ShadowClan Elders' Den

[Ragwort]

Originally Posted by bunnipop

Swanpaw chuckled as the endearing tom attempted to blow her ears out. "Nothing interesting with me!" She half yelled back noting the old tom was seemingly deaf in one ear. "But anything you need done around here?!"

#47

"NOT MUCH, JUST A BIT OFF ALLERGIES" he meowed "A BIT OF DUST HURTS NOTHING THOUGH" he yowled back

[Estelle]

When did he get so old and tired? Just five moons ago, he was still running about the plains, hunting and fighting for his clan despite his worsening vision. Now he was a no-good elder who could do nothing but sit inside an old, unused den and tell stories to kits. Now, don't get him wrong, life wasn't all bad - he had to admit this was far more accommodating to the Siamese's foggy eyes. Didn't mean he liked it. Crinklescar (a name earned for his fierceness and many scars) liked to busy himself with daily activities. Although his bones may be old and brittle, and he may not be able to fight as he used to anymore, he wanted to idly sit around doing nothing. So, he set out to clean the elder's den. Shuffling around the unfamiliar space, he sniff-tested every nest and pushed aside those that were dirty and old, planning on asking a youngling to fetch him some new moss so he may change the bedding (and make his own nest more comfortable). Maybe he looked a little silly, shuffling the way he did, but darn anyone who dare think so! At least he was being useful.

[ Open ]

[wren]

Singepaw | he/him they/them
A slender orange tabby cat with long belly fur and brown eyes
—

There was something sadly overlooked in the elders den, at least Singe tended to think so. Apprentices wanted the fun tasks, the hunting and the battle practice and the territory exploration. Though, as he liked to assume, he was far smarter than the average apprentice. There was untapped gold in an elders den, moons and moons of wisdom that would die with the warriors at some point.

After losing Dawnglare he was in this odd position, where nobody exactly had taken the role of picking up his training. He was left to scramble around camp all useless until Dawnstar or someone could give him a mentor. So? What better to do when you felt useless and bored? The elders den of course. Singepaw made his way over the den, it smelled old and unloved.. nothing compared to the electricity of the nursery or rather unsavoury smell of sleep from the apprentice den. He poked his head in, gazed from side to side, it was mostly vacant except for… uh.. his mind was blanking and the name just slipped away.

“Sir?” Singepaw offered to the elder who seemed to be shuffling around the den moving nests aside.

@Estelle

[Estelle]

"Crinklescar."
The old, blind tom replied with a gruff, hoarse voice. He lingered in place, turning to face the direction this young voice came from. An apprentice, if he'd have to guess - the kid didn't quite sound as squeaky as a kit, nor as deep as a warrior. But why give his name unprompted like that, one may ask. That was for the simple reason that children these days had no memory and no respect. They'd only call the old guy 'sir' if they forgot his name, and he'd bet his favourite prey this was the case.

He couldn't eye the apprentice as he used to do. Brown eyes clouded over, his world had gone dark; sound was all he could go of off to know the approximate position of Singepaw. Carefully approaching a few steps, his expression hardly changed.
"Brings you here, kid? Which one are you?"
He stopped walking, ear flicking.


[ @wren ]

[wren]

[FONT="Times New Roman"]

Singepaw | he/him they/them
A slender orange tabby cat with long belly fur and brown eyes
—

Singepaw focused hard on the elder who seemed hard for sight or completely blind by this point. There was something off about his eyes, there was barely a hint of the brown that used to hide underneath them, not just milky coloured. In a way they were slightly discomforting to look at, the way they ere unfocused... cloudy.. lifeless- He snapped himself out of it as the elder barked out his name. Crinklescar. The name sounded familiar, but it was unlikely the two had ever really encountered each other. "Sorry, Crinklescar" he corrected himself with a bow of his head that would go entirely unseen.

Singepaw felt it slightly uncomfortable as the elder approached him, blind and yet confident of their surroundings. The golden toms tail curled over his leg and he took an uncertain step closer towards Crinklescar. "I'm mentor-less. I was going to ask if any elders if they needed nests cleaned out. Or maybe if you had time for a story?" he crammed his paw against the other one at the chunky sentence. Twice now he'd carelessly stumbled over words when speaking to someone important. Humiliating. "I figured without a mentor to take me out, this was the next best place to go for information." he added onto the end, an attempt at salvaging it.

@Estelle

[Estelle]

Hearing his name, Crinklescar gave a curt nod, pleased the apprentice had the brains to correct himself. A rare occurrence these days (children kept on thinking they knew more than their elders) but a welcome one nonetheless. It was a sign of respect. Respect younglings often lacked, the prey sniffers. Only that soon, even worse news would come out of this apprentice's maw.
"No mentor?"
Crinklescar scowled. Now that was just unacceptable. He really thought Dawnstar was better than that. He scoffed.
"Back in my day mentors actually trained their apprentices -- didn't just leave em at the side of the roed like that. Binch o' mousebrains."
Colourful words were grumbled under his gruff voice as he began wrestling with one of the nests again.
"Need no help an' tell no stories. Grab me some fresh moss, will ya?"

As you can see, the old man said one thing, when really he meant the other -- he'd appreciate some help with these stubborn old nests, and he did in fact tell stories if properly prompted to. Right now however, Crinklescar was busy trying to remove some thorns accidentally woven into the nest, grumbling as he did, impatiently waiting for the apprentice to help out, lend his eyes. Going blind was a definite zero out ten, do not recommend. Not for a good warrior such as him, at least.
"What have these old fleabags taught you 'til now?"


