if you need some conversation [ dawn ]

[coffee]

^{I ran my mouth off a bit too much, oh what can I say?
Well you just laughed it off, it was all okay
And we'll all float on okay}

A sharp call of alarm echoed through the thin woodlands as the bird escaped in a flurry of feathers that rained down on the gray and white apprentice still staring dumbfounded at her empty paws. After a few short moments the TempestClan she-cat had seemed to have gathered her wits and rose to her ivory paws, turning those deep indigo eyes toward where her prey had flown off to. Because of that piercing shriek it had emitted, it had probably frightened off the rest of the prey in this part of the territory for a good long while. But it didn't matter much to Halopaw. She hadn't come here to hunt, anyway. In fact, she had just been on an evening stroll as boredom finally pressed her to leave the camp, and so her pink-padded feet had led her to the furthest parts of the territory, to the birch woods which bordered the end of TempestClan land. A feather had flitted down her muzzle and tickled her dull pink nose, causing her to sneeze loudly, before shaking the rest of the little feathers from her bone-white, downy-soft coat. Padding deeper into the thin white trees, she came across the border and cast her vibrant gaze over the freelands, and in the distance, Trenton.

The moon was slowly rising in the sky above, which still managed to cling to its light blue hue, though the steadily decreasing amount of light flooded over her slender frame and turned her upturned, pale gray face silver. Her jaws stretched wide in a yawn, revealing what was much better hid: long glinting fangs tapering dangerously into sharp points. Her strikingly pink tongue curled within her maw as the enormous yawn came to an end, and she lowered her chest until the soft belly fur brushed the earth, stretching each long leg in turn. Then she allowed herself to sit back and observe the scenery. If a TempestClan warrior found her so far from camp, at least she could say she was doing something worthy like scanning the area for trespassers, even if it wasn't the whole truth. So she rested on the border and gazed dreamily out over the freelands, recalling memories of her past and forming thoughts for her future...

Dark oceanic eyes blinked sleepily open. Lanky birches looked down on the fluffy apprentice sleeping on the TempestClan border, who's head rose with her confusion as a cold breeze soaked through her spiky fur and rose goosebumps upon her flesh. Having such a kitten-soft coat had it's disadvantages; namely, the weather. She often felt the change in temperature stronger than coarse-pelted others, and the unexpected cold wind stunned her now. "Echopaw?" she whispered the apprentice's name, trying to rub the sleep from her eyes. But she was all alone, and the apprentice's den was nowhere to be seen. Very suddenly, she leaped to her paws. She had fallen asleep, yet she didn't even recall curling up under this tree. Nevertheless, it had happened. Her pelt messy and fluffed out, she glanced up toward the sky to see that twilight had fallen. Allowing her muscles to relax upon realization that she had not slept for as long as she had thought, Halo turned to make her way back toward camp.

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word count: 544

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[dawn]

Clear !

At the border between Tempestclan land and the Freelands, only the wind cast its voice out; the forest was peaceful and silent. Blissfully so, and though she would have preferred it to be filled with sound, it was relaxing, and the small black she-cat nearly dozed off for a second time. She had been crouching in the brush, her muscles tensed, but then she had missed her target, the prey that was a small songbird, and she had lost interest, letting her legs fold and her body rest in the shroud of rough foliage. It wasn't hard to hide, for it was already growing dark, and her black pelt appeared nothing more than a deep shadow, mixing with the blackness, when her white belly and paws were hidden from view, tucked beneath her.

But then a cry split the calm of the night air, and the cat was immediately roused. She was used to the sound of a bird, frightened into flight, but at this time it was an eerie sound, and she stiffened slightly, pale blue eyes opening to gaze out into the dim light of the forest. She relaxed as it grew quiet again and no other sound followed it; letting her eyes wander about, she sensed that something had changed in the time of her light sleep, her own failed hunting expedition. Her ears twitched atop her skull, and at last on a cross breeze she scented something peculiar and new. It wasn't frightening to her at all, and she felt no caution; even if she had, it faded when she saw that the figure was smaller than warriors she had seen, and the she-cat was intrigued by this strangers beautiful ivory pelt, unlike any she had seen in her short lifetime. She began to creep forward from her place, taking care to keep quiet.

