Warrior Cat Clans 2 (WCC2 aka Classic) is a roleplay site inspired by the Warrior series by Erin Hunter. Whether you are a fan of the books or new to the Warrior cats world, WCC2 offers a diverse environment with over a decade’s worth of lore for you - and your characters - to explore. Join us today and become a part of our ongoing story!
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She had seen plenty of prey skeletons before, picked them apart and examined each and every tiny bone, scrambled them and tried to put them back together again. One thing she was missing, however, was how they functioned. Often times, she strayed away from the living things and more towards the dead things--save for some plants, really--which wasn't really useful when she wanted to see how they both worked. Eris crouched a bit away, keeping her eyes narrowed and trained on a mouse not far off. It chewed on a seed absently, and she could almost picture the way it's jaw was moving underneath. Almost. Her renditions weren't always perfect, which is why she wanted to see how it lived, to get a better understanding of the thing. It finished, scurrying off across the ground, very light and quick on its feet. She had to be careful as to not scare the creature as she caught up to it.
It didn't stop running, and Eris found it difficult to keep up, anger getting the better of her as she sped up enough to notify it. Oh, great! Curse these things and their stupid sensitive ears. She slowed, watching as it squeezed through the tight space between the roots of a tree. Hardly big enough for her paw. She stopped at the base of it, making her way up the trunk and onto the lowest hanging branch that would support her weight. Don't judge her, she just thinks trees are a good place to think. Besides, maybe she'll catch a bird or something, those are always interesting. Anyways. Part of the reason she hated studying live animals was that they were always so alert, so aware of everything. Instinct told them she was dangerous--nothing she was denying, but it did get annoying after a while.
Turns out, Eshek had been stalking the same mouse, entirely caught up in the hunt and blocking everything else out, oblivious to Eris’ presence. It was a cold day in hell when Eshek narrowed her focus in on one specific task, but she was desperate - she wanted the mouse to bring home to DayClan, so she could put it on the fresh-kill pile and sit back proudly and look about at her clanmates like a rabid little lioness around sheep, eager to please and to be congratulated and praised. She’d never cared about stuff like that before - she’d been the best trainee in the League, then the best torturer; she hadn’t had to go in search of validation, and she had brushed it off disinterestedly as her just desserts - but now, much like Foxstar, isolation from the home she was trying to live in was getting to her and she was desperate for some sort of warmth. She was always trying to catch someone’s eye and start a conversation, but when she started to bound across camp, they inevitably hurried to turn away and busy themselves with something else. She just didn’t fit in, and she couldn’t go on clinging to Lucistic, Innocentia and Senescence forever - she had to do something to earn a place of her own in her adopted Clan. Even if it was just a mouse.
As it was, Eshek was out of practice as a hunter and only succeeded in crashing after the mouse in a spray of dust and pebbles and leaves; she skid along the ground and crashed into the tree root it had disappeared beneath. She lay there dazed for a second before hope sparked again and she shot up, draping herself quickly over the root and darting her head from side to side, scanning for the mouse. But it was gone. “Stupid mouse,” she muttered to herself, pushing herself up from the root. She’d never had to hunt as a Proxy; meals had been served to her like she was a queen in her white marble corner-room with the blue chaise lounge and the huge windows, the best pickings after the Nemesis had taken their share - and, once Funk filled that rank and came to her room each night to eat with her, the best pickings in general. Really, she had been a queen, the wife of a king, at the top of the League and with a whole district at her command. Now look at her. Borderline skinny, because she couldn’t even catch a mouse.
“Stupid mouse,” she snapped again, louder this time; she was always emotional, but that was mostly bent towards the jovial - it was rare she actually lost her temper. “Stupid gods. Stupid- world.” She swiped a paw at the tree trunk with every curse, changing paw each time, her sharp little kitten claws leaving surprisingly deep grooves in the bark. “Stupid, stupid, STUPID, STUPID.” She went on till the tree was bleeding, heart beating wildly in her chest. She felt close to screaming, to crying, her breaths coming in angry bursts. STUPID.
