[PRP] Honey Sweet (Honeypaw/Dappleleaf)

[belloblossom]

Dappleleaf had made some observations from his moons with TreeClan, of which he'd begun to lose count. One such thing was that TreeClan was easy about who it accepted into their ranks. Sunflight, TreeClan's charismatic leader, welcomed cats from all walks of life into the Clan, so long as they promised their loyalty to the Clan, to her and to the trees around them. Dappleleaf had joined because of his love for the latter, primarily - he was always a tree lover, to be sure and the idea of walking across branches (while initially scary) had become second nature to him now. His battle techniques were a little rusty, mostly because he'd never truly been in a battle with a live enemy, but apparently his skills in the trees and with hunting were good enough that Sunflight, upon his third season of living with among TreeClan as a proper warrior, had deemed him ready for an apprentice.

One of the things that came with a Clan who was constantly letting new members in, was the need to train them all and adult apprentices were a common sight to see in TreeClan's ranks. Dappleleaf found it hard to imagine this ever changing about TreeClan, though he had to wonder, would they expand their territory in order to account for all the mouths they needed to feed? Or would they start doing ground-hunting in order to supply the extra prey, perhaps? Dappleleaf had been dwelling over the matter since he woke, but at last he decided that it would be the most wise to get up for the day. Such speculations for the future would have to wait until the evening, after all, he had an apprentice to train.

Honeypaw was an adult she-cat with a beautiful and distractingly fluffy pelt. Dappleleaf had been her mentor for less than a moon and was still trying to get a feel for who she was and why she'd decided to join TreeClan out of all her options. Still, every time he looked at her, he was grateful for her company - wait, no, that sholdn't be his reason for being happy she was here! Honeypaw was more than her beauty!

Stretching in his nest, he exited the warriors den and gazed around the clearing of the main camp, more often referred to as the Nest by its TreeClan inhabitants. He trusted Honeypaw to find him, now that he was out in plain sight; he wouldn't go looking for her himself. He needed time enough to stall and try to come up with their training plan for the day. @I--LiveWire--I

 

[I--LiveWire--I]

Honeypaw's eyes glimmered in excitement, even as she yawned and stretched. She hadn't been here long but she was happy to have been given a chance to be a part of this clan. There was so many new things to learn and improve upon that she had found it pretty easy to overcome the oddness of following her mentor around like a bumbling kit quickly. Or rather her excitement had pushed it to the back of her mind. It was after all not a helpful thing to dwell upon and she was pretty clueless about clan life so it wasn't an inaccurate comparison.

As she silently slipped out of the apprentice den and paused to sniff the air and gaze about for the tom, Dappleleaf, as her mind buzzed about what she would be able to learn today. She hoped it wouldn't be more tree climbing. It wasn't even the climb, that was actually quite fun. But she didn't much like the uneasy feeling of staring down a trunk at the ground. She gave herself a good shake and a quick lick or two as if trying to dismiss the memories. She knew she would have to learn to get over it sooner or later with the location and basics of the clan she had learned. But she hadn't ever made it a habit to climb trees or much of anything in the past. So how was she supposed to know that it was so terrifying.

Before she let her mind wander to thoughts of if this had been the wrong choice of clan to settle in she set her jaw in determination and reminded herself that it was worth it and there wasn't anything she couldn't overcome if she put her mind to it. She then spotted her mentor outside the warrior den. He sparkle returned to her eyes and she approached him with all the confidence she could muster.

"Greetings Dappleleaf." She greeted simply. She was still trying to figure out how to bet address others within the clan and had been sticking to simple and safe as she could manage as to not step on anyone's paws while she adjusted.

 

[belloblossom]

Dappleleaf had been stringing together an idea of what needed to be done today, in regards to training and in regards to the rest of the Clans, when Honeypaw found him. He smiled at her as he approached and nodded in greeting.

"Hello, Honeypaw. Thank you for joining me." He mewed. "Today, I thought it would be a worthwhile endeavor to check the borders. However, today is a bit different. We'll be starting on the ground, rather up in the branches." He told her. "Ground prey tends to get lazy when they see all the hunting happening in the trees. Let's see if we can't catch our breakfast, and I'll show you why it's so hard for cats to enter into our territory if they can't walk through the branches, like we can." He mewed to her and began to walk to the ground entrance. Bushes and roots already made for a tricky pathway and they would be headed out into the twisting trail. "Watch your step. I imagine both you and Errol would prefer it if we didn't come home with any twisted paws today." He advised his apprentice, before he dipped his head and passed through the entrance.

Climbing up onto a round rock, his claws scraping, he looked down a slope that was tangled with roots arching and curling between rocks. The trees that grew around here were close together and to the untrained eye, looking above to the branches seemed like a jumbled mess that only let a few rays of light through. Between the dim lighting and the dangerous terrain, it was little wonder why the warriors of TreeClan preferred to treewalk instead. In fact, peering skyward, Dappleleaf could see a hunting patrol returning, feathers in their fur and birds hanging from their jaws. He held his tail up straight in greeting, but got little response. Well, that was fine, too. They had their mouths full after all.

"Snakes don't like the crevices here, usually, fortunately. It gets too cold for them, even in Greenleaf." He mewed when he heard movement behind him - he hoped it was Honeypaw and not some other cat. SunClan, that would be embarrassing if he was speaking to the wrong cat! "Let's move on ahead, but precision is especially important with walking through this terrain. I'm hoping to get us to the StoneClan border today, but if we are unable to meet this goal, we can try again tomorrow. We don't have a strict deadline to meet, we can go at our own pace today." Dappleleaf mewed as he leaped off the rock and into the twisted trail. @I--LiveWire--I