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Post by Deleted on Jul 27, 2019 21:03:02 GMT -8
what do you want from me? apprentice / tom / joined at 006 moons / not sure yet really feels like he needs to live up to something he just doesn't know it yet
you know, so we don't have to watch ourselves die
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Post by Deleted on Jul 27, 2019 21:36:48 GMT -8
we are broke for bricks, and the house is quiet elder / molly / joined at 088 moons / gay olden but golden elder lesbian vibes
you know, so we don't have to watch ourselves die
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Post by Deleted on Jul 31, 2019 18:35:26 GMT -8
"sweet runningstar, what brings you in my den?" speckledears purred, eyes half open. the elder den was the biggest badger den, and the smell hadn't quite wafted out yet. speckledears did not seem to mind though. "tell me about your times in the clan, please." runningstar sat down. he had the time to relax. hawkgaze and brackenpaw were on a patrol together, while softpetal hunted. the leader needed to decide between hawkgaze and softpetal as his new mentor, but the two of them were difficult choices. he could, theoretically, take brackenpaw on as his own apprentice, but that felt foolish as the silver cat had never been a part of a clan before, let alone been an apprentice himself or train one. no, it needed to be between the only other two warriors in the camp, both almost too young to have any good knowledge to share with the young paw. speckledears closed her eyes and let out a soft sigh. "my old clan was weak, i will admit. weak when i was born, weak when i was in my prime, weak when both the deputy and leader were wiped out by greencough and there was no one good enough to replace them. we followed the warrior code to the letter, maybe that was our downfall." "was your clan ever this weak, though? we've only got five cats." "the amount of cats does not matter. old pineclan had dozens of cats running around, but that did not make us strong. it's the fortitude of the cats that matter." she paused. "if a big enough group of rogues attack us, that'll be an issue, but this clan is tucked into its own little corner. it would be a pain in anyone's rump to get to it." "i don't know what to do, speckledears." runningstar laid down and put his paws over his eyes. "hawkgaze wants to be leader, i don't know what softpetal is thinking of any second of the day, and i really don't want to mess up brackenpaw's training." "eh. hawkgaze is all talk. it's really not that hard to take down a leader's lives. sure, you've got nine and he's got one, but if he was as strong as he claimed he was, you wouldn't be leader right now." runningstar blinked at her. "there were plenty of cats like him at old pineclan. all hiss and no fang. i'd say see who brackenpaw likes more. that's what matters, if an apprentice will listen to his mentor." she stretched and got up to lay down next to runningstar. "i will say this, runningstar. not a lot of cats in your position would be so willing to hear advice, let alone look for it. that speaks well for you, and well for your leadership. you should think better of yourself." they laid there for a few more minutes, runningstar running the elder's words through his head. he was thankful for her, and her advice. he heard a cat coming back, but was unsure if it was hawkgaze or brackenpaw or softpetal. "i should really go check on whoever that is— " he started. speckledears let out a loud snore and he snorted in laughter and exited the den.
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softpetal stared at herself in the creek. maybe it was the tricks of the water, but her eyes looked empty. her and hawkgaze were getting close. uncomfortably close. she could feel his brown eyes on her fur every second of the day aside from when she was looking at him instead. then, his eyes would wander everywhere but her face. how would she tell him? how would she tell him that he was wasting his time? she swatted at her reflection, scaring off small fishes that hid underneath the rocks. something familiar bubbled in her chest. at pineclan, the pineclan she found speckledears at, plenty of toms looked at her. stared at her. bored their eyes in her fur and made it burn and burn and burn. and how did she shoot these armies down? this legion of toms? she didn’t. she couldn’t. she didn’t enjoy the attention, but she felt something when she had it. it was hard for her to feel something. anything. maybe she wouldn’t tell hawkgaze he was wasting his time. there would be no point in breaking his heart right yet. maybe he would get over it. her mind was still in a tizzy from the thoughts that swirled in her head. she couldn’t focus on the prey in front of her. going back to camp empty handed wasn’t an option, seeing as they needed the supplies. her stomach grew lean from the small amounts of food they ate. runningstar said they just needed one more month of hunting, and that sounded reasonable enough to him but… she would love to nibble on a mouse right now.
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hawkgaze and brackenpaw returned to camp, watching runningstar dart out of the elders den. brackenpaw watched the lithe siamese with interest. he was young, but so was everyone else in camp. brackenpaw had never seen a deputy that young before, let alone a leader. “runningstar!” he shouted, racing towards the silver tom. hawkgaze opened his mouth to protest, but stopped himself. there was nothing for him to protest about, not yet. the cinnamon tabby stewed off to the side as the apprentice babbled to the leader. sure, it had only been a few days, but runningstar hadn’t chosen a mentor for brackenpaw yet, and he was getting annoyed. softpetal and hawkgaze had split their time with him equally over the past days, but that was no way to train an apprentice. especially since softpetal wouldn’t bother talking to him. there were a lot of things for him to stew over, between softpetal ignoring him and runningstar being late on his assignments and brackenpaw being a tedious handful. he flicked his tail and headed back to the warrior den to take a quick catnap before going out to hunt.
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“how is your training going?” runningstar asked brackenpaw. the young tabby was filled with energy, energy that needed to be put to better use. “great! hawkgaze is really cool, he took me to the mountain’s edge today and wow! it’s so big, and there’s two of them? it’s crazy.” runningstar smiled. good on hawkgaze to introduce him to the territory. “what have you been doing with softpetal?” “not a lot. lots of hunting. she taught me how to fish, so that’s cool.” there was significantly less exuberance in his voice with talk of the molly. there was runningstar’s answer. “good, good. the river is a good source of prey, everyone needs to know how to hunt.” and with that, runningstar leapt up to the trunk of the tree, his leader’s perch. and as if on cue, softpetal came back from her outing. hawkgaze, having noticed softpetal was back, came back out of the den. even speckledears was awake and laying in the sun. everyone was here and present. “brackenpaw, it is now your time for a mentor. hawkgaze, i appoint you as brackenpaw’s mentor, and i expect you to pass on your wisdom and passion to this young tom.” brackenpaw was buzzing with excitement. speckledears was smiling and let out a small chirp of approval. softpetal stared on at runningstar, and hawkgaze did the same with his jaw hanging open. brackenpaw sprinted over to hawkgaze and almost broke his snout from the force he pressed noses. hawkgaze stumbled before stiffening and voicing his acceptance. runningstar let out a breath of relief and adjourned the meeting. he walked over to speckledears. “good idea. the two of them got a lot of energy to use up. lots of training to do. see, i knew you could do it.” speckledears purred. runningstar purred back. maybe being a leader was easier than he thought.
wc: 1307 we'll sew our memoirs into their songbooks
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