[Silk]

[Piper]

☽ Moon 216 ☾
The sky is dark. Some stars peek out, bright behind the clouds.
The sea is calm, and the night is quiet.

they/them ◈ outsider ◈ loner

The water lapping at Piper's paws was the first sensation they felt upon waking. The second was the dull pain in their limbs, sore from dehydration and too much sun. Their eyes didn't want to open at first, salt crusted, but a moment of pawing at them solved that. They were thankful the sun was set already, and that the night was cooling, and that the tide was only just now drawing near to them. Surely, they think, they would have woken, should it have threatened to pull them back out to sea, but some small part of them worried that the exhaustion would have proven too strong for that. Slowly, they sat up, taking stock of all their aches and pains, stretching and shaking out their paws. Once they were quite certain they were, indeed, alive, they looked around.

Where were they?

The beach they laid on turned gently to tall grasses a little ways up, and then there was... nothing, for a while, as far as they could see in the faint starlight. No buildings, no twolegs, not even any evidence of them. No ships, either. Their gaze turned back to the sea, squinting along the horizon. Empty. Desolate. They were alone. But that was alright. They had been alone before. Here and there. (They tried not to think about how they had never been this alone, exactly.) They needed to focus on something else. Like... finding food. Or water. Water was more important, probably. Or at least their body seemed to demand it more. So, like finding water. Non-salty water. They can do that.

They set off along the shore, the sea to their left, unsure of which direction would be better and unwilling to spend too long deciding. They walked slowly, but stubbornly onward.

[viv]

rainwhisker

she/they ○ riverclan ○ warrior

the rains have ceased, and we have been graced with another beautiful day.
but you are not here to see it.

For reasons Rainwhisker could not explain, she needed to get out of camp for a while.

It felt wrong to sneak out among the reeds without telling anyone where she was going, and without intention of patrolling or hunting-- but it felt worse to stay surrounded by her clan-mates and their scents, right now. She loved them, but she just had to be... somewhere else, right now.

She found herself on the shores of the unending expanse of undrinkable water, paws kneading the sand. She sat and tucked her tail around herself neatly, staring out and watching the sun slowly sink into the jaws of the horizon. She didn't think about anything in particular-- she didn't do anything in particular. It was almost nice.

It was quiet. The water here, rasping against the sand, hissed comfortably into her ears. The only thing she could scent was the salt in the water and the distant waft of Riverclan's markers.

And something new, she realized, once the sky had turned dark.

A cat? Her mouth opened to drink the scent, and she grimaced. It scented unwell in some unidentifiable way. It smelled salty, overwhelmingly salty, like it had been bathing one times too many in the sea.

Rainwhisker's head whipped around and, at the sight of a distant cat ambling along the shore, she leapt to her paws, coarse fur along her spine bristling with alarm. Which clan are they from? That smell is masking the scent, her nose wrinkled. She knew they'd probably seen her by now, too-- so there was no use in trying to ambush them now.

"Don't move!" She called out instead, teeth flashing in the dim twilight. "What do you think you are doing on Riverclan territory?"

[Silk]

[Piper]

they/them ◈ outsider ◈ loner

Piper's gaze had been drifting, unfocused, and the snap of a voice startled them, jostling them out of their thoughts. They froze, one paw still in the air, halfway toward making another pawprint in the sand. Finally, their eyes settled on the cat just ahead. How had they not smelled them? Their nose must be more crusted with salt than they realized, and they lifted a paw to rub against it before remembering that there was someone else here, speaking to them. Asking them a question.

"What's Riverclan?" It was the first thought that popped into their head, and although they probably could have come up with something better, well, it was too late now, regardless.

Still... this cat did seem to take them as a threat, and they were not in the mood to be taken as a threat, so they sat down, licked at the fur on their chest—only once, having forgotten again quite how salty they were—and peered at the other cat, head tilted.

[viv]

rainwhisker

she/they ○ riverclan ○ warrior

the rains have ceased, and we have been graced with another beautiful day.
but you are not here to see it.

The fur prickling along Rainwhisker's spine flattened only a little. Although Piper showed no signs of aggression to her, she was still wary. Her eyes searched behind their shoulders for the possibility of other cats, for the possibility of an ambush, but she found none.

