Jøιητcℓαη: τнε ηεxτ gεηεяατιøη ✶ αcτ ⅰ✶ яumøяs (OPEN)

A warm summer breeze floated through the air, causing ripples in the grass beneath her paws. Looking from side to side, she watched as what looked like two Clans of cats, one led by a smoky gray cat and the other, led by a brown tabby, raced out of nowhere and started to attack one another. There were yowls and cries of both triumph and dismay, but it seemed as though all the cats were doing were viciously picking one another off.
What was going on?
"ShadeClan will rule the forest!" The gray cat cackled maliciously, tackling the brown tabby to the ground. They tussled for a moment, then the tabby tom managed to get the upper hand. Rolling over, he managed to get the gray cat under him.
"You're wrong, BranchClan will always prevail!" The brown tabby cried, his eyes sparkling with triumph. He raised his paw to give the final blow...
Dawnstar bolted straight up in her mossy nest. Her eyes darted around wildly, as if she were disoriented. Where was she? Oh. Suddenly, she recognized the cracked stone cave that made her den, the dismantled mossy nest, the sunlight filtering through and dappling her pelt. Her heart stopped pounding against her ribcage and she relaxed, slumping into a sitting position in her nest.
It was just a dream, it was just a dream...
Scrambling to her paws, the leader padded out and sat in the entrance of her den. It was barely morning, and it looked as though nobody was awake yet. Silverstar might be- he was an early bird, like herself. However early it was, the sun was still shining brightly, the slight summer breeze causing ripples in the grass and making the trees sway. It was a truly beautiful sight, her territory, her Clan.
JointClan was a Clan made up of the original two, ShadeClan and BranchClan. Many moons ago, they both shared a vast forest. Tensions were constantly high between the two, and finally it reached a boiling point. The vicious leader of ShadeClan attacked BranchClan, effectively killing off the leader. He killed himself off, too, however. Then, when the fight was over, both Clans made a pact. They joined together to create JointClan.
For many more moons, they ruled the forest. The ruthless rogue known as Mellowstar (although it was said she preferred to be called Mistress) constantly attempted to disband JointClan, but they always prevailed. Then, she set fire to their forest home. They were forced to leave. Eventually, though, they found a suitable home. They never encountered Mistress, and had been living their lives in peace ever since.
Now, though, Dawnstar wasn’t so sure. Tensions within her Clan had been running at an alltime high. Descendants of both ShadeClan and BranchClan argued with one another, and constantly brought up the idea that they should split and become separate Clans again.
Dawnstar and Silverstar didn’t know what to do. No other leader had had to deal with this, she thought miserably as she glanced up at the brightly shining sun, watching it rise slowly, higher and higher into the sky.

Unlike Dawnstar, Sorawing wasn't woken by a strange dream. The second he awoke from it, the sun shining in his face, he couldn't remember what it was about. That had happened a lot lately. Hopefully the dreams were nothing important. Then again, if they were, he would remember them.

The blue deputy lay there for just a minute with his eyes open, and then he rose to his paws calmly. Another day in JointClan - it didn't seem like anything different from what other Clans would experience. But it was; rumors were going around. JointClan was having a hard time with its tensions rising so much. But Sorawing had told him self countless times that he would always be loyal to this Clan. If he wasn't, he wouldn't be in the deputy position right now. Of all things, he was not a traitor.

The breeze stirred the long whiskers on his face, and he sneezed subtly. Time to go outside, probably. He couldn't stay in here forever. Might as well interact with the rest of the Clan.

--

Jaywhisker didn't wake up to the deputy's stirrings. Rather, she was awoken a few minutes after he had left. When she raised her head from her nightlong sleep, though, she did notice one fewer cat in here. She knew it was Sorawing; he liked to get up early. He was probably already thinking about who to send out for the dawn patrol...

After letting the drowsiness fade from her mind, Jaywhisker rose to her paws (slowly, as not to get lightheaded) and padded out of the den silently.

Silverstar never really dreamed, unlike Dawnstar. He went to sleep late and woke up early, way before the other leader. He could always tell when she had a bad nightmare. She would toss and turn, and occansionally mumble incohert things in her sleep. Henever woke her up, because they could be prohencies or something. He never watched her during those moments, because he felt bad. Dawnstar didn't deserve it, but StarClan knows what they're doing.
Silverstar stared at the sky, his paws swatting at nothing. His back felt nice against the grass, which was wet from dew. After a moment he rolled onto his stomach and surveyed the camp as cats woke up. The dawn patrol was bound to get back soon. He flicked his ears and scrambled to his paws to go check on things.

