🏳️‍🌈 ᴛʜᴇ ᴄᴏʟᴏʀꜱ ᴏғ ʟᴏᴠᴇ // ᴄᴀᴄ ᴘʀɪᴅᴇ ᴍᴏɴᴛʜ ᴛʀʏᴏᴜᴛꜱ 🏳️‍🌈

[hazilnut]

a thread for any and all tryouts for the CaC pride month adopts

🏳️‍🌈 grandmother & grandchild - grainy & gopher

[hazilnut]

xxxxChase was arguably the most beloved game among the cats of Prairieclan, combining the elements that they loved most; flirting, running, and shirking responsibility. Ryepath by contrast detested the game, if not for it’s objectification of she-cats as prizes then for the simple fact that it made her beloved grandkit uncomfortable. Alas there was only so much that one silent protester could do against a game, and an attitude, so ingrained in clan culture, even if that protester had a backbone of pure stone and a renewed vendetta against gender divides.

xxxx“Sorry to interrupt kids, Gopherpaw needs to train. I’m sure the rest of you have places you need to be as well,” Ryepath mewed pointedly as she placed herself between her apprentice and Sagepaw who was attempting to shove Gopherpaw towards the line of toms.

xxxx“Eaglestorm gave me the morning off,” huffed the tiny she-cat, clearly annoyed at this old fuddy-duddy interrupting her game. Ryepath didn’t bother to respond with more than a flick of her tail. She wasn’t going to bother with a stuck up kit. The senior warrior just kept herding Gopherpaw along, even as her keen hearing picked up Sagepaw’s grumbling and various murmurs pf agreement. “Poor Peregrinestep, I wouldn’t want to catch that grump to get out of all the tickings in the world.”

xxxxRyepath kept a close eye on her grandkit and apprentice as they trotted through the grass away from the group of apprentices. Gopherpaw was largely silent but few things escaped Ryepath’s notice and she could tell, from the way that Gopherpaw’s shoulders were drawn forwards and neck drawn back that she was feeling feminine. No wonder she had looked so uncomfortable.

xxxxGopherpaw had been born a tom to Ryepath’s son Smoketail. The shecat had taken to the kit immediately, and him to her. She showed him the plains beyond the camp dip before he was three moons old; at four Ryepath had shown Gopherpaw a bison. Grandparents weren’t supposed to play favorites but Ryepath couldn’t help it. Gopherpaw had held such an adventurous spirit, always ready to see how far he could run or give grass a taste test. Such willingness to fully commit to everything and anything was a trait Ryepath had found sorely lacking in her other descendants, and so perhaps she had not paid Gopherpaw’s sisters as much mind as she had ought to.

xxxxAll this time with her grandchild, who she eventually had been made mentor to, have Ryepath unique insight into them. Ryepath had watched as Gopherpaw struggled to decide their identity, recognizing perhaps even sooner than they did the subtle shifts in Gopherpaw’s body language and vocal inflection. She had given them the comfort, and she hoped the bravery, to come out to her, and themselves. To admit that they were not a tom nor a she-cat but both at differing times. But Ryepath knew that the journey was not yet over for her beloved Gopherpaw.

xxxx“Maybe it would have been better if I just hadn’t acknowledged it,” Gopherpaw finally whispered when the pair had finally left earshot.

xxxx“Gopherpaw.”

xxxx“No really. I feel like a tom half the time anyways, maybe if I just tried hard enough I could make myself like that always. I could just be normal.”

xxxx“Gopherpaw I cannot believe you would put any value in the words of cats whose heads are filled of bison scat!” Ryepath’s sudden and violent outburst was enough to make the apprentice shrink away, eyes wide with shock. “I expect more from you than to betray yourself. You aren’t Phloxpaw, changing your personality as often as the wind shifts to try and make toms like you. I-“ Suddenly Ryepath was aware of the tears welling up in Gopherpaw’s eyes and the way she was pressuring herself into the grass and the old she-cat stopped herself mid sentence, suddenly very ashamed. What were the use of morals if they came before the welfare of those they were for the sake of? “Gopherpaw I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to yell. I just don’t want you ever feeling like you shouldn’t true to yourself.”

xxxx“It’s okay Grainy, I get it,” the apprentice mewed in response, still too uncharacteristically softly to convince Ryepath.

xxxxThe warrior shook her head. “No, it isn’t okay. I got too worked up about the principals when I really ahould have been worried about you. Look-“ she sighed and sat down, “there are cats who can catch rabbits and there are cats that can catch mice, but there are also special cats who can catch both. Now if you are one of these special cats do you go, ‘I can catch mice well enough so I shouldn’t catch rabbits too. After all, no one else catches both’? No, that would be silly.” Ryepath scanned her grandkit’s face for signs of understanding and found a slight smile had begun to grow upon Gopherpaw’s muzzle, her eyes free from her earlier panic.

xxxx“And if other cats think I’m weird for catching mice and rabbits?”

xxxx“Then they aren’t worth it. It’s your belly and your heart, only you know how to be true to it. If anyone tries to tell you how to feel or act, including me, don’t listen.”

xxxx“Does that mean I don’t have to listen to you when you tell me to change the elders bedding?” Gopherpaw asked cheekily, and then just barely scampered out of the way of her grandmother’s playful cuffing.

xxxxRyepath faked a disapproving hiss. “Oh no, you’re not getting out of your responsibilities that easily.”

xxxx“That’s fine,” replied Gopherpaw seriously, having collected herself, “I like having you as a mentor Grainy, even when you make me change old ryegrass. You listen and you make training fun; you’re the best grandma and mentor ever.” Ryepath couldn’t help but wrap Gopherpaw up in a cuddle at that, tickling the apprentice’s belly until she gave up trying to hold in her giggles. “No wait!” Gopherpaw panted out between peals of laughter, “I take it all back! You’re the absolute worst mentor in the world!”

