Open Territory creatures at dawn // deer sighting

This thread takes place outside the clan's camp in its territory.

GHOSTSTRIKE

i aim low, i aim true, and the grounds where i go
ThunderClan
103
5
Freshkill
605
Pronouns
He / Him
Rank
Thunderclan Warrior
Played by
Dizzy

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I WON'T SMILE, BUT I'LL SHOW YOU MY TEETH

OOC- Ghost has stumbled across a group of deer for the first time and witnesses a buck shedding their antlers :)


It was a quiet morning– no snow or wind, but still crisp and cold enough for Ghost to feel the bite of it on the tips of his ears and nose. His coat, winter-thick, still felt too short for it, but it wasn't the first winter he'd endured without a body next to his own and it wouldn't be the last.

Like always, he would endure until things got better.

He was down by the river in the early hours when he spotted them, moving lazily along the waters edge. Tall, thin-legged creatures with narrow faces and large round eyes. Massive, compared to any cat or dog he'd crossed paths with before, and yet as he watched them from his hidden post, they didn't exhibit the behavior of something dangerous. Heads constantly on a swivel, big ears twitching about, pawing at the snow with their odd stone feet to nibble at the grass beneath it. Skittish and alert, like a mouse or rabbit despite the fact that one of them had what looked to be a set of thorn-like branches protruding from their head.

They didn't come off as threatening, but they left Ghoststrike wondering what kind of creature something of their size would be so wary of. Surely not just the twolegs, who Ghost had only glimpsed on the thunderpath with their monsters since joining. Dark eyes widened in surprise when the larger one gave a great shake of it's skull– and the set of branchlike things on top of their head fell off and landed in the snow a few feet away.

Then the beasts were moving on, leaving a baffled Ghoststrike wondering what the hell he'd just witnessed.

Once the herd was gone– still easily tracked by their marks in the snow, which was good because Ghost intended to report this just in case-- the shadow moved from the barren treeline and the clump of brush he'd been concealed in down toward the river to investigate. The tracks themselves were deep, a testimony to the weight and size of the animals, and their scent was distinct, one he wouldn't easily forget.

As he moved on to the fallen object left behind in the snow, he realised it was less like a pale, gnarled branch and far more akin to a bone of some kind, but not smooth like the ones he'd seen in the past. There were ridges and grooves, scratches and knicks from wear and tear. But no blood or fur. No sign that it'd fallen off due to some sort of physical trauma. Just a faint coppery scent near the base where it'd met the skull of the beast.

'So they do use them for something.' If those markings on them were anything to go by. A mental note that wouldn't soon be forgotten– not with the gruesome image of a cat skewered atop them came to mind alongside it.


thunderclan warrior- male - a large, grey tabby with dark amber eyes and several scars
googhost.webp


 
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Really, he hadn't known that Ghoststrike was in that bush, just downriver of him. The ice was cold beneath his paws, but where he had broken into it, the sips of water were a relief on his throat. Seriously, he hoped he wasn't getting sick, though knowing him, the true source of the dry throat this morning was from snoring. An awful habit he had, sleeping on his back, causing his head to tilt backwards and opening his windpipe the wrong way. "Ugh." He mumbled to himself, leaning against the tree that was at the waters edge- eyes shifting towards a black dot in the distance.

Baby blues blinked. He knew that pelt anywhere, the flash of white on his face. Paws slipped on the ice at the edge of the water, an 'oof' leaving him as he slid. Thunderflash picked himself up and hurried over, ignoring the biting cold at his eartips and paw pads. "Ghostie! Funny seein' y' here... what." Eyes shifted towards what lay at Ghoststrike's paws, unsure of how he missed where these came from, the tracks in the ground. Seriously, if it were a snake, it would've bitten him. "Wha' is tha'." He says, moving past the tom to nudge the antlers with his paws. "Antlers, huh? Think we could drag i' back to camp, give th' wee tikes somethin' t' play with?" Thunderflash says, his teeth stretching in a grin.

  • "speech"
  • THUNDERFLASH he/him, thunderclan storm guard, twenty one moons.
    a sh/lh chocolate tabby with low white and stunning baby blue eyes. stands of average height with a 'mohawk' and spiky-shaped mane.
    mentored by who / mentoring no one
    whichever relations / want listed
    peaceful and healing powerplay permitted / / underline and tag when attacking
    penned by dallas ↛ dallasofnines on discord, feel free to dm for plots.
 
