Boredom ~
Drip
Drip
Drip
Coldness cloaked my body like a blanket of moss over a rock. Its cold fingers pulled at my fur and a wet weight constantly hitting my back paw nagged at my slight consciousness and pulled me from my deep, dreamless sleep. I open my heavy eyes and stretched out on my nest of moss, its fine fibres tickling my cheeks and I purred in amusement. The weight starting hitting my stomach and I frowned in frustration. I craned my neck to see a hole in the roof of the den I shared with a few other apprentices.
"Racdrops." I swore and pulled myself to my paws grudgingly.
"Shut up." Hissed a heavy accented voice to my right. I twisted around to catch sight of a twitching pale ginger tail.
"What's your problem Sandpaw?" I huffed, annoyed that (1) I had been woken up by a darn hole in the roof and (2) She was just trying to get on my nerves. Sandpaw was always trying to annoy people, it was like eating fresh kill for her I guess, she couldn't go a day without making someone cuss.
"Um, let me think about that…" she mused, sounding very bored as sarcasm crept into her foreign voice.
"Don't." Growled a light but angry voice and I lazily turned my head slightly towards the sound, already knowing whom it was.
Honeypaw's muzzle was creased in a frown of annoyance. Her petite paws were stretched right out and crossed in front of her. Her sleep-ruffled ginger fur shone in the early morning sun that streamed through the entrance of the apprentice den. She stretched open her jaws in a wide yawn and cast her cool blue gaze around the shabby old den, taking in the sleeping forms of other apprentices and me and Sandpaw looking like we were about to dual each other to death. Her annoyance melted to be replaced by a look of amusement.
Sandpaw glared at her before calming down and throwing Honeypaw a look of confusion touched with humour.
"I mean, don't even think. Just…don't. You keep getting into trouble – you think about comebacks and stupid things too much." Honeypaw explained around another yawn.
Sandpaw opened and closed her mouth, looking like a stunned fish and I couldn't help but let out a un-tom like giggle. Both she-cat's heads snapped towards me and their gazes wrought with amusement and barely contained laughter. Better controlled than me anyway.
"Having fun?" Honeypaw asked somewhat seriously, cleaning a long silver claw and attempting to flatten her ruffled pale ginger pelt. "Pretending to be a she-cat I mean." She lost her control and both her and Sandpaw fell into fits of laughter.
My neck fur bristled and I scraped a dark ginger paw against the ground in an attempt to control myself.
"I don't get it."
Sandpaw looked up, a smirk on her face and grey-blue eyes dancing. "Get what?" She asked.
"I don't get you." I said slowly, feeling the words form and fall off my tongue – they felt alien.
"No one does" Another sleepy voice made me turn my head once again. In the farthest corner, curled up against Ebonypaw and with Petalpaw sprawled next to her, Shadepaw was stretching out, her light brown eyes dancing with amusement.
Petalpaw meowed her protest at Shadepaw disturbing her, but the dark grey she-cat shook herself and wandered over towards us. Petalpaw dragged a white paw over her eyes and soon soft snores escaped from her small mouth. Ebonypaw on the other hand opened her dark grey eyes and stretched out her petite body, sighing in content.
"So, who stole your tail Russetpaw?" Shadepaw started to clean her fur of the moss and bracken that made up our den. Her tone was light and casual, but I knew she was teasing me.
I made my fur lie flat and I curled up fluffy tail around my paws, heat spreading along my body as all three she-cats stared at me expectantly.
"Well," I began, exasperated, "I was woken up and-" I broke off as all three cats nodded in time and with what seemed like pity.
"Come on, what do you want me to say?" I growled and my muzzle bunched up in a frown of annoyance.
Shadepaw and Honeypaw shrugged, Sandpaw just smirked off towards the side; Her famous signature 'Half Smirk'.
"Come on Whitepaw, help me out here." I whined, looking over at the lump of fur that somehow resembled the cat was the only other male apprentice here. Not to mention, my unreliable friend.
"No thanks mate, you've got yourself into a problem and I'd be a Mousebrain to even try and help out." The white mound murmured and rolled over onto its side. I growled, frustrated and turned my back on everyone and walked straight outside,
Of course, it had to be raining.
"Mousedung." I swore and quickly scampered across and under the overhanging of the Highboulder, where Ripplestar addressed the clan. Water dripped onto my nose and I shook it off angrily, thinking about what I was going to do to kill time. The preypile was in the middle of the camp, dripping wet and looked like it was frozen, but my stomach still rumbled as I thought about food. I fluffed up my dark ginger fur and skidded out into the middle of camp, grabbed a piece of fresh-kill and bolted back into the nearest sheltered area. The warrior's den has a slight overhang on the right side and I settled down in a clump of damp grass and began to eat. It was soggy, half-frozen and tasted like kittypet slops (although I had actually never tasted them before).
