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Post by shy on Apr 22, 2024 19:07:48 GMT -6
#s://i~pinimg~com/564x/d2/01/79/d20179e31f5e333d673300c47c884196~jpg cinnamon, Nothing had made sense in a few moons. Everything felt a little off. And that clan cat was to blame. Something about that meeting, her words, her refusal to fight Cinnamon even though she'd been seeking a spat, it lingered. She'd tried talking to other cabin cats, seeing if anyone else held any reservations or had seen any other clan cats being nice. All she was met with was the same fire and spite and rage that she'd grown up on. It had lost its addictive warmth since meeting the she-cat. Cinnamon wanted answers, not anger. And so here she was back at the border, acting as if she lived outside it. In a way she had spent more time out here recently, straying further from the cabin to hunt. Survival had taken up a chunk of her time in winter, but with spring here she had more free time. Free time that she now spent waiting for that one she-cat. How long would it take? Would someone crueler come along first? It would be easier if they did, if they could reaffirm what Percy and Foxglove and Bluebell all said about the clans. And yet she didn't want that right now. |
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Post by tor on Apr 27, 2024 9:59:05 GMT -6
#s://i~ibb~co/N7bQM4C/bright~jpg "-so I really think you should come back to camp." Brightfire blinked at the small orange apprentice, wondering how Foxpaw managed to speak so quickly, even though their chest was heaving for breath. They must've sprinted out here, following the scent of Brightfire and Cinderstar's patrol to report that their brother and some other apprentice were getting into a fight. Again. Wasn't there a warrior that could help? Did Foxpaw really need the leader? Cinderstar seemed to think so. "We can end our patrol early," she told Brightfire, starting to follow Foxpaw. Brightfire shrugged. "I'll just mark the border quickly. I'll be okay." Her leader seemed wary, but eventually Cinderstar nodded, then followed off behind Foxpaw with urgency in her paws. Brightfire waited till she didn't see them anymore before she crossed the remaining meadows to the border, cautious of her proximity to the cabin. Last time she came out here, she met some weird loner who said a lot of nonsense. She wasn't sure she wanted to deal with that again, but it would be better than dealing with the aggressive rogues, right? "Oh," Brightfire said as the meadow grass parted, giving her a sudden, clear view of the stranger, as if she'd conjured her with her thoughts. "You again. Did I summon you or something?" |
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Post by shy on May 3, 2024 11:38:53 GMT -6
#s://i~pinimg~com/564x/d2/01/79/d20179e31f5e333d673300c47c884196~jpg cinnamon, Last time she'd tried this trick at the border, it had taken a few attempts to find a clan cat. So she'd expected this to take a while to see any clan cats, much less a specific clan cat. And yet not too much later she saw the pelt that had haunted her waking thoughts. " Oh please." Cinnamon rolled her eyes at the stranger's words. " If anything I summoned you. I am here looking for you." After a second's thought, she wondered if the she-cat's words meant that she'd been thinking of Cinnamon just now. Her heart thumped harder at the thought that she'd been on this cats mind, even if briefly. Oh she was going to be in so much trouble if her aunts or mom learned of this. " What's your name? You know mine. Tell me yours. Fair is fair." She doubted the cat had been fooled by her awkward attempt to insist she hadn't said her own name at their last encounter. Though maybe she'd forgotten it, even if she hadn't forgotten seeing Cinnamon. Maybe that would be for the best? |
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Post by tor on May 7, 2024 13:17:29 GMT -6
#s://i~ibb~co/N7bQM4C/bright~jpg Brightfire didn't like the idea of being summoned, especially by this stranger. It was one thing for her leader to summon her, or for a friend to call her over, or something like that. But this cat? This cat was weird - and not a good sort of weird. This cat thought all clan cats wanted to murder or... something like that. Admittedly, she couldn't remember the details of their conversation, or the cat's name. "Why are you looking for me?" She tilted her head. "Do you want to try and make me fight you again? I'm not going to. You're bigger than me. You'd probably win, and I'm not stupid enough to find out of that's true." Both Darkflame and her mentor called her scrappy before. Was scrappy enough to fight this weirdo? Oh - Cinnamon. Brightfire remembered her name just as Cinnamon asked for hers. That name was sort of cute, wasn't it? She wasn't sure Cinnamon deserved that cute of a name, though she was sort of pretty. "My name is Brightfire." She flicked her tail back toward camp. "I live in PrairieClan. I bet you're from the cabin." |
