take a win // first catch

[✧ Siltcloud.]

TO FAR AWAY TO HOLD ME​

siltpaw | 06 months | female | she/her | physically easy | mentally easy | attack in bold #ddadaf​

---

She knows she shouldn't be off on her own. But she's just so tired of following along the hunting patrol like a shadow, useless and not even getting to attempt to hunt. They already know she'll just fail. With a quiet sigh she had paused to take a breath, to take a lap of cool water from a clean puddle, and then they'd been gone. She'd been left behind, forgotten. Somehow, she finds she doesn't actually mind. Saves her troubled mind from having to think. dull gaze stares at white-socked paws, mudded from her trek through the territory. It seems like no matter how often she bathes and grooms they're permanently stained, no longer the pretty white they once were. A rustling beside her has her pausing, gaze slowly turning upwards to find the source. There, right there, sitting in front of her as though she is not it's predator, sits a frog. It's fat and slimey, it's bulbous eyes staring at her unfeelingly. It blinks and croaks, and all she can do is stare.

Should she try and catch it? It'll surely end in failure, just like the rest of her attempts... but- there's no one to see her, to mock her failures. Would it really be wrong to try, just this once. Anxiety clawing at her insides, she takes a deep breath, slowly dropping into the now familiar crouch. The stupid thing simply blinks at her, mockingly, and it's enough to push her into action. Limbs coil taut ad she springs, paws and teeth finding come in the miserable creature. It's over before she knows it, the frog hanging limply in her jaws. She spits it out, staring blankly at it as a single thought filters through her weary mind I... did it?

 

[FLICKERFIRE]

╭── ⋅ ⋅ ── ✩ ── ⋅ ⋅ ──╮​

Although she won't admit to anyone, Flickerfire did forget Siltpaw. Her apprentice is her little tabby shadow, expression perpetually dour. In a way, she thinks Siltpaw is worse than Granitepaw. At least that awful tom says what he's thinking -- she feels like Siltpaw is just saying it in her head.

Perhaps that's unfair, but Flickerfire wants to be doing other things than teaching the daughter of a defecting kittypet how to do basic tasks. She wants to be hunting alone. She wants to be unshackled, free from all duties, Siltpaw included, so she can stray toward the Thunderpath and the brief glow of happiness she gets when she crosses it.

Today, it takes until the patrol is headed back to camp before Flickerfire realizes she's lost her apprentice. Damn that little furball, she thinks with a huff. Got her tracking skills from mama, didn't she?

She buries the pair of lizards she'd caught and stalks through their territory, burning eyes following every slightly moving bit of foliage, until finally she sees a flash of pale auburn. "Siltpaw?! What's wrong with you? Can't you--" She stops in her tracks, eyes widening.

Siltpaw has actually caught something! A frog, a good-sized one, lays dead and mangled at her paws. "'Bout damn time," Flickerfire comments, but she can't help the pride seeping through her sharp words. She playfully cuffs Siltpaw over the ear. "That's a better catch than mine today. Pick it up and we'll go put it on the fresh-kill pile. You can show the other apprentices." She decides to save the rest of her berating for later. After all, the poor kid deserves to feel good about something in her miserable little life.

- ,,​

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[CHILLEDSTAR.]

chilledgaze had not caught anything today. there was barely anything to catch in the first damned place. their nose flared with frustrated, as they sat up with a tilt of their head at the sound of flickerfire nearby. she's shouting at her apprentice and suddenly it makes their ears swivel in that direction, stomach twisting slightly. damned cat. how flickerfire managed to be their friend was beyond them. grunting, they shook out their pelt, brow raised as they looked over at the catch. it was a decent size... it would feed a couple. good for the kit. she was a little skittish, but maybe she was finding her place. hopefully she kept up with that skill-set. they needed all of the prey they could get, as the days got shorter and the nights longer, cold coming around and chasing the little bit of prey they had left away. they needed the damned prey.

"good catch. keep catching like that, and you'll have an excellent warrior name."

​

[ NOBODY ELSE MATTERS, GIRL ]​

 

[Poppypaw ★]

"That FROG is SO FAT!" Her voice a shrill pitch and her longhaired form is a hurricane of red and white as she stumbles and bumbles forward at the sight of so many clanmates gathered in one spot. She can not be left behind, she can not be left out and so she will thrust his little charcoal nose into any business that happens to catch her eye. Both copper hues are honed in on the prey hanging from Siltpaw's mouth and the red molly gives an exaggerated sigh and loud groan of dismay, "I haven't caught ANYTHING today! We're going to STARVE and it'll be MY FAULT!" A tragedy, truly.
"Better send Siltpaw out again to CATCH SOMETHING ELSE TO COMPENSATE FOR MY FAILURE!" Poppypaw slumps dramatically, loudly onto the soft earth, a paw raised to her forehead and other curled up to tuck against her chest as she wallowed there in misery.

​

 

[✧ Siltcloud.]

MY IGNORANCE HAS STRUCK AGAIN​

siltpaw | 06 months | female | she/her | physically easy | mentally easy | attack in bold #ddadaf​

---

Her mentors words are equal parts disparaging and proud - and really, silt isn't sure why she had expected any different. From her place staring at her catch her eyes roll briefly, a quiet huff slipping past her lips as she cuffed over the ear. As they're joined by the remnants of the patrol, dull green gaze flits briefly over chilledgaze before averting once more - a stiff nod at her words of praise. Poppypaw's dramatic have her eyes widening comically, the barest twitch of her lips giving hint at the amusement that dances within her green gaze. Shaking her head and giving a small stretch, "It's not that fat;" she murmurs - though she knows it's a lie, and thinks perhaps that's why it'd been easy to catch. It had grown fat and dumb and lazy from the cold. Stupid frog. Overwhelmed by now and simply wishing to return to camp, she obediently follows her mentors orders and plods off in the direction of camp to set her prey with the rest. She needs a nap.

 

[PITCHSTAR]

summoned by the theatrical screeching of shadowclan's nuisance, poppypaw, pitchstar doesn't acknowledge siltpaw's success. instead, he focuses on poppypaw, his eyes narrowing. "you're right; it will be your fault, 'cause you keep scarin' off all the damn prey with your hideous wailin'." honestly... poppypaw's parents should've never come together to spawn such a little demon. maybe he should outlaw crimsonflower from procreating in the future, to prevent any possible poppypaw clones from running around the swamp.

it's when poppypaw mentions sending siltpaw out in her place that pitchstar finally notices the frog that hangs from the little she-cat's mouth. the leader's brow quirks, but he says nothing. siltpaw's already received enough praise from his clanmates; there's no need to get into a tizzy about it, since it'll likely be the first and last thing she catches with leaf-bare on the horizon.​

 

[Poppypaw ★]

The worst thing that happened to ShadowClan was Briarstar dying. Not because it was sad someone died, but because it made Pitchstar an important cat and he was probably the worst cat to be important. Important cats got to eat first and also he had more than one life, which meant he was going to be here FOREVVVVVEEERRRRRRRRRRRRR. Poppypaw groaned where she lay, refusing to even look at the leader and his boring comments about scaring stuff off or whatever. "Your FACE scared them off." She grumbled, not loud enough to be heard of course except maybe by Siltpaw who she was springing up to follow after with a speed unmatched by any other cat.
"HEY SILTPAW, are you DONE hunting? You should go back out with me! We can have a frog catching contest!" And Pitchstar was not invited.

​