open{luck be a lady}

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[atrb=background,http://i49.tinypic.com/2drv1o7.jpg] [style=height:220px; width:482px; overflow:auto;] BLUESMOKE wasn't in the best of moods. Anyone in ShadowClan would tell you that he didn't particularly do good moods in the first place but today was perhaps one of his worse endeavors. In fact, he thoroughly wished he'd given in to the temptation to sleep the day away in his nest instead of getting up that morning. Unfortunately, that wasn't his style and like a good warrior Bluesmoke had gotten up at the crack of dawn to attend to his duties. He'd been sleeping better lately, making getting up easier and going about his day a little more bearable. The blue-grey tom liked to think he had Shalefall to think for his better nights but unfortunately his mate couldn't make up for his miserable day. It had started out fairly normally with a quick border patrol with Pinestep and Ravenheart. That hadn't been so bad at all. Well, it had been as good as forced social interaction ever went with Bluesmoke but that was neither here nor there. Anyway, Bluesmoke had just gotten back to camp when Froststar had been gathering together a hunting patrol. Not having anything else to do, Bluesmoke had volunteered to go with the white-furred leader. THAT was where his day had gone sour. NATURALLY, they'd headed out going toward the pines to hunt up some prey. Froststar hadn't been able to find a third cat for their patrol but that in itself hadn't been bad. For the most part Froststar understood Bluesmoke's rather odd personality, though she sometimes chastised him for it. It was an old argument between them, almost a comfortable routine to be honest. She would tell him he needed to get out of his comfort zone, needed to shape up and be more active in the clan. Bluesmoke would occasionally rasp out some sound of agreement but never really do as she asked. She would tell him, in her own way, that he needed to stop living in the past although since Shalefall came into the picture she had backed off a little on those statements. Bluesmoke knew his persona bothered her sometimes. She had much more visible scars than he did not all trauma was physical and at the very least, out of everyone in ShadowClan, Froststar understood that. Her conversations with him were partially out of obligation to make sure all of her warriors were in working order, something Bluesmoke both understood and appreciated. He did believe that she gleaned information from these mostly one-sided arguments because sometimes their tone changed, which meant she'd somehow observed some change whether for better or worse. ANYWAY, the whole arrangement in itself hadn't been a bad or uncomfortable one. In fact, patrols with Froststar were probably Bluesmoke's most tolerable, aside from his patrols with Shalefall. They were just easier somehow. When they'd drawn close to the pines however, Bluesmoke had gone to step over a tree root only to find that the thing he'd stepped over wasn't a tree root. A snake had reared its head and bitten his paw making him yowl and leap back in surprise. Froststar had killed the snake, thankfully one of the non-poisonous variety. If it had been an adder there was a good chance Bluesmoke wouldn't have made it back to camp of his own volition. AT this moment in time though, the blue-grey tomcat found himself laid up in Briarleaf's den. The medicine cat had tutted and tended to the bite, adding a salve to help the swollen appendage and then bound it tightly with cobwebs, fern fronts and a slather of honey to keep the whole cast stuck together. She'd made him chew on some leaves that made him throw up just in case there was any venom, since she hadn't seen the snake herself and wanted to be on the safe side. Bluesmoke had been more than grumpy when the leaves had done their job and made him vomit. He'd made sure to tell Briarleaf that he knew the difference between a poisonous snake and a non-poisonous one thank you very much. The pretty she-cat had sniffed delicately and left him to 'rest his paw' and told him that if he tried to get him and limp off she would hunt him down, drag him back to her den and sit on him until she deemed him able to walk on his swollen paw. So, here he laid in the medicine cat's clearing in a little patch of sunlight. OH how he loathed this place... TRULY it was Bluesmoke's least favorite place in the world. He'd spent more than enough time here after the fire and had avoided it like the plague since then. Now though, the grey warrior really had no choice. Within the binding Briarleaf had made, his front left paw was swollen and throbbing. His whole leg hurt from the bite and when he tried to move the paw it made him grimace. He didn't dare trying to put weight on it. Instead he sprawled out on his right side and tried to relax. Briarleaf had left him some poppy seeds and a few other leaves to reduce the swelling. Of course Bluesmoke hadn't touched those yet and he didn't want to need them. So, he closed his eyes and tried to will away the pain, to detach himself from it and forget the uneasy stomach Briarleaf's other herbs had left him with. Somewhere in her den he knew Froststar was snickering at his plight. Next time they patrolled together he knew she'd keep telling him to watch out for snakes or that he'd lose a paw next time. Ha ha, very funny. Idly Bluesmoke wondered if it would be treason to take a swipe at Froststar's ears if she tried to make such a comment. BLUESMOKE blew out a gusty sigh. It probably was. The next question he had for himself was would it be worth it? The answer: probably. Tagged;; open Singing;; NA Words;; 1040 Notes;; NA [/style]

