>> Forbidden Fruit is Always Sweeter [[Raven]]

[» got MiLK ?!]

>> Of TempestClan !

Great. All the other apprentices were out with their mentors practicing battle training. Me? Well my mentor made me come searching for Watermint. I haven't had one battle training. I thought even Medicine Cats needed to know how to defend themselves too, right? Well, apparently I didn't.

I'm sure the whole clan wouldn't mind if a badger got me right about now. Well, they wouldn't be happy, but only because they wouldn't have a Medicine Cat to take over later. I sighed heavily, the little blades of grass fluttering in the breeze. The frost sparkled dimmly off of them, just like my white-socked paws. The sun was sinking behind NocturnalClan's gray cliffs as I listened to the roar of their waterfall behind me. Hmm. It sounded nice.

I liked their territory and sometimes I wished we had NocturnalClan's land. But no. We were stuck with all these freaking rivers. Of course, TempestClan gets the flooded territory, thanks to the New-Leaf waters. Just perfect. I growled and tuged at the grass which I realized I'd been sitting on for a long time.

I finally rose and resumed my fruitless search of Watermint. Ugh. Was he off her[his] rocker?! Seriously! Did he really expect me to find any plant in this? The water was halfway up my paws and I took an annoyed swipe at it. It splashed all over and drenched my fur. I growled again and bounded onto a dry patch of land. Maybe I should just head back over to camp and tell my mentor there was no way I would find those here. I contemplated the thought for a while, just standing there, watching the horizon sink behind NocturnalClan's cliffs only to be replaced by pitch black night.

[r α ν ε η]

S α β ι ε ρ α ω[/color][/b][/font]

I'm bouncing off the walls again
I'm looking like a fool again
So go ahead and take a picture
And hang it up so you can tear me down !

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» Sablepaw slouched along rebelliously, head held low to the ground and lower lip jutting out obstinately. His mentor had made him take a break from work and go relax on the sun-kissed, wind-swept moors of NocturnalClan. He had protested, but he had given him The Look, which he was, of course, powerless against. He seethed inwardly, ears swivelling alertly. As if he was going to relax here, anyway. No, now that he was here, he was going to spend the entire time hunting, or on watch for intruders. His mentor would kill him, but Sablepaw felt oddly smug at the idea. It was a crisp, clear early Newleaf evening; it was cool, but only pleasantly brisk. The sky was a dark velvet purple, studded with silver stars. Faint, half-hearted whisps of clouds barely drifted across its surface, and the moon shone down like a watery silver lamp, wavering and ripe to be plucked from the sky. The wiry gray-black warrior scented the air, skinny tail twitching impatiently. He preferred cooler weather, himself, with a breeze. He glanced around himself, and couldn't help reveling in the beauty of it.

» NocturnalClan. His home. The very name was like a song; beautiful, graceful lyrics to a symphony. His chest ached as he thought of how he could have survived without the vast, empty stretches of barren moorland, which looked like a gap in life but were really rich with prey. Only there could you really hunt; only there could you really run. He remembered the sweet, tangy scent of the moor in Greenleaf, the cool sensation of the wind ruffling your pelt, the dry, grassy hills under your paws... they came flooding back, as they always did, and he closed his eyes before composing himself. He was wasting time. He opened his amber eyes again, his gaze roving over the sharp outcrops of warm rock. He could scent mainly mice, as well as a few snakes. What a pity. He jerked himself back from his thoughts and crouched down to approach a mouse. His ribs complained slightly; he was sore from all of the workload, after being here for only a moon. He wasn't used to it, but they were only stiff, and Sablepaw's philosophy on pain was that the only way to make it get better was to make it feel worse. He ignored the soreness, concentrating instead on the pleasantness of his paws on the warm grass.

» His claws, clicking, were the only noise as he prowled forward, his belly held close to the ground. The mouse was hunched by the base of a boulder, next to a yellowy-gray fern of some sort. It was nibbling on some kind of nut, the article clasped in its tiny clawed paws. Its beady, sharp little black eyes roamed around warily, its tail wrapped around its hind legs. The apprentice's whiskers twitched as he crept closer, green eyes trained intently on the oblivious mouse. Only a foxlength, now, and then one tail-length... he leapt. The mouse's head jerked up at the crackle of a twig snapping, and its frantic eyes found Sablepaw's grim green ones. It froze instinctively, for one moment, and then made to scurry away to safety. But that single moment was too long a pause. Sablepaw's paws slammed down on the hapless mouse's spine, breaking it neatly with a blow. The poor rodent didn't have time for a last whimper of pain before it was dead. Gone to mousy StarClan, the NocturnalClan apprentice thought with a grin. He was absurdly proud of this one kill; one of the neatest he had made since he had arrived in the forest. He picked up the limp, dusky-brown figure in his jaws and took a few steps to bury it before he realized there was another in the clearing with him.

