[seek] and ye shall find.

[Kest]

I believe in people dying.

Sun!
It was sunny out!
It had been raining steadily the past few days; raining constantly for hours, sending rivers of rainwater tumbling over the rocks and crashing through Pripyat's dreams, seas of water reflecting a churning sky...but at last the sky was clear and blue again. The water was evaporating. And the sun was riding high and bright in the sky.

The black tom padded through BoneClan camp, his head tipped back, obviously enjoying the new light.
He paused at the camp exit, stooping to drink from a pool in the rocks.
The sun was rippling in the pool's surface. Pripyat grinned at it, and was delighted when it grinned back.

Now.
Spiderlilly, he thought, glancing around with curious blue eyes.
It was such a beautiful day--he simply had to share it!

But he didn't see her.
Pripyat tapped his tail discontentedly on the ground. Maybe she's up, there? he wondered, glancing in the direction of Spiderlilly's favorite vantage point.
I'll go look, he decided, taking a few steps in that direction.

[/blockquote]

[Spiderlily]

Well. She supposed that, once again, it was a nice enough day. It certainly was better then the doom and gloom of the cloudier weather they’d been having lately. Rain didn’t bother Spiderlily so much as it might have once had in days of old, when she was young and cheery and a much brighter she-cat then she was now. Sure, she was still young, but the events that had occurred before she met those in Boneclan, as well as the loss of the war and their survival since then…she was no longer that same cheery feline. She had been out nearly constantly on patrols, either to make sure that there were no hostiles hunting them down or just regular hunting patrols, and now…it really did feel nice to sit on her rocky ledge at her point above the camp and just bask in the sun.

Feral yellow eyes were half slitted as she surveyed the clan below her – it looked as if everything was just as usual. Even with the return of Bane, where was he by any chance?, things hadn’t stirred up to that same pitch since the first moment of his return, and in truth…Spiderlily liked that. It was these rare moments of peace when she could truly allow herself to cut back and relax…

But then she spotted a certain black tom, looking about the camp, and a smile appeared on the strikingly marked tabby’s face. Ah, now there was a cat who’s company she enjoyed a hundred percent, something that just didn’t occur when it came to her and cats. But dear, dear Pripyat….he certainly was one of a kind. Purring a moment out loud to herself, the she-cat flicked her tail across the stone contently a few times before calling to him. “Yo’, Prip! I’m up here, man~” Company she was willing to even enjoy now, on her special vantage point.

[Kest]

Pripyat looked up at her shout, slitting his eyes against the sun.
Spiderlilly! He found her! Or rather, she found him!

Pripyat favored her with a big, cheerful grin. He ran up to her lookout place at top speed, tripping over a rock halfway up and nearly falling flat on his face. Only his excellent reflexes saved him; he threw out one paw to brace himself, did a complete flip in midair, landed evenly on all four paws...and continued up at breakneck speed.

"Spiderlilly!" he sang, dancing to a stop at her side. "Do you see? It's sunny, the water's evaporating! No more waterlogged patrols!"

He paused, perhaps noticing (once again) how fantastic the view was from above camp.
He was silent for a moment, his blue eyes taking in each and every detail of his new home. Funny how different it looked from this angle.

Then he looked back at Spiderlilly, her presence stealing all of his attention again.
She was a fantastic view too, after all.

Quite abruptly, something occured to Pripyat.
Back at the battle, she had told him a little about her history. But he'd sensed that there was more to it. There hadn't been time then, but...there was no war on here.
"Do you think," he started slowly, suddenly a little hesitent, "that you could...maybe...tell me a little about that City you used to live in?"
He felt a bit bad asking that, like he was prying for information. Spiderlilly had his utmost respect--and more--and he wasn't entirely sure he even has the right to ask such things of her.

