[ti]Open[/ti]If You Are Strong You Cannot Fall

[LupTacco]

The beams of the barn creaked intermittently beneath his paws, and the young tom had to keep reminding himself not to look down. Only trouble was his head somehow wound up looking straight at the floor when he opened his eyes again. Oh StarClan I hate heights, Dustpaw gulped, looking across the beam at the other loft. It felt impossibly far away, but he had to do this, right? If he didn't learn how to compensate for his lack of balance now, it could lead to trouble someday. He wasn't a great climber though, so this barn was his only other option, and he hadn't wanted to bother his mentor about it. Glancing back down again, his vision swam, and he really, really wished he'd brought someone along for moral support. 

Taking a deep breath, he scolded himself, Just do it already! It's not even that big of a drop. He couldn't have chosen a worse time to do this, but admittedly recent events were what made him want to correct his unpredictable footing on dangerous surfaces. Robinpaw's body flashed in his mind, and he shook his head to clear it. The barn was nowhere near as dangerously tall or rocky as the cliff, right? Right, Dustpaw nodded to himself. Tentatively, he reached a paw out onto the beam. First step- resounding success. The second step was a little easier, and he made the fourth and fifth ones with grace. 

On the sixth step, he took too big a reach and he felt his body sway. No! No no no no, Dustpaw immediately crouched, grappling the slick wood with his claws all the way out. This wasn't going to be fun at all. The apprentice sighed, sheathing his claws once he managed to stop shaking. "I'm parthetic..."

(Parthetic = Pathetic, the added 'r' is to show how he pronounced it) 

[silverfang218]

Sootpaw frequents the big twoleg den often, as he knows the valuable catmint herb grows in the garden and mice are plentiful. He likes to hunt here, though he’s always careful to listen for twoleg activity. Today, however, it is the sound of another cat above his head reaches his ears.

Sootpaw enters the barn and quickly bounds up to join his clanmate, who he recognizes by scent to be his denmate Dustpaw. Sootpaw’s claws dig in as he works his way up onto the beam opposite of Dust, so that he and his denmate are facing each other high above the ground. At first, Soot’s gaze is quizzical, but it only takes a moment for it to turn into understanding.

Sootpaw has his own disability he’s been trying to overcome; his head is tilted at a strange angle so that he can see both the beam in front of him and his denmate in his limited range of vision. He’s been the victim of many surprise attacks from his blind side during battle training.

Sootpaw speaks softly, so as not to startle his denmate (hopefully), “It’s alright, you can make it. I believe in you.” The usually solemn white apprentice gives an encouraging smile to Dustpaw, hoping he can offer a little moral support to Dust while also being her to lunge out and steady the tailless apprentice should he start to fall (Robinpaw's demise was fresh in all their minds)…. Though they would likely just end up falling together.

[karambito]

Pricklepaw

Joining his two den mates inside the barn, the young black tom gazed up to Sootpaw and Dustpaw, a gentle smile across his face now. The sun filtering in made it hard to see the two apprentices who were up high, but hew believed in them both. Nudging a big stack of old hay underneath where he thought Dustpaw would land, Pricklepaw gazed back up, watching with a second before an idea popped into his head.

Scrambling up to where they were, he lost his footing a few many times before he was on another beam across from them. Pricklepaw also had a short, stubbed tail that he had, and was still, learning how to use like his clan mates used their normal long tails. Alongside this, the young tom also had a face that was smushed in, often making it hard to breathe in certain conditions. "You're not pathetic!" He informed Dustpaw with enthusiastic kindness. "Just a little wobbly, like a baby bird" he joked with a chuckle, like he always did. "Use your ears, they'll tell you what to do" Pricklepaw offered the true advice, but snorted at how punny it sounded too.

[LupTacco]

He was roused from his introspection by a soft, kind voice. Looking up, he spotted the white form of Sootpaw and felt a little relieved. "Th-thanks Sootpar," Dustpaw murmured, doing his best to steady his heartbeat. The other apprentice's presence was reassuring; it couldn't have been easy for him to learn how to cope with his wonky eyesight, but the tailless apprentice had seen him practicing hard to compensate. If Sootpaw could be that brave, then so could he. In theory anyway... he doubted himself again. "Okay..." he slowly rose to a half-crouch, and let his claws retract until only his pawpads were keeping him on the beam. 

