Google dot com says the traditional gift for a four year anniversary is fruit & flowers?? How festive! In honor of our fourth year on the world wide web, we are requesting bouquets and fruit baskets or cash donations to the whip-a-rain-fund 😌 Oooooorrr we guess...alternatively...we can put on a big, month-long celebration featuring a warm-and-fuzzy event, scavenger hunt, a raffle drawing, and a freakin' prize wheel??! See the September Announcements for more information, and don't forget to check out the September Patrols too!
The Apostles is a warrior cats roleplay based in northern Wisconsin. On Lake Superior, the wild cats have made the Apostle Islands their home. It is on these islands - Rocky Island and South Twin Island - that the clan and tribe cats have lived in a peace and harmony that ebbs and flows with the tide.
But as the tides turn, so does the truce that binds them to one another; and as the water raises, a darkness follows, an evil that will end in bloodshed and violence.
Slowly, surely, it was happening. Cressclaw was settling. His weight was increasing - albeit slowly - and his muscles felt stronger than they had in nearly an entire year. His head felt clearer, too. Perhaps it was being more comfortable, or in territory where he felt more at ease. Maybe even because the cats around him weren't as toxic, too. It could be a whole host of things. Either way, though, Cressclaw knew that he was slowly getting better.
He had started going for daily walks around the RedwoodClan territory, both to learn it better and to help clear his head. Sometimes alone, sometimes accompanied by friends - Elmlight, Barkheart, one of the refugees, and more recently, Waspsong. The duo had become friendly slowly, and it was nice to listen to Waspsong's stories from warriorhood, of RedwoodClan. Darker things had been uncovered, though, and he had learned that her brother had been the apprentice Wispfang had killed. Cressclaw hadn't mentioned Wispfang by name, though. They quickly moved on from that.
Usually, Cressclaw walked around the side of RedwoodClan that was away from the border. This time, though, Waspsong had convinced him to go walking around the other side, close to the old mooncave and the border (which apparently wasn't even connected to StarClan anymore? Which... made a lot of sense), and while hesitant, Cressclaw had agreed. He was very much on edge, though, but trying to focus on hunting instead of the scents not far from here. Maybe any patrols wouldn't recognise his smell anymore?
"Mm, Waspsong, I think we should head back soon..." Cressclaw lifted his head to look at his friend, whiskers twitching nervously, "I think this is putting me on edge again, and I really don't want to panic or anything..."
Waspsong didn't the point in being so cautious if anything let Lichenclan. After everything they took from her clan they would get the karma they deserved in the end. The torbie thought back to the time when her brother was alive and how she hated his guts. The bitterness still lingered however after hearing about everything that happened with his own brother. She almost felt remorseful for their relationship ended and how twisted the relationship was with her sister too.
"Cressclaw, you have nothing to worry about while I am here. " The molly purred almost like a mother would do to a kitten. The tip of her tail gently beat against his flank. "Even Lichenclanners wouldn't be so stupid to jump the borders if even they are. I don't let them hurt you! You have better life now!"
Only she could her belongings no one else gets that honor. No sooner did Waspsong's mind wondered it snap back into realty with as the fresh scent of lichenclanners her nose. It was too close for comfort and sure enough she saw them. Sunscorch and Flashfang! It was hard not to know these senior warriors by name given they have fought against Redwoodclan so many times now. However she could be feel some was off about them were that fire so of those passionate Lichenclanners had. Did Minnowstar's action finally get to them. She knew better than be hostile so the merely smile ever so sweetly, "Oh hello? Do worry will be out of your fur."
Patrolling was a bore, as it often was in recent days. Rarely, did LichenClan encounter RedwoodClan straying so close in fear of combat breaking out - so more often than not, any fight was avoided for fear that those who engaged might lose their lives with war singing in the air.
The only relief was Emberscorch at his side, though neither warrior was in the mood for idle conversation. Emberscorch was in a severe mood in recent moons, uninterested in casual talk. And Flashfang's head was pounding, distracting him from all but the most distinct of his surroundings.
It was this most unique of scents, one familiar and yet impossibly strange, that paused his aches and drew his attention. He breathed it in deeply before turning to Emberscorch. His eyes narrowed slightly, wondering if he might trust her with the thought that crept into his mind. She was his mentor, wasn't she? She might... He hoped that he could allow her this tiny bit of information, if only so that he might get the smallest of chances to drag her directly into enemy territory.
