A Determined Owl (Open)

Owlpaw was training on his own, trying his best to detect and fix his own mistakes though probably without much success…ugh, training without a mentor was so stupidly hard!

The chocolate tabby tom hissed angrily as he sat to take a quick break. After the Dark Forest cats arrived to ShadowClan he had been waiting for his father to return, but the more days that passed, the less hope he retained. He even had given up on waiting for Mudfoot at the entrance of the camp every morning. He was so mad at him, mad for leaving him without saying goodbye, mad for not coming back, mad for leaving their training like this, mad for making his dreams to become the best warrior of the forest seem as distant as ever.

He dug his claws on the muddy ground under him. He had been training for a long time by now, any other cat would easily be able to tell that just by looking at his mud covered paws and the not few scratches that the tree in front of him now had from his solo fighting training. He preferred to train in fighting, as he always failed at hunting anything…he simply never seemed to be able to get close enough to the prey unnoticed, and even if he tried to chase it he never seemed to be fast enough to catch up with it.

He needed to talk to Webtail personally soon and demand a new mentor, he probably would do that as soon as he returned to camp that day. He was thinking about this when some faint pawsteps interrupted his thoughts, making the apprentice raise his head and look towards the sound, which was getting closer to his location “Who’s there?!” His voice made clear that he was not in a good mood.

"Another day, another prey, another cry, time to die." muttered Ebony under his breath, stalking through the marshland. Maybe it had been a bad idea to settle up in this kind of territory after all, the water soaking his fur and the smalls mingled in a terrifing jam. But his scarred and worn nose would always detect any cat around, and this time, of course, wasn't much difference. His mind cleared as he salked further, hating the sensation of his belly fur plastering to his skin.

He reached a small opening with a clawed tree towering from one side, sign of the apprentices training here. He didn't bother to mask his smell, nor did he wish to stay hidden. He simply emerged from the bushes to find a chocolate tabby there, mud on his paws from the training. That detail did however, make him smile, or rather said, relax from his grudging posture and sit opposite the apprentice, his black, gleaming fur, fluffedup and his dark-blue eyes staring into the tom's.

Well, hello there! Say, what are you doing here... all alone? he smiled, showing of his long, blackened claws and his long canines. He had been waiting to find some easy prey, for his hunger has started making him even more daring than before, but that wasn't really much difference. And by saying some prey, he rather mean any prey at all. RAts, mice, squirells, birds... cats? Of course.

Owlpaw looked at the unknown cat emerge from the nearby bushes, not only he never had seen this cat anywhere around the territory before, but he also could tell that he wasn’t a clan cat by his smell.

The apprentice immediately took a battle stance, his fur rising slightly as he glared to the rogue’s eyes, not a single sign of fear nor hesitation in his green eyes. He was ready to fight and chase this rogue away from the territory, maybe that way he would finally prove himself worth of a new mentor? He was desperate enough to try it.

“I can ask you the same thing!” Owlpaw hissed at him, unsheathing his claws and flattening his ears against his head as he showed his fangs at him, leaving the cat’s question unanswered on purpose. He wasn’t going to give a simple rogue like him the satisfaction of getting any kind of answer from him “This is ShadowClan’s territory, not a place where a rogue like you can just walk around” His words showed a huge amount of confidence and determination. The chocolate tabby was clearly younger than the rogue and his skills were still in severe need of training, but he wouldn’t turn down a fight if anyone challenged him and he was going to win it.

Ebony did expect such thing from any apprentice, such was their way, desperate of prooving themselves. He was glad he never was like that, too hot-headed, too angressive. He was calm, pleased with everything... untill blood was spilled, of course. That's when he let power and fury give him strenght to battle. But to an apprentice, he felt only pure sorrow that they had to be in such way... so hard to fool, to catch, to keep quite.


But not now. He had sensed something was wrong since his arrival. Not only here, everywhere, waves of darkness, blankness catching the so different landscape and mashing it together, untill it becoma like rotten food, crumbled and disgusting. Through his journeys, he had never found such thimgs, but now it all mingled with his blood, trying to make him bow to the darkness. Not him, not now, not here.

