I didn't want to go anyway...

[Heathclaw]

Shadepaw was sulking. It was always obvious when Shadepaw was in a sulky mood, because he'd just plop himself down somewhere and refuse to move, quite different from his normal, jump around everywhere behavior. His spot of choice for this sulking session was right in front of the apprentice den, glancing up miserably at the full moon in the sky, and the camp, which was missing quite a few cats.

They were all at the gathering, of course. And of course, Shadepaw wasn't allowed to go. Nope. Of course not. It wasn't like he was surprised or anything. He had made both his mentor and his leader plenty mad with that fox stunt a few days back. But... it wasn't like he wanted that fox to show up! And... they were hunting, weren't they? Or, at least, they were trying to. It was unfair that he was being punished just for wanting to spend time with his brother. Just not fair. Stupid gathering. He didn't really want to go, anyway. Pfft.

[ivyy]

.: The moon wad full, a humongous white orb in the sky. It shone so brightly the stars surrounding it seemed dim and hard to spot, in fact, it cast enough silvery light over ThunderClan Camp to create shadows beneath the entrance to the apprentice den. There lay Thornpaw, amber eyes glinting angrily from the darkness of the den. He sat neatly in the entrance, chin resting on his paws as his gaz swept over the camp.

.: This wasn't fair. This. Was. Not. Fair. He shouldn't have ever listened to Shadepaw, he was always getting him in trouble. Though his face was completely blank from underneath the dull grey shadows, he was fuming inside. He'd never show it, no Thornpaw was more the suffer in silence type. If anyone decided to start a conversation with him, all they'd get out of it was short, mechanic answers. He was already a cat of little words on a good day, and when he was at his wits ends, you'll be lucky to get a coherent sentence.

.: No, the source of Thornpaw's anger was not all his brother. On the contrary, he was more furious with himself. What poor judgement he had used, going on a secret hunting trip with trouble-making brother just a sun before what could have been his first gathering. He could only imagine what went on in them, sure he could get filled in by those apprentices lucky enough to have been selected, but their stories were always exaggerated and ridiculous. If you were lucky enough to find a cat willing to depict his or her experience truthfully, it was always about how they had chatted about the weather or something equally dull with a cat from a neighboring clan. Thornpaw wished he was there passionately, but with how he and his brother had messed up, he wouldn't expect to be attending for probably another two or three moons. Perhaps it was for the better.

[Heathclaw]

From time to time, Shadepaw would look up from his sulk and glance over at Thornpaw, always with a twinge of guilt. His brother had to be angry with him. He knew when Thornpaw was angry, because he'd clam up even more than usual, even towards Shadepaw himself. Usually, Shadepaw was able to break up his brother's bad mood, but he had a feeling that it would be difficult this time. He was partially to blame, of course. But it wasn't entirely his fault. Thornpaw could've just told him to stuff it- could have decided not to go. In fact, it would have been just fine if he hadn't gone. He'd never seen his brother just freeze like that- he was usually the one who knew how to handle things.

During one of these glance-overs, Thornpaw glanced back, and their eyes met, almost by accident. Shadepaw managed a weak whisker twitch at this, but he tried to maintain the gaze. "Some adventure we had, huh?"

[ivyy]

.: Thornpaw sighed, not bothering to hush it at all. It was quite loud actually, but it described his mood perfectly. The apprentice sat motionless, save for the occasional swivel of his ears. He listened for the sounds of creatures in the night beyond camp, but he could hardly hear a sound besides his own breath (he was ignoring his brother quite skillfully). Well, maybe not so skillfully. Thornpaw couldn't resist glancing over at his sibling every now and then, he narrowly avoided meeting Shadepaw's eyes multiple times. He wouldn't be coming out of this mood easily.

.: Thornpaw rolled over onto his side, stomach facing his brother. Perhaps it wasn't going to be very easy to ignore his brother from only a tail length away. Thornpaw swept a paw up over his ear, his will to keep his gaze away from Shadepaw failing, and unfortunately, their eyes met. Great.

.: He unwillingly locked his gaze with brother's for a few moments before his silver-furred sibling spoke. "Some adventure we had, huh?" Shadepaw said almost bashfully. Thornpaw raised his brow slightly. "Yeah, I guess." he muttered, looking forwards again. No way Shadepaw would be able to talk his way out of this one, Thornpaw would resist. Right?

[mystic]

Dappleflower would have gone to the gathering to talk to the other old cats, but her joints had been bothering her. So she had stayed behind babysitting the two apprentices and kits who were left behind. She pricked her ears up when she heard two apprenntices talking about being left behind. The elder pushed herself up and padded over to them. "Cold night isn't it?" she mewed, glancing up at the full moon. "The frost makes the moon seem all the brighter." she commented.

"Say, since you two are here with nothing to do why don't I tell you a story?" she didn't wait for a reply instead she launched into a story.

