A Snowed in Heart (Private)

Snowpaw shivered as she picked her way across the territory, trailing Stoneheart. She had gone to her nest early enough the previous night, but had lay awake for StarClan knows how long. She felt like she must have just fallen asleep before Stoneheart came to wake her up for training. She missed living in the nursery where no cat would bother her if she wanted to sleep till sunhigh.

Finally, he stopped at a clearing. Snowpaw felt a mix of relief and dread. Stopping would be nice, but she couldn't imagine she would enjoy whatever kind of training he had planned. Dread quickly overtook her as he growled at her to hurry up. Today was not going to be her day, again. She didn't pick up her pace as she continued to move toward him. No use in rushing to start a miserable morning."Why do we have start training so early? I could be faster if it were sunhigh," Snowpaw complained.

The thought of trying to pack as much as possible into the day overwhelmed Snowpaw. Was she going to have to practice everything, from fighting to hunting to doing apprentice chors? She could see Stoneheart was trying to get her motivated by letting her choose, but neither of his options sounded particularly fun. Practicing fighting meant getting knocked down by battle moves, while climbing would mean fighting her tiredness so she wouldn't fall out of a tree. She wondered if she could convince Storeheart to let her do something else, but she didn't have the slightest idea of what she would want to do instead, other than sleep. She had looked forward to being an apprentice for moons as a kit, but now it was just hard to care. 

"I guess climbing," Snowpaw said. "I could use that get away from everyone," she muttered, thinking Stoneheart wouldn't hear her.

Snowpaw ambled up to the tree next to her mentor. She wasn't sure why she needed training to climb a tree. Yeah, she'd never done it before, but she wasn't mousebrained. It couldn't be that hard to figure out on her own. Still, the strict tone of Stoneheart's voice told her she'd better listen to him. She studied him as he showed her how to place her paws. As she looked at her mentor and moved to copy him, her mind started to wander. She hadn't quite been able to figure Stoneheart out. It was odd that she didn't know him very well, considering they were kin. She'd heard stories about him, Icefur, and Stormpelt as apprentices, but it seemed the closeness didn't last after they'd become warriors. Then again, it didn't surprise her, considering that Stormpelt was Stormpelt. So far, Stoneheart had been very patient with her, which she supposed made this apprenticeship the tiniest bit more bearable.

Snowpaw dug her claws into the tree, about as high as she could reach on her hind legs. "So I just push up, right?" she said, hoisting herself up onto the tree. Her feet lifted on the ground, and she clung to the bark with her claws. "Hey, I didn't die," she said, suspended above the ground on the tree. Now she just had to get herself onto one of the branches...

(OOC: Yeah, I really like the memory! Maybe if we could fit it in somewhere later, we could RP a memory as a flashback from both Storm and Stone's perspectives)

Snowpaw snickered in spite of herself at Stoneheart's quip. His voice still had a serious timbre, but Snowpaw appreciated the banter to her own semi-serious comment. She watched him climb up to a low branch, and started to follow after him as he explained the benefits of tree climbing. She wondered if she'd ever have to jump off of a tree to attack a cat. She decided probably wouldn't enjoy the experience, as she moved another claw up. "Have you ever attacked an enemy from a tree?" she asked as she slowly picked her way up to Stoneheart's branch. She awkwardly hoisted herself up, once she thought she was close enough to make it.

She set her paws on the branch and tentatively walked a few paces to perch next to Stoneheart. She thought she might have seen something like sadness in his face as she climbed, but he shook his head quickly and Snowpaw wondered if she'd imagined it. What would Stoneheart be sad about? Anyway, the task was completed, so she was at least one paw-step closer to being able to go back to sleep in her nest. "Great, I made it! We're done now, right?"

Snowpaw noticed that her mentor spent a moment looking at her very intensely. The eye contact felt kind of weird, and Snowpaw looked away. She shook her head in response to Stoneheart and turned back toward the trunk of the tree. "No, then I'd just have to do this all over again tomorrow. I guess I'll keep going." She dug her claws into the trunk and climbed up until she reached the branch above them. She'd do this her way if she was going to do this at all. "You should tell me about when you attacked a cat from a tree while we climb. Then I could learn what to do the next time someone attacks us," she said from the branch. "Plus, I never get to hear any good ThunderClan stories." Most of her knowledge of ThunderClan's history had come from a combination of stories from the elders and Icefur. She didn't visit the elders much these days, except to check them for ticks and bring them stuff, and there wasn't really any other cat to tell her about the old days.

Snowpaw continued climbing toward higher branches as she listened to Stoneheart's story. She could picture RiverClan cats emerging from the water; eyes glowing as they approached ThunderClan cats. She wondered why they did it. Did ThunderClan hurt them? Or did they just want something ThunderClan had? She could see Stoneheart, several seasons younger rising to their challenge in battle. She made a face when he mentioned helping Stormpelt. Of course Stormpelt was in the story too. At least ThunderClan won in the end; though Snowpaw couldn't help but wonder if that was really for the best. She felt a twinge of guilt for questioning her clan; all anyone had told her since birth was how great it was. She stopped climbing and stepped out onto a higher branch. She had never been this high before. "Why did the battle start?" she called down to Stoneheart after he asked her to let him know if she needed help.

Snowpaw walked closer to the edge of the branch, hind paw balancing on a twig jutting out. She wished she could stay up here forever; it was so peaceful. Perhaps she should have been born a SkyClan cat. She shook the thought away and turned back toward the trunk of the tree, ready to ask Stoneheart what to do next. However, the twig she was balancing on snapped as she turned around. Snowpaw lost her footing and found herself falling. She reached her paws out and managed to catch the branch. She hung in midair, digging her claws into the wood for dear life. "Stoneheart, what do I do?" she called. "I can't pull myself up."

Snowpaw saw a flash of gray fur in her periphery. Stoneheart had come to the branch below her, and he wanted her to drop down onto it. Snowpaw glanced down and the thought of slipping again loomed in her mind. She imagined falling onto the branch below her and slipping off of that one too, falling all the way to the ground. She dug her claws into the branch harder, even though it hurt her paws. "I should have picked fighting!" 

Snowpaw glanced down to the branch below her. Stoneheart was right there, waiting. In that moment, she found that she trusted him. She hesitated for a second before releasing her grip. Her fall only last a few seconds as she landed next to him, all four paws finding balance on the branch below. She had made it. She looked up at Stoneheart, dazed look in her eyes.