Early Bird || Kovu & Open

[Wargrace]

Spiderpaw
Dawn, short ways from makeshift camp.

Just like the world is ours,
We are who we are.

Victory will be mine!

Bright blue eyes widened, the little she-cat crouched; still as a statue, short of her fluffy tail -- the tip of which was twitching erratically behind her. The prey was so close! She rarely managed to get so close to such prey. A bird! Hunting.. hopefully it would grow easier in due time. Ah, but how she prefered fighting! She wasn't necessarily a terrible hunter. No, she did fair enough. Average, more-or-less. She hadn't moons of experience, afterall. She would learn more in time. But for now.. the bird was the object of all her focus. A plump, unsuspecting little sparrow. Well.. plump.. for the prey that seemed to be around since the 'quake. Not quite as scrawny as the other critters. What to do..? Was she near enough to spring..? She had a long stride, considering her size.. but was it long enough to reach the bird? No.. probably not.

Nice birdie, good birdie. Let me.. uh.. cuddle you? With my claws.

More tail-flicks, and she took a ginger pawstep forward, setting the white paw down daintily, least the bird hear it. Then another. Edging nearer and nearer. Her whole body was tingling with excitement! Catching a bird! How very lucky a catch it would be, if she got ahold of it. But what if she failed? Ah, that'd be ashame. Another step, and she froze as it hopped a bit. But then.. it was back to pecking the earth, looking for whatever it was sparrows ate. Was it time to spring yet? Yes! Definitely! She had no doubt she could reach it with a good leap -- but.. would she time it right? One could only hope! But.. sitting here debating would do her no good.. so..

Without further ado.. she launched, kicking off, and flinging herself at the bird. It startled, twittering in panic, and flew. Up it went, into the air. Ohno! Stretching herself more, claws outstretched.. she snagged it. And down they both went. Predator ontop of prey. Victory! Or not; it wasn't actually.. dead. So, victory celebrations would wait; head tilting down to finish the noisy little sparrow hurriedly. Her first bird! Spiderpaw couldn't help but to beam, stepping back to examine the catch. She'd barely even ruffled a feather! ..Albeit, there were plenty of 'unruffled' feathers on the ground. A good start to her day!

[Iva]

Camopaw

The sky, although probably not plagued by one bit of rain, seemed hazy to him. To this day, Camo’s mind was in a daze; locked in a dangerous dance in which he had no control. His head bowed low, and he marched forward..Eyes open, but mostly unseeing. His brain. It was too busy to see all but vague outlines. Busy..Thinking. Of what? His fur burned hot as he thought of his own condition. Unexplainable. Unchangable.

Ah, yes..Walking. Forward he continued to go, over a nice clump of dead grass, and under a nice dead tree-branch.
Why wasn’t he back in camp? Well, he was supposed to be hunting.. Unfortunately, he had become nearly as useless as a two-moon-old kit with his infliction. Every time he thought he heard a noise, he ended up perking.. And simply forgetting about it, without much more investigation. He did find one mouse, though. Sadly, as soon as he found it, it found him. He had not been in the right hunter’s crouch. Sad.
He had been sure he had been.. Ah, his mind! It was so busy. Busy, and destructive. How on earth could he hope to get anywhere if he was going on like a foolish mousebrain?

Wait..What was that noise? Camo jumped, and dug his claws into the earth; wheeling around and suppressing a hiss only when he recognized the sound. A bird, shrieking out in death. When had.. Where had..? Birds didn’t hunt themselves.
Someone else must’ve been around. What to do..? Avoid? He definitely wouldn’t mind that. His mood.. It had diminished, despite his unusually optimistic behaviour. He simply didn’t want to be bothered with many cats anymore. Nevertheless, his personally compelled him to turn around, and find who it was and go greet them. He was not unfriendly, after all. Quite the opposite.