When Eris wanted to focus on something, she focused, and she focused hard. It was simple, really, to buckle down and spend the rest of the day engrossed in a task that, to anyone else, would seem meaningless, but to her was just one step closer to a breakthrough. She payed no mind to any extra rustling, or extra paw steps or breathing. There she was, sat on her little thinking branch, seething just a bit over the long gone rodent. They were annoying, so very annoying, and always too quick for her. At first glance, due to her size and slim build and long legs, one would assume she was a fast runner. And that may be true for the first few seconds, she ran out of fuel very quickly. Stamina was what she lacked.
At the sound of yelling, she startled, nearly falling off the branch in the process. She peered over the edge, "Hey lady, do you mind not tearing up this tree? I'm kind of sitting up here!" There was, like, a half-bite to her tone. She wasn't mad at her, but her tone was edged in annoyance. She dug her claws into the bark further. "Seriously, what's your deal?" She didn't exactly intend for it to come off as rude, but wouldn't be complaining if the other cat took it that way. Most people did, strangely enough. She was either 'rude' or 'immature' or 'stupid' or something else ridiculous.
“Oh, sorry,” Eshek replied immediately, gathering up a bundle of fallen leaves with her paws and holding them against her chest. “How’s this?” She threw them up at the little tabby she-cat in the tree. All that really happened was they rained down around her; Eshek looked up at Eris with a deadpan, unimpressed glower as leaves fluttered prettily around her.
“My deal,” the ex-proxy continued with a sigh, draping herself dramatically against the tree trunk as the last of the leaves spun down, paw to her forehead and her body sliding down until most of her was lying on the ground; she never turned down the opportunity for a free therapy session, and she was now Eris’ problem, “is that the universe is sick and twisted and hates me specifically, hot as I am. It’s just so unfair. I’m so attractive - why would the gods want to punish me for the simple crime of living the life everyone else wants? So what, I’m popular and you’re not? Someone has to be. Why would they take that away? Do you see me?” She suddenly looked up at Eris through the leaves and branches, face stricken, and gestured up and down her body pointedly. She hung her head on her chest, her voice a grumbling mumble. “No one else has anything. The universe was just jealous that I did. The lower classes should feel grateful to be led by people like me, especially me - I’m one of them. But no, I’m the villain. I still don’t think that deserves death.”
She looked away out of the corner of her eye from where she was slouched, grumpy and self-pitying and utterly oblivious to the fact everything she was saying sounded terrible and completely undermined her position as the victim of the story. “You can relate,” she spoke up again after a moment, raising one paw in a vague upward gesture to Eris just to slump it down again on the ground. “You’re pretty hot, too. Not like me, because no one can be, but total mad scientist, plague doctor chic.” She let out a deep, wistful sigh, speaking in to her short chest fur. “I love a mad scientist.”
All Eris could offer was a tilt of her and a confused, apathetic look. She had no time for temper tantrums. "Yeah I see you, your point?" She was more confused than anything, but something about this she-cat interested her. I don't think that deserves death. Oh, that had piqued her interest. Everything she had said up to this point, not really, but this sent her curiosity over the edge. "Now what--" and she was interrupted. Usually, it was her who did all the talking, but Eris supposed she knew when to stay quiet. Besides, she obviously had a lot on her chest and, unfortunately, Eris thought her funny words were worth while. Just a little.
"Thank you? But I'm not mad." Obviously, undoubtedly, she was very sane. Usually, others found her slightly off-putting or even annoying, but she it was nice to have someone compliment her like that, even if they were also complimenting themselves in the same breath.
"But, anyway. What are you talking about?" She shimmied down the tree, jumping the last little bit down and shaking out her pelt as she landed. "You don't seem very dead to me," Eris moved closer, beginning to examine the she-cat--just in case.
Eshek watched with a smile as the little she-cat shimmied down the tree, tilting her head back and following her down as she jumped, giving herself a cute little shake. But I’m not mad. Esh inclined her head with knowing, doubtful patience. Sensitive subject, maybe, or she’s just oblivious, Esh thought, both options just endearing the tabby to her even more. The expression on her face as she listened to Eris wasn’t the predatory fondness she wore with Jester, like a lioness who’d adopted a house cat; it was genuine intrigue - deference, even. She’d always been like that around she-cats.
