[viv]

rainwhisker

she/they ○ riverclan ○ deputy

the rains have ceased, and we have been graced with another beautiful day.
but you are not here to see it.

The sun crawled to its peak when the dawn patrol returned, the throng of cats returning to their dens to sleep off the long morning. The borders were quiet, they'd reported. A fox had been scented close to Windclan's territory but it was long stale and, likely, a problem for them-- not Riverclan. Rainwhisker sent the sunhigh patrol in their wake, eyes narrow as a few tail-tips disappeared out of camp. They'd be gone until dusk, and some cats had already lined up to take the next patrol. Rainwhisker would just have to focus on getting some freshkill into camp.

There were only a few fish and one stray mouse left. A fish and mouse went into the nursery for the queens and kits to split; two fish into the medicine den for Dacetail and Sunpaw, and the rest went to into the elders den. After the priorities were fed, Rainwhisker sent the apprentices out in their own hunting party to the shallower parts of the river, and the deputy scanned the camp for who else was available.

Her eyes landed on mottled senior warrior, Siltstep. "Come hunting with me?" It was half a request and half a command; Rainwhisker didn't wait for much of an answer before she was padding heavily to the exit of camp, ears angled back and speaking curtly. "I sent a hunting party to the part of the river near the border. We'll take the part near the sun-drown place."

And, off she went, trotting through the reeds and twisting towards the scent of seasalt. The sun felt hot on her back, beating down with no clouds to offer shelter. It wasn't the worst conditions to fish in-- there were far worse, but it was far from the best, too. It'd have been easier to find terrestrial prey lazing in the sun, but it was hot enough that Rainwhisker just wanted to appreciate getting her paws wet with cool water.

[Silk]

Siltstep

she/her ◈ riverclan ◈ warrior

Siltstep had been stretching, testing her weight on her bad leg after waking--a habit she had built after the first time it collapsed on her and she tumbled down a hill. It seemed to hold up well enough, the warming weather was being good to her, it seemed. Her ear flicked at Rainwhisker's order, and her eyes narrowed a little once her back was turned, but she had been considering going hunting anyway, and Rainwhisker was a fine enough cat go hunt with, so she stepped after her, careful of the weight on her leg, drawing that now-familiar ache from it. After a moment, she could pick up her speed, and weaving through the grass and reeds after the deputy.

She was quiet as she trailed after Rainwhisker, focused on the heat beneath her paws and radiating from the sun. Siltstep was thinking just the same as Rainwhisker, "I don't know how the other clans stand this heat without water to relieve it." Sure, some of the other clans had trees to help shade them, but there was only so much that could do, wasn't there? And shade was nothing like cool water.

[viv]

rainwhisker

she/they ○ riverclan ○ deputy

the rains have ceased, and we have been graced with another beautiful day.
but you are not here to see it.

"Most of them have the forest to shield them," Rainwhisker said-- unknowingly, half-following along with Siltstep's thoughts. "I hear the wind blows colder through there, too. It's why Shadowclanners are like that." She'd heard there was a lake on Thunderclan's territory, too-- but there was no chance you'd catch one of them in water. Their heavy pelts would drag them beneath the surface, she assumed.

Her gaze flicked back to Siltstep hobbling behind her and, subtly, she slowed down to make the remainder of the journey easier on her. It wasn't very far-- within a few pawsteps, Rainwhisker stood on the edge of the river. It was fairly deep here; even where her paws lay was a steep drop into the gut of the water. She could see scales flitting beneath the water.

Rainwhisker rumbled. "I suppose Windclan cats would just hide in their tunnels," she offered thoughtfully. "Like foxes."

[Silk]

Siltstep

she/her ◈ riverclan ◈ warrior

Her lips pulled up, showing her teeth and her distaste at that. "To be so unafraid of the earth caving in around you," she mused, and paused as she caught up to stand side by side with Rainwhisker, paws at the edge of the drop into the water. "I wonder if they say the same about us, with floods every newleaf," she added, almost laughing at the thought. At least there was hope of escaping the water, for a Riverclan cat who knows how to. But to be buried while you still drew breath? She would prefer trees and marshes and no water at all to that.

