CLOSED Death and Life and Other Stuff

[Longstorm]

The sun was high over the DarkClan camp. The cats that were in camp were laying in the shade sharing tongues, or snacking a piece of fresh-kill. All that were not in-camp were off patrolling or training. Training, most likely, since they had no shortage of apprentices. One of the warriors in-camp was Silversnap, a young solid gray warrior she-cat. She was relaxing after going out on a dawn patrol somewhere further up on the mountain, and she was enjoying lounging around.
These past two moons had been interesting. Blackfire and Icepaw had come back, and that was weird. Then Blueblossom came back with Skyecho's kits - and tagging behind them were some OTHER kits. And then Mistlight had emerged from within DarkClan's own territory with ANOTHER kit! And a lot of this had something to do with something about a dream, and cats from all Clans, and a Clan called MoonClan, who everyone knew was hiding out in TawnyClan's territory.
And then Silversnap was named a warrior alongside her brothers, which was swell. Silversnap was a nice snappy name. She liked it. It felt like her. Sure, she was at first probably just a little young to be a full warrior, but she felt good. More confident now.

The good feeling lasted right up until her half-brother/former mentor Gorseclaw walked into the camp with a dead cat on his back. Suddenly the sun didn't seem as bright.
Silversnap bounded up to Gorseclaw, keeping out of his and the rest of the patrol's way as they entered the camp. "Is this Mustardstorm?" she asked breathlessly. The cat on his back didn't look a thing like the warrior she had in mind, but who else could it have been?
Gorseclaw nodded in affirmation as he walked on, and Silversnap heard herself sigh a long, sad sigh.
The other cats in the camp had risen from their resting places the moment they heard Mustardstorm's name bounce around the stony clearing.
Mistlight, the Healer, and Frostshine (newly minted as the healer's apprentice) slipped out of the Healer's den. Gorseclaw stopped in front of Mistlight, and he laid Mustardstorm's body before her.
Grief shone in her eyes even and she set a paw upon the warrior's shoulder. "You've come back to us," she said to Mustardstorm's body sadly.
Longflight and Lightningpelt emerged from the Elder's den nearby. "So he's really dead," Lightningpelt, blinded by fire some four moons back, meowed quietly, though she came no closer.
Redstar padded up to Mistlight. He glanced around at the wondering eyes then back to her. "I need to know as much as I can about how he died," he said with a grimace.
The healer nodded. "Okay. We can do it in my den." She gestured to the den behind her with a flick of her tail.
"I got him," Frostshine said in his normal quiet manner - but he bumped into Gorseclaw who was moving to pick up Mustardstorm at the same time.
"What does this mean, Redstar?" Longfur asked. "What's happened?"
"He wandered to close to one of the stone traps," Jaycall answered.
Longfur looked greatly dismayed by that information. "My kits train on those hunting grounds - what if this had happened to one of them?"

As the Gorseclaw and Frostshine finally worked out who would bring Mustardstorm into the healer's den, Redstar said:
"We can discuss that soon, Longfur. After we bury Mustardstorm, and I'd prefer not before." His tone was firm.
The elder didn't look satisfied but he nodded.
"What I do need to know is where is Flowerfoot?"
"Flowerfoot?" Hollowstripe, the deputy, had emerged from the warrior's den. "She left to go on a hunting patrol a sunshift ago. Why?"
Blueblossom and Redstar looked at each other. "Where was the patrol headed?"
"Towards the eastern ridge along the southern border - rabbits were scented there. Redstar, what's wrong?" Realization flickered in Hollowstripe's eyes. "You don't think -"
"I don't know what to think right now. I just need to speak to Flowerfoot. Come with me if you're feeling up to it."
The deputy didn't hesitate to nod.
"Good," Redstar meowed. "Blueblossom, Silversnap, -" The training party came through the camp entrance at that moment, amounting to nearly half of DarkClan's numbers with all of the apprentices and their mentors together. Redstar's own apprentice, Icepaw, and Blueblossom's apprentice, Milkpaw, were among them.
The two padded up to their mentors quickly. Milkpaw seemed rather enthusiastic about the training, and Icepaw looked like he was in a good mood too.
Icepaw caught the somber tone first. "What's going on, Redstar?"
Milkpaw looked between Icepaw and Redstar and then Blueblossom.
"There's been a death - we found Mustardstorm dead." The two apprentices looked shocked. "But I cannot speak for long. Icepaw, get some rest, you look haggard." The apprentice opened his mouth to protest but seemed to think better of it last second.
Milkpaw looked at the older cats and sighed, guessing that she'd be told the same thing - and she was right.
"You too, Milkpaw," Blueblossom said kindly.
As the apprentices departed Redstar turned to the reappearing Gorseclaw.
"Gorseclaw, if anyone has any questions, answer them as best you can." Redstar stepped closer to the pale tabby. "But say nothing of Flowerfoot."
The warrior tom nodded silently.
Redstar looked back at the three warriors. "Let's go."
Hollowstripe, Blueblossom, and Silversnap all followed him out of the camp.

