Her gaze was soon to be met with a similar blue pair of eyes looking up at her, a tinge of concern noticable as Windsweptashes tried to make out Wickedpaw's shape admist the foliage of the tree above him.

"Are you okay up there?" The question was softly spoken and clearly genuine, the shadowhunter had heard the sound of Wickedpaw moving around on the branch and the sound of slamming with no context for what had lead up to it, which only left the tom more confused and worried for what was actually going on. Up until that point the tom had been hunting, but the small ruckus made as the younger she cat had been meddling with the beetle had been enough to draw to where now he was now, staring up at one of his many half-siblings amongst the twisting branches and tree leaves just slightly overhead.

For a moment the poor tom was dumbfounded by the fiery respone at just his single, rather innocent, question, but after a moment his expression softened a bit and turned sympathetic, if not mildly amused, by Wickedpaw's last comment. Perhaps another cat would have been insulted or gotten angry, it was pretty flagrant display of insolence by a cat who he was a fair amount their senior. But Windsweptashes, while sensative enough, was not very quick to get angry, and instead was quick to rather cheritably assume Wickedpaw's high energy outburst was just a normal byproduct of her youth.

"I heard slamming in the trees. I just figured I'd make sure you didn't manage to get yourself hurt up there." His response was gentle, though he hesitated a bit at the end as he followed Wickedpaw's gaze up towards the tree once more. "What were you doing up there, if I may ask?" The question was equally as gentle as the comment before, but there was a soft note of teasing on the latter part of the sentence, the 'if I may ask' clearly seeming to prod towards if he was about to get another small barrage of defensive comments for that question as well.

Windsweptashes followed along, mostly because of the tacit impliaction he was expected to do so, but it was clear the poor tom was slightly dumbfounded. For one, he was almost completely sure he had in fact heard slamming in the trees, but it would be such a bizairre thing for the apprentice to lie about he was almost inclined to believe her instead of his own ears. Secondly, he had just naturally assumed the apprentice would know who he was - they were sibling after all. Well, half siblings, but still. He supposed they hadn't gotten a chance to talk much, or really at all, since she had come to Moonclan, but it had never fully dawned upon him that she might have never heard his name when he already knew her's, and that of most of their family in the clan, like the back of his paw.

"Well, I'm sure if you keep practicing you easily will be. I don't think many cats in Moonclan do a ton of climbing, so I don't believe the competition is too steep. But it's a useful skill nevertheless." The latter part of that comment might, in another tone, have been sarcastic or somewhat demeaning, but it was clear that Windsweptashes had said it all in earnest, the tom actually genuinely contemplating Moonclan hunting and fighting tactics he said it.

"Oh, and I'm Windsweptashes. And you're Wickedpaw, right?" The question was prodded gently, faking doubt in his confidence over the apprentice's name in attempt to make it a little less awkward that he knew her name while she didn't know his at all. There was a breif moment where he contemplated asking her if she knew they were haf-siblings, but he held his tongue, settling on the fact that maybe it wasn't as wise idea to drop that little revelation in before she even knew his name.

"...Ashes is fine." Windsweptashes eventually responded, the tom slightly getting over the whiplash of the topic changes. Of course, that would be short-lived, as about the same moment he thought they had finally reached stable conversation, the apprentice was off towards a large rock and Windsweptashes found himself following behind, not knowing what else to do.

At the request, the Shadowhunter paused, taking a moment to look over rock. It was big, that was for sure, and a hard climb, but even if Wickedpaw were to fall he figured she would have to land really awkwardly to end up with a broken bone. And he supposed if she was practicing climbing then she would have to take a few small risks, and the rock was better than a larger tree that she could take some real damage from if she were to tumble down. Besides, he reassured himself, if she fell at least he would be there if anything happened.

"...Okay. Just be careful, alright?" Windsweptashes at this point knew the gentle request would likely be met with a small taunt, but it came too natural to him to leave it out.He then took a small moment to slighlty assess the best angle to climb the rock from, before padding over to the said point and positioning himself so as to actually help Wickedpaw get the slight lift up the she cat need to make it the rest of the way.

