camp IN THE DIAMOND'S EYE ⛧ PEP TALK

Vulturepaw

black rabbit of inlé
Jun 16, 2024
135
23
18

˖⁺‧₊ ☽◯☾ ₊‧⁺˖  "Okay, okay," Vulturepaw mutters to himself. The spines of his tail kick up dry dust, lashing across the ground. He sits hunched - ears back, eyes closed. His voice is quiet, shaky. "I... I c-c-c..." A breath. He has a patrol later today, and the creeping approach of it feels suffocating.

He can't keep sitting around and refusing to do anything. His paws knead at the ground nervously, tracing restless shapes into the dirt to soothe himself. He mutters encouragements to himself softly. "I c-cuh... I c-can d-do this," It's scary, but so is everything. Periwinklebreeze will be back soon, and Vulturepaw wants to have stories to bring him. "He'd want me t-tuh... t-to go out and be b-brave. G-g-gotta be brave." His eyes open, looking to the entrance of camp nervously. "I'll be okay, I'll b-be okay. Just... Gotta run if I see anything bad," he tells himself. Hopefully he won't have to... But his luck isn't good enough to count on that.


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    "SPEECH"
  • VULTUREPAW he / they, apprentice of windclan, seven moons.
    a spiky-furred dark tabby with amber eyes.
    skittish and dour, with a superstitious sort of pessimism.
    micheal x npc, adopted by periwinklebreeze. sibling to dustpaw and bilberrypaw.
    peaceful and healing powerplay permitted / / underline and tag when attacking
    penned by SATURNIDsaturnids on discord, feel free to dm for plots.
 

It's like just like how Sedgepounce—Sedgekit, then—remembers a young Periwinklepaw. How he could hear Periwinklepaw mutter to himself outside the nursery, gathering his courage for a day more dangerous and judgmental than kit-sitting ever proved to be. It's...terrible, actually. From the nearby distance wherein Sedgepounce can just make out Vulturepaw's pitiful murmurs, his ears flatten tight over his skull. Ugh! It's just so sad. He wishes he could just...wave his paw and miraculously rid Vulturepaw of all that fear and doubt. Wick it away like the Greenleaf sun to morning dew. But something in him thinks that such a miracle may never be possible for a cat as haunted as he is.

"Hey, Vulturepaw!" Sedgepounce tries anyway. He seeps as much genuine ease and excitement in his tone as he can, amber eyes bright. Like he's a kid again, cheering up Cottonpaw after a tumultuous day of tunneler training. "Y'know, I was thinking we'll probably go through Rabbit's Run on our patrol later. There've been a bunch of butterflies n' stuff by the heather out there lately, so I wanna see if they're still there." Is that stupid? He tries to seem seamless; like he's having an aimless conversation, and not trying to talk an apprentice down from an impossible ledge of anxiety.

"It's, like, super peaceful," he adds with a too-confident nod.
 
Bi-colored eyes find the anxious ball of black tabby fur flexing his claws and waving his tail about like a silent distress flag; it does not take much to pick up on the younger apprentice's frayed nerves. A soft frown decorates their steely features, a softness glistening in their eyes if only for a moment. They wonder if they should ask if Vulturepaw is feeling alright, but Sedgepounce approaches the moor runner trainee before they can do so. Perhaps that was for the best. Vulturepaw should be partaking in his expected duties instead of sitting around and overthinking.

They overhear the warrior's apparent plans for the later patrol, one that Rowanpaw had also been assigned to with Swiftshade. While the chimera prefers working in the solitude and darkness of the tunnels, they can appreciate the open moors as well. WindClan's territory offered many different natural wonders, whether above or under the ground. "That sounds lovely." They remark in response to Sedgepounce's description of butterfly-laden heathers, a faint enthusiasm cropping up in their typically neutral tone, before their mismatched gaze flicks toward Vulturepaw to gauge a reaction.

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    a tunneler apprentice of windclan, rowanpaw is nine moons and is mentored by swiftshade they are the child of snakehiss and berrysnap. split directly down the middle, their right half is solid black and their left half is tortoiseshell patterned. they also have amber and blue heterochromia.