- Apr 8, 2024
- 147
- 14
- 18
There’s a breeze bouncing off the compact walls of the tunnels, it’s light but enough to tickle at Brackenpaw’s whiskers. Her muzzle twitches in retaliation, a sneeze at the tip of her tongue though they stubbornly try to hold it in. Instead of something loud her sneeze is pathetic, stopping in their path to bring a paw to their face. She’s rather pleased with herself, if she tried to stop and clean her face back when she first trekked into the tunnels they’re certain they would have poked their eye or something. It’s a small victory but it’s one that she’ll take, even if it’s short lived. The young calico is quick to rise on her paws once more, clicking behind her mentor's heels before giving the newly appointed leader a chance at lecturing them on listening again.
She’s explaining something, Brackenpaw is honest in the fact that they’re not listening. It’s a bad habit, one formed out of distrust and disrespect but it’s a habit nonetheless. Unsure of what they’re actually rattling on about but having enough decency to wait until a break between lectures or ‘training’ as she calls it for Bilberrypaw’s sake. Inexperienced is what the older calico had labelled her as, she assumes that means she’s perceived as stupid, lesser than.
It was just the three of them in this tunnel currently, no Cricketcry to try and boss her around and no Honeysucklepaw to bury them just so they can be in some kind of good graces. She can show Scorchstar that they’re not inexperienced, they’re not naive in thinking that she’s an expert of the tunnels but she would assume herself to be fairly knowledgeable. With a huff of air filling her with false confidence she decides to brush past the leader, an act of defiance for sure but a misguided attempt to show off that they’re not some bad apprentice. If they wanted her to fall in line so badly then they’d just have to be a better leader, exert some kind of influence that may convince her to fall back into place… yeah, if she's stuck having a leader for a mentor then there has to be some kind of worth proven. Of course it would create a cause and effect for their relationship to be more tumultuous but it was a dare, a challenge of sorts.
Too caught up in the rush from this little stunt of theirs they failed the most basic of tasks when in a tunnel. Assuming that there would be nothing but a stale scent in the depths as what else is in here these days? So they blindly march forward until the hiss of a breeze becomes something guttural, far beyond that usual light and sharp whistle. It’s hard to be able to ignore a scent when it’s closer to you, she can’t deny that it’s distinctly badger. “Scorchstr-” her cry to alert her is instinctual, relying on the cat she once was rather than the star blessed leader that they are now. Either way it dies momentarily as the sound of dirt crunching underpaw from in front of her becomes clearer. The hissing churning into snarls and growls, what she had hoped would be a warning call from the predator had become a concern that this is actually a call of aggression.
“Scorchstar… Badger” the tone of fear is foreign in the voice of a cat that is usually so certain in everything that they do. Frozen in place they don’t feel a desire to run away or to charge forward. Instead crouching in defense as there's an expectation for some kind of confrontation. In the back of their mind they hope that her mentor and friend hasn’t given up on them. A plea to StarClan that they hadn't stayed too far behind while she charged forward.
┌── Im just a dog
⸙
with no bite ──┐
-
ooc. This thread is private for now but will be thrown into the thread shoutouts when opened <33 @SCORCHSTAR @BILBERRYPAW
-
Brackenpaw
✩ they/she, tunneler apprentice of Windclan, 11 moons (ages on the 22nd)
⭃ a lithe and fragile looking calico that looks like they still need to grow into her ears
⭃ Speech, thoughts, attacking
⭃ NPC x NPC, mentored by Scorchstar | Formally mentored by Bluefrost
⭃ easy to befriend other kits, gradually harder to befriend every rank after that
⭃ peaceful and healing powerplay permitted / / underline and tag when attacking
⭃ penned by Juice ↛ @/ouijeejuice on discord, feel free to dm for plots.
⭃ All opinions are IC!! Bracken is a little hater