PrankFox

Warriors: Trial of Shadows

It was more difficult to keep quiet than Hawkpaw expected it to be, especially when Foxstar leveled an insult at ThornClan. What right did she have to make judgements when the body was in DuskClan territory and not theirs. She kept her mouth shut however when Blackmoon snapped at Shadeclaw and Stonefoot, the former who had been just about to growl a response to Foxstar's words.

She saw no trace of the kind and friendly tom that had spoken to her on their journey here. Braveleap looked like he was ready to leap at DuskClan's leader at a moments notice. She hoped he didn't, that would only lead to more bloodshed and that was the last thing that anyone needed or wanted. She couldn't imagine the pain he must be in. She thought about losing Blackmoon or one of the other apprentices that had practically become siblings to her. It was a terrible feeling and it wasn't even something that had happened.

Dawnwing stepped up next to Blackmoon, giving Braveleap a sharp, but not unkind look. She dipped her head respectfully towards Foxstar. "If I may, I believe the true intention of this conversation is being clouded by anger and grief. Braveleap was Russetfern's mentor, he'd only just recently become a warrior before he went missing early this morning." Hopefully Foxstar could understand where the tom was coming from. "Is it possible one of your clan may have seen something? I do not wish to accuse anyone, simply find out what could have happened to him since it is unlikely his body could've been brought here completely unseen."

Hopefully what Dawnwing said would be enough to stop a fight from breaking out, but Hawkpaw still stuck close to Frostpaw. If something did happen she just hoped she could get the white tom to safety since he was practically frozen to the floor. Who else could they blame really? The body was deep in DuskClan territory and they had no other way of determining who might be responsible unless someone had seen it and said nothing.

Legends of Pyrrhia | Wings of Fire

It had already been a very busy day for Viper. There were so many dragons that had come to see Queen Ardent and her claws hurt from scribbling on the scrolls that she kept in the room. They were still covered in ink as well and she knew that would take ages to wear off, but it was something she was proud of. It was a symbol that she could do something important for her tribe. Now Queen Ardent was taking a break and she wanted to find these strange dragons that were visiting. It was so exciting! She hadn't met any new dragons in so long. Her normally light blue scales swirled with yellow as she scanned the platforms for anyone she didn't recognize.

Ah, there! There was no mistaking the unusual stature and strange colors of foreign dragons. They seemed to be wandering from group to group of lounging RainWings, for what reason she had no idea, but she definitely wanted to find out. As she landed she heard the grumble from the spiky one, but she didn't quite catch the mumbled words from the small, black one. Did other dragon's scales show emotion? Did that mean she was upset about something? That wouldn't be good. She wanted their visitors to have a nice time here.

"I wonder why it's like this. Does their Queen just not care?" She heard the comment from the dark red dragon and frowned; her scales tinged an emerald green.

"Of course Queen Ardent cares about us," she flapped up and over their heads to land on the platform in front of them, "She spends all day every day listening to the problems we have and coming up with solutions."

The red dragon blinked in surprise before giving a sheepish grin, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be rude."

Well he was very polite. She gave them all a bright grin, scales now her usual pattern of light blue and pink. "I heard there were some new dragons hanging around and I just had to come see. You all look like you could maybe use some help with something? Queen Ardent always tells me that I am very helpful so maybe I can do that for you all as well!" She paused in her ramblings for a moment, "Oh! I'm Viper by the way. What's your names?"

Warriors: Trial of Shadows

The emotions filling the cavern were near stifling as accusations were thrown between clans. Hawkpaw looked nervously at each of the cats; many of them looked like they were ready to jump at each other's throats at any second. They couldn't do that right? Not here by the Moonbrook. Then again, someone already had, her eyes briefly trained back on the body of Russetfern floating limply in the reddish water.

Dawnwing moved to touch her nose against one of Braveleap's ears. "Let's get him out of the water. We will carry him home so the clan can sit vigil," she meowed softly before giving a nod to Addertongue who gently gripped the back of Russetfern's neck, grimacing at the blood matted in the fur, and pulled him from the Moonbrook onto the silvered stones.

