Escaping from Chaos

[Onyxdart]

Warfox bounded into the clearing and stood perfectly still, enjoying the piece and quiet. Well, peace and quiet being relative. There were birds up in the trees, and he heard a scurry nearby. May as well get to this hunting business.

He crouched and stalked slowly, smoothly, towards the sound of a mouse. He was nearly on top of it when he sprang forward and dispatched it with a clean bite to the neck. Going back to where he'd first stepped foot into the field, he put the mouse down and looked around for the cat who was supposedly following him. Maybe he should introduce himself and get the cat's name, so he could think of him as something other than "that one new cat". Warfox liked things to be organized and efficient, and knowing names was important to this.

[Lucky]

Silverwhisker bounded up beside the cat, and sat down to join him. The birds twittered. The distant stream gurgled. The bees buzzed around there forest of flowers. Enjoying the peace for a moment, the older tom spoke. "Uh... I think we started out on the wrong paw..." he turned to face him, "Hi, I'm Silverwhisker, what's your name?"

[Onyxdart]

"I'm Warfox," the orange tom replied, nodding in greeting. At least he knew the older tom's name now. This made things somewhat less awkward.

"I don't know how much food we should take back, but if we sit here talking for too long, it might scare a lot of the mice and things away," he commented. The whole time he was talking, his gold eyes swept back and forth over the field, looking for likely twitches in the grass.

[Lucky]

"Yes," Silverwhisker said, agreeing. His ears twitched, and lowering his voice he said, "I think I hear some now..." Slowly, quietly, the old gray Tom got up to get ready to hunt.

[Onyxdart]

With a silent nod to the other cat, Warfox turned and skirted around the clearing, figuring that everything hearing or smelling or seeing the other tom coming would flee that general direction. When he reached the other side, he settled into a crouch. He didn't have long to wait before a bird dipped down a little ways off and landed on a dead branch- its topmost part was just above all the grasses. Warfox moved ever so slowly and smoothly towards the bird. It saw him as he sprang at it and flicked into the air. He would have missed, but he swung at it anyway with an outstretched paw, catching tail feathers and knocking it towards the ground. Before it could recover, he'd snatched it out of the air. Dead bird in his mouth, he trotted back around the field and set it down with the mouse.

[Lucky]

Silverwhisker got up. Sniffing the air, he scented prey, then spotted a squirrel up in a tree. In this mountainous area, catching that squirrel would be easy. If I shake the tree on one side a bit, the squirrel will come scurrying down the other, which of course will be a trap so that I can catch it! The old tom smiled to himself and swished his tail in amusement at his cunning little plan, and he quietly padded over to the tree to put it into action.

[Chainless]

Silence.

The pure white medicine cat padded in silence, having slipped away from her brother and his apprentice to find such peace. While his heart was innocent – was still pure and vibrant…there was something clouding her own.

Something dark.

Maybe something evil?

There was more of their father in this she-cat, then in her brother.

And Misery?

The almost physically recoiled in her step, and the memory of the littlest kit of their litter.

Misery was the darkest one of them all.

Their other siblings, another tom and a little she-kit….Heartless had eaten them before their eyes had even opened.

Ah, painful memories.

Chainless sighed, her gaze lifting towards the sky above. She could hear the sounds of other cats – their scents unfamiliar. Ah, maybe she’d meet them as she searched for some poppy seeds. They could take her mind off such thoughts.

[Onyxdart]

Warfox paused as he was about to crouch and go after another something. He smelled a new cat. Over by the freshkill, he thought. Contrary now to crouching unseen in the grass, he stood as tall as he could, even on his hind legs for a moment to see over the grass. Falling back to all fours, he blinked. He didn't recognize that cat. But clearly she wouldn't be here coming from that direction if she was a Rogue. Besides, he thought as he sniffed the air, she smelled of Stoneclan.

Half shy and half outgoing- and totally confused between the two- he made his way back over, and stopped a few paces from the white she-cat. Ever polite, he nodded a greeting, then stood there somewhat awkwardly, thinking he should introduce himself and feeling very stupid for strolling over here without a plan... or three.

[Lucky]

Silverwhisker dug his claws into his scitsifrenic kill. Then there was a new cat, a she-cat! The Tom spun around. Surprised he scraped earth over the squirrel and quickly licked his front paws. Looking at the newcomer, he was stunned! So beutiful she was! Seeing that Warfox wasn't going to speak first, he did, though he was studdering: "Er...hi. Is there...er...is there something you needed miss? Um..." Silverwhisker's whiskers twitched embarrased.

[Chainless]

Two-toned eyes blinked, one blue one green, as she drifted easily from her thoughts to settle her gaze on the two toms. That gaze move slowly, steadily, to the first tom to speak, to the large quiet one – which it rested on for a long moment – back to the first.

“Greetings. My name is Chainless. As for needing something…I’m just here for a walk.”

Her voice was soft, deep, but the gaze that held Silverwhisker moved, back to the other tom.

‘Do you have a name as well tom?”

There was a hint of a smile on her face.

[Lucky]

The elder Warrior's whiskers twitched again. "Er... my name is Silverwhisker," he said, shuffling his paws.

Ooc: Agh! Shortness! >XP But I can't think of nothing else!