The slim black she-cat halted as it began to stir, and watched in wonder as eyes a tone and hue she didn't recognize, an indigo of sorts almost like the color of the sky, opened. But even as Halopaw began to leave, rising and calling out in mild alarm, she didn't seem to notice that the other cat, the loner, was there. And so she wondered if her skills were slightly better than she had thought, for a skilled clan cat like this not to sense her presence. As the apprentice began to pad her way, she slid to the side and ducked into her path, beaming. "Hi! I'm Clear. What's your name? You're pretty." Paying no mind that any normal cat would be scared witless by her sudden leaping into their path, Clear watched her with bright blue lights, waiting for a response.

[coffee]

^{I ran my mouth off a bit too much, oh what can I say?
Well you just laughed it off, it was all okay
And we'll all float on okay}

Halopaw weaved through the birch trees, her raccoon-like tail waving behind her like a dangling leaf dancing in the breeze. Her paws moved swiftly over the ground with no real urgency while maintaining a steady, quick pace, and if one was to look at her, it would almost seem as if she wasn't touching the ground at all, almost as if she was floating. But indeed this was an impossible inference one could make, and one that a cat wouldn't pay a second thought to. So the blue-eyed she-cat padded through the woods on tabby-striped legs, but she hadn't taken more than five long, nimble steps before a shape burst from the shadows quite abruptly. A regular cat might have jumped in the air with surprise at the sudden appearance of this feline, or something of the like, but Halo had a certain way of muffling her emotions, so rather her reaction was to stop dead in her tracks and take a startled step or two backward. Indeed those deep blue pools of hers did widen in shock until the whites of her eyes shown, but after producing a quick assumption of the she-cat before her, those same pools seemed to freeze over with dark ice.

The TempestClan apprentice concluded that by her scent she must be a loner or something of the sort. And by her sleek, feminine frame, she decided that she more likely than not could overpower her if it came to fighting, for though Halopaw wasn't a muscular cat, she was large nonetheless as most TempestClan cats were. But this loner's stunning light blue eyes told her that she probably meant no harm, and the sable-furred feline's next words only further proved her theory. Why hadn't she scented her before? Maybe she had been too groggy from her short nap to pay attention. Completely and utterly ignoring this she-cat's question, Halopaw's next words came out hostile and ominous yet retained an eerie calmness. "Get off of TempestClan territory before I claw those pretty little eyes out." and though the soft-coated apprentice said this with such iciness, she was most afraid of some cat stumbling upon this scene and attacking this, this... Clear, themselves, for though the she-cat before her looked anything but a threat, some cats wouldn't hesitate for a chance of digging their claws into a pulsing throat. And then they would question her to why she hadn't done the same.

Indeed Halo would attack this she-cat if she had to, and without even the slightest hint of regret too, but it didn't look like it would come to that. Just some harsh words appeared as if they might be enough, and if they weren't, Halopaw was just as ready to show this cat that all she would gain from setting foot on territory where a cat wanted nothing to do with her was a couple of torn ears and some missing fur. Halopaw was nowhere near to being a cruel cat, but when you're raised in a Clan like TempestClan, you learn that you have to be aggressive sometimes in order to survive and get the things you desire. She had also realized that it was best to just not trust anyone, and to keep to yourself. And she was going to use the things she had learned here.

word count: 553

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[dawn]

Clear !
Seems that I have been held, in some dreaming state
A tourist in the waking world, never quite awake
No kiss, no gentle word could wake me from this slumber
Until I realise that it was you who held me under

The kittypet turned loner gazed at Halopaw, measuring her up with curiosity. This cat's fur was the color of the sky when veiled by frost; the color of day, where her's was the darkness of night. Her eyes were beautiful, like something she had never seen; but while Clear's were soft and innocent, Halopaw's seemed to have seen something they weren't revealing to her right away. Seemed to know something she didn't. Loss? Those soft, cool blue ovals, like the moon overhead, swiveled to focus more intently on the apprentice. She seemed to be sizing her up in turn, but didn't look threatened. She was at home in the empty forest, the land of Tempestclan, and Clear envied her faintly for that, her kinship with the land around her, her ties to it.

