WE AIN'T EVER GETTING OLDER // p, snakehiss

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    littlepaw couldn't believe it. sparrowstar, her mother, had just been exiled by none other than that smelly old rat. the apprentice dug her claws into the ground in frustration. she was supposed to be out collecting herbs for her mentors, but the apprentice couldn't take her mind off the recent events.


    finally, she spotted a patch of thyme beneath a rocky ledge. the apprentice trotted on over, balancing herself on several small stones as she leaned over the ledge, nipping the thyme stalks with her teeth. suddenly, a stone her paw was standing on gave way."oh!" she cried in surprise as the young apprentice found herself tumbling straight into the herb patch. her pelt was stained with thyme juices, and she had bruised several leaves in the process.
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  • [align=center][fancypost bgcolor= transparent; border: none; width: 450px; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;]Snakehiss flicked an ear back as he watched the apprentice fall over. He wasn't stalking her or anything, but he had just happened to be in the area to see this happen. "Perhaps you should leave the difficult tasks to your mentor." The Brit commented, padding forward and looking down at Littlepaw.


    Whoever her mentor is. It certainly wasn't Mossstep, the medicine cat back when he was an apprentice. Not that he really missed her or her sister, Daisystar, anyways. They didn't really like him; in fact, nobody really did. Moonflower? They constantly bickered as apprentices. Sparrowstar? They were practically enemies. He and his brother, Stonebreeze, suffered from sibling rivalry. He had even gotten into a fight with Moonflower's sister, Darkpaw, and bullied Blackpaw, another apprentice back in the day. He was a real jerk (and he still could be), but with his maturity came his ability to compress his lashing out against others.


    The smooth-coated black tom arched a brow slightly before adding, "Are you alright, then?" He wasn't the most sympathetic cat, a lot of others would agree. Even if he was sympathetic for someone, it's not like he'd pour out his heart to the other and try to comfort them to the best of ability. He really couldn't, as he wasn't exactly used to it.
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    "it wasn't difficult!" she protested to the sound of the voice, spitting the remaining thyme out of her mouth. a few fragrant leaves had unfortunately made their way in there in the process of her falling. at least, herb collecting hadn't been difficult until she fell in. "i'm fine, and i can handle it." the young she-cat meowed indignantly. ugh, why did everyone think she wasn't capable of being medicine cat apprentice? first butterflysong and thornfang, and now snakehiss. littlepaw didn't even know him that well.


    then, she noticed the thyme patch she'd crushed in her fall. oh dear. sandmask was going to be mad. littlepaw hovered over the patch, nipping the stalks she had bruised. it was better to collect them and use them now, rather than to wait for the plants to decay as they surely would after a few days. maybe someone in camp had a bellyache. actually, that didn't seem quite right. what did thyme do again?
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  • [align=center][fancypost bgcolor= transparent; border: none; width: 450px; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;]Not that Snakehiss thought that she was completely incapable, but perhaps someone bigger could reach the herbs better? Well, everything was said and done, anyways.


    "I'm fine, and I can handle it."
    "Obviously." Snakehiss managed a sly yet brief chuckle. He cocked a brow in amusement as she finished spitting out the herbs and then proceeded to pluck the rest of the herbs. "So... I presume you're the medicine cat apprentice?" Saying those words were almost painful. He wanted Winterpaw to come back, but if everyone said that she was gone, then she probably wouldn't return. She was probably dead. Those thoughts stayed at the back of his head for the most part, however.
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    "obviously," littlepaw imitated his tone as she simultaneously rolled her pale blue eyes. "i am. although some cats would rather me not be." she meowed, her annoyance lessening a bit. the small she-cat let out a small sigh with the last statement. butterflysong. with thornfang as the new leader, who knows how long it would be before he replaced the medicine cat team with butterflysong? "i suppose you're just a regular warrior, then? i haven't seen you around before."
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  • [align=center][fancypost bgcolor= transparent; border: none; width: 450px; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;]Snakehiss flicked his ears backwards as she mocked him, though she didn't keep on annoying him... somehow. Maybe because she wasn't reacting with more hostility like everyone else did?


    The black tom's ears returned to his normal state. He couldn't exactly comment on her status as medicine cat apprentice, nor critique her or anything like that. He had only been back for a few days. At the next question, he almost heaved a sigh. Almost. Everyone was asking or saying the same thing. Where had he been all this time? Who was he? What did he do? To Littlepaw, he would respond, "Indeed. And I've, er, been gone for a few moons, with being forced to leave and all." Snakehiss nonchalantly inspected his claws for a brief moment.
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    a look of surprise made its way on to littlepaw's face as the warrior said he'd been gone. "forced to leave? why?" she meowed, her voice curious with a slight hint of distrust mixed in. did sparrowstar force him to leave, moons ago? surely she couldn't, if she couldn't even make thornfang, an elder, leave. that sure would have saved a lot of trouble. "but you came back." littlepaw spoke her thoughts as they crossed her mind, her blue eyes almost out of focus as she thought about the situation.
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  • [align=center][fancypost bgcolor= transparent; border: none; width: 450px; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;]Snakehiss hated dwelling on the past, but he supposed that being somewhat vague about it would be alright. He had told pretty much the same story to everyone else that asked (it was mostly the new ShadowClanners that hadn't been there to know what happened). He heaved a sigh before answering, "The Dark Forest. They forced me into committing a horrible crime." Snakehiss blinked his narrowed green eyes before answering, "I suggest you do your best to stay well away from them. They tricked me into training with them when I was about your age." It was only a few moons ago. It was hard to imagine how different he had been back then.


