StormofRiverclan

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Me: Stormpaw laid stiffly at the entrance of the apprentice den, self close enough to see the starry sky but not far enough to feel the harsh cold that was leaf-bare night. Her green eyes half open, drowsiness overwhelmingly present. Her pupils were slits and the whole world became a little bit darker, whether it be from the night or the fact she hadn’t slept at all that night.

Truly, she could not sleep. The fear and anxiety that she would be killed constantly kept returning in her mind in the form of half-asleep dreams imagining her dying as she slept. When you live on the streets, that could be the case. The streets were nobodies friend, you could never call them an ally, they were always an unforgiving enemy. They were the death of many, the crippling of others, and the depression that called itself a traveling route.

Stormpaw shuttered- it was too much. The night was to dark, it felt like it was enveloping her. Suddenly her breathing began to increase and she felt light-headed. Her limbs got wobbly as she tried to wake up, she needed out of the den, out of it right now! Her fur prickled upwards and she unsheathed her claws- as if she was fighting someone. But.. but she wasn’t fighting anyone.

Her head began to fog up as she hissed, turning around to face the back of the den. Heads began to poke up from their nests and then fall back down once they saw the hysterical feline who had jumped up from her slumber. The den seemingly began to close in on itself and Stormpaw flinched, running out of the den. Hyperventilating as she did so, infact she nearly passed out from how startled she was. Maybe it was how tired she was or simply the fact that it was dark out, but it looked like a figure was coming out of the den. Their teeth shown and snarling, their large claws ready to slash her face off.

Her heart began to race as she darted out of the clan camp, nearly crying when she thought she saw the figure directly behind her. [b] “I don’t want to die!” [/b] she screeched out, sending birds off of their perches and into the dark sky. Which was only illuminated by the small twinkling stars and the rather large- nearly full- moon. She could hear her nearing the river, its bubbling noises in range enough for her to hear them clearly. Once she saw the shining waters of the river, she stopped, halting in her tracks and skidding her paws on the frosty damp earth.

A lone tear went down her cheek and fell to the ground, which was followed by her whipping her head around and searching for the figure. There was no one there. Her whole body went limp and she fell to the ground, she inspected her claws closely as she laid there. Her heart seemed to be so loud that every single bump filled her ears and it was all she could hear, other than her own breathing. Which had created small puffs of frosty air as she ran through the forest the whole time.

Looking back out onto the waters, she wearily lifted herself. She was so afraid, she, she couldn’t trust anything… she didn’t know what would happen. As she looked out onto the waters something across them was visible… cats? Were there really felines out there by the rocks?

Thinking they were of her own clan, she called out to them. [b] “Hey!” [/b] her voice was loud and there is no chance they didn’t hear it.

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Not me: Rue squinted as the sound of crashing underbrush. "Mack," She whispered, darting her head frantically towards her brother and back to the movement in the forest. "What?!" He hissed, whipping his tail. "So-Someone's He-" She cried through her teeth, frantic to not be heard by the approaching cat. However she couldn't finish her words as a loud voice rang throughout the clearing. A loud "Hey!" It didn't sound too angry, just curious. Rue's heart raced as she saw the figure of a cat in the tree line. Blue eyes wide, the sandy mollie darted behind the rocks. "Mack!" She hissed, "Get back here!" She motioned for the tom to hide, but she was ignored. The dark tom only approached the apprentice. "Hey!" He snarled, stalking ever closer. "Just who I needed!" He laughed, within a fox length of Stormpaw. "Can I get your help?" He said the words as if they were a threat. "My sister and I are.... Lost." He offered an aggressive smile. "Could you help us?" He took a few steps forward, pressing his ears against his skull. The dark warrior seemed the opposite of wanting help unless it was help in starting a fight. Rue behind the rocks, pressed herself up against the stones, praying the clan cat didn't see her. She couldn't survive on her own without her brother, she'd starve otherwise!

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Me: Stormpaw squinted her eyes in the darkness, they were still in slits from the fear and from the fatigue. She let out a deep breath and they returned to round moon like shapes that glowed beside her green optics in the darkness.

She took a step forward, her paws sinking slightly in the damp, sand-like dirt. Actually it partly was sand from the bank of the river. She squinted even more- which- did not help her make out the mysterious figures. One seemed to be lighter than the other, their maybe.. Creamish pelt barely visible. But the other one she couldn't see at all, it was to dark. Their eyes shown out like the stars in the sky though, and that is what she used to track them. I mean, she couldn't recall any ones scents at this point so she couldn't tell if they were different.

One of them seemed to speak, this scared her. Stormpaw fur slightly lifted at this but she quickly patted it down with a lick from her tongue. That returned it to a glossy look as well. Suddenly one of the felines leaped right in front of her.

Their visibly semi-large stature nearly made her fall back onto her rear, not to mention their somewhat scary figure in general. Taking another deep breath, she brushed those opinions off. It was night time.. Everything seemed scarier. Stormpaw looked behind her to the winding path in which she had came. Suddenly a doubtful feeling enveloped her mind as she couldn’t [i] quite [/i] remember where she had came from. This and the oddly tall trees freaked her out again. Something about this night was too much for her to handle as this sent a jolt of fear down her spine.

The feline began to speak, and then laugh… their laugh was very freaky. The feline- clearly a tom- began to tell about how he and his sister had gotten lost. Stormpaw wondered about the sister and suddenly it hit her, another voice had spoken previously… that must’ve been who it was. Brook Paw stood like a twig against a mighty oak compared to the tom, her matted down short fur and her scrawny figure not helping.

