writer, artist, mediocre coder
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TAG:@moss
Post by moss on Mar 31, 2024 13:59:07 GMT
Minkstar.
Minkstar, as she observed the she-cat, couldn’t help but see something of a kit unduly struck by a claw for misbehaving. The she-cat had been, Minkstar realized, mistreated in her life. Again, she felt a wave of pity that she refused to show to allow the other to save some face in the situation. But she could not help the way that, internally, her heart went out to the other she-cat. Minkstar was not a cruel being, and while she could be unnecessarily grumpy at times, she was not a cruel or harsh leader. Firm, fair, consistent. These were the proper way to govern the cats of whom she’d been chosen to lead in the absence of the previous leader.
“... why?” the she-cat asked. Minkstar tilted her head slightly to the side. Did… she not understand the prospect of much-needed help? Surely the tabby didn’t believe that she was fine with her wounds and exhaustion? “Why… ‘elp? A stranger?” Was she from a place that did not offer help to strangers? Or, worse yet, that did not offer help to their own? Minkstar wondered what circumstances brought the tabby to Shoreclan territory, and more so, wondered what events had befallen her to leave her in such a state.
“Because it is the proper thing to do,” Minkstar said, feeling a little confused in her own right, but for different reasons. “It would not please Starclan to leave a stranger to wander hurt. The Warrior Code dictates that we shall not leave someone in need of help to the cruelties of the world,” – well, in some regard it did, but it was a slight exaggeration of the concept.
“And, though stranger you might be, you are still a cat. It would not settle well upon my own consciousness to leave you to suffer as you are.” Minkstar wasn’t prone to casting aside someone who needed help, and all of her own usual grumpiness aside, she was not someone who would stand idly by while someone suffered.
“So will you accept the help, or place your life in the paws of your pride?” She asked — she needed an answer, point blank, to know what it was that she needed to do at this moment.
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WRITTEN:50 posts
TAG:@hati
Post by hati on Apr 3, 2024 18:26:58 GMT
There were so many questions she might have asked, were she in a better mindset—so many that others would have asked, probably—but right now, in this moment, the question that had finally wrestled itself from her jaws stood, almost, the largest. Or at the least, it was the largest of those she had any ability to put words to: the most important of the ‘why’s she dared put out in the world. And perhaps that was for the best. This ‘why’ was, after all, one that her counterpart had a hope of answering.
Not that Tiger understood the response she received.
If anything, the Star’s answer deepened her bewilderment, laying still more perplexity upon her frame. Tiger wasn’t equal to hiding it right now, either, so her nose wrinkled itself still further and her ear twisted back, even as her eyes flooded with questions that had no form; no words; no way to sort themselves out. The persistent ache in her shoulder was beginning to be joined by a duller thud in her skull—work of exhaustion; of all it was trying to process and hold—and the tabby saw at once that she had little hope of untangling the web in which she’d become caught. Too much; that was the problem. There was just too much, but she made an effort nonetheless, muttering “I ‘ave not ‘eard that code…” half to herself as she tried to understand why a clan cat, let alone a Star, would take this approach.
She could not. She gave it up a few heartbeats later, those mysteries swept to one side as the baffling explanations were replaced with a repeated question. This, again, sent suspicion flashing through her gaze, but it was overlaid and overwhelmed by the pressures of everything else set upon her: as useful as a pawful of snowflakes in a rainstorm. Again Tiger was rock-still, experience and scepticism whispering this could be a trap, but although she would stir herself to fight if she had to—would keep going as long as she must—she recognised that she was trudging closer and closer to an edge from which she could not come back. She was tired, and in ways she couldn’t even name. She wasn’t sure when she’d last eaten or properly slept. Her clawed shoulder was refusing to heal, and wouldn’t do so until she found somewhere to rest. And here was this stranger, this Star, seemingly offering her a ‘somewhere’ that might, just possibly, be safe.
Then there was the Star’s clan.
Tiger still don’t know how to face that—still wanted to deny that—but buried beneath the bewilderment, the betrayal, the anguish, was a dim flicker of the very curiosity that had drawn her to the cliff edge: a thread of wistful longing that tugged, subtly, at her scarred and not quite hardened heart. It wasn’t her own clan and she couldn’t be welcome there or here, but that longing was another blow in a battle already half lost.
That the offer had come from a Star was another, and perhaps the last straw.
