━━━━ a warm glow beat onto the pelts of goldrain and mudhare as the two tom—cats trotted side by side, ambling across the valley in search of prey.

mudhare's eyes scanned the terrain for any sign of movement. it wasn't long before his efforts were rewarded when a fat rat darted through the bushes, and into the open.

with a swift pounce, mudhare sprang into action, his claws slicing through the air as he caught the rat in his jaws. his tongue ran across his lips, and he leaned down, his stomach grumbling and urging him to devour what he'd caught.

❝ ahem, ❞ goldrain barked, ❝ don't forget about the others, mudhare, ❞ he growled lightly.

mudhare hesitated for a moment. but with a nod, he pushed aside his temptations and turned to join goldrain in continuing their hunt.

by the time they returned to camp, they had an array of prey in their clasp. rats and mice dangles from mudhare's jaws, and two birds drooped from goldrain's.

⛰︎

━━━━ swifthawk and daisyknoll walked silently. a storm has just subsided, and the two were drenched from top to tail. the sight of a beehive caught the medicine cat's eyes, and the tom—cat carefully scaled the tree, his claws deeply penetrating the bark as he clambered upwards.

he breathed inwardly and winced after pushing a paw onto a branch, veering his foot around to have a look and what had happened. a small wooden fleck pointed towards him, and daisyknoll grumbled.

he clamped his teeth on the splinter, yanking it from his pad before spitting the wood aside, clambering down and shaking his leg once he was back on solid ground.

❝ let's get back before the rain hits us again, ❞ said daisyknoll to his patrol partner, who was bumbling and bouncing about like a kitten.

daisyknoll watched as the tom—cat was upright one moment, then on his side the next. this panicked daisyknoll and he rushed to swifthawk's side.

swifthawk just grunted then slowly got up, and laughed. ❝ i'm fine, don't worry, ❞ he breathed, sucking in a breath of pain as he applied weight and pressure down.

❝ it'll be a sprain, or a twist. let's go back home, and i'll check you over properly, ❞ daisyknoll purred.

⛰︎

━━━━ coldbee spotted a dog while on a patrol, alongside loachpath. coldbee decided against pursuing the canine, as it was on hemlockclan territory.

⛰︎

━━━━ geckotooth is excited, and a little nervous, about her first solo hunting session. a squirrel up ahead draws in her attention, and the warrior lowly drops herself.

stalking closer, the squirrel doesn't sense nor see the feline approaching it. geckotooth rocked her hips and leaped. she landed harshly on top of the rodent and roughly held it in her paws, winding her head around to reach for its neck, before severing its spine with a firmly sounded crackle.

geckotooth silently thanked starclan for its life before continuing her hunt.

━━━━ doespots sprain has healed. he's pleased to be back to his duties as a warrior, and starts off by showing off to the kits of the clan, attempting to set a good example for them.

⛰︎

━━━━ splitmimic hastily approached loachpath, asking the she—cat to be her mate. loachpath agreed, much to splitmimic's surprise.

and for a moment, their heads pressed together as they speak their commitment in front of their clan, there's nothing on either of their minds but love.

⛰︎

━━━━ mountainfall's sprain feels much better now, and she is glad to be able to properly tend to the rest of her clan without a dull ache in her limb.

⛰︎

━━━━ willowstripe nudged her head into inkpaw's hind when gorgestar's voice beckoned for her to come forward. she watched pridefully as inkpaw stepped forward and received her name.

inkpaw is named inkmeadow, and is honoured for her fortitude.

beside willowstripe, doespots sits. his chest is fluffed out with pride as hazelpaw tenderly steps towards their leader.

hazelpaw becomes hazelrise, and is honoured for his composure.

⛰︎

━━━━ brownkit hobbled awkwardly around the camp. basslight watched as the young kitten travelled by her, and her brows arched. he seems to be much slower than whitekit, and this concerns the medicine cat.

upon further inspection, it's revealed that one of his legs is twisted and deformed. basslight knows that he'll find his footing later on in life.

