Viperstream and Horsepaw both rested in the shade of the camp. The sun, which was only moments before beaming down hot and bright upon the earth below, had just now slipped behind the cover of an ominous-looking great dark grey cloud — rain must be on the horizon. Viperstream sat grooming herself by the camp wall, underneath a nicely sheltered outcropping of rock, all the while watching the camp entrance; the two had recently returned from a particularly long and rigorous training session and were now cooling down in the afternoon breeze, waiting for the rain to finally settle in.

The two cats both watched as the young apprentice Wolfpaw slunk through the camp entrance, holding his head high with a vole clamped securely in his jaws. A proud grin was about his face as he pranced over to the fresh-kill pile and deposited his trophy, before catching their respective stares and promptly prancing over there, too, dumb expression plastered across his ever-so-youthful face.

“Horsepaw! Great to see you.” His attention turned to the older cat with a smirk. “I thought you’d be out training your apprentice at this time of day.” Wolfpaw’s gaze was a mocking glare, his expression revealing just how much he was revelling in his jeering. “You run out of kittens to eat already?”

In a quick instant slinking closer towards the apprentice, amidst the ignorance of his opportunely inattentive mentor, Viperstream’s face was etched with a maleficent grin of her own. Her shadow leered dangerously over the younger cat, and he shrunk under her gaze as he backed away, eyes wide and back arched, fur on end — his brazenness was all too suddenly replaced with what was perhaps an appropriate amount of fear; at once he seemed to have recalled who it was, exactly, that he was dealing with. Viperstream narrowed her eyes, bringing her muzzle dangerously close to his, her hot and angry breath ruffling the fur around his nose.

“Almost,” she purred, and the smaller cat’s ears went flat back against his head, and a look of fear now on his face mixed with some nascent indignation, “but it looks like I might have missed one.”

As if on cue, a black-and-white paw slammed itself into the dirt, instantly filling what little space there was between Wolfpaw and the agitated Viperstream. Squeezing her eyes shut, the brown cat stood back up exasperatedly to glare at the newcomer. As she did, Viperstream saw Hollowmist’s bulky frame fully move to shield his apprentice from her, and the younger cat hurriedly scurried to cower behind the warrior, huffing and puffing all the while.

“And what exactly might be going on here?” Hollowmist snarled, nose-to-nose with the treasonous warrior as her ‘unfortunate’ apprentice sat aside. Viperstream once more narrowed her eyes with a low-throated growl, looking unimpressed.

“You’ve got a bit of a mouse-heart problem going on behind you, starting things he can’t finish.”

The other cat hissed back at her, after a quick glance behind him. “He is an apprentice, I highly doubt there’s much he can do to hurt you. Let him be.”

“Pah!” Viperstream spat. “Believe me, I’m not hurt… but perhaps you should be more mindful of him, if you don’t want him to be. If you’re not careful, I might just—”

“That’s enough!” Hollowmist interrupted. “Watch yourself, or I’ll be having another word with Bisonstar, you overbearing pain in the tail.” As he finished he abruptly lunged forward with another slam of his paws on the ground that made Viperstream back up instinctively, falling on her behind for a quick moment before getting up, shaking herself off with a yowl, and getting right back in his face — her incredible need to have the last word and keep what little pride she still had left spurred her to finish the fight on her terms.

“Control your little hairball, then, and we won’t be having this issue.” she hissed, huffing pointedly in the other cat’s face before turning tail and slinking back to where she sat before, next to her own apprentice. Horsepaw regarded her with a quizzical expression as she agitatedly resumed grooming herself, where she had left off prior to her outburst.

“What was that?”

“The usual,” she replied, rolling her eyes. “If they want me to be their bogey, then I will,” she spat, her attention drifting away momentarily to look over at the chattering group of cats by the warriors’ den that both Hollowmist and her young charge had both joined up with, banal smiles plastered across their faces as they laughed together. She scowled. Idiots. “I don’t even care.”

“It kind of seems like you care a lot,” he answered flatly.

“Oh, does it, now?”

“Yes?”

“So suddenly you’re the expert on how I’m feeling?”

“Also yes,” was his answer as he rolled his eyes. “This isn’t the first time we’ve ever met or anything. We’re no strangers, Viper. I know what you’re like at this point. You’re not exactly subtle.”

“I—” she stopped herself, instead choosing to shoot him a look before wrenching her neck the other way to smooth down the fur on that side. “I could be subtle! Just you watch.”

“...Sure.”