Project Badass || Rosepaw

Blackthroat wanted to ditch the pity party and concentrate on something else. Morningstreak was a fine warrior - a wonderful, albeit completely cold, deputy - but they hadn't been close. It was a moon after her death and the camp was still stuck in this perpetual sadness. And with the loss of prey things were only growing worse. Blackthroat needed to take her mind off of the hunger in her stomach and focus it on something else - something else that needed work. So, as soon as the dawn broke over the horizon the she-cat she high-tailed it to the apprentice's den and dragged Rosepaw out onto the moor. Her apprentice hadn't been reluctant, but rather completely submissive - as if she expected anything else. They trekked silently through the grass and settled on the crest of a hill. Blackthroat spun on her heels and curled into a demeaning sit.

She fixed her apprentice a cold, hard stare. The she-cat let her gaze rake over the small, trembling apprentice. Slowly her head began to shake back and forth. She was disappointed, completely frustrated. The gathering had only confirmed her fears; Rosepaw was going to be a challenge. The little she-cat had spent the entirety of the night hiding between Blackthroat's legs. Sure, perhaps this particular gathering had been a little frightening to say in the least - but really? Did Rosepaw really have to practically piss herself at every noise, every little movement! Blackthroat was seconds away from grabbing her by the scruff and shaking the ever-living shit out of her. "Look." She began, her words bit into the air. Instantly the apprentice shrunk away, already terrified by her vicious approach.

A heavy sigh left the pretty she-cat's lips, "Rosepaw, do you want to spend the rest of your life pissing and whining over every little goddamned thing?" Blackthroat rolled her eyes, "Do you know what you did during the gathering?" She leaned in close to her apprentice, her breath hot in her face, "Please, explain it to me." Blackthroat pulled back, her green eyes dug into the apprentice's skin; waiting, begging her to grow a pair and to just fucking give her hell. Blackthroat wasn't sure what her game plan was. She just figured that if she badgered the poor girl enough then she would eventually snap and stop worrying for once. The world wasn't as malicious as Rosepaw made it out be and Blackthroat wanted to show her that. The she-cat felt her gaze soften, perhaps she needed a different approach. Was yelling at her really going to work?

"Look," She began again, "What happened to you?" The black and white she-cat sunk onto her haunches; bringing herself to the apprentice's level. Clearly there was something more to this. Unfortunately Blackthroat wasn't entirely sure what is was. Rosepaw was young and the warrior didn't know much about her. She knew that at some point she had a brother but he was dead. Was it his death? Had that shattered her confidence? Blackthroat could feel a snort rising but she pushed it away. She wasn't going to ruin whatever progress she had managed to produce. "Rosepaw," Her voice was soft, comforting, "You can tell me anything. I'm your mentor. I'm here to help you." Blackthroat was going to throw up.

Right at the crack of dawn it seemed, her mentor, Blackthroat was there to drag her out of her comfortable sleep. Right when Sootpaw had appeared, she'd been snatched from the flowery meadow with the sunshine that had warmed her fur so wonderfully. Instead, the stick-thin apprentice was being hauled out of the bleak atmosphere of WindClan's camp and into the breezy, grass-filled moors. Although the area her Clan was most proud and confident of, it was a place that made uneasiness still in the ebony she-cat's bones.

Just as Rosepaw was thinking of how open and intimidating the grasslands she stood in were, something far worse came to her mind, or rather, her ears. Blackthroat began to speak, and the harsh tones she projected made the tiny apprentice shrink back, shivering and whimpering. However, she did listen close to her mentor's words. While the black and white warrior scared the shit out of the poor feline, she was also someone she admired very much. The way Blackthroat spoke her mind without a care and her general fearlessness was something that reminded her of her brother. Rosepaw really wanted to be like that, too.

At the mention of the gathering, Rosepaw's golden eyes widened fearfully, tail tightening to her form at its place between her legs. All those toms alone had made the black she-cat skittish already, and then the worst possible thing had happened; chaos. Black birds had blotched out the moon completely, and cats had panicked as the mighty deputy of WindClan had bled to death for no apparent reason. All of that together had literally almost made Rosepaw pee herself. She'd never be bold enough to admit it, but she'd also almost passed out as well. Then, as Blackthroat demanded she explain what she'd done, the larger she-cat's face uncomfortably close, Rosepaw yelped and tried to stutter out an intelligible answer.

"Uh-uhm....I-i was scared...w-weren't all the...uhm...wasn't e-everyone else?"

Rosepaw was barely able to look her mentor in the eye as she spoke, gaze flicking around just as frantically as her words. However, she visibly calmed as Blackthroat went on, this time speaking softer. Gazing up into the she-cat's green gaze, Rosepaw was reluctant to speak. It took her a long stretch of silence and a lot of rapid blinking to finally heave a shaky sigh and respond honestly.

"My...f-father...h-he used to...um...he used to h-hurt my m-mother....some...times. Sootpaw...was the o-only one w-who would protect me...f-from cats like him...a-and now he's go...ne.."

Along the way, Rosepaw had choked up a lot, voice cracking emotionally in some places.For her, this was an immense show of trust. Not many cats got to hear her speak, let alone about her past. Just thinking about her father made her knees weaken and her heart race, and not in a good way. Now she was shivering even harder, bony frame cowering close to the grasses. She didn't quite see how telling her mentor her history would help, but since it seemed so important to her, she'd complied.

The warrior winced, "It's-" The words fell flat on her tongue. She didn't know what to say. This was some brutal shit. She knew Rosepaw was tattered, broken - it was obvious something had happened to her, but she wasn't prepared for something like this. The apprentice was young, too young to understand what she was saying, but old enough to understand that her mother had been suffering. The warrior closed her eyes, as an attractive female, Blackthroat's had her share of unsolicited toms. At gatherings they'd catcall her, hell, in camp she's had a few whistle nasty remarks, but the black and white she-cat was unforgiving. She'd spit it right back with a snap in her jaw. She wasn't going to put up with that sexist shit. The warrior hated being a she-cat. She hated that her life was diminished to her ability to push out kits. She hated that they'd look at her and assume weak. She hated that in the end it only came down to two things; toms and she-cats.

But what she hated most, was that there were she-cat's out there, like Rosepaw's mother, who weren't strong enough to protect themselves. They weren't strong enough to fight back. So they had to endure the horrors these toms pressed against them. The she-cat opened her eyes, a fire burning beneath them. She wanted to do everything in her power to ensure that Rosepaw wasn't going to end up like her mother. She wanted to show Rosepaw that as a she-cat, she has power. That she is powerful, that she doesn't need someone to protect her, that she can do it all by herself.

Blackthroat dipped lower onto her haunches, and cradled the apprentice with her gaze. She'd have to reach deep within herself to find the words appropriate enough to get her stances across. The warrior was used to throwing her tongue recklessly, words biting and brash. She knew in this case a lecture wasn't going to be the answer. "Rosepaw," She began gently, "What your father did was unacceptable. It was wrong, and I would like to tell you that it was a one in a million occurrence." Blackthroat's gaze softened, "I'd like to tell you that the world is safe and that cats are good - that everyone does the right thing, and that the world isn't selfish."

"But I can't. I cannot lie to you. The world is a terrible place, and there are bad, bad cats out there."

The she-cat lifted herself from her haunches and fixed her apprentice with an unfaltering stare, "But I can teach you how to survive, and that's the best anyone can do."