[xxspade]

maskpaw stood at the medicine cat entrance, staring at it calmly. though he could feel his heart racing like a stampede of rabbits running from a hunting patrol. in his mouth he held a clump of tansy in his jaws. shalefall had sent him on a search for them for his training today. to be honest maskpaw didn't think briarleaf really needed the help, nor would she really appreciate it, but maskpaw did it anyway to make shalefall happy. he had been coming up with these interesting tasks for him and for the most part, maskpaw didn't mind. he wanted to learn everything he could. but now maskpaw was going open his claws and scratch his mentor's eyes out, just for sending him to the medicine cat's den. well he wouldn't do that. but he would give him a piece of his mind anyway. there were so many cruel memories of his mother here. he remembered each time she yelled at him and each time she took a swing at him. he remembered every word she had said to him while she had been here in the medicine cat's den and he couldn't remember anything else about her. only the pain that he had gone through. finally he picked up the courage to step into the den and look for briarleaf to hand her the tansy. shalefall had at least told him that she was low on it and needed to get some more. he had hoped that she hadn't gone to get some herself, or else his work would have been almost useless. at least he had learned something new. as he stepped into the clearing a single cat came into sight of his calm, almost emotionless, eyes and he was automatically aware of their presence. bluesmoke. he quickly made a note and then passed him and glanced into the storage area where he found no briarleaf or thistlepaw. great... what now? i wait for them to come? he glanced behind himself at where bluesmoke was laying. this was shalefall's mate. he wondered what the cat was like, and he was determined to find out. he wanted to find out as much about any cat as he could so that he could know each one inside and out for personal reasons. he didn't want any cat to pull some kind of trick on him and he end up dead somehow. so he turned around, padded over to the grey warrior, dropped the tansy at his own paws for easy accessibility if either one of the medicine cats came in during his quick talk with bluesmoke. "um.... i'm sorry to bother you bluesmoke. i was just wondering if you had any idea where briarleaf and thistlepaw were right now." he hated it in here. everywhere he turned he could see memories flash around his mind like ghosts. it was terrifying and he had to force himself to keep calm. if only to make sure that bluesmoke and other cats didn't see his weakness. but also to keep himself from going crazy like blackrose had done after raccoontail's disappearance. so he kept his gaze hard and calm despite the fear chilling his warm blood.

