the crag caverns

[taillow]

DUSKLION
she/her | riverclan deputy | 30 moons
go with the flow, rapid recovery, beefed up t3, mind reader

Stars.

Dammit.

That hurt.

The first thing that Dusklion noticed as her eyes fluttered open was that it was dark. Like, very dark. Darker than she had ever seen - well, outside of the Starcave. That had been pretty dark. But this felt different in a way. Because of the serious aches that were paralyzing her body the deputy only looked around at where she had... fallen into? Been dropped into? She wasn't sure. Tilting her head up she was able to see light filtering in from an opening above. It was... way too high up to climb out of though.

As she tried to sit up, a serious pain rippled through her. "Ow..." the dark tabby muttered, craning her neck to see - oh. Part of the large flank wound she had sustained from Twilightstar had reopened a bit along the scar line. Well, that wouldn't be fun to deal with. At least it wasn't too bad.

Grunting the deputy hauled herself up despite the sharp pain that tried to keep her down, catching her breath for a moment. Whether she had fallen or gotten attacked she couldn't recall. Tufts of her fur were missing though which had her annoyed. "Ugh, I hate these damn mountains!" she yowled, her voice echoing off the cavern walls. With a lash of her tail she leaped down, wincing at the pain flare up on her side.

...Now, how to get back to the Clan?

[taillow]

DUSKLION
she/her | riverclan deputy | 30 moons
go with the flow, rapid recovery, beefed up t3, mind reader

[ Time Missing: Two Days ]

Wandering around so much, looking through one part of these caverns only to be met with a dead end, was starting to grate on Dusklion's nerves. Every path seemed promising until it was blocked off by more rocks. And there was relatively nothing to eat down here save for a few scraps that the deputy figured were left-overs from other animals. Animals that she... wasn't keen to run into. That, accompanied with the way her throat screamed for water as it dried out faster than the small streams during greenleaf, had her in a very, very, very sour mood.

As if the very thought of her tasteless meals was the trigger, a loud rumble ripped through her stomach. "Yeah, because I'm intentionally starvin' you - that's it," she bit out with a glare towards her shrinking stomach. She had been a bit skinny before, but now it was much more obvious what with the way her ribs were starting to protrude out from her skin. She was tough though, and this was no different than the times she and her brother had gone hungry during their life outside of Clan borders.

...What was different was not having him here, and the last interaction they'd had still echoing in her mind. Thunderchaser - dead. Fades butting into a situation she had clearly been handling... yeah, anger at her brother still lingered, but there was a small part that missed him - always would, she figured. But lately he had been making so many rash decisions... the deputy found it hard to figure out where RiverClan Leader Fadingstar ended and where her brother Fades began. It was enough to increase the incessant pounding between her ears.

She had to find a way out. Not just for her sake, but for RiverClan. Imagining the gloating of the other three leaders as her disappearance was announced at the next gathering they were able to attend was enough to elicit a snarl from her, accompanied by a lash of her tail. "No way 'm I lettin' a tree rat 'n a swamp rat get a single barkin' laugh outta this." Twilightstar and WindClan... well, that was still a different story she was working through. As much as the WindClan leader despised her, there was a small part of her that knew that the seasoned leader didn't particularly want her dead. After all, she had the chance to kill her - but hadn't. But Tree Rat and Swamp Rat? Oh, she knew they'd guffaw over her misfortune loud enough to where it would echo in the stars above if she gave up now.

She would never give them that satisfaction.

Turning down another scraggly path with little to no light, Dusklion continued to grumble to herself. This one seemed to get narrower the further she following it along, coming to the point where her whiskers were brushed back and the walls pressed up against her sides. Eventually she had to squeeze her way through with various grunts and swears muttered until it started to widen back out. It continued to grow bigger until it led to a larger opening - still underground - that the deputy hadn't come across before. "At least this is new," she muttered with a glance around.

The opening was tall, with little cracks above that let in light from what Dusk could only assume was the surface above. Sand littered the ground here which was a grateful break from the jagged stone she'd been exploring on. Little whispers from pitter-pattering creatures drew her attention to small holes in the wall just fast enough to watch their shadows scurry inside. The smell was enough to wrinkle her nose, but eventually looking over past a rise in the ground she saw -

"Thank the damn stars!"

Immediately stumbling over her paws Dusklion scrambled over to the edge of the rock and crouched over, tongue lapping at the pool of water there. The relief was immense and it had the deputy sagging in her posture. She was practically lying on the ground as her head was stuck on the surface of the pool, gulping down as much of the water as she could. It had never tasted so good, and after getting her fill the deputy pulled herself into the water, wanting to cry as she found it was deep enough to sink her whole body into. It was cold, but nothing she wasn't used to as she ducked herself under, letting the water soak her to the bone.

