development i burn ;; argument.

[Fireflyglow]

I heard that Fireflypaw's been hanging around with Greeneyes less.
Is that true?
It has to be! They're never around each other anymore!

The sound of gossip outside of his den causes large ears to twitch to attention, the medicine cat apprentice rising to his paws to sneak to the mouth of the holly bush to eavesdrop. His shoulders sag as he hears more clearly what they're talking about; his name is mentioned yet again, hushed beneath a cold tone.

Do you think they stopped being friends?
I heard Dawnglare doesn't like it when Greeneyes talks to Firefly, I wonder..

Panic settles beneath his skin, hot and embarrassing as he listens to the gossiping apprentices. Was it that obvious that the two of them haven't been around each other as much anymore? They both had jobs to do, so wasn't it just how things were meant to be for now? Fireflypaw steps from his den then, face flushed with emotion. He faces the apprentices head-on, shoulders trembling as if nervous to even confront them. Nonetheless, he holds it together as he musters up the most bitter tone of voice he possibly could.

"Don't you have better things to do than to gossip about me? You'd.. You'd do well to mind your manners!" Fireflypaw shouts, voice trembling. The apprentices make a noise of confusion, before they burst out laughing, sending shame down Fireflypaw's spine. "Oh yeah? We're sooo sorry, your holiness." One says, and Fireflypaw bites his tongue in regret. Great, now they thought he was being high and mighty. Ugh. He's about to argue back, but the other apprentice makes their own opinion known once more. "But it's true, right? Rumors say that Greeneyes is cursed-" He barely gets the words out before Fireflypaw launches himself into the direction of the apprentice, barreling himself into them. The sound of fighting is loud as he batters at the apprentice's face with sheathed paws, shrieking sounding from below him. "Don't- Don't insult Minty! Don't!" He yowls, feeling his paws swept out beneath him as the first apprentice snatches his scruff but is unable to lift his weight off. ​

SKYCLAN MEDICINE CAT APPRENTICE ✦ 12 MOONS ✦ CHUNKY, BIG-FOOTED SEAL POINT ✦ TAGS​

 

[SLATESNARL]

Still bound to the shackles of camp throughout the process of healing, Slate had chosen not to corner himself into the stuffy medicine den but to instead rest in the comfort of his own nest. However, even the warriors den felt claustrophobic most of the time due to his hefty size, so he opted to rest on the sidelines of camp for the moment. The Maine Coon had tuned out the hustle and bustle and instead meditated on birdsong and rustling pine branches, a scarred eye slowly closing as he contemplated dozing off right then and there.

A racket of voices interrupts Slate's short-lived peace, and by the time he sweeps his gaze across camp to narrow down the source, a familiar seal point is on the ground tussling with another apprentice. "Hey— HEY!" The former rogue roars as he stands to his paws, crankiness clearly painted onto his sharp features as he lumbered on toward the brawlers.

A past version of Slate would scoff at himself for "pulling a Silversmoke", but he's come to realize that he does care about certain things around here. He certainly wouldn't object to a scrap in order to solve personal problems, but Fireflypaw was actually of importance. Who was going to help heal the sick and injured if needless fighting took their only medicine cat apprentice out of commission? If WindClan came back looking for more, then forget about it. "I don't care who started it, but your little kitten drama is nothin' compared to the real conflict that SkyClan has to deal with." Slate honestly has a hard time believing that Fireflypaw was the aggressor here, but he wouldn't rule out the possibility. Anyway, it didn't matter. None of this did in the grand scheme of things. "So knock it off, yeah? Can't risk nothin' happening to the more sane medicine cat around here." Not entirely sane, in his opinion, but at least more so than Dawnglare. Both he and Fireflypaw believed in "The Mother" or whatever it was, their devotion to said strange entity even unsettling at times. Other than that, Slate trusted the medicine cat apprentice more than he trusted Dawnglare, and that was saying something.​

 

[TWITCHBOLT]

It was not often Twitchbolt actually managed to get a hold on sleep. Even if it was just a daytime doze, a couple of dreamless minutes were endlessly refreshing. To be jostled out of that small nap already plummeted his mood, apple-green eyes narrowing toward the sound of commotion. When he realised that the sight was brawling bodies, apprentices (by name, at least), Twitchbolt scrambled to his paws. The sloping strides of Slate beat him there, shouting to halt the fighting with narrowed eyes of ember. The smaller, scruffier tom was not far behind him, trembling form settling just beside him, gaze sour and narrowed.

