CLOSED Brambleleaf with the questers

Brambleleaf was lying about with her kits. I've been gone so long... Brambleleaf sighed as she lifted her gaze from her three kits and tried to find the horizon, I wonder how the clan's doing... Are they searching for us?
Suddenly Dreamkit was mewling, snapping Brambleleaf's attention to her. Eaglekit had pushed his sister aside. "Shh..." Brambleleaf purred gently to comfort them.
"I can see your getting stronger... But there's no excuse to bullying your sister."
She began to clean her kits, but she felt really uncomfortable being on Darkclan territory.

Tala, a wizened gray she-cat from CityClan, was slowly padding around the place the band of she-cats had made their temporary dwellings.
The Gatherer was glad they had gone further into the mountains, despite the cold; but the smoke from the fires was terrifying enough to make finicky old Tala shut up about her frozen joints.
The she-cat's ears flicked at Brambleleaf's murmurings, and the she-cat shook her head.
Kits, she thought kindly. She quickly put away the feelings of nostalgia and longing, instead looking around for Mistlight.
"That dream-some she-cat keeps drifting away," Tala rasped. "Where's that Mistlight got to?"

((May I ask... how old are the kits roughly now?))

Brambleleaf‘s ears twitched and she gathered her kits with one sweep of her tail. Dreamkit and Eaglekit settled down and fell asleep right next to their mother‘s warm belly. Nightkit was the last to join them, Brambleleaf gently wrapped her tail around them.

OOC: Well, I'd say around a moon has gone by since Brambleleaf left whichever Clan she's from (sorry, memory loss, lol), so go off of that!...if that helps at all...oh my God (read my off topic post...)

IC: Tala looked over at Brambleleaf again then away.

OOC: INCOMPLETE.

OOC: Sorry Ezzie, just trying to start a fire again (not literally) take over after this post
IC:
Brambleleaf sighed and cooed to her mewling kits. The cold rain bit through into her coat and the sober mother tried in terrible vain to calm her litter against the lash of wind and rain. So she hummed quietly to them. Curling around to soothe and protect their small bodies.

The confines of the dwelling in which these cats had taken refuge in was little help to all the noise but at least it was not as cold and wet as if they'd been outside and at that they could at least be grateful.

((Thanks for that Loki. X'D))

Brambleleaf noticed something strange, Something was odd about her kits. She began to count their heads, "One... Two... Th-"
She began looking about frantically, "Nightkit? Nightkit?" Brambleleaf frantically looked around the temporary shelter.
"Where are you?" She couldn't hear Nightkit's reply over the pounding of wind and rain. She strained her ears, "Nightkit!" She yowled with no sucess.

Mistlight padded up with Nighkit in her jaws. Even though the kit was rather large to be carried in such a way, it was a fine indicator that the kit was not where it should have been.
The medicine cat set the wet kit down gently.
"Nightkit thought it would be fun to play in the rain," she said in a mildly scolding voice as she looked down at the dark kit.
She nudged the kit gently and mewed, "Stay with your mother." The gray she-cat padded away from the mother and kits and sat in her own part of the temporary shelter. She stared out at the rain, her thoughts riled and fur ruffled.
"It doesn't make sense," she murmured.

Tala, an old she-cat from CityClan, looked over at the healer. "What? That we're stuck out here in the middle of some damp dank forest without rhyme or reason?" Her tone was only partly joking.

Mistlight looked over at Tala. "Yes." She shook her head. "It's..." She sighed. "I've been thinking. I've been thinking for a while. We're here. But we were told we had to cross the mountains otherwise many terrible things would happen." Mistlight quieted her voice at 'terrible things,' for the kits' sake. "What terrible things? A fire. That was everywhere, even here. And I've been thinking, is this because we stayed behind? Because the others let us? And I realized, no. No, it has nothing to do with us. I think...we've been had."

Tala narrowed her eyes at the young she-cat. "What are you talking about, healer?" Tala had taken to calling the she-cat 'healer,' since CityClan custom was to call cats by their rank. "We listened to that dream as much as we could, didn't we? It isn't like I could have made it over those mountains or these kits. Are you saying all of your fretting and us living out here is a sham? That there wasn't any-little-furballed-thing to be worrying about? Speak plainly, don't confuse the old woman!"

