Promising Young Warriors [closed]

Patrolling, hunting, sleeping. Guard duty. Fetching water, protecting Smallbean as he collected herbs, helping Dayspring stretch her legs. Feeding the elders. Training Sunpaw. Life became a monotonous blob of indiscernible passage of time after SkyClan’s foiled attack, and Goldenfang was growing antsy. She’d already made it to her desired status as a valuable warrior, as evidenced by the fact that she’d been given an apprentice quite soon after earning her name. Now that there was little left to teach him, there wasn’t much going on to keep the cream warrior’s mind occupied during the day. Of course she was staying vigilant for signs of SkyClan’s return. She also kept a close eye on the clumsy RiverClan patrols that were allowed to hunt on their land. But neither of the rival groups set a paw out of bounds. Not yet.

On this warm day, Goldenfang rolled onto her back in a springy patch of grass and let her bored gaze shift between fluffy clouds. She could make out shapes like rabbits and marigold flowers, and she wondered if the medicine cat preferred reading clouds or interpreting fur patterns in prey. The thought was gone as quickly as it had come. Now the clouds reminded her of a soft pelt—Fawnstep’s, perhaps? Now he was interesting to think about. He and a few other warriors had been selected for Lilacstar’s oh-so-special council. Goldenfang snorted indignantly. Perhaps it was silly to expect to be given special treatment without having earned it. After all, every warrior was expected to do as she had been doing. Really, the she-cat was just doing the bare minimum! But what else could she do?

A grasshopper jumped onto her stomach, startling her out of her thoughts. She rolled onto her side and it scattered away as if it thought she was a mound of golden grass and was shocked to find out otherwise. A soft chuckle escaped her as she watched it scramble around other moving cats in the clearing and then finally hop its way through the gorse wall. Well, there went her entertainment for the evening. A flash of dark fur entered her line of sight: Silverlight, returning from some adventure out in the territory. She remained relaxed in her grassy bed, but her blue eyes followed his every step.

“…hmmm…”

As of late, the days had been rushing by in a blur, like water from a river. They had blurred together so much that he had a difficult time differentiating them. He'd been keeping busy, much more than he had before. Honestly, everyone was at this point. They needed to work hard to build themselves back up and keep anyone looking for trouble at bay. He was still getting used to the RiverClan patrols that had been allowed to hunt in the territory, the payment for their help in the battle against SkyClan. He was certainly grateful for their assistance but he will probably never get used to seeing them running around through the moors for prey. It was certainly a sight to see and it never failed to make him smile, even if it was miniscule.

This day in particular had been somewhat less grueling for the silver-furred tom. It had been spent mostly hunting and doing his daily chores. He stepped up on occasion and took over other's chores if it seemed like they needed a break. It felt rather good being this proactive, like he was really contributing to the clan and utilizing his skills for very beneficial reasons. However, all things must come to an end. He didn't have anything else to do once he dropped the hares he had recently caught onto the prey pile. Everyone else was doing fine and no longer needed any help with whatever tasks they had been assigned to do. The warrior huffed as he realized that the lack of things to do would lead to boredom, which was one of his biggest nemesis. He thought about going back out after having a quick meal and surveying the territory but pushed away that plan once his eyes met another pair. It was Goldenfang's familiar blue. He hadn't even realized that he was being watched as he had been stuck in his head, dreading the possibility that he'd get bored if he didn't find something to do quickly. It seemed like boredom would just have to wait another day to have him in it's clutches since at that moment, he knew what he wanted to do.

The warrior skipped going to the prey pile and instead headed straight for the she-cat that was laying comfortable in a patch of grass, hares dangling from his slightly aching jaws. The moment he was close enough to Golden, he plopped both his prey down and smiled down at her. "Hey there, Goldenfang! You done with everything too? Mind if I join ya here? You look real cozy." He gave her a playful closed-eye grin then pushed one of the hares closer to her. "I brought something for ya to eat, only if you want to of course! I can take it over to the pile if you ain't hungry." His grin turned a bit bashful as he awaited her response. He was hoping that he hadn't disturbed her peace. Another thing, he was rather surprised and caught off guard by his actions and words but shoved away any embarrassing thoughts that were slowly starting to creep up. Goldenfang always seemed to be so cool and he wanted to take some notes from her.

To her surprise and delight, Silverlight met her gaze and then turned to approach with his freshly caught prey. Hare sounded fantastic right then. She rolled to support herself with her elbows and purred as he offered to join her. “Certainly! Here, get comfy. The grass here is nice and soft.” Goldenfang meowed cheerfully with several nods of her head. She pulled his offered hare closer and took a bite before answering his first question. “Yeah, I took Sunpaw out today. He’s really shaping up. He’ll be a good warrior, he just needs to grow out of being overly cautious.” She purred between bites. She really did enjoy training the tom. It gave her something to do and it made her look good at the same time.

