Bitter Cold [closed-Snowflower]

[løиetëaя]

His white fur shone plainly against the brightly colored leaves, the tip of his tail twitching as he Hunted for prey. His icey eyes were narrowed as he looked at his surroundings. So far he had found nothing, not so much as a sniff of a mouse. It was worrisome that prey was already growing scarce and it wasn't even leaf-bare yet.

He let out a low hiss before padding on, his movements silent as he made his was through the colorful forest. Frigidpaw continued hunting, determined to find some speck of prey. As long as he had the excuse of hunting he wouldn't have to return to camp.

The apprentice hated being in camp. He disliked his clan and the cats that lived there though he was grateful to them at the same time. Sure, they had taken him in and raised him. But the way they all looked at him, like he didn't belong, he hated it. It made him want to get away from them as fast as he could, just to escape their cold glances. It made him laugh, they thought he was cold, but they had no idea how icey their eyes were, the way they watched him at all times.

Just the thought of it made him want to dig his claws deep into something, whether it be a cat, a mouse, or even the ground. He didn't care, he was just sick of being treated as an outsider. He had always been a good cat, never really got into trouble as a kit, he tried to be a good apprentice and learn what he could, but without a mentor he just couldn't keep up with the others. His tail lashed from side to side at the thought. Most others had gotten mentors but at six moons he was ready to become an apprentice, at seven he had far outgrown the nursery. He took to sleeping outside just so he didn't have to listen to the queens complain. Finally at nearly eight moons they made him an apprentice, merely because leaf-fall had arrived and the nights were growing cold. So now he slept in the apprentice's den, listening to their snide comments and taking their cold looks with looks even more cold and bitter then theirs. But still, he was without a mentor.

home

[snowy]

The sun shone through a break in the leaves, causing Snowflower’s fur to shine brightly. It was a good day to be out hunting, the wind brushed through her fur, it wasn’t uncomfortably cold, just a little chilly. Snowflower, however, was not hunting for prey but for an apprentice who had been missing from camp far too often. She couldn’t deny that he always had good excuses though for why he wasn’t around.

Snowflower continued moving through the forest. She was following the scent trail of the cat she was looking for. She couldn’t blame him. Snowflower was not blind to the way some cats in the clan treated him. She wasn’t very happy about the way they looked at him. Snowflower hadn’t done much to help him before but she had recently had a discussion with their leader and was going to do something now.

Snowflower knew the difference from right and wrong and she knew that in this case, the clan was wrong. She had fair judgment and good discernment; she knew that the young cat was out of camp so much because he wanted to avoid the cold gazes of the rest of the clan.

The leaves beneath her feet crackled softly as she padded on through the forest. She was just coming up on the Sky Oak when she found him. “Frigidpaw!” she called as she padded over to him “So I haven’t seen you in camp much? What do you do when you’re out here alone so much? Is…err…anything wrong?” she asked, trying to learn what he thought of his own situation. She did her best to sound kind and to use good judgment.

[løиetëaя]

Frigidpaw let out a low hiss as he saw his deputy, Snowflower, padding toward him. Now she was going to drag him back to camp and he would get in trouble, probably end up having to look after the elders for days since they had nothing better to do with him.

His tail lashed as he listened to her words and his eyes narrowed into thin slits. "I've been trying to find some food for the clan out in this barren wasteland. In case you haven't notices, leaf-bare will be hitting soon and we need as much prey as we can find." He knew he was being rude but he didn't even care. At his point they could kick him out of the clan, he would do just fine without them.

Silently he paced back and forth, waiting for her to speak, to yell at him for being disrespectful, for never being around camp. Already he began to focus on something other then her, anything besides her so that he didn't hear her words when she finally decided to speak.

[snowy]

Snowflower looked around as the young cat paced back and forth with his tail lashing and his temper flaring. She turned her piercing gaze on him at his harsh words. “I do not take kindly to be spoken to that way.” She meowed, her voice perfectly calm. “I will be respected as your clan deputy …. And as your new mentor.” She said firmly and sharply but her voice was not unkind.

Snowflower studied his face with her sharp gaze; her own face was calm and giving away no emotion. She knew she would have to be patient but still critical with Frigidpaw. He was falling behind quickly and had a lot of training to be made up. She would have to find a way to keep him on focus but she was determined.

