MY FATHER'S LOYAL SON | tree-climbing

[FANG]

A songbird. It titters and trills, with mottled wings that flicker against the treebark. Its tiny head that spares nothing to bolt to and fro in constant observation. Fang ducks behind a downy cluster of fir. Claws pierce into the sturdy branch which dutifully supports him, and from behind the verdant shroud of its foliage, not even a whisker dares to twitch.

Fang's climbing skills have never been worth praise—once, by Dawnglare's standards, they even warranted criticism. But it's been moons since he was rushed into SkyClan's camp, bloodied and faint. Moons since he's lived in their territory, hunted their prey, followed their patrols, learned their ways. His climbing now is passable.

The bird—a chickadee, he thinks, with its fluffy gray and black plumage—stills, just for a moment. Its tiny frame sits an arm-length away, all hollow bones and rounded feathers. It would crumple like a leaf should he just reach out his paw. A meal palatable only for a kitten. He waits. It parts its needle-thin beak, and sings.

Catch it, won't you?

This close, the warbling is loud enough to be nearly piercing. Distant whistles respond to the chickadee's twitching, flickering form, creating a chorale of birdcall across the trees.

Catch. It.

In the past, in the cold, with prey scarce and bellies hungry, there'd have been no room to let songbirds sing.

But it's been a long time since Fang's been there. He's in SkyClan, now. With their sun-drenched summers and leafy green trees and loyal-bound lifestyle of which he exists only on the fringes. He still sleeps, on most nights, out here, on the boughs of these very trees.

Deliberately, Fang reaches out a paw. It presses on a fir-branch, resonating with a snap that sends the chickadee flying.

Fang climbs down the now-empty tree. He stands at its roots, staring down at his paw, which—snagged on that broken branch overhead—now wells with blood from a small, shallow cut on his pawpad.

The next voice he hears sounds deceptively like his own.

Why are you even here?

[ tldr: fang cut his paw on a branch while climbing a tree lol ]

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[DOEBLAZE]

She leads Cloudypaw carefully through the trees, her sun - dappled green gaze flicking back to trace his less sure pawsteps with each one she makes of her own. They're set on the decidedly lower level of SkyClan's branches, at her behest, worried her apprentice might take a tumble—a dangerous setback for a young cat. Her own motions are fluid and sure, and she finds herself outpacing him on occasion and having to wait with a bemused apology as he catches up. She worries less about Primrose, who, with her assessment burnished and glowing on the horizon, has much less trouble keeping pace.

" I think you've been doing better, Cloudypaw, " she mrrows encouragingly, and is just beginning a completion of her thought when a brisk crack echoes through the evergreens, drawing her ear in a moment. She swishes her tail for her apprentices to follow as she moves, quick but steady in her pace, towards the direction of the sound, heart thrumming with flashes of paranoia. The faint scent of iron singes her nose, sending a thrill of worry racing through her veins until she lays an eye on Fang's still but most definitely upright body.

" You alright? " she calls down, eyes sweeping him for discrepancies on autopilot. Blood wells up on his paw, crimson beads nestling between the pads, but otherwise, she can see no serious wounds. A branch hangs crooked as a broken leg somewhere above her low perch, she confirms with a quick glance, clambering down the tree as easily as if she were on solid ground and watching carefully when her apprentices join her. A lush green eye blinks at Fang, flicking to the shallow wound. " Happens to the best of us. I'd still get Dawnglare to smear somethin' on it, if I were you. Can't be too careful. "

OOC : —

✦

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[LIONPAW]

It is on a rather commonplace return from the Sandy Ravine that Lionpaw and Crowsight stumble upon the sight of Fang inching toward an avian prize atop an upward branch. The earthy tom cat is not someone with whom Lionpaw has interacted much; they both have always blended into the background and kept to themselves, not bothering to stray outside of their zones of comfort unless prompted to. It seems that today Fang was doing something different. Maybe they were birds of a feather in that sense, determined to make a change in their lives and be better than their old selves.

The warrior's stealth ultimately does not succeed, though — the quick snap of the branch causes Lionpaw to slightly flinch, and in moments, it's all over. Fang descends from his perch though not without a bloodied pad. The apprentice and his mentor are so close in proximity that it wouldn't seem right for one of them to not say anything, so the chocolate torbie point quietly comments, "Tree-huntin' isn't easy." They knew this from experience, as they still had not mastered the skill.

Lionpaw's blue eyes flick upward in an instant, his mother's voice immediately recognizable. She is with her two trainees, presumably training them to traverse the boughs in the manner of a typical SkyClanner. There is still a part of him that longs to be up there with Doeblaze as her apprentice. It was not as if Crowsight was a bad mentor, but Lionpaw mourned the time that he could have spent bonding with and learning from the lilac tabby.

Looking back toward Fang now, the chocolate-limbed tom offers a rather feeble consolation, "Y'almost had it." At least the warrior was trying, right?

𝐈𝐌 𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐋𝐋 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐈𝐍𝐆 ✹ . + 　 　˚ 　　　　 · 　 𝐁𝐄𝐓𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐍 𝐈 𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑 𝐃𝐈𝐃

• mentor tag @CROWSIGHT

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  an apprentice of skyclan, lionpaw is eight moons and is mentored by crowsight. he is the son of doeblaze and blazestar. an amalgamation of his parents, lionpaw exhibits splashes of ginger and chocolate tabby patterns against a thick, longhaired cream pelt.　✦

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