pafp They made a marvel of a display ✶ Baby birds

[Owlheart]

It was strange seeing the kits from the nursery grow to be apprentices but that was a part of life. It seemed like only yesterday when Hollykit had asked her about stories from her time as an apprentice. Now she was out there alongside the ginger tabby and the other apprentices and warriors. Owlheart wondered how he was liking it, if he liked it? She hoped that he was.

The greenleaf sun barely peeked past the trees, early morning coolness combating against the incoming heat. She peeked over her shoulder at the apprentice, both part of a standard patrol. Her own apprentice had splintered off during the patrol to walk along her other patrolling clan mates. The forest was filled with life, between the sound of mice squeaking, the sound of squirrels running up the bark of the trees and across the grass out of reach. Of course there were plenty of birds present too, a chorus of birdsong heard in the air.

The sound of squeaky bird caused the tabby's ear to flick. Glancing up in the direction of the sound to confirm her suspicions of it being a baby bird. “Oh Hollypaw, have you ever seen a baby bird?” She asked curiously as she gestured to the branch ahead where the sound was coming from. A family of robins gathered, a parent of some description, assuming from the adult characteristics and a group of four baby birds. Old enough to have their feathers come in yet young enough to have that adolescent tone to their birdsong.

“I think they're going to try and fly” the commentary is hushed, as she didn't want to scare off the avians attempts at flight. True to her word the adult robin is pushing one of the four baby birds out of their nest. The small bird sits at the edge of the branch, then they jumped with the assistance of their parent. Owlheart gasps faintly, unsure if the bird was going to make it. To her delighted surprise there was a beat of wings and the child had taken flight. There's a wide and pleasant grin as she looks back to the newly appointed apprentice "I kinda wish I could fly sometimes, I think I'd just fall right off the branch though."

// @HOLLYPAW! | Also apprentice tag for @Lacey since it was mentioned that she's on this patrol too <33
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[HOLLYPAW]

𓆩 ♕ 𓆪　Hollypaw could not be more excited to be an apprentice. He lives out now the thing which he had always fantasized about; adventure, danger, life. The forest teems with all of it, a rippling cascade of sounds like nothing he's ever known. The world beyond camp still feels like a marvelous mystery, experienced only in short bursts. He wishes he could spend all day just wandering through the expanse of it, letting himself get lost - but he is a dutiful warrior, and so he takes the little glimpses of it that he can get.

Although Owlheart is not his mentor, he still finds himself drawn to her. Any willing to humor his questions get a special place in Hollypaw's heart; though, perhaps it is made less special by the high regard that he holds all he interacts with in. The whole of SkyClan is as kin to him. She is quiet as she trots beside the warrior, letting her ears swivel at all the sounds of the forest.

Her attention is drawn, pinpoint, and rapt to the spot where Owlheart directs it. "Oh!" she breathes, carefully softening the chirp to a sort of feather-lightness. "No, but I've heard them..." She knows the sound, a high-pitched and squeaking sort of birdsong. She holds her breath in anticipation, tensing her body as though waiting for a pounce. That poor little bird... How frightening it must be, to leap from a branch awaiting flight! And yet how brave, to leap nonetheless... His eyes glitter with excitement as he watches.

A delighted gasp meets Owlheart's as the bird takes flight. "It flew!" he whispers, excitement coating his tone. The first flight of a baby bird... He feels quite lucky to have witnessed it. Her maw splits open in a grin. "I wish I could fly allll the time, it looks so fun!" He can almost imagine it - the wind rushing through his fur (feathers?), the sight of the world becoming smaller below... Childish as it is, sometimes he still wishes that a hawk would sweep him up and show him the world from above.

‎‎┌── NO SUCH THING AS TIME TO KILL 𓆩 ♕ 𓆪 NOR TIME TO THROW AWAY ──┐‎

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  "SPEECH"
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  HOLLYKIT ⚔︎ she / he, apprentice of skyclan, six moons.
  ➳ a fluffy tom with mottled fur and deep green eyes.
  ➳ bobbie x blazestar; littermate to lionpaw & candorpaw, kin to many.
  ➳ peaceful and healing powerplay permitted / / underline and tag when attacking
  ➳ penned by SATURNID ↛ saturnids on discord, feel free to dm for plots.
  