You don’t seem very dead to me. “MmmmmMMmmMMmmMmmm,” Eshek hummed indecisively, considering for a long few seconds - and then, all at once, sitting up straight and leaning in like she was sharing secrets at a late-night slumber party, “okay. I was. I’m not anymore, but for the last two years, I was dead. My friends have told me my body was buried, and I remember dying, but I don’t remember being dead. Capisce? Ya get it? Then, a month or two ago, I came back to life in this gross little swamp. A guy I know, same thing happened to him - he got the nice meadow to wake up in, though, typical. Thing is, as far as he and I can tell, we died at exactly the same time on exactly the same day.” Her eyes were wide, a kind of hypnotic that would have drawn a mouse in and made it just lie down in front of her, patiently waiting for death. She had always been a good teller of ghost stories and that was the tone of voice she used now - low, conspiratorial, close, like she and Eris were the only cats left on Earth. Even in that detached, story-weaving state, she steered clear of the part of the tale she always kept close to her heart, away from the world, to mourn in the bewildered silence of a mother: that the kits she had been carrying had died as well, but they hadn’t come back. If she’d been a person, she would have been lying on her stomach, her legs waving casually in the air behind her; as it was, she sat hunched over Eris, almost a full head taller. “For me, a single second - the blink of an eye. I died, then I was back. For him, two years of… I dunno, purgatory or some crap. Ghost stuff. He gets real touchy about it for some reason.”
She’d wandered a little away from the point. Huge blue eyes flicking back to the little brown tabby from where they’d drifted slightly to the side, her mouth hooked up into a thin grin and she told her in that same close voice, their faces barely an inch apart, “call me Carrie. Short for Carriondare.”
Cute mad scientist or not, she wasn’t going to give her the name that could trickle back to Foxstar and Glowstar; she’d already made that mistake with Aspenstar and Littlestar, and she just had to hope the name Eshek wouldn’t come up between Foxstar and her SunClan successor.
She took a few steps back and sat down, tail curled around her paws, head leaned forward slightly, taking in every word with unblinking eyes. Oh my gods. Her paws stamped in excitement. "Holy--" she cut herself off, springing to her feet. How was that even possible? There was no plausible reason for it, not that she knew of yet. "Like, like a zombie? Or some freak of nature," she meant it as a compliment, obviously.
Short for Carriondare. She waved her off with a paw, "Right, right. Anyways," What an idiot, spilling all her secrets, right where Eris could just eat it all up. "How did your corpse not decompose? What had preserved it? She wasn't too big a fan of the afterlife, to be honest--it just didn't seem to plausible. There had to be some grounded explanation for this stuff.
"There's another?" She bounced on the tip of her toes. "What an interesting, unexplainable phenomena," right then and there, she decided, that was what she wanted to focus on. Whatever the hell was going on here. She pressed a paw to what's-her-name's chest, feeling for the heartbeat, half expecting nothing. "Right, how exactly did you die?" Oh where should she start, her head was buzzing with questions. It was a wild story, honestly, and Eris was fool enough to believe it immediately.
Or some freak of nature. "Aww, baaabe!" Eshek lightly whacked Eris' chest with one paw like it was the loveliest compliment she'd ever gotten, looking down at her with teasing gratitude.
She sat back and let the little tabby fuss over her. What an interesting, unexplainable phenomena. "Thanks, that's what my husband called me, too." She really was the cutest Dr. Frankenstein, with that dead, unnerving voice teetering just this close to posh, a university medical student thrown out for malpractice and confined to her dorm room to pick apart dead birds and sew them back together.
