{Open} Wandering About

[fluffy]

Dreamfeather swished his tail back and forth as he examined the rock he had not seen there the day before, and wondered where it might have come from. 'Rains could have washed dirt and mud away from it to expose it from where it hid in the earth.' He mused sitting down on the bit of dry ground he had been examining the rock from. 'But if so wouldn't it likely have it's bottom still in the dirt rather then a small dent in the dirt around it?' His own mind challenged him, pointing out the obvious. Dreamfeather loved debating with his own mind, something he probably, in hindsight, gained from being left alone most of his early moons and on. 'Indeed, therefore I do believe it was carried here by an apprentice who thought it was pretty.' He told his mind self, making up something utterly ridiculous to keep the debate in his own mind going. 'What apprentice would find that[/i] pretty? A blind one?[/i]' He chuckled at his own little joke. 'No, perhaps one with wings and talons that accidentally picked it up while grabbing it's prey. It probably stayed stuck in his talons until the wind blew the mud holding it on away.' His other mind voice scoffed. 'An apprentice with wings my tail! It was likely a predatory bird of some sort. I can't believe what an mouse-brained featherball I am.'

Dreamfeather's musings lead him towards a battle of inner thoughts such as this often, however he was tiring of this little mind debate so he set off again, wondering if he himself should make like the big bird that had dropped a small rock and hunt. He decided that was a soundly responsible and fair thing to do. His clan needed food badly this season, or any of the seasons really, though this one of course was and always would be by far the worst. He decided though that he would wait to hunt until he was closer to the camp, after all, he was actually quite thin, not having many mussels, and thus had a harder time then most caring fresh-kill for too long a time, especially if he was planning to hunt down multiple pieces of fresh-kill. The thought of the walking back and forth with such burdens for too long made his paws tingle at the idea of being so sore and he grimaced at the thought just in time that he couldn't tell if the crunching he had heard had been his jaw grinding or a twig snapping near by. He scented the air, but if anybody was near him, they were also downwind of him.

[arrow]

"Great Starclan! Was there a Gathering and nobody told me?" It seemed like every cat in Shadowclan was out hunting or on a patrol. Now, she normally wasn't the type to spend her day alone. She would rather be sharing tongues with one of her clan-mates. Plus, she had gotten up later than usual and didn't get the chance to catch any of the warriors before they left or she would of already been out with one of them.

But sitting around just waiting for someone to show up wouldn't get her anywhere. Sure she could search the camp and talk to anyone she found, but what if whoever she found didn't feel like company today? Mottledhawk's had those days before and she knows that it's no fun trying to spark a conversation with someone who'd rather be sleeping. Luckily for her she didn't have to find one of those cats. It seemed by luck that one of the cats' scent was still fresh enough to track.

The scent, however, wasn't so fresh in her memory. It was familiar, but for some reason, she just couldn't tag it with a certain cat. She stopped to think for a few moments but gave up quickly. As she followed it deeper into swamp, she thought of every cat she could. 'Wolfclaw? No, it doesn't remind me of him. Fawnpaw, perhaps? No. She's an apprentice and would most likely be with her mentor and I didn't detect any other scents other than this one.'

Mottledhawk felt like she had been walking forever! 'This is getting ridiculous. Exactly how far did this cat go?!?' Now she was just strolling. She wasn't even checking to see if the cat she had been tracking decided to make a turn. "So now that I'm out here, what is there to do?" Her mind raced with the many things the swamp offered a cat. "I guess I could hunt..." Hunting would benefit the clan, and it was leaf-bare so not as much prey would be caught. "I guess hunting would do." 'But if that cat is around, they might scare away the prey on accident.'

So in the end, Mottledhawk had to try to find the cat. Of course, that's what brought her here in the first place. With a sigh she picked back up where she started and trailed the scent to a small clearing devoid of any marshland plants. Well, not completely empty. Where she was standing appeared to be where all the trees decided to dump their unneeded branches. And there was definitely no way the she-cat was going to try and find an clearer way to where the cat was. 'Well, I just hope they aren't hunting.'