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Post by shy on May 10, 2024 19:45:28 GMT -6
#s://i~pinimg~com/564x/d2/01/79/d20179e31f5e333d673300c47c884196~jpg cinnamon, Cinnamon left out a hrumph as the she-cat suggested she might've been there seeking another fight. While it was perhaps a logical conclusion, it did hurt a little that she clan cat assumed she was exactly the same, entirely unchanged by the exchange when the truth was quite the opposite. " I'm not here to fight, Brightfire." Ah what a weird name, it sounded silly coming from her mouth. She was glad to know the she-cat's name, but having two names smushed together seemed rather silly. " I... I'm here to talk." All she'd learned about the clans was second hand, information and horror stories passed down from from her friends and family. But she wanted to learn more, see for herself what these clan cats were like. Who better to learn about the clans from than a clan cat? " You said last time that clan cats help out. When? Have you ever seen it happen? All I've heard of is kits and cats killed or left to die at your borders." A rather harsh conversation, but hopefully it would both yield some truth and distract Brightfire from her lack of response to being from the cabin. She'd flinched ever so slightly at the words, but ultimately ignored them. |
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Post by tor on May 12, 2024 10:17:32 GMT -6
#s://i~ibb~co/N7bQM4C/bright~jpg Brightfire narrowed her eyes in suspicion when Cinnamon said she wasn't here to fight. She wanted to talk? Nerves fluttered in her stomach. She wasn't the best at talking. She was trying, she really was, but she always ended up saying something rude, or not listening well enough. It was hard to be a better talker for her friends. For a stranger? Maybe if it was just questions, she could try. Just in case, she said, "Okay, but if you have a lot of hard questions, you should talk to Cinderstar instead. She's the leader." Or maybe one of the cats who worked with the barn, like Raventhorn.
"You said last time that clan cats help out. When?" When? It happened so much Brightfire briefly forgot how to actually answer that, unable to think of a specific moment. "Have you ever seen it happen? All I've heard of is kits and cats killed or left to die at your borders."Oh. She had an easy answer for that. "What? No, we don't just kill cats at the border," she said. "Especially not kits. Are you dumb? I was a kit left on the border. PrairieClan took me in." She gave her fur a few quick licks, smoothing out the irritation she felt at the idea of killing kits. "All of the clans have cats not born in the clans in them. Even RidgeClan, and they're really strict." She couldn't remember the names of which RidgeClan warriors had non-clan parents, but she knew there were a few. They were brought up every time someone criticized RidgeClan, like a reminder that they weren't perfect about the code, either. "We have a warrior code. It says everyone has to be helped first. We protect our borders, but not with murder." |
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Post by shy on May 22, 2024 16:48:39 GMT -6
#s://i~pinimg~com/564x/d2/01/79/d20179e31f5e333d673300c47c884196~jpg cinnamon, What was it with this cat's insistence that Cinnamon speak to her leader? Why would this Cinderstar be so much more qualified? A younger version of herself might've assumed it was a trap, but now she wasn't certain. " What? No, we don't just kill cats at the border. Especially not kits. Are you dumb? I was a kit left on the border. PrairieClan took me in." The red she-cat scowled. She wasn't here to be mocked or treated like her concerns were nothing more than stories to frighten kittens into behaving. " My grandmother died at a border. And my friend talks of his littermate who was intentionally killed by clan cats. What of them? What did your code do for them?" Bluebell was a bully at times, but he was no liar. And her mother and aunts had been young, yes, but they weren't fools. They knew where her grandmother had gone and died at. But then why would this she-cat lie either? Were her origins outside the clan? How could the same cats who killed one kit then save another? This cat was older than Bluebell, did they somehow change their mind in a short span of moons. " Why did they save you? Why did you get to live?" |
