I PROMISE IT WILL NEVER BE DARK ♡ skyclaw

[PALEFIRE]

The warm newleaf sun lit up the quiet Thunderclan camp as its occupants began to stir. Palepaw had already exited the apprentice den, pausing just outside its entrance to lower herself into a deep stretch. Her claws unsheathed into the soft earth as her back bowed, a shiver of relief crawling up her spine as she felt the tension of the night leave her body. Sky blue eyes briefly wandered the small clearing to see a few of her clanmates had also started their day, before her attention fell to the freshkill pile. Her stomach growled softly at the sight of a plump mouse sitting atop the pile, and she quickly trotted over to grab the morcel before anyone else could steal it away. As she looked for a quiet place to enjoy her meal, she caught sight of a familiar chimera figure out of the corner of her eye.

She and Skyclaw had been good friends when they were younger; practically inseparable, really. She remembered trailing after him as a small kitten, when he'd been made an apprentice a few moons ahead of her. He'd taught her everything he'd learned in the beginning, and she looked up to him as a role model for what she someday wanted to become. Eventually, however, they inevitably grew apart as their individual duties kept them too busy for much of a social life. Especially once she was assigned to Nightbird, who insisted her time was better spent on training than menial chores, which meant she was rarely in camp for longer than a few minutes at a time. A wave of nostalgia washed over her as she locked eyes with her old friend, and with a soft smile she moved to join him.

"You wanna share this with me?" she mused brightly as she settled down beside the warrior, dropping the mouse at her paws and pushing it towards him. Her tail curled around her paws as she studied him quietly for a moment, thinking back on all that had happened to their clan since the last time they'd really had a chance to speak. Suddenly her face lit up, eyes shining with excitement. "I hear you're going to be an uncle soon, to two whole litters. Are you looking forward to it?" It was hard to tell whether or not the brooding feline enjoyed the company of kittens, but the image of Skyclaw being smothered by a dozen tiny bodies made her mentally chuckle.

[ @skyclaw this is set the day before pale's warrior ceremony for plot purposes <3 ]

 

[skyclaw]

Skyclaw doesn't think of his youth often. Strange, it is, to think himself so removed from childhood when the warrior's den has only welcomed him for a pawful of moons thus far. Regardless, he feels ignorant to recall memories of his apprenticehood - his mother's death and father's reveal somehow put so much of it into perspective, that recalling his memories feels... wrong. As if they've been fabricated by all those around him. He knows just as well as any that his denmates were never in on the elaborate prank - Palepaw included - but as he welcomed warriorhood into his life, so did he abandon the remnants of his life as an apprentice. For better, or for worse.

He fidgets with a stubborn burr lodged in his fur when Palepaw approaches him, and for a moment Skyclaw's mind's eye sees old memories. Days where the warm, greenleaf air welcomed them both out of the apprentice den, gentle sparring and promises to share everything he learns with her. It was no different to many of the other younger apprentices - he loved appearing as if he knew all. But she stuck around with him, even as he grew with his snotty behavior. Dare he think it but she adopted her own flavor of it, though with Nightbird as her mentor surely her childish behaviors are far more graceful. She suggests they share a meal together, and though he frowns initially, he shrugs; he cannot keep outrunning his past and he knows it. Plus, it's not as if Palepaw is a threat to his being. Sitting in close beside her, he almost feels like he's missed her.

"I'm sure you checked the nursery first," he hums, taking a courtesy bite from the mouse first before passing it back. He trusts her - always had, even in youth - and given her strict rule following ways he doubts she would break a law for him. His tail twitches as she speaks, a little more eager this time, about his impending unclehood. Skyclaw swallows the food in his mouth, a slight grin on his maw, "Somewhat. I mean - you know Moonwhisper," he lowers his voice, amber eyes darting around the camp for a moment, "she's going to command her kits around like a mentor, and they won't even have their eyes open yet." His jest is warm-hearted, albeit awkwardly delivered, and he straightens his posture again.

