[ti]Private[/ti]What Is To Be

[Fireflake]

Red Sky of Late Dawn was asleep. He had planned to stay that way for quite a while. Unfortunately for him, Firstspeaker's commanding voice edged into his dreams and echoed around him like thunder. He groaned softly. Cracking an amber eye open, the tom peered out of the den to see the tail-end of a ceremony. Red shot up in his bed and immediately banged his head against a solid stone in the wall. "Oww!" he growled quietly, cutting himself off as soon as possible so as not to draw attention to himself. Was he... he wasn't supposed to be at that ceremony, was he? Red quickly counted back the moons in his head. No, no, thank the First Cat, this wasn't the day he was supposed to become a home-guard. Not quite yet.

Red stood up and shook out his pelt. Pawsteps were approaching, and for a moment his mind wandered to the worst case scenarios. It was one of his former crushes, it was his mentor, it was Firstspeaker, it was Red's mother, it was.... Well, luckily he'd blinked away the blurriness in his eyes now, because he couldn't think of any worse possibilities. As the shadow approached, he could see it was likely one of the new to-bes coming. Red sat up straight, as if that was exactly where he was supposed to be. The younger cat wouldn't know any different, probably.

[pants]

At the conclusion of the Telling, Cold Stone in Dark Night sat, looking around. He saw the eyes of his mother, her soft gaze proud and smiling. The young tom was to now leave the kit den forever, off to be on his own journey and become a full ledged cat of the Tribe. Anxiety bubbled in him. What was he going to do now? Cold was to be surrounded by not only his littermates, who disregarded him for being skittish, but other to-bes that either ignored or bullied him as a kitten. He would no longer have the comfort of his mother's scent to lull him to sleep at night. She would no longer be around to comfort him when he was sad. She had her own duties now, as she was expected to return to her position of home-guard. Would she ever be there for him again?

Cold's mother nodded to him, as if to dismiss him. She was the mother bird, sending her baby from the nest, expecting him to fly. But Cold wasn't ready. However, it was too late. She stood, turned to a different direction and padded off. Apparently, she knew the only way her son was going to be weaned off her constant comfort and face the world was if she left him to deal with the world himself. Tears welled up in Cold's eyes as he watched the she-cat leave. Of course, she would be around, but how much of their bond would remain in the coming days?

Saddened, the new to-be rose from his position, tail drooping between his hind legs, dragging against the ground as he made his way to the to-be's den. Best to claim a nest spot now... But as he approached, an older tom appeared in the entryway, standing like a boulder that couldn't be moved. Cold continued to pad forward, hoping the tom - Red, was it? - would move. But when it was clear he was to stay there, Cold panicked.

"Oh, um.. H-hi... I uh... " the tom softly stuttered, brows arched in worry as the older tom stood in his way. Cold couldn't really find the words to say. He just wanted to get into the den. Shouldn't that be easy enough to say. He looked to the older russet tom with worried green eyes. "I just... my nest... Because..." was all he managed to spit out, visibly flustered. What if this tom bullied him, too? Made fun of how soft he spoke and how scared he was. Mind as well get this done and over with...