Mistlight huffed. "What I MEAN, Tala," she mewed carefully, "is that nothing has happened because of any action of ours. If anything, all of this was going to happen anyways. Us leaving was just...a failsafe."

"'Happened anyways?'" Tala looked at her old paws as she thought about this. "You're talking like destiny or something." If Mistlight was going to say anything to Tala's scornful tone, the old she-cat wasn't having it. "DESTINY? You're really hanging everything that's happened on some destined thing that some dead cats said was going to happen? A path that was laid before us before out paws ever touched the ground? Healer, know that I hold respect for you and your skills, but destiny? No." She shook her head. "I was into the whole 'religion' and 'destiny' thing back when I was young and pretty like you. Everyone was doing it because it was hot and seemed like the popular thing to do, sacrificing animals and claiming battle scars for the love of our ancestors and death of our enemies - all of that fun stuff."
Tala clawed the ground, memories of disputes and bloodshed over beliefs flashing in her mind's eye.
"No. No. Everything that's happened is because of something someone somewhere did sometime. Someone was stupid and did something that made that freak tom do all that freak stuff and make those normal cats into freaks just like him. Damn, it must have been a very dumb-ass thing, whatever it is that was done," she mumbled the last line as she was calming down.
"Don't pay attention to me," she grumbled. "I'm old, tired, my paws are cold, and my mind isn't what it used to be. But you keep your destiny stuff, 'kay? Keep it for you and whoever wants to hear. I'm just tired."
The old she-cat fell into silence.

OOC: From the way I'm playing her, Tala's has some history with getting into arguments over beliefs and things like that.
Gotta love diversity in a group. Die-hard StarClanners, meet atheist.
Anywho, I figure Tala will die soon. She's a very old cat.

Mistlight kept quiet during Tala's tangent. When she was done, the grey she-cat bowed her head. "I respect your beliefs, Tala. And I forgive you." She sighed. "If," she said the word carefully, "this is all the result of someone's actions, then whom's would it be?"

Tala didn't look up. "It'd have to be someone important, I figure," she mumbled. "Or someone real easy to hate. Someone like that, anyways..." She was quiet again, thinking. Tala looked up. "Failsafe? How do you mean, failsafe? Like, if something didn't work and we're the last resort?" She sounded skeptical.

Brambleleaf was almost drowning Nightkit in licks to try and dry her up. "You don't wander off like that you hear?"
"Momma!" Nightkit squeaked as she tried to duck away from her mother's affection and scolding words.
"Don't Momma me! You could've been hurt or worse."
'I"m fine." Nightkit meowed quickly, she successfully ducked away and swerved out of her mother's way. "I can take care of myself."
Suddenly, Nightkit was bowled over by her brother and sister.
"Nightkit!" Eaglekit squeaked.
"Where were you?" Dreamkit meowed, "We were just about to play a game and couldn't find you."
"Eaglekit! Dreamkit!" Nightkit squeaked back as she leaped from one sibling to the other.
"Eaglekit and Dreamkit! Come here, you two have mud on your shoulders!" Brambleleaf called as she padded over to clean the last two kits.
"How about a new game," Nightkit meowed quickly, "Run away from mother!"
All three kits scampered off, squealing in laughter as poor Brambleleaf tried to catch her remaining two kits.

Mistlight watched the kits scatter and sighed. "Don't go out in the rain, you three. I don't want any of you catching colds in this place."
The medicine cat shook her head and looked back at Tala. "That's exactly what I mean," she mewed. "If the Clans failed, bringing back the Moon would save us all somehow. But..." She shuffled her paws while she thought.
"Well..." She sighed heavily. "When I was an apprentice, I had a dream. A dream very much like the one we all shared. In that dream I saw that hope destroyed fear but the hope could be destroyed by blood if they made a wrong move. If hope made that wrong move, the Moon would return it. There was also some other things, something about the weak saving strong, something about thrones and the shadow unseen..." She sighed heavily. "I know this dream will haunt me even after death...But," she said briskly, "Again it's another thing that screams FAILSAFE. I keep comparing the big dream and my past dream and I know there are many connections, but at the bottom of all of it, we're just a precaution. Eh, I keep digressing. I don't know, maybe in the end we may matter, but for now? All of that 'people will die if you breathe a word to anyone' is complete mouse dung. It has to be."
She took a deep breath. Sleeping in a cramped den in the middle of a wet forest was slowing taking a toll on the she-cat.

