[ti]Open[/ti]Idle Paws

[Fireflake]

Mantispaw huddled against the outside of the apprentices' den, remaining uncharacteristically quiet and downcast. Nobody in camp was expected to be particularly cheerful with their leader and other clanmates gone and now their deputy as well, but it was different for Mantispaw. That was her father, going to find her mother and her brother and her aunt. Well okay, her mother and her half-brother and her mother's best friend, but it was all the same to her. They were family. They were missing. She was not happy.

The young she-cat had made it clear that she disliked her father's plan, and he had made it clear that he was going to go ahead with it. Almost a full day of wrestling with the decision later she had decided not to try to follow him. This did nothing to stop her being openly bitter and immature about it around camp. It got under her fur even more, maybe a bit selfishly, that nobody had tried to ask her what was wrong or make her feel better. When she had finished moping and conjuring a storm in her mind, she finally crawled away from the apprentice den and into the main part of camp.

She was well-versed in the art of whining or chattering an older warrior's ear off so they would throw her some bit of information, but today she took a slightly different route to figuring out what everyone else thought was going to happen. She dragged her paws by the cats eating or wandering around in camp and asked, "Who wants to bet on when they're going to come home?"

[Ava]

Scorpionpaw did not enjoy his parents' absence, especially with how sad it made everyone else feel. The moment he saw Mantispaw walk out of the apprentice's den, sulking, he followed her out, walking beside her and helping the weight off of her drooping shoulders. It was a burden to go through such a pain by herself, and he nudged her, wrapping his tail around her.

"They have to come home." he whispered anxiously in her ear, stomping through the snow. "They have duties. They have families. Isn't that enough reason to fight with every ounce of strength they have to get out?" he continued, rambling on for a minute. "I bet they'll come home within the next quarter moon." he murmured quietly, glancing at his paws and sitting down.

Surely his parents would come home soon, right? He would panic if they didn't, and he usually kept his cool easily, so that would not be good. If he panicked, his siblings would panic, and their friends would panic, and the clan would panic. That couldn't happen. Panic was not good for the clan's reputation nor the clan itself. Scorpionpaw told himself sternly that he would keep his cool for the sake of his family, even if Eveningblaze and Ruststripe didn't return. Oh, who was he kidding, of course they would return! Right?

[Fireflake]

Mantispaw milled around for a bit, responding to her brother with only a nod, before she sat down beside him. "I bet it will take longer than that," she countered. "Remember what the others said the traps were like? Even if Dad has saved Mom from the Twolegplace before, that was from rogues, and Twolegs are harder to beat than rogues. And even with a cat from the Twolegplace, they still can't get the traps open."
She shook her head and glanced up to watch a cloud drift through the pale sky. "I bet it will take half a moon."

She wrinkled her nose. And went on after a moment of pause. "The trouble is how the clan will do with everyone gone, 'specially if it takes even longer. Batstrike can't show up to the Gathering, and we can't not go. And is he going to get anyone to act as his deputy?"
Her eyes dropped to the ground shortly before her head snapped back to the cats in camp. She raised her voice once more. "Come on, bet with us! I think they'll take a half-moon. He thinks it will be a quarter-moon. Worst guess has to help best guess replace the moss in their nest!"

Mantispaw looked at Scorpionpaw out of the corner of her eye as she tried with limited success to stir up the same playful atmosphere she usually held around her.