"But I am, truly. Flamewhisker, too, is in the nursery now. That means in two seasons, we'll have a plethora of apprentices to train, and hopefully Howlingstar will see me fit to train one..." he trails off, clearly lost in thought. His mouth tastes too much like blood, even with the reminder of the mouse he's partaking in, and he thinks of glazed blue eyes, red spilling, spilling, spilling - Howlingstar wouldn't withold him from being a mentor because of what he did, would she? He covers up his silent fretting by turning back to Palepaw with a, "Hey, you're due for your assessment soon, yeah? If you pass, maybe we'll be able to train apprentices at the same time." In some way, they can repeat their old games, just through a new generation.​

 

[PALEFIRE]

She watches him curiously as he takes a bite of the prey, her ear flicking idly at his question to which she smirks slightly. "Of course." It was true, that the one thing most people knew about Palepaw was the fact that she was always one to adhere to the rules. It was largely thanks to Nightbird's strict influence on her, but in truth it ran deeper than that. She didn't have parents to guide her when she was growing up, so she followed the example of important role models in her early life, like Howlingstar and Flamewhisker. She saw how responsible and wise they always were, no matter the situation, and she wanted to be like that one day.

That day was coming quickly now. She would be receiving her warrior name very soon. Part of her wanted to feel anxious, like she knew all her friends were, but in truth she felt ready. This was something she'd been dreaming of her whole life, and it would be an understatement to say she had worked hard for it. After this, after she became a true warrior of Thunderclan, she only had the rest of her life to look forward to. And she was realizing now, as she sat beside Skyclaw and listened to him talk about his soon-to-be nieces and nephews with his own brand of excitement, that she missed him. She wanted to be friends again, wanted him to be a part of her future too, and not just her past.

She couldn't help but smile softly at how comfortable she still felt with him after spending so much time without his company. Neither of them were cats that really made new friends very easily, they had similarly thorny personalities and in him she found a true kindred spirit. "I honestly think i'll be too scared of summoning her wrath to even talk to her kits for a while," she snorted amusedly at his comment about Moonwhisper. "But i'm happy to see you excited about it. I bet you'll be someone they look up to," she mused as she gently bumped his shoulder with her own. She didn't know anything about what had happened between Skyclaw and his family, or the turmoil that had sprouted there, but she'd noticed from afar how his mood had turned sour recently. It was nice to see him looking forward to something.

"It would be really cool to train our first apprentices together, wouldn't it?" She beamed at the idea. As much as she felt ready to be a warrior, the whole mentoring aspect might be the one thing she was actually nervous about; but in a good way. She'd been lucky to have a mentor like Nightbird, and she hoped that she could be as good of a teacher to her own apprentice someday. Plus it would be really fun to get to mentor one of their newest kittens, given that their parents were all such important figures within the clan. Her smile slipped into a slight frown when she considered her assessment though, and she tried to shrug nonchalantly. "I'm definitely curious to see what Nightbird has in store for me, she's not exactly known for going easy on her apprentices. I think i'll do alright, though." She hadn't disappointed her mentor yet, and didn't intend to start now. "What's it been like, to be a new warrior? Is it very different to being an apprentice?" She really hadn't spoken to anyone about the transition yet, and wasn't sure what she was in for.

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‎‎ooc ♡ info

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• PALEFIRE ♡ she / her, warrior of thunderclan, 13 moons
  ⭃ lh lilac lynx point w/ low white and blue eyes. tall and slender. built for speed and agility.
  ⭃ currently emotionally volatile, all opinions are strictly ic and likely spur-of-the-moment
  ⭃ single, open to relationships / / mentor to no one // mentored by nightbird
  ⭃ peaceful and healing powerplay permitted / / underline and tag when attacking.
  ⭃ penned by limerence ↛ @limericks. on discord, feel free to dm for plots.

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