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Post by pinepaw on Feb 10, 2008 1:28:56 GMT -5
Leaping over a small pile of drift wood, Jaypaw came trotting over to the fresh-kill pile for the second time that day. No he wasn't about to eat and wasn't taking prey in any way, shape or form. Instead he was depositing. He'd taken the prey from the woodland not to far off, his favorite place to hunt, and came out victorious with a squirrel and mouse. All in all he'd accomplished in helping to re-fill the stock.
Hopefully Rainclaw wouldn't bark at him for some other reason. Not that he'd mind. His spirits were always high. Not to mention he could counter anything she threw it at him. Almost.
Licking his gray shoulder slowly with a pink tongue, the tom grazed the camp with soft, deep golden eyes. Looking for Rainclaw he didn't find her. Perhaps she was visiting her mother? Or on patrol with her brother? He laughed silently. No she was probably torturing apprentices. At the thought of that, Jaypaw allowed a small murrow of laughter to escape his jaws.
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Post by ♫.Starredmyst on Feb 10, 2008 9:22:33 GMT -5
The scent of fresh prey wafted up enticingly into Nightpaw's nose. The young tom trotted cheerfully around the driftwood wall into camp, nearly tripping over his catch of the day -- a large robin, one wing dragging on the ground -- and it was all he could do to keep from biting down into the two mice that shared mouth space with it.
The latter half of the orange-splotched tom's training session had all but made up for the fiasco with the squirrel. He'd caught the bird right out of the air and then two more mice without terrifying the entire forest. Proudly lifting his head (and rather resolutely not digging in his teeth) Nightpaw splashed across the stream and dropped his catch in the center of the freshkill pile.
The camp was half-empty at this time of day, with the few cats around bustling busily about their duties. Nightpaw glanced around, then gave a little start as he heard a "mrrow" of quiet laughter behind him.
He turned quickly and saw a fellow apprentice at the pile, apparently lost in thought. Nightpaw grinned.
"Heya, Jaypaw. What's so funny?"
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Post by pinepaw on Feb 11, 2008 18:39:47 GMT -5
Jaypaw quickly turned his head to find another apprentice questioning his laughter. "Oh not much. I just try to find happiness within every moment." Smiling even wider the tom sat, curling his feathery tail around nimble legs. "I was just debating whether Rainclaw was with her mother, brother or tormenting apprentices. I'm rather fond of guessing the tormenting idea."
Knowing it wasn't to wise to openly call out his mentor, Jaypaw never had a problem with voicing his opinion. Of course he held respect for the lively she-cat, but it was his way of interacting with all tightly wound cats.
Noting the prey that had once been in Nightpaw's jaws he purred happily, "Nice catch!" It was always nice to see some sort of function with the Clan.
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Post by ♫.Starredmyst on Feb 12, 2008 15:53:42 GMT -5
Nightpaw snickered. "Rainclaw?" he echoed. "Yeah, you're prolly right. 'Course, she's not my mentor, but she yelled at me for splashing her in the stream once."
"Nice catch!" Jaypaw had commented, indicating his bird. Nightpaw swelled with pride.
"Thanks! I caught it right outta the air -- see, I was on it but it tried to fly so I jumped up and grabbed it like this..." Eagerly, the young tom demonstrated the awkward catch, then reclined on his haunches, head tilted.
"What about you? Been hunting, sparring, anything like that lately?"
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Post by pinepaw on Feb 12, 2008 20:35:07 GMT -5
Jaypaw found himself chuckling slightly. "That does seem like Rainclaw." Nodding, in sort of a daze, the young tom turned his attention at the sound of how Nightpaw had caught the small beast.
"Very impressive! You'll have to show me sometime." Eyes twinkling he thought back to his last moon of trainning. They hadn't done much, really. "Well, I've only been going to sessions for a bit of time now. You know, patrols and border runs. Not that we have any reason for patrols..." The young tom's voice drifted off as he thought of the Elders' stories of when four Clans roamed the forrest. He wondered how life would have been. Surely much more exciting.
"We should mock sometime. Fighting might be fun."
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Post by ♫.Starredmyst on Feb 13, 2008 16:21:22 GMT -5
"We should mock sometime. Fighting might be fun."
