Looking through the eyes of an Elder

[Weedtail]

Weedtail was sitting at the entrance to the elders den looking out across Rockclan camp. Large boulders that were nearly impossible to climb rose along the small borders of the clans living space, and where there was not a looming boulder there was a magnificent cliff complete with a majestic waterfall falling over the edge of the camp. The Camp was so high off the ground on a mountainside that the roaring of the rushing water was not but barely audible to the clan as their busy paws leaped from rock to rock carrying in prey and news on each cats face of twitching whiskers.
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The elder had seen this for many moons and each day it seemed the numbers where increasing and Rockclan seemed to be becoming something worth the other clans attention, A strong and proud clan. Weedtail remembered when the clan was created from a bunch of rouges tired of Deathclans ways of dark demonic worship to Death pool. The elder took her slow shaken steps outside the den and with surprising ease leaped up the rocks creating the elders den, from here there was a small crevice in the stack of heavy boulders just big enough for a small old ,slightly fat, cat to squirm through. Although the squeeze bruised her old bones she still went through the crevice anyways. once through there was a tunnel about the length of a cat and then a small ledge before dropping off down the cliff. At this spot Weedtail could see the Deathclan forest as well as the edges of Fireclan and Treeclan forests. Iceclan was yet on the other side of Deathclan forest, and Weedtail could not recognize the borders of the clan, considering she had never been there before.
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The old cat sighed and stuck as close to the rocks at her back as possible considering it was only a leap away into midair and death below. She watched the birds of prey circling in the clouds and the wind blowing the tops of trees. It was quite peaceful on the ledge and there was numerous things for her to see everyday. Sometimes she could see Fireclans border patrols, as far as Treeclan patrols she learned to recognize the unregulated shaking in the trees as a Treeclan border patrol winding its way along the branches of their forest stock full of rivers squirming with fish.
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Having enough of the sites of the ledge for the day Weedtail padded back through the minuscule tunnel back into camp. The squeeze back into camp through the crevice was not nearly as bad as squeezing out . She padded to the edge of the top of the Elders den and found a nice sunny rock to lay on and relax her old bones. Her calico orange fur burning like fire in the heat of the sun.

[Russetleaf]

Russetleaf padded into the camp, her head held high with a squirrel dangling from her jaws. She dropped the precious morsel on the fresh-kill pile, before selecting a mouse and shimmying away. The cream she-cat plopped down between the elder and warrior den, quickly devouring her meal. She was starving, having not eaten at all that day. Far too busy to be bothered with such tedious tasks. The feline now had two apprentices, which she trained separately.

Her mentor, Obsidiansong, had told her that after she'd gotten Milkpaw, the second addition to her trainee list. Training apprentices together is plain laziness, the experienced warrior had spat. If I catch you doing that, I'll forever hang my head in shame, knowing I trained you. Russetleaf smirked at the thought. She could see in her former mentor's gaze that there wasn't any playfulness behind those words - rarely did Obsidiansong play. And especially not with her.

Finally, the cream warrior pulled herself off her stomach, onto her paws. She looked up at the sky - with the sun slowly fading behind the mountainous landscape. Russetleaf purred, wishing she had a better view than that. Shrugging it off, the cat drew her attention back to the ground, only to snap her gaze back to confirm something she thought she saw out of the corner of her eye. Weedtail, the young warrior thought fondly. She'd never met the elder - but she'd heard so many amazing things about her. She was truly a warrior to marvel at.

And so, the cream feline trotted toward the front of the elder's den. Weedtail sat on the top of said den, making Russetleaf turn her head upward to look up at her. Hello? she said in a tone that was louder than her usual one. Weedtail? Are you alright?

