pafp some new kind of wonder | lecturing

[Catfishleap]

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The sun hadn't risen yet and the air was chilled. Three white dainty paws made imprints in the fresh snow, the fourth foot trailed behind with less elegance, but only by a little bit. She had gotten up early for no particular reason, she didn't have a dawn patrol or anything, but she wanted to be ready for whenever a cat would need her.

Since there were hardly any other cats up she figured now would be the best time to get a quick breakfast in. As she ate a small mouse something caught her eye. A shadowy figure sneaking in through the darkened edges of the dens. She shot up in an instant, fearing the worst, rogues or WindClan cats, it could even be an otter or something like it. She hadn't gotten a good look but nevertheless she jumped into action. Bolting across the clearing, finding herself at the mouth of the apprentice den looking in at a startled apprentice.

Her eyebrows furrowed as she put two and two together. The tired look on the apprentice's face, the sun still being below the horizon, the foot still hanging midair as the kitten froze mid-step. It was familiar. Wasn't this exactly how Hazewish and her would have looked when Smokethroat caught them sneaking out. It was a miracle they ever graduated. She straightened her shoulders and looked down on the young cat "Outside the den, let's talk." she quietly said the words and watched as the cat followed her away from their sleeping peers. She turned to the apprentice when they were out of earshot of the apprentice den and began her lecture "What do you think you were doing? Do you know how dangerous it is to sneak out of camp? On your own as well?" the badger bite seemed to burn as she spoke, the attack still made her wake up shaking some nights. "I'm telling your mentor and they will have to deal with you." she said the last words like a warrior. Like a grown up cat, the way other cats used to speak to her.

A sigh escaped her as she went back to go eat her breakfast, whenever she say the youth's mentor she would bring up the incident. For now though, she would just hope she didn't wake any other cats up with her lecture.
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╚═══════════════════"speech"═════════════════════╝

@Hazewish
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[Hazewish]

TRAVELER, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED (AND NOW YOU MUST GO) ⋆⁺₊⋆

Hazewish is making her own way back in camp when she hears the tell-tale tone of a warrior lecturing an apprentice, sound carrying on the wind. Even now that she’s older it makes her straighten up as if caught doing something she shouldn’t. She hadn’t even been breaking any rules: Smokestar’s warning to not leave camp had been enforced with spilled blood, and she had found her paws hesitating over the border of camp as she went for her usual lonely sunrise walk. She’d ended up tagging along with an early hunting patrol; though she resents the loss of her little ritual, she figures being alive and un-mauled makes up for it.

(Cicadastar’s death is still fresh in her mind. Without it, would she have been this cautious? Would she have risked herself alone with rogues at their heels? If a badger couldn’t teach her better…)

Roaming paws carry them towards the source of the noise, ears twitching as they listen to familiar words. An apprentice sneaking out? How reckless. The thought is tinged with amusement rather than censure: anything else would be hypocritical of them. Part of them is sympathetic: sleepy, buoyed on the thrill of adventure, one never wants to stumble upon an adult. But this is the price to pay. To go out alone, one must accept the risk of being caught. The cautious will learn to stay put until they are grown, and the rest will not be put off by lectures or punishments. Having been the latter, Hazewish is mostly curious to see what this apprentice will choose in the future.

(Others learn the lesson differently; with teeth grinding down their bones, turning joy into regret. But Hazewish has been very, very lucky…)

She slips between the dens and turns towards the voice at last, trying to catch a glimpse of the wayward apprentice for future reference, but what she sees has her drawing short. It’s not any warrior doing the lecturing; not even a lead; it’s… Catfishleap.

The gracious molly ends her short lecture with a decisive tone, every inch the respectable warrior the two of them used to flee, and sets back down to attend to her breakfast. Haze remains struck dumb. It’s been some time since the two of them interacted beyond the strict minimum required by patrols — two moons, not that they’re counting, since they escaped rogues together. Still they see each other all the time in camp. They don’t talk, but Haze thought she was keeping tabs on her former friend well enough, and perceived no drastic change.

And yet here she is. Entirely different. More grown, somehow, and spouting the same arguments their younger selves would laugh off before running off on some escapade… It’s strange to see. Stranger to realize they did not see it coming, though by all rights they should have: they remember the badger, and the… discussion… in the medicine den that followed.

They truly have gone off on different paths, haven’t they? The thought disquiets them more than they want to admit. Catfishleap can do what she wants. It’s none of their business, really.

Still they pad up closer, dropping their skinny mouse down on the freshkill pile before speaking, stealing a glance at Catfish in the corner of their eye. ”Bold,” she says mildly, leaving it up to the other molly whether she means the apprentice’s behavior, or Catfish’s reaction to it.

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[Mosspool]

𓆝 . ° ✦ As ever, Mosspool was up early. The camp was quiet at this time of the morning, and thus it was hard not to happen to overhear the stern lecture that Catfishleap was giving. It was even harder not to glance in that direction.

It felt strange to hear Catfishleap, of all cats, give such a lecture. The days when she and Hazewish had been inseparable did not seem so long ago.

Mosspool was glad that the pair had grown apart. They had been a poor influence on each other, in her opinion. She could still remember the days when they were always sneaking out of camp together, breaking all kinds of rules and getting into all kinds of trouble. At the time, she had worried that neither of them would ever grow up enough to become warriors. Well, in truth she had only worried about her sister. It would not have been her problem if Catfishleap had remained an apprentice forever.

