Kira's Writing Dump

[Natalia]

((So I'm going to dump random bits of writing now and again, probably related to one of my characters. Basically, this is me trying to fix Thomas. I've been pretty mad at him myself, thus it makes it difficult to work up the muse to RP him. I'm trying to make him... Idk... Trying to tone down the murder I guess. I suppose I'm also trying to give Stormsong a reason to return to FC.

Thomas was annoyed. Things were going downhill and he hated it. He was pretty sure Ginger didn't like him anymore, replacing him with that Ghost guy... Why else would she find someone else to hang out with, wasn't he enough...? Wasn't he worthy of her friendship. Frustratedly, he kicked a pebble. He was currently in the park, stalking about. He jumped onto a park bench and curled up, shoving his face into his paws. He didn't get it. Why did everyone leave....? Eve, Mom, Dad... Dad #2.... And now Ginger. 

He growled to himself, lifting his head briefly, only to shove it back into his paws. He didn't understand it. While he was thinking these angry, violent thoughts, a voice yanked him back to reality.

"Can I sit here?" A gentle voice asked. Thomas looked up to see a tom with dirty white fur, some black markings. He had some of the most infuriatingly bright green eyes... Though, Natalia's were brighter. He was able to tolerate the tom only because their eyes were different enough.

"Sure, whatever." He grunted.

"Thank you." The tom responded and he jumped onto the park bench beside him, sighing as he curled up. He shifted around a bit before speaking up. "My name is Storm."

Thomas snorted. Did this guy think he was an idiot. "No it isn't." Storm(?) seem surprised. Thomas huffed. "You still reek of those clan cats. You clan cats have weird names, not normal ones."

Storm(?) shook his head. "... I guess that was a long shot. My full name is Stormsong. I wasn't lying all the way..." He responded quietly. 

Thomas huffed. "It's still lying." The grouchy ginger tabby tom retorted.

"... I guess it is." Stormsong replied, not raising his voice to a normal volume.

"... So what's a clan cat doing all the way out in twolegplace? You've been here for a while. Your stupid clan scent hasn't gone away, but it's starting to be mucked up by the scents around. Plus, I thought you clan cats didn't like anyone outside of your dumb clan." All non-clanners knew that clan cats didn't like outsiders much at all.

Stormsong's tail twitched nervously. "... My family didn't need me. They would've been better off without me. There was an opportunity to leave... So I took it." He explained, but Thomas's gaze was filled with fury.

"You had a family? A family that loved you?"

Stormsong seemed surprised. "Um... I think at least Frostedsky still did....?"

Thomas shook his head ferociously. "You're a moron."

Stormsong's fur bristled at the insult. "Hey-"

Thomas cut him off. "You had a loving family and you threw it away." He growled.

Stormsong flattened his ears. He shook his head and looked away. "... My dad isn't around. I'm not on good terms with my mom, even if she thinks we are. I haven't seen Amberpaw in ages, Foxpaw and Hazelpaw I think are mad at me... I'm not close to any other siblings except Frostedsky." He had a sad smile on his face. "She's strong. She'll be fine without me."

Thomas huffed. "And what about you?" He snapped. "Are you such an idiot you won't take care of yourself?"

"M-Me?" Stormsong blinked openly. It almost looked like when Natalia was surprised... All that naivety.

"Yes, you." Thomas rolled his eyes. "Who did you think I was talking to?"

Stormsong awkwardly shuffled his paws and looked away. "I-I just...."

Thomas didn't wait too long for Stormsong to come up with an intelligent response. "That kind of love.... From a family... It's precious. You don't know what's it like to lose something, truly." He shook his head. "You'd have to be a grade-a idiot to give that up...."

Stormsong noticed the not-so-subtle insult. He flattened his ears, but seemed curious. "Did... Did you lose your family."

Thomas closed his eyes. "Mine was stolen from me."

Stormsong cocked his head. "They're... Dead?"

Thomas shook his head. "Nah... My bratty little sister scared away my whole family. My parents... My real sister..."

Stormsong frowned. "Your... Little sister?

Thomas snorted. "Yeah. She took all my parents attention away from me and then she scared them away." His eyes shimmered with past hurt. "I still don't know what she had and I didn't...." He whispered.

Stormsong blinked. "I.... I don't know what to say."

Thomas growled. "And she had the nerve to claim she loved me! She was just trying to manipulate me, like she manipulated my parents!"

Stormsong blinked. "She... Why would she lie about that?"

"Because she wanted me around her little finger..." He growled.

Stormsong frowned. "That sounds terrible...."

Thomas let out a dry laugh. "It is. She was like that from the get go...."

Stormsong seemed shocked. "You mean, she was like that as a kit...?" It was kind of hard to wrap his head around the idea of a little kit being... Manipulative like that.