[Longstorm]

OOC: I have completely forgotten who I play among the apprentices. I'll look it up - right after this!

IC: Lightningpelt walked back to the elder's den with Longfur. When she went in Longfur turned and padded back towards the crowd of apprentices.

The apprentices milled around with their individual mentors, but soon enough most broke off and began to interact with one another.
Icepaw started up a conversation with Hawkpaw, who chattered back amiably. Milkpaw joined the conversation briefly (they were talking about fighting moves) before being called over by her sister, Spottedpaw. Milkpaw flashed the two a grin and padded off.
Icepaw and Hawkpaw kept up the conversation before it turned into talking about the lower slopes of the Clan's territory, but that conversation ended when Sunmist, Hawkpaw's mentor, called him over. Hawkpaw meowed goodbye and padded off.
Icepaw looked around for the other apprentices and saw that they were either headed into the apprentice's den for a rest or speaking to their mentors.
Just as well.
Icepaw reflected upon his time after having returned to DarkClan - well, joining DarkClan all over again, he corrected. It had involved speaking to Redstar along with Blackfire, explaining Bluepaw's absence, explaining MoonClan and where they had gone. Icepaw thought that getting back with the Clan might have been more difficult if Blueblossom hadn't shown up with Skyecho's kits.
Skyecho's kits were great. Even though they were a lot younger than him, they were fun to hang out with, and they knew a lot of things about TawnyClan through the TawnyClan kits they had lived with for a while.
Blueblossom had apparently had to do some explaining herself, since a TawnyClan mated pair of warriors had shown up alongside Gingerleaf at the Ice Shell Willow a while back. Gingerleaf had died, she said.
Icepaw didn't feel bad about that one way or the other - he'd never met Gingerleaf.

Icepaw padded over to the fresh-kill pile and picked out a vole to his liking. The hunting patrol had left before the apprentices had gone out training. Now they'd all come back and everything seemed a little different...

Icepaw saw Mistlight emerge from the healer's den and cross over to the warrior's den. She went in, and stayed in there for a while.
I wonder what she's doing, Icepaw thought.

OOC: after so long I think I've sort of forgotten how to line up patrols. Yet another thing to think about! I have some research to do.

[Longstorm]

And so the time of sunhigh continued. The apprentices came back together and hung out, talked, shared tongues, and even sparred a little in the shade despite having spent hours training.
Most of them remained unaware of Mustardstorm being found dead, and of what may have been unfolding elsewhere in their own territory. Icepaw was mostly unbothered by it since he'd not known the tom personally, and Milkpaw, well, she had no doubt put off the information in her mind for later, for when everyone else would know about it.
Which would not be long now - the information was slowly filtering into the various conversations around the camp, and the tone became more and more somber, more and more questioning. Gorseclaw soon found himself faced with many questions, but only answered some.

And it was agreed. The sooner Redstar came back, the better.

OOC: CLOSING

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