Making as less noise as she could, the warrior carefully placed each paw. It was like trying to cross a maze! Just branch after branch. Using this strategy was just causing her to waste too much time. With a bound and a leap, Mottledhawk began to hop over the branches causing many small twigs to break off with a sharp crack. 'If they were hunting, well....they're just out of luck.'

The last leap she made was a tad bit too low making her land right in the muddy goo that was the swamp floor. She stood, shook off any mud she could, and glanced around to see if the cat was still here. He was kind of hard to miss. His ginger pelt made him noticeable, even in the shadowy bog. "Dreamfeather! What are you doing here?" she asked while bounding up to his side. She looked down to the small rock in front of him. 'Had he came all this way just to stare at a rock?' It puzzled her. What was so interesting about a rock? She couldn't think of any reason for a cat to be so interested in a simple rock.

Mottledhawk bent down to get a closer look at the stone. Her nose nearly touched it before she threw her head up and looked at Dreamfeather. "I believe this egg is a dud. The bird who laid this must be ashamed of themselves." She laughed a bit before looking back at the rock. "I'm just kidding. But no, staring at it won't make it do anything. Talking to it won't help either. Trust me, Mottledhawk's tried before."

((Sorry for writing so much! I got carried away))

[fluffy]

(ooc: no problem, you'll notice I get carried away as well ^-^)

Dreamfeather startled slightly when another cat suddenly splattered into the mud beside him after having cracked a few twigs behind her. He couldn't help but be surprised that she had come all the way out here. Sure he came here often enough himself, but that was because he liked being away from other cats often and came here to think if he was bored. This place wasn't really one that too many cats came to unless they had similar reasons as him. That was because this area wasn't much good for anything else. As anyone could notice this section of the marsh didn't have any other the usual marsh plants that the prey took to hiding in, in exception for birds in dead looking trees, so this place was a last resort sort of hunting spot. It also wasn't on the border, though it was closer to the border then to the camp it still had its distance so it didn't need to be patrolled unless an enemy clan's scents were followed all the way into it. In general this was a place he counted on being able to come to to be left alone.

However she didn't only surprise him with that, she surprised him by greeting him with his own name. Usually other cats, even though they were his clan mates, messed up his name at least a little. It wasn't as if they heard it often enough to remember it very well. Not to mention he was the sort of cat to avoid being noticed and remembered anyways. To top all of that off as well his name was quite unusual. It wasn't often you got a cat who was named Dreamkit, just for the fact that it likely wouldn't be very fitting and was quite a silly name. He had always been glad of the name though because he felt it suited him nicely. He had been glad his mother had been young and crazy enough to name him such a thing. Most cats of course didn't get that impression of it though. 'If I had an extra life for every time someone called me Blazefeather, I'd be immortal.' he thought ruefully as he took in the sight of the she-cat bending down to sniff the rock he had been debating about.

At here words he couldn't help but chuckle. She had a nice sense of humor and wasn't berating him for having been wasting time staring at a rock. For him it was a nice change in pace. He was sick of always being called out on his strange behaviors. In fact the idea that she had tried to talk to a rock before intrigued Dreamfeather quite a bit, as well as her sudden shift to third person. "Have you now?" He asked with genuine interest. "Exactly how did that go? What did you say? If you insulted it you might not to walk on the same path as it again. It always happens that the first rock you insult is always the rock that trips you when you are trying to do something important. Trust me, Dreamfeather's had it happen to him before." He said, copying her way of switching to third person, not to insult her, but because he found it rather interesting. besides, if she already knew his name perfectly well there wasn't really much point in not saying it. Whether she could tell if he was taking this all much better then normal was a different question though. She very well might think he had been insulting her, especially since he laughed at the thought he had of himself actually talking to someone without running off after a few words.