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Post by ' B r a c k e n on Aug 27, 2009 0:09:07 GMT -5
Brackenfur's body was weak from the sickness. Each cough wracked his body and the journey had weakened him everyday. He struggled to go on a small meal of whatever animal seemed almost as miserable as him and leapt to his paws but Starclan always provided. He had almost collapsed from exhaustion when he hit the border. His nose excited with the new scent of his home. He tried to go on but suddenly there was a sound of shuffling in the reeds ahead. He collapsed to the ground. He wasn't in any condition to fight and if it came to that Brackenfur would pay dearly with his life. |
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Post by Fernpool on Aug 28, 2009 7:46:15 GMT -5
Petalnose padded miserably along behind Lightstep and Amberheart. She was barley paying any attention whatsoever to the task at hand and rather was just following noisily along on the patrol. She was still grieving heavily over Brackenfur’s disappearance though it was so long ago. Most of the clan seemed to have forgotten or at least the topic had died away, but Petalnose couldn’t stand the thought of never seeing her mate again.
Having only recently accepted that he was gone for good, Petalnose’s spirits were literally being forcefully dragged along the ground as she carried out her duties to the clan completely unaware of anything except loss. Fernpool had long since confirmed the question that Petalnose was pregnant, and there was no question about the father, but it was still hard for the she-cat to let go. The only bright spot she had left was the kits and they were the only thing making her go on. If not for them, Petalnose would long have gone after Brackenfur herself.
Now, as she followed lost in thoughts about Brackenfur, Petalnose’s ears picked up the faintest sound of leave crunching. The swirled half-heartedly in that direction and she figured it was her duty to warn the clan so Petalnose lifted her nose and opened her mouth to speak when she suddenly froze.
A horribly familiar scent clouded heavily with sickness reached her scent glands and the she-cat was shocked into momentary frigidness. Stopping in her tracks, Petalnose turned her nose in the direction of the scent and waited for some other sound.
---
At the head of the patrol, Amberheart was padding along almost contentedly though his heart was heavily laden with the recent tragedies that seem to have plagued his clan. It just didn’t seem possible that three cats had died and one just vanished into thin air leaving Cascade Clan quite vulnerable. So far they had less than fifteen warriors and an apprentice with no mentor though he had been dubbed and moved in order to make room in the nursery for Petalnose’s soon to be kits.
Despite what anyone said, the young she-cat had begun to fill out a slight bit though it could easily be mistaken as extra weight – though anyone who knew Petalnose wouldn’t dare even suggest it in fear of having their tails bitten off.
Padding along further and up the boarder, Amberheart was about to pause and leave a scent marker when suddenly Petalnose froze. Looking over his shoulder, the tom came to a halt and cocked his head to the side questioningly. The she-cat looked very distressed.
“Petalnose?” he asked. “What is it? What’s wrong?" |
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Post by ' B r a c k e n on Aug 29, 2009 13:34:51 GMT -5
Brackenfur could smell nothing but his own sickness and heard the cats approaching faster. There wasnt anything he could do. He barely had the strength to stand. "I'm not a threat" He called out weakly to the cats hoping to delay their attack--Should they be attacking at all...
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Post by Lightstep on Aug 29, 2009 16:52:39 GMT -5
Lightstep turned her head in curiosity and lifted her tail inquisitively. She didn’t scent anything out of the ordinary. Rather, she lifted her nose and came to the conclusion that there was an enormously sick cat nearby. Raising her fur in alarm and resisting the urge to cringe away, Lightstep’s eyes widened.
“Petalnose, if that’s him we can’t take him back to camp!” the she-cat exclaimed urgently. “Didn’t you see just how powerful that sickness was? It plagued our camp and took four cats!”
Her heart was still aching for the wonderful little apprentice that had been killed so brutally by the nasty sickness. |
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Post by Fernpool on Aug 29, 2009 17:21:45 GMT -5
Petalnose hissed angrily at Amberheart and didn’t even look twice towards Lightstep before bounding through the bracken towards her mate. Her heart began to pound in her ear fuzz as the she-cat pummeled her way onwards. Following the scent she came to the border of Cascade Clan’s territory and one of the shared lands where many loners where known to live.
Skidding to a halt as the scent died away a moment, the she-cat began to panic. Spinning on her paws, she leapt back into the ferns until she caught the scent again and raced on once more. When she finally reached a place where the scent was strongest, Petalnose stopped and began to pad almost hesitantly towards the place where she could tell a cat was hidden.
The scent was overwhelmingly familiar but could easily be overlooked by one who was not on alert. The sickness was so strong, Petalnose couldn’t blame Brackenfur to have wanted to leave. She was just astonished that he was alive.
“B-Brackenfur?” she called softly. Stepping forward a few feet, the she-cat paused again and waited for a reply.
---
Amberheart’s ears flicked in annoyance as Petalnose took off and he quickly signaled to Lightstep with his tail for her to follow. Leaping after the pretty little she-cat, Amberheart growled under his breath. If this was another wild goose chase of hers, Silkstar was not going to be happy. It was not unheard of that Petalnose would be so overwhelmed with grief that she’d go out and call for her mate in vain. Once before she had even convinced him that she’d found Brackenfur.
As Petalnose came to halt and skid back around, the tom had to leap out of her way and in a mouse flash she was gone. Tracking her back through the bracken, Amberheart again came to a halt when he found Petalnose eyeing a large fern. Lifting his nose, Amberheart identified two things; one, that they had only gone a few fox lengths from the original position and two, an incredibly sick cat was hidden directly in front of his clan - and den mate.
“Petalnose, what’s this all about?” he snarled. “All I scent is a nasty, sick rouge about to invade our camp with that sickness again.”
Raising his hackles and preparing to pounce, Amberheart listened a moment and then leapt, snarling and spitting into the ferns where the cat was.
---
Petalnose hissed angrily as her clan mates appeared and was about to spin on Amberheart for saying such spiteful things. Before she could though, the big tom had sprung into the bushes.
“Don’t!” the she-cat yowled and sprung through the ferns behind him. |
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Post by ' B r a c k e n on Aug 30, 2009 13:55:05 GMT -5
Brackenfur didn't have the strength to fight back or even defend himself. He felt himself get thrown aside as the cat landed near him. [ooc]sorry not much i can say  |
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Post by Fernpool on Aug 31, 2009 20:13:47 GMT -5
Erm, doesn't he recognize the voices or scents of his clanmates? What does he think is happening? C'mon Bracken, I can't work with something like that. T.T
~Fern |
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Post by ' B r a c k e n on Sept 1, 2009 20:47:33 GMT -5
He cant smell past his sickness, he cant see hardly because the sickness makes him all disoriented. Noone talked to him so he couldnt recognize anything other than the fact that a cats attacking him and he cant defend himself.
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