Reporting In | Rabbitstar + Turtlefang (priv)

Trustworthy. His gaze drifted, but his steps remained steadfast as he paced forward across the threshold before Rabbitstar had even finished their invitation. Quietly, silently, Turtlefang examined his leader, passing over the curled ears to scrutinize the face below with something bordering curiosity. At ease. If there was one thing he'd gathered from their prior interactions as deputy and warrior, it was that even when the other seemed to be relaxed, there was often something brewing beneath the surface. Here and now, he couldn't get a sense for whether or not that was the case, which made it all the more uncomfortable to be the bearer of bad news. But then, since when had he ever cared about inconveniencing someone else's feelings? Don't go getting soft, now. Business didn't allow for it.

As professional as he was expected to be in the confines of Rabbitstar's workplace(?), he remained upright as he shifted to the topic of interest. "You'll recall we recently launched the premiere of our new patrol." There was no reason to shy away from his prior staring, and so he didn't bother, turning his head away from the other with unashamed nonchalance. With a still even tone, he continued, "There was a situation." No need to let anxiety seep in. His other patrol members could do that themselves. Here and now, with the smaller tom, Turtlefang spoke as if the situation had no bearing on neither him nor Sunclan, although that was certainly far from the truth with their recent record of freak attacks. Still... things had been different, this time. It's always inconvenient when a pattern breaks.

More and more, his promise to make sense of everything for Honeyflare seemed to slip further and further away. Annoyingly, like a bird who flapped free from hunting paws. What would it take to pin things once and for all?

He hoped whatever development this meeting brought would help him come to a decision. With his gaze turned away, feigning indifference like a second skin, Turtlefang wondered how much longer that'd leave him trustworthy.

It wasn't as if Turtlefang liked setting up the dramatics, but it was good to have Rabbitstar braced before he continued, with all the disasters that had befallen their clan recently. Pretending as though he hadn't been rehearsing the report all the way back from the meadow, he blinked thoughtfully at the sidewall, recalling all the details to mind while they remained unpleasantly fresh. An unforeseen attack, a hidden identity. A retreat, thanks to Iceglow's muscle and their clustered numbers. If it were any other time in Sunclan's history, it would mean nothing. Just another rogue repelled. But here and now, with so many tricks at play, with cats from every possible angle approaching to tug on their strings... it was just another piece in the puzzle. "There was an ambush. The cat was camouflaged in a dense mud, so we could work out no identifiable features, especially in the low light. You might imagine it made it hard to place the scent."

His report lapsed for a moment as he placed his gaze back on the leader. Gauging. "I would personally note... that they had a very large stature. There was too much chaos to note exact size, but the attacker was roughly on par with Crowflame. In a lineup, that could be something to remember. Otherwise..." With a twist of displeasure interrupting his neutrality, placing him closer to a frown, he finished, "There is nothing else to say. They were successfully repelled with minimal injury. However, you and I both know how this looks given our recent history." Turtlefang, at last, sat down with the conclusion, teal eyes fixed on Rabbitstar's own as if to probe for opinion. This wasn't like before, after all, when the other was still playing coy with information. These days, their work in tandem with each other had placed them closer together as allies than their time as warriors had prior. It gave him the nerve to tilt his head, dark ears cocked in cautious invitation. "It's impossible to place this as a connected incident for certain. But I do have some thoughts."

Me? That much seemed to catch the warrior off guard, gaze widening a notch as he took in Rabbitstar's utmost sincerity. Ah... Honestly, the way things had been proceeding so smoothly, Turtlefang shouldn't have been all that surprised. Even still, it took a beat of pause before he responded, unable to help the pleased curl of his tail where it rested beside him. "Of course." Then, ever so quick to humble, he mused, "I believe you'll more or less land on the same considerations as mine, regardless... but whatever I may provide, I will." Wouldn't want to be too arrogant in the face of the leader, not even with their compliments to cushion the smug purr resonating silent and secret in his chest. How nice it felt, in a way, to have actions pay off. To meet positive consequences.

But that would only live so long as his utility did. None too eager to draw out the conversation any longer, Turtlefang's tail now flipped to his opposite side in a smooth lash, physically signalling his transition before he began. "In regards to the patterns we've observed, there are certainly deductions to be drawn from the break. Where our other enemies were proud to declare themselves Moonclan warriors, by scent or word itself, this attacker's identity was deliberately concealed. I can consider one of two things." He pawed idly at the ground, mind drifting somewhat to. Depiction. Itching to show, somehow, the connections in his mind, laid bare upon the earth. A way to share your ideas with others.

...

"I think," Turtlefang broke from his thoughts once more, breaching memory like a seedling bursting from the suffocating underworld. "It is either a misdirect... or a definite Moonclan offense. We've come no closer to the truth than we were last moon, so I hesitate to see why an attacker affiliated with the others would need to act with caution. On the other paw, loners and rogues have nothing to lose- they can run from consequences. A clan cat is forced to live among them. So... where the other attacks remain uncertain, this feels to me like the act of a warrior. Possibly unrelated to the others, but in a worst case scenario... possibly in alliance." Brow furrowing slightly, his tone gained a bit more dryness. "Although I don't see Pansystar as the type to work with outsiders, Moonclan has never been the most rigid on clan values. Perhaps she's even being bullied around unwillingly. My more optimistic prediction is that whomever acted out has done so beyond orders, and beyond her knowledge. After all, it was a solo attack.. and what better reason to hide one's pelt than to avoid repercussions?"

He couldn't help it.

