the fools, the cowardly, the deadly mind

[tenacious]

Sunningrocks. It provided small prey, large amounts during the warmer seasons; prey good for apprentices to stalk and practice their hunting skills. The rocks also provided warmth, when the sun was not as cruel as it was during Leaf-bare, giving ThunderClan warriors a chance to warm their pelts and simply relax. These reasons, Crowtail figured, were why RiverClan continuously challenged ThunderClan over Sunningrocks. The small black tom came up upon them with narrowed eyes and a frown on his muzzle, thinking about the threats hanging in the air. Unspoken they were, but they were there.

He knew why many warriors loved Sunningrocks, though Crowtail did not enjoy them too much. The river was too close for his liking. It was obvious to any cat that got Crowtail too close to fast moving water that he was afraid of it. He was afraid of the liquid tugging at his coat, at the waves rolling over him, at the speed with which he was carried. He would never admit the fear out loud to most cats, though. Crowtail fluffed out his thin black coat before sweeping snow from a place on the rock and sitting down, tail curling around his paws to keep them warm.

Crowtail was a loyal warrior. He would fight to the death for ThunderClan. He would defend his leader’s decisions. Claws scraped against the cold stone as the warrior let out a light hiss; any cat that was fool enough to come onto ThunderClan territory, unwelcome, would be meet by warriors more then capable of taking them on and bringing them down. He smirked at the thought of ShadowClan cats lost in a tide of strong ThunderClan warriors, all with claws unsheathed and teeth bared, all with muscles flexing beneath their pelts, glowing with health while the bloodthirsty cats found themselves beaten. Beaten before a true battle could begin. Beaten by intimidation; ShadowClan cats were cowards, after all.

He quickly sheathed his claws before standing and the small warrior parted his jaws to scent the air, tail lashing. While he was out, he may as well hunt; ThunderClan needed all the prey it could get.

[telly]

The sunning rocks, during leafbare, were a most depressing sight. In greenleaf there could always be a few cats seen tip-toeing around, looking for a small unsuspecting creature to show itself, or lounging about beneath the warmth of the sun. Whenever possible, this was Pepperpaw herself. During greenleaf she'd been only a kit. Without responsibility or discipline she had come here all the time. She sighed plaintively and lifted her nose to the air. As she inhaled the familiar scent of a nearby ThunderClan warrior entered her nostrils. Her eyes followed the source of the smell. Crowtail. She tilted her head and watched as the tom hissed, seemingly at thin air. Pepperpaw shrugged. She was not one to judge the mentally unstable.

The apprentice trotted forward until she was at the flank of the older cat. "'Lo, Crowtail," she meowed chipperly. A friendly conversation would do her well to acquaint herself with the warrior. It would also help put off real work, but, she told herself, it was also important to become familiar with all of the clan. The tom was not a great deal larger than herself, with eyes a similar color. They were at least somewhat alike, maybe they could be friends.

Pepperpaw's tail swayed gently behind her. The tom seemed a bit tense. She glanced out at the river, gray and frozen. Beneath the ice she imagined the water rolling slowly along as it creeped towards whatever basin it emptied into. She wondered how the fish survived the frozen waters. Certainly a cat would die from the cold, if they didn't drown first. Her eyes turned back to the black tom. The only other warriors she had come to know were her parents. This male was so unlike her father, though her mother probably admired him. Pepperpaw didn't know what to think of the older cats. They all seemed so dedicated, ready to die over the most frivolous of matters. Ready to work themselves to the edge. The apprentice was loyal to her clan, but didn't feel she would give her life at any opportunity that arose.

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[tenacious]

The tom started slightly as Pepperpaw spoke, too absorbed in his own thoughts to notice the she-cat as she approached. Silently, he chastised himself before turning his yellow eyes upon the apprentice. He had found it unnerving, once upon a time; that he was the size of some apprentices, but now the tom did not care. Other cats could be as bulky and fat as they wanted- Crowtail loved the speed he had. It was also good for ThunderClan, to have some speedy cats to catch rival warriors off guard. “Hello, Pepperpaw,” the tom replied, dipping his head slightly. Not a movement of respect, but a movement of greeting.

Cats got respectful nods when they earned them. Never before.

