Fish For Two [c]

Ever since he got his first taste of fish, Ebonypaw had been hooked. He was Riverclan, so it would be weird if he didn't like fish, but after spending most of his life on land prey he was a little afraid he wouldn't. Birds brought him the feathers he coveted so dearly and lizards were fun to watch, but fish tasted ten times better and were really fun to catch.

The only problem was that they varied in size dramatically. Some were snack-sized minnows, but others could feet multiple if a cat was lucky enough to catch one. Ebony had the latter and realized it would be a good opportunity to try and make some friends. He had none his age, only really talking to his mentor and other warriors. Usually that didn't bother him either. But now the gaps between training and sleep were getting a bit lonelier, leaving a hole that another apprentice could fill... Hopefully.

His eyes rested on a gray she-cat, hesitating for a moment before gathering up the courage to approach, dropping his fish my his paws to speak. "Hey, uh, Hollypaw, right? Have you eaten yet? This fish is a bit too big to eat alone so I thought I'd share." Ebonypaw offered a small smile, waiting for a response.

As soon as she heard the tom's voice, Hollypaw glanced over, blinking in surprise. Then hearing his offer, she smiled back in return. The young molly honestly hadn't expected this, but she didn't seem to mind it either. The fish was quite large. Although not knowing much about who the other apprentice in front of her was, his pelt seemed to have gotten her attention. It's strikingly unique markings and texture made her honestly a bit surprised, as she hasn't seen any other cats with such markings before in RiverClan. Not that she knew of, at least. His fur was much more different than other cats'.

"Yes, that's right; I'm Hollypaw." She'd give a polite nod as a greeting. 'And no- I haven't. But it'll be great to share the fish you got with you." Her eyes glanced at the fish for a split moment, then back at the tom. So far, her time of being an apprentice has went smoothly. Starting new friendships, learning and training, no deep injuries so far.. It all has gone well. And she was glad for it. Perhaps, she'd even get to know this tom more, and start a new friendship with him as well. "Right-" She paused, "What's your name? I don't think I've ever met you before." She asked warmly, paws neatly kept beside her tail. Her green.. No, blueish-green eyes looked at the tom, curiosity rising from beneath of herself.

Ebonypaw nodded as his offer was accepted, sitting down next to the she-cat and sliding the fish over to her. He'd give her the first bite, that seemed polite. Ok, the first step of approaching a prospective friend is complete... Second step?... Talk? Stars, maybe he should have thought about this more. Maybe planned out a few things to chat about? or would that be weird?

His internal dialogue was interrupted as Hollypaw as his name. Right! Names, good start. Probably should have thought of that. Not everyone had the bad habit of eavesdropping like he did. "No, I don't think we've spoken yet before. I'm Ebonypaw, nice to meet you. Has training been treating you well?" He tilted his head as he inquired. After the first day mishaps, Ebony had gotten the hang of training. Hopefully this apprentice was doing well too.

"Nice to meet you as well. And luckily, it has." Hollypaw purred, taking the first bite out from the fish. Fishes tasted much more different than all the other prey. As strange as it was, Hollypaw didn't have much preference between woodland prey, or aquatic ones. She found them tasting both unique and enjoyable, despite the fact of being a RiverClan cat. This specific one that she had just taken a bite out of, however.. Seemed more tasteful than usual. Perhaps it was just because another apprentice seemed to have shared it with her this time, or it was just the type of fish that have suited her taste. She wasn't quite sure on neither ideas, and extended her paw out to nudge the fish towards him again as it was his turn to take a bite out of it.

Training did seem to have went well for her. No deep injuries, or new scars so far. The young molly opened her maw as if to say something to continue the short sentence, but hesitated, and stopped. Ideas.. Did she have any ideas for a conversation at all? Then, it hit her. She had never heard of the word "Ebony" before. Right, she could ask him that! Taking in a small breath, she finally continued herself. "Do you know what your prefix means? I don't think I have heard of it's definition before." Hollypaw mewed.

