Clan Camp.

[Thistle]

Snap! A light brown apprentice smiled inwardly as she crushed a bone in the starling she was chewing on. This particular one had had rather hard bones, but the brown she-cat had jaws strong enough to crush them into edible food. She tugged a bit of muscle off the bird and chewed on the tough meat.

The brown apprentice's white chest was getting a bit bloody from the fresh-kill which she was eating. She paused every other mouth-full to give it an extra lick, just to make sure her mentor didn't catch her before she'd had a chance to clean up. She was half-way through with the starling, which she was proud to say she had caught herself.

As an apprentice, she'd gotten up at all hours of the morning to begin training, then hunted for a long while before she had brought back enough prey to feed all the elders and quite a few of the queen's. It was half-way between sunset and sunhigh, and Fawnpaw, for that was her name, had already seen that the elders and queens all had food, which was why she was now eating.

The young apprentice's sparklingly blue eyes dazzled in the afternoon sunlight. Most of the rest of the Clan were out hunting or on patrol, though she'd seen Jaguarstripe and Scorchstar talking a while ago. And of course, the queens were in the Nursery, including her own mother, Windcloud, who had taken on the task of rearing her nephew, Sunkit, after his mother had died.

So soon after the apprentice ceremony of her younger siblings, Flamepelt had died giving birth to three kits, two of which were now dead. Sunkit was the last living kit of Fawnpaw's ginger sister. Emberclaw was still not over the death of her sister, nether was Rabbitfoot, Sunkit's father.

But Fawnpaw tried not to think of the sad day that her elder sister, Flamepelt, had died. She was feeling rather please with the large amount of prey she had brought in. A large rabbit, two fat squirrels (which she admitted to being to fat to race away), three mice, and another two voles. She had caught a vole first, and now she began to follow the order of the day in her mind, admiring her own skill.

After another moment, she was expecting that her mentor would show up and drag her out again, most likely for some battle training. Fawnpaw had learned long ago how important it was to hide your feelings, and be aware of your surroundings, so, though she seemed like she was concentrating on her starling, all her senses were alert for a surprise.

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Silentpaw crept back into camp with a rabbit and two birds, the last of his prey. He had been dragging prey back to camp since sunhigh and this was the last bunch. The mute apprentice adjusted his hold on the rabbit so that he woudnt be so tempted to sink his jaws into prey. The elders and queens had to be fed first. Silentpaw felt like frowning but his face was smooth and blank as he dragged the rabbit across teh clearing, the two birds on top of it. One of the things Silentpaw was good at was hiding his feelings. It wasnt as if he could give anything away by speaking. No, he had that part of him taken away so that he had to spend all of his days simply watching and listning, never to hear the sound of his own voice. He tugged the rabbit harder, his claws automaticaly unsheathing. They did that alot without him controlling them, it was so annoying.

Silentpaws ears pricked as he heard a bone snap and the scent imedeatly told him who it was. Fawnpaw. Silentpaw had seen her around the apprentice den alot but he had never spoken to her (how could he?) and she had never taken notice of him. Silentpaw dumped the prey onto the large pile and turned around to look at the apprentice. His white pelt ruffled slightly in the breeze and Silentpaw angrily tried to smooth it down, his face still blank but his eyes were narrowed as he looked towards Fawnpaw.

The first thing Silentpaw noticed were her eyes. He always noticed them first, the beautiful blue, but he looked away quickly back to his prey. he had realised that Fawnpaw was eating and that meant that the elders and queens had been fed. No apprentice could eat until they were so Silentpaw was sure of this fact and made no attempt to find out himself. He pawed a vole off the pile and sank his teeth into it, trying to ignore Fawnpaw. Why should he bother trying to start a conversation when he coudnt reply? It all seemed so silly and unfair to him.

He unsheathed his claws, his eyes still narrowed but not letting any emotions through. He could have been annoyed, angry or merely bored a cat woudnt be able to tell. But soon Silentpaw felt a stab of anger at the quiet. He hated silence. He had it too much in his life, it was even his name! He loved to hear nosies, they showed life. No sound was like a forest empty of prey, nothing could live there. The white apprentice looked up, his odd coloured eyes looking at Fawnpaws. The muddy green of one eye clashed with the ice blue of the other making him look like two different cats clashed into one.

He let his blank mask drop and smiled a little, not because he was happy but as a way of greeting. He waved his tail a little as if saying hi. What else could he do? Silentpaw wasnt even sure if Fawnpaw would even answer him. Maybe she would ignore him. Silentpaw half-wished he hadnt waved but he needed to hear a noise besides the wind blowing his fur into random directions. A voice to just confirm that there was still life, that the silent forest did have prey in it somewhere.

