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V   O    L     E     P     A     W! XX                                        

                                       _{I'M A HOPELESS WANDERER}

Bright and pleasant amber eyes shone like the sun as the StoneClan apprentice padded. Though the moons past had been trying for the apprentice, Volepaw was carefree and happy on this hot Newleaf day. The way the sun shone and glistened on his pelt seemed to be representative of his high spirits. Usually the hot sun would bother him since his darker pelt absorbed the sun's heat exceptionally well and made him sweat. But on this pretty day, it was as if he had embodied the sun in his pelt.

Everything in the StoneClanner's life had gone right for once. Padding quickly deep into StoneClan territory, the apprentice began to recount his reason for happiness. For one, and possibly the most important reasons of his reasons was that the apprentice had been able to get out of training duty with his mentor Silentcloud. His mentor, while an excellent source of knowledge and great of technique, was not well suited to the brown tabby tomcat. She made him do weird things like dance during training to loosen up, which made little sense to the apprentice since he was as bad of a dancer as a fighter. Dancing only made him more self-conscious and more tense. Not only that, but Silentcloud had questioned the apprentice of his sexual orientation. What right does she have to do that? I just met her! And, what does it have to do with training anyways? Volepaw asked himself but shook such thoughts out of his head. Just thinking about his mentor set his head spinning. And today, it was not necessary for thinking about such less desirable things. Just count, Volepaw reminded himself carefully and took a deep breath in and out.

Two: unlike the other clans, his brown paws were not sopping wet. Volepaw had heard from other warriors about the misfortunes of the other clans -- particularly NightClan and RainClan and how after the ice melted, their camps had flooded. StoneClan had been very fortunate so far to be staying dry. Their mostly stone ground had proved to be useful for something, no matter how hard on the paw pad it was. No dirt made no mud. Volepaw knew that since kithood and it was a very simple, happy concept for the apprentice. The curl-eared tom had not been particularly bothered by the state of the other clans. StoneClan had had a long, cold, and preyless LeafBare. Though the other clans had faced such trials as well, StoneClan was certainly deserving of time off from nature's elements. 

Three: He was going to meet with his littermates on this fair Newleaf day. He hadn't seen any of them in what seemed like ages. The apprentice was very excited to catch up with them. Hopefully their training sessions have gone better than mine, Volepaw wondered and halted his padding, realizing that he had reached the very spot Volepaw had instructed his free siblings to meet him at. Glancing at the distinctive half-tree, the marker of their meeting place, the apprentice gave a faint smile.

[Fawn]

[smear:94ce19]D U S T P A W ![/smear:e6d890]

It was fortunate she was one of the fastest runners in StoneClan, because if one were to factor in how much time she spent veering off to literally smell the flowers, or chase bumblebees, or investigate that weird looking hole over there, she would likely reach her destination at about the same time as any normal cat who was free of distractions.

”Good morning, everything!”

Soft, bubbly vocals filled the air with a pleasantly chipper atmosphere, the sunlight warm upon a back of pale lilac and the insides of her unusually curled ears, the skin glowing pink with the sunbeams running through it. Tail weaving curly question marks in her wake, the seemingly springloaded feline continued on her bouncy path towards the designated meeting place of – oooh, what was that?

Had something just fluttered out of the corners of her eyes?

Spinning in a complete circle, a soft squeak of delight burst from her pale jaws upon recognition – naughty thing, trying to flutter away before she could get a proper look at it! The butterfly, perhaps the first one out of it's chrysalis since the weather had thawed, seemed unburdened by Dustpaw's uncanny desire to greet everything with life signs, winged, scaled, feathered, fur-bearing or otherwise. Flapping in a hyperactive zigzag across the open StoneClan territory, Dustpaw was in the midst of pursuit when her original plans for the evening cut across the forefront of her mind, like a lightning bolt to zap her right back on track.

Volepaw! Oh crickets, what am I doing?

Body contorting mid leap to direct herself back onto the proper path – which wasn't a path at all really, it was actually and inconveniently an oddly shaped stone with moss clinging to it for death life – Dustpaw landed with an awkward 'whumph!' but the incorrigibly cheerful feline simply shook herself out once, twice, and began to move again. Feeling that urge to fly over the open expanse of StoneClan's territory once more, the wind whispering sweet nothings in her ear as though to coax her into using her StarClan given talent, Dustpaw threw a bright, rivaling smile to the sun.

And then she took off.

The world became a blur of green and brown and blue and gray, her paws, for all their delicate, neat appearances, traveled over rock and rough bark and dead brambles as though she were a mountain lion, running as though Demon himself were chasing after her. Other than the surprising speed with which the lilac-hued curl-eared she-cat moved, there was nothing else to hint that she was somehow in peril, for her tail was raised like a banner to stream in the wind, the breezes pressing against her chest, plastering her whiskers back as a pure, simple kind of joy took center stage, her tail swinging to the side like a rudder as she made a hard left turn.

Almost ther—VOLEPAW!

With an astonished yelp, Dustpaw's version of stopping wasn't really stopping, but rather an improvised leap over the dark back of her brother to land in a dusty tumble of paws and whiskers and tail in the dirt on the other side of him. Looking at the familiar dark-furred apprentice from upside, Dustpaw waited until her head stopped spinning. Grinning upside down, despite the likelihood that she had acquired a few new bruises, Dustpaw spoke a few simple, wonderfully cheerful words.
”Hi Volepaw! Am I the first one here? Well, you're the first one here, but am I the first one here besides you, or....am I the second? Technically speaking.”

Or had someone else come here but then left which would make her the third?