private THE SLOW RUSH ⋆ DOEPAW

[WOLFWIND]

A strange sort of dread has found her, with the assignment of Doepaw as her apprentice. Sudden anxieties that really didn't make much sense. Are you ready? Are you able? mental berating by her brain, when nothing was really much different than before. She just looked a bit spookier, had a bit less fur, looked more... badass, like Roeflame had said. Would someone that looks like that really make a bad mentor? Her attitude has changed for the better, in her humble opinion. Doepaw would find herself a mentor that's attentive, the way she needs. A mentor that isn't afraid of getting a bit dirty. Wolfwind tells herself that she's crazy; that a bit of her sense leaked out 'F her ears the day that fox knocked her sideways. They were gonna get right along, her and Doepaw.

Wolfwind would take her aside, sticking her nose wherever she could find the tawny apprentice to call her over with a flick of her tail. She didn't wanna start doin' nothin' hardcore just yet... She didn't see a need in getting her up at the crack 'F dawn done just yap some to her. It's about sunhigh, when they sit together in a corner of camp. Some slush sits around them, the signs of Newleaf on the horizon.

" Hey, " she mews, leanin' forward since she finds eye contact important. Hopefully it wasn't too much for the girl. Wolfwind's known only whispers and defensive bristling from her — resulted from Stormywing coming on a bit too hot. " M'not puttin' you ta work just yet. Just figured we should get to know each other... Clan life weird for you at all? "

[ ooc: @doepaw ࿔ <3! ]​

 

[doepath ࿔]

The best comfort was a complete lack of change at all... and with how much of it had been front loaded (a gentle, quiet tutoring from Gentlestorm here and there), Doepaw was content to just sit in the apprentices' den and shuffle around her new nest and call that all the hard work she needed to do for the day. Her name, her location, her responsibilities, the rules she had to follow, they bounced around in wild fluttering in her head, threatening to seep out as it boiled to steaming overwhelm.

It took some time to adjust, to be able to identify others by the vague shape of them, the colors that melded together, but most of all by scent. Wolfwind's was particular and in the breeze's change to suggest her appearance, round eyes had drug themself in her general direction with a small 'mrrp?' of question.

Wandering after the older molly with ginger steps, the fawn-colored girl sat neatly with paws tucked under plumy tail to wait, to listen. "Hi," she chirps sheepishly, pupils wavering in their teary shape to try to find a spot to focus. "Oh okay!"

Thank goodness for nothing too involved yet. The prospect of leaving camp at all felt far away and impossible at the same time. "Uhm... there's like... a lot to keep track of? Hailsto- Uh.. Gentlestorm... told me a lot of the," she waves her paw vaguely in the air, searching for words, "Important stuff I guess? Like names... and... Pigeonpaw said something about hunting."

Her nose scrunches up in effort of recollecting anything else helpful... A moment of silent concentration. "I'm not sure... all the rules. Other than not running off but. I don't really... want to leave here.... I'm not in trouble, am I?" Howlingstar's frustration, though gentle, was ferocious in equal measure. She did not look forward to it being directed at her instead.​

 

[WOLFWIND]

Wolfwind nods along. A lot to keep track of " I can imagine, " she mews. " I was right here when all this stuff was fresh. It's like I'd get used to it, and then they'd pick that moment to drop a whole new thing on me! " She thinks of Lakemoon, who couldn't learn alongside her, because she'd gone off to RiverClan. Had Cicadastar truly made so much of an impression? More of an impression than their grandmother? Seasons later, and Wolfwind still couldn't help but be a tad bitter. Her sister shouldn't have to be someone she sees at gatherings, and gatherings only. She finds her tail whipping at the dirt below them, and she stops herself. This wasn't about her. " M' glad you have your siblings with you, at least. S'a nice thing to have, " she remarks.