"Yes! She was a kit when she said it too! Four moons, maybe. Three, perhaps." 

Stormsong frowned at Thomas. "I... Really don't think a kit is capable of playing people like that."

Thomas shook his head fiercely. "You don't know her like I did! She's still like that! She got a little minion to attack me!" He pointed fiercely at his ruined eye. "See?! This is her handiwork!"

Stormsong cocked his head. "But if someone else gave you that scar, why do you blame her?"

Thomas growled. "She probably put him up to it... But I got back at her!"

Stormsong was almost afraid to ask. "What... What do you mean?"

Thomas snorted. "What do you think? I tried to kill her.... Some jerk intervened, though."

Stormsong's eyes were wide. "Why would you try to kill your own sister? Weren't you talking about the importance of family earlier?!" He questioned.

"She doesn't count!" He cried. "She was still trying to convince me that we were family, she didn't even fight back."

Stormsong frowned. "If she wasn't trying to fight back... And that guy didn't intervene... She probably would've died, right?"

Thomas nodded. "Definitely."

"Then.... Why didn't she fight back? She couldn't have known he would come." Stormsong pointed out.

"She probably asked him to come!" Thomas defended.

"But you almost killed her. Why didn't he step in earlier...?" Stormsong pressed.

Thomas shook his head fiercely, but Stormsong continued. "I think you got things twisted up in your head. I'm not asking you to... I don't know, forgive her or anything." 'Though I think you should be the one apologizing,' was a thought Stormsong decided not to share. "But... Think about it. I don't think Natalia is everything you think she is. Consider that... You might be wrong." He stood up and jumped off the park bench. He cleared his throat. "I'm kind of scared of you. I'll admit it. But you... You gave me some things to think about."

He didn't want to see his siblings end up like this guy. If his siblings were upset and with no support... They might end up as horrible as this guy. He needed to go home. To Fireclan. No matter how much they hurt him, he was sure they still needed him. With that, Stormsong left the scene. 

Leaving Thomas to stew in the thoughts of runaway clan cat. He was unsure how to deal with the rising doubt, churning his stomach. Feeling uneasy, he slowly made tracks for his housefolk's home.

[Natalia]

((A shred of Natalia's past.))


Natalia was watching her big brother, Sunset, with wide eyes as he paced impatiently back and forth. She was leaning against a tree stump, her eyes following her brother as he impatiently went back and forth. His irritated heavy stomps on the ground were likely scaring away prey. That was okay. It wasn't like they were hunting right now. Speaking of hunting... Mom and Dad should've been back by now. 

"Where are they?" Natalia's squeaky child voice asked. 

"I don't know. I don't know! Why do you think I know?" He snapped.

"But you always seem so smart. You taught me to hunt." She reminded him, her head only tilting to the side in response to the angered response. Sunset always seemed on edge lately. She wasn't sure what it was. Maybe it was because his friend left. Sasha had been a pretty she-cat who had come through and stayed for a while. Her family were wanderers and they'd happened to cross paths with Natalia's small family. Sasha and Sunset had gotten along and there had actually been an incident. After a moon or two, Sasha's family had wanted to move again. Natalia wasn't really sure why they wouldn't simply stay in one place, but she didn't think to question it.

Sunset did. He convinced Sasha to fight against it, that their budding friendship was worth it. Needless to say, it didn't work and Sasha's parents had left rather angrily. Sunset had been rather sad at Sasha leaving. Maybe it was because he didn't have any other friends. Though... Natalia figured as long as he had their family, things would be okay. Even if she was somewhat sure his family mostly consisted of her. For some reason her parents forgot about Sunset.

A lot. Sunset refused to call her father 'Dad' for some reason, always calling him by name. He still called Mom, 'Mom.' That was good.

However... The problem was that whenever their parents left to hunt they weren't gone too long. Even a couple times when they'd been held up, they'd never been gone for too long. This marked the third day they'd been gone. It was unusual and the absence of their parents was clearly affecting Sunset.

But... They'd come back soon, wouldn't they? Surely they wouldn't leave their children who weren't even six moons old...?

-----------------------------

"They've left us." 

Sunset's angry, simple three words shocked Natalia. They were in the family's shelter, where they always slept and stayed in while it rained. Some time ago, a tree had fallen over, possibly struck by lightning. It leaned on the trees around it, still being held up at an angle. Some time later, twolegs had come and left one of their strange pelts of an unnatural color. It was a large mass of thin, blue pelt that draped over the half-fallen tree. It made for a decent shelter, providing shade and shielding them from the rain.

