DON'T LOOK! | prompt, frozen puddle

[badgerstripe]

-ˋˏ ༻☽༺ ˎˊ- If there's one thing every cat knows, it's that there's nothing quite like a drink of ice cold water for a parched mouth. Leaf-bare is perfect for this.. if you know where to look. Most puddles freeze this time of year, but thin ice can be easily cracked and lapped from - some frozen puddles even succumb to the weight of water on their own, leaving a layer of pristine liquid right on top.

Badgerpaw was meant to be out hunting, but as usual, she was slacking. Instead, she took her time around the territory, enjoying the scenery. The air was remarkably docile today, for a leaf-bare morning that is, making the conditions perfect for a stroll. Even without her friends, the tortoiseshell enjoyed her time, and neglected her duties all the same. It was when the apprentice paused by a nearby puddle that she swiped her tongue across her maw. As absent-minded and distracted as she was, she often forgot to drink, and the appearance of the crystal-like water reminded her of her thirst.

Had she stopped to perform the correct procedure for drinking from a thinly frozen puddle, maybe she could have avoided what was coming next. But Badgerpaw was no stickler for the rules; if she wasn't bending them purposefully, she simply didn't think of them. Without checking to see if the layer of water wasn't actually solidified, and especially without breaking the ice to open up to that water, Badgerpaw bent down towards the pond and reached towards it in one confident lap.

The "water" was cold against her tongue, and unusually dry. Realization struck her in an instance, followed by a sharp pain that ripped through her mouth as she attempted to pull back from the ice she had so carelessly licked from - and finally, finished by a sour wave of humiliation as she recognized the circumstances she had put herself in. Her tongue had frozen to the ice. After several attempts of trying to pull her head back, feeling as if her tongue would tear in half with each attempt, Badgerpaw finally fell still. She shuffled closer to the pond's edge, feeling her neck ache with the effort to hold her head in place, while her fluffed out tail wrapped around her now trembling body. "E-elm..!" she managed through her mouth agape - softly at first, but frantically increasing in volume. "Elm! Elp! I-.. uck!"

‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎┌── HYPNOTIZED BY THE LIGHTS ⋅❁⋅ MAN, THIS MUST BE THE LIFE ──┐‎

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  BADGERPAW ✩ she/her, apprentice of thunderclan, nine moons.
  ⭃ a lively black-blue tortoiseshell chimera she-cat.
  ⭃ mate to no one. apprentice to n/a.
  ⭃ peaceful and healing powerplay permitted / / underline and tag when attacking
  ⭃ penned by ixora ↛ @.ixora on discord, feel free to dm for plots.
  

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[FALLOWBITE]

( ⁀➷ )　 It's the incoherent, yet decidedly frantic babbling that draws Fallow to her patrolmate. She's been slacking too, and the excuse to continue is more than welcome. Still, the sight of the older apprentice with her tongue fused to the ground is a strange one.

It takes a moment to register what's happening. Badgerpaw... Licked a frozen puddle? "Mousebrain," mutters Fallow haughtily, though a part of her is glad that Badgerpaw tried it first. She considers just watching the older apprentice's struggle, but the empathy within her wins out. "Hey!" she calls to the rest of the patrol. Someone else can deal with this. "Someone help! Badgerpaw's stuck!" It doesn't carry quite the urgency it should, but she manages to keep the amusement away, at least.

WEARING CROWNS ⁀➷ OF TWIGS AND LEAVES 【 12.12.23 】

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• "SPEECH"

• ˏˋ　°　•　*⁀➷ FALLOWPAW.　THUNDERCLAN APPRENTICE. SHE / HER & IT / ITS.
  4 MOONS & AGES ON THE 1ST.　PENNED BY SATURNID.
  
  
  

  ➳ A SCARRED, POINTED BROWN MOLLY WITH PATCHY WHITE SPOTTING.

  
  NPC xx NPC. FOSTERED BY TANSYSHINE.

