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The rumble of thunder outlined the tense situation with a flash of red lightning shortly after. Viperstar's hackles rose exponentially. Someone in the void? That was odd. Unless, it was...
~That is not mine, Dark One.~ Chroma answered him before he formed the question in his head. ~Be careful.~
Duly noted. Viperstar took a step forward, and lifted his tail, and his head. "Whatever, and whoever you are, you won't find us easy prey." he called to the shadow. His ears went forward. "If you mean us harm, we're prepared to fight. If you are lost, we can... offer a place to stay until you find your way - but we won't roll over and die." His paw moved a bit closer to the stranger, just as the sky opened up with another crash of deep thunder, and poured red rain like blood across the rusted land. Fortune's ears went straight back. Even as a human, he had not been comfortable with storms, or getting wet. It was doubly-so as a cat. But it was only he and Viperstar right now, and he wasn't going to leave his leader to fend this other cat off alone. Ears still flat against his skull, he took a step forward so he was almost shoulder-to-shoulder with his leader, head still down, and tail twitching behind him in fear. Not something he could control.
~I advice caution on this matter.~ Chroma stated, sounding a bit on the wary side. If it was something that could unsettle the god of this place, then it was worth listening to him. Viperstar's tailtip twitched. Whichever direction the stranger happened to be going, in or out, he was ready for any eventuality to protect this new group of his. To protect Fortune, and any other cat or beast that happened to show up. To protect his henchsnakes. ~Hang on, sweet Prince of Darkness.~ Chroma stated, with some effort in his voice. ~I present to you gifts. A Knight. A Pawn. Use them well.~
Down from the sky came another bolt of lightning, red and raw - but this time it struck in front of Viperstar's paws, and from the resulting smoke emerged a large and distinctly blue cat, with pre-formed scars that glowed with an inner light. The cat that had been quite literally dropped upon them stood, and shook himself free of the static in his fur, taking a glance at the situation, and canting his head to one side as if listening.
Upon hearing whatever the information was, he pulled himself up to his not-inconsiderable full height - several fur-lengths beyond Viper's - and lay his ears flat. "I know not upon what clime I have been dropped, but the voice inside my head says that answers will be forthcoming if I defend you and the child." the strange cat said, turning from facing Viperstar, to facing the unknown cat. His fluffy blue tail lashed in irritation. "I am a solider by nature, and I also require answers. Therefore, consider me a tool to use at this juncture - until any threat has been eliminated." His glowing claws dug into the rust-brown dirt, and sought purchase in case he needed it to leap into a fray.
Viper grumbled something too low to hear, and silently thanked Chroma for the backup, as he canted his head to one side, and moved a little closer, keeping his head and shoulders past the new cat, and peering into the darkness. "If you are afraid of us, and mean us no harm, please forgive me for speaking rashly. There are... things at play that not even I know right now, and we're all a little... tense."
Fortune's End crept forward, keeping his head down, and lowering himself almost to his belly. A fighter he was not. But he would do his best if it meant defending this new life. But maybe they were a friend? That thought relaxed his stature slightly, and his tail lifted ever-so-slightly. New friends came from the shadows, too. So maybe this one would stay, so they wouldn't be so lonely? It'd be nice...
In another flash of lightning, yet-another cat was deposited into the lineup, but this one emerged ready to tackle and tear and shred, and... oops. In his hurry to be free of the force 'carrying' him, he'd twisted and turned so that he wound up on his back, blinking quizzically at the group, and the shadow beyond. He paused in this position to listen and hear, and then grinned.
"Whelp, the voice says I'm supposed to help you guys defend from something, and I'll bite, so whatever. I'm _____." Hearing his name, and his duty pulled out of the air, stolen before it could be uttered, he frowned and snorted. "Fine. Fine. That's fine. I'm Odd One Out." he stated, replying to something only he could hear. "Fair enough. My other name was pretty long anyway. Say, what are you all looking at so intently? Is it friend-shaped? Heck, anything can be friend-shaped if you try hard enough."
