Open Territory maybe you just like the control // otter spotting

[SABLESTAR]

A quick flick of his tail is the only command he gave his apprentice, encouraging her to move alongside him as he led her down a scent trail. The sun had hardly peaked it's head above this surface of the horizon, telling him morning was not far ahead of them. The night had been uneventful for anything out of the ordinary, not since the Clan had placed the remains of those ancient cats back into the soil. He had still slept poorly since, however, struggling to shake the lingering sensations of the dream they had cursed his Clan to experience.

He had felt death.

Sablestar thought he had nearly experienced the sensation before. In the moments before Hawthorne had spared his life, when Grey had ripped claws through his brothers flesh and he stumbled into Cicadabuzz's den soaked in his own blood. When Fleecefur had touched her nose to his and gifted him the lives of a champion in her name. It was nothing in comparison, it didn't feel as real as it had that night. It made his pelt prickle to recall on it, but it sat in the crevice of his mind like a lurking predator.

"There's something in the water." He warned Stoatpaw, looking at her as her stark pale pelt glowed in the dawn. "It could be dangerous, so do not wander." The tuxedo padded no closer than a fox-length from the murky surface, watching in the distance as furry figures chattered at one another. Round faces with long bodies- they looked more like over-sized weasels yet swam as comfortably as a fish! "Never seen one of these before... You?" Stoatpaw had lived here before ShadowClan, even if for a short time. Maybe Timber had come across one before.

this heart beats cold like the devil his own

• @Stoatpaw
  "mew"
• 

  SABLESTAR— he/him ･fifty-four moons ･leader; shadowclan ･penned by gonkpilled

  a black and white tuxedo with dark amber eyes

 

[Stoatpaw Stoatpaw]

——————————————— Together, we'll make our way home ✦

The apprentice picked up quickly to take attention to when Sablestar was around, particularly the flick of his tail, which he more often than not used to summon her to his side for something. This time, at least, it was nothing supernatural, haunting, or deathfilled as the last. Her strides were long enough to keep in time with the large tom, but her breath didn't once catch with exhaustion as Sablestar sniffed the air, leading them both to something. She sniffed in kind, trying to identify what it might be. There was something in the air; she squinted as she walked, trying to decipher what it might be, the sun of the new morning glancing across her vision; it was familiar somehow. Though most of the mells of the pocosin were, there was little she was unfamiliar with here.

So when Sablestar halted their walking as they came upon murky waters. Timberfrost always warned her to be careful around these, so being led here was a surprise. Though she looked to Sablestar as he quickly warned her not to wander, she was smart enough not to in this scenario. Especially as her fur bristled following Sablestar's gaze. In the water were a pair of very distinct critters bobbing with their mouths moving. Were they talking? Not like she could understand them if she could hear.

Her head tilted as Sablestar asked a peculiar question; she scanned his face for a moment, unable to tell if he was joking. "Those are otters!" She spoke matter-of-factly, with an air of confusion in her voice like it was as obvious as what a mouse was. "They look soft, but Father always warned me their teeth are dangerous."

She supposed her constant questioning as a tiny kitten was helpful in prospect. Being so small, she was always being carried about, but with open eyes and thousands of questions from curious kittens, they were lucky to have come from where they did; otherwise, Timberfrost would not have had one answer for her. She thought for a moment; she and her family weren't from here, somewhere further off that was damp but smelt nothing like the waters she'd passed by. It made her wonder.

"Where you came from - where everyone else came from - did you really not have otters there?" Her voice hums in her head, not wanting to take her gaze from the fluffy creatures. "Father and I saw them in the big river, and once when we got here. We moved from our first den 'cause he was worried about them once leafbare started." She wasn't exactly as small and helpless as before, but it was not as if she'd gotten that much bigger yet. But her mind still wandered to the place her clan lived before, a colony they called it, there was an ever-burning curiosity about it but getting answers was always easier said than done,

——— While you were sleeping,

Everything changed at once. ———

• 
  Stoatkit
  ✦—Shadowclan apprentice | 6 Moons
  ✦—She/Her
  ✦—"SPEECH", 'THOUGHTS', ATTACK
  ✦—A slender white cat with faint lilac markings and blue eyes.
  #96d5f1
  ⤷ Written by Phoenix

 

[WOLFPACK]

AND I AM SORRY MY CONSCIENCE CALLED IN SICK AGAIN

______________________________________________________________________​

The scent of waterlogged moss and last nights rainfall clung to the back of Wolfpacks throat as he picked his way down the edge of a sloped bank, paws soundless in the half-light of dawn. His mouth still tasted of sleep and he was eager to replace it with a well-earned breakfast, but he found himself pulled off course– not by the scent of prey, but by the flicker of movement ahead. Two figures, silhouetted near the water. He recognized Sablestar and Stoatpaw almost immediately, and would have left them to whatever they were up to had he not noticed the posture the black and white tom had taken up on the waters edge; tense, and uncertain. Still as stone while the bright, narrow figure of their apprentice lingered nearby.