[/blockquote]

[Spiderlily]

Oh…my…

Spiderlily was unable to suppress a genuine chuckle at his gallop up to her lookout post, tripping included and all. But of course, Pripyat being the almighty Pripyat that he was he quickly, and impressively, corrected the problem by his daring flip and, without breaking his breakneck stride, was soon at her side. The tabby pretty much flopped to his side for a moment, one paw flicking out to pat at him for a moment as if she was about to initiate a play session of some sort with her dearest, and only, friend; but….Spiderlily, play? Not like that, I think not. She recovered her composure remarkably quickly, rolling back until she was laying upright as before, her yellow gaze casting over the black tom for a moment before she smile again and looked back out over the came. “Of course, Prip – it’s grown to be one lovely day, no? Ol’ Baney Boy should’a be getting’ out that secondary huntin’ patrol – prey will be out and about after the rains.” It was just a light tease, no real disrespect for all the she-cat had, on multiple occasions, been disrespectful to their leader in the past. And…well, everyone else too save for Pripyat. He was special…he was certainly something else.

For a few moments, it seemed as if they were to spend their time relaxing here in pure comfort…and in silence. The she-cat certainly didn’t mind; just his company and companionship had become pure enjoyment even without words too, and her eyes closed in that duration of relaxing time. But then it was broken, expectedly as the words were not expected. One eye opened, studying her friend for a moment before the other opened to join the first, and there was but a note of curiosity in her gaze. Oh, she was sure for some reason he was thinking back to their conversation back at the battle…but why bring such a hurtful think back now? “Dunno what you want me to tell about it. There’s enough that, if you want everythin’, we’d be here all day talkin’ about it. Any specifics you wanna know so I can start with them, or just start anywhere, mm?” There was just so much…the highlights and the low points, the sleazeballs and the killers…hell, even the mob leaders and the city’s own great war where she had played both sides just as deceptively as her own sister had done…except in a completely different manner, of course.

Ah. How she missed the hit-squads.

[Kest]

"Well, it's like..." Pripyat meowed, staring at Spiderlilly without blinking for an absurdly long amount of time. "I don't know anything about...I mean to say...you're very...erm, enigmatic."
Yep, enigmatic just about summed it up. It felt like he'd known her for ages, but her past was still shrouded in mystery. He hoped she'd tell him; he would love nothing more than to be trusted with such knowledge. Still, it was her choice.

He rolled over on his back, batting at the air like an overgrown kit, a rather kitlike expression of simple joy on his face. "But we can talk about something else if you want," he stated, looking upside-down at Spiderlilly. He threw in a grin (terrifying to outsiders, but sweet to those he knew) for good measure.

[Spiderlily]

Oh.

Oooooooh. So that was what he meant. Spiderlily smiled a bit, giving a low chuckle as her steady gaze that had been focused so intently on him turned, once more facing outward in the direction of the lands she had previously traveled to get to this valley. Once, she had regretted leaving the city. Hell, she even still did…but such a feeling had all but been vanquished by the presence of the tom beside her. “So a condensed life story. I can do that, yanno.” It wasn’t as if she actually particularly wanted too…but she was sure that Pripyat would be able to keep from running around and spilling everything to all the other clan cats. “I was born and reared in one of those cities. Thought I was gonna be luck ‘nough to die in it too, but fate plays a funny game with us all no? My sister an’ I were the only kits born to the Faction that year, and we were separated from our ma after a moon turn, weaned to solid foods too. It was a time of warfare between the clans, the factions and gangs within the city walls, and we were immediately thrown into trainin’.” A bit of a grin again, her feral eyes not looking at Pripyat as she relived old times, old tales. “It was all trainin’ and games until our first battle. Dreamreaper, you might recall her, an’ I ended up taken by enemy forces – so our Faction hired a hit squad to recover us and the other warriors they had claimed. I dunno how to explain it; not at all….but there was something about the squad. It called to me…in some way… Almost as soon as we got home, I left the Faction and hunted down the leader, or Dom, of the hit squad that saved us. He didn’t want to take on a half grown fighter, not at all, but his two Enforcers, second in commands under his power, stepped forward and offered to train me in their mercenary ways.”

