[chaotic creativity]

Username: sharpiesandhamilton
Cat Name: bramblingbrair
Clan: wolverineclan
Rank: sleet (warrior equivalent)

Gender: (DFAB)
Age: twenty-eight moons

Prompt: when bramblingbriar was just bramblingpaw,

wip

[/nyx.]

Username: bmkmb
Cat Name: Freya
Clan: SeaClan
Rank: Warrior

Gender: DFAB (female)
Age: 41 moons

Prompt: (Takes place before Freya joined SeaClan and starts before joining WarClan.)

─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Freya's whole life had been scar after scar. Scars from battle, scars from life... heck, she'd even gotten a scar after kicking a stick twice! But her first scar... that was a different story. A story of hope, of freedom, betrayal. Little did she know that only one scar would've started it all.

─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

aaa"Corono, hurry up!" A nine-month-old cat yelped as she leaped over a small log laying in the middle of the forest. A dark-colored tom chased after her from behind, cursing when he put too much weight on his front paw as he landed awkwardly.
aaa"For WarClan's sake, Freya!" the tom yelled as he rebalanced himself and caught up. "Where are we going? We're housecats; we shouldn't even be out in the forest!"
aaaFreya spun around and skid to a stop, Corono copying her movements. "Tell me, Corono: do you like how the twolegs are treating us?"
aaa"Well no, but-"
aaa"But what? If we stay, nothings going to change! And I know you're not leaving me alone in the wild."
aaaBefore Corono was able to come up with an answer, Freya had turned around and was already running away.
aaa─────
aaaThey had been out in the forest for WarClan knew what amount of days, their daily schedule being wake up, hunt, and run, each repeat trudging deeper and deeper into the forest when - to her relief - Freya caught her first scent of some sort of territory mark. She had been starting to wonder if the forest would ever end. At least Corono had stopped complaining, finally accepting that even if they wanted to, they had no idea how to get back. Not so long after she and Corono had crossed the boundary line, they had been ambushed by a group of cats.
aaa"Code Eagle!" one of them cried, dropping onto Corono's back. In the next few seconds, the two of them found themselves surrounded, so Freya did the only thing she could think of at the time: fight.
aaaThe battle was harsh, and - let's be serious - two untrained housecats versus a warrior patrol just wasn't a fair fight. Freya and Corono only lasted a few seconds before someone noticed something was up and one of the warriors called out, "Stop the fight!"
aaa─────
aaaAfter some conversation, the two injured housecats had been brought back to the Clan's camp and treated by their healer, Ione, and after that, they were brought in front of the leader.
aaa"So you were running away?" the questioning had gone.
aaa"Yes, sir," Freya had replied, thankfully remembering her manners.
aaa"And you brought no one else with you, not planning on attacking our Clan?"
aaa"We didn't know WarClan was real! We thought it was myths!"
aaaThe leader jumped down from the rock he had been standing on and slashed her, a thin cut going from the back of her shoulder to middle flank. Freya gasped in pain.
aaa"Watch your mouth, Kittypet. That's for your insolence and a mark of acception into my Clan. You do want to be here, don't you? Your brother, too?"
aaa"Yes, Captain."
aaa"Then you'll carry the mark for both of you. This is your new home. Go see Ione again."
aaaAnd that was what it was, a mark of warning, and a mark of acception all the same. But neither of them had known it would scar.

[WolfstormSC]

Username: WolfstormSC
Cat Name: Sagestream
Clan: Stormclan
Rank: Warrior

Gender: Female
Age: 27 moons

Prompt: Res

[Yellow.]

Username: Yellow.
Cat Name: Alice
Clan: The Kingdom of the Isles of Nes
Rank: Knight

Gender: Female
Age: 26 moons

Prompt:
“It’s a right of passage Alice if you’re going to be a knight this has to be done,” Her mentor told her flatly having told her to many times before to count.

Alice only sighed in response and rolled on her back, “But I don’t get it Reg it seems so pointless, travel down to the bottom of the cliff. Why? What is that going to prove? That I can walk on some rocks?”

