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Post by Sun on Jun 23, 2008 13:10:48 GMT -5
.:|Tallpaw|:.
Sometimes, there was nothing like a little rush of adrenaline to wake you up in the morning.
It was barely dawn: the sun was so close to the horizon there was barely a yellow glow in the sky, stained with a thin sliver of green where the blue of the sky blended in with the soft glow of sunlight. The dim light made it somewhat difficult to manouver through the massive crags of Highrocks, for there were no sharp shadows, only blurry flickering shapes that failed to express where surfaces lay. There was a fog in the distance, and in its wake it had left a layer of dew upon the stones, making them slick in places.
Across all this, Tallpaw raced with bounding leaps, his long tail held high and swaying wildly as he struggled to keep his balance on the uneven surfaces. He'd snuck out of camp with ease, telling whoever he'd passed by that he was going to follow the dawn patrol, having missed it leaving. The truth was different -- all he wanted to do was go excite himself a little. Routines were driving him up the wall, as was his mentor's incompetence -- she was carrying kits again, which wasn't exactly surprising considering Cinderclaw was a she-cat. Their lives revolved around that nursery, the grey tom thought with a snort of disdain, waving his tail sharply. At least he didn't have to be bound to one place... he could run and hunt and fight as he pleased. He could be a real warrior, unlike all the she-cats in the Clans who thought they could. One day, he'd put them all in their places and show them what a true warrior of StormClan was like.
...As soon as the one she-cat he would ever have to rely on -- or so he hoped -- managed to finish his training, that was.
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Post by Kurali on Jun 23, 2008 17:07:16 GMT -5
ooc; ughhhh. i can't think. 
.___The fearless hunter stalks his prey. It wasn't the best situation for the game, but it would do. Tallpaw was heading off to catch up with the dawn patrol, or at least, that's where he said he was going. Beechpaw was curious, and had decided to follow his denmate. Tallpaw's claims about following the dawn patrol were probably just that: claims. However, if he was telling the truth, the dawn patrol couldn't get mad at only him if Tallpaw went as well, right? Beechpaw scrunched his nose in thought. He didn't particularly want to go on the dawn patrol - warriors were such bores - but tracking Tallpaw proved to be quite an enjoyable game.
.___Beechpaw followed Tallpaw toward Highrocks, even though it was difficult to make out distinctive shapes. The golden tabby could only just make out Tallpaw's vague shape moving on the rocks. The stones under his paws was slippery, and more than once Beechpaw found himself almost losing his footing. After one of these events, Beechpaw looked up and could no longer see Tallpaw. He looked around and turned in a full circle, but his fellow apprentice was nowhere in sight.
.___Fear settling in, Beechpaw swallowed nervously. Moving could be dangerous, so he opted to lose his cover and call Tallpaw instead.
.___"Tallpaw?" The panic in Beechpaw's voice was very apparent. "Tallpaw, where are you!?"
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Post by Sun on Jul 2, 2008 10:48:49 GMT -5
Someone followed me all the way here? Wow, they must not have anything to do... Tallpaw chuckled to himself, his thick tail flickering with amusement and a sort of anticipation: he hadn't recognized the voice calling to him, for it reflected and rebounded off the ragged stonescape around the two cats, but he knew it had to be one of his Clanmates, for no one else would have known to call his name.
Leaping a few bounds onto the largest stone he could find, the long-legged tabby scrambled upwards, wincing slightly as his claws skidded against the coarse surface of the rock and made him slip. Finally, his paws found the peak of the sharp crag, and the apprentice looked down triumphantly, his eyes taking a moment to find what he sought -- the shape of a cat down below. A gust of wind attempted to thrust the tom down from his perch, and he clung more firmly to the stone beneath him, feeling another rush of elation pass through him at the sheer thought of falling to the ground below, the adrenaline putting him on a high.
"Oh, hi, Beechpaw! Didn't notice you following me!"
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Post by Kurali on Jul 31, 2008 12:09:23 GMT -5
ooc; ahh short but I have to go ):
BEECHPAW !
Fear settling in, Beechpaw stood frozen. His eyes searched the rocks and his ears pivoted in all directions, trying to catch the faintest trace of his Clanmate. Nothing came to him. Desperation welled up in his throat, forcing Beechpaw to cry out again.
"Tallpaw!" The panic was almost gone from the golden tabby's voice, only to be replaced with fear, desperation, and urgency. Surely Tallpaw would hear him! His voice echoed off the rocks, even if Tallpaw was quite far away from him, his keen ears would hear the echoes, wouldn't they?
Just then, he heard a voice from somewhere above him. Looking up, he saw Tallpaw's tabby shape standing on a protruding rock, watching him.
"Thank StarClan you came!" he exclaimed, overwhelmed with happiness. "I thought I was going to die out here! He was overdoing it a little, he knew, but that really was what he had felt, standing alone on a rock.
Suddenly his green eyes narrowed and he looked up at his denmate with something that could have been suspicion.
"Where's the dawn patrol, hmm?"
