A Day In The Life of a Jerk

Despite the challengingly warm weather that Greenleaf always seemed to bring, Shiningwing was grateful for the cool breeze that whistled through the mountains in the mornings, waking him up gently without any sharp or rude starts of discomfort.
He turned to smile at Solarstorm, his mate was still asleep. They were having kits, and he could hardly contain his excitement. He already found himself dreaming up great plans for them, they'd be great and powerful Warriors like him of course, they'd become highly respected members of the Clan in no time, perhaps even earn their Warrior names at ten moons like he had.

It seemed like it was only yesterday that he and Diamondbreeze had been up in front of the Clan receiving their Warrior names, he'd been given his for his strength and bravery, noble titles indeed that he had proved time and time again to the Clan that he possessed.

Beside him Solarstorm stirred, so he rose carefully to his paws so as not to disturb her, with such delicate lives growing inside of her she would no doubt need more sleep.
Leaving the Warrior's Den - accidentally treading on Mossblaze on the way out, Shiningwing stretched his body out in the sun, raising an eye in greeting to his sister who was already awake, probably getting ready to start The Dawn Patrol.

He didn't ask if she needed a paw as it seemed like she'd already collected a good number that had probably been given prior notice, so instead he turned in the direction of the Nursery. He'd soon be spending a lot of time here with Solarstorm and their kits so he wanted to get to know the layout of the place.
All those moons ago when he'd been a Kit, The Highclan Camp had been in a completely different place, so this Nursery was probably completely different too.

Many of the Kits were awake, early risers it would seem. A good sign, meant they would be ready in a few moons to become hard working Apprentices. He'd been a hard working Apprentice, even if nobody else had seemed to think so. But what had they known? Clearly not very much.

He scanned the Nursery, catching sight of Bridgekit. He had been intending to visit both brothers, but it seemed that the other one was not in sight, well this one would have to do - even if he was the rude one.
Shiningwing had come to the conclusion that the only way for Kits with Loner background to comfortably settle into Clan Life was to have no memory of that Loner life. It was a life outside of the Code and outside of their way of life, so the obvious solution was to ensure that Bridgekit and Roekit grew up under the impression they'd always been Clan Cats, then perhaps they would one day begin to think that their Loner lives had been dreams, mere Kittish fantasies.

Bridgekit looked up sharply the moment he saw him, his hackles already starting to raise as the fur on his back stood on end, little pointed pinpricks baring from his mouth.
"You know it seemed like only yesterday me and your father were growing up together in this Nursery," he let out a dramatic sigh, deciding to forget for now that he hadn't been brought up in this Nursery, there wasn't anyway Bridgekit would know that anyway.

The statement at the very least did seem to confuse the kit for a fraction of a second, but then the teeth were back, "Liar!" He hissed, "Ya kidnapped us an' took us here, ya pile a fox dung!"
Shiningwing shook his head slowly, forcing himself to chuckle, although he wanted nothing more than to cuff him round the ear for cheek, "Your father used language like that too, he'd be so proud of you, shame that he died... but I suppose that's life you and your brother probably can't even remember him."

"I got ma talkin' from ma mum!" Bridgekit snapped, "An' I don' know what you're playing at but stop it! I won't listen ta ya, 'cause you're a nasty, stinkin' loada bird droppin's!"

Deciding that he'd probably done all the work he could on Bridgekit's head today, Shiningwing made his excuses, assuring Bridgekit that he'd be back later to tell him stories about how his parents had met and also how they'd fallen to their grizzly deaths off the side of the mountain path, unable to resist adding under his breath as he left, "you ungrateful little savage."

Outside the Nursery most of the Warriors and Apprentices seemed to be awake now, his old Apprentice Starlingfeather seemed to be about to join a hunting party, so he decided he might as well go with her.
He missed having an Apprentice, but it seemed that his previous outbursts and fights at Gatherings had kept Talonstar from inviting him anymore, and from giving him another Apprentice - and it wasn't as if they were in short supply. He would be hopeful of getting one of the next ones coming up, but he knew Talonstar would never trust him with one of her own Kits.

"Hey Starlingfeather" he greeted, "Mind if I join?"

She grinned, "Sure why not, the more the merrier."

Snaketail was leading the Patrol, and while Shiningwing was sure that he could do a much better job than him, he'd let Snaketail take the lead with this one and tell him about his mistakes at the end. Robinstorm and Dragonfire were also in the hunting party, so that made five of them in total, certainly enough to be getting on with.

"I thought we'd head to the Lightningclan Border" Snaketail told them, "It's not as hot there as it is by the Leafclan border so we're more likely to find prey that's headed that way in the hope of drinking from the river."
Shiningwing couldn't criticize him much here, although if it was up to him he'd be hunting by the Stoneclan border, just to show them that Highclan was still confident in their borders, even if they had generously rearranged them slightly.

As they made their way down the mountain path, Shiningwing really began to realise what a miserable thing Dragonfire had become. He'd never been the perkiest of Cats, but still, with sisters like Starlingfeather and Shadeblossom it was astounding how he'd turned out the way he had.
"Why is he so miserable?" He mumbled to Starlingfeather with a smirk, she shot him something resembling a reproachful look,
"Fallowleaf died" she whispered, clearly keeping her voice down so that her brother wouldn't hear, "he liked her, it might take him a while to finish mourning."

