i hear it's wonderful in california

[Kelby [♥]]

Sunlight burst it's harsh morning haze over the BreezeClan camp. Maskedstar squinted in the light, his ocean dappled hues gleaming. He yawned, and his hefty paws weaved their way from place to place, stopping occasionally to peek into the dens and see who all was still asleep. It was a little past dawn, and the tom was anxious to start the day. Unlike his mother had been, Maskedstar was normally one of the first in camp to rise. He loved the warmth of the sun beating down against his pelt, especially on days like today. Mouse, pollen, fresh rain, all called to him from outside of this sun-bathed camp, their distinct scents mingling on the same wind that now ruffled his lengthy tabby-splotched fur. He could hear birds chirping in a melodic, though repetitive, song not far away. The suns heat had cleared up the remaining dew and most of the puddles left by the earliest showers of spring, the last of which had came through less than just two sunrises ago. Maskedstar figured a wet coat was a fair trade for the newly running prey left behind, and the lush grass that now sprung up everywhere, perfect for kneading his paws into. The abundance of sprouting plantlife also cleared away the soggy mud that the harsh snows of leafbare had absorbed into, making the ground cool but not sticky. Maskedstar decided he had just enough time to eat before beginning his day of hunting, planning patrols, checking on the apprentice training, and taking out his own little rascal of an apprentice, Berrypaw. He might even be able to squeeze in time to share tongues with some of the elder warriors. Being the leader of a clan was wearisome, but he could imagine life no different. Fetching a sparrow from the fresh-kill pile, Maskedstar settled in a few foxtails away, under the shade of a blossoming tree, and began ripping the wings from his still-warm breakfast.

[Deleted]

Shadowspirit was lost in a deep sleep. Her legs twitched slightly as her breathing came slow and steady...
She was in hot pursuit of a mouse, whiskers brushing against the shapes of her friends next to her, sometimes the acquaintances she had as a loner, and then the next thing she knew, fellow warriors of the Clans. She felt the freedom and responsibility of the Clan swimming in her heart as she ran so fast that the forest became a blur. None of her friends could keep up with her now!

A shadow came over her path and she skidded to a halt, unable to see.

Her pale eyes opened to see a shadow pulling away from the entrance of the warriors' den. So, she had been having a dream. She closed her eyes again and took a quick stretch of her legs, yawning loudly.

Time to start the day. She stood up on all fours and began to groom the spots on her pelt that stood ruffled from her sleep. When she felt presentable, she emerged from the den, careful to step around the sleeping forms of her friends. She felt her mood rising as the scent of blood hit her nose. She looked around camp until she spotted the Clan leader sitting alone, beginning to chew on his breakfast selection. A small purr rose in her throat as an inaudible greeting. It seemed most of the Clan hadn't quite risen yet, so it was a great idea to get a snack before they all awoke and were sent on patrols. She headed for the fresh-kill pile, her eyes searching for something small. She picked out an adolescent rabbit and began to carry it towards Maskedstar.

As she set the prey down she greeted him, "Good morning. Mind if I join?"

[{Robinpelt}]

Whitepaw writhed in his sleep as scarring images of pools of blood came to his vision. A she cat, as white as he was, was having spasms flow through her body in painful jerks. She was exhausted, and Whitepaw knew that she was giving birth.
Or trying to.
It was all wrong. Another spasm. More blood to add to the hot, sticky pool of it that wrapped around them. Whitepaw was covered in it, his snowy pelt plastered with the red, sticky substance.
He had had this dream before.
Just before he would drown in the crimson substance that had already taken the she cat's life, he would awaken. She was giving birth, he knew. Giving birth in a wrong way. Something had been wrong with her body, because she had died while giving birth.
To Whitepaw.
Whitepaw strained to hear the name of his mother that he heard desperate, shadowy cats wail, but in vain. The ear-splitting screech that came from the snowy she cat's mouth-
And Whitepaw was back in his den, flailing his three limbs.
Yes. Three. When the she cat gave birth, it had killed her, leaving her only kit, Whitepaw, covered in blood and with only three legs. The BreezeClan medicine cat apprentice sighed and stood, leaning against the wall for balance until he got the hang of it and limped outside to the clearing. He picked up a vole carefully, hoping not to lose his balance, and walked back to in front of the medicine cat's den to eat. Whitepaw hoped another apprentice would come and eat with him, because he was lonely. Too shy to walk up to a fellow apprentice, and too embarrassed, just in case they sneered at him and walked away haughtily.
So the white tom with the missing limb ate in silence.

