WELCOME TO NOWHERE SPECIAL ✦ fishing

[CICADAFLIGHT]

Inhale.

The world goes dark, blooming into heavy hanging lilies of blue and black, dappling the world around him. Cicadapaw's momentum pushes him forward into water clear and cold as the pain of a cut throat, a silence that somehow carries weight filling his ears. It's a heavy silence, a holy silence, brought on by the water that shrouds him like death's veil. River reeds drift in the phantom wind of the current, depths spiralling off below him into tempting crevasses of blue. One day, Cicadapaw will go deeper; one day, he'll slink into those small caverns as easily as the milky-eyed eel that watches him from below.

Today, though, that isn't his target. Gangly limbs tucked close and held there by the simple pressure of the water, he's on the fish he targets in a flash, pearly fangs shearing scale and flesh. Hot blood mists around him and is whipped away by the current; the fish struggles only for a moment. He twists, kicks long legs and large paws that propel him to the surface with a rapid grace he's never known himself to possess on land. The dappled surface grows closer, clearer, until he swears he can see every bubble in each scum of windswept foam.

Exhale.

Cicadapaw shoots from the water like a jumping fish, landing on the shore with the salmon, writhing in death throes, clamped between unrelenting canines. He makes quite a sight, drenched and skinny until he looks more like a storm-blackened tree than a cat. The apprentice shakes himself like a dog, feels water freeing itself easily from cropped curls that are slowly gaining a glossy water-shedding quality, like a duck's silken back. He glances towards @iciclefang, bites down on the salmon and sets it down. Hollowed eyes seek approval as he shakes himself once more. "Did I do it right?"

appearing unsightly ✦ ( with devils inside me )

• 

• 

  cicadapaw ; apprentice of riverclan
  x. he/him ; 5 moons ; tags
  x. unsightly black-and-white tom with heterochromatic amber and blue eyes
  x. played by dejavu
  x. son of smokestar and cicadastar ; brother to beepaw and starlightpaw. apprenticed to iciclefang.

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[hazecloud]

Hazecloud had never mentored another cat before, not in the sense of the Clans expectations at least. Within the marshes there were certainly some she had participated with showing basic skills, saving them from floundering out in the still-water because they couldn't hook their claws on a frog. It was similar to fishing in a way that keeping still and quick were vital pieces to follow, but if she were thrown back into the swamps now she would be rather rusty.

Smoky fur brushed against the thin remains of barren ferns and sedge as she trotted for a good spot to fish herself. Eyes of fresh fields tracked the flicker of scales beneath the surface, watching its movement and anticipating where it would go next when a sudden splash further down took her attention. A blink and before she could take her next breath the current had taken the long-limbed apprentice. In the whirling moments it took for Cicadapaw to launch himself from the surface and back onto solid ground she is already shivering at the thought of how cold that must feel.

"I'm glad you got to keep your catch! How long were you under there for?" She would gladly do the same, though during the more likable temperatures when frost didn't coat the ground every morning. ​

 

[Nettlepaw-]

NETTLEPAW ♂
RIVERCLAN
APPRENTICE
THREE MOONS
BLIND IN BOTH EYES
BIOGRAPHY AND TAGS
APPRENTICED TO PIKESPLASH
PLAYED BY SHEOGORATH​

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Cicadapaw isn't the only apprentice practicing in the river. Nettlepaw sits on the shore nearby, damp fur chilling his skin while a tail flicks irritably back and forth. The other apprentice leaps from the depths like some hybrid between cat and fish, though Nettlepaw only knows this from the sound of rippling water displacement and the thud of paws along the pebbled shoreline. He scents the blood of the fish, and a bitter expression flashes across the boy's muzzle.

Is that his first catch? He can't help but wonder. How many fish had Cicadapaw caught by now? Nettlepaw had caught none. Hazecloud utters praise for the other RiverClan novice, but Nettlepaw only hears the racing of his own, frustrated heart.

He steps out into the river again, desperately trying to find some sign of fish. He can't rely on smell or hearing, though. Even when he shoves his head beneath the waves, there is only the bubbling silence of the river to fill his mind. He thinks about giving up. The water is cold, despite his thick coat of creamy fur. He's had no luck catching a fish at all while other RiverClan apprentices prance about in all their successes. He can't help the jealousy that burns his cheeks.

