RiverClan Apprentices' Den - Page 23

**versailles** · #**221** January 23rd, 2019, 12:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Miss Bliss

(she recently joined Riverclan, so she needs a few friends)
As Oakflame spoke of training he remembered something. "Speaking of training I better get going. My mentor's taking me hunting today. I guess I'll see you around.", he meowed. The tom didn't wait for an answer, since he was already late.

"Seeya!" Oakflame meowed, watching the apprentice leave the den.

**Fawn** · #**222** January 26th, 2019, 06:27 AM

Shivering as he woke to a cold draft, Fawnpaw tried to ignore the seeping of leaf-bare into his nest, filtering through his fur and bringing him to tremble for warmth. The winter had devastated the Clans and their territories, effectively making life harder, but this was a small side effect of the larger scale problems: his sleeping area was freezing, making it harder to get a restful night's sleep.

Fawnpaw stirred in his nest and realized he was colder than he initially thought when he shuffled away to survey the den wall, immediately met with less rigid air despite the temperatures dipping near zero. Near his nest, he could see the side of the den was mangled and worn by snow, the side caving in and leaving its inhabitants exposed to the elements. There wasn't a chance he could continue to sleep there peacefully, so he supposed it was going to be a long day of repairing the den wall with additional reinforcements.

Not long after, he'd collected a few reeds from the surrounding edge of the iced-over river, clumsily hauling them in to begin the fixes. However, he stared at the den wall in thought- it wasn't going to be an easy task for one apprentice to manage, never mind two if the other was short as he was. Trying to prop a reed into place, he struggled to lift it high enough to attach, staggering and straining in the process. It was hard to maneuver properly, heavy and difficult to control and weave into place, but he made a small leap of faith to hopefully secure it.

Unfortunately, his attempt was far from successful. The reed came crashing down on him, but it wasn't just the reed- a part of the den wall and roof caved in on top of him, piling the little apprentice in a drift of fresh snow.

@BILL.

**BEAR.** · #**223** January 26th, 2019, 06:37 AM

Lionstorm hadn't been able to sleep, and he found himself pacing the clearing when a crack alerted him something was wrong. It didn't take much time to find the culprit: a quick scan of his surroundings discovered part of the apprentice den had collapsed, and he was on the move.

Ducking to enter the den, he wasted no time in approaching the cave in. At first glance, he could see where the snow broke through over a nest, and beneath the pile-- movement?

He stopped near the mound, beginning to dig at the snow to reveal Fawnpaw, and he moved to pull him out of the snowdrift. "Are you alright?"

@Dipper

**Fawn** · #**224** January 26th, 2019, 06:45 AM

Fawnpaw wasn't sure how he was going to drag himself out of this mess. The snow would melt in time with sun high approaching, but that would be a cold time to wait until another apprentice either managed to get him freed, or someone else was alerted to his plight. Luckily, that time came rather soon. And... and of course it was Lionstorm. Fate wouldn't have it any other way because his life was an ironic mess of coincidences and awful timing to produce the most embarrassment.

Thankful for the rescue since it saved him hours of discomfort and potential freezing, as well as numb limbs, Fawnpaw blinked gratefully at him. His lithe frame continued to shudder and quake, trying to generate heat now that he was drenched. "Yeah," he breathed, trying to remove the remaining snow from his pelt, "I'm alright."

The words brought him back to the day of his apprentice ceremony, with Fallenstar being pounced off of the streamstone essentially. He inwardly winced at the memory because what came after had been the most awful part of it all, a pun on behalf of Fallenstar's plight delivered by Lionstorm. Hi Fallen, I'm dad. Ugh. He could hear it in his head.

Before Lionstorm could respond, he decided he would beat him to it. "And if you reply with that stupid pun, I swear to the stars that I'll never speak to you again," he asserted through a squeak of a huff, but it probably didn't come off as threatening as he would've liked when he stood several inches below Lionstorm and had a pelt dotted with snow. Maybe the defiant expression would make up for his shortcomings.

@BILL.

**BEAR.** · #**225** January 27th, 2019, 06:14 AM

Lionstorm chuckled, nosing through the apprentice's fur to check for further damage before he stepped back, looking at the damaged wall. "What were you doing, practicing battle training in your sleep?" he questioned. "I know you haven't been formally trained, but you're not supposed to attack the den."

He smirked as he glanced at Fawnpaw, entertained that Fallenstar wasn't the only cat who remembered his earlier joke. "Oh, how threatening. My legs are shaking." The defiant way he looked at him only tempted Lionstorm to make the bad pun.

