swim minnow, swim [closed for seer]

Despite the growing cold season, today was one of favorable conditions. The sun had decided to grace the forest with warm rays. Kitepaw had set out on her own endeavors today. Robinloft was out on patrol and she'd joined a lax hunt with a couple of warriors. They weren't specifically on any patrol with any goal but searching for prey was important. Given recent events, she hated to venture out alone. It was only the rushing sounds of the river that drew her away from the sanctuary of the leaf-fall forest. Her ears flickered about endlessly, in search of any alerting sounds. While she had her maw parted, the scent of the river overwhelmed her senses and made it hard to scent anything else. How did Riverclan do it?

The fishy notes caused her nose to wrinkle in defiance. Regardless, Kitepaw found herself drawing closer to the rushing water. With a glimpse over her shoulder, the slender apprentice found herself reassured that her clanmates were still off chattering in the distance, enjoying the beauty of the day. It was the edges of Thunderclan and Riverclan territory, far past Sunningrocks where she had met her Riverclan foe previously. For a brief moment she wondered where the tom might be, what his paws might be busy with in his own territory at this time? She shook it away at the entrance of another thought. He'd bested her in battle once, gotten in some decent blows, and used her lack of knowledge of the river against her. Perhaps she needed to know her enemies better.

One forepaw darted out to touch the surface of the water. It was still unpleasantly cold and her paws quickly found the saturated earth once again. Although a shiver was already working its way through her pelt, Kitepaw was determined. The shallows here bore an easy current, vastly different from where the water churned and twisted. She padded in until her legs were half-submerged. Great Starclan, it was cold. Gritting her teeth, the she-cat continued onwards. All she needed to do was learn how to swim, then she would best the other apprentice in combat someday.

Jaypaw would never make a fool of her again.

The moderately chilly afternoon sky was richly colored with the dying light of the slowly setting sun, barren branches of riverside foliage sprawling across the stark blue backdrop of the infinitely unfurling horizon. The gentle chatter of the rushing waters was faintly overlaid with the soft hum of delighted birdsong- carefree travelers biding their time until they were able to complete their habitual migration patterns. Stumbling into the sight of Kitepaw wading into the gentle slope of the river was certainly an unanticipated spectacle to view, one that left him idly observing for several dragging heartbeats as he attempted to process the unfolding scene, but it was something that offered a reprieve from the boredom of the slow-going day. Apparently the foxwhelp took her defeat a bit too personally.

As Kitepaw's attention remained entirely fixed upon attempting to properly place her paws against the hidden stones of the riverbed, Jaypaw was quick to wade out into the waters in a similar manner; confident and purposeful movements a backwards mirror to the red-furred molly currently frolicking in the waters just across the riverbed. Dipping his head below the surface of the river and promptly vanishing underwater, the muted chill of the surprisingly deep riverwater eagerly rushed up to greet him in its familiar, comfortable embrace. Gaze carefully flicking open, in spite of the residual sting that often came with opening ones eyes underwater, it was easy to catch a faint glance of wet red fur several tail-lengths away. Lungs deflating in a measured movement, leaving behind a silky trail of floating bubbles, the dark-furred young tom easily crossed the waters in just a few skilled strokes that easily propelled him across the divide.

Choppy currents of the water cresting in a crown of frothy bubbles, the young tom breaking the surface just a tail-length or so away, drenched head quietly lifting from the frigid depths of the rapidly-moving currents. Heavy rivulets of water pouring down against his wet, and leaving him to irritably blink in an ill-fated attempt to ward off stubbornly lingering droplets atop his eyelashes, it was a few heartbeats before Jaypaw spoke. "You're going to drown."

It was as if some otherworldly force had fated their encounter, aligning the times so that this chance meeting could be arraigned. Kitepaw was ignorant the tom who had crept up; Jaypaw was so naturally in his element the Thunderclan apprentice didn't notice a thing. One moment she was prepared to succumb to the churning waters and the next her head shot up and her eyes widened. A black head had popped up from reflective surface, one that she didn't notice until her head craned slightly to face him. A shocked gasp left the side of her maw and she did what she could to quickly stifled it; but there was no doubt the Riverclan tom would have heard the sound. That thought caused her teeth to clench in annoyance.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence but I don't need you to tell me what I can and can't do." A derisive snort broke from her nostrils. Kitepaw still found her heart fluttering from the unannounced appearance. She regarded him with contempt as she stared down the bridge of her nose. It only lasted a moment before she turned away and waded in just a tad deeper. Her slender frame didn't hold up as well against the relentless tug of the river. But the desire to prove herself outweighed the desire for self-preservation. Within a matter of seconds, her paws were lifted from underneath her and naturally her body began to churn against the current. A prideful smile crossed her maw as she glanced over her shoulder to flash a grin towards the tom. Only for a moment.

Quickly, the russet-furred molly was dragged through the water with her head dipping below sporadically. Kitepaw sputtered and thrashed for air, feeling like she would never surface again, until she collided with a solid mass. She found her footing and turned to find herself underneath Jaypaw's chin like she had during their previous battle. The she-cat blinked feeling distain writhing in her chest. There came a malcontented snarl and a demand, "Teach me."

