no cat knows where the wanderer treads
name; Flameflicker
nicknames; Flicker, the Wanderer
gender; male
age; 23 moons
rank; herbalist (basically med cat)
thread link; FrontierClan
personality;He's cold when you first meet him. A quiet, serious cat with a permanent frown and haughty eyes. He's incredibly intimidating, both in personality and size, and if you go up to try and talk to him he'll just wave you off and insist that you're too far below him to possibly understand anything, so why bother? You won't get through his shell in just a single conversation, or even in a hundred. He's been through enough, and Flameflicker isn't opening up again. At least, not quickly.
. Sometimes you'll see him make a small, dry joke as he bandages a cat's paw, or roll his eye at someone's antics, but these moments are few and far between. However, they're happening more and more, and Wildstar hopes this means he's getting used to being in a Clan once more.
. Even if he's quite the prickly guy, he really is a good herbalist. and since the Clan had been without one before he came, he was a blessing from StarClan. Thank goodness there haven't been any major injuries yet - but everyone's sure Flameflicker could deal with it if it happened.
. It's obvious that he knows what he's doing, and he's incredibly smart. He could teach all the cats a great many things if he weren't so stuck up. It's unfortunate. In the meantime, they have to listen to him ramble and decode the knowledge from it.
. Slowly, he's becoming a friendlier cat, but it's not going to be easy. The only cat Flameflicker trusts right now is the deputy Missingsky, the other grump of the Clan. They enjoy sitting together and huffing at how ridiculous everyone is. Missingsky is also the only cat who can truly keep up with Flicker's ramblings.
quirks;- He’s often seen with fireflies at night. The little creatures happen to like him. No one knows why.
- Flicker’s actually terrified at the sight of blood. He just doesn’t show it. (Pretty bad choice for a herbalist, isn’t it)
- he loves the smell of herbs, though, and the thought that he’s able to help the others in any way is fine by him.
- Yes, he’s a big self-conscious about the fact that he’s a bit bigger than the other cats. But it’s fine by him - it means he can see over a crowd, and is certainly a force to be reckoned with if any battles were to happen. Flameflicker just feels bad about knocking over things all the time.
history;It's cold. It's so cold and the snow beneath his tiny paws feels like a million needles. Here he is, venturing out into the open air for the first time in his young life, and he already hates it.
. "Flicker! Come on, you aren't a scaredy-cat, are you?" Flight is taunting him. She's standing in the middle of the snow with their brother, Moss, grin bigger than ever. If that were even possible.
. "You might as well get it over with." At least Moss is sympathetic. The tiny tabby is shivering as he looks at his brother, and it's what convinces him to join them out in the open. Flicker takes his first steps out of the den and feels amazed and terrified at the same time. Oh, and cold. Can't forget cold.
. Their mother, Roam, is watching from the den, a small smile on her face as she sees her three kits romping through the patch of forest right outside the den. Flicker reached Moss and rubbed up against him, trying to warm him up. Even if he was freezing, he had his siblings and his mother. They were family, and at that moment, everything was right with the world.
By the time they were all 10 moons old, they were going on adventures of their own during the day. Roam had told them to go to the river to try fishing, and they were all incredibly excited to try.
The river was only a short walk from home, so they had gotten there quickly and now Flicker was staring into the water, frown on his face.
. "This is stupid, there haven't been any fish here for moons," groaned Moss. The smaller cat had gotten more and more antagonistic as he had grown up. Flicker didn't really like him as much anymore. Still, Moss was his brother, and he still wanted him to succeed (though why couldn't he stop complaining?).
. "Look, don't worry about it," Flicker shrugged. "Let's look around, there's probably fish somewhere."
. Flight waved her paw at them. "Get back, you're casting shadows over the water. If your squabbling doesn't scare them off that certainly will."
. "Fine," said Flicker, starting to step back, but then there were two paws on his back as Moss shoved him into the water.
Flicker emerged from the water, sputtering and infuriated. "That's it! Moss, you get back here!" He floundered towards shore, blinded by his anger.
. He doesn't quite remember how it goes. He's spent too long trying to forget by now. He only remembers how it ends - a brief fight, Flight screaming at them to stop, and then his eye hurts so much and oh my goodness Moss had clawed his eye -
. Flicker doesn't see. He doesn't know. He runs into the woods, howling in pain and terror, trips down a cliff, and knows no more.
When he comes to, he's somewhere completely unknown.
He had tumbled down beyond anywhere he and his siblings had ever been. There was no way he'd be able to get back up in the state he was in... his paws were so sore, his head was pounding. And by StarClan, his face burned. He couldn't see. Half his vision was gone and Flicker couldn't tell why. He didn't know what was wrong. Surely the fight hadn't blinded him...?
. The maine coon stumbled off in a random direction. Not towards the cliff - into the forest. He had to find food, shelter... and he had to find a way back up to his family.
. It took two moons - two long months where he explored the space along the cliff. But in the end, he figured out how to get all the way back up - a hidden, less sloped path far further along. He took it back up, excited to get home - to see his family again at last. "Moss! Flight! Roam!" he called as he ran back to the familiar clearing.
. The space was quiet as Flicker finally returned home. He looked in all the familiar spots... but they were gone. All of them. And from the looks of it they had been for a while.
He stayed there for one night, in the desperate hope that maybe they would come back. They didn't. Flicker was well and truly on his own.
. It was time to move on.
