I am back, sisters.
Beepaw. Beepaw. Beepaw.
The name drove her insane. It ran in her veins, pounding in her ears, her claws itching to scratch at her leader for giving her such a demeaning name, yet she stayed put. Her ears were pinned to her cranium, and coupled with the blood she could hear rushing through her body, it muffled the cheers. Though they didn't sound like cheers to her. They were mocking her. Belittling her. She could feel her fur fluffing up, her eyes widening as her vision went blurry, the cats turning into a blended mix of colors and shapes. Finally, she turned her gaze to her leader.
And as she noticed, in everything, was the clear smile on his muzzle.
Beepaw whirled around and dashed off the highrock in the midst of her ceremony. She didn't hear a thing as her paws numbly ran. She couldn't believe it. She didn't want to. The leader thought a fool of her. They all did. They all did.
And she didn't hear the gasps and murmurs as she visibly sprinted away from the cats. Where was she going? She didn't even know. She couldn't see anything, but of course she didn't care as she charged and charged and-
Strong jaws gently yet harshly gripping her scruff are what snapped her out of her unconscious run to nowhere. The runt was virtually lifted one third of a tail-length off the ground before being harshly put down on her paws, facing the large stocky build of the leader, his amber eyes narrowed and a scowl gracing his normally kind features.
"Beepaw," he growled, "a word."
"Beepaw, you can't just run off like that in the middle of you apprentice ceremony." Barkstar chided. Beepaw was still upset, yet more embarrassed as she had to be escorted into the leader's den while she had the eyes of every clan member on her, by the leader. She knew those vile twins were laughing their haunches off at her misfortune, and those warriors would have a reason to further condescend her as a small kit with anger issues.
She was at least a bit calmed down as she sat on her haunches in a huff, her plumy tail swinging back and forth on the rough stone flooring as she stayed visibly upset. She didn't say anything as she averted her shameful gaze to the floor, refusing any eye contact.
Their deputy, Brightpatch, stepped into the den, trailing after Barkstar as he also gave a strict look at her, "What in the stars made you do that, Beepaw?"
This struck a chord within her emotions as she spat out, "That! That's why!"
Both authorities exchanged confused looks. "What are you talking ab-" Barkstar began, yet was cut off mid-sentence by the apprentice as she continued, "That name! Why did you change it?" Beepaw hissed, flattening her ears against her cranium in an act of defiance, "I-it's patronizing!''
"Oh, Beepaw." Barkstar's gaze softened as he understood. He emitted a deep sigh, padding over to the smaller cat as he looked down upon her, "I was only attempting to help. I felt as if Runtpaw was more degrading to you." he explained.
"Did you have to make it Beepaw?" The fluffy white runt huffed, curling her tail around her paws as her nose unconsciously twitched, still a bit swollen from the sting.
"I feel as if it suits you." the leader murmured softly, "Bees are small, but tough. They're not afraid to take anybody twice their size, and they're aggressive at times." He blinked kindly, "They're often overlooked, but let's not forget what they make that benefits us."
"Honey." Beepaw breathed.
"Right." Barkstar nodded, "I named you Beepaw because of all those things. Not because of some dumb accident." he reassured, but the apprentice huffed.
"That's not how everyone else sees it." she grumbled, but Barkstar let his tail swipe over her shoulder, "Well, then they're the ones missing out. Now, because of the code, no matter what your intentions were, you still committed an error by running away." He sniffed, flicking his ear back, "So for the next three nights, you are to clean out the elder's bedding."
Beepaw's jaws parted to complain, but Barkstar ushered her out, his head nudging the apprentice forward and quick, rough, shoves. Beepaw didn't even have the chance to think about how condescending he was acting towards her, for his rushed speech took priority.
"Go on, now!" Barkstar mewled urgently, ears pinned against his cranium. Beepaw only managed to fit in a couple of whines, but ultimately she was pushed out of his den, past the deputy, as the leader commanded, "Go find your mentor! See if she can show you around! You are dismissed!"
And with a final nudge, Barkstar swept himself back inside the leaders' den, leaving Beepaw trudging down, the eyes from the cats in the clearing focused on her.
Beepaw! Beepaw! If he really wanted to have this "deeper meaning", he should have made it Wasppaw-
"Beepaw!" The fluffy white runt heard the calls of her littermates, all collectively trotting towards her. Beepaw had gotten weird looks as she exited the den, but she had barely made it a few pawsteps before they stopped her.
"Oh my stars, what happened?" Creampaw called to her, eyes widened with concern. She winced as Cloudpaw also came up to her, bright eyes narrowed into mischievous slits, "Didja get yelled at?" and soon, she got bombarded with questions:
"Why'd you run?'
"Why'd he change your name?"
"Was it because of the bee sting?"
"Do we call you Runtpaw or Beepaw?"
"Are you stupid or did you hit your head on the den before the ceremony?"
Beepaw, overwhelmed, growled and burst out with, "Shut up, mouse-brains! Mind your own business!" She spat. While two recoiled, Tabbypaw, the eldest of the six, scoffed and said, "That was uncalled for, Beepaw!"
