Crossing the territory (Closed)

Rosepaw nodded at Dawnpaw as she lead him to the edge of the forest. “Well...here it is. The forest. Quiet similar to SkyClan territory, I’m guessing.” With all the tall trees and stuff I’m guessing there’s nothing to see here...maybe I should just lead Dawnpaw back to his own territory. There’s really nothing to see here. I’m guessing you could just go back to SkyClan territory if you want.” Shrugging uncomfortably, Rosepaw watched her friend carefully. She trusted Dawnpaw...a bit. She also had a tiny bit of a crush on him, which was really not going to be beneficial to her.

Dawnpaw was sort of expecting some sort of difference once he crossed the threshold of Thunderclan territory. He had no real reason to believe such a thing, but somewhere in that boyish fantastical mind of his, he expected... more. Oh well.... his eyes landed on Rosepaw who was clearly very uncomfortable.

"Its okay if you want me to go. I don't want to upset you." he offered softly. His eyes skimmed the forest around him and landed on a rather large oak tree. The limbs were thick and the leaves were covering must of the upper branches.

"Do Thunderclan cats climb trees?" He asked, right before he "accidentally" bumped his tail into hers, his tail tip hanging over and caressing her's slightly. He took a small sidestep away and his ears flattened a bit, feigning embarrassment.

"Sorry!" he chuckled, wondering if she would buy into it.

Rosepaw almost yelped in surprise as Dawnpaw brushed his tail onto hers. ”No, no it’s fine. You’re fine. W—we do climb trees, but not as much as SkyClan cats do. I guess you could teach me. If you want, that is.” Her face flushed hot in embarrassment as Rosepaw stammered. The accidental interaction had surprised her...in a good way. What am I even doing? Oh Stars, I am so, so dead. She fought against the urge to send Dawnpaw to the SkyClan border make him go away and instead focused on her goal. It wouldn’t hurt for him to just look at ThunderClan territory...would it? As long as they didn’t get spotted by another patrol, they would be fine.

Bingo. He had successfully thrown her off her little nagging thoughts to encourage him to go back. Dawnpaw smiled and closed his eyes before speaking again. "I can definitely teach you! Let's get into that big oak tree so we can hide in it for a bit. We'll be able to spot patrols up there. Would that make you feel better?" He asked her, his voice as sweet and smooth as honey. He padded over to the oak tree and then realized... he wasn't sure he could teach her to climb. What was there to teach?

He kicked off of the ground solidly with powerful hind limbs and scaled the bark in no time at all, nearly completely silently too. He drew himself up on a branch that was fairly hidden by thick leaves. A small thrill went through him now that he was high enough to see more of Thunderclan territory. He'd have to ask her about some of the landmarks he could see now, but first he had to get her up here.

"Come on up. I don't expect you to climb as fast as me, so just take your time and don't hurt yourself, alright?" His eyes stayed trained on her, and honestly... he actually didn't want to see her hurt.

Rosepaw’s jaw dropped in awe as Dawnpaw scaled the tree as smoothly as the river on calm days. Shaking her head in disbelief, she looked up at him. ”You make it look so easy.” Smiling a bit at his slight concern, Rosepaw hooked her claws into the bark and gritted her teeth. Then, she started to climb up, slowly but surely. When she got to a sturdy-looking branch of the oak tree, she leaped sideways, landing on it. One of her hind legs slipped but she dug her unsheathed paws in and managed to clamber up again. ”I really hope I don’t die because of this.” Rosepaw leaped up, scrambling up the next branch clumsily. This repeated a few more times, before she finally landed onto the same branch Dawnpaw was on. ”Phew. I’ll have to practice managing my grace. The view up here is wonderful.” Rosepaw flicked her tail in excitement as she looked down at the ground. She didn’t feel scared, instead, adrenaline rushed through her and Rosepaw wondered if that was what SkyClan cats felt every time they hunted in the trees.

Dawnpaw watched her, and honestly cringed and claws the bark beneath his paws when he saw her slip. She managed to recover on her own and climbed to his same branch. He leaned close to her, ready to grab a mouthful of her scruff if she slipped again. Rosepaw managed to get herself up though, so he smiled satisfactorily. Maybe he didn't quite feel the same about her as she did him, but her company was nice. It was in stark contrast to the screaming and clawing at each other that happened on occasion with him and Beechpaw.

"You did good, for a non-Skyclan cat." He praised her. He then looked back out across Thunderclan territory with her.

"So what's that huge tree over there?" He could see that it was clearly different even in the distance. It was Owl Tree, but he didn't know that. He sneakily inched a bit closer to her, intending to eventually touch shoulders together. Clearly his touch was something that she liked anyway.

Rosepaw glanced over to where Dawnpaw was looking. ”Oh, I don’t think I’m supposed to te—“ All the other words died in her mouth as Dawnpaw pressed against her. ”It’s called the Owl Tree.” She blurted out, before she could stop herself. Eyes widening in surprise and slight horror, Rosepaw watched Dawnpaw’s next reaction carefully. Clearly he was doing something to her. Rosepaw wouldn’t tell Clan secrets...would she? This is getting bad...I should just send him back over to SkyClan territory and forget this ever happened. ”I’ve never been there before. Probably because it’s too dangerous for a mere apprentice to go there. As the name suggest...owls live up there. I haven’t encountered any yet but I’m pretty sure they’re rather dangerous. I heard stories from the elders in the nursery, though I don’t know if they’re just exaggerating or true.” Rosepaw squeezed her eyes shut and desperately fought to keep her mouth shut, to no avail.

Dawnpaw had to really try to keep a neutral face. Her reaction was so perfect... If he had even a tiny bit less self control he would have laughed so hard he cried. Keep it together keep it together keep it together... He coached himself. Well... at least now he knew how to get information out of her. He glanced down at the branch and saw an ant. Normally he wouldn't be concerned with them, but he acted like he didn't like them and moved to be that much closer to Rosepaw. Now their sides were touching, but he pretended to not notice or that it was no big deal.

"Well definitely don't go there. My dad and his sister fought an owl once and they killed it, but then my grandpa found them and they had elder duties for awhile. I'd hate to hear that it happened to you." He kept talking to cover up the fact that he was purposely moving closer.

"Skyclan doesn't have anything cool like that. Maybe half-stone I guess. My mentor took me there to hunt. It's a big rock that's been split open.. maybe by lightning or something." He willingly and easily told her about his home, trying to make her more comfortable about talking about Thunderclan territory. This was information he could probably use later, but for now, he couldn't give a crap less about it. He was just happy to be in it with the help of a Thunderclan apprentice.

"What do Thunderclan cats like to eat? For us, it's usually birds and squirrels."

Rosepaw noticed that they were now pressed against each other and finally, finally, the sensible part of her took action. She shifted away ever so slightly so that they weren’t touching anymore. Rosepaw blinked in surprise as Dawnpaw mentioned his father. ”Bloodstrike? I thought he was a very strict rule-follower. Wow...I didn’t know. I’m also embarrassed to say that I don’t know anyone in your family besides your father.” She felt like she knew nothing about other cats and that made her uncomfortable at the same time. We usually eat mice. Sometime birds and squirrels. Voles too. Mice are my personal favorite, though.” Just thinking about it made her remember that she hadn’t eaten much fresh-kill in the morning. Well...this day is turning out to be much more eventful than I expected it to be.