Bogtumble let his head loll to the side until it thumped against the branch. His yellow eye, the pupil shrunk to a n impossibly small pinpoint, rolled in the socket with the movement until it fixed on the shadow hovering above Treetiger. He dug his claws a little deeper into the bark - then he slid sideways off the branch and hit the rotting ground with a dull, unceremonious thump, and settled for lounging there instead as he stared up at her.
"Seems you're a package deal!" Giggles made his words wobble, only they sounded devoid of any joy; tainted. "I thought ThunderSquirrels were all a bunch of tree-hugging, lazy little insects hardly worth playing with." He flexed his claws, as if imagining a pelt beneath them instead of the leaf litter. "If all of you can do this little party trick, though, I might have to change my opinion."
He tilted his head again, this time focused on the feline-esque shadow, and lifted a paw to wave at it. "Does your trick have a name? Can you teach me? I'm terribly bored. Daddy never comes to visit, and there's nothing warm to eat here. I need something to pass the time if I can't sink my CLAWS into something." The corners of his mouth stretched into a too-wide grin. "Pretty please? For your new best friend Bogtumble?"
Treetiger watched as the cat just fell to the ground like a corpse. She almost flinched and maybe she would've, but this cat was already dead. She was almost certain it didn't hurt him, and it almost seemed true when he rolled and looked at her. Her own claws sank into the ground, more out of discomfort than what she could only assume as malice from him. However, the next set of words shook her to her core.
The Bengal canted her head just slightly to look at her shadowy friend. It'd been lingering in the corner of her vision this whole time. "You- you can see it?" Treetiger spoke softly, rigid from shock as she glanced back at other. She could almost hear her friend chuckling in the background of her mind. This was... expected by it? It knew?
Treetiger tried to relax a little, although the anxiety that riddled her was overwhelming. Her heart still hammered as she processed this entire situation.
Best friend. A friend.
The chuckling was louder in her head, she wasn't sure if Bogtumble could hear that too. Pupils dilated at the words. That intoxicating word. "You're my friend?" she'd turn to look directly at the feline-esque figure hovering near her. It'd released its grip on her, sitting idly as its own figure. Hauntingly red eyes glimmering as it stared blankly between the two felines. "I don't know... I don't know what I did. I just didn't want to be alone anymore. I just wished for a friend that would stay forever. My forever friend..." Treetiger eased up a little, her muscles relaxing as the tension of her secret eased up a bit after the entire moon of torture.
"I was so sick of being alone."
Green eyes shifted as a new emotion took over. "Thrush uses it sometimes. I can hear him. I can see him standing in my friend. I don't know how it works... but when I need him the most, he shows up and guides me along."
OKAY, fine being in StarClan was getting to be too boring. The veil was damaged, right? So Jaystride decided to check that out, passing over the thin mist to examine the forest of hell. Interesting...
No wonder the dark ones were always complaining. This place looked like dung. Still, Jaystride skipped into the dark woods to see what would happen. Worse case scenario, he was already dead and would spawn back at the lake. "ANNYBODY HOME??"
OOOOO SHINY! Shiny cat on BOGTUMBLE'S side of the boundary!! Two ways, it went two ways... now that he didn't feel horrendous after shredding at the veil, he could actually pay attention. Maybe. It was actually highly possible he'd get distracted early on, but he was paying attention NOW, at least.
"You're SPARKLY!" Bogtumble trotted out of the shadows looking like the most happy-go-lucky Dark Forest dweller there had ever been and fell into step to skip alongside Jaystride, eyeing him like a freshly caught meal. "Do you wanna share?? I like sparkles!"
Jaystride raised a brow at this oddity that approached him. The cat reeked of death and decay, looking not much better than some undead monster. "I like sparkles too! That's why I'm keeping mine, toadstool." Jaystride wasn't a fan of sharing - especially not with a cat he knew wasn't his own. "What'd you do to not get any?"
TOADSTOOL?!? He was NOT a TOADSTOOL! Bogtumble's face dropped into a scowl. "I'll turn YOU into a toadstool," he snipped. Did he have that power? Maybe if he stood still long enough, held his breath, stared and wiggled his ears REALLY HARD...
