memento mori // ferndance

[honeymoon]

sweet like honey
———— ( ☀ ) ————

Cherrywhisker had fallen ill. Honeypaw struggled to believe it. Sure, she extorted her mentor for the ability to do as she pleased as her mentor's wandering eyes tended to mean the sundance apprentice was free to do as she pleased. Sure, she wasn't always the most astute pupil and had a few sessions of scraping by with just the bare minimum to not get her ears chewed off. But she cared about her mentor. Cherrywhisker had fallen ill, taken over by rasping coughs and blood spittle. It was unnerving. It was scary. Honeypaw had been reassigned to Ferndance, and as much as the apprentice found the Lead Warrior to be amusing, she was upset over the loss of her mentor that had shadowed her for five moons. Accepting a new cat into the role would be... a challenge Honeypaw never thought she'd have to face. She shivered trying to conceive the challenge Cherrywhisker was facing now, in Honeypaw's absence. A fight for her life from an illness Starlingheart has no cure for. An illness rapidly spreading that leaves Honeypaw worried if she'll wake up to the next sunrise. She's not ready for StarClan yet, she's not ready to leave ShadowClan. She has a mother to stick around for, she has friends to chase after, she has a sister to get angry at.

Honeypaw was glad that Ferndance had stuck to Cherrywhisker's original timing, whether she had done so intentionally or not. Ferndance was a bit of a swimming bird, or a flying rat. A bit... unusual. Honeypaw had no idea what to expect out of her tutelage from someone like her. She was fairly confident she wouldn't be able to get away with nearly as much as she had before, though. What a shame! Honeypaw quite liked hunting for rocks in peace. Ugh, now she'd have to go everywhere with her mentor. The red tabby sat near the apprentice's den at sunrise, copper eyes squinted with sleep she'd yet to fully shake off as she sits and waits impatiently for the next chapter of her apprenticehood to begin. This would be her and Ferndance's first day together. What in StarClan's name was she in for?

@FERNDANCE

​

 

[FERNDANCE]

To stay in a clan riddled with disease and bad luck was a test of patience, one that a few before her had failed at. So many times Ferndance had gazed upon the open horizons past the gnarled branches and wondered how much the world had changed without her participation and so many times after a bad event she contemplated making her own little brand of chaos elsewhere. Then, she remembered the opportunities ShadowClan and given her and how many friends would be sad should she turn her tail on them, and, suddenly, the idea did not seem so tempting. Honeypaw, a lackadaisical apprentice, was not exactly a friend, but she certainly wasn't not a friend either. She likened it to her bond with Roosterstrut, where the generational gap made it more familial than anything else. When Cherrywhisker had fallen ill, she did not grieve for the sick mentor, but rather the mackerel tabby who now had to deal with all the nasties that came with potentially losing someone. Unconsciously, it was perhaps that which caused the fallow feline to appear before the apprentice's den at daybreak. Gone were the days when Wolfpaw would sneak into the Warrior's Den to wake her up for training - at least, for now.

Ferndance offered a ditzy smile towards the flame-coated apprentice standing by her home, limbs gliding forward like a swan upon an open lake. "Good morning." The theatrics of graceful movements, the smile which told the tale of an empty head, neither were quite true and did little to make the morning feel good. She was tired, just like the rest of ShadowClan, no matter how much she tried to hide it behind a visage of indifference. "I suppose you would want to know more about how I mentor my apprentices. Well...." She hummed, the corner of her muzzle curling into something mischievous. "It's a secret~" Honeypaw would find out soon enough whether she would be able to laze the day away or be worked to the bone, a little suspense never hurt anybody. Bumping the top of her head against the apprentice's in a staggered greeting, Ferndance would wave her whiplike tail towards the camp's exit and begin moving towards there, indicating the other should follow. "I want to know about your apprenticeship first. How many apprentices have you beaten up? How many crows have you maimed? Do you go on rock hunts often?"

Fighting, hunting, fun: three categories that made up a cat's junior years, spoken in a deliberately confusing manner and accentuated with a sing-songy tone and a breathy mew.

​

 

[honeymoon]

sweet like honey
———— ( ☀ ) ————

Honeypaw had been born and raised in ShadowClan, her loyalty lying firmly with the marshes. The thought of turning tail and fleeing was one that hadn't even crossed her mind before, one she'd be baffled at entertaining even in the slightest herself. And yet Honeypaw was quickly coming to understand those that decided to abandon the rotting remains of ShadowClan. At what point would self-preservation be in her best interest to abandon such a StarClan-forsaken place? They had no love for the marshes and it showed every day. If Chervilkit wasn't here, Honeypaw might entertain the idea herself. If Chervilkit wasn't here, Honeypaw would probably do a lot of things differently. She found herself falling back on the excuse of her little sister more and more.

Ferndance was pleasantly timely, to Honeypaw's surprise. The apprentice was roused from her spiraling thoughts by the Lead Warrior's greeting, trilling a greeting herself and meeting Ferndance's headbutt with her own in surprising strength. The apprentice hops up to her paws to follow behind Ferndance, heart beginning to quicken in her chest as Ferndance teased her with answers she wouldn't be privy to yet, especially answers that would pertain to Honeypaw's upcoming relationship with the older warrior. What was today going to look like? What was their future going to look like? Instead of trying to force an answer out of Ferndance (a horrible idea, really, Honeypaw expected only Ferndance to match her in a game of unwise wits) she instead resigned herself to humming in understanding, even though her skin itched badly for clarification. It wouldn't be a secret for long, even if Honeypaw had to break a few rules to see what Ferndance would actually pull off with her. The questions that followed were related to Honeypaw, but they caught the sunset tabby off guard and she nearly tripped over her own paws as she kept in line behind Ferndance. What kinds of questions were those? It almost sounds like she wanted to get Honeypaw in trouble!

"Um..." Honeypaw trailed off, tail waving behind her. "I haven't beaten anyone up. I haven't even fought anybody, even though-" Even though sometimes she's really wanted to. But maybe that wasn't wise to admit. "Er, even though I could totally win. I haven't maimed anything, but I've killed a few birds. I don't... think... any crows? Only small birds." Crows, while smaller than ravens, still looked like they could put up much more of a fight than a songbird. Honeypaw didn't like the risk of getting hurt by prey of all things. "I love rock hunting! I go, um... whenever I get the chance." Which is to say, whenever she's not being supervised. "I find my favorites in ponds and in the marshes. I'm not afraid to get my paws wet! Can I ask why any of this matters, though? Do you expect me to maim something?" Another apprentice, maybe? No, no way Ferndance was violent like that.

​