breath of a life [ open, pine ]

it was a rather unsettled night. the skies above seemed to display their protests of the actions below but a little yelling and screaming would not stop pinewhisker. not tonight. he'd spent most of his day training that damn apprentice of his - begrudgingly pushing the tom harder and warning him of his temper and anger. but after that he returned to camp, walked about it alone. shared a rabbit with a young warrior - a little she-cat who seemed (at least as far as he could remember) stricken but he showed no such interest. and considering his former living patterns it was a strange sight to see. the little fem had practically thrown herself at his paws and almost begged to come with him but he declined the offer with little interest. this was not a she-cat of his interest - he didn't like the ones that he didn't have to work for. sure they were fun to play with from time to time but pinewhisker was in no such mood for that.



so instead after their meal he retired to his den and listened to the storm as it rolled through. the violent rumbles and growls sounding from the sky and brilliant flashes of white fire so bright that it illuminated his den. but he remained there alone - the way he always had. since birchfall had left with maplefrost there was little that pinewhisker found joy in. there were the occasional time when aspenfeather poked his head into the den and mewed a hello and the two would go off and hunt together but other than that he had no companion. no one to hold himself onto when the nights got rough. most cats wouldn't understand that though. all they saw was the awful pinewhisker that almost everyone hated. he pushed his warriors hard and pushed his own apprentice probably the hardest of them all. he had no respect for the cats around him and only seemed interested in showing how he belonged in power rather than at the sidelines. but that hunger for power was what drove him mad most days.



as the sky darkened there was almost no signs of the storm letting up and even less evidence that the leader would catch any real sort of sleep that night. the tom-cat instead rose to his paws and slowly moved himself from the nest he had settled into what seemed like hours before and padded slowly from the den. there were no other cats in camp - it was quiet spare the groaning and grumbling from above. the tabby let out a soft sigh before his brisk paws carried him out of camp. when sleep would not take there was only one place pinewhisker went. creekclan's border.



many cats probably doubted his loyalty to treeclan or very well could have if it were not for the fact that no matter who he lost or what drove them away he stood stronger and taller than before. fawnspots had been the first to leave - she took them, the kits, with her. since that dark time pinewhisker had been practically unable to open up to anyone. now sure he and fawnspots had never really gotten along and it was not the she-cat's disappearance that had truly torn him apart. it had been the loss of his kits. gorsefeather pained him most - seeing the anger and hate that fawnspots had seeded in his heart that seemed to be reserved for pinewhisker. wolfstep was a good son and tried to do right by everyone and there were times where even the great leader such as himself felt guilt for putting his youngest son in that position. but it was dapplesong that had pained him the most to see go. she had been his perfect little kit from the beginning. she'd been so sweet and kind and pinewhisker would have - and still would - lay down his life for that little fem. as much as it was insane for him to say - selfish even - his daughter even came before his clan.



pinewhisker had been only slightly aware of the yowling that sounded ahead of him but he dismissed it quickly as a cat who had been met by a border patrol. his body shifted as if about to pad down along the border away from the two but then a single voice rang through. suddenly a fire was set through pinewhisker as he raced toward the two cats and quite literally slammed into the flank of his own warrior. a terrifying snarl sounded from his throat and the warrior turned quickly, pelt bristling but froze when he saw pinewhisker. "You'll do nothing of the sort Redfeather. If you so much as look at her again I will gouge your eyes out myself." He growled, tail lashing back and forth. His tabby pelt was bristling; giving him the appearance of a cat nearly twice his size. Though it was not the cat's pelt that should have frightened Redfeather. The TreeClanners knew of pinewhisker's... temper. or really lid on his temper. no matter what pressing issue he was faced with it was always met with a rather calm demeanor. but this was a completely different story.



the cat that stood before Redfeather now was furious - yellow eyes blazing brighter than the sun with anger and tail lashing violently behind him. it seemed as though every little piece of pinewhisker that had ever remained even remotely secret was now non-existent. redfeather took a single look toward pinewhisker before his eyes briefly fluttered to the she-cat but was instantly met with pinewhisker shifting his body into the line of sight. The tabby tom moved forward slowly and spoke so lightly that it could barely be heard over the storm. "do you understand me?" the russet colored tom quickly nodded his head and took several steps backward before practically tripping over the root of a bush and then disappearing from the clearing. pinewhisker followed the movements until he was certain the tom was gone but muscles remained tense. "did he hurt you, dapplesong?" his voice was almost strained with the idea of his own warrior hurting his daughter and while he knew it was the loyalty to treeclan that had driven redfeather to act that way... well to pinewhisker it was unacceptable all the same.

dapplesong - ### - danni doesn't have time to count them