Moving Day [OFFICIAL PLOT THREAD]

[Flintpaw]

Flintpaw glared at his clan from behind a rock. He couldn't believe they had all agreed to leave! Flintpaw thought there was nothing wrong with their territory or the cliff. It had never caused a problem before. Just because Cloverstar had a vision from Cloudclan didn't mean anything. She could have easily misinterpreted it.

Suddenly, the ground began to rumble. The earth vibrated under his paws. The apprentice's body froze. "What's going on?" Flintpaw screeched, unable to lift his legs. The first rock dropped from the cliffside and it smashed into the camp, causing the ground the break like ice. Flintpaw hesitated, then broke out into a sprint. He looked desperately for his clanmates but they had all seemed to disappear.

More rocks began to fall. Now they were more the size of boulders. One plummeted down only a few feet away from him. Flintpaw screamed. "Help me!"

(only Cloverstar is going to save him, sorry guys! also feel free to have your character scream in fear and run away)

[Deleted]

Beetlekit wasn't very satisfied with the answer she had gotten, but didn't press any further. She had to trust that Cloverstar was doing what was best for the whole clan. She moved out of Raccoonkits way as the line began to move, though not before the falling rocks caught her attention. She squeaked in fear, dashing forward towards the exit to put as much distance as she could between herself and the falling rocks hurdling towards camp. She took of, flying out of the den entrance. She didn't stop running, too scared to look back.

[Weaselkit]

Weaselkit had separated himself from his siblings, not wanting to have to listen to whining or complaining the whole trip. He felt he was strong enough to travel on his own and didn't want to burden a warrior with his presence. The little kit was walking boldly out of camp when the first rocks started falling. His fur rose with fear but since all the rocks were now behind him as he left, he kept on walking. Another kit bolted past him and he sighed. "You're going the wrong way!" The tom called to Beetlekit.

"If you get separated, and eagle is going to swoop down and eat you."

[Jollyberry]

Jollyberry sent Nightsong a grateful look. He was glad for the extra help and nodded, moving over to make room for her. "I'd like to keep them close, if we can." Now that Beetlekit was also in their group they had another person to keep an eye on, which would be harder. He was grateful to have Icepaw with them.

When the rocks began falling Jollyberry quickened the pace, nudging the kits every few steps to push them along faster. Once they were outside of camp they would be safe. Until then he walked above them, aiming to shield them with his body. A small, stray rock clipped his shoulder but it barely left a wound and he continued on. Before he knew it Beetlekit had rushed off and Jollyberry let out a call of fear and exasperation. "Beetlekit come back! We're out of camp now, you need to stay with the group, where it's safe."

[Raccoonkit]

Raccoonkit followed close to Jollyberry and Nightsong . Their presence made her feel safer. She ducked to avoid the rock, but it hit the taller cat. The brown tabby was about to ask Jollyberry if he was okay, but his silence reassured her. She trusted him to speak up if he was in pain.

It was then that Beetlekit ran away. Raccoonkit's eyes widened. "BEETLEKIT!" she yowled after Jollyberry spoke. "BEETLEKIT, COME BACK!" For a horrifying moment Raccoonkit lost sight of her closest friend. The brown tabby stood to her full height and called out to her again. Raccoonkit didn't wait for answer; she went after her friend. She wasn't about to let her friend be all alone in this scary new place.

[Deleted]

Beetlekit skidded to a stop, doing a quick 180. She hadn't listened to the calls of the others, though Raccoonkit managed to catch her attention. She blinked, crouching low to the ground and forcing herself to calm down. She couldn't let her fear control her, it would only get her lost. And the threat of an eagle swooping her up was enough to drive her back towards the rest of the clan. She flattened her ears to her head, weaving between other cats until she caught sight of her friend. "Sorry!" She squealed sheepishly, her tail low. It was stupid of her to run off like that, though she was terrified.

[Nightsong]

Nightsong nodded when Jollyberry mentioned wanting to keep the kits close. "Naturally," she agreed. "Between the two of us I think we should be able to manage that much." Of course, as soon as she said that, several things started to go wrong very very quickly. She turned her head to watch as one of the cliffsides she had spent her life seeing started to crumble and fall. They needed to move, now. As much as it hurt, putting it off would only endanger the clan.

A knot of fear formed in her stomach. She hadn't seen Flintpaw yet. Maybe she had just missed him.

