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Post by shadow on Mar 6, 2013 0:20:17 GMT -5
LICHENPAW The sun was already comfortably settled in the sky by the time Lichenpaw finally rolled out of the apprentice’s den with a yawn. Sure, he was a bit late getting up, but he had no one he wanted to impress, so why bother rising with the sun? He didn’t quite have an official mentor yet, so he figured he might as well make use of this extra free time he had on his paws without some older cat bossing him around to get up. And what better way to use time than to get a bit more sleep in? Quite the obvious answer, really.
With another loud yawn, the young apprentice paused to stretch the stiffness from his muscles before passing by the fresh-kill pill to snatch up a small fish. Maybe he’d go hunting later or something, but for now, he decided to enjoy the bit of warmth that was in the air while he enjoyed his breakfast. Or was it lunch now? Hm. Either way, he certainly wasn’t going to jump right into being active and helpful, nope, not without a nice full belly.
He shifted, settling in a nice sunny patch to take a few bites of his small meal before glancing around, blue eyes taking in his surroundings. For a brief moment, he hoped to spot his sister, just to have a bit of company. His eyes didn’t her spot her familiar pelt, though, and he felt a pang of loneliness in his chest before he shoved it away with a loud sigh. He didn’t care, not really. She had her life, he had his. It was nice being by yourself, after all. You didn’t have to impress anyone, or worry about staying friendly and smiling all the time. Yup. Perfect.
Lichenpaw found him frowning to himself and with a small shake of his head, focused on finished off the fish he had snatched up before stretching out on his belly with a content hum. But now what to do? It was such a nice day, leaf bare finally beginning to loosen its chilly hold on the land and letting some of the warmth from the sun reach the ground below. Why waste such a nice day with such mundane tasks such as hunting or running errands? Lichen snorted to himself. As if those tasks would become so much more exciting when he was a warrior. Ah, well. Maybe something exciting would happen. A war could spontaneously break out, right? That would be interesting. Or not. Hm. Well maybe not something quite so dreadful, but surely something could come along to occupy his attention. The camp was only so interesting, after all.
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flyaway
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Post by flyaway on Mar 6, 2013 19:52:00 GMT -5
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He held a minnow trapped between his paws. Of course there was no danger of the minnow swimming out of his grasp. The light in its eyes had long since gone dim. It had stopped its struggle. Some capable warrior had sunk their teeth into the neck of the small silver fish. And now Basilpaw held the minnow between his paws. He liked the feeling of the scales against his paw pads. They were smooth, flaked off. And sometimes he would catch them later, the little flakes glittering between his ginger and white fur. Perhaps it was silly. But he was young and valued such things.
He bent his head, tearing off a strip of sweet fresh meat. He gulped it down, one bite after another. He wasn’t rushed, but neither did he take a lackadaisical approach to his meals. He didn’t like risking being approached. Another apprentice, a warrior even might walk up and trap him in conversation. He ate off to the side, kept his head down, his attention focused on his fish and nothing else. He spent only a moment after his meal swiping his tongue around his lips, along his paws. By the time he had finished, the sun was just beginning its afternoon descent. In a few hours the daylight would leak away and leave them in the darkness of night.
Training with Shadestar had long since finished. He had an entire afternoon, precious time to do with as he pleased. His tail flicked against his back legs in anticipation. He enjoyed his wandering. He envisioned travelling the world. Though in reality, the territory of Riverclan was a wide enough world for him. Someday he considered seeing the territories of the other clans. But he figured unless Riverclan invaded, he didn’t have much of a chance of setting a single peaceful paw inside the alluring territories of Windclan or Shadowclan. He stood, shaking out his ginger and white patched fur. Warriors and apprentices milled about. Some were clustered in pairs sharing tongues, others lay napping in rare patches of sunlight. He glanced towards the entrance of the camp. It was open, alluring. It almost mocked him. A light wind rustled the reeds, seemingly begging him to run amongst them – to allow the stiff grasses and reeds of the water to rub against his fur and leave their imprint of pure Riverclan. A smile crept over his lips and he began to slink towards the entrance. He could vanish, slip between the reeds. And he could be gone, he could be free to wander the river. Perhaps he would nap on the riverside, a nest of stones and a trickling lullaby. With these images in mind, his tailtip swished and vanished through the entrance. He walked, allowing the sounds of camplife to dwindle to silence behind him.
