the worst pies in london......

[squee.]

forest hued gaze flickered in the bright light of the afternoon sun. well, that was a first, right? twilight standing in the middle of camp...in the middle of the afternoon. oh yes, that outsider, that kittypet that didn't belong here with the forest-born warriors. her gaze narrowed slightly with a bitterness that she could never quite rid herself of, hide it easily as she will, it never completely died. shaking her head lightly, the lithe female pulled herself to her paws in order to distract herself from the bitter thoughts that often haunted her mind if she stay still for too long. just like the story of her life, twilight was forced to keep moving to rid herself of some sort of dark haunting. a soft sigh sounded from her as she made her away across camp.

today, already, she had been on two patrols, one hunting trip, a training session and some sort of aimless wander. yet, once again, twilight made her way around the border of the camp...only to turn and head the other way. pacing the camp, lost in thought. the last few weeks- twilight might as well have been dead. with the self-assigned patrols, endless training sessions and aimless wandering....only returning at the wee hours of dawn...she was really nothing but a memory to most of the cats of this clan. however, twilight remembered everyone of them...

closing her eyes once agian- twilight stopped herself from wearing a path into the camp's dirt floor. heaving a heavy sigh the female scanned the clan's camp for any other member of the clan whom was in the camp at the moment....she needed to rid herself of dark, annoying thoughts, so she'll distract herself by talking to someone else.

[Roxie !]

The afternoon sun was already high in the sky, and the tom told himself that perhaps he could fit some hunting in, and maybe a training session with his new apprentice before the day was over. This was a first, after all. The idea of Bandedtail becoming a mentor was laughable, and yet Mistystar had chosen him to train Hazelpaw at the ceremony a few days ago. It still seemed somewhat surreal, but he concluded that he'd just have to get over it and move on...even if he did make the worst mentor in Clan history. The thing was, Bandedtail had problems really committing himself to anything for too long. And having an apprentice required that exactly. But then, there was no use complaining about it at this point. Why not just relax and enjoy the rest of the day? He'd have to eat something before he headed out again anyway.

Stretching slightly, Bandedtail stood up and slipped out of the warriors den. As the tom stepped into the ShadowClan camp, he gave his dark, silvery pelt a quick shake. The sunlight felt warm against it, a sure sign that New-Leaf was on its way. And about time, too! The warrior's eyes closed contentedly for a moment. This was a characteristic gesture: Bandedtail was a relatively easy-going tom with a why-should-I-worry attitude, and he was free of the tenseness that loomed over many warriors like a thundercloud as they went about their duties. And he wasn't about to try and feign this uptight state-of-being, either. It amused him, actually. But enough about that. With a quick swipe of his tongue over his muzzle, Bandedtail glanced briefly around the camp. There didn't seem to be many cats in the camp at the moment, but when he did spot one, Bandedtail blinked a few times to make sure that his eyes weren't deceiving him.

Standing across the camp was the curiously marked black-and-white she-cat, Twilight. He didn't know the warrior all that well, and had only actually spent time with her once before. But this occasion had provoked curiosity in the ShadowClan tom. It seemed as if no one in the Clan knew much about the former kittypet, and it was an invitation of a challenge that was altogether too good to pass up. And what better time to get to know her better than now, on the rare event that the she-cat actually spent some of her time in the camp? Besides, even if most of the other ShadowClan warriors kept their distance from Twilight, Bandedtail couldn't help but take a liking to her. She was...different than most she-cats he'd met before, and he found it refreshing.

He tilted his head slightly, an inquisitive gesture. Eyes bright, Bandedtail trotted over to the warrior, his whiskers twitching slightly. He sat down a couple of tail-lengths across from her with his tail wrapped around his paws and a mischievous grin on his face. "Well, well, isn't this a pleasant surprise!" Bandedtail meowed. His tone was slightly teasing, but not untruthful. He studied Twilight for a moment, eyes narrowed slightly, before adding, "How've you been?"