It was when the rocks started to crash into the camp when she heard his voice- and it was also at that moment that Beetlekit ran off. She was torn- Flintpaw, her son, was back there, but she couldn't make Jollyberry deal with four cats all on his own. He was already busy shielding most of them from the rocks with his own body when Raccoonkit started to run after Beetlekit as well. It broke her heart to turn away from Flintpaw, but for the sake of the clan she had to. Sparing a glance towards Jollyberry, she started running to follow the two kits.

Flintpaw would be alright. He had to be alright. Nightsong wouldn't be able to live with herself if he wasn't.

Beetlekit!" Beetlekit didn't get far before turning back around, thank CloudClan, and Nightsong was quick to hold out a paw in front of Raccoonkit to stop her from moving too much farther. "Both of you need to stay with the group," she told them, making sure to keep both the fear and the anger out of her voice. "It isn't safe." As soon as the words were out of her mouth she found herself turning back in the direction of the camp, trying to keep herself from abandoning her post there to run back on her own. She was needed there, as hard as it was to stay when she knew her son was in danger. She couldn't hide the desperation in her voice when she shouted, "Somebody help Flintpaw!"

[Cloverstar]

It had seemed simple enough. Cloverstar was concentrating on the mental map of the route to the new camp that she'd formed in her head, doing her best to tune everything else out as she walked. But rocks were starting to fall with increasing rapidity down the cliffside, mostly small stones at first until she saw a rock almost large enough to be a boulder start to shift as well. Unease prickled over her pelt, but she tried to ignore it. She couldn't afford to panic, not now...

But then she heard it, and everything inside her turned as cold as ice. Someone was still in the camp, crying out for help.

Flintpaw.

That was who she'd been missing.

For a moment, she felt frozen to the ground until she heard Nightsong crying out. That jolted her back into reality, reminding her of what she needed to do. Without a second thought, Cloverstar whirled around. "Stay here," she said as calmly as she could to the gathered RockClanners, gaze lingering in particular on Nightsong, before sprinting off. She bounded back towards the camp, paws barely hitting the ground as she ran with blood rushing in her ears. That idiot! Why is he still in camp?! she thought furiously. Where was he? How did I miss him?

By the time she reached the camp, the entrance was thankfully still clear but rocks were now falling in full force. She cursed under her breath and looked around wildly, looking for Flintpaw until she saw him in the middle of camp. It was then that she resisted the urge to swear at him. "Flintpaw!" she shouted, pitching her voice as loud as she was able to so that he could hear her over the sliding rocks. "Come on! Run!"

[Flintpaw]

Flintpaw heard a voice. At first he thought it was a voice from Cloudclan, telling him it was his time to die. Then he spotted Cloverstar and wanted to be relieved, but he had no time for that. Now, his life depended on whether he ran or stayed where he was.

He knew he could trust Cloverstar. She was his leader and a cat he looked up to. He would have to run to her. The apprentice began running toward the tabby, but a rock came crumbling down from the hillside and smashed into the apprentice's back leg. Flintpaw fell over and shrieked in pain.

Luckily, it had been a smaller rock. Flintpaw used all of his strength to push the rock off of him and was able to rise to three paws. His leg stung like nothing he had ever experienced before. The fact that it hurt was good right? Flintpaw didn't know anything about injuries.

The apprentice limped to Cloverstar, but when he was a tail-length away from her, Flintpaw collapsed.

[Icepaw]

Icepaw shrunk into himself under all the commotion, more and more and more and more cats kept appearing. He knew that there were a lot of cats in RockClan, but he had never seen them all in the same place like this. It made him a bit nervous, not that this was a new feeling for him. Words buzzed around, and he found it hard to keep his attention on any one thing. Still, it didn't seem as if anyone needed him, so for a brief moment Icepaw let his guard down and got lost in the panic. 

He was jerked back into reality when the rock roof began to tumble down. The pale tabby stared in shock, paws rooted into the earth and his heart leaping onto his tongue. He felt a bit woozy, like he might faint, and then finally he regained control of his paws and dashed forward, pushing frantically past his clanmates, trying to get as far away from the rockfall as possible. 

[Cloverstar]

Without a moment's hesitation, Cloverstar lunged forward and hastily half-slid under, half-nudged Flintpaw to hoist him onto her back. Staggering slightly under the added weight, she gritted her teeth and began to go at an awkward pace that wasn't quite a walk or a run. The rocks were still falling, but their speed was haphazard and wasn't quite at the level of a quickly rushing, full-on rock slide about to completely bury the camp...yet.