After a bit the dark tabby hauled herself back onto land and shook out her pelt. She felt revitalized now, the constant pain somewhat dulled. Turning her head to look at the wound on her side she saw that it was starting to close up again, thankfully. Whatever stars had been blessing her healing down there, Dusklion would never know - but she was grateful nonetheless.

She spent the next bit of time searching around the area she had stumbled into. There were a few side tunnels that Dusklion peered into, but didn't dare try leaving for fear of getting separated from the source of water she had found. After a bit of digging though she was able to retrieve the half-eaten corpse of what she assumed was a rat. "It's no fish, but..." she muttered as she settled down around it, tearing into it rather vehemently.

Now though, exhaustion took over and her jaws parted in a yawn. There didn't seem to be any threats here - and besides, she had always been a light sleeper. Another yawn was enough to have her shakily lying on the cool ground floor, cheek pressed into the sand. "...'M gonna find my way out, swear it," she mumbled as her eyes fluttered closed. "No caverns'... gonna outsmart... me..."

[Luminous]

Saturn

She was right on its tail, paws drumming against the rocky ground and its scent teasing her senses. "you..." Just as she would have been able to nibble at it's hindlegs it turned sharply "are..." she followed, darting between the familiar rocks of her territory "mine!"
It tried to turn again, but she saw it coming this time, pushing off with her hindlegs and tackling the rabbit from the side. It was brought to the ground, but something gave way underpaw, and Saturn let out a surprised yelp and the rocks and earth behind her began to slide.

She could feel sand and stone tumbling around her, knocking into her sides and trying to find their way into her hands. Then the rough but sturdy surface of rock under her flank. Everything was dark but her eyes quickly got used to it, and she scrambled up to find that luckily her catch was still with her, if sandy and seemingly knocked dead. "Saves me the trouble I suppose."

But now to find a way out of here. The Crown tried to return towards the collapsed part of the tunnel, clawing and digging at the debree to the best of her ability but it was to no use. Whenever she got a pawful of earth and rock out of the way, three times the amount flooded back in. A huff of frustration left her before she picked up her catch -- "Fine, be that way." -- and began to walk into the cave. She was aware that there were different-sized tunnels and caves all over the place, but they were mostly the homes or escape-routes of other creatures, so exploring them and putting them to use had never been on her list of plans. That being said... Saturn had been a curious child, much to the chagrin off her sister and parents, but it was not her first time underground. "It's all good, this is gonna take what, a few hours?" She would be back home just in time to share this rabbit with Mars and spin tales of her little adventure to Diamond, Bluebird and Chisei. This wouldn't be a problem. Definitely not. It was all good.

But then the path she had been following split into two, both of them leading straight and neither smelled of fresh air. The right one, however, carried a different scent, and copper eyes narrowed as she began to smell... a cat? But not the familiar and welcoming scent of her family and other Atarians. No this one was different, and though she could have sworn she had come across it before, she could not for the life of her recall where.

Well it wasn't like she had too many options if she wanted to get out of here, maybe whoever was ahead was more familiar with these places than she was. Besides, she knew how to fight. She had training, she had fought and sparred with countless cats before, and she had killed checking foxes, so she'd be fine even if this cat proved to be less friendly.

She walked carefully, just in case, but the one she came across was sleeping. Alright, not too much of a threat right now. She placed down the rabbit and approached to gently poke the cat. "Please be actually sleeping." Her luck wasn't usually bad enough to find a sleeping cat and them actually being dead, but she also didn't usually fall into caves while out hunting.

@taillow

[taillow]

DUSKLION
she/her | riverclan deputy | 30 moons
go with the flow, rapid recovery, beefed up t3, mind reader

[ Time Missing: Four Days ]

.

. .

. . .

Okay, so perhaps when she was starving, dehydrated, and down on her luck, Dusklion wasn't the lightest sleeper around. The deputy was out cold, not hearing the sound of paw steps approaching her. Even the prod to her side went unnoticed save for a soft grunt. The darkness of unconsciousness was too welcoming to leave and she - wait. Her nose started to twitch a bit and immediately blue eyes opened to locate the source. The last thing she'd eaten was that already dead rat and it had... not agreed with her stomach, considering the last day had been spent in a delirious state of emptying the contents of her stomach and having no energy to drag herself towards the water she had found and, seemingly, remained by. But this. This was fresh. Warm. Inviting.

