Olive greens & Sapphire blues

The sun started creeping down behind the trees as Olivepaw returned to the camp. She had went for hunting trip that morning but only came back with talon marks. Stupid birds, she complained inwardly. Nothing was bleeding though, just some ruffled fur and scratches on her muzzle. For whatever reason the quail she was stalking decided it was an owl and dived at her with all the fury of a thunderstorm. The worst part was she didn't even manage to kill the little piece of mousedung. Olivepaw grumbled as she picked a twig from her fur, snapping it between her teeth. She would do better tomorrow. For now she needed to distract herself from the frustrating incident. The apprentice padded towards the nursery, already deciding how to spend her evening. She missed her mother, having not spoken to her in a while. Olivepaw passed through the entrance, light blue eyes taking a second to adjust. "Sapphire?"

Sapphire was busying herself by sweeping up the feathers from her last meal, picking out pretty ones and piling the bloodied ones with the scraps of moss that some kits had torn to bits. Finally she had her own place to stay, and she’d keep it neat and tidy… to the best of her abilities, anyway. Kits were a pawful. The voice of sweet Olivepaw pulled her from her fussing. “Oh, hello, darling! My, you need a bath!” The queen purred, drawing her tongue over Olivepaw’s ears. She stopped to study the scratches on her daughter’s muzzle. “Are you okay? Have you seen Beechface?”

Olivepaw lightly licked her mother's cheek before sitting down next to her, curling her tail around her paws. "It's alright, it's just a few scratches. Nothing's bleeding," she meowed, replying to Sapphire's concerns. The ragdoll began to smooth down her fur, already feeling better. "I just got back from hunting," she explained, "A bird got angry and attacked me." She picked out a few leaves out of her pelt, thinking about if that meant birds thought she was weak. Am I? Olivepaw looked up at her mother. "How have you been?" she asked softly.

The queen let out a quiet hum as Olivepaw explained that she wasn’t bleeding. She cocked her head, wondering about her bird attacker. She didn’t know prey fought back. Of course the rats back in her old home were mean beasts with nasty bites, but the birds and squirrels that ran on the branches above seemed far less aggressive. Sapphire considered that she didn’t know all the perils of warrior life, and a flood of gratitude that her children would be raised to be strong and brave filled her once more.

She settled down into a comfortable position on her side and flicked her tail in a welcoming signal for Olivepaw to rest with her. “Oh, dear, I’m so proud of you for working so hard! I think about you and your littermates every day. Other than that, I mostly chat with Smokefeather and take care of some of the apprentices when they’re tired. Every now and then I visit Beechface and that poor tom Foxfire.” Sapphire’s expression softened even more. Smokefeather was a sad she-cat, and she did her best to give her a calm and kind presence. Beechface had been gravely injured by a freak accident at the last ‘gathering’ and sometimes Sapphire felt compelled to ask her if she was okay even if the stony medicine cat wouldn’t be honest. And Foxfire, StarClan bless him, still hadn’t woken up. She took to cleaning his pelt and lining his nest with fresh moss and down. It was the least she could do.

Getting to talk to Olivepaw was a highlight of her day, and she was brimming with questions. “How’s training going? Are you getting along with your mentor? What about the other apprentices, are you making friends?”

Olivepaw smiled as her mother spoke, her eyes sparkling when she praised her. Her insecurities were swept away as if they were in a river, reassurance is a powerful thing. "I think about my siblings a lot too, have you talked with them recently?" she asked. Sapphire mentioned she hangs out with apprentices sometimes. I wonder if she's met my friends before. Olivepaw quite enjoyed spending time with Dandelionpaw and Dawnfeather, they were so nice and friendly. And it was hard to not like Dawnfeather, with her positive energy and the way she described things.

Her unfocused gaze had been on her mother's paws but her attention snapped back to her eyes when Sapphire questioned her. "I think training is going go-" she said instinctively, catching herself. "Great. I am doing really well, I should be a warrior no time!" she proudly answered, she deserved some confidence in herself. "Newtspring is okay, and he's funny sometimes. He smiles a lot, it's a bit weird I guess." She wasn't sure about what she thought about her mentor. He wasn't bad, but she wasn't thrilled to see him. Whatever, he did his job well and she respected that.

