Not All Those Who Wonder Are Lost.

[Fish]

Finally Shadowpaw was a paw and she wanted to explore. At this age she was allowed to wonder around the territory. This was very exciting for the young cat. She wanted to explore everything of her clan. She was so excited to see all of what was her birth right. Though she decided to go up in the near direction of the old burned down barn. While she wouldn't be wondering into another clans territory, instead Shadowpaw was walking out of Shadowclan territory entirely. This was no man's land. Rogues, loners and beasts lurked around. All of which Shadowpaw was completely unaware of.

All the while something started to follow her scent. A lone fox caught the scent of a lone cat so it thought it could win the fight.

@Cherry~

[occultation]

( @TheLostAmongTheStars )

BEEFED UP T3 ACTIVE

It was getting boring wandering around his own territory, so Shadowfur decided once again to venture down towards ShadowClan's direction. He wouldn't be going close to the border this time, not wanting to make it a regular habit. The last thing he needed was some cat who wasn't fond of him figuring out that old Shadeface was paying regular visits to his ex-Clan's area.

Still, despite his efforts, his former Clan had its way of finding itself to him anyways. The scent of ShadowClan hit his nose rather suddenly, causing him to stop. Upon further examination, it wasn't the scent of anyone familiar.

He didn't have much time to think it over, however, as that scent was quickly followed up by a strong afternote of fox scent. It had been some time since he'd encountered any predators. The scent of one in this area that was mixed with ShadowClan's scentcertainly wasn't welcome.

Unsheathing his claws, the huge tom bounded in the direction of the two scents. He barely registered it as he streaked past the cat who probably belonged to ShadowClan, instead focusing on the russet fur he could see through some undergrowth beyond.

Snarling, Shadowfur crashed through the bushes and collided straight with the fox. Snarling, spitting jaws immediately began snapping at him. With a level of dexterity that only came with moons of experience, he dodged the fox's attempts to snap his neck in two.

He slammed his right paw down against the fox's head, knocking it off balance. Leaping forward, he slammed head-first into its side, barreling it over. The fox flailed its paws rather unceremoniously, although in the process it did manage to tear a small wound into Shadowfur's hind leg.

This only served to fuel the black tom's adrenaline further. He batted at the fox repeatedly with brutal blows, most of them landing. The rest scored deep marks into the earth, making it evident for those that wandered into this area that nothing peaceful had occurred here.

Deep claw-marks quickly appeared across the fox's entire face, spitting blood onto the ground and on Shadowfur. Swinging his paw in an upward motion, Shadowfur slammed his paw into the fox's chin. Pain reverberated through his leg, causing him to clench his jaw.

The fox's head snapped back; he took that opportunity to go for its exposed throat. Sharp teeth sank into the fox's neck; a quick jerk of his head ended the predator's life for good.

Once the creature's breathing had stopped, Shadowfur took a few steps back, breathing deeply to try to calm his racing mind and heart. Something deep in him wasn't satisfied. He wanted something more, another enemy to sink his teeth and claws into. It didn't feel... normal.

Pushing the small bit of concern bubbling in him away, he jerked his head towards the ShadowClan cat. Whoever was out here certainly must be either stupid or ignorant, to not notice that a fox was stalking them.

Ignorant seemed to be the answer, since this cat appeared apprentice-aged. Green eyes still sparking with intensity, Shadowfur hissed, "What the hell are you doing out here? Didn't you notice a fox following you?" What the hell is ShadowClan doing these days?

[Fish]

Shadowpaw knew nothing. She wasn't experienced enough to know how dangerous life was. Sure she heard tales about some of the dangers that might be lurking but never did it fully cement itself in her mind that this would actually be something that would happen. That could happen.


Then in an instant her worldview was instantly changed. A blur of shadow passed in front of her. Then the sounds of fighting. When Shadowpaw looked over she saw a massive cat who looked so feral and wild ripped into a fox. Fear sunk into the very core of Shadowpaw as she crouched down and backed away until her back hit up against a rock. She took a 'defensive' position with her claws out while she shook in terror. Her fur was as tall as it could be and made her tail resembled more of a duster than a tail.


She watched the fierce and muscled god of a cat fight toe to toe with the fox. Even when the fox took a bite into the warrior, the shadow demon, he still fought on. Actually it seemed to only make this beast fight on even harder. In the end he ended up killing the fox, then shot his eyes at her.


Her heart could have stopped right there in fright.


Then he spoke to her. An innate fear response made her scream and clawed at the air several times, getting nothing more than just that. Then she tired herself out enough to realize that he wasn't trying to kill her.

"You know of Shadowclan?" She squeaked out having to force herself to speak as she lowered her head onto her paws. Was this some kind of loner, rogue? She heard stories of them but didn’t know that they got this big. Why didn’t anyone think to tell her that?! This couldn’t be a rogue since he wasn’t killing her right now but a loner the same didn’t sound safe.

