Join us in an exciting story full of twists, new discoveries, a rich mythology and the search of what lays at the core of the Clans of the mountain. After sealing a pact with two fickle gods, Helios of the Sun and Aletheia of the Moon, twin clans live under the shadow of their pact, and the price paid to live another day.
YOU CAN APPRECIATE THE LIGHT... BUT BEFORE THAT, YOU MUST KNOW DARKNESS.
The Sun and Moon rain down chaos and tragedy over the Clans, as punishment for crimes finally revealed. Tension rises between both groups as they're forced out of their homes, and a call from the past haunts those with enough sense to listen.
As usual during the early morning hours in the apprentice den Mintpaw continued to sleep. At least his mentor hadn’t woken him up to do anything. Now the snow-colored bengal was dragged out by a group of apprentices and the young tom went along with them. A single growl of annoyance, sounding out of the tom’s throat as the group went around daring others in the middle of camp. The result of his dare made Mintpaw climb onto the nursery and then jump down over his brother Molepaw. “Hold still Molepaw….I’ll be able to jump over you in a minute if you just hold still!” hissing out the command towards his littermate as his ice-blue eyes trailed over to where the medicine cat den was. Where the dark beauty of Moonclan was. “Bet you’d jump further if Baystorm was watching huh?” one of the apprentices teasing out which made Mintpaw, lash his tail behind him in a heated anger that fueling up inside of him. “Shut up Maggotbrain!” growling out the threat as his paws slipped on the top of the nursery, causing him to lose his footing. It all happened quicker than the young tom was expecting as he was now tumbling towards the ground and attempting to catch himself in the process as he hit the hard ground below him. The slight stinging pain now ripping into his front left paw along with the slight gash on his head sent a small amount of blood to start trickling down.
Mintpaw, remained on the ground for a mere moment as the rest of the apprentices turned and ran to not get caught with the dare, leaving the tom to lay on the ground. Even his own brother, had fled with the rest of the apprentices. After, a few moments of catching his breath on the ground. Mintpaw, got up shaking the debris from his short fur, and limping towards the medicine cat den. ‘Blasted rat carcasses’ the angry thought moving into his mind as he limped into the den. “Ohhh dark frog lady…..” calling out as he winced when his injured paw touched the ground, sending another low growl to ripple through the toms body as he waited for his medicine cat to appear.
There truly was never a day of peace when working as a healer for the chaotic twin clans that resided in the mountains. Baystorm knew this, her counterpart Frecklefern surely knew this, and anyone who had ever come before them or that would come after them knew this. It was always just when they thought maybe things were settling down, maybe they could have one entire day of tranquility, something else happened. Someone suddenly showed up with a thorn in their paw they had been too embarrassed to come forward with before and now it was infected, someone would fall out of a tree chasing squirrels and birds, someone would get into a fight amongst their own fellow warriors instead of hashing it out with words like they were supposed to.
Sometimes, apprentices just did the dumbest of dares.
Tall ears swiveled atop her head as the mournful call of one of said apprentices drifted into her den and she paused for a moment to ponder the exact words. Dark... frog lady? A quick look around her space confirmed that she was, in fact, the only one inhabiting it. Which meant that she must be dark frog lady.
The title was something the bengal would just have to ponder later, tucked away in her thoughts for the time being as she approached the apprentice. Yellow eyes gave him a pointed look, brow just slightly raised in restrained exasperation at what came before her. "Now Mintpaw, what did you go and get yourself into now?" The healer questioned him as she paced forward to stand just before him, allowing the younger feline a moment to attempt to explain himself. The little tomcat was definitely one of the stranger apprentices she had witnessed and she could only let her imagination run wild with the stories he'd come up with this time and every time that had yet to come.
Hearing the beautiful frog lady that was their healer talk made the end of his tail quiver in an excitement. Baystorm was going to be near him and treat the stupid wounds he got from the dare. Mintpaw, blinked his icey-blue eyes up to lock them with the piercing yellow eyes of Baystorm. “Fucking Molepaw and the rest of the apprentices were daring others to jump over one another and well…I so happen to win the dare. I-I just didn’t stick the landing was all.” The snow bengal puffing his chest in a pride that was now flowing through him. ‘Anything to impress Baystorm that is’ the simple thought now mulling over in his brain as he zoned out on her pretty dark spots that were splattered all over her pelt, mixed in with the blue and the white. “I-It’s my paw and my head kinda hurts…” a low growl escaping at how he was showing weakness in front of Baystorm. The young tom didn’t want to show any weakness in front of the dark goth frog healer he had a small crush on.
