You've Got A Friend In Me

With Grayk—Graypaw in the apprentice den, being the oldest kit in the nursery had gotten boring before it had even begun. Even having a new sibling to deal with hadn’t helped. Galepaw had been glad to accept his new name and responsibilities just for the sake of doing something. That he would see all his old denmates hadn’t occurred to him until his first night in the apprentices’ den. Somewhere between picking out his less-than-ideal nest space and curling up restlessly in an attempt to sleep, he’d spotted a distinctive pelt. There weren’t many apprentices who looked like Graypaw.

Emberheart kept him busy, and there was a lot to learn, but, today, Galepaw had managed to find some free time. He poked his way into the fern grove that made up his new den—and stopped short. ”Graypaw?” Who else could it be? Galepaw padded over, wrinkling his nose as he sat near Graypaw's nest. It was faint, but he knew that smell from the least exciting of his own duties. ”...Did Lynxtail make you help the elders?”

He grimaced in sympathy. ”Ugh, it sticks to your paws forever.” Thankfully, Graypaw seemed as happy as he was to leave that topic behind; Galepaw knew he’d be back in the elders’ den before long, but the less he had to think about that, the better. ”For sure. Yesterday, she took me to the Thunderpath.” This was said in a tone better suited to a cat who’d just been promoted to deputy. There had been other parts of the tour, but the Thunderpath especially, as both the first place he’d visited and the one he was absolutely not allowed to return to, had stuck in his mind. ”It’s busy, but anything beats the nursery.”

Galepaw wound his tail around his paws, tilting his head as he thought. He'd never known his mother to be the type to slack off, a quality he was increasingly glad for the older he got; in that sense, he wasn't too different. ”Emberheart’s not like that. Is Lynxtail?” Regardless of his once-again denmate’s answer, he plowed on. ”It’s because we’re small, so we’re the best at seeing ticks.” This was, of course, a complete guess, but it seemed plausible to him. "And a few of them are lazy," he meowed with a quick nod. Sure, he only knew a pawful of ThunderClan's warriors, but he couldn't blame anyone for wanting to skip out on mouse bile.

"No, Lynxtail is really cool! Although we are yet to tour the territory. Or leave camp for that matter." She admitted. It was embarrassing knowing a younger apprentice left camp before she had the chance, but Lynxtail had his reasons, right? Surely he didn't forget he needed to train her on things! "And I think they have us do the bad things to teach us responsibility." She stated, going back to the original topic.

"So you said you got to see the thunderpath? Was it as scary as I have heard?" She tilted her head in curiosity. She wanted to hear what it was really like. She had never been outside of camp before, so she wanted to know what it was like before she went out on her own. She didn't like being left in the dark on things like that.

Graypaw’s answer made as much sense as his own, plus it sounded more in line with Emberheart’s way of thinking. ”That’s no fun,” Galepaw meowed, not sure whether he was referring to Graypaw’s statement or Lynxtail’s apparent determination to put off Graypaw’s territory tour. ”But seeing all of ThunderClan is the best part! It’s so much bigger than camp, you know.” By the end of his own tour, his paws had begun to hurt; they were still a little sore now. Galepaw waved one as if to demonstrate this point. ”You should ask him. Maybe he forgot.”

Being Galepaw, he jumped at the chance to describe one of the things he’d seen. ”It was weird. It smelled worse than mouse bile. We didn’t see any monsters, though…” That was the sole reason he wanted to return: He would see a monster for himself before he became an elder if it killed him. All right, maybe he didn’t need to see one that badly—but it was a close thing. The tabby paused, dark eyes narrowing as an idea took shape. ”What if,” he started, ”you left camp with me? We wouldn’t have to see the Thunderpath”—at least, not now, he nearly added—”but Emberheart said I could go out as long as I’m not alone.” Granted, that probably wasn’t what Emberheart had meant, but in Galepaw’s eyes, her acknowledgement that he was just about guaranteed to sneak out was as good as permission.