Tiger could not have said which blow broke her, but at last she tugged her gaze to one side, looking unseeing towards the cliff-edge over which she’d almost fallen. Ears slicked back, knowing it was a surrender and could cost her dearly, she muttered: “I…accept your ‘elp…”
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writer, artist, mediocre coder
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TAG:@moss
Post by moss on Apr 9, 2024 12:36:11 GMT
Minkstar.
Minkstar, ever observant, tried her best to keep her thoughts to herself as she watched the myriad of emotions filtering across the other’s features. Minkstar had never encountered a cat that seemed so… shaken by the words that she had spoken. Some were surprised, yes, but this was something foundational about the she-cat’s world. What was so strange about what she had said to the other? What life experiences had she encountered to have her world so foundationally shaken? What was the world that the she-cat had known before she had found herself on Shoreclan’s metaphorical doorstep? Minkstar allowed one of her ears to flicker back as the other spoke.
“I ‘ave not ‘eard that code,” she said, words trailing off.
“It’s the code that all Warriors live by — it is the code that Starclan set out for us, and presumably other clans as well,” Minkstar explained, with her head canted ever so slightly to the side. She did not necessarily expect the other tabby to know the Warrior Code, not by heart or even by mention – it would be presumptuous of Minkstar to assume that all knew of it.
But, there were certain aspects that the tabby seemed familiar with — the concept of a clan, for one, and their naming system had not seemed all that strange to her. But Minkstar’s own behavior seemed peculiar to the other, so much so that it had laid the path for this world-trembling revolution that had occurred within the other. Minkstar wondered, ever so briefly, the ghost of a thought, if the other had lived amongst a group of cats before. Had they called themselves ‘Clan’ in any regard?
It was a strange, peculiar thought, one that admittedly shook Minkstar just a little. A group that claimed ‘Clan,’ but did not follow the Warrior Code. Would Starclan allow such a thing to occur?
Her other ear finally joined the first one in its pressed-back state.
Could such a thing truly occur..?
“I… accept your ‘elp.” The words eeked out of the tabby she-cat. Minkstar almost breathed an audible sigh of relief.
“Good,” Minkstar said, her voice firm, and steady. “Let’s get you to the camp — our medicine cat will look you over, and give you the aid that you need. I will ensure that you have both a meal and a place to sleep.” She was bringing a stranger to the camp… She had to take responsibility for this volatile she-cat, at the very least. “Do you need help walking, or are you able to make it without a shoulder?” She asked, her gaze lingering on the portion of the tabby’s shoulder that she could see. It didn’t look good by any means, and Minkstar was still surprised that the tabby had been able to walk at all on that leg, let alone be ready to fight.
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WRITTEN:50 posts
TAG:@hati
Post by hati on Apr 13, 2024 13:37:39 GMT
At another time, in another place, Tiger might have been able to guess what would follow her grudging answer and to piece together a swift if patchy plan on how to handle it. As it was, however, she was as adrift as a twig in a river: clueless as to what might come next, or how to deal with it. It was that cluelessness as much as anything that drew her tired and watchful gaze back to the Star in the beats after her words her struggled free of her, and it was that, too, that helped to keep her eyes steady upon her. Tired though she was, painful though her head and body had grown, Tiger still understood the importance of tracking this other cat and of trying to drag clues from the cues she showed.
And there were cues.
The Star was watching her as intently as any other cat she had known—as intently, even, as a hunter watching prey edge nearer their paws—and, somewhere in the last moments, she'd slicked back her ears as if confronted with some dangerous or unpleasant unknown. It was a signal Tiger was well familiar with, on the surface, and yet somehow it struck her as wholly foreign; as meaning or being driven by something she'd never previously known. That familiarity and yet unfamiliarity left her feeling even more unbalanced than she had before, sending yet another wash of suspicion rolling through her weary form. Tiger could not read this cat, right now. Tiger had no idea where she might stand.
She didn't like it.
There was little she could do about it, however, so the tabby resigned herself to watching and waiting—the last defence—keeping her muscles taut just in case. At first, she stayed silent as the Star chose to talk once again, for the words were framed like an order and gave shape to what came next, and Tiger was both wise enough not to argue - and weary enough to find this shaping, these almost-commands, a relief. She could understand this; she didn't have to guess to far ahead; she inclined her head in the barest signal of acceptance--and bristled as the orders gave way to a question.
