Posts by cyclonebluster.

In the silence following his statement, Cy felt his gaze slipping away, sinking to the wild tufts of hair on his paws that refused to lie still. He'd always considered himself to be private; he couldn't recall the last time he'd let his heart and mouth work faster than his mind. With Flameseeker quiet, he couldn't judge if he should have kept his mouth shut, and the unease that prickled at him made the situation uncomfortable.

"Thank you." And right there, his answer. Meeting her leafy gaze, a small, somewhat embarrassed smile curled softly over his features. As the silence returned, this time more pleasant, he stretched and asked, voice strained, "Shall we return to camp … or do you want to walk a bit?" He found the prospect of travelling beneath the dawn sky with Flameseeker energizing, and although remaining alone beneath the twisting tree seemed like a dim prospect, he wasn't sure that she would share his desire for companionship.

In so many ways, Cyclonebluster was like Wolfteeth. The scruffy tom had grown up away from the clans, first is a loner den shared with his family, then in one shared with only his brother, and finally alone. He'd spent some time with twolegs before finding ThunderClan, their healers trying to mend his broken jaw. He'd escaped before his bones had managed to reset, and the result was a crooked mess of a maw. He'd finally found ThunderClan, like Wolfteeth past the age of apprenticeship, and like Wolfteeth, he'd had to prove himself worthy of becoming a warrior. It had only taken him a month to earn his name; living in the wild, he'd had ample time to hone his skills.

He'd been paired with the thick furred giant for the RiverClan patrol, but while Wolfteeth persistently checked the border, Cyclone lagged behind. Patrols near RiverClan were a touchy topic with him. Had he been able to choose his duties, he would have worked out a way to spend all of his patrols by the other borders or hunting. RiverClan was where his sister lived, and her loyalty to her home above her blood made any foray to the land bordering the river unpleasant.

"I hate patrolling here," he at last broke the silence. The words were uncharacteristic, for although he loved to chat with his clanmates, he was notoriously closemouthed when it came to matters dealing with his personal history. Admitting his distaste for patrols near RiverClan was undoubtedly progress, but there were few who would recognize it for what it was. "Wouldn't you rather hunt, Wolfteeth, given the choice? Or check the other borders?"

Hazel eyes turned to Flameseeker as the senior warrior spoke, head tilting with slight curiosity. Who indeed might RiverClan be up to? He had no answer for her, just a soft hint of acknowledgement before his eyes slipped back to the other side of the border.

Cyclonebluster hadn't fought another cat in moons. Cooped up in a twoleg nest, he'd turned to the other cats living in the den for comfort. His aggression had been reserved for the twoleg itself, and eventually Cy had learned better than to keep fighting. Nonetheless, he might have responded to Flameseeker's call if Pyrestone hadn't already answered. Instead, the windswept tom remained on the sidelines, eyes glinting with faint amusement as he called, "Go easy on him, Flame." That the odds were probably stacked against his friend was a truth he'd rather not acknowledge, and he wondered if Pyrestone would use that to his advantage.

Cyclonebluster often found himself walking alongside the thunderpath, wrapped in a thousand memories that centered on the dangerous stretch of land. The Clan on the other side of the tar-covered path rarely concerned him; rather, it was the monsters which occasionally disturbed the peaceful forest atmosphere that were the center of his musings.

Joining his clanmates by the border, the silver man considered Wolfteeth's huffed question silently. That the ShadowClanners had a purpose in approaching was beyond a shadow of a doubt. Had they intended to simply mark their borders, Sorrelstar and Firetongue would not have lingered. Curiosity burned within him, a steady flame that threatened to burn his barriers, and he had to content himself with the knowledge that answers would soon be forthcoming.

Due to the scarcity of active warriors that ThunderClan was currently experiencing, Cyclonebluster had found himself thrust back into patrols almost as soon as he'd returned. The situation wasn't ideal, but the silver and white male found that he didn't mind. The patrols built his strength, exercising muscles that had only sporadically been used when he'd been stuck in the twoleg den. More than that, they distracted him, keeping his mind from lingering on the events of the past few moons. He felt healthy, useful; had he been stuck in camp, his health would likely have regressed.