Twitching his tail in imitation the knight cursed the good spirits for making him train such an unreadable she-cat. “The spirits named you as a knight and should you fail this task you will fail your training and in turn fail the good spirits. You know what happens to those who fail to complete there training.” His words turning slightly cold at the last part, no one wanted to fail there training.

Alice sat up at the clear threat at the end of her mentor's words, she knew it wasn’t a threat from him though it was a reminder of what happened to those who didn’t pass, those who became less. “When have they decided to send me?” She asks carefully with her words now, her voice coming out softer.

“Tomorrow,” Reg tells her simply, “You will brave the cliff tomorrow and only return once you can prove that you have completed the task.”

Taking a deep breath Alice nodded, she was scared and was sure her mentor could see it through the shield she carried, she didn’t care right now though. “And how will I prove it to the King?”

“You’ll know once you get down there.” Was all Reg told her before leaving her to her thoughts.

——

Looking out over the cliffs, the waves crashing below and the salt air thick on her tongue, listening to the sound of her mentor leaving her at the edge of her world. He walked her to the cliffs along with the priest and recited the worlds to the spirits about how she had completed her training and had one final task to prove her worth.

“Okay you can do this, just climb down the cliffs to the ocean below and climb back up. No big deal to it, just a drop into the crashing ocean below if I make one wrong step.” Talking out loud Alice realized that this really wasn’t helping her.

The path at the top was only a few tail lengths to her left, well worn for the first quarter till it started down. With a deep breath Alice stepped onto the rocks, her claws already how and clicking on the ground as she walked. Eyes up and forward, ignoring the sound of crashing waves below.

It was easy at first to follow the narrow well-worn path, her body steady in her walk, tail out behind her to keep her balance. It was once she got to the end of the worn path that Alice stopped, wide-eyed as she tried to figure out where to go from here. As part of the test, she wasn’t told really anything about the cliff she’d have to climb down, just shown the path at the top and told to return by the end of the day.

It seemed to be easiest to just keep going the way the path had been going, but Alice could see farther down that it faced out and there would be no way to go down after. So against what she wanted to do, Alice went down to the right, rocks nagging at her fur when she had to hold her body close to keep from slipping off the edge. Rocks rolling down from under her feet and bounce down were what scared her most, but she kept going.

It was a third of the way down when Alice lost herself, eyes blowing wide as the rest of her body followed her left foot that had slipped from the rocks. Twisting herself in the air Alice desperately grasped for the rocks as gravity took hold of her, pulling her towards the water bellow. Her left paw struck a rock and Alice could only yell as it sliced open her flesh and the blood welded from the wound. From there it was just a free fall to what waited for her bellow.

Alice just managed to brace herself before she landed, seeing it would be on rock and not water like she had thought, rock. It was a hard impact that knocked the air from her lungs and further tore the cut on her leg when she bent it. She didn’t yell though, she didn’t have any air left to yell with. But she was alive or at least her breathing was hard enough to suggest it.

“I’m okay,” Alice whispered to herself, before wincing at the sight of her leg when she glanced down. “Okay lie, I’m alive though.”

One heavily breath to steady herself and leg held up to keep pressure off Alice took the moment to look around, seeing now how the cliff hanging over the bottom, there was rock above her, which explained why from the top she could only see water and not the flat rock that she was standing on now. The waves lapped as the rock about five cat lengths to her right and Alice knew she had to hurry in case the water rose up here with the tide.

“Find the proof and get back,” She told herself, light glinting off an object, and forcing her body towards it.

——

“Under the watchful gaze of the good spirits you Alice have passed the final test to become a knight!” The King announced to the waiting crowd as Alice stood proudly beside him, a shard of sea glass rounded from the waves hanging from her neck. Her leg throbbed but she didn’t feel it, because she’d done what she had thought just days before was impossible, what everyone had thought was impossible for her.

[Wet Bread]

Username: Wet Bread
Cat Name: Lacepetal
Clan: Brightclan
Rank: senior warrior

Gender: (DFAB) she-cat
Age: 96 moons

Prompt:
Lace knew that she couldn't stay in her kittypet house any longer. Not only were her twolegs getting stricter with keeping her trapped in the den, making it hard to meet with her friend Yawn, a street tom that was very kind, now Lace had heard from one of the other kittypets that the twolegs let her have kits only to take them away from their mother. Lace hadn't gotten a mate or had kits yet but nothing scared her more than having them only to have them ripped away from her.

