pafp still i pray for you ✧ assessment

[lichenstar]

⋆ ✧　 　 · 　 ✧ ⋆ ✧　 　 · 　 ✧ ⋆ ✧　 　 · 　 ✧ ⋆ ​

Every step is one that cannot be retracted... it leaves a print in the frost-dusted carpet of the territory and though the beach copse is familiar through the endless stream of time... today it feels painfully nostalgic. Eyes linger up at the canopy of the few trees that litter the area, trailing along the dusty ground where visions of a boisterous young girl sing insult of a tiny fish caught. Of a short-tempered blue lynx point stomps over to call a childish bluff. Cicadastar must've thought it funny then... to have slowly moved the pieces into play that would stick them together for the next many moons in an amusing battle of stubborn will. Behind her, a much bigger version of that little gray girl clears her throat- I'm here, silently said, That little girl is right here.

Swallowing past a tight throat, Lichentail follows it with a deeply drawn breath before turning to look at Brookpaw with a half-hearted smile. Another goodbye she had to prepare herself for... even if they weren't leaving her really.

"Are you ready," she asks despite knowing the answer to be yes. When had her apprentices ever shied from a challenge? Dipperfrost stood as testimony to that... Ready, grown and proud to serve the clan they'd been born into.

Moving across the clearing, her eyes travel again through fleeting memories of a winter where they'd lived here. Where they'd died here. How many faces who'd seen this tiny kitten and had not made it to see her assessment today. Her mother... her brother... Watch closely Meadowheart... She's fighting for you. What other motivation could you take from the loss of something so great but to internalize it... use it to strengthen you, to drive you forward.

Turning to face her again, the deputy lowers herself to the ground, drawing her legs apart into a wide, sturdy stance that foretells what her competition is today.. why they've come here. "Then let's see it." There were options here and while Lichentail was much older, had the scars to show her experience, she was certain Brookpaw could hold her own. Just to be sure... just one last check to make sure she's ready. A panic flutters in her chest despite it... a bird trapped in cage, humming a sad tune that begged to run. To avoid this. To hold her down and make her wait where it was safe, tucked safely behind her.

She is nearly grown... and more than skilled enough... She has to repeat this reminder like a chanted mantra. "Pin me down and we'll call it a day." Did she realize what was riding on this? Should she have said it clearly and plainly? Are you a warrior?

@brookpaw

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WELL IF YOU WANT MY BLOOD I'LL MAKE SO MUCH BLOOD

THAT YOU'RE GONNA FUCKING DROWN​

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[brookstorm]

It's odd. Moons ago, when the earth cradled leaf litter instead of snow, Brookpaw would've been nervous for this moment. Something about being tested had put ants beneath her fur, yet today, she's relaxed. She tells herself that it is because she's killed already - her teeth found purchase in the dirty flesh of a rogue - but there's something else about it.

Fern green eyes flutter about the copse, and just like her mentor, she thinks of when she was little. This was her first home - many RiverClanners even now think of their camp as their place to be, but Brookpaw finds ties to this little plot of land. She thinks she will always return here, to this little corner of their territory, even when she's old and rickety, even when she dies. Her gaze fits back onto her mentor when they speak and widen their stance.

Is Lightningstone here to see this? She hadn't exactly told him that she'd have her assessment today - but surely her father has been preparing for this day for a good while yet. Brookpaw doesn't afford herself the chance to double check, as Lichentail speaks again; 'Just pin me down,' the deputy says. Wordlessly, the apprentice nods. She kneads her claws into the sandy soil but ultimately keeps them sheathed. She's no WindClanner - speed is not her strong suit out of water - but her parents gifted her strength and Lichentail provided her wit. She flicks an ear as a subtle signal that she's begun, as well as a tick of nervousness, hoping that all she has will be enough.

Brookpaw rushes forward, and as soon as she's close enough, she skids, first kicking sand upwards into the other's face. Regardless of her success or failure, she leans her weight into the momentum and tries to grasp her paws on the other's shoulders and shove her off balance. ​

 

[Mosspool]

𓆝 . ° ✦ Mosspool watched the assessment intently, but her eyes were more focused on the mentor rather than the apprentice.

While she of course hoped for Brookpaw's success, she would not be overly distraught should they fail. Ferngill had failed his first assessment and there were few warriors in the clan more capable than he was. Besides, she did not personally know the apprentice all that well. No, she had interest in this assessment because she wanted to see how Lichentail would conduct it. Her own warrior assessment had been waved off, as Aspenhaze had judged the journey proof enough of her skill. It was a wise decision on their part, but it left a gap in her experience for when it came time for her to be a mentor herself. A gap that she aimed to fill through careful observation.

Still, Brookpaw was not entirely beneath Mosspool's notice. She quirked an eyebrow as the apprentice attempted to kick sand into her mentor's face. It was an underhanded strategy, certainly, but it was more than acceptable in the heat of battle. In a spar, however...

Well, as long as Lichentail approved of it, there was nothing wrong.

✧　°　.　✶　.　°　✧​

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.

​

 

[bubbleburst]

"GOT A LITTLE CASH NOW SO THAT SKIRT IS DIOR"​

Bubblepaw dreads each day her assessment draws nearer. It isn't something that is constantly in the back of the apprentice's mind- the time for her own assessment is quite a ways off- but it's still something she finds herself dwelling on from time to time. Will they ask her about politics? Make her fight? Have her bring back the biggest fish any of them have ever seen? Bubblepaw's mind drifts in a direction most unforgiving when she thinks about when it will be her turn to prove herself to RiverClan and Aspenhaze.

