Stormheart is Hunting (Open!)

Stormheart padded around camp, feeling the hard, frozen soil beneath his paws, and looked around at the snowy setting. He was in the mood for some hunting, and wondered if anyone wanted to go with him. If not, he would just go by himself, as he always loved hunting in leaf-bare, but it was always a lot more fun if someone would join him. Maybe he could even make a new friend.

Ooc: Hello everyone! This is Stormheart, my primary and older character from the old days of the new era. If you don't know me and are new to the site, I was one of the main members before the site took a long break. I'm back now though with the site, and would love to RP with one of you guys!

Ooc: Hey Stormy x3

Hazelrise dragged himself from the Warrior Den like his back legs didn't work. Once he was out in the cold winter sun he stretched, yawned, and was awake. Glancing over to the fresh-kill pile, he immediately saw that there was hunting to be done. The tom face was shadowed with deep concern for his clan; they hadn't had a Leafbare this bad for a long time, and prey had been especially scarce. The tom had even snuck onto ShadowClan territory multiple times over the past moon in search of food, hiding it from everyone, even Sunstar. He didn't want to, but even he'd have to admit that he's always gotten a thrill from breaking the rules.
Across the camp, Hazelrise spotted Stormheart. The young warrior approached his clan mate light-heartedly; "Hey Stormheart. How does a hunt sound? The pile's looking a little thin."

Blacktail emerged from the Queen's Den. Mosskit and Sorrelkit were spending the day with another warrior so the queen could get a short break. She hadn't been out of the camp for quite a few moons now; her late mate wouldn't put her at risk, so for three moons she had been inside the camp even though her kits were two moons.
She spotted Hazelrise and Stormheart near the fresh-kill pile and walked towards them. She overheard Hazelrise asking about hunting and thought she would try to pitch in.
"Hunting? If you guys are going I would love to go with; my white fur would be helpful,a and besides, I need the exercise," The queen said with a small laugh. She had only gained a bit of natural weight after she had Mosskit and Sorrelkit, but she desperately wanted to get back out to hunting and patrolling.

*Edit...
Ooc: Hey guys! Welcome back xD

He noticed the tom padding towards him, and hearing his words, gave him a friendly smile. "I was hoping someone would say that, hunting would be a lot of fun! I was going to go by myself if no one else wanted to, but it's always better with company." He noticed a cat coming towards them and recognized Blacktail. "Hey, Blacktail. Of course you can come, we'd be happy to have you along! You'll probably do the best out of all of us here, due to your white pelt." He gave her a smile as he glanced to the camp entrance. "Shall we go hunt?" He purred.

Ooc: Hey Roo, nice to see you again! :3

Ooc: You too, Stormy ;3 Hey Static!

Hazelrise purred in greeting to Blacktail, before getting to his paws and heading for the camp entrance, glancing over his shoulder to see that his clan mates were following. It would be a tiring and most likely fruitless hunt, but the young tom wanted to avoid going onto the ShadowClan territory like in his previous hunts. If Sunstar found out, he would be furious.

Blacktail followed the tom easily towards the exit of camp. This would be good for her own physical and mental needs rather than the fresh-kill pile; she had no idea what would stay out in the snow, especially in this temperature.
"Where do you guys want to start? Near Fourstones maybe?" The white she-cat asked.

Ooc: Hey guys I was thinking maybe one (or both) of her kits could follow her and get into some kind of trouble. That it's not a routine hunt, ya know? :)

"Yeah, Fourstones sounds great!" The tom meowed with a smile as he gave a nod. "I was there earlier today, hunting too, and I caught some prey, so there would be a good place!" He went out of camp, happy to be hunting with his clanmates.

Ooc: Yeah that sounds good, go ahead! Good idea!

"Sounds like a plan," Hazelrise mused cheerfully, trotting at a moderate pace towards the gathering place. The fast movement helped warm his limbs, but he kept an eye out for any sign of prey as they trotted for Fourstones.

Ooc: Sounds like a good idea :3

Blacktail kept up with the two toms on the way to Fourstones. When she saw the area they would be hunting in she immediately went into hunting mode. She crouched down low and kept her steps silent. She could feel her stomach hanging lower than it had since she just started training as an apprentice, and grimaced a bit at the feeling. Though she loved her kits, they made her pretty big.

He padded with the she-cat and the other-tom, gazing all around at the snowy forest around them. They got close to Fourstones, and Stormheard noticed Blacktail crouching down, ready to hunt. He meowed quietly, gesturing with his tail to a few trees. "I'll go look over there for prey. Good luck!" He smiled.

Hazelrise returned the gesture to Stormheart and signalled to Blacktail that he was going to hunt by the stream. The handsome tom ran off in the direction of the ShadowClan border, his steps light and silent as he rushed through the snow. When he reached the stream, he found that it was still frozen solid. His mind went to RiverClan, and his friend Sagevine. A concerned frown shadowed his face; the cats of that clan were so reliant on the fish in their water, if it was frozen by them, they must be having a rougher Leafbare than ThunderClan.
Thoughts of RiverClan were replaced with that of ShadowClan as the tom's green-blue eyes brushed across the pine forest territory of their rival. His gaze was broken by a rustling in some nearby bushes, snow falling from their dense bows. Hazelrise dropped into a hunting crouch and slowly began stalking towards the bushes.