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Post by tor on May 31, 2024 8:11:58 GMT -6
#s://i~ibb~co/N7bQM4C/bright~jpg Brightfire shirked back from Cinnamon's violent accusations, unable to help feeling like this loner was accusing her of killing her grandmother, or her friend's littermate. Guilt tickled her throat. It was true. She didn't have an answer for those things — didn't know why someone would kill a random cat, just from being too close to the border. RidgeClan and MistClan were far more strict about these things than PrairieClan was. But were they murderers? "Maybe your grandmother did something wrong," she snapped back, immediately regretting what she said but not knowing how to take it back. "I don't know. I didn't kill anyone. No one from my clan killed anyone."Admittedly, she didn't know that for sure. But neither did Cinnamon. "All the clans are different, okay? We have a code, but some clans are stricter. And — and bad cats exist everywhere." She didn't want to think about it, but she wasn't a kit anymore. Brightfire knew cats like Papa could exist in the clans, too. "So maybe a bad cat just did a bad thing. Rogues do bad things all the time. Clan cats get killed by rogues, too." On the border. Off the border. Brightfire was lucky she didn't know anyone personally who'd been killed or hurt, at least until she thought of Owlgaze. He'd been stolen away by rogues. "Rogues steal our kits. All the time." She thought of the MistClan kits. Still missing. "So yeah. Some cats maybe protect the borders a little more harshly. Sorry about your grandmother." |
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Post by shy on Jun 29, 2024 16:16:43 GMT -6
#s://i~pinimg~com/564x/d2/01/79/d20179e31f5e333d673300c47c884196~jpg cinnamon, Why couldn't things be simple? Foxglove and aunt Percy had made this seem simple, at least when she was young. The clans were bad. Now that she was older aunt Percy had spoken to her more about the system being bad. But why was it bad? Why had everything gone from black and white to a thousand shades of gray? And why did everything who seemed to see that gray still act like it was still black and white? The cabin wanted the clans dismantled and the clans wanted them gone, and that hadn't changed. Probably wouldn't change ever. Cinnamon thought on Brightfire's words. She never knew her grandmother, not outside the stories told to her. Maybe she'd done something bad. Or maybe she'd done nothing wrong. Maybe the clan code was good. Maybe it wasn't. Maybe it was neither. " What does your code say about bad cats inside your clans? Do they get to stick around and hurt and kill people and point to your code and say it's all fine cause of that? Do you guys ever care if someone who isn't clan gets killed?" |
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Post by tor on Jun 30, 2024 15:34:26 GMT -6
#s://i~ibb~co/N7bQM4C/bright~jpg Cinnamon's question offended her, mostly because Brightfire felt unable to answer it at first. She bristled at the accusation in the rogue's voice. The code protecting bad cats? That wasn't the point of the code! What does she care so much for anyway? She thought. She's just gonna steal kits and territory. Then, she paused. That was a harsh thought, born of nothing but assumptions. Just like Cinnamon was making about her and other clan cats. Brightfire drew herself to her full height, which really wasn't much, and tried to be as composed and calm as Cinderstar always managed to look. "Yes, we care," she said. "We mourn when we lose friends at the barn, and other loners we work with. And we invite elderly cats into our camp to die in comfort." She thought of Pumpkinpelt, not dying yet, but PrairieClan's most recent elder acquisition. The clan loved him already. His heritage didn't matter. The code was harder to talk about. She didn't know it all that well — Darkflame could handle these questions better. "The code tells us how to handle cats who break the code," she said defensively. "And it also says violence is a last resort, and should be punished. So even if you follow the code and kill some loner, your leader will still punish you for violence." It made sense to her. A life couldn't be taken so lightly, no matter what. "What makes you so good? Do you have some code? I bet it's worthless. It tells you to steal clan kits, doesn't it?" |
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