She whirled around, scrunching her nose, "Your face is uncalled for! Leave me alone-"
"Beepaw!" another voice called her name, so she spun, already riled by her siblings as she snapped, "What now?"
And she was met face-on with her mentor, a tall, lanky, black she-cat with a sickeningly sweet gaze that quickly flickered as her expression changed to a frown.
"Watch your tone." she scolded gently, "I am your mentor." Her gaze then softened a bit, "We're all about to go out to explore the outside territory. Are you ready to go?"
Beepaw exhaled noisily, "Okay, fine."
With her almost silent murmur of agreement, the group of mentors, five each for five of her littermates, shuffled over. Beepaw didn't know who was assigned to who, since she hadn't been paying attention to the ceremony before she went up, nor did she care. She just thought that all twelve of them traveling together looked extremely stupid. That was until Foxclaw clarified, "Don't worry, Beepaw. We're going to be splitting up so it's easier."
"I wasn't worried." Beepaw begrudgingly replied. The black molly perked her ears up as she mewed, "Lets have Cloudpaw and Whitepaw and their mentors come with us on the east side, and Creampaw, Spiritpaw, and Tabbypaw can go to the west side."
Two cats, Hickoryflight and Emberpetal, both stepped up so it was obvious both were the mentors, and with the way Whitepaw solely focused on Hickoryflight, Beepaw guessed Emberpetal must be Cloudpaw's mentor.
Beepaw's group, as Beepaw now referred to it, headed out first. As she stepped into the corener of camp, soon to be exiting, she realized that this was the farthest she had ever gone out. While SproutClan camp smelled vaguely of willows, alders, and sycamore, since those trees surrounded it, the warm SproutClan cat scent that only their clan formalized always overpowered it. This time, the tree scent was the smell that grew heavier, while the cat scent faded in the background. It hit her hard as she had to take a second and take a deep breath to stabilize her senses.
"It's strong, huh?" Foxclaw murmured, leaning in. Beepaw, startled since she had forgotten her mentor was there, hopped a bit to the side and scowled. Foxclaw sighed at this behavior, but kept trotting forward, "What you see here is SproutClan's outer territory. Here, our prey is birds, mice, voles, squirrels, and occasionally," she turned with a sparkle in he gaze, "frogs."
This made Beepaw's stomach growl. Not the frogs bit, though. She hadn't gotten to eat because of her "incident", so hearing all the prey she could gobble up just made her hungrier. She held her breath, hoping the gargling wasn't too loud, and to her luck, nobody seemed to notice.
"That's right." Hickorynose nodded, stepping forward to the now stopped group of cats, "Over here is Minnow Pond." the red-furred tom angled his ears towards a dark green-blue lake, rounded at the edges and surrounded by neighboring reeds, "We don't normally hunt fish, and minnows are small and hard to catch, so that is usually a closer water source than Division Lake."
Beepaw knew about Division Lake. She bet even kits before they were out of the belly knew about Division Lake, because it was the border and the truce between the other neighboring clan, SwampClan.
"You all know about the myth about Divison Lake, right?" Emberpetal piped up, cocking her head to the side.
"Well, actually I-" Cloudpaw began, a wide smile on her face when Whitepaw cut in, rather rudely, and curtly responded with, "Yes. We don't need to hear it again." that last part, the tom cut a glare towards the blissful and unfazed Cloudpaw.
"That's good." Emberpetal mewed, "It's the oldest tale about clan cats, especially the two clans now, you know-"
"Well, that's just incorrect." Beepaw interrupted, unaware on how utterly impolite she sounded. All gazes turned to the runt as she padded forward to settle next to where every cat was lined up and watching the body of water, mismatched eyes focused on Minnow Pond, "The oldest tale about Clan cats are the feral cat tribes." she continued, turning her head now to face Emberpetal, cocked to the side.
"Well," Emberpetal offered, "I don't necessarily count...those tales. But you can, if you want to." Despite Beepaw being incredibly rude, she offered a tight, polite smile. The runtish apprentice blinked incredulously, tipping her head upward to hold their eyes, hers a terrible fire burning in her orbs. But there was no malice in Emberpetal's expression. She grunted and tore her eyes away, digging her small claws into the ground.
Emberpetal is the worst, Beepaw decided as she heard the buzzy mews of the cats behind her. She wasn't paying attention until Foxclaw nudged her flank forward, a sign she should start moving with the small patrol. Beepaw huffed like a kit who didn't get the prey they wanted, spinning around to follow after the fairly large party.
Beepaw despised the fact that one of the annoying twins was being mentored by their own clan deputy. Specifically, it was Aspenpaw, and it gave both of them a reason to be snobbier. Brightpatch was ahead, weaving through the trees to reach their Training Grounds.
Beepaw was stuck training with Aspenpaw and Acornpaw, along with Tabbypaw, a collective group of stuck-up cats. She trudged, falling behind because of her stubby stature. Of course, this was noticed by Acornpaw who reached her paw to prod at Aspenpaw. Together, they purposefully pretended like they were being secretive and snickered at her unfortunate slowness. Beepaw rolled her eyes, glaring at them with what she hoped was a fearful intensity. It made them snicker harder.