"I'm a Claw," Tiger growled, the sound half a grumble; dripping, less with aggression, than offence. It was true that she hadn't already declared it, but given her build, the way she held herself, the very fact she was still pushing when she should have fallen, it should have been obvious to this Star what she was. And if it was obvious what she was, then it should also be obvious what that meant. Tiger didn't understand why it wasn't, but she behaved as she should nonetheless. She forced herself up from her shamefull broken crouch, gathering her paws beneath her and rising with purposeful smoothness: making her shoulder work. Making it hold her firmly, her weight spread evenly, even despite the pain that it caused.
"and I'm not broken," not shattered, not worthless, yet. Only worn: head barely able to hold above her shoulders; tail tip quivering where her body would not. She was functioning largely by force of will and physical reserves, now, but she was still functioning; still fighting; still driving herself on. She was still able to grumble "where would you 'ave me go, Star," and make it sound, almost, as if she yet had the strength to go somewhere else.
LAST EDIT: Apr 18, 2024 18:40:46 GMT by hati |
writer, artist, mediocre coder
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WRITTEN:162 posts
TAG:@moss
Post by moss on Apr 14, 2024 15:08:22 GMT
Minkstar.
Minkstar could see the tabby’s mind working at her words. There was a defiance upon her features, a sign that the Shoreclan leader had given some offense to the other. For a moment, Minkstar did not move, did not show her apologies to the other, because she didn’t know how this other might take her words. The she-cat, however wounded, was a volatile thing, that much Minkstar knew for absolute fact. Would an offended air be enough to throw the other into a fit of rage? Only the moments of the present would tell, but as no claws came toward her, Minkstar figured that the other would take it with as much dignity as she could.
“I’m a Claw.” The tiger-patterned tabby growled out. Minkstar tilted her head slightly to the side, unfamiliar with the terminology. She was sure, however, that it held some importance to the other, despite the clear lack that it held in Minkstar’s mind. Maybe that was her way of saying a ‘Warrior’? “And I’m not broken.” The other declared.
“No. But you are wounded. There is a difference.” The Shoreclan leader spoke with a reserved purpose, a dignity that was held amongst leaders, a gentle correction in its own right, but not enough to cause an argument, a mere statement of her own opinion on the matter. The other, and this was clear, was still entitled to her own.
“Where would you ‘ave me go, Star.” It was a demand, not a question. A small huff came from Minkstar, a slight shake of her head.
“It’s by your own choice — as I made clear, you do not have to. You have some choice in this matter, stranger.” Minkstar explained. After a moment, she pointed with her tail. “That way.” She said. The Shoreclan camp was in that direction. Minkstar turned slightly, backing a little out of the other’s way to allow her passage. She did not quite trust the other enough to fully put her back to her just yet, but the simple act of showing her flank to the other denoted that she was gaining some trust in the fact that the other was accepting her offer of help.
“The camp is that way. There is a faint trail, we will follow that. It will take us all the way there — there is a split, that goes down in front of the cliffs. We will keep to the left, and that way will take us to the Camp.” She explained to the other, sensing that she might enjoy the act of knowing, and not everything being an obscurity to her. If the other started following the trail, Minkstar would begin walking beside her, as equals, for the moment.
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WRITTEN:50 posts
TAG:@hati
Post by hati on Apr 18, 2024 19:28:46 GMT
Tiger's statements earnt her the barest quirk of the Star's head: another look brimming with meanings she wasn't quite equipped, right now, to detect. The tabby almost thought that her counterpart was puzzled by her statements, but she knew that such an assessment was only proof of how little she understood the cat before her, of how tired she was, for there was no way the Star couldn't recognise the label and what it meant. Tiger was sure of that much, at least, for if this was a clan cat and a leader of clan cats then she had to be familiar with Claws - or at the least smart enough to grasp what she meant, if they used a different name here as they seemingly did with their Healers. Which meant that look had to mean something different—
'No. But you are wounded. There is a difference.'
She wrinkled her nose as the Star's statement cut across her thoughts; stalling them out; casting her deeper into her growing bewilderment. Tiger didn't need to be told that she was injured—she already knew that—and she couldn't see why the other she-cat felt the need to point it out, nor why she'd do so in this particular context. Injury and brokenness went paw in paw for a Claw, after all, and it didn't make sense that the stranger should take the time to make the distinction between them. That wasn't normal, in her experience, for her Clan's chosen had always seen a Claw's wounds as a sign that they had expended their usefulness, and it had always been the Claw's responsibility to prove that they still had strength, and use, and fight left within them. It was the Claw's job to shoulder their charges' scepticism - and to tuck themselves away until they healed and could defend the Clan once more. That was how things were, and how they'd always been, and this...this, she didn't know how to deal with.
