Note to those reading: this roleplay is set before Mallowpaw and Alpinepaw become warriors
Mallowpaw
Mallowpaw leaned against the camp wall, panting slightly as the burn in her legs eased. Over the past few days she had taken to pacing the length of the camp, occasionally breaking into a run, trying to build up her strength and endurance the only way she could without leaving camp. She doubted it helped much, but it was a way to mark her recovery, seeing how many times she could go from wall to wall before her legs started complaining and she collapsed into her nest to sleep away the day. That was what she was planning to do: head inside and rest.
But then her eyes caught on a tortoiseshell pelt and she felt her stomach flip. She had seen Alpinepaw a few times over the past few days, sleeping or eating or sitting in camp, unaware that her mentor was dead. And each time she had felt empathy stir in her gut as she imagined her reaction when Wolfhive's death was announced. When she realised that he would never train her again, never oversee her assessment and cheer for her at her warrior ceremony. That she would be left without his guidance, that she would receive a new mentor who more likely than not wouldn't train her. That she was on her own.
It would be cruel for no-one to tell her before the meeting. For her to have to deal with the initial shock and sorrow and grief in a crowd of cats, to have to bottle up her emotions if she didn't want to start crying and embarrass herself. And Mallowpaw didn't know about the other apprentice, but she wouldn't be able to contain her emotions. The floodgates would open and she would sob, sob like she had sobbed when she had seen her mentor's body. Except there it wouldn't be acceptable, there she wouldn't be just one grieving cat in a crowd, there heads would turn and judgemental gazes would scorch her pelt. No, Alpinepaw needed to be warned. And who else should do it but her, Wolfhive's other apprentice?
So she stepped away from the wall, took a deep breath and let her paws carry her to Alpinepaw. She stopped near her, swallowed hard and spoke.
"Excuse me." Mallowpaw's voice came out as a hoarse whisper, small and weak from disuse. When was the last time she had used it? Had she spoken at all in the quarantine camp?
Yes. A couple of times she had spoken, spoken just to check if she still could, if the sickness had taken her voice along with everything else. But those had just been whispers; she hadn't wanted to aggravate her throat too much and make it sorer than it already was.
She hated the sickness. She hated it with fiber in her body.
Mallowpaw swallowed and spoke again, her voice coming out stronger, although still a bit hoarse. "Excuse me. You're Alpinepaw, right? Wolfhive's apprentice?"
Former, her mind corrected her, but she couldn't bear to say that. Not yet.
@
Highsnow of Matterhorn (this is very late but here's the starter if you still want to do this rp)
I hate to be the bearer of bad news [P]
