another day, another patrol [Bristleclaw ll Open]

[Dodgestrike]

Dodgestrike was patrolling alone again today, but that was quite alright – he never did like to be a bother, and felt that asking his fellow warriors to join him in this task might be a bother so, in short, it simply hadn’t occurred. The shy tom was just fine being alone, in any case…he could think about how he could help out the clan, or even think back to the war and his father..

He missed his parents, even now, he thought as his paws carried him silently through the grass field. They had always been there for him, no matter what…then mom died. Dad ran away, but had come back…only to be killed in the war. Why did that just seem so wrong to him? He hadn’t…had a chance to even say goodbye.

And then there was Bristleclaw…he hadn’t really even had the chance to put a word in edgewise with the she-cat. She was so pretty, bigger then him she might be, as loud as he was shy. She wouldn’t notice any stolen glances towards her, of course, and that thought, a subject he had not really wanted to come up anyway, was banished once again from his mind. He would just keep on patrolled, bringing back prey for the rest of the clan, defending the border from rogues when he could. That was his life; he was happy enough with it at that.

Shaking off the spell that only those sad thoughts could cast over a feline; the young warrior reached the base of the tall oak, looking around. Silence. Nothing but silence and, as he lifted his oceanic gaze towards the sky, the shining glow of Starclan glimmering above. Muscles tensing beneath his fur, he leaped upward, scaling the oak with determination until he found the uppermost branches that he could cling onto and take a look around. Up here, he could see far off through Mistclan, and even into Stoneclan’s turf.

All was silence. It was as it should be.

[Bristleclaw]

Aah. It really was nice out, and Bristleclaw had come out to hunt, patrol…not exactly be alone, but to think, like Dodgestrike. She didn't miss her mother; it sounded cold and heartless but it was true. Bristleclaw didn't know to become attached to any cat at the age of three moons. She learned that in Mistclan.

And then she scented another cat. She bristled for a heartbeat, then realized it was another Mistclanner. Another heartbeat and she pinpointed exactly which: Dodgestrike. He was farther along the border than she, high into an oak tree. Bristleclaw grinned and hopped along till she came to the bottom of the tree, and looked up. She could just see the shy tom, looking out across the land.

"Dodgestrike!" Bristleclaw called, leaping onto the trunk and clawing her way up. As she reached the branches underneath him, Bristleclaw relaxed and lay on one of the wider branches. "What are you doing all the way up here?" she asked him, purring and letting her tail hang over.

[Dodgestrike]

Starclan seriously had something out against him, didn’t it?

Dodgestrike had closed his eyes, taking a deep breath of the still, relaxing air, before a voice sounded abruptly from the bottom of the tree. “Wa-wah!” He yelped and jumped which…probably wasn’t to smart when he was clinging to a tree branch. As Bristleclaw clawed her way up the trunk to join him, the young warrior scrabbled wildly on the tree branch, finally securing his hold again although he was leaning out now a little more then what he felt comfortable. Wiggling, the tom scooted his way back on the branch, then looked over to see…Bristleclaw.

Oh great. Not only had it to be her to come visiting, he had just completely made himself look like a fool. “Umm…just…uh..” He started, looking down unable to meet the she-cat’s gaze, pawing a leaf sheepishly in true embarrassment for his near fall in her presence. “I was…was just looking out and…yo-you know, making sure t-that everything’s q-quiet.” Aww, he had been doing so well with not stuttering too!

Maybe it would have been better if he just had fallen, at least he wouldn’t play the part of the shy fool.

[Bristleclaw]

She purred in laughter as Dodgestrike scrambled his way back onto the branch. “Well, it looks like everything is,” Bristleclaw mewed, gazing out across the territories through the leaves. It was so pretty…She squinted and could just see Stoneclan, up in the mountains. Then her gray eyes flicked back to him.

“What do you say we do some hunting?” she asked Dodgestrike, and without waiting for an answer she began the to climb back down the tree. As she reached the bottom she jumped down onto the ground, and immediately began to chase after a squirrel. Stealth wasn’t exactly her forté. But she was quick enough to jump on the rodent and kill it fast.

“Here,” she purred, dropping the squirrel near the bottom of the tree and waiting for Dodgestrike. “Beat that?”

[Dodgestrike]

“Y-yes.” Plainly, Dodgestrike sat there like a lump, wishing desperately that it was possible he could melt into the branch and vanish after his near fall. Of all the cats for him to appear and look like a fool as, why did it have to be Bristleclaw? He was supposed to be gathering his nerves and trying to impress the pretty she-cat, not stuttering and falling out of trees when she showed up. Almost timidly, he glanced up and gulped, she was looking out across the expanse of territory. His own oceanic gaze followed, “It’s nice, isn’t it? Almost goes on f-forever.” He had done better then, up until he remembered who it was exactly he was speaking too.

“Uh…uh okay?” Hardly had the words escaped his mouth when the she-cat shimmied her way back down the tree, quickly catching and killing a squirrel. Well now. Not about to be outdone so soon, the tom skillfully slipped down the tree – moving silently through some of the long grass that surrounded it. It took mere moments for twitching ears to pinpoint the soft scurrying sounds of little mice feet, the shift of grass blades as they hunted for food. And his muscles tensed beneath his thick coat. He pounced once, twice! His initial pounce had landed him on a female mouse, breaking her spine, the second one pinned another that had be only feet away to the ground, which he killed quickly with a bite.

