SunClan Camp || Open RP Thread

Uh.

Tinyleaf, who had begun to lower his head to actually begin eating the prey he'd obtained and plucked a long while ago, was frozen again before he could land the starting bite, ears immediately angled back in a flinch once Honeyflare's words processed. The light cats. Creatures he'd only heard of secondhand, left behind to discuss the state of the clan with his siblings. That wretched story that had ruined everything for everyone, made the whole camp blue and took Beestar with it. Or- I shouldn't think like that. Not here, not next to her son. He didn't have to look to see the tension on the tabby's face; it was mirrored across his own, stretched in the new wideness of his eyes and the sudden weight of his smile, which had previously been so effortless. Now, he could feel every muscle fiber straining to hold the expression as acutely as he did the prickle of tiny shafts beneath his stomach.

"I..." He stared at the bird between his paws, a limp, dead thing. Bare and vulnerable and never to fly again, condemned to the waiting maw of something far greater and more powerful than it could ever begun to comprehend. The will of the clan. Of Starclan. A little too forcefully, he flipped it over onto its underside, hiding its distinguishing features in spite of how much more difficult it was to eat from the backbone. Powerless to stop anything anymore. And.

Tinyleaf perked up, paws pressing around his food as if it might slip away otherwise. "Well, that's alright. Hey, you said earlier you didn't eat bird much. Are you any more interested in trying? Looking at it now, I'm wondering if I bit off more than I could chew! Oh- But don't worry if you're still not hungry, I won't waste it. Just an offer!"

Thank goodness. Wait, why? There was nothing to worry about in the first place! Tinyleaf eagerly nudged the prey over so that it touched the end of Honeyflare's paw. It was definitely a bit of a strange move to have sat there with it for so long and not yet so much as tasted the poor thing, but if it kept the other warrior's mind off of haphazard, precarious topics, then it would be well worth it to create some natural lulls in the conversation. Instead, Tinyleaf had already barrelled forward to take over, steering things sharply back in the direction of the mundane. Normal warriors talk. Normal, easy discussion. With an eager tilt to his ears, he confirmed the other's guess- "Actually, I do! That's where my warrior name comes from!"

Growing somewhat wistful, he thought back to his assessment, back to training alongside his brothers and wondering what sort of titles they'd bear after the transition into the warrior's den. So unlike any of the excitement going on nowadays, it'd been innocent. It'd been a set goal, an easy dream. Normal. The things you were expected to be excited about, so much so that when they finally happened, you couldn't help but feel adrift. Like Honeyflare. It.. probably wouldn't be helpful to bring that back up. Instead, Tinyleaf raised one paw off the ground, a cautioning motion. "It's not exactly recommended technique, since it can be easy to fall and get hurt. Honestly, I'm surprised I haven't yet! But I've always had very good balance. Don't use me as an example, though!" Then, resuming his main point, the paw was placed back to the ground as he drifted back into a light tone, blissfully untroubled. "I used to get in trouble for climbing up too high, but for better or worse, I practiced so much that I'm pretty good at getting into branches pretty fast. Squirrels don't really expect you to follow them all the way up there, so their movements can become awfully unpredictable in their panic, but I don't give up easy. It's a little fun! Ah, but- I try not to do it so much on official patrols, since I know it can worry the cats below me. There's something nice about being up there, though. I'll never get fall, if only so I'm not the reason to place a restriction on it."

It was a silly question- the idea of having to fight a fluffy squirrel seemed like an impossibility! But then again, rabbits were awfully fuzzy and silly looking too, all floppy and cotton-tailed. That didn't stop them from taking a good chunk out of you if you got too cozy in a pursuit. Squirrels may as well be the same, not that Tinyleaf had ever been so unfortunate... In spite of how ridiculous a visual it gave him, he found himself answering with sincere contemplation, whiskers twitching thoughtfully as he gave the other warrior time to eat. "Oh, well... I'm not sure. It's never occurred to me. Squirrels aren't as big as some rabbits can be, so it doesn't feel as much as a threat, but I've seen the way they behave in newleaf. Watching them chase each other around, squealing and scrabbling together... they can be awfully vicious! I guess they just tend not to consider it against cats?" Looking at the treeline, visible from the boundaries of the camp cradled within, he pondered, "Maybe they rely so much on evasion with their climbing skills that they just don't normally have the instinct to fight us. Rabbits aren't so lucky, so they have to be more intense! Or... something."

