snips, snails, puppy dog tails & successful hunt

[Poppypaw ★]

Hunting in leaf-bare was a disaster, she had always taken advantage of her enthusiasm and energy before but it didn't help her much when the prey wasn't even there to chase. Poppypaw was more skilled in just full sprinting after things and it usually worked out for her, stealth was too hard for the red and white apprentice because it entailed holding still for much too long and she had to wiggle or she'd simply die. So far her luck had been poor but while snuffling about for old dens to find sleeping food options her foot went through the snow right down into a muddy hollow and as she yanked it out there was a distinct noise within of something moving. Poppypaw dove headfirst down with her paws slamming the snow, digging frantically as the noise grew louder and more irritated and when she finally unearthed her prize she found it to be a twisting adder of some kind, sluggish and flailing around from the cold; snakes didn't like when it snowed apparently, even less than she did! So it was quick and easy work to snap it by the neck between her teeth and set to ripping the bad and biting part right off. Prize in tow she wandered her way back to ShadowClan.


"Mama! Look!" She'd spotted her mother sitting near the edge of camp, staring off wistfully in the distance as she returned and she wandered over with her head high and the snakes limp body still twisting between her teeth; snakes were such weird creatures because even after being killed they didn't know when to quit. She'd chewed its head off real good and it had kept opening and closing its mouth the entire time; she was lucky she didn't get bit after the fact. Could you imagine? Dying to a dead snake's bite? She was much too cool for that.
Plodding over, dripping from the slushy mud she had dug through, Poppypaw dropped the snake down at her mother's paws with a bright and toothy grin; waiting expectantly for her praise that never came. Crimsonflower lifted a paw, lifted the corner of her lip in a sneer; disgusted at the sloppy display and the still writhing serpentine form-how she had given birth to such a filthy and wretched child was beyond her.
"Take this trash to the freshkill pile and don't bother me with it." The red tabby queen snapped impatiently, she was above eating snakes and had already had a proper meal today anyways. "If this is all you could get after being out all day then you've not done your duty. I don't want to see you near the prey pile until you've brought back something more substantial."
Despite the words Poppypaw's expression did not change from its smile, though it felt more strained than before and she quickly looked away back to the edge of the marshland with watery eyes.
"..okay." Guess she didn't get to eat again tonight, she'd been pretty hopeful about it this time and dejectedly she sat down where she stood as her mother stood to walk away elsewhere; as if ashamed to sit near the despondent apprentice.


Mentor tag: @Frostbite
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[Frostbite]

It's not every day you catch a snake and not get bit. Frostbite was proud of his apprentice. He worried if he was a bad mentor, if he was failing Poppypaw. But to him, a snake was no small feat.

Those bastards could kill you if you weren't careful.

So to hear Poppypaws mother tell her she couldn't eat....That her catch wasn't good enough....

He strode over and picked up something from the pile to give to Poppypaw.

"That was an impressive catch, Poppypaw. You deserve to eat for a job well done." He said, plopping the rat Infront of her.

Then he turned to Crimsonflower with a look as cold as leafbare itself.

"You." He hissed.

"It is LEAFBARE. We are ALL doing our best to hunt. We go out and come back empty handed more often than not. And YOU."

He bore his teeth.

" YOU HAVE THE NERVE TO STAND THERE AND SAY HER KILL ISNT GOOD ENOUGH!? SHE WAS OUT ALL DAY TRYING TO PROVIDE FOR THE CLAN- TO MAKE YOU HAPPY- AND YOU HAVE THE NERVE TO SAY ITS NOT GOOD ENOUGH!?" He roared. He was pissed. Fuming.

There wasn't ice inside him today. There was fire. The fire of wrath, hatred. He gripped the ground with his claws and glared into Crimsonflowers eyes. If looks could kill, she would be fucking dead.

He still had more to say, but he would give her the mercy of a reply.
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[spectermask]

Specter is a foxlengths away, whispering to one of his clanmates before theres a voice of an angry mother. Immediately Specter's tail bushes up, afraid that somehow his own mother had come back to life to kill him for killing her. Green eyes search and then narrow, of course its Poppy's mother! He opens his mouth to say something, something pissed off because he wasn't about to have another child feel as dejected and defeated as he once had but its too late, the damage had been done and hes not sure how long this had been going on.

