- Aug 17, 2022
- 425
- 109
- 43
They say bad things come in threes.
The apprentice finds himself on his own, outside of camp. He knows he shouldn't be alone - knows what can happen when apprentices leave without a warrior to guide them - but SkyClan's camp is filled with sorrow, washed with viridian. He cannot be there. Not right now. Not as Blazestar weeps for his fallen daughter, as her oak-dwelling family comes to mourn.
White paws crunch their way through leaf-bare's snowy pathways. Greenpaw does not know where he's going, but follows the tracks placed before him - old, partially covered by a fresh dusting of snow. Scattered every which way, left for the apprentice to make the decision on just where his paws fit within them.
One. His mother, Daisyflight, steps down as deputy. (Though this isn't inherently bad, it feels like the beginning of it all - a foreshock on Greenpaw's world, a shake in his status in SkyClan. A mismatch between him and his friends - as they continue to have family in the oak forest's high ranks, Greenpaw ceases to have the same in the pine forest.)
Two. His mentor, Churrodream, is attacked. (She arrives at camp, bloody and beaten. Greenpaw wants nothing more but to help, but finds himself helpless at the sight of Dawnglare. Perhaps this is the first time the poison truly makes itself known to him.)
Three. His sister, Figpaw, goes missing. (She returns injured. Her foot is mangled. She'll never walk the same. Never climb the trees she so adores. Greenpaw's poison spreads. He's not certain how, but he knows her injuries are his fault.)
He aims to match white with white, a paw outstretched to reach the next indent in his path. But, he pauses, paw in the air, only to step backward at the sight before him. A sprout, sticking out of the snow - small in stature, hardly more than a stem and a leaf. Green against the white he meant to put his foot on.
Instead of stepping around it and continuing on his way, Greenpaw does nothing more than stare at it, a frown growing on his face.
Four. His friend's sister, Morningpaw, is killed. (A skirmish between Thunder and Sky. A squirrel sparking the storm. His brother's claws are the means of her trip to the stars. Morningpaw is not one to fight. Snowpaw wouldn't have killed her on purpose. There is no other explanation for what happened in Greenpaw's mind but their connection to him - to how long he watched as her blood-stained form was brought back to camp. His poison's effectiveness merely doubled in strength, that day.)
Five. His brother, Snowpaw, runs away. (He'd hardly returned to camp before Morningpaw's sister, Howlpaw, barrels into him, spitting her own sort of venom his way. Greenpaw only wants to comfort his brother, but it ends up in Snowpaw getting hurt. His poison's strength must not have worn off from the double curse. He can't shake the blank stare Blazestar gave the situation.)
Six.
Greenpaw breaks his staring contest with a shout.
Anger, sadness, and frustration mix within him - a concoction hardly an antidote to his curse. He lifts his paw once more, before stomping on the sprout that blocks his path. Stomps on it - again and again - tears welling up in his stem-hued eyes, broken sobs wracking through him.
Green is a deadly color, and the sprout must be destroyed. The snow must be rid of its contamination, of the poison that begins to grow within it. The plant is left broken and mangled, its leaf ripped from the stem it grows from, roots left in the ground without their body. Destroyed.
Green is a deadly color, green is a deadly color, green is a deadly color.
The apprentice finds himself on his own, outside of camp. He knows he shouldn't be alone - knows what can happen when apprentices leave without a warrior to guide them - but SkyClan's camp is filled with sorrow, washed with viridian. He cannot be there. Not right now. Not as Blazestar weeps for his fallen daughter, as her oak-dwelling family comes to mourn.
White paws crunch their way through leaf-bare's snowy pathways. Greenpaw does not know where he's going, but follows the tracks placed before him - old, partially covered by a fresh dusting of snow. Scattered every which way, left for the apprentice to make the decision on just where his paws fit within them.
One. His mother, Daisyflight, steps down as deputy. (Though this isn't inherently bad, it feels like the beginning of it all - a foreshock on Greenpaw's world, a shake in his status in SkyClan. A mismatch between him and his friends - as they continue to have family in the oak forest's high ranks, Greenpaw ceases to have the same in the pine forest.)
Two. His mentor, Churrodream, is attacked. (She arrives at camp, bloody and beaten. Greenpaw wants nothing more but to help, but finds himself helpless at the sight of Dawnglare. Perhaps this is the first time the poison truly makes itself known to him.)
Three. His sister, Figpaw, goes missing. (She returns injured. Her foot is mangled. She'll never walk the same. Never climb the trees she so adores. Greenpaw's poison spreads. He's not certain how, but he knows her injuries are his fault.)
He aims to match white with white, a paw outstretched to reach the next indent in his path. But, he pauses, paw in the air, only to step backward at the sight before him. A sprout, sticking out of the snow - small in stature, hardly more than a stem and a leaf. Green against the white he meant to put his foot on.
Instead of stepping around it and continuing on his way, Greenpaw does nothing more than stare at it, a frown growing on his face.
Four. His friend's sister, Morningpaw, is killed. (A skirmish between Thunder and Sky. A squirrel sparking the storm. His brother's claws are the means of her trip to the stars. Morningpaw is not one to fight. Snowpaw wouldn't have killed her on purpose. There is no other explanation for what happened in Greenpaw's mind but their connection to him - to how long he watched as her blood-stained form was brought back to camp. His poison's effectiveness merely doubled in strength, that day.)
Five. His brother, Snowpaw, runs away. (He'd hardly returned to camp before Morningpaw's sister, Howlpaw, barrels into him, spitting her own sort of venom his way. Greenpaw only wants to comfort his brother, but it ends up in Snowpaw getting hurt. His poison's strength must not have worn off from the double curse. He can't shake the blank stare Blazestar gave the situation.)
Six.
Greenpaw breaks his staring contest with a shout.
Anger, sadness, and frustration mix within him - a concoction hardly an antidote to his curse. He lifts his paw once more, before stomping on the sprout that blocks his path. Stomps on it - again and again - tears welling up in his stem-hued eyes, broken sobs wracking through him.
Green is a deadly color, and the sprout must be destroyed. The snow must be rid of its contamination, of the poison that begins to grow within it. The plant is left broken and mangled, its leaf ripped from the stem it grows from, roots left in the ground without their body. Destroyed.
Green is a deadly color, green is a deadly color, green is a deadly color.