He followed the cat’s gaze out towards the river; another shiver ran down his spine, not because of the cold. Water…he sighed. He could never be apart of RiverClan, or ShadowClan for that matter. He was too fearful of water to be apart of RiverClan and had absolutely no desire to taste fish; ShadowClan cats were just ruthless creatures. Crowtail would run onto the Thunderpath and have a Twoleg pick him up before joining that Clan of scavengers. For a moment, he looked in the direction of the moor. The black tom, smaller then most warriors, had been told he resembled WindClan cats, long gone, only legends remaining behind. He had once considered what his life would’ve been like if the swift footed Clan had remained, but Crowtail had soon realized that his life was with ThunderClan. He could never be apart of any other Clan but ThunderClan. He fit in here, had Clanmates he cared about here. That had been the end of most of his wondering, though it crept in late at night.

[telly]

Pepperpaw returned the gesture of greeting with a deeper bow of her head. She was not necessarily a creature of respect, though she knew where to acknowledge it when due. The tom was her senior by nearly ten times, and she appreciated that he had probably acquired far more knowledge than she. "Chilly," she said, following his gaze back to the river. Her thin, sleek appearance was not totally unlike that of a RiverClan cat, though she had no natural affinity with water. She didn't feel that she could make more use of herself in in any particular clan, and held loyalty with ThunderClan only because it was her birthplace, and the birthplace of her ancestors. Her personality wasn't tailored to fit in with any clan in general either. Perhaps she was not meant for clan life. Maybe she would one day come to whatever realization her father had. She shook her head, trying to dislodge such thoughts from her mind. This was her home. These cats were her family. Telltail had chosen a lonely life, and Pepperpaw would not be so thoughtless.

"This is my first leafbare,"

[/color] she continued casually, dropping her eyes to the ground for any signs of prey "So far I don't really... Like it very much..." Pepperpaw's sentence became a bit disjointed as she scanned her surroundings for tracks and or scents. There in the snow were tiny tracks, only their faint shadows giving them away. The apprentice followed them as they wound around randomly, leading finally to a small crack between the rocks. She quietly padded the two tail lengths or so over to the crack and sniffed it. Something small and rodent-like was inside, that was for sure. She bent down and reached in with her paw until it bumped into a small furry body. The creature stirred and began trying to force its way up between it's attacker's leg and the rocky wall. Pepperpaw frowned in concentration, trying to simultaneously crush the creature to death and fish it out of the shallow cave.
"Sorry,"[/color] she whispered, presumably as her prey's lungs collapsed. After a few more moments it stopped struggling and she was able to snag it's pelt with a claw and draw it to the surface.

Pepperpaw grimaced as she picked up the mouse between her jaws. It was more limp than usual, having had much of it's internal support broken. She felt bad for giving it such a painful demise, but it would go towards feeding one of her Clan, and that was what mattered. As the guilt ebbed away Pepperpaw began to feel a glimmer of satisfaction. It had been a clever way to snag the mouse, she thought. It would taste just the same and fill the belly just as well with a bruise or two. Or fifty, but what did it matter? She trotted back up to Crowtail with her tail raised and flicking happily about.
"So, how's life been treating you?"[/color] she asked.


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[tenacious]

His own nod of greeting was returned with a much deeper one; good. Crowtail disliked arrogant apprentices; they all had to learn to respect the fact that most warriors had gathered more knowledge then they had, and would ever possess while training. Crowtail had once heard a young tom complaining he didn’t like that. The warrior hadn’t been very sympathetic when replying. He flicked an ear as Pepperpaw spoke once more; indeed, it was chilly. As she went on his whiskers twitched slightly- Crowtail hadn’t been fond of Leaf-bare himself. It still was not his favorite season, though he could respect that it was needed to keep the forest from being exhausted by all the growth it had to go through during the other three seasons. Leaf-bare was the time for the forest to relax.

The apprentice’s words become slightly choppy and he frowned, but before Crowtail could question Pepperpaw, she had padded after something. After a few moments, the warrior could make out some faint tracks. He lapsed into silence; if there was prey lurking about, ThunderClan would need it. Crowtail would not be the reason for Pepperpaw to miss. The tracks seemed to lead her to a den, but Pepperpaw persisted. For some time, there was only silence, and then Pepperpaw pulled out a rodent. He looked at the mouse, limper then most that were killed, “Good catch, Pepperpaw,” he mewed before continuing on, “I’m not dead, nor have I experienced any severe injuries, and my belly is filled often enough. So I’d say fairly well. You?”

