By The Roots

[fierce]

[bg=black][atrb=border,0,true] The crescent moon was the only source of light. Monstrous clouds loomed over the canopy’s leaves, blocking out the stars, which swayed with the frail wind. Some broke away, their dying, golden hues would remind you of a halloween night as they drifted softly to the forest floor, creating a crackling alarm to warn of anything that might lurk below. How awesome is it that a black cat would curled up at the base of a high, sycamore branch? Talk about a mood amplifier. Fierceclaw had never returned back to camp this night. And it, of course, was quite the talk over fresh kill. But all clanmates who were ever going to were long nested by now. The wind whistled, the river waters rushed, and Fierceclaw’s ears twitched with sheathing and unsheathing claws as he grimaced in his sleep. Bloody paws raced through the snowstorm with four older cats on his heels. Everything was white and the hardened flakes stung his eyes, the numbness of his busted paws threatened to claim them, but he had to keep running. ”Drukklo slow down!” A ragged voice begged. ”She’s dead!” But she wasn’t dead. He knew she wasn’t. Suddenly a gruesome scene took over the dream. A lithe and lifeless tabby lay on the bloody cave floor. A small cat loomed over her. His rugged wet fur was spiked from the gore and his amber eyes, a sliver of blue in his right, lifted to the horrified kitten on the other side of the cave. He smiled. “I guess this means you’re all I have, now…” “Aren’t you?” The black kitten finally slowed in the storm, collapsing from exhaustion and tears. He sniffled, snow piling on top of his form then suddenly his paw hit something buried. He pushed the thick whiteness aside. And there was a feather. But it wasn’t her. A shadow fell over him and the kitten looked up. ”Wild!” Fierceclaw nearly fell off the branch, the sound of his own voice jolting him from sleep. His breath was ragged and his face caught somewhere between a snarl and a look of fear. But the shock soon subsided. The small tom closed his eyes, regaining control of his nerves when suddenly the branch lurched. His fur spiked and hostile eyes snapped to the end of the branch. There, on the end, was a massive gray owl. Owls were known to be a predator of cats. Usually it was only kits you needed to worry about, but…you didn’t exactly see owls this size around here. It was easily twice Fierceclaw’s weight, maybe more. The owl was hideously scarred. A monster that stood on one foot, the other one was uselessly maimed, and stared at the cat with its dangerous talons constricting around the wood. Fierceclaw stared back lifelessly, his fur laying flat. ”Who?” It asked. He watched it for several long moments, eerily unafraid. Then his eyes began to blink as though trying to escape a mirage and he turned to rest his head between his paw and his chest, gazing, without really seeing, into the night - away from the owl. ”Who?” ”I’m sorry…” Fierceclaw whispered. The vision of the owl disappeared, like smoke. -THUMP- A moment later his paws hit the ground, standing at the base of the tree as he looked off into Riverclan territory. The powerful tom looked so much smaller now in a strange kind of way…young…lost. He turned, probably heading back to the Thunderclan camp, but abruptly stopped. A breeze picked up from farther down the dark path, flowing over him. He sniffed it, drinking in the scents, and the fur along his back rose again. His head lowered. And ears turned back flat as his eyes zeroed in on something unseen in the night.