"Once there were twin tom cats." She began. "Identical twins, one was called Bane, the other called Blood." She flicked her tail. "They were as close as brothers could be. Until one day Bane chose to join a clan, all for the love of a she-cat. Blood was furious and the two cats parted ways, no longer on good terms. Slowly Bane forgot his brother, but Blood did not forget but swore revenge, waiting for the day when he could strike his brother and cause him great pain."

She paused and looked at the two of them. "It was on a gathering night like tonight, Blood struck." She grinned. "He attacked the camp and slaughtered every cat there, the rocks of the camp were soaked in blood. Bane, now called Banefang, returned to camp to find his mate and kits dead, and Blood standing over their torn bodies. With a scream of rage the tom attacked his brother, the two fought and finally Blood was driven out, mortally wounded. However he did not die, hatered kept him alive as his flesh rotted on his bones. And he walks the woods to this day, a skeleton powered by revenge and hatered, with white bones and flames for eyes. They say he comes back on nights like tonight, when the moon is full and the air is cold. Hunting for cats of the clans, so he can drag them away to the dark forest and trap them there."

[Icy-son]

Aww, dang it. Left back from the Gathering? And letting Mudpaw go instead of herself? Her mind searched for the answers to her many questions, and each were, indeed, indifferent. There was one more thing that she wanted to know. Was it something that, not her, but her mentor did? She shook her head in reply to that vile question. Pinestorm was not her favored warrior. In fact, she would much rather have her father as a mentor. He was tough, but not as teasing as Pinestorm.

Her lemoney-lime gaze swept over the camp, with her pupils diluted and dialated to match the darkness around her. Her ears swivled around, and caught the sound of Dappleflower. She turned herself around, and saw both Thornpaw and Shadepaw, both toms she was not "friends" with. Must have been some stunt, like last time. But Swallowpaw almost never got held back. Did Whitestar want her as a warrior before coming?

She found the strength to pad over to the small grouping, after all of her questions to herself, and began to listen in. Hmm, Bane sounded different. And Blood... Yikes. That would be weird. "Please, continue." Her mew was a bit rough, for she hadn't said a word the whole evening.

[/center]

[Heathclaw]

So, Thornpaw had spoken to him at least. That was good. That meant that the situation could be saved. But... where was he supposed to go from here? He racked his brain for something, anything he could say to cheer his brother up. He had to be careful, too- the last thing he wanted to do was send Thornpaw deeper into a sulk. But... what was he supposed to say?

"It's lame, isn't it? Being left behind? I mean, it's not our fault, really..." Shadepaw offered, although he couldn't quite meet his brother's eye as he said this. He was saved, however, by the timely arrival of Dappleflower. Normally, Shadepaw wasn't a fan of Dappleflower and her stories- sitting still and listening were not his strongest points. He did know that Thornpaw liked to listen to her talk though. He'd endure it this once.

However, the elder's story seemed to hit quite close to home. Twin brothers, strife, a falling out, and blood... not that it would come to that with him and Thornpaw. It was just a stupid story, after all. Thornpaw couldn't stay mad, could he? No... of course not. In fact...

With a mischievous grin, Shadepaw got onto his paws, tail twitching. "Rawr! I'm Blood, the evil skeleton cat, and I'm coming for you, Bane!" And with that, he pounced onto his brother, tail waving.

[Amber]

It had been such a long day, the first day in the young kit's life that hadn't involved sneaking out of camp, or getting into some mischief with her best friend. She had been like any other kit, playing in the nursery with her mother, and mewling with laughter. Her big brother had come to bring their mother some prey earlier, and he had told her he was going to the Gathering. Cedarkit couldn't wait for the day that she would be able to attend a Gathering. She only had two moons to go, but that was two whole moons of waiting patiently. Patience just was so hard!

Seeking adventure, the young kit padded toward the apprentices den, hoping her friend was inside. Instead she saw another familiar pelt, her grandmother, Dappleflower. Grinning with delight the kit ran inside and sat down, catching the story just in time. She listened to the tale, squirming around as she sat. Sitting still was just a little bit hard to do. Looking around, she wondered what was going through the apprentices minds as they heard this.

"Do we get to meet this cat? I really wanna, he sounds fun!" Cedarkit squealed with delight. The kit hadn't understood the danger of the story, just that this Blood cat seemed to sound like a challenge. "You think he would know of any fun games?" she asked. "Oh! Maybe he will know the best ways to sneak out of camp!"

[ivyy]

Thornpaw sighed as his brother continued to gibber away. He tossed himself over to face his silver sibling impatiently. "If you couldn't tell, I'm not in the greatest mood, mousebrain."

He felt bad as soon as he said it. He watched Shadepaw's pained reaction play across his face as his stomach clenched in guilt. "Look Sha-" he began, but in the middle of his apology, Dappleflower slunk in. He didn't have time to finish his sentence, she had already launched into a story. The only thing he could do was touch his tail lightly to Shadepaw's rear leg. Usually he loved the stories the elder told, they were always scary and vague, y'know, the ones that give you nightmares that you aren't scared of until you have to go back to sleep.

