dog days | hawkpaw

[Howlfire]

It had felt strangely lonely moving back into the warrior's den. Of course, there were a lot more bodies in here, but Howlfire had been used to spending her nights curled up with her kits. Now that they weren't there it felt strange. It felt lonely and quiet, even though there was still enough idle chatter in the background that it wasn't entirely silent in there. At least the only nice thing was getting to sleep close to Coyotecrest again, placing her new nest close to his, as had been customary since she first became a warrior.

Despite the initial unease, Howlfire woke up in quite a chipper mood the next morning. She rises from her nest slowly, stretches, and then pads into camp. There's a few faces already up and about and she makes a note of this before going in search of Hawkpaw. She pokes her head into the apprentice's den as quietly as she can, amber eyes scanning for a familiar mottled form, before finally spotting her daughter. "Hawkpaw," She trilled softly as she approached. When she doesn't stir immediately, Howlfire gives her a gentle prod with one of her paws. "Rise and shine," Howlfire beamed, when Hawkpaw finally looks at her. "Today is a big day for you! You're getting to begin your apprentice training!"

@Hawkpaw ​

 

[HAWKSPINE]

Hawkpaw finds herself in a weird part of the forest in tonight's dream, SkyClan's pines familiar above her, but the camp is nowhere to be seen. She's alone here, in this place she's been all her life yet never really stepped paw, and she doesn't know why that is. It's strangely foggy. The dream is stalled in place. however, when a gentle and familiar paw prods her side.

Hawkpaw curls in like one of those little armoured bugs, grumbling as if waking her up is a cardinal sin, but cracks one hazel eye open regardless. Howlfire's blurry form greets her, just like it always had, but her mother looks uniquely chipper as she meows We're going to begin your apprentice training! or something to a similar effect.

Hawkpaw sits up immediately, half her fur sticking up at a weird angle from her sleep and the other half messy from tossing and turning all night (she thinks of Cherrypaw, finding that she does not want to encounter the older apprentice today for fear of the expression on her face if Hawkpaw was to leave camp like this). Some part of her is still in that part of the forest, though it's fading even as she tries to grasp at it with her mind's claws.

"Yay," she musters, though her meow is thick with sleep and her eyes aren't very well focused just yet. A yawn surprises her, all kitten-teeth, but she seems a little more alert after it as she blinks at her mentor. At the very least a bit of yesterday's energy has returned to Hawkpaw as she queries, "Where are we going first?"

​

 

[Howlfire]

Howlfire chuckles at her daughter's initial remark. Despite her supposed excitement, her voice is thick with sleep and her eyes are heavy lidded and still not fully focused. Her energy seems to return slightly when she asks where they were going.

"Not far today," Howlfire responds. The torbie waits for her daughter to rise to her feet, gesturing with a flick of her tail for Hawkpaw to follow before continuing. "I thought we could spend some time getting to see the territory today. Start off slow before we focus on hunting and fighting techniques." Although those latter tasks were important to an apprentice's training, it had only been a day since Hawkpaw had received her name. There was no hurry for her to become a fully trained warrior.

A few cats are milling about in camp and Howlfire leads her daughter out of the hollow. A few nods and smiles are flashed in their directions but Howlfire doesn't spend much time to say full words of greeting. Once outside, Howlfire begins leading them in a westerly direction. "I thought we could see the Tall Pine first," Howlfire explained, looking to the smaller cat at her side. "If we have time and you're not too tired we could check out the Sandy Hollow too perhaps."​