Stained Sunset [IC]

Frostflower sneezed, shaking her head furiously as she recoiled onto her feet. The tickling grass had distracted her so much that she hadn't executed the move, even if he had gotten off of her. She sneezed again, and again until she fell back into a sitting position, and finally it passed. She imagined she looked quite silly, especially when she realized she had a large piece of moss stuck between her eyes and patches of dirty fur all over. She opened her mouth to speak and instead sneezed one more time. Instead of speaking or leaping back into play she sat there and scowled for a moment.
"I never thought I'd lose a fight to a medicine cat, play or not," She admitted with a chuckle, "Maybe I really am getting old."

“Old?” Tension eased through Laurelheart’s spine. He could tell she spoke half in jest but if she were old what did that make him? “If this were a real fight you would have had me at the second blow if not before. Going easy on a cat doesn’t make you old and it doesn’t make you weak.”

Abruptly he kinked his neck and began forcing his fur back into submission. As he stood grooming the dust and twigs from his pelt the blood flow slowed and he was left feeling oddly cold and still in the brisk breeze. He sighed softly and made no attempt to resume the game. Now that the game was over the weight settled back onto his shoulders leaving him oddly drawn.

“We should be getting back.” He said finally.

"Yes, I believe Jayleap may need me for the dawn patrol," the tall she cat chuckled as she too began grooming the dirt from her pelt. She took a more serious tone as she continued, "And I have a strange feeling that you'll need to be well rested in the coming days. The fresh energies of new-leaf are as much call for tension between the clans as the hunger of leaf-bare. Though if you need someone to talk to, I'd be happy to listen."
She wasn't quite sure where her heavy words had come from, but experience had taught her that the tensions built up in leaf-bare always broke in one way or another before the trees were fully green again. Despite the long snows, the clans had had little to fight about recently, and she couldn't help but hope that she was simply an old cat fretting over nothing.
"Call it what you will," Frostflower sighed, "But the first moons of New-Leaf leave me expecting a fight, and other predators are going to become more active. The vixens will have pups soon, and I don't fancy a fight with angry fox mothers too close to our territory."