Wolfpack slowed as he neared, ears pricking at the sound of the ivory felines voice– something about 'otters'. The word meant nothing to him, but it didn't take long to piece things together once he cleared the brush and was able to follow his leaders line of sight. At first, he thought they were some kind of twisted mink- long, glossy bodies slipping like shadows through the dark water, faces strange and rounded, their chatter high-pitched and garbled like birdsong underwater. He watched one roll over mid-paddle, bobbing with a lazy confidence that grated against his instinct. He didn't like how comfortable they were. How unbothered they seemed of the claws watching them from shore. "Cute," he muttered dryly. "Looks like something the kits would try to bring home and drown in a puddle."

He didn't glance away as he spoke again, voice low and cool as the mist rising around them. "Do they come on land?" His ear twitched toward Stoatpaw.

Because that would change things. He didn't mind sharing the water with fish and frogs, but something with a spine and enough brain to chatter in its own language? That was something else entirely. His weight shifted forward slightly, posture poised– curious, but alert now. Watching the way those slick shapes moved in the water. Watching for signs they might one day cross the line onto their ground.

---

​

OOC NOTES . ◭ . CHARACTER INFO

• ooc : —​
• shadowclan deputy - male - a large, monochrome chimera with mismatched eyes and several scars

 

[Stoatpaw Stoatpaw]

——————————————— Together, we'll make our way home ✦

She perched, watching the otters loll about in the water, slinking around without a care in the world. Oh, to be so carefree as to swim all day...

Stoatpaw blinked, realising Wolfpack had come to join them. She didn't often talk with the deputy, but he was a respectable cat for everything he did with Sablestar, she so smiled up at him as he watched the otters, too. Though he asked something. "Sand?..." She muttered to herself, softly, trying to decipher the last word with a scrunched up nose. It took her a moment of squinting up at the chimaera for her mind to register what he said. "Oh! Yes, they do! They aren't fish, they gotta walk up here too. Sometimes they hunt on land, and that's why Father didn't want me near them when I was smaller." She spoke, matter-of-factly.

Stoatpaw hadn't quite realised why it was Timberfrost was so vehement that she was the one to keep away from otters. She knew they could be dangerous, but that meant they both should be wary. The pieces not coming together in her mind, a kitten so small as she was the last time she saw the otters would have been exactly what they would have liked to hunt. Instead, she just found herself enthralled by the animals, content that she could stare in awe and not get reprimanded for being so close, especially when the leader and deputy were right there.

——— While you were sleeping,

Everything changed at once. ———

• 
  Stoatpaw
  ✦—Shadowclan apprentice | 6 Moons
  ✦—She/Her
  ✦—"SPEECH", 'THOUGHTS', ATTACK
  ✦—A slender white cat with faint lilac markings and blue eyes.
  #96d5f1
  ⤷ Written by Phoenix

 

[Marbleshine]

MARBLE OF SHADOWCLAN

Marbleshine watched in quiet awe, blue eyes wide with wonder as the otter slipped through the water like moonlight over a calm river. It moved with fluid grace, a creature so clearly made for the currents, the same way she herself moved through the forest, swift, silent, instinctual. The surface of the water shimmered in its wake, rippling out in soft rings, and for a moment, the world felt hushed around it. But Wolfpack's question grounded her, reminded her that beauty could carry danger beneath its surface.

Her ears twitched as she turned to Stoatpaw, listening intently to the young cat's explanation. Not fish, then. Land hunters too, with teeth sharp enough that even Timberfrost had changed her sleeping spot. That alone painted enough of a picture. Brows furrowing ever so slightly, Marbleshine blinked, the softness in her voice never fading. " Then... it's best we keep them far from our clan, right? " she murmured, eyes lingering on the otter's sleek form. " Something that swift, that quiet... I'd hate to think of one coming too close to the nursery. "

GO ON AND TRY TO TEAR ME DOWN ——･ﾟ✦​

･ﾟ✦ —— I WILL BE RISING FROM THE GROUND

 

[SABLESTAR]

Otters, Sablestar muttered the name under his breath with a nod. "No, the Colony never traveled this far into the swamp. It wasn't convenient because of the distance, whatever prey caught here would have to be eaten just to sustain the travel back home." He explained with a simple shrug of his shoulders. Days that no longer mattered now with what they had to look forward to.

Wolfpack's appearance is met with a nod, looking back to watch the slinky-bodied creatures dive and swim as if they were fur-pelted fish! "Ha! Ours are quite vicious, aren't they." But he didn't disregard what Stoatpaw had said. Timberfrost had warned her of their teeth, and he would assume a bite from something close to his own size was nothing to blink at.

Sablestar nodded at Marbleshine's murmur. "If they're more interested in staying near water, they might not have any interest in our camp. Patrols should be wary if they're cutting through the water, or have bad enough luck to find kits." For all the danger surrounding what they could do, Sablestar found their behavior quite... relaxed. So odd, as if they were playing rather than hunting. Maybe all of the otters in front of them were kits or apprentices, however their own world worked. "We shouldn't hang around much longer, then. We can find prey elsewhere."

this heart beats cold like the devil his own

• "mew"
• 

  SABLESTAR— he/him ･fifty-eight moons ･leader; shadowclan ･penned by gonkpilled

  a black and white tuxedo with dark amber eyes