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Post by ♦ stormeh ♦ on Jan 30, 2012 20:04:27 GMT -5
Sparrowpaw sat silently near the apprentices' den, half-heartedly eating away at a small, silver fish that she had caught that morning with Raggedshadow. He still showed no signs of going back to his normal self, and it bugged her. Each time she swallowed the oily meat, it felt like glue in her throat. Finally, after forcing a few more bites, she let out a distracted sigh and put the fish back onto the pile, which hopefully would satisfy another cats' hunger.
But now what? There was nothing else to do, and she couldn't just keep asking Raggedshadow to hunt with her. They'd never make any progress by just hunting and not talking about what happened. It's not like she was itching to talk to him, though. For once, Sparrowpaw was somewhat nervous to talk to him, in fear that their friendship would shatter completely. After everything that'd happened, it wasn't in very good conditions.
If only there was a way to take all of the stress off her shoulders - which there was. But that would mean talking to Raggedshadow, and like she said, she didn't want to talk to him. At least, not right now. But when she wasn't talking to him, she wasn't necessarily doing anything else. Kestrelpaw was on a patrol and her mother was nowhere to be seen, not that she'd want to talk to her, anyway. Raggedshadow was the only one she liked to talk to.
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Post by Jess on Feb 5, 2012 12:12:50 GMT -5
Ah, another nice day in Riverclan. Thistlefire's smile was more genuine than ever as he walked out of the warriors den, gladdened immensely by the clear, sunny sky. It was a rare day for the season, he noted, as many of the former days had been rather rainy. He glanced at the fresh-kill pile as he walked by. Extremely low. Well, at least there was something. That showed that the clan was getting by well enough.
His little survey of the camp told him that things were in good order, and he was just about to inquire of someone the location of Raggedshadow; after all, he still hadn't taught the disrespectful piece of filth a lesson that he obviously needed so badly to learn.
But at the sight of the first cat he laid eyes on, his pressing desire to meet up with Raggedshadow flew out of his mind as quickly as a hummingbird. By the apprentice den sat Sparrowpaw, the unfortunate little apprentice of the one cat in the clan he was coming to despise. Well, Thistlefire didn't have an apprentice of his own at the moment to train, and this apprentice really didn't have a suitable mentor... When he was leader, he promised himself, he wouldn't let things like this happen. He would personally make sure that no cat who wasn't a proper warrior was allowed an apprentice.
So this cat, he decided, needed some help. He figured that the impressionable little brain had grown to maybe like Raggedshadow's brand of "respect," and it was his job to get that out of her. He'd have to be extremely nice in order to show her the error of her ways, and once he weaned her off the brainwashing of that silly piece of fox dung, then he could teach her what it really mean to be a Riverclan warrior.
"Hey, Sparrowpaw!" he called happily, meandering in her direction, very smoothly. "Would you like to go out, maybe get to know the territory a bit better? You're a bright girl, so I'm sure you know it better than any apprentice, but I thought maybe you'd like to see some little ins and outs that really give you the Riverclan advantage." He smiled pretty genuinely at her, tilting his head slightly to the side, completely at ease. Good apprentices didn't rile him up. This encounter with Sparrowpaw, he was sure, would go much better than the last.
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Post by ♦ stormeh ♦ on Feb 5, 2012 12:26:23 GMT -5
A flash of brown caught Sparrowpaw's attention, out of the corner of her eye, and she turned her head just in time to see Thistlefire bounding toward her. Great, StarClan... what does he want now? she thought, whiskers twitching in apprehension. If there was one cat she wanted to avoid other than Raggedshadow, at that moment, it would've been Thistlefire. However, he was the deputy, so she would have to show him respect, as much as she didn't want to.
The moment the first word came out of his mouth, she could instantly identify the falseness of his voice. He was obviously trying to be nice to her, but maybe that wasn't a bad thing. Maybe Thistlefire just looked mean at certain times. But whatever his reason may be of behaving so politely around her, she couldn't shake the feeling that Thistlefire was going to do something arrogant that, most likely, involves her or Raggedshadow.
Sparrowpaw managed a friendly smile before replying. "Of course, Thistlefire," she mewed. "I'm sure Raggedshadow wouldn't mind," she added innocently. But in reality, she was purposely reminding him that Raggedshadow would mind, and she just didn't want any trouble. But of course, the ignorant deputy would just brush it off and take her out into the wetlands anyway, with or without Raggedshadow's permission.
To be honest, Thistlefire had 'liar' written all over his face; that fake smile, and those manipulative sea-green eyes of his. Everything about him just seemed... off. Sparrowpaw couldn't necessarily put her paw on it, but she knew that there was no ordinary reason as to why the deputy would want to show her around the territory, especially when she already knew every mouse-length of it. Besides, didn't he have to assign patrols, or something? But there was nothing she could do about it, so she figured that everything would go smoothly if she cooperated.
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Post by Jess on Feb 19, 2012 21:59:45 GMT -5
As soon as Sparrowpaw started speaking, Thistlefire realized that something was a little off. It hadn't really occurred to him earlier, but maybe Raggedshadow had already gotten to her in a way that he had not been expecting. Perhaps... perhaps he had made Thistlefire out to be the bad guy, here! I swear, Raggedshadow, when I see you next... Poor girl. One day, she would understand that her mentor was just victimizing himself, because he was a pathetic wimp who thought that defying authority was cool and hip and whatever.
But poor girl, he thought again, blinking with sudden surprise at his epiphany. He wasn't a heartless cat. Far from it! He took great pride in his clan and all it did, and, while loyalty and hard work started getting bred into them in kithood, apprenticeship was where things really had to be understood, so that future trials wouldn't be a problem. So when he understood that she thought he was some huge, bumbling idiot, he was really concerned for her. He looked at her with a little light of worry for a moment, but turned away in a small attempt to hide it.
"Good, then, let's head on out, shall we?" he asked, knowing it best not to baby her with an overly kind tone of voice, but being relaxed enough around her that it didn't come off a haughty. This casual rhetorical question he hadn't thought too much about, but he hastily reminded himself that he would have to keep track of how he said things to this apprentice, as to avoid coming off as whatever Raggedshadow was saying he was.
Once outside the camp, he slowed his pace to a slow, casual walk, and smiled down at the apprentice. He was in a good mood, being away from camp. Usually, when he was in camp, or with a patrol, he felt the need to be in charge and on top of things. He usually walked with a swaggering air then, too, because honestly, being in charge felt great. Here, alone with the apprentice and without the pressure to stand out (after all, anyone he did in front of this apprentice would probably look impressive in her eyes), he was able to let that guard down.
"Well then, I don't want to waste your time, so why don't you tell me as much as you know about the territory already?" His tone was definitely different than his in-charge tone. Friendlier. Something he hadn't used in a while, as he was usually with patrols or just alone when out hunting. It almost surprised him, for he hadn't went out hunting with just one other cat, or a group of friends, for a while.
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