Post by Deleted on Feb 23, 2019 12:46:15 GMT -5
BELIEVE IN STRENGTH
Pumafang
It was an uninteresting border patrol.
Pumafang was trailed by his apprentice, Cliffpaw, his apprentice's brother, Cougarclaw, and a she-cat named Rocktail. That's right, the kit who had that skin problem several moons back. The mountainous black tom glanced at the grey and white she-cat. Not much of an improvement. When their eyes locked, he turned away. He had no interest in conversing with anyone but his apprentice. It didn't seem to bother her though, the warrior quickly turning back to her tan ticked tabby companion.
Pumafang had Cliffpaw by his side at the front of the patrol while Cougarclaw and Rocktail stayed back trapped in leisurely conversation. Those two simpletons are perfect for each other. Pumafang mused. He looked at Cliffpaw expectantly: the apprentice was of greater intelligence than his older brother. The massive chocolate black warrior was a little more in-tune with the kit beside him than he ever was with Cougarclaw: Cliffpaw had a greater self-image, of which Pumafang could antagonize to push the kit longer, harder than he could ever push his brother. An attack on Cliffpaw's ego sent the volatile cat careening into fury, anger that could be redirected into self-improvement.
He didn't understand how warriors like Rocktail and Cougarclaw could just be content with an uncomplicated life.
Cats like Pumafang and Cliffpaw had more going for them, though Cliffpaw would inevitably fall short of Pumafang's unwritten legacy. The apprentice, although self-interested, didn't have the motivation for complete success. It was ego-centrism that drove him to accomplishment. There was a lack of ambition, and whatever inkling of it the apprentice had retained was utilized by his self-indulgent nature.
Cliffpaw would always be a cat with shifting loyalties, only supporting TreeClan so that he could have a nest to sleep in, warriors to protect him, a queen to have his kits, and a meal every day.
He wasn't the first apprentice in all the clans to fall into that walk of life though, and Pumafang suspected there were more cats like that in the world than not. True loyalty was a dying characteristic nowadays, though perhaps that was due to the lack of skilled leaders. Lionstar had been a cat Pumafang looked up to his entire life, yearning to be as charismatic, brave, and diplomatic as he was, though both TreeClan's leader and his deputy were getting old. The chocolate black tom feared who may take their place. Their next leader would have to be just as commanding and respectable as Lionstar to retain Pumafang's loyalty in the clan, and Gorsetail was weak.
It was a smart choice of Lionstar's, making his deputy a cat like Gorsetail.
Gorsetail was everything Lionstar was not: physically inferior, highly intelligent, humble. The TreeClan deputy was diminutive in both size and appearance, without the tact and assuming authority of his lion-like counterpart. Lionstar had chosen a good partner, though he hadn't chosen a powerful leader. Who would Gorsestar take under his wing as a deputy?
Pumafang hoped it wouldn't be him, but he saw no better choice in the ranks of the clan.
Foxfire, the next best in his opinion, would be far better suited as Gorsestar's apprentice. In a time of great need, she had the compassion that he did not, and no matter how hard Pumafang tried to see eye to eye with TreeClan's leadership, his life experiences had hardened him, his soul calloused and abrasive. No matter how many situations he had put himself in, true compassion, sympathizing with others' hardships...he couldn't understand why everyone had become so sensitive all of a sudden.
Basking in the shadow of his family's legacy, expected, just like every generation before him, to reclaim an iconic role in TreeClan...having Goldenflame as a mentor?
Pumafang wondered if the dead cat's past apprentices were as violently trained as he was, though judging by their soft, euphoric view on the world, he suspected not. The chocolate black tom was a changed cat because of Goldenflame, and what was once a youthful insensitivity turned into an inescapable heartlessness. Pumafang hardly seemed to mind his emotions leaking out of the forgotten parts of his entity at a mere trickle, as opposed to the rivers and tsunamis of feelings others thrust on others everywhere else in the clan, though he so often felt like a black sheep because of it. That feeling of social exclusion had tinkered with his mind, and in personal defense, the tom had put himself on a pedestal above the rest of the clan, an effort to escape his fears of normality.
His fears that he would fail his mother, his dead grandparents, and his deceased kin before them in achieving what no other cat in his family other than Blackstar of old could ever achieve. His fears that, he, Pumafang of TreeClan, was just as prosaic, if not more inept than the cats he so often looked down upon.
Sometimes he could recognize, and daresay empathize, with others, though it was so rare an occurrence, and too surreal for him to even comprehend it a reality. It had only ever happened once, when he was consoling his mother after the staggered death of his grandparents, though it was short lived. The same, strong, stony-heartedness had quenched his feelings and sent him reeling into emptiness. He had busied himself in the meantime, all of his actions just a subconscious escape from empathy and the perceived simplicity of day to day life.
From the moment he was an individual with a warrior name, he had busied himself.
"You'll be leading the patrol today." Pumafang announced flatly to Cliffpaw as they reached the LightningClan border. He wanted to see how his apprentice would manage the shared territory. "Consider this an assessment of leadership, diplomacy, and knowledge."
TREECLAN | WARRIOR | 27 MOONS
Word Count: 987
Tags: Ghost the Undead Goddess (Goldenflame mention) | Fawn (Lionstar mention) | Phoenix (Gorsetail mention) | Abyss (Foxfire mention)
Notes: xxx
Tags: Ghost the Undead Goddess (Goldenflame mention) | Fawn (Lionstar mention) | Phoenix (Gorsetail mention) | Abyss (Foxfire mention)
Notes: xxx