pafp I DON'T WANNA DIE IN HERE // sneaking out

[LICHENPAW ❁]

//set prior to the dog encounter


( ☘ ) Tonight is the night. Lichenpaw creeps out of the apprentices' den, paws landing as softly as he can manage. He's been learning, with Sunnyday's help, the way that the ThunderClanners sneak through the dense foliage of the forest. It may not come naturally to him, his body awkward and his paws too-wide, but he is not one to let that stop him. Now, especially, it feels important. He's been planning this for a while, he might not get another chance. He's found a hole in the thorn bushes surrounding the camp. It's the perfect spot to sneak away.

It's not like he isn't happy in ThunderClan! It's just that ever since the camp became closed, there's been an itching beneath his pelt, a wild clawing in his chest. He feels trapped, in a way he never has before. For all the dangers of the Twolegplace, at least he had been free then.

Lichenpaw has never been beholden to anyone, and ThunderClan's goodwill is beginning to run itself dry, promises of safety and companionship soured by the cold vice of confinement. He longs to run through the twisting paths of the twolegplace, to wander off to somewhere he's never been before, to do something other than sitting in camp and playing at being a ThunderClanner. He hasn't even seen all of their territory!

Well now, he's going to remedy that. A little late night excursion to explore the woods on his own. Maybe he'll come back before sunrise, maybe not. Lichenpaw is a wanderer at heart; perhaps he shall wander the woods, feeding only off what he himself can catch, until a patrol finds him again. That sounds fun.

Everyone in ThunderClan is so scared of the dogs. It's cowardly, he thinks. He's run from plenty of dogs -- they can't even climb, and there's plenty of trees here. Lichenpaw can escape up one of those if he needs to. Yes, Emberstar's death was tragic. That doesn't mean that everyone should start losing their minds! Plenty of cats were struck by monsters in his once-home, that didn't mean he stopped darting onto the thunderpath to steal squirrels which had suffered the same fate.

If you want to live, you have to do so dangerously; there is no way to gaurantee safety, and to try is a fool's errand.

That's what Lichenpaw thinks.

He pads ever-closer to the hole in the camp's barrier, ears pricked and eyes darting around to ensure he hasn't alerted anyone. His youth benefits him here, for once. An adult cat surely could not fit, but Lichenpaw manages to squeeze himself in, little by little, movements careful and precise to keep from being pricked by thorns.



// @SHALLOWPAW​

 

[SHALLOW]

Shallowpaw had been trying to catch some sleep that night which often was difficult for him since unkowingly to him was developing insomnia. Unfortunately to him when his brain just had been about to relax to let the sleepiness in the movement from one of the nests in the den awoke the constant tired apprentice. His eyes got shut open again and as he moved his eyes around in the dark to investigate the noise spotted Lichenpaw on his way towards the dens entrance. What was he doing this late?. Didn't they know they were supposed to be sleeping right now?.

If it had been anyone else Shallowpaw would most likely have ignored this mischief not thinking it was his business to care about one of his clanmates foolishness. However, there were two things that made the dark smoke follow them that night. One was the fact hungry dogs were running free around in their territory. The second one was that this one was Sunnyday's apprentice. He didn't like the idea of this apprentice causing Sunnyday unnecessery problems. For the clan to call Sunnyday unfit to be a mentor for having a troublemaker to an apprentice.

So he left his nest to silently follow the other apprentice outside to found out what exactly his clanmates was planning to do. Turned out his suspicion had been correct. Only minutes after the two had left the den Shallowpaw stood back as he watched his denmate attempt to leave camp by trying to press himself through some thorn bushes. For a moment he would just watch their strugglers with an bemused look upon his features until eventually, the blue lynx decided to speak out. " You're gonna get in trouble. " he tried to warn them having seen it before how some of his denmates tried to sneak out of camp without permission leading them to get caught later and get scolded by the adults.

He believed there was a reason to follow rules. When he had been a part of that rogue group he had always followed what they had said, it had only been when he had been all on his own when only his own rules had mattered. But now he was a thunderclanner and so he had returned back to follow others rules. Lichenpaw should do the same.


​

 

[LICHENPAW ❁]

( ☘ ) Lichenpaw jumps as soon as he hears Shallowpaw speak. Thorns dig into his back as he does so, and he lets out a shaky exhale through gritted teeth. Carefully, the apprentice dislodges himself enough to look behind him. "You --" he catches himself, quiets his voice to a whisper, though still louder than they'd like. They're not very good at speaking softly. "Shallow? When -- when did you get here?" Lichenpaw hadn't seen or heard the other apprentice -- he'd been sure he was alone.

Well, too late to stop now. They set their jaw, try to calm their racing pulse. They're not getting in trouble, that's the whole point of being sneaky. Shallowpaw's the one jeopardizing that, they think with more petulance than malice. He could've been out of here by now if not for the interruption "I know what I'm doing. You can come too, if -- if you want." He moves to continue on through the barrier, before glancing back. "Unless, I mean, that's not like, a threat, right? You're not telling someone? Um. Please don't," he finishes, voice petering out, halfway resubmerged in thorn bushes as he looks pitifully back at Shallowpaw.​