Within a desperate search for words to ask this apprentice wha happen, yet knowing he might just lie, he put his trust into the young tom, Please, let it be it didn't suddenly become a trusting fool. Well, if he lies, I get to kill him anyway. , he found a few questions he might really want to be answered, so he cleared his mind and fixed his dark-blue eyes into the apprentice's.

"Look, I don't care who you are, nor do I care about any clan of your silly forest." It was a lie. That was the only thing he even cared about. His hunger and bloodthirstyness were gone. "What happened here?" T-this darkness? he asked, after a few heartbeats he was aware that, for the first time in his life, he had felt a shudder down his spine.

Owlpaw’s defiant eyes were locked into the older cat’s calm ones, he didn’t care if he was acting cool, for all he knew this could be a trap, a trick to make him lower his guard so he could take him by surprise. He wouldn’t let that happen, he would be ready to attack at the smallest suspicious gesture.

He, however, was taken aback by the question. Darkness? What did he…oh…

He had spent so long in the forest that he probably got used the the new atmosphere that the Dark Forest had brought upon them, to the point where he no longer felt it. He had gotten so used to it that he even could find himself feeling comfortable around it, thing that, now that he thought about it, was enough to make him feel a bit scared. It was obvious that an outsider like this cat would feel overwhelmed by it.

Owlpaw was still trying to look menacing, but as his ears raised and fur flattened, he started to relax a bit, but that didn’t mean that he would drop his guard at all “What you feel is the Dark Forest, who now reign over the whole place” He didn’t mind sharing that bit of info, if he was around here often enough he would end up finding out anyways. And who knows? Maybe this would scare him enough to force him out of the territory.

OOC: Mobile

Ebony shrugged and scanned the surroundings with his dark-blue eyes. He didn't know what he was hoping to see there. The Dark Forest? he thought and tried to remember hearing anything like that. Nope, nothing I've heard of... He turned again at the apprentice.


"I didn't expect that their apprentices trained alone for now." he said, his eyes darting around, ready to spring if any cat that might be the tom's mentor would attack him. There was fortunatly no smell, but the mrshes weren't the most clear place, so the cat could have been hidden. But perhaps he was being just to axious.


Another thing he had never done before. Being anxious.


His eyes trailed on the bark of the tree. It bore numerous clawmarks, but they were all scattered badly and rather small. The apprentice, on the other side, looked plainly in the middle of a harsh exercise, and Ebony would have considered clawing a tree that hard. Now if you did it right. "If their apprentices are training on their own, it's likely a rebellion would be rather easy. he muttered a bit to loud.

Owlpaw hissed at the new cat again, his comment making him feel terribly offended “ShadowClan’s apprentices don’t train on their own-” His enraged words were cut abruptly, he was really telling this cat that every apprentice in ShadowClan had mentors to train them when he clearly had no mentor. He lowered his gaze as he sat, dropping his battle pose as the feeling of anger and sadness returned as a tempest deep within his chest “…at least most of them” His voice reflected his feelings even if he was trying to keep a neutral tone.

He didn’t mentioned his lack of a mentor, nor the reason behind it, this mysterious rogue didn’t deserve to know that kind of stuff. After all, who would walk around just telling their personal problems to a total stranger, especially when you don’t even know the name behind the cat or their motives?

Ebony raised his head and snorted. It was visible the cat didn't have any mantor, or he wouldn't be that bad at fighting. He narrowed his eyes again at the clawmarks. He couldn't deny the apprentice had potential. Potential to become a hero, or a Dark Forest loyalist, that was his choice to make.His dark-blue eyes pierced the apprentice once more, scanning him from paws to ear tips before he spoke once more, his voice cold and slow.

"Well, you need training." he said and lifted his head to stare at him better. "Show me what you got." he said and prepared for batle.

Wait…training? Owlpaw’s ears raised with interest at the rogue’s words, unable to hide his surprise and hope. Was this rogue really offering to train him? A clan cat who only a few seconds earlier was going to try to chase him off the territory without a second thought?

Well, if that was the case he wasn’t going to let this golden opportunity slip, he was so desperate that he wouldn’t mind to train with a rogue after all. But if the rogue tried anything or this turned to be a trap he was going to be ready.

He nodded and rushed forwards, his first hit being with sheathed claws, after all, he didn’t want to ruin this opportunity by injuring this rogue or earning his hatred.