ENCORE ✩ FEATHERGAZE

[Cricketchirp]

( ✩ )　 Cricketpaw has been off since the meeting, it's easy for anyone to see. She's lost a bit of that easy, There's something distracted to her gaze, her actions seeming as if merely playing out a routine. It's not hard to tell why. His displeasure with his new name has been made abundantly clear, even as he dances around directly questioning the leader's decisions. It's a delicate dance, and one they are not handling with grace.

Cricketpaw tears apart moss for bedding now, an undesirable chore she'd normally complain about as beneath her. Her maw is shut now, but her there's something displeased in her face.

An overlarge ear swivels at the sound of pawsteps, and Cricketpaw stiffens. She straightens, a momentary freeze, before returning to her work. "Yes?" drips polite and hollow from the apprentice's tongue. She shoots a quick glance to the side, but does not turn. "Is there something you need?" He has no reason to suspect anything else from Feathergaze; the molly hardly speaks to him outside of routing tasks such as this.

I WANNA SEE ✩ THE WHOLE WORLD! 【 1.13.23 】

• // @Feathergaze
  ​

• "SPEECH"

• ✩ 　⁺　₊ 　⋆　CRICKETPAW.　APPRENTICE OF RIVERCLAN.　HE / SHE / THEY.
  7 MOONS & AGES ON THE 12TH.　PENNED BY SATURNID.
  
  

  

  ✩ — A WIRY, CURLY-FURRED BLACK SMOKE WITH CLOUDED BLUE EYES.
  

  
  SMOKESTAR xx CICADASTAR. LITTERMATE TO BEEPAW & CICADAPAW.
  
  MENTORED BY PETALNOSE.​

​

 

[Feathergaze]

Bravery was something the silvery tabby had always lacked. She had been named for her softness since birth, and the meaning behind her name had never shifted. She was gentle, light, with a face that never knew the stiffness of anger. She was sympathy on legs, or perhaps more accurately, cowardice. Feathergaze was not known for standing her ground, or anyone else's. When the going got tough, the molly responded with the flexibility of a shade, sinking into the background as far as she dared and hoping she would be passed by unnoticed and unharmed.

The day she'd overheard elder insulting Starlightpaw to their face haunted her. The young warrior had been there, right there, had heard their growls and their huffs. When the apprentice had stalked out unable to stand it any longer, Feathergaze had said not a word. No chastising the old for belittling the future of RiverClan. No comforting the youth, no reassurement that a name was what you made of it, and that no one could take it away from you or taint it without your permission. Like her name she'd watched on softly, feeling for the youth and nothing more.

When the day came that Starlightpaw became Cricketpaw, something had cracked in Feathergaze. To anyone with an ounce of talent at reading body language it was clear that Cricketpaw had not asked for this. Tension had made his body rigid and stiff, his face had been a touch too controlled. They hadn't wanted this, but had known and accepted that it was to be. And their behaviour since? A young cat who had burned like the sun was now wispy as the pale clouds, growing darker with each passing day. No one had stood up for her right to keep her birth name. Not a single cat. Even then I said nothing.

Since that meeting Feathergaze's thoughts had been consumed even more than usual. She'd started avoiding Cricketpaw when she could, the pain she felt for the apprentice and the guilt in her own heart over her silence utterly suffocating. She spent some nights staring into the darkness, trying to think of something to say. Anything would be good at this point. Finally, Feathergaze noticed the youth on his own, picking at moss that was likely for the very elders that had disliked him. Finally, she could bear the weight of her cowardice no longer.
"Oh, hello. Er, no I, n-no I don't need anything, I... you looked... I-I thought you might like some company." Inwardly Feathergaze for StarClan to strike her down. How foolish could one manage to sound in one sentence? I'm probably one of the last cats Cricketpaw would like to speak to. But she sat down anyways, drawing some of the moss to herself to lend a paw.

"So, it's Cricketpaw now, hm? It never occurred to me that, that Smokestar might see fit to change it." Delicately she pulled at the moss, focusing her gaze on the fragile material. "Did... Did he ask you about that, before he called that meeting?"​