Playing in the rain

[Waterdance]

Rain! Glorious, glorious rain! It had been raining for most of the morning and Waterdance had been frolicking in it instead of catching any food. Thus, he was getting quite hungry around lunch time. If cats could pout he would be doing so right now at his stomach.

"Why do you have to ruin my fun? Fine. I'll go catch something," he mewed and started to pad off in a direction. His mouth hung open to better catch the scents in the air around him. The six-toed feline ended up walking around the field for a bit before catching scent of a field mouse.

He then began stalking towards it with more stealth than any other feline would thought possible with him. His tail twitched from side to side as he came upon a mouse trying to stay out of the drizzle but still trying to search out food as well.

Crouching low, he shifted his weight ever so slightly on his hind legs. 'Just a little closer. Come on, mousie. That's a good mousie. GOTCHA!' he thought as he pounced on the mouse with his claws extended, jowls clamping down around its neck. Once Waterdance had managed to kill it he began eating.

[Kest]

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Rain.

The music of it was meloncholy. It sang from one end of the world to the other, and that song was one of emptiness.

Or at the very least, that is how it sounded to Shadowedfate.

The siamese had lost her way days and days ago. First she had been deep in a red haze of anger, and after that she was so deeply confused that for a time she even forgot who she was.

And then the rains came, washing away the smells...and the blood.

If the former BoneClanner had come to her senses earlier, she could have followed her beaten comrades into the mountains. As it were, she had waited too long; no there was no scent trail to follow.

Now she stood in the heart of the Rogue Meadow, her head tipped back and her blue eyes closed, letting the water run across her face and down her neck.
The rain softened the dried blood on her and whicked it away, bringing her fur back to a soft and glorious sheen.
The cuts on her cheeks and shoulders were healing. She looked healthy.

But she was alone and she felt the empty space beside her like a gaping wound.

"Dangeroushope..." The name fell haltingly from her trembling lips, almost involuntarily. It sounded like a low cry of pain.

Sister.

Shadowedfate had been wrong. She had thought her Destiny lay here, with BoneClan...she had been so sure.
Perhaps yours, she thought in agony. But not hers'.
Never hers'.

She had known that Dangeroushope would follow her everywhere...she should have understood...
Our fates lied together.

She had lead her sister to her death.

Shadowedfate almost buckled with the pain of it. The pair had been together for so long she no longer remembered how to be alone...
Or perhaps had never learned. The twins had been so close they were almost a single entity.

And the survivor missed her with a frevor she had never known before.

The scent of prey distracted the siamese from her dark musings. Automatically, she turned and padded toward it. She was not hungry--didn't think she would ever be again--but she supposed she needed food to survive.

Before she could locate the mouse, however, another cat found it. She could barely see him through the tall grass and the rain, but she had the advantage of being downwind, and she could smell his presence.

Shadowedfate padded toward him anyway, drawn by the scent of fresh kill and a kind of idle, lifeless curiosity.

She moved to stand over the young tom.
"What are you doing?" she meowed, her voice hoarse from lack of use.

Her voice was mostly emotionless. And it really was a very pointless question.

[Onyxdart]

Draco, master mouse hunter, was prowling around Rogue's Meadow. He'd heard there'd been a war, which didn't really worry him. They were always up to tricks, those Clan cats. Not that they didn't have their place. It was just... far away from his place.

And he didn't mind. Rogue's Meadow was good to him. It gave him food, which was more than could be said for some places, and he was rarely bothered. He could go where he wanted, and talk to whomever he wanted. He was free to find shelter when it rained, for instance, and there was a whole meadow in which to do just that. Of course, if you happened to be a big long haired tom cat, you would be drenched withing seconds of the rain beginning to fall, thereby gaining at least a million pounds of water.

Yet, somehow, he was hunting. Clumsily, but in Draco's case, clumsy wasn't quite enough to ruin the day. In fact, he'd caught a whole baby rabbit. It was way too much for him, so he was dragging it around trying to find somewhere to hide it that he'd remember. Then he heard voices. Well, one voice, really. It sounded sad, so the gallant tom pranced over to investigate.

Make that slogged over, burdened by fur and rabbit. Damp, bedraggled rabbit. Draco, ignoring this lapse of dignity, pretended to prance over anyway, and nearly ran over another tom and a siamese she-cat. He thought it was the she-cat's voice he'd heard, earlier, as the tom was chowing down on the mouse. Draco dropped the rabbit and tried to spit out some damp fur that clung to his tongue like burrs would have clung to his fur, if he'd left them there. But he never did. He was vain like that.