They're upwind from you, said a little voice of reason in her head. You'd have scented them by now. There's nowhere to hide.

Her broad, blue head turned to lick anxiously at her shoulder, never once taking her eyes off Piper. After a beat, she stepped forward, close enough so that she didn't have to yowl over the hiss of the sea. Here, she could scent them better-- though it was still mostly just salt. Her nostrils flared, whiskers twitching.

No clan. They didn't smell like the territory, either-- they smelled only like the sea. Rainwhisker's uncertain eyes cast towards the water. Had they... come from there, somehow? Did Starclan send them?

As much as Rainwhisker hated loners in Riverclan territory, she feared going against Starclan more. The hulking cat sat, too, finally, shoulders shifting to settle her jostled nerves. "Riverclan is one of the five clans that occupy this territory," she mewed. It was easier to think of it like educating a kit. She turned her nose towards the general direction of the river that cut through the south. "Over there is Windclan's territory, and beyond that, Shadowclan." Then, to the opposite direction, where the grass tufted into moorlands, "Skyclan is that way. Then, Thunderclan rounds next to Shadowclan."

She did not say what was beyond the clans' territories, simply because she did not know.

"It is... impolite," her teeth clicked, "to cross the borders into territory that doesn't belong to you. Where did you come from?"

[Silk]

[Piper]

they/them ◈ outsider ◈ loner

Piper shifted, tail twitching. They were not surprised to find their being here was impolite—cats in the harbor often had territories as such, but more often than not they simply preferred not to share twoleg homes where they were fed, or had the best luck finding scraps. There was nothing like that, here. To find this was a clan's territory, and only one of five, that piqued their curiosity. They were probably very lucky it wasn't a group of cats they came across, weren't they?

They opened their mouth to respond, and then paused. They didn't really come from their ship, not this time, with no docks to lead the way back home. "The sea?" they said, uncertainly, but at least not lying. Another pause, and they added, "I hadn't really had a choice of where to wash up. You know how the ocean is, I'm sure." Their voice was light, an easy, joking lilt to it. "I didn't realize I was crossing borders." Maybe they didn't particularly care, either, but that was beside the point.

[viv]

rainwhisker

she/they ○ riverclan ○ warrior

the rains have ceased, and we have been graced with another beautiful day.
but you are not here to see it.

Rainwhisker's mouth opened then shut. She did not, in fact, really know how the ocean was. Unlike rivers and lakes, the water was harsh and drinking from it made cats sick. If there were fish in there, you'd have to wade in too deep to catch any. Rainwhisker had also made the reasonable assumption that eating anything that stinking of salt would make a cat sick, too. Still, it seemed like Starclan had guided this one here.

With Piper's joke being unable to penetrate Rainwhisker's thick skull, her shoulders tensed and untensed. What am I meant to do here? She could bring them to Dacetail; she'd likely be willing to help and, if not, she was enough of a pushover to convince otherwise.

Her whiskers twitched. "There are cats that would kill you for it," she said a heartbeat after realizing silence had lingered a few seconds longer than she'd meant it to. "Are you... well? You smell sick."

[Silk]

[Piper]

they/them ◈ outsider ◈ loner

"Kill me?" Piper said with a little laugh, "That seems a bit excessive, doesnt it?" But their mirth died away as they realized she was serious, and they shifted again, pausing to consider their question. They were sore, they were exhausted, they were thirsty, and just about every other condition they thought a cat could have without being ill. Even their lungs were sore. But, truthfully, "I don't know."

They stand, then, and stretch, shaking the sand off their paws before putting them right back in it. "I'm not sure how long I was out there." They cast another glance at the horizon. Still empty. They swayed a little on their paws. "I think I..." They trail off, considering, before their gaze snaps back to Rainwhisker. "I guess you're afraid I'll get you sick," they said, understanding dawning on them. "And your Clan, right?"

Of course she was. That, and compete for their food and water. Some cats would kill you for that. They understood that; resources were limited, homes that had room for a cat weren't always common, and cats had to look out for their own. They were lucky, they new, to have had the life they did.

[viv]

rainwhisker

she/they ○ riverclan ○ warrior

the rains have ceased, and we have been graced with another beautiful day.
but you are not here to see it.

