So, time actually does fly by... (Open)

[° i c y - -]

A few storm clouds rolled in from beyond Highstones, and a sharp breeze ruffled a tortoiseshell apprentice, just old enough to become a warrior. Her expression was unreadable, for she was staring at Mothermouth, where she had gone to quite recently. At long last, she was Sorrelheart, warrior of WindClan.

Her amber gaze wavered from the high rolling mountains, just to gaze over at the pine and oak trees that formed both ShadowClan and ThunderClan. She had gone to about two Gatherings, but never really enjoyed it as much as the other apprentice. She listened on stories, but nothing caught her ears.

She closed her eyes, letting the wind carry her thick fur. She couldn't be cold, that would never suit with her. She suddenly slapped open her eyes, then turned toward a dusky brown hare, nibbling intently on the grass. She ignored it coldly, for catching prey that was bountiful was not her style. In greenleaf, a plump rabbit like that would be quite common. She looked back to the sunset, a grin wiping across her face.

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[cloudy]

Shadowpaw stalked through the long grass. He was in a bad mood, and the fact that he had no reason to be made him even angrier. Being angry, for him, was not that uncommon. Shadowpaw had a nasty temper that was heated easily, and even the simplest, most innocent things could be like gasoline to a flame. Fortunately, it wasn’t that bad today. Was he mad because Thymepaw had been made a warrior and not him? Possibly. It didn’t really seem to matter, and Shadowpaw shook his head indignantly. Going out in the open, away from other cats, helped soothe him when he was riled. It gave him a sense of inner peace. He stepped over some sharp rocks, and, as he pushed through some more grass and into a more open part of the moor, he saw a long tortoiseshell pelt. He knew right away who it belonged to. Sorrelpaw! Er, heart. He made a quick note to never make that mistake aloud.

“Hi, Sorrelheart!” he said. True, he had come up here to get away and have some alone time, but Sorrelheart wasn’t bad company either. They had grown up together, for StarClan’s sake! They were nursery mates and trained and chatted together a few times. Shadowpaw had talked to her enough to realize she wasn’t that bad, but he wasn’t close to her, either. He wasn’t really close to anyone, though. Most of their time spent together was training, which they didn’t really do now anyways. Was she going to act condescending? If she did, he was leaving. He might hit her. Or he might just leave quietly. With Shadowpaw, it was unpredictable.

[° i c y - -]

It didn't take long at all for one to appear, and her previous denmate at that. Shadowpaw, of course. She couldn't say Smokepaw, Mousepaw, or any of the other ones would dare speak to her. Well, except for Thymepaw, wait, Thymenose, the failure of a warrior already, would speak with her. She would respond to him accordingly, and tell him to get a life, but in her own, twisted way.

She rose to her paws, giving a lick to her shoulder fur, flattening it, and gave a warm enough glance at the black and white apprentice. "Hello Shadowpaw," A purr rose from her throat. The noise seemed to be at the least, dry, since she never really purred to anyone except from early apprenticeship, and that was to Spottedpaw. She continued though, as if nothing had really happened.

"A storm might be coming, how unfortunate, isn't it?" She added, her amber gaze drifting back toward the mountains. Yet, at that second, she was thinking about the warrior ceremony that took place a little while ago. Thymepaw shouldn't have been named; it should have been the apprentice right here. Shadowpaw definatly earns his keep in the Clan, and the miserable excuse for a tom surely didn't. That sixteen moon old tom might be older than her, but he definatly wasn't mature enough.

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[cloudy]

Shadowpaw nodded slowly at Sorrelheart’s words. Yes, he too had scented rain in the air and he could see some dark clouds forming on the horizon. Mostly, he simply felt coming storms, like most cats. He felt antsy and restless whenever there was rain coming. He actually didn’t mind the rain too much, so long as it only lasted a few hours. When day after day slipped into a single storm, he started to feel angrier and his temper flared up. He liked going out and running through the moors, without rain soaking his fur or his paws slipping on mud. That’s when storms lost their charms.

“Yeah, it’s too bad. But there hasn’t been a lot of rain lately, anyways,” he mewed carefully and quietly. Conversations weren’t his strongest point but that didn’t mean he didn’t enjoy them. He liked them when he had them with cats who actually knew what they were talking about. “By the way, Sorrelheart, congratulations. You really deserved it, I bet you’re excited.” He let a small smile slip onto his face as he sat down slowly.

[° i c y - -]

Her attention was kept on the rolling clouds, the last drop of light almost disappearing all together. It was not until after the light vanished was when she spoke again. She turned her focus on his words, and that alone. Registering the words about the storm, she gave a reply to that as well. "Why yes. It hasn't rained in quite a while, and with Greenleaf ending sooner than we think, it will soon enough give way into leaf-fall," Her voice seemed eliquent and refined, yet what the tom mewed next was what really got into her head.

"It wasn't fair! That failure of an apprentice, Thymepaw, no wait, Thymenose, should not have become a warrior. You should have. You deserve the place of a warrior, and you deserve to have your place in the Clan. No one doubts you aren't trained well enough. And if they did, I will personally rip out their throats," A violent manner of speaking was not foreign to her tounge, for she had spoken this way to Mousepaw and Thymepaw once or twice before. Sorrelheart gave a light, shallow breath, unsheathing her claws into the ground. Something must have snapped in the she-cat warrior's mind, for she never gets /this/ angry at anything. She never did.