"My apologies, sir," he said to the other tom, and then looked at the she-cat, "my lady," he added, bowing his head to her respectfully. Oh, this tom had pretty manners, alright, and a pretty face to go with it. And didn't he just know it. But it was all in good fun, of course.

[Waterdance]

He had managed to scarf down half the mouse before the she-cat had made her way over to him. No doubt by the smell of the fresh kill he just made. It wasn't like he wouldn't have shared if the mouse had just been a bit more fat.

He looked up at the mewl from the she-cat who was addressing him. Blinking, he licked his jowls before speaking back. "What does it look like I'm doing? I just caught myself a mouse! Sad to say it's only enough for one cat otherwise I'd gladly share with you." He seemed a bit sad about that.

Even if he seemed to not take in the concept of clans and would wander in their territory from time to time out of being naive. Waterdance would much rather want to help out any feline when ever he could. He then went back to eating the rest of the mouse in her company as to not let it go to waste.

His ear flicked as he heard another presence come closer to them. Then that's when the smell of a dead rabbit caught his nose. Hey! Maybe this cat would share with her instead. That was a brilliant idea and a stroke of coincidence -- if he said so himself.

Licking his lips again, he glanced at the tom who had almost walked over him from crouching in the grass. If the long haired tom did, indeed, walk over him as he came towards them then this feline would have forgiven him. After all it would have been an accident. "Sir? Oh, no, no, no. I don't like to be called that. It doesn't seem to fit me," he mewed.

He shifted his head between the both of them then at the rabbit near the other tom. Getting up on all fours, he then kneaded his front paws on the muddy ground, tail swishing behind him in glee. "If you're not gonna eat it all maybe you could share with her?" he meowed excitedly at the idea.

Of course the tom would have to be the one to make the call and the she-cat would have to say if she wanted the offer or not. "Seeing as I just ate a mouse," he added as an after thought. Rabbit was good but he didn't want any when he didn't share with the she-cat. Except when he looked at her closely she seemed a bit sad about something.

It caused him to stop the pendulum swinging of his tail and tilt his head to one side in thought. "Um, is everything ok, she-cat? You look a bit down... as if something bad has happened." Waterdance hadn't really heard too much about the war since he didn't belong to any.


(Man, I'm getting really good with these long posts now. o.o; )

[Kest]

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"My apologies, sir, my lady."

Shadowedfate turned to look at Draco, shifting her weight from one paw to another and nearly collapsing. The smell of the rabbit set her stomach rumbling--but her hunger was purely physical. She had no real desire to eat.

"I...can hunt myself," she murmured hoarsely.

She wavered, her paws heavy and her head light. She looked as if she might just fade away.

Then, Waterdance's question. It took her off guard...no, more than that--it sent a jolt through her that almost stopped her heart.

She stared wildly at him, her strangely stricken blue eyes wide with shock.
Very quietly she repeated him: "Is everything ok?"

As if something bad has happened...

That she was sad was obvious. But the way she was looking at Waterdance--it was as if she thought he had read her mind.

"The worst," she said haltingly. "The very worst thing."

Something bad has happened.

"My...my sister..." Shadowedfate sank down, sitting as the sound of the rain grew alternately louder and softer in her ears. It occured to her that she might very well faint. "She...died. A few days ago.

When...in the war."

[Onyxdart]

Draco sat behind the dead rabbit. He had been about to offer to share, but the she-cat had kept talking. She didn't look very good- like she was about to fall over. He felt bad for her, having lost her sister to the war.

"I think you should eat," he said softly, nosing the rabbit closer. He could afford to let another cat eat first off of his kill. From looking at him, you could see he was no tiny, slim built kitty. Draco was big fluff of a cat. He wasn't sure how to comfort the other she-cat, or even if that was what she wanted, so he held off saying anything else, instead just watching her to see if she would take the food he'd offered.

[Waterdance]

Sometimes Waterdance was like that. He could pick up on how another was feeling unless he didn't notice it. Sometimes he was just that naive about things. Mewing a bit in sadness for her, he went to nuzzle the side of her neck with his head. It seemed to be about the only thing to do for her.

There was no way of bringing her sister back. Not even Starclan would be able to pull of something that big. If Starclan was able to do it Waterdance would have taken any risks to help her out despite not even knowing her. “Well all you can do is live the rest of your life for her,” he mewed gently.

The Hemingway feline was looking expected to see if she would eat some of the rabbit that the tom had graciously offered. His tail swished lightly as he gently shook his fur out from the rain as too much water was collecting. All that he had to do was wait and see what the she-cat was going to do.

