Above the Surf (Moss)
POSTED ON Dec 16, 2023 16:43:50 GMT
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Post by hati on Dec 16, 2023 16:43:50 GMT
There was a strange smell in the air. It was sharp and heavy, mingling easily with the bitter-metallic scent from her shoulder and filling her nose until it became all but impossible to detect anything else. The unfamiliarity of it had the hulking she-cat faltering, muzzle tilted into the breeze as she tried to track it; identify it; make sense of it. It was too much the unknown, however: even when she opened her jaws to taste it, nose wrinkling at the tang of it, she found herself unable to think of any name or likeness for it.
Tiger supposed she shouldn't be surprised.
She'd come a long, long way from her birthlands now, so it wasn't so unusual to encounter the unfamiliar and nameless - and yet even so this stood out. There was something about the heavy-sharpness that tugged at a deep and dormant part of her, stirring up a dim curiosity she'd long since thought she'd left behind. The she-cat tried to ignore it, knowing it could be dangerous—that she was better off focusing on her search; finding somewhere to lay up whilst she healed—but the curiosity proved difficult to brush aside.
Should she risk it?
Tiger drew in the scent again, tongue tingling at the taste of it and claws curling lightly into the rocky earth as if to anchor her there: as it to make her abandon the whim that was tickling across the edges of her weary mind. In the end, however, that subtle grip proved futile, and at last she turned fully into the scent, letting it tug her forwards despite the warnings chiming in her head. She'd likely pay for it later—if nothing else the growing fire from her shoulder would definitely punish her—but the moons had been long and hard and she needed, longed for, something a little lighter. Perhaps this tang would bring it to her.
It was a foolish thought, but Tiger trudged through the growingly rocky landscape anyway, tail tip twitching each time her right forepaw touched the ground. She was on an incline now, she realised, and each step sent sharpened bolts snarling through her clawed shoulder, the strain building with the steepness until at last she shifted her gait, gathering her weight into her haunches. The stronger push of her back legs soon saw her to the top of the rise - and there she slammed to a standstill, claws piercing the earth and a startled growl spilling from her maw as she found herself staring at blue sky; empty air; the dizzying drop opened up before her.
Bristling with shock, Tiger backed off from the cliff edge, all too aware of what happened to cats who fell from such heights. She didn't retreat entirely, however. Instead she peered down from the clifftop, the sharp-heavy tang in the air coaxing her to look where otherwise she might simply have turned away: nagging curiosity making her make one last attempt at looking for its source. A moment later her claws were digging deeper into the earth, clinging instinctively as she stared down at the sharp rocks jutting up far below; at the water rippling around them; at the foam that danced on top of it it, holding her there even despite the perilous drop...
Tiger supposed she shouldn't be surprised.
She'd come a long, long way from her birthlands now, so it wasn't so unusual to encounter the unfamiliar and nameless - and yet even so this stood out. There was something about the heavy-sharpness that tugged at a deep and dormant part of her, stirring up a dim curiosity she'd long since thought she'd left behind. The she-cat tried to ignore it, knowing it could be dangerous—that she was better off focusing on her search; finding somewhere to lay up whilst she healed—but the curiosity proved difficult to brush aside.
Should she risk it?
Tiger drew in the scent again, tongue tingling at the taste of it and claws curling lightly into the rocky earth as if to anchor her there: as it to make her abandon the whim that was tickling across the edges of her weary mind. In the end, however, that subtle grip proved futile, and at last she turned fully into the scent, letting it tug her forwards despite the warnings chiming in her head. She'd likely pay for it later—if nothing else the growing fire from her shoulder would definitely punish her—but the moons had been long and hard and she needed, longed for, something a little lighter. Perhaps this tang would bring it to her.
It was a foolish thought, but Tiger trudged through the growingly rocky landscape anyway, tail tip twitching each time her right forepaw touched the ground. She was on an incline now, she realised, and each step sent sharpened bolts snarling through her clawed shoulder, the strain building with the steepness until at last she shifted her gait, gathering her weight into her haunches. The stronger push of her back legs soon saw her to the top of the rise - and there she slammed to a standstill, claws piercing the earth and a startled growl spilling from her maw as she found herself staring at blue sky; empty air; the dizzying drop opened up before her.
Bristling with shock, Tiger backed off from the cliff edge, all too aware of what happened to cats who fell from such heights. She didn't retreat entirely, however. Instead she peered down from the clifftop, the sharp-heavy tang in the air coaxing her to look where otherwise she might simply have turned away: nagging curiosity making her make one last attempt at looking for its source. A moment later her claws were digging deeper into the earth, clinging instinctively as she stared down at the sharp rocks jutting up far below; at the water rippling around them; at the foam that danced on top of it it, holding her there even despite the perilous drop...