained as he was. He could remember his herbs though -- he hadn't considered his lack of energy due to the Twolegs that had kidnapped him as a kit though. The apprentice felt a rare amount of loathing toward himself and his altered state. With the heat he found himself longing to drowse and lounge about like nothing in the world mattered.

He hadn't even managed to find anything. Between his dozing and fighting vainly against the lack of energy he seemed to get at spurs of the moment he found it difficult to focus on his task. He felt like a complete failure as the sky turned dark around him, and pointed his face up to the stars. How was he going to be of any use to WindClan like this? Perhaps you should go find those housefolk that took you. He thought wretchedly, claws digging deep into the turf and a cold feeling crawling through him. He'd thought of them as housefolk. Maybe the cutter had taken more than his tomhood, maybe he was a Kittypet now through and through. Could Twolegs do that? They were strange creatures.

Owlpaw felt lonely suddenly. He desperately wanted to confide in some cat, but who in WindClan would understand the terrors of what he'd been through? Should he seek out a Kittypet? But then, wasn't he just proving that he no longer belonged in WindClan if he did something like that? He bowed his head, whiskers drooping as a sudden wave of misery launched over him. "I'm all alone." He grumbled this to himself, baring his teeth as though he were facing an unknown enemy. This new condition had left him to forfeit his life as a Warrior -- one he'd wanted so badly as a kit that it pained him if he thought too hard about it. Would it force him to leave his home as well?

and i hear you calling in the dead of night

[sammonroll]

Dreamy eyes looked at this alien territory. How did he end up here? He wasn't quite sure. Oh, he knew the directions perfectly well, but his thought process through the whole trip? I don't know... It just seemed...different.. Dense foliage had faded out into a sweeping landscape. He wasn't too deep in WindClan territory, but it was a pretty good trek for a warrior. This warrior wasn't too fazed. His energy was on high as long as exploring was involved. This place was cooling. Even though there were no trees to give cover from the sun, the grass was tall. Their cooling stalks brushed past his fur and softened an otherwise scraggly appearance. It wasn't that the tom wanted to look dirty, but there was just no taming this pelt anymore. Even some of the queens had given up. It was too thick and dense and downright wild.

The tom brushed some of these wild furs away from his eyes with a laughably over-sized paw. A tiny nose poked into a similarly sized flower in front of him. Nose and flower...perfect match. He pulled back, leaving his ThunderClan scent on the petals of the foreign flower. There was another cat nearby, but it seemed they were too focused to notice a tiny scruff like Dreamkit in the wrong territory. Dreamkit wasn't particularly worried; it wasn't in his nature. Besides, it's not like he was in ShadowClan...which, he had thought about checking out on more than one occasion. The only reason he hadn't was because the stickiness and noise of the Thunderpath more or less freaked him out, but one day...

The older cat was closer now. Dreamkit was still mostly paying attention to the flower. He had hardly caught the apprentice's words, but they had resonated somewhere in his young mind. Looking up, he checked out the sky that the elders with the best story-times once knew as StarClan. The stars were beautiful. It was hard to see the sky like this in a covered place like ThunderClan. They shone brightly in his light green, almost grey, eyes, and he spoke softly, but clearly, with no hint of a young kitten voice on his tongue.

"We're all alone...in our own way."

[~Nighthunter~]

Nighthunter - Hunter of the night...~

Soil parted ways, and crunched under the ebony toes of the pitch warrior walking through the forest. Her pace was steady, though aimless as though she was sight seeing rather then patrolling. It was an odd sort of day for her, one where the burden of her lost loved ones weighed a lot more then usual, making her feel lethargic and unenthusiastic. Not that it was any different then any other day, nothing special remembrance wise. The lack of them being there, the missing presence, the feeling of being alone. That more then anything was weighing heavily on her now.