She had been born in the home of a twoleg, but she didn't recall the details too well, as she had been sold away at an early age. Then, just a few moons ago, she had run away. Or, as to hear her tell it, she had gone on an adventure, and she hadn't gotten back yet. Everything to Clear was an adventure; everything was beautiful, and she hadn't met anything yet that wasn't. The mountains, the trees, the cats here; they all spoke to her in different tones, and she strained her ebony ears to listen to them speak. What Halopaw was saying was not entirely a melody to her ears, and she drew back faintly, wondering at the feel of claws across her face. This apprentice didn't seem the cruel or blood thirsty one, but even so, Clear wasn't too visibly startled, and wondered why it was such a threat for her to be on Tempestclan Territory. This area drew her; she remembered something about it, something someone had told her, but it seemed so long ago. She spent a lot of time thinking about this, but never quite could figure it out; and thus she stuck around this area, hoping it would come to her at some point.

Clear's smile returned after a flicker that had been her lapsing into thought. "Your eyes are pretty too. Why does it matter where I am? You're here, too, so now we can be friends!" It was good that she had met this cat. She didn't like to be alone, after living with her brother and the twolegs; she was only just getting used to it, and this was the first clan cat she had met in her time around here. She hoped that she would tell Clear her name, so they could be friends. She needed friends; they were important to have in the world, surely just as important as a warm bed, as dreams, and the paws beneath her feet.

[coffee]

^{I ran my mouth off a bit too much, oh what can I say?
Well you just laughed it off, it was all okay
And we'll all float on okay}

Clear's next words stunned her. Halopaw opened her jaws to reply, but was speechless. Her threat obviously couldn't matter less to this bright-eyed cat with the pretty face. Was she really so feeble-minded, or was she just toying with her? Didn't she believe that Halo meant every word she said? Taken aback, the gray-and-white apprentice was quiet for a few moments, letting this black-and-white loner's words sink in, replaying them in her mind. Finally the mildly bewildered she-cat seemed to collect herself and stumble out of her confusion. "Look," she growled coolly, picking her words carefully. "There's a whole clan of cats who would tear you to pieces before you could give them the same welcome you've given me. And I'm really not that much different. This area doesn't belong to you, and if you stay, you'll find it's not as glorious as you may think."

Halopaw narrowed her eyes at the bubbly young she-cat until they were fierce indigo slits, but she made no attempt to move or strike. Not yet, anyway. "Go find some kittypets to chat with, why don't you? I can assure you that they'll enjoy your company much more than I will." she murmured darkly, her words scorching flames sent out to burn the loner and hopefully, drive her away before she was forced to use her claws on this mouse-brained, thoroughly friendly she-cat. Despite the words shared, there was some traits that the ivory apprentice admired from the pitch-black loner with the petite white paws. For one, she didn't seem afraid of the blue-eyed apprentice or her threats, which she respected from Clear. Her optimistic attitude was also a positive trait, Halopaw guessed.

