Territory RC Loner/Rogue wind through the fields | a chance encounter

  • In honor of our anniversary month, FK for posting has been doubled! Now you will earn 20FK per post, threads are still the same and have not been adjusted! Thank you for being here with us!

    Don't forget to also grab your 1 Year Anniversary Badge !

This thread takes place outside the clan's camp in its territory.
Heather
Heather

Heather

fool for love
Loner/Rogue
19
4
Freshkill
20
Pronouns
she/her
Profile
TAGS
Played by
Plot_Twists
Character Hub
LINK
⬤
⬤
⬤
⬤
⬤
The grass underfoot was damp with morning dew, and Heather's pelt shivered with the slight chill in the morning breeze. The end of the warm season was fast approaching, and while it would still probably get hot enough that afternoon for some time sunning herself on one of the Twoleg's outdoor furniture, the warmth of the mornings was evaporating like the mist after a storm. Her thicker coat would grow in soon, and she paused to consider that it would soon be the first snowy season without her parents or siblings around.

While they weren't close by any means, she did feel a bit of a twinge in her heart at the thought of weathering the snow alone. Shivering, cold.

Well, unless... Maybe Ivytwist would...

No, they weren't quite close enough for that right now. And she had time to figure things out! After all, there was still the season with all the pretty leaves, and the warm season wasn't over yet, and she was feeling awful fond of that warrior. There was time for things to progress, surely!

Lost in thought, she didn't notice as her pawsteps crossed the RiverClan border and led her deeper into RiverClan territory. A butterfly flitted past her face, and her eyes widened, haunches wiggling as she moved to leap for it. With a pleased mrow!, she pounced, slamming her paws down with the butterfly pinned below. Her tail lashed back and forth, pleased with her little catch - even if it wouldn't be worth much as a meal.


OOC
BIO
 
  • Like
Reactions: Galepaw
—————————————————— Rocked by an endless motion ✦


These days, it seemed as though the sun dragged its feet, refusing to set until the apprentice was entirely worn down. It wasn't the fault of much else but its own—the passing of the days only meant that the inevitable day he graduated drew closer. The freedom of choice, the wind through his pelt... the tall cat could almost taste it, as tantalizing as a fish in the shallows. Perhaps the days would seem shorter if the tom hadn't been waking up in the early mornings, gentle paws ready to sink thin claws into the tasks of the day. Of course, many of the tasks were self-imposed, and of little use to anyone but the lynxpoint. Still, it didn't seem right to begin a day without taking a silent, lonely patrol of the territory.

And so he went about it, small paws trekking a trail that had worn into his mind. It wasn't a particularly useful excursion, as the tom certainly wasn't leaving any scent markers—but it was a comforting one, one populated by the chittering of birds underfoot and overhead. It was rare when he chattered back, but he took note of the feathery news-bringers all the same... even if the majority of what they called about really had no bearing on how he'd go about his next moments. A particular call did draw his attention though, and he found himself meandering towards it. It was sharp, shrill, and thoroughly coated in danger.

And as per usual, the scent that followed was one of a cat's... but with a wrinkled nose, he couldn't help but note a particular unfamiliar quality about it. It wasn't like the other scents he had smelt during the gathering... no, this was something new, something other. It didn't take him long to spot the molly from which the smell was coming, and Galepaw watched her with a muted interest through the underbrush. Striking blue eyes squinted with curiosity as it watched the other leap into the air, smashing something colorful and flitting into the ground with a gentle noise. A quiet huff escaped from his maw, something just short of a chuckle, and he popped his head above the brush to get a better look. This was no violent rogue—he'd be surprised if she didn't turn tail and run at the sight of him.

"Not exactly the most glamorous of catches." The tom noted coolly, long legs stepping out of the brush with knowledgeable grace. "Not for a Riverclanner, at least... Of which you are decidedly not." Galepaw punctuated his last statement with an inquisitive tilt of his head, wind-blown fur falling in cascades over his shoulder. "...Unless I am mistaken...?" It questioned, though there was no real aggression nor confusion behind his words—he knew exactly who this stranger was by knowing who she was not, and by all means she was from no clan that he knew of.

—————Whether truth or just a story
It's not up to you—————
  • Galepaw
    ✦—Riverclan Apprentice | 10 Moons
    ✦—He/They/It
    ✦—"SPEECH", 'THOUGHTS', ATTACK
    ✦—A fluffy high white lynx point with curled ears and deep blue eyes
    #87878E #BAB2AC
 
⬤
⬤
⬤
⬤
⬤
Heather nearly jumped out of her fur when someone else spoke. Her tail puffed out in surprise, and her back arched - she may not be much in a fight, but she could at least attempt to make her little frame seem larger than it was.

