1x1 rise rp|ten & dimi

[CertainNorth]

wraith|after finally leaving the clan that gave him his warrior name
ambersky(star)|after being exiled from her clan

please, dnp if not ten or dimi

[dimi.]

Ambersky walked through the forest in silence, her head hung towards the ground. The fur of her tail was prickled, standing on end. It was twice it's usual size, and was anxiously swishing left and right, a faint sound heard as the aggressive nature of her tail movement made a sound with the aid of the wind pushed aside as her tail rushed through it. She then rose her head up, her hazel eyes examining nothing in particular, observing the surrounding area to make sure nothing would jump out at her.

She was.. confused. To be so abruptly exiled by a clan she thought loved and adored her horrified her beyond belief. The night after sitting vigil, thinking of how she would aid the clan, and being kicked out the next day baffled her. The howls of excitement of the other cats shouting her warrior name rang in her mind, seeming to be so fresh. An invisible wound ached at her side, her muzzle parted as she breathed heavily, holding back tears of equal rage, panic, and betrayal.

After losing her breath from being winded by the incoming tears, she took a seat on her haunches, taking some time to breathe in and out to regain her composure before she rose to her paws, beginning her journey again with a more stable and calmer state of mind;
once that didn't burden or confuse her.

[CertainNorth]

||Wraith padded softly through the shrubs, deftly avoiding scatter leaves and a few twigs, getting as close to the mouse as he dared. Hunkering down, his left claws unleaded the ground softly. He was down wind, the mouse was foraging for something, he just needed it to move a bit more to the right... He dashed forward a stride and then leapt on the small creature, jaws predicting it's forward movement and catching it's flank. He used his claws to keep it from getting away and then finished it off.

The dark tom settled down to eat his dinner when a strange sound caught his ears. He sat up, surveying the direction, but that was deeper into the forest so he didnt have line of sight. From down wind though, it smelled like a cat.

Collecting his prey, he sauntered toward the sound. A young she-cat was walking passed him through the trees. Her tail displayed her high irritation, despite having a calm look about her. Wraith smiled knowingly. He had to give her top marks for composure.

"I'd say you looked lost, but that would imply you have a destination," he commented, setting down the mouse. He didn't approach her directly. Not just yet. Strangers and all that. But she looked much younger than him, just out of her apprentice phase if she was a clan cat. He took another long sniff. The scent from her smelled like others, many others. Probably was from a clan. What was she doing way out here in unclaimed territory?

Wraith kept the intrigue from showing too much, but let a sort of coy expression through. He needed her to not see him as an immediate threat, hence throwing out stealth to have the first word.

His curiosity had often gotten him into trouble the last time he'd enquired about clans had seen him join one for a while and he wasn't keen on doing that again so soon.||

so speaks the phantom

[dimi.]

Ambersky's gaze tensed again as she swung her head up, her ears tilting backwards in equal annoyance and fear. She took in another breath, still struggling to maintain enough to speak for long periods of time. Finally, in a soft, but audible tone, she addressed the tom before her. "I have anything but a planned destination. You'd be right with saying I'm lost, but I don't think one who isn't looking for anything in particular can be lost." She commented before sitting on her aching haunches, the small conversation with the tom calming her down a little more. Running alone had gotten to her, and clouded her thoughts which could not be released through speech to herself; no, no, that would be just too weird for Ambersky.

Her hazel eyes met the gray cat's pelt, who still stood several tail-lengths away. Her eyes gazed over the scar present on the bridge of his nose, and the other on his shoulder blade. A silent urge to ask where they came from beckoned her at the back of her mind, but she decided not to be so outright about looking at the scars; they simply fascinated her, and to immediately ask a stranger about them would simply make her seem more creepy and weird than she already was in her current state of mind. A realization in her mind that she had rambled before even introducing herself suddenly sent a chill of embarrassment down her spine, the fur slightly prickling, similar to the fur of her tail.

"If we're going to be talking for longer, I might as well introduce myself.. I'm Ambersky. You can call me Amber if you prefer, I may start going by that.." She said softly, her gaze trailing away from his as a hesitant feeling rushed over her again.

[CertainNorth]

||The blue tabby supposed he could ignore and forgive her for misunderstanding him. He had a habit of making things complicated. He knew she didn't have a direction or destination in mind. He could see it in the way she'd been walking. He'd walked like that often. That, combined with her tail and her tone, he had a suspicion she was leaving. But was she a runaway or an exile? Wraith had been both. Sort of. Neither time had he been angry, however, so it was hard for him to empathize and figure out what had happened without asking.