Ears flatten as the boy shows signs of clear distress, he leaps into the water in a final push of desperation, diving blindly into it's chilled, dark depths. He pushes himself to the bottom, feels his paws scratch against pebbles and sticks, and other mossy debris. He can't hear anything but the rushing current as it drags him downstream. He can't see anything but shadow. He can't smell anything as he holds his breath. Claws scrape at the bottom for anything he can grab that might feel like prey. He doesn't want to be left behind. He doesn't want to be a failure.

He's been under for too long. His lungs burn but he clings to the bottom of the river regardless. Eventually, he feels his talons hooking around something sharp. Hungry for breath, he presses the object between two front paws and kicks back to the surface. When his muzzle breaks the waves, he heaves in a large gasp of air, struggling for a moment before pushing himself back to shore, drenched and fatigued.

When he reaches cold mud and blunt pebbles, he pauses where the shallow water still laps his toes, and feels around the object he had captured, silently praying that it was food. It's a shell, a twisted sort of thing, belonging to a crab of some sort. Crabs were edible, right? But this one is empty, a pretty spiral, perhaps, but not a fish. Nettlepaw grits his teeth and slaps it away with a scowl.
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[BRISTLEPAW]

The boy sits along the rocky and muddy shore of the river. His pelt is mildly sodden but is drying after he has decided to take a break for the moment. His chest rises and falls with his heated breath as he merely watches with that normal neutral glare of his. Shifting his eyes focus sharply on Cicadapaw as they go in for their hunt. The other disappears below the water and as time ticks away worry begins to increase upon his mind. How long does one have to stay underwater to hunt? He is not sure and he normally just waits above the water. Will he have to learn something like that too? Most likely as Lakemoon said that there is a lot of hunting lessons he needed to learn before leafbare got here. Still it bothers him and the tom flexes his claws against the shoreline. Waiting, waiting, and then up pops the other, victorious. The young apprentice feels relief pull through his chest then and turns to tell his brother but then the other is moving. Kicking off the shore and diving into the water. "Nettlepaw!"

His name drops quickly from his lips and worry is back. Bouncing in his chest harshly as he steps along the shore. It takes so long for him to come back. The apprentice nearly dives into the water to go and pull him back when he finally resurfaces with something. As he gets to land the other greets him and he sniffs at the shell that he brings. "It's....it's pretty..." He mutters but then his brother kicks it away with a scowl. Perhaps that is not what he meant to bring back.
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OOC NOTES . ◭ . CHARACTER INFO

• ooc : — ​
• 
  

  bristlepaw - tom / 3 moons old / riverclan kit / aspiring warrior / mentored by lakemoon

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[Moonbeam]

Moonpaw enjoyed fishing and right behind swimming it was her favorite thing to do. Despite this and despite her ability to go under the water fine and come back up successfully, the impatience the girl felt when she saw a fish had caused her to not be able to actually combine the two under the water. Alongside her other apprentices the white-pelted feline was practicing her fishing as well, though instead of going under the water she was watching from above, trying her best to stay patient and as still as possible, trying to watch the fish and see if she could correctly guess their next movement.

She knew that if she were to move the fish would swim away, but what about if she were to stay still as possible, what if something fell into the water that the fish could eat? That's what she wanted to learn, that's what she was practicing. Maybe it would help her to learn how to properly fish under the water so that she could help the clan when leafbare came and when the only fish they'd be able to catch when the river wasn't frozen over would be those deep under the water.

Head lifted from her task as Cicadapaw came up, salmon in tow. Her own smile rest on her maw for a moment, maw opening to congratulate the other before the call from Bristlepaw caused her head to turn. "I think you're both doing good." Small congratulations and potential meaningless congratulations came from the apprentice. When she had been Nettle's age she was still catching minnows and smaller fish, but was unable to go under the water properly as he was doing now. Everyone grew at their own rates and not everyone would be a master at hunting or swimming or fishing.

☾₊ ⊹ give me a ghost of a smile

• 
  ⋆ ratkit - ratpaw - moonpaw - moon???
  ⋆ female - she/her - 6 moons
  ⋆ homosexual - not looking
  ⋆ apprentice of riverclan
  ⋆ peaceful powerplay allowed
  ⋆ attack - "speech" - thought
  ⋆ penned by tikki

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