dayless dreams [open]

[{ indigo }]

the night was deep and late, but still and serene. there was nothing eerie about this evening, which made sense what with the cool wind whispering through the warm thick air, singing in the leaves on the trees and causing the woodland creatures to scurry about busily. this meant that unlike many nights before which were spooky in their stillness, suspicious in the fact that anything seemed to jump out at any moment and startle a cat, on this night there was already plenty of activity, so there was no nervousness in one's heart. not that foxnose was afraid of the dark or anything.

but really, what wasn't there to fear about it? it wasn't a serious phobia, but even with his heightened feline senses that allowed him to see relatively well through the inky night, the dense shadows seemed like they could be hiding anything, and the watery silver light of the moon never seemed to offer any comfort. it only brought imaginary images to the eye in the latest hours.

not tonight, though. the deputy felt peace in his heart this evening- perhaps because he had had a rather pleasant day following a productive morning. although he had chosen to make the patrols larger than normal today to fully replenish a shrinking fresh-kill pile and thus the reason he himself had to be on guard at the camp entrance tonight, everyone seemed to be in great spirits that day. it must have been thanks to the lovely sun peering down upon thunderclan all day long.

now, though, he was left to his thoughts, and he was getting lonely. he was certainly a positive cat, but spending all this time spent alone chewed away at his brain. the handsome ginger tom sat straight at the lip of the stone quarry in which his clanmates rested, but he certainly did dread guard duty. sure he would get to sleep away the following day after organizing patrols, but he didn't particularly like doing that either. foxnose would certainly much rather be at the head of every patrol, laughing with good nature at the antics of his clanmates and catching food for others to enjoy. but alas, what must be done must be done! still, it was hard not to wish he had a bit of company to keep away the boredom and fight the heaviness in his eyelids.

[ahoy]

It was a sleepless night, the young Warrior realized with a small huff of her breath, body curled up in the nicely made nest, perfectly neat with only her hairs that peppered it. It wasn't like Whitebird hadn't kept herself busy today, she went hunting and had a pretty good list of prey that she and the patrol had brought back in order to refill the fresh kill pile. It had been a good day and a good hunt, she deserved a rest but she couldn't find it in herself to do so, her body itched to move and to keep on her paws. She would regret it during sunrise but as of now she glanced around, her fellow warriors were silent, breathing softly in their sleep as she got up silently and walked out of the den, hoping her movement didn't disturb anyone.

She was planning on sneaking out of here to go run the woods for a little bit, to get rid of this extra energy and maybe be able to sleep for a little bit tonight but she froze when she saw who was the guard at the camp entrance. Oh how could she have forgotten it was going to be Foxnose? Her ears twitched, nose wrinkling a little bit as she contemplated what to do now, usually cats weren't allowed out at night but some guards were easier to get around than most, Foxnose was definitely not one of those guards. The pretty she-cat hesitated for only a moment before moving again towards the entrance, no longer trying to hide her pawsteps.

Whitebird walked until she was next to him, taking a seat and tilting her head to the side to get a look at the tomcat, a small purr escaping her before she turned her head back to look into the woods again, her tail flicking to wrap around her paws comfortably.

"In need of some company?"

She asked softly, sure this wasn't really how she planned to spend her night but talking might be a good way of making her body realize how tired she should be and since she knew she couldn't get around her deputy there was no other option but to sit next to him and strike up a conversation, though with such a nice night it did feel like a waste, the thought nearly made her sigh but she held it in, bright blue eyes glancing over at her deputy again, she couldn't say that she knew him all that well, he was kind and nice but she's never actually talked to him one on one before so this would be a different experience that was for sure.

[{ indigo }]

his mind was wandering where his paw steps at the moment could not. it was a bit like meditating, but the tom did not particularly care to relax at this time. still, he was doing his best to keep his thoughts occupied while he sat, feeling his limbs go stiff in the damp, rapidly chilling air of night. he began by seeing himself exiting camp, and trailing gently over the clan's seemingly vast landscape of territory, crawling beneath finger-like vines which hung down from treetops, and imagining himself scaling a particularly large fallen tree sprawled across a wide stretch of land which he had discovered only days ago- and he credited its awe-worthy fall to the ever-growing accumulation of ice among the tree branches above. foxnose thought this thought process was much too similar to dreaming, and feared his eyes may slip shut at any moment if he continued with his conscious absence from guard duty.

so he snapped back to reality and blinked, peering into the darkness before him, where the wind rustled just about everything into a soothing melody. he twitched his whiskers and sat up a little straighter, flexing his spine as he did so, and then wrapping his feathery tail over his paws tightly- he was a handsome sunset-colored statue now. it didn't seem as though anyone would be ambushing the camp on this particular evening. but on that thought, foxnose suddenly wondered how long he had been out here. the nights alone seemed so absurdly long sometimes.

but then, oddly enough, suddenly foxnose had company. just like that- his mind didn't even register this fact at first. for some reason, his instinct was that his mind was playing a silly trick in the late hours of night. some use i'd be if someone did attack camp tonight! he thought to himself, rather amused when he finally came to and recognized the patched she-cat beside him. he was immediately suspicious, but not particularly concerned with these wayward thoughts. of course whitebird was up to no harm, foxnose didn't consider it for a second. instead, he instantly wondered what exactly she was up to.