"Yeah," Nightpaw agreed vaguely, staring off into the distance. A faint smile flitted across his face as he imagined the bygone times he'd heard about - creeping through the underbrush with your heart pounding in your breast on that first-ever patrol, listening to your mentor's whispered instructions; a border skirmish where you laughed in the face of a skinny apprentice and sent them running with their tail between their legs; the excitement of the warrior's ceremony, because that very night you would stand vigil at the edge of camp, that wasn't so much a just in case as it might have been...
Nightpaw had a very distinct picture of these sorts of things in his head. Sometimes he could detail an entire day of life in a Clan like that; his mother had always said affectionately that he had a vivid memory, and he'd stopped telling cats about them when he got old enough to dislike the condescending tone. Now he shook his head, quickly dispersing of the daydream, and looked back at Jaypaw.
"Say, what about a spar now? Mothflight's off somewhere, I think I'm done for the day. I've never done much fighting, I'd like to give it a shot."
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Post by pinepaw on Feb 13, 2008 22:55:03 GMT -5
Jaypaw swivled his head back to Nightpaw, for his mind began to wonder what the Four Clans were like again, and smiled widely. "Sure!" He didn't have much experience fighting, but well this could help.
He could also make things up as he went, suprise the tom and learn things for Rainclaw when she did take him out for sparring. Smile still plastered on his face, the lean (skinny) tom crouched low and started to inch forward in something that resembled a hunter's crouch. Only his advance was more in a circular motion.
Arching around the darker apprentice Jaypaw's golden eyes shone with excitment and a brilliance that was rarely shown. His smarts were normally played off as accidental or lucky. Shaking his tail like a snake's head the gray feline hissed out, "Are ya waiting for me to leap into your paws?" His tone was playful as he teased the other.
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Post by ♫.Starredmyst on Feb 14, 2008 15:33:13 GMT -5
Nightpaw crouched in place as Jaypaw began to circle, an eager glint lighting up his own yellow gaze. Quickly, he assessed his options, watching the other tom come closer; he was smaller but stronger than his fellow apprentice, which meant he'd probably have to rely more on force than speed to make his moves. He held still, tailtip twitching, waiting to see what Jaypaw would do.
"Are ya waiting for me to leap into your paws?" the other cat teased him. Nightpaw grinned ruefully.
"Pretty much," he admitted, and with no more warning than that launched an attack, sheathed claws aimed straight at Jaypaw's face. His back legs coiled under him, prepared to jump out of the way.
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Post by pinepaw on Feb 15, 2008 18:31:18 GMT -5
Watching carefully Jaypaw worked off of instinct alone. He didn't know anything about fighting; aside from what he watched.
Seeing Nightpaw's muscles twitch with movement he caught the ripple a moment to late and was now faced with two soft paws aimming for his head. Eyes narrowing in consentration the tom attempted to back away; but as he before, he missed the warning.
Almost gaining the victory of dodging Jaypaw was cuffed just on the side of his head and was sent a few tail lengths to the left. Scrambling, with new determination, to his paws the grayish tom braced himself on evenly spread legs and raced forward.
Digging hind claws into the soft ground he gripped the soil with each step, propelling himself further with opening strides. The gap was closed soon enough and the apprentice formulated a plan in his head on the spot. Beginning to go left he sunk his weight into left legs and darted right, left fore paw reached out toward Nightpaw's shoulder.
((Sorry if that was confusing x3))
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Post by ♫.Starredmyst on Feb 15, 2008 20:26:19 GMT -5
OOc;{Nah, I gots it x3}
Success! Jaypaw turned aside at the last moment so Nightpaw wasn't able to "claw" his muzzle; but when the lithe tom dodged to one side he moved a little closer and Nightpaw hit the side of his head with more force than he'd intended, shoving the tom aside and almost losing his balance on the rebound. Hastily the orange apprentice put weight on his forepaws, bracing himself into a more balanced position before Jaypaw came in with his counterattack.
StarClan, the other tom was fast! -- in seconds he had bounded back up, before Nightpaw could to more than regain his footing. A gray paw flashed out toward him and he braced himself, taking the hit and just barely keeping his balance. Suddenly he changed his mind and rather than stand there he rolled with the blow, dropping onto his back and coming up crouched underneath his opponent, springing upward into Jaypaw's chest in an attempt to knock him off his feet.
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Post by pinepaw on Feb 20, 2008 14:29:11 GMT -5
Jaypaw felt a moment of triumph well in his chest as he saw his oppenent go down. Victory! Unfortuneately he was swimming in his win all to soon. He made a note not to let that happen again as strong shoulders jutted into his rib cage.
