private GIVING SECOND CHANCES — snailpaw

[DARKWHISKER]

while darkpaw usually looks forward to gatherings, seeing it as an opportunity to make friends outside of his clan, but this moon he feels strangely uneasy. he weaves through the moonlit clearing while being acutely conscious of the scar down his nose, a constant reminder of the windclan raid. trying to avoid the attention of windclan themselves, afraid that he might find the chocolate tortoiseshell who gave him the scar. who he'd hurt in return. (he'll always regret that part the most, it seems. how could someone who advocates for kindness possibly hurt someone else? some of his clanmates say that windclan had been asking for it, but darkpaw can't find it in himself to see the pride in spilling blood like them. why couldn't everyone just get along?)

what's more awkward, is the emptiness in his mouth. darkpaw had opted to leave his pebble at the makeshift camp, fearing that he would lose it again... and he doesn't think that smokethroat would be too happy with him, if he came home saying that he misplaced starclan's pebble a second time after the lead warrior risked his life to retrieve it.

agonizing over this, darkpaw fails to watch where he's heading. he's suddenly walking right into another cat, letting out a startled yelp as he tries to scramble back to avoid falling onto them. instead, darkpaw falls onto his rump with an oof! "sorry! i didn't-" the apology is cut short when the scent of windclan hits his tongue. he's unable to stop the immediate recoil as if he'd been stung. he'd bumped into the one clan he'd been hoping to avoid tonight... at least it wasn't that apprentice, right? he reminds himself, grasping onto whatever bright side he could possibly see.

it takes him a second to realize he'd been gaping at the other. darkpaw snaps his mouth shut with an audible clack of his teeth, chuckling to himself to try and relieve the heat spreading across his face. don't be rude! windclan or not, this particular cat has done nothing to him... they deserve to be treated kindly, no matter how his stomach flutters with unease at being in such close vicinity to a windclanner again. "uh, sorry! i meant to say, i didn't see you there." the chocolate-furred tom pauses momentarily to groom down the fur on his chest. "...i'm darkpaw, by the way. what's your name?"

@SNAILPAW ​

 

[SNAILSTRIDE]

Snailpaw loved the gatherings, not for their political intrigue but for the potential to meet new cats and expand their limited worldview. They'd heard negative comment after negative comment for being unaware of things the others knew, and whilst they were more than content to concede and accept that they might be 'stupid', it still felt unfair to be punished for curiosity. Such an encounter with a clanmate caused them to retreat to the outskirts for a while, their head and tail raised high, enjoying the hustle and bustle in spite of everything. A sudden weight pressed against their flank caused the marbled tabby to jump a foot in the air and spin around, wide eyes watching the perpetrator for any sign of aggression. SkyClan had raised their hackles last time, though their faith in the stars above was strong, they knew not everyone would respect the rules of the gathering. Instead of seeing a cat with its teeth bared and claws out, he instead sees an apprentice, as spindly as a spider even with their legs on the floor. The scent of RiverClan hits them as he began to apologise, and the tabby couldn't hide their giddy smile. Stars, with their physical traits they looked like they belonged in each other's clans!

The chocolate tom cut themself off and Snailpaw's head tilted as if lacking the muscle to hold it up, blinking expectantly for the other to finish his sentence. His smile grew wider and wider, eventually forming a joyous grin the moment a name had been offered by the other. "Oh haha, don't worry about any of that. There are so many cats here, I shoulda expected one of them would bump into me! Glad it's you though and not some mega evil villain - you're not a big ol' evil villain, right?" Looks could be deceiving, and Snailpaw pressed their nose forwards as if gauging Darkpaw's validity for themself. Then, as soon as they began their act, it ended in a raucous giggle that cut through the air like claws. "Hahaha, I'm messing with you, honest! Big ol' evil villain or not, we're friends tonight, aren't we?" Fleeting sadness reminded them that after tonight, WindClan would be the big ol' evil villain again, as would RiverClan to their home. They would enjoy the peace while they had it.