Then Eris was pressing her paw - so small! So dainty! So cute and white, like a little bunny's! - to her chest, feeling for a heartbeat. Eshek wished more than anything that she could turn it off on command, like holding her breath. The tall she-cat tilted her head down to watch the little one as she did so, sitting still with her tail wrapped over her forepaws and her chest puffed out slightly, endlessly patient with the mad doctor. Right, how exactly did you die. "Well!" Eshek started, and then suddenly swooped Eris down into a tango dip, balancing with her hindlegs folded beneath her and her forepaws holding the little she-cat round the waist, her muzzle a breath from Eris'. She swooped her back up a heartbeat later and set her back upright, letting go of her. "I was exploring on the roof of the mansion where the League used to live at dawn, the glass broke, and I caught my neck in some hanging ropes. Lights out. He, the SummerClan boy, was hit by a car. I'd say much worse way to go than me, all I had was a broken neck, but I still had to fall, like, twenty feet down to the ground. So I imagine I was pretty bashed up when they buried me."
To anyone else, Eshek would have sounded incredibly blasé about her death; to herself, she was showing off, primping and preening in front of Eris for extra credit, all quirked brows and extra gruesome details, eager to impress her.
"Oof," she was fairly delicate, and the hit landed harder than it would for almost anyone else. She'd always been more on the weaker side, physically, something she was always reminded of, something she tried to make up for in various other ways, to show she could be powerful, and strong, and worth people's time. Thanks, that's what my husband called me, too. "Never took you for the married type," she commented dryly, not paying much attention to the uninteresting bits she talked about. Really, she was sticking around for her story.
Eris gave her a push--too much physical contact for, probably, the rest of her life! Why was she so touchy. Every second she spent with Carriondare, the more insufferable it became. But, she retained most of her composure, listening to her little tale and taking in every detail. "And she's perfectly intact," she mumbled to herself, beginning to circle her briefly. She tended to do a lot of that, especially when something interested her.
"I'm bewildered, how does that even happen? Did someone bring you back to life? Were you never actually dead? Are you immortal?" She backed away, giving Carriondare another look over. "Hmm. . . Maybe you could be immortal. We could test it," she decided. As much as she liked to boast and work on her skills, she was quite terrible in practice. She wasn't witty, or smart, she was simply passionate. Passionate, with a side of stupidity and obsession. A terrible combination. She wanted to be something, and often tried to hard to do so, trying to figure out things that had no clear answer, or work on stuff well above her skill level. A 'bit off more than she could chew' type of situation. It only ever ended in disappointment when her experiments never worked, or when she failed, or when she was criticized. She got back on her feet--always unhealthily optimistic, complete insanity--tried again, and again, and again, and eventually moved on to something else just as impossible.
And she's perfectly intact. "And she talks to herself," Eshek bit back, head tilting and eyes scrunching up in a slightly barbed, slightly fond smile. She followed Eris around with her eyes as she circled around her, head turning this way and then that. "Who even says bewildered in real life? You're so cute." Maybe you could be immortal. We could test it. Eshek had been opening her mouth and closing her eyes, about to deliver another casual, unbothered quip. Then Eris said the second bit. "Whoa, whoa, whoa," she replied quickly, standing up and backing away. "Tryna kill each other is strictly a second date kinda thing, rush it and we'll be the laughing stock of the whole forest." She was trying to keep her voice light and unbothered, but she sounded slightly nervous, her eyes losing their usual wild sheen and starting to look uncertain.
She was freaked out by the way Eris just decided that, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Sure, she and her friends danced around the subject of killing each other all the time - hell, Applecrumble and her had a genuine 'let's beat each other up and see who gets brain damage first' kinda friendship. But she... They... They were joking. To be confronted with someone who actually meant it was... weirdly terrifying, even for an ex-proxy and a torturer.
"I'm not cute." She mumbled, eyes narrowing towards the taller she-cat. Why were all these cats the same? They looked down at her, like she was some joke, never realizing her full potential. Her tail-tip twitched, the sudden mood drop leaving her irritated.
"This isn't a date." she gave a vague gesture with her paw, "Besides, it's not that bad. I mean, if you die again it would give me a chance to pick you apart." Physically, mind you. She was curious as to what had happened under that skin. She could sense the twinge of fear, the hesitation, and it gave her a little thrill. It was small, but it was enough to make her feel so powerful. She moved closer, so close their noses were almost touching. Eris searched her eyes. "If you're not up for that, we could start smaller? Test your endurance, work our way up?" Another mood shift, she was frizzled with a sick sort of excitement, almost giddy. She sat back again--still not too keen on being that close in contact to others.