"Ooof! The air raced from his lungs as his legs became un-balanced with right fore and back limbs failing in the air. Crashing on his side he felt mildly dazed at the blow to his head. "That was rather brilliant." Praising the other tom he came to his paws smirked with himself, a playful glint obscuring his eyes.
In a crouch similar to a hunter's, Jaypaw rolled himself side-ways toward the orange apprentice's legs. The move slightly mimicked Nightpaw's previous move but he didn't intend to stop once beneath the tom. He just wanted him off his paws like himself.
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Post by ♫.Starredmyst on Feb 21, 2008 8:19:38 GMT -5
"Thanks," Nightpaw grinned, and hesitated a moment, not sure how he was supposed to follow up when his opponent was already down. But then Jaypaw was rolling towards him and he let out a yelp; hurriedly he leapt out of the way but his back right paw caught up against Jaypaw. He didn't fall, exactly, but tripped into a sort of unbalanced sprawl that left him open to Jaypaw's next move.
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Post by pinepaw on Feb 21, 2008 12:59:11 GMT -5
Jaypaw, still rather young and not choosing to show what he really was, burst out laughing and stood, shaking his pelt. "I haven't had fun like this in sometime. Of course, fun is what I always do." He winked and lay back on his haunches, licking a fore paw. His mind was whirling and a thought just sprouted from his mouth. "Do you think Patchstar is doing the right thing?" His voice was quiet enough for others not to hear but he still scowled himself within. Once again he let his guard down and let his deep thoughts spill. He didn't like others to see him so serious and actually thinking of things that involved the Clan's problems or non-problems.
Naturally he always knew what was going on within the Clan, for the most part. Letting others see that made him uncomfortable so he normally did things out of "luck" or sheer "guessing." Some just blammed his jolly, willy-nilly attitude due to his young age of seven moons. He didn't mind how they thought he did things. He just didn't think every cat should be so serious all the time. [/size]
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Post by ♫.Starredmyst on Feb 22, 2008 10:29:58 GMT -5
Nightpaw had tensed in readiness for a continuation of the spar; however, he relaxed as Jaypaw backed off and chuckled himself, getting back up on his paws and sitting down near the tom.
"That was great," Nightpaw agreed, bending down and vigorously cleaning off some sand that had gotten stuck to his front right leg. A brief, amiable silence fell.
"Do you think Patchstar is doing the right thing?"
Jaypaw's question was so sudden and unexpected that Nightpaw started; he squinted at Jaypaw, not entirely certain what the other apprentice was asking. For, if Jaypaw was fun-loving and secretly serious, Nightpaw was the opposite; bent on honor and repect and the like but rather protected from Clan gossip by his status as Patchstar's nephew, he wasn't entirely aware of the Clan beginning to fray all around them. So he tilted his head, studying the other tom a moment, then shrugged and returned to grooming himself.
"What about him? That whole thing with the rogues this morning, where he wanted Silverstripe to kill them? Well, I can't say to that, Cousin Starr didn't let me see the end of it. She said it wasn't for an apprentice's eyes and if I didn't listen to her she'd tell my queen I wanted to watch them die." He sounded rather petulant. "Were you there? D'you know how it turned out?"
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Post by pinepaw on Feb 22, 2008 11:19:12 GMT -5
Jaypaw's eyes darkened swiftly at the sound of the rogues earlier that day. Sure he believed in following your leader...to a certain extent. He thought for a moment, eyes in slits as he washed his face, and tried to sort his jumbled mind.
"Yeah, I know what happened." He was about to say Silverstripe let them go, but he wasn't entirely sure about that vital piece of information and didn't want the tom in trouble. It was the last thing they needed. Clan members being threatened to be killed. "The rogues got away as Silverstripe started to attack. He didn't pursue them and Patchstar was about to say something, I think, until Starredmyst told everyone to leave. Moonwhisker stood up shortly after that and followed her example. Then Moonwhisker and Patchstar spoke for some time. I didn't stay and watch 'cause I didn't want to get in trouble." With that Jaypaw turned his head away to hid the emotions swimming across his pale colored gaze. How could he have forgotten Nightpaw was so closely related to Patchstar? If he was lucky the older apprentice wouldn't say much to anyone else.
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