Warriors of the Plants

In Sandstone camp 

It took some time, great time in fact, but Quailleap managed to get a sense of her direction and perception with her bad eye. It burned through her retina with such a searing sensation. At times she wished she could reach up and gouge her eye out but without the presence of a medicine cat, she didn’t want damage her infected optic furthermore. As of now, she simply forced herself to practice eye-paw coordination to best of her capabilities. It may have annoyed her, bothered her relentlessly that her left side was all fuzzy and frazzled, but she didn’t want it to drag her down.

Ivybloom frowned slightly while watching her friend struggle, it was quite a sight to see, Quailleap has never in her life looked this frazzled before. She walked up to the other molly, "Hey sis, I think you should give that a break."

Quailleap stopped, but it wasn’t because Ivybloom told her too. Rather she felt a surge of fury. Who was Ivybloom to tell her to calm down? She had a right to be angry and a right to score her talons across that stupid brat. “I don’t need a break.” Quailleap said cooly. “What I need, is to be productive. What I need is to shred something with my claws.”

"You've been going at it for hours!" Ivybloom hissed, "Sorry I care about your health sweetie."

Beechface was watching from afar but decided to join their conversation. “If you need something to shred, why don’t we mess with Forestclan? That was partly the reason we split right..?”

“Yeah? What do you have in your mind?” Quailleap inquired, shrugging away from Ivybloom. She kept her gaze locked on Beechface, her glower searing into his face.

“Ugh...well...” Beechface groaned, he hadn’t planned on being the one to come up with a plan, he just wanted something to do. “I don’t know! I just figured, we’ve been here for a while now- might as well start taking territory and pushing into their lush lands.” He says with a shrug. “And If we come across a patrol, we’ll just fight.”

Ivybloom nodded tentatively, Wheatfeather wasn't going to like this, but they've already claimed some of the outlands and the rest doesn't seem that habitable, "Alright, the Forestclan border is too close to our camp for my liking, let's make up a plan first though."

Quailleap nodded, lashing her tail. If they wished to seize land, they had to be swift and firm. “We’re growing our own distinct scent. So it will be easy to stand out from Forestclan.” Quailleap started. “We need to clear out whatever Forestclan obstacles we face.”

“Great! So we go in, take some territory, and patrol it everyday.” Beechface says like that was the plan. “If anyone tells us otherwise, well. They’ll just be wrong.” 

"Right, let's be subtle, we expand it just by a little each day." Ivybloom meowed confidently, she still has to make sure Wheatfeather doesn't find out about or who knows what'll happen to her beautiful fur.

“Why? If we’re taking it, we should outright take it.” Quailleap protested roughly.

“I think either way, we’ll get into a fight. So probably better to just take a good chunk. Taking a little, doesn’t mean those snotty tree-huggers wouldn’t notice. They do hold their egos as high as their trees.” Beechface points out, taking Quailleap’s side on this.

"I'd say we play the underdogs here, anti has more members so they think they'll win," Ivybloom said rather matter of factly, "We grow strong secretly and surprise them."

“Right now we aren’t fighting those mange pelts.” Quailleap snapped hotly. “As much as I want to, we aren’t! So there’s no point in catching them off guard right now! We’re low on resources and need to gather more land. It’s smarter to come off as strong than weak.”

"So either way, it sounds like we need to get stronger." Beechface points out. "I mean... how are our resources from the outlands even doing for us? If we don't have enough from the outlands, maybe our problem is that we don't have enough cats to split the work..."

“I have seen some lounging around.” Quailleap snarled. “We need to do something about it.But first, let’s grab some of that land that should be ours.” Quailleap snarled. She whisked around and padded off

Ivybloom sighed, well it was always the plan to take Forestclan but she would have preferred to be a bit more prepared, "Quailleap wait up!" She chased after the warrior.

Beechface sighed, and padded after them. Finally something to do around here he supposed.

“What?” Quailleap asked gruffly, continuing to walk.

Ivybloom tsked, "What's up with you? I thought we were a team." She slowed her pace once she has caught up with Quailleap, "I'm doing what you want right now, I don't think I should be treated like this hun."

Quailleap slowed to a stop. Right. She was getting too ahead of herself. “I’m just frustrated.” She said smoothly, turning to stare at Ivybloom. Liars look away. Force her to look at you. “It’s been days but we have barely done anything productive for our group. Beechface finally dropped a good idea and I want to get right down to it.”

"We were building up our camp and hunting to recover from almost starving to death." Ivybloom corrected.

Quailleap tossed her head at the lounging cats. “Good job on that. Now we can move to other matters.”

Ivybloom held back a sigh, she thought she was supposed to be in control! Ugh. "Okay okay, let's see the forest nearest to our camp should be our first priority."

“Right.” Quailleap nodded. With that, she pressed on, flicking her tail in motion to follow. She clambered out the brambles, pushing her way through the entrance of their campsite

At the border between Forestclan and Cactusclan 

Quailleap reached the border kindly. It was the only thing she did that was...generous. After all, this was going to be her land. Maybe after I drive these fools to ash, I can claim the rest of the territory for my fallen brethren. Quailleap pondered.