Ebonypaw had to pause in thought at the she-cat's question. He could have sworn his father told him when he was young, but that was many moons before he was even apprenticed. Ebonypaw could remember he was quite proud of that name at first, since Garfang had learned it on one of his many adventures outside of the territory. Now he wasn't quite sure of it.

"I think it's a dark-colored wood if I remember correctly. I'm not sure if it's found here though, we'd have to find a felled tree to find out since ebony is in the middle." It sounded quite pretty from how his father described it, with a ring of lighter wood surrounding a black core. "And holly is a type of bush, right? With the sharp leaves and the red berries? There are a lot of nice warrior names you could get out of that. Are there any names you are hoping to get?" Aha! Smooth transition to the next topic! He was getting the hang of this whole conversation thing.

Hollypaw nodded. From what Ebonypaw has described, she assumed it would be a decently tall tree colored with a shade similar to his pelt's... If that was even possible for trees to have. No, perhaps just the usual wood color, but with a darker hue. Then hearing him talk about her future warrior name, Hollypaw purred calmly. Honestly, she always had wondered about that, even as a kit. Her mother told her that holly berries looked exquisite, and that she named her that way was to wish her to grow up having a calm and serene mind, instead of negative feelings that included jealousy, hatred, and arrogance. She wasn't sure what all that was for before, but now she slowly started to understand. "Hm.. Well, there are a lot of pretty suffixes that could go along with 'Holly'. She blinked. "Like.. Hollybranch for example. Or Hollycreek, Hollyleaf, Hollypond... There's so much!"

The apprentice stopped for a moment, giggling softly at how odd the last warrior name she listed sound. It was unique, for sure. Though out of all of them, Hollybranch sounded the best to her. "Though I think Hollybranch would still sound the best out of all of them." Hollypaw grinned. "What about you? Any names that you'd like to get?" So far, this seemed like a nice conversation.

"Huh, I don't know, I haven't really thought about it," he mused. He preferred to take life one paw-step at a time. He was afraid of becoming ambitious, desiring more than his clan could provide. It was an irrational fear, but it crept into even little things like a weed. It wasn't selfish to want and wonder, he would never call another cat arrogant for wanting to see outside camp or thinking about future names. As far as the little nagging voice in the back of his head was concerned, the limitations only applied to him.

But, he was asked, it would be rude not to at least speculate. "I like quieter or softer sounding names. Ebonyforest or Ebonywhisper sound nice... or maybe Ebonyhaze. That one sounds nice." If Ebony really was a type of wood, a wood haze didn't make that much sense, but it flowed off the tongue nice. It gave him the mental image of a misty forest, mysterious and calming. "I'm happy with whatever I get though. As long as it's not Ebonysneeze or something silly." He snickered a bit.

"I can see why." She nodded thoughtfully before a small, yet playful grin showed itself on the corners of her maw. Hollypaw found herself having a rather neat conversation with Ebonypaw, despite it being their first time meeting. He seemed to be able to relate to her enough to get along with each other. Quite frankly, warrior names were still slightly confusing for her. Especially when it came to the suffixes that are similar to the just mentioned one. Would any warriors actually have that for a suffix? It was weird to think about. Surely, none of the warriors that she knew of had a name like that.

Then hearing the tom's desired warrior name, she gave a considering moment of thought. Though it didn't make much sense, she had to admit, the name did genuinely sound nice. It sounded mysteriously pulling, and serene, just like the depths of an unknown forest that has never been discovered before. She had a feeling that they would get along well, the more that they knew about each another. "Ebonysneeze would sound awfully silly." She teased, taking another small bite out of the fish again. "Do you think once we explore the whole forest territories, we'd be able to find the actual appearances of our prefixes?" She asked with a curious tone. Truthfully, she only have heard of the description of holly berries before, though never had actually got to see them herself. She was interested to see what an ebony tree would look like, too.

Ebony took a bite out of the fish, chewing thoughtfully before answering. "We could probably find hollies in the forest somewhere. Maybe even in the beech copse. I don't know about ebony trees though, I don't really know what they look like besides having black insides. We could be walking past one every day and not even knowing." That would make him feel silly, walking past his mysterious namesake like it was a common birch tree.

