ϟ ThunderClan ϟ The Fierce and Caring ϟ |☾ ☼ ϟ ≈ ☁| ϟ

"Are those common here as well then?" Pebblepaw inquired.

"I don't see why they wouldn't be." Mistpaw's tail whisked in the air. "Cats get the same diseases all the time. It's part of life."

Willowsong looked saddened as she nodded her head. "Peachdapple and Aspenfall do a great job of using their herbs to help heal as many cats as they can, but older cats or cats who hide their illnesses for too long sometimes don't recover. They're safe in Starclan though, guiding us along our way."

Ghostscreech gave a nod and slipped out of camp, heading towards the Sandy Hollow. Once he had reached it, he moved over to sit beside Mistpaw, Pebblepaw and Willowsong. “We’re just waiting for a few more to arrive before we can begin.” He said to them, glancing around the training area and glad to see that almost everyone was there. Ghostscreech looked back at Mistpaw, “Sorry I couldn’t lead you here myself. I needed to make sure everything was taken care of back at camp.”

Hollowpaw huffed, moving to walk past her mentor, “Whatever. We haven’t even come across that same scent in our territory, RiverClan was probably just making it up.” She grumbled, heading to the camp entrance. Of course Silentflare didn’t even care about the fact that she had managed to catch her first prey. Why would he? He didn’t even seem to care to be her mentor.

Sunthroat’s whiskers twitched in amusement as he slipped out of camp and started for the Sandy Hollow, “I’m sure your sister can handle it. Scarletpaw has a tendency to use some sharp words herself if I recall correctly.” He said, glancing back at Dawnpaw.

Silentflare hurried after her when she stormed off, moving once again to get infront of her. “I didn’t say we were done talking.” He spoke. “Now if you’d rather change the elders den instead of going to this training session..” he warned. “Hollowpaw you can’t just sneak out of camp. What if you got hurt?”

Lightningstar looked at Yarrowcloud for a long time before speaking. “Yarrowcloud…” he sighed softly. “Don’t say that. You should be the one out living me.” He spoke, shaking his head. “You know I see you like a son.. I have ever since you were my apprentice.” He spoke. “You’ve always made me proud.” He spoke.

Yarrowcloud was silent for a moment, though it was clear that the impact of Lightningstar’s words were visible. It was as though a painful weight was lifted from him, and suddenly he felt that he had finally done what he had been holding onto life so hard for. He blinked, before he spoke, his voice rusty with both emotion and age.

“…That’s all I’ve ever wanted to hear. I never wanted to be the biggest, or the strongest, or have nine lives… I just wanted to be good enough to make my father proud… It took me a while to realize that it was you who I wanted to be good enough for. I wish I could be the same apprentice I was, but I…” He hesitated. “I’ve been tired for such a long time. I’m not unhappy anymore, but I’m so tired. I miss my body being mine, and I miss… I miss this.” He looked towards the entrance of the sandy hollow, where they were approaching.

“Thank you for loving me when I needed it, Lightningstar. No matter which of us may go first. You made it better.” He chuckled lightly, trying not to sound as emotional as he felt, hearing the words making his body feel lighter and his heart sing with fulfillment.

“I hope so.” Dawnpaw stretched his legs as they entered the hollow. He muttered coldly. “Everything went to shambles when Shadeclaw took over. Now Sparrowstrike is gone, and mom’s still a mess about it… I can tell she doesn’t sleep well sometimes. I just… I wish everything didn’t have to be a battle, or a competition.” He shook the saddened thoughts away. “Sorry. I’m bringing the mood down, and we’re training, not dwelling.”

Sunthroat gave a shake of his head, “No need to be sorry. We can always talk about this later if you want, for now, let’s focus on your training. I have a sneaking suspicion that we will be working on some advanced moves today.” He said, nudging Dawnpaw into the Sandy Hollow. Sunthroat settled down close by the other mentors once they joined the others.

“I’m starting to think that my blindness is more of a challenge to you than it is to me.” Hollowpaw growled, pushing past her mentor and racing out of camp, her nose and paws leading her to the Sandy Hollow. There was no way she was going to let Silentflare keep her from this training session and be stuck doing even more chores in the camp. She was meant to be a warrior! Not some personal den cleaner! She slowed once she reached the training hollow, trying to slow her breathing as she entered. She searched out the scent of Scarletpaw, weaving through the other apprentices and mentors with ease.

ripplewhisker lunapaw🐾 Apprentice training session starting! )

“Advanced moves?” Dawnpaw gave a look of delight, happy at the prospect of getting to learn such moves from Sunthroat. He perked up as he slipped into sandy hollow.

