something that'll keep you from the cold || sparrowpaw

[mousebrain]

mousebrain is jolly as ever this fine afternoon, having taken @SPARROWPAW. out for a hunt during a moment of downtime. he's happy as a clam, yessir. what a peaceful greenleaf afternoon it is! and he's got a little best friend here with him who's really, really in need of a confidence boost. poor kiddo! luckily mousebrain knows just the ticket. a hunt with friends (best friends, even) is the cure to most emotional ails, he's found.

"alright, little friend!" he chirps, once they've gotten far enough from camp that it looks like good hunting. "so, where do you want to start? have a favorite spot?" his voice is softer and kinder than usual, though no less cheery. mousebrain works real, real hard to stay cheery in support of all his best friends!! "if not, i know a good one..."

"anyway, how have you been? training goin' okay? you seem a little down in the dumps!"

his yellow eyes soften with sympathy. "training can sure be tricky sometimes. i know i had a hard time with it! gosh, sometimes it can feel like ya've got too much to live up to, living in a clan like this." ​

 

[SPARROWBREEZE]

Clawtail is elsewhere today, so the brown tabby is made to tag along with someone else instead. Mousebrain, the ever-happy warrior. A demeanor that shines brighter than Sparrowpaw's own, one that makes the apprentice look even meeker than usual as she pads alongside him with her head down, a golden gaze that watches mismatched paws trudge forward.

Perhaps it's not just the tom's chipper mood though, that makes her look this way. Perhaps it's the hunt they set out for - a task Sparrowpaw expects at this point to leave empty-pawed. The moor-runner apprentice has yet to catch anything, and with the way Clawtail looks at her in disappointment at the end of their training sessions engrained in her mind, the girl doesn't think today will be the day either.

She's pulled from her doubts by chirping tones, an amber gaze lifting to look at the warrior. A favorite spot? What would make one a favorite, if Sparrowpaw had failed to catch even the smallest of mice at each spot Clawtail had taken her? As she struggles to find an answer, Mousebrain offers a different spot. A good spot.

"You do...? Where?" she asks, paws shifting beneath her. Maybe Clawtail has just been bringing her to the wrong spots. Maybe she'll have better luck wherever the warrior takes her.

And then the question about her training. It makes her shoulders slump, her gaze lower to the ground once more. Was it that obvious?

"I haven't... I haven't caught my first prey yet," she admits to the warrior, ears flattening against her head. Though she hasn't been keeping tabs, she feels like plenty of her peers have already caught theirs - that she's falling behind all of them. Would that mean Sootstar wouldn't give her a warrior name? That she would be an apprentice longer than the tunnels' students are? "Clawtail doesn't seem too happy with me either, and I... I think... I think I'm maybe never going to be a warrior."

There's a sympathetic gaze shared with her, and Mousebrain speaks briefly of his own apprenticeship. Sparrowpaw can't really imagine him as a Mousepaw, but... if Mousebrain had become a warrior with his own struggles, maybe Sparrowpaw could too?

"Did you really?" she asks, ears twitching as she listens to his words. Too much to live up to, Sparrowpaw thinks she understands this - an apprentice at the same time as Sootstar's children, an outsider at that.

// this is so late, i'm sorry aGH​

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