A Quiet Morning {Open}

[Veritas]

There was no doubt that ShadowClan's territory was by far the most gloomy and ominous looking of them all, what with the swampy marsh that covered most of the ground, and the Tallpines that cast a dark shadow within itself and the surrounding area. The rat place was not a particularly cheerful place either; crawling with vermin and disease it was, and filled to the brim with whatever the Twolegs decided to dispose of. Still, even though ThunderClan's forests were bright, WindClan's lands dry and firm, and RiverClan's waters clearer, Galestar would not have wished for his clan's territory to be anything different, he thought, as he picked his way through the forest that was the Tallpines. Like most of his clanmates, if not all, he had grown up here, and thus had grown accustomed to the swampy ground and shadowy woods. Besides, he reasoned, it was probably the best for defense anyway, given that scents could be hard to pick up on the watery ground, and trying to find a cat lurking in the forest was as easy as outrunning a monster when one wasn't accustomed to it. Galestar loved the territory his clan had... Even if it was asymmetrical and filled with muck.

Pausing in his trek through the Tallpines, Galestar bent his head down to tease some stubborn mud out from between his toes. He was fairly certain that his dark pads were caked with mud or something along those lines, but there was no point in cleaning them until he got back to the camp, where the ground wasn't nearly as soft. Besides, if he stopped to do that now, he had no doubt that he'd get his fur dirty anyway. Best do it later. It took the leader a couple of minutes to remove the irritation, although once he did, he kept on going, green eyes narrowed and eyes alert as he crept through the area. He had set out this morning with the intention of hunting, and he had already brought down three animals- two snakes and a mouse, the former being somewhat uncommon in the area. But now he was faced with a problem; three wasn't an even number, and although he could physically organize his catch in a way that would make it even on both sides, it just wasn't right. So now he was on the hunt for a second mouse to make it all equal, even if the chances of stumbling across another one were low.

Still, luck seemed to be on Galestar's side today, for after a bit more searching, the small rodent presented itself. The best part was that it was roughly the same size as the other one he had caught. With a grin creeping up the tom cat's face, he crouched down, and began to crawl forward. He had just gotten ready to pounce when the sudden sound of a twig snapping from somewhere close by set the small creature off, and it bolted. Galestar raced after it, willing his long legs to go faster as he navigated his way around the roots and rocks that tried to trip him as he went. The gap between prey and predator began closing rapidly, and the tom could feel his heart racing with the thought of finally evening out his catch... And then he felt it under his paws.

The hard, rough surface of the Thunderpath, which seemed to be vibrating ever so slightly against his paws. It didn't take a genius to figure out what was coming, either, and with a fantastic leap, Galestar removed himself from the path of a Monster just in time, making it to the safety of ShadowClan grounds once more.

"Foxdung." Was all the leader had to say about that, and within seconds, he was pacing alongside the border, tail thrashing and eyes narrowed. "One more second, and I would have had the stupid thing." He growled, referring to the mouse. Surprisingly, he didn't seem to be shaken by the fact that he had almost gotten run over by a Monster. He continued to pace along the border, pulling at the lush grass with his claws. Eventually, Galestar did get tired of pacing, so he decided to sit down. It seemed that luck wasn't actually on his side today, though, for right across from him, in plain site, was the very mouse that had dragged him all the way out here. However, it was on the other side of the border, in ThunderClan territory, so there was only one thing Galestar could do... He stared at it. He just sat there, green gaze fixated on the little rodent, and didn't move a muscle.

[Kat]

Rabbits had to the most irritating creatures in the world. It was hard enough to find herbs in the territory, the forests were good enough, Dappleflower supposed, but the Ratplace was completely useless. The swamp that covered most of the territory was one of the best place for herbs that required a more ah, sopping wet, climate, but walking through the mud was no fun for the mostly calico she-cat. The first few time she had explored looking for good herb spots she had ended up falling face first into mud that took hours to clean off.

