private soliloquy ― oliveshade

[nettlepaw.]

..... As enjoyable as the company of his clanmates was, everyone had a limit. And his limit was particularly shallow, unable to withstand attention for long. At the end of every day, Nettlepaw's social meter was about as collapsed as a crumbling tunnel. Lone wolf that he was, he often found himself slinking back into the untouched corners of the camp.

..... Only his patches of white revealed his location among the wilted tall grass, bushy tail swishing slowly on the ground. With one extended claw, he traced squiggles into the soil, chin balancing on his other forearm. He heaved a great sight, evidently lost in thought. One stray idea from the hunting patrol troubled him, inspiringly so. For the better part of the afternoon, he fiddled with a variety of words in his mind, jumbling and rearranging and repeating out loud until it captured his inner contemplations. Others would have found it silly; he found it comforting, recalling how his mother used to describe his father, always speaking of descriptive and fantastical worlds meant for passing on his stories.

..... Nettlepaw mumbled his latest rendition of his new string of words aloud, clumsily drawing out a rabbit-esque circle as he did. "Amid the grey haze of the hills... a lone hare gasps, frail and fearful," he quietly hummed, picturing the gloomy scene in his mind's eye, "Its throat torn, then it stills. Life stripped away, just to be another morsel." Nettlepaw paused, then brushed away the grooves in the earth with a shake of his head. No, it wasn't good enough. Not compared to his father's.

@OLIVESHADE ​

 

[OLIVESHADE]

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Stories from either of her parents was a rarity. Neither were wordsmiths, her mother frail and sleepy and her father too brash.

So when she hears the experimental murmurs of her rat, she doesn't know what the fuck he's getting at. The statements feel broken and awkward, for she lacks the knowledge about pacing, stanzas and lines needed to understand the poetry Nettlepaw is crafting, and don't even get started on her lack of emotional connections to be able to truly understand what he wanted to get at.

'I....I could just leave? I mean its not like he noticed me-" She had just wanted to go on a walk. Just a little stroll to clear her head and stuff, honestly it was moreso that she was trying to avoid Weaselclaw for the time being, and Dandelionwish. She shivers at the memory of having to sit for hours on end to get all the thorns out of her body, her nose throbs at the memory, causing her to rub it with the wrist of her front paw. She sita there, silent, debating for a moment before letting out a sigh. Technically he wasn't supposed to be out here alllll by himself if no one knew where he was. She'd already gotten in enough trouble for him being less knowledgable than a rabbit kit, she didn't need to get in more.

"Hey, kid. The hell are you doing?" She doesn't sound mad, just, genuinely confused. ​

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[nettlepaw.]

Just the cat that he wanted to avoid in kind. Nettlepaw flinched heavily, shifting to be upright on his front legs and twisting his head around to look at Oliveshade. "Nothing― I'm not doing anything." he sheepishly mumbled, his fur heating with utter embarrassment. What a fool he was, rambling nonsense and getting caught, by his mentor no less.

Chasing away thoughts of slain rabbits and grassy hills from his mind, the grey-patched apprentice slowly rose off the ground and shook out his bristly fur. His eyes darted to Oliveshade's face briefly, searching for any lingering resentment or anger. Despite gleaning none, he still was wary. "S-sorry..." Nettlepaw said in a hushed voice, head ducking and ears pinning flat. Part of him wondered if she had sought him out for a reason, or if it was only a coincidence. Any excitement for training had long since faltered and died like a starved chick in an empty nest, his hopes now limp among rotting crumbling twigs. Oh, that was a good metaphor... he could use that later.​

 

[OLIVESHADE]

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'Yeesh, is he just like that or have I already fucked up just by talkin'?' She'd fucked up a lot more than that already, with a lot of cats, but since she'd never bothered to get to know the kid, let alone anyone else, she wouldn't know. Stars, how did cats just do this and make it look like nothing at all? The awkwardness in this conversation could be slashed even by a softpaw. 'This...this was a mistake. Maybe I should just-'

"What have you been teaching him for three moons? He's nearly warrior aged at this point."

The memory of Weaselclaw's voice is a barrage on her ears, causing her to wince. No-No she couldn't just leave, that would be even more awkward, And it wasn't like Nettlepaw screeched and whined like most of the other rats. Oliveshade's eyes flicker over to the tunnel entrance, mulling it over before trying to get the toad like words out of her mouth. "You don't-Um...I haven't really shown you the tunnels and shit yet...so I thought we could do that....?" She felt like a kit, she hated it. ​

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