That very uncertainty quietened her, restricting her to little more than a low soft growl when the Star spoke again; reasserting she had a choice. Tiger wasn't sure that she really did, right now, but she didn't argue the point nor say anything that might draw further attention to her deepening confusion. That wouldn't do her any good, she knew—no more than would her endless travelling—so instead she merely flicked her gaze in the direction the other she-cat indicated; looked back to her; hesitated.
This was, for both of them, a dangerous moment.
This was the moment Tiger had to decide how much faith to give.
Except the decision had already been made, set down the moment she'd accepted the help and half-formed even before that; from the moment the Star had given her name. The tabby wasn't in much of a state to refuse a supposed clan leader, right now, so after a few tense beats of the heart she stalked forwards: circling to keep the other cat in her sights just in case. Star or not, Tiger wouldn't have a stranger behind her - especially when she only had that stranger's word on what was ahead of her.
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writer, artist, mediocre coder
GROUP:Leader
WRITTEN:162 posts
TAG:@moss
Post by moss on May 16, 2024 14:42:19 GMT
Minkstar.
Minkstar could sense the tenseness in the situation. There was no denying it, after all. They were two strangers, one wounded, and both too smart to allow themselves to think there was no danger in this situation. She waited, with half-bated breath, to see what the other she-cat might decide to do. The other started along the path but was careful to keep herself guarded. It was something, at least.
The Shoreclan leader took up a position at the other’s side, but far enough away that either could properly react should either decide to do something different. She would respect the tabby’s obvious wish not to have her behind her. They would walk side-by-side, with a couple of tail lengths between them. Minkstar would allow the other to have the most worn portion of the path they followed while she was walking, mostly in the grass that brushed against her belly fur.
After some time walking, the barriers of the camp came into view.
“That is Shoreclan’s camp,” Minkstar said. “The path leads to the entrance.” One of them would have to walk into the entrance first, it was not wide enough for them to walk abreast as they had been. As they reached it, Minkstar paused briefly before deciding to take a leap of faith. She entered first, flicking her tail for the other to follow before it entirely disappeared into the small entrance. Once through the entrance, Minkstar stood to the side, allowing for the other to enter behind her and come back to the positions that they had taken up.
Upon her entrance into the camp, a couple of cats in the clearing looked up, dipping their heads or mewing greetings to her. Minkstar returned them with a gentle dip of her head. She turned her head, waiting for the other tabby to enter into the camp.
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WRITTEN:50 posts
TAG:@hati
Post by hati on May 19, 2024 14:46:32 GMT
Fresh tension rippled through Tiger as she moved, tightening her muscles and heightening her readiness still further. Although her chosen path kept the Star from slipping behind her, Tiger knew that the very act of moving was rife with danger, for it brought them closer together and left the gaps in her worn guards so much wider. If her counterpart was quick, this was the moment when the Star might be able to topple her, for all it would take was one well-timed ram to the tabby’s shoulder. Tiger knew that, even if she was loath to admit it, for the past days had sapped her strength and she was not quite so certain of her balance or steadiness as she pretended. She would fight, of course—now and always—but if she went down…
She shied away from the thought, aware that it was dangerous to complete it.
She watched her counterpart’s every movement, relieved to see that the stranger made no effort to close the distance. Instead Minkstar kept a good space between them, at her side without coming in reach of her. Tiger could live with that. Tiger appreciated that, even if she was suspicious, and so she accepted the Star’s position without comment, focusing her energies on keeping her paws firm and steady beneath her. But she also watched the Star every step of the way, muzzle angled fractionally towards her to keep her always within her sharp and tired gaze.
It was more taxing than it should have been. The split in her attention—between watching the Star and tracking their surroundings and forcing her body onwards—drained her dwindling reserves just as surely as her wound did, and before too long Tiger was drooping: only avoiding showing the hated limp because her tread was so heavy with exhaustion that that in itself concealed it. Her attention began to draw inwards, then, and when the Star finally spoke again Tiger was halfway detached from their surroundings: properly aware only of the small bubble around them. The struggled to make sense of the other cat’s words, too, and she paused only because the Star had; only because the path narrowed ahead of them.
And then the stranger pulled ahead of her, showing her back even as she vanished through the unknown entrance.
