you can make it on your own | little wolf

[Flycatcher]

Sometimes the best thing one could do was sit down and catch up with friends. Flycatcher especially valued this quiet, cool down time more now that he was deputy. The blue tabby tom currently found himself seated with Little Wolf, the two warriors sharing a recently caught bird. "Yes, Burnpaw is shaping up to be a fine young warrior," Flycatcher mewed, concluding up a response to a question Little Wolf had asked regarding how Burnpaw's training was faring. Flycatcher was quite proud of the dark-furred tom and the cat he was shaping up to be. He hadn't been Burnpaw's first mentor but he hoped he had proven to be a good enough mentor to him since being assigned one another.

As that topic of conversation died down, Flycatcher turned the conversation to one of Little Wolf's other children. "You must be delighted that Howlpaw is alright," Flycatcher mewed, glancing towards the ebony she-cat. It had been a shock and delight for him to hear she, her father, and her brother had turned up at their border to reveal she was in fact alive. Flycatcher could still remember when she and her littermates had been born, and like many in the clan, even those who did not share her blood he had mourned her loss when they had been told she had died.

@LITTLE WOLF ​

 

[LITTLE WOLF]

It feels good to catch up like this, to sit and to talk and to hear about a friends life. Flycatcher was a busy tom. Between being the deputy and helping her mother run the clan he also held the responsibility of training her son and she's sure, knowing Burnpaw, that that was no easy task! She sometimes has to wonder where he got such stubborn-ness and hot-headedness from. Perhaps it ran in the family because her brother, Racconstripe, was nearly the same way. "Well he has a more than fine mentor to teach him!" she admonishes with a purr. It was true. Burnpaw had been blessed to have two extremely gifted mentors back to back. First in Emberstar and now Flycatcher. There is no doubt in her mind that the ebony pelted tom would turn out just fine. Still, it is good to hear that he is still on track. She knew how hard he had taken Morningpaw's death and then Howlpaw's. She can't help but wonder how he has taken the news that she is alive and well, after all. She would make it a point to talk to him later but whether or not he would actually be responsive to said talk remained to be seen.

She nods her head in agreement, she had been ecstatic to find out that her kit had not, in fact, gone to join her sister and her grandfather in the stars. "Loosing a kit is a terrible feeling" she says quietly, knowing that Flycatcher had once felt the same grief. Flamewhisker had given birth to three kits after all. "I'm just glad she's safe and that she's home" though she finds herself wishing Howlpaw was here, she was glad that she was at least somewhere she was happy, somewhere where she was alive and doing well.
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[Flycatcher]

"Indeed," Flycatcher bows his head solemnly when Little Wolf speaks of losing kits. It is a pain they both know all too well. Flycatcher still mourns the loss of Lilykit and Butterflykit deeply but he thinks their loss would have been greater had they gotten to live a life as Morningpaw had. "I bet you wish she could be here though," Flycatcher muses softly. It must have been a little hard for Little Wolf to truly celebrate Howlpaw's safe return when she was not here with her.

Flycatcher pauses to take another bite of the bird they were sharing. As he chews on the mouthful he watches a few clanmates milling around, returning from their day's duties. "What did you think of the situation with Sunnyday?" He asks after a moment. It sounds gossipy but he's genuinely curious about her opinion. ​

 

[LITTLE WOLF]

'I bet you wish she could be here though' The words are unexpected, so many did not comment about how she felt. A mother seperated from her kits, still living but their lives were so different. She was unable to share tongues or meals with them after a hard day, unable to hear about their training. It is often that she finds herself wishing it was Berryheart training Fireflypaw and not Dawnglare. She has Moonpaw, Burnpaw, and Skypaw but they would never replace the two kits she had not truly lost but that she didn't have- no matter what they thought there was still a place in her heart for the two children of hers that had decided to go to SkyClan with their father. She understands their choice - can even respect it - but it does not make it hurt any less to be away from them - to only be such a small part of their lives. She takes a shaky breath "I wish it with all my heart" she admits quietly, sadly, her words accompanied by a half-hearted shrug of her shoulders as if to say ' what can you do?' "But wishing does not make things happen, only actions and I cannot force my kits to be somewhere they do not wish to be and besides... he needs them too" she would not take their choice away from them, but more importantly she would never take them away from him. She does not speak his name, there's no doubt in her mind that she doesn't need to. She had only given her heart to one other cat in her life.

There is an awkward pause and she is about to break the silence with what? She isn't sure. She is relieved when Flycatcher speaks, when he breaks the tension with another question, this one with just about as much weight. "Sunnyday..." she does not like the tom, but she doesn't like idle gossip or chit chat either. She liked to think of herself as an open book, tries to just state the facts. "I think he is a deeply misguided cat" she says finally after a couple of long moments where she thought about her next words. "I could never imagine harming my apprentice to prove a point to them" she shakes her head sadly. It was unfortunate, the path her clanmate seemed to be straying down. "What do you think of it? Of him? Did you think my mother made the right choice in allowing him to stay?" she fixes her green eyes on him, waiting for the answer. It was a terrible thought but if anything were to happen to her mother, Flycatcher would take over, he would be the one calling the shots, and she cannot help but wonder what he would do if faced with a situation such as this one.
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[Flycatcher]

He waits quietly for Little Wolf's response, flicking his ear to listen when she begins to speak. It takes her a moment or two to fully speak in detail and when she does Flycatcher nodded along to her words, finding himself agreeing with all of them. When she says her piece, her green eyes flash to him, asking his opinion of everything.

Like Little Wolf, it takes Flycatcher a moment to gather his thoughts on the matter and put them into coherent words. "I thought of him as a friend once but now I'm not sure what to think," Flycatcher says honestly. Even now, he's not sure whether he can bring himself to truly hate the tom, but some actions are too much. He'll remain civil with him at the very least but he's not sure he can afford the tom many other pleasantries. "Yes, I think she did make the right decision," He continues after a moment. "Misguided and as stubborn as he may be I don't think he deserved to be exiled for that," Flycatcher admitted. "Your mother was right to strip him of his apprentices immediately. Stupid mistake or not we cannot have our warriors mauling their apprentices to prove a point. I perhaps would have given him a more immediate punishment around camp but ultimately I agree with Howlingstar's decision and think she made the correct choice. Time will tell whether Sunnyday deserved any clemency."​