you're kidding me (kyra)

[gray]

Unexpected things occurred all the time—in fact, the unexpected had certainly become the expected. Everyone expected the unexpected to happen, turning the unexpected into the everyday. The ordinary. The… well, the expected. However, although expected the unexpected to happen, although prepared for unusual scenarios, nothing could have ever given the broad-shouldered ill-fitted brown tabby tom for what had happened. Cedar, unfriendly, unsociable, uncooperative Cedarclaw, loner at heart and stubbornly unhappy Cedarclaw, had been saddled with an apprentice—an apprentice who was considerably late. An apprentice whose name was Minnowpaw, who would certainly be so obnoxiously cheerful that Cedar would rather claw his own coat than be around her, who he was now expected to teach and look after and tell her to believe in StarClan. She was the little terror the queens griped about behind her back while she slept in the nursery, and her apprenticeship had been delayed because of her attitude.

Now, he was expected to straighten her out. “You’re kidding me,” he muttered aloud, thoroughly irked by the whole affair. Was his oath of undying loyalty to RiverClan not enough for Leopardstar? His friendship with Patchfur and the bond with his half-siblings would keep him rooted—plus, Poplar had been laid to rest in RiverClan territory; he wasn’t going anywhere. He would never abandon his only surviving sister—for Larch, Smokefur, whatever she though of herself as, certainly felt like no sister to him. Cedar had been saddled with a Clan brat, all because of Leopardstar’s faithlessness in him. He thought he had rather admirably proved himself over the moons he had spent in the Clan. He swallowed his pride and obeyed the spotted tabby leader. He let older cats boss him around—in order to avoid speaking with anyone, but still. The result made up for the intentions, right?

Either way, now he was stuck wasting an entire day on a spoiled little apprentice who would, no doubt, disrespect him and do her best to irritate him to no end. The brown tabby tom couldn’t resist muttering, “You’re kidding me,” one more time.

word count // 348
ooc comments // this is gonna be fun(:
tags // kyra

[{ KYRA }]

minnowpaw was none too pleased about this arrangement. a dozen gripes ran through her head as she stalked out to the river. she had been made to wait until she was older than six moons for her apprentice ceremony, older than the normal apprentice age, older than all her friends. and now she was stuck with cedarclaw as a mentor. did he even count as real mentor? i mean, he's not even a real riverclan warrior? sheesh. talk about getting ripped off. she couldn't believe leopardstar would punish her so much for being just a little curious. she had wanted to see what was going on at the gathering. could she really be blamed for that? apparently, yes. according to leopardstar, very much so yes.

she just wanted to be treated like all the other apprentices! a pout cast a shadow on her little silver face. what leopardstar was doing—well, it felt a whole lot like bullying! minnowpaw didn't appreciate feeling like she was being pushed around, but there wasn't much she could do. she couldn't change mentors, but she didn't have to be happy about the pairing. and she sure as starclan didn't need to wake up at the crack of dawn to attend training sessions. what could cedarclaw even do to her? she had slept in, gotten a good night's rest, no use training without any sleep.

ha. training. minnowpaw snorted at the word. as if there was anything cedar could teach her. everyone knew he wasn't even clanborn. he might as well have been raised by wolves... she bet she knew more about how the clans fought than he did.

you're kidding me.

minnowpaw's ears flickered at the sound of her so-called mentor's voice. she let out a fussy little hiss before puffing her chest out. "let's get this over with," she grumbled quietly before stepping around a large patch of grass that blocked her from cedarclaw's view.

"cedarclaw." she said snottily, lifting her nose in the air so she didn't have to suffer looking straight at his face.

[gray]

A sudden, snotty, fussy hiss interrupted Cedar’s griping. Ah, so the little silver princess had finally decided to come do as was required of her? Minnowpaw muttered something—damn, did RiverClan cats ever reek of fish –and stepped into his line of sight. “Cedarclaw,”

[/I] she said disdainfully, sticking her nose in the air. Why is Leopardstar punishing me for her bad behavior? The spoiled nuisance, referring to Minnowpaw, not the spotted tabby leader, of course. Cedarclaw had some other words for Leopardstar, few of which were complimentary.