But still Halo tried to avoid friendship outside of the clan, for that would surely only lead to trouble... wouldn't it? The apprentice blinked as she contradicted her own words within that gray-streaked head, but didn't give the idea a second glance. No, of course it would. From watching the other cats in TempestClan around her, she had come to realize that forming close bonds with other cats usually only lead to pain. She had never quite learned this herself, however, for her mother had been nothing but a selfish whore and her father was always too busy to visit his only kit, though he was a kind tom who loved Halo to the very end. What a pity that her father had died when her mother, the gorgeous she-cat who had always gotten what she wanted right to the very end of her clan life, when she had decided that a life under Twolegs was much easier and had found a kittypet much more handsome than her father, really deserved it.

word count: 451

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[dawn]

Clear !
Seems that I have been held, in some dreaming state
A tourist in the waking world, never quite awake
No kiss, no gentle word could wake me from this slumber
Until I realise that it was you who held me under


Clear tilted her head at Halopaw's strange expression, wondering what she had done to merit such a unique response. It was nice to talk to someone again; she hadn't been able to for a while, aside from her brother, often contacting her. She liked him a lot, of course; but it was great to meet new cats, especially funny ones like this, and she wanted to learn more about her before she left. She didn't quite understand the idea that the forest, belonging to itself in her mind, could be divided up and owned by other cats. In fact, she didn't really know this at all. But she was learning it now, and it opened up a whole new world of possibilities for her. A pawful of curiosities.


She watched the change, a bit startled by her new mood, coming out from behind a soft cloud of confusion. Clan? Clear's blue lights stretched wide, like those of a kit being told fantastic nursery tales. "A whole clan? How many is that?" The loner asked, her tail lashing with need to satisfy her curiosity. Imagine... a huge group of cats like her, all living together out here! How weird! How extraordinary! She knew there were a lot of cats in the world, at least as many as she had claws; and she had seen some come and go; but an entire clan out here? She wasn't entirely sure how this clan thing worked. But it was exciting, and she wanted a better grasp of the idea.

Clear felt a bite in Halopaw's words, dark and harsh, and noted her frustration at being unable to frighten her away. She didn't know much about fighting, but she didn't think that anything would come to that. If it did, while she didn't know this, she would surely be dead. She had never been skilled in fighting, had probably never even had any thing that mirrored it, apart from scuffles with her littermates as a kitten. And that was a long time ago, far too long ago to remember. Something tugged at her memory... pain.

Her smile faltered lightly, gracefully sifting. "Kittypets?" Clear murmured, bewildered by this new world she was discovering. "I don't know any kittypets. Don't you want to be my friend?" Any mouse brain could tell Halopaw did not want to be her friend. But Clear was a silly naive thing, and she wasn't one to give up easily. Or really at all. Tempestclan... Ah, yes, the clan. She wanted to go there, she had her heart set on it now. It was pulling at her, like a puppetmaster on its slaves strings. Making her dance around, her insides a knot, twisting and curling. They would need to be unraveled slowly, with care, but only by the right cats, only by the gentlest paw, and by the roughest; and then finally the little black cat's tale could be told, and everyone could know. They would all know about her. Her story.

[coffee]

^{I ran my mouth off a bit too much, oh what can I say?
Well you just laughed it off, it was all okay
And we'll all float on okay}

How many is that? Well Halo herself wouldn't be able to count with all the cats coming and going from camp, nor did she think she would ever really need to use the knowledge of the exact number of cats in a Clan. "A lot." she finally replied, a simple enough answer. She should be able to understand that, at least, the TempestClan apprentice mused. At this point the long-legged apprentice was starting to feel a bit sorry for the naive she-cat, who seemed to know nothing at all, and who's curiosity and joy seemed to know no ends. What an indisciplined fool she was, Halopaw thought with a sad smirk, pitying the clueless loner. She had looks, and she had cheer, but seemed to be lacking in the knowledge area. What a poor, funny thing. "There's four clans, actually." she meowed, pondering the thought that the more she talked, the more she was probably adding to Clear's endless wonder.