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Post by shadow on Mar 9, 2013 20:41:43 GMT -5
LICHENPAW Despite the soothing warmth from the sun that had pulled several cats around camp into a light doze, Lichenpaw was wide-awake, eyes flicking around camp wherever a bit of movement caught his attention. He was just so bored. Maybe he’d just go out on his own? Surely something, somewhere was going on. If all else failed, he could go sneak in on some other apprentice’s training or something just a bit more thrilling than laying around camp all day.
He was shuffling these thoughts lazily through his mind when a ginger-and-white movement caught his eye, and he turned his head to find his focus settled on another apprentice. He recognized the older Basilpaw, and a small, curious frown settled on Lichenpaw’s face as he watched the other tom’s progress. Was he…sneaking out? Not that there was much to sneak away from, but the other cat certainly wasn’t striding out of camp with a confident step, oh no. He looked like he wanted to get out unnoticed. To bad for him, that plan had definitely failed.
A wide smile crossed Licenpaw’s maw at the sight of the vanishing cat, a million ideas pounding through his mind before he settled on one. A simple plan, just to follow the other, see where he was going. Maybe he had a secret mate in another Clan! Hm. Unlikely, but getting in this other’s business certainly wasn’t a bad idea. He cast a quick glance around camp to make sure no other cat was making any move to follow after Basilpaw, and the young apprentice grinned when it seemed he was the only one with the plan to pursue the other.
He stood, taking his time to stretch out his limbs before strolling carelessly out of camp, his tail giving a small flick before disappearing among the reeds. His eyes soon fell on the retreating form of Basilpaw, and Lichenpaw quickly took off after him. Soon, though, he began to abandon the idea of just following the other and being nothing more than a spy. He was acting like a lovestruck kit trying to follow after a crush! And he certainly wasn’t lovestruck. Not by a tom. His chest constricted painfully at the thought, and he quickly shoved that line of thinking away. No, no. He didn’t come out here to fight with himself over who he was, he came out here to see what Basilpaw was doing!
With a soft huff, he sped up his pace until he was hardly a tail-length behind the other tom. Well if spying on the other tom was not cool anymore, than he sure as heck wasn’t gonna stay silent. “So, whatcha up to?” he then spoke up, his meow loud and cheerful and not really caring whether or not he startled the other cat. That was part of the fun, after all. “Where are we headed?”
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flyaway
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Post by flyaway on Mar 10, 2013 21:47:16 GMT -5
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As soon as the camp vanished behind him, he allowed himself to breathe a sigh of relief. He paused, drawing himself up. He had escaped, slipped out unnoticed – or so he thought. And now he was free. An entire world, endless opportunities, stretched out before him. He could run, soar in a single bound across the river’s banks. It was exhilarating, truly. He sucked in a breath, the icy late-winter air stung his lungs. But he didn’t care, he couldn’t for the life of him bring himself to care. He unsheathed his claws, kneading the soft dirt beneath his feet happily. A moment later he was moving again, a leisurely pace. After all, he had no place to be and no place in particular to go. Perhaps he would wander near the Gorge – not too close of course. Just close enough to feel the thrill, to look across into Windclan territory. Or he could plunge himself into the river, emerge with his fur slicked to his skin, perhaps a shining trout flopping in his jaws. Or perhaps, even better, he would do nothing at all. He would lie and daydream about various little joys with no one to begrudge him his simple day.
“So whatcha up to? Where are we headed?”
