Everwinter's Cost

Everwinter's Cost is the 11th Moon of AcornClan's existence. These are the logs of everything noteworthy that happened.

Maplestar decided to go out and train with her deputy Waterhusk due to rising tensions with AvianClan. She saw this as a way of building one another's trust, but also to talk to them one on one about her growing doubts about her leadership skills, and that she considers resigning as the life of a leader is no longer fit for her. Waterhusk listened to every word said to them, diligently listening and makiing sure to let Maplestar know they would always be there for her, leader or not. Their faith in each other was expanded upon deeply, plus they got to stretch their legs and exercise.

Meanwhile, Springfeather decided to go out on patrol by himself, making an attempt at hiding his aging bones and loss of agility. Whilst traversing the forest's territory, he noticed fresh paw marks in the wet mud, with a putrid scent of rogues. As he focused more on the odor, he noticed the absence of territory markings - perhaps, the intruder was trying to be discreet. Following his gut, he tracked the individual down successfuly and sent them fleeing from AcornClan's woods with an ambush, only managing to get a few slight glimpses of them as he was trying to stay sneaky. The unfamiliar figure was pitch-black, cloaked by darkness with a veil of shadows. That unusually dark coat gave him a sight sense of familiarity, though he just couldn't tell where he last saw it. Odd.

On another occurence, Springfeather decided to go out of his way and visit the thunderpath, quckly recognising an AvianClan warrior hunched over by the side of the road. He knew the tom was named Birchsong, though he was unaware that he was heavily bleeding until he got very close. There had been many incidents by the side of this path before, and it was where his son's mate was found after being trampled by a monster aswell. Quickly, Springfeather called over to a nearby patrol consisting of Heathbracken and Wolftooth, and the medicine cats were as hasty as possible in closing the patient's wounds, relying on the senior warrior to fetch cobwebs and StarClan-knows-what herbs before eventually making him carry Birchsong back to their own clan's camp. It was an incident to say the least, but Spring was just happy and proud to have helped.

Whispertuft's moonly highlight was quite different from that of the other cats - she had an odd dream, with a sheep killing a wolf and wearing the creature's coat. She almost never had dreams before this point, and it was clear that somehing was different about this one. Was it sent by StarClan, perhaps? Shaking the tiredness off her pelt, she set out for dawn patrol and decided to try and hunt, but just couldn't get rid of the feeling that what she experienced was an omen sent by the ancestors. Instead of getting her work done, she put her thoughts in order and attempted to decipher the dream's meaning. Although she returned to camp empty-pawed, she definitely wasn't empty-headed, thinking about what to do next.

While searching for some specific herbs together, Wolftooth and Heathbracken were startled by weird sounds and whispers on the wind. They were hesitant, but eventually decided to follow the peculiar noise, only to stumble upon the cooling body of a queen and her newly born kits. They were unaware of what truly killed the poor souls as their carcasses were covered in too much frost and cold water - their fur was horribly damp. After paying their respects decided to get help with burying the bodies. Heathbracken had seen a lot of this before in her previous clan, though seeing the freezing bodies of a mother and her kits made her think about what could have happened to her and her litter if the clan hadn't taken her in. She took a break from working for the next few days, pretending to have a cold when around the oothers, although Rookshell and especially Wolftooth knew she was just emotionally fazed. They let her be.

Tanglemurk didn't go on many noteworthy patrols during the cold leaf-bare's second phase, as he tried to stay close to Finchkit as much as he possibly could for the sake of building trust. His time in the camp was causing his hunting prowess to rust and wither away - especially in the freezingly cold winter. He watched as icicles slowly dripped from the sides of camp, the cold water droplets pooling down below. Winter had really taken its toll on the camp, especially now that there were even more mouths to feed beside that of the kits - an AvianClan warrior that went by the name Birchsong was recently found bleeding to death on the side of the thunderpath, only barely being saved by the medicine cats. Storms of raw snowfall had worn down Tanglemurk's will to go out on patrols, despite his wish to stay near his son. The fact he didn't know they were related was tearing him apart from the inside, an insult to his efforts at staying an active part of his life. Yet if he did know, both of their reputatioons would be shattered permanently - not only because Meteoer was an outsider, but because of the plans they made of running far away from the clans. It would be devastating. Pushing his thoughts and feelings back, Tanglemurk was glad that he only had to go one on patrol a day. It was much easier and simpler than the dawn, day and dusk patrol schedule, even if it did make his clanmates think he was chickening out of his duty.

As he hesitantly left the camp, he felt a jolt of freezing cold ice throughout his body. The leaf-bare had really taken its toll on the prey in the forest, so Tanglemurk was unsble to find much. The borders had already been marked and patrolled, and the sandpit that everyone usually trained in was practically a skating rink. The only thing possibly left to do was hunt, and it was complicated and difficult to even find prey. After wandering around for some more time, he stumbled across a hybernating group of mice in their burrow. It was a relief to finally contribute to something other than watching the kits, and vital to keeping his reputation in tact.