There was something about the apprentice's comment about him being too nice that, inspite perhaps being one of the least offensive and obnoxious of things said to him the entire time, stung a bit. It reminded him of the fact that, admittedly, he was a doormat, and probably because of that he was indeed likely very easily forgettable - perhaps two of the things he disliked most about himself. But he tried not to show that the jab actually landed, instead forcing a slightly amused smile. After all, kit and apprentices said things they didn't even mean without thinking it through all the time, and Windsweptashes was intent on not letting himself get all out of sorts over a small, off-handed remark.

Instead at Wickedpaw's mention of not being able to help him up, he gave a small, soft laugh. "I think I'm happier with my paws on the ground. I fall into the group of Moonclans cats that don't do a lot of climbing - I'm not good at it, nor do I like heights. I'd rather not try my luck getting up there." Whether everything the tom said was true or not was hard to tell, but it was at the very least relatively clear that the implication he would have any struggle getting up to where Wickedpaw's was likely demonstrably untrue. Ironically for a cat as timid and soft-spoken as Windsweptashes he was large and muscular in build, and if he had wanted to he could have probably managed to climb the rock as-was from his sheer size and strength alone. If not from that, then certainly with a small running jump. But instead, whatever the real reason, the tom seemed content to stay on ground-level, though he did follow Wickedpaw's gaze up towards the stars above.

The tom paused for a moment. Outwardly, he tried to make it appear as if he was just taking an extra while to ponder the question to give a thoughtful response. In reality however, the question had shot through him a weird cocktail of emotions: shock, anxiety, and somewhere mixed in there oddly enough, relief.

The question, although the apprentice didn't know it, was rather a risky one to ask out loud. Although most any Moonclan cat, either out of duty or pure religious fanaticism, would probably be more than willing to answer Wickedpaw's question, there was no quicker way to earn ire or to stand out as a foreigner in the clan than to show an obvious lack of knoweledge about their Goddess. Windsweptashes had known the apprentice had escaped prison time thanks to Puzzlemaker, and of course he was glad that the she cat hadn't been subjected to that time locked away. But he was also equally aware that that favortism did, and probably would continue, to put her under intsense scrutiny. Asking something like that, making it evident that one did not at least know the basics of Moonclan's religious dogma like the back of one's paw, was the quickest way to earn public judgement and, possibly, more tangible effects.

But that was why the tom also felt a tinge of relief. At least he knew Wickedpaw had not brought this up with someone else who might have run around spreading gossip and rumors, or worse, someone vindictive enough to spin lies to the apprentice and let her humiliate herself. He could take some reassurance in that she was hearing it from him, and he was intent of giving her enough information that she could at least up-keep the appearance of being educated on their religion for the time being, until she could,through time and through her training, learn and piece together the more in-depth nuiances.

"Well," Windsweptashes started, trying to keep his voice soft and free of judgement as he clearly was making an attempt to choose his words carefully, "Most of the time we call the moon by the name Selene, as even though she's repersented as the moon, she's also a goddess. One of her aspects - her forms - is as the moon, but she can take multiple, even at the same time. She's omnipresent. But Selene does a lot of things. Not only does she give us light in the dark of night to guide us in her manifestation as the moon, but she sends visions and advice to the clan leaders and authority, and protects us from things that might wish to harm us. When we're in her favor she brings in more prey, kits, and better health among other things, and cats in her favor are blessed with success in the things they attempt because she grants them her help." There was something very mythodical to how the tom laid it out, lacking perhaps greatly in the religious vigor most Moonclan cats praised their goddess with, but it was clear the tom was listing out the most squeaky-clean, religiously approved propoganda.

"Of course there's more to it, a lot more, but they'll probably tell you more in-depth when you get deeper into your training. There's always a course on the more fine details required for getting through Shadowhunter training, but they'll teach you all about that when it's time."

