search party [ravenstreak]

Just talk to her. The tom paced back and forth under the high-rock, his head bent in deep thought. She won't avoid you - she can't. Owlstar paused, his paw dangling mid-step, would she avoid him? The tom pressed him pad into the peaty earth and continued to trek back and forth - back and forth in front of his den. His anxiety was running wicked through his blood and Rainflight's absence was burning his lungs. He felt like he couldn't breathe these days. Ever since the deputy's death, the tabby felt like he was next, or worse, her. The tom drew to a halt, he wouldn't put it past starclan, they would take her. He was sure something horrible would happen to her and then there would be this silence between them, extending into the after life and he would officially stop breathing.

Just talk to her. Owlstar shook his mighty head, it wasn't that easy. He had been so busy - so busy that everything in his life had become background noise. There was Thunderclan and then nothing else. Rainflight, Dapplepaw - the cats he cared about most weren't there anymore. And what could he expect? Were they supposed to sit around and wait for him? Were they supposed to take his negligence with stretching grins and petty words. No. They left. The tom sighed, it wasn't that easy. Owlstar glanced over his shoulder, and there was the warrior's den. It was early enough, Rainflight could still be sleeping. He imagined her curled up in her nest, her small, slender body falling and rising with each breath. The tabby felt a sharp pang run through his chest. Just talk to her.

What would he say? Owlstar narrowed his eyes, Rainflight...I'm sorry, I didn't mean to...I didn't... Nothing. He could say nothing. The tom stilled his fidgeting feet and let another long, parting sigh leave his maw. JUST TALK TO HER. And he was moving, the tom found himself padding steadily toward the warrior's den. His heart was completely in his throat, bumping against his lungs, catching his breath, making it impossible for him to breathe - and suddenly he was inside.

Immediately disappointment washed over him. Rainflight wasn't here. In fact, there was only one cat still resting in her nest and she was awake, watching him. Owlstar felt his face heat up in embarrassment. Leaders don't normally walk head first into the warrior's den, and they definitely don't do it on accident. The she-cat was Ravenstreak. A younger warrior, Loudstorm's daughter, and someone he may have talked to his once or twice in his life. "Uhhh, hello...there.." He meowed suddenly, his voice thick and clumsy. The tom mentally clawed himself, you're the leader of the Thunderclan say something intelligible. He had to think quickly, why was he in the warrior's den? And suddenly it hit him. Owlstar cleared his throat before meowing hastily, "Hunting patrol. Now."

The tom turned on his feet and walked out of the den feeling rather stupid.

After the moon high patrol, Ravenstreak had gone into the warrior's den and collapsed into her nest. She had slept peacefully, with no dreams to measure just how long she had slept. When she woke, she had turned her groggy head to watch the last warrior exit the den. She hadn't slept very long, the sunlight was barely filtering into the den. It was early morning. Ravenstreak sighed and sat up to wash the grime from her patrol, and pick out moss from her pelt.

Ravenstreak twisted to reach her shoulder and lick a burr out of her otherwise smooth black fur. She had just spat it out of her mouth when the little light coming in from the entrance was blocked out. The she-cat looked, and was surprised to see the ThunderClan leader sticking his head into the den.

Scratch that. Ravenstreak was worried when she saw the leader sticking his head into the den. Owlstar rarely came into the warriors den, and Ravenstreak could think of no reason for why he would be doing so now. Actually, for a few seconds, Ravenstreak felt like Owlstar didn't know what he was doing either. The silence was broken suddenly, and awkwardly, by Owlstar's greeting. Not know what else to do, other than to continue sitting there staring at her leader, which she kept doing any way, Ravenstreak returned the greeting. "Uh, hi, Owlstar."

When the silence went on, Ravenstreak wondered what had caught Owlstar's tongue. She was about to ask if she could help him with something when he hastily ordered for her to join him on a hunting patrol. Ravenstreak sat, stunned, as Owlstar backed out of the den.

