One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish [Private]

[Brightstream]

The weather finally was calming as Newleaf continued on. For the longest time, it had been raining, but this morning, to Brightstream’s surprise, she had woken up to sunshine and cute, fluffy, white clouds. It was early in the morning and the sun could barely be seen above the horizon. The warmth that seemed inevitable sadly was not quite here. The air had a crisp bite that somehow seemed to get through her fur. The ground was still wet and muddy in spots, and there was a loud squishing sound as the calico cat padded out of her den.

Walking out into the sunlight of the early morning, Brightstream had to blink a few times to get her eyes to adjust. She lazily moved to sit in one of the drier spots and proceeded to yawn loudly and unabashedly. It was too early. So early that the dawn patrol hadn’t even convened. The birds in the trees were quiet, even though the frogs had decided to start up their song. Dew covered everything around her, and there was slight mist in the distance. Letting out a sigh, Brightstream had let her plans for the day fade to the back of her mind until they were abruptly brought back by the loud squawk of a raven.

Oh right! Badgerpaw! The calico she-cat had recently been appointed the mentor to an apprentice. It had left her mind due to the wonderful morning. However, it was now back, and she knew that she should take advantage of this nice day. Not to laze around and maybe catch some fish, but to train her apprentice. She had no idea what she was going to teach him, yet she was just going to go with it. She would figure out something while walking throughout the territory… hopefully…

Brightstream stretched once before proceeding to meander towards the apprentice’s den. She quietly slipped inside and quickly located her apprentice. She moved over to him and in the process accidentally flicked her tail over a different apprentice’s face and made them grown and shift. Instinctively she whispered, ”Sorry.” Which then proceeded to make another apprentice make a little whining noise and roll over huffily. This isn’t going so great. She was a bit embarrassed, though she always did this. She had always been the apprentice to wake the others up, and she was still the warrior to wake up her friends. ”Badgerpaw, meet me outside for training.”

Desperate to get out of the awkward situation, Brightstream turned, once more flicking the apprentice in the head with her tail, and jogged out of the apprentice’s den. She returned to her dry spot and began to groom herself as she waited for Badgerpaw to join her.

@badgerfur

[Deleted]

Badger was sleeping in the apprentice den when he woke up to stirring and whining. He looked around for a moment before he heard his name and looked to the warrior in front of him. Upon her words, he was confused. He was an apprentice now? Since when? He couldn't remember his apprentice ceremony. He couldn't even remember his mentor's name. Immediately he shot up looking fearful. He couldn't remember his mentor's name! Slowly he walked out of the apprentice den and stared at Brightstream, trying to come up with her name but nothing was coming to him.

"Ummm.... What's your name again? I'm sorry, I forgot."

He hated those words. He always forgot, and he wish, just once in his life, that he would rememeber for once. He let out a soft sigh and sat himself down. Training, he was excited to start his first training session, but he had to ask. Was this really his first training session? For all he knew, this could be his second or third! He doubted third though, as if it was he would have some memory of training of his mentor but it could easily be his second for all he knew and he didn't like it. He looked up to Brightstream slowly, his hazel eyes stared at her until he looked towards the exit of the camp. Honestly, he felt sorry for her. It must of been terrible being paired up with him as a mentor who had memory problems and had to redo everything multiple times to remember and it forced his mind to go back to old thoughts. Was it selfish of him staying here trying to become a warrior? Making others word harder than normal just for him? He shook his head, trying to ignore the thoughts. He would keep trying to overcome it for now. Maybe he would get better?

Brightstream

[Brightstream]

Brightstream quickly licked her paw twice and ran it over her face repeatedly to try and both make herself look more put together and wake herself up. It wasn’t long before Badgerpaw could be seen walking up to join her. She stood up and turned to fully face him. ”Morning Badgerpaw!” Her voice was bright and showed none of her inside sleepiness or self-doubt. ”Oh that’s okay, it’s Brightstream!” In the back of her mind, she had the vague memory of the deputy warning her that this apprentice had memory problems. ”Ready for your first day of training?”

It wasn’t a real question. Brightstream didn’t wait for an answer and immediately turned to exit out of camp. She moved slowly so that her apprentice would have no problems keeping up with her. ”Okay! So… First day of training…” It now came back to her that she had no plan of what to do today. She had spent the last night thinking about what she could do and her mind had come up blank. ”Umm…” She tried to think of what the first thing her mentor had her do, yet that was such a long time ago that the memory was rather faded. ”Fishing!” She randomly burst out whipping her head around to look at Badgerpaw. ”Fishing, that’s what you are going to learn today! It’s one of the things that makes us RiverClanners unique and different from all the other clans. We eat fish and swim and do fun things like that. The other clans don’t like it. They’re weird.” She rambled on as she turned north. ”Let’s go to the more Northern part of the river. The current isn’t as fast up there, even if there isn’t as many fish.” She didn’t want this kit falling into the river and getting swept downstream on his first day of training. That would be really bad. ”So what are you most excited to learn about Badgerpaw?”

@badgerfur

[Deleted]

Badgerpaw nodded softly at her name. Brightstream, right and he smiled when she mention it was his first training session. So this was first impressions then, he would have to try hard. He had to remember that. He let out a sigh and began to follow her. It seemed she didn't know what they were going to do for their first training session but eventually she came up with fishing. He didn't mind that, he liked to learn about fishing. He smiled, getting ready as he followed her. When her question came he thought about it but honestly he didn't know. It wasn't like he was going to remember.