He heard the pound of paws, the telltale pursuit, far too late. He started, his fur bristling for a moment as he whirled to find Lichenpaw standing quite contentedly at his tail. His eyes popped and he stumbled back. His earlier moment of peace, of confidence and anticipation, had evaporated completely. In the presence of another, in such an unexpected circumstance, he crumbled to awkward stuttering. “I…what…nothing.” He stuttered, stumbling over his words. Slowly, his fur returned to normal. But the wariness, the obvious discomfort, didn’t leave his gaze. He swallowed, trying to steady himself. “I-I was just going for a w-walk.” He shuffled his paws. He hadn’t asked for company. And quite frankly he didn’t want it. But there was no polite way to say such a thing. So instead he stared at the ground below him, heat rising to his cheeks. He dissolved into mumbling. “I was only going out for a minute. I’m going to go straight back.” His ears flicked, pressing against his skull. His tail curled and uncurled nervously. He wanted an escape route, a sudden option to turn and run. But none seemed to present itself. They were far enough from camp that no one would stumble on them, pull Basilpaw away. Honestly, they were too far for Basilpaw to even pretend he had been on a “short walk” either. He was flat in the middle of Riverclan territory, the wind at his heels and the river singing his beckoning. He could no more lie than he could strut through camp with all of Kiteswoop’s pride. So instead, he settled for staring at his paws – staring and mumbling.
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Post by shadow on Mar 15, 2013 16:09:05 GMT -5
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[/div] YOU THINK THAT YOU CAN TAKE ME ON?
- - - - YOU MUST BE CRAZY Lichenpaw couldn’t help but burst out into laughter at Basilpaw’s reaction, stumbling back a few steps to give the other tom some room to calm down. Goodness, what a mess this apprentice was! Stuttering and stammering his way through a weak excuse that Lichenpaw didn’t even care about. While Lichenpaw waited for the other cat to finally say what he wanted to say, he gave him a good look over. From his month in training, he had been able to see that Basilpaw wasn’t one of the most confident and outspoken toms in the Clan, that definitely wasn’t hard to figure out. But Lichenpaw was three moons younger, three moons less experienced and less trained than the older Basilpaw was, and yet the ginger and white tabby still had no sense of superiority! Basilpaw had every right in the world to snap at him, to send him back to the Clan, and yet he had simply offered up weak excuses. So Lichenpaw, despite his small size, drew himself up a little taller, puffing out his chest just a bit more as he felt himself label this tom as beneath him. What an unconfident and skittish tom. How was he ever going to be a warrior?
“A walk, of course.” Lichenpaw said, frowning seriously for a moment as he nodded his head in understanding, “Just for a bit of fresh air, right?” He paused just a moment before the stern face broke, letting the grin reappear on his maw. “That’s why we’re halfway to the border by now!” He snorted with amusement to himself, taking a moment to stretch out his paws before padding over to Basilpaw with a roll of his eyes and a light flick of his tail to the other's shoulder. “Calm down before you make a fool of yourself.” he then suggested, not that he hadn’t already become a fool in Lichenpaw’s eyes, “I’m not going to drag you back to camp! Great StarClan, no.” He scoffed at the idea. Be the dutiful little apprentice and keep his fellows in line? Definitely not! He could care less what Basilpaw did with his spare time. Lichenpaw was simply bored, and Basilpaw was his unlucky victim for the day. The situation was much like when Lichenpaw was still a kit, dragging his sister around on silly adventures and not caring if she wanted to join him or not.
“So come on then!” he then meowed cheerfully to the older tom, eyeing him with a smirk, “Where were you headed? The day is still young, we can fit in an adventure or two before someone notices we’re gone!” Surely Basilpaw wouldn’t turn down that plan? As weak as he appeared, there was no way he could turn down the chance to have a little fun! Unless Lichenpaw had ended up scaring him away. Hm. Well he would just follow him around until he agreed to hang out. Basilpaw would just have to put up with him until Lichenpaw could locate someone a little more exciting to spend time with, though truthfully, the idea of seeing how this older yet obviously lesser tom responded was a bit exciting to the young apprentice.