Now it was Ravenstreak's turn to be flustered. The she-cat clambered onto all fours and scuttled out of the den after Owlstar. The lean, black she-cat was self-conscious of every move she made as she padded after her leader. Why had Owlstar picked her, a young, newly appointed warrior, to accompany him on patrol? There was no way it was just because she was the only warrior still in camp, it couldn't be that simple. Had she done something wrong? Was he going to scold her instead? Had she broken the warrior code recently? Nothing came to mind.

Ravenstreak could not figure out why Owlstar had picked her out, and that made her even more flustered.

The she-cat cleared her throat. "So...er, where are we going to hunt at, Owlstar?"

The tom fled through the gorse tunnel his ears pressed to his head in embarrassment, he didn't even check to see if Ravenstreak was following him until they were already half-way up the ravine. "So...er, where are we going to hunt at, Owlstar?" Panting, he turned to gaze at the flustered she-cat, "Around the Great Sycamore..." The tabby trailed off, the end of his sentence sounding more like a question than a statement. Owlstar quickly turned his head away from Ravenstreak and gestured toward the grand tree with his shoulder, "Come on." He meowed quickly before taking off at a steady stride. He wasn't sprinting, but he definitely wasn't walking. He was determined to reach the tree as quickly as possible without having to talk to the black she-cat. Owlstar was embarrassed down to his very bones. He was the leader of Thunderclan not - not whatever the hell he was stumbling around pretending to be now. This was pathetic.

With his head turned low the tom pushed his way through the undergrowth, however, strangely enough he didn't have to put much effort into creating a path. The plants were brittle, lacking luster, and almost crumbling at his touch. Owlstar paused five or ten minutes into the trek, his brows scrunched in confusion, "This is kind of early, isn't it?" He mused quietly. Leaf-fall wasn't for another one or two moons, why was the foliage dying now? Opening his jaws, Owlstar drew the scents in and was immediately met the scent of decay. Was the entire forest like this? The tabby glanced around, his mouth open in shock. Everything was dying. "Ravenstreak..." The tom turned to glance at the black she-cat, "Have you noticed any prey?"

He had been so embarrassed that he hadn't noticed the silence in the trees. The silence in the ground. The silence that surrounded them. The only thing he could pick up was Ravenstreak's steady breathing, the soft swivel of her ears, the rustling of her claws - the tom cocked his head, "I know prey has been scarce since the gathering but I didn't know..." Owlstar trailed off, he had been so concerned with Rainflight and Morningstreak's death that he hadn't been keeping track of the troubles in his own clan. How long had it been since he's been out of camp?

"To the Great Sycamore it is then." Ravenstreak mewed.

The jet black warrior followed her leader silently after that. His quick pace while leading the way to the Great Sycamore made it clear to even the talkative Ravenstreak that he wasn't interested in speaking. Ravenstreak had an inkling that she was not the cat Owlstar had wanted to find in the warriors den. The young warrior had the feeling Owlstar had been hoping for find Rainflight. The black she-cat pursed her lips. She hoped he wasn't too disappointed in finding her instead. Or, she hoped by the end of this hunting patrol he wasn't disappointed.

Ravenstreak paid slight attention to her surroundings. She was constantly on alert for prey, as it had become difficult to catch enough to feed the clan over the past moon. And the she-cat had grown use to the crunching of dead vegetation under her that she accounted for it with each step, barely making a rustle as things crumbled around her.

When Owlstar stopped, Ravenstreak almost ran into him. There was just over a mouse length between them. She was grateful she hadn't run into her leader. She barely caught what Owlstar mumbled to himself, and when he turned asking her about prey the she-cat only shook her head 'no'.

Ravenstreak pricked her ears forward and took the slightest of steps back. There was now a comfortable distance between warrior and leader. Ravenstreak watched closely as Owlstar took in his surroundings as if for the first time. He seemed caught off guard by the condition the forest was in. "I know prey has been scarce since the gathering but I didn't know..."

The warrior glanced at the ground around them, sweeping her gaze at the scene that Owlstar was referring to.

"Each day it gets worse and worse." Ravenstreak replied, bringing her gaze back up to Owlstar's. "Ever since you returned from the gathering bringing news of the death of the WindClan deputy, it has felt like the forest has been dying bit by bit."