[Undertaker]

Originally Posted by poppy.

[ @Undertaker ]

Brackenpaw was fiddling with a twig between her claws when a cat walked down to the stream. Head remained bowed, only her eyes traveled upwards to fix on the large, brown tabby form of Dawnstar. Raising her head, she watched the leader drink, then looked away because that was creepy.

Blinking rapidly, she snapped the twig and tossed it to the side with a soft flick of her claws. As Dawnstar noticed her and came nearer, the apprentice lowered her head again, a nod of respect that she quickly raised again, as to not snivel at the leader's toes like all the other apprentices did.

"Not today." Was all she could say as the older she-cat passed Brackenpaw on her way to the fresh-kill pile. The depressingly meager fresh-kill pile. "Redshrike had other things to do and I don't see any of the other warriors teaching me anything important." The confession was tainted by the direct insult to the majority of ShadowClan' warriors. They were usually too busy planing ill-fated rebellions or arguing with each other to actually do much, but it wasn't like Dawnstar didn't know this already.

Looking over at Dawnstar as she stripped the blackbird of it's feathers, Brackenpaw wanted to grab some prey, the smell was quite appetizing, but she hadn't done squat today, so no food for her right now. Maybe a midnight snack would be in order again tonight.

It came as a shock to her that Dawnstar even bothered talking to her after that utterly humiliating conversation a couple moons ago. When Brackenpaw couldn't shut up, and rambled on and on mindlessly, like a hyperactive sparrow, to Dawnstar's amusement. 'Oh well, at least I didn't tick her off.'

This one had more confidence than most, but not overly to a point where it could become her downfall. Cats who were too arrogant make far to make mistakes, but those who had no confidence never moved forwards in life. One should find a decent balance between them, Brackenpaw's willingness to bow her head but then lock her gaze with the clan leader had the massive dark tabby smiling. She could be respectful without looking weak.

Dawnstar wrinkled her nose at Brackenpaw's answer to her question, not particularly like her thoughts on training with others. But understood them. Most of the cats around here were rather ill-suited for ShadowClan, unable to stomach what should be child's play for the strong. Still, even the weak could show the strong a new trick once in a while. It was better than sitting around doing nothing. Dawnstar often found herself getting bored very quickly which is why she started coming up with a variety of ways to entertain herself while continuing to make herself stronger.

"If you can't train with Redshrike and don't believe any of the other cats can be of assistance you should try and work alone," Dawnstar grumbled after she yanked the last of the feathers from the bird and took a small bite out of the flesh. It was dry, clearly hunting a bit ago. She'd need to check on how patrols were doing, Dawnstar made sure that ShadowClan had more than enough territory to hunt on, the pile should not be this low. Despite the chewy meat, Dawnstar ate her bird both as to not waste prey and to try and settle her stomach.

It was most likely going to come up again later, that was her own problem to deal with. "Even though I am one of the fiercest cats to grace the four clans, I still train every day if possible. I try to learn new things or improve upon the old, too many think that I am the best, but I know I can be better." Her fangs gleamed briefly within the light as she spoke to the apprentice. "The day I can find someone who can actually best me in battle is the day I find a worthy rival." There was a touch of excitement in her voice before her golden orbs drifted back to her prey.

"Have you found yourself a rival, someone to drive you to do better or a goal of some sort?" Dawnstar never had one in her clan, nor one out of it. It was not that she was too proud to admit that there was a cat who could be her equal or her better, there really was no one who had met her standers. She had no competition and her apprenticeship would have been boring if not for her mother's high expectations of her.