@Cherry~

[occultation]

( @TheLostAmongTheStars )

The young cat immediately started screaming and throwing poorly-thrown blows in Shadowfur's direction when he started speaking to her. He easily dodged all of them, brow furrowed in a mixture of confusion and disappointment. This was what ShadowClan was producing these days? Apprentices whose first instinct was to scream and blindly throw terrible strikes? Hmph.

She eventually calmed down, thank the stars. A barbed remark was on the tip of Shadowfur's tongue, ready for this apprentice if she kept wailing like a kit. She questioned his knowledge of ShadowClan, causing him to pull his face back to a neutral expression. So she didn't know who he was. Good.

"I'm familiar with the Clans," was all he said. "What's a cat your age doing out here by yourself? Are you even aware that you're in the outskirts?" He doubted it, considering she didn't even seem to realize she was being hunted by a fox. He supposed he'd have to escort her home; hopefully nobody saw him in the process.

[Fish]

She looked around a little with a confused look. So this was called the outskirts nea- Wait that sounded like she was out of territory and far from it. Now Shadowpaw was feeling like an idiot but she didn't let that get the better of her. She just didn't know and her mentor didn't seem like she was very interested in training Shadowpaw. At least she could learn from this. No need to be hard on oneself.

"Well I wanted to see the clan's territory given I am of age to go out of camp." She thought for a moment on how much she should really divulge to this cat. They knew of the clan but that didn't mean he needed to learn more about it. "I just decided a direction and started to walk. I was trying to keep my nose open for when the scents changed but they never really did? I see how silly this seems now, but I just figured our clan was very large. I also wasn't going to cross any borders if that matters to you."

Slowly she stood up feeling strength come back to her body as fear mostly left her. Mostly, this cat was giant. "I don't think I thanked you. Thank you so much for saving me, you didn't have to and you got hurt for it." She said glancing to the other cats injury. "If I knew anything to treat wounds I would but I will just end up making it worse." She bowed her head to this stranger cat. The world outside was scary, very scary, but there were good actors out there. This was reassuring.

"My name is Shadowpaw by the way.. Uh what is yours?" She said as she slowly raised her head back up.

@Cherry~

[occultation]

( @TheLostAmongTheStars )

Shadowfur wasn't the least bit impressed by this cat's attempt at explaining themselves. So, she thought it would be a smart idea to go out into the territory, on her own, and just wander endlessly in one direction until she smelled scents changing? Scents were always changing; an untrained nose wouldn't know how to pick up a border.

He only twitched his whiskers in response to her thanks. At least it was better than some snide remark that she could've handled the situation on her own. He ignored her request for his name, instead focusing on the major issue at paw.

"Shadowpaw," he growled, "I'm not sure what fluff your Clan puts in your brain, but wandering out beyond camp without any training or any supervision is nothing short of stupid. Just because you're old enough to go out on your own doesn't mean you should. If you want to live past ten moons, you'd better get a good head on your shoulders, and fast."

This apprentice was lucky Dawnstar (most likely, at least) wouldn't find out about this little blunder. She'd probably wind up back in the nursery for a good moon.

The tom spared a quick glance at the wound on his leg- it didn't hurt as much as wounds used to, which was a trend he'd been noticing lately whenever he got hurt.

His eyes returned to Shadowpaw. "Dumb decisions don't just hurt you, they hurt others, too. You'd do well to remember that." He wasn't just talking physical wounds, either- stupid decisions struck at every level of a cat, whether they were involved or merely connected to the one involved.

Turning in the direction of the ShadowClan border, he beckoned her. "Come." He wasn't about to let her wander off into the unknown by herself again; clearly she couldn't handle herself without getting killed or worse.

[Fish]

Shadowpaw folded back her ears when her explanations were being thrown out like it was nothing. Did he think her fully incapable of doing anything? "I bet you did stupid things yourself." She blurted out in frustration before she realized she said it. Well it was already out of the bag nothing she could do now. And she was reminded of the wound.

"I'm sorry, I didn't want any of this to happen at all.." Shadowpaw shook her head as she walked with the strange cat.

It was not long after they started the walk back to Shadowclan a thought came to her mind. Was it really a good idea to walk all the way back with this cat? She didn't have an idea on how far this loner wanted to walk with her but if she needed to take the lead at any point she was going to be suspicious. Now Shadowpaw could tell there was something odd with this cat, that they were hiding some information from her, but she wasn't going to let them know where the camp is.

Now she had no idea if they already knew where the camp was but if they were to mindlessly walk way to deep into territory she would know they might have been a-- Wait, even if this did leak out information from the cat, if they now were on their own then surely Dawnstar would kill this cat. Right? After all he done to make sure Shadowpaw was still alive. If he was getting too deep in familiar land she would have to stop him. For his own good.

@Cherry~