His shoulders twitched as he stifled a flinch from the shuffling that came from below; peering over the edge of his perch to see the distinctly flat features of Pricklepaw. "Hey, Pricklep-paw," he made an effort to keep his quirky speech under control, and noticed that the other apprentice had managed to shove some hay underneath him. He knew Pricklepaw had a shorter tail than normal, too, though it wasn't as extreme as his own. He groaned internally, pulling a face- I could have just asked him about it! Too late now, though. 

His nose twisted with a confused look. 'Use my ears'? I guess I'll try it? Whatever that means, Dustpaw finally stood up properly, trying to focus on the way his ears moved and how that affected his balance. Mostly he just felt really silly, twitching his ears about and probably staring way too intensely at the wood beneath his paws. But, the more he focused, the more he could almost feel something at the base of his ears. Walking forward slowly, he lost focus on everything but the feeling of the wooden beam and the minute shifts his ears made to correct his course. Against his better judgement, he let some excitement work its way forward. I'm doing it... I'm actually-! 

"Whoa!" just as he glanced at Sootpaw and Pricklepaw with a look of joy, he tumbled the opposite direction, rolling off of the beam but landing relatively lightly on the pile of hay below. "Ooh," Dustpaw groaned, the wind knocked out of him for a moment and his side a little sore but otherwise fine. He got over it though when he looked up. He had done it! Even if only for a moment, he actually had it! He beamed at the other two, "I actually! I did the... I... um, the word... b-ballast?" He shuffled his paws bashfully, tripping over his words the longer he spoke. 

[silverfang218]

Below them, Sootpaw sees a third apprentice he recognizes as Pricklepaw. Perfect. Despite being able to feel some of Dustpaw’s pain here, Sootpaw thinks that Prickle will be able to help a lot more than he can. Even so, Sootpaw doesn’t move. He’ll be the goal; Dustpaw will have to cross the beam in order to get to him.

Soot purrs very softly as he sees Prickle push some of the old hay beneath where Dust might fall, taking his eye off of Dust in order to watch Prickle for just a moment. I wish I would have thought of that. That’s a good idea. Soot keeps his eye on Prickle as the short tailed apprentice scrambled up to their level, before slowly turning his green and grey gaze back to Dust. Dust… seems to be getting the hang of it. For just a moment, Sootpaw thinks that Dust is not only not paying him or Prickle any more but also that Dust is slowly walking forward without much trouble. It would seem Prickle’s advice about his ears and all that ear twitching seems to be working.

And then Dustpaw loses focus and looks up at the gathering of apprentices around him… and then he falls. Soot hops forward to help, though he’s a bit too slow; he nearly falls himself though he quickly regains his balance using his long fluffy tail. He quirks his head to the side so he’s looking down at Dust. “Hey Dustpaw, you okay?” He asks, a bit of concern evident in his usually unreadable voice.

Soot breathes a sigh of relief as Dustpaw speaks up. We did not have a repeat of Robinpaw, everything is fine. “You looked like you had your balance fine there for a moment.” He replies, an encouraging note in his voice. Soot was honestly still looking for some way to learn to deal with or get around his blind spot, so seeing a denmate working to overcome a similar (somewhat similar) difficulty makes Soot so proud and happy. He’s even smiling down at Dust; he doesn’t really smile all that often, especially not after his adopted mother’s death.

[karambito]

Pricklepaw

Purring with encouragement, Pricklepaw gives a little nod to Dustpaw in affirmation. "There you go!" The tom chuckled, "You got it-" the young tom's talking was cut off as the other apprentice in front of Sootpaw began to wobble a bit and then plunged to the ground. Fur prickling, Pricklepaw immediately looks down, his wide eyes some how even wider as his heart skips a beat. Was he okay?

Watching the figure of his den mate, the stirring and movement let Pricklepaw sigh in relief as he glanced at Sootpaw and let out a breathy laugh, shaking his head. As Dustpaw excitedly calls up to him that he landed his jump, Pricklepaw congratulates him from above. "I'm surprised you landed on your paws!" he jokes again as per usual. "You're like a fish on land!" the joke was all in good, loving heart as Pricklepaw had struggled and still does struggle with the balance issues that come along with a short tail. Pricklepaw didn't say it, but he was thoroughly impressed bu the other apprentice's landing skills, he was learning fast and Pricklepaw wished he could do so too. Landing on his feet was a difficult process for the dark black tom.

Looking back over at Sootpaw, he flicks his ears towards him as and asks "you wanna jump down first?" Pricklepaw felt nervous to jump down from so high, but now he felt he ought to try because Dustpaw had managed to. But first he wanted Sootpaw to, just in case, just to boost his own moral. Sinking his claws into the soft, worn wood, he gazes back down at Dustpaw and smiles his silly, smushed face smile at him.