Ivybloom tensed, the fact that they were actually doing this was well, kinda crazy. She just hoped that they could do this without getting too hurt, they don't have a healer on their side and it was getting problematic. Ivybloom rubbed herself on the nearby trees and bushes.

While Beechface and Quailleap marked the territory further along the area, Quailleap used her claws to gash the sides of trees.

Ivybloom frowned, "Let's not get too far of ourselves, remember we need to patrol this like, everyday." She reminded them, praying to Starclan that they would listen to her for once.

“Done.” Quailleap murmured, taking pride in her work. “All is done here. We didn’t encounter any forest cats either, good riddance.”

In Forestclan territory 

Dustpaw padded through the dark forest trying to be quiet. She'd been thinking about it for a long time now...ever since she heard about the accusation that one of her clanmates had murdered somebody's mother. She'd been thinking about how quick Mossystar was to defend the clan to blame Cactusclan for something so serious even with their proof. 

It left a taste of mouse bile on her tongue yet she was too scared to bring it up with any of her clanmates. Because starclan knows she wouldn't want to be caught siding with the 'enemy'. So she's been thinking of leaving.. leaving the clans maybe not forever maybe forever. She thought she would be with her mother forever and she wasn't so she was done trying to predict the future. Just trying to make good choices in the present and staying with clanmates so determined to blame mourning cats didn't feel like a good choice

Swooppaw was trying to sneak up on Dustpaw, but accidently steps on a twig, causing a loud snap. "mousedung..." He curses. He pads out of the bushes he had been hiding in and gives Dustpaw a friendly grin. "What are you doing all the way out here? Training?" He asks... cause training was the only thing thats really been on his mind since forever.

Dustpaw's pelt bristled quickly whirling on Swooppaw. It was only Swooppaw. Crap. It was Swooppaw. It was bad that she had been caught at all. Apprentices weren't allowed out of camp without somebody with them even if her warrior ceremony was soon but it was especially bad with her sneaking around at night. "What are you doing out here? Why are you following me?" She questioned back avoiding answering his question

"I wasn't following you" Swooppaw scoffs. "Why would I follow you?" He says like he was offended. "Unless you're doing something you're not supposed to..." He gives her a questioning look.

Dustpaw's ears felt hot. "I-I am not. What were you doing then huh? Sneaking around? And sucking at the sound of it," She scoffed teasing Swooppaw

"I'm not sneaking around!" Swooppaw defends himself, but then pauses a moment. "Well, maybe I am, but it's just to get some extra training done... especially... since I'm not a warrior yet... and I was hoping I would be by now..." He sighs

Dustpaw nodded "Everybody else is just worried about Cactusclan.." She murmured rolling her eyes

"Pff, what are they going to do?" Swooppaw laughs. "Those scrawny sand pelts... besides Drizzlekit I mean- or I guess he'd be Drizzlepaw by now." He says with a shrug remember they did have a friendship while forestclan stayed at cactusclan.

Dustpaw nodded a sour look on her face. "Well.. anyways, you should get back to your uh. Training was it? And leave me alone." She meowed and quickly started to walk away

Swooppaw quickly padded infront of her "Hey wait a minute. You never answered my questions- and I answered yours... so fair is fair. Why are you out here?" He asked again.

Dustpaw would stare down at Swooppaw. Ever since she became an apprentice she seemed to only grow bigger and bigger. "Uhh.. for a reason you wouldn't care about," She meowed trying to shove Swooppaw out of the way

Swooppaw steps aside to avoid being shoved over "Well, I'll just follow you around then until you tell me what's going on. If it's something I don't care too much about, then I'll be out of your fur, no harm done."

Dustpaw huffed "Fine," She said and started to walk. Not in the original direction she was intending on going however. She hoped if she walked aimlessly for long enough Swooppaw would get bored and leave her alone 

Swooppaw keeps following her, after 15-20 minutes of trecking through the forest. "Strengthening our endurence are we?" He says trying to break into conversation again.

Dustpaw felt like she was going insane. How could Swooppaw just walk around for so long in silence without getting bored and going away! Although she realized. If she really was going to leave what was he really going to do? Stop her? Somehow pin her down? She could just.. leave and nobody could stop her. She stopped in her tracks "Swooppaw. I'm leaving." She blurted out

"Oh, leaving back to camp? We're done with the walk then?" Swooppaw asks, clearly misunderstanding what she meant. "Was that all this was about then... You could have just said so" He laughs a little.

Dustpaw shuffled her paws "No Swooppaw.. I was out here because I wanted to leave the clan.." She murmured

"Er... Sorry, I don't really get the joke..." Swooppaw frowns, he really hoped she was joking, cause who would want to leave Forestclan. Who'd want to live anywhere else? Especially after their experience in Cactusclan.

