FILLER EPISODE | pinkpaw

[CELANDINEPAW]

Homesickness sent qualms in the roiling gut of the sun-shot molly, as though it were the preclude to a great wave that would swallow her whole, now simply swimming and crashing against the walls of her twine-woven being. Big emotions hardly stayed still within her, and she had never dealt with such... enveloping sadness before. It seemed to befall her wherever she looked, at the sheer powerlessness of the wildcats to stop the gluttonous inferno. Was this normal for Windclan to deal with? Or was her arrival to the clans simply an unintended foresight to great, graphic disaster? If she knew this would happen, she would have never crossed the wooden fence. Through the great flanks of fire and the billowing smoke it belched, Celandinepaw found the yearning for the safety of her family and friends of the barn most burdensome, like mercurial weights roosting in the crevices of her hummingbird heart. The fumes even reached her lungs where they did not reach otherwise, and the stark fear of it all had stolen her breath away. In such harrowing times, it was hard to simply inhale and go about her business. Restless paws led her to the fresh-kill pile, and wheat-hued eyes caught a somewhat familiar face in the periphery of her vision. The calico apprentice had been the first to defend her at the border of the Horseplace, and thus, was a prime target for Celandinepaw's ever-affable tendency. "Hi! Your name is Blinkpaw, right?" She chirped, her chipper inflection belying her churning melancholy.

( Pre-evacuation! @PINKPAW )​

 

[PINKSHINE]

It's not weird at all when her friend suddenly walks up to her like this. She does that all the time! Because a lot of time, she has stuff to tell her friends, but then she forgets, but then she sees them again and she's like, ohhh yeah I forgot to tell them this thing! So Pinkpaw is very understandable when it comes to things like this. Between her paws is a kind of sad - looking mouse... but y'know who isn't sad looking? Pinkpaw! " Yes! " she immediately answers, and then, " Wait, nuh - uh! " A bit incredulously, she repeats herself. " My name is Pinkpaw! Puh - inkpaw! " she repeats, and she sounds a bit like Featherpaw when she does so. " I can't believe you don't know my name! I know your name! " which is, of course...

Um, well it's not like this was a quiz, or anything! It's not like she'd quiz her! Pinkpaw falls silent, suddenly disinterested in this conversation, and way more interested in the fun song she's humming, it's called... Just Made This Up. Right... Now! And then the song is over, and then they're talking again, " Here's how I remember my name. Pink is a happy color, and I'm a happy cat! " Basically full-proof! Fool-proof? It's something-proof!​

 

[CELANDINEPAW]

"Oh! I'm so sorry. Guess I'm not used to the names here in Windclan. They just tacked a 'paw at the end of my actual name! How weird is that? I mean, it's probably very ordinary for you." A giggle bubbled from her rounded muzzle, like the titter of a saccharine songbird, chirpy and energetic in the sunshine. Celandinepaw did find it strange that her name seemed not to change much, but Grave's had to be altered quite a lot (and why he didn't have a 'paw tacked at the end of his name as well). Well, she thought Gravepaw was a good name for her close companion. It seemed that Pinkpaw already knew her name, though, and she wouldn't have to introduce herself! The art of introduction had been lost on the feline who had grown up in the Horseplace where every cat knew her by name and by scent. Here, there were too many cats to keep track of... "Oh, that's good! I always get so worried that my name is too long to remember. But I think it's fun to say, especially with the 'paw!" Voice shone abask in the golden hues of her pelt, as wildgrass-green gaze glanced at the calico molly.

"Oh, that's a good way to think of your name. I'll remember it, I promise! I have a pretty good memory! Except for the name part, but I get close enough!" Celandinepaw chirruped, with keen ears catching upon the tune that Pinkpaw hummed, and she thought it almost sounded like the winny and whicker of a horse. She wondered, briefly, where Pinkpaw had gotten such a tune - was it the cry of a morning lark or the sweet melody of an evening raven? You clan cats sure are strange... "You can remember my name by, uh... Well, I have a yellow pelt. And the flower I'm named after has yellow petals! Wait, that doesn't narrow it down... But surely, you already know my name, right?" ​

 

[PINKSHINE]

" It is very ordinary for me! " Pinkpaw agrees, and she's pretty bewildered to hear that it's apparently not ordinary for other cats. Even her auntie Pollefur at Horseplace had a warrior name, and she was probably a paw at somepoint too, wasn't she? " I guess when I just became an apprentice, I kinda forgot to say paw instead of kit a lot... But it's not the paw that's weird! Names just change way too much! It's sooo hard to remember! " She paws at the ground, trying to remember the names of cats that weren't always named that way, or that soon wouldn't be... " F-fuh... Featherkit, Featherpaw... Sunstride, Sunstar... Halfkit... Half... lark "

She has a bit more sympathy for her friend now. She tilts her head considering at her. " Names are hard! " she expresses. But... Her name was easy! And really good! Everyone should remember Pinkpaw. Being named after pink is cool! Being named after blink is... weird. Does it mean she always has something in her eye? Maybe she wouldn't mind Wink-kit, she'd be pretty cool then too...