Hawkpaw didn't feel comfortable enough to move closer to the grieving clanmates, but her heart ached for the kind tom. Instead she stepped towards Frostpaw and brushed her pelt with his hoping to offer some support. She could feel the smaller cat trembling faintly as he stared wide eyed at the arguing cats. If it came to a fight she doubted any of the medicine cats had much training, she herself had none. She looked up through the break in the ceiling hoping for some sign from StarClan that this should cease, but there was nothing.

"Peace Lavenderpaw." Willowcloud's striped tail flicked the apprentice in the side. "There is no need for insults." Though her voice was fairly steady there was still a note of fear in her eyes as they looked between the rear of the cavern and the sloping tunnel that lead out of the cave.

Shadeclaw opened his mouth to retort when Foxstar's voice echoed into the cavern. He nodded in agreement with his sister as she pressed up next to him. "What do you have to say about this?" His voice was no longer raised but eyes were still narrowed with barely contained rage as he gestured with his tail towards the back of the cavern.

Warriors: Trial of Shadows

What's her problem? Hawkpaw wondered as she saw the narrowed eyes of Lavenderpaw in her direction. She didn't have to be friendly, but she could at least not make it so obvious that she didn't like them. She saw Frostpaw press himself closer to Dew-whisker; seemingly hoping that he could vanish into the speckled gray fur of his mentor. She felt bad for the nervous young tom. Clearly he didn't do great around other cats and hostility wasn't going to make that any better.

She followed after Blackmoon and the rest of their party as they disappeared into the tunnels. She already started to feel nervous as they lost sight of the little bit of sky that they could see through the pines and those nerves only increased at the unfamiliar smells that swirled around the tunnels. How the DuskClan cats could live like this she could never guess, and it didn't seem like they were interested in chatting about it either. She stuck close to Blackmoon as her paws slipped a bit on the sandy floor of the decline they were following. The medicine cats made this journey every moon? It must get tiring after a while knowing that the place to speak with StarClan was in a deep, dark hole. Not that she'd let that stop her from fulfilling her duties to the best of her ability. She didn't want to let Blackmoon or her clanmates down.

As they entered a room where they could once again see the sky she felt her eyes widen and her jaw drop a bit as she looked up into the bright light of the half-moon and the stones around it that looked like they were made of the stars themselves. It was beautiful.

She was so distracted looking up that she didn't even notice anything was wrong until she heard Braveleap cry out. Her head snapped towards the Moonbrook and she recoiled in horror at the still, matted body that floated in the water. She wanted to follow Blackmoon, and the others, to see what had happened but she couldn't get her paws to move from where they'd rooted themselves to the floor of the cavern. She looked to her left and saw that Frostpaw had pressed himself down onto the stone, ears flat against his head and fur fluffed up as if he could ward off the panic that suddenly filled the room.

Addertongue and Hailshine rushed past after Braveleap. The bravado that the sandy colored tom had possessed when they first met drained away as he stared in shock between the body of Russetfern and his grieving clanmate. Hailshine stepped next to Braveleap pressing her side against his offering what little comfort she could as Dawnwing stepped gingerly into the stream.

The small calico pressed her nose gently into Russetfern's sodden fur and felt no warmth or breath. As Dew-whisker had said, all it took was the one bite and he was gone. She let out a mournful sigh before looking towards Braveleap, "I'm sorry Braveleap, there's nothing I can do for him, it's been too long." She looked up towards the sky, hoping that StarClan was still watching, "He was a courageous and kind warrior and BirchClan will mourn terribly for his loss.

Hawkpaw could see Willowcloud standing nearby looking just as confused and stricken by this as the rest of them, but before the medicine cat could say anything Shadeclaw whirled towards her from where he'd been standing near the back of the room. "What's the meaning of this?!" His teeth were bared and green eyes flared with anger as his tail lashed wildly behind him, "Is this some kind of sick way of admitting DuskClan has been responsible for these murders this whole time?! Of declaring war between clans?!"

Legends of Pyrrhia | Wings of Fire

Eclipse couldn't decide whether he was angry or tired, probably both at this point. The only thing really keeping him going was the need for answers, and unfortunately they had none of those. Just more questions. He smiled slightly as he felt Skua lean into him, it was grounding for the both of them and that was something they needed at this point. It was either that or do something he'd would definitely regret later.