"Emberscorch..." He looked at her, met her gaze, and saw a question forming in her eyes. "We have to go. Now." And then he turned, braced himself with a deep breath, and charged across the border and into RedwoodClan territory. The smell was faint, but it was there. And the closer they got, the more sure Flashfang was until finally, as they moved past a brushy bramble patch, he saw the soft brown familiar pelt of one he once knew well.
"Cressclaw."
He hardly heard anything from the tortie she-cat at his side. He was there, and he looked healthier than Flashfang ever remembered. His heart thudded in time with the pain in his head, caused by war-time injuries and clanmate-driven spars alike. He felt lost for words, only barely able to get anything from his mouth at all.
Emberscorch’s ear flicked as she limped after Flashfang. Every sound in the forest seemed to to annoy her now. Every scent seemed to remind her that this war had taken her apprentices from her. More importantly, her apprentices were both considered traitors.
Ospreyfur… Cressclaw… she had poured her entire being into teaching them to be good warriors. Teaching them to follow StarClan. Teaching them that the world around them was put to get them. Yet, they rejected her teachings.
Or were her teachings wrong? That blasphemous thought kept swirling around her head, no matter how often she prayed to StarClan. In fact, the more she prayed, the more it seemed she thought about it. She hated it.
Once upon a time, she might have been willing to go to Briarfall with her worries. But… with the way cats had been exiled for reasons that Emberscorch still couldn’t understand, she was worried that, were she to say anything, she too would be exiled.
After all, the fact that both her apprentices were considered traitors had to have caused her reputation to plummet in the eyes of Minnowstar.
Flicking her ear, the ember colored molly was so caught up in her thoughts that she barely recognized when Flashfang paused.
"Emberscorch... we have to go. Now."
Looking at the tom, she cocked her head. Her claws unsheathed slowly at the urgency in her patrol partner’s voice, though more for worry that, for some reason, he didn’t want her to see something.
Then, she smelt it. “Cressclaw,” she breathed, eye widening. Without hesitation, she darted over the boarder, bad paw pulled up in order for her to run on her three good legs.
Her head swung around as she darted through the unfamiliar territory, trying to spot any hint of brown fur. Why was Cressclaw here?! He was supposed to be dead! Had he been held captive?!
A growl formed in her throat as she thought of RedwoodClan holding him hostage. She knew that the cats who had been exiled were given refuge in RedwoodClan, but they were different. They had been exiled. Cressclaw hadn’t.
StarClan, she hoped they weren’t trying to torture him for information.
‘There!’ A flash of brown fur cause Emberscorch to veer to the side, shoving her way towards Cressclaw, Flashfang by her side.
“Cressclaw. You’re… alive.”
Lips pulled back, the ember colored molly quickly shoved her way between Cressclaw and the molly he was with. “Don’t you dare lay a claw on him or so help me StarClan, I will rip your eyes from your skull and shove them down your throat,” she hissed, dropping into a defensive stance in front of Cressclaw.
She refused to let them hurt her apprentice. He had gone through enough.
Waspsong's words were the first warning that Cressclaw really had to the situation, and it was one that sent his heart racing. LichenClan scents flooded his nose, and at first, the only one he could smell was Flashfang. That wasn't too bad, though he wasn't alone. Especially, once Cressclaw saw the movement of two ginger pelts through the bushes, and as Flashfang began to speak, the second scent hit. Emberscorch. The cat that trained him, and tried her best to put him through hell. An avid Minnowstar believer. I'm dead.
He turned and fled, ignoring whatever Flashfang and Emberscorch had to say, bolting deeper into RedwoodClan territory, yet sounds didn't fade. They had given chase. They're going to catch me, she's going to drag me back, I'm going to die, Swiftfoot will die, they might take Waspsong back and hurt her - this is all my fault!
Mind racing, the tom's paw caught on a large redwood's root, and he tumbled to the floor, and he stiffened, waiting for the worst. Yet, it didn't come, and he found Emberscorch above him. He didn't register that she was facing away, at first, and her words went in one ear and out of the other. He found himself running on adrenaline at this point, and the tom turned, wasting no time in scampering away from the ginger she-cat and straight to Waspsong's side, cowering behind her a little. This was bad of him, risking his friend's life, and he knew it, but - what else could he do?
I have to help her!
Claws extending, Cressclaw couldn't hide his shaking as he half-emerged from behind Waspsong, trying to keep his voice steady as he spoke, "D-Don't hurt her! Please - y-you can take me back if you - you want, just - just leave her alone, please!"
