Cattail Pond

[ophelia]

@Rainquail

Silverpool sighed. Why did queens do that? She knew they wanted to protect their kits, but it planted such strange ideas in their heads. "Well, that isn't true," she said in a no-nonsense tone, "I'm sure they were only stories meant to keep you safe. Now that you're an apprentice, there's no need for them anymore."

She followed Halfpaw out of the water, not bothering to shake the droplet from her sleek fur. She swam so much there was basically a waterproof coat on her fur by now. She nodded with a purr. "I'd love to take you fishing, just ask me whenever," she offered. The apprentice was confusing, but she had kind of grown on Silverpool.

[Middy]

~[Creekflow]~

Originally Posted by Shadeleaf

Lotusheart smiled at the pond. She quite enjoyed fishing and swimming, despite her long fur. She was awkwardly big on land, but she could easily float in the pond, like a lotus.
"Yeah, this place is nice. I often fish here. It's not as exciting as the river but it has good fish. Its also great for me to train my apprentice, or to get away from everyone." she mewed quietly. She was quite awkward around new cays and often needed alone time. She stared at the water, catching glimpses of mouth-watering, yummy fish.

{Super sorry for the delay! ^^;}
----------------------------

"Mmhm I get ya. I come here for similar reasons. It's a swell place to go to if you need a few moments to yourself and I agree that it has some pretty good fish." he answered with a lazy grin. His blue-green gaze looked back to the rippling water and then back at Lotusheart. He suddenly had an idea. It seemed like a great opportunity to share a meal.

Creekflow sat up straighter and turned back to look at the she-cat beside him. "Lemme do something real quick." he meowed while shuffling back a few mouselengths. His face wrinkled in concentration as his eyes traced the speedy movements under the water. He made sure his shadow wasn't casting across the surface before unsheathing the claws of his right paw. He waited patiently for a fish to swim right below. As soon as one came into his immediate vicinity, he hooked it out with sharp claws and tossed it beside him. He swiftly delivered a killing bite before grinning. It was a real nice looking perch, a decent enough meal for Lotus. The tom repeated his recent actions and this time, a juicy chub was what he fished up. Ah yes. His second favorite prey! Pride swelled up in his chest as he sat back up. Hopefully Lotus will enjoy her fish.

The mottled warrior shuffled back forward and slid both catches forward so that one lay right in front of the she-cat and one in front of him. "Ta-da! A quick snack for each of us. I ain't the best hunter but my current skills do me decent. Go ahead and dig in." he said with a purr. His blue-green eyes glistened with soft glee. He was secretly surprised he didn't butcher the catches. It was a good day if he didn't make a fool of himself in front of someone.

[Shade.]

Originally Posted by Middy

~[Creekflow]~

{Super sorry for the delay! ^^;}
----------------------------

"Mmhm I get ya. I come here for similar reasons. It's a swell place to go to if you need a few moments to yourself and I agree that it has some pretty good fish." he answered with a lazy grin. His blue-green gaze looked back to the rippling water and then back at Lotusheart. He suddenly had an idea. It seemed like a great opportunity to share a meal.

Creekflow sat up straighter and turned back to look at the she-cat beside him. "Lemme do something real quick." he meowed while shuffling back a few mouselengths. His face wrinkled in concentration as his eyes traced the speedy movements under the water. He made sure his shadow wasn't casting across the surface before unsheathing the claws of his right paw. He waited patiently for a fish to swim right below. As soon as one came into his immediate vicinity, he hooked it out with sharp claws and tossed it beside him. He swiftly delivered a killing bite before grinning. It was a real nice looking perch, a decent enough meal for Lotus. The tom repeated his recent actions and this time, a juicy chub was what he fished up. Ah yes. His second favorite prey! Pride swelled up in his chest as he sat back up. Hopefully Lotus will enjoy her fish.

The mottled warrior shuffled back forward and slid both catches forward so that one lay right in front of the she-cat and one in front of him. "Ta-da! A quick snack for each of us. I ain't the best hunter but my current skills do me decent. Go ahead and dig in." he said with a purr. His blue-green eyes glistened with soft glee. He was secretly surprised he didn't butcher the catches. It was a good day if he didn't make a fool of himself in front of someone.