Ah…Argo and Skell. She couldn’t even begin to relive those times, couldn’t even begin to speak about those two cats. “Meanwhile, the leader of the Faction had become smitten with dear ol’ Dreamreaper, and she had him walkin’ a tightrope fer her. But she had been deceptive, been won over by the enemy Faction that had captured us, and while he was sleepin’ she murdered the leader. It threw the Faction into abrupt chaos, as there was no second in command to step forward and lead, and eventually it crumbled in upon itself. Dreamreaper join the other Faction, with sinister motives.” Oh lordy, how could she tell this so it made sense to Pripyat and not lose him in all the technical terms? “You see, there are different sorts of groups of cats in’the city. They’re all clans, but each has a different functions. Gangs are small groups, who generally hold block long territories within a Faction’s terf, and answer to the Faction's members whenever they come a callin’. There were four Factions within the city, each with a different section to run but always fightin’ for more terf from the other Factions. Lastly, there’s the Mafia, which rules the entire city. All cats had to listen to what they said, obeyed their rules – save fer those outside the law like the hit squads. Dreamreaper wanted their power so she infiltrated their ranks, causing a war to erupt between the upper Mafia society. And, when that happened, all law an’ order within the city crumbled and collapsed. It was every cat fer himself, and truth be told…there was a lotta work for the hit squads then. Our Dom ended up getting killed durin’ one mission, and Argo stepped up to take his place an’ I took over his empty Enforcer slot. Skell died next, getting’ us out of a bad hit in time but not able to make it through his wounds…and then Argo died. Alone, I found a straggler from another hit squad, Kaizer, that had suffered the same fate, and together we managed to get a few others from other fallen squads together to start our own. I stood as Dom, with Fade and Kaizer as my Enforcers, and for many moons we worked together as the perfect tactical unit. There was a loss or two, Cisa and Dai were both killed early on and we replaced them with Red and Toxickill, but it was all good there for so long… But yanno, I’ve learned since then that there’s an end to everythin’. We were hired to join up with a few other squads and storm the main grounds, the center park of the city, where the Mafia made their home mainly at and take out as many as we could. There were, in total, about thirty cats…but only a pawful of us managed to make it out. My Enforcers both perished in the fight, and I lost my two most trusted friends. I’d thought none of the Mafia cats had escaped, but the sight of Dreamreaper crushed that though. The war settled, with no winner but all sides jus’ tryin’ to etch out some sort of livin’ in the ashes of their own carnage. I had nothin’ left there…so I jus’ left. I’d been travelin’ fer some time before I ran into Boneclan, and you know the story since then.” A yawn, a brilliantly shown display of fangs from the she-cat and she rolled over to plunk to her side again…her yellow eyes now situated on Pripyat. There was a stretch, muscles rippling under her tabby coat, but she was completely relaxed no matter what hurt returned with recalling the deaths of her friends. “So there you have it; Spiderlily’s life in’a nutshell, take it as you will.”

[Kest]

Pripyat stayed silent for almost a full minute after her story was finished, his gaze not deviating so much as one millimeter from hers.
He took in every word and stored it away in his twisted labyrinthe of a mind; her history was a part of her, and therefore precious to the black tom

After a moment, he meowed softly, "So, that's why you aren't close to your sister, isn't it? Because she caused all that?"
He settled his head on his paws, his blue eyes still locked on Spiderlilly's face. "I just asked...in the first place, at the battle...because you didn't seem to like your sister. It wasn't like that with me and my sister."

Oh, Transal. His big sister. Transal! Tranny, sis? I still miss you!

I miss you.

If only she hadn't been...how she'd been. Pripyat wished she hadn't had to die. He felt nearly the same way about her as he did about Spiderlilly...with some obvious differences, of course. To put it bluntly: well, she was his sister. He was not crazy enough to look at his sister like that.
Because that would be one big ew. But anyway,

"Do you ever think about going back?" he asked, lifting his head off his paws again.
If she ever chose to go, he'd go with her, of course. But he secretly hoped she didn't want that. He loved BoneClan.