"Uh, heh-heh-heh," Eshek tittered nervously, hesitating only briefly in her fear to dart her eyes over the little she-cat's face (dammit, this is gonna get me killed but it'll be funny) and take advantage of the closeness of Eris, giving her a quick peck on the lips, because she was right there and Esh had 0 impulse control - anything she thought, she did - and if she was gonna die, she'd die having kissed her murderer; she was back to backing away a second later, "my endurance is fine, thanks. You're making the innuendos really easy, by the way, I dunno if you've noticed. But no, really, it's been real. I'll hit you up if I, uh, find a dead bird or something. Keep it classy."
Expecting that to be that, Eshek did a weird little turn, rearing up on her hindpaws from where she was still backing away from Eris and plopping herself back down on all fours in the opposite direction. She trotted quickly away, all tensed up despite how relaxed she was trying to make herself look.
"Eugh!" Was all she could respond with, wiping her face as she sat back. Some people just had no shame whatsoever.
"You're leaving?" A tiny drop of disappointment in her voice, different than the disappointment she felt when she lost a subject. Honestly, Carriondare had been alright, despite the irritation and her annoyingly outgoing nature, she didn't want her to leave so soon. Eris pushed those feelings down, replacing the disappointment of losing a possible 'friend' to losing a subject. She could slap herself, honestly! These people usually weren't worth her time anyway. She ran to catch up--fast and nimble on her paws. For what she lacked in strength, she made up in speed.
"Hold on! Hold on! Come on, stick around a little longer?" Despite her late start, it didn't take long until she was side-by-side with her again, chatting as if she hadn't just suggested to murder her. "Y'know, I'm wondering if maybe it was the place you died, and not even you! We could recreate it in a different way, maybe get a different test subject?" She would rather use a rodent, but god were they hard to handle. Maybe some other cat, one who didn't matter as much, one who was expendible (as most were, honestly).
"Enough of the dramatics, you're acting like I was going to do it right then and there!" A hint of annoyance, covered mostly by her unhinged joy. She was sick, so sick, in the fact she enjoyed sending Carriondare practically running.
You're leaving? Why was the little tabby sounding like she'd just told her she wasn't coming to her birthday party? Eshek suddenly felt incredibly bad. Her paw steps slowed indecisively, dragging and hesitating. She liked her - it was just that she didn't want to get murdered so soon after coming back to life. "Yeeeah," she replied, not looking back, but the way she said it sounded like she was stuck between decisions and feeling not great about either of them.
Then Eris was racing after her and falling in step beside her, so much smaller, practically pleading with her. God dammit, why did she have to have such a weak spot for little female psychopaths? This time, when Eris started up again about using her as a test subject, Eshek slowed a bit, listening, considering - she didn't want to, but if it would make her happy...
No! She didn't want to die!
Shaking her head like she was ridding herself of some frustrating hypnotism, Carrie quickened her pace, her trotting becoming dangerously close to just straight up running. "You can get a different test subject, I don't care, but it's nothin' to do with me," she replied over her shoulder, sounding slightly panicked, hoping the little tabby's legs were short enough that she could lose her quickly. The way Eris sounded so happy made her incredibly nervous. "Oh, you weren't gonna do it right then and there? You were gonna take me back to your lab? That makes me feel so much better, thanks."
It was frustrating, how tired she became, how just awful she was at running long distances. And as Carriondare sped up, Eris could only slow down. She stamped her foot into the ground. "Fine!" She yelled after her, breath heavy, "Run away, like the scared little kitty you are." She huffed, laying down where she stopped--one part guilt-trip and two parts being worn out. "I don't even have a lab anyway!" A little quieter this time, but still audible enough.
She was either too much or not enough, someone people didn't know how to handle. Carriondare had shared something so incredibly interesting about herself, and Eris got a little too excited, a little extreme. For someone who talked herself up a lot, who said she didn't need nor like anyone, she seemed so dependent on others to keep her self-esteem afloat.