She started to run, ignoring the growing burning of pain from her shoulders and legs as she did. If she focused on the entrance, she would make it. If she could just—

But there was the sound of another snap, a break, a crack, and Cloverstar looked up a moment too late before it hit her.

Agony shot through her like a white-hot blast, knocking her off of her feet to the ground and throwing Flintpaw's body off in the process. She hit her head against the rocky slope just near the entrance, the impact hard enough for her to realize—as she lay in a crumpled heap—that she could see blood starting to seep out of her head now. Funny, that...

But there was a growing white light in her vision, nothing but white light. Then nothing.

[Raccoonkit]

Raccoonkit tried to slow down when Nightsong put her leg in the kit's path. Unused to the dirt outside the entrance the brown tabby slid into the warrior's leg. Raccoonkit released a low hiss. Her head was aching, but it was naught more than mild discomfort. Amber eyes glanced up at Nightsong. Luckily for Raccoonkit, Nightsong spoke first. The stubborn kit hated to admit that Nightsong was correct. Amber eyes found brown paws until she scented Beetlekit close by. Raccoonkit glanced up and purred that her friend was back. The older kit went to her friend, standing so that their fur was brushing.

"I'm sorry, Nightsong," Raccoonkit spoke. "You're right." Raccoonkit seemed to shrink. Her emotion had gotten the best of her. "I won't run away next time," the kit's amber eyes glanced up to Nightsong, Raccoonkit's guilt apparent.

Suddenly the brown tabby stood. "Where's Icepaw?!" Raccoonkit frantically looked around for her friend. They were just outside the camp, but she didn't see him. Maybe he was just on the other side of the bush. "We have to find him too!"

-Jollyberry, @beetlejuice, Icepaw-

[Deleted]

Everything was happening too fast. Beetlekit watched the camp entrance as Cloverstar fell, loosing sight of an apprentice that she didn't know. Her mouth dried as yet another problem surfaced; Icepaw had gone MIA too. She was torn between the two major issues, not that she could do much about either of them. She was only a kit. "Look, over there!" Beetlekit rose her voice, trying to catch the attention of a warrior as she frantically pointed with her tail back to camp. Icepaw wasn't in any danger- he had made sure of that. Not that she could judge him, Beetlekit had ran too.

[Flintpaw]

Flintpaw had felt his eyes close. He was still conscious, but he was beginning to lose feeling in his body. He felt Cloverstar lift him and it brought him back to reality. The apprentice tried to help her move his body as much as he could, but he felt like dead weight. 

A loud cracking noise filled his ears and he was flung off of her. It felt like the breath was knocked out of him. His eyes shot open and he woke to the sight of his leader covered with blood and crushed. Flintpaw felt himself rear back in fear. Her body resembled that of Raggedwolf and Snailtail. He felt his mouth open to say something but he couldn't speak. 

The apprentice dragged his body over to hers and cried out. "Wake up!" He pushed her body forcefully with a paw. "You can't die!" He began to lick her fur in an attempt for her to rise. Flintpaw nudged her with his muzzle until he gave up a few moments after, then just laid next to her. He wouldn't leave her like he did to his clan-mates. 

[Cloverstar]

She was drifting. That was the first thing that came to mind. Floating, a wisp of her former self. But there were moving images just out of her grasp, delicate silhouettes, and one of them stepped forward towards her. His black and white fur seemed to shimmer with stars, his vivid green eyes perfectly matching her own.

"Father?" Cloverstar rasped, her eyes widening. Thistlepelt.

But he didn't speak. All he did was lean forward, pressing his nose gently to her forehead.

The rushing white light returned, enveloping her until it stretched out into darkness. Dimly, she now felt something pushing against her and...licking her?

Her eyes immediately shot open and she jerked away immediately, scrambling back onto her feet. She'd been hit by a rock and slammed her head onto another, but the pain from her head wound was completely gone. Cloverstar knew without looking that it had healed over perfectly without a trace, the mark of her losing a life. Two down now, seven to go.

All because she'd gone back to save a stupid apprentice who should know better but had, for some inexplicable and most likely equally stupid reason, stayed behind in a camp about to be destroyed. Anger came back to her and she gritted her teeth.

"Let's go," Cloverstar snapped at Flintpaw, not even bothering to hide her fury anymore now that they were near the entrance. "Unless you still want to stay here for whatever reason. Go join your mother and apologize for worrying her. See Anemonemist if your leg still hurts."

She turned away, watching the rocks continue to fall before heading back towards the camp entrance. If Flintpaw fell again, she'd carry him, but she was too angry at him to continue talking.