Blacktail had returned the signals the toms sent her way and separated herself from the two. After a couple of minutes of searching for any signs of movement, the queen found a small brittle bush moving very slightly. Though the cold made her nose stuffy, she could detect a small scent of mouse.
She lowered into her old hunting crouch easily, putting equal weight on all four paws before pushing it all onto her hind legs. She pounced on the small brown mouse, killing it swiftly in one bite. When she landed, she heard much more rustling than what she was making. She thanked the mouse for it's life and buried it under a light amount of snow.
She looked around for where the sound of was coming from and was startled to see Mosskit run from behind the tree she had been making her way to.
"Mosskit?!" The queen exclaimed, making sure to not be too loud. There might be other clan patrols around. The white cat hurried to her oldest kit, surrounding his shivering body with hers and immediately started licking him.
"What in StarClan are you doing here?" She said between licks.
"I-I can't find Sorrelkit momma. I lost her, I'm such a bad brother," Mosskit sobbed out.
The queen lost no time and picked up her kit and began searching for her hunting partners.
"Hazelrise, Stormheart!" She shouted. If Sorrekit was missing, they needed to find her soon. A two moon old kit wouldn't survive long out in the cold.

Stormheart had padded over to that small patch of trees he had seen, it was a small enough area and it looked like it would be a good place to catch some prey, maybe a mouse or even a squirrel. He wondered where his companions were hunting, but he scented a squirrel and dropped into a crouch, padding slowly towards it. He was just about to catch it, but then he heard Blacktail calling his name. The squirrel; startled, ran, and he ran over to Blacktail. He was a little annoyed about not being able to catch the squirrel, but he knew she was probably calling him for a good reason, she was a smart she-cat, and not the kind to play pranks. "Yes, Blacktail?" He meowed, looking at her.

As Hazelrise stalked closer to the bushes, a thrush flew from them and landed on a nearby rock. It had a snail in its beak that it planned to eat, so, as those birds so often do, it began knocking its shell hard against the stone to try and break it. In doing this, it hadn't spotted Hazelrise.
The tom edged as close as he could get; he didn't blend in well against the snow, and he was making more noise than usual because of it. When he was close enough, and the bird still hadn't noticed, he leapt, catching the animal by the wing as it flew up to try and escape. He imprisoned the stunned bird underneath his paws and killed it before it could make to much noise.
At that point, Blacktail's cries reached his ears. He quickly thanked the thrush, buried it and sprinted towards the she-cat. When he reached her, he found Stormheart already there. To Hazelrise's astonishment, Mosskit was nestled between his mother's paws, shivering and sobbing in the snow.
"What's going on?" he asked, panic rising in him, as he felt he knew what the answer would be.

He saw Hazelrise arrive as well and then he noticed the kit, Mosskit, at Blacktail's paws, and he was thinkin about what could have happened. "Did the kits sneak out the camp?" He said to her.

"Yes, they did. I found Mosskit following me but he says he lost Sorrelkit. If we don't find her StarClan knows what could happen to her!" The queen fretted. They didn't have long to find poor Sorrelkit. She wouldn't have found Mosskit if he hadn't made so much noise, and his sister was infinitely more quiet than he was.

Ooc: Sorry for the late reply!

Ooc: No worries, Static ;3

"Calm down, Blacktail, it'll be alright," the tom reassured the she-cat, "There's no use in panicking. We'll find Sorrelkit."
Hazelrise then turned to Mosskit, "Where did you last see your sister?" he said in a sweet tone, hiding his dread from the other cats. Snow had just began to fall - if they couldn't pick up Sorrelkit's scent soon, they'd lose it under a fresh blanket of snow.

He gave a nod. "Don't worry, Blacktail, we'll find her. But we should look for her." He meowed and looked around, scenting the air and not scenting any other kit scents. "Maybe we should follow Mosskit's pawsteps and maybe we will be able to find the scent trail." He said to her.

"I-I think when you s-stopped I followed m-mother, a-and she followed s-someone else," Mosskit meowed, shivering all the while. Blacktail sat close to her kit and tried to warm him up. They needed the kit out here to find his sister, even though all of the ThunderClan queen's instincts were telling her to take him back to camp. She couldn't abandon one of her kits.
"Whatever you guys think will work best. I may need to take Mosskit back soon, and if I do I'll go get more help. Until then, he may be able to help us," The she-cat meowed.
"Y-yes, mama, let me help," Mosskit said.

"She followed someone else?" He meowed, thinking who it could be, and hoped that it was another ThunderClan cat. He glanced at Blacktail, guessing that she had the same thoughts. He looked at Mosskit and asked him, a smile on his face, "Did the stranger who she followed have ThunderClan scent?" He asked the kit.

Mosskit shook his head. "He smelled really bad," He mewed. "I never smelt someone like that, but I thought it was just another warrior so I let her go," He continued. He was really scared for his sister, even with his mother trying to comfort him.
"Alright, then we need to look for an unusual scents," Blacktail said. On the inside, her maternal instincts were on meltdown but she tried to keep calm. A frantic queen would do no good in finding her little girl.

He listened to the kit and Blacktail, and muttered, "Mouse dung." If it had been a ThunderClan warrior, the ThunderClan warrior would have helped the kit, of course. "It could have been a rogue.." He meowed, thinking. "But let's start looking for her." He meowed to her.

Hazelrise remained silent, listening to the other cats and trying to puzzle it together. He suddenly felt sick with panic; what if the stranger had been from ShadowClan, tracking his scent back from ShadowClan territory after he'd hunted there.
He hid this from the others, not wanting Blacktail to worry even more, but also wanting to avoid anyone finding out what he had done.
"Let's go back to where Mosskit last saw his sister," He said, standing, "Lead the way, kit."

"Good idea." He meowed, his tone had a hint of worry in it but it was mostly calm. He knew that getting very worried would not help any of them, especially Mosskit and Blacktail. He looked at the kit.

The kit nodded his small head. When his mother let him go, he began trotting back towards the camp. The two kits had gone their separate ways closer to camp. Blacktail immediately started following her kit, keep her senses out to tell if she could find her daughter.