a wolf in the village [O]

Silverpaw

Silverpaw was curious about SkyClan, and caring less and less about rules.

Caring less wasn’t exactly right. Guilt gnawed at his heels while he picked through the marshes, and he looked over his shoulder periodically to make sure he wasn’t being followed. He didn’t want to get in trouble. But if Nightpaw was an example to follow, then precedent meant nothing. An apprentice sneaking out was nothing, really, in the grand scheme of things.

So, he chose to indulge the wonder, even if it made him twitchy. His interest in SkyClan waned since he was a kit and they’d come back around to collect their warrior, but Silverpaw was still intrigued. He stayed awake through the early hours of dawn, even when sleep made his eyes hazy, and slid out of camp when the morning brightened in full.

He wasn’t entirely sure of the path to Highpine yet, but ShadowClan only had so much territory to walk. If he wandered, he was sure to come across the border eventually. He got lucky, too: it was only an hour or two of wandering before the mud dried underpaw to give way to dewy grass and the trees grew denser. Their stone-and-bark scent was thick in the air, too; Silverpaw grinned, ears perking up, and stalked cautiously to the edge of the scent-line.

Silverpaw

Foolishly, Silverpaw’s attention was trained on the ground, waiting for a patrol to emerge from the brush-line. He squinted, searching the creeping roots, when a pale shape dropped out of the sky to land just in front of him. Silverpaw’s hackles bristled as he startled, but he made sure to hold his ground rather than backing away. I won't make that mistake again, he promised to himself as he took in the small cat before him. His ear flicked at the greeting she offered. She hardly looked more than an apprentice herself... but he saw the subtle age in her features, if her address hadn't clearly marked the distinction between them. A warrior was probably less likely to entertain him for long... but she was entertaining him now. This was going better than he’d expected!

Silverpaw lifted his chin and straightened up, holding himself proud and tall. “I was just curious!” He purred with a friendly wave of his tail. That didn’t sound like a good reason to be here alone— he knew it wasn’t. Whiskers twitching, he went on, “I got put on a day patrol. I just thought I saw a mouse or somethin’, so I ran off after it… wasn’t nothin’, but I don’t think I’ve gotten this close to Highpine yet, and its important to know your borders, so I wanted to check it out!” He gave a decisive nod for emphasis.

“I won’t stay too long, I promise. I don’t want to worry anyone!” He laughed brightly and made sure to smile extra wide, to impress. “Oh, but I mean- since we’re both here, I’m kind of curious about SkyClan too, y’know. I saw your leader and deputy, once! They came to our camp when I was a kit!” He didn’t need to mention the gorier, more memorable parts of that day. Feigning a bit of innocence about it couldn’t hurt, could it? “What’s it like in SkyClan? How do you learn to climb like that? You almost fell on my head! I can’t imagine being up that high… it sounds fun. I wish we had more good trees like that in ShadowClan-” Silverpaw’s eyes were wide and sparkling, and he giggled again as he finished with, “I might ask you to teach me if we did!”