` holding out for a HERO

[moonmist]

in such an open plain, it was fundamental for even the youngest apprentice to know how to make no sound on the hard and exposed earth. after all, it only takes a crack of a twig or rustle in the grass to send the rabbits flying. so by now, any decent leader should know the trick to it. not like she was an exception.

every silent footfall brought her closer to the creature, digging through a patch of weed for the desirable leaf below. she was surprisingly close to the creature; even it's highly-tuned ears stood tall seemed not to pick her up. but soon, it would be futile to stalk. this was hardly a forest terratory; and the cats who lived here were born to run. it was in fact only a few steps later that she made her spring and dashed for her prey. and the hare had no idea what hit him until he was only a fox-length away from his death. two large hind legs made hard thumps against the earth, but it was an easy leap to intercept the desperate jump for escape. it took jsut a swift bite to the neck before the animal lay still upon the tall grass. and the she-cat, feeling rather prund of her victory, picked up the plump meat and hid it for later retrieval.

it was indeed a nice day, a calm breeze lifting the moors and creating a graceful ripple upon the tall greening grasses. who needed the tides of a river when you had this? the beauty without all the wet. it should be much more desirable to anyone. spottedstar trotted through the territory, pink nose in the air, scenting out any traces of a second trail to pick up and follow. as she wandered, though, her concentration faltered. for now, she was getting closer and closer to the "trail". it was even visile in the grass, the slighest winding indent where the grass had been pushed aside many times over. the pretty calico stopped. she wouldn't go over there, would she? of course not. it would be painful for her to go any closer. after all, what her father did... no. that was part of the past now; anything that had happened was through the moment she broke contact with the tom. and, indeed, he'd dissapeared into the loner lands because of it. well, good riddance! hopefully nobody would have to endure the same childhood as her. turning around, spottedstar ignored the sudden aches that dotted her fur as she ackwardly continued her hunt.

[/blockquote]

[Rain]

The only sound heard from the tom was his breath, inhaling and exhaling in a slow motion. His paws, white as the clouds overhead on this sunny day, hit the ground softly, slowly, as the tom stalked his prey. A bird of the darkest night fluttered in the soft grass a few foxlengths away. Most unusual prey to be found on the moors. With no cover to hid from his prey, the tabby tom had to be silent. Not even his fur in the breeze could make a sound, or else the chances of him going back to camp with this bird would be gone.

Stormfall opened his mouth to scent the raven once again, yet a new smell hit him, Spottedstar, leader of his clan. If he missed this bird, it would be very embarssing now. With a twitch of his white whiskers, the powerful tom pounced, locking his claws around the birds wings. The bird flapped and gave a screech of alarm, before Stormfall gave it a quick nip to it's neck. His amber gaze watched the calico she-cat with the bird in his mouth. She seemed to be acting quite oddly. But whatever was up, it was none of his business.

With a smile, Stormfall padded over, and dropped the raven at his paws. He spat a feather onto the grass that lingered in his mouth, and he blinked. It was not his place to question a leader's intentions, but curiousity killed the cat, and his was way too big to go without opening his mouth. "Hello Spottedstar, what is new with you?" Stormfall mewed, hoping the calcio wouldn't get cross with him.

[/blockquote]

[moonmist]

even as she'd turned around, she hadn't even managed to notice another cat hunting on the moors. well, no wonder she'd only caught one piece of prey so far. her reminiscing had caught her up in a different train of thought. although, that would've been something else she would once have gotten punished for... at least not anymore.

when the tom's voice echoed atop her, it had been quite the shrill surprise. she certainly jumped a good distance, and looked at her fellow breezeclan cat with alarm. but, it was only stormfall; she let her bristle of surprise lower. still, though, she remained a little nervous. has he seen her ackward pause? surely it was clear that something behind her had caught her off-guard when she'd stopped for seemingly no reason. and even now, she knew she was eminating a sort of anxious energy. such an assertive and determiend leader looking so detatched; probably not the best thing for any of her clan to see. maybe she could shake it off.

before she could say anything though, her mind was instinctually drawn to the gender of the warrior before her. a tom. ever since her father spottedstar had found them a little ackward to be around, and now when she was strongly affected by nettlefur... well, she couldn't exactly be as warm and open as se usually appeared. in fact, it was almost an irritation that had infiltrated her. why did it have to be him who came across her? why not a she-cat? "hello," the calico meowed with a bit of a stiff tinge to it, before with a flick of her tail trying to shake off the accent. "i'm just out for a hunt. it's nice out today" ugh. why did she have to be so affected? as far as she could tell, no other cat let things get to them. then again, it wasn't as if every other cat shared her experiences. of course they didn't; some clanmates were luckier. there was also the fact that msot of these cats durrounding her, in her clan, were higher on the scale than she was. in her mind, it was the simple order of things. who said a leader had to be above their clanmates?

"so, erm, what brings you out here today?" even though it was obvious that he'd been hunting just the same just as she had been.

[/blockquote]

[Rain]

The tom twitched his ears when the leader said she was just hunting. It looked as if the calico femme was hiding somehting from him, but of course, it wasn't of any of his business anyways. When Spottedstar asked him what he was doing out here, Stormfall blinked. It was obvious why, and a stupid question for his leader to ask him.

