Warm green-leaf days meant an abundance of bugs as Hollowpaw was beginning to realize. Seriously, there were bugs, like,
everywhere. From the flies that surrounded the prey-pile just before some apprentice were to clean out the catches that were starting to go bad all the way to the ants that scurried across the hard packed dirt floor to get to their nests.
Hollowpaw also decides that he doesn't like bugs. He's not scared of them, that's for certain, but he definitely doesn't like them ever since that fruit fly flew into his mouth the other day... that was gross. Anyway! Ever since the meeting, Hollowpaw had felt very much like being an apprentice was hardly different from being a kit. Sure, he could train now and do cool fighting and hunting stuff, but he still wasn't allowed out of camp alone. Well... not even the warriors were allowed to leave by themselves while that owl was still a threat, so maybe the situation was just atypical. Regardless, Hollowpaw doesn't actually
feel much different. He's one step closer to becoming strong enough to rule the forest and finally get the recognition and appreciation he's owed, but even this one step closer still feels a long way off.
He's pacing the clearing, walking close to the camp walls and inspecting them so he looks busy (checking for weakness in the brambles mhm, yup, totally) while he thinks, formulating his next steps. Obviously he had to train, and he had to get strong, but what came after that? Would he have to talk to cats of different clans at the gatherings? Get them to see his point of view so that they'd rally to his side when the eventual day of his ascension came? In all his fantasies about becoming king, he never anticipated the need for so much
talking. Maybe he could-- his foot suddenly steps in something softish, and, as he looks down, Hollowpaw is met with the sight of countless little ants scurrying away from the hill he just accidentally crushed, a number of them climbing over his white paw.
"Yuck!" He cries, scuttling backwards and shaking his paw as hard as he can to dislodge the bugs from himself. GROSS. WHY
ANTS??? EW.
"BLEUGH! Get off of me!!" It takes him a moment, but eventually, all the ants get shaken off his foot, and, feeling his skin growing hot from embarrassment, the brown tabby casts his gaze around the clearing, making sure no one saw that just now....
[ #summerbingohollow - step in an ant hill ]