Written in the Stars

Sappaw had found moving to the Apprentices’ den to be a little uncomfortable than she was expecting. The Nursery had felt so cramped with how big all of her denmates had gotten over six moons, and Sappaw had been excited to finally have a nest to herself. She was close to the entrance, along an edge of the wall, but that wasn’t what bothered her. Somehow, it was much colder than she had thought it would be, and over the course of the night, the small she-cat found herself oddly missing her mother and brothers’ warmth.

Unexpected as her night, the morning came abruptly with the raspy voice of her new mentor as Stormshriek summoned her. With as close as she was, Sappaw wondered if the grey warrior could've picked her up out of her nest. She flushed with a frown at the thought, though she played it off with a yawn and weary blink of her eyes. Climbing out of her bedding, she scanned Stormshriek’s face and found that it was still as stiff as it had been when they had first been introduced. She figured it was because he was a warrior, and a senior one at that, but that didn’t matter to her. An older mentor meant a wiser one and Sappaw was plenty satisfied with her leader’s selection.

The little tabby had followed after the tom, moving thoughtfully as to keep up with him and his longer strides. She watched his back as they filed out through the bramble tunnel and into the vast green of the forest, noting how each of his battle-worn muscles moved and how rigid they still looked. It made her wonder if her body would someday look that way, though she shook the thought away as Stormshriek stopped and turned around to face her. One side of her brow quirked up as she noted how the greyed warrior’s shoulders seemed to sag and rest a bit.

He spoke in a soft voice that surprised her at first, though Sappaw respectfully ignored her idle musings to focus on his words instead. What do I think it takes to be a warrior of OakClan? Her brow furrowed in thought. Refocusing her attention back to Stormshriek, the she-cat evenly mewed, ”I think it takes a careful head.” She made a small face as if pausing for a moment to grab all her opinions on the matter at once before expanding upon her thoughts. ”Don’t the warriors in OakClan try to avoid fighting when they can? It has to take a lot of care to try and work out a problem without jumping to fighting.” She inwardly cringed at the brief thought of all the times her brothers tackled her over anything. Quickly recovering, the little tabby looked to her mentor expectantly, her brown eyes occasionally flashing amber in the brief sunlight dappling the canopy as she awaited his answer.

|| liv ||

The tabby she-cat listened to the warrior intently, her face trained to look wherever his amber gaze trailed. Her posture seemed more poised and her ears were pricked as Sappaw inwardly beamed over the first part of her mentor’s explanation. I was right! With the exception of a tail twitch, however, the apprentice kept her composure. Stormshriek’s lesson was far too valuable to miss hearing.

His continuation made Sappaw’s giddiness drain away, the young cat’s jaw set and her brow knitted in a scowl. She mulled over the burdens and truth her mentor spoke of, knowing that the warrior code was hard to upkeep and their way of life was supposedly harsh. She had overheard warriors spilling their woes a time or two, but the reality in Stormshriek’s description of the event rattled Sappaw a bit. The dark tabby looked back to her mentor to save her from her thoughts and followed his eyes to the trees.

He then asked her about her family and Sappaw felt her shoulder slump a little, but she straightened them out as soon as she noticed. ”I have,” she offered in a small voice, burning holes into the tree bark with her embarrassed gaze. However, whether Stormshriek picked up on her state or purely by coincidence, the warrior continued on with his lesson as he reflected on their territory. The informative nature of the explanation helped Sappaw to recover only to send her doubling back by the smooth transition of her mentor’s words and a little tip of his grey head. Sappaw’s mouth felt dry as she struggled to find her words, and hung agape a little as she gawked upward. The trees of the forest seemed so big.

Sappaw had always liked the trees around camp; their roots provided cozy little nooks for her to hide and nap in, and made for prey homes outside camp. The branches and leaves kept them cool in the hot sun and protected them from the great water storms some of the elders had told her stories of. The tree was strong, but flexible, and had many uses. But none of that matter at the moment as the she-cat felt tinier than ever standing at the thick trunk of an oak.

Flicking her twinkling chestnut gaze back to search Stormshriek for any sign of additional notes or advice and finding none, the tabby apprentice resigned herself to the fate of her lesson. Sappaw gingerly scraped the barky roots of the tree with her thin claws as she hauled herself closer to the tree trunk. Reaching its surface, a ruddy paw braced against the bark, followed by another before her claws sunk deeply into the wood. Finding her leverage, Sappaw slowly began an inchworm routine upwards. After all, she would be able to better absorb her lesson this way, couldn’t she?