He has potential…. she thought to herself. If he learns respect and discipline. The apprentice had spent a lot of his time on his own where he didn’t have to answer to anyone… “You a lot to learn yet, young one.” She said, thinking of her own apprenticeship. She had been a… handful… to say the least.

[løиetëaя]

He turned to face her, his eyes filled with anger. "Yeah, well I don't take kindly to being treated how the whole clan treats me." Frigidpaw wondered what her response to that would be or if she had even noticed that they treated him differently. He paused as she continued. "So now they've decided to give me a mentor, not that I'm an embarrassment to the clan huh? That's the only real reason, your ashamed that apprentices younger then me in other clans know more then I do."

He turned away, not bothering to listen to what she had to say, and sprinted away, deeper into the forest. If no one wanted him in the clan then he would just leave.

[snowy]

Snowflower watched the young cat as he continued to speak harsh words to her. She said nothing in reply and kept her face calm and emotionless. He had been hurt, that was understandable. The clan had always treated him as an outsider and she herself had done nothing to prevent it.

She watched as her sprinted off further into the forest. Snowflower padded around the clearing once or twice before slowly following him. She picked up his scent and sighed. This was going to be a challenge. But she was ready. She slowed down even more trying to give him time to cool down and think about things first. She would go and talk to him again in a moment. She would let him know that she wasn’t ashamed of him and that the clan was wrong in they way they had been acting.

Patience is key. If I get angry and yell at him then it will only make him more distant and resentful… I’ll have to firm and make sure I know where his loyalties lie. She was forming a plan in her mind, thinking of the best way to approach him.

[løиetëaя]

The white apprentice bolted, dodging around undergrowth and tree roots. He just wanted to get away from everything and everyone. Without falter he jumped into a tree in his path, his claws digging deep into its bark as he climbed as quickly as he could. When he reached a higher branch he stopped, his body close the limb.

I hate them, all of them. I'm never going back. I don't care what Snowflower says. His thoughts flew, raging, as he anger began to boil over. He wished they had just left him to die beside his mother, at least it would have saved them the regret they so obviously had. He didn't understand what he had done to turn them all against him but it was apparent that they didn't trust him, that they thought of him as an outsider.

[snowy]

Snowflower padded on through the forest with her nose to the ground following the apprentices scent trail. The scent suddenly stopped at the base of a tree and Snowflower realized that Frigidpaw must have climbed it. Sure enough, as she looked up she saw a hint of white among the now changing colors of the leaves.

Snowflower quickly bounded up the tree and positioned herself on a limb near the one that Frigidpaw was on. She sat down and took her time smoothing down the fur on her chest before speaking. “I am the clan deputy and your mentor and –no don’t interrupt me- and you will respect me as so. The clan, including myself, has not been very good to you. We have not treated you as a proper member of the clan and you have been judged because of past that was not your fault or of your choosing.” She began; her voice was level and firm.

Snowflower repositioned herself as she continued “I understand that you are angry and hurt – No I don’t understand how you must be feeling- Our way of life can be harsh one, especially when you are treated as an outsider and I admit that I have not done anything to improve your position before now. I am aware that you may wish to leave the clan and that would be your choice but I hope you can see that you have the potential to be a good warrior and that the clan would be glad to have you once they see that.” She meowed quietly. She paused to remove a twig that was caught in her fur. “You will always have cats who don’t like you. Everyone does.” She added as an after thought. Snowflower glanced up from cleaning her paw to study the apprentice as she waited to see what he would say.

[løиetëaя]

Frigidpaw let out a low growl as she crouched on a nearby branch. He didn't understand why she was so determined to make him miserable. Still, he listened to her words though he really had no choice.

"It doesn't matter what I do, they will all still hate me, look at me like I'm an outsider. I don't even see the point in trying anymore." His eyes narrowed as he spoke. In the past he had tried, tried very hard, to gain their acceptance. But now he just kept to himself rather then deal with them. "I want to learn. I don't like being a weakness to the clan. But I don't think anything I do will change how they see me."