This led to Lace's decision to leave permanently. Yawn said he would help her as well so Lace wasn't even worried about being alone. She had also come to another decision. Her twolegs recently brought home a young she-kit named Rose, who had gotten quite attached to Lace. In fact, Lace began to raise Rose as if she was her own daughter. Lace's heart ached for the young she-kit separated from her family so she wanted to provide that family for her. Lace decided to bring Rose with.

Getting Rose out was the easy part of the plan. Lace's twolegs wouldn't let her outside anymore but there was a window they always kept open and that window had a rip in the screen big enough to get Rose through. The problem was getting Lace through. She was too big for the small opening but, between her and Yawn, they might be able to open it up further. After gently nudging the she-kit through, who was more than happy to listen to Lace's kind but firm commands, Lace started ripping at one side of the screen while Yawn worked at the other. The material looked fine but it was actually quite tough. Part of the screen gave way quite suddenly and Lace's paw slipped, scraping her foreleg along a piece of the window trim that was sticking out further than she had thought. She let a small hiss of pain as the trim opened up a long thin cut on her foreleg.

"Are you okay?" Yawn asked with worry as he stopped his work to examine her wound with worry. Lace gave the wound a couple quick licks to help keep the blood from flowing too much.

"I'm fine." Lace said, wincing as she put pressure on the leg. "Let's get out of here and then we can worry about it." Yawn helped pull Lace through the window and the three of them ran, hiding deep in the forest. Lace didn't stop to really treat the wound until they were far enough she was sure they wouldn't be found. While her leg healed completely, the wound scarred, a permanent reminder of her kittypet roots.

[opti-mism]

Username: opti-mism
Cat Name: Leopardpaw
Clan: Saltclan
Rank: Apprentice

Gender: She-cat
Age: 10 moons

Prompt:

Today was the day. An apprentice for 4 moons, it was her turn to sit for her first turn as the clan Watcher. Sitting out upon the edge of the cliff, the sunlight flashed against her fur and warmed her through to her heart. Leopardpaw sat tall, her chest puffed out with pride, as her mentor bid her goodbye for a few hours. This was her own vigil, a right of passage and of age.

The clan sat far below, inset on the cliff, though she could see silhouettes of cats laying on the hot rocks that laid out above the waves. Her job was not to observe, however. It was to be lookout for the clan, the first line of defense and the cry for help. Of course, an apprentice never sat alone at night for their first Watcher patrol. It was midday, quiet, and a soft breeze blew. The smell of sea spray flooded Pantherpaw's nose, whipping her fur inland. She turned to stare towards the sea of waving grasses and chunky grey stones, sparse with gravel and sand.

The sun was... so warm and she closed her eyes for what felt like only a moment.

And that's when disaster struck.

The baying of hounds in the distance. Something no apprentice would like to hear. Her eyes flashing wide, Leopardpaw's hackles rose and she stood, trying to pinpoint the direction over the howl of the wind off the sea. They were too close.

Suddenly, they were on her. Smacked to the ground, the air rushed from her lungs and she cried out, begging for someone, anyone to come help her.

She should have been prepared for this. She was trained better than this. She was meant to protect the clan.

Minnowstar and Scalestripe appeared from over the cliff's edge, their claws flashing. Others followed, yowling with glares almost like daggers. Experienced warriors! She was saved. Her paws reached for them, her fur matted with the signs of her struggle, and with no hesitation they struck.

The dogs turned, heading back towards the twoleg nests from whence they came. Pantherpaw pulled herself to her feet, her eyes shining as she expected praise for her alert.

But all she got in return was scathing glares and her tattered ear.

[Kazin]

Username: Kazin
Cat Name: Silverpaw [Silverfox]
Clan: Zephyrclan
Rank: Apprentice

Gender: she-cat
Age: 11 moons

Prompt:

"We were born to fight. We will take what is ours, and we will win!"