Almost immediately after Mistlight said what she did to the kits, the kits all responded at the same time saying, "Yes!"
Brambleleaf rolled her eyes as she had eventually given up, she wasn't fast enough to chase her kits around. She sat down and proceeded to groom herself as she listened to the sounds of the kit's paws, thudding the ground. The sounds all of a sudden stopped, Brambleleaf could hear Nightkit's voice whisper to her siblings, "I bet I could catch Momma's tail tip and back again without her catching me."
"You couldn't do that!" Eaglekit whispered back.
"You better not." Dreamkit squeaked.
"I'd like to see you try." Eaglekit meowed triumphantly.
"Eaglekit, Nightkit, Don't!" Dreamkit squeaked.
"Quiet Dreamkit!" Nightkit snapped, before she turned to where her mother was. She crouched down and messily snuck up on her mother's back.
Eaglekit watched and Dreamkit watched as she was crouched close to the ground.
Brambleleaf waited, obviously aware of Nightkit's plan, as soon as she heard Nightkit's pace change, she spun around and managed to pin her kit on the ground. Her claws were sheathed and she didn't apply too much weight or force on her kit for she didn't wish to harm Nightkit.
Nightkit squeaked in surprise and Eaglekit along with Dreamkit raced over towards their mother, their eyes wide with excitement.
"Wow!" Dreamkit sighed.
"That was awesome!" Eaglekit squeaked in amazement.
Brambleleaf purred and taking her opportunity, she managed to group her kits together and cleaned the mud on both Dreamkit and Eaglekit as she purred, "It's a mother's gift."

Tala purred in amusement at the scene Brambleleaf and her lovely kits made. She turned her attention back to Mistlight.
"You're going somewhere with this. So, come on, out with it. We're would-be heroes in a broken tale, the back-ups, the failsafes, but someone put an effort into making us seem more important. I get it. So, what? Come on, I'm not getting any younger." Tala looked at Brambleleaf and the kits. "I need you on my side, see Brambleleaf? I'm getting older while she 'digresses.'"

Brambleleaf was too busy playing with her kits, (which was the only way she could keep an eye on them) that she didn't notice Tala watch.
Nightkit appeared to be upset, Brambleleaf wanted to find out why.
"Nightkit." Brambleleaf meowed calmly to her most troublesome kit as she sat up, releasing Nightkit from her grasp after she had cleaned Eaglekit and Dreamkit.
Nightkit looked up at her mother, "Yes Momma?"
Brambleleaf reached out a fore paw and gently pulled her kit closer to herself. "What's wrong?" she murmured to her kit.
Eaglekit and Dreamkit left to play fight as a way to allow Nightkit and Brambleleaf some space.
"How could you have caught me?" Nightkit whimpered, "I tried my best and it wasn't good enough."
Brambleleaf sighed, she then got to her paws and meowed, "Show me your best attempt at stalking." Brambleleaf instructed, aware that Nightkit wouldn't learn such a move until she was six moons of age.
Nightkit immediately crouched down, and Brambleleaf could easily pick up on faults, but didn't want to be too harsh. "You're tail's touching the ground." She meowed.
Nightkit looked back and tried to pick it off the ground, "Is this it?" She asked.
Brambleleaf could tell it wasn't high enough, but since she wasn't Nightkit's mentor, she couldn't teach her kit too much. "That's better." Brambleleaf meowed quickly.

Nightkit then proceeded to move along the ground, her paws didn't lift high enough and her paws dragged along the ground, causing more noise.
"Lift your paws higher." Brambleleaf purred.
Nightkit immediately tried, but her step was still a little wobbly and she almost fell over before Eaglekit pounced from behind, play tackling his sister to the ground.
He was laughing along with Nightkit and Dreamkit soon joined in.
Brambleleaf watched, chuckling inwardly at Eaglekit's way of trying to cheer his sibling up.