Anyways, back to rabbits. They rarely came into the territory,much to dark for them she guessed, but of course the one time a rabbit happen by it had to trample the best watermint patch. Now the poor plant was almost ruined. Dappleflower had done her best to nip off the dyeing steams, and had brought them back to the camp to dry. Still, if she wanted the plant to last she couldn't bother it until next new-leaf!

Dappleflower sighed at the thought, she knew there were other patches out in the swamp, but the young she-cat hadn't found them-yet. Dappleflower had no interest in being coated with mud toady, so she had taken to the forest. In the hopes of finding some more herbs, juniper would be nice. The calico medicine cat relaxed as she inhaled the fresh scent of pines, Tallpines carried. The sharp dirty scent of the Thunderpath burned, and Dappleflower wrinkled her nose, irritated she'd come so near to the fowl place. Then the wind shifted, and she caught the scent of Galestar? The medicine cat couldn't help but wonder what had brought her leader so close to the Thunderpath.

Dappleflower knew she could just move on, but curiosity got the better of the young medicine cat,and she darted towards where the scent led her. Poking her head out from the bushes she was a bit alarmed to see him sitting right next to the border, staring across it at...a mouse? Dappleflower's brow wrinkled, and with hesitation meowed, "Galestar?"

[Veritas]

Between being upwind of Dappleflower and being far too fixated on the mouse across the road, Galestar hadn't really noted her drawing near at all. In fact, it wasn't until the she-cat spoke that he actually realized that she was indeed there. While he was successful in not jumping out of his skin in surprise at hearing the unexpected voice, he did stiffen up ever so slightly before relaxing when he realized that it was the medicine cat, not a stranger on ShadowClan's lands.

"Good morning, Dappleflower." He said softly, flicking his ear towards her in a sort of acknowledging gesture. "Might I ask what brings you so far from the camp and so close to the border? I don't seem to recall many herbs and the like growing near the Thunderpath, but then again, I'm no medicine cat." He added, green gaze still fixated on the rodent located on the other side of the border. The leader still hadn't turned around the slightest bit to look at Dappleflower, determined not to let his prey leave his sight until it ran off into ThunderClan's wooded area. That thought made his lips pull back in a slight snarling expression; that scrap of meat would move back over if it knew what was good for it. His catch needed to be even!

Feeling the need to vent to someone, Galestar began to talk about the mouse. "See that scrap of fur over there?" He asked, jabbing in the mouse's direction. "I was chasing it through the forest, when it suddenly decided to take a detour over the Thunderpath and into ThunderClan's territory." He huffed in irritation. "I almost had it too, but one of those horribly disgusting monsters came a long and nearly crushed me and that rodent. Anyway... I'm waiting for it to come back across. It will eventually, I think... It has to." He stated, narrowing his eyes. "Otherwise I'll have killed two snakes and a mouse, and I can't have that- three's an odd number." With another sigh, Galestar scuffed the ground with a paw. "I wish I was an apprentice right now; they can get away with crossing the borders by accident. Then I could get that mouse and everything would be settled."

[Kat]

Dappleflower couldn't help it she felt bad, for startling him. She should have know her sudden appearance would cause alarm. Still, it irritated her a little him questioning her being to so far from camp. Part of the calico she-cat wanted to demand why it mattered, but she held her tongue. She wasn't doing anything wrong, and it was an honest question. Dappleflower moved forward to stand beside him, a little nervous of being so close to the Thunderpath. Generally she avoided the place, but had been to focused on finding the herbs she was looking for to notice how close she had gotten to it.

"I was looking for juniper. No luck." Dappleflower said with a sigh, flicking her tail once in irritation. She was sympathetic to his plight with the mouse. The she-cat didn't really understand why he had to have an even number of kills, but she was used to her leaders odder habits. She could see why the mouse evading him would be an irritation, similar to her 'rabbit incident'. A meow of amusement escaped the she-cat as she mentioned how useful apprentices could be.