Gathering both mice up by their tails, he carried them over to Bristleclaw, laying them shyly at her paws.

[Bristleclaw]

Bristleclaw purred as he brought back two mice; well, he did beat her. “I bet I can catch two squirrels?” she meowed, and it was half a question, a challenge. She stood and opened her mouth slightly, scenting the air. One squirrel was in front of her, a few tail-lengths back from Dodgestrike, and one was behind her a ways.

She jumped around Dodgestrike to go after the closer rodent, and leaped on it as lightly as she could - which wasn't really very light. She ran past the tom, dropping the squirrel without stopping, and went for the other squirrel.

It put up a bit of a fight, running to and fro in front of her. Bristleclaw hated to play games with her food, and, getting a bit agitated, she jump, claws unsheathed, and killed it instantly. “There,” she meowed, dropping it beside the other one near Dodgestrike's feet.

[Dodgestrike]

That was quick. Dodgestike, steady as he was, hardly even had time to nod to Bristleclaw’s challenging question, before the she-cat was off – quite quickly and successfully killing both squirrels, both of them dropped at his paws respectively. The young warrior smiled then, a slow and kind one that peeked through his shyness as he glanced up at her, “I-I’m not goo-good enough to even t-try to beat that!” Truth combined with a bit of a flirt, although even that would likely not be noticed beneath his stuttering words.

Still, his oceanic eyes lowered to look at the three squirrels and two mice that had already caught…and he hadn’t even come out here to hunt! So much for getting a regular patrol done, they were going to have to get this prey back to camp – which Umberwings’ kits getting big enough for solid food there were four more mouths to feed.

However, he glanced back at Bristleclaw, curiousity getting the best of him as he flicked his tail a few times, “So…um…what brought you o-out here?”

[Bristleclaw]

Bristleclaw purred; aha! She had beaten him. Good, good. She had always been a competitive cat. Her eyes followed his unconsciously to the pile of prey. Fantastic! The clan would be safe for another day. Well, probably…Maybe?

“What am I doing out here?” she repeated, sighing. “I dunno. I just get so…claustrophobic in that cave. It builds up after a long time, but every once in a while I just have to get out for longer than normal…For the first three moons of my life, I lived under the stars every day, every night.”

Bristleclaw stopped there, looking at Dodgestrike warmly. Her eyes were distant, not looking at him but at the image of her mother burned in her mind. “You don’t care about all of this,” she purred, and looked at her paws. “Sorry if I was boring you, I just get carried away.”

[Dodgestrike]

Dodgestrike was an easy balance to that competitive streak – he hadn’t much of one which possibly was odd for a young warrior. Let alone a testosterone-filled tom. But he was a simple soul, in truth, he loved the purer aspects of life. Getting all worked up trying to win or lose something just wasn’t a part of it.

Instead, the quiet, stuttering-shy tom simply nodded to her words, waiting for her to finish before speaking himself, “I understand.” In those soft words was true understanding – Dodgestrike looked away, across the field, up towards the sky above before back to Bristleclaw. She…was smiling warmly at him, and a bit of a shy little warm smile of his own appeared on his face. “It’s okay. I…I-I get the same too, sometimes. My mom and dad, and I….we traveled a lot b-before coming here to Mistclan.”

“Starclan…looks b-brighter when out here.” He missed his parents. He really did, both had died in ways he wished they hadn’t. Those oceanic eyes lifted to look upward again; maybe they were up there, somewhere, still looking out for the clan.

It was nice to think so.

[Bristleclaw]

It wasn’t exactly normal for Bristleclaw to open up like this. She’d only ever done so before to Wishclaw, and those two were like peanut butter and jelly. The large she-cat shuffled her paws uncomfortably. She purred a bit when he told her he understood. When Dodgestrike mentioned his parents, she realized neither of them had any living ones to speak of. Well, she’d never met her father, but she didn’t exactly give a rat butt about him these days.

“Starclan…looks b-brighter when out here.” She looked up at him, her gray eyes narrowed warmly. “It does, dunnit?” Bristleclaw mewed, gazing around. The same thoughts went through her mind: maybe Oddeye and Hawkeye were up there with her mother. It was a nice thought.

But Bristleclaw thought her mother wouldn’t care for Mistclan; she might go insane after just one night in the cave. She remembered her mother loved living in the open. She told her every night, that living where her heart was happiest was all that mattered. She told her to never stay where she didn’t want to, that no cat could tell her what to do. And of course, that message stuck with Bristleclaw the rest of her life.

[Dodgestrike]

He really did miss them, didn’t he? There was almost a hurt at their thought, like wash of pain over his heart. Dodgestrike had known that as he had gotten older, he would have drifted apart from the two anyway – but they were stolen away so cruelly, before their time. “D…D-do you thi-think they’re happy u-up there?” It was strange, asking the she-cat he had crushed in shy silence for a while now such a thing, but the young warrior needed to hear it from someone other then himself.

Looking down at his paws, the orange-masked tom flicked his marked ears back, before turning to better face Bristleclaw – steeling his nerves for what he wanted to say next. “I’ve..” He started, hesitated, and gave her a bit of a hopeless look as his oceanic gaze lifted to search out her face. Here went nothing. “I’ve w-wanted to get to kn-know you better for….for a while now, yanno.”