[Spiderlily]

“Yanno…I couldn’t have cared about the trouble she caused. I couldn’t have cared less of the wars, the conflict, the fall of power as all city cats knew it. But what she did killed those left who were important to me…and I’m never gonna forgive her that.” The conflict just got her more work, and she liked working in the squad diligently. When she lost her first real companions, the cats that she looked up to and hero worshipped, it had been hard. But Spiderlily was a strong cat indeed, if not in body but in mental strength. Instead of breaking as so many had during those troubled times, she had allowed herself to adapt and simply grow strong from it. But when her two dear Enforcers did not make it out of that park, as well as her two unranked squad members…for a while, it had been a crushing blow.

His sister? Spiderlily kneaded the ground with her claws, somewhere between being miffed still at her beautiful, terrible sister and contented by Pripyat being so close to her, before she blinked and paid attention to him. “So what is your story, Prip?” He had the same option as her; to not share should he not want to, but she was curious if he was willing.

The tom’s last question though…Spiderlily flinched slightly and looked back out in the direction of where she had lived and grown, silent as the dead. One minute. Two. Another. Another. She couldn’t lie to him…even though the truth was not kind. “I have, yes. But…even if I go back yanno…there would be nothin’ left fer me there. And…” She turned her head, looking at him. “…I have somethin’ here, to keep me here.”

[Pripyat]

"You know, if you really wanted to..." Pripyat meowed, his ears pinned back against his head, "I would go back with you. I could be your enforcer!" He reached one paw out, very slowly, and placed beside Spiderlilly's. "You don't have to stay here if you don't want to," he said earnestly.

He was quite for a moment, looking at her with blue eyes as honest and innocent as a kit's. When he wasn't killing, he was just a sweet cat.
She wanted to know his story? Pripyat tilted his head to one side thoughtfully. Just by asking, she was forcing him to tell her everything; how could he give her anything but the whole truth?

"Transal and I, we were born in a Clan," he began. "Not one of the StarClan-following ones, one like this one...but worse. Because there wasn't any loyalty. FangClanners killed their own, sometimes, when they weren't killing other cats. Or raping them."
Pripyat nipped pensively at his lip, drawing a bead of blood. FangClan was a dark and dirty Clan, barely worthy of the word. "The cats would go out in these gangs and just kill for fun, which was okay, except they liked to bring back trophies. That used to scare Tranny and me a bit.
Our father wasn't around. He didn't want to have much to do with us...the rumor was that our mother forced him into being her mate, and that was why he couldn't stand to look at us." A low growl rose in his throat. "I didn't mind, but Tranny did. Because of how it was with our mother."
The growl died away. "Mother liked to show me off. I was her strong son, I was full of potential, I was a great future FangClanner.
I was a status symbol.
But she didn't like Transal. She said Transal was 'too slow'. She said Transal was 'weak'. She said Transal was 'worthless'. She scratched me when I gave up half my food for Transal because Mother wouldn't let her eat. She gave all the good food for me, so I had to sneak it to my sister to keep her alive."
He didn't sound angry; he just sounded honest. Honest and confused, as if it was impossible to comprehend the scope of his mother's cruelty.
"Transal and I used to play hide-and-seek when we were kits. I had to distract her when the gangs came back with their trophies because it scared her so much."
For a single heartbeat he fell silent, a strange expression crossing his face. Then:
"I loved her so much, Spiderlilly! I did, I did! I don't know why she was so sad! She wouldn't tell me." The intensity of his outburst must have been suprising; it was as if Spiderlilly had expressed some sort of doubt and he was attempting to convince her. He looked down, hiding his face. "I just didn't want her to be sad anymore..." he murmured. "I just wanted to help."
His eyes flashed back to her face with startling suddeness. "She knew what I was going to do, Spiderlilly! I swear she knew! She didn't try to stop me!" he cried beseechingly. "I think she wanted it!" He searched Spiderlilly's face, his gaze seeming to beg forgiveness.
He ran his tongue across his teeth reflexedly, stopping only when his tongue began to bleed.
The only blood he couldn't wash from those teeth...was his sister's.
He killed her. He loved her. He wanted to save her.
"She was so sad..."

