hope for the best || fishing

[CLEARSIGHT]

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➵ He is quiet.

Clearsight has always thrived by this river, has always loved to fish. Here excellence demands silence.

He's just across from Sunningrocks, has been for awhile now. He fished further up the river for a few hours before settling on a change of scenery; a day's catch has piled up beside him, three plump fish that'll feed six clanmates well. The end of greenleaf is upon them now, but the river's still full and fish plentiful as ever.

A flurry of gunshots ring out, four sharp blasts that shock the silence.

Clearsight tenses, hackles rising—but he can tell it's not close, the twolegs and their deadly thunder-sticks in some other part of the territory. Not near camp either. He waits with ears alert for screaming to follow, dread pooling in his stomach as he wonders what's fallen dead.

Some bit of land-prey, most likely.

A few moments later, the blue tabby forces himself to relax. He fixes his eyes on the river.

"It's alright," he murmurs, forcing his voice steady. "They're fine. They're alright."

Not safe, but not dead or dying. Just alright.

Fishing, he tells himself, and keeps flaxen-gold eyes on the water.

​

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& we've all got battle scars ✗ ​

// @GILLPAW feel free to say gill's been here too if you want to jump in!

 

[GILLSIGHT]

Gillpaw tries his best to focus on the river and the fish he's supposed to be helping catch.

But the noises are loud - continuous yet unexpected, enough to keep the young apprentice on edge.

He isn't quite sure why the noises keep happening, but he knows that Clearsight doesn't like them either. And if the noises make Clearsight nervous, then they must mean danger.

He's sat beside his mentor, his inky tail wrapped around white paws when another round of booming noises rings through the air. His ears fold back as he looks to Clearsight, now tense and mumbling to himself.

"W-when will the thunder s-stop...?" he asks Clearsight, a tilt of his head following his question. He calls the noise thunder, though he isn't sure if that's what it is. Neither lightning nor rain had seemed to follow it, any time that he'd heard it. Not to mention, real thunder sounds different from this. So he calls it thunder for a lack of a better name, hoping Clearsight will have an answer for him.

Clearsight's supposed to know everything, after all.
​

 

[SMOKESTAR]

Fishing was the sort of thing he did when he had nothing left to do and did not want to leave his thoughts left to wander, so he could relate to the blue tom's habits if anything. Smokethroat wanders forward on his continued trek from the edge of the forest where he is more visible and can properly see the two already present there. His mouth his opening in a rehearsed greeting when the world reverberated with a clamorous noise, the air felt suddenly electric.

His fur rises, he feels the sound roll over him like a downpour and for a moment his ears lie flat until the noise has settled into a quiet hum.
"That was...that way. There are no patrols out in that direction today." He would know-he helped set them up (with much help from Willowroot) It takes a moment to determine the location, a quiet hum in his throat as his ears flick back upward to do their duties but the sound is faintly echoing still to pinpoint the general area. If someone had been hit by the thunderous stick, then it was not a RiverClanner, but it was certainly upsetting their prey.

In a rare gesture of comfort his tail raises in two quick flicks side to side, one towards Clearsight's flank and another for Gillpaw as he passes by behind the two to take his own spot near the river.
"It'll pass soon.." He answers for the poet, orange eyes knowingly sweeping from the young tom to his mentor before taking a seat and gazing out across the river slowly rolling along. "...how has your training been going, Gillpaw?" The question is a distraction, a new focus.

​

 

[CLEARSIGHT]

---

➵ He leans down to touch his nose to the top of Gillpaw's head, offer his own reassurance. The boy is so trusting, it almost scares him—and did scare him sometimes, at first. But he's gotten comfortable now with the position, with a child's life and training on his paws.

Cicadastar chose him for Gill for a reason; he will honor that.

Clearsight relaxes further at Smokethroat's presence, and then at the affirmation that no patrols could've been hit by the blast. Maybe they'll scrape by another day unscathed.

He's glad to see the white-dappled warrior, and the comforting touch does more for him than he wants to admit. He nods at Smokethroat's reassurance, it'll pass soon, murmuring a supportive "absolutely" to his charge, and then smiles at the training inquiry.

He'll leave Gillpaw to answer, wondering with a touch of amusement if he's earned a good review.
​

---

& we've all got battle scars ✗ ​

 

[GILLSIGHT]

Both Smokethroat and Clearsight reassure him that the noises will stop soon, but Gillpaw isn't so sure. If it's been going on for as long as it has, after all, why would it stop now?

He doesn't get long to ponder the noise, and how long it's going to be around, or what it even is, because the lead warrior's asking about his training.

"G-Good!" Gillpaw informs him. "C-Clearsight is the b-bestest! H-He's been teaching me so much!"

And it's true, he has been. Fishing, swimming, what's in the territory - Gillpaw has already learned so much in his short time as an apprentice. Clearsight's the best mentor, he thinks. He hopes that, even after he no longer needs a mentor, he'll still be able to go to Clearsight for whatever he may need to go to him for. Though the thought of becoming a warrior is exciting, the thought of no longer having Clearsight as his mentor is a bit sad - a thought that he doesn't want to think about too much.
​

 

[SMOKESTAR]

"The bestest is he...? Warrant he'd like a second apprentice then. I have a spare..." It was a joke, of sorts, but said in his usually dry tone so it was hard to gauge exactly whether or not he was seriously considering pawning one of his delinquents off on the serene blue tabby. Eventually though, his expression softened enough to make it clear he spoke only in jest, difficult as that was to process. His orange gaze drifts lazily across the river where the current carries bits of leaves and the occasional stick along on a journey from one end of it to another; sometimes he wondered about floating downriver and seeing how far it took him but he also wasn't foolish enough to try. The current got more aggressive the further from RiverClan it was and the stones that peaked in and around the water's edge were dangerous when one was forced into them, almost as if the river had teeth.
"It is good to know you're doing well, you'll be a warrior of your own eventually..." The youth of the clan were certainly growing up quick. It felt like just the other day Icesparkle and Mudpelt's kits were newborn as well and now they were almost halfway into their training as apprentices. " Had he known what the young tom was thinking he may have made a joke about not bothering to miss Clearsight because Clearsight was always there and shoving his nose into everything so it's not like he'd be missing him much. The trouble that tabby got into at times, he swore to StarClan, would turn his fur gray before the children did it.
"Wonder what name you'll get, Cicadastar's been very good with those. Rather fond of mine."
​