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flyaway
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Post by flyaway on Mar 17, 2013 13:50:31 GMT -5
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Basilpaw’s ears flicked back against his head, an embarrassed frown tugging at his lips. Lichenpaw’s laughter was harsh in his ears, mocking and cruel despite its true nature. His shoulders hunched. He wanted to curl in on himself, vanish, escape yet another social failure. He had thought himself so perfectly alone, for once graced with a moment of peace and solitude. And Lichenpaw had robbed him of this quiet desire. Lichenpaw had stolen it away, trampled on it, shredded it to pieces, only to use it to beat Basilpaw into the dirt. Basilpaw slowly raised his head, looking at Lichenpaw. What made the other apprentice so much more worthy of respect, of kindness? He could see no reason. His jaw clenched. Yet Lichenpaw seemed oblivious. He was happy to continue mocking, to snort his amusement, his cruel eyes dancing, his shallow chest puffed with self-importance. The words were continuous slaps to his face. He couldn’t hear the teasing, the innocence. All he heard was the culmination of humiliation, of moons of wishing he were something else, of envy and quiet struggle. And something in him, for just a single instant, a single precious instant, snapped. A fire lit in his eyes and he stood, drawing himself up.
While he was not massive, he was older and bigger than Lichenpaw. His gaze was fierce. “Leave me alone!” He snapped the words, not a hint of a stutter. “No one asked for your opinion!” He whirled around, his single moment of bravery melting away. But he didn’t want Lichenpaw to see. He didn’t want to be observed melting back into a stuttering stumbling puddle. So instead, on slightly shaking paws, he began to stalk away. His head was low, his ears pinned back. His tail flicked back and forth against his legs – though rather in anger or anxiety, it was impossible to tell. A moment later he heard the pursuing pawsteps of the other younger apprentice. Cheery words rang in his ears. It was as if his moment of bravery, of fury, had never even happened. Basilpaw could even hear a smirk on the other tom’s lips. But his time to rebel, to stand for himself, had passed. Instead his ears flicked. He kept his eyes trained ahead. “I dunno…” His voice was low, not stuttered but not exactly loud and proclaiming confidence. He half-shrugged, glancing askance at Lichenpaw.
He would have preferred the solitude. Perhaps he could scare the other tom, intimidate him into retreating. He swallowed. “I’m going to the Gorge.” It was absolutely forbidden to apprentices, on pain of very harsh punishments. Not many risked it, Basilpaw included. Occasionally he wandered near, but nowhere within the danger range. He kept his voice even, hoping the prospect would intimidate Lichenpaw enough to back up. He ventured again. “I – I’m going to the very edge.” He wouldn’t, not truly. But Lichenpaw didn’t have to know that. All he had to do was turn and run. Basilpaw sent a prayer to Starclan, begging for release, begging for a single blessing. Let Lichenpaw turn away, let him be left in peace. Let his afternoon be restored to the promise it had once held.
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Post by shadow on Apr 2, 2013 22:22:18 GMT -5
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[/div] YOU THINK THAT YOU CAN TAKE ME ON?
- - - - YOU MUST BE CRAZY For one brief fleeting moment, Lichenpaw almost feared that he had misjudged Basilpaw, that he had gotten something wrong in his brief assumption of the other’s character and that the stammering apprentice he had just met wasn’t truly a weak apprentice after all. The other’s outburst caught him off-guard, a bit of hesitation passing through the brown and white tom’s mind as he watched the other spin around and begin to stalk away. And for a moment, Lichenpaw didn’t follow, mouth almost beginning to form irritated words about the other cat overreacting and how it was just some fun. But his mind was quick though, swiftly realizing that Basilpaw’s outburst wasn’t his true character, simply a façade put up to cover his true feelings. How silly. Lichenpaw was right about this cat, and no amount of angry outbursts was going to stop him now. So he quickly sprung after the other, tail and head held high as he confidently took a place next to the larger apprentice.