When he saw who it was, his tail twitched to life; standing straight up behind him, as his eyes went from slits to round circles. Oh, Spiderpaw! Instantly, energy flowed through him; catching and holding him, and blowing away the fog. Everything was very much more clear.. Even his thoughts, and something else. His heart leapt a bit. “Hi, Spiderpaw!” With a couple of bounces, he neared his friend..Pausing only when he realized he knew nothing of the situation..Including how he had gotten to this point. Quick. See. Remember. Oh, right, the bird..And there it was, dead. “You caught a bird? That’s amazing.. I didn’t even think there were any left.”

[Kovu]

Camopaw wasn't the only Tom nearby...Hawktide as well heard the dying shriek of the fallen prey. And had even witnessed the entire thing. He had been out and about, of course, only instead of searching the ground; the Tom was searching for bushes of sorts. Berry bushes. He had found one after spending an entire morning searching the rugged plains of heat and had begun picking them and placing them into a small woven sort of carrier, woven by their very own medicine cat.

Ah, see, he was on a quest. A quest to keep his paws busy and his mind occupied onto something besides his broken and mending heart. Works would surely heal that up with time. The Tom swallowed some of the juices accidentally and found the berries to be sweet and sour at once. How could that be? His green eyes widened and he gazed more carefully at the berries upon the drying up bush. They were round and blueish in color and he blinked curiously. Whatever they were, they tasted delicious to him.

Oh!? A familiar feline scent over the berry bushes and in stalked Spiderpaw...After a ripe, plump small bird. The Tom dropped the berries in his mouth into the woven grasses and ducked down comfortably to watch. Speculating, his eyes worked with hers, his mind whirling with strategies she should and would use. Calculating was what he liked to do mentally now, whenever he got the chance.

Yes! She caught it! What a spectacular leap! The Tom smiled and stood from his hiding hole, "Great leap! Are you sure you aren't really a spider?" he wondered gently, cocking his head to one side and he smile moving to a playful smirk. An odd rarity for the Tom. Oh, he noticed another car then. An apprentice in his clan, Er, what was his name? He seemed to be quite friendly around Spiderpaw...Ah, Camopaw. What an interesting cat...Hawktide had seen him around, barely. Camopaw tended to stick close to Spiderpaw if any cat at all. Definitely not other warriors like him, the ginger Tom wondered why. Dipping his head to Camopaw as he looked over his berry bush.

[Wargrace]

Spiderpaw

Just like the world is ours,
We are who we are.

Now what? Should she bury it and keep hunting, or return to camp with the prize? Surely, hunting more was the better option, and she did plan to, even if she took the sparrow to camp first. Oh, but burying it would waste less time, would it not? However, what if something else came along and dug it up while she was off hunting? Was it worth the risk..? Peering down at the plump little sparrow, she pondered only a moment more. She wasn't alone, it seemed. Although she had not scented anyone else previously.. she found herself far from alone. Not one other arrival; but two. Two whom she happened to be quite fond of! Perking, the apprentice caught sight of both toms and beamed. She really did enjoy company! Although that wasn't to say she wasn't highly independent -- she spent quite a bit of time off on her own. Thinking, learning, practicing. ..It was more likely than not she was just too high-energy to drag others along, really; she barely ever stopped going. Sleep? Pfft. She'd sleep when she was dead! Well, not really -- she did sleep. She just stayed awake much, much more.

Company. Camopaw and Hawktide. Her first friends in Marshclan! Undoubtedly, Spiderpaw was beaming as both complimented her catch, bright blue eyes blinked at them. Bird abandoned, for the moment, the little she-cat was off, moving to bump into both fondly, before turning and trotting back to the bird, a paw lifted to prod it. "This was probably the last bird, Camopaw. Look how pudgy it is. Clearly it ate all the food and the rest starved." Pokepoke. The last bird..? Doubtful. She'd seen plenty of others flying by -- it was a joke, of course, and her tone mirrored it playfully. "Shh, that's my secret, Hawktide~" Was she a spider? Only if spiders were furry, had four legs, and meowed. Yeah.. not quite. But.. she'd joke about that, too, as she had the bird.