Mistlight got to her point. "I'm going home," she meowed simply.

OOC: Nicely done LOL.

IC: "WHAT," Tala exclaimed. She took a moment to digest the very simple sentence. "You...You're going home?" She scoffed. "After hiding out in the woods for over a moon? Really? Just..." She shrugged. "Going home? That easy?" Tala could see the logic in the medicine cat's words. If there really wasn't any reason for the dream to stay a secret, why bother hiding out? But still, a two day (probably four days since Tala was getting older) cold, wet journey all the way back to the City? She wasn't looking forward to it. She huffed. "I'd rather stay in this foresty den then walk back home in the rain," she meowed aloud and irritably. Tala looked at Brambleleaf. "Do you want to walk back home in the rain with your kits?" She didn't wait for an answer as she meowed to Mistlight, "See, no one wants to walk home in the rain. I don't do rain. I'm old and scrawny, rain'll knock me right over and beat me into the ground." Tala thought of home in warehouses, how she was usually warm and comfortable, how people respected her for her job. Then she thought about the den she was currently in, how it was sort of damp and drafty and the damn kittens never shut up.
Okay, okay, it's better, she admitted to herself.

As Brambleleaf heard Mistlight plainly state that she was going home, she couldn't blame her, I don't like it here either... but we have no choice. She opened her mouth to respond but then Tala spoke to her. Brambleleaf wasn't given a chance to speak before Tala continued. She could only shake her head and meow under her breath, "It's too dangerous to travel in this weather on our own."

Mistlight nodded in understanding. "Yes, I've thought about that. I'd like to scout out Darklan camp," she didn't say why - why would a medicine cat need to scout out her own camp? Of course, she knew that Redstar had been planning on overthrowing Thornstar (as against the warrior code as it was) and she didn't know how it had gone. "And you can all stay with DarkClan until the weather clears. As my guests, you won't be asked many questions."
She looked at Brambleleaf and Tala. "Our elder's den and nursery are far more comfortable than this den, and we have plenty of protection from the weather. It's a long journey, of course, but shorter than it would take to go back to your own homes - and we have the cover of the pines on our side. And," she smiled kindly. "I do like being you Tala, and Brambleleaf, and yes, all of you little kits," she purred. "I would make sure that you would be welcomed into DarkClan." She couldn't be certain of that - especially if Thornstar was still leader - but she would try her hardest. (OOC: Little does she know, Redstar and the others have left camp!!!) "Well...would you beinterested?"

Tala's cat-brows rose considerably.
"Oh. Well." She shifted and was silent for a time as she pondered Mistlight's words. "Hmm." The old she-cat looked at Mistlight then at Brambleleaf. "Well," she meowed in her grouchy defeated tone, "Your dens better not be damp. I get stiff when it's damp." She would go with Mistlight. Tala liked the younger she-cat and liked to think that she reminded Tala of herself when she was her age.
She looked at Brambleleaf. "What do you say, Brambleleaf? Do your Clan ways keep you from accepting another Clan's free food?" She liked the idea of being waited on by a bunch of younger cats (perhaps younger toms in particular, but she'd never say.)

OOC: I just discovered that I contradict myself in Tala's bio.

Mistlight smiled. She looked at Brambleleaf, waiting for her answer. I'm finally going home, she thought happily - but she WAS a little nervous. Okay, VERY nervous. She was afraid of Thornstar's reaction to her suddenly returning, with outlanders no less. But Mistlight desperately wanted to go home. She wished she could reconcile with the cats she had abandoned because she had taken sides when she wasn't supposed to. She had turned her back on the traditions of her Clan all because she had childishly believed that the 'good guys' were the best cats to be with. But she had broken the Warrior Code in the process. She's turned her back on her own Clan and the laws of StarClan. What sort of medicine cat was she? Oh, she had been young and reckless, head filled with dreams and prophecies, but she felt that was no excuse.
So she wanted to go back. She wanted to apologize.
She wanted to go home.
And she was still waiting for Brambleleaf's response.