[Phoenix]

Gorsetail

Deputy of TreeClan

i wish everyone was loved tonight
and somehow stop this endless fight

Ever since he had stepped up as deputy, it seemed as though the days had shortened and he never had enough daylight to do everything he wanted. Instead of waking up and checking in with Meadowleaf to see if she had any particular tasks she wanted him to perform, he was the one standing out there on the cold leaf-fall mornings, organizing patrols and making sure everything was running as smoothly as it should. When that was complete (or as complete as it would get that day), he was off to the apprentice’s den to rouse a bleary-eyed Nightpaw so they could begin that day’s training. In the past few moons, he had gotten to know the younger tom and come to enjoy spending time with him as much as he had his previous apprentice. The young cat so aptly named for his favorite time of day might have inherited his father’s looks, but he had the same thoughtfulness and curiosity as his late mother. Theirs were enjoyable training sessions, made easier by pleasant conversation and an intelligent apprentice. But as it now fell upon him to not only make sure that his apprentice learned everything he ought but also ensure the same of the other mentor-apprentice pairs in the clan, the deputy found himself being pulled in multiple direction, and it was with a growing guilt that he acknowledged that he no longer had quite as much time to devote to teaching his apprentice.

And that wasn’t fair to Nightpaw, who had never asked for his mentor to become deputy.

Today, he had decided, would be devoted to training, which was why he now found himself looking up at his apprentice in the tree from the leafy ground below. Although the vast majority of their time these days was spent tracking down whatever prey was left in TreeClan’s territory in preparation for the season to come, brushing up on some battle practice was no less important; after all, making sure that the clan had full stomachs hardly mattered if TreeClan no longer existed because they could not defend their borders. While he did not expect anything of that sort to happen to them, LightningClan had chased out a clan before, and he would not put it past NightClan to take advantage of such an event to expand their land as well. Let it not be that their neighbors thought them weak and easy to beat. Gorsetail had never participated in a large scale battle, but he imagined that forcing TreeClan into war would be akin to rousing a slumbering bear: in times of peace, it was easy to forget the quiet strength of the clan, but when provoked, they became a force to be reckoned with.

“Alright, Nightpaw,” The deputy spoke up, green eyes resting on his apprentice. “Want to show me your attack one more time?” They had been working on jumping down on an opponent from the tree tops, though with an apprentice as old as his, these lessons were, of course, more of a review than learning new material. As one of two clans in the valley whose lands were completely forested, TreeClan had the advantage of height when it came to fighting. The boughs that had sheltered them from the unrelenting light during the past season doubled as excellent perches for leaping at those who never expected an attack from above.

@zen

better days | background image