Blinking at the two, she sat, fluffy tail curling close as she gave her paw a couple quick licks. Ah.. why was she friends with such big cats..? Hawktide was a large warrior -- and Camopaw was still growing and already putting the smallest warriors to shame. And.. it wasn't like she was a large apprentice; she was definitely smaller than the average. Ah well! Up she went again, standing; and then practicly standing on her tippy-toes, puffing up a bit. "This isn't working, is it? All hope isn't lost, maybe I'll have a growth spurt~!" Purred-laughter. "What're you two doing out so early~?" It was only dawn, afterall! Hawktide.. he was collecting.. berries of some sort? Why? Maybe the medicine cat needed them..? Possibly. Presumably.. Camopaw was hunting? Or maybe his mentor wanted an early-morning training and he was off to some training location..? Perhaps both were just off.. on their own missions? If they were, maybe they could be convinced to join her hunting? That would be nice~!

[Iva]

Apparently, he and Spiderpaw were not alone. They might as well have been, though, for all he noticed. With Hawktide right infront of him, he didn’t even the tom. A clear indication that Camo was still being odd.. Because, really, Hawktide wasn’t the size or shape to ‘miss’ easily. His focused was locked on Spider, to the point he saw nothing else, just as before. Life was leaking back in, though; along with a tingliness in his paws, that made his fur bristled a bit. Finally, he realized the other was around; and flashed him a confused look. Who was that..? It was on his tongue, but he could not pin down the thoughts. Hawk..Hawk something..Hawktide?

Ah, yes. His father, Mistwing, had spoken of Hawktide to him many times. ‘Don’t be a dunderhead, just like Hawktide!’ ‘Just because your large, doesn’t mean you have to be brainless, just like Hawktide!’ Really, Mistwing had been such a pleasant cat. Had been, or was..Camo wasn’t sure. Just because his parents where gone, didn’t make them dead..Somewhere, deep down, he felt they where out there, lurking, scowling at the hair-brained decision for the clans to combine and travel over the mountains. No, he had not gotten along with his parents. Still, they had an effect on him..He ashamed to find himself assuming Hawktide wasn’t the brightest, at the first glance. He forced himself to toss out the observation, though, as it..Hadn’t been observed. Nor was he even the type of cat to look down upon someone of ‘lessor intelligence’. Ah, but, such teachings..

He shook his head, after a long, paused daze. Finally, he looked away from Hawktide and Spider both, and to the dirt. He could feel the haze fading away, slowly..Unfortunately, underneath it, there appeared to be some type of spazzy, shakey, twitch energy that filled his chest and clouded his judgement. “Hello.. “ He nodded toward Hawktide. Well, sort of..It was more so the dirt, as his focus had broken and returned to Spiderpaw. She bumped against him, and went back to her bird..From this point on, it was he who moved; taking a few, slightly-to-fast pawsteps toward the tabby apprentice. “I hope not!” The last bird. Really, he didn’t get sarcasm, did he..? No, not really.

[Kovu]

(Sorry, I've really lost motivation...That was short D; -cries-)

Hawktide snorted his mirth, whiskers twitched in amusement as she joked back with him over their shared experience. He smiled and dipped his head to Camopaw in greeting just after his she-cat friend nudged against him softly in her own greeting. Purring, he decided to bring over his woven basket with the blueish berries inside them over to the duo of apprentices, forest green eyes dazzling with pride for her and himself. Watching the little she-cat, the tom smiled and watched her attempt at 'growth'. "You're young yet, you'll be sure to have as long a leg as a spider, surely." he rumbled helpfully, hoping it would comfort her and have her giggle. It was too adorable, his little friend.

But every laugh they shared together was leading the tom's memories to glide towards Gingervoice. His eyes clouded as he knew how tiny she was compared to him. He looked at his paws and placed down his weaved holder. Wanting to share a bit of his success with his friend and Camopaw, he pawed the earth somewhat sheepishly. "I ah...found these...to keep myself busy...Wont you try some? You too... Camopaw, was it? They're a bit tart, but then they become very sweet and juicy." he swiped his blue tongue around his whiskers at the delicious, savory memory of accidentally eating a few.