Summer in ShadowClan (RP Thread)

Redpaw bounced after her, tail waving in the air. It was so easy! He hadn't expected her to agree to come so quickly, but maybe Shimmerpaw secretly wanted to make adventures of her own, too. It was boring always having supervision all the time.

"Don't worry about it. Do you think the Code cares?" Redpaw joked, swiveling his ears. "I don't hear it telling us to stop. Besides, I'm gonna be a Warrior soon!" ... anytime now, he added silently. "Think of it as practice. If I have experience being alone now, I'll just be an even stronger Warrior. You will, too!"

He stopped near the entrance of camp and sniffed the air. The scents were recent, but it didn't seem like anyone was actually there... and the cats who were still at camp were probably busy in their dens.

"Uh... okay." He shuffled his paws. "After you."

There was no immediate response, but the leaves rustled and Redpaw came bounding out.

"Great! Come on!" he giggled, nudging Shimmerpaw as he passed her. He couldn't believe it. He was actually surprised they'd made it this far. "I think the hunting patrol went up that way," he said with a nod in the direction of the path ahead of them, "So we should probably gooo... the opposite way."

South. Towards ThunderClan territory. Redpaw had always wondered what that was like. Was it true that ThunderClan had more prey than them? That they didn't eat toads and frogs and lizards?

"And about that thing you said before?" he laughed. "Of course I'm not afraid. I can handle anything that comes at us... even my dad."

"I'm sure!" Redpaw called out, hurrying after her. As they ran, the scent of his Clanmates drifted further and further away. When he realized he could no longer smell them, his worries dissipated, and he wondered why he was ever nervous about being found at all. He and Shimmerpaw were way too clever for that. Of course no one would find them!

"Have you ever climbed one of those?" he asked Shimmerpaw, glancing up at one of the large pine trees as they passed them. "I tried once-- Frogspot told me to get down. He said something about not wanting me to trail sap back into the camp..."

"It is sticky," Redpaw responded with a flick of his tail, not expecting anything to come from it. Definitely not a... bet?! "Oh, you're on!"

He skidded to a halt, unsheathed his claws, and bolted back at the tree.

With a flying pounce, the apprentice hooked his claws in the bark and with quite a bit of a struggle (almost falling a few times) he was able to pull himself onto one of the lower branches.

"See!" he panted. "I wasn't lying! Now you..." he tried to catch his breath. "Have to catch a mouse!"

Redpaw glowed with pride. See? He knew he could do it!

"Okay!" he yelled, "Coming down!"

He crawled back toward the trunk of the tree and cautiously lowered his two front paws onto it. He could feel them slipping forward-- the tug of gravity had him in its grasp. The ground suddenly looked a lot further away than it had before.

Redpaw yanked himself back onto the branch and curled his tail around him.

"Uhh, just testing it!" he called out. "Haha..."

"N-No! Don't get anyone!" said Redpaw, almost instantly. He couldn't risk that. Not only would they get in trouble, but everyone would see that he couldn't get out of the tree, and he would feel so ridiculous! "Just... hold on! I can do it," he breathed, stepping towards the trunk again.

He hesitated.

"Shimmerpaw, you think I'd get hurt if I just jumped?"

"I'm on the lowest branch!" Redpaw complained, looking up at the other branches above him. "I'm not gonna go higher!"

Wait. Branches...

"Do you see any really big sticks? Or rocks?" he called down to Shimmerpaw. "Maybe you could make a pile so I can jump on that instead of the ground!?"

OOC: just a head's up, I'm having trouble logging in so I might not be able to reply so quick.

Shimmerpaw had a point. Rocks and sticks would probably hurt if he fell onto them, but he hoped the pile would be big enough, so it was more like a short jump than a long fall.

He waited and waited, guilt gnawing at him as he watched her hard at work at the base of the tree. Poor Shimmerpaw, doing all of that by herself! He knew if it were him, he'd be exhausted!

He eventually started to doze, but perked up when he heard her voice and peeked his head over the edge of the branch to see the final product. A huge smile broke out on his face.