"S-stay back!" she mewed, eyeing the younger cat warily. Warily... until they mentioned RiverClan. Maybe they knew Ivytwist! Her fur smoothed, though the slight puff remained in her tail, and she let her muscles relax just a little. She hadn't met this cat before, but there was a hint of that scent she remembered from Ivytwist - fish and water and reeds.

"Um, sorry. You kinda surprised me," she said, tucking her still fluffy tail around her paws as she sat. "And... you're right. I'm not from RiverClan. Is that nearby at all?"


OOC
BIO
  • txt
  • Loner || 19 moons
    SPEECH || THOUGHTS
 
—————————————————— Rocked by an endless motion ✦


A gentle, wayward chuckle slipped from its lips as it watched the unfamiliar stranger jump in surprise. He had never considered himself a particularly scary cat, though perhaps that belief had been instilled in him when he was far younger (and more importantly, far smaller). They surveyed the she-cat in front of them, a brow rising in curiosity as her fur smoothed at the mention of Riverclan. He wasn't too used to that sort of reaction... perhaps Pikestar's... kinder way about things had spread further than he had previously thought. It... wasn't sure if that was a good or bad thing, really.

'You kinda surprised me'

"...I could tell." He answered, brow still raised. Perhaps in another cat, this would have been followed with some merry laughter, but Galepaw never quite had that joyful charm like other cats, no matter if he meant something as a joke or not. He stayed silent as the unknown cat spoke, studying her with watchful and intense blue eyes. They were searching, prying, though not exactly unwelcoming. Perhaps they were too welcoming, too prepared to listen to her every woe. "Not many cats come out here." He finally answered, dodging her question for just a moment. "Those that despise the water, at the very least." An unsaid question hung in the air, a sort of 'You must not be one of them... so why do you come here?'

Finally, he begun to answer her final question. "Of course, just how far or near Riverclan may be is entirely dependent on who you are." It said calmly, gaze fixed unblinklingly on the she-cat. "And what business you seek with us."


—————Whether truth or just a story
It's not up to you—————
  • Galepaw
    ✦—Riverclan Apprentice | 10 Moons
    ✦—He/They/It
    ✦—"SPEECH", 'THOUGHTS', ATTACK
    ✦—A fluffy high white lynx point with curled ears and deep blue eyes
    #87878E #BAB2AC
 
⬤
⬤
⬤
⬤
⬤
She tilted her head at the strange cat's queries, just barely catching the unspoken meanings in his words. Could she tell him that she was looking for Ivytwist? Would that get the tom in trouble? She may not be clever, but she knew that she didn't understand enough yet about the Clans to know if they were allowed to talk to cats like her.

Lonely cats.

"Um," she began. "Well, my name is Heather. I met a RiverClan cat before - I wanted to talk to them again!" She gave as big a grin as she could to the stranger. "But if you're also a RiverClan cat, maybe I can talk to you!"


OOC
BIO
  • txt
  • Loner || 19 moons
    SPEECH || THOUGHTS
 
—————————————————— Rocked by an endless motion ✦


"You met...?" It echoed, thinking to himself. He hadn't heard of any violent meetings with a loner... so perhaps this unfamiliar she-cat was okay. There were surely more terrible things he could bring back to the camp than a seemingly kindly, if not a bit lost-seeming she-cat. The lynxpoint sat in contemplative silence as she spoke, introducing herself and explaining herself somewhat. It had been correct on the diagnosis as a loner though, he knew that as much. It was a strange day when a cat from the clans introduced themselves as anything but their entire name—it seemed as though many cats had some sort of proud feeling associated with it, and so Gale was always Galepaw to those he met. "Hm..." The lynxpoint hummed to himself, studying Heather in silence for a while more as he made up his mind... well, she didn't seem violent. "Galepaw." It introduced itself matter-of-factly, huffing a bit at the end of his sentence as he turned away from the cat.

He didn't give any indication to her to follow him, but he spoke as though expecting her to as he started to pad away. "'Talking' is a rather ambiguous word to use." Galepaw mused coolly, though perhaps there was a hint of humor in his words. "Tell me, what business do you have with us...? And what you seek to get from this...." He tilted his head once more, looking at Heather with searching, inquisitive eyes. "Talking."


—————Whether truth or just a story
It's not up to you—————
  • Galepaw
    ✦—Riverclan Apprentice | 10 Moons
    ✦—He/They/It
    ✦—"SPEECH", 'THOUGHTS', ATTACK
    ✦—A fluffy high white lynx point with curled ears and deep blue eyes
    #87878E #BAB2AC
 
⬤
⬤
⬤
⬤
⬤
Heather shuffled her paws awkwardly. Her mouth lifted in little bit of a smile, but her eyes still looked at Galepaw with hesitation. Would it get her friend in trouble to mention his name? As he padded away, she lept to her feet to follow, though not too closely.

