Warriors Redwood: Bronze

[2] Failures Can't Know They're Failures.

Rattail blinked awake, pulling himself away from the mossy nest despite not wanting to leave its warm embrace. He glanced around in the warriors den, adjusting to being awake, noticing many of his peers were still asleep in their nests, including Echotail, Rattail's pelt warmed a little at the slightest thought of Echotail, the clans deputy, and he found himself wanting to go and hunt to burn off the sudden energy he found himself having, it wasn't even sun-up yet.

Pulling himself out of the warriors den, he glanced around the clearing and then looked up to the sky, the last stars of silver-pelt watching overhead. Rattail felt ashamed for a moment, he couldn't believe in the existence of Starclan, yet a clan without Starclan is a truly sad clan, he had heard that once, from one of the elders who was more disapproving of the presence of outsiders in their clan.

Rattail was a rogue, once a kittypet he fled his home for no reason in particular, throwing away his old name like it meant nothing, throwing away his name as a rogue like it meant nothing. He was nothing, really.

He was just a cat in a small clan, in a large large world, he knew that more than anything, the world was large, scary, it wasn't built for cats, and the clans meant nothing in the long run, it was stupid, it was idiotic even, he had the mind of a fish, but the feeling of actually having a purpose, to serve something bigger than him, it was better than wandering endlessly, never having a home, a family.

Caveclan was his home. His life.

He took pride in that, holding his head high, he looked around the camp for a moment longer before rushing to the outside, suddenly needing some fresh air.

Scenting the cold brisk air of moondown, right before sunup, it was nice. He padded around the entrance of the camp, before settling on a location to hunt, the old oak. Every so often Twigclan and Caveclan fought over it, but it had been relatively peaceful recently, making it the perfect place to bring home some nice prey.

He stalked over, occasionally sniffing the air, trying to catch a scent, soon he found one, dropping almost instantly into a crouch, his tail sweeping just above the forest floor, a plump little mole above ground only a bear length ahead of him. He sucked in a breath, filled with the delicious scent of live prey, he stepped forward only a few whisker lengths, before he darted forward, paws barely touching the forest floor as he led with his claws, snagging the mole just barely.

It struggled until he could give it the killing bite, picking it up in his jaws.

Rattail's mouth watered over the taste of prey, although it was against the code to eat before kits and elders. Quickly he brought it back to camp, not wanting to spend too long with the mole for fear he might just break the code with his rising hunger.

He set his catch atop the freshkill pile, glancing around camp and giving a nod to Barkstar seeing he was awake. By now it was just a little past sun-up, most cats were awake by now.

Echotail was in the corner, seemingly waiting with Spottedpaw and Halfpaw, Rattail purred lightly for a moment and padded over, going straight to Echotail to give a lick of greeting.

"There you are, I was looking for you," Echotail meowed, glancing at Rattail with an amused face. Rattail in turn just shrugged his shoulders lightly. "I was going to ask if you wanted to do a group training session with Spottedpaw and me?"

"Have you told them yet?" Rattail glanced to the two apprentices, littermates, one more excited than the other.

"Told them what?" Echotail seemed to had forgotten so Rattail turned to the two apprentices with a smile.

"Tonight is the full moon gathering at cave-mouth, and you two get to attend this moon," Rattail watched as Halfpaw turned to Spottedpaw, barely containing his glee as he chattered for a moment, Rattail using their temporary distraction to lean against Echotail purring for a short while. Echotail gave him a lick to the cheek before gently pushing him off.

"You two better be on your best behavior and give Caveclan a good name alright?" Echotail told them both, tone filled with suppressed amusement, watching as Rattail gave a cuff around Halfpaw's ear, as Halfpaw playfully swatted at the older cats paw.

"We still have to train today, no breaks for you two, just try not to fall asleep during the gathering," Rattail joked, before pulling out a Starclan forsaken impression of the older leaders during the gatherings, "The prey is running well in our clan, as it always has been and as it always will be."

Rattail coughed afterwards for extra effect as Echotail pressed Rattail's head down with a paw, glancing at him a bit. "You need to learn to be respectful to the leaders before Barkstar hears you and makes you pull the ticks off the elders,"

The two heard audible 'yuck'-s from both apprentices as they likely remembered doing the same thing and soon they left the clearing to go train.

The moon was high in silverpelt by the time the patrol of Caveclan warriors reached the cavemouth, echos of the lake lapping at the shores sounded out loud near here, the shore barely a bear length away from the entrance of the cave, the sounds of cats talking already apparent.

On Barkstar's command, a wave of his tail, all of the cats in the patrol descended into the darkness of the cave, emerging in the center, where the sky seemingly eroded away the cave, leaving an opening where the full moon shone through brightly.

Rattail glanced at the moon and silver-pelt a moment, before turning to Halfpaw who was trailing behind him and seemed to slow down as he saw the mass of cats, Rattail laid his tail over Halfpaw's bristling shoulders in a comforting gesture, whispering to him, "It'll be okay, just sit among the rest of Caveclan if you want, you don't have to talk with the other clans,"

"It's easy for you to say that, I stick out like a thorn in someone's paw," Halfpaw muttered, glancing up at Rattail with an anxious look, hard to miss due to some odd markings making half his face white, the other the gray that dominated most of Halfpaw's pelt, watching as Rattail slowed down his walking a moment, pausing to whisper to Halfpaw.

"Wanna know a secret?" He used a paw to smooth out some particularly bristly parts of Halfpaw's fur, watching as with an upset face, Halfpaw nodded, "You know I was a rogue before I joined the clan, but my first gathering, I got so many glares from other cats, yet, as time goes on, cats move on, once they get used to you it won't matter what you look like or who you were, your a clan cat, and that's something to be proud of."

Rattail seemed to have calmed Halfpaw, who walked away to sit next to Spottedpaw, Rattail walked closer to the higher points in cavemouth, watching as the leaders started taking their places on top of the higher stones, the deputies taking similar places in the shadows of the leaders and the medicine cats gathering at the bottom, making small talk.

Rattail looked onwards with a proud gaze as he watched Barkstar take his place confidently and Echotail shortly behind him. They were his closest family.

Not the cats he left behind back at the twoleg place.

He felt a shred of regret though he stuffed it down as he heard the call for the beginning of the gathering, he spared a glance at his clanmates, seeing as Goosefur took a similar spot to his, watching with evident pride in his gaze as Goldheart conversed with the other medicine cats attentively.

Rattail suppressed a snicker and glanced back up at the leaders, the Twigclan leader, Doestar, a plump brown she-cat took the front place, going first, "Prey is running exceptionally well in Twigclan, we have made a new apprentice this moon, Stonepaw, he is apprenticed under Crowpool, one of our excellent warriors,"

The gathering rang out with chants of the new apprentices name, though Rattail had a hard time believing that prey was running well in Twigclan, many of their cats looked uncharacteristically skinny, Doestar practically a shadow of what she used to look like at prior gatherings, and suddenly Rattail realized why the large oak hadn't been contested for recently.

Twigclan looked like they were starving.