» He froze. It was... TempestClan! It reeked of TempestClan. A she-cat, too, and would have been pretty if he was concentrating. Instead, he whirled around. To his consternation, he was on TempestClan territory! Just on the border, only a few foxlengths from his own. He gave a hiss of annoyance. He had made a kill! Ah, well. One might think that since Sablepaw was, after all, the rebel type, he wouldn't mind; but he loved his Clan, although his actions may not show this. It was his home, and, he hoped, he would stay there forever. His heart pounded in his chest as he dropped the mouse as if it would burn him, and then sprinted over the border back into his territory. He was surprisingly fast. His breathing gradually slowed as he paused, a good tail-length from the border just to be safe. His shoulders slumped. That was it. Not many of the Clan trusted him; he was a kittypet, after all. Now this... he would be banished for sure. His green gaze slowly migrated up to the she-cat. If he could just cover his scent and get her not to tell... He put on his most charming smile, cocking his head to one side and discretely smearing thick mud of his tracks with a paw.

» "Hello," he greeted with a bright smile, dazzling even in the muted light of the evening. "Can I help you find some herbs?" Perhaps, he prayed, if he got on her good side she would promise not to tell.

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[» got MiLK ?!]

A scrawny figure flashed over the moors. I turned around furiously, ready to attack the cat, but after being halfway around, I stopped. Why? Because I hadn't had that training yet. It wasn't important enough to teach the Medicine Apprentice how to fight? Yeah, look at this wonderful mess she'd gotten herself into!

Then he spoke to her. "Hello. Can I help you find some herbs?" he asked her. "You were on our territory!" she spat. "Don't think I didn't see you!" Her striking green eyes penetrated into the tom's.

[r α ν ε η]

S α β ι ε ρ α ω[/color][/b][/font]

I'm bouncing off the walls again
I'm looking like a fool again
So go ahead and take a picture
And hang it up so you can tear me down !

[/font][/right][/i]

» The wiry black tom nodded to Sagepaw. "Glad to hear it," he mewed, perhaps a trifle absentmindedly. "Gosh, you are a friendly one, aren't you? Don't you even want to hear me feeble and fruitless excuses?" He laughed shortly. He didn't laugh very often. Sarcasm didn't very often require laughing - but sometimes, it was necessary. The sun burned down, relentless and golden as it warmed the sleek charcoal fur of his spine. He sighed, getting up to pace restlessly; he couldn't stand to sit for long. It made him feel so... useless. His mentor had sent him here to get some rest, though. Part of him cowered in fear at the prospect of what his Clan would do to him when it found out his plan; but another section of him crowed with delight that he should be an aid to his Clan - and besides, he wasn't present to tell him off. His claws clicked on the stone. Tap, tap, tap. Tap-tap, tap. Tap, tap, tap. Tap-tap, tap. Tap, tap...

» He couldn't stand being so useless. His tail lashed from side to side as he stared around him, almost furtively, and then, satisfied no sneaky she-cats were watching, he slowly shifted into a hunter's crouch. Sablepaw flinched, but the pain was almost gone now. He could live. Soon, a plump young sparrow was laying limp on NocturnalClan territory, and sand was kicked over it. He couldn't take the mouse he had killed earlier, after all; he had hunted it on TempestClan land. He grinned, satisfied, before turning to gauge Sagepaw's reaction. "So... may I have the privilege of knowing your name?" he asked with a friendly grin, as if he didn't notice the hostility radiating from the medicine cat apprentice's every pore. "Myself, I'm Sable. Soon to be Sable the Great." He laughed again, to show he was joking. He hadn't felt this good - this capable - in nearly... oh, a couple moons, now. He was feeling almost as good as new. He couldn't remember when his ribs had hurt so little, or when he had coughed so little. There was a spring in his long, purposeful stride. It was hard not to feel cheerful with the arrival of Newleaf, and even Sablepaw, the rebellious, contrary apprentice, had caught the highly contagious emotion.

» Sagepaw would know how he felt, Sablepaw was sure. His ears flicked back and forth, as he placidly crouched down again. He launched himself at a squirrel, with that awkward hunting style of his; as he leapt, he bunched his long, skinny legs up under him, as if trying to fold them, and stretched his body forward. He was just as fit - perhaps more so - than the other apprentices his age; although he had grown up a kittypet, he was pursued his apprentice training with dogged determination. Silvermask was less fit; she was, after all, nearly six years old, although she was spry for her age, not to mention for her... disability. He licked his lips, feeling his paws land down smoothly on the rock and then clamping his jaws around the squirrel's torso. As it felt something brush its spine, the dusky-brown creature gave a squeak of terror and hopped nimbly forward, into the undergrowth and well out of Sablepaw's reach. The NocturnalClan tom cursed under his breath, and tried again on a rabbit, almost forgetting that Sagepaw was present.

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[» got MiLK ?!]

"What are you? A kittypet? Even I could've caught that, and I'm a Medicine Cat!," I laughed, watching him with amused eyes. "I'm Sagepaw, by the way." Then I registered the fact that his name didn't sound like a warrior's name. "Sable...." I mewed, almost seeing how his name felt on my tongue. "Well, Sable, how about helping me find some Watermint?" I asked. "You know what it looks like? Big and leafy. Kind of a tangy smell to it, rough," I mewed, listing off it's qualities. He was intimidating at first, but now he just seemed funny. "Soon to be Sable he Great." He certainly was a cocky fellow, wasn't he?