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[cloudy]

Shadowpaw was taken aback at the sharpness in Sorrelheart’s tone, but, as he leaned back, he tried to keep the corners of his mouth from turning up. He rarely saw Sorrelheart angry, and even when he saw a bit of fury on her face, he didn’t see it erupt like this. But he smiled, or, well, smiled on the inside, because something in the fierceness of her voice made him happy. Was it because she agreed so strongly with him? Yes, maybe. He also heard a bit of himself in her voice. He rolled his eyes and shrugged a bit, his face now serious once again. “Yeah, but what are you going to do.”

He turned and gazed out at the moorland as well. The sky had darkened quickly, and the smell of storm almost overpowering. There was nothing quite like the smell of a Greenleaf storm... He had been alive to experience and enjoy two greenleafs, and the thought of Leaf-Fall made him a little bit worried. This would be his first Leaf-Bare serving the Clan as an apprentice. Would he be able to do it? Would he be able to help the Clan or would he just be a stick in the mud? He liked WindClan, and he did want to help them, after all, but sometimes he felt their distrust in him and he mirrored it. When an elder gazed disapprovingly at him, he glared back. He didn’t choose to be born to a loner father! It wasn’t like he was going to leave or harm the Clan. He was getting himself so heated up he had almost forgotten that he was sitting with Sorrelheart, and realized maybe he should say something. His next words were sharp and marked with the anger that was slowly cooling inside him.

“I mean, I know I still have work to do! I have stuff to fix and stuff to learn! I know that! But I know I’m better than Thymepaw! I hunt, fight, track and serve the Clan better! He doesn’t know what he’s doing half the time!” Shadowpaw took a deep breath and let it out savagely. “A half Clan cat is still better than a cat who doesn’t know how to do anything.”

[° i c y - -]

She certainly was enfuriated, for her claws were still stuck in the earth. Her eyes, narrowed into small amber slits, were on the apprentice, but she wouldn't let out all of her fury out of him. Heck, she wasn't even going to try to. He was a valued WindClan warrior in her eyes, no matter if his name was Shadowpaw, or Shadow-whatever. He was a prize in her eyes, and one that she couldn't allow to get away.

The serious edge of the tom had relieved her of a bit of her anger, though she did reply in a sharp to medium tone. "Not my desicion at all. It's your mentor's." It was simple enough, yet it was kind of harsh in her mind, for his mentor was the Clan leader. What if Ravenstar really didn't think he was ready..? No, impossible. He might have forgotten, and perhaps the ceremony will be coming sooner than she thought. Well, sooner than both, actually.

There was a sharp and, somewhat savage, edge to his next words, one that made her seem guilty on a few levels. She wanted to become a warrior, yes, and so did Thymepaw, but it was true that the tom did nothing to support his Clan except the worst of the chores. He never really got picked for hunting, or was she out on patrol when that happened? No way, it wasn't possible. After a moment after he spoke, she felt a single drop of rain on her ear, flicking it away. Yet, she did say something. It was in a calmer way than she imagined it would be.

"I understand that some treat you as an outcast, but believe me, I would never do such a thing. Not on my life," She broke off, another droplett of rain running down her cheek. It was colder than she thought, but it could be what was happening right now. She didn't know. "I don't treat half-Clan cats any more differently than regular ones, and I never shun the path that some take." Her voice was shaking, as it never done before. This was something that never happened. Was it because there was nothing to say before? Nonsense. There was plenty of things they could have talked about. But what...?

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[cloudy]

Shadowpaw leaned back and closed his eyes. He listened to Sorrelheart’s last words and a feeling came over him. She will not judge me. He stayed frozen for a moment more, still, quiet, listening. Then he opened his soft green eyes and turned his head to Sorrelheart. He paused a moment more, just looking at her. She has nice eyes. I never noticed before... That was probably because he never looked cats in the eyes anyways, it just made him uncomfortable. Speaking of which, he felt a bit uncomfortable now, so he quickly averted his gaze back towards the horizon. For his own sake, to calm himself down, he spoke in the quiet, calm voice that he usually used, but, just for a good impression, he forced a smile and made his voice sound cheerier.

“It’s no big deal,” he mewed. “I mean, when I was a kit it bugged me, but now it doesn’t and they don’t even do stuff like that anymore.” He paused, smiled bigger. “It’s like they’ve really accepted me as a part of the Clan.”

That should do it. It made Shadowpaw feel better, anyways, and that’s what he had come up here to do, not get himself even more worked up. He smiled again at Sorrelheart. “Wanna go have a run in the rain? That always makes me feel better.”

[° i c y - -]

Her breathing seemed to be, at the least, a tad bit shallow. Her rage from before had drained her energy, well, her fighting stand, right out from her. All she could do now was be as calm as she could, not give any sign of weakness. She knew this was a tom from her own Clan, but Sorrelheart just... Didn't seem very comfortable at the moment. Her eyes were wide open, dim with all her spirit seeming to drain away from her. She still had her senses, which alerted her toward the black and white cat, who seemed to be gazing at her. There was something extremely soft in that gaze, and it made her feel... weaker, if that was even possible. Those eyes remind me of newleaf... Why? The thought finally brought her back into reality, when she heard his words.

"Yeah, I guess they have." She simply stated, slightly embarrassed that the way she actually said it was softer than wanted. Her eyes drifted back to the sky as yet another droplett of rain landed on her face, which actually made her grin. She had barely caught what he had asked, yet she took a moment to respond. She seemed to be extremely calm around this tom... Much like when she was with her best friend in her apprenticeship...

"Sure thing. I'm sure it'll be amazing." She replied in a stronger voice, where some of her old self was returning. "It's almost like StarClan's weeping. Yet, why are they weeping? Out of sadness, or-" She broke off, her eyes resting back on the cat that was the same moon-age as her. "Or out of joy?" She finally mewed, and if cats could blush, she would have been beet red right then and there.

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