Of course she knew that she shouldn't be so melancholy. After all her clan was there for her as always, and they were open and welcoming to her. Its just not the same, losing ten of those you care about in just a few short seasons. Most warriors crumble under only one loss, she was holding out. It was weak to not keep yourself strong, she knew that much, and clung to that ideal. Her mate had believed in surviving to better the future, and she knew he wouldn't be pleased if she was slacking or giving up on herself.

This patrol was made on a whim, she wasn't really assigned it. It was just something to clear her head, to get her on the move and out of the camp. If she had sat around all day, Nighthunter as sure to have cried herself to sleep already. In truth that was probably they only way she would get to sleep tonight, as she hadn't slept without silently doing so since she lost them. Looking up at the stars, she wondered if her family was safe in there embrace. She knew for certain most were, but Burningpatch, and Ashpatch were killed after the moonstone collapsed. She prayed every night that they had found the path to there ancestors.

Knowing the layout of the land by heart, she knew she was close to the Windclan border. That's where she figured she might as well take a peek at. Lionmask was very particular about the rabies incident, it wouldn't do to ignore the border now while she was here. There was no point in not checking it out just to be safe. Besides she would rather get bitten then let another from Thunderclan fall victim to it, they had more to lose then she did.

That's where things got interesting, before she smelt him, she noted a tiny frame walking towards the border. Lifting a brow in surprise, the dark warrior, was on alert, looking for signs that a Windclan patrol was near. Was it possible for the kit to get all the way here by his self? Making her way closer to him, still on the lookout, she walked behind him some feet, before stopping to look at him.

The large pawed and overly fluffy tom didn't look scared at all, in fact he looked like he was concentrating. Sitting back a bit, she scented the air, the scent of Windclan hitting her. Not surprising really since the border was a few tail lengths away, but she thought she heard a voice, and knew that a Windclanner was near, since no one was by Dreamkit. She was about to launch from the ground and jump to his defense, when she heard the tiny kitten respond back to the voice. This had her pausing, why would this kit know a Windclanner, she thought. Keeping a careful eye on him, and deciding to wait and see what happened next, she waited in the bushes, letting her pitch black pelt fall into night's shadows to watch and protect the kitten if need be. One thing was for certain, she was giving this youngster a good scolding the first chance she got once this was over with.

[STREAKZ]

owlpaw
these words are all we have, were we talking?

The gray and white tabby had fully expected his grumbling and mumbling to go unanswered -- when one tended to complain about such things they tended to do so in private. If you talked to someone and said to their face, "I'm all alone in this world," they would likely think them an idiot, or become offended because they happen to be in this world too. That or they'd find that person to be a bit overdramatic. So when he actually received a reply for those words he found himself straightening and looking around in mild confusion.

I don't recognize that voice, he thought with a twitch of his tail. The bicolored tabby looked around in confusion for a moment. It took him a few heartbeats before he opened his maw to breathe in the scent of the world around him, and then found himself turning his nose down when he duly registered that the smell -- while ThunderClan -- was definitely kit-scent.

In Owlpaw's defense, the little tomcat hadn't sounded like a kit. He had spoken with all the wise intellect of a senior warrior, and for several heartbeats he wondered if he was wrong and if this was just some extraordinarily small ThunderClan warrior in his midst. He was, at the moment, bewildered by the dreamy little kitten. Briefly he wondered if he ought to work up the energy to protect the border, but why on earth should he hiss at a kit? Even if he seemed to be tromping around like he owned the place.

"That's true," He said slowly, his slightly drowsy voice was punctuated at the end by a yawn. For now his earlier misgivings were almost entirely shouldered aside -- a kit in WindClan territory was a big deal. If ThunderClan smelled his scent at the border they might leap to conclusions and think that they'd kidnapped him. Still his mind was working out how to approach that. The kitten's maturity had thrown him, and he half didn't think scolding or explaining why he shouldn't be here would work. "Each of us in this world have our own private misery and joy to wade through. It's amazing though, how even our small world can be so vast."

