Between a Rock and a Mottle Place (Closed)

Mottlepaw sat in the shadows of the great four trees that made up...Well, Fourtrees. His tail was wrapped around his paws as he studied the clearing. His fur prickled in worry but he felt relieved at seeing no sign of any other cat. While he knew that apprentices shouldn't be leaving the camp by themselves - mostly when they were just newly named like he was - but he had to come and see this clearing for himself. The full moon was coming up and he was terrified of the idea to be surrounded by so many other cats...But mostly cats of the different Clan. So he had come to get a feel for the place before the Gathering itself came along. He got to his paws, taking in a deep breath as he hopped down the slope he had been sitting on and into the clearing proper. It seemed so...Vast and empty that he struggled to picture this place filled with cats, but still the fear of being surrounded by so many different cats filled him so he instead decided to focus his mind on something else to hopefully forget the terror that surged inside him so easily.

His gaze flickered up toward the sky, his pelt feeling cold as the trees around him cut him from the wind that he had grown so accustomed to. How did the other Clans survive hidden away under trees? It felt unnatural to be hidden by the shadows and he struggled to wrap his mind around it as his scanned the clearing one more until they finally landed on the large rock that towered over him. He was tiny compared to it as he moved up to it, craning his neck to get a good look at the top of it. He sat down, letting his gaze sweep down the rock as he pressed a paw to it and shivered at its cold touch. How many era of leaders had stood on this rock? He couldn't imagination as he took a deep breath in wonder. Only that proved to be a mistake. The scents of the different Clans washed over him, faint but there. He the two scents he recognized was that of WindClan and...RiverClan. The fishy scent of the water-living Clan took his breath away from him, feeling like a kit once more as he swore he could smell the blood that had stained the clearing. He turned away from the rock as his whole body shivered, his eyes wide as his breath quicken in panic, unable to shake the agonizing memory of the attack on WindClan. He crouched down as he struggled to regain himself, doing his best to take deep breaths in an effort to calm himself down.

Rockpaw was a bold tom-cat to say the least, every decision backed by his boldness and his logical reasoning. So when he was making his way to fourtrees, having seen it once before on a patrol of the territory, he thought it perfectly fine despite being at a greater threat of being shredded by anything. But he wasn't all that fearful, he was still soft and had his kitten fur though it was hardly still there, but he was tall he was growing fast like a bamboo shoot.

When going just barely over the rim and before the clearing he saw a young tom in the clearing sitting by the rock and looking clearly nervous. Did he scent him? In that case be better straighten himself up, raising his head and pulling back his head in posh-ness he strode down the clearing, looking down at the quite handsome young tom.

"What are you doing here?" The newly apprentice's voice boomed - or he hoped it did, he has got to impress - his dull green eyes seeking the brown eyes of the apprentice, brow furrowing as he looked for his answer in the other toms body language. He seemed dreadfully much more frightened looking up close, he could see the guard hairs standing up and the small males body shaking up a storm.

Mottlepaw yelped in surprise when a voice boomed out, taking him by surprise as he spun to stare at the tom that was strolling up with his head held high. There was a chance that Mottlepaw could of mistakes him for a leader in his panicked state if it wasn't for the fact that the tom didn't look much older then him.

His fur stood on edge as he fell into a crouch one again, still struggling to calm himself down from his panic attack. Taking in deep breaths, he found his body relaxed ever so slightly when he realized the tom that towered over his shivering, cowering body was not of RiverClan but of one of the three Clans he had yet the knowledge to tell apart by scent.

The WindClan apprentice wanted to whimper up a response about how this was a neutral zone - even if it wasn't the full moon yet but found himself unable to form any words as he simply shook his head as his body started to finally calm down. He had grown quiet around his Clanmates and being face to face with an unknown cat from another Clan sucked all courage the apprentice should of had and the idea of even saying a word seemed far from Mottlepaw's thoughts.

Rockpaws mouth turned down as he looked down at the apprentice who went from zero to a hundred and back again in about ten seconds flat. Shocked at the toms amazing feat, his mouth gaped open and his regal posture dropped but just for a moment before he brought it back up.
Looking away as if to give the apprentice some private time to recover he huffed. "My name is Rockpaw and I am from Thunderclan, what is your if you don't mind my asking?" Giving his head a bit of a inquiry tilt of his head.

Looking away again and surveying the amazingly big oaks he took a big breath of air, young lungs expanding and deflating as he exhaled the night air. Seemingly coming back to himself he turned back to the tom, and noticing how close he seemed to be to the tom; he backed away with a bow of his head. Though despite the whole of his exchange he never once gave an open expression.

Well, there wasn't any rectifying for that, but he had to fix it because the tom he was standing in front of seemed to have a lot of problems, he didn't know what but he thought it'd be best if he just smiled? A little one of course, wouldn't do to give every panicky cat a smile. So, armed with a sturdy sounding conclusion Rockpaw raising the corners of his maw, he thought it would look pretty good.

But in reality it was horrible, it kind of looked like he was horribly uncomfortable (partly true)and was quite crooked and shaky and his brows raised so much so that they might fly off his head. In short he looked like he was very constipated.

