|
|
Post by Cinder ! on Jul 8, 2010 14:19:43 GMT -5
BATSTAR The sky was shrouded in darkness as the WillowClan leader slipped into her den after a fast-paced day of clan life. Sighing sharply, she fell onto her nest in exhaustion. Cleaning down her ruffled grey fur with a rough pink tongue, Batstar reflected over her day, a usual thing for her. She had starting with a patrol, then had eaten a mouse and hunted for the remainder of the day. An average day for the Clan leader. She wished her life was a little more... exciting. She was not one to start wars or border fights, but if that was what it took to get some excitement running in this place...
She murmured to herself to stop being ridiculous, and settled down into a more comfortable position in her mossy nest. Ears twitching, listening to the final sounds of the cats outside, Batstar curled her tail around her body so it rested on her nose, and closed her yellow eyes.
Her mind drifted far away, dancing about the stars and wondering if there was a place for her up there one day. She was young yet, and didn't want to go to StarClan just yet, but she couldn't help but wonder if there was a nest in StarClan for all cats. A curious smile curling her maw, the young leader drifted off into a well-earned sleep.
|
|
|
|
Post by Giza on Jul 8, 2010 15:33:48 GMT -5
burntflower ;; Sometimes she'd imagine it felt a bit like pulling a slippery, silver-quick fish up the sliding mud of a riverbank, hooking gentle claws in the skin of its tail and inching its scaled body onto dry grass, and she'd smirk to herself as she wondered what some uptight leaders might think of being compared to food. She'd laze around for hours in some sunny corner of StarClan, conjuring up their peeved, pinched, enraged, flustered, embarassed, disdainful expressions in her head, and howl her mirth until her ribs ached for want of breath.
Now, though, wasn't a time for her to laugh and joke and set aside her responsibilities. Those moments had been steadily slipping out of her grasp as the heavy feeling in the pit of her gut had darkened and twisted ominously with each passing day. A churning, boiling knot of snake-wasp forboding, sitting inside her like the weight of a kit who refused to go and make one with the world. Now she was left chewing at her lip, aimlessly wandering StarClan's once welcoming lands to seek out a shred of conversation, a reassuring brush of fur or skin against her flank so that this weight would lighten, if only for a moment; and the more the omen lingered at the back of her mind and the depths of her soul, the more she knew that she had to pass the warning on.
Batstar was her choice, because she was strong of will and limb; she would spread the word, and act when the time was right; she would not let the forest and its cats fade only because others might protest and refuse to follow these traces of steps she could see sinking into view. Maybe, somewhere, it was also because the stark yellow of her eyes made her think of Crystalpelt, her mentor, and Heartstripe, her brother's delicate mate - but she tried not to dwell on that, and keep her task in sight. This was the cat her core told her to speak to, and that was what she would do.
So here she was, sitting tense as a branch pulled along by the wind, nary a breeze ruffling the stark black of her fur or skimming across the sensitive scars that lined her sides, and steadily threading the unsteady reality of this corner of her world into the shifting fabric of Batstar's dreamscape, waiting for the dark-furred she-cat to drop off to sleep.
|
|
|
|
Post by Cinder ! on Jul 12, 2010 14:05:43 GMT -5
BATSTAR The WillowClan leader drifted further and further into sleep, and her whole body relaxed, a mound of gray fur stretched over the nest of moss. She breathed in and out softly, slumber filling her sensing and mind slowing down. The only movement of the she-cat was the breathing, and the slight twitch of her long tail as sleep took her over.
Batstar opened wide yellow eyes suddenly, and was all at once confused. At first she thought that she was still awake, but she remembered dropping off to sleep. I'm dreaming, right? She asked herself, and was positive that she was. Her muscles felt tense and tight, as though they were waiting to run through the forest at top speed and not look back. She didn't feel in the least bit tired, either. Not like she had when she had fallen asleep - she had been exhausted.
So that settles it. I must be dreaming.