Lotusheart looked confused as the warrior dashed off. As he fished out the perch, she figured out that he was fishing. She looked down at the lovely fish that was dropped before her.
"Aww, thank you. You really didn't have to do that. I can fish too!" she mewed, slightly embarrassed that someone was doing her a favor. She bent down and took a bite out of the fish.
"Iff gweat!" she said, mouth full.

[vellichor]

Originally Posted by Elementals

~Silentpaw of RC~
(I'm late to reply as well ahaha, no worries!)

Silentpaw stumbled at the sound of his clanmate crashing into the water. He felt stupid for assuming that the scent of Riverclan was just from some cat who was there earlier. It was a shame that he secretly called himself more of a hunter than a fighter when he jumped too fast to conclusions for scenting prey and other things. Uh oh, were they okay? The tabby gulped hoping that they weren't drowning in the pond before checking on them.

"Yy-you oo-okay?" he mewed hoping to see them alive. What would he have to say if he had to drag back someone's body because he didn't realize that they were there or something.
{ @eerie elysian }

// aa sorry about the delay ;n;

Beanpaw
________

He lifted his head to the sound of a voice. Oh Stars — that was what the Clan cats said, wasn’t it? He was embarrassed. The pond wasn’t even that deep! And yet he’s managed to slip right into it. With a sheepish snails, he responded. "I guess I didn’t see the water there, um.., haha. I’m not dead! I promise. I’m, uh. I’m Beanpaw." With that, he lowered his head in pure embarrassment. First he falls into a pond, now he just garbles like bird? Ooooh boy. This wasn’t fun.

[Elementals]

~Silentheart~
(Since he got his warrior name, I gonna use that hehe)

The tabby let out the sigh of relief when the other cat wasn't dead. He wondered what their name was since Silentheart barely got to know the names of cats due to hating to be social. Stuttering sounds like someone spitting all over the place which was definitely not a nice sound to him. Darn, how the heck did he manage to develop stuttering when only his father had it. Oh wait- oh... Holy! They were talking to him! HIMMM! Silentheart*nearly choked when they started talking to them. He really just found out his gay side with Owlflight just a moon ago. Gosh, with that knowledge, every single tom was looking beautiful. Uh oh- do they expect a response back? Ummmm ~brainfreeze~ uhhhh?!? JUST SPIT OUT SOME WORDS YA BIG STUTTERING LUMP, his brain yelled at him.

"Hhhhhhh-hiiii! S-Silentheart uhhh I am," he stammered feeling his family in Starclan plus his braincells*all face pawing him. Way to make an introduction... way to go...

{ @elysian }

[vellichor]

// @Elementals

Beanpaw
________

With a quick breath of relief, he realized that this was really awkward. Like, REALLY awkward. They were both kinda nervous and stuff, even though Beanpaw was the one who just fell into a pond. A literal pond. That was okay. "Nice to meet you, Silentheart!" He spoke, surprisingly, with no awkward pauses. Yess, social interaction. Nailing it. "I,, think I’m gonna get this water off, then you wanna, uh, do? Something? Fish? ,, What do warriors do... ?" With that, he stepped out of the water and shook off his pelt, trying to keep away from the warrior. Brrr! It was nice to shake out his short pelt.

[Arie]

-- @hope --

Dayheart was officially Mr. Weird and Crazy. Eelpaw did not understand them. Had absolutely no clue on how this tom even managed to exist as a warrior. How did that even happen? Maybe they would have to speak to Mr. Leader about it... because that would surely give them an answer would it not? But before they could do anything, they were drenched. Why were they drenched? Because someone had drenched them. And Eelpaw was not a fan! Could it just... not stop. They were peacefully blowing bubbles and then Mr.Crazy had to interrupt them! Why... oh well, it shouldn't be something to throw a fuss over, Eelpaw was better than that. And then when he moved back to Eelpaw and then proceeded to stick his entire face down into the water, Eelpaw frowned. And then proceeded to do the exact same only to come up coughing and trying their best to expel the water from their lungs that had somehow gotten trapped thanks to Mr. Crazy's bad encouragement, and it was then that they decided, that nope. They were not going to spend more time in Mr.Crazy's company. At least they'd not been drowned yet though! That was something... that was something they could brag about and they smiled at the thought. They'd yet to drown and that was one massive goal was it not? Oh yes it was! And then when Mr. Crazy actually managed to blow the bubbles he thanked them? "Well... you're also quite stupid so I take that with a nerve, because its coming from a crazy cat." Blunt and direct. Had they somehow hurt his feelings? Hopefully not. Eelpaw suspected such words would likely make the warrior start bawling and they didn't want that. As a bubble popped right in their face though, they retreated and proceeded to frown. "Can you teach me how to hunt properly? Or get out of mud?"