She leaned down, flexing her bad leg as she peered into the river, wishing for if only a spray of mist to cool her fur. "Prey won't keep for long in this heat; how many do you wish to bring back?"

[viv]

rainwhisker

she/they ○ riverclan ○ deputy

the rains have ceased, and we have been graced with another beautiful day.
but you are not here to see it.

Rainwhisker's snout crinkled as she watched the surface of the river, ear angled at Siltstep. She wondered, distantly, if the apprentices would even think that far. It'd be a good lesson to them to see prey rot faster in heat, but it'd take a toll on the clan if they had nothing to eat. "We'll dig out a hole to keep it cool and return everything after the air cools," she said. If anyone didn't want to eat the soil, there was plenty of water to wash them off with.

She glanced back to Siltstep and her bad leg, and took it upon herself to push herself up and start digging next to the river. "Maybe," she answered to Windclan making assumptions about floods in the territory. "We know when floods are going to happen and how to deal with them, however-- I've never heard of Windclan knowing when their tunnels are going to collapse." How many Windclanners had died in those tunnels since Rainwhisker became a warrior? More than she could think of, she knew that much.

She didn't have to dig very deep before the earth felt cool to the touch underneath her paw. Would this be enough? She'd have to assume so. If the heat kept up over the next few days, they could dig out a deeper storage back in camp to keep things fresh.

The deputy shook her fur out. "How is your leg healing?" She asked, a little more conversationally-- as much as she could manage, at least. "You're probably the only cat I've heard to survive a fox." She meant this as a compliment, of course, but her monotone way of speaking didn't much help it sound like one.

[Silk]

Siltstep

she/her ◈ riverclan ◈ warrior

Siltstep watched the water for a moment longer, before stretching and turning to help dig. She couldn't dig very effectively, but she still made an effort. "It is not healing well," she admitted, after a moment, and then added, wryly, "I suppose we'll have to see just how long I survive it." She shook out her fur, flexing her toes in the cool dirt, and looked to Rainwhisker. "Surely I'm not the only cat to have escaped a fox. Surely some cat in Thunderclan, if no where else. Honestly, I think I just got lucky." She had recounted the story before, but her mind often drifts back to the event. Why was she the lucky one? Of all cats? She wasn't sure how she felt about that. The fox had let go of her leg—she cannot remember exactly why, perhaps she had nicked it's face worse than she had expected to, perhaps something startled it—and it was only the adrenaline keeping the pain from setting in, and muscle memory that guided her across the river, and luck that the fox did not follow after her. She wished she could know what it was thinking, at the time.

She padded back to the river's edge, crouching and peering into the river, eyes following the forms of fish beneath the surface. Rainwhisker was younger than her, she should have known the answer, but she asked it anyway, "What are the worse of your scars from?" The gray cat couldn't be short on stories, herself, Siltstep thought, though she didn't know if she liked to tell them. She supposed she would find out.

[viv]

rainwhisker

she/they ○ riverclan ○ deputy

the rains have ceased, and we have been graced with another beautiful day.
but you are not here to see it.

Rainwhisker took another glance over Siltstep's leg as she licked dirt from her pawpads, offering a little grunt. "I doubt it. Thunderclan cats aren't as sturdy as they'd want you to believe." They weren't as smart, either-- she could too clearly see several Thunderclan warriors thinking they could take on a fox and getting sent to Silverpelt.

She watched Siltstep come back over before turning her gaze back to the water. "The worse of them," she echoed. She found that it had gotten easier to sustain and pull through injuries the more she got them. The ones that hurt the most were the first few ones she had. "The worst one was my face. On this side," her paw lifted to the ragged claw marks on her cheek, one of which scored her eye, but had managed to miss damaging her sight. "It'd swollen like an egg and I couldn't see out that half of my face for a half-moon."