"Yes, but with Shadowclan's luck a Thunderclan patrol would catch him, and then we'd be in a big mess." Dappleflower said with a sigh. Thunderclan could be so touchy, and they seemed to take everything as a cause for attack, in the calico she-cats mind. "I had very similar prey incident. A rabbit deiced to trample my best watermint patch." Dappleflower told him with a sigh. It seemed more expeditions into the mud were in her future.

[Veritas]

"Hm. Well, that's too bad. Hopefully a nice clump pops up soon." Galestar commented, although he couldn't for the life of him remember what Juniper was used for. All he could recall was that you ate the little berries and they made something better, although he was fairly certain that wasn't all they would do. Mentally, the blue-grey tom shrugged- it wasn't like he was supposed to remember any of that anyway. That was Dappleflower's job, and in his opinion, she was quite good at it. "What does it look like, again? I can keep an eye out for it when I'm out and about." He offered, shooting her a quick glance before focusing on "his" mouse once more.

Galestar couldn't help but chuckle bitterly at her response to his comment about getting an apprentice to cross the border. "True." He agreed. "Plus, ThunderClan always seems to view us as being horribly evil... More so than the others do, it seems." He said with a wry smile. "I suppose the nature of our territory and our name doesn't particularly help. Pathetic reasoning, though. However, I'm not particularly concerned about them, or what they think..." He trailed off as his jaws parted in a rather large, gaping yawn, although he had managed to say everything he had intended to. Whilst listening to Dappleflower's rabbit problem, a rather miffed expression crossed Galestar's face- sure, he wasn't quite positive on what it was that watermint did, but it was an herb and the medicine cat needed it, so that was that.

"Those pesky things really ought to keep to WindClan's barren mo- Aww..." He had started to agree with Dappleflower on the rabbit problem, but was distracted when his prey ran off into the thick of ThunderClan's territory. Head drooping and ears flattened in dissapointment, the leader looked relatively irritated yet again. "Foxdung." He muttered, the tip of his tail flicking slightly. "Now I'll have to go chase down yet another mouse. Maybe I'll try to find your rabbit while I'm at it." He added, and the thought of nabbing one of those speedy creatures cheered him up a bit. Those things were hard to nab in the peaty, root and rock infested swamps, but they sure did taste good most of the time. Besides, if he got a mouse too, it would be okay. Five was an alright number, namely because it went into some even numbers. A pile of five generally looked better than a pile of four anyway, so with that thought in mind, the scowl was almost wiped off his face.

[Kat]

Dappleflower's whiskers twitched as he offered to keep an eye out for the herb. No one knew which herbs was which besides her. Dappleflower doubted any cat in the clan would know what herbs was which. They just took whatever she gave them, and occasionally asked questions. Dappleflower didn't know what to think about that, in some ways it made her feel like she had too much in her paws. A small sigh escaped her. "I'm sure I'll find it soon." She replied quickly, subtly brushing off his offer to look out for it. She could find it. In that the medicine cat was confident.

Dappleflower nodded slightly in agreement to his talk about Thunderclan. It seemed silly to the she-cat to judge a clan based on it's name. It wasn't like Shadowclan thought that Thunderclan controlled thunder. That would be borderline crazy.

The calico she-cat glanced over at her leader as the mouse darted back into Thunderclan's trees. Destined to feed a Thunderclan cat the medicine cat guessed. It was unfortunate she supposed. "If you do see that rabbit please inform him I do not ah...appreciate his trampling of my herbs." The medicine cat purred in amusement still irritated about the mess. Watermint was the best for stomach aches, and even if juniper would do the job she would still rather have more of the other herb.