[Middy]

~[Creekflow]~

Originally Posted by Shadeleaf

Lotusheart looked confused as the warrior dashed off. As he fished out the perch, she figured out that he was fishing. She looked down at the lovely fish that was dropped before her.
"Aww, thank you. You really didn't have to do that. I can fish too!" she mewed, slightly embarrassed that someone was doing her a favor. She bent down and took a bite out of the fish.
"Iff gweat!" she said, mouth full.

----------------------------

The mottled tom couldn't help the pleased purr that escaped his chest. She was enjoying the fish and wasn't annoyed at all. "I know. I just wanted to catch us both some prey so that we don't have to chat on an empty stomach. Besides, I need all the hunting practice I could get. I'm pretty average and I'm hoping to be rather proficient at it one day." he meowed, warm tone encompassing his words. He took a quick bite of his catch to try and hide the grin that was on the verge of coming out. he didn't want her to think he was weird.

After the she-cat spoke again, his eyes lit up in diluted glee. "I'm very glad you like it!" he quickly said, giving her a charming closed-eye smile. He ducked his head to begin eating his meal again. The silence that followed afterward was rather comfortable.

The quiet scene didn't last long as Creekflow piped up to ask a question not too long after, "I know this question my be a bit strange but I'm in need of some advice..." he began, "Do you think you could give me some pointers on how to efficiently train an apprentice? I'm pretty new to this mentor business and was hoping to get some advice from someone who's done this before... I understand if not though! I was just wondering..."

[panchiko]

well you’re also quite stupid so i take that with a nerve, because it’s coming from a crazy cat.

dayheart repeated what eelpaw had said in his mind a few times, thinking it over. well.. what eelpaw said made sense. it sort of reminded him of what sootie had called him those moons ago — that he was an idiotic, overgrown kitten. stupid and crazy sounded similar, did it not? eelpaw hadn’t mentioned anything about being a sad excuse for a warrior, so at least that was good. sootie had apologized, though! he and sootie were buddies! at least, dayheart thought so. being friends with sootie and sootie’s apology cancelled out the hurt he’d felt from sootie’s old insults, but hearing them again from a new source felt like a stab in the back. eelpaw… he wasn’t sure if eelpaw thought of them as friends. eelpaw also didn’t look like they were going to apologize, so the hurt was present and stinging. then again, did eelpaw even have anything to apologize for? they were just saying their opinion, and opinions weren’t something to be apologetic for. then again, if the opinion was that dayheart was stupid and crazy, dayheart did feel like he was allowed to be sad, hurt and confuzzled.

sad, hurt and confuzzled. that sounded like good grounds for dayheart to cry. perhaps he shouldn’t cry in front of eel — that’d make him look even crazier, probably. eelpaw had said what they’d said with such directness that it didn’t even seem like they meant it offensively, they said it as though they were stating a fact. that hurt even more, and so he let a few tears fall as he tried to blink them away. crying for a minute silently, he breathed deeply before letting himself speak.

“s..sorry?”

if he was stupid, then the right thing to do was apologize, right? apologize for what, exactly, dayheart wasn’t sure, but it seemed like the right thing to do at the time and dayheart didn’t exactly have an inspirational speech in mind, so an apology was what he had went with. he didn’t really want to apologize, though. eel hadn’t apologized, and eelpaw had been the one who had called dayheart stupid and crazy. stupid, he could take. he’d been called stupid enough times, it didn’t really bother him. being dumb didn’t mean he wasn’t nice, and if he was nice and dumb, he could live with that. being called crazy was just hurtful, though. he didn’t want to apologize for ‘being crazy’. he could apologize for eelpaw having to deal with his supposed lack of intelligence, but.. he wanted an apology back. dayheart knew it would be awkward to ask for one, so he just moved on, a small smidgen of a grudge lingering in the back of his mind. he’d ignore it for now, though — eelpaw was honest, at least. he could appreciate that.