"But that's the fun of exploring, right? We'd have to meet other cats and ask them stuff to understand all the cool new things you are seeing. At least, that's what my parents said was the best part." He wasn't quite sure if he agreed with them. Meeting new cats was frightening to say the least. He couldn't tell what was going on in their head, if he was saying the right things or not. He got lucky with Hollypaw though. They seemed to be getting along alright, at least, he certainly felt so. "I'm a bit of a homebody myself though. The world is just... huge. There's so much more than just the forest, it's overwhelming just to think about it.

Holly shrugged. "Holly bushes and berries aren't that rare, but ebony trees seem to be. And yeah, it would be odd to just waltz past one.. We'd probably need to ask a warrior to lead us to an actual ebony tree one day to not mistake it with others." She spoke. The forest was in fact very huge, and despite it being so, there were still so much more to explore than rather just the clans. She overheard the warriors talking about the so-called "Barn"  at times, but it would always be too brief for her to get a proper understanding of what it actually looked like. She pictured it as a wide and large camp-like area where rouges and loners stay at. Some described it as brightly-colored. Some described as dim. The more she thought about it, the more overwhelming it was to know there were so many places around.

"I do agree.. Other than the forest is a large place, and we'll have to discover it little by little. Actually, the more I think about it, the more confusing it gets." It was puzzling, yet alluringly interesting to her. Hollypaw wasn't the type to explore everywhere, but she didn't want to just stay at camp either. That'd be no other differences than just like in her kithood, where the camp was her only place she could explore at. "But it's fascinating to think about too, isn't it?" She wondered how the outside looked like in other clan territories, not that she was ever planning to cross them though, of course. It was simply a thought that crossed her mind.

...One day, perhaps she could just discover it all.

"A little," Ebonypaw admitted. Even if he didn't allow himself to express it, he still felt the same pull to explore that seemed to run in his bloodline. He couldn't help but wonder what was beyond the mountains that hid the horizon. Maybe there were more clans. Maybe there was whole different group of cats entirely! What if they had different customs, different beliefs. It would be so fun to just sit down and learn... if such cats existed. However, for right now he barely dared to get too close to the borders.

"I've always thought about it in a way. I want to see just how different the world can get the further you get from home. I mean, just the different forest territories change so much! In Shadowclan it's marshy with pine forests. In Skyclan it's apparently super rocky. In Windclan it's open moorland. How much weirder can the land get if we go even further?" It killed him to think that there could be so much undiscovered land that he will never see, that he would never allow himself to see. "I want to see it one day... when I'm braver and clans aren't so dependant on warriors. It would be selfish of me to go off on an adventure when it would take a hunter away from hungry mouths..."

Hollypaw hesitantly agreed. Thinking about it, it would be selfish of her to want to go off and explore territories outside of the forest, too. Many hungry mouths needing to be fed would be starve if she did, he was right. The outside was far more than just interesting, but home also held as a special place for her. She'd never wish to travel too far away from home, far enough that she wouldn't be able to find her traces back anymore. That thought terrified her. Unless if a large danger was shadowed onto RiverClan, she never would willingly abandon her clan, despite the danger that it came with. Maybe, she have visited the borders quite a few times before, but she never dared to just cross into another clan's territory without proper reasons.

At first, it was because she was curious. But then came the other times, where she simply found interesting flowers, and lovely decorations that she could use there. "It was nice getting to know more about you, Ebonypaw. Thank you for sharing the meal, too." The gentle smile remained on her face even as she stood up, and gave a small nod to him. She truly enjoyed this little conversation that they had, even though she wished she could've chatted longer, apprentice duties were still waiting for her.

Ebonypaw blinked as the she-cat stood. Oh, he had completely lost track of time. Normally he would just scarf down his food and continue on with his duties, but this time he had loitered. He didn't regret it though, it had been too long since he sat down and had a delightful conversation with someone. "Of course. No problem. I liked talking with you, perhaps we should do this again sometime." He swallowed the last of his portion of the fish before standing up.

"Anyways, um, see you around, Hollypaw," he gave a friendly purr and a soft smile. Meeting a new friend was nicer than expected, he didn't know why he was so nervous about it before.