At last he quieted, resting his head on his shaking paws.
I miss you, Transal. You're not mad at me, are you?

[Spiderlily]

That was…almost surprising. Spiderlily watched Pripyat for a few seconds, almost as if considering that option. But the city had likely changed so much since the time when her paws hand wandered her away from it, and who knew if there even was a place for a new hit squad. Who knew if they even so much as existed anymore. Besides, Spiderlily knew just how much that the tom loved the clan, and the level of his loyalty to it….and it would be wrong of her to pull him away. It wasn’t as if she was miserable here. And, because she could not go back into the past, there was only the option of heading for the future. When his paw was placed beside hers, the she-cat smiled, one just for him, before finally speaking. “But don’t you realize it yet, Prip? Yer already my Enforcer. My best friend, my shadow, my truest comrade…” Her ears angled back for just a moment, before her voice lowered to a level it rarely went to and she moved her paw so to rest on top of him. “…and so much more..”

She loved him. She really did; and their admittances to one another in that fateful battle had done everything to solidify that. Day after day, week after week, Spiderlily didn’t know if her love for him was actually capable of growing by any depth or width.

Instead of thinking about that yet again, for the ‘nth time, the tabby listened intently to her friend’s story. So it seemed as if the world was harsh everywhere, not just in the city. He obviously had adored his sister so much too, almost enough for Spiderlily to bristle with jealously for a moment. Not that he cared for his sister so well, but that he had actually had someone to care for in the times of his growing up…where she had no one. But that faded too; the killer much rather would have him have someone, then for her to. Spiderlily suddenly started purring, a harsher raspy sound then what it normally was. When had she purred before, if ever? She…couldn’t even remembered, but it was worth the effort now. “You did what you had to do, yanno. If you really cared for her an' she was sufferin’, the kindest thing was to take that sufferin’ away from her so she could be at peace.” But only for those one cared for. Anyone else suffering could stay there and suffer, and it be amusing to the cold tabby.

Purring still, the she-cat leaned over and rubbed the side of her head against the tom; an actual try to comfort him in a way she was still quite unfamiliar with.

[Pripyat]

"If you really cared for her an' she was sufferin’, the kindest thing was to take that sufferin’ away from her so she could be at peace."

Without lifting his head, Pripyat shifted his gaze to Spiderlilly. "You think so?" he asked quietly, a little bit of glinting in his blue eyes.
Spiderlilly wasn't Transal. She couldn't tell him whether his sister was still mad at him or not. But he wanted her reassurance anyway. Perhaps even needed it.
"I did care," he acknowledged, his voice so quiet even he could scarcely hear it. "I did. And I do. And I will."
Forever and ever. You hear me, Tranny? Forever and ever.

Pripyat returned the nuzzle, a sweet, soft purr rising in his own throat. Perhaps Spiderlilly's gesture should have suprised him; she was generally an undemonstrative cat. But he didn't think much about it either way. "I love you, Spiderlilly," he meowed.
He had never struggled to admit this. Moons ago, the words had crept into his mind, blurry and unfocused at first; slowly, over time, they grew sharper and clearer; it was now a simple, undeniable fact of life, a reality in itself defined by those three words: I love you. If there was anything Pripyat understood implicitly, it was love.

[Spiderlily]

“I do.” She couldn’t tell him those things, no. But she didn’t want for him to think otherwise ever. “I’m sure that yer sister would want you to’be happy now that she been’a granted that freedom, no?” In fact, Spiderlily liked to think that she knew that fact – that more then anything else that existed; Pripyat should be happy and then some, forever and ever and ever. It was unusual for her to be happy like this, with such a peaceful feeling, but with the black tom the executioner felt as if she could be more open, as if she could be more then just the skilled killer. Be much more then that, but actually herself.

A smile easily found her face, something rare and normally for Pripyat only. “I love you too.” Honest and true, those words were, the reality that she walked so willingly into with only the occasional glance at the past.