Despite himself he let out a soft mrrow of laughter, inching forward and twitching his whiskers so that he could get a better look at the ThunderClan kit. "You seem awfully interested in our territory, but shouldn't you be at home in your nest? I only ask because honestly I ought to be sleeping back in the Medicine Cat den in camp." He angled his ears in the vague direction of WindClan's hollow, twitching his whiskers and tipping his head. "But I understand what it's like to explore, when I was a kit I used to sneak places all the time. I'm Owlpaw by the way, what's your name?"

He purred with amusement, glancing down at the little tomcat. As for Nighthunter, the medicine cat apprentice didn't even scent her or notice her presence. His slow methodical words were spoken to the kit alone, and without knowledge that he might have another cat waiting and watching.

and i hear you calling in the dead of night

[sammonroll]

Dreamkit spoke, but he didn't necessarily think of his audience. He was so lost in the sparkling swirls of the stars, that conversation with the apprentice caught him off guard, even though this troublesome kit was the one who started it. When the other cat remarked on his statement, Dreamkit jumped a little, his already scattered fur now standing on end. But as the apprentice spoke, he calmed down again, and returned his gaze to the stars.

"Each of us in this world have our own private misery and joy to wade through. It's amazing though, how even our small world can be so vast," the WindClanner spoke, treating the kit more like a peer than a baby. But even though Dreamkit had seemed wise beyond his moons just a moment ago, he was still just a kit and these big words he was hearing were all very curious. Private misery...? Doesn't sound too nice... Hrnn... vast sounds like...fast. His brow scrunched, imagining a small version of the forest on a speedy set of paws, racing through the sky.

By the time this dreamy-eyed kit returned to the real world, the WindClan apprentice was halfheartedly scolding him. It didn't affect him much, and even if another ThunderClan warrior were to find him screwing up the warrior code, it wasn't such a big deal. Sure, just as any other kit, he didn't like being yowled at. But Clan boundaries meant little to him. Loyalty was still a nice idea, but he saw no reason for another cat to get mad at him for sniffing their flowers or climbing their trees. After all, how could a cat call the earth theirs? The earth didn't care, so neither did Dreamkit.

The apprentice soon cast his scolding away for an introduction. "I'm Owlpaw by the way, what's your name?"

Owlpaw...? "Owlpaw," the tiny kit mewed, his little voice returning back to him and the deeper, mysterious one fading into uncertain memory. "Oh uhm, I'm Dreamkit. Momma said she had a dream about me once, and I was walking on clouds. Then she had me!" He looked at the other cat and cheesed, a bright smile plastered over his face. The sudden show of childish happiness was a stark contrast from the pensive, older spirit that was previously in his place.

Dreamkit cocked his head to the side, inspecting the white and marble grey cat before him. "Owlpaw..." he said again, squinting his eyes as if expecting the cat to sprout wings. When nothing happened, he decided to ask. The tom's eyes opened wide in very kit-like curiosity. "Can you fly?"

[~Nighthunter~]

Nighthunter - Hunter of the night...~

The atmosphere of the night's embrace graced her with clarity for the moment. In reality she wondered if it was the calm clear starry sky that drew this from her, or the diffinitive notion that should the kit need her, she would snap into action at a moments notice. Probably the latter, as she had her eyes glued now to the tiny frame of Dreamkit. Stretching her claws out in a nearly lax fashion, she pulled back from of the moist grass from the ground, clenching it in her grasp before relaxing her phallanges and releasing the strands.

Plenty of things should have occupied her mind in this moment. Starclan knew she had been going over past events in her head and heart numerous times on a daily basis. Even curent things in the clan were drawing her attention away from her past and onto them, so now that her head was free of nearly everything, it was like she was waking up. Waking up at night, hmm what a prospect for one trying to rest. To wake up well rested in the dark without needing sleep. Now that is interesting indeed. Vaguely she idled over such thoughts, they were very interesting, a new theory of sorts that she might indulge in another time. One where little kits were peacefully well behaved and sleeping in there own nests in the camp, and not at Windclan's door. Surely the Windclanner would have thought of taking the spiky Dreamkit with them by now, it was a devious trick, but one she had seen before. Yes dreamkit was really going to have to talk to her.