Thornpaw had trouble getting into the story. He was way to busy being bothered by the troubles going on between he and Shadepaw. He noticed what a crowd had gathered, two other kits had come to listen in on the aged cat's yarn. He was only just caught up with the story when it ended, leaving him slightly disappointed. Maybe a story wouldn't be enough to bring him out of his funk. Thornpaw worried the story would be too frightening for the young kits that had gathered, they usually scared the fur off of him, and he was an apprentice! He was soon reassured by Cedarkit's reaction, she didn't seem to grasp the haunting aspect of it. He almost smiled at how she smiled and giggled over the tale, her voice ringing clear as a bell in the night's cold air.

He was interrupted from his brief moment of admiration by the familiar sound of Shadepaw's energetic cry. The young brown cat lifted his head to watch his brother bounce up to his feet and shout joyfully about being a skeleton cat, and- "Oof!" The air in Thornpaw's lungs was thrust out as Shadepaw leaped at him, landing on his diaphragm. He immediately spun into action (unlike his encounter with the fox), and the two muscular brothers were rolling about on the ground in mock battle, and they were heading straight for Dappleflower and the two kits.

[mystic]

Dappleflower looked up at the incoming writhing ball of fur that was two apprentices battling for the sake of it. Well, at least they were having fun again. Then she saw they were rolling straight towards her and the ceaderkit. She quickly used her paw to sweep them out of the way and moved herself. Then she turned and placidly watched them roll past. With a chuckle the she-cat considered sitting at a higher vantage point from now on when she told her stories. Her tail twitched a little and she smiled in amusement.

When Swallowpaw asked if there was any more to the story she shook her head.
"No, I'm sorry dear. That's all. Though I do have a few other stories in the back of my mind. Like Laughingheart and the moon, or Spider's wish." She said. "Or the Crow and the Fox."

[Icy-son]

Her ears laid against her head, her lips pursed in a small snarl. Great StarClan, why did these two fight when there was no one around? She turned her head to the side, and trying to block the sound. It kept entering her mind, and she finally snapped. "Keep it down, will you?" she growled, her neck fur beginning to bristle. Once Dappleflower had spoken, however, she laid her fur flat. She turned toward the elder, her eyes sparkling. "Can I hear the Crow and Fox story?" she mewed, swishing her tail around in circles.

[/color][/center]
(Ack, short. No muse)

[mystic]

Dappleflower nodded gracefully.

"In the long ago a crow stole a nice fat fish from a stupid two-leg." She began. "The black bird sat on a branch with the fish in her mouth when a fox happened to pass by. Now the fox was hungry and he looked up and saw the fish the Crow had in her beak.

The fox smiled a little and called up to the Crow.

"My how lovely you are. Your black feathers are like the night sky." he said, praising the crow's looks.

"And your eyes are like twin pools of darkness. Such a lovely creature are you."

The Crow listened and tilted her head, her chest puffing in pride.

"Such a lovely creature as yourself must have an equally lovely voice." The fox said.

The crow, upon hearing this, decided to show how lovely her voice was and opened her mouth to caw. As she did so the fish fell from her beak and landed at the Fox's feet. The crow went hungry because she listened to the flattery of the fox."

[Icy-son]

Her ears pricked as the story was told. Stupid Twoleg. Cannot even defend its own food? she thought, running her tounge over her left paw. She admired her light brown tabby fur slightly, and she grinned. "Wow, that crow is pathetically stupid. Almost everyone knows flattery gets you into trouble. That fox was incrediblely clever, with the coming-up of the flattery itself." she purred, casting her gaze toward the older kit, Cedarkit.

"I would like to meet this, Blood, as well, but I'm not sure where he is, Cedarkit," Swallowpaw mewed, flicking her tail. Well, this kit didn't understand the purpose, but might as well play along, right? "Who knows where he might be now?" She added, closing her eyes and grinning.

[/color][/center]

[Heathclaw]

"Call me a mousebrain, huh?" said Shadepaw in a mock-growl as they tumbled around. The insult had cut him deeply, yes, but he knew that his brother didn't mean it. When it came to Thornpaw, he was nothing if not forgiving. "You'll pay for that, Bane!" he added, as they tussled and wrestled, heedless of everything else around them. Shadepaw was trying to win, after all- his wrestling prowess was a point of pride for him, and he still had to pay Thornpaw back from earlier.

At last, he spotted an opportunity and pounced on it, literally, dropping his brother into a pin. "Gotcha!" he grinned, lunging down and bumping his nose against his brother's throat. "You're demon cat chow!" And with that, he hopped off lightly, feeling that that little struggle had patched things up between them quite nicely.

[ivyy]

[/b] Thornpaw smirked playfully.[/b][/justify][/ul]