[Kest]

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Shadowedfate looked rather blankly at Waterdance. His nuzzle set her fur bristling; she was not used to physical contact from anyone but her sister.
Once, she would have rebuked him for it, but instead she felt an overwhelming rush of gratitude--for both toms.
And at the same time, she realized how fiercely she desired not to be alone.

"Thank...you," she meowed slowly. Complacently, the siamese she-cat crouched and took a small bite from the rabbit. It whetted her appitite, and she found that she was actually quite hungry.
In between bites, she focused on Waterdance's words. "All you can do is live the rest of your life for her."
Shadowedfate looked up, swallowing. But I killed her, she thought, nearly crying out at the pain of it. Her mouth moved, but no sound came out.

Before they could ask, Shadowedfate tried again, this time spitting out the rusty words so they could hear: "But...I killed her. My sister. I killed her by bringing her here."

She squeezed her eyes shut, talking very fast now; "She never wanted to come. I made her. I knew she wasn't going to leave. She always did what I said."

Shadowedfate opened her eyes, looking beseechingly at Draco and Waterdance. "She never said no, never," she whispered.

[Onyxdart]

Draco tilted his head to the side. He was glad now that he'd caught a rabbit, given how the she-cat seemed to be hungry enough to eat one.

"Well, You can't take all the blame. Someone else killed her, after all. It was a war... I'd say part of the blame lies with you, part lies with those who started it, and part lies with whoever did the actual killing," he said. He didn't want to provoke her into revenge mode- that would be bad- but quite frankly, he thought war was the stupidest thing he'd ever heard of. Honestly, couldn't they just leave each other alone? Noooo, never. Heaven forbid anyone leave well enough alone.

"Anyway, the way I see it, you can either walk around blaming yourself and everyone else for the rest of your natural life- die young, be miserable, push everyone away- or you can move on with life- remember your sister, learn to make friends again, that kind of thing," he added, sitting with all his paws together and doing his best to look wise and all-knowing. Really he just looked goofy.

[/center]

[Waterdance]

The Polydactyl cat just reeled back as if been swiped at with a paw in disbelief. How could she say she killed her sister by bringing her here?! There had be another reason to it. The war probably had injured her and she died without getting help from a medicine cat...

Yeah!

That had to be it.

Waterdance was convinced of his thinking was right. It wasn’t as if this she-cat killed her own sister with her own claws and teeth, right? Right? Guh, now that train of thought made him quiver a bit; although it could have been from the rain seeping in his fur to his skin.

“Don’t think like that! You did as best as you could at the time to save her, right? It’s not like you were the one who actually ended her life by turning on her. This is one of the safest places I know of,” he mewed and nodded his head in agreement to what the other tom had said.

He then swished his tail from side to side as another brilliant (brilliant in his mind, only) idea came to mind. “I’ll be your friend. Since none of us made any introductions yet I’ll start. The name’s Waterdance!” he meowed energetically. His hazel hues fixated on the she-cat then shifted to the tom.

[Kest]

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"You don't understand!" the siamese burst out. "I was so cruel, you didn't see! I forced my sister to come and I forced her to join B--I forced her to join."
Shadowedfate looked wildly from one tom to the other. She had almost slipped and said BoneClan, and she didn't want that; she knew her Clan's reputation. She was afraid they'd hate her if they found out she was a part of that.

"If it weren't for me...If I'd just listened when she'd told me she didn't want to go...then she'd be alive right now.
No, I didn't strike the killing blow...but I did give her killer the opportunity. My fault."

She sagged down, falling to her belly, splaying out her paws for balance. Ordinarily, she was a fairly attractive she-cat, but right now she looked anything but: her face was haggard with grief and her fur was heavy with rain and mud.

When Waterdance spoke again, Shadowedfate looked down at her paws. He said something about being her friend.
She wanted friends very much. Yet here she was, wallowing in self-pity, blocking that out.

She took a deep, unsteady breath.
Dangeroushope is dead, she told herself. She has been for awhile. But you're not dead, are you? And you don't want to be, do you?

...No...

The siamese tried to look a bit less tragic, taking a giant bite of the rabbit. "...My name is Shadowedfate," she meowed.

[Waterdance]

She was right. Waterdance didn’t see. But that didn’t mean that he had to see to know what he felt in his heart. If the she-cat did slip up and say what clan she was from, he’d have just looked at her in astonishment.

Yet he wouldn’t have told her to get away from being in such a terrible clan. The Polydactyl cat would just get over it in a little bit since that was before they had met. Purring lightly, he just shook his fur and swished his tail back and forth.

“Nice to meetcha, Shadowedfate!”

Waterdance was glad that she was starting to open up just a little. Well just a name will do for now since they weren’t technically friends yet.