Her thoughts turned to Silverlight. It was generous of him to offer his catch without hesitation, and he’d always been friendly and positive when they interacted. Goldenfang couldn’t imagine anyone disliking him. There was no doubt he’d get his own apprentice soon… although WindClan sorely needed more kits if there were going to be any new apprentices in the future. “What about you? I see you’ve been busy hunting. Did you see any RiverClanners today? They’re awful hunters. Can’t blame them for trying though. I wonder why they wanted to hunt on our land. Don’t they have enough fish in the river?”

Another grin lightened up his face as he gladly took her invitation with a 'thanks' and plopped down right beside her with a bit of a dramatic flair. He faced her and took a generous bite of his own hare after she'd began to eat hers, ears reacting with interest at her responses to his questions. "Well, with your training, I'm sure that it won't take much longer for him to earn his warrior name. You're a real good mentor. And don't worry about his cautious nature. He'll learn in time. We've all got to take risks and make decisions eventually and there's no way out of it. Gotta be smarter rather than safer about them though. Safe never gets ya anywhere and never lets you grow, ya know? Kinda learned that the hard way." He meowed then shrugged with a sheepish smile. Good decision-making wasn't exactly his forte but he was learning... it was just taking a bit longer than he'd hoped for. All in good time though.

"Hunting's one of my favorite things to do. Love the breeze in my fur and the freedom that running makes me feel. Catching the prey is just the awesome bonus. Makes me feel like I really contributed to the clan and shows me how much I've improved since I was an apprentice." The starry look in his eyes shone clear as he rambled eagerly about his favorite pastime. He quickly shook his head once he realized that he was about to get lost in a daydream and he bashfully cleared his throat. "Um... O-Oh! About the RiverClanners, I haven't seen as many as I expected to but did pass by a few. They were all probably on the same patrol. You're absolutely right about them being awful hunters. I swear that one got circled by the same rabbit twice. That got their paws jumbled and they fell flat on their face. I think another fell into one of the dens. Guess they weren't warned about the many holes WindClan has in the territory. Pretty funny to see 'em fall in though." he chuckled with a shake of his head, eyes gleaming with amusement. He settled down once more and looked down at his hare in thought, head tilting a bit as he pondered the other questions Golden had asked. "Don't know why they're hunting here either but they must have a real good reason to. They're awfully proud and wouldn't take help from another clan if they were actually doing well with their fish. Maybe something's going on over there. Actually, now that I think about it, some of the warriors I saw today seemed a bit skinnier than usual. I know most of their clan's got sleek bodies and all that but there was something... off about them. Don't really know how to explain it. I guess they looked a bit weak and that makes me feel a bit bad for 'em. Guess life's not been treating them well lately. We know all too well how that feels." After a few moments of silence, the tom looked up and offered a softer smile to the she-cat, one of his rarer expressions."Goldenfang, you ever wonder what's out there? Like out out there. Past everything the clans know of. Kinda interesting to think about, how big and mysterious it all seems. Don't know why I wonder these things but I do." He snorted and shook his head. He proceeded to roll onto his back and gaze up at the sky as he awaited a response from him companion next to him.

She beamed bashfully at his praise, covering her frazzled brain by taking a rather large bite. He was probably right about the risks. Sunpaw would never learn by running from everything. Not that he did. He seemed to trust Goldenfang to protect him, and by StarClan, she’d do everything to make sure he wasn’t hurt. She’d do better the next time there was a fight. She’d stop any more of her Clanmates from getting hurt in unnecessary wars.

Goldenfang listened breathlessly as Silverlight painted the picture of running in the moor with all the freedom in the world. She could almost feel the pounding of the earth beneath her paws as he spoke, and she felt her heartbeat quicken just a whisker. She laughed when he realized he’d been getting distracted. She hadn’t minded. The stories of the RiverClanners’ terrible luck was even funnier, and she felt her stomach aching as she pictured the witless Clan falling into rabbit dens. “That’s awful!” Goldenfang heaved as she caught her breath. Silverlight had a good point, though. They hadn’t looked great at the last Gathering. Less shiny and more wary. “You’re right. We can’t rely on luck, and I guess neither can they. There must be so much going on in other Clans that we don’t know about.”

It was weird to think about. Other cats in other Clans leading their own lives, talking to their own Clanmates, worrying about their own problems. It made Goldenfang feel small. She met his smile with her own, glad to not be alone in that moment. “Well… I guess I haven’t thought about it before.” Silverlight turned on his back. She thoughtfully groomed her chest, trying to grasp what was beyond their rolling hills and the mountains that overlooked them. “When I was an apprentice, Fawnstep and Muddyleap and I ran into this weird rogue. He didn’t like the Clans. He said we were savages, and he spoke really strangely. And before we were even alive, the Asylum cats occupied our Clans. I guess beyond us is more cats who live their own ways. Maybe Swiftspirit knows about other cats? I heard she was a rogue before she came to WindClan. Technically I was too, but my dad, Briarthorn, brought me here when I was still just a little kit, so I don’t remember a lot. Just the barn. And my mom.” Goldenfang went silent. She rolled on her back, too, and stared blankly at the sky above. Now the clouds were just clouds. Just like Hollyhock was just a memory. “Things would be so different if I stayed in the barn.”