He felt a little bad as he saw Dreamseeker's ears drop. He hadn't meant to accuse her of not being helpful because she certainly was. "I suppose that would be our best bet here. One of them had to have seen something, even if they weren't involved in it. At best we'll get information about who might be responsible, and at worst we figure out where someone who can help us is in the camp." He waved a paw through the air, "It's either that or we sit around here doing nothing productive until tomorrow when we meet with Queen Ardent, and I don't know about the rest of you but if I sit around any longer I'm gonna lose it."

He paused at Skua's question, glancing off deeper into the camp where he could see the platforms and trees all intermingled together. It really looked like a maze to someone who wasn't familiar with the space.

"Well there's plenty of dragons about and we don't really know the lay of the land here," Aardwolf finally piped up, "If we want to make sure it's someone who didn't hear us talking I say we just fly deeper in until we come across someone who looks reasonably friendly and willing to have a chat."

Eclipse snorted softly. He made it sound so simple, but he did have a point about them not knowing anything about this place. As long as they stuck to the platforms though they should be fine. "Alright," he hefted himself to his feet, "Let's get to it then." He stepped to the edge of the platform looking up and down before leaping off into the sky towards one of the platforms he could see higher up and deeper in the forest.

Warriors: Trial of Shadows

Hawkpaw could tell that Blackmoon and a couple of the other warriors seemed to become a little more tense and nervous as they stepped mercifully out of mud and onto stone and grass. She let out a tiny sigh of relief at the familiar feeling under her paws. It would take ages to get the dirt out of her sand colored fur. She felt even worse for Frostpaw; his pelt was fluffy and white.

She met her mentor's serious blue gaze and nodded firmly. "Okay. I'll be quiet and no more questions until we're on our way out." She wanted to show him that she could follow his instructions and curb her curious nature. The last thing she wanted to do was be a nuisance to the leader of another clan. That would be a terrible way to start, or end, her first half-moon gathering.

Blackmoon's tail almost startled her as her vision adjusted but she moved in closer to him, enough that she could feel his fur brush against hers every so often, but not enough to get under his paws. Frostpaw was already standing close to Dew-whisker; looking like he was almost trying to disappear into the she-cat's shadow as he walked with his fur fluffed with nerves. Without the dim light of the moon it made it difficult to see and the small shafts of light that crept through cast odd, spiky shadows on the ground around them. It felt almost sinister in the quiet and she didn't like it.

At Tigershine's soft words she squinted towards what, at first glance, appeared to be an area of the forests shrouded in even deeper shadow that Hawkpaw quickly realized was the mouth of a tunnel. Two cats waited for them: a brown and white tabby, who she assumed was Willowcloud based on size, and a smaller gray and white she-cat, that must be Lavenderpaw.

"Glad to see everyone made it here safely." Willowcloud greeted them as they approached. Her green eyes were steady and calm as they swept over the group, pausing for a moment on Hawkpaw before continuing on. "It's almost time. Come." She flicked her tail at them before turning and vanishing into the darkness of the tunnel behind her.

Legends of Pyrrhia | Wings of Fire

The immediate panic caused by their line of questioning did not bode well for the idea that the RainWings had no idea what they were doing, and Eclipse did not like it one bit. Jaguar had told them that the rest of her tribe were basically harmless and didn't ever think to use their venom on another dragon, but this definitely didn't seem line up with that. He felt his blood beginning to boil as Hummingbird told them that she knew nothing and that their Queen wouldn't either. They'd come this far and there was no way they were going to leave without getting something from these dragons. Just a name or tribe would be a starting point.

Even as Dreamseeker tried to use soothing words to get Hummingbird to say something the smaller dragon simply fled. He let out a low growl as she vanished into the trees just like Lemur. So much for that.

Skua seemed just as irritated as he was, while Aardwolf seemed almost indifferent to the entire thing. It would've made him more angry if the SandWing actually had any stakes in this, but he really didn't. "Normally I'd say violence isn't the answer but I'm tired of getting the run around and no answers here."

He flopped down next to Skua, one side pressed against his friend as a way of grounding himself before he let his anger get the best of him. He frowned at Dreamseeker's words. He had no idea how her abilities worked, but it seemed a bit strange that there was just nothing about who they gave the venom to. "Has that ever happened before? Where you try to read their thoughts and just get nothing about a specific topic?"