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Grizzlypaw liked to explore where he could around ThunderClan's home, often making games of his time and practicing his abilities to track his way back home on his own. The chocolate rosette liked how quiet the forest could be in the morning, when the birds had hardly rose from their nests to begin their symphony of chirpsong and tweeting.

It isn't Ghoststrike or deer-scent that brought him by but the odd rustling crash of impact the bucks antlers made, sending the earth subtle vibration beneath his paws. It made Grizzlypaw duck quickly into the closest cover to him, not realizing until he felt ready to part from his hiding that he had dove into a thorny bush.

Whiny muttered owow, oooow's came in stuttered breaths as he tried to swallow the pain with each inhale until he was free, but littered in loose thorns still strung up in his long fur. He would get those out later, at least none had poked into his paws or nose.

"Woah, what are these?" The apprentice gasped as he found the pair from his investigating. Grizzlypaw lifted his paw to test the weight of the bone, finding them sturdy enough for him to jump and balance himself on the thicker roots of the antlers. "They're like... if trees were rocks or something."

  • "speech"

  • GRIZZLYPAW he/him, thunderclan, nine moons.
    a lh chocolate rosette tabby with blue eyes // large cat breed build
    mentored by ?
    peaceful and healing powerplay permitted / / always tag subacct
    penned by gonkpilled ↛ gonkpilled on discord, feel free to dm for plots / click for toyhou.se
 
I am not your kind and gentle husband

Graybird glanced over as Grizzlypaw dove into the bush, the sound of impact, almost thunder-like clattering echoed through the trees and he turned his olive eyes forward with a knowing smile as he crept closer, making clear he wasn't afraid. He'd heard this before long ago, the treeline by open fields crowded by groups of spindly limbed beasts with branches wreathing their crowns. In amusement he watched the apprentice clamber out of his thorny hide away, presumably regretting his dive but quickly distracted.

"Antlers." The gray tom answers Grizzlypaw gently, realizing the apprentice had missed the garbled explanation given from the russet feline, his remains voice soft as he trails along after Thunderflash and Ghoststrike, out on patrol with his new charge and hoping it wasn't very eventful, "They are to a deer as our claws are to us, though only the toms grow them unlike with cats whose molly are just as quick to fight. The does aren't weak though, their hooves are like stone and can crack a cat's head with one kick if you aren't careful but they generally leave us be if we leave them be." Though he spoke to the young chocolate tom his gaze drifted back to ensure his own apprentice was included in the conversation; hoping to instill some fearful respect.
The warrior glanced over to Thunderflash and Ghoststrike, brow arched, hadn't they left camp seperately before he had? "Did you two find any prey while you were out here bonding? Bustardpaw and I can take it back for you if you'd like."

Apprentice Tag- @BUSTARDPAW
& I am not the love you knew before.
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GRAY

— Warrior ThunderClan
— He/They
"SPEECH", 'THOUGHTS', ATTACK
— SH Gray Tabby with holly green eyes.#82847e
 


It was imperative to track footprints within the snow, for even if they weren't cat, a whimsical part of the tom would not put it past ShadowClan to clamber atop massive beasts. Confusion shone in Brightpetal's orange eyes as he first pushed through the winter thicket, staring as if his clanmates had suddenly grown hooves themselves. The feeling came and went in a breath, as the smiling Deputy hopped closer, he noticed the tracks went further than his friends had ever walked. Upon the ground before them was a branch-like bone, its tendrils causing a shiver to run down his orange spine.

Nope, ThunderClan would be fine without the creepy haunted trees falling upon them.

Some of the other cats called them antlers, a name he'd heard before, but he'd never anticipated that they'd be so... weird. Deers had always sounded like peaceful creatures, graceful but occasionally fierce in all the right ways - why then there was a faint remnant of copper upon their organs was anyone's guess. He could imagine his own bones falling off and regrowing, too vivid of an imagination being a plague as his clanmates suggested bringing them back. Being horrifying wasn't a crime, he supposed he could sleep at night knowing the antlers were in the same camp as him....

Probably.

"Wow Gray, you know a lot about them," he admired. "Do bears and other beasties eat the tree-rock antlers?"