His eyes lit up with excitement, looking back into the clearing for a second. "Good! Cause I have no idea how well this is going to go!" He laughed before half leading her, half guiding her with his tail towards the entrance of the clearing. The guards at the entrance seemed to glare their way in confusion and mistrust, but Rushpaw seemed unfazed by it. "Follow my lead. Keep your head and tail high and act like you were born to be one of us. Confidence will be your friend here, don't let them intimidate you" he playfully nudged her
"How am I supposed to do that?!" Cinnamon protested. "They're literally glaring at us." She started to shrink beneath her pelt, but remembered what Rushpaw had told her to do and raised her head, her tail lifting in a slightly challenging way. "Like this?"
"Yes! Just pretend you don't care about your own death!" He grinned before strolling over to the warriors.
"Rushpaw, who is that?!" The first one on the left sneered, a scraggly looking light brown tabby tom with a bobbed tail and torn ears.
"And aren't you supposed to be on den duty?" The other inquired, a much younger warrior she-cat with a sandy and light colored pelt.
"Heh, how observant of you, Lilybreeze." Rushpaw chuckled a bit awkwardly, "is Archstar in his den?"
The other cat, Sharptongue, growled softly, "She smells like kitty pet. What are you plotting?!"
"Nothing!" Rushpaw laughed, his tail twitching a little "nothing you should be worried about, anyways. She's just looking to talk to Archstar, I'm leading her there. Surely you wouldn't want to come in the way of an important message, would you? I don't think Archstar would appreciate your input...I think he knows how to run his clan." he hummed, almost cocky as the older male backed off. His eyes were still narrow slits but he stepped away to let them through.
Rushpaw was quick to lead her away from the two warriors, heading towards the leader's den before anymore attention could be brought on them. "You did amazing! Don't mind grouchy Sharptongue, he's always like that." He padded on with his head held high.
"Is everyone named slightly fierce or elegant names?" Cinnamon asked. "If they are, it'll make me seem like a unintimidating, scruffy cloud." She was doing her best to not flinch and shrink into her pelt at the hostile and curious gazes resting on her pelt. She never got this much attention at home; not even when the Twoleg kit's friends came over and she was forced to lie on laps and stay still for over an hour. "Is Archstar like Sharptongue?" Cinnamon asked anxiously, breaking out of her memories. If another cat was as hostile as the old tom who Rushpaw had been extremely cocky with, then she didn't think she could cope that well.
Rushpaw chuckled, "Names are based on alot of things. They tell a story about the cat without having to know them. So no, not all of them are. Though, Scruffycloud would be a lovely name for you" he teased, "and no. Archstar is much more laid back and quiet. He's never really shown any hatred towards kittypets either, as long as they stay in their twolegplace and don't cause us any trouble. I don't think he will mind you wanting to join."
"Scruffycloud?!" She protested. "Really?! Is that how I look?" She twisted for a moment to lick her back fur flat, then caught up with the few steps Rushpaw had progressed. "What if he doesn't accept me?" Cinnamon tried sounding nonchalant and unworried, but in reality her heart was beating as fast as a rabbit's.
"dang...you really want to join, don't you?" He commented, noticing how nervous she was. Was her kittypet life really that undesirable to her? "He's bound to accept you...and if he doesn't then I'll argue on your behalf!" He offered some reassurance. "He's bound to accept you though. You're young, pretty and determined. If you really want to join, he can't say no! We need more cats like you. Plus it isn't like you've been a kittypet for very long. It wasn't your choice to stay with twolegs"
"Aww, thank you." She purred, feeling slightly comforted. "Yeah, my mother was gone in about a moon. The Twolegs took her away and a few weeks after, another Twoleg family came and separated me from my littermates."
"That's awful. See? No one can fault you for what they did. For all you know you could have come from clan cats yourself. Plenty of us get captured too close to twolegplace. Or some fall in love with kittypets. You wouldn't be the first to join." He purred, stopping at the foot of the leader's den. He gazed up at it before looking at Cinnamon. "Now, you ready?"