He walked in silence as he waited for Basilpaw’s response, an amused smile remaining on his face as his eyes shifted between the other cat and whatever invisible path they were walking. He rolled his eyes at the mumbled uncertainty that Basilpaw first spoke, mouth opening to ridicule the other for not even knowing where they were headed, though he paused again as Basilpaw added more to his words. And once again, Lichenpaw was surprised, but only for an instant. What in the world was this tom trying to do? Scare him off with the prospect of visiting the Gorge? Lichenpaw almost found himself bursting into the laughter the second time that afternoon, but he managed to keep his amusement to himself this time. Laughing in the other tom’s face hadn’t turned out so great last time, and he didn’t want to ruin his chances of getting a truly good adventure out of this stumbling apprentice.
“The edge of the Gorge? Are you sure?” he repeated, momentarily feigning shock at the concept with widened eyes and a solemn face. Let Basilpaw think for a moment that he had scared him off, the fool. Of course, the idea didn’t bring any fear at all, only excitement. The Gorge would be a thrill, and it would be fun to see just how close to it Basilpaw was willing to go to keep up this ‘I’m brave’ act. “Well if you insist, then by all means, lead the way.” He gave the other tom a wide smile, his eyes bright and daring as he dropped his shocked act to let his true delight show. He would show this tom up, wiggle his paws right over the edge if he had to! It would be exciting to see just how far Basilpaw was willing to go with this whole ‘edge of the Gorge plan’. This was turning out to be a more exciting afternoon than he had thought!
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flyaway
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Post by flyaway on Apr 3, 2013 12:56:00 GMT -5
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For a foolish blessed moment, Basilpaw actually thought he had won a singular tiny triumph. He believed Lichenpaw would fade away, go about his own business. And Basilpaw would be free to return to his peaceful solitude. He was actually quite proud of himself. He’d never been the type to raise his voice, to incite or respond to any sort of conflict. He was a quiet soul, likely too quiet and withdrawn for his own good. Though Shadestar was slowly remedying that. She promised that by the time he became a warrior, he’d be glorious in his own right. Thinking of his leader, Basilpaw couldn’t help but smile. A warmth filled his chest. He’d long since lost track of hours spent curled up with her, at the river banks, sometimes after a patient training session. Sometimes she would rest her tail on his nose, tease him or smile at him. She drew him out of his shell, made him feel how he imagined Kiteswoop might feel – daring and confident. He loved her, more dearly than he could remember loving his mother, and in an entirely different way than he loved his brother. He imagined, in the coming days, when he told Shadestar of this little encounter – perhaps she would purr with pride.
But his self-satisfaction didn’t last. A moment later he heard the thud of pursuing pawsteps. He could imagine, without looking, the smug smile on Lichenpaw’s face. The other tom was close, matching step. And every ounce of Basilpaw’s pride melted away. He knew, in a way. It could never have been so easy to shake the other tom. If it had been – well Basilpaw would have managed to wriggle out of a number of other decidedly unpleasant encounters. His head sagged slightly in defeat. He had given his all – or at least a short burst of the slight defiance he had. And now he was left to his own shy devices. His ears flicked uncomfortably. He swallowed. His voice was low, quiet, though he was proud he managed not to stutter. “Yeah. I’ll be a warrior soon. I can go there if I want.” It was truly only forbidden to apprentices, though most warriors didn’t bother to approach the Gorge. There was no reason to. There was no prey, no herbs to be gathered, nothing of use. And yet it drew apprentices like himself and Lichenpaw. He pursed his lips slightly.
He wanted to sound confident, sure of himself, but he’d long given up on such impossibilities. He plodded along in silence for a while. It was almost a meandering pace. He was in no hurry to actually approach the Gorge. He knew Lichenpaw would challenge him, make him prove he was brave enough to go to the very edge. Plus, he was the older apprentice here. Shouldn’t he be the one in charge, the tough one? The idea was laughable. Basilpaw had never been a leader. He cast a glance Lichenpaw’s way, his eyes flashing. “Why are you here, why are you even bothering?”
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