[silverfang218]

Sootpaw glances over at Pricklepaw as he hears the other apprentice move… or it looks like he does, but Prickle has ended up on Soot’s blindside. After only a moment, Sootpaw turns his gaze back down to Dustpaw, a smile tugging at the side of his lips at Prickle’s joking.

The snowy apprentice’s tail flick back and forth as his gaze once again lifts from Dustpaw, this time deciding to settle on the soft wood beneath his paws. Jump down first? It seemed like a long ways down… but it was somewhat hard for Soot to tell. He wasn’t all that good with distances. Even so, Dustpaw had been fine, and Soot has faith that he can land on his feet. “Yeah, sure.” Soot says, his voice having a nonchalant tone. His gaze floats back down to the hay pile that Prickle had pushed under Dust. Because of his trouble with distance, it was hard for Soot to say if he would land on the hay pile from where he was. He’s gonna do it though, you just watch.

Bunching his muscles, Sootpaw leaps down. He aims to land on the hay pile, but, of course, any cat with two functional eyes could have seen that he was several long tail lengths off. He still lands on his paws, though it was a long fall and the landing jarred him a bit. He takes a few steps forward to ease the shock on his paws and legs while shifting his weight back and forth before calling up to Prickle, “It’s safe to come down and all, but I would recommend landing on the hay.”

[LupTacco]

Dustpaw's whiskers twitched with amusement at his clanmate's teasing. "Better a fish than a- than uh," Before he could think of a suitable comeback, he was distracted by Sootpaw taking aim. He didn't really register how off the young white tom's angle was until it was a bit too late, though. "You alro- alrin- you okay?" Dustpaw murmurs with concern; even with the hay there it was a bit of a rough landing. He couldn't imagine how Sootpaw managed to stay composed sticking that landing and just walking it off. At his mention of the hay again, Dustpaw scrambled backwards off the scratchy yellow grass, not wanting to block Pricklepaw from the softer middle section he had landed on. 

"Yeah jump's not too b-bad, I think" he called up, shaking strings of hay from his legs and belly. His paws were still trembling with excitement- it felt like the start of a new chapter in his life. One where he didn't fall over half the time when he ran around corners. And, it was really something special to be interacting more with his fellow apprentices. He'd been too embarrassed to really try it much before. 

[M'Lady]

Oh my oh my, there sure was a bit of a commotion in the barn today. These kits were lucky that it was Tequila that was around and not his boss, for Whiskey sure as stars would tear their pretty little whiskers from their pretty little faces. The large tom watched in amusement, from the shadows of the bales of hay in the loft, as the wild kittens jumped to and fro. Well, wouldn't it be as exciting as a mouse nest on a cold winter's eve to scare the living lights out of these tiny little warriors? He'd heard of wild cats, he didn't think they'd be stupid enough to wander into a barn that smelled like two full grown toms.
He strode from the shadows, jumping down into the hay with a loud thump of his paws, to greet the apprentices that lingered below.

"Well well, what do we have here?" He mused, a southern twang to his voice as he studied the little kittens, that had wide eyes and no words. "What do you young 'uns think yer doing in my barn?" Well, technically it was Whiskey's barn, but these kits didn't need to know that. Whiskey was snoozing away somewhere anyway.
"Jumpin' around like lil field mice, are ya?"

[Cosima]

DAISYPAW - -

The young tom sat at the barn door, watching the apprentices in the loft from below. Daisypaw smiled as he watched Pricklepaw encourage Dustpaw. Daisypaw wasn't the most courageous of cats, but when he was around Pricklepaw, he felt as if he could take on the world. He wouldn't let Pricklepaw know that, though. Pricklepaw is his best friend, and he didn't want to ruin it if he didn't feel the same way.

"That was great, Dustpaw! Excellent balancing!" He called out to the apprentice. He watched as, one by one, they leaped down from the loft. Pricklepaw stayed on the loft, and Daisypaw made sure to watch his movements carefully. He would be upset if his best friend were to get hurt.

"Well well, what do we have here?"

Daisypaw jumped at the sound of a stranger's voice. The cat had crept from the dark spots of the barn and snuck up on them. "U-uh... we're... just playing, sir. We're sorry to disturb your barn, sir." The cat was older, very scary, and definitely stronger than all of the apprentices combined. "S-sir, please, don't hurt us. We mean no harm."