Pansypaw was not looking forward to today. She had gotten in a lot of trouble for wandering off during the training session yesterday, and had to clean the Elders den. For the second moon in a row. Sometimes Cedarpaw helped voluntarily, sometimes he was forced to, but usually he got off easy. Anyway, she had saw a mouse, so it wasn't like she was being stupid or naughty, as the warriors usually assume.
So she stayed still, curled up in a ball by the other three apprentices, her eyes half closed. Maybe she would pretend to be fake. Then again, that usually failed... Oh well. Might as well face another day of cleaning.

(Uh, Varjak? Can you change the color? That's insanely blinding. XD I'll post tomorrow, it's gettin' late).

There were loud rustles in the forest, with a queen mewling loudly as a Japanese bobtail stood by, looking at her indifferently. There were four of them, but only one survived. He had his father's birthmark, a white spot over his eye. "You will name him Crescent," He said in a low hush, almost drowned out from the two's memories of the flames from old Jointclan, which they had witnessed in their youth. The queen looked at the kit with a pang of sympathy before the male grabbed her by the scruff of the neck and led her away, leaving the black kit alone with his late siblings.

After moons of sorrow and angst, Crescent had finally found a small group of cats, including a kit named Viper about his age, who were more than glad to take him in under the one condition that he wouldn't tell anybody. He agreed to the promised and was showed to the kits den, where a few others were there. However, he didn't wish to play with them, and it wasn't long before a queen scolded the kits and explained his predicament.

Crescent had eventually grown up into his teen years, and was appointed as the Healer for his loyalty and secretive-ness. Of course, he had never truly gotten over his childhood, but he assumed the rest of the clan had just adapted to his attitude.

Crescent was already wide awake before sunrise, having been exploring the forest for essential herbs since the night before. He had just about gathered enough and had decided he deserved a little break. The sun streaked through the light canopy above and slightly agitated his eyes, but not enough for him to move from the comfortable spot. He stretched out his muscles, yawning before taking his herbs and returning to camp, ready to clean his fur as soon as he arrived.

Barkstripe opened one golden eye as Sorawing padded out. The brown deputy had no dreams, and hadn't for awhile. That was good news for him, at least. When he had dreams, they were often confusing and hard to interpret. "I'm up." He grunted as his forelegs slid across the floor in a stretch. The warm air outside carried a breeze into the den. It slid through the back wall and turned around to escape. Barkstripe yawned and padded nimbly out of the den.

Russetpaw sighed as she heard cats around the camp waking up and padding out. She heard Bluebell's cry of welcome and shrunk down a little. The medicine cat meant well, but sometimes it didn't always go right...
The calico apprentice had thought about going back to sleep, but Jaywhisker was probably getting up now too. "Hey, Pansypaw. Are you awake?" She whispered.

((You said you would tell me when we started! D:))

Quickly Wildstripe bounded back into the camp, eagerly at the head of the dawn patrol. She would call out to announce that they were back, but that would wake anyone that was still sleeping. Thankfully Wildstripe had known that she was on the dawn patrol since the night before, so she went to bed early enough so she would get enough sleep. Right now, she was ready for the day. The white-and-brown she-cat dropped the mouse that she had caught onto the fresh-kill pile with satisfaction. The borders were safe, and she had grabbed a little bit of prey on the way. As she looked around, she was glad to see that nobody was looking too tense. One of the cats was greeting the leaders in their dens. For now, Wildstripe wouldn't make too much noise. Some of the warriors were waking up, but she needed to catch her breath first.

"G'morning, Bellberry." Dawnstar dipped her fluffy gray head as both a sign of acknowledgement and respect. The medicine cat meant a great deal to her, having been both a great medicine cat and an even greater friend in the short time she'd ruled over her Clan. "How'd you sleep?" Questioned the leader, flicking her tail as she turned her gray-blue eyes to the medicine cats face.
It was ironic, really, that she be asking that. After all, she was the one with the reoccuring dream. She hadn't told Bellberry yet, purely because it felt so strange having to converse with her about the messages of StarClan. Not that she'd ever say this aloud, but what if there were no StarClan? What if StarClan were a myth, just to give the cats something to believe in at the most hopeless of times?
Shaking her head, as if to clear her thoughts, Dawnstar returned to the present. Watching the medicine cat patiently, she sat back on her haunches, licking her paw daintily.