Mintpaw, slowly putting one paw onto the ground and testing it out for a moment before, hissing in pain and jerking it back up. “Cloverberry is gonna kill me if she finds out about it. Please don’t let the old brittle bone lady find out about this…. please Baystorm…” blinking his eyes up at the towering she-cat as he moved his head to show the light blood trail that was going down his forehead and now running into the tom’s eyes, forcing him to screw them shut. “I-I pl-please make it stop hurting.” Mintpaw’s voice cracking halfway through in a tiny whimper that escaped out. Feeling now like a tiny kit that was back in the nursery with his mother and littermates. Inhaling a deep breath of the air around him as he shook his head to clear the blood.
‘Molepaw is so getting his ass handed to him after this. Stupid littermates…. stupid apprentices…. stupid life.’ The thought making the tom screw his face even more in the anger that was just festering out like an open wound. Deep down the tom was just insecure and didn’t really know how to make any friends and coming from two parents that pitted his sister and brother against him in the nursery for not being a brown bengal. Instead, he was born a snow bengal, something that Mintpaw hated ever since his mother said the words “Honey…his coat is too bright and too…. too dull. Mintkit eats last.” Vowing as a little kit to not let his parents or anyone else walk over him. Being jerked back to reality as he squinted one eye open to keep his focus on the healer that made him feel like he was worthy of something.
The healer's brow raised at the words that came from the younger feline but she did not make any move to stop or correct him. Mintpaw was not her child and she wouldn't treat him as such or monitor his language. As far as the healer was concerned, words were merely that - words. No use in trying to tell an apprentice they can't use one or the other just because the adults deemed them unfit for children to speak, it would only prompt them to continue and it didn't bother her anyhow. If there was one thing she wouldn't stand for, though, it was speaking ill about another clanmate for no apparent reason.
Yellow eyes narrowed at the mention of Cloverberry and a harsh hiss escaped the healer, tail thrashing once at her heels. "Mintpaw, you're not going to speak like that about Cloverberry in my den. Do you understand me?" Her words came low and they came clear, lowering her head to come directly eye to eye with the apprentice to ensure they had some sort of understanding. After a few extended moments of silence she straightened back up, subject slipping off her shoulders just like that, like a simple flip of a switch she was back to her typical neutral expression.
There was something more behind his eyes that he did not share with the healer, but she was rather versed in picking up on words unspoken and when she turned back to the younger feline with a little bundle of herbs, her tone was softer. "So, Molepaw was behind the dare?" She hummed as she took a look at his paw, carefully lifting and holding it upon her own to examine it. "Luckily you haven't done anything too bad to it, though it may hurt for a while. Listen though, if your mentor asks about it you can say you hurt it while out helping me look for herbs. You just... happened to see a bird in some low hanging tree branches and wanted to bring some food home and twisted your paw a bit on the way down." Baystorm finished their little white lie of a story with a good-natured wink. There were things she simply would not allow, like speaking ill of Cloverberry, but a little lie to keep some heat off? Not a problem. "That's what I'll tell her if she asks me about it, anyway."
With a light laugh, rare and warm, she shuffled the herbs before them. "My brother, Pikejaw, he used to do things like that all the time. I was always lying for him." When she spoke, Baystorm seemed to drift away a little, body still present just before Mintpaw but her mind and spirit elsewhere. She didn't speak about Pikejaw and Ivypaw - not often. "Anyhow, this is a bit of dandelion, it can act as a painkiller for now to help you out." The bengal nodded as she pushed the herb forward.
A full minute of silence fell over Mintpaw as he pinned his ears at the questioning of who started the dare. “Eeipppei” the tom letting out what was a mixture of a squeak and groan at the same time. Mintpaw, pinning his ears to his skull at the loud hiss that followed out about how he wasn’t supposed to talk ill about his mentor even though he was irritated at her for lecturing him on putting his frogs in nests. What was so wrong with listening to an upset queen squeal about a dead frog in her nest? Still holding his paw off the ground with a growl escaping out as he was reminded of his hurt paw that was just sprained. “Y-you’ll really say that I-I was just collecting herbs with you instead of tattling me out.” he tilted his head with the question feeling as if she was saving from the fire pit of doom….a.k.a his mentor Cloverberry.
Mintpaw, blinking his ice blue eyes again as they locked with the sharp yellow ones of Baystorm the blue and white bengal she-cat. The way her black fur and darker patches speckled her fur. Made the young tom’s small little crush grow two times bigger. A nervous blush forming under his fur as he placed his paw back to the ground and shuffling them on the floor for a mere moment. “Owww Owww Owww!!!!” the yelps of pain escaping at the realization he was shuffling his hurt paw on the ground. Staring into his dark healer’s eyes once more, before his little heart went thumping, sending the blood to pound into his ears. Why were all these new symptoms hitting him? “I-i-It’s h-hard to b-breathe.” The embarrassed gulp of air choking through as the snow bengal tried to breathe on his own for a second. Now the intoxicating scent of his medicine cat was making the end of his tail curl up. “Bay-Baystorm he-help me.” Squeaking out his statement as if he was a kit back in the nursery with his mother.