[b] “O-oh… oh you guys are lost?” [/b] she repeated what he had said in a question form, but she did not intend to actually get an answer from it. [b] “I w-would definitely help you but I really don’t know much about the territory. Heh..” [/b] she laughed unironically. [b] “I just became an apprentice.” [/b] her voice- throughout stormpaw’s replies- was plagued with fear and stuttered nearly every word because of it.

[b] “M-may I ask what your names are? I haven’t seen you around the camp before..” [/b] she asked oblivious to the situation, she could be killed any second and she was asking about the cats’ names.

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Not me: Mack's green eyes stared down at her, a salmon tongue swiping over his nose in a flash of interest. Taking a step forward, he let out a rasping whisper. "Mack." He stated, moving to circle the she-cat. Meanwhile Rue slowly peeked her head out from behind the rocks. "Mack come on, Don't do this!" She pleaded, realizing it was just a 6 moon old kit. "Do what? I'm not going to hurt her or anything," He laughed into Stormpaw's ear, pushing her from behind with his shoulder. "If anything I'll just kill her for her little clan mates to find!" He grinned. "Okay that's just messed up," Rue sighed, steeping in front of Mack. The smaller she-cat stood between Stormpaw and Mack. "We came here because of you!" She reminded the tom. "You're lucky this kit didn't run off to get help!" And with that, the she-cat bolted to stand behind Stormpaw. "Pin her down!" Rue yowled, blocking the way to camp. With a quick nod from mack, the dark tom leapt forward at Stormpaw his a savage hiss.

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Me: Stormpaw’s vision blurred as a wave of fatigue hit her. She desperately needed sleep but she couldn’t find sleep in the clan and she wouldn’t dare be caught sleeping in the territory like she would at her previous status. She.. she would be kicked out again! Or even worse… She couldn’t risk it. The cats out at twoleg-place and the field wanderers (Loners, this was her special name though) would definitely kill her if not another clan cat!

This took her mind off of her predicament for a short while before a name was whispered into her ear, her fur lifted at the sensation and it made her shudder. Mack, mack was his name? Odd… it wasn’t like a clan name that had 2 parts. Maybe those clanners have just weird names in general? I mean she had heard of another cat with a one 1 part name in another clan from some gossip, but she couldn’t know for sure if that cat was a clan cat and not just an invading rogue. Mack wasn’t even in a similar category with the other names… they were things that related to the forest and the territory, or their looks. Mack was none of these.

Stormpaw heart slowly quickened in pace as she came to these shocking realizations. She didn’t hyperventilate and tried to stay as calm as possible though, she knew this bulky tom- apparently called Mack- could definitely tear her to shreds. If not killing her then extremely damaging her mental and mainly physical physique. She tried to focus on something else, anything else. It took a moment but she recalled the feline that had called out for the bulky tom not long ago. They had to be somewhere across the river, by the rocks probably. Probably behind them actually. Stormpaw had done that before… actually almost right before she got caught by a patrol and ended up joining the clan.

It was a sad attempt at trying to get a fish from the river really, and honestly she wouldn't have been able to catch anything anyway. The river was frozen over and she had literally no hunting experience whatsoever. Her ears began ringing as she became filled with fear again. However she heard the feline by the rocks say something… ‘Don’t do this?’. Don’t do what? What was this cat planning to do? Stormpaw had lots of questions and not enough answers. Well one of her questions was partly answered, the cat behind the rocks was almost definitely a she-cat. Their voice was very feminine and held a lot of fear within it, which she had portrayed herself when she entered the clan.

Mack continued to whisper things in her ear, it was a threat. He was going to [i] kill [/i] her? No, no! She couldn’t die! Stormpaw was getting tired of things trying to kill her. It was all so stressful, she just wanted to go to sleep and let all the anxiety wash off her body in a delightful rain of happiness. But of course, that would not be the case. It was never like that for Stormpaw… something about her made other cats make her the victim of so much. Was it her stature? Was it the fact she had a very below average body-weight and looked literally not threatening at all? Or was it because she was a molly? If it was the last reason, she had a bigger reason to try and kill this big tom herself. Even if she couldn’t do it… even if it resulted in her [i] death [/i] she would try. No one should be thought less of just because of how they were born… that would be terrible.

The she-cat quickly stepped out from behind the rocks as Mack stated those words, intervening the battle-in-the-making. Stormpaw backed up, this she-cat looked nearly- not as much- but nearly as threatening as the tom. But she was intervening? Why? If she was with the tom wouldn’t their purpose to be to kill her? Stormpaw didn’t and probably wouldn’t want to know.

As quickly as the hope the she-cat had given her from intervening came it left when the she-cat- apparently Rue- and the tom- Mack- to pin Stormpaw down while she blocked off any ways stormpaw could escape. Stormpaw wanted to scream and she tried but it seemed like she had no voice, why?! Why did everything wrong have to happen to her? She hated it so much.. Tears began to form at the corners of her eyes which made her sniffle a few times. Her face had twisted into a glare at the sick cats who had the intent to kill her. The tom did manage to pin her down, but she had seen some kits play-fight with apprentices.

Stormpaw tried to squirm out of the Mack’s strong grasp and run away, kicking at the tom with her back legs as she did so.