sh(o)rt

[Deleted]

Jude was sitting next to a few flowers, busy tearing into a shrew. He hadn't eaten in days. Every now and then he took a few wary glances around. Usually he would love to share prey, but this was too good to lose.

Busy chowing down on prey, Jude hardly noticed a cat approach. He flinched the second he looked up, and swallowed quickly. "H-Hi."

[Dove]

'Idiot.' Dove was watching the youngling from afar, but decided to come closer to him. He looked young and new to Deathclan, so was he of Deathclan blood or just a newly recruit?

"What's your name?" she simply demanded. She assumed now was the time to get to know her clanmates once more. Especially if she were to gain their trust again and hopefully claim Rockclan or another clan as theirs.

[Deleted]

The tabby slowly padded backwards and away from the shrew. As much as he wanted it, he could tell this cat was of importance just by the way she spoke. He looked up at her and gave a polite dip of the head.

"Jude." He answered, straightening up. He hoped the she-cat couldn't hear his stomach rumbling. "You can have that, if you want." He nodded at the prey, taking another step back. 'Who is she?'

[Dove]

Jude. Which means the praised one.

Dove was baffled. A youngling already showing respect to her? Wow. "No, you can have it. I'd rather not see my young starve themselves, and you seem to need it more than me, considering how you're still scrawny, but growing at the same time." The tabby picked up the remains of the shrew and tossed it back to the one named Jude. "If you need help hunting, let me know. . ., but I'm Dove."

[Deleted]

He lifted a paw as the prey landed in front of him. He looked surprised for a moment, then nodded. "Thank you." 'Sweet!' He blinked, pausing as she introduced herself. 'Dove.' Though new, he had heard that name being tossed around DeathClan. Could this be trouble? He stiffened. 'But she seems nice... Maybe that's why she's so popular.'

Jude gave a small smile. "Nice to meet you, Dove."

[Dove]

She purred before giving the youngling a weird look. Where was he from? He was much too scared and calm to be from here. . .. why wasn't he going to start something with her?

"Same as for you," she muttered before tilting her head to the side. "Tell me. Why are you around these parts, Jude? You do know that you are in Deathclan's territory, right?"

[Deleted]

His smile vanished when Dove looked at him weirdly. He took a glance down at himself, though found nothing different about him. 'Did I upset her...?' He couldn't recall saying anything rude.

He sighed just a little when she asked why he was here. 'I must not look like a DeathClanner yet.' He'd been trying his hardest to fit in, though apparently it wasn't working. Jude nodded in response to the question. "I was hoping to become one of you."

[Dove]

'I was hoping to become one of you.'

Now she was interested. Just like almost every conversation that she had with every other newcomer to her clan. "Well, you'd need a lot of help adjusting to these parts," she pointed out, half jokingly. "For starters, Deathclanners would fight for any meal that we can find nowadays. You would not just offer it to your leader simply because." Here, she hoped the youngling caught on that she was of an importance to the clan.

"I'm often kind and nurturing to my followers, but the others? They would often be ruthless, practicing their fighting and battle skills on one another. Tensions can arise, even with the ones that you learn to trust, and maybe love. . ." She knew that love would be something that the tom would probably learn about later, so why not warn him about it now? "If you wish to become one of us, you're free to stay, but if you don't think you belong in these parts, I'd suggest you to leave this part of the forest before some other rogue attacks you for carrying a Deathclanner's scent on you."

[Deleted]

"Well, you'd need a lot of help adjusting to these parts," 'What's that supposed to mean?' Sure, it took effort to get somewhere to sleep and energy to catch this shrew, but what else could there be? He remained quiet as she continued, his eyes slowly widening. 'She's the leader!' That must've been why she was so popular. He frowned.

"What if I don't want to fight you? Am I not allowed to offer prey?" Jude looked up at her curiously. He couldn't imagine fighting a cat like Dove. He'd get defeated before he even lifted a paw.

He listened intently to the rest of her words, nodding slowly once she was finished. He glanced down at his thin frame. He looked weak. 'I'll have to know how to fight...' his eyes went to the scrawny shrew that took him a lifetime to catch. 'And to hunt. But I think I can do it.' Jude looked up at her. "I'd like to stay. I'll just need to learn a few things."

[Dove]

'What if I don't want to fight you? Am I not allowed to offer prey?'

Dove knew what Jude was feeling. She too, was like this naive youngling when Viper first recruited her into Deathclan, heavily relying on Fuzzyink's assistance to adjust to the clan. Maybe that's what Jude needed. . .  someone to watch over him. "Offering prey is a sign of weakness and submission," she said. "I know that you do not want to, and you will not look forward to it, but you'd need to fight and take a stand for yourself here."

At his mention of needing to learn a few things, the tabby smiled. 'It's more like a lot of things, but okay,' she thought. "Have you met anyone else from our clan yet? Where would you like to start?"

[Deleted]

Weakness and submission? 'I thought it was a sign of friendliness.' At this point Jude was realizing he'd have to change a lot to fit in here. He nodded once when she went on, taking a look down at his claws. He began sheathing and unsheathing them, displeased with how small they looked. He dug his claws into the earth and cringed. Dove was right- he definitely wasn't looking forward to digging them into someone.

Jude mirrored her smile. He thought back to the few cats he'd met. Two she-cats and a tom, though he'd really only spoken to one of them. "Just one, really. Her name was Lynx, I think?" He paused at her next question. 'Start?' "What do you mean?"

[Dove]

Dove saw that the youngling was doubting himself, doubting if he could be in Deathclan or not. There was always a potential that she saw in others. Who was Lynx though? She'd have to meet this she-cat soon enough. Maybe a clan meeting was necessary soon enough if things were to get done around here. Drought would have wanted the clan to be using their strength by now and dominating the lands, right?

"I mean, we'd have to make sure that you'd be well off, being out here by yourself. What if some other Deathclanner approached you today rather than me? You would have seriously been made a fool out of yourself." The leader gave her paw a quick lick. "Come. Attack if you dare. I promise that I will not hurt you. Maybe a small bruise, but I won't hurt you."

[Deleted]

"Oh." He should've thought of that. Jude ducked his head down a bit, feeling a little embarrassed. 'I need to stop giving everyone the benefit of the doubt.'

His eyes widened and he quickly looked up at Dove. "Wh-what?" His jaw dropped open in shock. 'But what if I do something wrong? What if she kicks me out of DeathClan because of how I fight?' Not wanting to disobey the leader, he quickly snapped his mouth shut and took a deep breath. Jude lowered himself into a hunter's crouch, then from there he ran forward and tried to crash into Dove.

[Dove]

Dove quickly saw his hesitancy and shook her head in disgust. She knew that he did not want to hurt her, but she was trying to teach her clanmate how to survive out here!

He was quick, but not quick enough for her. Not to mention that he was sloppy in his movements! She swerved out of the way and smiled. "Great! But you don't want your enemy to have the time to even consider your tactics," she lectured. "Make your movements sharp, and also quick, but make sure you know what you're doing and potential moves your enemy might make."

[Deleted]

He landed in dirt. Jude quickly hopped up, giving a quick shake of his pelt to get the dust off. He listened to Dove carefully. "Great! But you don't want your enemy to even consider your tactics." At the sound of this, Jude shot up and attempted to tackle the leader over again, not caring if she had more to say. 'I hope she didn't consider this!'