Friends in Laurel's Nectar (For RainyHeart)

With a purr of triumph, Laurelpaw managed to pull ahead as Necterpaw fell behind, and tagged the base of the rock.  Eyes shining victoriously, the white and speckled she-cat let out a prideful purr and waved her tail excitedly, padding up to her panting friend.  "Have fun in the nursery, slowpoke!"  Laughing, she shot her patched friend a kind smile to let him know she was only teasing, before whipping around and examining the rock.  "Now, to climb!"  Taking a moment to catch her own breath first, Laurelpaw soon found a few good footholds and began to climb the large stone, her brow furrowed in concentration.

"No fair! You had a huge headstart!" Nectarpaw complained, mostly joking. He didn't mind cleaning out the nursery, it meant having more time to hang out with the kits. He started climbing up outlook rock after Laurelpaw, taking note of where she stepped so he could find the good footholds as well. After what seemed like a moon of intense focus and feeling his fear of heights threaten to make him fall, Nectarpaw reached the top of the rock, with sore paws and panting heavily.

Gazing behind her a few times to make sure Necterpaw was keeping up okay, Laurelpaw continued to climb up the rock, one slow step at a time.  Finally, she and her pale patched friend reached the top, and for a moment the young she-cat could only let out an astonished gasp.  She could see everything!  Trotting up to the very tip of the huge boulder, Laurelpaw took a slow, sweeping gaze around at the territories.  "Look!  There's ThunderClan territory, and Fourtrees!  What's that dark patch of trees over there? Oh!  That must be ShadowClan!  And look, Necterpaw!  The river!  Wow, how beautiful!  It's shining in the sun like a thousand moonstones!"  Turning, she waited for her friend to join her and look around as well.  This is amazing!  We're up so high, this must be what StarClan sees!

"Whoa, I could get used to this view. It makes an already beautiful Newleaf day seem even more amazing!" Nectarpaw gasped in awe, looking up to see if the sky seemed any closer. "We are so high up, we can see more stuff than I knew existed! I wonder what is beyond what we can see?"

Laurelpaw purred, elevating herself onto her tip-toes to try and see beyond the Twolegplace. The strange red bricks and fences seemed to stretch for miles though, so she turned and dashed to the over side of the rock, to see Highstones. The rocky hills, though taller then they were, were a magnificent sight, but she still couldn't see beyond. "I don't know Necterpaw, I can't see that far...." A suddenly high-pitched cry sounded above them, and Laurelpaw gazed up to see a falcon, swooping and gliding on the gentle new-leaf breeze. With a purr, she watched at the majestic bird climbed higher and higher on the wind, until it could fly away over Highstones. Sighing with awe, she wondered what it would be like to be that free. Nothing can restrain you in the air, you can go wherever you please and explore all the corners of the world. Kind of like running....but still you're stuck on the ground. With an amused mrrow, she turned to her friend and purred; "If only we had wings."

"Wings? Yeah, maybe that could be cool. But it might be a little nerve wracking, always having the possibility of falling to the ground," Nectarpaw commented. If he didn't look right down, this place was perfect. Majestic birds only a little above their heads, an amazing view, the breeze, and that feeling of being closer to StarClan. If only he didn't fear falling so much, he could run over to the edge and see just how high they were. A sudden thought popped into the apprentice's head. "This will be so cool to tell our clanmates about! They are going to be so jealous that we went to such an amazing place!"

"Yea, I guess that would be kinda scary.....but....it would be so....free! You know?" There was no other word to describe what she felt to Necterpaw, so she decided to sweep on past the topic at hand. Greenish-yellow eyes glowing, the white and speckled she-cat crouched down playfully and purred; "They would be so impressed! Well, maybe not the warriors...but our denmates will be!" Suddenly excited to get back to camp, Laurelpaw took one last look around at the splendor that lay before them, before dashing back over to where they had climbed up. "Come on Necterpaw! Let's go tell them!"

"Yeah! I can't wait to see the other apprentice's faces when they hear where we've been!" Nectarpaw cried in anticipation, running over to the edge with Laurelpaw. It was then that he looked down, and his confidence started to drain. He knew he had climbed up it before, and he knew if he didn't look down he would be fine, but the thing was, he had already looked down. "You go first!"

Laurelpaw let out an amused chuckle, and rested her tail-tip on her friend's shoulder comfortingly. "It's okay, we climbed up here, how hard could it be to get down?" Stepping forward, she examined the boulder's side for a moment before she found a familiar foothold. Slipping her paw cautiously into the rocky alcove, she began to climb downward. Growing more confident, she began to move faster and gazed up to meow to Necterpaw; "See! It's easy as-" Suddenly, she felt her back paw miss the next step, and her claws scraped against the rough stone as she struggled to regain her balance. With a scared squeal, the white and speckled she-cat's eyes widened as she felt herself begin to fall.

Thankfully, she was able to grab onto a thin ledge with her front paws, and found her footing once again. For a second she rested in place, taking deep calming breathes, before gazing up and shooting a reassuring wink at Necterpaw. Going more carefully now, the lithe she-cat made her way down the rest of the rock, and placed her paws down safely on the soft ground. With a relieved huff, she looked up to watch her friend climb down after her. Whew...that was a close one!

Nectarpaw let out a terrified yelp when Laurelpaw slipped from the rocky surface. Even after she was able to catch herself, Nectarpaw's heart was pounding in his chest harder than it should. How was he supposed to climb down after he had seen that? He tried to look calmer at his friend's wink, but he did a bad job at it. When she reached the bottom of the rock, instead of feeling emmense relief, Nectarpaw only felt himself grow even more worried. Yeah it was safe, but it was also his turn!
"A-alright. I-I'm coming down now," Nectarpaw announced, a nervous stutter in his voice. He carefully placed his back paws on two footholds he had felt, and carefully made his decent. Don't look down donkey, he kept repeating to himself. He went very slow, much slower than Laurelpaw had, but finally his paws touched the ground. "Than StarClan!"

Though it took him a while, when Necterpaw touched down back onto the grass Laurelpaw purred proudly.  "Great job!"  She had noticed his nervousness, and she shot him a reassuring smile.  She herself had never been afraid of heights, maybe that was why flying appealed to her so much, but she could totally understand why other cats were.  Flicking her white and speckled tail, the young she-cat purred and bounced away a few paces; "Come on, let's go tell them about out adventure!"  Taking off, she began the run back to camp, making sure to go and grab their prey, with Necterpaw in tow.
(End?)

"Thanks. Let's go!" Nectarpaw raced after his best friend to go inform the world about their discovery, grinning wildly at the thought. He grabbed his prey and starting running to camp as fast as he could. "I'll race you back to camp!"

OOC: Yeah, this would be a good end