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[atrb=background,http://i49.tinypic.com/2drv1o7.jpg] [style=height:220px; width:482px; overflow:auto;] BLUESMOKE was grumpy. In general on his best of days he wasn’t the happiest cat. Well…ok, he had nothing on Brindlestorm but really if you compared every cat having a bad day to her then nobody would ever be that bad. Still, it was the popular opinion among the apprentices and most warriors that Bluesmoke just was generally never happy. The blue-grey tom could say for a fact that wasn’t true, seeing as Shalefall had a habit of making him very happy on an increasingly regular basis. The problem with Bluesmoke’s attitude wasn’t happiness, despite how Froststar liked to imply that he didn’t know how to crack a smile. The problem with the scar-footed tom was that he lacked communication skills. It was like they had been burned out of him in the wildfire that killed Tigerpaw when they were apprentices. Something about carrying the burned out husk of his dead best friend had just…shut the tom down. Heck, for nearly a moon and a half he couldn’t even rasp. Now he had that permanently husky, rough voice that made him constantly sound like he’d inhaled a lot of smoke. That voice in itself didn’t reflect happiness well. Or contentment. Or excitement. It just wasn’t made for it anymore. TODAY though, the grey warrior could validly argue he had a reason to be less than happy. Since sunup he hadn’t seen his mate, although to be honest that was surprising. Usually at the first inkling of something possibly being wrong Shalefall would be hovering around with wary eyes and twitching ears to denote his displeasure. Bluesmoke could pretend all day long that he wasn’t a little hurt by his mate’s disregard but he’d die before any of his clanmates recognized it for what it was. Let them think it was just that his foot hurt and his stomach was churning from Briarleaf’s herbs. That was much safer than letting them think he felt the sting of Shalefall’s disregard, especially since he knew better than to think of it as disregard. Shalefall had been busy as of late…that was all. Ever since Froststar had saddled him with an apprentice, the dark-faced one…what was his name? Mosspaw? Mousepaw? Maskpaw…that sounded right. THE rest of the clan had celebrated when it had been announced, declaring that it was “about time” Froststar started dishing out apprentices to the younger warriors. Bluesmoke didn’t buy the act for a minute. He’d been refusing apprentices left, right and center ever since his first one. To be fair, Lilacstream hadn’t been bad per say but Bluesmoke as a rule of thumb disliked apprentices on sight. They asked questions, poked at scars that were still sore and didn’t know when to leave a wounded warrior to lay. They had this idealistic way of thinking they could fix every warrior that had been roughed up by life. Each one wanted that “special connection”, “to heal a broken soul” or some silly nonsense like that. Well, Bluesmoke for one wanted no part of it. He’d tried it out once and the encounter still left a sour taste in his mouth. It tasted like the ashes of an oak tree, if anyone asked although no one did. As a young warrior, Bluesmoke had still been reeling from the fire and Lilacstream’s attempts at helping him had only soured him more and more to the whole idea of being a mentor to ShadowClan’s next generation. So…he’d refused ever apprentice since Lilacstream. Mid-ceremony, as soon as Froststar declared him some unfortunate young cat’s new mentor he would simply shake his head or walk away, forcing her to choose a new warrior on the fly for the embarrassed young tom or she-cat. Deep down somewhere Bluesmoke felt a little bad for embarrassing them but never bad enough to accept. THE problem with dealing with Froststar was that she was sneaky. She had to be, she was ShadowClan’s leader. Froststar had known Bluesmoke for a long time, which meant she knew what to do to get his tail in a twist. Eat up all of his mate’s spare time with an apprentice? Oh yes, the plot was hers alright, it was smothered in her knowing smirks. Couldn’t get Bluesmoke to take an apprentice? Fine, give one to the only cat that spends any sort of time around him. Devious. Cunning. Oh yes, it stank of Froststar’s scheming. That was probably where Shalefall was now, out training his apprentice while Bluesmoke laid in Briarleaf’s den and tried to pretend he didn’t know she had a supply of burn ointment tucked away somewhere. The smell of it, faint and unnoticeable to anyone else, was irritating to his nose after spending so many days and nights practically bathed in the wretched stuff. At least that smell, Bluesmoke knew for a fact was physically real. The other smells tickling his nose, oh those were purely in his head. Burnt fur, smoke and soot, those things weren’t in this moment. They were several moons back but…the setting hadn’t changed much. ‘UM.... I’m sorry to bother you Bluesmoke. I was just wondering if you had any idea where Briarleaf and Thistlepaw were right now.’ LIGHT green eyes peeked open to find a long-furred tom with a dark face and paws standing near Bluesmoke’s nest. A bundle of tansy was laid nearby that hadn’t been there when the blue-grey warrior had closed his eyes. The tom’s posture screamed that he didn’t want to be there, his expression certainly not helping. He probably hid it well from everyone else but Bluesmoke played the same game. He knew the tells for someone trying their damnedest to hide that they were uncomfortable. If he put an ear to the apprentice’s side, Bluesmoke would bet a moon’s worth of morning patrols that he would hear the cat’s heart beating like a rabbit’s when it was being chased. Green eyes met icy blue, made brighter and paler all at once by the dark face. Maskpaw, Shalefall’s apprentice. Rumors and stories swirled around the clan about this one, though Bluesmoke didn’t remember what they were. He didn’t put much stock in such nonsense, seeing as he heard enough rumors about himself as it was. The muscular tom preferred to stick to his own business, get his chores done and find some quiet place where he wouldn’t be bothered or cornered into conversing. So much for that plan. “BUSY torturing some other unfortunate soul,” Bluesmoke rasped after a long moment. His voice was rough and gravelly, permanently trapped in the cadence of someone that had just run from a forest set aflame. Not many liked his voice, the primary reason he escaped most conversations. He couldn’t raise his voice, one of the reasons many warriors say he can’t be a mentor. How could you mentor someone if you couldn’t yell for them? Or at them? Puh. “They’ll appreciate the tansy.” Bluesmoke closed his eyes and rested his head on his uninjured paw, trying to ignore the throb-throb-throb in his bitten paw that beat in time with his heart. Maskpaw, in an ideal world, had other things to be doing. He could go do some chore for Shalefall or hunt. No need to keep him around, radiating unease when Bluesmoke was already ill at ease. He laid there waiting for the beat of retreating paws, mentally telling himself that the tansy didn’t smell burnt. Dear StarClan he hated this place… Tagged;; Maskpaw Singing;; NA Words;; 1239 Notes;; Sorry there's not a lot of talking in this post, Blue's very introspective [/style]

