(Warning! Warning! Tink has been watching Narnia and is in a stoic mood. Be prepared for some excessively heroic drama. o.O)
FireClan
~Nightfire~
Foxflame, having caught up with my out-of-shape self, cuffed me lightly over the ears with one white paw, grinning as he did so. The dark circles under his eyes seemed a bit brighter when he smiled, as if happiness could wipe away his pain.
"You're fun, Nightfire," the ginger tabby mewed. Or maybe it was me that wiped away his pain. I refused to let myself think about such matters at the moment and turned to smile at my friend as we slowed to a walk, the LeafClan border still a good distance away.
"So what was this long story you were going to tell me?" I asked curiously, making sure Foxflame could see the pointed look I gave him. The tom looked down at his paws, his expression becoming worried again. What was there to worry about?
"Well," he began carefully, "after I heard about the...battle, Ashfeather suggested I go check on Petalsong. She told me Petalsong would be alright when I got there, and she was right." A delicate smile came to Foxflame's lips and his eyes found a new source of warmth when he thought about his mate.
Against my better judgement, wheels in my head started turning. Ashfeather had told Foxflame to go to SunClan. Ashfeather came and said something Bloodstar didn't like. Foxflame didn't come home that night. "Oh," I mewed, the events clicking together. "See, that wasn't that long." I nudged his shoulder playfully, trying to push away any awkward seriousness. I was fun for a reason. It was the only thing I could stand to be around. My elbow ran across a scratch on Foxflame's leg, reminding me that I had a couple more questions to ask him. "But why the dark circles and scratches?"
Foxflame straightened up, feeling a little more comfortable with the situation. "I've been running all night to get here, and I ran into some bramble thickets in LeafClan territory." That explained it.
"Oh," I meowed, relieved. "I was afraid Sunstar had..." I stopped myself, realizing that mine were not the smartest words to say.
Foxflame simply laughed half-heartedly. "I don't think Sunstar would fight the father of his grandkits." He shot me a pointed look to see if I would understand what he meant.
Grandkits? I stopped in my tracks, a bit stunned. That would mean that Foxflame... "Congratulations!" I purred, recovering from my momentary shock. Foxflame smiled at me, but didn't seem too excited. "What is it?" I asked, padding after him.
"Well, it's just that I'm a little worried about this whole..."
"...father thing?" I meowed, finishing his sentence.
He nodded, his deep green eyes drifting back down to his moving paws. I felt an interesting twinge of disappointment when he looked away. What was that? I asked myself. Oh, well. Back to Foxflame.
"I'm sure you'll be a great dad." I tried to sound as confident as I could, but comfort wasn't my specialty. Foxflame knew that by now, though, and understood my pathetic attempt to be the best thing I could say in this kind of situation. I could tell he wasn't convinced, but he managed to brush away his concerns for my sake.
"What did you do last night?" Foxflame asked me, turning his face towards me again.
"Besides listening to the leaders drone on and on? Let's see...I worried about you, got some thorns caught in my tail, and saved my older brother's sorry pelt." Foxflame reacted just as I had expected him to, drawing back a bit in surprise.
"What happened?" he asked, intrigued.
"It's kind of a long story," I muttered, not wanting to revisit the unhappy memory of the fight on the outskirts of LeafClan territory. Foxflame suddenly stopped walking, making me turn around to see what was up. He gave me a disbelieving look that said, Really? We're going there again? I blushed a bit under my dark fur. I had used the exact words Foxflame had earlier when he had been reluctant to tell me where he had been.
"I've got time," Foxflame meowed, renewing his pace. He smirked down at me, enjoying the fact that he had the upper hand now.
I rolled my firey orange eyes. "Well, it was like this." I opened my mouth to say more when the earth shook beneath me. I fell, flailing my paws wildly as I went. A cavern had opened up in the ground, and I had happened to be walking right on top of the entrance.
"Nightfire!" I heard Foxflame yell. I looked up, searching frantically for his face somewhere above me. Unfortunately, that was the exact moment that my paws came crashing down onto rough stone. My knees bent instinctively, saving them from being broken or sprained. Ouch. Even though I had saved myself from a prominent injury, the rough volcanic stone had hurt my paws. I licked one of my pads to find that it was bleeding slightly. The only light in the cavern was the stream of dim light falling gently from the opening in the ceiling.
"Foxflame?" I called up, my voice echoing strangely in the vast amounts of space that had opened up. The light was gone for a moment, and then Foxflame landed beside me, breathing quickly out of exhiliration and fear. Fear for me.
"Are you alright?" he asked, anxiously looking me over.
"I'm fine. For once in my life, instinct kicked in."
Foxflame didn't laugh, and I made a mental note to avoid jokes until we were above ground again. The ginger tabby stepped a bit closer to make sure, squinting since our eyes had not yet adjusted to the darkness. I looked up from my scraped paws and found myself nose to nose with my companion. Both of our eyes were wide with surprise, and quick shallow breaths escaped from both of our mouths. Our hearts raced in harmony with one another. I was frozen in time, and it was easy to see that Foxflame was too. This felt so right. So sinfully right.
Foxflame jerked back, releasing us both from the momentary spell we had been under. My gaze drifted down to the black, dusty rock below my paws.
"We'd better get out of here," Foxflame meowed gruffly after clearing his throat.
I nodded silently, stumbling after the ginger tom as we navigated over rough volcanic rocks towards what smelled like a possible entrance. No more words were exchanged, but we both had the same thought in mind.
What just happened?
(So, Nightfire's post turned into a short story. x3 But I thought it was pretty awesome, was it not?)
WaterClan
~Dawnmist~
When the first beams of light fell through the gaps in the woven rushes that lay above me, I was wakened by a certain beam falling into place right over my eye. A quite unpleasant way to wake up. After a few tentative blinks, I foolishly made the movement to get up and stretch but only succeeded in hurting my joints and falling down. Why did I have to be so clumsy and, dare I say it, old? It hindered all the things I wanted to do before I withered away in the elder's den. I hissed softly to myself. Now I couldn't even get up. Pain shot through my foreleg, sprouting from my wrist like flames from the paws of a FireClan cat. I gritted my teeth and squinched my eyes shut against the burning. Just like last night, only now it had spread to a hip. Unknown to me - was I also going blind and deaf? - Noclaw had also woken up and was watching from the safety of his soft moss nest. I only noticed the scruffy tom when he swept out of the den, brushing my cheek with the tip of his long tail. He was on his way to get Pinefeather, I could tell. My ears drooped. Of course I had to look so embarrassingly helpless.
~Silverleaf~
Mistleaf swam, panic and cold shaking her small form as she paddled toward the two even smaller forms struggling in the deep, unforgiving water. Her kits. A storm was churning the blackness, sweeping the kits further out. But she could make it, she knew she could. "Not this again!" I was ripped violently from my nightmare when the clear, conscious thought broke through. I vaguely realized I had sat halfway up in my panic and collapsed back onto the den floor. Tears pricked at the corners of my eyes, the stress and fear of my mother's death catching me at a vulnerable time. Why did you have to go? I barely even remembered her, my father having murdered her in such a roundabout way when I wasn't quite a moon old. Too much. Calm down, Silverleaf. Suddenly, I regained enough presence to remember where I was. In the medicine den, next to my brother and best friend. I glanced around the den with my leaf-green eyes. Scratch that. Just my best friend. Rainstar had probably kicked Stormcall out a little while ago, before I woke up. I smiled briefly at the thought of my humble brother being faced down by my sometimes-intimidating leader. "Dawnsinger?" I whispered, anxious to see if my friend would wake up again.