[Veritas]

Galestar shrugged in response to Dappleflower declining his offer; one less thing to keep an eye on whilst out hunting or on patrol, he supposed, which was indeed a good thing. There was enough to worry about with trying to catch an even number of prey or making sure that the scent markers were in the exact same place each and every time without fail- being even a hair-length off from the original spot was unacceptable to him, as ridiculous as it was. Having to worry about specific berries would just distract him from either one of those tasks, and he couldn't have that.

An idea flashed through the grey tom's mind all of a sudden- an idea that would level out his catch. However, the minute he tried to fish it out of the jumbled stream that was his thoughts, it was gone, much to his disappointment. He continued to (metaphorically) fish for it, but there was no way he was going to get it back. Fortunately, Dappleflower's voice broke through his thoughts, directing his attention back to the real world. A grin split his face as he listened, displaying the sharp, white teeth that were generally hidden by his lips.

"I'll be sure to pass on the message if I manage to find him." He said with a wry smile, and it was all too clear that he intended to top the freshkill pile with the unfortunate animal... Well, perhaps not top, due to Galestar's symmetry issue, but nevertheless, it was going to join the pile one way or another if the leader got his claws on it.

The sudden sound of something scrounging around in the bushes caught the tom's ear shortly after he promised Dappleflower he'd teach the rabbit a lesson if it ever got near him. His neck snapped to the side at a rather alarming rate, eyes fixated on the rustling bush and ears pricked up and forward. Slowly, deliberately, he stood up and got into a slightly crouched position, inching forward and forward... And then he leaped, headfirst into the undergrowth, which in all honesty, was not the smartest thing to do. Regardless, a loud albeit muffled "mrow" of triumph resonated from where Galestar's head was buried deep in the twigs and leaves.

"Haha! A mouse!" He exclaimed joyfully, and went to back out of the bush and return to sit by Dappleflower. Unfortunately, he had gotten a little tangled in the various other plants and whatnot that had grown into the bush, and found himself in a bit of a predicament. An irritated huff could be heard coming from the slender tom, and once again he tried to pull himself out of the mess of vegetation, this time with more force, but no such luck. On the bright side, the term "third time's a charm" seemed to want to hold true on that day, and with the third and final tug, Galestar managed to tear himself free of the bush, dragging along not only his mouse, but a few hitch hiking vines, roots, leaves, twigs and whatever else had decided to grow in that bush.

"Well, that was a pain." He decided, and sat down yet again where he had been before, beside Dappleflower. "I did manage to nab a mouse though, so all's good." He added, and then set to work on ridding himself of the nuisances that clung to his short fur still. The mouse lay near his front paws, the brown lump of fur quite devoid of life now.

[Kat]

The calico she-cat was relived to see he didn't seem to be irritated by her refusal of his help. She was perfectly capable of finding it by herself, and it seemed like it would be cheating if the the calico she-cat asked for any help. Dappleflower needed to prove something to herself. She was perfectly capable of being Medicine cat- alone.

That was a silly thought, hadn't she proved herself? She;d had six moons of training,and had been alone from nearly the moment she got her medicine cat name. Her mentor had died, and that was the catch. She hadn't saved him, and needed to prove that would never happened again. She hadn't done her job well enough then, and Dappleflower swore that would never ever happen again.

Her left ear twitched, and she turned her full attention back to Galestar. Her whiskers twitched in amusement as he promised to pass on the message. She was about to respond when with a flash her leader had dove head first into a bush. The calico she cat hesitantly turned about, a bit concerned Galestar had gone mad when he called out about the piece of prey. She flicked her tail back in forth in amusement as she watched the tom's attempts to free himself. With a few hard tugs he manged to rip himself free, and moved to sit beside her once again. "I suppose it was worth it then?" Dappleflower ask in amusement eying the bush that looked quite thorny. She supposed it was no different that sliding into mud-holes while herb hunting.