Mottlepaw's ears laid flat on his head as he stared at the tom that was a little to close for comfort but his fear rooted him to the spot. His breath started to come slower and more natural as the tom gave his name and Clan. ThunderClan...That was good...Right? They were allies of WindClan were they not? At least they weren't on horrible terms like RiverClan and WindClan was. Mottlepaw let that simple fact run though his mind, allowing his body to relax even so slightly more even if his fur still refused to lay down. At least it was short so he didn't like like a ball of fluff. He felt relieved when Rockpaw seemed to take notice of how close they were and backed up, Mottlepaw doing the same as he scurried backwards in a quick attempt to widen the room between them even more. Once a tail-length or two away from the tom, Mottlepaw allowed himself to sit down as he warily scanned the tom with his brown eyes. His ears perked in suprise when he saw the tom do...Something with his mouth. For a second, he was afraid the apprentice before him was very ill with the expression his face had on but decided not to dwell on that.

But right, the question. Telling his name and Clan...That was a good idea, wasn't it? An act of familiar, the two would get to know each other without telling to much details and it was a simple friendly gesture to do so upon meeting a cat of another Clan - to mark if they should be enemies or not if their Clans were hostile. Simple and friendly...And yet Mottlepaw was afraid to say anything. His tail thumped the ground as he wrestled with his feelings, debating if his fear outweighed his common sense. Would it be a mistake to tell his name and Clan? Of course, this Rockpaw of ThunderClan so easily told Mottlepaw so it cleared the tom wasn't afraid to say those things but he also seemed rather proud - Mottlepaw wouldn't be surprised if he was related to somebody important to ThunderClan in the way that he carried himself. After a few long moments of thinking, he finally opened his mouth. "Mottlepaw. WindClan." The words were quiet, almost nothing more then a whisper but still Mottlepaw felt it was loud enough for Rockpaw to hear anyways. He felt keeping it short and simple was the way to go - at least a way to weave around the fear that had its claws so deeply inside of his mind and body.

Rockpaws lips twitched into a frown at the toms retreat from him, was he really that scary or was Mottlepaw still scared? Looking down at his paws the young apprentice considered his next line of attack, he didn't want to end the 'conversation' with the calico but he didn't know what to say! Scuffing his paws into the dirt as he looked down in uffish thought.

With his tail resting over his paws he looked up at Mottlepaw, his mouth opening agape and closing it a couple of times, still greatly unsure of what to say. "What's it like living in Windclan?" was what Rockpaw finally decided on, it seemed a safe subject for Mottlepaw to talk about. It had to be a safe subject the young apprentice could get lost in, safe was good right? Letting Rockpaw stay a little longer to maybe actually converse with the apprentice.

ooc: short but I quit lmao))

Mottlepaw was truthfully a bit surprised that the tom had little words to say - most of Mottlepaw's Clanmates would just talk and talk even with his minimal responses. But then again...This ThunderClan apprentice wasn't like his Clanmates. He could tell that he was making the tom uncomfortable with how timid he was acting. He took a deep breath, attempting to look less scared as he studied the tom, wondering what response to give. "Its...Good," he said with a blink, before glancing at his paws. Normally he would leave it just at that but...He was afraid that if he said just that, Rockpaw wouldn't want to stay around and Mottlepaw was truthfully a bit interested in what life was like in ThunderClan. Besides, they were allies, were they not? This tom would of attacked him already if he planned to so he sighed as he flickered his tail. "Things have not been easy lately..." he paused wondering if he should explain any further but restrained himself - wondering if Rockpaw was going to question what he meant by that.

Feeling a little more encouraged at the Windclan cats response he mewed. 'Yeah? Would you like to evaluate orrr...?' The young tom trailed, tilting his head as he shifted himself into a more comfortable position that was closer to the ground. Now laying down and comfortable he was prepared to listen, to soak in every word of the other tom. Though despite being comfortable he wanted to invite the other tom over to lay with him, it was a very cold night after all.

Though despite urging the nervous apprentice to elaborate he wasn't sure it was the right thing to do, should he have asked something else? He thought talking about clan life would help the apprentice out a bit but to his eyes it seemed to worsen it. He was such an idiot! In urgency to correct his mistake before it was too late the tom spluttered out. ' I mean only if you want to! You don't have to, we can talk about something else I can think of something!' He mewed, looking back to his paws with heat radiating from his cheeks in embarrassment.

He wanted to be regal, articulate, a smooth-talker. Perfect. But instead here he was, looking at his paws and sputtering like a she-cat with jitters. Pulling his head back up and straightening out he looked at the apprentice straight in the eyes, his cheeks still so hot he could melt the great rock with them. The only thing he could fix visibly was the nervous... you could say... smile on his lips.

Mottlepaw kept his eyes trained on Rockpaw, remaining sitting even as the other tom laid down. When Rockpaw started to shutter, back-tracking what he said to make it clear that he had an option in explaining, a rare thing happened - a real smile appeared on Mottlepaw's face in amusement. He shook his head slightly. "Its fine," he said but his smile soon faded as he thought about the answer he was going to give to Rockpaw. "RiverClan attacked," he admitted darkly as his claws dug into the ground. "Warrior exiled, cats leaving..." He hissed, showing an emotion he hated so much - anger. "Traitors." The last word was nothing more then a whisper - a sharp hiss that rose in his throat. How could cats leave their own Clan? He didn't understand it, he couldn't understand. He could see the pain that it caused his mentor and it made his blood boil. He hated this emotion, but he couldn't let it go when he thought about such cats.