As he'd reflected mere days earlier, the RiverClan border wasn't his favorite to patrol. He always ran the risk of bumping to Tempestwing, and he never quite knew how to regard his sister. If only his paws had taken him to RiverClan that fateful day … but ThunderClan was where he had made his home.

As he strode closer to the border, a familiar scent entered his parted jaws, memory sparking as he recognized the smell. A few steps more and his gaze alighted upon the RiverClan patrol, Tempestwing at its head. If only Flameseeker stood beside him; any unease his similarly colored sibling set off within him would doubtless be countered by the beautiful tabby's presence.

Slowly, he offered Tem and Bluemask a shallow nod, forcing neutrality into his voice as he called, "How's RiverClan?"

As time passed, new faces replaced the old. It was the cycle of life, yet try as he might, Cyclonebluster had never been able to forget the friends who had left, disappeared, or died. To say that he thought of them often would be a lie, for if that was the case the fluffy silver tabby would be unable to function. He didn't think of them often, but the awareness that they were not there lingered within him.

He'd been hunting alone, paws crunching lightly over the forest floor. His prey was unaware of him, and in a fluid movement his caught it between his paws and snapped its neck, breathing out a relieved sigh for his success. With his attention no longer fixed on the prey, he detected another scent, eyes widening comically as his mind supplied a name. Astralpaw!

He moved unsteadily toward the border, features slackening as he examined the waiting molly. "...Star?" The familiar nickname fell from his ivory maw not with a bang but a whimper, first shock and then joy glazing his features. Astralpaw, one of his first friends within ThunderClan, someone he'd felt he connected to on a personal level. Forcing his limbs forward, he repeated, "Astralpaw! Are you okay? Are you … are you coming back?"

Wolfteeth's rumble, as large and as gentle as the blue tabby himself, tugged Cyclonebluster's attention back to his companion. The two of them had been assigned to patrol this particular stretch together before, yet the windtorn tabby (perhaps naively) doubted that the other could read his faint unease. Wolfteeth surely knew that he had family in RiverClan. Disinterest in gossip or not, Hailcloud had never been as closemouthed as Cy when it came to matters of family and former life. What his brother would not have shared was the fact that Cyclone didn't know how to relate to a sister who he hadn't had more than a perfunctory relationship with since they were apprentice aged, and whose priorities differed from his own.

As two more of his clanmates approached (including Flameseeker, he noted warmly) his tail rose to wave a silent greeting. Hazel gaze flickering back to Bluemask and Tempestwing, he offered, "That's good." Leaving the RiverClan deputy's question for one of his clanmates to answer, he admitted, "I looked for you at the gathering. I … didn't know that RiverClan hasn't been attending."

The dream would have been a lot less frightening if it was consistent. Cyclonebluster would sometimes have it every night; other times, days or weeks past before it reassumed haunting him. It was a simple dream, yet petrifying in what it depicted, and it always changed just enough that he never knew what to expect from it.

In the dream, he was crouched in a corner of the twoleg's nest. The twoleg was stomping around the center of the room, limbs shaking, shouting and agitated. A grey kitten with indistinct features was squashed between the twoleg's meaty paws, and Cyclonebluster watched in horror as the twoleg shook the kit wildly. And then, and this was where the dream diverged, the twoleg flung the kit against a wall and turned to Cy, head morphing into that of a rabid dog. It started to stomp toward him, and although his chest burned, Cyclonebluster tried to flee, but he couldn't run fast enough. Panic blossomed within him as the twoleg chased him through the cramped room. Just as he neared the door, the twoleg's paw grazed his leg. He couldn't think, he was terrified, more afraid than should be possible -

And then he woke up.

The warrior's den seemed ridiculously cold, and Cyclonebluster couldn't help but shiver, ears flattened and eyes wide. Fear-scent clung to him as he started to pick his way toward the den's entrance, but as he stood by the threshold, he found that he couldn't leave. It was irrational, but he had a terrifying suspicion that if he stepped paw out of the den, the twoleg would be waiting him.