Bubblepaw's gaze is glued to Brookpaw from the very start. She doesn't even realize she's holding her breath in hopes that her fellow apprentice, someone with whom she isn't even close, will pass. The silver tabby winces when Brookpaw kicks up sand as if the grains will fly in her direction. It's a smart move to her. Resourceful, even. But Bubblepaw assumes that this fight will not be so easily won, no matter how nice she might think Lichentail is.

"What was yours like...?" Bubblepaw whispers to Mosspool, eyes fixed ahead on the assessment taking place before them. Even now, she gravitates to Aspenhaze's apprentice who came before her, and seeks some sort of answer like a north star.​

✦ ★ ✦​

 

[TURTLEDOVE]

i'm in the in between, honey​

---

She'll pass. Turtlepaw's sure of it. How could Brookpaw not with moves like those? Uncharacteristically, the apprentice watched Brookpaw silently. She was enamored with her skills. Some day, Turtlepaw hoped, she would fight even better than Brookpaw. Future warriors would tell stories about her and sing her praise as RiverClan's bravest warrior. For now, she'd have to be content to be RiverClan's bravest apprentice.

She snapped back from her daydreaming to pay attention to Mosspool's answer. "I bet it was really hard and you had to fight, like, a badger or something!" she cries. Another daydream entered her mind at this thought. The snarling striped face of a great, black beast inches from her own, but Turtlepaw sends it fleeing with one swipe of her super sharp claws. She squirms next to Bubblepaw with excitement for the reply. "Or maybe you had to swim all the way to Fourtrees! Or or! You had to fight all of ThunderClan on your own!" She couldn't help herself. It was just too fun to imagine all the cool things she would be able to do when she became a warrior.

 

[BEEFANG]

I HEARD, I HEARD ACROSS THE MOONLIT SEA — The assessment drew her forward as snowy paws carried her over to the onlookers, Beepaw decides to sit down curling her feathery tail around her front paws and decides to watch from the sidelines as well. She watches Brookpaw remembering that the molly had extended a paw out to her in helping make her nest when she had been first apprenticed, it was a faint memory but she had not interacted with the blue molly since then, at least, not personally. Her ear flicks hearing Lichentail tell the apprentice to pin her down and they'd call it a day, the bicolored molly letting out a low breath wondering what her own assessment would be like. She would be eight moons soon enough and then one day near her last moon of being a apprentice, her father would pull her away from her peers to assess her and see if she was worthy and ready enough to be a warrior.

Her claws dig absentmindedly into the earth underneath her before glancing over at the two apprentices that were asking what Mosspool's assessment had been, she flicks an ear remembering that the older molly had gone onto the journey and proved herself plenty worthy and dutiful by bringing back the lungwort to save their clanmates. Bee remains silent not wishing to answer for the warrior and flicks her mismatched gaze back to the deputy and her apprentice.

THE OLD VOICE WARNING ME ✦ BEWARE, BEWARE THE DAUGHTER OF THE SEA

• 

• 
  ✦ shorthaired black smoke molly w/low white and mismatched eyes
  ✦ oftentimes comes off as untrusting of those around her, closed off, and not the easiest to engage in conversation with, she's not easy to befriend. all her opinions are IC only.
  ✦ 7 moons old; ages the 10th every month
  ✦ sexuality unknown; currently interested in no one
  ✦ currently being mentored by smokestar
  ✦ firstborn daughter of cicadastar and smokestar
  ✦ sister of cicadapaw and starlightpaw
  ✦ "speech", thoughts, attacking
  ✦ peaceful powerplay allowed

​

 

[lichenstar]

⋆ ✧　 　 · 　 ✧ ⋆ ✧　 　 · 　 ✧ ⋆ ✧　 　 · 　 ✧ ⋆ ​

Brookpaw's stance shifts ever so slightly and in that taut muscle she can see just how serious this is for her... that she had no intentions of wasting another week as an apprentice if it could be helped. With a goal set, there was nothing to stop her. With a dexterity fitting of someone that had trained under Lichentail, the deputy watches a paw dig itself comfortably into the sand, all weight shifting to the opposite foreleg so she might be able to grab at the ground more easily. Take a breath...

She closes her eyes, pressing ears forward to listen- unfortunately... this is an old trick, it wouldn't be enough- paws grip at her shoulders. It's a good tactic she thinks in bittersweet reverie of times she'd used the same thing. Petalnose wasn't a fan of under-pawed tricks like that but... it was what you had to leverage when brawn wasn't enough. Snakeblink understand that, understood what the requirements for absolute survival meant.

The blue molly tucks her chin, staggering to move with the momentum pressed against her before ramming her head under Brookpaw's chin to disorient her. It should be enough to loosen her grip at the very least, to force her to stumble back and reassess. Try again.... try again.

Pale blues open to witness it, to see the cogs turn behind verdant shores... What next, she asks with a jaw-clenched stare. "Good," she breathes in quiet encouragement, "You can do better..."

---

CLAIM THE BURIAL I SEEK IN DREAMS

FLOWING RIVER CEMETARY​

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