Never Thought I'd See The Day [c]

Stormdance

Stormdance doesn’t visit the elder’s den as often as he should, at least, not since he became a warrior. As an apprentice he always somewhat enjoyed getting to talk to the elders, as most found him rather charming in his shyness and he liked learning new things about his clans history and hearing their stories. There was a lot going on for a while after his warrior ceremony, his time most notably being taken up by his own trouble-prone apprentices. But things had calmed down, at least a little bit, and so he wanted to check on the elders. Well, elder, in this case. Also he needed to make sure that Rowanpaw was actually doing his duties as an apprentice. Rowanpaw listened a little better these days, but elder duty was his least favorite activity, and Stormdance knew it.

So after a noon hunting patrol, he poked his head into the elder’s den, bringing freshly caught fish with him. “Good afternoon, Twistpool.” He greeted with a polite dip of his head. “I just came back from a hunting patrol, and I wanted to see if you would like some fresh food.” He smiled around his mouthful.

Twistpool

Twistpool rolled over from where he lay half-dozing and he looked a little more lively at the mention of food. “Oh, finally!” he grumbled as he stretched out his front paws. “I’ve been left in here to starve. It’s about time that someone remembered I exist.”

He didn’t have much of an opinion of Stormdance, aside from thinking that his skittishness was annoying. He was nice enough as an apprentice, but he hadn’t visited in so long. It wasn’t like Twistpool got many visitors aside from the apprentice runts who were assigned to change his bedding or brought food from their hunts. And with how few kits are being born nowadays, here were even fewer apprentices. Who was ever going to bring him food? They were getting foxing warriors to bring him his food now! What was this clan coming to?

“I guess you finally decided I was good enough to be worth a visit, eh?” Twistpool grumbled as he began eating the fish that Stormdance delivered him.

Stormdance

Stormdance smiled a bit at Twistpool's grumbling. Once upon a time, as an apprentice, he would've been chastised at the comments and shrunk back. Twistpool always intimidated him a little bit when he was younger. However, Stormdance had at least had something of a thicker pelt than he had at that age. Sure, it hadn't been all that long ago when he really sat and thought about it, but so much had happened to change him. Cloverheart's words at Stormdance's moonstone ceremony did a lot to change how he handled his constant fears and through Brookstone and Poppyshine he was learning to trust his clanmates instead of fear their thoughts of him.

Besides, now he had Rowanpaw as an apprentice. If he could thank Rowanpaw's brattiness for anything, it would be for Stormdance's ability to let things slide right off his back these days. After all, Rowanpaw could grumble and complain as good as any elder. For a second, Stormdance fought a spike of amusement at the thought of his apprentice's offended face were he to tell Rowanpaw he sounded just like a grumpy old elder.

Stormdance set down the plump, fresh fish in front of Twistpool before settling down in front of him, tucking his own paws underneath him. "I apologize," He said with a soft smile. "Hopefully this being fresh caught helps with the late lunch? I know I haven't been around enough. I had both Woolywing and Rowanpaw at the same time for a while there, and they took up most of my time. But now that I'm recovered and I just have Rowanpaw to focus on, I have more time. Would you mind the company for a little bit while you eat?" He asked politely, wrapping his tail over his tucked paws.

He could imagine how lonely it got in here, another reason he'd wanted to come check on Twistpool. Twistpool wasn't the most sociable of cats by any means, but that didn't mean he didn't still want company from time to time. And just having company in the form of grumbling apprentices didn't sound like much fun. Besides, with most of Poppyshine's and Mapleleaf's litter already warriors, there weren't even as many apprentices running around.

Twistpool

Twistpool was used to telling off every cat around him and receiving negative responses: anger, disgust, annoyance, tearfulness, or just surprise. It was so rare to have a cat that responded in kind—and not the seemingly fake kindness that the deputy always used around him. Stormdance was another breed entirely.

He could remember him as a little kit. He was always so scared, even of his own shadow. It was strange that he was able to take Twistpool’s rough-edged words with such ease. He was almost a completely different cat, if Twistpool didn’t know any better.

Twistpool huffed and began eating his fish. It was fresh, and it was delicious for lunch. “I’m not gonna chase you out. Not like I have the energy for it,” he grumbled. He continued to eat for a while, trying not to focus on Stormdance at all, but eventually he meowed, “So Stripedrink. That little mousebrain that’s been in charge of me for a while, he’s your little apprentice isn’t he? I don’t know what you’re teaching him. He never sets up the nests right.”

Stormdance

Stormdance merely blinked at the wrong name. He was always 'Stripepaw', not 'Stormpaw' to Twistpool, and he'd given up correcting him after the first few times. He could only assume Twistpool either genuinely had a very poor memory (which he doubted), or that Twistpool wanted to annoy him. Or perhaps Twistpool just saw the irony in Stormdance's prefix, given Stormdance's general demeanor. The 'drink' part was new, but not exactly unsurprising with his new name.

"Rowanpaw?" Stormdance confirmed knowingly. "I actually wanted to check with you about him. I know he can be..." He sighed. "A handful. I hope he hasn't been giving you too much trouble. I'll have a talk with him if he has. I apologize for the nests. Honestly, I don't know what gets into that child sometimes." Stormdance shook his head ruefully. "For what it's worth, he's gotten better since he first became my apprentice. He actually listens to me half the time these days." He chuckled. "And he's got a good heart. But he can be a big brat, I know." Stormdance's voice was fond, if exasperated, as he spoke about his apprentice. 

He'd always cared about Rowanpaw as his apprentice and charge, but a lot had changed after the fox attack. These days Rowanpaw had become one of the most important cats to him, which startled him when he realized that. He doesn't quite know what changed. Rowanpaw had grown, of course, but he was still a bratty child half the time. But maybe it was just that Stormdance found himself understanding Rowanpaw a lot better, seeing what he was saying beneath all the posturing and understanding his methods of communicating. Or at least, Stormdance felt like he was understanding things better. It was an unexpected change, sure, but a nice one. Maybe slowly regaining his confidence as a mentor was helping as well. 

Twistpool

Stormdance’s kind words about Rowanpaw did not reflect in Twistpool, who only snorted and rolled his eyes. He huffed out, “If you cannot even control a little apprentice, then how do you expect him to learn anything? An apprentice that won’t listen to his mentor is bound to be a troublemaker and a thorn in the clan’s side.” His eyes narrowed at Stormdance. “Do you think him choosing to not listen to you half the time warrants a chuckle?”

He grumbles as he leans down and continues eating his fish. There was nothing that irritated Twistpool more than people that didn’t understand the code or the rules as written. There was nothing amusing about an apprentice that didn’t understand his place or his duties. All they were was just overgrown kits and RiverClan deserved more than that in their warrior ranks.

“Then again, I guess you didn’t have the best mentor to actually learn those skills from,” Twistpool muttered. “Back in my day we had great warriors who wouldn’t let apprentices get away with this foxdung! We had good strong warriors! RiverClan was the most powerful clan around, I’m tellin’ you!”