The river near his home - that had to lead to somewhere, right? He was sure that if he followed it, maybe he'd find something. So the forlorn cat started off on an adventure. Well, it felt nothing like one - more like an exile, really, but he was determined to make the most of it. It wasn't like he had anything better to do.
. Flicker went upstream, instead of downstream - maybe that was a mistake. He trekked right up into the mountains, through the snow. It was so cold, and after two weeks of wandering he was just so tired. He dragged himself into a cave, a spot of shelter from the snowstorm outside, and fell into a restless slumber.
. His dreams were full of confusion. He dreamed that he was lost in a deep, winding labyrinth, with no way out. The walls were tall and not even the moon shone above him in the dark sky. Quite frankly, it was worrying. With only a few small starts to light his way, he felt more and more lost the longer he wandered.
. The maze got him panicked, really. He didn't like being trapped, and the walls felt like they were closing in. Flicker found himself backed into a corner, trying to calm down.
. It took several minutes, but he did - he slowed his breathing back down, and started off on another path, to try and figure out how to escape. He followed the light, followed his intuition - and finally,
finally, he got himself out. It was his panic that had kept him locked in the maze, it had to be, he thought. Maybe, if panic was bad, everything else was, too. Maybe it was his emotions that had made his journey more difficult.
. Flicker vowed never to feel too deeply about anything ever again.
The river ended shortly upstream after that, and there was no way he could survive in the mountains, so he went the other way. Down the mountain, back through familiar forests, and then to new territory. It was quite a while after he started smelling cats again - unfamiliar ones - that he was stopped by a group of... two? Two cats far smaller than himself. The first looked incredibly fierce, fur fluffed out, but the second had a kind, if nervous smile.
. “Hey. You know you’re technically trespassing, right? This is Clan ground,” the more friendly one said.
. Oh. Oh! That’s why he had smelled so many cats further upstream, and these two here. Mother had told stories of the Clan cats a long time ago. Some intriguing cats, that was for sure. He avoided the question for the moment, hoping to learn a bit more about what was around this place.
. “I’ve just been following the river. Do you happen to know where it leads from here?”
. The first cat snorted. “Goes right into the ocean. If you
tide to go there, you’d
sea nothing but open waters.”
. “Missing!” the second cat hissed, before saying “He is right, though. Not much past us. We’re the end of the world.”
. “The end of the world...” Flicker whispered. He thought about his options. He’d been traveling for many moons - perhaps this was the end of his journey? “You Clanners happen to accept new recruits?”
. “Yes!” exclaimed the second. “Sorry. Yes, of course! We’re kind of trying to put together a group, you’d be welcome to stay with us. The name’s Wildstar, Mr. Bad Pun over there is Missingsky. We’re FrontierClan.”
. “Flicker,” replied Flicker. And that was it. He was in.
Yes, the fact that there were only two cats in this group so far was a bit suspicious, but they had good intentions and he found it adorable, really. For the first night in many moons, he had a warm bed, and the company of some others.
The next morning Wildstar asked what he’d like his name to be.
. “What?” said Flicker. He already had a name, was he supposed to get a new one? His indignant exclamation and confused stare was enough for Wild to launch into an explanation of how warrior names worked. It sounded very strange.
. “Just... let me think about it for a bit.”
. So think he did. Having a new name for a new life didn’t sound half-bad. Especially if his new name included the old one. His eyes were the color of fire, so... flame? Flickerflame? No, that sounded wrong. Maybe... Flameflicker.
. He told Wildstar of his choice soon after, and they held a mini-ceremony in the too-big camp. Flameflicker. Yes, he was getting used to it already.
The next few weeks were exciting, a time of deep discovery. Apparently Wildstar had a thing for flowers, and she was planting them all around the camp. Plants had always intrigued him, so he did some testing out with the various flowers and herbs and started to keep a stash of his various findings in one of the empty dens.
. Flameflicker was enjoying his new position as the unofficial herbalist. This group... it was small, but he liked it. Perhaps it would be his home for quite a while.
. The sun was rising. It meant he could start again.
- - - -
a short taleAt night, Flameflicker dreams of fireflies.
. He dreams of forest fires, lighting up the dark with their ever-hungry flame. He was trapped, stuck, why was he stuck again - and his siblings were off to one side, pointing and laughing as the fires came ever closer.
. "You're worthless," says Moss, and the fire is in his brother's eyes, in his heart. "I should have taken your other eye as well."
. "Sorry, brother," mocks Flight, "but you're not worth saving."
. There's a flaming tree above him, and there are fireflies around him but they're actually made of fire, they're burning his fur and his eye and his face and it all hurts so much -
. The tree falls and then -
And then he wakes up. But he is not alone. Missingsky is watching him.
. “What do you want?” Flicker asks, so conflicted that another cat had finally seen him wake up from one of his nightmares. What was he supposed to do? What did it mean?
. Missing didn’t say a word - perhaps he knew how easy it would be for this to go wrong. Instead, he padded to the entrance of the den and flicked his tail. A message.
Come follow me.. They sat outside for several hours, staring at the sky and saying nothing, till the thoughts swirling in Flameflicker’s head had slowed and the sun was rising over the horizon.
Missingsky didn’t ever comment on what he had seen, on a Flicker in his moment of weakness. Instead, he seemed to always notice when the larger cat was having a nightmare, and would always be by his side when he awoke to chase away his inner demons.
. Maybe this Clan wasn’t half bad after all.
- - - -
"into the dark we go"