[Weedtail]

Weedtail had dozed off after laying in the sun for so long her orange spots were slowly starting to die like embers without a fire as the sun continued to set in the sky. She was happily dreaming of her younger years when she was an apprentice, however the dream didn't stay happy for long as it faded into the darker times.
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Rockclan faded out of existence. She could not remember exactly what killed her clan, the friends she used to have , the warriors she looked up to, the one love she ever had, these cats had just disappeared. Her dream tried to justify the mystery with probable story's. The first vapory scene started with a cat much older looking then Snakefang and Sunblaze running wildly through the herbs he had, a sickness that the medicine cat could not cure was killing her clan mates from the inside out.
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Then a rewind followed through all the way before they vanished, but this time a dark void was swallowing frightened cats up as they were drawn helplessly towards the forest for prey. This void sometimes materialized to look like Deathclan cats to her she had encountered when she ran into the forest herself. These cats tried to persuade her helpless newly appointed warrior self into joining the dark ways of thier clan. From then on the dream consisted of shadows closing in on her, keeping her running, and snagging little bits and pieces of her fur. The shadows swallowed those tiny bundles of hair and took with them memories that were trapped in the matted fur. the young calico warrior burst out of the forest and entered Rockclan territory again.
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Her dream then went to more recent happier memories. Images of Solarstorm ,Sparkflare, Venomstar, and Sunblaze drifted through her mind. The dream turned and zoomed into Solarstorms face , the strong warrior was saying something to her .. something she couldn't quite understand and then the whole thing tuned to a grayish black image. Weedtail found herself awake and hearing a She-cats voice," Weedtail?Are you alright? ", these words seemed to have a similar ring to the ones Solarstorm was telling her, the ones she couldn't understand.
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Weedtail shook her big fluffy head and peered over the edge of the elders den. Her eyes were still fuzzy from sleep but with there not being very many white cats in Rockclan she could understand this was Russetleaf, still a pretty new young warrior, this thought gave her echoing thoughts back to her dream, and the old ratty furred elder shivered a bit.
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" I am okay Russetleaf, am I worrying the clan about sleeping on high places?"
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Weedtail smirked at the playful slightly sarcastic remark. She knew that if she fell she might not ever walk again. Even with the drop from where she was at, to the entrance of the den only being about five fox tails high she could break her old bones quite easily. The Elder sat up and stretched slowly, her crackling bones could probably be heard all the way to the nursery. She then slowly started to leap down the smaller rocks to the side of the den that had allowed her to get up to her lovely little sunny perch. All the way there was a stiffness in her movements.

[Russetleaf]

Russetleaf offered a sweet smile, watching the elder come down the rocks carefully. She seemed to be having a hard time - but Weedtail got down without injury. Russetleaf purred, flicking her tail at the comment. No, but you were worrying me. I'm pretty sure most of the rest of the clan wasn't paying attention, she meowed, her eyes glittering.

The feline had always had a mother-like nature - not to say she was a mother. That.. wasn't her idea of a fun time. But she was friendly and open, always available when another cat was in need. Weedtail was, obviously, not in need.. but Russet had never met the elder. And, with said mother-like nature, she was drawn to the cat on the ledge, of course.

I'm Russetleaf, by the way she chirped before it came to her that Weedtail had just addressed her as such. Err.. well.. you already knew that. But.. hi, she purred, staring at the elder, unsure. She wasn't used to this situation - how was she supposed to react, to behave?

[Weedtail]

Weedtail sat down next to Russetleaf and snorted, anyone who had previously known her would understand that was her own version of a laugh. After seeing The other she-cats face though she realized that she would have no clue.
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"I'm sorry, my laugh is not what it used to be.. Russetleaf, it is a very pretty name. If you don't mind my asking, how did you get your name? when I was young I had a friend named Crickneck, he always had a crick in his neck. Every time he went to get up an do something he would be complaining. On the days he did not want to train he would tell his mentor that he needed to go to the medicine cat. My goodness Nettlefoot was one of the best medicine cats around, but i can remember that his paws did feel slightly like nettles. It must have been from all the herbs he sorted all day."
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The old elder smiled and sighed slightly wheezing. Her memories were very vague but she could remember some of the things from that far back.