Windclan's arrival

"I can make it, but I don't know about you. Some of the ledges are pretty small." Blacktail told the truth. The ledges were small for Integrity. However, his size made it easy to get from ledge to ledge. And jump from ledge to ledge he did. He was practically at the bottom when he looked back up at the top. It seemed so far away. Wow...I came all the way down?

((BTW, when he falls in the river, I already have a thread set up in RiverClan camp. Its Walking around the Edge or something....Integrity can run on the bank side and.....you okay with that))

"Me? But I'm like, super skinny." Integrity was right about that--she was a tall, long, thin cat, who as a result looked even larger than she actually was. {And she hated even the thought of being too "fat" to manage some ledge or other.} But she did realise that it might be difficult for her to manage really tiny ledges the way Blacktail, a truly undersized cat, did. He wasn't even half her size.

She was just going to have to navigate her own way down, like she had been doing already.

She saw a possible nick of rock jutting out that would possibly provide a landing surface, and jumped several feet down. She landed on its steep slant and found that gravity was pulling her right down past it. Integrity gave a yowl of terror as she was forced to bound and slide downward on a slope too steep to stand still on. She slid down right past Blacktail and kept on going. "Ohmygawd! Ohmygawd! I'm gonna die! I'm gonna die! Oh Starclan! AAAHHH!"

Blacktail's eyes widened in terror. He jumped off the ledge he was on and started bounding down the steep slope after her. Since he was already almost to the bottom, it wasn't long before it was too close for comfort. Blacktail pushed off the wall in hopes of landing on the bank of the river. He overestimated his speed and the distance he would go. He went flying into the river.

All the world was was swirling, raging water. He swam towards the surface. His head broke through and he drew in a ragged breath as he was swept downstream.

Integrity knew she was going to hit the river too, since the bank wasn't long or gently sloped enough to stop her momentum. She went tumbling straight into the water. In the air, her four legs extended to block her fall.

Smack!

She went under and surfaced in a fury. She had seen Blacktail go in at about the same time. She blinked the water out of her eyes and looked all around for any sign of him. "Blacktail? Blacktail!" They had to find each other, then find their way up onto the bank.

"Integrity!" he called out as water filled his mouth and he went back under. Blacktail spat the water out of his mouth. He was drifting further and further down the river with the current, unable to get back to the shore.

Soulpaw spotted Ravenpaw and Harepaw, and he raced over to them. "What are you doing, we need to get out of here!" He panted.

ooc: so the fire is moving towards the gorge, too? *shrug* Works for me.

ic:

Integrity paddled towards him and freaked out when she saw him go under. Then, relief ruled as she saw him surface again. She reached out and pulled her front paw around him. They had the best chance of making it through this alive if they stuck together.

~*~*~

Miro smelled the smokescent growing stronger. He had gotten a vague idea of where the wildfire was, but had not seen it at all--he had deliberately avoided it. Now as he finished one kill and returned to the rock to start eating another, he knew he wouldn't have as much time to waste in this place as he'd thought.

So he ate a little faster, now.

((You do realize he's in the middle of the river right? not near the edge))

Blacktail would have said something, but he didn't want to send water rushing down his throat. He concentrated on keeping his nose above the water so he could keep breathing. That in and of itself was hard. He kept getting dragged down but Integrity was able to keep him close enough to the surface that he could bring himself up with some effort.

ooc: Yeah. Integrity "paddled towards him" in my last post. It isn't a hugely wide river.

ic: "Don't sink on me, dam*it!" Integrity kept her front paw wrapped around him as the water continued to swirl and sweep them downstream. It was hard to remain facing forward. The river's current ran them into frequent eddies that kept turning them in all directions.

((I need to read better....got my glasses out now Uhoh! Okay...I finally stopped crying after watching Wolf's Rain. Yeah...get over it! Real men aren't afraid to cry!))

"I'm not trying to sink!" he shot back when he had a breather and swallowed a bunch of water for it. Hacking and spitting, Blacktail tried to get it all out, but only succeeded in swallowing even more of it.

"With you I can never really tell, now can I??" Integrity didn't relinquish her hold. She wasn't just hanging onto him to keep him afloat, she didn't want to be separated from him.

((Sorry. I had to go eat dinner and feed the animals and get the mail at the end of the road))

Blacktail was embarrased. "You've got a -" he went under again. "point there" he finished as he resurfaced. He was getting detatched from the situation again. There wasn't any more pain, and it didn't feel like anything mattered anymore.

((How long are we gonna go before he slips out of her grasp and washes up in RiverClan camp?))

ooc: Let's pass a little time and do it now, because otherwise not much different is happening. I have to go for about an hour or so now but will be back after that.

ic:

Integrity, too, had to often fight to keep her head fully up, wherever the river got particularly choppy. She began to use her free limbs to swim as hard as she could towards the riverbank. Slowly, she made progress.

((KK. I'll still probably be here, for I have no life XP. If I'm not here, i'll be on soon. my dad probably has some plans to try to beat me at star Wars Battlefront 2....he's been practicing XS...so I'll be back after humiliating him....again. As much as I don't like him, he's persistant...))

As she swam towards the shore, Blacktail began to slip out of her grasp. unable to say anything, he silently slipped into the river and started moving with the current again, away from Integrity and towards the RiverClan camp.

ooc: Your dad sounds really cool! You should like him!

ic:

"NO!" Integrity felt him slip out of her grasp. Her front leg had grown too tired to maintain a hold on him and she had let him go. All over again the terror came over her that he was going to die. She started swimming after him again.

((He insists that he knows everything i know, and tells me I know something when I don't. Its so freaking annoying...))

Blacktail was picking up speed as he went deeper into the river. He disappeared several times under the surface. Each time, it took him longer to struggle back up to draw in another breath.

ooc: Eh, he's just being a dad. ^_^

ic: There he was, dying again. Fourth time in less than 24 hours, Integrity mused to herself as she caught up with him again. She laid her large ears back and dived under. And came back up with a soggy, burned, cougar-scratched mess of a cat. This time she was going to keep his scruff in her teeth as she got them both to the bank.

And she'd thought Eric was bad.

Blacktail coughed and spluttered. His wet fur made him heavier than it normally would. Despite her efforts, he still couldn't get the air he needed. That's when it happened. Another cat came up and grabbed Blacktail right out of Integrity's mouth and started swimming strongly with him. The cat was obviously RiverClan, with the way he swam with such confidence, as if he did this every day. Which he did.

Blacksnake looked down from his perch in the tree. 'Ughhhhh I want to help, but I have to protect Bluekit.Maaaan what am I suppossed to do?' The black tomgot up and nudged the kit into a hole, Probably used to be a woodpecker's nest. "Stay there," he meowed gruffly before jumping down from the branch. The warrior raced toward the gorge then skittered to a halt, his yellow eyes wide. 'Crap, no!' He paced the ridge looking down at the cats. As much as he wanted to help, he knew there was absolutely nothing he could do.