(TC/SC) A New Scent

[Shatteredstar]

[bg=000000][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][atrb=width,350,true][atrb=background,http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y32/Arhiukahn/Shatteredstarmiddle.jpg] The day was coming to a close, the sun dipping just below the trees, but the heat was still stifling. Three dark shapes moved through the brittle undergrowth, keeping their bellies low and ears pricked. The evening border patrol had been long and hot. All three shapes came to a stop at the edge of the rocky meadow, panting heavily and slumping to the ground. Finally it was time to take a break. There hadn't been any new traces of intruders from other clans, which was good, but there also had been very little prey scents as well. It was disheartening for all of them. One cat in particular seemed frustrated, a very large gray tabby with fierce green eyes. Her tail flicked in irritation as she hauled herself back to her paws. "You two split up. Take some freshkill back to the pile before you head back. I'll see if I can find anything here." The she-cats raspy voice sounded parched, but so did her warrior's as they mewed their farewell and padded off into the forest. Shatteredstar stared after them until they were out of sight, then turned and started off towards the border. She'd known there hadn't been any prey at the meadow, but there might still be some in the greener area near the thunderpath. It didn't take long for her paws to carry her to the border. Her mouth opened and she took a few deep breaths, all but choking on the stench of this place. A mix of thunderpath and ShadowClan scent blowing in on the hot breeze. Her fur bristled, and she frowned. It would be hard to scent anything at all here today.... Even so, there had been something odd... She took another deep breath, narrowing her eyes as her mind worked over what she could smell. At first she didn't recognize it at all. It had been so long since it had happened. Suddenly she realized what it had been, and ducked behind a bush. ~Kittypets?~ Shatteredstar thought angrily, peering out through the leaves in the direction in which the smell had been coming from. ~Why here? There are no twolegs here.~ The thought made the fur on her spine rise. It was DAYS travel to any twoleg nests. Why would any soft clawed kittypet be this far away from their home? And what's worse, be trespassing in ThunderClan territory! The leader's muzzle pulled into a silent snarl as a branch cracked, and a shape stepped out from behind a thick patch of bracken.

[Watermelon]

[bg=000000][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][atrb=width,350,true][atrb=background,http://img528.imageshack.us/img528/4873/watermelonmiddle.png] Watermelon blinked as she padded along the odd black path under her paws, staying to the side seemed best, or else the black path got too hot too quickly, and her paws got burned. She paused for a moment, picking up her paws to lick them, not that it did much good. They were getting rough from burns and walking far more than she was used to. It had been a long, hard trip from the day she'd run from her twolegs nest. She thanked her pelt for being such a nice, light color. She could only imagine what would have happened if she'd had a black pelt. The heat had drained her after so long in the sun. She was becoming thinner, much to her dismay, but she carried on. Going forward until she'd had to stop and attempt to hunt, she had been lucky and found an old shrew a day ago... or was that two days ago, now? It seemed quite long ago to her now. Her stomach snarled at her, proclaiming its avid hunger, but she didn't think she could catch anything else. Not in this heat. She had to move a little deeper into the brush, thirsty as she was, she licked some of the dew off of a clump of grass, before going back to the side of the road, careful to stay away from the hot black path to walk in the softer earth, which was better than burning her paws off. Even the dying grass here, browning and wilting down looked better than her other option. She simply figured that the road must lead somewhere. Blinking her sky blue eyes, she noticed something just ahead. A rustle in the deeper grasses piqued her interest. It was a grasshopper, dangling off of the leaves of a bush. It leaped off, and Watermelon felt the urge to follow, happy to have something to do, even something as silly as chasing grasshoppers. It leaped into the road as she came to the bush, cracking a branch. Pushing back up to her paws, her ears moving downward in annoyance at the grasshopper, she realized the sound must have scared the grasshopper away. I began bouncing across the black path, and she couldn't blame it, since its tiny feet were probably getting burned off. She turned her head to look forward, and was utterly stunned to see another cat staring right at her. That cats snarl made her freeze mid-step, and then take that half step back, not moving forward at all. She was afraid if she moved the other cat might lunge at her...