⛰︎

━━━━ inkmeadow trailed behind geckotooth, who begged and begged the younger she—cat that she joined her for a patrol, so she could show her the 'perfect hunting spot'.

two mice bounced about in a clearing up ahead and inkmeadow readied to hunt. she creeped, and was a breath away when one bolted. worried that she'd lost the prey, inkmeadow pursues the small rodents that darted left and right across the field.

a hole in the ground marked their burrow, and the she—cats eyes widened. she couldn't loose this prey. she kicked her hind legs into the ground and jumped on top of the mice, throwing them into the air.

geckotooth galloped over, assisting her patrol peer, as she snatched and killed a mouse.

inkmeadow purred with satisfaction as the taste of blood drenched her tongue and warmed her senses.

⛰︎

━━━━ doespots and locusttree walked silently, returning from a patrol. the sound of heaving caught their attention, the the two tom's shared a confused glance with one another.

investigating the sound, they pushed through a bush to find a light coloured cat hunched over, their stomach bubbling as they attempted to rid whatever it was that had upset their stomach.

❝ are you... okay? ❞ locusttree questioned, hesitantly stepping closer to the retching feline.

the cat turns, their green eyes wide with fear as they push out a hiss to deter the strangers before them.

doespots stopped where he stood and sighed. ❝ we mean no harm. we just want to help, let us take you back to our camp — so you can get help, ❞ he mewed softly.

the stranger remained silent, slowly processing their thoughts, before nodding. the she—cat followed after the warriors, back towards peakclan territory.

squirreldusk joins the clan as a warrior, forgetting her old life as a loner. she's thankful that she was found by the patrol — and is treated for her upset stomach.

━━━━ cragspark's wound has finally healed.

⛰︎

━━━━ willowstripe wasn't looking where she was going while on a patrol, and tripped over a small root. after composing herself, her paw slipped up on a rock, and she collapsed — spraining her foot.

her pride and paw are bruised, and she retreats back to camp with her tail tucked between her legs.

⛰︎

━━━━ swifthawk's sprain has finally passed, and he's now able to partake in lengthy patrols again. but the tom—cat pushed himself, foolishly, and stumbles into camp feeling light—headed.

daisyknoll declares he's sick with heatstroke.

⛰︎

━━━━ hazelrise clawed her way up the trunk of a tree, eager to catch a bug that scampered up the wood. the she—cats claws dug firmly into the bark as she ascended higher and higher.

her hind leg slipped, and hazelrise dropped. reaching out, she grasped for the elongated arm of a branch, and clasped on. a sharp pain struck her pad and she winced, rolling her paw over to reveal a small piece of wood poking out.

the young warrior hesitated, not wanting to feel any pain, before ripping it from her limb. she yelped out silently before carefully climbing down, not wanting to receive another splinter.

⛰︎

━━━━ webpaw vibrated as he touched his nose to goldrain's nose. webpaw's actions couldn't help but make goldrain chuckle lightly — the tom—cat was clearly excited to become an apprentice.

spiderpaw fluffed out his chest and trotted across the clearing with his tail pricked upwards, his noise up to the sky, as he received his apprentice name. he stood before his mentor, doespots, and pushed his nose into the older warriors.

gorgestar parted from the gathering quickly to have a moment to herself, retreating to her den, where she silently sobbed to herself — shocked at how quickly her kits had grown.

before long, they'd be warriors. she wasn't ready for it.

⛰︎

━━━━ spiderpaw bumbled ahead of the patrol, his mentor closely following, sided by rabbitneedle. the new apprentice was eager to explore and learn, and his legs carried him quickly down the slope towards the valley.

his nose twitched left and right as a strange scent hit his senses. he slowed down his pace and turned to doespots, his eyebrow raised. ❝ what's that? ❞ he meowed.

doespots pushed his head up and his fur thrilled. he stood in front of his apprentice and watched as a figure leaped out from behind a rock.

rabbitneedle leaped over the protective warrior and pursued the trespassing feline. ❝ wait up! ❞ she wailed, huffing and puffing as she ran, ❝ you! stop running! ❞

rabbitneedle blinked and the cat had vanished from her sight. she skidded to a stop and turned on her heels quickly, baffled as to where the strange cat had gone to.