"Don't know any kittypets, eh?" Halo muttered, motioning with her bushy gray tail back toward the Freelands and beyond, Trenton. "Out there, you'll probably find tons. Cats that live under the control of pathetic twolegs, eating disgusting pellets all their lives. And hey, maybe you'll see my mother there! Tell her that her daughter misses her mommy dearest, won't you?" she sneered with sarcasm clear in her icy words. Her nostrils flared as she released a harsh breath from her nose, and her ocean-blue eyes flashed momentarily before returning to the regular glittering serenity of indigo waves under a clear afternoon sky, of course and as always maintaining her mellow state. Blinking, she turned back toward the loner with the glassy blue eyes. "Your friend..." Halopaw repeated Clear's words quietly, and after a thoughtful hesitation finally answered the she-cat's question. "I don't think so,"

"And yet you amuse me..." the frosty-white she-cat concluded uncertainly with an unusually gentle smile. "So, why are you here anyway?" she quickly asked to make up for the little slip of kindness she had shown to this trespasser, determined to keep her kinder side hidden from a cat who didn't belong here in the first place. With that, she swiped her tongue over one white paw nonchalantly, drawing it over one small ear, then the other. Maybe they could indeed become friends, Halopaw thought upon realization that no harm would come from befriending this she-cat, as she clearly didn't appear to be one to purposefully hurt others. Besides, she was fun to tease around with.

word count: 419
/EDITED but I didn't really add anything of that much importance C:

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[dawn]

Clear !
Seems that I have been held, in some dreaming state
A tourist in the waking world, never quite awake
No kiss, no gentle word could wake me from this slumber
Until I realise that it was you who held me under


Rather than being official and strict, her simple answer or 'a lot' seemed to please Clear. Still, she wondered at why she didn't seem to care at the exact number of cats in her midst. Still, a lot was indeed a lot, perhaps even as great a number as the stars in the sky? The loner cast her soft blue eyes upward into the black sky, filled with twinkling pinpoints of light. "That many, huh...?" she meowed wonderingly, as though it had been confirmed already that there were that many. It was even more marvelous that there were four of these 'clans.' That in itself was truly amazing. How was a clan formed? Who chose the leader? Clear smiled. "I'd like to see that many cats." she meowed at last, managing not to blurt all of her questions.

"How are these clans organized?" Was the only question that escaped her. "Are there leaders?" Her eyes glinted. And here was a real live clan cat in front of her! She pondered Halopaw's description of a kittypet for a while, her nose twitching. The way she talked about them elicited this, by the disgust in her voice. "Oh, kittypets." The black and white loner meowed, as though pondering the weather. "I was one once, I think, but then I went out here to meet you, and I'm glad I did. It's much more fun out here, in these trees with all these... clans." She shifted her weight innocently. "My brother stayed behind with the twolegs." She added, trying out the word. Her eyes didn't burn any brighter at Halopaw's rage, but she did listen avidly without interrupting this part. Despite what many would call her 'idiocy', Clear was wise in this way and she knew that Halopaw was letting off steam and anger, and knew better than to comment, or pry into her affairs.

"Well, I ran away from home, like I told you." Clear murmured, lowering her tone to let Halopaw know that she knew she was repeating herself. "But there is... something about this place." She looked at the sky again, the stars reflected in her blue lights. "It feels like home to me." Clear mewed, smiling wistfully. "There's something here that I... have to find." As though sending her own dumbness on this part, she laughed, a warm, quiet bit of her amusement and nervousness to be coming closer to memory. "I'm just not sure what."

[coffee]

^{I ran my mouth off a bit too much, oh what can I say?
Well you just laughed it off, it was all okay
And we'll all float on okay}

"That many, huh...?" Clear had said, which had made the TempestClan apprentice shoot a quizzical look at the black-and-white cat with the stars reflecting in her pale gaze, and Halopaw tried not to laugh at the loner's next words. "That doesn't go to say that they'd like to see YOU, especially not on their territory." she commented, reminding the pretty black she-cat again that she was trespassing. Halo didn't interrupt again and instead waited for Clear to get all of her questions out before answering. "You were a kittypet once, huh?" the apprentice murmured, pausing as she was uncertain whether her next words would offend, but then thought that if she could have possibly offended this feline it would be accomplished by now, and why should Halo care, anyway? So she continued on. "That's doesn't surprise me. But at least you were brave enough to leave."

