Meditation [Closed; Solo]

The night was peaceful. A soft symphony of chattering crickets was accompanied by chimes of various other bugs and creatures. Every so often, the she-cat's ear would twitch ever so slightly. Usually it was the light snore of a sleeping clanmate that broke through the still night air. Every so often, a cat would rise to make dirt or stretch briefly before returning to the comfort of their down-lined nests. Robintail offered the glint of amber-hued eyes and a nod of acknowledgement. Every breath was noted by the sensitive fur of her ears. Nothing would surprise the newly named warrior.

Some cats had been rumored to rest during their vigil, or stray from their post, but she was still and present as a half-buried boulder. This was a night for pondering over the responsibilities of a warrior. No longer would inexperience be an excuse for lack of expertise, there was a burden cast over her shoulders the moment her suffix changed. A memory, from a patrol not long ago surfaced in an instant. Shrikethorn had placed her tail over the young she-cat's frame in a comforting manner. But as she considered it now, that seemed only to be a weight. Each one of her clanmates would rely on her from now on. Whether it was for prey or the sense of security that came from strong warriors out on border patrol, cats young and old would now look to her.

Casting her gaze to the sky, Robintail drank in the pale light that seemed to leak from a sliver of the moon, half-cast by clouds. The wisps of clouds weren't threatening and seemed only to want nothing more than to drift in an endless journey across the skies. Stars dotted the navy backdrops, offering their own speckles of luminescence. Starclan was watching over them all. As much as the warriors of the clans served as guardians of the weaker kin, above them all watched the warrior ancestors. She drew in a breath of cool air, closing her eyes and dipping her head for a moment. It was hard to remember that there were moments where it was okay to trust in something greater than herself. Even so, it did not stop the relentless drive for protecting the clan; Robintail would never relent in her efforts.

Eyes opened once more to watch through the entrance of the cave. How it danced and glistened underneath the rays of the moonlight threatened to be distracting. One might be tempted to draw their gaze away in an effort to fight against drooping eyelids. But, no, Robintail was determined to keep the vows she had made to Skyclan and Silverstar. Even a moment spent not watching the camp or the dark territory ahead would be an affront to the code she swore herself to. However, she needed something to focus on, to keep her mind sharp during the numbing and long hours of sitting here. Robintail shifted dangerously into a laying position, legs tucked awkwardly underneath her to prevent it from becoming too comfortable.

It was as she did this that her gaze briefly flickered towards the apprentice's den. Previously, her nest had been made their, tucked away from the sleeping frames of other apprentices. In her early moons as a warrior in training, the she-cat had wanted nothing to do with her denmates, seeing their antics only as a distractions from her goal. How long had it been since that night with Acornpaw? Even as time had passed, the memory was fresh in her mind; the night had been similar to this one. Even if the warrior was as steadfast in her devotion to the code as she had been before, there was now something that crept into the base of her skull and wriggled about like a persistent tick. The presence of Acornpaw was one that she noticed now.

Who would have thought that an annoyingly uninhibited she-cat would be the subject of her thoughts? Nothing had ever been as sharply in focus as the drive to become a warrior, what now pushed her to fight the urge to sleep, but it was laced with musing of the bond that she had built with her most unlikely of companions. Now it was one of the reasons her chest seemed to beat faster with specific purpose. At the gathering, she had told herself that it was merely the impulse to protect a clanmate. But Robintail's thoughts hadn't seen a clanmate; instead, they narrowed in on the specific thought of Acornpaw. She had tried not to think of it but these ideas flitted through her head as easily as the drifting clouds. Despite not sharing a den anymore, they would still have to train together. The newly named warrior had promised then that time would be spend one battle practice.

So I don't have to worry.

Swallowing back a lump of nameless emotion, Robintail refocused her gaze on the still shadows ahead. Her eyes had become sightless and unfocused for a moment, blurring her vision as she thought of her clanmate. It was simply intrusive the way Acornpaw had forced herself into the mind of a she-cat who longed for little more than achieve her goals on her own. Robintail willed her mind to push it away, to find disdain towards the circumstance, but it was impossible. In that moment she admitted one thing to herself, the most honest she had been about her own feelings, and that was that she desired to protect Acornpaw in a way that differed from the defensiveness held for any other clanmate. With this idea settled, she willed herself to focus on something else. There were vicious rogues lurking somewhere in the territory. If she wanted to guard the tortoiseshell apprentice, her mind needed to be sharp.

With a grit of her teeth, Robintail abandoned the indulgence of her mind. Tonight was about the dedication to the clan, not the allegiance to one other cat.