DECISIONS SIT, SO MAKE IT QUICK [cherrypaw]

[Sweetpaw .]

SWEETPAW - THUNDERCLAN - MALE - 6 MONTHS - SINGLE - HOMOSEXUAL (UNDISCOVERED)​

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As someone who was still pretty new to the clan - only about two weeks in- Sweetpaw didn't take it personally that he'd yet to recieve a mentor. There was a lot going on in the clan after all, and he was hardly about to make an extra fuss over something as inconsequential as his own education. After all, his mother had taught him some basic survival skills which included hunting, so even if he wasn't the best at it yet, it was still something he was capable of being successful at if he worked hard enough. And work he did. Young Sweetpaw never missed out on a chance to tag along with a hunting patrol to hone his skills, watching and studying those around him to try and pick up whatever skills he could from sight alone.

Studying others was a habit of his, a new one he wasn't even entirely aware he'd picked up. Still, when you had nobody teaching you things, you had to figure it out on your own, and so Sweetpaw would often take the chance to observe other when they were doing anything of importance. Later on, when he was alone, he would attempt to replicate what he'd seen and train himself until he could do it properly- or at least passably.

And this is what had led him to the Sandy Hollow on his own that day. He'd seen Cove pull off a cool move earlier where they'd blocked a piece of prey from bolting, and Sweetpaw was eager to try it out for himself, knowing his chances of catching food for the clan would increase if he could stop his quarry from bolting.

As his lean figure slipped through the trees to reach the spot though, he found it was already occupied. On the edge of the hollow, claws burried into the bark of a tree, was Cherrypaw. Green eyes widened momentarily in surprise before narrowing with interest. Sweetpaw had never climbed a tree before, had never had a reason to. Did Thunderclan cats have a reason to? Was this something else he should have been teaching himself? Suddenly uncertain, he found himself watching the lithe tomcat as they hauled their way up the trunk, trying to commit every detail he could to memory- the position of their legs, the way they pulled themselves up, how much effort each pull took.

He was going to have to try this as well at some point, less he fall behind in his training even more.
​

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A SHORT WHITE TOMCAT COVERED IN OFF-BLACK PATCHES AND SPECKLES, KNOWN FOR HIS PRETTY GREEN EYES

 

[Sweetpaw .]

@Cherrypaw

 

[Cherrypaw [in.]]

"THAT'S WHEN STRANGE SENSATIONS, START TO GROW"​

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His claws dig themselves in between the bark, holding himself steady at the trunk of the tree. While Cherrypaw had become a fine apprentice under Tybalt's watchful mentorship, he often traveled to the Sandy Hollow by himself to train. He had already grown taller than his sister, his legs were longer and lankier, and his facial features were becoming more and more prominent, and yet Cherrypaw was still recognizeable by his sandstone-colored stripes and light hazel eyes.
He's tired, dragging himself up the tree with a heavier grunt using his hind legs to propel himself forwards, not daring to lose too much momentum until he reaches the top of the tree. Actually, he's quite exhausted, and he isn't sure how long his lungs can go like this; by the time he reaches the branches, though, it's a fight with his front legs just to haul himself onto one of the lower branches. He cradles the branch for a few moments, but his breathing doesn't sound right, like he's having a fit. He crouches down low on the branch to keep himself from falling off as he starts wheezing and coughing--he's been coughing only a few days after Tybalt got sick, and he hasn't been able to control his wheezing fits since. His lungs felt worse from the cold, too, like the cold worsened the strange, tight feeling in his throat.

Cherrypaw hasn't said anything about his own sickness to his family, though; his sister's been through enough already, and she doesn't need to get sick from him. Instead, he retreats to his trees and his shrubbery, where the undergrowth alone could make someone as small as him disappear from sight. No one would notice, would they?
Just then, his eye catches sight of a new figure midway through the convulsions, and he sighs when they're finally over, though whether or not it is in relief or displeasure, he isn't too sure.

It looks like Sweetpaw, he notes to himself.

Once he's made sure his coughing won't start up, he begins his descent back down the tree, at first going backwards with his head facing towards the sky. He was careful to drop down every few inches or so, checking how low he was to the ground, then twists and kicks off from the tree with a start. Getting down was much easier than it was getting up, or so it was for Cherrypaw. He's heard of and seen many other apprentices get caught struggling to climb back down, but he had no qualms with that particular issue.
His concerns--and his attention--were always somewhere else. While his sister adventured out into the brave wilderness of the forest to learn everything she could, he wandered without any particular goal in mind. He was often left in the background of most of it, out of the spotlight while his sister was the center of it all.

That, was the true reason why Cherrypaw was out alone in the Sandy Hollow, practicing his leaping into and out of trees even with his struggling chest. He wasn't even sure if his dad had noticed he had been coughing more and more recently, but he did not speak of it; there was no use.

"Why are you staring." He faces the black and white tom with a cool composure, and though he found it odd, if not mildly weirded out, he didn't seem to have any harsh reaction towards Sweetpaw for catching him in the act.​

✦ ✦ ✦​

 

[Sweetpaw .]

SWEETPAW - THUNDERCLAN - MALE - 6 MONTHS - SINGLE - HOMOSEXUAL (UNDISCOVERED)​

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While Sweetpaw had not been born into Thunderclan, the new 'paw' had taken to it like a fish took to water. He had never been built to wander the world alone like his mother and he'd only started to realize that after he'd been left on his own for those few months, every moment of his day revolving around trying to survive. He'd worried at first that something like that had meant he was weak, his mothers haunting words of 'only the strong survive' constantly hanging over him like a dark cloud raining doubt upon his shoulders, but those thoughts had changed after joining Thunderclan.

The cats here were unlike any of the strays, barn cats, or kittypets he'd met during his travels- and there'd been a lot of them! While some had certainly shared close bonds with one another, friendships and families ties that persisted well beyond kithood, none of the cats had looked after one another as closely as the Thunderclanners did with their clanmates. There was something systematic about it, a beautiful web of purpose and protection that extended to each cat in the group, and Sweetpaw was determined to make himself truly a part of it.

And so he took every oppurtunity he could to watch, to find ways in which he could replicate the traits and talents most useful to those around him.

And Cherrypaw had apparently caught him in the act.

Cheeks and ears flushed red beneath pale fur as the words reached him, and he shifted on his feet, embaressed to have been caught.

"Sorry!" he rushed out, offering the pale ginger tom an apologetic smile. "I happened to see you climbing and I think I just got distracted. Your really good at it!" he sad, padding toward the other with a friendly swish of his tail.

"Did your mentor teach you how to do that? I've never been up that high before. " he admitted, the majority of his climbing having been on fenceposts, stacks of hay, or trees with low-hanging branches.
​

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A SHORT WHITE TOMCAT COVERED IN OFF-BLACK PATCHES AND SPECKLES, KNOWN FOR HIS PRETTY GREEN EYES