"Oh, I think it's high enough!" said Redpaw, preparing for the jump. He propelled himself down from the branch and his paws hit the topmost rock. It stung a little bit, but he was okay, and it was just another short jump from there to the ground. Way better than one big jump!

"Jee, thanks!" he mewed, racing up to her. "I was beginning to think I'd never get down."

( Tbh I'm not sure! I can log in on mobile but desktop gives me an error message. )

"Nononono!" Redpaw babbled, hopping around for emphasis. "My dad can't find out! Look, I'm fine!" He darted in front of her and held out one of his front paws, then the other. They were a little pink, but the pads were intact. "See? I'm not bleeding! They seriously do not have to know."

He could feel his heartbeat quicken. Why was she threatening him like this? Did she want to tell on him before he told on her? But he wasn't gonna tell on her!

"Shimmerpaw," said Redpaw sternly, looking her in the eye. "I need you to promise me you won't tell."

(I'm gonna see if it's still happening and then yeah probably have to do that </3)

Shimmerpaw sighed. “Fine. I won’t tell anyone Redpaw.” She grumbled annoyed a little. “But aren’t your paws sore? Also, what about the sap! What if some of it got on your paws. What would happen! Something that would tell the entire clan that we snuck out! Better to have one cat know then every one of your clanmates!” She snapped.

Shimmerpaw turned her back to Redpaw, trying to calm herself down. She hated being angry. She hated snapping at her clanmates. Especially her friends. “I’m sorry.” She mewed. “I shouldn’t have gotten angry. It’s all my fault that this is happening. I just want to make sure that you’ll be okay.” Shimmerpaw admitted as she looked to face Redpaw. “It’s okay if you’re mad. I don’t blame you.”

“Okay, sure.” Shimmerpaw replied, unconvinced. “We’ll do that. We’ll have to workshop the ideas a little though.” She meowed. “Go wash your paws in the river. After that we’ll head back to camp.”

Shimmerpaw padde along the trees, making sure not to go to fast. Even if Redpaw didn’t admit that his paw hurted, she knew that it did, and she wasn’t going to make him suffer for it. She stalked through the trees until she her the rushing water of the river. She quickened her pace a little and searched for a safe spot for Redpaw to wash his paws.

“Here is good. The water isn’t flowing that fast here.” Shimmerpaw told Redpaw. “Be careful not to fall in though.” She added.

Shimmerpaw stepped back and sat down, curling her tail over her paws. She watched the water flow in the river and wondered what it would feel like to be to water. The flow freely wherever it pleased.

“Eh. Not really.” Shimmerpaw admitted. “I don’t want something else bad to happen that could possibly get us caught. So we should probably play it safe and go back to camp. Plus, what if the hunting party is back by now! Did your father tell you when they were coming back? I mean I guess if they aren’t coming back soon we could stay out a little longer but I don’t really know.” Shimmerpaw paused and stopped thinking. “I’ve been talking for too long, haven’t I. I’ll stop unloading all my thoughts now.” She said.

“I mean…” Shimmerpaw hesitated. “I’ll go with you. Even if your father is back by now, I’d rather go and explore more then get in trouble rather then go back now and face the same consequences except it wasn’t worth the adventure we had. So I’ll go too. If you want to see the Twolegplace, then I support you!” She said with a smile. “Let’s go now! Then we could get away before your father could even find us!”

Shimmerpaw started padding to the Twolegplace. She thought it was strange that Redpaw wanted to see if so bad but she wasn’t going to judge. But it still racked her mind and she started to wonder what the true meaning behind this is. Is Redpaw sick of clan life and wants to become a soft kittypet? Was he plotting some sort of attack on the Twolegplace? Was he plotting with rouges there to take over the clan?! Shimmerpaw panicked at the thought and stumbled a little on some rocks. Or he was just curious and wanted to explore. Yeah. That must be it. That seems like the most “Redpaw” like. She thought to herself. I guess the other ideas aren’t really realistic. I trust him. He knows what he wants and I’ll follow.

Shimmerpaw laughed at herself in her head. Of course Redpaw just wants to explore. She knows her friend wouldn’t do anything bad like that.