"Um, well, it really is just talking!" she insisted. "I met one of your Clanmates and we just... talked! I told him about what my life is like and he told me about what it's like to be part of a Clan. Well, sort of. We didn't really get to talk too much? So I really just wanted to know more about what it's like!" Her heart fluttered as she held back on the fact that speaking with Ivytwist would have been her preference, to gaze into his handsome eyes as he told her stories of his life in RiverClan... But this odd cat would do.

"Like.... Galepaw. That's an interesting name! Why are you named that?"


OOC
BIO
  • txt
  • Loner || 19 moons
    SPEECH || THOUGHTS
 
—————————————————— Rocked by an endless motion ✦


Good, good. She had agency about her, the mind to follow him without question. Questions, as much as he cherished them, could often draw out for far too long... or perhaps he had simply spent too much time with the littler things in the clan as of recent. "Mmm... As it goes." He muttered in response to her retelling, flipping through mental notes of the cats that had found themselves in new company amidst the clan. Perhaps Heather would find herself in the same fate, and soon find herself with a new name, a new identity, and even a new purpose... or perhaps she would slip through the cracks, rushing through the clan's paws as immaterial as the water they lived from. "Living, I suppose." The lynxpoint answered after some deliberation. "With some structure, some ordinances that we all live by, that we all die by..." His steps were long, languid as they spoke, trekking a winding path that was somewhat backwards, somewhat confusing. It was not exactly trusting of Heather yet, did not trust her innocence, and so he took a rather meandering path that was bred out of deception. They would likely come across the camp, but the time that it would take would be ample for him to screen her motivations. "I cannot definitively say what it is without knowing what it is not... Tell me—" Piercing blue eyes met the other's, studying with a sort of scholastic interest. "How have you lived? What sights have you seen?"

He sniffed, somewhat bemused by the curious response. It was all he knew, really, to be named as he were. It knew of a time when it wasn't, when it wasn't even Galekit, but that time was long in the past. It had been folded away neatly, stacked in some forgotten folds in his mind, nothing but a footnote in his life. "Convention." Galepaw replied easily, simply. "And nothing more. As simply as you are named Heather, I am Galepaw... for now." An ear flick, an easy shrug of the shoulders. "Soon I will be Galerunner—a named earned in time, in virtue. And after?" Once again, a gentle shrug as he looked away, vibrant gaze focusing on something far in the distance, something immaterial. "If I am no longer here, if I am nothing but a whispered word in the mind, does it matter what others call me? Does my absence matter, if I am to never return, and never to know?" It was a simple notion to him really, the idea of names. He could be called anything, called nothing, and it would not change what he was. There was no weight behind them, and so he lived ambiently, distantly aware of his name and the meaning of it, but nothing more. "Perhaps I am Gale in the way that the wind blows through my fur, or the stripes upon my pelt, or the color of my being—I cannot say for certain, as those who knew have long since ceased." So it goes.

With a curious look, his blue eyes once again focused on the other. "This question... you must have a reason for your name, then?" The question was more of a formality if anything, a polite continuation of the conversation. Perhaps he could glean something about the unfamiliar cat through her words, a sort of determining of the circumstances of her nature. Or perhaps the words would be empty, and they would part nothing but a vaguely interesting moment in a lifetime of moments. Gale did not mind either way.


—————Whether truth or just a story
It's not up to you—————
  • Galepaw
    ✦—Riverclan Apprentice | 10 Moons
    ✦—He/They/It
    ✦—"SPEECH", 'THOUGHTS', ATTACK
    ✦—A fluffy high white lynx point with curled ears and deep blue eyes
    #87878E #BAB2AC
 
  • Like
Reactions: Plot_Twists
⬤
⬤
⬤
⬤
⬤
Heather listened intently to Galepaw, parsing his words as they walked. He had an odd way of speaking, but it was almost lyrical. It was nice.

"Galerunner? You mean you get to pick the name you like?" she asked. "And by the one who named you being 'long since ceased'... does that mean your parents passed away? That must've been hard." Heather may not have been close with her own family, but she knew it would have been a rough life without them.

"I think Gale suits you," she mewed. "You talk like how the wind feels. And for the record," she moved to bump her shoulder to his, "I think even if you were gone, folks would remember you. In that way, I think a name can matter!"

"My name? Well, my mama told me it's cause when I was born, my fur felt like heather! Pretty simple, right?"


OOC
BIO
  • txt
  • Loner || 19 moons
    SPEECH || THOUGHTS
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom
Back