Cedarpaw had been watching Pansypaw twitch in her "sleep", deciding whether or not to keep faking it or get up for the dawn patrol. Then, Russetpaw had bounded over and prodded Pansypaw, seeing if she were awake. He'd rolled over quickly, then, as to not be looked at funny for paying so much attention to Pansypaw, but he was certain Russetpaw had seen him. Even so, he didn't think Russetpaw would tell. They were friends... Kind of.

Sorawind surveyed the camp. The apprentices and warriors were starting to get up and move about, and a couple of them looked anxious to get out of camp. The apprentices would go on the dawn patrol, then... Cedarpaw and Russetpaw. Of course, they'd need a couple of warriors to accompany them, so Jaywhisker would go as well.

Huh... the camp was short on warriors. Maybe Sorawind should have Barkstripe go too, or himself depending on whether the other deputy was up for it.

He turned to the nearby deputy, who appeared to have just gotten up. Sorawind laughed inwardly; Barkstripe could use the exercise to wake himself up.

After hesitating just a little, Sorawind padded up to the other deputy. "Hey, Barkstripe, would you mind accompanying Cedarpaw, Russetpaw and Jaywhisker on the dawn patrol?"



The silvery warrior heard her name called, and immediately got up from her sitting position. She was probably on the dawn patrol. That was fine for her.


((Since we are short on warriors, I should probably make Leopardstorm's form now. I was going to introduce him later, but I guess not.))

Pansypaw groaned and pawed at Russetpaw, who was nudging her side. She didn't want to end her fake sleep yet, just to be self. But the she-cat wouldn't go away, so she finally opened her eyes and batted Russetpaw in the face, rolling over onto her paws.
"Why couldn't you have bothered one of the toms? They're the lazy ones." She muttered in complaint, but she was just teasing. Flicking her tail she trodded over to the two other apprentices. She jumped onto Cedarpaw, not caring that he was already awake, and stood on top of him, one of her front paws smashing his face against the rough den floor. "Wake up, Cedarpaw!" She meowed cheerfully.

Russetpaw flinched when her fellow she-apprentice jumped on Cedarpaw. "Oh....my gosh. That- looked like it hurt." She was actually serious for once. Poor Cedarpaw! She overheard her name several times outide the den along with Cedarpaw's. "Oh hey, Barkstripe's talking about us. We should probably go." The apprentice was semi-glad to get away from Pansypaw for a little bit.... she was wierd and violent.

Barkstripe nodded. "Sure. Those apprentices still need mentors, don't they? Or- was Russetpaw assinged one already? Jaywhisker?" He asked, cocking his head slightly as he also surveyed the camp warily.

Wildstripe laughed as she heard the talk around the camp. It was so early, and the apprentices were already fighting... She should probably be annoyed, but it was just too funny. They were bouncing around and mock-attacking each other... But finally they stopped an ran over to Barkstripe. Wildstripe's greenish gaze followed them. She could also hear Barkstripe talking... about assigning mentors to the apprentices. The brown-and-white she-cat smiled, padding up to Barkstripe for a bit of morning chat. "I can't imagine having one of those rambunctions furballs as an apprentice," Wildstripe chuckled, smiling. Her eyes reflected her humor; she actually wouldn't mind, and she tried to make that clear. As she glanced around briefly, she could see that one of the deputies, Sorawing, was up as well. She would probably report to him later. The hunting had gone well... she would have to tell him.

"I'm up, I'm up!" Cedarpaw cried indignantly, pushing her off of him feebly. Gosh, was she strong. He only just managed to get her off of him. He rolled to his paws, sticking his tongue out at Pansypaw and batting at her ears. "Mean." He muttered, then nodded at Russetpaw. "See 'ya, Pansypaw. Have fun cleaning the elders den, again~" He taunted in a sing-songy voice before darting out of the den to see what Barkstripe wanted.

Pansypaw pouted, ducking out of the Apprentice den. It wasn't fair. She hadn't been on a patrol in forever. How was she going to become a warrior? It would be unfair if all her friends were warriors while she stays as an apprentice. Pansypaw flattened her ears and stalked into the Elder's den. She picked up some dirty moss out of the den and dropped it outside of camp. She clawed some fresh moss of of a rock, her eyes narrowed. This was going to take forever.