"It's good to meet you Darkpaw. Name's Snailpaw, like the bug, you know? D'ya get many snails in RiverClan?"
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[DARKWHISKER]

the apprentice he'd bumped into doesn't turn on him, snarling and spitting, as one would expect from a windclanner. instead, they smile at him, their face gleaming like constellations above. it grows with each word that darkpaw utters until finally, they speak in equally amused tones. the joke about mega-evil villains—that's a joke, right? yes, it must be... as soon as the question is asked, the windclanner bursts into giggles—making it easier for the riverclan apprentice to keep his hackles flat. this windclanner doesn't seem bad at all... in fact, they seem really nice and funny.

darkpaw chuckles, this one more genuine than his last. "well, i sure hope not!" his tail tip flicks as he curls it around his paws, reflecting the other feline with a tilt of his own head. "and you don't seem like a big ol' evil villain, either." strange to be saying that to a windclanner after the raid; but darkpaw thinks, surely there are still good cats in windclan because he can't see this cat as a villain.

big ol' evil villain or not, we're friends tonight, aren't we?

the question reminds him once more that their clan and his own are still enemies once the full moon has waned. darkpaw's smile falls from his face for a moment, brows furrowing. even after everything windclan has done... darkpaw doesn't wish to return to being enemies. he wants everyone to get along, and to be friends outside of the gathering. he doesn't want windclan to be the bad guy—he doesn't want anyone to be. in a perfect world, there would be no good vs evil.

but the world isn't perfect, he's come to realize. however, maybe he could still be friends with this cat after tonight. "yeah, we are!" he chirps, a little forceful with its cheeriness.

darkpaw's smile returns in full force after they introduce themselves as snailpaw. "we do! there are lots of 'em in the river; some of my clanmates even use their shells to decorate with!" the chocolate-furred tom leans slightly closer, whiskers perking. "what about windclan? do you have lots of snails, there, too?" darkpaw has never seen the moors up close, only catching fleeting glimpses across the gorge during border patrols. but he couldn't imagine that many snails would like to live in the dry grasslands since they seem to love the water so much! (he isn't aware that there are terrestrial snails, too.)
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[SNAILSTRIDE]

Confirmation that Darkpaw was, in fact, not a mega-evil villain didn't faze the tabby's optimism either way. A white-paw was raised as they dipped their head in an attempt to display gratitude, uncertain if tail signals and other such bows carried across clan cultures. If that didn't work, they hoped that their beaming grin would reflect the 'thank you' they wanted to say for being told that they weren't a villain. "Nah, I'm not evil, I promise! Ok maybe promising makes it sound less convincing but whatever business my clan has with yours, it's not my decision, you know? I try and stay away from that sorta stuff when I can and- whoopsies I'm speaking too much. Sorry. Gatherings make me so excited with all the new cats around, y'know?"

Questionably existing brows raised at the confirmation that RiverClan did in fact have snails, a disbelieving "No way!" escaping them once it was revealed that they lived underwater How did a snail even do that? It was true that WindClan saw them most after rainfall, but the same could be said for worms, and they highly doubted that worms were good swimmers either! (They would have to confirm it with Strawpaw later). More and more information is revealed to the WindClanner and that excitement soon manifests into a light envy. 'The grass was never greener on the other side', their parents had said to them eons ago. It was that same conversation when they realised that they were no longer a child, no matter how much they clung to the innocence of their first three moons of life. Hearing the tale of RiverClan's decoration habits made them question if such pessimism was true. They could imagine their own attempts to spruce up the camp being met with criticism and accusations of wasting time, even if Snailpaw never thought that making one's home a happy place was a bad use of the day. It was with awe and a vivid imagination that the WindClan apprentice stared off into space until Darkpaw moved closer to them and it became difficult to ignore the chocolate shape in their vicinity.

They blinked rapidly, the smile once laced with wanderlust quickly widening to an almost forced degree. "Kinda? I mean not recently, of course, it's been snowing, but there are still a few around! A clanmate of mine, um..." They paused to try and find a familiar flash of alabaster fur in the distant crowd, their ears pricked for the sound of a distinctive laugh above the raucous crowd. Snailpaw gave up quickly when their senses didn't detect either. "He held a Snail race between Guts and Slime! I can't remember who won, but it was close!" For their own sake and the sake of the RiverClanner, they did not disclose the snail's fates once the race had concluded. Claiming kinship to a mollusk only to have it smushed by the callous paws of peers did not inspire much confidence in the marbled tabby. "You should try racing your river snails when you get the chance! My clanmates loved getting involved in predicting who'd win, I'm sure yours would do!" As they'd explained to Icepaw, their enemies weren't too different from their friends. Signals and hunting techniques may have differed, as did moral views, but they enjoyed the same simple pleasures as everyone else, Snailpaw reckoned.



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