Apparently, her friend has a very long name... She knows this, of course. So naturally she nods in agreement. A yellow pelt. A yellow flower... Pinkpaw nods. Surely, you already know my name, right? Pinkpaw nods again. Um... of course. Of course she knows, or knew? She just can't super remember right now but she totally knows... " Yeah! You're... Mari... Goldenrohhhh... affodil... latannnaa... ssssuuun... celad... aiiisyyy... " Pinkpaw slowly strings together all of the yellow flowers she knows, eyes narrowed at her friend as she tries to sense through telepathy which one is the right one...​

 

[CELANDINEPAW]

Celandinepaw nodded sagely at Pinkpaw's statement that names were hard, especially the convoluted systems that the Windclan cats utilized. To the former barncat, all those name endings seemed mercurial at the very best. The golden spotted molly caught on that the 'paw suffix was usually tacked onto cats that were learning such as herself, though it was always the younger ones and never the older. Well, Scorpionback and Snowglare are learning how to be clan cats, too! Why do they get the cool full names? "Yeah! How do you guys even figure out your names, anyhow? Is it like, what you look like or something? That's kinda how my mother named me. 'Cause of my fur and all." The apprentice purred, like the jocund morning of chipper smile, as the expression came as easy as the sun breathed light into the day. She briefly wondered if she would still be named Celandinepaw if she were born into the clans, or if they would have granted her a much more fearsome and spine-chilling moniker. She couldn't imagine herself with a title like Scorchstreak or Sunstar...

Fictitious eyebrows furrowed as Pinkpaw then tried to guess her name from the catalogue of all the yellow flowers that she knew of, and though uncertainty coated the calico's tongue, Celandinepaw could at least respect the continual jauntiness of her intonation. There lie a twinge of disheartened feeling, of her own friend forgetting her name so easily, but Celandine knew that even she would falter at such a high standard. In the barn, bygones were bygones and that was that! She hardly took a lot to heart, for the heart was hardly an appropriate place to build a home. "It's Celandinepaw, hehe." She giggled, putting one soft paw to her mouth in a polite sort of gesture. "Though, now that I think of it, there's a lot of yellow flowers. But yellow's a really good color! And so is pink!"​

 

[PINKSHINE]

" Basically, yeah! " she answers. That's like, obvious, she thought. She had never thought Celadinepaw was too different before, but now she's realizing they had a lot of differences... " My mom is Brightshine, cause she's bright! And my dad is Heavy Snow, cause he looks like snow! And Scorchstreak has like... streaks of fire! And Featherpaw is sharp like feathers! " She lists the first examples that come to mind... all of them make perfect sense, to her.

" There are some weird ones, though... LIke, I don't think Cottonpaw looks very cottony. Maybe it's cause she's soft...? " She's never shared tongues with her, so she wouldn't know... " And... d'you know Gravepaw? I cant think of any reason to name a kit that... I don't like that one too much. Don't tell, " she admits, lowering her voice just a tad. She wouldn't wanna hear someone say they don't like her name, after all... Plus, if anyone said that, they'd just be wrong.

Celandinepaw " Celadinepaw! I knew it! " she declares, twitching her whiskers in satisfaction. it was totally in there! Totally! " Yellow is a good color! " she agrees. " The second happiest color is definitely yellow. That's why we're such good friends! " She nods decisively, unwilling to hear any other opinions on the matter, because other opinions would be wrong. What would number three be? Maybe... blue?​

 

[CELANDINEPAW]

"That makes sense to me!" Celandinepaw chirped, with cheery inflection like a fowl of the morning, rising with the sun no matter how late it arrived. Pinkpaw's merriment was quite infectious, and in the presence of the ever-joyful calico, one would have to have a heart of pure stone to at least not crack a grin. It seemed like the clans had a similar naming scheme to those in the barn, but even then did some of the cats have strange names. The golden spotted molly was lucky enough to have been named after a plant, but someone like Kat seemed to simply be named after what he was... No offense, Kat, but that name's a bit too bland... Good thing you got a cooler name, though! "You're right! Gravepaw is a weird name to give someone. It's like naming them Deathpaw, or Uglypaw, or Nobody-likes-youpaw! I hope there's nobody like that here. That'd be pretty mean, unless you guys can change your names." All life, from the smallest fledglings to the greatest beasts, began their path not quite fully formed yet. The apprentice figured it a unique sort of twisted cruelty to name one's own flesh and blood after the more grim aspects of life. Who would want to be reminded of decay or rot when saying one's name? Names were a celebration of life, not a mourning of the past.

"I agree! I feel like all the colors that you can see in a big, beautiful sunset are the best colors. Like yellow, pink... Hm, what's another one - oh! Red and orange!" Rousant smile upturned further from what had already been there, and at the sound of Pinkpaw declaring her such a good friend, she couldn't stop beaming! The thought that she had made a good friend in Windclan settled some fluttering qualm in her heart, and she hereby declared that her coming to the moors was not a total mistake after all. She had come for companionship, partly, and she had achieved it. "I feel like we agree on everything, so that totally means we're destined to be besties."​