[ @wren ]

[wren]

Singepaw | he/him they/them
A slender orange tabby cat with long belly fur and brown eyes
—

The way Crinklescar confirmed the information made him feel like sinking into the floor. Not that he had any confidence issues or felt like he was abandoned due to any fault of his own, but there was a certain humiliation to it. He’d lost much time being mentorless, it meant he was below average. Behind. Late. Not at the status quo. That was the embarrassing part. Knowing that you were behind and not having any power to change it until someone came along and did it for you. That and… he just hated being helped. Mentor or not, knowing he had to ask for help really dampened his spirits.

“Nope.” he stated matter-of-factly ”Dawnglare. Didn’t even take me out of camp, then he just disappeared I guess.” selfishly he kind wished Crinklescar knew Dawnglare, that maybe he could throw some nasty words in the warriors direction to make him feel better. Alas, it was a selfish want. One that didn’t do anything helpful.

At the request of fresh moss the tom turned quickly on his heels, if he remembered correctly Aspenpaw had left a bundle just outside the apprentice den for himself. He wouldn’t mind if he borrowed some would he? No. He’d replace it later. Singepaw padded his way back with a good clump of moss and went to drop it at the elders paws. “Here. Do you want me to grab that one for you?” he didn’t bother just doing it, he was still trying to gauge exactly how the manoeuvre around Crinklescar to please him. And he could tell he was struggling, but if he knew anything about those who struggled, lots of the time they felt prickly about “free hand outs”. He assumed the old timer was no different.

Singepaw puffed an anxious breath out of his nose “not much actually. The first time I met him we only chatted a minute, second time we worked on footwork. He had me jumping round puddles in camp to make sure I had good coordination and balance.” he went to work gently pulling apart awkwardly clumped moss and setting it in a pile. “It felt a little silly if I can be honest. But, it helped me spar Cougarivy. Made me quicker.”

@Estelle

[Estelle]

Dawnglare, huh? He'd have some colourful words for the good-for-nothing warrior should he ever come across them. Mentors these days, they were all slackers! That Dawnstar even allowed for this madness. Grumpy as could, he stamped down the edges of a moss nest, moving on to the next (of course, while grumbling under his breath) as Singepaw rushed out to get him the clean moss. At least this one was trying to be useful. Sure enough, many apprentices were slacking just as much as their mentors, much to Crinklescar's ire. With awkward movements, the elder began taking apart a nest. He used his paws to detect any damp parts, roughly chucking them away behind him, and his nose to complain about how bad it smelled.

Then the apprentice returned, and Crinklescar's whiskers twitched. The old man turned towards the sound of paws hitting the ground, impatiently awaiting the fresh moss so he could get a clean nest already. Time dragged on, soft rustling alerted him that Singepaw was doing something. With a scarred paw he reached out, padding the area near the apprentice until the Siamese found neat piles of moss. He huffed. Show off. He didn't look it one bit, but the piles were actually quite nice as he picked the up carefully to line the old and no longer dirty nest. Without a word, he let Singepaw work on, proceeding with his nest cleaning in the meantime. That is, until he huffed again. That's it! He was taking matters into his own paws!

"Stand!"
Crinklescar suddenly commanded, position rigid.
"Crouch, stat."
If this apprentice wasn't being trained, then he'd do it himself. Those lackluster, good for nothing warriors would never be able to beat him in a fight anyway -- the battle worn feline was far too experienced for that. Those damn mousebrains thought they could leave an apprentice untrained, huh? Well not on his watch!


[ @wren ]

[wren]

There was discomfort in the silence that he and Crinklescar now shared. Was he supposed to speak up again? Go on about his training? Speak at all? He wasn’t sure, and kept gently shuffling moss towards Crinklescar in gentle movements, cycling out the old moss as it was somewhat pawed in his direction. He felt himself occasionally glance up at the senior, tracing the sightless eyes with curiosity before a burning embarrassment engulfed him and he looked back downward at his task. What was so uncomfortable about looking at the elder? He couldn’t see? He wouldn’t be able to land a cuff over his ears. There was nothing to scold. And yet? He felt like Crinkle was staring at him, aware of his every move. It was… unsettling.

He hoped secretly that one day he would posses that powerful influence as well. To gain respect for simply existing in this space. The fiery apprentice then proceeded to get lost in his own thoughts, methodically straightening out the pile of dirty moss that Crinklescar was slowly adding to and gently feeding the fresh moss into reachable distance for him.

“Stand!” The word broke into his aimless thought process and he whipped his head up to face the elder. He was almost about to object out of confusion but the instruction came soon after. He wasted no time scrambling to his paws and dropping into a crouch. The best one he could. Each muscle in his body was rigid with anticipation. Yes. Yes. He’d been getting worried about this whole experience, Crinkle didn’t seem inclined to spill tales about the glory days or great battles he’d fought- so Singepaw started to think maybe he was just going to do a buttload of chores. (Which was helpful… not in the way he wanted it to be though). Now this? A warrior who went blind? Was blinded? He wasn’t sure, was about to teach him something.

Perhaps this was a step up on any other experiences that other apprentices had, Crinkle had to learn (or he so assumed) to navigate life without sight. It meant he probably knew how to do everything just that much better with his other senses. Perfect. “Like this?”.

@Estelle

[Morrigan]

Snowspots stomped into the Elders den a mouse in her jaws the pretty she-cat dropped the mouse and yowled "Hey Crinklescar I've brought you a mouse!" her voice impatient as her tail twitched with anger and annoyance.

@Estelle