"I'm not joking Swooppaw.." Dustpaw murmured clawing at the dirt and not looking at him

"You're not...? But why Dustpaw.?" Swooppaw asks, still not understanding why she would want to leave. This is where her family is... and even when her mom's dead, she was buried here- and probably still looks after here from starclan. If she left, she probably wouldn't be able to.

"I don't like it here.. I don't really like the cats here.. I didn't like," Dustpaw took a breath "I didn't like how we reacted to a Cactusclan mother's death." She muttered spitefully

"Oh..." Swooppaw says realizing that it might have reminded Dustpaw of her mom. "Yeah... we were... That's pretty mousebrained of us huh." He laughs a little trying to laugh it off. "So what... or where are you going to go then?"

Dustpaw shrugged "I dunno.. it can't be that hard. I know how to hunt and fight. I'll just see where my paws take me," She meowed. She really had no plan what so ever. All the moons she's just been debating if she should really leave the clans or not

Swooppaw thought about it for a bit... Mossystar was sure to be mad about it, and even if he reported it, he'd get in trouble for not stopping Dustpaw, and also for sneaking out at night. But if he didn't say anything and was found out for both... then he might as well be dead- and it wouldn't be too hard to notice he just let things go, he hadn't really been hiding his scent while they were walking. 

"Erm... What if I came with you?" Swooppaw was a strong almost warrior, so going with her wouldn't be a bad idea. They'd be able to protect each other in a unfamiliar environment, and it's not like he wouldn't be the best warrior if he left. He'd still be the best, just... maybe not of Forestclan. Yeah maybe they would make their own clan, and he can be the best warrior in the world!

"What? Why would you do that. You love ForestClan besides Bearsnap will miss you," Dustpaw meowed

"Well" Swooppaw sighs, yeah he did love Forestclan... going somewhere else could be too much for him- no, that's wimpy thinking. He'd surely be able to survive out there, and it'd be good training to take on other environments. "I love Forestclan, that's one reason to leave. And... Because I've just been following you around, if you go missing now, then I'll get in trouble."

Dustpaw sighed. That was true.. Swooppaw would get in trouble "Mmm.. what if we get into a fight? So it looks convincing that you tried to stop me?" She suggested but if he really was decided on following her out of the clans she wouldn't stop him

Swooppaw thinks about it for a little bit. “Hey now, thats suggesting that I’d lose if we fought. And if I’m to be know as the strongest, I can’t be losing to someone younger than me. Plus… for it to work, I’d either have to be unconscious or dead. And I prefer not to be either.” He shook his head

"I mean if I just ran right now how are you expected to stop me?" Dustpaw asked raising a brow a mischievous smile growing on her face

Swoopaw again shook his head, but then thought about it for a moment. “What if- you did run, and I followed… and once we’re out of the territory, I stay with you for a while until we’re sure you can handle yourself… then I can come back to clan, and say that I happened to lose you, while trying to track you for several days. That’d also show my endurance and dedication to the clan!”

Dustpaw smiled "Alright works for me," She chuckled before turning and instantly sprinting into the forest. For just how large she was it was surprising how fast she was 

“What- now?” Swooppaw exclaims, he wasn’t ready yet, but he started to run trying to keep pace with her. He ends up stumbling after falling behind from not being ready, and tripping over some roots 

Dustpaw hadn't realized Swooppaw was far behind as she continued to shoot through the forest towards the border 

Swooppaw gets up and runs to try to catch up, but trips again not realizing a vine had tangled around his paw. “Foxdung!! You mousebrained vine” he shouts, but then quickly shuts up to avoid drawing attention. He nips at the vines and gets lose before sniffing the air to make sure he still had a idea of her trail, but decides not to run until the forest was a little less dense. 

Swooppaw finally manages to get clear of all the vines and brambles that are hard to get through in a dense forest. He’s kind of suprised that Dustpaw was able to get through it all so quickly. He started running again, following the same scent trail as before, finally catching up to where Dustpaw’s scent was at least fresher.

Dustpaw was panting as she finally made it to the border. The invisible wall marked by ForestClan scent that warded off any intruders but also kept all the ForestClan cats within the scent markers. Her heart started to beat in faster as she realized she was really doing it. She was really going to leave..

Swooppaw keeps running, finally getting into the rhythm of things and finally catching up with Dustpaw. “So…” He huffed catching his breath “this is the border… Ready to face the unknown?” He asks, his paws still full of adrenaline from the chase, he couldn’t help but feel excited to see what's out there.

Dustpaw took a breath "I guess ready as I'll ever be," She meowed. She stepped closer and closer to the border pausing right at the edge. She felt all her nerves tingling and her heart felt like it was gonna burst from her chest but she finally stepped outside the border. It was not as fabulous as she thought it was.. it just felt like the forest but.. not part of ForestClan

Swooppaw stepped across the borderline and just stood there for a moment like if something was supposed to happen, like a patrol would start yelling at them or something. “Well. I guess we’re out now. Shall we keep going?” He says with a shrugged after looking around to see if anything changed.

Nothing did and they left