xxxxWhen both cats were exhausted from the tickle fight Ryepath got off of Gopherpaw and helped him, for Gopherpaw was now feeling masculine, to his paws. “I hope you aren’t too tired,” Ryepath huffed, catching her breath, “Because I have something to show you and it’s a long trip.”

xxxxWhere Gopherpaw got his energy only Starclan knew but he leaped to his paws eagerly. “I’m not tired at all. I could run over the whole prairie!”

xxxx“Well good, because that’s what we’re going to do.”

xxxxAnd so the pair walked for a good long will, the greenleaf heat beating down on their backs. But both cats’ pelts were thin and as familiar with sun as their paws were with the wild grass beneath them. Prairieclan has no borders other than the distance one’s paws could take them, thus the clan cats had gotten very good at travel. To pass the time Ryepath taught Gopherpaw a new walking game. The apprentice was as eager as any other for new games as they were a staple to pass travel time or lazy afternoons.

xxxx“It goes like this,” Ryepath had begun, “One, two, I love you. Three, four, I love you more. Five, six - uh,” she paused for a moment to think before recovering, “even more than ticks?”

xxxxGopherpaw couldn’t withhold his giggles at the notion of a cat loving ticks. “Who wouldn’t love someone more than ticks?”

xxxx“Rhyming with six is hard,” Ryepath retorted playfully. “You try it.”

xxxx“Easy peasy. Five, six- five, six we’re the perfect mix!” Gopherpaw crowed triumphantly.

xxxx“Not bad at all. And the game just keeps going so eight, nine-“

xxxxAnd so they excercise their minds as well as their bodies, something Ryepath had always been keen on promoting. She had to help Gopherpaw on numbers higher than eleven for math wasn’t precisely a clan staple beyond a rabbit plus a cat equals a fully belly. When they got to thirty-nine, the extent of Ryepath’s knowledge, they began to count down instead. Around “six, five” Ryepath looked up to see precisely what they were there for.

xxxx“Six, five, I’m glad you’re alive.”

xxxx“Four, three, I spot a tree!” With a shout of joy the warrior tapped her grand-kit on the rump with her tail as an indication to look up.

xxxx“A what- oh wow!” Gopherpaw gasped at the sight of what appeared to him as a giant bush with an incredibly long trunk loomed above him. “Grainy!” His eyes were wide with wonder as he looked up at his grandmother. “I’ve never seen something so big! It looks like it could swallow the sky and then have room for a bison!”

xxxxGopherpaw’s view was skewed after spending his whole eight moons of life seeing nothing larger than a gradual hill or a bison from the safety of many, many rabbit leaps, but the tree that Ryepath had brought him to was indeed large. It had gnarled bark and fat lobed leaves easily as big as a mouse. It was a grand thing, for as Ryepath had promised herself, only the best was worthy of her grandkit.

xxxxThe old she-cat chuckled. “Well it isn’t about to be eating any bison. Trees are as harmless as sage brush and,” she added in a hushed whisper that she always adopted when she was about to say something very rude and lift Gopherpaw’s spirits, “as intelligent as a certain Sagepaw, which is to say, not very intelligent at all.” Gopherpaw tried and failed to hold in another round of giggles.

xxxxThe fact that Gopherpaw had never seen a tree let alone climbed one made training a bit tricky. Claws that had never felt anything tougher than knots of grass and soft mouse flesh quickly began to ache when faced with the bark of an oak tree. But Ryepath's apprentice was nothing if not determined, a trait that inspired pride and worry in equal measure within the warrior, especially since Libertyfur was probably just as incapable at fixing wrenched claws as she was everything else.

xxxx"Make sure not to jam your claws in too deeply," Ryepath advised from the branch she was perched on. She had scrambled up the tree a few times in practice before demonstrating to Gopherpaw, assuring herself she still knew how to scale a tree; Prairieclan hadn't bothered to teach apprentices how to climb since Ryepath's own kits were born!

xxxx"Yes Grainy!" Gopherpaw didn't glance up as he acknowledged his mentor, instead focusing on his claws as he began to inch his way up the trunk once more. Slowly but surely the apprentice clambered up to his mentor's level, and with a sudden, awkward leap, grasped the branch she sat on with his forelegs and hauled himself up.

xxxx"You did well," the warrior purred as Gopherpaw caught his breath. She sat with the prairie to her back and the forest to her face, breathing in the smell of leaf litter and plump prey. "Check out that view," Ryepath murmured, "It's far more interesting than the grasslands wouldn't you say?" Beyond the forest lay mountains so high that scanning for the peak hurt Ryepath's neck, and beyond that, well, who knew? "Can you imagine living out there?"

xxxxGopherpaw glanced at his grandmother with mock horror. "I'd have to relearn so much!" To his surprise, she responded seriously.

xxxx"You could do it. You're the smartest apprentice I know Gopherpaw."

xxxx"Only because I have the best mentor in the world!" A moment of silence followed. "Grainy...do you want to leave Prairieclan? You seem to hate it here," Gopherpaw asked in a small voice.

xxxxRyepath sighed. "I think leaving is an option that should be entertained. This place isn't what it used to be. I never would have started a family if things were like this when I was young and I don't think it's a good place for you to start one either. If you want one that is."

xxxxThe apprentice stared thoughtfully out into the forest. "I want one," he agreed, "but not here. I wouldn't want any kits of mine to feel like an outsider because of who they were."

xxxx"I'll second that," mewed Ryepath, finally breaking out of the trance of possibilities the view had lured her into. "But that's a decision for another day. Right now you're going to learn how to descend a tree."