⛰︎

━━━━ a squirrel chewed at a morsel a few steps away from rabbitneedle. the she—cat's tongue rolled over her lips as she licked them, imagining the taste of the prey she was stalking.

rabbitneedle shifted her paws as she stalked closer, her weight rolling over some pebbles as she readied to pounce.

alerted by the clattering, the rodent scurried up the tree. eager to return with prey, rabbitneedle follows it up the tree, swerving and bending across its branches before snagging the squirrel in her grasp.

━━━━ goldrain was rumoured to have been on hemlockclan's border, looking and asking for a specific cat.

⛰︎

━━━━ swifthawk's bout of sickness with his heat stroke has ceased.

⛰︎

━━━━ coldbee slowly wandered into the medicine den, sniffling as she walked. the she—cat didn't even need to be looked over by a medicine cat to be told that she's got a runny nose.

splitmimic told her some herbs and plenty of rest would do the trick.

⛰︎

━━━━ loachpath stood in front of whitepaw, and touched noses with the she—cat. she was excited to be given the chance to apprentice yet another cat.

whitepaw hoped loachpath is a cool mentor, and won't make her do boring tasks: like gathering moss, or picking ticks off of her peers.

⛰︎

━━━━ dovesoar anxiously walked to the front of the camp. he'd been picked to be a mentor for one of the apprentices. he watched as brownpaw hobbled up in front of him, and they touched noses.

⛰︎

━━━━ quiet whispers and speculative glances passed between rattlefleck and hawkfern as the two gossiped about goldrain, their voices hushed.

their conversation was soon interrupted by the scent of an unfamiliar cat drifting through the air. they shared a glance, before following the trail. they came upon hemlockclan's deputy, who stood with her fur bristled with tension as ahe stood at the edge of their territory.

❝ i come bearing news for gorgestar, ❞ she spoke out loudly for the two warriors, ❝ it's important that she hears what i have to say, ❞

hawkfern was silenced. he looked at his brother with an uncertain expression masking his gaze, but he then nodded. ❝ we can escort you to camp. but be warned, any attempt to harm our clan, will not go unpunished, ❞ he muttered.

the hemlockclan cat nodded and fell into step behind the two brothers as they guided her to peakclan's camp, their minds whirling and wondering what it is that the deputy wanted to talk about.

⛰︎

━━━━ stoatclaw edged along the river, mumbling away to himself as he trotted by. his eyes drifted up ahead onto a small bird. it looked young, and was struggling with whatever it had in its talons. and stoatclaw took this as an opportunity to tackle the bird and steal its prey.

the bird awkwardly dropped into the river and rolled its wings over the water as it paddled, not wanting to release the prey it caught.

stoatclaw raced along the embankment, yowling and wailing as he ran. his attempt to spook the avian was a success, and the young eagle took flight from the winding waters, abandoning its catch.

triumphantly cheering, stoatclaw found himself bounding up and down the side of the river like a kit.

the massive fish was peakclan's to take. all he had to do was figure out how to get it out the water...

⛰︎

━━━━ a rustling bush caught almondstripe's and cragspark's attention. the two tom's stood their ground and watched as a young feline emerged.

❝ p-please! ❞ wailed the cat, ❝ let me join your clan, i don't want to live in hemlockclan anymore! i beg of you, please! ❞

shaking his head, cragspark watched as his patrol partner closed in on the apprentice, and welcomed them onto their side of the border. this was going to be a riveting conversation to have with gorgestar on their return back to camp.

cragspark lead the way, with almondstripe and the apprentice behind. almondstripe declared that he was eager to steal a hemlockclan cat right from under their noses — and cragspark thought it would bring them trouble.

gorgestar and scrubstorm debated with one another in the quiet confines of her den, before leaving. the leader agreed, allowing the apprentice to join, but only on one condition: almondstripe was to be their mentor.

bravepaw joined peakclan.