"Mousedung." I repeated with venom and flicked the prey back into the rain. I rose to my paws and trudged outside of the camp, intent on finding some food that was not frozen.
I passed by Redwing on the way out; she nodded her head and settled down to resume her guard shift.
"Hunting." I said, even though it wasn't needed. Redwing just sighed and flicked her tail in permission and vague annoyance.
"Fine," I growled under my breath, "Don't care about me, no one does anyway."
With that said, I took off into the rain, dashing from tree to tree in pursuit of the tiniest amount of shelter. Finally, the rain eased off and I slowed my pace to a walk, ears reaching out to all corners of the forest intent on the tiniest warm morsel. Finally, the faint scratching of a mouse hit my sensitive ears and I froze in place. The scrabbling became louder, to my right and I spun around, my paws making no noise on the damp forest floor. I spun around, stepped forward and fell straight into a huge puddle of water.
I gasped in shocked and let out a low growl, pushing my legs through the murky water, desperately trying to get to the bottom of the hollow, to no avail. The water was too deep. I sighed and closed my eyes.
Great, what's the bet I'll die here? Beaten by a stupid mouse.
"Need some help there?"
No, please StarClan no. Anyone but her, but that foreign voice was unmistakably hers.
"Well-"
"Okay then, see you later." I splashed around just in time to see her dusty ginger paws disappear behind a tree root.
Silence. Come on StarClan, why me?
"Actually, can you lend me a paw?" She was back in a flash, a huge smirk etched on her face and her grey-blue eyes dancing. She leaned forward and grasped my scruff, heaving me out of the side of the ditch and back onto the dark musty earth.
"Thanks." I sighed, embarrassment making my fur feel hot.
"You owe me." She growled and turned to wander off, her tail waving in the air.
"Hey!" I yowled, before my mind caught up to my actions. Sandpaw paused and turned back to look at me, her face cynical.
"What do you want?" Her voice was scathing and I flinched inwardly at my stupidity. Not a smart move Russetpaw, not a smart move.
"Want to hunt together?" I suggested feebly, I actually hear the lameness in my own voice.
"Sure, whatever." She replied and strutted off into dense undergrowth. I sighed and stumbled after her, none too graciously.
The sky was stained pink with orange and pale red splashes weaving through it. The first StarClan warriors were already twinkling in the sky and Sandpaw and me were just sitting there, on the edge of a cliff-face, just watching the sun retreat.
"I wonder where it goes…" I glanced over at the ginger apprentice, shocked because, for a second there, Sandpaw lost all her sarcasm and actually sounded like she was an innocent kit. I shook myself, ridding my mind of those weird, twisted thoughts and returned my gaze to the sun-down sky.
"Perhaps to it's den, for all we know, the Sun could be one of many and they have their own clan, perhaps a day is like a patrol by just one member of their clan." I mused, scraping a hole at my paws to bury the bones of a piece of prey. Sandpaw had finished a long time ago, but I liked to take my time.
"Perhaps, but we will never know." She sighed. I frowned, taken aback by her tone and replied.
"We might, you never know." She started purring and I couldn't help but grin like a kittypet.
"I wish - I wish I did know… about some things."
"Like?" I prompted, intrigued by her thoughts
"Like my mother, she's always on my back, telling me what to do, I can't get a break from her for a heartbeat, I swear!"
I started purring with laughter.
"A'least you don't have it as bad as me, my father is always strutting around, asking about my progress and teaching me all these mouse-brained battle moves."
"I guess that would be horrible, for you at least." I couldn't help but purr louder at the truth in what she said.
"Do you like your father?" Sandpaw suddenly questioned and I grimaced.
"Yes, but only when he isn't being a mouse-brain." The ginger she-cat gave a snort.
"Certainly doesn't sound like you do."
"Well, do you like your mother?" I retaliated,
"Yes." She answered shortly, her voice abrupt and back straight.
"Certainly doesn't sound like it." She relaxed and sighed before looking over at me, her eyes glazed. I couldn't help but feel a flutter of happiness at that look. Maybe she wasn't so annoying and fluff-brained after all.
"Well this was a nice little gathering." The sarcasm was back, stronger than this morning and I let the happiness that had built up slowly fade.
"Yes." I responded, wary.
"You still owe me." And with that said and her 'Half Smirk' plainly on her face, she turned and sauntered away, back towards camp and towards where everything was so mouse-brained. Not to mention - boring.