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The Apostles is a warrior cats roleplay based in northern Wisconsin. On Lake Superior, the wild cats have made the Apostle Islands their home. It is on these islands - Rocky Island and South Twin Island - that the clan and tribe cats have lived in a peace and harmony that ebbs and flows with the tide.
But as the tides turn, so does the truce that binds them to one another; and as the water raises, a darkness follows, an evil that will end in bloodshed and violence.
Wisteriaflight had to admit, she was genuinely surprised that Finchstar had given her another apprentice. Especially after she had made it pretty clear she was completely avoiding fighting. She still couldn’t spar without remembering that LichenClan tom. Without seeing her claws dig into his throat.
She was especially surprised that it was Heathermask’s son she received. The molly was pretty… traditional. She didn’t really know her, but she wouldn’t be surprised if she was quick to fight.
It didn’t really matter though. This was her new apprentice. And he was definitely going to be a fun one, considering she already saw herself in the tom. Which was part of why she was leading him towards the same tree she had learned to climb on. The one she had taught Honeyblaze to climb on.
“Slatepaw,” she started, turning to look at the tom once they reached the tree, “as you know, our clan is named after trees. Moving around in them is in our blood,” she continued.
Flicking her tail, the molly turned around. Without turning her gaze from Slatepaw, she leapt up, claws outstretched as she reached for the lowest branch of the tree.
Unfortunately, not looking at the branch turned out to be a bad idea. She hit the branch accurately, like she almost always did, however, her paws immediately slipped. A layer of ice had formed on the branch.
With a hiss of surprise, the molly landed back into the snow, tail waving in surprise. With a shake of her head, Wisteriaflight popped back out of the show. Turning around, she awkwardly padded to another tree that didn’t have ice on it before carefully climbing up this one. “Well. I was going to explain more about climbing before we start lessons but… lesson number one- always check for ice before you climb,” she explained.
Slatepaw’s effervescence was clear to any who saw him with his new mentor; the young apprentice couldn’t keep still, running in circles around trees or shuffling in place when listening to lessons. His mind was on fire, burning with the possibilities of learning from someone who has actually been places! Maybe she would even take him somewhere new, in his first Newleaf. As restless as he was, though, thoughts of his father kept Shalepaw in line. He would be a brave warrior, one that his whole family would be proud of, and one day he would even go on border patrol with his old man. These noble ideals, however, weren’t strong enough to keep the young apprentice from chittering at his mentor’s slip; even with clenched fangs and a soldier’s posture, soft chirps broke free and the tom’s boyish nature prevailed. Shalepaw was listening, though, and had a great deal of respect for his new mentor, although he didn’t know much about her. Personally, he wouldn’t rank checking for ice so highly, but to him, Wisteriaflight’s word was law, and so he took note. Shalepaw gave a cursory glance to the trunk of the tree his teacher scaled, scanning for but a moment before zooming towards the base at breakneck speeds. Just as he was within a pawstep of the tree, the apprentice sprung upwards, nimble forelimbs finding strong claw-holds in hard bark and navigating him around the trunk—circling towards the back so he could overtake Wisteriaflight without obstacle. Powerful kicks on cold integument propelled Shalepaw upwards, dashing beyond branches frozen-over or otherwise too weak to support weight, until the adolescent tom found the perfect platform. It was about three-fourths of the way up the tree, many fox-lengths off the ground, just before the point where trees tapered and branches became unfit for perambulation. Shalepaw carefully pawed onto its length, hunkering down against the glacial wind, occasionally pausing to sweep off any snow that might conceal ice. Finally, he found himself satisfactorily far from the trunk of the tree, and allowed himself a moment to soak in the majesty of the territory. How marvelous a bird’s life must be, he thought. To live a whole life like this. Only after his brief appreciation of nature did Shalepaw remember his purpose, and wheeled around, teetering slightly on the branch, to check where his mentor was. He had heard stories of mentors being hard on their apprentices, but his father had only ever praised him for his abilities. Besides, Wisteriaflight seemed nice up until this point, hopefully she wouldn’t mind?
Wisteriaflight fidgeted awkwardly as Shalepaw stared at her. He had giggled at her slip, which she expected, but the fact that he hadn’t really said anything was… odd. At least to her. Was she coming off as harsh?
The small she-cat smiled softly at the tom. “You can speak, you know. Training is no fun if you don’t-“ the rosette molly didn’t get an opportunity to finish her sentence, as, seconds later, he launched himself at the tree, running head first before jumping onto the tree and scaling it.
“Shalepaw, wait!” She exclaimed, horror piercing her chest as her apprentice practically shot up the tree faster than she could have ever expected.
Without hesitation, the blue molly shot up after him, her olive eyes wide with panic as she quickly placed herself underneath him, ready to catch him if necessary. Thankfully, he was ignoring the branches which would almost certainly break under his weight, sending him to his doom.
Eventually, he picked a branch that was, thankfully, sturdy enough to hold him. Taking a breath, the molly pinned her ears against her head and hauled herself up next to him.
Reaching over, she grabbed her apprentice’s scruff. Pulling him back to the tree trunk, she growled softly and glared at the tom. “Get back down. now,” she snarled at the tom.
Climbing up around him, she positioned herself so that Shalepaw couldn’t go further up the tree. So he couldn’t put himself in even more danger. Turning her head, she glared at the tom, her ears pinned against her head and her fur fluffed up.
Fear flickered in her eyes as she felt the tree sway in the wind, her claws digging deeper into the bark. There was a reason she refused to climb up so far when it was cold or windy out.
Shalepaw recognized his folly as soon as he saw his master bounding up the tree, and suddenly the cold wind was more piercing than refreshing, and the distant ground more terrifying than majestic. By the time she was upon him, the apprentice had scrunched against the branch, ears flat in submission, trying to be as small as possible against a cat already superior in stature. Scared, sloppy skids and slips on bark were quickly ceased when she seized him and directed him back towards the earth. Despite her previous insistence, another cat must have had Shalepaw’s tongue, for he felt there were no words to save him from the encounter he had put himself in. The young tom took his time descending the tree, in part because of his diminished confidence, and partly due to the fear of what awaited him below. What used to be the familiar swaying of a trunk against his body had transformed into a heart-pounding throttling, and every icy wind coerced the apprentice into clinging to the bark for dear life. Throughout the whole of the agonizing climb, Wisteriaflight’s demands echoed in Shalepaw’s head. Sure, Creekstep had spoken sternly before, and he wasn’t a spoiled kit who had never been reprimanded, but for StarClan’s sake! Shalepaw thought she might pounce upon him before he even reached the ground, and her minacious positioning over him only worsened the tom’s anxieties. He was unsure at this point if it was the cold or the fear that caused him to shiver so. As paws touched ground once more, Shalepaw wheeled around to face his mentor before she could dismount. He had suffered through the entire trek down the tree, dreading what comes next; well, he wouldn’t have it! He should speak, and make things right before it’s too late for him. Just as his mentor hit the snow, Shalepaw hurriedly chirped, never pausing for breath, "I really like that you intentionally took a dive earlier to break the ice and so I would feel more comfortable around you and the whole mentor-apprentice dynamic wouldn’t be so awkward and you even taught me a lesson out of it!" Shalepaw’s ears betrayed him, slowly turning and clutching to the top of his head as his tail slid between his legs. If there was anything he could say to make things better, that had to have been the farthest thing from it. “And you climb good…”