Did she remember? Rainwhisker hoped not, really, but... "It was during my first gathering as a warrior. I'd tried to sweet-talk an older queen-- Shadowclan, I think. She didn't care for it." Dawnstar hadn't punished her for it-- the humiliation was enough, really. Being confined in the medicine den was enough for it. "I was quite young. Before I'd learned rules are set in place to avoid stupid fights or deaths."

She craned her head around to gesture to a deep gouge in her flank, that would have been hidden under her pelt if it weren't so thick to part the slick fur. "This one was from Bramblestar some seasons ago. Just a border dispute, but I wasn't sure if Moonwhisker would ever be able to staunch the bleeding." Dying at the paws of another clan leader wouldn't have been the worst way to go, she'd thought.

Her eyes darted to silver scales fluttering over near the surface of the water. "There," she hissed, soft and swift. "On your side."

[Silk]

Siltstep

she/her ◈ riverclan ◈ warrior

Siltstep perched on the edge of the water, balancing carefully so when she swung her good leg out to hook a fish and pull it out, it wouldn't send her stumbling into the water herself. The fish squirmed worse than a bored kit, but it didn't last very long once she had it in her jaws, and carried it to the cool soil to begin their pile. She chuckled at the story of the queen, and said, "I have a similar story, though I suppose I was on the other side. Oh, the antics of young cats really do never change, do they?" She returned to her spot beside Rainwhisker, tail twitching. Idly, she wondered if that Shadowclan queen ever told stories of the young warrior she had to teach a lesson to.

"We are lucky to have such talented healers," she continued. "We're lucky Moonwhisker managed to keep you alive and kicking." Border disputes could get nasty. It was too easy to lose a cat to them--Siltstep herself could not be clear of that mark on her conscious--but it always a deep shame. She couldn't imagine being a healer, herself. It was far easier to deal damage than it was to repair it.

[viv]

rainwhisker

she/they ○ riverclan ○ deputy

the rains have ceased, and we have been graced with another beautiful day.
but you are not here to see it.

Gentle tension rose in Rainwhisker's hind legs, half-preparing to pounce. She wasn't sure which she was expecting to happen: for Siltstep to fall back onto the mud or to fall forward into the river-- but neither happened. Her broad head watched the older she-cat move to the hole. "I hope you didn't scar them as badly," she said, and not without faint amusement lacing her tone. "Do you remember who it was?"

Her muscles only relaxed once Siltstep settled down back next to her. The deputy's eyes darted back to the water.

"Moonwhisker was a good one," she said. He'd only served eight moons before dying, but he was a good cat. "Dacetail and Sunpaw have taken good care of you, too."

A few quiet heartbeats went by. Rainwhisker's mouth was open as though she were trying to scent fish through the water (she couldn't), breath hissing softly in the silence. Glinting scales came close-- but not close enough. They'd still be wary, after the noise the last one made.

Her weight shifted back onto her haunches. "It's good for younger cats to have that kind of audacity," she murmured. "It keeps things interesting for the rest of us, at the very least."

[Silk]

Siltstep

she/her ◈ riverclan ◈ warrior

"Oh, it was a young tom, ah, Amber-something, I think. He was so excited, and I think I must have been in a bad mood because I wasn't known for striking cats that tried to get my attention like that at the time." She hummed, considering, trying to remember the exact circumstances, but the memory didn't seem to want to surface. She wasn't even sure what clan he had been from. It must not have struck her as very important, at the time. "It was quite a few seasons ago," she added, as if to excuse the lack of details.

She shifted on her paws, tail flicking. She hadn't realized how much she needed to get out of camp until now; she had forgotten the good company Rainwhisker could be. "That they have," she agreed, although the taste of the last herb she had been given still lingered on her tongue. She couldn't fault them for that, but sometimes it was fun to entertain the idea. "Sunpaw is growing fast, too. I think I would be spending all my time tripping over my paws, were I him."

"How have the younger cats been treating you, lately, Rainwhisker?" she asked, after a moment's pause, a bit of mirth in her voice. "How long have you been deputy, again? Though, I suppose you have been wrangling apprentices for far longer."