━━━━ duskeyes and loachpath exited camp on an early evening patrol, to watch the moon rise.

⛰︎

━━━━ willowstripe's sprain has healed.

⛰︎

━━━━ a coyote emerged from the shadows, and stared at hawfern and swifthawk. the felines each held prey in their jaws, and slowly eyed the canid that stood mere whisker lengths away from them.

hawkfern, in a bout of panic, bolted.

the coyote scrambled after the dark furred cat, it's jaw snapping shut on his tail as he pursued. pain flared down hawkfern's tail, and he yowled loudly. he swung his paw around and clawed the coyote across the nose, hissing from behind his prey as he watched the canine retreat.

swifthawk watched from where he remained, frozen with fear. relieved that the coyote veered away from hawkfern, the tom figured it was retreating.

❝ swifthawk watch out! ❞ cried hawkfern.

swifthawk was too slow to react. a forceful smack hit him, knocking the wind from his lungs, and the tom toppled backwards into the ground. a flash of pain flared through his pelt as the coyote's fangs made contact with his skin, but swifthawk kicked out his hind legs, drumming his claws into the coyote's flank.

the coyote barked and yelped before snatching at the prey that swifthawk had dropped. the coyote took its stolen price, and vanished into the shadows again.

swifthawk and hawkfern hurried back to camp.

swifthawk was badly injured by the coyote, while hawkfern's tail was the only thing that brought him pain. both warriors were rushed to the medicine den to be treated.

⛰︎

━━━━ after working hard and training for a whole moon with almondstripe, brightpaw was ready to become a warrior.

gorgestar looked down on the apprentice proudly, and named him brightstrike — honouring him for his intensity.

⛰︎

━━━━ doespots and spiderpaw patrolled along the border. the sound of faint chattering ahead soon caught their attention, and they moseyed towards it.

a hemlockclan patrol passed by. they dipped their heads at them, and asked about brightpaw, before they continued on with their task.

relationships with hemlockclan have improved.

⛰︎

━━━━ gorgestar trotted across camp, sneaking up behind scrubstorm. she swatted at the tom—cats tail, causing him to jump. laughing, she rolled her eyes before circling him. her tail trailed under his chin, and the tom's throat vibrated.

❝ follow me, ❞ she whispered, ❝ i want to show you something, ❞

intrigued by her words, scrubstorm followed after her as she led him out of camp, and down the slope into the valley. he closely walked beside her and allowed for his tail to tangle with hers as he talked about his day.

gorgestar silently digested his tales before stopping at the bottom. ❝ i've been practicing a new hunting technique, ❞ she explained, ❝ and i thought it'd be fun to show you, ❞

with a nod, scrubstorm trailed after gorgestar as she led him across the field at a steady gallop. before she could show off, the tom—cat felt a surge of happiness burn within him. he felt wild, he felt free. he had never felt this great, ever.

with a mischievous glint in his eyes, he tackled gorgestar, pushing her down to the ground with a playful snarl.

gasping, gorgestar was surprised by his playful act but went along with it, and tumbled into the grass. she accepted an affectionate lick from him. the tom jumped from her and bounced across the field, and her gaze hazily followed after him.

❝ get back here mousebrain! ❞ gorgestar yelled while holding back a laugh. she quickly rolled over and clawed at the ground as she followed scrubstripe, chasing the tom across the valley while he hollered and laughed loudly.

⛰︎

━━━━ dovesoar noticed that brownpaw seemed a little distant while out training. he approached his apprentice, questioning if he could help him with anything, or if he needed to talk.

brownpaw immediately shuts down and muttered under his breath about continuing their training so he could go back to camp.