Shiningwing rolled his eyes, the death of some she-cat at the paws of the enemy was nothing to get all miserable and self-loathing about, it should fire you on, and then the next time you went to a Gathering you should find the Cat and tear their throat out, because surely if it's that important the risk of being banned from following Gatherings wouldn't be an issue.

Shortly after this, Starlingfeather moved over to her brother so they could discuss how their Apprentices were doing, so Shiningwing moved up to the front to chat with Snaketail.
"So just our side of the border then?" He was joking of course, but Snaketail did give him a look that suggested he wasn't entirely sure, so Shiningwing rolled his eyes and smirked, "How's Amberidiot doing?" He asked, blinking innocently, but earning an even deeper frown from the other tom.
"Amberleaf is doing fine, she had a hard time giving birth in Stoneclan, but her and Dandilionkit are home safe now," the muscular tom smiled lightly to himself as he said this, his gaze traveling back in the direction of Camp, making Shiningwing want to wretch.

"Dandilionkit, what a silly name though, I mean Talonstar's going to have huge trouble thinking of a name for her when she's a Warrior, providing of course that she's still with us, the way she's loosing lives I'd be amazed if she was still here within a year."
At this point Snaketail probably would have pushed him off the side of the mountain if they hadn't just come to the bottom of it, although he did put on a sudden kick of speed, pulling away from the younger Warrior.

Shiningwing shrugged, entertaining himself for the rest of the journey to the Lightningclan Border.

"I suggest we split up for the patrol and meet back here just before Sunhigh" Snaketail suggested, it would be too hot to hunt at Sunhigh, and it would be best to get the freshkill back to Camp before the sun had a chance to spoil it.

This sounded like a plan, and Shiningwing didn't really want to work with any of them anyway, Starlingfeather was the only one he was accustomed to the hunting style of anyway, and that was because he'd taught it to her.

By the time he met up with the others again he'd managed to catch two rabbits, which might be less than Robinstorm's three mice, but they were bigger and that was what counted, and he told Robinstorm so, although the younger Warrior didn't seem to appreciate his words of wisdom.

In Camp he shared one of his rabbits with Solarstorm, reminding her to take it easy while she was carrying Kits even if she wasn't in the Nursery quite yet. He let her have a bit more of the rabbit as well, just so she could keep her strength up.
After eating, he let Solarstorm go off to talk to her friends, heading back to the Nursery to visit Shadeblossom - if he did tread on Amberleaf's tail on the way in, then it was a complete accident.

"Bridgekit seemed rather wound up this morning?" She raised an amused eye, "I don't suppose you had anything to do with that?"

He denied it, after all what did Bridgekit have to be worked up about? He was a Kit, and Kits didn't have any real memories, particularly not at that age.
It seemed all the kits were out, playing around Camp probably and causing mischief. Of course his own kits when they arrived would put everyone to shame.

"So is Fallenjerk still taking care of you?" Shiningwing checked, "because you know if he isn't then I'll be sure to go over and knock some sense into him," he gave Shadeblossom a smile, and a light tap with his tail.
Shadeblossom laughed, "yes, he's taking very good care of me, so you can keep your nose out of it."

Shiningwing placed his tail to his heart, "I am mortally offended," he stuck up his nose in the air as part of the joke. It was nice sometimes to just be able to kid around with her. He was still under the impression she was far too young to have had Kits, but it had happened and at least she seemed to be okay.

The afternoon was spent with a mixture of napping and lecturing some of the Apprentices on the dos-and-don'ts of taking down a Sharptooth, being sure to emphasize how Diamondbreeze's crucial mistakes had brought about his scarring.
Ringshadow and Deepwater interrupted him at some point to make him come on a Border Patrol, it was marking the Stoneclan boundary though, something that made him endlessly happy.

Early evening he went back to the Nursery to tell Bridgekit all about how his parents had met as Apprentices and fallen in love instantly in all the disgusting ways that parents did, they'd had him and Roekit shortly after becoming Warriors, only to fall to their tragic death a few moons later."
Bridgekit's cursing grew so loud that Amberleaf and Jaywish decided that until Solarstorm had moved into the Nursery that Shiningwing should no longer be allowed to drop in for 'visits'.

"Are you heading out?" Solarstorm met him in the Camp, moving over to groom down his ruffled fur, he hadn't even noticed that it was standing on end.
"Yeah, thought I'd take a walk before bed," he licked her cheek in gratitude.

"Do you want me to come with you?"
Shiningwing shook his head, "No, you need to rest, don't worry I'll be back in the nest soon."

They parted, and Shiningwing turned back towards the Clan exit, heading straight for the Nightclan border, finding a secluded spot to sit and wait.
He wasn't waiting long before Splashleaf appeared, hesitantly sniffing the forest around her, and hesitating at the border, so Shiningwing went over to her, crossing the border so that she didn't have to.
The cave where they'd previously met was now part of Stoneclan's territory, which meant that they'd have to find somewhere new, but that could take a while, so these moments at the border would have to do.

"How are things in Highclan?" She asked, smiling shyly as he groomed her ear, a faint blush on her cheeks.

"The usual" Shiningwing told her, "Apart from losing a load of our territory to Stoneclan of course, but otherwise same-old."

They couldn't risk talking for too long, no doubt one of their Border Patrols would be along soon.

But still, by the time he arrived back in Camp almost everyone was asleep. He stepped into his nest, curling up beside Solarstorm, purring himself contentedly to sleep.