o great distance [C]

Quillpaw followed Pineblossom, forcing his tired legs to match the larger she-cat's strides. As if he'd let her see him fall behind! The apprentice felt light-headed and dizzy, but still kept his eyes straight. Pineblossom began speaking, and most of the shadow's words flew right over his head, but he managed to catch enough to know what to say. "I do," He replied simply, not explaining or expanding on his answer. It was perhaps the first time that he had opened his mouth since becoming an apprentice.

Quillpaw let out a sneeze, then looked up as Pineblossom began speaking again. He starred blankly at her for a few heartbeats before his fuzzy mind finally caught up and let him understand words. The tortoiseshell lowered his large body into a crouch, surprised at how natural he dropped into one. He must have hunted a lot as a kit. He shifted until he was comfortable, then looked up at the blurry mess that was his mentor's face. Right, he forgot cats didn't have faces.

Quillpaw frowned when his stance was adjusted. It felt wrong, somehow, like he was more used to the previous stance. Maybe it was just muscle memory. The shadow was talking again, but thankfully his head was clear enough now to understand what she wanted him to do. The scent of prey took forever to catch, especially since he kept sneezing, but at last he found the scent of squirrel. He tried to follow it, and managed to somewhat stay on track despite his blocked nose and woozy head. He narrowed his amber eyes, squinting to find the squirrel in the undergrowth, and when his vision finally cleared enough to see the wriggling bundle of fur, he pounced. Paws stretched out naturally, hindlegs pushed with surprising strength, and in the next heartbeat Quillpaw had landed on all fours, intent gaze looking at the prey trapped under his paws. Quillpaw killed it swiftly, then recalled that he was being watched over, and quickly turned his attention back to his mentor.

Quillpaw tensed when his mentor approached him, but she was only going to say something. He could never tell with shadows. She was complimenting him, but the mentioned of being a warrior made the fresh-kill in his mouth turn sour. That's right. He was training to be a warrior, and would receive a warrior name to accompany his current name. The name that they had named him. The name that wasn't his. He was Bird. Not... Quillpaw. He turned his head away and remained silent, gaze trained on the ground as if he had commited a fault.

Quillpaw had been waiting for that question, sort of. There it was, the chance that he had always wanted: a time where he could voice out, explain everything, tell them about his search for his parents, his real name, everything. But what would Pineblossom say, when she realized that he only ever wanted to leave ShadowClan. The thought of seeing those yellow eyes burn with anger sent shivers down his spine. Would she try to keep him here? Surely not? Fear kept his mouth coiled shut, and the apprentice's only response was a hasty shake of his head.

OOC: we can end this topic here <3

Pineblossom just wouldn't stop talking. Quillpaw considered for a heartbeat clawing her tongue off, but knew that it would never amount to anything. That didn't make her words hurt any less. Talk to someone? Did she have bees for brains? He couldn't tell anyone about the scenes that plagued his mind, not unless he wanted to be chased out of ShadowClan before he was ready. The apprentice suddenly jolted to his paws, voice thin as he rushed out an excuse, "I should be bringing the prey back", before darting away. Whatever else his mentor was saying, he couldn't hear it, the world drowned out by his heartbeat in his ears.