pafp STEP BY STEP | teaching

[BUCKGAIT.]

MY NAME IS BRUTUS AND MY NAME MEANS HEAVY ✧​

her focus has shifted. the first bloom spotted. the waters lure her back, and even if the cold of the rivers nip at her, she has never felt more warmed with the reunification. her days have been spent as usual, completing duties and scorning those who cross her path. that has never changed. but now she is even more out of camp, elusive as she dances amongst the streams. the familiar and bittersweet feeling it brings, and she never quite feels like a clan cat in the moment. she is no deputy, not a poor woman being forced into the ways of a colony, she is nothing but loose and feral and wild. when she arrives into the make-shift camp, her fur is damp and chill. eyes still wild and blown wide with the tales of new leaf still dancing about in her mind.

it is a joyous time for buck. though, she has noticed some not being able to take to the waters as the rest had. so here she stands, within the chill waters and watching the inky tom before her. he is not used to the lapping tongue of the river, how it reaches for more hearts to follow the beat of. she is coaxing him into the waters, a siren luring in victims. "look at me raven. " the deputy commands of the apprentice, wanting him to see how the waters react to every single movement of her's. "keep your heart calm, and take a few steps in." her movements are graceful, as if she was born of the waters themselves. there is no visible resistance, no threat.

to prove it further, she aims to splash the tom with cold water, hopefully, to shock him into action.

@RAVENPAW.

​

 

[RAVENSONG]

In a way, he admires Buckgait. He would like to say he sees a little of himself in her, but he knew to say so would be disingenuous. She was wild and bold in a way he could not be, partly because of his youth and partly because he did not come from the wild, but from the concrete nests of Twolegplace. Now especially, with Cicadastar's decisions, he felt he could more easily predict Buckgait's movements. That made her safer—in his eye at least. He could not speak for the others.

Hence when she brought him with her, he felt some sort of twinge of honor. That is, until he was brought to the river. Licking his lips, Ravenpaw lifted his head when asked, his grayish eyes wavering. Raven. He liked it. It sounded similar to his old name.

"I—" His heart is anything but calm. It batters at his chest like a bird. Before he could get away with swimming on account of the flood and the freezing temperatures. Now? It is impossible. "It's not calm, it's—" His paws remained rooted to the ground, unwilling to get into the newleaf stream.

Buck splashes him with it and Ravenpaw freezes up. A sharp exhale left his throat as his eyes widened and he took one step right into the banks, feeling the water lap at his paws. "It will wash me away." He whispered, dragging his feet.

​

 

[dovethroat.]

Though Dovepaw was often guilty of trailing behind Ravenpaw, this time he was not. Earnest. Cross one's heart and swear to StarClan and all that. He had been out with his mentor with the aim of honing his fishing skills—though one could argue that results were, in all honestly, pretty middling. Dovepaw showed great promise as a swimmer, but his hunting instincts were sorely lacking. It just never made sense to him, and he certainly did not like the underlying violence of it all.

But saying that out loud made him sound like a sanctimonious loser, and he did not want people to think that of him. So he shut his maw and decided to go along willingly any time his mentor told him to get better at fishing.

Regardless, Dovepaw had a hard time ignoring his only no-qualifications friend. A bit downstream of whatever Ravenpaw and Buckgait were up to. He watched with bated breath, regrettably more interested in that then his own apprentice work. His mentor, thankfully, seemed to not have noticed yet.

Tail swishing minutely, he continued to simply observe. He was worried—he knew Ravenpaw was... bad at this, to put it lightly. He could not exactly go and cheer for him, either—that would not go over well. In fact, just him slacking off to watch was probably not going to end well.

[⋆]​

​

 

[HOUNDSTRIDE.]

Funny thought, that– Buckgait bein' safe. Though he's not so wary of her as he once had been, those earlier days had not escaped his memory. He's uncertain of her, that much can be easily said. Still, though, in this at least he can only view her with a muted amusement. He knew it was important to get more of them into the river's stream, but Ravenpaw? Looking at the apprentice's taut body and wide eyes, it seems it's more likely he'd tear himself apart before giving in to the freedom of a swim. After the leafbare they'd had, Hound couldn't even blame him.

"Come on now." His quiet paws muted even further by the soft bank, Houndstride nearly appears beside Ravenpaw, so close that his leg brushes into dark fur. "It'll do you no good to sit and mope at the waters 's'if they'll part for you." The closest limb lifts to sweep for Ravenpaw's leg, gently coaxing it forward in another step. His lowered head lifts to find Buckgait's gaze, hoping for a sign that he's not ruining all'f her plans by joining in. "One paw after the other. I'll do it with you. See the way it runs?" Hound lowers his head again, nodding to the current. From Raven to Hound. "You'll not go anywhere without me going first. You can trust that it won't happen as so."

﹥ˏˋ〘  OOC NOTES INFORMATION 〙ˊˎ﹤

• ooc: —
• ──── houndstride. trans male, he - him - his pronouns.
  ──── over three years old. born late december of 2020.
  ──── bisexual but with a heavy masc preference; single.
  
  ──── a chocolate tabby with ( stylized ) low white and intense lime eyes. lean and lanky,  with whiplike musculature and a long, quick stride. hound's notable features include his impressive height, the long scar across the left side of his face from nose to jaw, his very deep, dense fur, and the confident manner with which he conducts himself.
• "speech"

​