"Look at you, 10 points to the girl who found herself a piece of plastic!" Cawed a large, fluffy white shape as he slid gracefully down the slope and promptly tumbled a few times and landed on his face. He got up and dusted himself off with a smirk. "And what are you going to do with your prize, little lass? Eat it?" His sapphire eyes flashed in silent laughter. "If you do, can I have a front row seat to your death?"

Snorting deeply, he burst out into laughter, bending over and touching the top of his head to the ground in his best efforts to catch his breath. "Oh, thank you for that," he wiped away a stray tear with a claw, "I haven't laughed that hard in a long time." He paused, looking thoughtful. "I don't think I've ever laughed that hard, actually." He glanced at her. "Kudos." Sitting and wrapping his tail around his paws, he smiled patiently at her. "I just thought it was interesting that you see something shiny in the water and can't resist the compulsion to reach out and," he demonstrated with his paw, snatching his paw back to his chest as if having clutched something priceless between his tiny toes, "take it." He tilted his head. "What's even more interesting, though, is that this whole time you haven't registered that I'm a stranger on your lands." He tilted his head the other way. "That's gotta say something about your self-preservation instincts."

"Well what fun would that be if I gave the game away?" He lifted his chin. This apprentice was going to wind up meeting her own death the next time she came across someone that wasn't nearly as understanding and patient as he. "Here, let's have a play. Guess where I'm from." He smirked. "You should be able to smell it."

"Oh, you know, takin' a lil shot here and there. Havin' fun where I can. Meeting new people, doing new things. I had a date over here with a certain calico tom but... alas," he lifted a paw to his forehead in a dramatic swoon of woe, "he has rejected my advances." He set his paw back down and grinned at her. "Willin' to help a brother out in the love field?"

He grinned. "So you know him, good. What does he like? Flowers? Poems? The heads of his enemies?"

“Nah, mostly his butt. And his face. Except for when the two come together and he’s just a big-“ He stopped himself and snorted. “Why? You his defender?”

With the threatening atmosphere completely removed, the white tom laid down and observed her with curiosity. “That’s ridiculous. Back when I was WinterClan leader, I had apprentices coming to me all the time. We called them students. Sometimes I even had little ones come to me before they were old enough to form complete sentences!” Despite himself, he smiled fondly at the memory. “Why do you stay here if life here’s stacked against you?”

He shuddered, sticking his tongue out. “Nleh.” He gagged. “What is it with you people and death? Granted, people die every day, but killing someone ‘cuz they won’t conform to a twisted way of life? Sounds pretty harsh to me. We had our rule breakers back in Winter, but I don’t think anyone was ever _executed_. They were made to take care of the elders or go keep watch at the guard’s post in the snow. Or thrown in prison if it was really bad.” He shook his head.

He chuckled, flexing his claws. "Most of the time I despise everyone I come across, including my own kin. I suppose I've turned over a new life." He tilted his head. "Or the responsibilities placed upon me since I was young are now falling from my shoulders. The shackles that bound me to WinterClan have broken and I'm now free to do whatever I please." He grinned. "Sounds nice, doesn't it?"