Posts by PaintedChameleon

"And then we just ask around-- try to see how the natural environment has been affected by enroaching human settlements. We can start with the wild cats around here, since their bound to be a lot more hospitable with us." The soothing voice belonged to none other than a dapper young tom, his tuxedo markings adding to the facade. He stopped briefly at the fringe of the gathering, peering into the sea of bodies with a flicker of optimism illuminating the depths of vivid olive irises.
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"Yeah-- you're definately onto something, Felix." Remarked a second feline, advancing along the worn down path gingerly, highly aware of her surroundings. The forest, as every housepet knew, was a dangerous place, and should be respected as such. "But we shouldn't just waltz up to them and ask. We need a plan-- a course of action, so to speak." The bulkier, dark cinnamon she-cat suggested, wincing as their presence drew a few suspicious glares that set her ears ablaze.

"Ah-- greetings." Felix dipped his head courteously, radiating a charming, charismatic aura that enveloped those around him in its comforting glow. He was the epitome of calm, and blinked languidly at Bubbleheart.
"Do you have a second? I would like to ask you a question or two. Don't worry-- it's nothing personal."
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Lucky, the second feline, took this chance to hurry away. Her dark navy irises flickered around in trepidation, and the hairs along her cinnamon pelt rose with every passing moment. The stares, hostile ot not, still managed to make her feel queasy.
"Geez. I would've rather asked a mouse or two-- however gross the little vermin are." She shuddered slightly at the thought of getting near a rodent...

"Why do I have to go into the stupid forest?" Muttered a plump, youthful cinnamon tabby, her paws stomping along a worn down path through the thick vegetation surrounding the clearing. A lisence tag, reading: Kismet dangled from a woven lavender collar strapped securely around her neck, glinting as a stray shaft of moonlight struck the metallic surface.
"It's not like anyone'll miss a couple of strays in the woods-- heck, less work for me if they all just dropped dead when I got there." She huffed, pausing briefly to gaze at the bramble bushes, parted to make an entrance into the gathering. "Here we go." The irritated feline grumbled under her breath, before scrambling through, gagging at the overwhelming scent of... well, cats.

"Took you long enough." Said a voice over her shoulder, making young Kismet whirl around with a shout.
A dapper tuxedo tom-cat stood behind her, his stunning violet irises narrowed slightly in amusement. He had been waiting for his neighbor much of the day, but not surprised a bit that she turned up late... as usual.
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"I had to eat dinner! Tuna squares are Marge's specialty." Huffed the youngster, striped tail lashing to and fro. "And I don't wanna hear you and Lucky say: 'But Kismet, it's for the good of all the creatures!' Cause missing dinner ain't no good to me, and as far as I'm cocerned, I'm the only one that really matters." She was obviously upset about having to go on another research mission with her know-it-all neighbor.

Kismet's paws lightly scuffed the surface of the soil, her dark cinnamon shoulders hunched in despair. Her sister had brought her along to investigate the pollution occuring in a nearby lake, and left the youngster to her own devices.
"Stupid nature."
The pudgy tabby complained aloud, pacing around the trunk of a maple.

"I mean, why would a couple of strays dying make the stupid forest any worse? If you ask me, they are the issue."
Kismet huffed under her breath, ears flat against the back of her skull. As a house pet, she just wanted to return to her humans, not waste time trying to save a lost cause.
"It's their fault no one'll take 'em in. Why should we try and help them?" A tail lashed from side to side in irritation. "Gosh, maybe Lucky and Felix got blackmailed into doing all this. Or they're just stupid."

"What in the world..." Kismet muttered, flabbergasted at the spectacle involving the two kits.
She ducked her head down and scrambled backwards into a hedge, confused and frightened, though not curious at all. Helping them didn't even seem to cross her mind as she cowered in the shadows, pale cyan irises wide.

"Flying... they're flying... again..." Kismet whispered, now thoroughly terrified. She tried to get the branches to shield her from view, thinking: These cats are freaks... I need to tell Lucky... But the fear that a hostile individual would pummel her to a pulp (heck, if they could fly, super strength and/or invincibility couldn't be that impossible) halted her impending escape.
"What kind of toxic waste was being dumped in that lake? Holy cow, this is crazy." The young cinnamon tabby she-cat mused, though her paws trembled.

"Seriously-- I saw them fly." Kismet whispered in her older sister's ear as the two she-cats advanced down a worn path of crushed ferns and trampled vines.
"It's not possible, Kismet. Cats can't grow wings, can't attain any sort of supernatural ability. It defies logic." As always, Lucky looked to the logical side of any issue, confident in her evaluations and beliefs.
"Well, they defied logic somehow! You gotta believe me!" Kismet insisted, cyan irises wide and pleading. The two sisters made it to the fringe of the clearing when they paused.

Startled, the two sisters pressed closer together, the cinnamon tabby fur along their spines bristling in terror. Lucky's jewel-green gaze locked onto Dawnkit, revealing her undisguised horror.
"Told you!" Kismet squealed, ducking behind her older sibling for protection.
"Um-" Lucky just stood there, stunned. Who would've thought she'd be proved wrong so quickly?

"Hurry-- run!" Lucky whispered in her younger sibling's ear, muscles tensed to follow.
" 'Kay!" Kismet didn't argue, just turned to charge into the clearing, trying to reach the other end. There was another path that lead back to their neighborhood, though it was much longer than the one they had originally taken.
Lucky faced Dawnkit with a low snarl rumbling in her throat, before whiping around to persue her sister, shouldering through the crowd.

Arachnidpaw's intense, coppery-red irises narrowed in disdain as they gazed down at the clearing. From his vantage point in an elderly oak, the youthful tom could survey the entire area in a single sweeping motion, as if scanning for viable prey. Creeping up to perch on his left shoulder was his pet, the rather docile Aphonopelma {type of tarantula} nicknamed Figure.
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"Huh. He sure does know how to create that creepy atmosphere." Mused a smaller, yet more compact female felidae, blinking her dichroic optics languidly up at Archnidpaw. They were a very bright corn-flower blue, rimmed with a thin black outline.
A long, cream sepia tail twitched, as did the transparent whiskers on her narrow muzzle, before she turned her attention toward the gathering. Watching the Great Rock for a sign of the leaders, Lucidpaw sat amongst her own clanmates, being sure to choose the spot closest to the other apprentices.

Lucidpaw's mouth curved upward in a friendly grin.
"Greetings!" She dipped her head enthusiastically, eyes trained on Wildpaw, curious.
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Up above them, Arachnidpaw hmmphed grumpilly, glaring down at the stranger. His dense, coal black pelt bristled slightly, though it was merely against the gale of wind that swept by.
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Positioned beside Lucidpaw, the young ocicat, Feralpaw, was perusing the contents of an old scroll. The manuscript held many different markings in the form of letters and numbers-- it was impossible to read, so she had the task of deciphering the text.[align=center]

"I'm Lucidpaw, of the Ancestral Plane. It's nice to meet you, Wildpaw." The cream sepia apprentice chirped, patting a spot on the ground for her new aquaintance to sit at. "Where are you from?"
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Arachnid just watched, not bothering to introduce himself.
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Feralpaw scratched in a few new symbols, dipping her claw in a small vial of ink. She looked up briefly, waving her spotted tail in greeting, before turning diligently back to her assignment.