Righting himself, the mostly-white cat shook his legs out as he stretched, making no great hurry over to the lineup. "Okay, okay, okay. I'm goin'. Don't get your panties in a bunch, 'Chroma'. I already agreed, okay? Okay. Hi." He stated the last, as he came up to the other shoulder of Viperstar, and plopped down on his haunches, canting his head to one side. "Whatcha doin'? Gettin' ready to fight?"
Honestly, the leader couldn't believe his ears, and pinned one back in irritation. "Thanks for the assist Chroma, but did you have to make this one so chatty?" he hissed, tail floofed out to make himself look bigger against the unknown cat.
~I craft not their personalities, only their bodies.~ the deity said with what sounded like a shrug to his voice. It was as close to a 'sorry' as he'd gotten thusfar. Viper snorted, and turned back to the dark shape. Truthfully, he felt a little better with more cats by his side, even if he didn't know who said cats were, or why Chroma had chosen now of all times to give him these 'gifts'. He nudged the mouse from before toward Fortune, and planted his front foot against the deluge that was now worsening with a heavy dose of wind, blowing his and every other cat's fur in every direction.
It was the new cat, the white one, the Pawn, that spoke next, one ear dipped against the weather. "Hey! You in the shadows! Yeah, if you want to come over you can. It's a little bit wet here, but bad weather notwithstanding, the voice in my head says I should offer you.. uh... well, I'm not sure what sanctuary this place is, but he said that." His tail started... wagging. Like a dog's. "Not my best body to be honest. I'm used to being much bigger, and having a bit more of a snout, but this will do." he stated to himself, looking away from the shadowy figure in the dark to take in the others. "Interesting. So you guys are my new pack. Fancy that."
"We aren't a pack." Viperstar said, this new one... what was his name? Ah. Odd One Out... getting on his last nerve. "You were brought here to help us defend this territory we have to call home now. Which means you follow my orders. We are... more of a group than a pack."
"Pack, group, same same." Odd said with an oddly uncat-like shake of his head, and a distinctly canine scratch of his ear with his hind leg. "But can we get out of this rain? Please? It's red, and wet, and creepy, and I want to curl up somewhere nice."
Fortune's ears went even further back - making it look as though he didn't have any at all from the right angle. "I... I agree. I don't like this rain. Can we go back?" he asked in a small, scared voice.
The blue cat hadn't relaxed, but he did look back at Fortune, who was cowering behind his left hind leg, shivering, and drenched in red water. He looked back toward the 'leader' he was supposed to protect - not saying anything, just waiting for whatever order he would issue. Introductions could be made after the intruder was dealt with - so said Chroma.
Viperstar grimaced. "Look, I don't like the weather either, but I-" he broke off as the wind picked up, starting to fling leaves, sticks, stones, dirt, and debris every which way. If one included the small twigs and stones - it had now become slightly dangerous to be standing here doing nothing. Another flash of not-cat-induced lightning struck close-by, making his fur stand on end. Whatever else he was about to say was blown away by the wind as soon as he opened his mouth.
Small branches from the surrounding trees were like bullets in how fast they were being swept up. Fortune tried to curl close to the new blue cat, only to get whacked hard in the snout by a passing branch. Then again, in the rump, by the same. Odd One Out had stood, and was already starting to run back toward where he could smell other cats had been - that had to be the camp.
The blue cat stood his ground, keeping himself a barrier between the smaller Fortune, and the flying debris. Viperstar made a decision. "Alright, regroup. Head back toward the ca-..." He sighed, as nothing he was saying made it to anyone's ears, and shouted as loud as he could toward the shadow in the void. "IF YOU NEED A PLACE TO GO, FOLLOW US! IF NOT, SCRAM!" Then, he himself turned toward camp, and hightailed it back with great speed, not even checking to make sure Fortune and the new cat were following.
