[ti]Private[/ti]An Unlikely Friendship

[silverfang218]

Liongaze is lounging around near the warrior’s den, taking a rest between patrols. A bit of movement catches Lion’s eye, drawing his golden gaze to a smoky fuzzball that Lion recognizes as Scorchpaw. They hadn’t really spoken other than a quick introduction not too long after Scorch arrived, but Lion had heard plenty of the dedicated tom who should have become a warrior by now.

Lion blinks as he notices the apprentice hauling old moss out of the camp to get rid of. Pushing himself to his paws, Liongaze makes the instant decision to see if he can help; from what Liongaze has seen and heard, Scorchpaw seems to show no disloyalty or ill will so Lion doesn’t quite understand why the smoky cat has been held back. Offering a little help with the constant apprentice duties is the least Lion can do.

Liongaze quietly pads up to the apprentice, greeting Scorch with a quick wave of his tail. “Would you like some help?” Lion’s voice is friendly, genuinely wanting to help his clanmate. He figures that Scorch doesn’t remember him, but he doesn’t bother to introduce himself yet. Lion isn’t one to beat around the bush with things like greetings or introductions.

[Meow]

Scorchpaw hadn't lived a day in MothClan where he wasn't working constantly from dawn til dusk. While many apprentices simply completed their daily training and perhaps brought fresh-kill to the nursery, Scorchpaw was always hunting, tending to the elders, or patrolling. Tending to the elders was his biggest task, which had been assigned to him by Mothstar himself, and, while Scorchpaw appreciated the wisdom the elders had to offer, even he had to admit that they were a lot of work. They always had more ticks to take care of, more stories to repeat for the hundredth time, more soiled moss to throw out, and more complaints to throw at him, whether it was about the type of fresh-kill he'd brought them for the day or how uncomfortable the den was. At first, his daily tasks had run him ragged, though, over the course of the four moons he'd spend in MothClan, he'd grown used to the labor.

Today, though... Scorchpaw was tired. After completing his training for the day, Pigeonpaw had approached him to request that he also take care of the queens, as Pigeonpaw had caught a bit of a cough that he hadn't wanted to pass on to the kits. Then, one of the queens asked him to watch over their kits for a while, and then the other queens did the same...

Scorchpaw felt his eyes close for a moment as he was dragging the whole elders' den worth of moss towards the dirtpile, his paws halting as he began to lean to the side, about to fall over.

Would you like some help with that?

Scorchpaw's eyes snapped open as he jolted awake, gaze turning to a fluffy ginger tom as he offered to help him with the moss. Scorchpaw blinked, feeling the moss slip from his jaws as he looked to the warrior. "Oh... oh." The tom straightened himself up, a bit embarrassed that a clan mate had witnessed his moment of weakness. "I appreciate the offer, but I've been tasked with taking care of the elders on my own," Scorchpaw informed his clan mate. "Thank you, though... Lion...gaze," Scorchpaw murmured, giving the other tom a grateful look as he struggled slightly with his name. Then, without saying anything more, the exhausted apprentice took the moss back into his aching mouth, looking away from Liongaze as he started slowly dragging it to the dirtpile once more. He seemed to take no notice to the large clumps that had separated themselves from the clump in Scorchpaw's mouth, which had started to create a trail that was now several yards in length.

[silverfang218]

So Scorchpaw was told that he had to take care of the elders all by himself, hm? Well, Liongaze is going to have to insist on helping at least a little bit, and anyone who wants to say anything about it can deal with Lion’s temper. For the moment now, Lion steps back to allow Scorch to easily walk past. Lion briefly ponders on how to help without potentially upsetting the apprentice… until he notices the pieces of moss that are falling off of the main chunk that Scorch is dragging. Lion simply starts picking up the bits of moss, slowly trailing behind the exhausted apprentice.

Liongaze follows Scorchpaw at a distance until they reach the place where MothClan typically dumps used moss. Lion trots up beside Scorchpaw to dump the moss bits he’s been gathering up. He then turns to the apprentice once more. “Then I’ll just have to take care of part of the elders’ myself. Surely no one would take issue with a warrior taking initiative and cleaning up one of the dens? Particularly since my brother lives in the elder den. I won’t help you, I’ll just do some cleaning on my own then.” Maybe Scorchpaw understood that, and maybe he didn’t. Liongaze is relatively sure everything he just said was nonsense because Lion just doesn’t know how to use words. Either way, Liongaze has hopefully made his intention clear; he’s going to help, though if Scorch still refuses to accept, then Lion will be as quick as possible to finish as much of the remaining work by himself as possible. If anyone asks, then Lion will simply argue that he wants to help clean up the den that Boarspark lives in. It's the perfect plan!