eagle, wrote:with each new cat who he happened upon, redstar was sure to question them, needing to know if any of them might have heard from any of his friends. ivystripe had been the first, saying that she was sent by starclan with a small bundle of herbs. her soft tabby pelt hung with the bitter scent of herbs, and her pelt was unmarked by any claws. redstar suspected that she had lived a generally sheltered life, perhaps even with twolegs, though she offered no clarity to her past. the most she gave was a snort when he entered her den one chilly afternoon and watched her while she sorted through her bundles of leaves. "i've never heard anything about your friends," she said then, looking at him with sympathy before she pulled a small shard of rock from between her delicate pads. from the outset, she complained about his choice of a camp, asking how he expected the caves to be safe for kits, elders, or nursing queens. when he showed her where he expected the elders and nursery to be located, branching off from a cave that had a gentle slope leading up to it, she nodded slowly and accepted it. but he did notice the way she winced in pain from the stones against her pads and the soreness in her body. "i'm not from around here. i came to you because starclan wanted me to, not because i like the taste of muscly rabbits," she stated then, flicking his shoulder with her tail.
in retaliation, he scoffed playfully. "they're tasty." whether she agreed or not, she had waved him out of her den by saying that she had herbs to sort, and that he was only to get in the way.
after ivystripe, he happened upon tallpeak while she was flushing out a rabbit's den, looking hungry and desperate for shelter from the wind, if the battered look in her eyes was anything to judge by. "i was from a clan, once," she started during their walk back through the wind, redstar leading the way back to the camp. the molly had been originally hostile when he approached her, but she warmed up after hearing his same and taking in the broadness to his head and shoulders.
"what happened to it?" redstar asked, curious. she didn't look like she was from the moorland or anywhere with rivers, based on the way she hissed when they crossed one of the territory's sluggish streams and she hissed when her belly fur was soaked with the water, or when she kept her head down against the ripping wind. at one particular gust, she let out an exasperated hiss, and redstar sent her a sidelong glance. "if you want to live with us here, then you'd need to get used to the wind."
tallpeak sent him a withering glance, and redstar knew that she would push on, whether or not she ever liked the feeling of wind in her fur. "as i was saying, my old clan broke up. we split up and i haven't seen any cats since."
it was frustrating, that a warrior who had traveled so far hadn't seen any traces of his old friends, but redstar was willing to let it by for now. the more time that passed, the more he felt sure that his friends from brightstar's quickclan hadn't survived. thistlepaw, yellowfeather, wolftooth, splashfall, sweetecho... he supposed they had probably been killed in the fighting or had moved on, away from the moorland to find a place that wasn't stained by generations of bloodspill. had starclan not called to redstar himself, odds were that he would have traveled away as well. but, it didn't soften the blow of loneliness. "my old clan was broken as well," redstar said, looking back to tallpeak, who appeared surprised. "i lead quickclan now, but the past leaders of quickclan have been weak, and i don't think starclan chose them like they picked me. this time i'm going to make sure we stick together."
tallpeak blinked at the new leader and nodded once. "for the friends we've both lost. you're a leader i could follow. what happened to the last leader?"
it was a long story, but redstar didn't spare the details. he first told about the original quickclan and about the legendary sharpstar, then launching into quickclan under the last successful leader, fleetingstar, and how his son, wetclaw, had become deputy under brightstar. "no one thought that brightstar would be a good leader," redstar mused aloud, speaking mostly to himself. "but they hoped that he would pick a strong deputy who would follow him well and help him lead." though he didn't say it, he had always thought that it might have turned out differently is he, himself, had been chosen. "and wetclaw was fleetingstar's son, but he was almost as bad as brightstar. very meek, couldn't make decisions, and the only respect he had was because of fleetingstar." all of the cats had respected fleetingstar, as he had been one of the leaders to truly make the cats believe that they were back to the times of quickfoot and sharpstar. no one had questioned his decisions up until he made brightstar - then brightmoon - his deputy. by then, fleetingstar had been old, sick, and missing his mate and former deputy, foxspots, who had died from greencough the same leafbare he did. "brightstar had only been deputy for a few moons, and there were several cats who wanted one of the other warriors, darkclaw, to be deputy. but darkclaw was bood-thirsty, and would have led us to battles we never would have won. the moor is a wild place, and we would have been too weak under his leadership." after that, it was a simple story of how the clan finally divided into a battle. redstar had needed to fight his way out of the camp and hadn't been able to take any of his friends with him, nor did he know if any of them survived the fighting. it was a precarious situation, and he had been one of the lucky ones.
the morning after tallpeak had been settled into the large cave for the warriors, a young tom was seen wandering on the moor just above their camp, looking curious but lost. all the same, he sat there until redstar approached him with tallpeak not far behind. "you lot sleep the whole day away," the cat said when redstar asked him what he was doing, merely fixing the larger ginger tom with his bright blue eyes.
"you're on quickclan territory," tallpeak hissed, drawing herself to her full height. the molly was certainly older and larger than the tom, who looked appeared young and lithe.
but there was a quality to the glint in his eyes that caught redstar's attention, and he raised his tail to silence tallpeak. "you're from around here, aren't you?" he asked. he knew the wildness and cunning in the cat's gaze, as it was something he saw in all of his former friends. when matched with his lean figure and long legs, he could only guess at the cat's speed and agility. this was the type of warrior he knew he needed.
"sure am, boss. the name's cyan." one blue eyes remained locked curiously on tallpeak, who bristled under the stare. with a huff of airy laughter, the tom drew one paw casually over his ears. "are you those warriors they say have been around here, recently?"
redstar pricked his ears and nodded slowly. "as tallpeak said, this is quickclan's territory. i'm redstar, the leader."
the blue eyes dilated for a fraction of a heartbeat. "if i were to ask to join you, would i get a funny name too?" cyan questioned with another laugh, ignoring the grunt from tallpeak.
redstar hummed softly, looking cyan over once more. he looked to be a cat with good humor, meaning that he would probably get along well with ivystripe, though he appeared fond of upsetting tallpeak already, which they would have to work out. it was decided that he would be allowed to join, but first, "if you can answer one question." cyan's ears pricked, prompting, and redstar continued, "the cats who have mentioned a clan, did any of them mention their names?"
the young tom smiled slyly and nodded his head once. "they had funny names like you, boss. one was named sweet-something." he must have caught something in redstar's face, and shook his head slightly. "before you asked, i'm not sure where they went, boss, but they looked pretty shook up."
redstar licked his lips carefully, allowing the realization that sweetecho might be alive to sink in. before cyan had the chance to say anything further, he flicked his tail and turned back to lead the way down the path towards the camp. "come on, cyanslash, it'd be best if i show you around now. we have work to do."
by the time they reached the camp and were headed to introduce ivystripe to their new clanmate, cyanslash spoke quickly. "boss, if you let me, i can introduce you to a few other cats i've met recently who might be interested in joining."
[/list][/list][center]• new cats: redstar accepted the warrior (cyanslah) + tallpeak from a readoption
• redstar goes to the moonpool and asks for a cat of any rank
• ivystripe goes herb-hunting
• cyanslash and tallpeak go hunting
• redstar goes on patrol
• quickclan eats two servings of bird
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:fill(transparent,1)/bengalcat-56a2bcd95f9b58b7d0cdf798.jpg){kind=link}
