[clouds-move-on]

dropping out

[Tordier]

Dropping out

[schmiiitty]

Username;; schmiiitty
Cat Name;; duskblaze
Gender;; male
Age;; 88
Clan;; brookclan
Rank;; elder

Prompt;; wip

[coppercanary]

Username;; Canary22
Cat Name;; Dieselpaw
Gender;; Tom
Age;; 9 moons
Clan;; Dawnclan
Rank;; Duskrunner

Prompt;;
Dieselpaw yawned, his eyes drooping.

His mentor would complain that he was always tired, too tired to even do battle training, his favourite lesson. His clanmates would claim that it was down to his rumoured kittypet heritage, that he had really been a kittypet rather than a stray when the clan found him.

He didn’t know why they never believed him when he said that he’d been a stray. It was true; his first memories were of busy streets full of Twolegs and roaring monsters, which he learned were nothing to fear unless you went on the thunderpath. His mother had been hit by a monster. The Twolegs in its belly had clambered out, jabbering to each other and gesturing to her body with their peculiar forepaws. Dieselpaw saw this many a time during his time in the Twolegplace. Cats being hit by monsters was a common sight there, though the Twolegs actually caring was unusual.

Dieselpaw learned to walk away when a cat was hit. They were a lost cause.
Another thing he learned was a fierce, ingrained loathing of Twolegs.

Mother, father, brother, sister, all dead because of Twolegs.

His father had been in a building the Twolegs destroyed, brought down by bright yellow monsters with vicious claws. Dieselpaw was helpless as his father’s desperate wails echoed around the street, before the rubble caught up with him and he was buried alive.
His sister was only young, learning to hunt. A small mouse had practically walked into her paws, and she’d killed it, proud of her first catch. Her mother allowed her to eat it. The mouse must have eaten a Twoleg poison of sorts and passed it onto her, as she fell ill the next day and died within a week. With no knowledge of healing nor anything to heal her with, Dieselpaw was powerless to stop the flow of poison around her body.
His brother had been taken by the Twolegs themselves. They came in a huge white monster with cages in the back, filled with other strays clawing at the bars. A pair of Twolegs blocked the exit to the alleyway and trapped his brother, backing him into a cage identical to those in the back of the monster. It took all of Dieselpaw’s self control not to leap out at the Twolegs and claw them to free his brother. The only thing that restrained him was the thought that if he attacked, they’d both be trapped in the monster, being taken to Starclan knows where. All he could do was hide behind the large metal cans and pray they didn’t notice him.

He was powerless against a force such as Twolegs.

And he hated himself for it.

[SpaghettiOhs]

Username: SpaghettiOhs
Cat Name: Willow (Willowsong)
Gender: female
Age: 24 moons
Clan: JuniperClan
Rank: Queen

Willow gazed back across the river at the wall of smoke and flames where her home used to be, her heart aching. She'd had so many plans, so many dreams, and they'd all just gone up in flames.

With a pang, she thought of her mother. Was it possible that she was okay? Would she ever roll her eyes, laughing as she caught her daughter daydreaming yet again?

A dreamer, she'd called her. Willow had always dreamed of her perfect life; a handsome mate, beautiful kits... a happy family in their perfect home in the barn.

Willow glanced at her swollen belly. How had it all gone so wrong? One moment, she was so close to getting her dream... and now what? She had no mate, no home, and, she shuddered to think it, maybe no family.

The kits she was expecting would likely never know their father. She had thought that she and the charming kittypet were in love. They'd spent so much time together, and he seemed to genuinely enjoy her company, sunning together near his twolegs' nest.

But when she had told him, excitement sparkling in her eyes, that they were going to have kits, he grew cold. He wasn't looking for a mate, a family. "I thought you knew that," he said.

She saw him a few days later, a pretty new she-cat in her spot, sunning at his side.

Tears and smoke stung her eyes. All of her dreams had been destroyed, but she couldn't blame the fire. She had been so foolish. Naive. Now she knew the truth about dreams. They didn't come true - they just fell apart.