"Yeah I did make some friends actually, Dandelionpaw and Dawnfeather. I like them, have you met them?" she meowed a bit loudly, playing with a small leaf that fell by her paws. It was a delightful yellow, reminding her of Dandelionpaw, it was her favorite color. "Hey Mom, do you have a favorite color?" she asked Sapphire. Olivepaw didn't like calling her "mother," it felt... weird. She just didn't like it, so she took a risk and settled for Mom. It was soft, and comforting, just like the queen.

Sapphire shook her head wistfully, though she knew her kits were busy training and growing, so her longing was tinged with gratitude. “Oh, not recently. Maybe one day I’ll go to a… a Gathering, I think it’s called, and you and your littermates can show me around.” She meowed, smiling even though she wasn’t that keen to stray to far from camp. Her whiskers twitched in amusement at Olivepaw’s comments about Newtspring. “You certainly will, love, a wonderful warrior! It must be good to have a mentor with a sense of humor.”

Dandelionpaw and Dawnfeather… she’d definitely seen the young warrior around. It was hard to forget her face after her abduction and subsequent return by Dawnhawk. And she was such a cheery molly, too, although Sapphire hadn’t yet had a conversation beyond pleasantries with her. And she was sure she saw Dandelionpaw running around camp and doing chores, though she wasn’t sure which eager apprentice matched that pretty name. “Not exactly. I’m sure we’ll get to know each other, though.”

Her tall ears twitched. Olivepaw’s question seemed a bit random. “Oh, I suppose I haven’t thought much about my favorite color…” She tilted her head, sorting through her recent memories and thinking about the life she has been so warmly welcomed into. “…a deep, dark purple, mixed with blue. Like the darkest parts of the night sky during a bright full moon. The stars look so beautiful against that color.” She sighed, resting her chin on her paws, her eyes half-lidded in pleasure as she recalled the beauty of Silverpelt. Her other kits were up there. They were watching over her and their siblings—she could feel their loving gazes. “And you, darling? You must have one in mind.”

Olivepaw thought back to her first gathering, a quiet and ordinary one. She had met an apprentice that night, what was her name again? Right, Scarletpaw. She purred at the idea of bringing her mom to a gathering and show her the four, massive trees where it takes place. Show her the way a full moon's light crept through the intricate branches. She wondered if Sapphire would find them as lovely as she did. To Olivepaw, it seemed that way, when the queen told her favorite color. She at least knew they shared interest in the mysterious night sky. The stars might just be the prettiest thing she's seen so far, those sparkling clusters of wisdom and secrets. What could be more enchanting? Pearly-white paws shifted, pondering what colors she enjoyed the most. Out of all of the colors? Just one? Cheery cherry-red flowers came to mind, as well as yellow streaks in bird wings. Or mystic blueberries, and violently violet skies. "I like all of the colors," she answered simply, "They're all my favorite."

Wonders started swimming in her head, what if there are more colors? Ones I haven't seen? New mixes between greens and oranges, new shades of pink, it was a thrilling hope. New beauties somewhere. Somewhere out there? Outside the camp, the territories, there has to be something else out there? Olivepaw's questions easily connected to each other in her mind, but to the other cat they were most likely not as seamless. She asked anyway, "How big is the world, do you think?" Her mother used to be a rouge right, she would know wouldn't she? "What's it like out there? Not in the clans?"

Sapphire laughed a pleasant trill at Olivepaw’s simple response. Well, she supposed it was a fair answer. It was hard to think of a color that she didn’t like. The queen could see her daughter’s mind working as she thought silently. Sapphire was amused by Olivepaw’s genuine curiosity. She was sharp as a thorn, the queen thought happily to herself, and she would be quite a brilliant warrior.

Her smile faded slowly when the question of life outside the Clans came up. It was unexpected, and Sapphire wasn’t sure how honest she wanted to be. “Well, love…” She hesitated. “It’s a very big place indeed. Much bigger than our home, and even bigger than the whole forest. You could walk for days in any direction and I doubt you’d find an end.” The end of the world was an uncomfortable thought. But her experience outside of the Clans was even more of a struggle to talk about. “With all that space, there are bound to be more cats. Cats that live, ahh… different lifestyles. They don’t have our warrior code or the values that come with it. Our code asks us to protect the weak. Not many outsiders are interested in protecting anybody but themselves. That’s why I had you here, dear. We are part of something more than ourselves.”