Mothering instincts, something though familiar were things she had cut herself off from recently. More like chosen to ignore if she were honest with herself. Too many memories down that road, but now this kit was making her wonder just how quickly she would snap and claw the head off the other cat should things get violent. Would she react like a warrior protecting a clanmate, the youth and survival of the clan, or as a mother protecting a kit? Another intriqueing thought she really did not want to test out. At risk of the kit, and her santity. She wondered how his mother had missed him, and what manner of escape he had used to leave her radar, for all mothers had one. With so many kits of her own at one time, she had to have a pretty large one to accomodate them.

Listening in on there conversation, and noting for the first time whom he was talking to, she relaxed a little. Owlpaw was no threat to the kit. A medicine cat apprentice, and one with his kind heart surely would not resort to harming a kit. The medicine cat was also old enough to know about borders. She remembered that he at one point was a normal apprentice, so she was sure he knew better then to break the code. While Dreamkit had sounded wiser then his age, he was quickly shown to be the kitten he really was once Owlpaw got more philosophical on the kit. Poor Owlpaw probably needed a good ear to listen to him by the sound of things. His murrow of ammusement was music to her ears, as she knew that he would not harm Dreamkit since he was delighted by the sound of things. It seemed the dual colored tabby tom was by himself as well, so she decided why not make herself known. It wouldn't do for another to wander in on them, with her just skulking about in the darkness. She stood and let out her own murmmering rumble of a laugh at Dreamkit's innocent question about whether Owlpaw could fly or not. " Now wouldn't that be something, to see an apprentice fly. Cats do not fly little one, they can run and climb and jump really far, but we cannot fly."

Her answer might have come before or after Owlpaw's, she wasn't sure as she was walking up to them. So it was entirely possible that he had spoken first. She was sure that upon seeing her that a change might come over in the Windclan tom's manner. Then again maybe he would care less that she was there now, that she had been there listening in the whole time. Maybe it would creep him out, or maybe it was all just meaningless.

[STREAKZ]

owlpaw
these words are all we have, were we talking?

Dreamkit huh? Owlpaw's ears perked up as he peered at the young kit -- that was interesting, at least the receiving of his name. Dreams were sacred to Clan cats, or at least they used to be. What Dreamkit described sounded an awful lot like the days when Medicine Cats and Leaders sometimes received dreams from StarClan.

It was an interesting thought, in any case. Owlpaw himself wasn't sure if he even believed in StarClan -- but the idea that they might exist made his heart pound with excitement. The cat, fixed as he was, didn't often feel strong bursts of excitement like this -- any emotion tended to be dulled by the laziness of his condition. Of course he still got surprised every now and again.

He purred, sneezing slightly with laughter at Dreamkit's question. Could he fly? Certainly not, though back in the day he used to be able to run so fast that he felt like he could. He felt slightly wistful suddenly, paws itching to tear over the moor in a random burst of energy to show the kit just how well he could "fly" as it were.

The feeling was quashed almost immediately, replaced with alarm when a ThunderClan warrior stepped forward. Owlpaw stiffened, shock causing his usually sleepy eyes to stretch wide open. He felt his fur start to raise slightly, and half expected more warriors to pour into the open after her. Was he going to get attacked? He didn't think he could possibly fight a warrior, besides he hadn't done anything wrong.

Calm down, he reasoned with himself. The she-cat was talking, her tone didn't seem hostile and she didn't seem confrontational with him. He relaxed, feeling a strange amount of exhaustion wash over him. He needed to sleep for a moon and a half. This was too much excitement for him, and all while he'd been in a relatively exhausted state in any case.

"She's right," Owlpaw said to Dreamkit without missing a beat. He angled his ears toward the she-cat in a nod, smiling at Dreamkit. "I can't fly, though I wish I could! Imagine all the herbs I could find for my Clan from that high!"