Nope. Dammit! Bogtumble scowled again and resorted to trudging after him. "I didn't do anything! It wasn't even my fault! Daddy wasn't keeping an eye on me and the sickness made me eat somebody. Okay, two somebodies. And the baby tasted good, but that also wasn't my fault!! What'd YOU do to KEEP yours, huh?"
"I'd like to see you try!" Jaystride wasn't sure what was going on with all the wiggling, but it kind of reminded him... "Skies, you look like a sitting rabbit. That how you die? Like prey?" Come to think of it, his frame was giving scrawny and pathetic. Jaystride couldn't tell if he'd been a Clan cat or was just some stupid rogue with afterlife knowledge.
So now the weirdo was behind him, probably on account he couldn't keep up. Jaystride couldn't blame him - not everyone matched his stride. "So you're a cannibal? Figures." Jaystride didn't care too much, though the baby munching was unpleasant.. "No wonder you're dead, babies are gross." Little snot monsters!
"Not any of that." Like sure, he killed some people. Who didn't? The issue at play seemed to be the why - and in this odd cat's case he didn't seem to recognize his faults. "You still sick, or do you just stink like a swamp?"
"I should be asking you that!" Wolverine snarled, but in truth his anger wasn't for her. "Playing with wishes only reaps pain, that has always been the cost!
"But no, none of you seek to understand the consequences of your actions before it is too late. Your freckles has seen him off, but has failed to understand the gravity." A growly rumble in his throat, a consideration of what he should offer.
"In dark depths he spies,
Awaiting passing paws to lie.
Seek the waters of the mire,
But doing so will cost you dire."
There. Maybe it wasn't as fancy as some of StarClan's, but it got the point across well enough. He wasn't no damn poet.
Smokekit. Wasn’t. Here. Bleeding burning skies, Lostspark was going to tear this place apart if Wolverine was lying to her. This place hadn’t yet faced the hell she would raise.
Luckily, her honorary great-grandfather didn’t seem to be spouting lies — he seemed just as agitated as she was currently. The old man had grown attached to her son, it seemed. Or at least, had some semblance of a heart. From his cryptic words, one thing was clear.
Smokekit wasn’t here. He’d made a wish. Returned to the living world. From Wolverine’s reaction alone Lostspark already was aware her son had not gotten his happy ending. Freckles only meant Mossfreckle. To think that her brother had said absolutely nothing to her was infuriating. Skies above. She despised riddles. But this one was clear enough. Her next destination was mapped out for her, sewn into the fabric of fate.
Darkwater Mire.
Except Lostspark never seemed to take consequences seriously when it came to the matter of her children. “He better be there.” Parting words. She didn’t feel pleased enough to thank Wolverine just yet for informing her. That could come later, after she figured out what mess the eldest of her litter of thirteen had landed himself into.
"He most certainly is, but it's.. no longer him." That was all he could say on that, he did not have the words to describe the monstrosity that'd been created. Wolverine shook his head, stepping back from her. He was so...
Ugh.
"Tread water carefully little lark, some fish eat even the strongest of birds."
He'd dismiss her from the dream, tail flicking irritably. He knew she wouldn't listen, when did that family ever?
Bogtumble's gut twisted uncharacteristically and his scowl darkened. Bristling, he quickened his pace to match Jaystride's, claws sinking into the rotten leaf litter with each step. "I fought back! Don't patronize me! I bet you died somewhere dark and damp and awful, 'cause you- you just look like you did, I don't know!"
What an irritating little maggot! Bogtumble's tail tip twitched. "It's this disgusting, rotting, evil place ruining everything. You spend enough time in here, you'd stink, too! Why do you think I wander out to your neck of the woods, huh?"
"You know hunted rabbits can fight back too, right?" Jaystride knew this cat wasn't the brightest already - given how Not there he was -- but c'mon. "Lots of cats get blinded that way, bundumb."
Though his assertion on Jaystride's fate wasn't too far off. The death part had been very quick though - tons of dirt and rock crumbling down upon him. It was quick, a mercy compared to if the sinkhole hadn't occurred. Hell, he might still be trapped down there, starving, cold, with no end in sight. "Nah."
Onto things more interesting. "Oh, I figured you just didn't have anything better to do. When you stink so bad the living avoid you, don't they?" Hard to get cats to control when they recoiled at one's scent.
Re: Dark Forest Territory