"Honestly I don't know. I want to learn what I can, but it's hard for me. I keep forgetting. I keep having to redo things, I couldn't even remember your name, or that I was an apprentice. My memory was so bad, I couldn't remember my own family names. I'm sorry Brightstream, I'm sorry I'm your apprentice. I feel sorry for you, I'm going to be hard work but I'm going to try hard, I'm going to try really hard."

He gave a small smile but the sadness in his voice was obvious. He lowered his head and continued to follow her slowly. He felt sad about his memory and he did feel sorry for her, he would feel sorry for anyone who was his mentor. He was a burden, he wish he wasn't cursed with such problems. He wish things were easier for him but things would never get better.

[Brightstream]

Brightstream’s face and body language were calm, while on the inside she was panicking. Doubting herself was common, so she knew how to keep it hidden. But at this moment she was worried that it might be showing, even though it wasn’t. Having an apprentice had been one of her worst and best dreams once she became a warrior. Part of her couldn’t wait to have the chance to teach a new clan member about the ways of being a RiverClanner. But now that it was a reality, her self-doubt was rearing its ugly head, and thoughts about what could happen to this apprentice if she was a bad mentor kept harassing her.

Badgerpaw’s voice broke Brighstream out of her panic and instead forced her to focus on his answer to her question. She looked over at him as he talked, taking in all of his words carefully. The calico stopped in her tracks as her head tilted in confusion at the black and white apprentice. ”Why are you sorry?” What did he have to be sorry about? It wasn’t his fault that he had memory problems, so why was he apologizing? ”I don’t understand.” For half a second she frowned, trying to understand. Then her face snapped into a smile. ”You don’t have to apologize to me! And I already know about your memory problems. They told me about your memory problems when they asked if I wanted to be your mentor. I still said yes!” To be fair though, at the time she had just been so excited at the possibility of being a mentor that she hadn’t really thought it over, but she had thought about it a bit later. ”Don’t worry about your memory problems, and don’t be sorry for me. Your memory problems aren’t your fault, and as long as you try I will be happy!” The tip of her tail twitched in a friendly manner as she spoke to her apprentice. ”If you have to redo things that’s okay. If it takes longer that’s okay. Heck! If it takes 20 moons that’s okay. Just do what you are able to do.” There was a happy excited feeling in her chest. The feeling she got whenever she got the chance to help somebody. She hoped she could help this poor apprentice with his memory problem, or at least his self-confidence. She honestly wanted him to do well, and she would train him for twenty moons if that is what he needed. She already was getting some ideas on what the best way to teach this apprentice might be.

Brightstream smiled kindly at Badgerpaw once more before turning back towards her path, ”Come on, follow me!” She kept her pace slow so that the smaller apprentice wouldn’t have to sprint to keep up. ”Let’s go find some fish!”

@badgerfur

[Deleted]

Badgerpaw listened to his mentor and gave a small smile at her words. He hoped he wouldn't have to wait twenty moons to become a warrior though. He let out a small sigh as he slowly looked up to the sky. If Starclan were real, then why did they allow him to receive such a curse? Or did they just not care? That was why he couldn't believe in Starclan, because if he did, he hated them. He shook his head slowly before looking back to his mentor.

"I just worry. What if I forget my own warrior name, what if I forget my own apprentice? What if I forget my own mate? My own kits? This curse will never go away, sometimes I feel like I'm such a burden. That's why I feel sorry for you, because of my memory problems. I can't wait to become a warrior, and I'm excited to learn how to fish but I'll probably forget by sunrise. That's why I have to wonder, do I really belong here?"

He continued to follow her, as he did he let out a sad sigh. His eyes were focused to the ground as he thought about his place in the world. He felt so selfish, trying to be a warrior and forcing others to be his mentor. Even if she took him knowing his problems, somebody had to be his mentor, someone had to suffer. So was it selfish of him? To want to become better, to want to become a warrior?

Brightstream

[Brightstream]

Brightstream’s heart dropped. She wanted to just tell the little apprentice that everything would be fine, though she had no way of knowing if that was true. Everything that he was saying sounded like a real possibility, so what was she supposed to say? Don’t worry? Everything will end up okay? What? She hadn’t been trained for this possibility, so she said what came to her mind. ”I don’t think you should worry about the what ifs. They are a possibility, not a reality. There just thoughts in your head, not things in the real world.” She tilted her head at the apprentice, ”You know, I had a similar problem. I didn’t have memory problems, but I wondered if I belonged here. You know what RiverClanners are known for? Intelligence and grace.” The calico let out a little chuckle, before continuing, ”My mother is intelligent and graceful, so is my dad, and my sister, and my great aunt, and most of my older siblings. And I’m neither of those things, and I wondered if I belonged here. But I ended up realizing that I did.”

Brightstream realized that she had gone on a little tangent and gathered her thoughts back up again. ”What I’m trying to say is, just because you’re not like the others doesn’t mean you don’t belong here. Just because your memory isn’t as good as everyone else’s doesn’t mean you should leave. It just means that you are a different, unique, special cat and that you might have to work a bit harder than the rest.” She hoped that her words might help the young apprentice, though she wasn’t sure. She hadn’t had to deal with a situation like this. She wanted to just tell him that everything would be okay and for him to just accept that and become a happy-go-lucky apprentice, but that wasn’t how the world worked. Cats didn’t just become happy because you told them to be happy. They were complex, and she just would have to try and best to figure out what would comfort this apprentice.

@badgerfur