"Hunting." He mewed, dipping his head down to the raven he had caught a minute before. At least he didn't find his leader while he was empty pawed, that would be embarassing. Stormfall gazed at the calico she-cat, and mewed, "Is something wrong?"

[/blockquote]

[moonmist]

well, duh. of course he had been hunting. it had been obvious even before she'd asked. even stormfall's gaze looked questioningly at her, wondering why she couldn't have deduced that her herself. of course she could have. she was just too preoccupied. and this cat, who deserved more than whatever luxuries she herself had as leader, seemed to care about her stiff nature at the moment. starclan knows he's the one more fitted to be leader than her. then again, she figured she hardly deserved anything she got, especially if it was something not given to other cats.

"is something wrong?" the question completely threw spottedstar off guard, even though she had been half-expection some comment on her odd behavior at the moment. her soft turquoise-green eyes swept over the warrior with a bit of a suspicious alarm; once again, she was reminded of his gender. stormfall was a tom, so why did he care? nettlefur never had, even when it was his small and precious daughter he was "punishing". and just because of that, she couldn't help but figure that all toms were the same. if her father figured that a knock upside the head and a cold shoulder was a punnishment for a little dream, why not other toms? and even when spottedstar no longer held an ounce of hope or fantasy in her any longer, surely there was now something else that she could always be condemned for. ugh, why did this warrior tom have to be hunting here of all places, right where she was?

"i'm fine," the calico assured, although by the taut look of her stance, she was clearly unwilling to let anything slip. nothing past her already-given appearance, anyway. why couldn't stormfall just forget about whatever he may or may not have seen, and let her be?

[/blockquote]

[Rain]

Stormfall wasn't satisfied by his leader's answer, but common sense told him if he didn't shut his big mouth soon, he would get her mad. If she wasn't mad enough already. It was odd, Spottedstar always acted stiff and cold towards toms, of her own clan or of others. The tabby and white tom didn't know why, and curiousity burned in him.

There was no way he could forget what was troubling his leader, the odd way in which she acted. Stormfall vowed to find out what happened, what if her secret was enough to destroy Breezeclan?

Spottedstar told him she was fine, and he narrowed his amber eyes. That was not the truth, and it was a lie Stormfall could see through. He nooded to her small catch of just a rabbit. "Are you sure that will be enough to feed the clan." Stormfall mewed. He was slightly changing the subject, and maybe the calcio would let something slip.

[moonmist]

spottedstar had to hold back a bristle when she saw stormfall's eyes narrow. well, of course he didn't believe her, her lie was probably obvious. but his persistance was starting to annoy her. she was in a terrible mood at the moment, and it was only worsening; couldn't he leave her alone? she had enough on her mind as it was, without some tom asking her nosy questions. it was her business and hers alone. even if something like her father shouldn't have been kept a secret then, it was over now; he was gone, and she had moved on. hopefully.

when the warrior made the side comment about her catch so far, she once again had to calm herself down. why was she letting herself get so worked up? it was ridiculous. she needed to go back to her usual self and forget about her kitdom -- for the moment, at least. until stormfall decided to go back to his hunting and let her do the same. although, the calico doubted she'd get lucky enough for that. not until she really managed to divert the topic so the tom might forget about it. anyway. "i've caught more before that one," spottedstar replied, trying to shove the cool edge out of her tone. to her surprise, her efforts succeeded. "what about you? a rabbit'll fill a cat better than a bird." she paused. "besides, i might've caught something else by now if i hadn't been distracted by --" the leader shut her mouth immediately, blinking in alarm at her own mistake. had she nearly given it away? she'd never been good at lying -- other than when she'd been defending her soreness from her walks with her father, anyway. perhaps when nettlefur left, he'd taken her skill in the subject with him too. hah, like that was possible.

well, either way she had to finish her sentence. it was only a very short pause before she improvised the rest. "-- by you. i'd imagine we'd both have gotten a little more to add to the freshkill pile by now." it was a clumsy trade of words, but it wasn't too bad of one. maybe by some lucky stroke, stormfall would take it. but probably not. at least this time she looked a little more sincere about her fib.

[/blockquote]

[Rain]

Stormfall couldn't help thinking that Spottedstar might be lying again, but the she-cat looked like she was telling the truth this time. he wouldn't be surprised if it was another lie for him to leave her alone. Well, he would leave the leader for now anyways, he didn't want to be cleaning out the dens for the next moon. "We should get hunting then." Stormfall mewed, making sure his mew was stronger on the we. Hopefully, while hunting, Spottedstar would let something out that would explain her weird behavior.

[/blockquote]

[Ginger]

Ashkit was bumbling around the moors again, bored of running around like a lost squirrel. Besides, he was ready to become an apprentice, so why couldn't he come out here?

Indeed it was a nice day. The wind lingered but mainly still, the grass tickling his soft, delicate paws. The trees, the sparse ones available in BreezeClan's territory stood tall and faithful as always, promising to hold back any enemies. Only a few fluffy clouds, that looked like balls of wool, hung high in the perfectly blue sky. No threats of upcoming storms had shown in weeks. His mother decided to let the kits outside to stretch their legs in the sunshine, so what if Ashkit strayed too far?

On accident he bumped into the pair of cats. Quickly he jumped to his feet.

"Sorry!" he squealed in his tiny kit voice.