Windsweptashes once more had to pause, taking a moment to think. For some cats the answer would have probably came easily - in the devout population of Moonclan everyone seemed to want to believe that they knew the key to the elusive moon goddess's favor, or at the very least believed the steps to it could be gleaned by looking at the clan leadership and seeing who Selene had chosen to guide to power. But Windweptashes wasn't so quick to speak decisively, and instead took some time to mull it over a bit before giving a resposnse.

"Well, I don't know if it's exactly a proccess you can go through with a checklist, but I think a good place to start is to remember to always follow Moonclan law and Selene's Code." He finally responded, once again taking care to carefully consider his answer. He didn't want to make the mistake of saying something that accidentally steered the apprentice wrong. "The only other major thing I can think of - and I'm sure this will probably just sound like general, boring, old person advice - but I think paying a lot of attention during Shadowhunter training, and maybe even eventually trying to complete Luminary training, would be a good way to. There's a reason that they teach what they do, especially on lessons of spirituality... And I guess personally I tend to think it's always good practice to do what you would guess Selene would want by doing what you think is right by the codes that she's laid out as a guide. And, I suppose, by doing what you think is good and right when no laws give you a definitive guideline. " Though Windsweptashes tried to answer with a degree of certainty to the best of his ability, there was an underlying apologetic tone that came along with his response. He realized that a lot of what he said was vague and primarily punctuated by a lot of hypotheticals and general assumptions, but unfortunatly that was what Windsweptashes had always found to be the reality of trying to say anything about Selene without accidentally just preahcing one's own beliefs and interpretations as fact.

The reality was Selene, at least as far as Windsweptashes understood her, was a secretive goddess, who only seemed to shared her feelings and whims through those who were at the top of the clan's heirarchy. To guess who would catch her favor was like trying to guess at an immensely complex puzzle, with many pieces seemingly either missing or chaotically scattered about.

Once again poor Windsweptashes, for the umpteeth time that day, had to actually take a moment to actually realize what was being requested of him. Somewhere cool? The tom had to bite his tongue from echoing the request himself just to fully register what the request even was, and once he did it was still a bit jarring.

"Well... I know a lot of places, but I don't know if many are exactly that cool..." Windsweptashes admitted, words trailing off. The reality was the tom did know a lot of places the average Moonclan cat likely did not, if only because the tom preferred the less frequented areas of the territory when at all possible. It allowed him to avoid any dreaded awkward small talk that was basically doomed to happen when stumbling upon someone else during a hunt or a casual patrol through the territory. However, the tom didn't really know if any were the kind of places that Wickedpaw would consider 'cool'. He of course thought they were neat, but not quite as "cool" as they were fascinating in their own, unique way.

"...Although, I guess I know one place I would consider interesting." Windsweptashes said, seemingly eventually settling upon a certain location, though even still his voice noted a bit of uncertainty that the apprentice would even find it interesting. "It's a bit of a walk though, if I'm being honest. And it requires moving through some very narrow spaces."

Windsweptashes had to hide and amused smile at the apprentice's new-found excitement towards the new "cool" location they were heading to, he found her enthusiasm adorable, though it panged him with a little bit of guilt. He couldn't help but figure the location he was about to bring her to would not in any ways be worthy of her level of excitement - he had enough sense to figure what he thought was interesting probably wasn't exactly what she thought was interesting. Even still, he hoped it would't be a complete and utter disapointment.

"It's not a crashed asteroid, saddly. It does have some other things but... Well, I'd say more but you'll see when we get there." Windsweptashes said, being careful to not reveal a ton since the apprentice had requested it be kept a secret. "If you want to hone your navigational skills though I can describe the area, and then you can try and find the place based on the things in the area and landmarks." He offered gently, though it was clear he wasn't quite sure if the apprentice actually wanted navigation practice, or if it was just what Wickedpaw had said out of sheer excitement and curiosity in the moment.