Frostbite speaks up.

"He's right, Poppypaw. Very good." he clears his throat, aiming to brush his tail against her side as he walks past to stand besides Frostbite. Specter had no patience for parents who so obviously did not deserve children and his own heart thumps too loudly in his ears as he recalls his own. Parents like these did not deserve to exist and he has to swallow in order not to be as explosive as Frostbite had been. "Have you been out at all today? A shame, because that snake will keep plenty of kittens fed tonight." monotonous and cold as he keeps his tail calm.​

"speech"​

 

[SHARPSHADOW]

† Poppypaw is funny.

She's loud, and she's weird. For a long time, Sharppaw thought she didn't do anything but try to start fights all day. But that wasn't true. Poppypaw works, sometimes. And today she trots into camp with an adder clamped between her teeth, smiling bright. She wants to show her mom. Her mom doesn't like it.

And it's a little too familiar, not doing what they wanted. Even if it was something, and you were proud of that something, it's still not good enough, it's not quite right. It's just as bad as doing nothing at all, because it wasn't the right way. And it wasn't fair of Sharppaw to be jealous, it wasn't fair at all. It hadn't even been good enough for Crimsonflower. It wouldn't be good enough for Rainshade, but that hope–

She's never seen Poppypaw so quiet before.

Snuff it out. Twitches and itches, his body burns to move; but to do what? To say what? What could she possibly say? Frostbite knows what to do. Of course he does. Of course Frostbite and Spectermask have all the answers, because they're older. They're used to this. They're used to things Sharppaw would never get used to and they– They–

Snuff it out. Okay. She walks, keeps walking. His paws do the movement on their own, dragging her beside Poppypaw. Shadow next to light. She walks, and yet she doesnt speak, because she hadn't thought that far ahead. She hadn't. And she tries, but she doesn't. So she settles for... sitting. He hopes Poppypaw understands what he means. At least one of them had to.​

 

[Tornadopaw]

If you don't like me, that's your problem

She'd seen all of it. The disgusted disapproval of a red tabby queen, the sting of rejection in Poppypaw's eyes, followed by the fuming shouts of Frostbite soon after. Her expression shifts into a grimace as she glances back at the retreating tabby. Her parents had never been like that. They were always uplifting and supportive. But to see such a stark contrast nearly made the girl pin her ears. Spectermask is coming over just to comfort the down trodden apprentice and internally Tornado thanks them for it, for she was horrible in situations involving comforting others. She never really knew what to say or do. So instead she draws attention to the writhing serpent itself, nodding in its direction with a broad skull. "How'd you kill it? Never seen something like that in the pile before, wonder what it tastes like." She murmurs, voice dying off as she steps to the side, allowing Sharppaw room to maneuver around. ​

When I let it bother me, that's my problem​

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[EERIENIGHT]

Poppypaw, ever so loud, is quiet. Her lack of words is not the same silence that Eeriepaw usually carries - though usual for the peculiar tom, it is unusual for her. It is... somber. Hurt?

Eeriepaw doesn't understand.

She brings back food. Brings back a wriggly sort of thing that kind of reminds Eeriepaw of his own tail - perhaps it was someone else's tail? He wonders if it is, at first sight of it. But no, this tail has teeth, has eyes. It is food, and Poppypaw had caught it, so what is the problem? Didn't they need food, as the world was ending around them? Isn't that what the leader wanted?

So why, why did Poppypaw find herself at the end of anger for the food she catches? It doesn't make sense.

He pads over, trails the other apprentices that find themselves sitting with the sad apprentice. He sits beside them, dark eyes looking at the wriggling creature with curiosity. Food, indeed.

Does it have bones? He'll have to watch whoever ends up getting to eat it, and see what they pull from it. However, that is not the problem he should be worrying about, right now. Right. He blinks, looking back at the red and white apprentice.

Poppypaw is sad and quiet, when she should be happy and loud. That is the problem.

"Good job," he tells her after his inspection of the prey before them, "You caught food."
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[✧ Siltcloud.]