Eshek had been half-way up a tree, scurrying into the branches to avoid the little Dr. Frankenstein chasing her - "leave me aloooooone!" she yelled over her shoulder in a desperate, sing-song voice. Now, with Eris' sad little outburst, she stopped among the leaves and peered down at where she had flopped down a few yards back. If there was one thing that worked on Eshek, it was a girl guilt-tripping her. She looked torn for a long moment, doing a whole comic routine of emotions, stop-starting, starting to climb back up the tree, stopping, jumping around in frustration, hitting her head against a branch - and then finally sighed and slipped back down the trunk.
"Heeey," she said gently, like she was soothing a skittish deer. She slunk over to Eris and stood over her, softly stroking the fur along her back with one paw. "It's okay. How do you feel about a trip to SummerClan? Mm?" Now she sounded like a parent asking their tender-natured kid if she wanted some ice cream. "I can introduce you to that guy I was telling you about, the one who got hit by a car. Would you like that? And maybe one day we can get you a lab. The Mansion is full of little places no one uses - I bet one would make a great evil lab. Yeah?" She smiled down at Eris, tilting her head.
Her head was leaning against her chest, and while she didn't move it she still looked up at Carriondare as she approached. She'd come crawling back the moment Eris showed any weakness at all--really, a bad call on her part. Could have been a trap, and then she would have been dead where she stood. But, Eris refrained. Well refrained in the sense she couldn't really do anything anyway. How do you feel about a trip to SummerClan? Oh, she had almost forgotten about the tom. Maybe he would be a bit easier to deal with than her.
"Oh great, now you're just going to drop me off somewhere, right? Too much for you?" She scoffed, rolling her eyes, but got up anyway. She shook the dirt from her pelt. "But I suppose it wouldn't be that bad." She hated--despised with her whole being--the new tone Carriondare had adopted for her.
"And stop talking to me like that." She began their way to Summerclan, deciding to lead the way despite Carriondare being the one to suggest it.
"I feel like you have some abandonment issues, sweetie," Carriondare said knowingly. "I ain't gonna drop you off - I got nothin' better to do today anyway. You scared away my mouse. May as well spend some time with my second favourite mad scientist." She smiled at Eris. "Oh, and here's a tip, free of charge - you guys have moved back to the Mansion, right? That's where I died. I doubt anyone's fixed the roof so you can probably see the broken glass above the foyer where I fell. Maybe you can find my grave, too - I dunno where it is but it's gotta be a good start for your studies, right? Maybe you can find somethin' to help me understand what happened, tit for tat." She was trying to do a kind thing. It was quickly ruined by Carrie giving the little tabby a huge, sharp grin, leaning in, and adding, "Eri." She was excellent at weaselling out pet hates, and she had a feeling this little she-cat didn't like nicknames.
"Stop talking to you like what?" Carrie asked obnoxiously, loping along after Eris like a lioness. She switched from side to side, putting on her best sticky, maternal coo. "Like this? Good widdle Eri's going on a big adwenture? Hm? Like a big giwl? Gonna solve the meaning of death? You're so cwever, Ewi." She ducked in and leaned her cheek against Eris', tilting the little she-cat's head to the side. She darted away again before she could get hit. She did take Eris seriously, though it didn't seem like that - Eshek was an unexpectedly excellent friend and never criticised or doubted her friends' wacky interests. They needed bugs without telling her why? She'd go get some. They needed a volunteer to go and kick some guy she didn't know and had no beef with off a cliff? She was your girl. She was teasing Eris, but it didn't sound for a moment like she was belittling her - it just sounded like road trip banter. Eris wanted to bring things back to life? Maybe she could, Eshek wasn't gonna doubt it; and if, in a year or two, Eris came and said 'I did it', Esh would go 'see, I knew you could' and mean it; and if she never did, then Esh would still say 'you'll get it' and mean that, too. She believed completely in her friends. That Eris was one of them now was indisputable.
"Man, it's so gross around here," she said as she looked around at the landscape getting prettier and prettier. Her head snapped over to Eris, eyes lighting up. "Wanna sing a song?"