He purred with amusement at the thought, still edgily aware of the warrior she-cat. She was likely going to be taking his company away, and he realized with a twinge of sadness that he wished she didn't have to. Some inner frustration at the borders welled up inside of him, what was the harm in talking to some other cats? Cats that maybe didn't know about the Twolegs taking him like they did, changing him and making him not a tom? Sure he smelled weird, he was sure of that, but to them he was just a sleepy Medicine Cat apprentice. Not some cat to pity, or even avoid for being strange.

"You're er-- I'm sorry I don't know your name." He'd only been to one gathering, and had stuck by Brightpaw's side. This she-cat hadn't been among that group. Self-consciously he glanced at Dreamkit, and forced an amused purr, "Looks like someone came to take you back home."

and i hear you calling in the dead of night

[sammonroll]

With ears perked up and a face full of hope, he looked at Owlpaw for a good answer. His little heart pounded, waiting to hear the confirmation of his suspicious. Instead, a warrior answered for him, "Now wouldn't that be something, to see an apprentice fly. Cats do not fly little one, they can run and climb and jump really far, but we cannot fly."

In surprise, the fluffy tom turned over one shoulder, only to find trees. He frowned and kept turning in that direction, scooting his rump around until he found the source of the noise. His mouth formed an "Oh!" of surprise as he recognized the black warrior, before looking down with disappointment at her answer.

He glanced back at Owlpaw as he agreed, but he noticed a fleeting look of excitement in the cat's eyes, channeling the renowned spirit of the gliding moorland Clan. As the apprentice's eyes shown at the thought of the possibility of flying, Dreamkit frowned. He didn't want his suspicions to be wrong.

"I bet you could fly, if you really wanted to," he mewed his belief in the WindClanner, and imagined Owlpaw flying low over his Clan with large, soundless owl wings. With such huge wings, he could hold his whole clan comfortably by him, like a protector - an angel. With this thought, Dreamkit looked up at Owlpaw with newfound admiration. The apprentice hadn't done anything in particular, but if Dreamkit thought about it, it had to be true.

But then this owl-winged protector spoke up and made the kit pout. "Looks like someone came to take you back home."

"But I'm not doing anything baaad..." the young ball of fluff muttered, flopping to the floor in dramatic fashion. "Just a teeny weenie bit longer?" The kit sidled up to Nighthunter, pressing himself right up against her, and looked up at her with large, pleading kitten eyes.

For a second, he glanced behind Nighthunter's head at the stars, and spoke softly, in a voice similar to the sentence that began this whole encounter, "Night is lonely enough as it is..."

[~Nighthunter~]

Nighthunter - Hunter of the night...~

She took in the sight of the tom with intrigued eyes. Here this Windclanner had not harmed the kit, nor had he hissed him away either. She was not as concerned for the safety of the kit since she was there, nor that he would wander off. The Windclanner appeared to be apprentice age, though slightly more plump then most. The smell of herbs clung to him, and she remembered seeing him at the gathering close to the medicine cats.

Tipping her head at his purring, she noted hs questioning admission that he did not recall her name. Remembering her manners, and his fear stricken face, she knew that he probably did not remember her from the gathering. She had talked about Frostedpaw, Redpaw and Brightpaw as they talked to this young tom in there group, while she conversed with the Riverclan warrior. Recognition did not always help with names, so she gave him hers, she meant him no harm after all. " Relax, if I wished you harm, it would have already come to pass for the life of a kit. I am Nighthunter an older warrior of Thunderclan. You bare the smell of herbs young one, are you a medicine cat apprentice?"

Owlpaw mentioned her taking Dreamkit home, and she would have liked to agree, except she thought that the kitten might squeal and draw potentially dangerous attention to them. Not from Owlpaw, but there was no telling what another warrior from either side might assume with this picture during the twilight. Then she was distracted as the littlest one that had slide up to her side and burrowed against her in an attempt to sway her to take him back. She smiled at him, but looked cunningly at his antics. Nighthunter had raised many kits, and knew his games, but she saw little harm in this meeting so long as it was nonrecurent and would not back fall on her. " Dreamkit, a kitten must not beg nor pout to get what he wants, that is not a way of strength. I know these kitten ways, I have had many to look after before watching over you. You may stay a while longer so long as I am near, for how long I cannot say though." She lefted it at that.

