meet & greet [eagle/rain]

[spice]

The first sensation Eaglepaw was aware of was the familiar greenleaf sun burning on her closed eyelids as she awakened from a dreamless sleep. With her eyes still shut tight, she stretched her paws out in front of her, unsheathing her long silver claws in the process. She arched her back and rolled herself onto her stomach, finally opening her weary eyes and, stifling a large yawn, staggered to her sleep-heavy paws.

As she exited the apprentice's den, Eaglepaw became aware of the other cats milling around her. They all bore the same scent, the scent of fish and sand and wind rolling off the water. It was the scent of the Clan she had been born into. The Clan that she was only three quarters a part of. RiverClan. Eaglepaw gazed around at all the different cats, all familiar to her from her curious days spent as a kit. There were the apprentices, warriors in training like her, though they were all older. She had just been apprenticed the night before. She thought she caught a fleeting glance of her new mentor, Rainfang, though she couldn't be sure. Glimpses of cats well known around the Clan- the medicine cat, the leader, the senior warriors- left her in awe of the size and prosperity of RiverClan.

Eaglepaw was brought down to earth with a loud growl of her stomach, forcing her to realize how hungry she was. She turned her head slightly, catching sight of the freshkill pile in the center of camp. It was well stocked- the prey were running well, especially considering that it was greenleaf. She trod cheerfully over to the pile of freshkill and picked out a small yet plump fish, which she grasped between her small teeth and took with her to the edge of the camp to eat in peace. There she hunched over the fish and took a bite, chewing thoughtfully.

[Ivy]

RAINFANG

Rainfang was already up, her head resting upon her neatly folded paws as she gazed absently at a small gap in the warrior den’s well. Her mind was anything but blank, buzzing with the first thoughts of the day as she slowly began moving her body, her limbs heavy from a poor night’s sleep. Most, if not all of her thoughts were on the she-cat she had been given as an apprentice; this cat’s training was in her paws. Rainfang had never had an apprentice before, though her reaching her twentieth moon made it clear that she was not fresh out of her apprenticeship any longer. Every day was still a challenge in it’s own way, every day was still plagued by memories of her sick little Dapplekit. But now that she had Eaglepaw to train, perhaps she would have something else to occupy her mind.

The she-cat finally lifted herself to her feet, abandoning to warmth of her moss nest to stretch her long body, her stomach just barely brushing the cold ground. She listened to the chorus of cracks as she did so, her tail waving slightly as she rolled her neck; there was nothing better than a good stretch right after getting out of the nest, in Rainfang’s opinion. She slid gracefully out of the den into the semi-populated camp; it was still to early in the day for the place to buzzing with feline life. The warrior cast her gaze over the perimeter once before prowling over to the apprentice den, poking a head in to catch a glimpse of her slumbering apprentice. She smiled softly and retracted her head from the collection of small bodies, not yet filled out with the muscle training would give them. Instead of rousing Eaglepaw from her sleep, Rainfang decided to mingle with the cats that were waking.

She chatted quietly with an acquaintance until she saw that fiery pelt pass through the apprentice den’s entrance, abruptly saying her goodbyes. Rainfang padded over, weaving through the ever-increasing swell of cats in the camp. RiverClan was extremely prosperous, and even in the morning hours the warrior found that her apprentice was slipping out of sight. After avoiding a few chatty friends, she was finally able to catch a good glimpse of her newly appointed apprentice, sitting alone with a shapely fish. The slender warrior slipped towards the kill pile as well, selecting an attractive fish adorned in pink scales. Rainfang padded almost silently towards the younger cat, plump fish in between her teeth. She tapped Eaglepaw’s hip with the tip of her tail, unable to greet her with a full mouth; she sat angled towards the apprentice, dropping her prey without a word.

She pulled at the scales, plucking a few away before she bit into the meat, which tasted only slightly off. That was one of the downsides of having fish as your main food source; it doesn’t stay fresh very long. But she chewed it anyway, not paying as much attention to her meal as she was her apprentice. Rainfang paused, folding her tail over her paws in an effort to look like she knew what she was doing; the warrior cleared her throat as she swept her gaze over Eaglepaw’s frame.

”Well, I suppose today’s the day I’ll show you RiverClan's territory.”

[spice]

Eaglepaw's reddish fur rippled as she hunched her shoulders and took her first bite. Something about the taste was unfamiliar to her- then again, when she was just a kit, any prey she was given had the scales neatly removed and the tasty flesh fully exposed. As she swallowed her first bite and took another, she spotted the familiar gray pelt of Rainfang, a young warrior she had seen around the camp as a kit and her newly appointed mentor. She hadn't seen her earlier, though the warrior's lithe frame could have been easily obscured by the RiverClan cats mingling and sharing tongues as they woke up and prepared for patrols. Rainfang was approaching her calmly, a plump fish with soft pink scales clasped in her jaws. As Eaglepaw swallowed another bite of fish, scales and all, she felt her mentor's tail brush her hip in silent greeting. Unsure of how to reply, she turned to watch Rainfang sit with her body slightly facing her apprentice's.

"Hey, Rainfang!" she meowed, her long, black whiskers twitching with excitement that she struggled to contain. She hoped with all her heart that her mentor was going to take her training today- be it hunting, battling, or patrolling. Any kind of lesson would satisfy the anxious apprentice. Eaglepaw notice her mentor's sophisticated way of wrapping her tail around her paws, and copied the older cat, stretching her dark ginger tail over her small paws. She watched as her mentor cleverly removed most of the scales from the prey before biting, and suddenly felt foolish. Why didn't I think of that? she thought. Eager to prove herself, she bent over the fish once again and used her rough tongue to peel the scales off of the fish. She had completely cleaned a small patch of her prey from the offending material and was preparing to take a bite when her mentor spoke.

Excited at the idea to explore the territory, she forgot about looking mature and jumped to her paws. "That sounds great!" she meowed. When she was a kit, no matter how much she whined or pleaded, she was never allowed to leave the camp. Now, she could explore the territory to its fullest extent. It was as if a dam had burst in her mind, and a flood of thoughts blew in. Will we find an enemy patrol? Will we fight off a fox or a badger or a rogue? Will we go hunting? If Rainfang could hear her apprentice's rambling, she might have rethought the idea of taking Eaglepaw to explore the territory.

[wip]