For a few heartbeats, Tiger merely stared at that narrow little space, ears slicked as she sensed the threat within it and attempted to measure her options. But her mind was sluggish and she hadn’t it in her to turn elsewhere, so at last she trudged forwards, entire pelt bristling as she put herself at the mercy of the Star’s promises. Her claws scraped the dirt as she went, extended in anticipation of an ambush—
Which did not arrive as she’d feared.
Instead she was greeted with a wall of cat-scent and a yawning silence; with the burn of unknown eyes turning upon her. Tiger stood rigid beneath them, a low uneasy growl rasping in her throat as her own gaze skittered over the area around her, flitting between the new cats and the Star waiting right before her.
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writer, artist, mediocre coder
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WRITTEN:162 posts
TAG:@moss
Post by moss on May 25, 2024 14:30:39 GMT
Minkstar.
Minkstar had to wonder, as they walked, what had brought the tabby to this point. It was clear to Minkstar that the other had been on her own for some time, without the assistance of others, to keep herself healthy and strong. But, it was clear that the idea of a group of cats living together was not something that was foreign to the other she-cat. Much to Minkstar’s surprise, it was the concept of obtaining help that seemed so strange to the other.
‘If she did come from another clan, then why does she seem so… On edge? I suppose I don’t expect someone to be grateful outwardly, but she seems to expect nothing but harshness from us,’ Minkstar thought to herself. ‘What was life like for her before this? Did this injury happen before she left whatever group she was with before or after she left them? Did they do this to her?’ The questions began spiraling in the Shoreclan leader’s mind, trying to put the pieces together of the enigma that this stranger offered.
On the other side of the entrance, Minkstar could feel curious gazes beginning to turn toward her as she looked back at the entrance to the camp expectantly. For a few moments, she feared that the other might have taken her opportunity to leave and that Minkstar would have to follow her to ensure that she left the territory entirely. But, the entrance shook a little as it did when a cat passed through it. The other tabby emerged, looking as if she were expecting to be met with claws and teeth — which, she might have been thinking such a thing, Minkstar considered — that would not turn upon her.
Minkstar allowed for a moment for the other to adjust, to accept that she was in no danger within Shoreclan’s camp. After a moment, she turned toward the medicine den, giving a dismissive shoulder to the curious stares that flickered between the two. She would address it later after the she-cat was seen by the Medicine Cat. Minkstar gave a flick of her tail, beckoning the other onward.
“The Medicine Den is this way,” she meowed. “Mellowpaw will see to your wounds, and once you’re settled in, I will get you some fresh-kill.” She padded calmly toward the medicine den, glancing back only to ensure that the stranger was following.
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WRITTEN:50 posts
TAG:@hati
Post by hati on May 27, 2024 16:56:04 GMT
Mercifully, neither the Star not the other cats around them gave any sign that they intended to come nearer. Instead they stayed firmly put, their still shapes tucked quietly in their chosen places around the near-silent camp even as they stared back at the uneasy newcomer. Tiger found their joint gazes disquieting—a fact plainly proclaimed by her bristled pelt and the low growl still rumbling in her throat—but she supposed she couldn't blame them for their attention. She was a stranger, after all, and so she was glad simply that she wasn't being rushed; that she hadn't already been driven to a last futile flurry of tooth and claws in an effort to save her own battered hide. Not that there wasn't still time for it...
Tiger knew better than to let her guard down, aware that these cats could pounce at any moment.
Tiger stood tense and ready by the entrance, prepared to fight at even the smallest movement.
And a movement came, as of course it must - but it wasn't the expected rush. Instead it was no more than a flick of the Star's tail: a gesture that nevertheless had Tiger's sharp eyes leaping towards her and scrutinising her for a further, hostile signal. It was only when the other she-cat spoke that the Claw realised that the tail-flick had been for her, to guide her to the next destination, and wasn't for the cats around them. But even then suspicion crawled beneath her pelt, and when she stepped forwards it was with a heavy stalk; every muscled of her taut for an expected fight. Tiger didn't trust any of this. Tiger was sure that the Star and her cats would fall on her at any moment, and were merely looking for her guard to slip so that finishing her off might be easier and less dangerous. But she was also tired, and hungry, and hurting, and so she gave herself over to the strange Star's mercy - expecting at any moment to be struck down and shredded for her folly...
LAST EDIT: May 27, 2024 16:57:11 GMT by hati |