Unable to keep his temper in check, the broad-shouldered tabby tom stood up, rising to his full height. He was much, much bigger than even the biggest of RiverClan warriors, and Minnowpaw was only an apprentice. He glared at her and snapped, “Well, I suppose you could always go back to the nursery. If they want useless brats, that is.” He stalked a few paces away from the apprentice—he couldn’t think of the silver she-cat as his apprentice. He turned around to face her. He sighed heavily to himself. At times, he couldn’t believe he had ever allowed Patchfur to convince him to stay in RiverClan. Other times, he knew he could never bear to leave his beloved sister’s final resting place.

Today, he couldn’t believe he still remained trapped here. “Or, you could be like all the other apprentices and do as you’re told.” Unable to help himself, his voice had dropped to a snarl. Cedarclaw turned his back on Minnowpaw again, feeling particularly grumpy this morning. “If you ever think of disrespecting me again,” he added, “you can say goodbye to your chances of ever becoming a warrior.”

word count // 278
ooc comments // sorry to make you wait so long!
tags // kyra

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[{ KYRA }]

why, oh why, did she have to be stuck with him?

"well, i suppose you could always go back to the nursery. if they want useless brats, that is."

her tail fluffed out in anger, and she let out a ferocious hiss. cedar, cedarclaw, whatever name he went by, he should know a thing or two about being useless. the last thing riverclan needed was more outsiders running around their territory.

"if you ever think of disrespecting me again you can say goodbye to your chances of ever becoming a warrior." her fluffed out tail immediately went slack. the tom was so obviously full of hot air. as if leopardstar would even listen to a word he said.

"what is that, some kind of threat?" she retorted. "oh please. you've got to be me kidding." little did she know she was repeating the same sentiment the told had told himself early. she stared at him incredulously. it wasn't that she doubted his words. with him as a mentor, she had pretty much zero chance of ever becoming warrior. but if he thought he had some kind of pull with leopardstar, he had been eating too much catmint.

"what could you even teach me?" there was a legitimate question behind the scorn. she had some curiosity as to what he expected of their training sessions. was he going to teach her rogue fighting techniques? would he let her eat while they were hunting instead of bringing it back to the clan to share? she didn't want to fall behind her friends (they were all being trained by real warriors), but she didn't what this stupid tom expected her to learn about clanlife from him.

[gray]

Feeling thoroughly satisfied with his arguments as the little apprentice’s tail fluffed out in anger, Cedar turned away. The babbling of the river was, oddly enough, a rather pleasant sound to the big tabby tom. Although he hated getting wet, he didn’t hate water in itself. Besides, the forest needed water to live. If anything, water was helpful… so long as he didn’t have to actually get in the water. “What is that, some kind of threat?”

[/I] Cedarclaw whipped around again, pale green eyes narrowed viciously at the apprentice. “Oh please. You’ve got to be kidding me.”[/I] The shared opinion proved how unsuited he was for mentoring. Not only did he dislike all the little buggers that his Clan produced, this one was particularly awful. Some of them he could tolerate with limited exposure. But Minnowpaw? He could barely even think about her without wanting to go drown himself in the river. Okay, maybe that’s a little extreme, he admitted to himself. “What could you even teach me?”[/I] Well, yes, that was the question now, wasn’t it? What could he, a forest loner, teach a sleek and fishy RiverClanner?

He heard a faint, genuine curiosity behind the apprentice’s hostility. Cedar scrambled for a quick answer and, lashing his tail, he snapped, “Well, first of all, maybe I can knock that attitude out of you so someone will be able to stand you. Then, once that’s done, there’s a couple of things like a sense of duty—not that you’d understand that. Dedication to your cause, conviction to stick with your decisions—not to mention the ability to make reasonable decisions, if that’s even possible for you.” He flicked his ear in irritation, only just beginning to warm up. “Beyond that, I do know how to hunt. Just because I don’t fit your stupid ideals doesn’t mean I have no idea what I’m doing. Maybe if you would shut your mouth and listen, you’d figure out a thing or two!” There, that ought to do it. If not, then the snooty silver she-cat had no business being part of the Clan anyhow and it was a battle lost long before it had even begun.

Admitting to himself that there were indeed some things he couldn’t teach her, he added, “And I honestly don’t care who teaches you to swim and fish, by the way. Now, are you done with your little tantrum?” he inquired. Hopefully, the answer was yes, she was good and finished with her little tantrum. Then, they could get on with the day and finish this training session. He couldn’t believe he had to suffer through six whole moons with the silver terror. It was so unfair. Leopardstar didn’t even like him, hardly trusted him, yet she handed him an apprentice? Gah!

word count // 464
ooc comments // these two are so fun
tags // kyra

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