The Kids Are Not Ok

yes, it does get awfully cramped within apprentice den. if it were not so cold at night, palepaw might have slept beneath the open skies where it is significantly less sweltering and oppressive. alas, it is merely new-leaf and the temperatures have yet to completely warm. the young male rose long before roaringpaw finally got fed up with the conditions within the apprentice den, and has been sitting in the silence, staring up at the moon with pale, glacial blue eyes. the sound of disturbance draws his attention away, however, and a soft smile tugs at his lips at the sight of his sister. "ah, hello, rory," he greets in a hushed voice, allowing a rare show of genuine affection for his sibling. "couldn't sleep?"

THIS IS MY FIGHT SONG — 💫

🔺🔻🔺

Hearing the hushed tones of his denmates aroused the sleeping tom. With groggy eyes, he peered over at the two who were chatting, Roaringpaw and Palepaw. There was no way he’d be able to sleep now he was awake. Inaudibly mumbling his annoyance to himself, Crimson summoned up the courage to speak with the other two. His father had been trying to coax him out of being afraid of conflict and standing with confidence. Crimsonpaw wanted that too, his brothers were amazing, even his sister was nonstop with her questioning the elders and other warriors. Seeing his own siblings were asleep, he padded over, avoiding the sleeping and gingerly stepping to keep quiet.

Pale red tipped ears pinned back as he greeted the two. “You guys couldn’t sleep either?”

I won’t cry anymore

✦ ✧ ✦ she wasn't asleep- nor was she in the den, neither in camp. she'd left a while ago, taken to wandering the burnt shells of her territory whenever sleep refused to arrive. wandering helped her mind a little, though she still battled with the fog that had decided to make it's way at home inside of her head. certainly she was no longer that bright little kid who asked questions. some of that still remained, but she was cooler now, for no apparent reason other than the clouding of her sharp mind.

her dappled pelt soft with dew, the girl would make her way back to camp, emerald eyes calm and flickering as she slipped through the entrance. she wouldn't get any sleep tonight, not with the den the way it was, nor with her brain fogging as it had been. her ears would flick up slightly as she noticed the three other shapes in the clearing. pretty face turning towards the three as they murmured low, she'd pad softly over. her brother, crimson, was among the little group and she nudged him softly with her tail in greeting. "i assume none of you could sleep." short and concise were her sentences, as crimsonpaw had already asked it.

It was pure luck that Roaringpaw hadn't stepped on Vixen's thin tail, curled tightly around the skinny lanky girl as she held herself in a tight ball, trying like she did as a kit to make herself small and unnoticed. She was usually the fiery girl, not afraid to yell at anyone or speak out of line and here she looked small, afraid. If sleep was when you looked peaceful, Vixenpaw never got the memo, her body tense and ears perked constantly, as though listening for powerful paws that would rip her out of her nest any moment.

It was this alertness and the fact that her sister's warm pelt left her that woke the sleeping girl, yellow eyes blinking away the wispy veil of sleep that covered her dandelion eyes before her features grew guarded and hard again. Voices. Why was anyone talking?! She turned and hissed, white tail tip flicking angrily, "Just because all of you take up the room in the den doesn't mean others aren't trying to sleep! Go outside if youre going to be talking." She was a stark difference to her siblings, small, tall wirey frame, the only tortoiseshell in her family and seemingly the only one with short fur. Compared to the others who were large, fluffy, and atleast looked like their parents, Vixen was the black sheep.

"speech"

"I meant out of camp, Roaringpaw. Maybe you'll get eaten by a fox and rid the camp of your ugly face and leave us with only one Bearclaw," She snapped back, ears falling back angrily. God, she just wanted to sleep, to rest before she went out training in the morning. But, as usual, her family wanted to take that away from her like so much else was taken from her. She tried to lay her head back down, ignore her siblings' annoying voices and escape. But the pretty girl had an issue that once she was awake, it was nearly impossible to go back to sleep.

She sighed exasperatedly before rising to her thin legs and stretched, back arching and legs stiffening. Maybe a run would help her go back to sleep, something that would get her blood pumping again. She turned, sashaying past her sister with an angry flick of her tail over the maine coon's ear. She knew it might atleast annoy her and she sat a ways away, running her tongue thoughtfully over her fur with back to the others.

"speech"

———— W O L F P A W ————

a wolf doesn't concern himself with the opinions of sheep

It was in these moments that Wolfpaw found solace in what the hours of darkness brought. The rather massive apprentice suffered from insomnia, so instead of loathing her condition she embraces it - seeing as though she may as well succumb to her nocturnal ways. Off in the distance, just a few feet away from the apprentice den was the babe's silk frame flushed against the threshold of a tree's trunk. Her crown facing skyward, counting the stars that decorated the night sky. Lost in the comatose of thought, she hadn't realized her siblings were beginning to stir. The beautiful jet black Maine Coon tilts her head to the right, nose wrinkling in disgust as the morbid scent of her kin clogged her airways.

