Nocturnal Hearts [Foxstrike]

[Sofie]

The very first hearts belonged to the creatures of the sea, and ever since then, all living things need a heart. Hearts were brought to Earth through an impact with a comet, a shooting star with a tail of effervescent light millions of miles long. Comets are made of ice, and from ice came water, and from water came the very first creatures, powered by the most primitive of hearts. And from then on, the Milky Way was special, for she harboured an extraordinarily precious secret hidden among her twinkling children; the animals and their hearts!

Sofie was an animal, too. She had a delicate feline face, and a plush, wavering tail decorated with feather-like plumage. Her paws were soft and clawless, and did not make a sound as she wandered down the dark alleyways like a ghost. It was dawn now, and her heart fluttered with loneliness as the stars started to fade away into the purple sky. She did not like the day time because it was noisy and hollow-hearted, and while she loved the sun, she could not bear the bright light it cast on her planet.

The rain sparkled like crystals under the streetlights and she made her way down the twisting road, until finally she left twolegplace and arrived at the grassy wilds near Fireclan, where her friend lived. She placed a small piece of bread, which had taken her great effort to steal, on the ground and she came over to inspect it. She was a harvest mouse, with soft brown fur and a tiny body.

What this? asked Mouse, sniffing the piece of bread she brought.
"For you," replied Sofie.
Okay, says Mouse, and she picked up the bread and hurried away, for mice are very busy creatures, and she had a litter to feed.

As she was padding back to Town along the Treeclan border, the rain got heaver, so she crouched under the grass, and waited. And waited. And waited...
But it would not stop. Through the thunderous sheets of rain, out on the meadow she could see a poor little butterfly, its angelic white wings soaked through as it lay on the ground, frozen and lifeless. She started to cry, so much that her tears could have been the rain itself, and the wind struck her like a battering ram as she tried so hard to shelter it with her body. But, it was already dead.

She looked around in panic for a way to escape the storm, and spied a hollow tree with big, sheltering branches. She was too disoriented to tell if it was across the border or not, but it was a risk she had to take. She struggled through the marshy meadow, coughing when water sprayed her dripping face, and finally reached her safe haven, the forest. Too exhausted to even shake her coat, she sat, soaking wet, and wept like a willow.

For Foxstrike !

[Foxstrike]

He couldn't believe he'd gotten caught in a storm. He should have detected it before the rain even started- and he had. As he'd gone out for a late night hunt, he had noted how the air was heavy with the scent of oncoming rain. He'd been so distracted by his hunt, though, that he hadn't paid enough attention to how close the rain was until the first drops had started falling. The second piece of prey he'd been stalking scurried off when it began, but it hardly mattered to him anymore. Most cats hated rain because it was wet and cold, and it washed away any scent they hoped to track. It was usually only a minor inconvenience at best for them, though. But for Foxstrike, it was different. Rain turned his entire world upside down. It thundered loudly in his ears so that he couldn't hear anything else, it removed his way of following his own path, and made the ground beneath his paws unsteady and unfamiliar. It disoriented him, leaving him with almost no way to tell where he was anymore. And it terrified him, to no end- feeling so lost and helpless.

He was too far away from camp to risk making it back. He could tell just enough about where he was to remember where a larger tree was nearby- that would have to do until the storm let up. He stumbled, for lack of a better word, blindly, until he found his way to the tree and slipped under the shelter of it's branches. It didn't do much to stop the rain, but it was better than being more in the open. At the very least, it was a little quieter- he was able to hear his own thoughts over the storm.

He was still on TreeClan territory, though closer to the edges of it. He knew that much. He'd passed this tree several times. The finch he'd managed to catch earlier was buried elsewhere. Hopefully it wouldn't be spoiled by the rain. The world around the shelter of the tree was foggy when he tried to picture it, his interpretation of sound and scent heavily distorted by the falling water. He frowned at it, clearly unhappy, and then settled for trying to detect what he could under the tree, instead.

It was then that he realized he wasn't alone. He should have noticed that earlier- he should have been able to detect another cat from much farther away, even. Had it not been for the rain, he would have. Immediately he fluffed up his fur in defense, which was somewhat pathetic given his pelt was soaking, but his tall stature would likely more than make up for it. His blind eyes widened as he directed them toward the other who was taking shelter there, as though he was able to see them, then narrowed suspiciously. They were not of TreeClan. A rogue, maybe a loner. He opened his mouth to hiss a warning, but stopped himself.

From what he could tell, they were young. It was possible they didn't know they had crossed the border when they spotted shelter. Foxstrike would defend his clan, but he wouldn't force somebody who was hardly an apprentice out in the rain to do it. Especially not when it seemed they were in some sort of distress already. "You can't be here," he told them, keeping his voice strong, but not threatening. "This is TreeClan territory. I will not make you leave now, but once the storm clears, you will have to."