In the Dark [Open]

[shadowstreak]

Darkness feel upon Thunderclan's territory. Clouds blocked the moons light. Everything was dark.

In the darkness, a pale gray she-cat slipped through the undergrowth, belly close to the ground. A few tail lengths away, a thrush was hopping about in some dead leaves.

The she-cat creaped closer... and closer... and closer... then pounced, landing squarely on her prey. With a swift bite to the neck, the bird was dead.

Skypaw began to dig into her kill. She hadn't been on a hunting patrol-she's just been going for a walk. She'd wanted to get away from camp for a while and stretch.

A cold wind swept over the forest and the apprentice couldn't help but shiver.

"Why does Leaf-Fall have to be so cold...?" she mumbled quietly, looking for some place to shelter and eat her prey in piece. Then, she spotted the whispering cave. She hesitated-she was a little afraid of entering-but gave in and raced over to it.

Once inside, she curled up in a corner, as far away from the entrance as possible. It was a bit warmer in here... but not much. Sighing, she rose to her paw and was about to exit when she heard the sound of a fox. It seemed to be coming from quite aways off, but still close enough to pose as a threat to her if she tried to return to camp.

Her tail flicking in annoyance, Skypaw returned to her corner and curled up again. She took a bite out of her thrush. It was rapidly growing colder... Great...

[Deleted]

The dark tabby tom was curious of this apprentice. He wasn't quite sure on what this she-cat was doing. He knew she wasn't his apprentice, but it would be good to watch her, yes?

He slowly padded along behind her, trying to keep down-wind, so his scent wasn't detected. He didn't smell like ShadowClan no longer, but you could easily sense it. It wasn't that hard...

DirtFur couldn't help but be impressed. She seemed to catch the prey easily. It was fun to watch her do this. Especially to a bird. He hated birds. He hated almost all the ThunderClan prey, but he couldn't complain, at least he was getting fed.

His ears were flicking around nervously, seeing her going towards the Whisper Cave. There was always a tale about that. Mates coming together and finding eachother. It was more interesting if you put it in more depth.

He was still pretty far, and he quickly froze when she padded in. Especially when he spotted the fox. That slightly worried him... He wanted to go in and actually greet her along with congratulating her.

Aghh.

When the fox soon passed the entrance, he slowly moved down towards the ground, to where he could 'crawl' over to the entrance. That's exactly what he did too.

He tried to make it to where he made no noises, which was difficult with the dead leaves. He made slow crunches, but he was lucky enough to have dark enough fur to not be seen. When he made it to the cave, hopefully not noticed by the fox, he ran towards the she-cat, quietly.

"SkyPaw!" he gasped quietly, "Congrats on your kill!"

He was trying to say this quiet enough for the fox not to hear, "Are you cold?"

He slowly asked that, soon moving down beside her, leaning his flank against her. Dirtfur was only doing this to keep her warm, right?

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[shadowstreak]

"Hi, Dirtfur," Skypaw said, not bothering to lower her voice even though the fox still lingered somewhere outside. "Thanks!" She stared at him for a bit. "Yeah, but I can manage," she replied to his question.

She flinched as he layed down beside her. She Tried to scoot away, but then she realised she was laying down in a corner. So much for getting away.

"So... How are you?"

[Deleted]

DirtFur just laid there, but soon felt how she wanted to get away. Of course. Cats still disliked him for what happened.

He sighed, and slowly got on all fours, "I'll leave if you want me to."

His eyes looked over at the she-cat, and let his tail droop slightly. He didn't like being an outcast in the clan. Sure, TangleStar accepted him, but NO ONE else really did. He felt... hurt. He really wanted to be accepted now.

Sure, he still missed ShadowClan, but he liked it here. It was a bit more comforting, because at least the cats here wasn't always hateful. ShadowClan, well, even the leader was rude.

"I was good. But, obviously you don't want me here or even close to you, it slightly hurts. So.... Not as good now. Yourself?" he tried to be polite, and he was a very open cat when it came to feelings and stuff.

He would tell any cat anything. As in, how he felt about them. Even if it was love, he wouldn't care. heck, he did that with ShadowHeart! Ah, not like that mattered.

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[Deleted]

Gingerfeather padded through the forest towards the Whispering Cave. It was a cold night, but peaceful. She'd been tracking down a fox, but it seemed to have left and she dicided to investigate the voices coming from the cave.

"Hello! Skypaw, Dirtfur." The pale tortishell couldn't help but flinch a bit as she said Dirtfur's name. It was going to be awkward talking to him, she was sure.

"What are you two doing here?" Then she remembered what cats of Thunderclan said. This was the place where most cats found their mates. A grin spread across her face. Time for the teasing to begin. "Oh, I know. Trying to get closer... I'll leave you two love birds alone..."

[Deleted]

DirtFur looked over to see GingerFeather padding on up. His fur prickled while he noticed the flinch she made with his name. Yeah. It was obvious. No one trusted him. At all. Nor liked.

"I was following her-- I was curious to see what she was hunting and how she was doing. If she wasn't doing well, I was going to help..." his ears flicked awkwardly, trying to not flip out with all the tension and awkwardness.

He hated tension. He hated a lot of things, but... it didn't exactly matter if he did or not. It wouldn't change a thing. Not a d**n thing.

"Love birds? No. She's an apprentice for starclan's sake..." he murmured. He understood that the female was just kidding and making a joke, but he still didn't feel comfortable with it...

DirtFur turned his gaze back over towards SkyPaw, his pads twitching. Even if they were, he would try to avoid any mate-related things. It seemed as if every mate he got or even got close to, had something BAD happen to them...

MoonShine died, ShadowHeart seemed to of left and her kit left....

Didn't seem like a good thing.

He turned his olive green gaze back towards GingerFeather, trying to read her expression. It was obviously not working, for his claws slowly unsheathed themselves, raking against the rock that was beneath him. The sound was a bit eerie and ear-achy, for it was a bit high-pitched. It didn't help that the cave was echo-y, letting the sound ring among the walls.

DirtFur winced a bit with the noise, soon looking down at his paws, not clawing at the rock no longer.

"..Sorry." he softly murmured, although someone could say that he spoke to himself.

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