Turtlefang bit back a scoff, hackles prickling at the mention of Moonclan's own losses. I don't care about that, a whispered insistence snarled viciously from his mental recesses. Who cares if a few Moonclan cats bite it? Irrelevant lives with irrelevant context. And yet, even as he thought as much, he wasn't so stupid as to pretend it was true. Wasn't so foolish as to say as much to his leader's face. Because they were right. It had been a freakish overlap, so much so that he'd honestly foregone considering it entirely as a factor in the past few days. It was easier, all things considered, to forget Moonclan entirely. But not feasible. Not when it served as such a special clue, albeit one he wanted nothing to do with.

It was all hard to say. The first few nights after the Gathering, where D the deaths had been announced, he'd lain in his nest and considered all the fruitless possibilities. That Moonclan was lying, was hiding the very warriors they claimed to grieve in a disgusting, traitorous effort to play off their own merciless slaughter of Sunclan's more experienced members. Playing innocent, playing the victim. But Pansystar wasn't so intelligent, at least not enough to hide the shadow of a killer on her face. A known peace-lover (his fur practically peeled off at the thought in a slight shudder), she would never risk as much.

Turtlefang's voice rang as hollow as he felt.

"I don't know."

Then, with more conviction, a firmness setting into his orange jaw, he persisted. "We can only assume this is targeting Sunclan, and that the Moonclan incident somehow contributes to that cause. I elect not to address it, yet. Whatever is happening against us, someone must stand to gain. The natural assumption would be that Pansystar is getting back at us for Beestar's now late victories in territory expansion, but that has nothing to do with you. I can only imagine that this is a set-up to obliterate us entirely. Perhaps the only reason they neglect Moonclan is that the threat shelters nearest to us, perhaps on our furthest outskirts from the dividing river. It'd be safer, in that instance, to work closest to home. It's a long walk across both territories, at least."

With that, the warrior gave pause, eyeing Rabbitstar carefully. "..Perhaps we should investigate the area. Get to know our more.. eccentric neighbors." It was a riskier proposal, launching already endangered clanmates into the dangerous unknown. But what else is there than to sit around waiting to be picked off, cowering in our own dens like prey? As much as he disregarded his clanmates, clumsy-pawed and reactionary at times, they were warriors. Not mice.

If waiting only meant pushing up dirt till the next sacrifice landed hard and bloodied on Sunclan ground, there could be no more passive observation. Not without more burials to pay the price of patience.

He thought idly of Tinyleaf, always out on his hapless own, and felt his chest tighten.

While he wasn't the most attentive to Rabbitstar's moods- he hardly had to be- Turtlefang didn't miss the shift of their expression as he'd mentioned the outlands. And why is that? Unlike Beestar, the point had hardly proven to be a very aggressive leader, satiated enough on the territory Sunclan already had and not probing much at provoking Moonclan. It was more than their enemy deserved, honestly, but wise in uncertain times. For all intents and purposes, the loner grounds were entirely unimportant, if not dangerous for a cat without a proper understanding of the land. It'd take too many patrols to make it a regular facet of Sunclan's territory, it'd have no way to reinforce dominance outside of the scent lines, so on and so forth. It was precisely why they'd gone untouched.

And yet, Rabbitstar stood poised before him with that little hint of pleasure at the mention of going beyond the border. If you weren't my leader, Turtlefang considered, with a slow, neutral brush of his tail against the den floor, I'd be suspicious of those wandering paws. Yet, he showed no such distaste on his expression, maintaining composed neutrality as he tilted his head, lending his ear with greater interest to the mention of the mission itself. "Hmm.. you needn't worry about me." The words felt fake on his tongue, wrong in a way similar to fumbling a phrase somehow. It put the twitch of a smile on his face. A natural defense. "No matter who we assess, I wouldn't mind staying home to make room for other travellers. There's nowhere safer, with the new numbers rule on outings.. Am I to assume you'd be leading this mission, then? I'll take that much into account, if so. Synergies, and all that."

The slow drawl of Rabbitstar's answer might have raised Turtlefang's whiskers, if not for his commitment to neutrality. Whether or not his leader indulged their particular temptations was of no interest to him. Instead, with a lax whisk of his tail once more, he merely nodded along. Although, he couldn't help but think, in a distant corner of his mind, I wonder just how many warriors would abide by that supervision. It was no secret that however cohesive the two clan authority's plans had been, there had been plenty of cats running amuck doing Starclan knows what. He'd witnessed enough himself. Honeyflare's strange, stiff movements in those supposedly nonchalant outings to the territory. Whatever Tinyleaf had been doing sneaking around by moonlight- So much for a model warrior. Coyotespring's constant discontent with seemingly everything. Not to mention the frowns that seemed to spread like greencough with every accumulative clan meeting.

Things weren't much easier at home than they were out in the loner lands, for better or worse. But leadership left you responsible for particular appearances. Perhaps that was the explanation owed to the point's restless gaze, that distant tone which spoke of days long past. You're leader now, though. A position Turtlefang would have never envied. Shackled to the clan. Shackled to the code. And shackled to example. How boring! Not for the first time, the warrior found himself pleased to have found his own balancing act of striding the line between second advisor to Swanmask without sacrificing his own independence as a lower laborer. Responsibility, as he'd learned in his time as a makeshift guardian for the little family he'd had left, bred nothing but stifling stagnation.

Not for the first time, he wondered how Rabbitstar might feel about that sort of thing, if the echo of yearning in his voice left anything to the imagination.

But for the millionth time, he didn't ask.