Briarfox's dreams had been restless since his meeting with Thistlewish. While he hadn't found himself in that darkened wood again, he could see... glimpses. Glimpses of the wood, of his siblings, of his Clanmates.
Tonight, it was one Clanmate in particular. Flurryvale stood by the river, fur whipped by the snow and wind. Blood speckled the thick cover of snow on the ground, and the prey barely poked its head out of the rapidly descending white. Another squirrel raced past them - Briarfox lept for the kill, but it scurried away - slipping into the river, where the current carried its body to the other side. Flurryvale mouthed something to Briarfox - unintelligible, much to Briarfox's dismay - and hopped across the stones of the river to their neighboring clan's territory, heading deeper than where the piece of prey lay, shivering. Briarfox watched in fury as a patrol of RiverClan cats emerged from the snow, fangs bared and claws ready to strike - they were aware of the intrusion, and ready to pay back the transgression tenfold.
They're going to attack ThunderClan! he realized. All because of that idiot...
Briarfox woke with a start, the chill from the oncoming snow seeping into his bones. Maybe this was why he'd been having the visions. If he could stop Flurryvale from crossing the border... ThunderClan would be safe. He could protect them. He rushed from his nest, blinking away the little flakes of snow as they scattered onto his face. Flurryvale was just about to step out of camp, and the tortie warrior bounded over to the brat.
"Hey, Flurryvale! Going out for a hunt? Why don't I join you?"
OOC: All opinions are IC! Per precognition, this vision is false/misinterpreted. @Flurryvale
It wasn't uncommon for Flurryvale to go out on a hunting patrol on his own or with very few. When he decided to go out without others to try and hunt, usually the tom found himself staying far away from the borders of the other clans, worried about the things they might do to a cat by himself. The constant threat of potential death loomed over their heads - especially after the events of the first gathering, of splattered blood of their leader on those stones that each leader had at every gathering since climbed. Each he had been told ignored the place where Loonstar lie, ignoring the fact that SkyClan had taken the life from another, and so in turn the young warrior had decided that it did not matter whether the other clans had treat them with the respect that cats in general should be treated with, he would treat them each as a threat just in case. One couldn't be too careful.
However, many of the places that he felt safe to hunt by himself were growing more and more bare. Whether it be due to the cold that whipped through the territory now or the fact that many other cats within ThunderClan had thought of the same thing he didn't know - nor did it matter - so when Briarfox asked to join the warrior it didn't take him more than a second to weigh out the options, head nodding as he agreed. "I don't see why not." He'd speak, nonchalant. "The places I usually hunt are going bare anyway, so it'd be nice to go a little further out now, so you'll do to help just in case." Just in case a fight broke out, in case a cat decided to cross the border with nothing but ill intent.
Quickly he'd pad out, not waiting for a reaction from the other - Briar had been the one to insert himself into Flurry's hunting so he would have to be the one to keep up, even if he wasn't moving too quickly. There would be little conversation as the two pad along, moving towards the river that served as the border between ThunderClan and RiverClan. It didn't take him long to stop moving, ears pricked and maw open as he scented the air to see what would be around before he turned back towards the other. "Let's see what we find over here, I smell a couple things that don't seem stale."
FLURRYVALE he/him, thunderclan 10 moons old. a buff long-furred cat mentored by none // mentoring none NPC x NPC / sibling to none / crushing on none excelled learner "speech" // "thoughts" penned by tikki ↛ rabbitcake on discord, feel free to dm for plots.
The places he usually hunts? Briarfox wondered. Was Flurryvale constantly going out on his own? Foolish fucking kid.
Briarfox may have also been a young warrior, but he was no fool. Going out hunting alone all the time was risky and arrogant. No wonder he'd been given that warning. Flurryvale was just too inexperienced to be doing this alone. He should still be in the apprentices' den, getting rid of dirty moss.
He followed Flurryvale, quiet with clenched teeth. Like his dream had shown him, they were by the RiverClan border - all he had to do was make sure that the younger warrior didn't go haring off into their neighbors' territory, and everything would be fine.
"That works," he meowed. "Lead the way, Flurryvale."
Unlike Briarfox, Flurryvale thought the hunting by himself had been a good idea. Going out on his own was dangerous yes - you never knew what was in the territory - but it meant that there were less cats to make noise among the underbrush, and if something were to happen he'd be quicker on his own getting back to camp or climbing up a tree than if he were having to worry about other clanmates too. Since he'd been doing it he had found more success in hunting than when he went in groups - at least to himself - so there had been no issues with the idea in his own mind. If rogues and loners could hunt by themselves and still live - sometimes thrive depending on which cat it was - why couldn't he? Anything they could do the clans could do too but better, and that was... simply a fact within his mind.
He didn't notice the way Briarfox clenched his jaw, too far ahead of the other and not paying attention to his clanmate enough to notice the way he was annoyed with Flurry's existence - or perhaps he simply didn't care - and any glimpse of it would vanish from the young warrior's mind as he followed after the scent of prey that he had caught when they arrived. Carefully, slowly, he moved along the bank of the river, eyes scanning the area ahead of them to make sure he didn't miss any prey before eyes landed on something ahead, paws stopped their movement, and silently his tail moved up to signal Briarfox to stop too.
There was a squirrel by the bank, drinking water carefully as ears flicked around, listening to anything it could so that it could remain alert. Flurryvale knew that there would be little time before it was finished with it's drink, and depending on which direction it turned to hop back up a tree it would see the hunting duo, be alerted by their presence and run off before they could get it. He tried to signal to Briarfox to go around carefully as he crouched, paws moving forward slowly as eyes trained on the squirrel. Hopefully one of them would be able to run it into the other's paws - a perk of hunting with another - and that'd be that, and as he moved closer, finally within range of the plume-tailed rodent, he'd ready himself to pounce, and when he finally did so, he landed at the same time as a small splash was heard, paws coming up empty as the squirrel decided instead of taking the smart option and running back towards the trees or towards Briarfox to instead jump forward, straight into the cold water that signaled the border, and instantly he found his eyes scanning the water in disbelief, trying to find the prey they had just lost.
FLURRYVALE he/him, thunderclan 10 moons old. a buff long-furred cat mentored by none // mentoring none NPC x NPC / sibling to none / crushing on none excelled learner "speech" // "thoughts" penned by tikki ↛ rabbitcake on discord, feel free to dm for plots.
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