[Onyxdart]

I assume she was talking to Warfox, right? Anyway, ignore me if she wasn't.

Warfox picked one paw up, and then put it back down in its own print, but otherwise gave no other indication that he was strongly reminded of being gazed at by his old leader when he'd said something odd. The memory caused the briefest of smiles to flit across his face.

"Indeed I do," he answered the white female, "I'm Warfox." As he introduced himself, it seemed as if his poise, having once abandoned him, returned slowly like a wall between him and the rest of the world. He no longer swayed awkwardly from paw to paw, no twitch of his tail gave away any emotion. In short, he was "himself" again. Or, rather, himself as far as anyone around here knew him.

[Chainless]

“It is indeed a pleasure to meet you both.”

That ever so slight smile still on her face, the pure white she-cat sat down and looked between the two toms. Her fluffy tail curled around her paws as she considered them both. From the scents that lingered on their coats – they had been hunting?

“How is the hunting today?”

Kill, slash, tear.
My, my that foxy tom looks yummy. Be a dear and fetch your father that fresh liver of his.

Shuttup. You don’t run my life.

[Onyxdart]

Warfox shrugged one shoulder in answer to the white cat's question.

"It's hunting. But it isn't bad, I don't believe. We'll have something to add to the freshkill, at any rate," he replied. He flicked his tail and nodded towards the small pile he'd accumulated so far.

[Lucky]

Silverwhisker added wait to his paws akwardly, as though he was stumbling. "Ah, Warfox sir," he said, turning his head to look at him, "You have not looked at the beutey of it..." The gray tom looked back at Chainless, her beuty stunning him into his twitchy self once more, but he gathered himself of to speak calmly and cooley, "The birds are twittering and the squirrels are chattering, that is most delightful my dear, for the prey is plentiful, on this cool winter day up in the mountains." The tom looked around at the cracks and listened for hissing. "And because the snakes are in their burrows, no prey shall be stolen from us today. Care to hunt with us m' Lady?" Silverwhisker bowed and then sat down, his whiskers twitching with embarrasment.

[Onyxdart]

Mild surprise painted itself across Warfox's muzzle. Beauty? The beauty of it? Warfox had come to hunt, not to smell the flowers.

Or was this cat speaking of the pretty white she-cat? Warfox's gaze flicked to her for a moment before going back to Silverwhisker as the tom explained himself.

He shrugged one shoulder before speaking to the other tom- part dismissal of an idea and part mere confusion.

"I came only to hunt, Silverwhisker. And to escape everything going on at camp," he said softly. Then he looked at Chainless.

"Have things calmed down yet, back there, do you know?" he asked. He was already feeling tired of company, though not by any fault of the company. He wasn't used to being around cats all the time, again. Not after being alone for the while after his clan... But those were old ghosts, fit only for taunting the young warrior.

It's like he's being emo or something. Good lord.

[Chainless]

[Emo kitty! Wah, Battledream has got to meet up with him again soon so she can sit on him with her furry butt and stop his emo-ness.

//random]

Uh, blink. Was this tom flirting with her? If Chainless was less stoic, she’d be giving Silverwhisker a goggle-eyed look of sheer puzzlement. However, being the character that she was she merely blinked once again.

“I would love to join. Anything to escape from that chaos, as you said Warfox.”

She then paused patiently, as the orange and white tom put in his say. She gave him an understanding look – as a loner herself, the camp became quite stifling often.

“Although I wouldn’t use the word ‘calm’, it’s tamed down a bit. I am incapable of saying how long that may last – especially if my bother decides to take his apprentice on the warpath and start a game or some activity of that sort.”

A smile graced her features as she settled back.

“But for now, things are tamer than they were.”

[Lucky]

Silverwhisker nodded his agreement with Chainless. Then he narrowed his eyes and turned away. "Warfox," he growled harshly, "There are some half frozen snakes over in that pit over there? Why don't you go catch some?" No, the tom wasn't trying to hurt Warfox. The snakes were half frozen, half dead. Silverwhisker just wanted the orange tom to go away for a while, so he could spend time with Chainless. Turning back around, he stepped towards the Medicine Cat.

[Onyxdart]

((Oh my goodness, yes. I'm all for Battledream sitting on him.))

"Why hunt snakes that are hiding in their rocks hibernating, and difficult to get to, when hunting mice and voles is easier? You can hunt just as well as I, Silverwhisker, and that's what we came here for, recall?" Warfox replied evenly. He didn't even growl. Granted, yes, he sat up taller, which made him look bigger than he already was. But he'd be darned if he was going to be ordered around by someone who had no place ordering him around. Especially when that someone oh-so-transparently just wanted to pester a cat who'd come here looking for a place to not be bothered.

Not that any of this consternation registered in the way Warfox glanced at Silverwhisker. Sure, Warfox would go back to his hunting- jat the same moment Silverwhisker did.

[Lucky]

Silverwhisker looked up at the sky and rolled his eyes. This is why he'd rather not accociate with cats like him. "Come on Foxy," he said sarcasticly, "Bye Chainless," the tom said, flicking the Medicine Cat's ear with his tail. Running up next to Warfox, the gray tom playfully punched the orange tom's shoulder with a paw.