superman ain't got nothing on me | open + joining

[justify]
Falconpaw had heard of RiverClan before, many times in fact. As far as clans went, they were one of the bigger names. Not because they were notoriously evil or rebellious like some other places the male had heard of, but because they were one of the "big four". From the boy's understanding of clans and their history, RiverClan was one of the four original clans to be founded. The others hadn't been around nearly as long and maybe that was what drew him to the river surrounded clan. They had a long and extensive history and Falconpaw was the sort of feline who found stories of the old days and things long since gone to be rather intriguing. Maybe it wasn't the history at all, maybe it was the idea that they lived on an island, that they had a library and that they were surrounded by water. Everything about the place seemed quite exhilarating to the youngster and although he wasn't capable of pinpointing just what it was that had drawn him to the place, the grey mackerel tabby could be seen emerging from the river.

He had grown up by water and as such, he'd been taught to swim as a kid. Water wasn't a problem to him and although he wasn't necessarily muscular, traversing the chilly flow of the river hadn't bothered him much. It was winter though, and as the quite wet form of the apprentice-aged boy emerged from the river he could be seen to shake some of the water off of his pelt, in a manner that many related to dogs. He wasn't a sulk or anything, but not even Falconpaw was oblivious enough to deny the fact that it was pretty cold. Thus the sooner he got this over with the better.

Falconpaw didn't want to intrude and so he stayed on the banks of the river, his yellow eyes looking out at the forested island he now stood on. 'What if I'm at the wrong place and there's no one even here?' the grey striped boy found himself thinking, worrying despite the fact that this island certainly seemed like the place he had been told about upon asking of RiverClan's whereabouts. Shaking his head slightly to rid himself of his worries, he scolded himself silently. 'Shut up, silly, they're definitely here.' Falconpaw did try to be optimistic, just sometimes it wasn't his first reaction to a situation. But with this much cheerier thought in mind, the eight moon old boy called out loudly in the hopes that someone would hear him. [b]"Hello! My name's Falconpaw and I was looking at joining, please." Say what you wanted about the boy, you couldn't deny he was a genuinely nice guy. He even had some pretty decent manners!

[justify]
Despite not being impatient at all, as soon as he had spoken, the male got to worrying about whether there was anyone on the island. Maybe, just maybe, he had managed to come to the wrong island. 'You idiot! There's no one here!' the boy was telling himself just as the figure of Stormglass came into view. The feline walking towards him was obviously much older than him and his tone of voice was warm and friendly sounding. The tomcat had cloudy looking green eyes, wore a small smile and looked quite professional as he made his way over with quick strides. If his words weren't as welcoming as they were then Falconpaw might have found him intimidating, but the offers he made and the questions he asked made him much less intimidating. In fact the only really intimidating thing about the guy was the way his very presence seemed to command respect and without knowing him, the apprentice already respected the guy before him.

Honey hued eyes on him, Falconpaw let himself return the older tomcat's small smile. [b]"Thank you! Ah, I think I'm alright. But a tour would be great, thanks." The younger lad found himself meowing, ears pricked and slanted forwards in the male's direction. A tour sounded great - he may be curious but he didn't fancy getting lost in the middle of his new found home.

ooc. thank you for the welcome, and that would be great if he could <3

[justify]
The sound of hooves drumming against the ground had caught the attention of the male and his amber gaze had drifted away from Stormglass to settle upon the unicorn. Falconpaw knew what unicorns were of course, never had he seen one though. Looking at the quine before him, the youngster showed his intrigue in the widening of his eyes as he looked at the unicorn as they stopped before him. At first the unicorn seem somewhat friendly but as he spoke, the apprentice watched the older male's expression become stony as he took a step back. "Welcome to RiverClan. I'm Lonhro Xerses." Lonhro Xerxes? It sounded like a cool name, one that Fal liked much better than his own name. Shooting the unicorn a smile the boy gave a nod of his head. [b]"Thank you, Lonhro." He meowed, his words portraying his quite genuine and friendly nature.

Falconpaw's attention didn't stay on Lonhro for long though, this was mainly due to the fact that an approaching figure had caught the boy's eye. Gaze leaving the unicorn, the apprentice watched as a kitten a handful of moons younger than himself joined the group. The kid had a pair of keen blue eyes, wore a small grin and introduced himself as Anakin. Giving the kitten the same small smile he had given Lonhro, Fal spoke up. "Nice to meet you, Anakin." The boy said in response, giving another small nod of his head as he spoke. If Falconpaw seemed tense then it was probably because he was. It was the first time he had joined a clan despite his name which was in the style of a clanner. His parents had been clanners from only God knows where and thus Fal and his siblings had been named accordingly. They hadn't been born into their parent's clan though and at the time of their birth neither of his parents were still in their former clans. So technically, he supposed they had been what most people called loners. They had been clan-less.

Almost immediately after he had spoken to Anakin, another feline was wandering over. This time it was a female with the same blue eyes as the kid, she stood close beside him which made Fal wonder, however briefly, if they were related. Not that you had to be related if you looked alike - people could look alike and not be related at all! He wasn't trying to be prejudice or anything in thinking such thoughts, he just thought that as they were both RiverClanners and they certainly had the same eyes that maybe they were family... Anyway, the girl didn't introduce herself as such but she did welcome him and ask where he was from. "Thanks, it's a pleasure to meet you too. Ah, I probably couldn't give you an exact location to be honest..." Falconpaw meowed, his voice trailing out at the end of his sentence. It was the truth, he didn't know the name of the place that they'd lived in, he only knew that it was hilly and that there had been lots of trees. Like a forest or something! "Back that way somewhere - hilly with lots of trees." The boy managed to say, nodding his head behind him to indicate that his old home had been somewhere behind him. Not that he would count it as close by, after all it had taken him the better part of two days to reach RiverClan.

His attention was once again stolen though, this time by yet another kitten, although this one had a small quokka running along behind it. Falconpaw had only seen one or two quokkas in his lifetime but he wasn't going to lie, the small brown-furred creatures were pretty cute. Not that his father had encouraged such an outlook on other animals, to Fal's dad quokkas had just been a nice dinner meal or something. Fal had never been anything like his dad, clearly. Giving the boy his small smile he gave another little nod of his head before speaking. "Nice to meet you," Fal meowed before his gaze shifted awkwardly to the quokka. "And you too, of course." Should he have spoken to the quokka? He had no idea and maybe he looked stupid now but he hadn't wanted to be rude to the marsupial. Even quokkas had feelings!