Cheers filled the night air, lifting Silver's heart as the cries were lifted into the sky. She was right where she belonged, and her leader was right - they were meant to win! It was going to be Silver's first taste of real combat; not the mock battles anymore. She could finally prove that she was meant to be here, that she was just as good as the older cats. There was nothing but confidence in her heart as she kept pace with her clanmates, wanting to be one of the first to the battle.

Their enemies were expecting them, though they were still unprepared. Silver dashed into the thick of the fight, leaping at a another cat her own size. She tried to see nothing but the claws, the growls, the pinned back ears... but something wasn't right. This cat didn't want to fight at all. Silver paused mid-strike, looking at the fear in the other cat's eyes.

This wasn't right at all.

Silver's confusion, and brief second pause, was all the cat needed to turn tail and run away from the fighting. She let him go, unable to bring her paws to chase him. These weren't the monsters that had been described to her. These cats didn't want to pick a fight with her clan at all.

Maybe she wasn't born to fight.

The battle was over in a matter of minutes, each of the defending cats scattering, limping away into the darkness and away from the terror. The fear was almost palpable in the air, and Silver nearly cried out and joined them, to see if they were going to be ok. She was still standing in the middle of the now abandoned clearing as her leader stalked up to her, a scowl on his face.

"Why did you let some of them go without battling them?" He demanded, getting in Silver's face, though she didn't flinch. "We could have given them more of a lesson if you had fought like you were meant to."

Silver rose, fluffing her fur out to maximize her height against the taller tom. "I don't think I was meant to fight these cats at all! You said they were going to attack us, that they were going to fight back - but all I saw was fear! They didn't want to fight, they just wanted to survive! Maybe you're just trying to get us to attack innocent cats to-" Whatever Silver had been saying was cut off as the soft whoosh of a paw sounded near her ear. A sharp sting across her cheek; blood trickling down her bright fur, staining it red.

"Leave us," the larger tom growled, his eyes flashing. "You are of no use to us."

Silver left without another word, her heart hammering in her chest. It had been a stupid decision, to talk back to her leader like that. She was lucky she would live to tell the tale, though the long scar on her cheek was not going to let her forget the mistake she almost made in harming others.

[TheSongOfTheStars]

Username: TheSongOfTheStars
Cat Name: Whitefire
Clan: Forum/viewtopic.php?f=103&t=3731932&hilit=Rise+Songclan+DNP
Rank: warrior

Gender: (DFAB)
Age: 44 moons

Prompt:
It was dangerous, she knew that.
Knowing didn't stop her from going though.
Down the dark alley, slipping like a raindrop into secret forbidden places. Into the halls and homes of the humans.
Whitefire loved the thrill, the rush of adrenaline as he and the other young fools he ran with would sneak; through windows, half opened doors, into garages, all the places they shouldn't be.
Chaos ensued no matter the intent. Sometimes the trouble makers tore into whatever they could, making a mess, sometimes they'd be caught and chased off. Either way, Whitefire knew the risks and at the same time all the young cats felt immortal.
Until the night of the fire.
Looking back its a muddled confused memory, smoke filled and panic soaked. Cats are yowling and humans are screaming. There's an escape, an open window, and she leaps for it, but never makes it. Something collapses and traps her back paw.
Everything grows darker, the thoughts are saturated with horror. She remembers a frantic struggle, searing pain, and then the memory collapses into darkness.
Hours, she supposes, pass, when she wakes up in a back ally with an ugly gash down her back leg. She can't walk right for weeks and the scar never fades, never lets her forget how close to finding out her own mortality she came.

[Neah]

Username: Yellow.
Cat Name: Alice
Clan: The Kingdom of the Isles of Nes
Rank: Knight

Gender: Female
Age: 26 moons

Prompt:
“It’s a right of passage Alice if you’re going to be a knight this has to be done,” Her mentor told her flatly having told her to many times before to count.

Alice only sighed in response and rolled on her back, “But I don’t get it Reg it seems so pointless, travel down to the bottom of the cliff. Why? What is that going to prove? That I can walk on some rocks?”