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[Howlfire]

A mother herself, the passage of time was not lost on Howlfire. It never ceased to amaze her how those little kittens she saw in the nursery suddenly seemed to go from tiny balls of fluff to eager new apprentices in a matter of weeks.

She pads along behind Owlheart and Hollypaw, her own apprentice not far behind. Hawkpaw is of an age now at least that she doesn't feel she needs to watch him as closely. But she still does. Because that's her baby, and no matter what she'll always keep an eye on him and his brother, even when they were old enough to not need her anymore.

The talk of baby birds brings a soft smile to Howlfire's lips. "Oooh where are they?" She asks softly. She looks to the upturned gazes of Owlheart and Hollypaw to try and spot them, amber eyes landing on a little bird hanging on the edge of a branch, about to take the literal leap from being a child to an adult. The smile persists as she watches it dare to take flight, the grin only widening when she hears Hollypaw's excited gasp and wistful remark about wanting to fly. "If you could fly, where would you go, Hollypaw?" Howlfire asks, looking towards Hollypaw. "If I could fly, I think I'd like to see the mountains where those brave cats went to bring us lungwort. Did you know my mother and your mother both saw those mountains?"

/ @Hawkpaw tag due to mention but not necessary to post!​

 

[HAWKSPINE]

If you could fly, where would you go? The question isn't directed towards him, his mother turning towards Hollypaw, but Hawkpaw considers her question all the same. Imagine seeing all the territories at once ... or even beyond ... patchwork ears fold back briefly as Howlfire suggests her own answer. No, she couldn't go to the mountains.

"The mountains? Isn't that where Little Wolf ...?" Hawkpaw shuts his mouth on the quiet murmur, a touch of glumness tinging his expression. He'd never met Howlfire's mother. He'd heard stories, of course, of the kind-hearted ThunderClanner. She had died on the Journey at the same time Hawkpaw and his littermates had been born, so far away that there would never be a grave to visit her in. The warriors who went got real quiet when talking about that part of the Journey; it's not that hard to put two paws together. Once in a while though, his heart aches with the knowledge that he'd never meet her. Had Wolfpaw, wherever she is, managed to do so? Hawkpaw hopes they could tell him when they got back.

One hazel eye follows the fledgling as it plummets, spreading adolescent wings to steady itself among the pine trunks. Hawkpaw's ears prick, hopeful for an easy meal (his hunting has suffered since the start, despite his best efforts, and Hawkpaw begins to grow frustrated with it), but much to the apprentice's annoyance the robin twirls back towards the branches above their heads.

"I want to see what's beyond the clouds." He sniffs, as if faintly annoyed he hadn't been asked instead. The torbie fluffs out spiky fur and takes a seat behind his mother, licking at one of his front paws. "What about you, Owlheart?"
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[Chickbloom]

Sometimes Eggshell wondered what it was like to be an apprentice. What if the Scottish Fold joined Skyclan many moons earlier, doe-eyed and full of excitement instead of anxiety? How different would he be now? Amber eyes occasionally flick to the younger members of their impromptu expedition, imagining if he was in their paws. A small sigh left him. “It doesn’t matter, the time has passed.”

Just as Eggshellbloom cast the hypothetical from his head, an even more outlandish one is posed by Owlheart. An anxious gaze snaps back to the present, barely catching the baby bird fluttering away as his clanmates begin to answer. “Y-You don’t wanna go beyond the clouds…” The warrior responds to Hawkpaw ominously. “That’s where birds have their camps, y’know. Their c-clans and - um - f-fresh kill piles are up there. They just c-come down here to hunt.” Perhaps if he’d joined Skyclan earlier and hadn’t been cooped up so long, the whelp wouldn’t have such an imagination on him.

“I would fly to - uh - the big twolegplace. I s-saw it once when I was in my housefolks’ monster. Their are s-some dens there that are as tall as the clouds. I’ve a-always been curious about it.” A part of Eggshellbloom felt embarrassed that his answer was so different than the others’, but the boy had to be honest. “I w-wonder if the towlegs in the t-tall dens fight with the bird clans….”​