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[bg=c3d7a7][atrb=border,0,true][cs=7] Gentle tortoiseshell fae had slowly fallen asleep, thinking that something was wrong. It wasn't hard for her to fall into a deep sleep with slight snoring. She was lying down with her long tail over her nose, her small belly going in and out deeply. She looked very peaceful. Her tail gently lifted into the air after each breath, because the puffs of air she had blown were enough to make the tail catch air beneath it. Dreams. She had many of them. And this time it was bad. Brackentail stretched forward. She had woken up before any of the other cats and she walked forward to the center of the camp. It was quiet. Very eerie. Nothing moved. She suspected something. She paced around for a moment. Something happened. Her body couldn't move. She tried to make a noise. She couldn't breath. She couldn't do anything. She felt her soul slipping away from her body, but then she was driven into another dream. The yowls of battling were all the she-cat could hear. She sat at the border of ThunderClan and RiverClan territory. She wanted to plog her ears so that she couldn't hear anything at all. The battle cries were to much for her. The screams of pain.. everything. The medicine cat apprentice sat next to her, his eyes closed and muttering under his breath. She looked towards him, thinking he was praying to StarClan when all of a sudden she realized he was playing back all the herbs in his head. "Marigold for infections, Cobwebs for bleeding.." she looked the other way. She realized she hadn't wished her mother good luck. She paced around and then laid down and closed her eyes. The medicine cat apprentice nudged her. "Hurry! They need a back up patrol!" he snarled. Brackentail nodded her head and ran off. The whole forest was a blur, her eyes watered from the wind burning them. She finally skid into camp, she panicked, looking around. At the time she was nothing but an apprentice. Still, she felt as if she could run into the warriors den. She jumped in and squealed. "They need backups! Their losing!" she screamed. The cats bundled together and as they were just about to leave.. the other cats strode in. Their eyes were full of grief, and she pranced around trying to find her mother. So many cats were badly injured.. it was horrible to see them limping. She glanced around until she spotted her father, "Darkmoon, where is Sunlight?" she blinked softly. He nodded. "Brackenpaw.. your mother.. your mother is dead. Face it." he hissed, showing all his frustration and sadness to her. Brackenpaw screamed and ran away. She went into the apprentice's den and curled up in the corner. She wailed and cried. It was almost like she could never stop. Brackentail woke up with a start when she was poked by a nearby warrior. "Brackentail, Fierceclaw isn't here." She spoke softly. Of course. It was her friend that always cared about him back apparently not enough to look for him herself. She rolled her eyes. "What do you expect me to do about it?" she hissed through her teeth, "your the one that moons over him all the time." she snorted, tucking her nose back again when she heard her friend chuckle, "Me? Like Fierceclaw? No!" she lied softly. "Hollyflower, you should know that I'm allergic to bullshit." she muttered, her eyes still closed, she faked sneezing. "Can you just go look for him?" she pleaded desperately. All Brackentail wanted to do was sleep. She nodded to Hollyflower. "Look Hollyflower --" she began, but she was interrupted by one of the senior warriors. She couldn't make out who he was, but he seemed grumpy. "Yes, everyone knows that Hollyflower likes Fierceclaw," he hissed when he heard Hollyflower silently giggle. "We still don't know where he is, though. So Brackentail, you can go look for him." Hollyflower smiled and closed her eyes. Brackentail muttered a few swears and stepped out of the den. The moonlight hurt her eyes. She quickly padded out of camp, rushing through the forest, hissing through her teeth, "Fierceclaw!" she couldn't find him until she stepped into Sunningrocks. He obviously got her scent the wrong way because he wasn't looking at her, his back was faced to her. "I hope I'm not disturbing you but everyone wants you back at camp." she murmured to himm.

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[fierce]

[bg=black][atrb=border,0,true] ((Awh, poor her; nice post.)) The dark warrior didn’t budge as the she-cat arrived. A dog started barking in the distance, voice deep and aggressive as it carried over the trees. A low growl rumbled from his own throat, cutting midway through her sentence. He probably wouldn’t have done it if she wasn’t there. But leave it to a clan cat to be cozy with their environment and need a hint. His claws unsheathed. The wind picked up, blowing from down the path ahead of them. It carried with it half a dousin red leaves and the scent of rotten death. Brackentail would certainly know what was going on now. The bristling top hairs of a waddling figure glowed in the moonlight as it started toward them, grunting, growling. ”Looks like someone forgot to retrieve their kill.” He muttered tonelessly. The badger stopped, fangs bared as an otherworldly growl rattled in a neverending breath. Fierceclaw hadn’t smelled anything rotting when he’d first arrived at his tree which meant the badger was dragging it, probably to hide it elsewhere. Usually they didn’t carry things very far, which implied the carcass hadn’t been outside the territory unless the creature had put forth the effort to swim across the river with it. And now it was simply defending a meal the two cats certainly didn‘t want. So why was it Fierceclaw looked like he had no intention of leaving well enough alone? Pro retard. He moved a paw to the side, shouldering Brackentail back rather roughly as he put himself between the two. ”Go back to camp and tell them I don’t sleep on my duties.” He gave a devilish grin at his foe, tail curling, like the badger had no idea what it was getting itself into. Pride was a very ugly thing, folks. Or maybe it was something else. Fierceclaw’s mind was presently in a far away world…would’ve been farther if he didn’t have this she-cat to babysit. But then, one would wonder why he even cared. Strange, eh? ((I'm trying to post shorter ><))

