Actual Hunting!

[Ki]

The sun had set, but Leopardfang was still very much awake.

He was laying in the middle of camp, stretched out as if the sun were still there to warm his spotted fur. The tom knew he should be at least a bit tired by now. Like all the warriors, he'd been working on patrols all day. You would think all of that sprinting would tire a cat out-especially Leopardfang. He was, after all, the oldest warrior in all of the Clans. Yet he felt as fit and awake right now as he had when he was a warrior fresh out of his apprenticeship. His eyes turned towards the moon and flicked his tail this way and that as he laid there. His mind turned to Cindertail and their possibilities of kits. It was still far too early to tell if she was carrying his kits. She might be, but then again she might not. What if they had simply waited too long? What if all hopes of a family had passed them by while they toiled away the moons, wasting precious time they had together?

Speaking of his mate...

Where was she?

Leopardfang rolled on to his belly and stood up. He stretched out each of his long legs briefly, then began to scan the camp for Cindertail. Sadly, he hadn't seen much of her that day. They'd each been sent on separate patrols throughout the day. Surely her patrol had returned by now? If they had, he had not seen them. Mostly because he'd been somewhere in between sleep and awakeness once his duties were finished. (That could also be a contributing factor to his energy.) Every moment he spent with Cindertail he thoroughly enjoyed. He'd always delighted in her company, but now that delight seemed to be increase by the fact that they had finally discovered their feelings for one another. Hm. Perhaps she could help ease his mind about the kits?

Amber eyes looked around as he moved through the camp. She had to be here somewhere.

[Kitty]

Cindertail hated having to fish herself out of the river.

She'd just been walking along the ThunderClan border - she'd fallen a bit behind the rest of the patrol; it was a good thing she wasn't leading this one. They'd reached the Steppingstones ahead of her and had continued on without her, knowing she could take care of herself. It wasn't like she was going to catch up, anyway. She was too lost in thought, thinking about Leopardfang and how little she'd seen of him today. They had had bad luck in their patrol schedules, that was for sure. And after wasting so much time over the moons, Cindertail wanted to be with him as much as possible - especially since she may be carrying his kits.

The patrol had gone far enough ahead for the reeds to block them from sight, and Cindertail leaped out on to the first steppingstone, her mind still half in its wanderings. It wasn't until she'd hit the fourth stone that she slipped and teetered on the edge for one shocking heartbeat, then toppled over into the river. Water rushed up her nose and through her mouth, but she was a RiverClan cat and the river was a bit low. It took only a few terrifying moments in which she couldn't find her way to the surface before popping back up. She resurfaced and floundered to the edge of the river, climbing out dripping wet with her gray and white fur plastered to her small body. She spent the next several moments hacking up mouthfuls of water, and then after resting for a bit after her unexpected dunking headed back to camp. Leopardfang was surely worried about her by now.

And that was why she was walking into camp, much later than her patrol, soaking wet, looking like a drowned rat. Her amber eyes searched out Leopardfang and she forced her tired paws to move over to him. "Hello," she meowed, voice a bit scratchy. "Sorry I'm late. How's your evening been?"

[Ki]

And who should walk into camp, soaking wet and exhausted-looking, but his mate. She walked up to him and spoke to him with a slightly hoarse voice. Worry filled through him. What had happened to her? Leopardfang curled himself around his bedraggled mate and licked her cheek in a concerned manner. Ignoring her question, he asked, "What happened? You look exhausted." He wondered if she'd simply gone for a swim and gotten tired while doing so. But she wouldn't swim until she wore herself out. That just wasn't like Cindertail. He pinned his ears back against his head. This was his friend, his mate, the possible mother of his kits. She was obviously ok now, if a bit tired after whatever ordeal she'd been through. But Leopardfang would have fussed if it was just a flea.

"What caused you to be so late?" he asked. The spotted tom's voice was still thick with worry. "I was getting a bit worried."

[Kitty]

Unsurprisingly, Leopardfang ignored the gray and white she-cat's question, instead curling himself around her and licking her cheek, making no effort to disguise his worry over both her absence and the fact that she was clearly tired and wet. She felt the need to reassure him. She turned and licked his cheek in return, comforting him. "Its alright," she meowed. "I'm fine. I was just going slower than the patrol, so they left me behind. I can take care of myself, after all. I was crossing the Steppingstones and slipped in fell in, that's all," she explained, trying to brush it off.