[Stormfire]

Morning sunlight fluttered through the entrance to the den. Stretching his paws out in front of him, Oakfrost climbed to his feet. Yawning, he found his way outside, the heavy shadow of sleep still hanging over him. He trotted over towards the fresh kill pile, longing for a juicy blackbird. Finding a quite large one, a ghost of a smile appeared on his face. Everything seemed right.

Spotting a group of warriors chatting by the camp entrance, Oakfrost was about to go join them when he realized that the Medicine Cat Apprentice, Whitepaw, was eating his early morning meal silently, with a sulking look on his whiskered face.

Working his way through the camp, past small groups of apprentices and warriors eating their fresh-kill, he settled down across from Whitepaw. Feeling the morning dew on his stomach, he took a bite into his blackbird before starting a conversation. "Nice morning, huh?"

Taking another small bite out his blackbird, he enjoyed its succulent flavor. He didn't know how Whitepaw would react, so he only asked one question. He didn't know the cat the apprentice that well, besides the fact that he was always teased by the other apprentices. Oakfrost was sympathetic towards him though.

Raising his amber eyes up to Whitepaw again, Oakfrost waite for a reply.

[Kelby [♥]]

Maskedstar took a bite of fresh, tough meat from the sparrow's breast. It was chewy, and the leader was not particurally fond of birds, but the creature left an aftertaste that was worth savoring. He licked the bit of blood from his lips, taking special care to get down his jaw, making sure his creamy fur was not the slightest bit marred by blood. What kind of leader would leave their face coated in their food? Glancing up from his mutilated prey, he simultaneously caught the scent and heard the greeting purr of Shadowspirit. "Good morning yourself." Maskedstar smiled as she approached him, his eyes brightening at the prospect of having company for breakfast. "Of course, sit down, sit down." Maskedstar purred, and flicked his tail to the open ground across from him. He gulped down another bit of bird, and was careful to chew it completely before opening his mouth to speak again. He took note of her rabbit, succulent and probably better tasting than his own food, and regretted for a moment his choice of freshkill. "Are you assigned to any patrols today?" He asked, opening conversation as he examined the dark she-cat. Her pale green gaze stared back at him, and he noted in his head that Shadowspirit's irises were almost silver in the sunlight. Silver eyes, what a sight that would be. He thought to himself, smiling and blinking his own very vibrantly colored hues in a friendly manner towards the she-cat. He had not ever been particurally close to her, but then, who had he been? His clan, and reign as leader, was just beginning. Though he knew every BreezeClan cats name and scent, he did not know each of it's members personally. Maybe she'd like to accompany me on some early morning hunting, assuming she's free.

[{Robinpelt}]

Whitepaw stared at the warrior sitting next to him, smiling as he waited for an answer to the polite question. "It would be better if I had someone to share it with," the snowy apprentice replied sulkingly. His dark green eyes flitted up to Oakfrost and he realized that he was sharing the lovely morning with the brown warrior.
It was beautiful outside. The sun played it's golden rays on the BreezeClan camp and the outline of the leaves turned to fire. Whitepaw's green eyes looked hopeful as he eyed the warrior sitting next to him." Oakfrost," Whitepaw asked gradually. He hoped he would place this right. "could you..if you had some time, Of course, help me... Find some...herbs? It wouldn't take long, but you don't have to, it's really boring anyway..." the apprentices voice trailed off as he realized that the morning was making him too hopeful. He wasn't even enjoyed by the queens, and they loved everybody.

[Stormfire]

Hearing the white tom's nervous question, Oakfrost's ears pricked up. He could tell that Whitepaw didn't expect him to go. He hoped that the apprentice wouldn't take this as hesitation, but he took another bite out of the warm bird still sitting in front of him.

Oakfrost swallowed the piece of meat and wiped a few feathers off of his face before answering, "Of course. I don't really know what we'll be looking for, though.." His voice trailed off; he knew that was the truth. Maybe the Whitepaw would try to explain it to him, but Oakfrost didn't know how much he would be able to understand, given the other cat's nervous nature.

[{Robinpelt}]

Whitepaw's ears pricked up in hope as Oakfrost agreed to go. But...
Of course he isn't going to know any herbs, mouse brain! Whitepaw inwardly scolded himself. "Er, well, I didn't mean you would help me look for herbs, I mean, you dont know any, but... You could always just hunt. I might pick up a few tips on it, maybe. Not that I'd ever be good at it..." Whitepaw stopped.
He was sounding too desperate.
Too sad.
"And I could always show you some herbs, and you could help me look for them, a few simple herbs, easy to remember. I'd like to get out with someone new, not just my mentor. If it's ok."

Whitepaw finished off his vole and waited for a response. He started to get up and back into his den, knowing the answer already.

