Aleen
Warrior
It's hard being different....
Posts: 155
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Post by Aleen on Oct 17, 2006 17:16:53 GMT -5
Sunrise. It was almost sunrise. A stony pelted she-cat stretched her legs with a yawn, her thoughts still murky in the early morning light. Yes, she’d been awake for a while now, but that still didn’t clear her senses, refresh her mind. What she needed, she realized as she gazed out towards the horizon, watching the sky growing ever lighter with the coming dawn, was to get moving, run, hunt, something, rather than simply sitting here. Only problem was that she needed to wait for her apprentice to get up, and if that didn’t happen within the next three seconds, the old warrior would go and awaken her. Today would be the first training session for Darkness, so her mentor had decided to let her try and get up on her own today. After this, though, she thought, it’s going to be up and moving right away, no excuses. She’s out of kithood now, she’s old enough to act like it.
Turning her deep blue gaze over to the apprentices’ den, Ashfur let the one question she’d been dreading pop into her head. How did I end up being a first time mentor at my age? Did StarClan just like to laugh at her? At the time when she’d finally given up all hope of ever training an apprentice, Star had suddenly had the inspiration to give her that responsibility. When she’d at last started to wonder about her age and preparing to retire with the elders, RiverClan’s wonderful leader decided that she needed to boss around one of her younger Clanmates on a daily basis. Brilliant.
This is why you weren’t made a mentor before now, she told herself bitterly. You’re so negative and snappy. Maybe it’s now, just before you join the elders, that you finally seem mature enough for this job.
This suggestion, of course, didn’t help at all, but only managed to make her angry with herself as she glared into the darkness of the apprentices’ den. Where is she? She started to walk towards the den, finally having worn her own patience thin.
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Post by Flintpelt [Spideh] on Oct 21, 2006 1:01:19 GMT -5
[Yeh gawds I'm late  ; Terribly sorreh about this. Muse gone, had tons of homework. Excuses won't make up for it anywheh. Blegh.] Darkness was in the apprentice's den, also fully awake. She'd slipped out of sleep a while ago, blazing orange gaze revealing itself to the shadowed corner of the den, mind still fuzzy and confused at first. Then, when she had turned to see who was the cat sleeping just beside her, and why she was farther away from her brother, only her tail touching his paw, than this other feline, she saw Winterpaw's [now called Winter by herself, because it was less formal and actually much more fitting of the young she-cat] resting figure, and the memories of the last day came running straight back, rushing into her head like a torrent of uninvited guests. She and Cinder had been complaining about the lateness of their mentors in front of the apprentices' den, and the wiry femme had begun heating up at the injustice of the world, when a cold, blatant voice had echoed from the insides of the home they shared with the other felines being taught by the older warriors. A whole moon she had been neglected, compared to the two younger kits' pitiful week, and her mentor still wasn't around. The other apprentices didn't understand her; they told her to go and find Nightrain, to ask the leader about her whereabouts. But she had already done all of those things, and her mentor, Nightrain, was nowhere to be found. Darkness, strangely, had had a sudden change of heart and become interested in her case, soon resolving to help her get back on her feet and learn all of the things apprentices were supposed to learn. Then Ashfur had come along and proposed to teach Darkness, Cinder and Winter all together. However, Winter didn't want to be mentored by any adult. It seemed as if she had lost her trust of them. But she did accept Darkness' intervening, and the ebony female had regarded this as the sealing of their friendship pact. And now she was awake again, contemplating the steady rise and fall of her sibling's and newfound friend's sides while they slept on, mulling over what she would do that day. Ashfur would probably come and teach her a few things. Then the runt-like female would get along to teaching Winter what she had learned in the best way possible. But for now, there wasn't much to do except watch the other two nearby. Darkness only ever seemed to show her true feelings for others [the only exception being Winter, though she rather secretly showed that, and only to her brother] when they were asleep - along with everyone around them. She did love her brother, just like any sister loves her siblings normally, and just enjoyed pestering him with that penetrating look of hers and the many impossible questions she was always asking from the top of her thoughts. How the moon stayed stuck to the sky, why leaves fell down and not up, what would happen if they tried to eat the snail that they watched every day, crawling slowly across the camp. Pointless, really, but fun. And now that his eyes were closed, faint snores coming from his maw, she could silently watch him and laugh. A trickle of drool escaped his part-open mouth. It pooled near his face, darkening the fur. One of his ears flopped on the ground, limp and still, but the other was perked slightly, almost as if he was awake and could hear every movement. His back paw was twitching, scattering dust and bits of random moss, while his tail sweeped crazily across his nest and the rims of others' nests, making the dust rise in a choking cloud all around him. The sight would be comical to any watcher, and the young she-cat chuckled at seeing her usually brawny, serious brother look like such a kit. Sleep was when you saw the true side of some felines; when everyone else was asleep was when you saw the feelings of others. A glance in the direction of the den's entrance showed her that her earlier supposition was true. Ashfur was striding forward, obviously impatient about something. What would it be? The fact that her apprentice was late? What a stinking grump-gutted she-cat. It was hardly sunrise, and she expected Darkness, an apprentice who hadn't even been given a single lesson up to now, to be up and about, raring to go out and just train. When, she would be disappointed. The young feline had a right to feel angry at the ageing mentor; after all, she had been left to herself - along with her brother - for a whole week without so much as a by-your-leave. But still... she had to show respect, or she would be punished. And so she got to her feet, slipping the end of her tail out from under Cinder's soft paw, and padded softly out of the den before plonking herself down in the dirt and waiting. She'd waited a lot recently. She could wait a bit more, as long as she got something out of it. Her gaze, warm and happy moments ago, became cold and hard at the sight of the adult. They all neglected their apprentices, really. It was unjust. And so lines began lining up inside her mind to assault her mentor with snide remarks and sarcastic comments, taken from long before or created on the spot. |
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Post by wowposter on Nov 8, 2008 8:30:47 GMT -5
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![Flintpelt [Spideh] Avatar](http://storage.proboards.com/forum/images/defaultavatar.png){kind=avatar}
; Terribly sorreh about this. Muse gone, had tons of homework. Excuses won't make up for it anywheh. Blegh.]