Just smile and wave boys, smile and wave (c)

With Comfreyheart injured, Curlypaw brought it upon himself to support his mentor as much as possible, even amongst his apprentice duties. He just hated seeing her so glum and stuck at the medicine cat area, and he hoped that he might be a light in these dark times. She was as close to a mother that he'd get, seeing as though his own parents had been captured by the Twolegs and had yet to return, and he was forever grateful for her wisdom and skills when it came to teaching him how to be the best warrior he could become.

Having finished cleaning the elders and checking on the queens and their kits, the curly coated apprentice ran over to the freshkill pile. He took a few moments to sift through the prey and soon found what he was looking for; a large squirrel, one that looked fit to feed a warrior like Comfreyheart. She didn’t deserve to be injured and he didn’t understand why StarClan would allow such a thing, but she did deserve the best prey on the pile, that was for sure.

Padding over to the area that Fawnshine had set up near one of the edges of the Sandy Hollow, the young tom quickly spotted his mentor’s dark pelt and gave her a wave of his fluffy tail as greeting. "Hope you're hungry!" he purred enthusiastically with a dip of his head, gently placing the squirrel down in front of her. "You gotta make sure you keep your strength up, you don't want to be stuck here forever," Curlypaw chuckled with a wide grin sitting across his face. Stars, no matter what he was doing, it just brought him so much joy to provide for his clanmates.

It pained Curlypaw to see his mentor so exhausted and though she tried to act her normal self it was obvious that she just wasn't feeling it. Of course, he was glad to hear that she was at least doing a bit better than previously, and he perked his ears when she mentioned hunting. He'd love nothing more than to train with Comfreyheart, though he wouldn't want her to exert herself too much and possibly end up injuring herself further.

"I'd love that!" he purred happily, sitting down and placing his fluffy tail carefully over his paws. "Patrolling has been going great. I met this SkyClan cat, he was really nice and saved me from a flying snake! Oh! Did you know SkyClan cats practically live in the trees? I didn't know they could climb so well!" the apprentice replied, not realizing that he had begun to ramble a bit. He just couldn't help himself, meeting new cats was just so exciting!

Tilting his head curiously at her question, his ears fell when she finished. He hadn't run the cat out of the territory and had instead been naïve and might as well had invited them to join ThunderClan. Kicking himself, he soaked in his mentor's words the best he could, though something that she said at the end peaked his interest. They always have ulterior motives... that didn't sound quite right. Yeah, there were some bad berries here and there, but surely not ever-cat in the forest wanted to see ThunderClan destroyed, right?

Thinking about what Comfreyheart said, Curlypaw couldn't help but feel guilty as the fact that he was even thinking of questioning his mentor. She was a warrior for a reason and had so many moons of wisdom under her fur, was he wrong for thinking something differently than her? Well, even so... she was here to train and teach him, which included answering questions, so he assumed he'd might as well share his thoughts. Besides, with his parents not having ever returned since the Twolegs invaded, she'd always been a mother-figure to him and he knew he could rely on her to teach him the truth about what was right versus wrong.

"No, I didn't chase him off... I'm sorry," he began, shuffling his paws back and forth, a bit nervous on how disappointed she might be towards him knowing he didn't do such a simple task, one that most apprentices were more than happy to do. "I understand protecting the clan, I really do. I want nothing more than to make sure my clanmates stay safe, trust me," he mewed firmly with a nod of his head, meeting his mentor's gaze. "But... if we always stay away, then it makes ThunderClan seem all defensive all the time. What if we were ever in a time of need and other clans only ever saw us like that? Then we'd be in trouble 'cause no cats would want to help us, right?" he questioned innocently, unsure of how all the clan politics really worked. He assumed it was all done through the leaders, but it was their warriors and apprentices that other clan's warriors usually saw on patrols, so it was up to them to set good examples.