LET'S GO OUT WITH A BANG
Sometimes, Johnny wondered if it was this place that was strange, or the other places he'd lived in before coming here. At first the tom had thought it odd; cats walking in the trees, slipping out of the forest to so casually approach him as he kept watch on his guarden fence for any trouble or danger that might try to cause trouble in the yards around him. But now? Now his eyes searched for them, his heart leapt at the sight of shadows slipping amongst the branches of the trees, and more often than not he found himself hoping that one of them would stop to say hello.
Perhaps comically so, it happened more often than one would think.
Thistleback had been his first run-in with a clan cat, and to say he'd left an impression was an understatement. Johnny was practically startstruck by the other tom, everything from their rough elegance to their skills in the trees finding itself fascinating in his eyes. From Thistlebacks views on kittypets to the drive and devotion he showed for his clan and family, he'd immediately succeeded in earning the patched tomcats respect, especially after showing him the Skyclan camp.
After that was Ashenclaw, another Skyclan cat who apprently had humans in twolegplace somewhere. They'd sat on the fence and talked for a while, and again, Johnny had felt an admiration for the tom that seemed entirely unique to the cats of Skyclan. While the amber-eyed bobtail had felt pride for others before, he'd never really envied or looked up to another cat, choosing to set and follow his own trends because he was the only one valuing those things at the time. But Ashen and Thistle? They were cats that seemed to share a lot of the same beliefs as Johnny did. Both cared about others and believed in working hard to keep the ship running smooth, were willing to sacrifice their time and energy for those around them simply because it was the right thing to do.
And that appealed to Johnny.
Hell, all of Skyclan appealed to Johnny.
He'd been itching to return to the forest ever since Thistleback had told him to come back whenever he wanted to visit, but his paws never seemed able to take him from the fenceline. Maybe he didn't want to seem desperate by going back so soon, maybe he didn't think he really had a right to just pop in and say 'hello' while everyone else was working their asses off to survive, or maybe he was just afraid that if he went and spent actual time there, that he'd like it too much. And that last one kind of scared him. He'd spent his entire life being a good, responsible cat. He guarded his twolegs property and kept the yards safe from troublemaking strays and critters, helped the kittypets when they were being bullied by loners, and so on. And he felt obligated to that life now, just as much as he felt the desire to want to explore something else.
Trapped in his own whirling thoughts but still vigilant to his surroundings, it didn't take Johnny long to spot a figure heading toward him. He immediately perked up as since the cat seemed to have come from the woods beyond, but he found he didn't recognize them despite running through the faces of the Skyclanners he'd met the day of his visit to their camp. A quick sniff of the air revealed the tell-tale scent of his friends clan, and so he kept his hackles down and his muscles relaxed, having no intention of harming one of Thistlebacks cats.
"Hello, puny thing. Hi."
The words caught him off guard, his blink of surprise surely giving it away, and while his mouth opened as if to reply, no words fell past his lips. Puny thing?? What was he supposed to say to that?!?! Especially when the tone was so... un-matching to the words used.
A response didn't seem necessary though, because a moment later they were leaping up onto the fence to join him. There was a moment where it seemed like they might lose their balance and Johnny instinctively lifted a paw to try and help steady them, but withdrew it when they suddenly righted themselves and began staring at him with wide eyes. Ears twitched back, uncertainty causing his shoulders to stiffen, but they twitched forward again when the stranger began to speak.
Kind of.
Johnnys confused look definitely doubled in that moment, because while the other cat was deifnitely talking he couldn't for the life of him understand what he was saying. "Oh, um... Is this some kind of riddle?" he asked, not wanting to be impolite to what was surely one of Ashen and Thistles friends and clanmates. "Lemme see. Maybe... My eyes? My mum always told me staring at the sun would make you go blind, so your eyes would probably burn and melt long before you ever got anywhere near the sun."