[Deleted]

{sorry this is so late! I forgot I was in this thread XD|

As Maskedstar welcomed her to join him, restlessness had already begun to pull at her paws, beckoning her to busy herself with hunting and patrolling. She loved the duties of a warrior, truly loved them. So it was hard for her not to begin gulping down her fresh-kill at an unreasonable rate. It'd only give her a belly-ache and then she'd get sent to Honeyfur, who would scold her for once again wasting precious herbs on something that didn't have to happen. Besides, getting to share a meal with her leader was something that hadn't happened yet and she felt quite honored. A warm feeling crept into her paws as an out of body moment hit her - she was a part of BreezeClan! She had grown to love her Clan more than she had anticipated in the beginning.

As she munched on the flesh of the rabbit, her gaze traveled to the tom next to her. A conversation in the background almost pulled her gaze away, until Maskedstar's voice kept her attention pinned.

"No," she replied, unable to hold back a bit of excitement in her voice. Her eyes glowed; all previous sleep still left in her eyes vanished. "I'm open for anything you've got for me today."

Her paws began to knead the dirt underneath her; she wasn't entirely sure why she was beginning to lose her appetite. She must be more restless than she thought, or perhaps she was nervous at the prospect of patrolling with the Clan leader. Was she up to par with all the other warriors? She hadn't thought much about it lately.

[Bear]

This, I like.
Before someone jumps down my throat saying that I could make the game longer for myself by releasing dragons to adopt new ones... I don't want to release dragons. I don't care if you can see them on the dragon overview page... I hardly look at that page to begin with.. but I've grown attached to my current dragons. Three of which are now at maximum growth, and the only thing they do now is give me resources.

I particularly like the above idea I quoted... If this would expand the limit to say... 10 dragons (as an example) then we could have... 4 or so as dominate ones that give us resources and show up on our dragon page. As for the other 6 dragons that we've adopted, they could be placed in the dragon overview page, and we could rotate them out when we want to? Or even put a limit of 3 rotations per day? Or something? I'm not sure how this would effect the server, but it certainly would help if only four dragons where having resources calculated as opposed to seven per day.

This would expand the game slightly when it comes to people who don't want to release dragons, but have no more room to adopt more. :/

But as for making it longer... I also like the "Sage" stage that was suggested. Adding more levels would definitely extend the game to last longer if you want to max out the levels for each dragon of yours.

Battling I'm against... For all reasons stated previously.

Different lottery games I like, since I've gotten bored with the current ones. Half the time, I don't even look to see if I've won something or not... The amount you win is kinda insignificant when compared to how much I'm currently getting per day. So maybe higher stakes for lotteries, based on the level of your oldest dragon?

Or, going in with the lottery thing, the ability to select a dominate dragon? Not like the rotating idea above, but one that effects how you view the site. Meaning, what resources you get from the lottery and how much of it... Maybe even the color of the site, if we'd like to customize the site like that.
But for example, selecting a fire furdragon as your dominate (or primary, I think that works better) would increase the chances of getting fire aura or dragon fur in a lottery, and if the furdragon was level 100, you'd have a higher chance of getting 300+ aura, whereas a level 20 one would get... say 40 aura? Just as an example.

Then again, none of these are really good suggestions on how to make the game longer... :/ Just more interactive.

Maybe.... A way to interact with your dragons? Like type in a message to say to them, and you get a pre-generated message in response. I wouldn't think the different messages would be hard to create, especially if they are only a sentence or two long.. But the coding and server strain might be a problem?
What about an in-game map? I skimmed over the Already Suggested thread, and I think I saw this already, but I can't recall it right now... But I think an in-game map could allow for us to explore with our dragons (using the primary dragon suggestion as well), starting with a pre-selected spot.. Say we have a choice of four places for a "lair": mountains, lake, desert, and forest (for example) and we choose one of those.. Assume I choose mountains for my lair. Then, from there, we can explore the cliffs outside the mountains... Then down the mountains, etc, getting further every day. All using the primary dragon that is. I think there's a lot of potential for this, such as finding items, resources, other dragon pages (randomly, of course, based on location) and even messages like the ones I suggested above.

What about dual-element dragons? Like water-fire, or fire-air? Again, there's the issue of colors and recoloring each sprite, which would take forever... As for aura, in case anyone asks, you would still receive the same amount as your dragon made before the change (assuming it's an add-on you can buy with resources) but it's divided into main and sub (or half and half, if that's better?), where the main aura is the dragon's original element, and they produce about 3/4 of this, while the sub aura is the secondary element, and the dragon produces 1/4 of the original amount.

Long post is long. Haha. Just throwing some ideas out there.