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[bg=c3d7a7][atrb=border,0,true][cs=7] Brackentail never scented badger, never fought one. When the scent of something rotten and death touched her nose, she snarled. Fierceclaw had no intention of leaving at all, and she knew that he just wanted her to leave. Brackentail had been jolted awake, and sleep was the last thing on her mind. "Fierceclaw, you should know that I have no intentions of leaving." she quickly rushed forward, to Fierceclaw's side. Her body had fluffed out, and her fur gently touched his. She obviously didn't know this, but she when she looked over to see his face, to see what his plan might be when she realized their pelts were touching. She flinched and stepped to the side so that they weren't close. "Look, I'm older than you. I'm not your little kit to babysit. Remember Fiereclaw; I came here looking for you." she said quickly before lunging towards the badger. She leaped onto its back and clung on until it screeched and pulled her off its body. She wailed and was dropped onto the ground from a pretty big height. She landed on her leg wrong. It cracked. Brackentail screamed in pain and rested her head on the ground.

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[fierce]

[bg=black][atrb=border,0,true] Fierceclaw mentally rolled his eyes at her words, wondering why he was even paying attention at all. Why in the world had she come looking for him, anyway? Why would they care? Oh, that's right. He could be up to something. Fierceclaw would've smirked any other time at the potential of that thought. They were his peers after all. Who knew? Perhaps he'd give into their pressure and just strike out on a deliquent warpath one day. Certainly Brackentail was too far from the safety of their sweet little camp for anyone to hear her screaming. Fierceclaw wouldn't even have to make it fast. He could just pin her down and... Or she could commit suicide. That worked too. The small tom blinked when she shot forward like a mouse from a pit of rabid 8-moon-olds, actually...surprised. ”Stupid girl.” He thought. Where was her strategy? Even Fierceclaw wouldn’t take something like that head on. And he was the dullest tool in the whole warehouse when it came to picking impossible fights. Brackentail‘s courage was remarkable; you’d better believe there would be cats awestruck by her story once it reached the ears of her clan. What kind of a cat took on a badger? And not only that, took it head on. Someone much better than the average cat; Brackentail would be considered simply as the quiet girl in the shadows no longer. But Fierceclaw didn’t see things the same as most cats…. You should know that by now. He just sat there and watched. The brave she-cat was hurled to the ground by a creature legendary for its viciousness. Her leg’s sickening crack did not escape its ears and the badger, lips drawn back over its striped face, turned to finish its challenger with crushing yellow fangs. It lunged at her. But just as those teeth closed around her shoulders, piercing her skin and squeezing harshly with the initial bite, it stopped. What sounded like ripping Velcro was followed by a gargle from its throat, Brackentail was released. Rapid, rustling paws crackled through the leaves behind her and out of sight. The actual struggle didn’t last as long as you’d expect it to. But the stillness that followed, with the occasional rustle, seemed to go on forever. Even with the battle scenes Brackentail had unfortunately witnessed in her life, it was unlikely she’d robbed her of all her graphic innocence. It was best the she-cat didn‘t try to look. The leaves sharply rustled as though someone‘d fallen down. But it wasn’t long before heavy, lurching pawsteps brought the warrior to her side. ”You’re such an ignorant fool.” Talk about adding insult to injury…literally. It was impossible to tell in the darkness with Fierceclaw’s black coat, but he was drenched in blood, both his own and the now dead badger’s. And badly injured himself. The wetness and his prickled fur made it stand out in spikes. He looked like a devil under the silhouetting leaves. Still a little battle high, the young warrior glared down at her as though he might go after her throat next. ”Your leg,” He demanding. ”is it broken?” But hey, furious or not, had Fierceclaw, the jerkwad dork himself, just saved her? It certainly seemed like it.