[Shatteredstar]

[bg=000000][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][atrb=width,350,true][atrb=background,http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y32/Arhiukahn/Shatteredstarmiddle.jpg] Instantly aware that she'd been spotted, Shatteredstar's muscles tensed and her back arched. She hissed furiously, stepping out of bush, every hair on her body bristling. "Kittypet!" She spat, taking a step closer. "What do you think you're doing trespassing on my territory!?" Her eyes narrowed further, searching over this intruder's body. She was obviously young and inexperienced in any sort of fighting. Her soft white and ginger pelt seemed unscarred, and still held the gloss that a well-fed kittypet would have. She was a little thinner than most other kittypets, but that was probably because she was no good at hunting. Most of them weren't. It wouldn't take much to frighten this one off back to her twolegs. Shatteredstar's muzzle parted with a loud yowl. "Go back to your twoleg nest!" Her words seemed slurred by anger, her voice rattling out like a crows caw. A rumble echoed in the distance, and the leader's eyes darted to the thunderpath, then returned to the intruder, widening slightly. A monster was coming. Shatteredstar's first instinct was to duck back under the bush so that she wouldn't be seen, but she pushed herself to stand still, blocking the intruder from going any farther. It thundered past, scattering dead leaves and dust into the air. The smell was overwhelming, her nose wrinkled in disgust and her ears lay flat against her head, but her sharp gaze never left the kittypet.

[Watermelon]

[bg=000000][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][atrb=width,350,true][atrb=background,http://img528.imageshack.us/img528/4873/watermelonmiddle.png] Watermelons first instinct was to run from this aggressive cat, but she stood her ground, though she wasn't sure it was the best plan. She had no idea what to do. She couldn't fight the she cat, she was sure the other cat would rip her from head to tail if she so much as picked up her paw. “I'...I'm not from here. You're the first cat I've seen in days!” She yowled over the roar of the approaching beast, she looked over her shoulder at the thing running up the path, and hissed as she moved almost into the bush to get away from it, arching her back in fright of the monster. They never seemed to intimidating from her window in her twoleg nest. Looking back to the other cat as the sounds, if not the terrible smells, of the monster roared farther down the path. The monster wasn't something she needed to worry about, though. She was far more concerned about the she cat. She tried to ease her fur out, trying not to appear so apprehensive and afraid, but it was a daunting task with such ferocity facing her.

[Shatteredstar]

[bg=000000][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][atrb=width,350,true][atrb=background,http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y32/Arhiukahn/Shatteredstarmiddle.jpg] Shatteredstar's tail lashed in frustration and she forced herself to take a good long look at the kittypet in front of her. ~Well she's not ugly... A bit flabby, but not for long if she stays out here... ~ She thought bitterly, looking over the well fed she-cat. If only her own clan could appear that well fed, they may not have so much trouble with ShadowClan invading their territory. ~She's certainly got some guts, sticking around and asking questions even after being told directly to leave. I could easily overtake her.~ The leader's eyes narrowed into tiny slits as she glared at the kittypet, forcing her own fur to lay flat and slowly lifted from the ground, peering over her shoulder as the noisy beast as it moved farther along the border and disappeared around the bend. Her head snapped back toward the other she-cat a moment later, and she continued to glare. "You must realize I could kill you right here and now, yet you stay where you are, why is that? Are you just stubborn or are you completely mouse-brained?" Her words held the same malice, but her stance had relaxed somewhat. "I realize you're not from around here, you're a kittypet. You have the twoleg's stink all over you." She hissed, retreating to her haunches and wrapping her tail around her paws to show that she wasn't going to slaughter her.. Not just yet.

[Watermelon]

[bg=000000][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][atrb=width,350,true][atrb=background,http://img528.imageshack.us/img528/4873/watermelonmiddle.png] Watermelon didn't sit down, or go any closer to the she-cat. Watermelon had the impression she could do serious harm to her, but she didn't think she'd kill her. The thought almost make her turn tail. Asking questions of the irate she-cat shouldn't be penalty enough to earn death, after all. “I realize you could kill me, but I haven't done anything to deserve it... unless walking on this grass is enough to tie your tail in a knot... I don't know why but when I saw you I'd hoped maybe there was some food near by,” Watermelon admitted. The she-cats attitude had made her want to bristle at the older cat, but she didn't want to end up with her ears shredded. “I also do not stink! I might smell like black path but its better than smelling like the other side of the path over there.” It was true. The other side of the road seemed to permeate the smell of something rotting when the wind blew the right way, and it made her walk on the other side... this side, particularly, of the road. Thinking back, maybe she wouldn't be being harassed by the older cat if she were on the other side of the road. She moved a step out of the bush, careful not to startle the other cat, and not to go any closer to her. She'd rather stand closer to the black path than be stuck in the bush, which was scratching at her pelt.