Her green eyes lingered on his coat shyly. He was used to that. Scars called attention to a cat, usually in a bad way. To him, each scar was a memory. Sometimes it was a good one, sometimes it wasn't. But none of those stories where ones he was willing to share and she politely didn't ask.

When she sat, he stayed standing. The formality was appreciated, but he also found it...unnecessary. He didn't need her name to talk to her. In fact, she didn't need his. True, Wraith was particular to his own name, but it was the meeting and who gave it to you that really mattered. "Call yourself whatever you like. It doesn't matter to me what other cats used to call you." He considered his mouse and then looked back at her. "If you want me to call you, Amber, then I will."

Wraith stepped a gentle half circle around her, pausing to stretch. "Forgive me if I'm not as trusting of strangers. I've gotten into enough disagreements with clan cats to prefer to keep my distance." He kept his eyes on her the whole time. She had a coat fitting of her name and eyes that were piercing. She seemed...unsure of herself. He wasn't sure if it was because she had never seen a loner before of if it was just the thought of being on her own that was only now dawning on her or something else. Whatever it was caused by, Wraith got the feeling that wasn't a characteristic she normally equated with herself.||

so speaks the phantom

[dimi.]

Heat began to radiate off of the fur of her upper cheeks as she grew more and more embarrassed, realizing just how useless she was socially without the aid of another cat by her side. At the moment, she felt betrayed, scared to trust others, and up until this point, she had only seen scrawny loners who came to the clan to beg for food, not to start conversation. The emotion of loneliness was one that had become unfamiliar to her. Regardless of where she went, there was always another cat with her. She wasn't one to drive conversation, and she definitely wasn't one to start conversation; not anymore, at least. Being freshly kicked out of the clan made her immediately reconsider who and what she was going to trust from this point forward.

"In that case, I'm Amber, then." She said after letting a pause of silence be shared between the two of them. She then rose her head back up when she heard his apology, her tail flicking as it slowly lowered to the ground, her guard seeming to be let down slowly as she realized that the cat didn't seem to have any bad intentions. Naturally, she kept an eye on him, occasionally glancing down at his paws to see if they were stretched to release merciless claws. "You don't need to apologize for that. I understand not trusting strangers, I usually don't converse with loners. I just don't see the point in being hostile when you don't seem to have any bad intentions. You seem oddly calm, if I'm being truthful."

Much calmer than she was being. She was hesitant in her speech, some stuttering apparent as her lower jaw quivered slightly, from fear and relief. She struggled to push words out of her muzzle, but forced them to come in a rambling fashion to seem like she was alright, when really her thoughts were as cluttered as they could possibly get.

[CertainNorth]

||Loner. He hadn't even thought about it that way, but she was right. He was alone. Wraith might have grown up as a "rogue," but he never considered himself a loner. He might have his own agenda but he was social and it was always easier to get things down when you had a group to back you up. He didn't know why this she-cat had gone off on her own, but she could be helpful. Potentially.

He could tell she was getting a bit flustered about something. Him, he supposed. Pointing out how calm he was sort of gave it away. "Never fight when words will do." Wraith kept his tail down and relaxed. He enjoyed meeting new cats. It was a bit scary, sure, but learning about them and what they could teach him was exhilarating. He'd had a lot of practice after a few years and a few clans.

"Odd, huh? That's a new one. I suppose a clan cat would be in their right to think that about a loner. Doesn't mean you aren't missing something." He grinned. "So, did you decide to leave on your own or did your clan make you?" He risked the touchy subject. Maybe venting would make her feel more comfortable. Besides, he was just a loner, what could he know about clan matters?||

so speaks the phantom

[dimi.]

Amber's eyes briefly moved up to meet the eyes of the gray tom. She was trying to see what exact emotion he was experiencing eternally, but found it difficult and unable to be seen without staring for an uncomfortable amount of time, so she dismissed this silent question for the time being, instead nodding in agreement with his statement. "I've had arguments with other clan cats. I actually just got done with training, never got a chance to fight any of the other cats legitimately. I definitely prefer talking things out." She said, her voice slightly louder than before since she was a bit more comfortable.

When the topic of him being odd came up, she instantly shook her head left and right a couple of times urgently, realizing it may have come out wrong. "I meant like.. odd compared to the other loners I've seen. You're not odd as an individual, just how calm you are with me is something I haven't seen with a familiar before is what I meant." Amber went on to explain, her tail flicking to the right as a nervous habit she had inherited from her mother.

