- 494
- #1
Jolene - no, it was Nettlepaw now, was having a hard time adjusting to Clan life. She was only two years old, yet so much had been inflicted upon her at a young age. She'd been groomed by her Twolegs to become a glamorous showcat, like her mother. She had been idolized as a perfect, beautiful she-cat and wasn't allowed to take one step out of line in her family. When she was injured alongside her sister, their scars mirroring one another, she had thought it would be her way out, but her mother wasn't having it. The only time she had felt any sense of freedom or ability to choose her own actions was when she'd run off for a few nights, to be with Daniel, a tomcat who was dashing and handsome and... manipulative and self-absorbed and an arrogant, two-faced tomcat who made her belly round with kits instead of fresh prey and left her when she needed support the most.
She was young - barely out of adolescence herself, really, and she'd not handled her motherhood well. She had three kits and once they were weaned she passed them to her sister Dolly and refused to speak to anyone for weeks after. When even seeing her mother or sister or Twolegs became too much, she left the Twolegplace. She wandered through the forest, trying to find her place. She couldn't climb trees with her twisted leg and the rushing river scared her. She'd heard of cats up the mountain, but that was a season's travel... In the end, she got a tip from a passing cat who told her of LostClan and when she heard the name, she'd scoffed initially but... with a name like that, surely it had to be where she was fated to end up.
So, now she was here, having traveled such a long way to end up in a nest that didn't smell like anything familiar or comforting and just trying to sleep. She'd been allowed in, but her name had been changed and she'd been given a title of "Apprentice" which apparently came with a "Mentor" who teach her about Clan ways. She'd met the cat briefly, during her naming ceremony, but she'd been allowed to go to the "Apprentices Den" to make a nest for herself and get some rest, so she didn't really get to know her new teacher very much.
Now, the morning after her ceremony, Nettlepaw was curled up tightly in her nest, her tail over her nose and her eyes shut tightly. She hoped that she wouldn't have to get up. She felt so drained by... by her entire life, if she paused to think about it. Surely, whatever her mentor was like, they'd be fine and dandy with leaving her be, right? They didn't actually expect her to train or learn - what was there to learn? She'd had enough life experience for two cats at this point. @DragonGirl1031