YOU TOLD ME TO FORGET YOU \ rosemire

[COMFREYPAW]

Her ceremony had been a shift between kithood and her apprenticeship, just as it is for every ShadowClan cat going forward—but it had been the mark of a great many other things as well. The loss of a certain kind of security in her Clan and her home; the loss of faith in her mother and Clanmates’ ability to protect her from anything; the death of comfort. She has left the warmth of the nursery only to be forced into a cramped metallic tunnel. The Thunderpath ahead shakes the earth with every monster tearing across it.

Monsters. She’d never seen one until she’d been forced to slip into the eerie dark hollowness of their temporary camp. Her paws are perpetually wet with murky, bitter water. She feels as though she’s going deaf—her ears don’t stop ringing. The tunnel is chaotic and loud; everyone’s voices echo painfully against the strange metal walls.

And she feels—she feels so lonely, in the midst of this all. Comfreypaw does not know what to do with herself. In a way, the bears invading their camp had stripped her of any semblance of a transition period. She can’t nest with the nursing queens. There is no apprentice’s den to make herself comfortable in. She’s had no chance to talk to her mentor at all—Rosemire had certainly had no time to take her out of their ‘camp.’

She sniffles, putting her chin on her paws. She winces at the lap of rancid tunnel water, the nearness of its acrid scent. She wants to be home, but home means so many different things.

// @rosemire
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[ PENNED BY MARQUETTE ]​

 

[hitch]

It's not the way Rosemire wanted to discover that he's to be trusted with a child's future. Preferably, it would be never— much as the clans want to look at apprentices as adults-in-training, Rose struggles to see them as anything but children. Rapidly growing and sometimes temperamental, with grand opinions fit for any warrior, yes, but that's all the more reason he shouldn't be handed the responsibility for one.

If it weren't for the fucking bears, he might have spoken with Chilledstar privately afterward. The image of Comfreykit fleeing, teary-eyed, is still so fresh in his mind he can remember what she sounded like. All he can think of is how he might make that worse. Her mentor should be someone like...like Rooster, well-meaning if a bit cotton-headed, with far less cynicism dragging each step down.

But there are greater problems than Rosemire's reluctance to mentor, and he has enough self-awareness to set that grievance aside for now.

He approaches her slowly and crouches down beside her darker shape. "Guess we're a team now," Rosemire begins, wincing internally. Smooth. "Probably not how you pictured it, huh? Doubt you imagined it smelling this bad, anyway." He clears his throat. "There's not a whole lot we'll be able to do just yet, so why don't you tell me what you've been wanting to learn?"

I N F O R M A T I O N
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[COMFREYPAW]

Comfreypaw is startled by Rosemire’s approach. Sleight of paw hardly matters, after all, when every movement is drowned out by the trill of water running through the tunnel and the shrieks of monsters pummeling the Thunderpath above them. The dark tabby looks up, surprised to meet the pinkish gaze of her newly-assigned mentor. “Hi,” she murmurs softly.

He calls them a team, which brings a half-hearted smile to her muzzle. But then he reminds her that her apprenticeship is off to a disastrous start, almost entirely unable to train. Comfreypaw flicks an ear, pondering his words. “I want to be good at everything,” she tells him, meeting his gaze. The tears she’d been holding shrink away. “M…maybe hunting? Are you a good hunter?”

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[ PENNED BY MARQUETTE ]​