Strangers [Drought]

[Lynx]

Some time had passed since the leadership of DeathClan had changed hands. Lynx hadn't spoken to his father in this time period, partially because he wasn't sure what to say. He'd never had much of a relationship with the splotchy rogue, and any prior contact they'd had with one another had been fairly awkward. Drought wasn't really the fatherly type, and Lynx had grown up only being exposed to his siblings. And, of course, there was also the fact that the new leader had been downright scary in his (successful) efforts to assert power. Lynx had figured that it was best to give him some space. He was probably busy, and the young bobtail wasn't too keen on being the one to push his dad over the edge.

Now, though, life in DeathClan was getting sort of boring. Not many cats interacted with one another, and he spent most of his days hunting or lazing around in the clearing area. Finally craving some sort of interaction, he waited for a chance to talk to Drought without interrupting him from any of his duties. The older cat was still almost a stranger, despite their blood relationship.

He found the cat one day sitting in the small clearing, apparently doing nothing. He approached slowly, keeping his body language carefully neutral. "Hey, Drought.." he said somewhat awkwardly, stump of a tail twitching. "How have you been lately?"

It wasn't much of a conversation starter, but the tom probably couldn't have done much better if he had tried.

[Deleted]

Drought had been in DeathClan's main clearing a lot since he'd made his claim to the position of leader. The past dictators had let the place go to ruin, so he had spent the past few days clearing out debris and dragging away fallen branches. The tom had decided that he wanted to abandon his old den, which was in an old sandy badger set. Though his long-time home had been secure and there was nothing wrong with it, he felt like he should make a new den in the main clearing. After all, a cat with power deserved to live in an area that was often visited by his subjects.

The spotted cat's new home was being dug out at the base of a large pine tree. There really hadn't been much to move here from his former location; just a swath of cobwebs wrapped around a thick piece of bark and several other small possessions. Drought always kept a supply of cobwebs around. He'd been in more than his share of fights, and knew that it was often difficult to search for something to stop bleeding when actually injured. Therefore, it was smart to have something on hand. DeathClan had no healer, so there was no knowledge of herbs to be passed down... but cobweb use was common knowledge.

His stomach rumbled as he clawed at the dirt, paws coated in mud. Drought was getting hungry, but the prey had been running now that newleaf had arrived, so it wouldn't be all too hard to catch something when he took a break from digging. It was painstaking work, but luckily the soil wasn't very hard.

DeathClan's leader stopped abruptly when he heard approaching pawsteps. He straightened up and turned to see his son. "Oh, hello Lynx." The young tom had only recently joined DeathClan; Drought hadn't known about that until he saw the brown cat at the meeting he'd called. It was a little awkward now that he'd have to see his son on a fairly regular basis.

"I'm a little busy. I assume you're settling in, though?"

[Lynx]

"I see that," Lynx said. Drought appeared to be digging a new den. "Want any.. help?" he asked, hesitantly. DeathClan cats seemed to work mostly alone. It seemed like a good way to get to talk a little bit with his father while not preventing him from carrying out any of his responsibilities.

"Uh, yeah, pretty well," he replied to the latter question. He wasn't entirely sure if he could even settle at this point. It didn't seem like a cat could settle in DeathClan. It was hardly even a concrete place; his life had hardly changed apart from now having to check the clearing every so often and being allied with an enemy of the Clans.

Bobbed tail twitching, he inclined his head towards the hole. "Are you making a den?"

[Deleted]

The older tom nodded slowly as he moved aside slightly. "If you don't mind having dirt stuck between your toes, go ahead. And yeah, this is a new den. I've decided to vacate my old home and make a new one here. It makes more sense for my den to be at the center of DeathClan, hmm?"

He wanted to ask about Lynx's littermates, but couldn't bring himself to say the words. It was probably his own fault that he didn't even know whether Typhoon, Ticker, and Brine were alive. Frowning slightly, Drought resumed digging in an attempt to take his mind off the issue.

"I hope leaf-bare wasn't too difficult for you. At least newleaf is here now."

[Lynx]

Lynx inclined his head as he helped in the digging. He was still a young cat, maybe apprentice-aged, but he was already proving to be fairly bulky. The task wasn't as difficult as it might have been a moon ago.

"It definitely puts you in the center of the action," he replied, digging into the soft dirt. He hesitated for a moment before replying to Drought's later question. "We made it through. Brine disappeared though. We split up a little while after that."

He fought to keep the bitterness out of his voice. Bad feelings wouldn't help now. He'd joined DeathClan to ensure that he would have a group to ally himself with come hard times. Without friends, one couldn't survive.

"Yeah, that's good. The prey's running well now." And changes are happening in DeathClan he added silently to himself. He still wasn't sure how he felt about Drought's leadership. The cat certainly wasn't a good father figure, but maybe he'd do better as the head of a bunch of rogue cats who took care of themselves and were, y'know, fully grown and able to hunt for themselves.

[Deleted]

Well, now the tom legitimately felt bad about not paying a lot of attention to Lynx and his three brothers/sisters. Brine was gone, and Darkpool only knew where Ticker and Typhoon were. Sure, Drought had his reasons... but this wasn't what he wanted. At least it didn't sound like the kits' mother had dared to approach them after that once incident. The spotted tom didn't want Feathershadow to taint the four with her disgusting Clan influence.

Maybe he should have gotten the gang to join DeathClan sooner, like Nix had. Then again, they were still young. Drought didn't know if the other DeathClanners would have accepted them before, and he certainly wouldn't have been able to do much if the situation had turned sour. But now he was the leader of this small little group, and any cat with his blood would probably not be challenged.

Drought dragged himself out of his thoughts just in time to catch what Lynx had to say about the prey situation. DeathClan wasn't exactly known for its abundance of small, edible animals... but it wasn't the worst. They definitely weren't resorting to raiding the waste that came from the nearby Twolegplace, which was a good thing. He didn't want to have cats getting poisoned when DeathClan already needed to increase its ranks.

An idea struck him quite suddenly, and he stopped digging to glance at the tabby. "Lynx, would you be interested in going to rogue territory with me? I think it's time I recruited some cats."

| Dunno if the rogues are alive, but why not. |