[Shatteredstar]

[bg=000000][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][atrb=width,350,true][atrb=background,http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y32/Arhiukahn/Shatteredstarmiddle.jpg] Shatteredstar's fur began to prickle again, and stood spiked on the back of her neck. She lifted her head, looking down her nose at the kittypet, unsheating and sheathing her claws repeatedly. "It may just be grass to you, but this is ThunderClan territory! We hunt here, and any cat to step foot over our border without our permission is considered a threat to the clan!" She spat, snorting heavily at the end. ~Stupid kittypets, they never understand anything!~ Her stare hardened again, and her ears began to sink backwards in a threatening manner, but she didn't get up. "Even if there were food nearby it would belong to ThunderClan, Not some stupid kittypet looking for a free meal." the leader explained, glancing over the road towards the other clan's territory. There was slight amusement in her voice when she added " Yes.. They do stink don't they? But they wouldn't be any less eager to share their prey.... And yes, you do stink. How do you think I could tell where you came from. The twolegs have left their stench all over you. Even a fox would probably turn it's nose." Shatteredstar grunted the last few words. The drought was bad enough, the clan didn't need any outsiders coming in to take their prey. Not to mention that some of it wasn't even edible, tainted with sickness. The thought made the leader's spine tingle, and she hoped that the two warriors she'd sent out to hunt had remembered to check their prey before it was taken back to the pile. Her ear flicked as she forced the thought out of her mind. There were other matters to be dealt with right now.

[Watermelon]

[bg=000000][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][atrb=width,350,true][atrb=background,http://img528.imageshack.us/img528/4873/watermelonmiddle.png] Watermelon found herself scoffing. A threat to a what? What was a Clan? She felt insulted, and perhaps was rightfully. She'd never run across any cat like the one she now faced, but it seemed like the she-cat was out to insult her the worst way she could. Too bad only half of her insults made sense to her. “I'm just one cat. I'm not much of a threat to anyone in the state I'm in, if that's what you mean.” she said, irritated at herself. Her tail swayed to the side angrily. If only she knew more about being outside, and outside cats, she'd be able to fend for herself better. “I'm not used to being out here. I was chased out of my two-legs nest and my brother got lost as well. I don't even know where he is, and now I have to put up with knowing nothing about being out here. I'm not even sure what this Clan is that your talking about. Take a chance to put yourself in my paws for just a second, and perhaps you'd get it. I don't even know how to hunt!” She exclaimed, her ears pinning back. Watermelon swatted the grass irritably.

[Shatteredstar]

[bg=000000][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][atrb=width,350,true][atrb=background,http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y32/Arhiukahn/Shatteredstarmiddle.jpg] Shatteredstar's expression flattened to a dull grimace, but she waited for the young kittypet to finish speaking. "In the 'state' you're in? And what would that be? I understand that you're hungry and lost, but you look pretty healthy to me. You don't have any wounds, and your ribs aren't showing. You look pretty plump, actually." And it was true, this cat looked healthy in comparison to the forest cats. She sighed heavily, resigning herself to hold a decent tone. "A clan is a group of cats who live without the comforts of a soft kittypet life. We don't go near twolegs, ever... In fact, we quite despise them. We are bound by the warrior code to protect and serve our clan. There are four clans, ThunderClan, WindClan, RiverClan.. and .. " Her tail swept around and pointed in the direction of the forest just beyond the thunderpath. "ShadowClan." The she-cat paused, letting the kittypet have time to absorb the information before continuing. "Our territories are marked by scent borders. You've crossed into ThunderClan territory, surely you should have smelled the markers by now." Her voice was still very flat as she stood up, stretching her lean muscles. Even though her ribs weren't showing, she was quite thin, but the power behind that slender body show in the fading sunlight. It was getting dark. "Why did your twolegs chase you off, I've never heard of that before." This time there was more curiosity in her voice.

[Watermelon]

[bg=000000][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][atrb=width,350,true][atrb=background,http://img528.imageshack.us/img528/4873/watermelonmiddle.png] Watermelon supposed what the she-cat said was true, compared to her, Watermelons overall health was wonderful aside from her burnt paw pads. She couldn't help but agree with the tone that was given in the direction of ShadowClan. She looked over her shoulder to eye it, before looking back to the she-cat. The wind wasn't blowing the scent of the road or ShadowClan on them at the moment. All she could do was enjoy the loose wind from the forested area around the she-cat before her. “I smelled it,” she acknowledged, resisting the urge to stretch as well. “But I haven't run across one before, so I wasn't sure what was going on there.” Watermelon admitted. “I thought it was odd that any cat would be so close to the black path, but then, I was. It seemed like the only way to travel without getting so lost I couldn't go back if I needed to... not that I could.” Watermelon looked to her paws, not sure if she should reply to the inquiry, given her two-legs opposition to her paws. But she raised one paw anyway. She might as well. She spread her paw out, claws out to show all six claws where there should have been five. “They didn't seem to like that I was different. The two-leg kit let me and my brother run away before they took us away in tiny cages, hardly big enough for any cat to fit in. They were always loud and mean, aside from their kit, who was always hiding from them.”

