To Sagepaw, this was a boring day. Her mentor was out as he usually was, and she wasn’t exactly his best friend given their total opposite personalities. Do you know who was her good friend though? Sneezepaw, that’s who. As any responsible and dutiful apprentice would do, she was going straight to the apprentice’s den to wake him up. She had a mission! It was time to kill fight Otterspark, and she was totally going to win. Sneezepaw had to be there because he wanted to beat Sagepaw — it just made sense from a hierarchical standpoint. If Sneezepaw saw the absolute beast Sagepaw was, maybe he’d begin to take his training more seriously just so he could beat her one day.
Wandering from the middle of camp on a nice day into the apprentice den with a goal in her mind, she spotted the tom sleeping in the den. Seems like he doesn’t like to wake up in the morning for dawn patrols, the lazy kid. She remembered being a new apprentice with her sister and how excited she was, how could this tom be so lazy when he was finally allowed outside of the nursery? Getting into a hunting position she wiggled and pounced on the smaller cat, the two rolled out of Sneezepaw’s nest screaming as a result. If that didn’t wake up everyone else in the den nothing would.
“What! Do you think you’re doing! I’m sleeping, let me sleep so I can avoid Loudbird!” The orange tom hissed out at Sagepaw who did nothing more than grin and roll onto her paws. His fur was an absolute mess; pointing every which way and having bits of nest stuck in it. It was obvious that Sneezepaw had been having a good time sleeping, which meant that whatever Sagepaw planned had to be good and definitely worth it, otherwise, he was going back to sleep! He had been having such a nice dream, too...
Nudging the other out of the den without a word other than some mild hissing, she began to look around for a warrior, any warrior. “We’re gunna fight.. someone. We’re gunna beat the shit out of a warrior.” She mumbled. The side effect of it being a nice day was that most warriors were out hunting or on a patrol, the snow no longer keeping them inside. Overall, there weren’t a lot of warriors around which meant they had to find a loser someone who had stayed back at camp to take them out and spar with them. Sagepaw wanted someone who was significantly tough, just so it would be all the more impressive if she beat them. If the warrior had fighting prowess and she won in the spar, she’d be the best apprentice in the Clan and no one would question it!
Sagepaw didn’t want Loudbird, the annoying cat who kept stealing her sibling away from her as a kit, so that was out of the question. And, Quietfrost was still out so there weren't many options left. She didn’t exactly… know a lot of warriors in LynxClan, especially with her shaky loyalty. The idea of fighting seemed to perk up Sneezepaw; although he wanted to fight Sagepaw, the idea of getting stronger by fighting a warrior was neat. That was at least one step closer to beating up Sagepaw.
Otterspark was a good place to start, and to Otterspark they went. Assuming she was in the Warrior’s Den she rushed off to start looking. Not finding her there, they wandered around until their target showed up, screaming Otterspark’s name the entire time. Eventually, it worked and the she-cat came grumbling out to deal with the loud apprentices before they woke up the entire camp with their noise.
“You can fight with us, leader’s daughter!” Sagepaw seemed to demand of the tired she-cat. Sneezepaw just seemed happy to be hanging around Sagepaw at this point, finally fully awake and ready to go. “We want to fight a warrior and you’re the best option.” The look Otterspark gave the two younger cats was laughable, already miserable with her fate of babysitting two of the more rowdy cats during her time of grief, she had to pass this responsibility off onto someone else. Right now, please. It didn’t take long for her to notice Mottlestone meandering in camp with, assumedly, nothing to do — as always.
Mottlestone had been spying on Otterspark a lot lately. There wasn’t much reason for it, if he really thought about it — and he wasn’t thinking about it. She’d seemed so down… and it was making the tom feel things that he didn’t like one bit. So what better way to sort out these weird emotions than to combat the reason head on? He was going to find that stupid furball and make her become annoying again, even if it was possibly the very last thing he ever did (probably because she would kill him).
If he could actually find out where she was, that is. She was acting so weird; it was really frustrating due to the fact that even though he disliked it when all she did was make fun of him, they’d become friends… hadn’t they? Mottlestone felt like she was his friend, anyhow, although he couldn’t speak on her behalf. The tom found it difficult to admit when he had positive feelings about someone, mostly thinking that they should know when he liked them, and he shouldn’t have to spell it out like they were a kit still learning how to talk.