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[bg=c3d7a7][atrb=border,0,true][cs=7] Fierceclaw didn't save anyone. Just as the Badger was to finish her off.. it died. It was amazing. She looked towards Fierceclaw, and didn't see him anywhere. Pain pierced through her leg. She was surely to die of major blood loss, or she would be lucky. She laid her head on the ground once again, her eyes full of pain, fear, and amazement mixed together. Leaves were stuck in her fur; each time she tried to lift her head they would crunch. Yet.. she made out his face. She caught his insult. She looked towards the ground. "Why did you come looking for him? You could've turned around and said that you didn't find him. What kept you going, mouse-brain?" The thought rang in her head. "Fool?" she chuckled, a weak moan each time the slow laugh lifted her off the ground. "I tried to save us. Remember. I'm just shitty little Brackentail that hides in the corners and watches everyone else do something." she snarled. She laid her head on the ground again, without looking him in the eyes. "You know what? Go ahead. Finish me off. Its not like you'd lose anything." she hissed.

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[fierce]

[bg=black][atrb=border,0,true] Fierceclaw's eyes darkened. It only drove home the fact that he knew all along. These clan cats were...weak. Brackentail was severely injured if his hunch was correct. And honestly, most cats would be yowling and crying like tomorrow would never come. But Fierceclaw's standard was higher. How could someone call themselves a "warrior" if they snivveled like a dying rat? "Never try to save someone..." He growled. Where was his pity? He must've cared something about her if he had thrown himself to the badger's jaws to save her. How contradictory was that to his statement? "I believe I asked you a question." He looked back over his shoulder, through the forest toward camp. Then he sighed. "If it is I'll have to drag you. Or we'll have to stay out here until the dawn patrol." Heh...there's another one. We? But Fierceclaw, as much as he'd never ever admit it, wasn't able to go back to camp then come back here. Why he couldn't simply go back to camp and tell them about where to find Brackentail...well...there were several reasons. Most of which he wouldn't allow to surface in his head. An owl hooted in the distance. And Fierceclaw cringed.

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[bg=c3d7a7][atrb=border,0,true][cs=7] She sighed softly and looked up at him. "I think its broken." she murmured softly. She wasn't sitting there crying. She bit back the tears and screams of pain and laid there, forcing a face of contentment. She thought of him going to camp, and telling everyone but she couldn't help but want him to stay there with her. It made her feel something like relief and safety. She flicked her tail. Dawn was far away from now. It was obviously up to him what to do. She had to get to camp either way. "I have a question for you, Fierceclaw." she sighed softly. "Why is everyone casting you suspicious glances? What were you doing out here?" she blinked.

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[bg=black][atrb=border,0,true] Well...that was...a bummer. One of Fierceclaw's paws was numb, which...could mean too many things. And he certainly wasn't going to end up like Brackentail if he didn't have to. "We'll stay." He said. "Nothing in its right mind will come here with that badger's stink in the air." He wasn't comfortable with being on the ground though, and he sized up the nearby trees. What? He could leave her on the ground. If something else DID come up he'd have the same advantage that'd made it possible for him to kill the badger. If they were both on the ground, they were probably screwed. But it was no good. If it were a back paw that were injured he could probably do it. Heck, he could do it NOW so every fiber of him believed. It just seemed...a whole lot of work. Fierceclaw felt dizzy. Nevertheless, he sat down to inspect his paw, forcing away his lightheadedness as he ran his tongue over his parted pads. "I have a question for you, Fierceclaw. Why is everyone casting you suspicious glances? What were you doing out here?" Since when had they not cast him suspicious glances? Nobody'd ever really trusted him. He was too...well...violent. Ever since he'd first returned to consciousness all those moons ago. Oh no, he didn't sit around and talk like a crazy person: about blood and war and how sweet its' taste. But given the chance Fierceclaw'd always taken the opportunity to take things to the extreme. Even as a kitten, he played too rough. If you would even CONSIDER that play. He wanted nothing but to rip and tear. But that was typical..of who he was...And who he was always supposed to be. Fierceclaw had so much to fulfill. He chuckled at the question, looking up at her with those sly blue eyes. "Really?" He smiled before going back to his paw, "I can't take a step away from my nest without them suspecting something. Nothing's changed, Brackentail." Lulz, it was true. Quite humorous if you ask him. But it was sad in a way when you really thought about it. One of the reasons he stayed away was the biproduct of him staying away. Fierceclaw just...didn't belong. "I have no reason to go back."

