Darkpaw blinked at the queen. She said she’s Larkpaw’s what? he thought before his eyes widened with horror as a sudden realization dawned on him and he quickly pulled away so that they weren’t so close. He had just talked back to Larkpaw’s mother in front of her! Oh no, oh no, oh no. This was NOT good. That’s what Larkpaw had been trying to warn him about, but he didn’t listen! Oh, what a fool he was! The dark-furred apprentice had been so caught up with his anger at Ruepaw that he had been a little lot too forceful. Unsure of what to say now, he just murmured ”Oh.” ”I hadn’t realized, sorry about that,” he said quietly. He glanced towards Larkpaw, before quickly looking back at Dappledleaf. He was sure she wouldn't want to talk to him anymore because of how he acted, and he didn't want to face her right now.

Darkpaw wasn’t too sure what Ruepaw had been babbling on about. Cinderblaze HAD trained with him, matter-of-fact, Cinderblaze had overseen the majority of the training he already had and had promised to take him out hunting the next time they trained together. Though of course, that hadn’t happened quite yet and he ended up hunting with Cougarivy first, must to his disdain but that wasn’t the point! Cinderblaze had just gotten overwhelmed with his deputy duties and he had stuff going on... right...?

The large apprentice turned away from the two cats he had been arguing with. ”You two wouldn’t get it… he was all I had left,” was all he said as he sighed, flicking his tail half-heartedly. He wasn’t in the mood to argue anymore, nor fight. All of his previous anger and frustration had started to ebb away and all that was left was the throbbing pain in his shoulder and the stinging in his stomach where he’d been clawed at.

Stalking away, he heard Dappledleaf tell some kits to go back into the nursery and he turned to see who it was. Ugh! Smolderingkit, Vulturekit, and Smokekit had still been stalking at the edge of the nursery and he completely forgot! He felt his pelt heat up a bit with embarrassment but he tried to brush it off. Truth be told, he half wanted to laugh at Dappledleaf because he knew very well that his three younger siblings were not going to listen to her. Hell, they barely even listened to him. So instead of walking over to the apprentice’s den as he had been instructed, he headed over to the mouth of the den. "I'll handle my brothers," he called over his shoulder. He wasn't going to argue with the queen anymore, but he definitely wasn't going to budge on this. Larkpaw needn't concern herself with these little balls of fluff if she didn't want to and as grateful as he was for her continued support the last few days, he certainly wasn't going to ask her to with how they responded to others.

As he approached the small kits, he tried to think of something to say. He couldn’t just have them think he was lame as he had gotten attacked both physically and verbally (though he did fight back, and did a half-decent job at it). When he got near he sat down in front of the three troublemakers and looked down at them. His cold blue gaze which had been so full of hatred earlier softened when he looked at them and he let out a low purr. These kits were what his mother, Snailpounce left behind. The small brown tabby that was Smolderingkit, Smokekit, the grey and white tabby, and Vulturekit who looked so much like their shared mother with his charcoal tabby and white splotched frame. He loved them with all of his heart, regardless of how heart-wrenching it was to look at them sometimes. ”You think it’ll leave a cool-looking scar?” he asked with a toothy grin, gesturing to the spot on his shoulder that had begun to stop bleeding. Gosh, it hurt like hell, but he wasn’t going to show it. ”I’m sure Ruepaw’s shoulders are going to be stinging where I had gotten my claws in, cool move, huh?” Darkpaw said, referring to when he had thrown the other apprentice off of him. The tom was well aware that Dappledleaf had instructed them to go into the nursery, but he figured there was no harm in them remaining where they were if he was supervising. After all, the fighting was over and done with so nothing to worry about, right?