camp the grey || hiding, watching

oakpaw

oakpaw

dogbait
Mar 20, 2023
13
2
3
˗ˏˋ he does not... trust them.

he doesn't trust anybody. he's only ever... only once. (but she's gone now, isn't she, namesake fulfilled? he shouldn't think about her... thinking about her hurts. dogbait doesn't want to hurt anymore.)

these cats aren't like she was. aren't like he is. they aren't small, frightened creatures. they loom and they stomp and they — they — scruff him and drop him into warmth and milk-scent. it's the most wonderful thing in the whole, entire world. he doesn't understand. he doesn't trust.

dogbait sits at the edge of camp. his belly is hungry for more milk. dogbait loves the milk... he should... go. he should go to that warm, soft, sweet cat, who licks him over as he nurses... they call her wrenflutter. he doesn't know what it means. what a wren is. or a flutter. but dogbait should find her, should go back to the nursery he crept out of.

ears pinned back, hackles raised, he crouches here instead. watches camp from his shadowy little corner, prepared to hiss and bite anyone who comes near.

he watches things happen. he tries to understand.

. . .
brown tabby with white. 7 weeks old. how could you love this wretched creature ´ˎ˗ ​
 


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Blizzard Fang stomps and he looms, the heavyset Tom moves for nothing in his path. To a tiny kitten already scared of the world and its inhabitants the senior warrior was no help. If not for the grin on his face he looked ferocious, and to all these things he was oblivious! Paws land by the child and he lowers himself into a crouch. Piercing blue eyes fixate on the tabby Tom-kit.

”Oh yer a fighter, ain’tcha?” He asks with one eye narrowed and head cocked to the side, noting the kittens bristling fur and defensive stance.
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☀ - WHILST MY HEART STILL BEATS
"Poor thing." Sunnyday remarked as he watched the kit from a distance, unsure about chancing any form of approach. The last thing he wanted was to risk running the kit off by accident, just because he wanted to care for it. However, his gaze shifted to that of Blizzard Fang when the older tom ended up near the child. Would the kit shoot off or remain? It was hard to tell. Though his desire to remain away finally caved to that of his own sense of curiosity. He edged his way closer before sitting himself down not far away from the pair, his tail gliding back and forth across the ground like a tantalising fluffy toy. "One would have to be strong to have survived alone long enough to reach our lands."
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She hadn't been there when Howlingstar had found the small scrap of fur, but she had heard rumors of him. Apparently his name was dogbait. Whenever she thought of it, her pelt prickled. Who would name a kitten such a horrible thing? She couldn't even imagine a Shadowclanner or even a Windclanner naming a kitten something like that, and they were vile cats in her opinion.

The red tabby watched from afar, not wanting to scare the poor little thing too bad. She could see him hiding and watching from the pretend safety of a shadowy corner. Her heart would tug, her motherly instincts wanting to comfort him and lift the fear off his shoulders, but she knew that would not happen. It would take time for him to trust them, and frankly they were lucky that he had trusted Wrenflutter enough to nurse.

She could remember how she had felt after joining Thunderclan...she too had felt scared and alone. It was the first time she had been without her mother, probably much like him. Sunnyday and Blizzard Fang were already over near the young tom, so instead of joining them and potentially scaring him, she would just offer the young kit a smile from afar.
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˗ˏˋ Blizzard Fang's approach goes about as well as anyone might expect — well, anyone except Blizzard Fang. Dogbait squeaks, frightened and furious, as the senior warrior stomps closer; by the time the man's lowering himself into a crouch, Dogbait is already jerking back, leaping onto shaky hind legs as he retreats, claws unsheathed, little milk-teeth bared. "GO AWAY!" he screams. "GO AWAY FROM DOGBAIT — "

He scrambles back to press himself against a den's outer wall, taking refuge in its shadow. Blizzard Fang speaks as Dogbait hisses and hisses, hackles raised... "Oh, yer a fighter, aint'cha?" he asks, and Dogbait feels a spark of — well — annoyance through the fear.

"I am not a fighter," he hisses, sounding more ... snippy now, "I am a Dogbait." It's his name, all he's got that's really his, so he's still protective of it.

Sunnyday's approach only makes him cower more, quite surrounded now, until the tom's tail starts to lash back and forth within reach: it's almost comical how Dogbait's pupils dilate, how some kittenish excitement perks up within the feral little creature.

"One would have to be strong," Sunnyday is saying — that's not his name either, and absently Dogbait corrects, "I am Dogbait," but he's fully focused on the tail now. He lowers his head, wiggles his little butt, and — Pounce! The child aims for Sunnyday's tail, claws unsheathed (he doesn't even know that he should sheath them), aiming to pin it down and chomp on it.

(He doesn't notice Flamewhisker from afar — too wrapped up first in being surrounded, then in the lashing tail that captivates his little hunter's instincts.)