@Dipper

**Fawn** · #**226** January 27th, 2019, 06:24 AM

Fawnpaw stood stiffly as Lionstorm nosed at him, and he felt the warmth of his breath over chilled fur, a fitting considering there was a chilled apprentice underneath. "I'm not supposed to attack you either, but you're sure making it tempting," he meowed, still every ounce as intimidating as before. Which was to say, not very.

"Are you sure it's not from the exertion of pulling me out of the snow?" he asked dryly, self-deprecatingly, and it would have been good-natured if the subject didn't sting so badly. "A hefty task, since y'know, I'm fat and all." During his time as an apprentice, he'd been working to lose that extra pudge that clung on him as a kit, but now he was thinning out from a combination of age and lack of eating.

Trying to dodge an argument, he shoved the previous topic away with a sigh. "Do you think you could help me with the den wall? My nest is... was-- somewhere in there. The snow's been causing it to cave further every sunrise, so I thought I would try to fix it."

@BILL.

**BEAR.** · #**227** January 28th, 2019, 06:59 AM

Lionstorm couldn't take him seriously. An intimidating Fawnpaw merely looked like a brown ball of puff. "Yeah, you're pretty bad at attacking me," his tone was teasing. "I bet those paws of yours would flail helplessly."

The amusement died at Fawnpaw's comment, and he stepped away from him abruptly. "I told you that you weren't," he muttered, glancing away at the mouth of the den with his ears flattened back. There went that. It was like his mood crashed down underneath the weight of the remark.

"I guess," Lionstorm responded quietly. "If you even want me to. I'm not feeling the love from you, Fawnpaw."

@Dipper

**Fawn** · #**228** January 28th, 2019, 07:08 AM

His paws weren't the only defense he had, and he considered the plausibility of headbutting Lionstorm or tackling him or ...biting him. No, attacking his clanmate wasn't how to solve this situation and would probably land them both in a heap of trouble - more than he would be in as it was with the den collapse.

"I know," he conceded, almost flippantly. "It's just... hard. I hear it whenever I'm hungry, or thinking about how I should take something from the fresh-kill pile. Look, that's not important." Fawnpaw didn't want to linger on this subject, easily sensing Lionstorm's dismay at it, though he didn't know why.

Lionstorm was pretty much his sole hope of getting the den back together efficiently. Rounding up another warrior would be difficult when: one, he didn't know any aside from his parents; two, warriors had bigger concerns with the Clan falling ill.

Raising his brown eyes to Lionstorm's dichromatic ones, he insisted, "I do. What, do I need to show you... 'love' or something?" It was a skeptical question with a puff of dubious laughter, but then he realized Lionstorm seemed to be serious. "Alright, well... uh," his eyes scanned him, "you're-- really. Y'know, big and strong? That's why I want your help. I mean, I need your help. Yeah, you're such a muscular, handsome warrior. Super tough and intimidating too." Was that enough of an ego stroke?

@BILL.

**BEAR.** · #**229** January 28th, 2019, 07:40 AM

The praise resulted in Lionstorm puffing up, looking proud as his ego was fueled. He hadn't expected Fawnpaw to indulge him, but this was nice-- he liked it, and he wanted to hear more. "Anything else?" he prompted as he began to push snow away from Fawnpaw's nest, back through the hole it'd come from.

"I know I'm handsome and strong," he told him confidently as he collected the reeds Fawnpaw had strewn about and began to weave them as a patch over the hole. "Want to lend a paw? This might be useful for you to learn in case it happens again."

@Dipper

**Fawn** · #**230** January 28th, 2019, 07:45 AM

After he shook his head to indicate that was the end of the indulgences, he stepped away from his collected reeds to let Lionstorm through. "Very," he agreed with a soft snort, rolling his eyes as Lionstorm stepped away from him but with no particular malice behind the motion. Watching the golden tom, Fawnpaw took a seat where he'd previously stood and watched as he rebuilt the side of the broken den wall.

"I don't know," he meowed idly, a small smile on his muzzle, "I'm kind of enjoying this. Admiring you, that is. You and all your... raw strength." Although fairly sure he'd called him strong already, another time couldn't hurt anything.

However, he brought himself to his paws again to approach Lionstorm, trying to stretch his legs out to look taller, more useful in this task. "Where do you want me to help? What should I be doing?"

@BILL.