The first thing Cy noticed was that Flameseeker was frantic.

Like Sunspots, the silver warrior had been working his way through a small meal when Flameseeker's scent wafted toward him. He raised his head, gaze starting to slide toward the senior warrior, vague plans to see if she wanted chat beginning to form. All such plans were put on hold when he realized how terrified she seemed, and he rose to rush toward her.

Sheepskin brushed past him, murmuring a rushed apology. Cyclonebluster didn't respond, instead following at his heels, concerned gaze assessing the red tabby. "Flameseeker, are you okay?" He was parroting Sheepskin unknowingly, barely registering the deputy's words. "What happened?"

It was hard to believe that Flameseeker had walked within the bear's very pawprints. Twenty minutes or an hour later, she might have run into the beast itself, a thought so shocking that Cyclonebluster could barely comprehend it.

The call for tasks attracting his attention, the fluffy tabby hauled himself toward the small group. A faint smile worked onto his maw, almost immediately offered as a greeting to his clanmates. "I'll take one, too."

Cyclonebluster meandered toward the group, enjoying the warm sunlight on his back. Unlike Redghost, he wasn't looking forward to the cooler weather in the slightest. Unlike the albino male, Cy wasn't likely to burn beneath the sun; for him, warm weather was a gift. Blinking languidly as he joined the others, he commented, "You must have some interesting stories of your own, Redghost."

The bear was a constant threat, a heavy presence that invaded every aspect of his life. Even when he was within camp, Cyclonebluster couldn't help but think about the imposing predator. Moonstar had been badly hurt by it, and Flameseeker had found signs that it had lingered close to camp. The camp's not safe. The thought ran through his mind on a never ending loop, repeating over and over again until he could think of nothing else. The camp wasn't safe. The territory wasn't safe. It wasn't safe anywhere.

And yet, he still somehow found himself robotically patrolling. The clan needed to be fed and the borders needed to be checked, and his fear of the bear wasn't able to significantly impact the world. It was well past sunhigh when he found himself by the thunderpath, intently stalking a large thrush. As he sprung toward it, a flash of fur caught his attention, and he shrank back against the treeside, sure it was the bear.

It wasn't. The fur was far too small and he couldn't detect signs of the bear anywhere. What he could detect was the heavy smoke that billowed from passing cars, and as he crept closer to the thunderpath, he was met with the sight of a deceased cat. A kittypet, judging by the collar around her neck, with a stomach that was just beginning to bulge from pregnancy.

"Spirits." Cy moved stiffly toward the cat, eyes wide, face contorted in a horrified grimace. She was dead. Dead. Her life had followed a completely different path than his, but he still found himself feeling for the kittypet. "I...I'll bury you. I'll mourn you." He didn't know her, but she deserved something. She deserved more than to be forgotten.

Despite the many unpleasant memories he had of the thunderpath, Cyclonebluster couldn't help but love the place. He associated it as much with hope as with despair, for it was direction from which he'd first approached ThunderClan and from which he'd returned, and despite the tragedies he'd witnessed near it, it was the place where he'd bonded with Flameseeker and Moonstar.

He turned his head as Flameseeker approached, tired gaze seeking her single green eye. Although he couldn't read her mind, he imagined that his own grief was reflected in her face, and he pressed against her, hoping for the comfort of physical touch. His voice was soft, barely above a whisper, as he murmured, "Help me." It was a long moment before he could speak again, and although some part of him thought that she'd understood his plea, he clarified, "She needs to be buried."

Like Flameseeker, Cyclonebluster had never known the thrill a Clan kit experienced the first time they left the nursery. He could vaguely recall the first time he'd been out alone, but the whole, Amos and Robinfoot had been lenient parents.

"First time out?" he greeted Adderkit, teeth flashing in a bright grin. He swallowed softly, working his twisted jaw, and offered a nod to Sunspots and Flameseeker. "That must be exciting! Are you having fun so far?