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[tigerwing]

She had her own moments of not being able to focus. Well, long moments- in fact all the time. The girl was trying hard, yet she seemed to not pick things up too quickly. She was clumsy, and often tripped over her own paws. The delay of apprenticeship didn't help much, but she was trying. That was all that mattered.

Her nose was to the frozen ground, sniffing for prey when she heard Fallowpaw and garbled sounds of badgerpaw. Approaching the scene, she would see the other apprentices tongue was stuck to the ice, and her ears flattened.

"Hey, hey, calm down badgerpaw, it's okay. I'll get Batwing," she said softly, attempting to press a nose to the others shoulder in hopes to calm her down. If she refused, she would pull back. Either way, she would turn from the two to retrieve her mentor in hopes he knew what to do. Because she sure didn't.

"Batwing! Badgerpaws tongue is stuck," she said in an almost frantic tone.

@batwing


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[nightbird]

⋆˖⁺‧₊☽◯☾₊‧⁺˖⋆ how lovely it was to have a hunting patrol completely unravel at the unforgiving teeth of a puddle. the apprentices were now all distracted beyond belief, nightbird appears on the scene just as fallowpaw cries for help and tigerpaw wails for batwing. helpless little things they were, the hell was batwing going to do?

"i'm afraid he won't be of much help here." she sounds sure, absolute. it was an unfortunate situation badgerpaw found herself in, that's what you got for slacking all patrol.

"see, badgerpaw's situation appears quite dire. the last time i saw a tongue this stuck, it had to be, you know... removed." nightbird sighed, whispering the last word as if it were an ill-kept secret. what a shame, how would she talk every idle ear off? "palepaw, the honor is yours if you want," she added, shrugging towards her apprentice. she was friends with badgerpaw, maybe that would make it sting less.

‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎┌── OH, I'LL CUT YOU DOWN ⋅⋆⋅ FOR I KNOW YOU ARE WEAK ──┐‎

• app tag @Palepaw
  
  
  

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  NIGHTBIRD ✩ she/her, lead warrior of thunderclan, twenty-eight moons.
  ⭃ a small black smoke molly with a single white paw and pale silver eyes.
  ⭃ mate to raccoonstripe / / mentor to palepaw
  ⭃ peaceful and healing powerplay permitted / / underline and tag when attacking
  ↛ see battle info here
  ⭃ penned by vayle ↛ @vayl3 on discord, feel free to dm for plots.
  

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[SHININGSUN]

☼ "Oh... oh dear." Shiningsun was honestly flabbergasted by the sight before him. As much as he longs to be sympathetic to Badgerpaw's plight he simply cannot stop himself from erupting into a roar of laughter. He let it out, took a moment to recover his breath, then proceeded to think of ways to free the unfortunate youth from their hilarious predicament. Already Nightbird was there and talking about tongue removal. Surely she was joking! "I heard that peeing on a frozen tongue can free it." He shared, of course he was joking! He just wanted to make the apprentice panic more.
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[SMUDGEPAW]

How had Badgerpaw gotten herself into such a situation? Unlike most of his clanmates, Smudgepaw couldn't hold back his fit of laughter as he laid his tail across the molly's back in a comforting manner while the rest of the patrol began working out how to remove her tongue from the ice. "Nice one Badgerpaw. Hope you don't plan on me joining you. Guess we're gonna have to leave ya' here until your tongue thaws!" He'd tease his friend before casting a wary glance at the rest of the patrol. How were they going to get her unstuck?

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[badgerstripe]

-ˋˏ ༻☽༺ ˎˊ- The quick presence of so many cats spelt embarrassment for the tortoiseshell, whose ears burnt more with each arrival. She was grateful, of course, for Fallowpaw to call for help, but the part of her that always put up such a confident front was cringing at the idea of a larger patrol seeing her hilarious attempt at drinking this frozen water.

