surely tomorrow and the days after || gathering patrols

Even during Sunhigh the bitter cold is inescapable. The days have grown longer since the height of Leafbare, yet the warmth still hasn’t returned. Around Coalstar, his clanmates huddle in patches of sunlight, sharing in their body heat and gathering as much of the scant warmth as they can on their pelts before the sun begins to dip towards the horizon and they are all collectively forced to face the biting air once more.

With seemingly everyone present, Coalstar lights on top of the Highrock and looks over ThunderClan’s camp. There are things expected of him, this Coalstar knows. Words he is supposed to speak to gather the clan together. Such traditions feel ill-fitting and tight, something Coalstar could suffocate in.

Instead, he clears his throat thrice, each time louder than the last, and barks out, “HEY!” loud enough that eyes and ears alike snap to Coalstar in attention.

The silence that follows feels terribly awkward. Coalstar finds that, even in knowing what to say, he hasn’t any idea on how to say it.

“Everyone,” He begins, and it feels needless. Coalstar is unpracticed in speaking to others in general, let alone this many at once. He takes a breath, holds it, and shuts his eyes against the world, “We need to- I need to… alert the other clans of our recent change in leadership, and I am in need of those willing to travel with me to… do that.”

Of course the first to approach is Mushroom. Coalstar is foolish if he even considered any other possibility. Instinct and common sense both tell him to deny the kit, but Coalstar feels as though he knows him well enough to understand that Mushroom will come along no matter what. “Fine,” Coalstar concedes. Better to not make him feel as though he needs to be stealthy, where he is bound to get hurt or lost. No, it is better to keep him somewhere an eye can be kept on him. “But if you whine about being tired or any of that, I wont be hearing it.”