[telly]

Pepperpaw purred at the warrior's approval. Generally she was unlike most apprentices, but when it came to being praised she couldn't help herself from feeling a little rush of giddiness.
"Thank you,"

[/color] she mewed, picking the mouse back up from the ground so it wouldn't freeze and become inedible.
"I'm doing pretty well,"[/color] she said, observing the tiny creature as it hung from her claw. The cold moons were hard for everything in the forest. She was young, and didn't fully understand the cycle of the seasons, nor their importance to the cycle of life. 'But someday I will,' she thought. She had no real goals, only a desire to live in relative comfort, and have the others of her clan live the same way. She felt the only way to achieve that was through gaining more knowledge of the world around them.

The she-cat frowned at the mouse. It probably had a family somewhere. No animals were truly solitary. And if they were they didn't last long. How did loners and rogues stay alive? Another question that needed answering. It did not occur to her that many were thieves and scavengers. She wouldn't have wanted to think of her father that way anyway.

"Crowtail, what is more important? Working for others or fulfilling your own interests?"[/color] Pepperpaw asked suddenly. She was fairly certain she knew how he'd respond, but still. She had an idea that her sire's actions had generally been frowned upon by the rest of the clan. Would that affect their image of her, too?

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[tenacious]

Crowtail’s eyes widened for a moment at Pepperpaw’s question. It was one he had pondered before, but the answer had come easily for the loyal black tom. “Both are equally important. A cat lost in duties is not a cat, but a shell, and can never fully contribute to the Clan. A cat that is self absorbed is too vain to notice times of trouble, or to even care. I have never seen a cat achieve total balance of the two, but I have seen some get rather close. I think a cat should not focus on one, but on both,” the tom replied, his words coming slowly and carefully. He had reached a solution with this question before, but he had never really worded it.

The black tom sighed, staring at his paws for a moment, lost in thought, “What is your opinion on this matter, Pepperpaw?” Crowtail questioned, looking over at the sleek she-cat, tilting his head to one side slightly. He knew of the she-cat’s father, naturally, and he wondered if the question had sprung up because the tom was running through her mind. If so, he figured that would highly influence Pepperpaw’s answer.

[telly]

Crowtail seemed surprised by her question. She hadn't expected him not to be, of course. She had scarcely spoken two words to him before now. Yet Pepperpaw was not one to worry about first impressions. She never tried to be something she was not, so when a question came to her mind naturally she would ask the nearest cat for their opinion. Crowtail was a seasoned warrior and certainly he would have one.

She considered the toms words. Balance, that word she was finding to be important. However, she had not expected him to answer this way. She had expected him to insist that working for others, working towards the common goal, that this was best. She flicked her tail thoughtfully.
"I agree. Living only for others gives you no time to be happy. Living only for yourself isn't living at all."

[/color] She was not totally convinced by her words. Living for oneself probably had it's perks. But surely StarClan wouldn't make life easy for someone so selfish. Recalling the old stories those blinded by ambition always fell, and those who were merely consumed by self interest often met a nasty end too. Pepperpaw was conflicted. Half of those fables weren't even true. They were just meant to make you behave when you're young and have a healthy set of morals once you grew up. The she-cat was in limbo.

"For everyone to be happy is what's most important.."[/color] Pepeprpaw mused "If everyone does a little for themselves and a little for each other, that's the only way."[/color] She laughed. Of course, this was for too idealist, and the apprentice fancied herself more realistic than that. There would always be the corrupt, the deranged, and the ambitious to ruin things.

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[tenacious]

Crowtail nodded as the she-cat spoke; it would be lovely if every cat worked for themselves, then for others, evening it out, but that would never happen. Cats were too different, with varying personalities, histories, and morals. For every cat to achieve balance, they must all be the same, they must even look the same and be of the same gender, therefore eliminating what Crowtail loved about the Clans: how different they were. He could appreciate how ShadowClan was able to hunt in dark territory with wet ground underpaw, how RiverClan slipped through the water silently, like fish with fur. The black tom would never want to do such a thing, but he could understand and appreciate, until trouble arose. Of course, all appreciation of a rival Clan then washed away.

He wondered, though, if Pepperpaw truly believed in her words- or was she just repeating those that sounded nice? Nice words never meant anything unless a cat truly believed in them. The tom flicked an ear before carrying on, “Such balance will never be achieved, sadly, although cats can dream for a day when most cats are fairly selfless. Granted, selfish cats can do some good. They don’t tend to risk their lives or dumb little things, after all. A cat who does that is no asset to their Clan,” the tom was mainly speaking to himself now as he parted his jaws in a light yawn. A shiver rolled down Crowtail’s spine, but he paid it no mind; he doubted he’d catch a chill if he stayed out a little longer.