Beautiful Mornings [Open]

The horizon was painted a stunning crimson fading into the dark blue sky that was the night as the sun started to rise over the forest that the ThunderClan cats called homes. The still figure of Cinderpaw was perched on a rock on the border of the RiverClan camp, her eyes closed but her ears perked. She had awoken early - not many of the warriors had even awoken for their patrols - but hadn't felt like going back to sleep so had decided to bask in the beauty that was the mere hours of the day.

Crickets still chirped somewhere in the reeds, the river around the camp babbling quietly as birds started to sing. The music of nature - it was something Cinderpaw felt that not many cats took the time to just sit and listen like she was. There was more than fighting and hunting, there was living. Of course, she didn't think any less of her Clanmates that took their job seriously and would find such a thing as listening to the world around them maybe to much of a thing a Medicine Cat would do, not a warrior, but she didn't care much for that.

There was a beauty in life - all of it. She was not distracted by the 'war' that the Clans had toward each other, as she felt it was such a little thing if held against everything else that the life they held as a Clan had to offer. She held little fondness for the other Clans, and she would protect RiverClan to the end, but if there was no meaning behind the fight other than simple hatred, then she could care less. Life was important, even those of the different Clans. She found spilling blood and taken lives in the name of meaningless fighting pointless, and a waste of time. A simple waste of time...

The morning had been very peaceful in RiverClan for once. Between the threat ThunderClan always imposed and the constant training, little Aspenpaw had no time to catch up on his sleep. Thankfully after a long night of patrolling with his mother, the tom finally laid down and fell fast asleep.

His sweet dreams and fulfilling rest was cut short as the birds began their songs for the day. He pried open one of his blue-green eyes and stared forward with distaste. Really? This early? he grumbled in thought, noting the faint sunlight streaming through the reeds. Snorting, he rolled onto his back and closed his eye, hoping to sleep once more. The chirping continued, only growing louder by the second. His frustration grew as the noise did until he couldn't stand it any longer. "Augh," he spat and rolled onto his paws. Shaking the moss from his gray fur, he left the apprentice's den, his good mood now ruined.

He kicked the earth and circled around camp several times before flopping down in the middle. The tabby let out an aggravated sigh and stared towards the entrance. He watched the birds hop from reed to reed, hissing under his breath. Rising to a crouch, the small apprentice crawled towards the aviaries, his eyes cold and dark. He glared at the closest bird which was cleaning one of its wings. Aspenpaw let out a quiet breath and pounced, missing his target by a mouse-tail. The bird flew off, his friends following close behind.

"Good riddance!" the tom growled and watched them soar high into the morning sky. Out of the corner of his eye he spotted a still figure sitting on a nearby rock. Padding up to the rock he leapt up and padded up to the cat. "Cinderpaw? Why are you up so early?" he asked, his tone less irritated than before.

OOC: Are you waiting for Cinderpaw, or could Aspenpaw be mistaken?

Hearing the sound of somebody waking up, Cinderpaw's head had turned slightly as her eyes flickered open to find her brother pushing her way out of the apprentice den. It was simple to see the foul mood he was in, causing her whiskers to twitch. Somebody woke up on the wrong side of the den, she thought to herself, but her expression never changed to show her thought. She just watch as he soon got up after laying down in the middle to chase away some birds, causing a faint frown to appear on her face. Ah, well there went some of the peacefulness she was enjoying.

Her tail flickered as her brother soon noticed her, her frown quickly become a faint smile as she turned away from him to stare back at the river that surrounded the RiverClan camp. "Woke up, couldn't go back to sleep," she said softly, always preferring to use little words if needed. "And you, brother?" A soft purr of a laugh touched her words, faint but there as she stared off toward where ThunderClan lived, hiding away behind trees and brushes...Each of the Clans lived in such different places and ways, yet still became one in the end with StarClan...But yet the border was only a whisker-thick, it seemed so far. Hm...Perhaps Cinderpaw thought a bit hard about stuff, an amused smirk appearing on her face as she pulled herself from her random train of thought to stare at her brother.