Clearly though, she had not. In fact, she seemed to have grown into a responsible warrior, reprimanding apprentices for the same foolishness she had delighted in as a youth. Mosspool looked on approvingly. Catfishleap was still annoying, of course, but she was a Riverclan warrior nonetheless. Mosspool wouldn't want to spend an evening with her, but she would trust her to watch her back on a patrol.

It seemed she wasn't the only one to notice the lecture. Her sister had evidently noticed, and had even approached her old accomplice.

Her ear flicked as she heard the what Hazewish had to say. "Yes." Mosspool looked at her sister. "It is rather bold to sneak out of camp so blatantly." Her tone was neutral, not inviting the idea that she meant anything more than what she had said by the words.

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ooc Information

• ooc: —
• 

  MOSSPOOL — SHE/HER･ 12 MOONS ･ WARRIOR & RIVERCLAN ･ PENNED BY @empyrean !

  Longhair black tabby with deep green eyes. Mosspaw is a very tall molly, standing a head above most cats her age. She has a slim, willowy physique with subtle musculature built up from a lifetime of constant training that lends itself well to swimming and running. Long, thick brown fur falls over her form with tabby patterning across it. Her eyes are a vibrant green, and shine with a bright intelligence and confidence.

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[DUCKPAW]

tags! ₊˚✧ ﾟ. duckpaw had always been a light sleeper. she had a propensity for stirring at shuffling noises and quietly whispered words, let alone ones uttered with so much forbidding. it was a terrible trait from kithood, that would now leave her with a frenzied sleep schedule and growing eye bags. she thinks she should be grateful. with so much vigilence and attentiveness, she was rarely caught off guard, and every now and then she would wake and become a unknown third party to some clan gossip. yet, the gradient of dark and pale blues behind the frozen sihlouettes of her clanmates told her the sun was drawing closer to the horizon, and as beautiful as it was, she can't help but think it would've been nice to spend an hour or two more in blissful sleep before dawn truely arrived. thats the remanents of kithood that she had yet to shed. no responsibility, no need to provide for the clans well-being. she was an apprentice now, and she had to get used to that.

duckpaw watches now, a quiet audience as her denmate is marched outside. she tenses up, ears strained forward, as the lecture from catfishleap rings across the clearing, just audible enough for her to digest. sneak out? duckpaw thinks, rather surprised she hadn't woken to the start of her denmates excursion. if she had, maybe she could've intervened and told them what a stupid idea it was. though, duckpaw privately understands the urge. she had once itched to break free from the camp. older apprentices made various expeditions into the territory and would return with joyous grins upon their face, smelling of wilderness, water, and fish. duckpaw had never seen beyond the reeds that wrapped up her and her clanmates like a tight coil, almost suffocating when she thought of the broad expanse of territory that waited just out of reach. duckpaw knows she should be greatful. under new orders, they all remained alive and well. starclan knows what would happen if she went toe-to-toe with a rogue.

duckpaw yawns and wrings the sleep from her body in a stretch before (almost shyly) emerging from the apprentices den. she tries not to look at the apprentice on the recieving end of the scolding for fear of adding to the humiliation, but as she approaches the fresh-kill pile, she can't help but steal a glance at their scared expression. she blinks back encouragingly before grabbing a small fish from the pile. she was none the wiser to the past of the warrior now chewing out the apprentice, but secretly she thought maybe such a vicous scolding could only come from a place of understanding. maybe catfishleap had once been on the recieving end of such consequences? maybe even someone as strict as mosspool?
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[SMOKESTAR]

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Unlike Mosspool's attempt at cool stoicism he made no such efforts as he padded over to the group of younger warriors and Duckpaw's black and white figure attempting to remain out of the path of the scolding being so bitterly delivered. He chuckles, the sound a deep rumbling in his chest that escapes in a purr of amusement.
"Thank the stars we have such responsible warriors in our ranks to ensure our foolish youth do not make such errors." It was hilariously ironic, he remembers a frantic search in poor weather trying to find a tiny silver tabby out lost in the territory and how he'd practically smothered Hazewish, Hazekit at the time, beneath his paws in his worried desperation to warm the tiny body up from the chill upon finding them. Willowroot had been in hysterics, the entire clan in an uproar and Catfishleap so named for her hunting was hardly the poster child of good behavior herself; he remembers the badger. He remembers all of these young cats lives and it's a little humbling in a way. A reminder he's getting older and the generations below him are growing at a rate he finds alarming. Time never stopped rolling forward, a fact he was finding more and more prominent as the moons passed since he'd last lost a life. It almost seemed like they moved faster, it was hard to tell why.

"I had best not see a single apprentice roaming near the edge of camp itself, let alone walking out of it. There are rogues seeking to harm us at our border. You'd do well to mind your superiors."
A sharp but relaxed look is given to the trio, he didn't want to hear any backtalk from cats he had watched over as kits and told stories to as they treated him like a climbing log to play upon. 'Stars I'm not that old yet...'

✘ I've got a reputation and a name to uphold. ✘ Ruthlessness is mercy upon ourselves.

• OOC can go here.
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  Smokestar
  —⊰⋅ Leader of RiverClan
  —⊰⋅ He/Him
  "SPEECH", 'THOUGHTS', ATTACK
  —⊰⋅ Black tom w/vitiligo & one orange eye.
  

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