How To Be a Warrior (Open)

[Galelight]

How to be a warrior. That was something Sunheart felt completely lost on. 'Sure, I'm all trained up.... I can fight and hunt for the clan.... I know the territory and the code. All the things. But honestly... I still feel like an apprentice! With a proper name and no training. Or chores. I have no idea how this works!' He internally despaired. True, he'd only been a warrior a couple days. But really, he hadn't really done much. He talked around, met a few new cats.... Exactly the thing he'd done as an apprentice. 

'I suppose I should make some friends my own age...?' He thought. His only friend was the apprentice Fadingpaw... She was a whole 6 moons younger than him. A large age gap. Sunheart had an odd feeling that having your only friend be so much younger.... Would send some odd messages to other cats. So right now, he sat in the warrior's den. Seeing a cat sitting in their nest as well, seeming incredibly bored, he decided to say hello.

"Hello. My name is Sunheart."

[Deleted]

Snowblossom looked at the cat who has just spoken to her. It took her a while to recognize him. 'Sunheart? It's been a while.' She said. 'You became a warrior to.' Snowblossom knew this cat from her small conversations with him. The first was when she was a kit. Next was as an apprentice. As she was new to being a warrior, she did a lot of hunting to prove herself to her clan. She also had to train her apprentice, Dustpaw, so she didn't have much time to talk with old friends. She didn't have much time to worry about being a good mentor, or being fully trained. Well.... that was not true. She stayed up for quite a while at night thinking about that stuff. She still woke before the dawn patrol so he had that time to worry too. At other times she just had to live with being a warrior and train her apprentice or hunt. She had not been sent on a border patrol yet. 'So, how is you life? being a warrior is a whole lot harder that I thought it would be. How are you coping with it?' Snowblossom asked. 

[Galelight]

Sunheart blinked.

It was Snowp- No. Snowblossom. She got her warrior name.... He felt a slight pang of guilt for missing it. 'But it's not like we were too close...' He thought sadly. However, his face just showed his regular smile full of warmth that matched his bright pelt. 

"Well.... I don't know to be honest." He confessed, responding to her question about him coping as a warrior. "I have my apprentice Rowanpaw... I go out hunting sometimes... Other than that I have no idea what I'm supposed to be doing honestly..." He shook his head. "I know those are my only duties anyways... Patrol, hunt, train. Though... I feel like I'm missing something." He looked her straight in the eyes. "Something important. Dunno what it could be... I just know it's there." He didn't mention that he didn't think being a warrior was too hard... Just intimidating in his opinion. 

[Deleted]

She nodded. 'Most of the day i am to busy to worry about that stuff. However, At night before I fall asleep I worry about it a lot.' She said. 'I mean, I love my new jobs and all, but... It's just hard to get into my head.'

[Galelight]

Sunheart stared down at his paws. He didn't really worry about things. He just thought about them. Rather often, now that he thought about it. 'Although... There's someone else who's on my mind more...' A certain maine coone she-cat crossed his mind. He shook his head discreetly, so as to not confuse Snowblossom. 'She's right in front me... My head shouldn't be with her. It should be with Snowblossom... I'm still in the middle of talking with her, first of all.'

He looked at Snowblossom in the eyes. "Maybe it's just because we're new. Maybe as time goes on.... Thing will smooth out and we won't feel so out of place."

[Deleted]

"Perhaps." Snowblossom said. She really had to think on this topic. She had hardly found the time. Now that she thought about it, she had always thought that she would feel this way. "Since I was a kit. That is how long I have thought about bing a warrior. Only now do I realise that I can never truly feel like a warrior to the old terms I used. I thought that warriors were perfect hunters and fighters. It is only now that I realise that those are impossible standards. I think that to truly feel like a warrior we must lower our standards. Mabey if we truthfully accept that warriors can't do everything we will feel like we are more trained than I feel now. Right now I feel like I didn't even finish half if my training."

[Galelight]

Sunheart sighed. "I don't know what I expected when I was a kit... Honestly all I wanted was to learn. I got my wish. I was taught by my mentor. I had my chance to explore the territory and learn things." He looked at Snowblossom with a smile. "But, I think you know now that not a single warrior is perfect. I honestly think... Maybe we just never stop training. For life, I mean." He meowed. "I'm just thinking... I'll just do my best and see what happens."

[Deleted]

Snowblossom nodded. That must be true. As no one could become perfect everyone strived to be perfect in some way. To do this they must learn. Not only as an apprentice, but as a warrior too. "We will always learn. That was something I knew even as a kit. Sage leaf taught me that no matter how old or wise you are you will always have something to learn."

[Galelight]

Sunheart looked on at Snowblossom with a gentle smile. 'She's still thinking about Sageleaf...' He thought. 'Though she's much better than when we were kits... Or apprentices.' Then something dawned on him. Sageleaf nearly gave him 'the Talk'. Considering the nature of the topic... He figured he'd better not say anything. Though he couldn't prevent a slight amount of redness due to embarrassment. "W-well... I do know I'm a warrior and still eager to learn."

[Deleted]

Snowblossom closes her eyes. She thought of Sageleaf's and all of their happy times together. She opened her eyes and shook her head. "Cloudclan needed her more than us. Perhaps it was for the best that she had died." Snowblossom said.

[Galelight]

Sunheart on the other paw thought Sageleaf wasn't that old... Besides, Cloudclan was perfect. Of course they didn't need her. However, he didn't voice these thoughts to Snowblossom. If this is what she needed to believe to function... He would let her. Instead, he smiled. "Yes. But for now... You and I are needed here. With Treeclan."

[Deleted]

Snowblossom looked at Sunheart. "I know." She said in an a mad tone. She had moved on as much as possible from the other cats death. 'I also know from what I have learned from your personality that you would probably really be thinking that she was to young, or that in some way Cloudclan didn't need her as much as we do.' That is what she really wanted to say. She looked at Sunheart. She didn't like snapping at other cats and that is practically what she had just done. She tried to take a deep breath. It took her a while to calm down. When it came to the death of others she was not exactly the one to talk to. The thought of death puts her at the point where she could hardly hold back her stress and anger. Normally she was good at concealing her anger. She only didn't at this thought of death and when under stress.

[Galelight]

Sunheart folded his ears back. Apparently Snowblossom was unfortunately good at guessing his thoughts. Most cats would've snapped back at her, he didn't. "I can leave if you want me to." He mewed quietly. 

[Deleted]

She took a deep breath. "You don't need to." Snowblossom said. She didn't really want to talk about death. She knew that no cat did so she didn't care what else they talked about.

[Galelight]

Sunheart silently lowered himself deeper into his nest and curled up. He didn't know what else to talk about and he knew that Snowblossom was still thinking about death and Sageleaf... He figured it'd be better if they just stopped talking. His thoughts seemed to clash with her's in a bad way.