His thoughts were interrupted by a slight commotion not too far from him. There was a slightly squeaky voice crying out, “FIGHT ME!!!! FIGHT ME RIGHT NOW!!!!” which Mottlestone was about to ignore before he realised that the victim to this screaming was just the cat he had been looking for. Lifting his chin, he felt his fur stand on end as the anticipation flowed through him — he was about to be a hero! Otterspark would have to compliment him now, and maybe she’d even smile! Confidence flowed through him and he took a step forward—
“Oh, Mottlestone! You came at just the right moment.” The tom almost purred with delight at what Otterspark was saying, before everything began to set alight with despair. “They wanted to fight a warrior — and what a better candidate than yourself, because you’re just on their level!” Okay… ouch. Mottlestone knew he didn’t possess as much skill as Otterspark at fighting (who, by the way, was unnaturally strong and so wasn’t even a fair comparison), but he liked to think he was better than some apprentices! All thoughts of trying to cheer her up were crushed and he sniffed dramatically, flicking his tail irritably. It was like she went out of her way to be mean.
“I can take this time to train you all, actually. It’ll give me something to do!” Train?! What nonsense. Every damn time with this molly. Why in the hell did he have to train with a bunch of apprentices? He was made into a warrior, so surely he didn’t have to keep doing this — he’d passed! Why was she torturing him like this?! Plus, he didn’t even really know these stupid apprentices. He’d been on a patrol with Sagepaw before, though she hadn’t left too much of an impression. She was pretty loud and blunt, which could result in some funny moments, though.
As for Sneezepaw, well... Mottlestone knew exactly who his mentor was, and he wasn’t happy about it. Even hearing the name Loudbird made his blood boil, and his claws sheath and unsheath instinctively. They hadn’t spoken a word to each other since that day of the argument, and to be honest… did he even want to? Loudbird had said some pretty hurtful things, and clawed him in the back… at least, that’s how he believed it to have gone down. At the moment, it seemed like there wasn’t any hope of fixing their broken relationship. Better to just avoid each other.
As the two older cats seemed to talk and have their own private conversation, Sagepaw and Sneezepaw were talking in their own little huddle. Once Otterspark seemed to spot Mottlestone and run off to have him save join her Sagepaw had a light go off in her head. They wouldn’t beat up Otterspark but instead, they could beat up Mottlestone. He looked like he would be tough, but Sagepaw had seen him before. The tom was a wuss! With his physique, he could probably fight if he actually put his mind to it but he was so lazy and always avoided doing anything. Which meant… he was an easy target! Plus, he was a warrior and that was a plus, even if he wasn’t Otterspark.
To Sagepaw, Mottlestone was a funny cat who thought himself as tall as a mountain while he was actually as short as a pebble. “I say we fight now and get the head-start! We’ll have the upper hand and win in no time flat!” She loudly whispered to Sneezepaw who giggled in return. This was going to be fun. Getting into position and trying to get Sneezepaw to copy her was already a challenge, the other having never sparred another cat properly before. After some totally inconspicuous wiggling around they were in a decently appropriate crouching position.
“Do what I do, little achoo!” Sagepaw began to slowly move towards the two adults, and it didn’t take long for Otterspark to notice what was up and back off a little bit. She wanted no part in whatever the hell these two were doing. This was probably for the best, because what the two were about to do next would be something Mottlestone wouldn’t stop talking about for days - saying that his lungs would never be the same after the violent and unnecessary attack of the apprentices. Otterspark would only go on to roll her eyes at him (though she was usually doing this), and despite his dramatics, Mottlestone was happy to see her smile, even if it was at him.
“Then you attack him like you’re killing a dirty fox! Just like he is!” Sagepaw screamed as she launched herself at Mottlestone full force with Sneezepaw close behind her. The two barreled into the brooding tom at alarming speeds, probably hurting him a little bit with Sagepaw’s size compared to the others. Mottlestone had been wounded. His side ached horribly as the two apprentices rammed themselves into him, coughing slightly from having been winded. He probably kept this up for a little too long, because the two attackers looked at each other with a little uncertainty, before giggling maniacally. What a silly warrior.