'Lovely..'

Wolfpaw gyrates her head in the direction of petite and familiar voices, ones she knew all too well. No longer was she alone in the shadows, accompanied by the fledglings that called themselves "apprentices" - more like servants. Abnormally long claws sheath, slicing into the earth's soil like knife to butter. Her dagger-like fangs that resembled a wolf's, dug into the bottom of her black lips - annoyed and quite frankly, pissed off. 'Why couldn't I have been an only child?' Wolfpaw would voice to no one but herself, deep within the confines of her crazed mind. A roll of golden eyes and satanic growls, the black beauty turns on her heels so that now she was facing her two sisters, Crimsonpaw and Violetpaw. Her voice of warm silk flowing like a river from her tongue, words doused in venom directed at her kin. "Will you two just shut up!"

"Speech."

as much as palepaw would have preferred only the company of roaringpaw (perhaps the most tolerable of his sibling), he does his best to remain personable upon the arrival of both crimsonpaw and violetpaw. "unfortunately, it seems that sleep evades us all," he laments in a mildly joking manner, making a dramatic gesture with a free paw indicating the horde of apprentices which now seem to emerge from the den like ill-tempered rats. wonderful. a grimace mars palepaw's handsome visage as vixen's presence unfortunately sparks an altercation between herself and rory, eventually dragging the most foul of his sisters, wolfpaw, into the mix. wonderful. just wonderful. just when he thought he might get some peace and quiet.

"and now chaos ensues," mutters the young male beneath his breath, casting a freezing glare towards his bickering siblings. "i suppose we might as well wake the entire clan up at this point." if they aren't awake already. with all the moaning and groaning and snarling of tired apprentices, palepaw would be surprised if there were those who managed to sleep through it all.

"Don't you have some dung you need to be swallowing from father, Wolfpaw?" Came the snippy, venomous reply from the pretty tortoiseshell girl, running her paw over her ears in a casual way, flicking her thin tail dismissively at Rory. Palepaw then began to speak and, as one of her least disliked siblings, she felt the most annoyance from him, rolling her eyes exasperatedly at him. "Yes, please let's wake Father up. I'm sure that's a wonderful plan, Palepaw, just like how chewing off my own leg sounds like a great plan," She said sarcastically, shooting a glare at her brother before rolling her eyes again. Unlike Wolfpaw but still similarly, Vixen wondered why any of them were born if they did nothing but bicker and fight. She turned her attention to Violetpaw and narrowed her eyes again. That was that lil smart girl who thought she was just the shit. She flashed a cruel, faux smile that held more venom then even her most cruelest of words.

"speech"

do mouse-brained people just like hearing the sound of their own voice? is that why they never stop to think about their words? is that why they never shut up? although the young apprentice would rather eat his own foot than to admit it, palepaw truly does love his siblings. but he knows how horrible a majority of them are. they are the worst kinds of people, all twisted under the abusive of the world's worst father: bearclaw. he loves his horrible siblings, and yet he cannot resist the urge to put vixenpaw in her place. "if you had a brain in your head," he hisses softly; vexed yet also attempting to be respectful of those still sleeping. "you would understand that i was being sarcastic." palepaw rolls his eyes and turns away from her, not desiring to interact with his sibling any longer. he wishes that they could all just get along, but apparently his dream will never be realized.

✧ He was restless and sore. His body hurt from the day before and his mind was almost just as tired out. Snakepaw was so tired in fact, that he was too tired to tell them to piss off. That slowly changed as their volume increased. Snakepaw wasn't much of a hothead...but the lack of sleep put him on edge.

"Will you all please, for the love of StarClan, shut up?" snarled the brown Maine Coon as he rolled over and onto his feet. His eyes were still tired and trying to make sense of things, but he could both see and hear that his siblings were apart of this. "Some of us like our sleep!"

It was a low giggle to Snakepaw as her brother also had the same reaction as the small girl did, that annoyance before a warrior approached. Well, there went her sibling's targeting words to her when they were the ones who could never sleep and made it impossible for others to do so aswell. Then, a suggestion. Hunting. In the dark. Those bright yellow orbs swung around quickly, so wide and filled with the thrill of challenge and she twisted elegantly to walk over to Rustsky, a purr resonating in her throat, "Hunting in the dark is my specialty." The fox-like girl with her cruel smile sat pretty before the warrior, awaiting patiently for instruction on where to begin her hunt and leave her siblings in the dust.

"speech"