[ataraxic_gone]

Username;; dewly_noted
Cat Name;; PetrelBreeze
Gender;; Male
Age;; 27 moons
Clan;; BeachClan
Rank;; Wave Runner

Prompt;;
There was a unique relief to the busyness, to never standing still and it was in that burning desire that Petrel found himself permanently strung. If he closed his eyes too hard or for too long his body would fall into a million pieces and he would never wake up. It was the stress that kept him together.
He felt like that every time he closed his eyes to rest and it was only in the moments where he was working that he was truly at rest. He could walk with his eyes shut, he could revive his body with breaths- just so long as his mind wasn't alone he could whisper away the cosmic whims of the universe and live a moment of his life just by himself. He'd do everything he could to stay away from the quiet contemplation of the greater nothing. That feeling of being so small that of it wasn't for the pull towards the earth he'd be swept away in the breeze. Something to do made him something more and as he gritted his teeth he pulled forwards once more into action;
there he went- thinking too much again.

He needed something to do.

[Yellow.]

Username;; Yellow.
Cat Name;; Hydra
Gender;; male
Age;; 31 moons
Clan;; Ridgeclan
Rank;; spy

Prompt;; Not everyone likes there job and not everyone in likes those who do certain jobs, Hyrda learned early on in his clan life that both were true for him.

Hydra could remember first walking into the clans camp, his head and tail low and his name a distant memory now. A scared thing little more than a kit, but there none the less there. It was meeting with the leader that he first heard the word spy and saw the hardness flash in one of the other cats eyes. But where no one questioned it when it was decided Hyrda would be training to become one and where his new named was earned, a myth unseen.

Once the rest of the clan learned of the new member Hydra didn’t get the warmest welcome, it was as if they all knew something he didn’t and he couldn’t understand why. It didn’t take long to learn though, he listened to the whispers while he laid in camp, as if they knew he could hear but didn’t care. He questioned why he’d joined the clan and why they all seemed to hate the job he’d been given.

It was when he learned what the job was that he wondered if he should hate it himself. His job essentially was to gather information, however that needed to happen and where ever it needed to happen. He liked the idea of being able to travel, but how was he supposed to learn things, by watching others in secret like the rest of the clan assumed or making friends like his mentor said was best.

Hydra never decided how to feel about his job within the clan, he learned to respect what it proved and loathe what it took away but he could never point one feeling at it. He didn’t resent the clan for giving it to him, he was good at his job and he saw the good it did. But within the clan his relations where no what they could have been, if he’d become a warrior like the others. Hydra knew deep down that if he could go back, he wouldn’t change things, but at times he wished he could changed the way others felt.

[liightning]

Username;; liightning
Cat Name;; Ebonymoon
Gender;; female
Age;; 18 moons
Clan;; DeltaClan
Rank;; warrior

Prompt;;

Here's a girl with a secret.

Quiet, silent, still. Face emotionless, eyes unreadable, barely a word escaping her jaws. She sits, tail wrapped neatly around her paws, always watching but never taking part. She only responds when asked, and even then, it's rarely with voice; a nod, gesture, or even a blink seems to be enough. Other times, she'll sit so still and silently you won't even know she's there.

Getting anything out of Ebonymoon is harder than swimming up a waterfall. In other words - impossible.

In the Clan, you have an even mix of personalities. There are the funny cats who can't stop cracking jokes, or the mischievous cats who get the worst ideas that lead to trouble, or the grumpy ones who grumble all day.

But Ebonymoon? Oh, she's a mystery you'll never solve. No one has; no one except one.

A jagged scar runs down her shoulder, long and snaking, parting her dark fur. Some show off their scars as signs of a good fight. Ebonymoon hides her scar, not out of embarrassment, but of something else. She's been asked many times, but never does she give an answer. There's something in her past that this scar reminds her of, and that something changes her for a split second. In that second, the mask lifts, and in her eyes they swear you can see pain. Regret. And then it's gone, replaced by fury, the only time she shows emotion. Press about her scar and you might find yourself with one of your own.

The truth is, this scar is more than just a scratch. It's a constant reminder, a permanent mark of something she shies away from, something she despises, something she hates to remember, something she regrets with all her being. It's what changed her life forever, and even more, it changed... her.