“I’ll make you proud!” Flurrypaw decided as he purred to Blizzardstorm, looking around sandy hollow with excitement.

Scarletpaw rolled her eyes as Dawnpaw and Sunthroat entered the hollow, though her attention was quickly drawn to Hollowpaw padding quickly towards her. Scarletpaw’s eyes flickered with surprise as she noticed the tension radiating off of her. Scarletpaw scowled. “What happened? Did Silentflare say something to you? I swear, I’ll split his whiskers if you want me to, just ask!” She promised, brushing her tail up to pull Hollowpaw next to her.

Frostmoon felt her attention draw to Willowsong and Ghostscreech as they talked, her heart aching as she noticed how comfortable they seemed to be. She felt that shock of awkward loneliness she usually felt, but she knew Patchpaw was the important thing here. She sat close to her apprentice, glad to see that he and Tigerpaw seemed to be getting along well with eachother.

Drizzlepaw snuck quietly into the sandy hollow, shyly looking around and giving a soft sigh. There were so many apprentices, and she knew she’d just make a fool of herself! She slunk quietly towards an empty spot near Patchpaw and Tigerpaw, eyes trained on her paws.

"Sounds like a real pain in the tail... did he say anything about the prey you caught? Surely he had to realize that you caught all that prey on your first go!" Scarletpaw whispered sharply, affronted for Hollowpaw's sake. It was the constant chores that made Hollowpaw feel so useless in the first place! Scarletpaw had half a mind to let her opinions out right to Silentflare's face, though Ghostscreech's assignment stopped her. Instead, she whispered. "Well, at least we'll be doing our training together. All you have to do is show him that you can land some blows... has he taught you any fighting moves yet?"

Frostmoon was a bit terse that she wouldn't be monitoring Patchpaw's battle training. She was protective over her position as his mentor, and a part of her always feared that he would prefer a more experienced mentor, but she knew that speaking out would put her in an awkward and argumentative position, so she bit her tongue and glanced at Patchpaw with a look of promise that she would check up on his performance when she could.

"I guess I'm hunting without you." Flurrypaw looked up at Blizzardstorm with a hint of disappointment, though he quickly perked and promised. "I'll catch you something then, I promise!"

Yarrowcloud watched Ghostscreech organize the training session, a small grin crossing his face as he murmured quietly to Lightningstar. "I can see why you made him your deputy. Seems to be getting the hang of organizing and leading pretty well. Here's to hoping the more prickly apprentices will respect that organization." He admitted, glancing knowingly at some of the apprentices. For all of Duskstar's cons, Yarrowcloud did remember how effective of a deputy she had been. And when Lightningstar had become her deputy, it was clear she had wanted a cat as equally organized and focused as she had been. Suddenly, he missed her, and hoped Duskstar had proven herself to be accepted by Starclan again after she had left Thunderclan to Lightningstar, to make sure that she wouldn't lean them to join Adderclan instead.

"See you!" Flurrypaw purred, fluffing out his coat against the last remains of the leafbare winds. Tigerpaw had the advantage here, being the first apprentice to go to Twolegplace. He wanted to see how well the older tom could hunt because of it. Surely, Tigerpaw learned some good hunting techniques from Flurrypaw's father.

Frostmoon felt eyes on her, though she was a bit confused and a bit stiff that it seemed to be Willowsong's eyes on her. She turned her head to look right back at the other she-cat with an expressionless face, not sure how to respond to the look besides just... staring back, she supposed. Was Willowsong angry with her? Just looking around? Frostmoon cursed inwardly, wishing she was better at just knowing what to do when eyes were on her. She decided to lift her tail and wave it in a slow and awkward greeting, before she flicked her ears. There. That was good, right?

Willowsong tried not to laugh at Frostmoon's awkward greeting, waving her tail back at the she-cat before looking down at Pebblepaw again, "We'll start with the basics. No one expects you to bring home a squirrel on your first lesson." she replied gently.

Patchpaw waved his tail goodbye to his mentor before turning back to Ghostscreech. Learning battle moves with the deputy! How lucky could he be.

Tigerpaw hurried after the hunting patrol. He huffed, his siblings were lucky to get to battle first.

"No," he agreed, "but it would be nice to catch something for once."