[lone]

Originally Posted by hiraeth

powdernose had finally gotten away. for the past few days, he had been bombarded with many questions about his newest rank.

deputy.

the siamese certainly did not believe it. how did a tom such as him make it into a higher power? passionstar, although being his friend, had to have overlooked many things. of course, powdernose honored the leader's choice. even if he it was a difficult one to conform by. powdernose would always be lazy, that wasn't something he could change in a few simple days. especially not when he had been lazy his entire life.

as he trotted through the territory, powdernose felt a short surge of anxiety. it quickly dissipated, however, as he relaxed within familiar land. possibly, he could relax at his tunnel, or at the stump. who knows what he may do. it had certainly been far too long since he got a wink of sleep, as he had been working hard to do his duties. assigning patrols, helping passionstar, doing the best he could to be thunderclan's deputy. wasn't the peace deserved?

his gaze trailed across the vast territory, sky blue eyes now lightened into a baby blue. it was strange, really. being like this. though he must push away the doubts if he wishes to move forwards. to contribute to the clan.

powdernose froze as he heard a faint noise, ears perked readily. a silky tail lashed. his nose twitched and he stalked forwards, grimacing at the thought that he may have to hunt. who knows who was out there? it definitely would not seem as though he was a great deputy if he was just lazing around. he huffed and rolled his eyes, scoffing at himself. of course you wouldn't. what sort of deputy sleeps all day?

he shook his head, clearing his mind. there was no need for those thoughts at that moment. the thunderclan feline slipped through the underground, eyes widening once he saw who was there. stonegazer? an involuntary heat spread across his pelt, and he lowered his guard. powdernose's paws were soft as he moved forwards, sitting many tail-lengths from the gray tom.

they hadn't spoken ever since their last relaxation day. powdernose's tail flicked at the thought, wistful of the times. he had once been free, now held down by his duties. now he knew what stonegazer felt like. why he was so stoic. the siamese shook his head once again, forcing a smile onto his maw.

"long time, no see, eh?" his voice was cocky, sarcastic. much unlike he had been before. powdernose felt almost confident as he spoke his greeting, as though being deputy gave him a new sense of courage. but that was impossible, simply a theory. even so, as he stared at the other tom, powdernose felt his heart beat much more than it did before.

what was happening?

Stonegazer was, of course, aware of Powdernose’s new rank. How could he not be, it was news all over the Clan! He rarely participated in such gossip, but when something like that spread… it really spread. He couldn’t go anywhere without hearing it. To be honest, Powdernose was the last cat Stonegazer had expected to be deputy - the sweet little lazy tom he’d met before? The scrappy-looking one? No offense to him, but Stonegazer wasn’t too confident in Powdernose’s abilities to perform his new duties. Then again, maybe he’ll surprise me. Maybe he’ll surprise us all. There had to be some other cats who knew Powdernose better, who would be able to tell Stonegazer more about the little tom and if he would be able to do a good job with the Clan. In a weird way, Stonegazer was proud of his… companion. He would have to make sure to congratulate the warrior the next time they met.

Lost in his thoughts, Stonegazer’s senses were somewhat dulled - surprisingly, he didn’t hear Powdernose coming up behind him. Hearing a voice was what did it for him - the gray warrior whirled around, his fur bristling, before blinking in surprise when he saw the new deputy. ”Erm - yes. It has been a long time.” Trying desperately to regain some of his dignity, and feeling a heavy sense of embarrassment at having whirled around so quickly (this is why he should have looked beforehand) Stonegazer took a couple of quick licks at his chest fur, mainly to avoid making eye contact with Powdernose. ”Congratulations on your new rank, by the way. The best of luck to you.” He added, when he was done hiding his former embarrassment and straightened back up, his posture as perfect as ever.

There was a certain amount of natural pride that came with hearing someone you knew got a new rank - even if it was just apprentice, or warrior. Those things were important too. Stonegazer had, unfortunately, missed the ceremony - at the time he had been getting a checkup from Caliapaw and when it was finished, he had headed out into the territory. He hadn’t even realized what was going on. Now, Stonegazer didn’t feel too guilty since the news had gotten around to him anyways, but it would have been nice to be supportive. Besides, he rarely missed a ceremony - it felt weird, knowing that he had missed this one. He didn’t want to ask a bunch of questions about Powdernose’s new duties, knowing they probably weren’t that different - and after all, what did it matter? As long as the job was getting done, Stonegazer didn’t see the point in asking “how it was.” The gray tom raised his guys to keep eye contact with Powdernose, that same almost satisfied expression on his maw.