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Post by Sun on Aug 11, 2008 10:10:52 GMT -5
tallpaw
Tallpaw chuckled eagerly at his Clanmate's panic, stumbling stiff-legged off the rock he'd been so precariously perched on and nearly twisting something in his foot as one of his forepaws slid on the unexpectedly smooth surface of the cliff below. Somewhere in the back of his mind, a voice reminded the gray tabby that StormClan cats had died in rock slides, at least if the elders' stories were to be trusted -- and as soon as he'd heard the voice, it was gone with a brisk shake of his head and a blink of his green eyes. Nothing like that could happen to him.
"Don't worry, Beechpaw, I'm here now. Nothing would dare try hurting you." The tom flickered his tail cheekily, his expression freezing only for a moment as he pondered a diplomatic answer to the apprentice's question. "Uh, I lost them somewhere down there... They were so slow I couldn't take it anymore. I've been cooped up in camp forever -- that useless Cinderclaw barely trains me -- and I needed to get out and run for a bit. It's not a big deal. They won't even notice I'm gone."
A thought struck Tallpaw as he stared at Beechpaw, and a sneaky grin touched the edges of his mouth even as he frowned at his fellow apprentice. "But they're going to miss you, you know... I'm just another half-Clan kit to them, they wouldn't care if I fell off a rock and broke my neck and died. But you should go back to where it's safe..."
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Post by Kurali on Aug 24, 2008 13:23:46 GMT -5
BEECHPAW !
Now that Tallpaw was here, Beechpaw felt strangely comforted by his presence. He didn't exactly know why, since he was much older than the younger apprentice, but it was probably just relief that he wasn't alone out here. In fact, Beechpaw should have been a warrior moons ago. He didn't exactly harbour a grudge against Whitestar, since he knew what the tom was going through with the seperation of StormClan, but it felt awkward to have to treat Tallpaw as something like an equal. It wasn't that he craved warrior seniority - did he even want to be a warrior? Beechpaw couldn't answer. As far as he knew, there was nothing special about warriors, nothing to look forward to.
Eager to find out how a warrior would react to a situation like this, and if it was worth being a warrior for, Beechpaw looked at Tallpaw and straightened himself.
"I think you're a little confused, Tallpaw," Beechpaw said with a sniff. "Nothing would dare try to hurt you while I'm around." He felt no satisfying emotion from attempting to put his status on his denmate. He felt a little guilty because he wasn't a warrior, but nothing else. Maybe he wasn't doing it right?
"Oh, yes, I'm sure the patrol went that way," the golden tabby told Tallpaw almost sarcastically. "But I agree with you about your mentor. Mine's the same. We never train!" Beechpaw dropped the rank game. It was easier to talk to Tallpaw like a friend.
Looking around at the rocks, Beechpaw was about the suggest that they head home, but Tallpaw's comment caused him to turn sharply towards the gray tom with his mouth wide open. For a few seconds he could only stare.
"What are you talking about?" He asked, appalled. Beechpaw had never known his father, but he always assumed he was fully Clan-born. He has always taken his place in the Clan for granted, and he didn't know that Tallpaw thought the Clan didn't care about him because of his origins. "The Clan would be worried about you, and you know it!"
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Post by Sun on Oct 16, 2008 18:59:43 GMT -5
tallpaw
Having spent a moment pacing to release some excess energy, Tallpaw seated himself casually -- though there was a fragment of stone digging quite painfully into his left haunch, he didn't want to seem fidgety -- and began to lick at a forepaw, inwardly smiling at Beechpaw's behavior and how quickly the older tom went from mood to mood. First from jokingly protective to openly appalled at the lanky tom's words and defensive of his Clan, with a dose of sarcasm and exasperation sandwiched in between. It had been a while since Tallpaw had had a real heart-to-heart with another cat, but he wasn't entirely sure he felt like spilling everything that went through his mind to Beechpaw just yet.
"Oh well, I bet the warriors have better things to do than train a half-Clan cat like me. Don't know why they'd neglect you, though..." There was a flash of defiance in the skinny tom's green eyes as he looked up at his fellow tabby, but also a look of defeat, the latter deciding to physically manifest itself as a sigh. "Look, it's not as if I've exactly impressed Whitestar -- or any other warrior, for that matter -- with my skills as an apprentice. It makes it that much harder for me to gain respect that my mother admitted my father's a stinking kittypet. I've never even met him, and I loathe him just for being a kittypet. Why couldn't he have been a loner at the very least...?" As sudden as his outburst had been, the gray tabby's claws snuck out of the paw he'd been grooming, and he forced them back into their hideouts with a slight grimace.
Sighing, Tallpaw let his paw rest upon the ground again, his expression obviously troubled as he looked at Beechpaw. Sometimes, he really envied the older apprentice. He wasn't quite sure if anyone knew who the handsome tabby's father was, but it didn't matter -- not knowing a cat's heritage was reasonably common and fairly well accepted amongst StormClan cats. Tallpaw, meanwhile, knew he and his siblings bore a mark... the mark of being half-Clan. It was hard for the gloomy tom to imagine a worse predicament.
...Well. Maybe Downpaw had it worse. She was a she-cat, after all. She-cats really had their work cut out for them.
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