Posts by perturbedpococurante

Shadestripe looked up as Shatteredpaw approached him. He winced as he often did seeing her limp. As painful as it looked, it did give her an advantage in battle with the techniques that they figured out to ensure that she was able to keep her injured paw protected while giving the opponent an unwelcome surprise.
He looked up at the sky as his sister had done earlier and tasted the air. His first thought was to go hunting, but no doubt there would be plenty of patrols to take full advantage of the warmer weather of the morning, and he had thought of a new battle move he wanted to show her.
"I think we'll do battle training for now. On the way back we can sniff around to see if there's any prey left out of the ground."

Brambleface's ears pricked in surprise as Lionpaw mentioned fox scent. She parted her jaws to inhale more deeply, searching through the forest smells until she too found the odour. "Well scented Lionpaw," she praised. "But you're right, it's a few days old. No doubt out of the territory by now, but we'd better let the queens know just in case. They'd hate to be uninformed." As she finished speaking, she nearly jumped, but stopped herself in time. Just ahead, a mouse was scurrying about the roots of the trees, seeming rather frantic. Brambleface flicked her tail towards it and crouched lightly, signalling to Lionpaw that he should try to catch it. This would be a challenge for the apprentice, as it was moving so quickly, and she was eager to see how he would cope.

OOC: What does low muse mean? I'm new here and I see it everywhere.

Brambleface's ears laid flat against her skull when she heard the twig snap under Lionpaw's feet. As he leaped after it, tripping up, but still managing to catch the mouse, she padded up to him and laid her tail sympathetically on his shoulders. "It's alright. At least you caught it right? That twig was bad luck, even I didn't see it, and I was right to the side over there!" She gestured with her paw to the place where she had been crouching to watch him. "I'm impressed that you still managed to get it even after all that."

Realizing that Lionpaw's fur was giving him away to prey, Brambleface returned to his side with an idea. "You need to hide your pelt before you approach your prey." To demonstrate, she crouched down, crawling under a bush so that she was nearly completely hidden. Silently, she turned so that she was facing Lionpaw again, then leaped out of the bush suddenly, trapping a falling leaf beneath her paws. Brambleface straightened up, hoping that the technique would be useful.
"Let's travel a bit farther to where the prey hasn't been frightened, and try it there."

Brambleface emerged from another bush after Lionpaw's catch. "That was great Lionpaw! I think you've gotten that technique down well, so let's just hunt for the clan now. At sun-high, bring your catch back and meet me at the training clearing."
Giving Lionpaw a moment to acknowledge what she'd said, Brambleface ducked off into the trees. She was proud of her apprentice. He was very quick to learn. She was quick to fall back into memories of the apprentice ceremony in which she had been appointed his mentor, causing her to purr happily. Her thoughts distracted her, and she nearly jumped out of her fur when she saw the beige pelt of her father emerging from the bushes.
He seemed amused at her fright, whiskers twitching. This only served to sour her good mood. Her tail dropped to the grass and her ears turned. "What do you want? I'm trying to hunt here."
Thistlepelt didn't seem bothered by her sudden change of mood, though he did not answer her question.
"You seem fond enough of your apprentice."
This confused Brambleface. Who wouldn't be fond of their apprentice? It was probably among the strongest of bonds two cats could share, behind mates and kin that is.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Her tail tip twitched as she spoke, suspecting that he was trying to hint at some moral lesson she should learn like he always did.
"I suppose that's up to you. But I think it proves that you can be a very pleasant cat when you want to be."
Oh. Great. This talk again. Brambleface's ears flattened almost completely against her skull as she became impatient with his insistence upon her being less herself and more open and bubbly.
"And possibly even find a mate-"
"What? What right have you to tell me about finding a mate? You betrayed your clan with your mate! My very existence is against the warrior code and it's your fault. And here you are trying to tell me to find a mate? Besides. Maybe I have bigger plans that sitting around all day herding disobedient kids in and out of the nursery. Maybe I actually want to do some thing useful with my life. Change the clan for the better."

Thistlepelt was shocked by her explosion, ears laid back and eyes widened. He whisked his fluffed up tail in front of him while she fumed. He knew he'd messed up, but that seemed a bit much for a simple statement. After he'd fully untangled everything she'd been expressing, he attempted to help the situation.
"Having kits is very useful to the clan! If no queens had kits, then there would be no new generation of warriors. Besides, any kit of yours would grow up to be a wonderful warrior."
Brambleface seemed to be unconvinced, as she whipped her tail through the air, claws digging into the grass beneath her.
"I want to be deputy! I want to end up leader! I can't have kits and a mate using up all my time with aspirations like that! My chances have already been cut by being born to a non-clan cat." She spat the words 'non-clan' as though they were poison.
"Okay, we can stop bringing up the mistakes of the past!" Thistlepelt had finally had enough of her obsession with the fact that she wasn't fully clan-born. "I know I betrayed the clan by doing it, I know I reduced your chances in the clan, and I know it was selfish. Do you think I haven't spent every moment of my life with you and Shadestripe thinking about it?"
She finally seemed to become subdued. Her tail was no longer whipping threateningly, though she still seemed in a bad mood.
"I'm going to go finish hunting."
With that, she disappeared into the bushes, leaving Thistlepelt alone in the clearing. Now that he was out, he figured he might as well hunt for the clan as well. After all, he hadn't been put on a patrol seeing as the deputy was too concerned with his apprentice to organize them.

OOC: Holy crap, sorry about how long that is. I didn't realize until I posted.