"hey whitebird," he greeted warmly, twitching the very tip of his tail to show that he, in fact, was not a statue after all. "i really really am," he admitted honestly, meeting her bright blue eyes, glowing through their inky surroundings. "i honestly hate guard duty. i mean i'll do it, and i wont whine about it, but ugh. think of how utterly useless i'll be tomorrow!" foxnose explained, though with this statement he also offered a helpless shrug- he'd put this on himself. the deputy thought about asking his clanmate exactly what she was up to, but with another moment's thought he didn't really expect she would offer much of a truthful answer anyway. most cats lurking around after sundown would. he just hoped she wasn't sneaking out to meet some shadowclan lad and at that he left her intentions alone.

instead he grinned wryly and told her, "regardless, i'm glad you were thinking about my state of loneliness at this hour!" he purred, though his gaze twinkled with dry humor.

[ahoy]

She did realize that it must be a bit suspicious to see someone up at this time, but she hoped that her going up to her deputy without any fear or nervousness would indicate that she had nothing to hide. Not that she actively thought about it because those that knew her should know she had no interest in anything like that right now, she had a clan to please and prove herself to and after she was done with that she could settle down and think about kits, with a loyal ThunderClan cat of course! No way would she choose a Shadowclan or Windclan male! They smelled bad anyway...a kit-ish way of thinking but that's simply how she viewed them, as weirdly smelling cats that weren't her Clanmates, who she would protect like family. Whitebird thought in terms of black and white like that, she was simple, easy to get along with though and didn't hold much back both in her opinion and in her actions.

It was a bit amusing to see how late his reaction time was, and if she didn't already speak her mind about the company thing she may have decided to just leave and go into the woods, it might have been too late to stop her by the time he even realized she had left. At the thought she purred a bit louder in amusement, chuckling to herself and her ear flicking, it seemed like she was much more awake then her Deputy here and she had been hunting and working all day as well! She was half tempted to poke him with her paw to see if the ever 'vigilant' deputy would actually move or even acknowledge her, she may have to bring up the idea of never letting him do guard duty again, maybe bring it up to Frozenstar that he's like a rock at night. Of course she wouldn't actually do that, but she's definitely going to hold this against Foxnose. When he finally did notice her she stared at him with amusement clear in her eyes, indicating that, yes, she did realize he was spacing out completely.

She stared straight ahead, ears twitching to show that she was paying attention to his words and seemed to have a rather pleased look about her, tail raising and lowering slowly before stilling comfortably around her paws. She licked her chest, acting calm enough, though her paws itched still to be doing something. She then looked over at him, shaking her head a little.

"I mean, I can only imagine if you're practically sleeping on the job right now."

She teased, paw lifting and poking his shoulder in almost a playful nudge before setting back down. He then joked about her thinking about him and she seemed thoughtful for a moment and then snorted, as if taken aback by the very thought, of course she was only joking around.

"Oh yes, because you being all alone out here really kept me awake tonight."

Well she was being kept awake tonight but it wasn't because of him, it was because of herself and the fact that she had too much going on at once and was feeling that itch in her paws, just to get up and move, to just run around and climb without having to worry about anything. She wondered how the others in her Clan dealt with things like this, did they not get sleepless sometimes? Well it didn't matter, she was stuck here now and it wasn't like she didn't mind keeping the deputy company if he really needed it. Or maybe she'd volunteer to take the rest of his shift, he seemed like he needed to sleep more.

[{ indigo }]

no matter what intentions the warrior may have had that night, the deputy didn't mind much anyway. it certainly wouldn't occur to him later, especially since she seemed perfectly content to be stopped up at the entrance- where ever she had wanted to sneak off to moments before mustn't have been too important after all. foxnose cast her a sideways smile that showed affection from one clanmate to another. "sorry," he finally mewed sheepishly after her hard blue gaze bore down on him- was she judging him? probably, but he couldn't imagine anyone being too sharp on guard duty after a day of patrols. he offered a grin and shrugged, "at least you didn't catch me out here snoring huh? i'm not really tired anyway," he admitted truthfully, "i'm just so bored. i guess i just can't imagine anyone busting into camp tonight, you know? it must be from the nice breeze and the moonlight."

foxnose now tilted his head upward, peering through the naked branches to see the moon which, indeed, was nearly full. "gathering in a few days," he noted softly, absently, then returned his gaze to her striking features attentively at the sound of her sarcastic tone.

"oh i'm just kidding. you don't need to flatter me, i can see you're just restless," foxnose meowed, though not unfriendly. he flicked her softly with his feathery tail. "and im sure you know as well as i that running around for a bit is the best way to get to sleep, and normally i would be more than happy to allow you to escape buuuut i'm afraid frozenstar might have my tail if you're not in your nest at dawn and i'm the only guard on duty, ya know?" he shrugged again, though this time sympathetically.

"i'm a very dull conversationalist though, and i'd be much obliged to bore you to sleep if you'd like," the big ginger tom winked as he gave a great stretch to loosen his rapidly stiffening limbs- he was beginning to feel the night's chill creep into his bones.