[Veritas]

"Of course it was." Galestar replied, pausing in his efforts to rid himself of the things that had caught themselves in his fur. "Symmetry is a form of balance, and balance is a form of order- something which must be upheld regardless. Therefor, finding that second mouse was essential, in regards to the fact that I now have four pieces of prey -an even amount that can be divided equally- that can be placed nice and neatly on the freshkill pile. In upholding symmetry, I'm upholding balance and order too." With that, he went back to grooming his blue-grey fur, not caring that what he said probably wouldn't make a lick of sense to most cats who were in their right mind. It made sense to him, which was where the problem really lay- he usually assumed that others' thought in a somewhat similar way as he did... Or at least, similar enough to get what he was saying.

A few more minutes passed by, and the tom said nothing, as he was far too fixated on trying to rid himself of the leaves and twigs that had stuck to him. It really shouldn't have taken him so long to complete such a simple task, given that the number of things that had tagged along were minimal given his short pelt, but he had to be very... Thorough, to say the least.

"I'm quite glad that I didn't have to go to the swamp to find a mouse. Cleaning the gunk out from in between my toes would not have been pleasant." He stated, making a face at the thought. "A lot of herbs are in there, no? It must be awful, trekking through that mess to find the plants." He commented.

[Kat]

Dappleflower didn't really understand the whole symmetrical thing. The herbs in her store were neat, but it was more her mentors system. She hadn't really understood it, but after he was gone she'd kept it up to the best of her ability. The calico she-cat glanced at the mess in her leaders pelt before looking down at her paws.

Carefully the she-cat wrapped her tail around her paws. A delicate shudder ran through her as he mentioned the mud. It really was awful, she'd spent day the last time exploring the place, and found all the herb patches she needed. Now they were running out, and if they were going to survive another season she needed to leave them be. She'd collected enough to for now, but it was a good idea to find more patches. She'd just wished her mentor had shown her more of his spots before he'd died.

"Yes. It's simply awful. If you don't put your paws in exactly the right place you slide headfirst into mud." Dappleflower replied with a sigh shuffling her paws back in forth in the dirt.

[Veritas]

Galestar chuckled, remembering a few incidents in which he had gone for a swim in the swampy mud in the territory. "It's the worst, isn't it? I've slipped in there more times than I care to count." He agreed, although there was a bit of a smile on his face while he said it. "I recall one particular time when I got stuck when I was an apprentice- I was up to my neck in the stuff, and my mentor had to drag me out. I'm surprised no one's ever gotten severely hurt, actually." Galestar added, frowning slightly. "Considering how deep the mud and water can be... Not to mention, what lurks at the bottom of the deeper pits is a complete mystery, and probably will be forever. I can't imagine anyone wanting to go for a little swim to find out, let alone open their eyes down there." He paused for a moment, thinking, before continuing on talking.

"Still, as nasty as it is, I think the swamp is one of the most important pieces of our territory, given the number of prey that lurks there, along with all the plants." He said, looking out over the Thunderpath at ThunderClan's territory. "...Although I wouldn't mind it if StarClan went and made it just the slightest bit cleaner. Can't take one step in there without getting as filthy as a rat."

[Kat]

A shudder ran through her again. Why did they have to talk about mud? It was such an unpleasant conversation choice. It was a little odd no cat had gotten hurt in there. Of course now that someone had noticed it something was going to happen.

The thought of creatures lurking in the swamp had never occurred to the she-cat. "Creatures lurking in the bottom of the swamp. Lovely." The calico she-cat said drily a shudder running thoughts her. Of course it probably didn't bother any of the other cats. Another reason she could have never been a warrior.

Starclan. Now that was a thought the calico she cat didn't often have in her head. She was always so busy, caring for the clan, hunting herbs, and trying to escape mud-pits. Starclan were very important to her, even if they had been strangely quiet lately.

Dappleflower shook her head, clearing her minds of the thoughts. Starclan would speak when they wished. She had complete faith in them. "I'm sure that would be a worthwhile pursuit of their time." Dappleflower said in amusement. "Still it is very useful." She agreed after a few seconds.