It may seem impossible, but before she joined DeltaClan, she was a different cat. She was loud, she was energetic, she was playful, she was fun. She was serious back then - serious competitive - and that thought alone is enough to make any DeltaClan cat laugh.

Ebonymoon? She doesn't seem to care about anything. She's a shell of what was once a cat, an automated creature of flesh and bone that does nothing more than walk. Only when hedgehogs fly will Ebonymoon show emotion and come out of her shell.

Sadly, they're wrong.

Ebonymoon was living with her brother then, a young tom just as energetic as she was. They were fending for themselves, but always made sure they cared for each other. More than that, they always tried to one-up the other, to prove themselves better. Both pushed the other to try to do the same thing better, and in the end, it's more than just a little sibling rivalry - it's what kept them alive.

Alive... until the incident.

Competition can bring out the best in someone, but it can also cause the worst. Ambition blinds cats and pushes them too far, makes them believe they can do more than they can, simply to accomplish something better than someone else.

Bird's Nest - a huge, towering skyscraper of a tree that had died seasons ago, its pointed branches stretching toward the sky, still and lifeless. Its name came from the fierce birds of prey that roosted in its bare branches.

Ebonymoon had her eyes set on that tree. No cat had ever succeeded the climb to the top, and she was determined to prove she could. She challenged her brother, and he eagerly accepted. By moonlight, they scaled the thick trunk, muzzles tilted toward the night sky, the stars calling, the moon's silver light pulling them higher and higher.

And then tragedy - she slipped. She fell down, down, down, from an impossibly great height, branches battering her body, leaving cuts and scrapes. She knew she was going to die. She was certain of it.

Everything was a blur - branches whipping by, wind howling, until finally, she hit something hard. Something that was not the ground.

Her brother.

He'd jumped to save her, he'd slowed her fall. In a split second she whipped out a paw and hooked a branch, gasping as she hauled herself up.

And her brother? He fell, unable to grab a branch, until his body hit the ground with a sickening thud.

The only thing left to remind her was the scar. A terrible scar, snaking over her shoulder, a mark of the night that changed her forever. She painted a mask over herself, covering all emotion, pretending to feel nothing.

Numb.

This is a girl with a secret.

[Desmond]

Ahh, so many wonderful entries! I really loved all of the hard work you guys put into this, and I think for some of you, this was your first time writing something like this, or at least doing so intentionally. Splendid, all of you!

I kept coming back to this one while I was judging - it really, really caught my attention. cx

Username;; Kazin
Cat Name;; Rainshadow
Gender;; tom
Age;; 18 moons
Clan;; Zephyrclan
Rank;; warrior

Prompt;;
The silence spread slowly, and he was always around to welcome it's presence.

It was almost amusing for him now, to listen to the slow creep of reticence, listen to what lengths cats might try to interrupt the sound of silence. Because silence was always a bad thing, right? It meant secrets; it meant something was lurking in the shadows, hoping for a chance to attack. Taciturnity was evil, reeking of darkness, pulling a cat closer and closer to nothingness and threatening destruction of everything that was held dear. Why else would one be so jumpy when there was nothing to fill the chilling quiet? Silence was truly eerie.

Not to Rainshadow.

Silence was home - the feeling of peace after a long day, greeting an old comrade after a long separation. But Rainshadow was also different. He was always on the outside, looking into a different life that he could not understand. This need to fill the world with some kind of cacophony, with something, anything, was always what separated him from the rest.

Rainshadow was a watcher. A listener. An ally to the silence that seemed to madden every other cat around him. Silence was his friend, his protector, his life. No one could make him speak again. Not after what happened the last time he tried. Taking his own vow of silence had been almost like letting out a breath he didn't know he was holding. He was better off this way. Better off alone with his silence, letting it envelop him in it's familiar grasp. He could never be called a coward for following this path, for he wasn't truly running away. The silence would never, and could never, betray him. It would always be there to welcome him, be there for him when no one else was. And he would forever greet it like an old friend, even when the others tried to deny it's existence.

Congrats!

[Kazin]

Oh! Thank you so much! I really enjoyed this prompt :)