[Thistle]

Fawnpaw was busying herself with her food when she noticed a flicker of white out of the corner of her eye. She had already noticed which cat this was, Silentpaw, since she had been paying such perfectly close attention to the camp. She had nearly finished with her prey, anyway, so she turned her head slightly and nodded at him. The cat she had thought would speak to her first was her mentor Pantherclaw, but she couldn't see him anywhere in the clearing, so she flicked her tail to Silentpaw in greeting.

Fawnpaw took another bite out of the starling and swallowed carefully before sitting up slightly and cleaning off her chest and chin again. Then she crouched down again and began to think of other, more important matters, than the fluffy white apprentice. Sunkit, her clever and emotionless nephew was nearing his fourth moon, and then only two more moons to go before he entered the apprentice's den. The strong, light brown she-cat felt confident that her nephew would make a perfect ScarClan cat; after all, he had been taught so young that it was dangerous to show emotions.

And then there was Emberclaw. The bright, blue-eyed apprentice`s elder sister might not have been showing the emotion, but every cat in the Clan knew that Flamepelt's death had hit her hard, and Fawnpaw was beginning to worry about her. The only thing that could berelied on from Emberclaw was her faithful Clan loyalty. It would be good for Emberclaw to be given something to do.

The other cat on Fawnpaw's mind was her mother, Windcloud. She was getting on in her years, but it seemed as though she was expecting another litter. Fawnpaw gave her white chest a lick. She had finished her starling and had now sat up and began grooming herself. She licked her white forepaw. Windcloud and Falconwing were very respected and good warriors, and their kits were all well and good. Fawnpaw's ear twitched as she heard a pawstep behind her, and she nodded her head as her ginger brother sat down beside her.

"What are you thinking about, Fawnpaw?" Firepaw asked as he sat down beside his sister. No cat in ScarClan would call them close, but Firepaw was still her brother, and Fawnpaw did love him, but he could be so nosy at times!

"Just Windcloud. I think that her next litter will be her last, though she might not join the elders yet. I was also worried about Emberclaw. She seems so... distant." Fawnpaw might be speaking of very emotional things, but she could not feel her fae give off just how worried she was.

Firepaw nodded. He could feel the worry that clouded his sister's heart, even if no other cat could see it. He had been the only tom of Windcloud's two litters to live, and he knew that Windcloud might be heartbroken if another of her children died. "Windcloud is strong," he said simply.

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[Thistle]

The sun was setting over the horizon. As far as a cat could see, the only cats still in the clearing were the three apprentices; Firepaw, Fawnpaw, and Silentpaw, as well as a couple warriors sitting together around camp. Most of the patrols were back and would stay back unless Jaguarstripe wanted a Sunset or Moonhigh patrol. Until dawn the next morning at least. ScarClanners had no reason to send out any extra patrols, though. After a moment, a black she-cat entered the clearing and sat in a patch of parched ferns that were near the Warrior's den. A beam of sunlight it her pelt once, and dark ginger tabby stripes began to glow faintly, but her pelt turned back to black as the sun's rays moved past her. She gazed around the clearing with her blank, forest green eyes. They would remind any cat who looked closely enough of a patch of grass that was shaded by the forest, with only a dappled bit of sunlight shining on it. They were just as dark, and lightened up a bit toward her pupil in a beautiful shaded color.

The large she-cat turned her head to lick one of her tickly muscled shoulders, and her scar flashed in the sunlight for a moment as her tongue lasped over it. Her wide paws were flexing long, black claws that glinted every moment as they shifted position into the sunlight. The she-cat looked up once as two of the apprentices, Fawnpaw and Firepaw, noticed her and padde over. The she-cat blinked in welcome; these were her younger siblings, and they could come to her whenever they needed something.

The light brown apprentice sat down beside the big she-cat, blinking her dazzlingly blue eyes in return as she licked the streak of white fur on her chest. The dark ginger tom sat down on the warrior's other side, his pale green eyes only a shade lighter than her's. Fawnpaw tucked her white paws under her chest and looked up at the warrior queen. "Good evening, Emberclaw," she mewed. "Firepaw and I didn't know that you were back in camp."

The black she-cat nodded her broad head, the muscles in her jaws tightened and then slacked. "I came back from hunting patrol just before you brought your large catch in." Fawnpaw felt a twinge of surprise that her sister had noticed her from the warrior's den, and Emberclaw grunted and mewed, "A warrior is always aware of her surroundings, young Fawnpaw," she mewed, "Even when resting. I heard you come in and smelled the large catch you brought with you."

Fanwpaw nodded, and Firepaw got back to his paws, flicking his tail towards the bit of sun that was still showing over the walls of camp. "I'm going to bed," he grunted, turning and stalking off before the two she-cats could say anything. Firepaw had never really been one to talk with his siblings. Fawnpaw smiled crookedly. "Well," she huffed in mock annoyance. She turned back to her elder sister. "Have you been asigned to the Dawn patrol?" Emberclaw simply shook her head and closed her eyes. It had already been a long day, and Fawnpaw could be so nosy!

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