[squee.]

foresty hued gaze slowly closed once more- dropping the thought of talking to anyone else. she'd be perfect company herself! the very thought almost brought a grin to the female's face....almost but not quite. the very thought of the outsider sitting at the edge of the camp talking to herself didn't go over well in her mind. it was shortly after she had agreed that she was slowly slipping into some state of slight insanity when a faint, yet fimilar scent flooded her senses. bandedtail! since that day in the forest, she had thought of him often- though she flat out refused to let that continue very far. in the end, she had forced herself to pass his flirting off as something he just did....after all most of the females in this camp- some of them with mates already- had something for this mysterious tom. they always talked about him as if he was some warrior from starclan. pssh, yeah right.

she had thought about him only because he was kind enough to regaurd her as a warrior of his clan, right? and that slight butterfly feeling she was getting now? it was just because she hadn't anything to eat since last night! yeah! that was it. she forced her eyes to remain shut- and her body to relax completely...giving him the impression that she hadn't even noticed him.

until he spoke. she had been pretending to be invisible. she had hoped he would just look her over and continue on his way....yeah right, not with her luck. and so, she slipped into warrior-social mode. purring in a warm greeting, she opened her gaze to find that he had already taken his place just a little ways away from her. "and hello to you, too, bandedtail." she replied. listening to his question- thinking through a few answers before replying with a slight shrug. "evidently, not as good as you. congradulations on your first apprentice!" she responded, avoiding having to answer that directly. oh yes, she was hiding everything from everyone....including herself. and she couldn't decide if this was good or not. pity on her, right? she couldn't even tell when she was lying to herself anymore.

[Roxie !]

Bandedtail's grin widened slightly as Twilight spoke, tilting his head as he took her answer in--as if evaluating each word would somehow crack the mystery that presented itself in the form of the she-cat before him. This curiousity...it really couldn't lead anywhere good, could it? But then, Bandedtail was used to all of that. Everyone had always told him that he was too curious and impulsive for his own good. And he'd just respond with a slight smirk, knowing that, in a way, they were right. But did it stop him? Of course not; Bandedtail firmly believed that he didn't have to change his ways for anyone, and that it would do others some good to take on a similar perspective. But then, if he tried to explain this to anyone else, try to change their stubborn (and in his opinion skewed) views, well, that would make him a hypocrite, wouldn't it? Bandedtail could only hope to set an example for the other warriors of his Clan. But then, if Bandedtail insisted on keeping his dancing-through-life kind of attitude...which he did, then some mentor he'd make.

And he knew this, of course. That was why he had been so stunned at the ceremony, and why his whiskers twitched and his grin faded slightly now. Of course, it was only natural for a warrior to congratulate another on getting their first apprentice, but with Bandedtail, it was more a dreaded reminder of the responsibility he owed to Hazelpaw. And admittedly, he hadn't trained the apprentice much yet. The thought of doing so was slightly frightening. What was he supposed to teach her? He hardly knew how to connect with kits and apprentices, as he'd never exactly been the type to sit around and dream of being a father one day.

Well, perhaps Twilight could give him a bit of advice. She certainly seemed a bit more sensible than he was. The thing was, he hardly knew how to ask for it. Sure, Bandedtail was smooth and quick-witted when he was joking or flirting, but asking for help was sort of a foreign concept to him. Well, maybe later...right. For now, he just needed a distraction, and Twilight wasn't an unwelcome one. Upon meeting her gaze, he allowed himself to relax again, and replied calmly enough. "Right...thanks. It'll certainly be...interesting." He gave a slight snort of amusement, as if this was unlikely, which it was. And now, to steer the conversation away from this particular topic.

"But how'd you know about Hazelpaw? I was beginning to think you'd dissappeared." Bandedtail added with a slightly teasing edge to his tone. "Finally got all those patrols done?"