private richly scented candles l leafshade

[JAYWISH]

"Ouch, watch it!" Jaypaw hisses up at the collection of squirrels staring down at him with their beady dark eyes from the tall oak. Being pelted with acorns falling from all of their skittering isn't his idea of a grand time, especially when he's trying to practice his hunting skills. His crouch needed work (to put it nicely) and nothing feels worse than laying his spine bear for a torrent of distracting rustling and rainfall of nuts. With a grumble, the apprentice moves under a different tree and takes a deep breath to reset. He tries to remember what Flamewhisker told him: go low but not too low to disturb the grass. Once more, he realizes that his flank is just a little to high and he tries to readjust himself into an equilibrium. Only for a large acorn to whizz down from the tree and clonk him right in his skull, hard enough to make his teeth clack.

Jaypaw hisses in his breath through his teeth and holds his sore head, eyes pricked with tears. "Owwww..." His thin form trembles with emotion until suddenly he bursts out, "Urgh! That's it, I'm coming up there!" Oh no, the squirrels must be shaking in their nests. He and Flamewhisker haven't even reached climbing yet but that doesn't stop the apprentice from launching himself onto the side of the trunk. He clumsily scratches his way up the tree with a purpose, a hidden temper not often shown to his clanmates surfacing as he moves with a speed that he didn't know he had in him. This tree's certainly not as tall as something like the owl tree but it's much taller than anything Jay would have even come near back home. The tree in their backyard was pitiful and twiggy and his twolegs would become angry with him when he tried to climb it because it would bend.

The apprentice manages to make it near a squirrel on the lowest branches but the scruffy beast is way ahead of him as he throws his paw out to strike nothing but wood. He immediately loses balance and the anger leaves him a rush replaced by panic as he grabs onto the branch with all of his might. He does the worst thing then- looks down- and as the leaves he disturbed go trickling to the forest floor, it's like the ground bounces up at him and then settles back where it was. All of his courage goes flying out the window. Sickness hits his gut like iron and he squeezes his eyes shut against the dizziness as he holds onto the branch for dear life with thin claws. The rational part of his brain returns and tells him that it's just an oak tree, not a mountain, and that a fall probably wouldn't hurt that bad but that part is a whisper compared to the anxiety snaking through his body. All of the terrible possibilities rush through his head until he finally blurts out, "Somebody help!"

@Leafshade
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[ I'M THE HERO THAT SAVES ME ]​

 

[Leafshade]

SO YOUNG, YET SO BROKEN​

---

So much for hunting in peace, it would seem. Leafshade would growl this thought as Jaypaw's exclamations scared away the bird he had been stalking. With an irritated huff, the warrior had half a mind to tell Flamewhisker to get a hold of her apprentice when the cry for help suddenly hit his ears.

He was off like a bullet, paws, and legs moving before his brain could register what he was doing, and only collecting himself once he was at the base of the young tom-cats' tree. Looking up his panic would wash away into annoyance as he saw Jaypaw dangling from a tree branch that wasn't too high off the ground. "What in the hell are you doing up there, Jaypaw?!" The warrior would snap before sighing heavily, "Hold on, I'm coming."

Now, was Leafshade a good climber? No. But he couldn't very well just leave the kid dangling there, now could he?

Well yes, but Flamewhisker and Howling Wind could claw his ears off and he just wasn't in the mood for that lately. So, while somewhat clumsy, the warrior made his way up the tree as well, grunting with effort as he pulled himself onto the branch and attempted to grab Jaypaw by his scruff and haul him back onto the tree limb, making sure to not let go until the apprentice had his paws under him.

"Has Flamewhisker not taught you to climb yet? What were you even trying to do? You could have gotten hurt!" The scolding was harsh, though in truth the warrior was more fueled by the previous panic he had felt at the apprentices' cry for help than actually being mad. Not that poor Jaypaw knew that of course.

//
I AM SO SORRY THIS IS SO LATE
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[JAYWISH]

Jaypaw has heard horror stories around the clan about cats that got hurt right before the cold months, or "leafbare" he's learned they call it here. What if he breaks his paws or cracks his back like a stick on a root? Or worse, he falls so hard that his head pops off! All of these nightmare scenarios are zooming through his brain when suddenly something else is moving just as fast. Jaypaw's breath hitches in his throat as the help he called for comes and now part of him wishes it didn't because now the older warrior gets to see how dumb he is. Especially not Leafshade, "I... uhm..." His words are lost on a numb tongue and he holds on just a little tighter until Leafshade arrives and even then, he's hesitant to let it go. He does but his heart jumps when he feels himself hanging freely for a just a second before grabbing onto the tree limb once more.

Shaken up and frazzled, the ebbing panic is still wired through him when the chastising starts. His ears fly back against his skull on a deep set frown. Leafshade is of course right and he knows it deep down, but his interpreted "confirmation" of what he's been feeling in secret is too much for the young cat. He didn't learn anything from almost dying out in the wild. He did the exact same thing that he'd done before, put himself in a dangerous situation and it became someone else's trouble to bail him out. If his dad really is some great, heroic clan cat, then he'd probably be ashamed to have such an overemotional, burdening son.

Even hauled to safety, his chest hurts with the adrenaline when without warning, he hangs his head down abruptly. Pent up feelings come rolling out and despite how mortified he feels about it, he can't stop them from manifesting. "I'm sorry, Leafshade. You're right! What I did was stupid. I thought I could catch the squirrel becuase it made me mad. I really thought I could do it but, but- I can't catch anything except little mice! Not a squirrel, or a bird, or a stupid dog." He grits his teeth against a sudden flash of anger in his voice but it immediately dribbles into frustation, namely with himself. "I, I'm- ! being stupid got me to the clan in the first place! I'm always doing something dumb." He sinks his head lower, inadvertantly pressing his forehead against the other cat's shoulder, and there's the clear warmth of large tears dripping their way into Shade's fur. His thin shoulder blades tremble and he mutters, "I'm stupid. I'm so stupid... I'm sorry."

/It's ok! mine is too jfaksl ​

[ I'M THE HERO THAT SAVES ME ]​