"Why?" He looked to Fireflypaw, first, bewilderment fringing his voice- there was no blood, at least. No cause for panic. Shaking, shaking still- if only, if only, he could halt his tremors for even a moment! There was no fear in his heart- it was apprentices being foolish, after all, something any normal warrior had encountered at least once... though, it occurred to him that Fireflypaw was hardly the age of an apprentice, anymore. Something must have struck a nerve. Attention whirled to the pair Fireflypaw had pounced upon, pelt bristling like static before a storm, before settling back upon the medicine cat apprentice. "Is- is anyone hurt?" Slate had done the telling-off, and so... Twitchbolt would be the worrier, the inquisitor, it seemed. He wouldn't imagine the medicine cat apprentice would have- have given himself work, but the shrieking had been enough to disturb the whole camp.​

penned by pin ✧​

 

[Auburnflame]

A raucous noise, the shrieks of shrill voices drsw his attention immediately with a whip of his head. What in the hell was happening? Instantly he surges towards the origin of the noise, hair raised akin to quills with a face contorted into a mixture of surprise and anger. The voice was of Fireflypaw, the hulking apprentice of Dawnglare that is jerked backwards from another apprentice. Brows raise in shock—confusion dousing the flame of ire that once licked at the back of his throat.
Fireflypaw tussles with another and it is Slate's booming voice that is heard first, an attempt to cease the squabbling between the young and he has no reason to piggyback off of his words. Only that he would shove away the other apprentice that has a firm hold of the healer's neck, returning a sharp glare of glacial eyes to them in effort to stop the fight. Twitchbolt hones in as well, trembling as ever and it is evident in the way he stutters. He asks the seal point why, and curiosity brims to the surface of Auburnflame as well. He's never been one to use violence, so why now? What even started this fiasco in the first place? A crimson tail lashes from behind, scoring the earth below. Twitchbolt turns to the others, disheveled hair like briar patches upon his pelt as he asks the latter if there was injuries. Auburnflame moves, sniffing at the scruff of Fireflypaw that is not damp from the other's saliva. "I don't smell any blood." He'd conclude, mint hues darting between Slate and Twitchbolt before settling back onto Blazestar's son. "Fireflypaw, what happened?" It lacks warmth unlike his usual tone, yet a gentleness edges soft features. If he knew Fireflypaw, something had to have happened in order for him to escalate as it did.
​

[ SETTING FIRE TO THE SKY ]​

 

[Howlfire]

Her brother, ever the protector. Fireflypaw, the firstborn, the eldest. He had always been the one to try and reign in his siblings when they were younger, chastising Howlfire for her good-intentioned but rude questions aimed at her SkyClan clanmates, or for attempting to stop fights at the gathering between the littermates. He had always been the protector and the kind one of the litter.

When she hears yelling followed by what appears to be the sound of clanmates tussling, Howlfire is quick to rise to her paws, leaving the space she was resting in, in search of the source of the noise. She is shocked to Fireflypaw as one of the cats in the fight, of which Slate is now giving a firm telling off. "Fireflypaw!" Howlfire says with a gasp, genuinely astonished to see her brother in such a state. This was so unlike him...something must have happened for him to get so worked up. "What happened?" She asks, looking between him and their clanmates in search of an answer.​

 

[Fireflyglow]

Slate's voice cuts through the racket of fighting cats as he limps over, Fireflypaw's rage blinded for a moment as he lifts his head to swivel it around. The weight on his scruff is gone, and he soon finds himself able to move with ease once more. His tail lashes behind him as he hisses towards the shouting apprentices, back arching and fur lifting from his spine- but it soon stills, and Fireflypaw reminds himself that there are people watching him. He could be judged for this; he was supposed to remain neutral, wasn't he?

"I-I.." Fireflypaw stuttered, biting the inside of his cheek. What good would it do if he explained himself? "...It's my fault. They were gossiping about me, and I just lost it." He mutters, paws shuffling in place in shame. His sister's voice brings him back further, and he quickly moves to her side. He pushes into her for comfort, though his ears are laid back. "He attacked us like some rabid rat!" One of the apprentices shouted, making him flinch. Rabid rat? "I didn't even unsheathe my claws, though! You!-" He snapped back at them, desperation in his voice. What use was it, if people weren't going to believe him anyways?

What would Dawnglare say if he saw him like this?​

SKYCLAN MEDICINE CAT APPRENTICE ✦ 12 MOONS ✦ CHUNKY, BIG-FOOTED SEAL POINT ✦ TAGS​

 

[GREENEYES]

Greeneyes returns to camp to the sound of Fireflypaw's nickname for him cutting through the air. Minty - a name he hadn't been greeted with the last time they'd spoken to one another, now reaching his ears in yowled tones.

It's enough to make him panic, a bright gaze looking around in alarm. Where is he? Where is he? He spots the medicine apprentice - on the ground with another, a third pulling at the scruff of his neck. Quickly, he moves, paws moving as fast as his heart races.

"Hey! That's enough!" he shouts. He's not nearly the first cat there to break up the fight, and it isn't long before his friend is stammering, before the apprentices he'd gotten into a fight with are spewing their own excuses. Gossip, his friend explains, and Greeneyes' own stomach is twisting. Gossip about Fireflypaw, and yet... and yet he shouts Greeneyes' name. He shouts Minty.

"Fi... Fireflypaw... I..." he starts with flattening ears, though doesn't know where he's going with this. He wants to help his friend but... somehow... somehow this feels like his fault. Should he have arrived sooner? Should he have made sure this wouldn't have happened? Moved to cut into the gossip himself, just as he had when Spiderpaw had been making tales? Anger gnaws at him, frustration that he couldn't have prevented this from happening.

He doesn't know what was said, of course - doesn't know what caused this - but shouts of his name are fresh in his mind. "Are you... Are you okay?" he slowly asks, scanning his friend over to make sure. No blood, as Auburnflame concludes, but Greeneyes still double-checks from a distance.
​