Twitching his tail in imitation the knight cursed the good spirits for making him train such an unreadable she-cat. “The spirits named you as a knight and should you fail this task you will fail your training and in turn fail the good spirits. You know what happens to those who fail to complete there training.” His words turning slightly cold at the last part, no one wanted to fail there training.

Alice sat up at the clear threat at the end of her mentor's words, she knew it wasn’t a threat from him though it was a reminder of what happened to those who didn’t pass, those who became less. “When have they decided to send me?” She asks carefully with her words now, her voice coming out softer.

“Tomorrow,” Reg tells her simply, “You will brave the cliff tomorrow and only return once you can prove that you have completed the task.”

Taking a deep breath Alice nodded, she was scared and was sure her mentor could see it through the shield she carried, she didn’t care right now though. “And how will I prove it to the King?”

“You’ll know once you get down there.” Was all Reg told her before leaving her to her thoughts.

——

Looking out over the cliffs, the waves crashing below and the salt air thick on her tongue, listening to the sound of her mentor leaving her at the edge of her world. He walked her to the cliffs along with the priest and recited the worlds to the spirits about how she had completed her training and had one final task to prove her worth.

“Okay you can do this, just climb down the cliffs to the ocean below and climb back up. No big deal to it, just a drop into the crashing ocean below if I make one wrong step.” Talking out loud Alice realized that this really wasn’t helping her.

The path at the top was only a few tail lengths to her left, well worn for the first quarter till it started down. With a deep breath Alice stepped onto the rocks, her claws already how and clicking on the ground as she walked. Eyes up and forward, ignoring the sound of crashing waves below.

It was easy at first to follow the narrow well-worn path, her body steady in her walk, tail out behind her to keep her balance. It was once she got to the end of the worn path that Alice stopped, wide-eyed as she tried to figure out where to go from here. As part of the test, she wasn’t told really anything about the cliff she’d have to climb down, just shown the path at the top and told to return by the end of the day.

It seemed to be easiest to just keep going the way the path had been going, but Alice could see farther down that it faced out and there would be no way to go down after. So against what she wanted to do, Alice went down to the right, rocks nagging at her fur when she had to hold her body close to keep from slipping off the edge. Rocks rolling down from under her feet and bounce down were what scared her most, but she kept going.

It was a third of the way down when Alice lost herself, eyes blowing wide as the rest of her body followed her left foot that had slipped from the rocks. Twisting herself in the air Alice desperately grasped for the rocks as gravity took hold of her, pulling her towards the water bellow. Her left paw struck a rock and Alice could only yell as it sliced open her flesh and the blood welded from the wound. From there it was just a free fall to what waited for her bellow.

Alice just managed to brace herself before she landed, seeing it would be on rock and not water like she had thought, rock. It was a hard impact that knocked the air from her lungs and further tore the cut on her leg when she bent it. She didn’t yell though, she didn’t have any air left to yell with. But she was alive or at least her breathing was hard enough to suggest it.

“I’m okay,” Alice whispered to herself, before wincing at the sight of her leg when she glanced down. “Okay lie, I’m alive though.”

One heavily breath to steady herself and leg held up to keep pressure off Alice took the moment to look around, seeing now how the cliff hanging over the bottom, there was rock above her, which explained why from the top she could only see water and not the flat rock that she was standing on now. The waves lapped as the rock about five cat lengths to her right and Alice knew she had to hurry in case the water rose up here with the tide.

“Find the proof and get back,” She told herself, light glinting off an object, and forcing her body towards it.

——

“Under the watchful gaze of the good spirits you Alice have passed the final test to become a knight!” The King announced to the waiting crowd as Alice stood proudly beside him, a shard of sea glass rounded from the waves hanging from her neck. Her leg throbbed but she didn’t feel it, because she’d done what she had thought just days before was impossible, what everyone had thought was impossible for her.

We were very impressed with this one, and liked how the scar was part of their coming of age ceremony; fitting for their first permanent mark.

I'll also be giving hms to Altoviireo, bmkmb, and Kazin.

[Kazin]

Thank you for the HM and congrats to everyone else <3 I enjoyed reading all the stories!