[.THEPREDATOR&&]

F O X

A orange red form sprinted through the trees. Foam trickled from it's mouth, but it quickly wiped it away with it's fluffy white tipped tail. Pain pulsed through it's veins, a burning, red hot pain that wouldn't go away. His whole life, he never thought it would end like this. He had a mate, a lovely mate and three kits at home. They were his pride and joy, but they could not see him like his. It was all because of that rabbit he ate. That rabbit that killed him. Or would kill him. The pain pulsing through his veins was unbearable. He couldn't stand it anymore. He couldn't. It wouldn't stop unless he killed. He had to kill. It was the only thing that made it better. If only for a moment. His slim and lithe body, ribs showing from lack of food, weaved through the trees of what he called cat territory. It was the quickest way to find easy prey, easy cats to kill. They didn't take a liking to foxes, and often times killed them. In fact, they had killed his brother not too long ago. He wanted revenge, and the disease coursing through him made it even more a priority to him.

He slowed down when he heard voices. The disease was relatively new to him, and he still had control of most of his motor functions. He saw them, three cats conversing. One was a warrior, she was big and strong enough to be one. The other was smaller, but not as small as the third. He'd be his target. The easiest to kill. The easiest to get a hold of. He prowled around the trio, silent as he could be. He was behind the smallest one now, but the wind shifted and he was sure they would scent him soon. The disease pushed him to go, to attack. But he didn't want to. It was no bigger than his own, it reminded him of his family back home. He couldn't stand himself. He just wanted to die. That would make the pain go away. This desire to kill. That would make everything better if he just died. A pulse coursed through him, and he twitched his head sideways. He winced with pain, it taking over his body. He had to make it stop. He had to. He had no other choice.

With a yowl he jumped into the clearing, his teeth bared and ear pushed back. Three warrior cats he couldn't take on, but there was only one, maybe two who could fight him. He swatted at the little kit, hoping his paw would make contact and push him away. He turned his back to the small cat, hoping his strike had rendered it unable to attack. Not that it's tiny paws and teeth could do much to him anyway. His eyes were wide, rapid to anyone who knew the signs. He smelled of death, because his body was killing itself. Maybe it would scare the other two cats away. He could only hope. But the disease gave him more strength, more confidence. It told him to attack, he had to attack. If he didn't, pain would start again. He couldn't stand anymore of that pain. He hissed at the two cats, snapping his jaws at both of them, puffing out his fur in hopes to scare them away. He looked larger than a normal fox, probably because he was. He had once been the largest fox in the area. But his not eating since he contracted rabies had taken a toll on his health. Yet, that didn't stop him from attacking this trio.

He didn't wait for one of them to attack. He lunged at the largest, black female cat, his back paws landing before his front. He used the momentum to swipe with all his strength with his left front paw. He aimed at her face, hoping his strike would hit. Just in case it didn't, he pushed his front paws down and lunged at her with his teeth. If he bit her, she would get the disease also. There was nothing more satisfying that giving another the disease, to watch them suffer like he did. He loved watching it course through a squirrel's or rabbit's veins. There was nothing more pleasing to him these days. He was slowly even losing memories of his family back home. All he knew now was death and disease. He backed away from her, hoping she wouldn't try to attack as he did, and kept his eyes on the medium sized one, that didn't seem as old as the one had just got done attacking. He wanted to draw this out, lure them into attacking him and tiring them out. It was his only hope at killing this kit.

[STREAKZ]

owlpaw
these words are all we have, were we talking?