The question of how she ended up in this position was one that made her ears go back in shame. She still didn't quite understand it herself. The leader didn't give her a lengthy explanation, they basically summarized it and told Amber to get out of their camp. She thought she would stay with those cats all her life, to her last breath regardless of where that said breath may take place. "Well..
I.. I was kicked out, to sum it up. I wasn't born in the clan, and the cat who brought me to the clan agreed to kick me out when I was done with training. I got done with training a couple days ago, and here I am.."

[CertainNorth]

||Her eyes kept catching his. It was...refreshing to have another cat to talk to. And one who wasn't as terrified of him as he thought. She was just not used to being alone. "I would call myself odd. I wouldn't compare myself to most loners, at least." He chuckled a little. "I simply find it more useful to stay in control of my emotions. Usually because I have a habit of being...not very nice when I'm not in control And that doesn't get one far." Her twitching tail distracted him from the mouse.

Wraith lowered himself to his haunches slowly as she spoke of what happened at her clan. So they named her and threw her out? He supposed the timing made sense in a twisted way. She was prepared to defend and hunt for herself at this point. But to go through a whole warrior ceremony first? What a waste of time and what a way to mislead the poor cat. Just when she's given everything she can including her loyalty, then it all gets ripped away. He understood. At least what that might feel like.

"Really? Isn't family supposed to be important? I suppose if you weren't born into it..." he shrugged a little. "I had a warrior ceremony once," he said carefully, not exactly uncertain, but not sure how he wanted to weight the words. It wasn't important to him personally, but in trying to identify with her and make her feel better, he wanted it to come out softer. He toyed with explaining more, but really that was all that mattered to get his point across. "But whether I'm in a clan or not, I am still a warrior and I still protect those I care about. And just because you don't have a family one right now, doesn't mean you never will."

The tabby looked back at the mouse and swatted at it gently with a paw, mindfull to keep his claws in. "You want to eat that? It's still fresh. Talking always makes me want to hunt or take a walk..." He let the sentence hang for a moment, leaving it open to company. He might like socializing, but sitting still, even for just a few breaths, gave him an itch to be useful.||

so speaks the phantom

[dimi.]

"Regardless of what you think you are, I'm glad I have someone to talk to." She said with an awkward, slightly doubtful smile.
Her thoughts and speech simply weren't coorelating. While what came out of her mouth was typically something that could be easily comprehended, what was running through her head might as well be a series of chaotic war cries coming from several clan cats who are headed into battle. They were messy, lacked valid points, and just confused her beyond a state of sanity.

When he took a seat, she held back a sigh of relief. She had been even just slightly tense when he still stood and she sat; that was a point of vulnerablity, one that he could've taken advantage of and struck her if she so desired; but the tom didn't seem like the type to simply ambush. He was calm, laid-back, and gave off a welcoming aura; but as she had found out from her clan mates just tossing her out of the clan, any cat was capable of long-term deception to draw a cat's hopes on for long periods of time. He didn't seem like the type to do that though, no, no.

The mention of family made her ears perk, but not from happiness, just a sheer curiosity that she herself shared. "Well, you see.. the cat who brought me to the clan actually found me while she was on a hunting patrol. It was leaf-bare, and the ground was covered in snow. She told me I was near death when she found me, and as according to warrior code, a kit can't be left in danger if found. So she picked me up and took me back to the clan. She told me that once she talked to the leader of the clan, she took me to a nursing queen, who only had one other kit at the time. I'm.. guessing the agreements to kick me out at this point were made when she presented me to the leader." She said with an annoyed huff to end her rambling.

When he moved the mouse, her eyes darted down to it. She realized that in her flurry of rage and her endless running that had lasted roughly a day at this point, she hadn't stopped to eat once. She didn't acknowledge her hunger, and barely acknowledged her thirst! The horrific thought that she, a cat that was usually precise in her movements, would forget to do even the most essential things to live was a concept that she could not wrap her head around. When the mouse was presented to her, it took her the claws of her back paws to keep herself from lunging forward and swallowing the mouse whole. She dipped her head in appreciation, curling her lips back over her sharp-pointed teeth to lift up the mouse, positioning it neatly in front of her. "I would love to. I haven't eaten in a bit, so thank you. Once I eat, I could walk with you." Amber said with another smile, her nature more gracious now that she was going to have food in her stomach. "I need to find somewhere to get water from anyway."