Sunset and Natalia sat side by side, staring at the rain falling before them. It wasn't a drizzle either, it was a straight up downpour, truly coming down hard and being rather noisy as it bounced off of the twoleg pelt shielding the two. 

Natalia's eyes widened with shock as she looked to her older brother. 

"They wouldn't! They always come back!" Natalia couldn't quite believe it.

Sunset gritted his teeth. "Maybe...."

Natalia's ears perked up. She always wanted to hear his words of wisdom. But these next words weren't exactly wise.

"Maybe they say you for what you really are and abandoned us."

Natalia blinked. She didn't understand. "What do you mean?"

Sunset snarled openly at Natalia who unconsciously took a step back, her ears folding back as concern flashed in her bright green eyes. Did she make him mad? "I'm sorry." She didn't know what she did, but she clearly hurt him. That was a bad thing and you had to apologize for bad things you do.

.... That was what you did, right? She remembered Mom told that to Sunset once. 

"You should be." He growled darkly. "You're just... Dead weight. I don't know why they were paying so much attention to you."

Natalia blinked. "But... We're a family. We love each other. That's... That's it, right?"

Sunset's laugh was loud but... It sounded wrong. There wasn't anything funny about this.

"This? This isn't a family. They stopped being my parents the second you came into existence."

Natalia shook her head. "That's not true! You're my brother! They're our parents!"

Sunset growled meaninglessly and started stomping outside, into the rain. Immediately, the rain began to drag down his ginger tabby fur. Natalia's eyes widened and she darted out into the rain after him.

"We're not family. You were never my sister. My dad... He died a long time ago. My mom died with him." He growled as he wouldn't stop walking forward.

Natalia shook her head, she didn't understand what was happening. She put all her energy into running faster and moving to cut off Sunset.

"Wait ple-" Before she knew what was happening, she was pressing a paw against her cheek. Her cheek was burning, searing hot. There... There was something warm and sticky on her face. Was it... Was it blood....? Her green eyes were drifting towards the ground where her blood was mixing with the rain. Her gaze slowly moved upwards and Sunset....

His face was cold. Blood dripping from his claws, where he'd struck his little sister. 

"W-Why...."

"You little brat...." Sunset hissed. "Get out of my way." He lashed his tail angrily behind him.

Natalia couldn't understand what was happening, but she didn't want him to leave. He was her big brother. They were a family and families stuck together, right? Even if Mom and Dad didn't come back, it'd be fine as long as they were together, right? This... This ginger tom he....

He taught her family was everything.

He taught her to hunt.

He taught her.... Everything. As much as her parents showered praise upon her, Sunset was the one who taught her things. Showed her the workings of what he knew the world to be. Despite him being rather young as well, he did a better job raising Natalia than their parents did.

"W-Where.... Where are you....?" She couldn't finish the question.

"Anywhere but here." Why did his voice suddenly feel like it was killing her? She wasn't sure what dying felt like. Did it feel like this....?

"C-Can... Can I come....?"

"No. I don't need you. In fact, I don't want you around. I want you to leave. Forever." His voice sounded so cold. Natalia could hardly breathe. This couldn't be happening. Maybe if she closed her eyes this nightmare would go away.

Sunset huffed and started making his way to move past Natalia, who was standing there, frozen.

Natalia sniffled. Her tears were starting to join the liquids traveling down her face. "I-I... I love you, 'Set."

".... Yeah." It occurred to her then, Sunset never said he'd loved her. She was always the one who said it.

"W-Why.... I-Isn't my love enough....? Enough to make you stay....?" She asked quietly.

Sunset stopped walking away. For a moment.

"No. It was never going to be enough."

Natalia finally lifted her head and turned to look at Sunset. She couldn't see what her face looked like, but it probably looked painful. Sunset's face was a blank sheet of paper, completely unreadable. "I-I can't do this on m-my own....!" Her voice cracked as she cried out, begging him to stay. She was barely old enough to possibly figure out how to survive on her own.

Provided nothing dangerous like a hostile older cat, a larger predator, or some twoleg contraption killed her before she could defend herself.

"..... Good. You'll either die or survive. Either way, you're out of my life. Though... You're a smart and strong kid. You'll live."

Then Sunset was gone.

He'd walked away.

He'd left her family. At least he thought he did. To Natalia, he'd always be her brother.

But now he was gone.

She was alone.

Mom and Dad had left.

Sunset didn't want her around.

She screamed until she ran out of air.

She dragged herself back to the shelter and curled up in her nest, and cried herself to sleep.

--------------------------

A screeching nightmare forced Natalia awake before the sun had risen. Though, the sky was lighter than before. Everywhere she looked, it felt like everything hurt, more than the wound in her cheek. She decided to take a leaf out of Sunset's book. She chose a direction and started walking. 

She didn't look back.