me vs. myself [cometpaw]

[cometpaw]

» c o m e t p a w

A subtle rain fell over the wooded lands of the forest cats. Even in the thickest parts of the forest, water seeped through cracks in the pine needle ceiling to wet the undergrowth. The downpour had begun early that morning, before any intelligent creature was up and about. By midmorning, the flow hadn't slowed in the slightest and everything was beginning to grow soggy.

She lifted her paws high over the ground. She was drenched up to her elbows and damp all over. She held her mahogany tail high, not out of dominance or arrogance, but to keep it from dragging in puddles. This was the life of a warrior. To traipse about in the wet and cold for a few scraps of cold rodent flesh when you'd much rather be curled up and dry in your den. A sigh escaped her, but she didn't have time to linger on her predicament. There was a sudden crashing of sound nearby and the dark-furred cat fell into a cautious crouch, her tail lowered and fluffed in alarm. There was little need to worry, though. It was simply a deer, leaping over the undergrowth and out of sight in a few short seconds.

She pulled her ears back in frustration and silently chided herself for being so skittish. A real warrior would have stood tall in the face of danger. But that was probably why she wasn't a true warrior, just an apprentice. She'd never really thought about it before, but the "paw" part of her name was starting to get old. At only a little over thirteen moons, though, she still had at least two or three moons of training to complete. And it would probably be something closer to four or five. She ground her teeth together, hating the thought of battle training for the nearly the next six moons. She'd already had seven moons of it all. It wasn't until the previous moon that it had all started seeming incredibly monotonous. A frown hit her face. Rainstar would probably want to hold their ceremony back until Gryffinwing's kits were ready for their mentors. A clan without apprentices would appear weak before the other two clans. What did it matter that they had a handful of brand new warriors? Everything seemed to be judged on the number and talent of a clan's apprentices.

She pushed herself to start of at her slow trod once more. The sooner the fresh-kill pile was full, the sooner she could get herself dry and settle in to wait the rain out. However, knowing her luck, she'd get sent off on a border patrol just as her hunting was finished...

A twig beneath her paw snapped and one end of it prodded at her paw pad. Drawing in a sharp breath, the she-cat pulled her paw away from the ground. As the brief flash of pain subsided, she reversed the paw to inspect it. A mostly-healed cut was visible across the entire pad. Its swelling and tenderness had gone down, despite the conditions around her. The medicine cat, Silverhawk, insisted she was careful on it, lest the infection return. The tiny wound had already left her holed up in his den for a day with a slight fever. She refused to allow such a thing to happen again. After a full minute of examination, she deemed the paw fine and returned it to the cold ground, this time carefully avoiding twigs and sharp things.

She padded on for another few moments, her ears alert but catching nothing more than the sound of water dripping all around her. The rest of the forest was wisely hidden away in their dens and hiding holes. If it didn't mean facing a hungry clan, Cometpaw would have simply given up and headed back to her dry nest. Her jaw clenched and her eyes lifted off the ground and up towards the masses of clouds above her.

There was another reason she didn't want to return to camp. He was frustrating, annoying, kind, and flattering. His tabby fur was very similar to his father, with the pale hints of mother's brown. His eyes were a shade of green that always lingered in her mind. And his name was Cinderpaw. Her feelings for him seemed to change as quick as the wind. One moment she felt more for him than she'd ever felt for anyone. The next, though, she was furious with him. Her mind became jumbled just thinking about him...

Letting out a huff of a sigh, the dark-furred she-cat decided to take a little break while she knew no one else was around. Moving carefully but quickly, she slipped under the low-hanging branches of a large evergreen. At once she sat and began to lick the wet from her fur. A pink tongue traced down her side, following the line of a barely-there stripe. Her rich brown fur was the only thing she had to remember her dead father by, seeing as she'd never met him herself. And the faint stripes that fell here and there over her body were what remained of the influence of her mother's genes. When she was born, Cometpaw had been a dark mess of dark brown stripes, over a base of light creme-brown. Each moon since, her stripes had gotten lighter and her base-color darker. She paused in her cleaning, staring at a few stripes around her beautifully-shaped wrist. If they all faded, she could look nothing like her mother Racconpelt anymore. Where her brother had been born looking just like his mother and not at all like his father, Cometpaw was the opposite. Her hazel eyes dipped in a soft sadness.

She paused in her licking to taste the air. Still no prey around, but she thought she caught the faintest hint of another RavineClanner nearby. Praying it wasn't Cinderpaw, she slipped from her dry shelter and began pretending she was actually hunting. Cursing silently, she realized her half-cleaned pelt would give away her break in a heartbeat. Padding quickly in the direction opposite of her clan's camp, she caught a flicker of movement out of the corner of her eye. It was a thrush, brushing its wings wide as it hopped along the ground, pecking at tree seeds.

"Phantomsun can't say I didn't try," she whispered, smiling slightly. Her mentor couldn't be completely cross with her if she at least brought back a single piece of prey. And all Silverhawk would have to do is glance at her damp pelt before he declared her under the weather and had her holed up for the rest of the day. For once, Cometpaw was okay with his worrying.

[starclan]

accepted as warrior apprentice of ravineclan.
mentor is still phantomsun.