Private Thread Talking to the Trees

The oak remembers the storms as warriors remember their battles.
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Oaktall heard her before she spoke, a faint huff. He didn’t mind the silence, not really. Patrols went smoother when cats kept their ears open instead of filling the air with noise. But he could feel the tension in Brindlespice like static clinging to her fur and he wasn’t oblivious enough to pretend it wasn’t there.

When she finally broke the quiet with her lilting question, Oaktall’s ear flicked, and he slowed just enough to angle her a glance. Her tone was light, but he caught the thread beneath it.

"Kestrelswipe didn’t tell me anything complicated." He replied, voice low and even. "Just a sweep along border to Sunning Rocks."

A small shrug rolled off his broad shoulders. His tail swayed once behind him as they padded the familiar route that they shared with RiverClan. "Not many twists or turns on this route. Even if you didn’t catch all of it this morning."

His tone was a sort of gentle shove back, the sort of mild ribbing warriors gave each other when they weren’t sure whether friendship was on the table yet. His blue eyes became a bit shadowed before a smile lifted his muzzle in a grin. "Wouldn't mind running into that rogue though. Would be nice to justify some revenge."

Adventurous hearts, wild and free, dance to the rhythm of destiny.

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Brindlespice didn't answer, not in the typical snarky way she did, but instead, she just twitched her ears, as sign she was at least hearing Oaktall. She knew better than to simply ignore the patrol leader with the killer still on the loose. "Some kind of poetic justice for Cottonlily if we killed the rogue here. She'd better be prepared if we catch up to her, I'm not going to let her go until she's dead of running off wailing like a kit." Brindlespice replied, the creamy tip of her tail twitching, not in irritation, but in anticipation, as if she were daring the rogue to show her sleezy face.

The river rushed calmly at their side and she glanced to the side at it, another thing was RiverClan, she wouldn't put it past Coldstar to instruct an attack to take it back, but as much as she wanted him to, she wouldn't think he'd be so stupid as to attack them while every clan was at their most alert. He might be mouse-brained enough to challenge ThunderClan but he couldn't be that mouse-brained.

"I'd be more than satisfied to get my claws into any trespasser's pelt. Rip them up some and make sure they remember my face." She growled, her tail lashing like an angry flag waving in a storm. "These rogues get bolder each moon." she added, her amber eyes surveying the area as they passed it. Nothing. Disappointing, but reassuring she supposed.

The oak remembers the storms as warriors remember their battles.
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Oaktall listened, letting Brindlespice’s words roll out like heat from a brushfire. Everything about her conviction rang true and it didn't surprise him. Fierceness ran deep in most ThunderClan cats, deeper still in those with the same old bloodlines he carried. What did surprise him was how raw her anger was beneath it, how personal it seemed to the she-cat.

He dipped his head once in acknowledgment. "Cottonlily certainly deserves justice. And if this rogue shows her face again I won’t waste breath trying to talk her down."

He padded onwards, careful not to get his feet wet. "But luck’s been on our side that she seems to be acting alone. If she had a group behind her… It'd be much worse."

His blue eyes swept the brush, ears pricked, but the forest offered nothing - no rogue scent, not even strong RiverClan scent. That was when he glanced down at her, a bit curiously... the kind of look Quailcall used to give him when trying to measure the truth of his convictions.

"Tell me something, Brindlespice. If it wasn’t a rogue we crossed paths with if it was a WindClan cat or a RiverClan cat nosing too close - would it make a difference to you?"

He let the question sit only a heartbeat before narrowing the point: "You speak like every trespasser ought to be taught a lesson. Do you think all strangers deserve that treatment? Or just this one?"

He wasn't trying to be confrontational. Maybe it was only an exercise to not let her anger go unexamined. He flicked his tail once as he paused to refresh the scent. "No wrong answer...just trying to know where you stand."