Badgerpaw couldn't help but avert her gaze from Tigerpaw - the last cat she'd want to see her like this. The touch of the other molly's nose against her shoulder helped to relax her shivering body, but her emotions were still none other than dumbfounded and wholly embarrassed. Of course, as soon as Batwing spoke of her 'remedy', the wild look in Badgerpaw's eyes returned. Shiningsun's comment didn't help at all. Another wave of nonsensical blubbering came from the apprentice as she once more began to try to yank her tongue from the ice, prompting tears from her eyes with each rip of pain through her poor tongue. At least the ice was starting to numb it, though the coldness of the numbing was far from pleasant.

She didn't blame Smudgepaw for his laughter - she'd probably laugh at anyone else in this circumstance, too. With the gentle touch of his tail, she slowed her attempts to the occasional pitiful tug. How long will it take to thaw? Badgerpaw pleaded inwardly. Her legs were growing exhausted, and it was all she could do to try and hold herself still again while her hot breath bore down on the ice, gradually loosening its grip - all under the radar of the scared apprentice, who could only think about her tongue being removed or dirtied.

‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎┌── HYPNOTIZED BY THE LIGHTS ⋅❁⋅ MAN, THIS MUST BE THE LIFE ──┐‎

• 
  
  
  

• 

• 
  BADGERPAW ✩ she/her, apprentice of thunderclan, nine moons.
  ⭃ a lively black-blue tortoiseshell chimera she-cat.
  ⭃ mate to no one. apprentice to n/a.
  ⭃ peaceful and healing powerplay permitted / / underline and tag when attacking
  ⭃ penned by ixora ↛ @.ixora on discord, feel free to dm for plots.
  

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[tigerwing]

the only help they had and they were frightening badgerpaw more. tigerpaw held no adverse feelings towards the tortie, and also had no idea she would feel embarrassed by this situation. she was genuinely worried.

green eyes would narrow towards the others. "I don't think any of this is helping," she said with a frown. "don't worry, badgerpaw. no more tugging, you're gonna hurt yourself more." she said softly.

she had no idea how to help badgerpaw, but she felt if she would leave, they would do something detrimental. so she wouldn't. she was going to be here for her friend. "what about the heat from our paws?" she asked, genuinely. "could that melt the ice?"



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[PALEFIRE]

Palepaw bounded up to the group on the heels of Nightbird, a carefree grin on her face, since unlike the other apprentices in their group she had actually been feeling quite good about her progress on their patrol that day. That smile quickly fell when she halted at the edge of the pond, only just now tuning in to what the others had been crying about the past few minutes - it looked like poor Badgerpaw was stuck to the ice. Correction; her tongue was stuck to the ice. It looked painful, and Palepaw couldn't help but stick her own tongue out to check it, grateful to find it was intact and unburdened, unlike the other apprentice.

The lilac-furred youth couldn't help but giggle mischievously at her mentor's suggestion, skipping forward to bend down next to the other molly and assess her predicament. "I dunno, I think I like her better when she's whole," she quipped back, tilting her head to offer a teasing smirk to her friend. And then Tigerpaw chided them all for their laughter, prompting a quick eye-roll and a sigh from the cheeky apprentice. Stick-in-the-mud.

However, as much as she would hate to admit it, Tigerpaw's suggestion was actually a good one. "That'll probably work, might as well try it," she mused casually, standing straight again and gingerly taking a step out onto the ice. Once she was sure it would hold her weight, she situated herself in front of her friend's hunched-over form. "Alright, Badgerpaw, don't move until the ice melts a bit more." Trying to be gentle so as not to cause the mutlicolored feline more pain, she delicately placed her forepaw on top of her tongue, not putting weight on it but trying to keep it tight enough to block out the frosty air. Hopefully, within a few moments, the ice would warm enough from her body heat that Badgerpaw could free herself. And, hopefully, her paw didn't taste too much like mud.