They were, but Fortune was being buffeted by so many twigs and stones, that he had his eyes tightly shut, and was refusing to move another inch... so the blue cat paused before he followed to bend and pick him up, starting back the way the leader had gone with Fortune half-dangling from his mouth, and the food in his own jaws. The bit of plant stuck to his tail by the slick wet red didn't bother him - he could groom it off later. A soldier - cat, delphini, orcani, sorayni, or other - did not leave an innocent soul in the lurch.
Eventually, all cats made it back to base - the blue cat and Fortune being the last to arrive. There was an area well-shielded from the newly sprung-up storm made from two large sheets of metal from the defunct funhouse, and Viperstar was grooming off the red water in the crook of that area, Odd One Out doing the same as the blue cat made his way inside, and dropped Fortune on the ground before crouching to the ground himself.
"The voice within tells me my name is to be Depth Strider." he stated, once well inside the area where the wind would not steal their words. "I am to be your Knight. What that means, I do not know, but I will serve if I must." He mentioned nothing about his past life, nor about the strangeness of being a walking creature as opposed to a swimming one. There was time for that sort of contemplation later. His tail twitched. "Where are we?"
Viperstar left off grooming to look up at that. "We are inside Chroma's realm, The Dark Carnival. I'm the Ringmaster, Viperstar. The two snakes there are my-... Well, my friends, I suppose. Trek and Valisk. They're off-limits. No eating."
Odd snorted. "As if I would eat a snake. I'm a wolf of taste at the very least." the white-black cat stated with a wink to show he was kidding. "Anyway. Odd One Out. Call me Odd if you want it shorter. Can't say my previous name, so there's that. I'm a new-moon baby, though. Uh... not sure what that makes me in this place." Another shrug.
"A cat." Viper said with narrowed eyes. "A very talkative cat. You're a wolf?"
The young cat laughed, and flicked an ear back, causing the bandanna over his head to slip a bit... but he pushed it back up with the use of his right paw and leg. "I am indeed. Wolf of no name, hailing from the plain of long rains. The pack of long running, attending the spirit-place of Foxbriar... North-eastern branch, little past the longrass settlement to the far-east, and just to the left of the ironfires."
"... None of what you just said makes any sense." the leader stated, somewhat perplexed. "I have no idea what any of that is. But you're a cat now. Not a... whatever-the-heck you were before. No." he stopped Odd before he started speaking again. "I don't need to understand it. You're my Pawn now - mine to command, and mine to care for. So just focus on that. We have very little food, and even less shelter. This is it for things that are shielded against the wind and rain. There's constant mist here, and no - your eyes don't deceive you. The entire area, mist included, is red. So, apparently, is the rain. Odd. The snow was white..."
Odd shrugged again, and rose to all fours, stalking over toward the new blue cat, and looking up... and up. "Good Mother, you're huge." he stated. Apparently subtlety and tact weren't in his wheelhouse. "What are you, part cougar or something? You're no Rashikin, but you're still freaking gigantic with a capital G."
"... Odd analogy aside, I am but what you see. I bear no ill will. Only confusion." Depth Strider said carefully, brows quirked as the cat he did not know started looking him up and down. Mostly up. "Why I am this size is a mystery to myself as well. I only remember the darkness, the coolness... and then being cradled and carried in a most peculiar way, before being... I should say 'thrown?' to the ground where I appeared before you. I mean you no harm."
"Well duh." Odd said. "Oh, like. I mean no harm either - promise. I just remember being stupid hungry and thirsty after ticking off some leeches, and then WHAM, here I am. Must have... OH. I get it. I'm dead. Kinda. Sorta? Maybe?"
Fortune had stopped shaking, but was still nursing a few scratches, giving them some licks to try and ease the sting. "We all are." he said softly. "We died on our planes of existence, and now we're here, as a new family. It's good to meet you, I'm Fortune's End. We were all alone before you two literally dropped in..." He glanced toward the leader. "Me and Viperstar."
"Alone no more, it would seem." Depth said with a sage cant of his head. "You are not the afterlife I had thought awaiting me, but that matters not. I am here as a protector, and I will protect what I was told." He sat, and curled his massive tail around his equally-as-large hindquarters. "As I appear to be a fair size larger than the rest of you, I will make sure nothing brings you harm. It is my duty in any life."