The ashen she-cat slowly got to her paws, wide orbs narrowing slightly as she realised she was in a slightly different surrounding. She didn't know if she was still in her den, but she couldn't recall it being so large. And there was a scent on the breeze that she didn't recognize. A smooth but unpleasant tang that made the back of her throat itch. Shaking her fur, she looked around a bit more, and it wasn't until she looked straight ahead of her that she spotted a motionless figure staring straight at her. Dark orange eyes pierced her own yellow ones, and Batstar was all at once on her guard. The darkness of the cats pelt spooked her a little, but she soon relaxed when she noticed the tiny sparks of light - stars, she supposed - that were entangled in the dark midst of fur.
"H...hello?" She asked cautiously, and watched the newcomer curiously, waiting for her to speak.
|
|
|
|
Post by Giza on Sept 1, 2010 14:53:06 GMT -5
burntflower ;; Every time she watched a mortal enter StarClan's timeless realm, she wondered whether the experience was the same for every other cat who had hooked and carefully drawn in a living conscience. The searing fire of her eyes locked on a patch of dream-green grass, her being immobile as claw marks in stone as she concentrated on her task, though a part of her - ever curious and intent - would silently observe the process. Every time, her gaze searched that single patch for the faintest trace of movement, of color appearing into thin air, and her ears were pricked for the sound of a breeze fingering fur or the nearly inaudible pat of paws hitting the ground... yet the only moment she did notice the dreamer was present was when their voice broke the silence, or when they rose from the ground in a movement full of imaginary fluidity - then she would taste their scent on the air, the musk of their Clan in their pelt, see the shimmer of moonlight on fur that seemed strangely too real to her dead eyes, and she would feel as though they had always been there in this corner of the dream world. It never ceased to surprise her, and so she jumped a bit at the sound of Batstar's hesitant greeting, but quickly regained her composure and slid to her paws as her eyes focused on the long-furred she-cat.
"Batstar," she meowed, her voice clear and sharp as moonrock. The end of her tail flicked in acknowledgement as she gave a slight dip of her head, eyes never leaving the dreaming leader. "This is the first time we meet. I'm Burntflower of OakClan." Then the night-dark feline padded smoothly across the grass - but no, it wasn't grass any longer, the tender shoots under her pads turning to grit and stone as she slipped out of her dreamset and into Batstar's - to stand a whiskerlength away from the dreamer. There was tension in her limbs, a nervous, urgent energy coursing in her veins and making her muscles ripple and quiver with every movement she took. She took a last second to wonder if, by letting the omen grow cold and threatening inside her, she'd waited too long - but then the words were bubbling in her throat, and she knew she had to be quick. "I must tell you something - something you must speak in your own world, tell the other leaders and Clans. I can trust you with this, right?"
|
|
|
|
Post by Cinder ! on Sept 12, 2010 7:59:10 GMT -5
BATSTAR A cold tingle made her fur stand on end when the stranger cat spoke, though there was no breeze in her den. All the WillowClan leader felt was confusion, settling deep into her mind like a pebble sinking in a stream. Bright sun-yellow eyes snapped up to meet the flame-toned urgency of the black she-cat. She watched motionlessly as she dipped her head to her.
"This is the first time we meet. I'm Burntflower of OakClan."
The first time? Then there would be others. Batstar dipped her head, unsure, but certain that she wanted to know why the StarClan cat had come to her. She forced herself to remain calm, to slow her racing heart. Was there something wrong? Burntflower's eyes shone with such desperation, that the ashen-grey leader wondered if she was keeping something hidden. Her thoughts were confirmed when Burntflower asked if she could trust her.
She had to tell the other clans something... and it was something that was about to happen. Burntflower's tone was urgent, and Batstar suddenly felt responsible for whatever the cat was about to ask of her. She sat straight, her tail splayed out behind her and her eyes shining with a new light.
"Of course - speak your mind." Batstar urged, speaking to the StarClan she-cat now with a stronger, more certain tone. Though inside, she was dreading the worst.
|
|
|
|
Post by Giza on Oct 15, 2010 14:23:19 GMT -5
burntflower ;; There - and her heartbeat steadied into a rhythmic thrum against her ribcage as that cliff-calm voice settled into the dreamscape - there was the leader she needed, the strength she'd been searching for in her prophecy's carrier. The frantic flickering in her burning eyes did not diminish, instead focusing on the thick gray fur and confident face of the dreamer she'd called. The words were like a tree-knot in her throat, like the roiling ball of tension and darkness sitting deep in her belly; she dipped her head, squeezing her bonfire eyes shut for the moment it took to blank out the turmoil of her mind, and raised it back with a loose roll of her shoulders as she opened her mouth.