    Oh, what was he kidding? He was pretty much the same.


    Snakehiss gave a lick of his paw before responding to her next statement, "Yes. Sparrowstar allowed it." The leader had once been an enemy (and probably still was) but for the sake of keeping the peace, he had to stop trying to bicker with everyone. "Once I heard that Sparrowstar became leader after Daisystar, I figured that her rules weren't relevant any longer."
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    "the dark forest?" littlepaw was taken by surprise. the warrior standing in front of her sure was grouchy, but she didn't deem him evil enough to be trained by the dark forest. "so you mean sparrowstar exiled you?" she asked, her blue eyes gazing at him with unseen intensity, carefully scrutinizing him. [b]"my mother wouldn't do that. she didn't even exile thornfang, even though she knew thornfang was plotting against her."[/b]


    "do you think thornfang's training in the dark forest?"
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  • [align=center][fancypost bgcolor= transparent; border: none; width: 450px; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;]The tom narrowed his eyes. "Sparrowstar is your mum?" He was surprised, honestly. When did she ever have the time to have kits? It must've been while he was in RiverClan.
    Snakehiss twitched a whisker before correcting her, "Daisystar, she exiled me." He felt tense even speaking the dead leader's name. "Er, well, Sparrowstar was the deputy at the time."


    He flicked his tail and took a seat, sweeping it over his black paws. "Him? That old tom? I'd be surprised if the Dark Forest even considered recruiting him, seeing how... feeble he could be." The Dark Forest could be training young cats instead of elders, unless they had good reason for talking with him. There was no way to know for sure; it's not like he would venture back just to find out.


    Snakehiss then realized something. They didn't know each other's names. If they were talking then they'd might as well give an introduction. He cleared his throat before speaking, "The name is Snakehiss, by the way."
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    "yeah, she's my mom." the apprentice said with a small sigh. even though littlepaw was adopted, she had idolized sparrowstar her whole life. she'd believed sparrowstar was the strongest cat of them all, and was therefore invincible. the recent events clearly proved otherwise, and littlepaw's perfect image of her mother had been shattered into pieces. why didn't she keep fighting?


    she was surprised at his next words. if starclan didn't approve of the old elder, then surely the dark forest did, since it was the opposite of starclan? anyhow, littlepaw was convinced her new leader was a tyrant. "i hate thornfang." she said angrily, digging her claws into the ground in frustration.


    "i'm littlepaw." it was easy to see why she'd been named what she was named. though she had obviously grown up from the day sparrowstar found her, littlepaw was still smaller than an average six moon old apprentice.
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  • [align=center][fancypost bgcolor= transparent; border: none; width: 450px; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;]Snakehiss blinked, hearing her say that she hated Thornfang. His eyes brightened in amusement and he murmured, "That's a bold statement." What if Thornfang was spying on them right now? He would've punished her, surely. He fought to take over the clan and if someone criticized him then he likely wouldn't want to hear it. As for him? He didn't like Thornfang very much as an apprentice, and he still didn't really like him, but they sort of held a silent respect for each other... at least it felt that way.


    The tom's maw quivered into a smirk. So, that was her name. "Littlepaw?" Snakehiss echoed. "It suits you, really." He shrugged before getting to his paws and returning his gaze to her. "So, are you set out to collect any more herbs? I'm hoping that you won't actually hurt yourself." Was that a rare thing for him to say? Yes. Although, it would be unfortunate for the medicine cat apprentice herself to get hurt.
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    littlepaw shrugged at snakehiss's comment, angling her ears pointedly towards him. "i'm a bold cat." she cared little of what thornfang thought of her, and was unafraid to speak out against the tyrant.


    her soft white ears flattened as the tom referred to her size. the young she-cat was sick of hearing about it. all she ever wanted was to be normal, like everyone else. "snakehiss suits you too." littlepaw responded with a flick of annoyance. "and yes, i am going to be collecting more herbs. i'll be needing a warrior to assist me, and you're perfect for the job." she smirked, and pushed a bundle of herbs his way, signaling him to pick it up.
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  • [align=center][fancypost bgcolor= transparent; border: none; width: 450px; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;]Snakehiss flicked an ear as she pushed the herbs towards him. He glanced from the herbs up to Littlepaw and he would say, "Are you sure that you don't want somebody else to do it?" Why didn't she just get someone to go with her in the first place? Unless she just wanted to get on his nerves.
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    "i'm sure you'll be just fine." littlepaw meowed sarcastically, flicking her tail to beckon him to follow her. "we'll be collecting some marigold, catmint, and cobwebs, in addition to the thyme." the young medicine cat apprentice definitely hadn't wanted to collect that many herbs when she set out on her herb collecting journey, but now that she had another pair of paws the bicolor supposed she could adapt her plan.
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