" Trouble? Naw! What would ya be in trouble for? " she asks, more rhetorical than anything. So... she's shy, inwardly, she remarks. Or at least a little nervous. She shouldn't quite expect Doepaw to jump into things headfirst like she had... Following Sparkpaw, ( following Morningpaw ) she could appreciate it more than would've before. No risky stuff for Doepaw, that'll be all her. " That's the most important rule for ya to know right now, so it's a fine start, " she offers. " Otherwise I'd just say to keep with us. There's a gathering tonight you get to go to. There'll be a lotta cats. You can be friendly, but not... friendly, ya'know. Everyone but us are a bunch'a weirdos, anyway. You won't miss 'em. "

It worries her, that she doesn't want to leave here. There's only so much they can do within' camp, after all... " Does going out spook ya? " she asks, a note of worry in her voice. She isn't sure what she could do about that, really... " Not like I can blame ya, right now... " Given the long - legged beasts, N' all...​

 

[doepath ࿔]

A fluffy tail flicks in quiet observation, staring with round eyes in a vain hope she might be able to make them focus. Might make white and shades of blues into more of a cat shape than the loose, legged thing in front of her. Might give clarity to the stretches of red-pink gouges that score her mentor. Any context to understand the type of molly she was other than the kind, patient voice that responded to her. "Are you old then," she asks, harmlessly. How old would Wolfwind have to be in order to be there for the founding of entirely new laws? These clans seemed immortal... timeless... at least in comparison to her small life-span. "Yeah I'm... really glad we're all here together."

A small purr, a quiet one that falters to be certain she is not in trouble before continuing in earnest. She says it like there's nothing Doepaw could possibly do wrong or have done wrong to begin with and for that, her soft rumbling doesn't stop. She was so... nice. How nice! Not like that Skyclaw one... who spoke so plainly and without tact that it made her want to cry just thinking about his stupid... blobby face...

"A gathering? What's that for?" Wolfwind explains that it's a big old group of cats from all the clans- there's really that many huh? Even just trying to keep track of all of ThunderClan feels kinda crazy and impossible from day to day. Friendly she could do... friendly but not friendly however, seemed really confusing. It isn't made clearer with the prompt about weirdos- wasn't she a weirdo in ThunderClan too?

"I uh," her paws shuffle nervously, realizing that her fear is growing to be a problem already. It makes her eyes sting just thinking about it, thinking about what might be out there. Who might be out there. Baying Hound wasn't... wasn't dead right? Not knowing was almost a relief, though it left the nebulous answer of where her mother was and if she'd come back. "I'm sorry Wolfwind," she squeaks alike a mouse rather than the deer she was named after. "It's just really hard to... to see," and the embarassment to be a grown up kid and not even want to go outside and explore makes her weepy.

"I don't w-wanna be a disappointment- you... you guys are so n-nice and I want to help," she sniffles, lifting her foreleg to wipe at her muzzle. "Can I just... can I hold onto you when we go?"​

 

[WOLFWIND]

Wolfwind honestly and turly sputters, at that. " Wh — No! " She's in her prime, for StarClan's sake! " You see a grey hair on me? I mean, they're all grey — you know what I mean! I was like... your age. Or maybe a lil' older. " And whew, with that retrospect... Now realizin' how long it's been since then... She is kinda old, isn't she? Old enough for her baby cousins to not be babies anymore. Too bad she couldn't picture herself as an elder, let to tell stories of the Dawn of the Clans... by then, her memory probably wouldn't do it god enough service, anyhow.

She watches Doepaw carefully. Wolfwind didn't really see much past smilin' when you're happy and frownin' when you're not, but the droning, barely - there purr is sign enough for her. See, she's good at this. She's a good mentor... As if she needed to prove that to anyone. She had plenty experience being the best mentor ever. ( She had just as much being the worst mentor ever... )

" Basically, for lettin' the clans know despite any changes they might see, we've got plenty 'F warriors, and just 'cause it's Leaf - Bare doesn't mean they can tresspass! " That's for you, ShadowClan! mentally, she adds. " The others'll tell us news too, N' say the exact same thing... The rest of them are a bunch of liars, though. Difference with WindClan is they don't realize they are." She sniffs. Maybe she was throwin' a bit too much at Doepaw right away, but nothing could be wrong with knowing who to trust and who not to straight away, right?

And Doepaw gets quiet — quieter than she already was, which was pretty damn quiet — then. I'm sorry, she suddenly says, and Wolfwind quirks a brow of for what? It's just really hard to... to see.

Oh. Oh. Is that why Howlingstar had paired them up? Had she been thinkin'... Wolfwind's figured all of this out already, and surely she could pass some of that good knowledge on to Doepaw? Well, she didn't really. She really didn't. But everything's fine.

" Hey, hey, " Wolfwind leans forward, a frown curling across her painted maw as she watched the molly sniffle. " As long as you're doin' your best, that's plenty, kay? " she insists, trying to shove a reassuring look upon her face. " 'Course you can. You can stay as close as you need to. We're a team from now on, kay? " she purrs.​