[snowy]

Sowflower watched him carefully as he spoke. She chose her next words carefully. “You don’t see a point in trying anymore?” She asked but she didn’t wait for an answer. “Then you can give up. You can run away from the clan if you wish. I’m not stopping you.” She meowed in a matter-of-fact way. She turned her head to glance around at their surroundings as she continued. “Nothing would be gained from running away, however, you would still be alone.” Her voice became even quieter as she continued. “You see, when I was an apprentice I was always into some kind of trouble. I never listened to my mentor. I answered to no one. I respected no one. No one but my father…”

She paused and turned back to look at Frigidpaw. “Many of the clan looked down on me and just saw me as an arrogant fool… But one day we were attacked and my father was killed… I thought… I thought that…” She hesitated. “I thought that if I had paid more attention and if I had taken my training more seriously that I could have saved him. I felt guilty for the trouble and pain I had caused him. After that I decided that I wanted to be a great warrior like he was… I decided that I would take my training and the warrior code more seriously, but by that time it was too late to change the clan’s opinion of me.”

She narrowed her eyes. “It took time and effort to change their views but after a while I proved myself to be worthy of becoming a warrior. Of course, there are still those who look down on me and do not believe that I am fit for a deputy.” She finished with a sigh. She shook herself as the cool wind blew through her fur and suddenly on impulse she reached out and aimed a paw swipe at a falling leaf. She placed her paw back onto the rough bark of the tree limb and me the young cat’s eyes. “Only you can change the clan’s opinion of you. Only you can prove yourself worthy to them. If you are willing to learn then I am willing to teach.”

[løиetëaя]

His eyes widened. He had never known this about his deputy. It was strange to think of her once being a trouble making apprentice. He shook his head though. "I want to learn. But I still don't know if it would change what they think about me. I never did anything to be looked at like this. Ever since I was a kit its been the same, and I used to try hard to prove that I was just as good as any clan born cat. But it only got worse. So I took to being on my own. I figured I was better alone then with angry eyes on me all the time."

He suddenly thought of something that perhaps Snowflower would know. "Did something happen when I was a little kit that would make them hate me?"

[snowy]

Snowflower stretched feeling the rough bark beneath her. She repositioned herself and thought carefully before replying. “I can not control what the clan thinks. Only time will tell if things will ever change.” She gave a chest a quick lick. “As clan cats we live together and must depend on each other to survive. By living that way we grow close to each other. So when we bring someone who was not born into our clan we tend to look at them as an outsider.” She said slowly.

“Understand that it is not anything of your or your mother’s doing that caused this. However, I think it would be better to try to spend more time among the clan as a start.” She continued. “Dwelling on the past does not help you. Learn from the past and from there you can form a better future.” She finished.

[løиetëaя]

He nodded once, his eyes filling with a new determination. That was all he really wanted, was to be excepted by the cats he had lived his entire life with. He didn't understand why they hated him when they were all he could remember. He didn't remember his real mother or life before the clan. He had been so young that all he knew was clan life. But still, from day one he had been treated differently.

When he was younger he didn't understand it much, and so it didn't really bug him. But once he got older and he understood their dark glances it began to bother him. He had tried hard to prove that he was one of them, but they still didn't see him that way.

He just hoped he wouldn't lose his temper with them. He would try to stick around camp more, but his temper had been known to get in the way in the past. The worst thing that could happen was him blowing up at some cat, the damage would be irreversible. "I'll try."

[snowy]

Snowflower watched as a new spark formed in Frigidpaw’s eyes. She knew that he had a long way to go but they were off to good start. She knew that he didn’t understand the way he was treated but she also was aware that he had to potential to prove them all wrong. If he could control his temper and continued to have a willingness to learn then he would be ok. Snowflower had succeeded for now. “I would expect nothing less.” She said with an approving nod. “Now, training starts tomorrow.” she said firmly.

[løиetëaя]

The tom nodded once at her words. He was almost excited for it, it would be the first time he had had a formal training session with any cat. He would try hard and hopefully he didn't let her down. Maybe he would practice his hunting techniques and such before hand.

Slowly he rose, his tail held straight out, helping him keep his balance. With careful steps he started his descent, his claws digging deep into the tree bark. When he reached a lower branch he leaped from it, landing quietly on the ground.