[Shatteredstar]

[bg=000000][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][atrb=width,350,true][atrb=background,http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y32/Arhiukahn/Shatteredstarmiddle.jpg] Shatteredstar examined the outstretched paw, but didn't seem bothered or impressed by it. "Well, twolegs will be twolegs. They're stupid, destructive creatures." She muttered. The thought of being put into something that small made her uncomfortable, and she couldn't blame this kittypet for running away. She wouldn't have wanted to be locked away and taken to StarClan knows where either. Moving closer, she cautiously sniffed at the new cat, her nose wrinkling at the stench of twolegs. Shadows were falling over the forest, and only a milky light poured over the horizon, barely visible through the trees. Shatteredstar wondered if she should be getting home, but she couldn't just leave this cat here. A heavy sigh slipped from her muzzle. Being different was no easy task, even for a kittypet she supposed. After all, she'd had her own share of tormenters when she was younger. A rough wind whipped over the ground, sturring up dust. A distant rumble from farther up the thunderpath made Shatteredstar's fur bristle again, and she turned her back on the young she-cat. "Look, if you want to eat then follow me." She rasped over her shoulder, and took off back towards the rock meadow. She'd have to catch something to take back to the freshkill pile, hopefully there'd be something along the way.

[Watermelon]

[bg=000000][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][atrb=width,350,true][atrb=background,http://img528.imageshack.us/img528/4873/watermelonmiddle.png] Watermelon agreed, and joined her, yearning for food. Though she didn't know what to expect, running after this she-cat could spell trouble, but she hoped not. Her stomach rumbled and she tried to ignore it. She thought instead about how the she-cat had been indifferent about her paw, and that it made her feel surprised and oddly welcomed. She obviously didn't have to worry about how the other cat saw her. “How far is it?” she asked, jumping over a stray root that jutted out of the ground, it looked dry, and the naked grass beneath the trees here seemed to be almost as crisp as the bark on the trees. The scents around her increased, the scents of other cats made her vaguely nervous. How many were in here? How many cats were in a Clan? Would they be as rough as this she-cat had been? Where did they all come from? She would have to remember some of these questions for later. Some of them seemed like good questions to ask, and she hoped that they were, and not 'mouse brained' as the she-cat had said before. She could only imagine mouse brained to be an insult. Mice just didn't seem all that intelligent to her.

[Shatteredstar]

[bg=000000][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][atrb=width,350,true][atrb=background,http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y32/Arhiukahn/Shatteredstarmiddle.jpg] "Its a bit of a walk, you're coming back to camp with me. My warriors won't attack you on command, but they will not enjoy having a kittypet in camp, even one as young as you are." Shatteredstar wasn't worried, besides, she was only letting her stay for the night, and then she would escort her out of ThunderClan territory before sunhigh tomorrow. If she kept to the side of the thunderpath as she had been, she'd only have a little bit of RiverClan territory to go through before she'd be moving away from the forest. For a moment the she-cat wondered how much this kittypet actually did know. She'd said she didn't know how to hunt, but even a kit knew how to stalk and pounce.. although very wobbly and with no form of technique. It was a shame really, Shatteredstar noticed as she peered back over her shoulder to see if the other she-cat was following. She really was kind of pretty, those blue eyes especially, shining with the pale light of the rising moon. She'd grow into a beautiful cat... That is, if she didn't starve first. "When we get closer to camp we'll stop to hunt. I want to see just how much you know." Her croaking voice sounded as she weaved through a thick patch of brambles, but she didn't seem to notice as thorns dragged at her short coat.

[Watermelon]

[bg=000000][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][atrb=width,350,true][atrb=background,http://img528.imageshack.us/img528/4873/watermelonmiddle.png] Watermelon was nervous at the thought of facing more cats that didn't like her. It made her wonder what would happen when they actually got into the Clan camp. She kept up, if just behind the she-cat. Not close enough to accidentally tackle her if she stopped, like she used to do with her brother when she mock-chased him. She felt a pang of worry as she thought of him, but pushed it back. The she-cat had said she wanted to see what Watermelon could do when they stopped closer to camp. As far as hunting, Watermelon had the feeling she'd need the tutoring, if any was given to her. “I'll show you what I know.” Letting her eyes take in the cloudy gray she cat, now that she wasn't being stared at with the blazing emerald eyes of the she-cat before her, she had the opportunity to admire the she-cats markings, even if her fur was slightly scruffy, she was obviously muscled, as she moved with much more ease than Watermelon did. The she-cats figure was indeed lean, though not the bone thinness Watermelon had first perceived. She took her chance to look around the forest, her eyes taking in the glow of the moon through the trees, and the cat before her. Hopefully tonight would be a good night to hunt...