A Tiny Flame

It had been two moons since the tom's fateful fight with the ocelot. A fight that he had gotten out of alive by the skin of his teeth. Ever since, the deputy had found himself less forgiving of slackers. Less inclined to allow the lazy of the clan to take advantage of those who wished to see it thrive. And if it caused a few weak links to disappear? If they were worked to the bone so harshly they decided the loner life was better for them? Good riddance, was all he would say on the matter. He had no time to waste of uselessness. And speaking of uselessness...

Grayflame's eyes narrowed dangerously as he spotted an apprentice lounging about by the clearing, clearly attempting to sun herself as she took a nap. Content to be nothing more than a drain on the clan's resources from what he could glean considering the vast amount of feathers surrounding her. It seemed she couldn't even be bothered to clean up after herself even though it was evident she had nothing else to do here today. This one was small. Tiny. Living up to her name, it seemed. He barely remembered her, to be honest. The nursery had never held any interest for him after leaving it, and if he recalled correctly this particular tabby had been made apprentice just a few days before his inevitable encounter with the spotted fiend that they just barely managed to chase away.

Studying the strangely striped molly in silence for a moment, he finally connected the mild similarity she held to her littermate, Ryepaw. A scowl was quick to settle on the tom's face at the thought. Yet another apprentice that seemed to be a waste of space, although in Tinypaw's defense, at least she wasn't actively trying to harm her clanmates like her littermate had. The deputy had seemingly scarred the young tom's mind in some way after their first interaction, for it had been their last, and he hadn't seen hide nor hair of the little plague either. And yet the sight before him simply would not do. This was everything that was wrong with EmberClan nowadays. Why, if he had dared to act the way the small tabby was in his youth, never mind his mentor shredding his ears. His mother and father would toss him to the outskirts as a disappointment in an instant.

A grimace on his stern features, Grayflame assumed the snot nosed brat wasn't to blame. She had no mentor. Not to his knowledge. No cat to whip her into shape. Into what a proper warrior of EmberClan should be. He supposed he could fix that. It had been moons since anyone had seen hide nor hair of that ocelot. It should be safe to take out an inexperienced paw like this out with him. And if they ran into the predator... well... he had bait to satisfy it with this time.

With a disgruntled grunt, the silver tabby padded towards the napping creature, scowl only deepening when he realized the apprentice had closed her eyes upon his approach. That little bit of insubordination would not fly. He'd already had to deal with it when it came to her brother. He would not be standing idly by while she disrespected him so openly either. Honestly... who had raised these two slobs?

Standing over the red on blue she-cat, Grayflame remained quiet. Unwilling to speak to announce himself. Any cat in his clan should be able to tell that the deputy was besides them and waiting to be acknowledged when awake as she was. She was fooling no one to the contrary, no matter how much she tried to feign sleep. A lie that she was not looking to keep for any prolonged period of time, it would appear, as she soon opened her eyes to insult him for standing in her sun before turning into a blubbering mess the moment she realized her mistake. A blubbering mess that made things worse than if she had kept the insults spewing forth somehow.

Between her previously unabashedly useless behavior and the little nickname she decided to grant him for now, the Maine Coon found it hard to keep the disgust from his glare, nose wrinkling into a barely contained snarl. Big G. Oh, if only killing the worthless pawns was not so intrinsically against everything EmberClan stood for, she would have been shredded where she stood. Instead, the warrior allowed an impassive tail lash to escape him as he snorted. She wished to know what was up? What she could do for him? Well, best take advantage of that can do attitude of hers. It's what a good deputy would do, after all.

"You seem to have had... a filling meal," he observed, allowing his gaze to travel towards the many lorikeet feathers that surrounded her as he heard her audibly gulp. "Fitting, I suppose. After a hard day of training. Tell me... what did you cover in training today?"

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