"Are we almost there?" Tabbypaw piped up, making Beepaw shatter her intense looks at the twins.
"Just around here." Oaknose assured, Acornpaw's mentor. Tabbypaw dropped it for the time being until Brightpatch stopped in his tracks abruptly, "Here we are!" he announced proudly.
Stepping to the side, Beepaw saw the great Training Grounds: a large mound of cliff dirt with a gaping entrance.
"Is this it?" Beepaw blatantly spoke her thoughts outloud, extremely unimpressed with the overall getup. She immediately regretted her curiosity as Acornpaw swiveled her head around, slender face immediately popping her personal bubble, blue eyes widened in some fake disbelief. Overwhelmed, the young cat stumbled back, off-guard by the sudden spin that the Siamese apprentice pulled.
"Are you serious?" Acornpaw taunted with a laugh, "That's obviously the entrance!"
"Little cat, even littler brain." Aspenpaw joined in, tutting and shaking his head.
"Oh, leave her alone, you two." Before Beepaw even had the chance to speak up and defend herself, Oaknose spoke, pissing her to no end.
As Oakpaw reprimanded them, Beepaw tuned them out. This is beyond embarrassing! They're gonna think I can't stand up for myself! The runt apprentice thought. Again, she was stopped whenever she wanted to speak up, this time by her own mentor.
"Okay, everyone, quiet down." Foxclaw padded to the front and addressed all the apprentices gathered around, "We're going to review some basics for Tabbypaw and Beepaw." she gave a quick look to Aspenpaw and Acornpaw, "But it'll do you two some good to listen. You're getting sloppy on a lot of the forms."
For once, Beepaw was glad the twins were berated a bit. It was less than she could have liked, but it still counted, course.
Their training course began.
"We're pairing off to spar. Tabbypaw and Acornpaw, Aspenpaw and Beepaw." Dawnberry, Tabbypaw's mentor, mewed, dipping her head as she padded up to them.
Beepaw almost screamed. She was paired with the second half of the most annoying cats on the planet? But this could be an opportunity for her. Maybe she could shove it in Aspenpaw's dumb handsome face that she wasn't just some runt, and she was fully capable of beating his ass into the ground.
Her determination flourished even more when she saw the sneer on Aspenpaw's features as he padded up to her. Beepaw tilted her head up to meet his eyes, squinting.
"Don't worry, Runtpaw." The Siamese cat hissed softly, moving close to her ear, "I'll go easy on you."
"Like hell you will." Beepaw growled back, before clearing her throat and backing to her corner to start whenever she was given the signal to. Which to Dawnberry mewled a sharp, "Start!"
And so Beepaw did, shooting out fast from her starting crouch, and jet towards Aspenpaw at tremendous speeds. The problem was, when she went to tackle, Aspenpaw leapt over her, so Beepaw got a face-full of soil as she crashed. She didn't let that deter her. Aspenpaw had twisted around and pinned her back, but the runt molly immediately twisted to trip and catch him off guard, which worked, as the cream tom slammed to the ground at the same viscosity as Beepaw.
But he had the runt molly trapped under his slender form. Beepaw wriggled free, in turn, shoving him over to pin him properly. But her small form made it extremely simple for Aspenpaw's long legs to bat her off. Pissed as hell already, Aspenpaw's snickering made it even worse.
Beepaw, so far, was not in a good mood. So, pushed over the edge, she did what any sour-mood cat would do, and rolled over and sank her little fangs into his paw.
Aspenpaw's sneers turned into a hiss of pain as he pressed his paw flat on Beepaw's face to push her back, which worked, as the white molly stumbled back.
"Fiesty." Aspenpaw growled, glancing at his paw, "That was cheating!"
"You deserved it!" Beepaw's thick fur stuck up in anger.
"Beepaw, Aspenpaw, what is going on?" The shrill voice of Foxclaw cascaded over their little agreement as she trotted over.
"Beepaw bit me!" Aspenpaw replied, still glaring at the runt.
"He started it!"
"Did not!"
"Did to!"
"That's enough!" Foxclaw sighed, moving her gaze unto Beepaw, "Beepaw, I don't care who started it, you don't bite your own clanmates, even if they were being pains. Now," she turned to Aspenpaw, "apologize to him."
"And let him win? Never!"
"Beepaw."
Beepaw held her mentor's icy gaze for a couple of heartbeats before she relented, "Fine. Aspenpaw, I'm sorry you're too much of a coward-"
"Beepaw!"
"..-I'm sorry I bit your paw." She choked out. Aspenpaw had a smug look on his face, before he rolled his eyes, "Your apology, is accepted." he mewed, but Beepaw could tell the taunting in his voice.
"Good, and so-" Foxclaw glanced at the mentors, "We should be heading back now."
On their trek to SproutClan, the way Aspenpaw and Acornpaw gave even more snotty looks to her admittedly did tick her off a bit. Revenge didn't feel good. Beepaw didn't feel good. Despite being incredibly irritating, hurting Aspenpaw didn't feel right. But the way he gave a small limp, kind of did instill her own smugness inside.