Username: clouds-move-on
Cat Name: Duchesss Greenpaw
Gender: female
Rank: forest cat
Clan: x Age: 6 years
Kitty trying out for: #2379 Prompt: It was strange how things always seemed to happen at the Motley Cliff.
Motley Cliff was so named as it was- not really a cliff at all, but a collection of tumbled rocks and boulders of various shapes and sizes in a forest clearing. And they ported a sort of a point, at an angle. One could not simply climb up this motley without tumbling back down, or catching your paws between the rocks, but where the base was firmer you could find a little cave that you could slip between- it was open on both ends.
She discovered it first when she was about three months old, and had run ahead of her siblings and into it. It took some more minutes of sniffing around before she found the little cave. Then she slipped herself inside, and waited fro her brothers to catch up with her. A perfect vantage to sneak an attack - after a successful launch at an unsuspecting youngest brother, it became a well known place for the kittens to play.
Her brothers would grow up, and leave to find their own territories. But Duchess stayed behind with her mother. When her mother eventually died, she was left there alone, with only the other passing forest cats for company on the odd occasion. Then, she took to living next to Motley Cliff. The little cave, while more close since she'd grown, was good shelter from the rain. It reminded her of old times- in a way that was nice to think of. Not like how her mother's old den just reminded her that her mother was gone.
The attacks on the woods come, but they come more to the colonies than to loners like herself. No one knows who these mysterious, clothed, upright cats are, that almost walk and act as men do. They are making demands from the leaders of the forest, and they are attacking unsuspecting mothers, kittens and elders in their sleep. Duchess first hears of this commotion on her way back from a hunt, meeting some young longer tomcat, about her age, who'd just left his colony. She'd been passing from one end of the Motley cave, to the other, and came up upon him rather unexpected for both. After a bit of a tussle- purely from surprise- they both apologized and fell to talking.
"I'm going into the city myself." He told her. "I don't think it's safe here anymore. I would suggest you do the same."
"But there has been no attacks here-"
"It's only a matter of time."
They end up traveling together. He is called, Timber Blacktuft. And he is a very friendly, quick minded tom. She grew to admire him very much on their journey, grew to love him. So they settled in the city, and bore a litter together. The life in the city streets was peaceful- until one day, Timber does not return home.
Her first litter are all grown, and love city life- they will not leave with her. But she, without Timber, does not feel at home here any longer. One day, she returns to the forest, and heads back to Motley Cliff. The territory remains empty, and so she resumed her place at the rock with ease. She asks a neighbor for news on the attacks, to which.
"Oh, those strangers- most of them's gone now. Up north there's still been a few attacks, but I doubt we're in any danger here now."
She learned not long after that she was to have a second litter, a final passing gift from Timber. Fine little litter of three girls, born under Motley Cliff. She is excited to teach them about forest life, something she had missed with her first litter. And it delighted her to see how the played by the cliffs, like she once had with her brothers.
They are three months old when the most recent event at the cliff happens. She had taken her kittens farther out into the territory than usual, to go and meet the council- the elders who oversaw doings of the woods. They return home to a startling sight. There is a blood on the air, cat's blood. She left her girls to hide within a bush as she went up to Motley alone. There is no one there- merely, signs of a struggle, of blood trailing along the rocks, of disturbed earth where cats paws had run. It is some minutes later that has a cat she vaguely recognized as one of the council's guards come upon her.
"A straggler, from the attackers." He explained. "I've chased him off."
"Is it safe?"
"Yes, it is quite safe. The war is officially over, I'll be bound. There's been less and less of those strange cats appearing."
She feels it is safe enough to bring her kittens home. They spend several hours outside grooming each other and talking in hush, nervous voices about an altercation so close to home. Then the youngest is tired, and crawled into the cave to sleep.
Only to emerge, startled, a second later.
"Ma! There's a kitten in there!"
So it was, Duchess Greenpaw met her youngest son, Dasher Sunclip. Just a little thing he was, wrapped in some kind of green cloth, with a metal badge, like the sun, attached to it. Not knowing if this was someone's lost kitten, she took him to the council. But they only say- that the cloth around him, and the clip of the sun, look similiar to those their enemy wore. And they talk very much about how cruel their enemy must be- to abandon their own child in the woods.
But Duchess does not care about where he'd come from. She accepted this last gift of Motley Cliff, all to happy to be his mother.
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Username: clouds-move-on
Cat Name: Sol Starscream
Gender: male
Rank: court cat
Clan: x Age: 4 years
Kitty trying out for: MYO#568 Prompt: Prey? Well, there are many things that he likes to have. But- of the favorites, "prey" isn't exactly the word anyone would use for what food he likes the best.
Starscream is considered a bit odd in general, by everyone around him. He cares both little and much for this, at the same time. So he is very private about his favorite snack, fearing the judgement of others. Only the human who cares for him knows.
Goldfish crackers.