HUMBLE MY BONES WITH A CARDIAC​

siltpaw | 07 months | female | she/her | physically easy | mentally easy | attack in bold #ddadaf​

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"I think..... it's good enough..... for you to eat something," she says. I think you're good enough is what she wants to say, but the words stay clogged in her throat. Her smile is a small thing, shy and uncertain but honest and genuine. Her own catch was not nearly as interesting - a scrawny mouse half-dead before she'd even stumbled upon it, a frail thing of skin and bones. The dusty apprentice slips her way over - a dull looking thing next to such bright fire. Sometimes, silt thinks, she wishes Crimsonbite would die. She wonders what it might be like to see the molly suffer, the way she see's poppypaw suffer. But she keeps those thoughts close to her chest, hidden away, trapped in her ribcage where they belong - with that painful feeling that she gets when she's around poppy and loam and brook and granite. The thing of teeth and fangs and venom that she fears would chase them away if only they knew. Because she has to - she's the good sibling - she's the quiet one, the shadow. She's supposed to be the normal one.

 

[Poppypaw ★]

The red tabby queen was clearly annoyed at how many cats were simply interferring with her parenting, claiming her harsh, insisting it was good enough, if they wanted to starve because an apprentice didn't pull their weight then by all means; but she had standards. Crimsonflower scoffed once, had the white warrior not been so vicious and biting in his accusations and loss of temper she might have argued the point further but she wanted nothing else to do with it all and with a haughty flick of her tail and knowing look back at her daughter she stormed off without even so much as a single comment.

Poppypaw remained sitting, placid smile on her maw that had not shifted once the entire exchange but did nothing to hide the fact her eyes had been gradually watering the more cats who appeared to speak up; a stubborn jut forward of her chin kept any tears from spilling, adamantly refusing to do much more than give a wavering whimper in reply to Spectermask's tail suddenly sweeping against her and the chorus of other apprentices suddenly standing nearby, Eeriepaw agrees its food and good enough, Sharppaw is a quiet but very prominent shadow right next to her and Siltpaw's voice is just faintly tinged with strain as if withholding words she didn't want to say or maybe was to afraid to. It was Tornadopaw's question that snapped her from her stupor, eyes blinking away the shine and looking down at the still lightly writhing body of the serpent coiled at the center of the gathered cats.
"I FELL IN A HOLE!" She blurts out, her voice cracking but rising to its usual shrill volume at the declaration and its like she is flower pushing through the soil to reach the sun, shedding the heavy dirt and living again in only a few moments; the apprentice wiggles in place, making a point to lean into Sharppaw briefly before sucking in a breath. It begins.
"THERE WAS A PIT AND I SLIPPED AND FELL IN THE SNOW AND IT WAS ACTUALLY FULL OF SNAKES-LIKE A WHOLE LOT OF THEM BUT THEY MOVED REAL SLOW! I GUESS THEY DON'T LIKE THE COLD EITHER! I MANAGED TO GRAB ONE AND IT TRIED TO BITE ME SO I BIT IT BACK ON THE HEAD AND CHEWED ON IT TIL IT STOPPED TRYING TO BITE! BUT-BUT THE HEAD KEPT BITING! I KNOW I KILLED IT BUT IT KEPT CHOMP'N SO I GNAWED IT OFF!"

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[Frostbite]

He seethed. He seethed. There she goes, walking away. Walking away from consequences. Walking away from her daughter with that look.

He watched her leave, then turned to hear Poppypaw start shouting.

Her story surprised him. A pit of snakes!? He looked at her wide eyed. "You fell into a pit of snakes!?"

You could have gotten hurt. You could have died.

"That makes your catch even more impressive!" He said with a smile. "All the more reason for you to eat. Not sure I can explain why it still moves, though."

Awful creatures. Little demon spawns.

The cats surrounding them weren't lost on him either. He glanced at each of them. He didn't think anyone would stand up for her, she was an annoying brat. But he relaxed, his fur settled and his features softened.

She was his annoying little brat.

And he wasn't going to let her go through her childhood with a mother who didn't care. He knew what that was like. Seeing everyone here brought him a strange sense of peace. She has cats she can depend on. He didn't.

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