Owlpaw let out a mrrow of laughter -- so the philosopher kit was just a kit after all huh? No prodigy? But then, maybe it was his childish innocence that made him more intelligent. He was untainted yet, by the world around him. His young mind still ripe for molding and shaping. The things that happened to him from here on out would change him into the cat he'd someday become. You know it was funny, when the twolegs had ruined him he'd been too young to ever even consider kits, but it struck him suddenly -- and painfully -- that he would never father ones like Dreamkit. Not because of the path he now walked down, but because he physically could not anymore. Just like how he physically could only rely on his energy for so long.

It was strange, the amount of jealousy that kindled in him. It was a potent feeling, one that was only intensified when Dreamkit snuggled up to his clan-mate. He shook his head, irritated at himself. Really now, of course Dreamkit was more friendly to the warrioress, she was part of his Clan after all.

At her words -- "relax" how confusing he wasn't displaying any sign of discomfort that would have been out of the ordinary -- Owlpaw merely twitched his whiskers. "Yes, actually. I'm Brokenstride's apprentice." Not that it should matter, in his opinion. Either way he was an apprentice, just an apprentice -- and in his own territory as well! It wasn't as if WindClanners would go so far as to break the Warrior Code just because a kit wandered into their territory either.

"Wouldn't it be best to take him back to his camp? Y'know, off of our territory, haha..." Owlpaw meowed before he could stop himself, he immediately cursed himself for the words that came too quickly. This registered on his face for a moment, green eyes widened and his mouth dropped open and he cleared his throat. "Not that I was telling you to, leave. Um, or threatening you. Not at all, you're considerably bigger than I am and obviously more experienced. Though it probably wouldn't look too good on your record if you slaughtered a medicine cat apprentice for saying something stupid. Just, throwing that one out there. Because I just um, I just said a lot of stupid things heh."

Why was he so nervous suddenly? Owlpaw felt keyed up and couldn't begin to explain why. Sure the black she-cat was troublesome, but he didn't usually word vomit unless cornered by like Brokenstride or Lionmask after doing something particularly stupid. Which -- thankfully -- didn't happen all that often. He didn't think. The apprentice sniffed the air, ears twitching, "Sorry I'm not sure why -- do you smell that?"

Maybe it was because he knew these moors. They were home to him, dangerous because of the sicknesses running rampant over them lately but still home. He knew the smell of the wind, and for a brief moment there was a stink -- but it was hard to make out. Downwind? His pelt suddenly bristled in alarm, green eyes snapping to a shape in the darkness.

His voice caught in his throat -- how useless of him. It was only a heartbeat really, but it stuck there long enough for a loud yowl -- the scream of an animal in agonizing pain due to sickness -- to give away the creature as it sprang through the air. Funny how when everyone else could clearly see it he managed to spit it out, "Fox!"

Owlpaw recognized those eyes. He'd seen the sickness, that's the thing. He was a medicine cat apprentice learning in the wake of one of the most awful diseases to sweep through the forests. He knew in an instant it was the fever that drove things mad, and then he was knocked through the air.

The medicine cat apprentice rolled head over tail for a few moments, stopping only when he threw his legs out to try and catch himself. Disoriented he whirled toward that fox, panic flared in his green eyes. "Don't let it bite you, it's poisonous!"

It might as well have been. He needed to run, to get away. That was the only thing he could do. It was too sick to track him probably, the fever would hinder it. If he could get back to camp he'd be fine, "Run! We have to -- Dreamkit!"

The realization that there was a young kit in the area flattened his instinct to flee. He spun around, desperate to spot the ThunderClan kit. How could Dreamkit run? He was just a kit, he'd be taken over in an instant. He dove for what he hoped was the kit, landed near and hoped to god he wasn't doing something ridiculous like mistaking a rock for the fluffy little tomcat, "Dreamkit come with me, right now we have to go."

Some part of him cringed with guilt, how could he leave the warrior to deal with this? All alone? He couldn't devote his attention to her, she was strong, she was trained. Dreamkit was not, and he was going to have to take responsibility for him considering that the ThunderClan warrior had her paws full with a rabid fox.

and i hear you calling in the dead of night