Eris snorted. "Abandonment issues? You're being ridiculous." Stupid, even. She did not have abandonment issues, thank you very much--actually, the only issue she had was walking right beside her. Maybe you can find somethin' to help me understand what happened, tit for tat. "Sure, I'll look into it." She pushed Carriondare's face away, giving a scoff. It was bait, clearly, and Eris wasn't going to make a fool of herself.
She was going to answer--stop talking to me like you think you're better, because you're not--but she was just going on and on, a grating sound against her ears. Bait, it was just bait, she reminded herself. "Like. That." There was a low growl to her voice, a bite to her words. Her tail twitched in irritation.
"What--no I don't want to sing a song!" Eris moved ahead, admiring the scenery. It was brighter, a bit more colourful. She should come down here more often--there had to be some interesting things around. As they grew closer, Eris began stopping more and more to look at things that interested her. Think little kid at a toy store.
Carriondare waited patiently as Eris stopped again and again to poke her nose into crevices and look at bugs; she didn’t look annoyed by the delays - in fact she looked like she was enjoying herself, taking the pauses as opportunities to lie down or just stand there and look around or pounce on leaves. Then, finally, while she was relaxing on her side and playfully batting at a ladybug in the grass, purring, she spotted a familiar calico pelt.
Doefreckle was dragging a young rabbit backwards through the flower meadow, clearly incredibly proud of actually having caught it. He’d never caught a rabbit; life really was getting better. Eshek immediately leapt to her paws, tapping Eris a few quick times with the back of her paw, and bounded over to him. He spotted her approaching out of the corner of his eye and let out a sigh full of dread, dropping the rabbit and standing up straighter. “Eshek, what are you-“
Esh ignored him, weaving around him and eyeing the rabbit. “Hey, nice catch! Can I have it?”
“Eshek, I caught that,” Doefreckle replied forlornly, like a sad child in preschool used to being bullied, except a little more whiny, watching with his ears falling back as she took it from him. She was his odd friend from his apprenticeship and he’d never really understood their relationship.
“Yeah, yeah, I’ll pay you back,” she reassured him, both of them knowing she wouldn’t until some far-off deed at an obscure, probably life or death time. He was certainly never going to see a rabbit again. Dragging the rabbit away easily, planning to take it back to DayClan and pass it off as her own, Eshek then put a paw behind Eris and pushed her closer. “This little cutie’s got some questions for you.”
Doefreckle’s ears were still slightly pressed back, but this time it was from hostility, not from giving in to the uselessness of arguing with the she-cat who was so much taller than him. He gave Eris a distasteful look, his mouth scrunching up and his eyes crinkling in an ‘I’m not talking to her’ expression.
Seeing that he wasn’t going to obey her bullying, Eshek turned childishly threatening, the kind of threatening that was like when you hit your sibling and then go ‘mum, I didn’t even touch him.’ “That boyfriend of yours is back, isn’t he?” she asked innocently, taking a step closer and looking down at him with her huge blue eyes. “What’s his name? The big, cute one? The one who was always looking at you like,” she widened her eyes impossibly in a look of pure, dismal longing, “while you were looking at that one-eyed ginger GILF like,” her face softened to something smitten.
“Eshek,” Doe interrupted imploringly, looking mortified and ashamed. His inner ears and nose went bright red and the fur around his neck fluffed up slightly. His eyes looked hunted.
“What? I’m just sayin’.”
“He’s going through a really hard time right now. The last thing he needs is to be accosted by some LEAGUE cat.” He shot an acidic look at Eris.
“Well, SOMEONE’s gotta answer Eris’s questions,” Eshek replied reasonably, wandering back beside the little tabby she-cat and curling her tail around her. “Either you or your boyfriend.”
Doefreckle looked at Eris like he was looking at an awful little insect someone was telling him to eat. His expression was full of reluctance and dislike and borderline petulant disgust, the very picture of someone being forced to do something they didn’t want to do. He looked like he was about to throw a tantrum. “Fine,” he finally agreed, voice weak. He sat down miserably. He wanted to be anywhere else.
“Great!!” Eshek did an excited bounce and looked down at Eris. “Ask away!”
“Wait, what are the questions about?” Doe only thought of the rushed, anxious question when it was too late.