"As for how the Clans are organized, I don't see what harm it could bring to tell you about it. Hell, all cats should know about it. Anyway, the four Clans go by the names of CelestialClan, TempestClan, ZephyrClan, and VertigoClan. Each Clan has its own leader, deputy, and medicine cat. Leaders run the Clan, obviously, and deputies become leader when the leader dies. Medicine cats heal our wounds and interpret messages from StarClan, our ancestors, the stars in the sky. Our leader is Voidstar, our deputy Mottledscar, and the medicine cat is Saberfang. Then there's warriors, who hunt and fight for the Clan. I'm an apprentice, but I should be a warrior within the next few moons. Apprentices train to be warriors, you see, and we have mentors to help us. Then there's the queens, who give birth to the kits. And finally, the elders, who are warriors who have survived long enough to retire." she explained.

"Hmm... feels like home, eh? I'm sure some passerby cat could quickly change that, ha." Halopaw meowed, her tone betraying the little 'ha' thrown in at the end, as it was flat and humorless. She studied the little black she-cat for a few seconds, before finally shattering the icy silence Halo had held. "I hope you really don't mean that. I mean, if you keep wandering around here looking for whatever it is you feel you have to find, you're gonna get hurt when some cat finally stumbles upon you... what exactly do you intend to do, anyway? You don't even know what you're looking for!" she growled quietly. For a brief moment the warrior-in-training considered bringing Clear back to her camp, but shook the idea from her head, almost immediately dismissing it. Who knows what kind of trouble Halopaw could get into? Everybody would think she was a fool, and they had all the reason to. The tabby-and-white apprentice swept her ringed tail closer to her curving, silky-furred body as a cold breeze picked up, buffeting her from the side. She flattened her gray-dipped ears against it and closed those distinctive dark pools as dirt and dust rode on the wind, before the wind evened out and she could open her eyes once again, her pupils enlarging and decreasing in size from that stormy-gray face as they adjusted from the darkness of her eyelids to the starlit night.

word count: 541

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[dawn]

Clear !
Seems that I have been held, in some dreaming state
A tourist in the waking world, never quite awake
No kiss, no gentle word could wake me from this slumber
Until I realise that it was you who held me under


Clear sighed quietly. "I guess that is so." She allowed, still wondering why it mattered so much. She was about to find out. She turned her head and made the star spin around her, stars twinkling and blazing. After a moment, Clear dropped to her haunches again. "...brave...?" The small black cat wasn't too sure she was brave. That sounded like something that... her mother and father were. She frowned thoughtfully, biting her lip. And then everything was being explained to her, and her eyes were growing huge and she felt a thumping in her chest that was her heartbeat growing quicker.

"You mean all those stars are cats?[" She must have sounded unbelievably stupid to a clan cat, but the thought that lights in the sky were cats was strange to her. Foreign. The first question was foremost important to her, and she was breathless with interest as the rest was explained, so she asked no other questions, instead puzzling it together in her mind. Her tail lashed with the irritation of curiosity, breaking the still of the night air.

Clear frowned, blue eyes drifting to the side as though a cat was lurking, listening, ready to pounce. She didn't like the idea that some cat would use their claws to make her leave this area; in a way, she felt like this was her home now, in this area, and she didn't think they had right to chase her from it. Why couldn't they live side by side? Everything was just too complicated. Her fur rising with the wind, Clear shook her head furiously, though without anger. "No, I have to stay here. Maybe... starclan wants me to. Something means that I should find something here." She twitched her tail tip nervously, stirring up a bit of dead leaf and sending it into the air with the slight breeze.


ooc; xD I'm unsure what should happen from here. I don't want her to join a clan yet, she probably wouldn't fit in well anyway at this point, I'm figuring something that will change her and make her stronger in the future. Maybe some other Tempestclan warrior shows up, and Halopaw tells her to leave so she doesn't get caught?

[MiNTY♥]

xx closed