. . .
brown tabby with white. 7 weeks old. how could you love this wretched creature ´ˎ˗ ​
 
"ALWAYS"​
Wrenflutter had nothing but love for her clanmates, anyone who even spoke to her would know that for a fact. She was the youngest of the queens, with Flamewhisker having left the nursery not long ago and Little Wolf having much more experience than her, but she had opened her nest to the feral tomkit with that stars awful name. Though, in moments like this, the queens and Howlingstar being the exception, she couldn't help but feel some of her clanmates were a little... dense handling kits? Maybe that was too rude. Though in her opinion, she was more inclined to believe the young tom needed softer handling than what life had dealt him so far. She had lingered in the nursery for a bit before following, watching the kit with soft eyes briefly. She had looked away briefly to check after her own precious litter, to look back and see the feral little one being spoken to by Blizzard Fang and Sunnyday, and it wasn't... going well. Sighing softly, the young queen padded over, smiling at Flamewhisker before approaching the two toms. "Blizzard Fang, Sunnyday," She called softly, a small frown on her face. "Maybe give Little One some space, please?" She asked politely, lingering off to the side, close enough to be heard and scented, but not close enough to stress the young kit out further by being surrounded.​
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☀ - WHILST MY HEART STILL BEATS
Loud. The kit was very loud. Sunnyday wasn't entirely sure how to respond, but he guessed that the youth was somewhat attached to the horrible name he had been made to carry. Although he didn't want to say it he supposed he would be better off using it in order to maintain some form of peace with the youngster. "Alright, Dogbait, it's okay. You can call me SunnydaAAEEEE-!" He smacked a paw to his mouth in order to muffle himself before he risked disturbing the entire camp with his cry of pain when his tail was set upon to such a degree. He had expected kit level play, not for his tail to be treated like it was genuine prey.

It took all the inner strength he had to avoid pulling away in that moment, and he instead continued to twitch his tail about in order to keep the now somewhat aggressive game going. He'd go to Berryheart afterwards. "Please don't let these scratches and bites become infected!" The tom sucked in an sharp intake of air as he tried to steel himself against the pain and discomfort in order to be able to speak without shrieking. "Ee-easier ss-sss-said than done, Wrenflutter." He whimpered whilst making his tail fall limp against the ground with the thinking that the kit would lose interest in it if it looked 'dead'.
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Their newest member was baffling to say the least. Stormpaw remembered how quick to fight and play she had been as a kitten, but she had never seriously thought her life was in danger. There was no playfulness behind Dogbait's reactions—he seemed genuinely afraid. The name scared her, bringing back to light that terrible day she spent in the nursery cowering under Little Wolf as dogs ravaged the camp. She pulled her tail tightly over her paws, sitting next to Flamewhisker.

"Why is he like that?" Stormpaw reached up to whisper to her mother, still carefully watching from their distance away. She did not fancy claws digging into her tail like Sunnyday.

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Like she had assumed, the close presence of Sunnyday and Blizzard Fang had been too much for the little scrap. The little one screamed at the pair of toms, and the red Molly would wince slightly. Everything inside of her told her to go to him, but that was Wrenflutter's job now. She would be one of the few that he probably trusted. Thankfully the queen must have sensed what was going on, as she quickly appeared to the scene.

Stormpaw came to sit beside her, and she would lean over to draw her tongue over the top of her head like she had done when they were kits. Her daughter quietly asked why Dogbait was the way he was. A long exhale would flow through her small nose, and she would gently study the scrappy tom as he attacked Sunnyday's tail rather roughly. "As his name suggests...I think he has had a very rough life already. I don't know who would name a kitten Dogbait, but whoever it was did not have pure intentions. I don't think he has had anyone that he can trust in his life before, and now he is surrounded by strangers. I think it will take some time...but I believe he will eventually settle down." she responded softly.
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જ➶ "Well, I don't like Dogbait. If I bit Sunnyday I would be in big trouble." Plus he didn't like the other kit from the moment he showed up on their territory. Didn't like when Lichenpaw decided to make him back up and he got reprimanded for his actions toward the kit. To him it isn't fair especially the nasty things he said to Howlingstart. The young apprentice felt his hackles raise and he sticks his tongue out at Dogbait, hoping no one saw before he turns away to move towards his mother. His tail shows his agitation and he huffs as he sits down beside Flamewhisker. Definitely not fair. His ears pull back against his skull as he glares but mostly at the ground. ​
 


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Though perhaps inappropriate, Blizzard Fang lets out a hearty chuckle as the kit barks at him to go away, that confirms it! A fighter indeed, despite the kits denial and insistence he was merely a dog bait. It was… a rather cruel name, but the child seemed unphased by it and adamant of wearing the title. His maw drops however, as Sunnyday gets a chomp to the tail. Again he merely roars in laughter, all while obeying the ask of Wrenflutter. She was a queen after all and he respects her judgement on the matters of kittens.

Yet Falconpaw‘s words are not appreciated by the senior feline. He aims to very lightly bat one of the apprentice’s ears. ”Maybe so, but you also didn’t just tumble from your mother’s rear. He hardly looks weaned.” He reminds in an off colored manner.
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