"No," she said, with some hesitation-- not because she was lying, but because she had genuinely not considered it. Crowfood wasn't exactly contagious, it made only those who ate it sick. And the medicine cats would quarantine anyone with a cough. Her gaze followed Piper's to look over the water, too. Her paws ground into the sand, for a beat. "You're not coughing up your insides, nor is your nose running-- though it does look... crusty." All of them looked crusty, really. "Your eyes look normal." She wasn't a medicine cat, but she had seen the terminally ill. This one didn't look like that, just... well, crusty.

Her eyes flicked to Piper again. "It's a reasonable measure, to some cats," she explained. "When the weather turns cold, prey becomes scarce. If you refuse to leave and keep showing your face, you're better to a clan dead, before their kits starve. Shadowclan comes to mind," she recalled this last part wistfully-- as a kit, her adopted parent Silverclaw would tell stories about Shadowclan eating kits and turning into shadows. Something told her this crusty loner was a little old for kitten-stories, however. "It's greenleaf. They might just assume you're a spy instead."

The greying cat drew a breath, whiskers twitching. "I'm not worried you'll spy on Riverclan," she clarified. "But it does seem wrong to turn a cat away who just crawled out of the sea."

Rainwhisker pulled herself to her paws, tail flicking. "Come this way. The river is over there." She'd start walking, as long as Piper seemed willing to come with, towards the fresh water.

[Silk]

[Piper]

they/them ◈ outsider ◈ loner

Piper was impressed, to say the least. He had no idea how to tell if a cat was ill, except on a hunch, or with very obvious symptoms, like a cough, as she said. But sometimes cats just had a cough, too, didn't they? Or was that always unusual?

They hesitated to follow her, but only for a moment, before his need of fresh water pushed them along. She seemed genuinely friendly, and he had no reason yet not to trust her. If things got that dire here, and if she were concerned with their presence, she wouldn't have bothered to ask what they were doing there. "Why would someone spy on you?" they asked, after a moment. "Except for gossip, I mean. It sounds more serious than gossip." Gossip and stories may as well have been a currency for Piper, but it seemed quite a bit more different here in the wilderness than they had ever imagined it to be. How strange, how differently cats lived, sometimes.

[viv]

rainwhisker

she/they ○ riverclan ○ warrior

the rains have ceased, and we have been graced with another beautiful day.
but you are not here to see it.

Rainwhisker had to think about this, too. For a time, the only real indication that she had heard Piper's questions at all was the intermediate twitching of her whiskers. Her steps were heavy and slow-- slower than they had to be, perhaps, but she didn't want to risk having the cat following her collapse if she broke into a trot. "Gossip goes a long way, sometimes," she mewed as she stepped over belly-length tufts of grass, briefly shaking the sand out of her fur now that her paws were on more stable ground.

"It's mostly about raiding," she sounded grim. "Finding out how many cats are in camp at a time, knowing when to sneak in. If prey is particularly scarce, a clan might raid another's storage to fill bellies. If no kits are being born, they might take a kit or two."

Her tail flicked uncomfortably. The hiss of the sea faded and she could hear the river lapping lazily against mud. She remembered Dawnstar taking kits right out of Windclan's camp when she was a younger warrior. Their mothers must have been sick with grief, her ears flicked at the thought. It made her sick.

The river steadily came into view, and on the shallower end of the shores, she took a seat. The cooling night air made the water smell fresher than usual, cold and clear like little crystals. Her tongue swiped along her jowls, eyeing Piper briefly.  "There were no clans where you come from," it was half a statement and half a question. "What was it like?"

[Silk]

[Piper]

they/them ◈ outsider ◈ loner

Raiding. That unsettled Piper, and raised the fur along their spine, although they couldn't say quite why. They didn't remember their mother or their littermates well, if at all, but they weren't stolen from them. That's just how it was. They had even heard a story every now and again of abandoned kits, but those were usually picked up easily by twolegs. They couldn't really imagine what it must be like.