Fangs snap, blood-black. The words were not sounds, did not vibrate against her vocal chords and disturb the dust motes hanging on the cavern's dead air; they were seeping out of the stone walls like water on a humid winter, rising invisible from the sand-grit floor, an imperceptible mist of things-that-are or things-that-will-be; they flashed across her blazing eyes, through her night-dark mind like fleeting thoughts, or the shadow of a memory; they hung suspended as though they had always been there, wildly unfurling from the depth of her soul. Rage howls at the moon tonight.
A blink, a jerk of her neck; a hiccup of breath pulled into suddenly frozen lungs. She'd never prophecized before, and she couldn't help but wonder whether the experience always felt so much like drowning.
|
|
|
|
Post by Cinder ! on Nov 6, 2010 6:08:32 GMT -5
BATSTAR The wondering was drawn short as a wash of cold air seemed to shoot through her lungs. It curled around them and squeezed them, like she was suffocating on nothing. The words were spoken, tumbling out of the StarClan she-cat's mouth like a waterfall of terror.
Fangs snap, blood black.
Rage howls at the moon tonight.
It was like these words weren't even coming out of Burntflower's mouth. Like they were not her own. Batstar knew that it wasn't just Burntflower, it was the whole of StarClan, warning her of dangers yet to come. But it made no sense! Why could StarClan never be straight with them? She took in the warning, feeling her fur spike up in terror. The prophecy was taunting and scary to the leader. But she felt honored that StarClan had chosen her to deliver this message to over the other leaders.
"But what does it mean?" She murmured to the StarClan cat in front of her. She looked like the telling of the prophecy had left her somewhat breathless. Her own yellow orbs narrowed, deep in thought. The prophecy could only mean one thing - they were all in danger.
|
|
|
|
Post by Giza on Nov 11, 2010 13:26:58 GMT -5
burntflower ;; The muscles of her neck rippled as she swallowed down the feeling of having a chunk of ice lodged in the throat. The roiling in her belly was gone, leaving a vague impression of relief in the pit of her soul, but it was as though the air itself had been tainted by the ominous prophecy; it felt cold and humid as a winter swamp inside the dream-cave, sinking through her thin black coat to crawl along her clammy skin and prickle at her hackles. She hunched her shoulders at the sensation, her slender tail swinging in close to her hind legs, and the vivid fire of her eyes flicked back up to Batstar as she dipped her head and tucked her chin into the fur of her chest. The WillowClan leader's quiet question left her silent in the thickening shadows of the dreamscape.
In all honesty, she had no more ideas as to what this might mean than the strong-hearted she-cat before her, and this realization trailed confusion and consternation through her thoughts. She'd made the prophecy, she'd carried it for moons on end before this moment - why was it that what she'd just heard and seen in fleeting flashes was just as unfamiliar to her? All she knew was it told of a greater danger approaching on quick feet; all she was sure of was the feeling of a possibility of teeth and blood and shattered bone, or an inexorable descent into something unknown and terrifying. A quiver knotted her spine at the thought, and she hung her head despondently, eyes cast down at the pebbles and grit beneath her pads.
"... I'm sorry. I can't.... I can't tell you anything," she answered lamely, her hind legs folding as she sat down with a weary huff. She made a vague motion with one paw, her gaze sweeping over the cave's ceiling in search of inspiration, or an impossible answer. "It's..." She couldn't look at Batstar. All she had was this warning, dark and brooding and unhelpful. For a second she remembered her frustration at her StarClan correspondents' unwillingness to clarify anything they said when she had shared their dreams, and a wry smile hitches up her whiskers.
Well. At least they had a warning. She finally faced the dark gray she-cat with an apologetic flicker to her gaze, though the determined glint was back in her autumn-moon pools.
"That's all I can give you," she meowed in a steady voice. "At least, for now. If I find something else..." There a twitch of her whiskers betrayed a growing smile, and the encroaching shadows of the dreamscape finally swallowed her silhouette whole. "I'll let you know."
|
|