[xxspade]

“BUSY torturing some other unfortunate soul,” at bluesmoke's voice, maskpaw could hear moons of pain and torture that would haunt the tom for seasons to come. while the warrior was much older then himself, just the anger and the bitterness that radiated from him was familiar. this was a cat very much like himself, but with much more experience. he wondered now just what kind of cat bluesmoke was and why he was the way he was. why was he so bitter at everyone except shalefall? shalefall... what was it that the tom had done to win this cat's hardened heart? did that mean it was possible for another cat to win his own? they were two different cats. nothing except the bitterness for others was the same. even the way they expressed the feeling was different. maskpaw used most of his anger to slug at ebonypaw with his words. The rest he kept hidden deep within a rabbit's whole in the bottom of his heart, never to come to the surface, at least not yet. working with shalefall was helping a lot, but he still felt a huge part within his heart missing from the rest of him. sometimes it made him want to choke, but he was able to keep these feelings dug in a hole. he wanted to laugh at bluesmoke's sarcasm, but the fact that he was standing in the medicine cat's den just ruined his amusement. he looked down at the tansy for a moment when the grey tom told him that briarleaf and thistlepaw would be happy about the tansy. but when he looked up again bluesmoke had layed back down and closed his eyes once again. maskpaw took this moment to narrow his eyes with slight irritation. but he knew that bluesmoke didn't wish to be bothered at the moment. the young apprentice took this moment to slightly open his mouth and filled his senses with bluesmoke's scent. he wanted to know as much about each cat in his clan as he could. this was what shalefall's mate was like. feelings, snake, poppy seeds, and other herbs floated to his nose and mouth. the scent of his own mentor overcame him also. how much time did the two spend together anyway? it didn't matter. for now, it wasn't his business. right now he was meant to give the herbs to briarleaf and get back to shalefall. bluesmoke's scent was still fresh in his mind and he would remember it for a very long time. he wasn't about to forget it. with that done maskpaw dipped his head at the irritated warrior and picked up the herbs to place them near the storage area entrance. when he dropped them there and lifted his head he spoke softly to his mentor's lover. "thank you, please let them know i left them here when they get back." you don't have to of course, but it's more or less just a formality. he shook his head uncomfortably, still feeling the flashbacks attempting to overwhelm him. "i'll let shalefall know you say hi." his voice was respectful, for he didn't want to upset the warrior, but it pained him to see the tom look so upset. from the looks of the situation he was in and how he had smelled he would guess that he had been bitten by a snake.

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