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[bg=c3d7a7][atrb=border,0,true][cs=7] She understood how it felt to be watched suspiciously, and never fit in. Fierceclaw? Leave? Nothing would make her stay.. she nodded her head, pain piercing through her leg. "You can make friends easily." she sighed. "I never looked at you that way." she added. She looked towards him. She felt something, something like.. if he left, she would follow him. She didn't know what that meant.. she didn't believe in love. Her eyes sparkled with pain and some type of feeling she didn't know of. She nodded her haed. "Your thinking about leaving, ThunderClan? Please don't! If you ever decide to leave, I'm going to come with you." she blurted out, blushing after she spoke. "Mouse-brain!" she thought.

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[bg=black][atrb=border,0,true] Pausing in licking his paw, Fierceclaw eyed her questioningly, a hint of pretentiousness in his eyes. "I meant camp." He said. Not the clan itself. "...For now." Aha. Well, there was a little ground forfitted on her part so Fierceclaw wasn't quite so interested in belittling her over the misunderstanding. It kind of surprised him, to be honest. She'd never even had much to do with him. Heck, the only cat who really had was Nightwhisper. And it, honestly, couldn't be more annoying. Fierceclaw didn't understand things like...love. And he was in no way assosiating what Brackentail had said with anything of the sort. But how could he? We are talking about a cat who had probably never even shared tongues before. His mother'd never even had had much to do with him. It wasn't because she didn't like him, per say; it was more or less because of his father and...progress. Fierceclaw had far from always been a loner and his previous group had been much different than Thunderclan. Much larger...and so much more extreme. No one mated for love. Love was a weakness that would cause your end and that wasn't just a little saying of a bitter cat. It was everyone. And Fierceclaw saw it first hand. Saw it through prisoners, saw it through raids, his mother, his sister, ...Wild. Then suddenly he was here. And the whole stinking place revolved around bonds. They tried to get friendly with him to make get him to be friendly back, as though how he acted was somehow...wrong. It was repulsive to him. It was weak. These cats were too sheltered to ignorant, unlearned, to be qualified to call right from wrong. Then here was Brackentail. She'd never tried to get friendly. Not like Nightwhisker did. Or that queen who'd saved his life (another odd course of action). But she claimed she wanted to follow him. To someone like Fierceclaw, that meant she saw him as a leader, yeah? Not that she had feelings for him. Fierceclaw's mind didn't even jump to things like that; he hadn't been in Thunderclan that long. But then, he hadn't been in his previous home that long either. He'd been traveling for moons before he was found and his life beforehand had been too short. But it didn't matter. Like a wolf who'd been chained to a dog house since puphood, Fierceclaw craved the wild he barely knew. But he knew it was there...he'd seen it. "You wouldn't be able to handle where I'm going."

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Her eyes glinted with something like understanding. "Camp." she muttered. She rolled her eyes and stared at him. "You don't know what I've been planning, Fierceclaw. You don't know what I can handle." she coughed. "You don't know how much I like ThunderClan, and how much I hate it."

And then there was love. The thing that woke most cats up in the morning. The thing that made them enough to live for. The thought of it made Brackentail think of no cat in her clan. She looked around. Hurt. Thats what she was. She never liked him. She just.. couldn't. She was tired of being alone.. yes.. thats it. "I can't like Fierceclaw, can I?" she softly though.