“It is no fun at all.” She responded, lying down. She hated being stuck in camp. “Is the territory really that big? And Lynxtail didn’t forget. I talked to him today about it. He promised we would leave camp.”

“It smelled worse than mouse bile”
Graypaw couldn't help but laugh at this statement. Smell worse than mouse bile? How? “You have gotta be joking!” She exclaimed, still laughing. “Nothing smells worse than mouse bile! The day I see something that does will be the day cats fly!”

“What if you left camp with me?”
“Left camp? I mean, yeah, I would love to! But how will we get out without being caught? We can’t just trot out the entrance and expect not to be seen. And you may have permission, but what about Lynxtail? He will flip if he found out I did this with you!”

”It’s so big that it borders three whole Clans.” Which ones, Galepaw…mostly remembered. He knew one of them had a Tinystar and the other had one of the biggest cats in the whole forest, which were the parts that had struck him as most important. ”My paws hurt by the end of it.” His ears flicked back at the sound of laughter. ”I'm serious! We didn’t even get that close, but it was still awful.” The excited shine to his eyes, undimmed by Graypaw's disbelief, somewhat undercut his reaffirmation of how bad the Thunderpath’s scent was. ”If Lynxtail’s really going to give you a tour, he might take you to see it.”

Graypaw brought him right back down to earth. Galepaw personally wasn’t sure how much he cared about a potential scolding, depending on who was delivering it, but he would avoid one given the choice. ”If he found out,” he said, a touch indignant. ”If we went out early enough, we might only have to dodge the dawn patrol…” Of course, that would mean waking up on time, and then… Galepaw was realizing just how much workshopping his plan needed. Graypaw was a harder sell than he’d expected. Still, she’d said she wanted to leave; that alone made her his best chance to find a companion in his exploring, at least for now. Finally, the tabby sighed. ”I’m still working on it.”

Graypaw rolled her eyes. "It couldn't have been that bad." She said. She still didn't believe what Galepaw stated, and believed he was exaggerating his stories. "You are a great entertainer though!" The she cat couldn't help but laugh at her own joke. Yes, it was probably a little mean, but it wasn't like she was trying to be a bully. She was actually a generally nice cat!


"I'm still working on it."
Graypaw thought for a moment. "What if we left at night? Then we wouldn't have any patrols to avoid. We would also be a lot more hidden under the cover of darkness." She looked at Galepaw, excited to have come up with something. "So what do you think? Might be worth a shot?"

Oh, that stung. Galepaw’s indignance only grew when Graypaw rolled her eyes at him. ”How about this,” he meowed, trying to raise his voice over her laughter, ”when Lynxtail shows you the Thunderpath and you find out I’m right, you owe me the biggest squirrel in the fresh-kill pile. Wait—the biggest squirrel in the forest.” He knew he was right, but it mattered quite a lot that Graypaw also knew that.

Judging by her sudden silence, Graypaw had an idea of her own. ”That’s…not bad.” Better than his dawn patrol idea, though he’d die before admitting as much. ”Most cats would be asleep…” Galepaw gave it another moment’s thought, then nodded, confidence restored. Maybe this was the chance he’d been looking for! Emberheart would be…maybe not proud of him, but she’d be happy he was listening to her. Hopefully. ”Once Emberheart teaches me how to fight and Lynxtail teaches you how to fight, we should go!”

Graypaw stood up. "There we go! We've got ourselves a date!" Her eyes then widened as she realized what she just said. "Er, I mean, not a date, like, it's not like I like you, I mean, I do! You are cool and all. I just. I don't like like you. Er, you know what I mean!" She sat down again, flustered. She really needed to learn how to choose her words. That was just embarrassing. "Sorry bout that." She said, trying to laugh it off. "Well, it seems we have ourselves a plan." She revised. That sounded much better than what she had said before. Graypaw was certainly awkward when at times, that was for sure.