At first the dark tabby didn't notice the other cat there, her eyes only focused on crawling forward towards the rabbit she now saw. If this was a gift from StarClan she would never, ever complain again. She only managed to haul herself a little bit when something furry brushed her side and she glanced over. A paw. Why was there a paw? A paw that belonged to...

Her eyes traveled up and the face of a cat staring down at her was enough to have her survival instincts kick in. Immediately Dusk scrambled backwards, fur bushed out and claws at the ready. "Who're you???" she spat, ears pulled back and tail lashing. She wanted to look as intimidating as she could, because this cat was strong and healthy and would probably kill her. But between the hunger and the thirst she looked like nothing more than a small sack of bones, a cough sputtering from her and shaking her skinny frame.

That scent though... Tearing her nose away from the delicious rabbit smell, Dusklion tried to figure out why it was familiar in her hazy mind. The... border. The Rift, she had started calling it. "...You're... from across that border..." she muttered finally, looking up with dull blue eyes. "...Lemme guess, 'm on your territory?" Great. That was the last thing she needed right now. A fight.

Hopefully her brother wouldn't choose some incompetent fluff-head for her replacement.

[ Saturn - @Luminous ]

[Luminous]

Saturn

"That's all i get?"
I mean, it was alive, so that's something. A noise so it was a start at least, but Saturn tilted her head a bit as the brown cat... started just crawling towards the prey, right past its catcher. It took a solid moment for the other molly to even take notice of her, but a small if rather unimpressed smile came across Saturn's face once she finally did. "There we go, took ya long enough." She murmured, her voice resuming its usual hint of playful teasing.

Because whatever caution she had felt towards the tabby had been washed away the second she got a better look at them, even if she was still slightly worried about them. "Saturn's the name. And first of all, you're the one who is 'across' the border, the Atari was here before you guys and-" Saturn had been pretty casual, but the last thing the tabby said made her expression turn into one of disbelief. So she had found this cat out cold, down in a cavern where she had been for probably several days, and the first thing they talked about was border stuff?

"Oh com'on," she scoffed as she got up again and turned to walk towards her rabbit, picking it up and tossing it over her shoulder to land at the tabby's paws. "You look like a pile of bones with some fur on 'em --like how long have you been down here?-- and your first thought is over which side of a line you're on?"

A nod towards the rabbit; a signal to start eating. "So who are you? Like name 'n stuff, I know you're from the Riverclan. How did ya even get down here?"

@reiya

[taillow]

Dusklion - RiverClan Deputy

Saturn... Well that was a peculiar name. If Dusklion hadn't been a former outsider herself with just the name of 'Dusk' she would've been confused. Living in RiverClan so long she had tried to forget that part of her life. "Dunno what a 'Saturn' is..." she murmured as she studied the cat before her. Strong. Stocky. In much better shape than she was currently. Her ears flicked in surprise at hearing she was actually across the border. Swallowing her caution at that though was easy when this... Saturn picked up the rabbit and tossed it to her. Was she... just giving up her prey? The ravenous claws that scraped a hollow chasm in her stomach begged the deputy to sink her fangs into it without another word - but tradition ran deep in her veins and she fought against it.

...Until the nod. There was a second of her eyes widening before Dusklion glanced at the rabbit and suddenly she was hovering over it, ripping into the prey with the bite size of a much larger cat than she. Oh golden glowing stars above, it was delicious. It was warm and fresh and it made her want to melt into a puddle right where she was. A purr rumbled throughout her body, realizing just how hungry she had been.

After a couple bites Dusklion remembered where she was - and more specifically, who she was with. Saturn. Right. Swallowing her last bite the deputy settled into a crouched position, bringing her tail to cover her paws. "...Dusklion," she finally introduced herself with a glance up towards the stranger. "...I guess I... fell?" ...How did she get down here? Confusion fogged her expression before clearing in realization. "A stupid bird swooped down. Didn't get a good look but it was big. Huge. Never seen one like it. Must've chased me right over the side 'cause the next thing I knew I was wakin' up in these... these underground tunnels too far down to even try to climb out - though I definitely gave it a shot."

Her hunger forced her to take another bite, barely chewing through it before blinking at the strange cat once more. "...Met one of you before," Dusklion added. "...Mo... Ma... Mumble somethin', I think? Said she was a healer of your group." The exact name had escaped her briefly but Mumble seemed faintly familiar. She had been nice enough at least. "Listen. I'll be outta your fur soon, okay? Didn't intend to cross any borders, just... gotta find a way out of here..."

[ @Luminous ]