Username: Baobabel
Cat Name: Arcanus Obscurus // Gizli
Gender: genderfluid- he/they
Rank: tbd/ secret keeper?
Clan: SecludedGladeAge: ageless? 10yrs (much younger in story)
Prompt:Gizli has a secret.
A first he didn't realize what was going on. Then he didn't realize the significance, or at least thought everyone else experienced it too. He had no idea he was different than the others. That he had been given a special blessing...or curse.
He didn't know it was unusual to hear the whispers of the wind and understand them. To have strangely realistic dreams about the cats around him. To know things about your clanmates without being told. He first started realizing about the time he and his littermates left the den. They would play games like "what am I thinking" or "what's my favorite food" and Gizli had an uncanny ability for guessing correctly. At first the others thought it was cool and just pure luck. Then he got it right a few too many times and they began to feel uncomfortable. GIzli realized it and started intentionally guessing incorrectly and every went back to being fine. Another instance was during the winter months when the wind is at its strongest. Gizli and two other apprentices were romping through the grass when a particularly strong gust blew through. Gizli immediately became alert and started heading back towards camp. He turned around confused when his friends were still happily playing in the snow. "Didn't you hear? We have to get back" "Hear what?" his friend asked? "Massasauga found a twoleg hunter in the woods and is going to warn everyone. We need to get back to camp." Just then Massasauga burst into the clearing and relayed everything Gizli had just said. His littermates shook it off and just assumed Gizli had heard Massasauga arriving before they did.
Gizli already had hints that his gift would make others uncomfortable, but he started realized how much of a burden it would be too the day his fellow apprentice lied to him and the clan. It was during that same winter and prey had been scarce. It always lean int he cold times and twoleg hunter and scared up whatever still remained. Everyone was hungry and the apprentices were sent off on solo excursions to find food. Gizli had gotten a whisper from the wind about a creature that was frightened under a grouping of tree roots and was able to catch the lean rabbit for the clan. When he got back, exhausted from fighting through the snow, he took a nap. In it, he saw a fellow apprentice catch a vole. Gizli was excited for him because he knew how much the clan needed it. But then he had to watch as his friend looked around before quickly gobbling it up. And that's when he woke up. A few hours later that same apprentice walked into camp empty pawed. Gizli heard him telling the deputy he hadn't had any luck. When the meager food supplies were divided up, his friend got a small portion but didn't seem upset at all. He also didn't scarf his food down as usual. Gizli was hoping his dream was just that, a dream of a hungry cat hoping for more food. But his friend's behavior was causing doubt. Gizli couldn't sleep that night so the next day he offered to go hunting again. In the dream he had recognized a specific rock, so he headed that way. When he got there his heart broke. He could smell where the vole had died. He now had confirmation his friend had lied to the deputy and was keeping secrets. Gizli wasn't sure what to do about it and felt a heavy weight of responsibility.
Gizli would continue to have dreams and whispers from the wind. Sometimes they're helpful things like little warnings but most of the time they were filled with secrets. Some were harmless; favorite foods, when someone took a nap off duty, little crushes or frustrations, hopes for kittens. Other times they were more serious. Like when his friend broke the rules and lied about it. Or the major decisions his leader was making. Or anytime he caught someone in a lie. Some he doesn't quite understand yet, like why the medicine cat worries for kits when she doesn't have any but recognizes that if the truth came up, it could really hurt the clan.
Gizli feels like he's intruding on private thoughts and violating trust even though at this point he can't figure out a way to make it stop. He's reaching a point where he knows he should tell someone but he's so afraid. He's too scared to tell the clan. Would they celebrate his skill or be uncomfortable around him. Would they still treat him like a normal cat or try to use him as a tool and weapon against other clans? What if they were so afraid of him, they kicked him out and he had to live as an outcast?
Maybe one day he'll be brave enough to tell the other but for now,
Gizli has a secret.
And he knows yours too.