It was easier to speak from personal experience than spend his time pondering the thoughts of his prey. A bit more confidently, Tinyleaf embodied a fearless hunter as he puffed out his chest, ears held aloft in a bit of indulgent accomplishment. "I'm not scared of a squirrel, though! Or heights, for that matter. Whenever I feel nervous, I just don't look down!" It's not much of a proper solution to the actual question at play, but it suits him. After all, there was nobody better than averting one's focus than Tinyleaf. If he had to make the ground beneath him disappear, he could do it easily. But... sometimes, getting scared is the point. Not a point he should go explaining to other warriors, though. The last time he spoke a little too freely, it'd gotten him a lecture that he certainly didn't want to revisit. Not when he'd come so far.

It was a strange thing to talk about- Discussing methods of capturing prey while they were fortunate enough to already have food at their paws. It nearly put an itch in the warrior's paws to jump right up and head out to find something new, if not for the feathers binding him to where he lay. That, and his partner for the day, of course. And yet, a part of him found a secret pleasure at how far he'd gotten. Honeyflare's a really good listener... and very engaging, too! Maybe, just this once, someone was actually interested in his perspective?

Whatever the case, he was just as eager as ever to please. Tinyleaf shook his head emphatically, as if the doubt had never crossed his mind. "Just because you know you're high up doesn't mean it has to be true in that moment. Like... Well, like playing pretend. Most cats do that when they're young, right?" An instinctive example, with the intention for the feathers still halfway lodged in his mind. "When you play around like that, you can believe anything your mind tells you, and revert back to reality when all is said and done. Kittens know that when they playfight, they're not facing actual enemies. But in the moment, it doesn't matter! They can pretend so hard it starts to feel true, right until they're done playing and it doesn't have to be. It's the same for me! Uh- Not playing or anything, but, not having to think about the ground until I'm already heading back down."

If Tinyleaf noticed Honeyflare's wilting attitude, he didn't make any indication of it. Rather, he cast his clanmate another happy glance, bordering on affectionate if he didn't know better than to be too upfront. Warriors were always a prickly bunch, after all, him excluded. Still, as nice as it felt to be praised by someone he didn't necessarily realized thought highly of him, the praise didn't sit too easily in his heart either. It was as if the other only dealt the compliment at the cost of putting his method down, as if there couldn't be two stars in the sky at the same time. It just wouldn't do.

It was fascinating to hear someone frame his regularly scolded actions as something more akin to training- something innovative, something challenging. He wasn't honestly sure how to feel about it, considering most of the time, his pursuing prey up trees was more or less an act of impulse, albeit one that hadn't failed him yet. Could that really be comparable to something like battle practice, or the kinds of strategies that cats like Tinyleaf didn't even get to have conversations about? It almost felt like too high of praise. After all, if all the cats in the clan were up in the trees, then there'd naturally be a higher likelihood of cats falling off, and for him to get hurt was one thing, but not his clanmates!

Before he could think to voice those worries, however, Honeyflare brought up something much more pertinent. At the mention of the night patrol which he had been distinctly excluded from, Tinyleaf's demeanor drooped- not edging into frustration, of course, never something that uncomfortable. But... a little off-put, for sure, in the way he studied his paws like they were suddenly obstacles meant to trip him rather than carry him forward. "Oh, that." With an awkward sideglance, he filled in the other warrior; just because he'd been left in the dark didn't mean other cats should be. "There wasn't a meeting. It's this whole experiment Turtlefang is helping Rabbitstar with. But... It's not like I'd know much more than that. I know... they're planning to try testing it. But it's only for cats who suit the conditions." It was uncharacteristic to fall into that sort of seamless parroting, almost bordering on mockery if not for the miserable flop of Tinyleaf's tail. "So... I'm not part of it. You might have better luck, though."