Viperstar sighed, and padded over to pick up the dead mouse, and add it to the scant pile of food that was gathering in the center of the area they were in. It wasn't enough to feed this many mouths... But it would have to do. "Fortune, go ahead and eat from the pile. I will too. The rest of you... we'll have to hunt again before you two can take anything, or we'll end up out for good."
"A'ight." Odd One Out stated, shaking his head a bit to get water out of his ears. "I wasn't hungry anyway. Were you big boy?"
Depth sighed, and gracefully sunk to his belly, paws curled under him. "I do not yet understand this form, but I was not feeling the pangs of hunger, no. Please, do partake small one." he told Fortune, who was slinking by him as he made his way to the pile, and snagged the skink from before... and the fresh mouse, bringing both over to Viperstar, and sitting down to the scaly morsel himself, while leaving his leader the fresh furry one. Viperstar and Fortune both bent to their meals in silence. {-1 Skink, -1 Mouse -- +1 FP Viperstar and Fortune's End}
Once they had finished - amid Odd's good-natured babbling with the silent Depth Strider - Viperstar stood, and stretched out. The wind was still howling around the makeshift shelter, but it would hold until they could make something better later, and he was too tired to do anything about it right now. Not to mention, now that he was dry, he wasn't exactly raring to go out into the storm again - and it WAS a storm, honest-to-goodness now. Lightning struck here and there, and the rumble of thunder was semi-constant. If their intruder had chosen to follow them back, Viperstar only hoped they popped into this shelter soon, so that they could get a warm - or at least lukewarm - welcome, and out of the storm.
"Once the storm ends, we'll go hunting." the leader stated, sighing and flicking an ear. He nudge Fortune's End at the shoulder, and was relieved to be nuzzled in return, as the younger cat was still nursing his scratches, but otherwise unhurt. He looked as though a good grooming wouldn't go amiss... they all did, actually. But with the storm raging, Viper at least was too nervous to groom anyone OR himself. "What are you planning, Chroma..." he muttered to himself. The deity gave no reply, but Viperstar knew he'd heard him. Was it just him, or was the god a bit... nervous himself, as of late? No matter. He had a group to run.
"Either of you know how to hunt?" he asked suddenly, causing Odd and Depth's heads to lift from their conversation (mostly Odd's) at the far end of the shelter.
"Man, do the birds know how to sing? DUH. I'm WOLF. Of course I know how to hunt. Dumb question." Odd snorted, crossing one paw over the other. "You need food? Send me out. I'll bring you a whole deer."
".... appreciated, but unnecessary." Viper stated with a deadpan look. "A simple 'yes' would have sufficed. Depth Strider? What about you?"
The blue cat only dipped his head in a nod. A tom of few words, apparently. That suited just fine.
"Right, then you two and I will go hunting after the storm either lessens or passes. I'm not going to send you out with no clue about boundaries or limits. Last thing I need is you two going walking in the void. If our visitor comes to stay, they can go with you too, but I don't know. I haven't seen anyone yet."
"Fine by me! You won't be disappointed." Odd said with a wide grin, then went back to chattering at the still-silent Depth Strider. Viperstar internally groaned. This was getting interesting. This was getting very interesting indeed... Just what had Chroma planned next in this little charade of theirs? And just what was lurking out in the dark? Time would tell, apparently. Just as with everything else in this forsaken playground of past amusement.
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inventory
♟ prey list ♟
Shrimp | 1FP
Shrimp | 1FP
Mouse | 1 FP
Skink | 1FP
Vole | 1 (From Level Up)
♟ herb list ♟
Lamb's Ear| 1
Horsetail | 2
Comfrey Root | 1
Foxglove Seed | 1 (+1 From Level Up)
Holly Berry Bunch | 1
Wintergreen | 1
Broom | 1
Loveage | 1
Deadly Nightshade | 1
Celandine | 1
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