Cindertail grinned. Maybe she could lighten the mood a bit. "Just a bit worried? You look like if you'd worry any more, all your fur would fall out. We can't have that happen, now can we? Not with leaf-fall coming up, we can't!" She let out a comforting purr. "Once I dry out and sleep I'll be fine."

[Ki]

Leopardfang listened to the story intently. At first with concern, then with amusement. Ah, she'd slipped into the river? Well what cat hadn't done that? Leopardfang could remember slipping on days when the stones were particularly perilous, or when whatever manner of crossing they were using on that particular day. He chuckled lightly and rubbed his cheek against hers, not minding if he got wet or not. "No we can't have that, can we? So no making me worry about you with leaf-fall getting closer. Ok?" Since she didn't look injured, Leopardfang wasn't too concerned. Once she dried, had some fresh-kill, and rested she would be fine. He rasped his tongue over her ear and smiled.

"So," he mewed, "you fell into the river? Now that's the graceful little she-cat I know and love." He laughed lightly. Now that he knew she was ok, it wouldn't hurt to tease her a little bit. Now would it?

[Kitty]

Cindertail gave her mate an affectionate shoulder bump, promptly further soaking his pelt - not that it mattered much, anyway, since he was already so wet from curling around her. "No, we can't have that. Your Clan needs you to be able to go out and patrol and hunt in the freezing waters like the rest of us! If your fur falls out, you won't be getting off easy. We'll still make your do all the normal chores." The gray and white she-cat grinned mischievously, despite her exhaustion and wetness.

The grin evaporated, though, when he started teasing her. "Hey! Like you've never done it! I seem to recall that time when you were a young warrior that you slipped and fell in. Remember?" Her grin that accompanied this reminder was a bit smug. "I was still an apprentice then, and I was the one that had to fish you out!" She let out a mrrow of amusement at the memory. The Clan had teased him a bit about that one.

[Ki]

Leopardfang chuckled again. At her comeback and at the memory. "Ooh, yes. Between you and Crowpaw, I would never live it down." Ah, Crowpaw. Rosepaw. Graypaw. All friends that had passed long before the two of them. Though, some days, Leopardfang felt he should have gone long ago as well. Not many cats survived greencough twice. His mother hadn't. His father hadn't even survived one battle. Hm. Leopardfang's father. Now there was a fine cat. Spottedclaw. If Leopardfang thought back far enough, he could remember him. The cat that looked just like him. Same amber eyes. Same spotted pelt. But then that cat was wiped from existence. And, some moons later, his mate followed him.

"Hehe...remember those three? Graypaw and Crowpaw and Rosepaw?" Leopardfang asked. He didn't bother asking if Cindertail remembered his father; Leopardfang was a few moons older than her. She hadn't even been born when his father died. But Rosepaw had fallen ill around the same time as Leopardfang had when he was an apprentice. She had died the same night as his mother.

[Kitty]

Cindertail laughed along with the tom. Ahh, Crowpaw. He and Graypaw provided constant entertainment among the group of friends, with their playful bantering, cheery goofiness, and teasing natures. How those two had turned out so much alike was a mystery. "Oh yes. It took almost a moon before we stopped nagging you about it, and even then it still popped up occasionally." How she missed her three apprentice friends. Only two of them had made it to their warrior ceremony.

"Of course I remember them! I was the youngest in the apprentice den by a few moons and they still wouldn't leave me out of the group," she meowed, chuckling a bit at the memory of Graypaw practically dragging her to join them by the fresh-kill pile for the dawn meal that started their moons-long friendship. "You four were my best friends."

Poor Rosepaw. She never even became a warrior. Only a couple moons after Cindertail became an apprentice greencough swept across the camp. The she-cat recalled the terrible sadness she'd had to help her friends with, and what she'd endured herself, when several of the Clan ended up joining StarClan. Leopardfang lost both his mother and his friend to greencough that season. He was the worst off, his father already dying moons before. Not to mention he fell ill himself.

Crowpaw and Graypaw both made it to warriorhood. But poor Graypaw, he drowned. And then Crowpaw, too, soon joined StarClan in an unexpected border fight. And then only Leopardfang and Cindertail were left. How sad; only two of them would live long enough to become elders - or so Cindertail hoped. There were still several moons that could ruin that.