The terse air, heavy with the spicy scent of decay and naturally-dwelling riverlife, was disrupted only by the soft patter of weeping water; both young cats drenched and effectively dripping as though they had found themselves caught out within a storm. The carefully conditioned muscles atop the shoulders, so delicately interwoven in an intricate map of overlapping bands of untried strength, tensed in a seething mixture of curiosity and imbued agitation at Kitepaw's blatant disregard for the accurate assessment of the situation. The aquiline curve of Jaypaw's sharp muzzle scrunched upwards in a presumptuous, disbelieving scowl at the fiery molly's bold steps further out into the treacherous waters, "spoken truly like one who has no sense of self-preservation skills."

Honey dark gaze remained purposely fixed against the carefully stumbling shape of Kitepaw, little reaction registered against the carefully arranged modicum of his expression whenever she inevitably went plunging below, easily overwhelmed by the precarious undertow of the rushing waters. Delicately weighted spine tensing into a posture of defensive attention, the dark-furred tom's ears carefully flicked upwards as he scanned the rippling and churning surface to see just where Kitepaw went- not entirely keen on the prospect of letting the younger cat drift right over the edge of the Gorge. That would've earned him a fiercer scolding than the time he attempted to swallow an entire shallow-water fish in one go. Thankfully, the precaution hardly seemed necessary in the end, as she was promptly washed up and entangled within the grasp of his forelimbs, sudden collision knocking Jaypaw right back onto his haunches.

The awkward position was a familiar callback to their initial meeting- the sharp jut of Jaypaw's chin weighing heavily atop the sodden crown of Kitepaw's drenched head, heaving chests and limbs entangled in a nightmarish knotting that took a few attempts at re-centering before he could properly balance. Measured exhales puffing softly against the chilly tips of the ThunderClanner's ears, the dark-furred tom allowed the pair to linger in silence for a few heartbeats longer, content to draw out the misery his unlikely companion was certainly feeling in this moment.

"I could teach you," Jaypaw eventually concedes, "but I don't know what good it would do. ThunderClan cats have bad bones; they always sink like stones."

Droplets collected on her eyelids in delicate beads, slowly dripping into her perception and further agitating the apprentice. Each of the encounters with Jaypaw, she found herself struggling to decide which was more bothersome - personal momentary ineptness around the tom, or maddeningly cool manner in which he regarded her. Neither was an appealing idea and yet thoughts had swam and dance with flickers of their confrontations. Perhaps it was the manner in which foreign notions both repulsed and attracted her in the most unusual manner. Seeded deeply into the roots of the young she-cat's memory was buried the sole interaction with her father, no matter how much she tried to will it away.

"What about Windclan cats, then? Are their bones suitable enough for swimming? Or does one have to possess the unsightly mass of a badger to be a good swimmer?" Kitepaw unintentionally leaned back into his fur and relished in the hovering warmth of his chin atop her head. It was the realization that caused her to straighten up and pull away in an instant. She turned and fixed him with a glowering stare. Yet as she looked at the dark-furred Riverclan tom, her gaze softened ever so slightly with a buried curiosity. Her questions sought to prod and pry but simultaneously revealed something that not even her clanmates knew. The fact his reaction meant anything to her was alarming. Kitepaw's frame was racked with a shiver brought on by something other than the frigid grasp of the water.

Feeling like a thoroughly drown rat, dazed by more than the churning currents, the apprentice found uncertainty welling up inside her chest. It was an uncomfortable sensation that wriggled in her chest and seemed to slither into her throat. This was no moment to let her inadequacy overwhelm her, especially not when away from her own clan with patrol mates off in the distance. The presence of Jaypaw had become an annoying constant, verging on some sense of security. But the prickling of her coat was another matter. Finally, she bit back the frustrations and swallowed the unnerve with a hiss, "Please, teach me, oh wise minnow."

A spindly crown of rapidly cooling riverwater dusted the prickly nape of the neck, a quickly freezing dusting of partially translucent frost gently bleaching the dark fur into a remote, stark grey. Left to nurse a thoroughly bruised tongue, which had only freshly blossomed in the aftermath of Kitepaw's sudden departure knocking his teeth against the unfortunate muscle, Jaypaw turned a curious eye in the direction of his unlikely companion. Pale gazed fixed upon the softly swaying movements of the deceptively gentle currents, Jaypaw's pointedly schooled expression appeared to be more apt with studying the circular ripples left the in the wake of Kitepaw's quick movements. In the ensuing heartbeats of terse, admittedly awkward, silence, there was only the occasional twitch to be gleaned in the otherwise stone-still young tom; rigid posture belaying his intense focus on the silvery fish darting about just a pawstep or two away. Kitepaw's tentative plea was left suspended in the chilly afternoon air, easily displaced under the heady rhythm of the chattering riverside.

Softly wounded tongue clicking and curling sharply against the hard bed of teeth currently encasing it, Jaypaw seemed to decide upon some unspoken, non-verbal, argument currently whittling away at the edges of his sanity- head softly nodding along in agreement with whatever discussion was wreathing its way through his mind. "The only time a WindClan cat goes near the water is after they've fallen from the Gorge, so who knows how well they float in truth- the rocks do a fairly decent job of quelling that experiment before it begins." Slipping backwards a pace, the choppy riverwaters crept a fractional inch forward, rippling currents gently threading through the wispy cresting of fur adorning the sharp jut of his joint. The chilly waters resumed their careful brushing of his tender underbelly, the unpleasant shock of sensation creeping down his spine with the faint resemblance of a shiver.

"Come here," Jaypaw mewed, low voice nearly lost to the gentle chatter of the riverside, "I'll do my best to prevent your drowning, but no promises."