The water of the river came into view, and they picked up their pace, the promise of respite so close. They didnt answer Rainwhisker until they had taken a long drink of water. "There aren't," they agreed, stepping a paw into the river and letting out a breath of relief at the coolness on their sore pads. "There aren't really any other cats at all, where I come from." A pause, as they step further, testing the strength of the current, cautious. "Well, sort of. I'm the only cat on my ship, on the sea, but there are usually a lot in the twoleg territories we visit. I don't think there are any clans, though. Not that I've heard of. Why don't you just move further away from the other clans, if it's so much trouble to be so close?"

[viv]

rainwhisker

she/they ○ riverclan ○ warrior

the rains have ceased, and we have been graced with another beautiful day.
but you are not here to see it.

Rainwhisker watched Piper drink in silence, whiskers twitching thoughtfully. She was half-tempted to start trying to groom the salt and crust out of their pelt-- or perhaps to just give them a little shove to coat their pelt in water. She abstained, instead dipping her own greying muzzle into the water to drink, too.

A certain word took her interest, one that she didn't recognize. "A ship?" She asked. "What is that?"

To Piper's question, she only took a short amount of time to think, this time. "When we die, we come together. All clans, in peace." Her head turned to the growing amount of stars overhead, gesturing to the thick belt of stardust. "We call it Starclan. They live up there, in silverpelt. There's no leaf-bare in their hunting grounds, and their forests always run with abundant prey."

"They guide our lives through dreams and omens. If we strayed too far from them, we might die and never see our ancestors again." She glanced to Piper. "It's not always bad, either. Sometimes the clans work together to make the territories safer, too. If there's rogues taking prey or killing cats, or exiles taking lives, the leaders of our clans might decide to come together for a while."

[Silk]

[Piper]

they/them ◈ outsider ◈ loner

They stepped further into the water, until all four paws sunk slightly into the mud that cradled the fresh water, and their tail was pulled gently along by the current. "A ship is," they begin, slowly, finding the words, "Like a twoleg home, but that sits on the water, and moves from place to place, and there's usually a lot of twolegs that live on it." A pause, as they consider. "Other cats might call it something else," they add, "but most that I've met all call them ships."

They follow Rainwhisker's gaze, lifting their nose to the sky. "Silverpelt," they murmur, a soft echo, lost in thought for a moment before they shake their head, and sit down in the water. "How do you trust them, the other Clans, if you know them to steal from you?" A pause, and they shift, before adding, hesitantly, "Do all cats have such ancestors?"

[viv]

rainwhisker

she/they ○ riverclan ○ warrior

the rains have ceased, and we have been graced with another beautiful day.
but you are not here to see it.

A kittypet. She'd never met, or even seen one before-- she'd heard that they all had bindings around their necks that jingled and scared prey. Piper's neck seemed very... normal.

"A water-nest," she said, thoughtfully. "You can swim, then?"

She slunk onto her pale belly to lay down, chin on her paws. The smell of fresh water was cool on her nose, especially after smelling nothing but salt. Her eyes half-shut and she answered, "many don't. I don't. When Starclan brings us together, though, they watch closely. They'll express their anger if cats break peace or attack cats on a mission." She took a few laps of water, idly. "Sometimes you have to put feelings aside. Especially if what you're doing will make life easier for cats in the future."

Rainwhisker looked to Piper in the water and, for a beat, felt pity. "I don't know," she admitted, voice soft. "I don't know where outsiders go where they die." It must have been difficult, to live without guidance like that.

[Silk]

[Piper]

they/them ◈ outsider ◈ loner

Piper perked up a little at the question, ears lifting. "I can, yes," they said, "For the most part, at least. Sometimes the water is rough, and I don't think anyone would have an easy time swimming, but, well, I made it this far, didn't I? Can you swim? You're apart of, uh, Riverclan, wasn't it? Are rivers good for swimming in?"

Their gaze flicks up at the sky again, before settling back down at Rainwhisker, and they tilt their head slightly, considering, before they dip their head for another sip of water as they listen. Starclan... to have something, someone, watching over you like that... They weren't sure how they felt about the idea, honestly. Comforting, to know you might not be alone, perhaps, but if you strayed too far you might lose them? And Piper's life was ever straying into new places, new harbors, new seas. If they had ever had such a thing, they surely could never find it again now, could they. "You don't have outsiders often that you don't chase away, or kill, do you?"