“alright, so, because i’m stupid and crazy, i have a proposal for you. it might sound a little stupid, and a little crazy, but that’s apparently what i’m all about!

okay, so, i suggest we make an agreement:

i teach you hunting and battle and stuff whenever you want some training. that sounds understandable, right? i mean, there’ll be some rules to this one, such as the following:

1. You may only use this training for good purposes. Examples of bad purposes include smacking people in their sleep and, of course, hitting innocent flowers. Don’t do that.
2. I have the right to deny trainin’ you if I’m busy.. and/or sleeping and stuff.
3. This means I have the ability to teach you how to find the prettiest rocks. This comes as a bonus to the hunting and battle and fishing and swimming training and whatnot so you can’t escape it.
4. You’re required to tell me if I’m teaching badly so I can teach you (and Sleepypaw!!) better.

okay so when i went into this proposal i thought i’d have more rules so it’d sound really cool but those four are the only four rules i can think of off the top of my head, so, like, those are the only rules but i might think of some later so i guess another rule is:

1. I can make new rules if I think of them but you have to express verbal agreement to each new amendment.

okay! so the part of the agreement that you have to uphold is sort of less complicated but there’s still some rules because, like, they’re kind of important.

you have to tell me when i’m being stupid and crazy and help me learn how to Not. the rules are that:

1. You gotta tell me when I’m bein’ crazy or stupid.
2. Help me Not
3. I don’t know if stupidity is contagious or something so, like, you aren’t allowed to follow in my dumb footsteps. Unless you want to. Which you don’t, if you agree to this agreement.

okay! so, all in all, i give you free apprentice training, you give me free smart and sane training. that sound like a good deal to you? :)”

dayheart sat on the ground comfortably, letting his tail wrap around his paws as he improved his posture. he patiently awaited a reply from the apprentice, hoping that the agreement that he’d proposed actually made sense. sure, maybe it sort of kind of proved eelpaw and sootie’s thing where they said he was dumb and all, and maybe the whole proposal was dumb and all, but it was worth a shot, wasn’t it? if he could make people stop calling him stupid and learn how to be smart, then he’d be a better cat! people would like him more! plus, eelpaw got free training whenever they wanted, so it was a win for all sides. he couldn’t see why eelpaw would say no.

“oh! also. about that question about if i could teach you hunting and the art of mud and getting out of mud and stuff. sure… if ya say yes. if not, then i’ll probably teach you anyway because it would be mean if we went all the way over here to learn how to do stuff and then i just said no and left, but afterwards i’ll probably never see you again because i’ll be too busy being me and probably crying and avoiding you because my failure in regards to this friendship and your refusal of my proposal would be really embarrassing so i would just totally avoid you forever after training with you this once.”

// @Arie

[Shade.]

Originally Posted by Middy

~[Creekflow]~

----------------------------

The mottled tom couldn't help the pleased purr that escaped his chest. She was enjoying the fish and wasn't annoyed at all. "I know. I just wanted to catch us both some prey so that we don't have to chat on an empty stomach. Besides, I need all the hunting practice I could get. I'm pretty average and I'm hoping to be rather proficient at it one day." he meowed, warm tone encompassing his words. He took a quick bite of his catch to try and hide the grin that was on the verge of coming out. he didn't want her to think he was weird.

After the she-cat spoke again, his eyes lit up in diluted glee. "I'm very glad you like it!" he quickly said, giving her a charming closed-eye smile. He ducked his head to begin eating his meal again. The silence that followed afterward was rather comfortable.

The quiet scene didn't last long as Creekflow piped up to ask a question not too long after, "I know this question my be a bit strange but I'm in need of some advice..." he began, "Do you think you could give me some pointers on how to efficiently train an apprentice? I'm pretty new to this mentor business and was hoping to get some advice from someone who's done this before... I understand if not though! I was just wondering..."

Lotusheart's big moon-like eyes stared at him and she burst out laughing. It was her loud, booming, hearty laugh. When she finally settled down she took a few deep breath and quickly fumbled out the explanation in case she had offended him.
"I definitely do want to help you and will. Training an apprentice is no easy feat so feel free to ask anything you want. The reason I laughed is because I've had 2 apprentices and a friend of mine recently asked me the same thing, so I feel like some sort of mentoring expert. I know Lionstar has had so many but for some reason it feels like the universe is pushing me to become the ultimate mentor or something. I'm sorry if my laughter came out as weird. "she replied, her pale yellow eyes looking apologetically. She shuffled her paws nervously. Great job, Lotusheart, you brute! You're so insensitive!