At least they had something of a lead. "How're we going to find him? We kind of lost our guide and I'm not sure if anyone who could hear what we were saying is going to be any more interested in helping us then they were." It'd be a waste of time to wander around asking the name of every dragon they saw.

Legends of Pyrrhia | Wings of Fire

Name: Viper

Namesake: A jungle dwelling snake

Age: Young Adult

Gender: Female

Species: RainWing

Personality: Like many of the tribe Viper is a bright and excitable young dragon. She is fascinated by the other tribes and has a great desire to travel and visit all of the different landscapes and meet all of the new dragons she can. She loves learning about new places and things; she's never found something, or someone, she didn't like. Despite this, the rainforest is all she's ever known and the thought of leaving her only home is as terrifying as it is exhilarating. The main thing she knows is that is not a journey she would want to make alone. She wants to make new friends that aren't necessarily like those she's known all her life as that gets a little boring.

Short Bio: Viper grew up as all of her friends and surrogate family did, relaxing in the sun and enjoying the benefits of living far out of the way of the conflicts of the other tribes. She was and is happy with the life that she leads; helping out mostly with the healers, and occasionally keeping notes for Queen Ardent since, unlike many of her peers, she can read and write. Probably not as well as many of the other tribes, but she knows enough to jot down simple sentences that help the Queen keep track of the requests that have been made over the course of the day. It is a good life, but Viper can't help but find it growing more and more boring as time goes on.

Other: She is very bad at keeping her emotions from showing on her scales, so if someone knows what the colors mean it is very easy to tell what she's thinking or feeling.

Warriors: Trial of Shadows

Dawnwing nodded in agreement. "With the way things are now this peace may not last as long as we hope, but there is always a chance of these friendships persisting and perhaps preventing conflict." She shook her head fondly at Tigershine's comment. He had a point, but the realistic view was one that was always needed.

The question Hawkpaw had been about to ask Frostpaw died on her tongue with Blackmoon's order. She glanced at the other apprentice, a bit nervous, and she could see the young tom clamming up again at the mention of the DuskClan. He'd actually seemed to be warming up a little bit to her too. Though, he'd said the DuskClan cats freaked him out a bit, but were they really so bad? Everyone else was getting along so well, so why should they be any different? She knew they lived in tunnels underground, which was admittedly a bit strange, but that didn't make them bad right?

The silver she-cat grinned at Braveleap, "We'd have to pick them up on the way back, no time to wait for stragglers." Hailshine picked up a paw and shook it a bit, but none of the mud really came off. "This is a bit much, even for me."

As the voices of the group dropped closer to a whisper Hawkpaw picked up the pace, as much as she could with her smaller stature in the thick mud, to get closer to Blackmoon with Frostpaw following shortly behind her. "If DuskClan is where the Moonbrook is shouldn't they be expecting us?" She asked towards her mentor. There were rules about attacking medicine cats on their journey to commune with StarClan right? They wouldn't try to hurt them.

Legends of Pyrrhia | Wings of Fire

Eclipse had to fight not to snort at the inherent narcissism that all of these RainWings seemed to possess, well aside from Jaguar but she was an outlier in general. Aardwolf on the other hand, who was usually fairly unbothered by most things, was staring at Lemur with an incredulous expression. What was going on in that slippery mind of his, Eclipse had no idea.

He gave Hummingbird a somewhat forced smile, "I'm sure he will." He wasn't sure how much Lemur would really know or remember depending on how important he thought it was. If they were lucky he would actually have the information they needed, and maybe they could just leave without talking to the Queen.

Before he could continue on his line of conversation with Lemur Skua jumped in with a, more blunt than he'd hoped, statement towards the larger RainWing. He let out a small sigh. He loved his friend dearly, but sometimes his tendency to brute force everything didn't work in their favor. These RainWings seemed fairly disconnected from the goings on in the outside would and telling them they were complicit in killing a Queen may not be the best idea.

Eclipse leapt to his feet as Lemur disappeared over the edge into the below, "Hey wait! We just want to talk!" He watched as the pinkish dragon vanished. As much as he wanted to follow after him there was no way he could navigate better than someone who lived here. Seems like he spoke to soon about him being able to help. He turned to look back at Hummingbird who still looked pale. "I apologize for him, this is what we wanted to talk to the Queen about. You don't know anything about it do you? We just want to know who was involved so we can find them."