- Aug 26, 2022
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He lived his life behind steel bars. It was not a bad life, but it was not a good one either. He had been well-taken cared of by the two-legs in the place of iron cages and hollow halls, but it was the horrifying loneliness that finally sent him desperate to escape; no one wanted him, no one would ever want him. He wanted to see the world before he died and he escaped when the door was left unlatched knowing full well he might not make it more than a few days at most. Sunfreckle, Sunny at the time, had no skills for survival. The red tabby was unable to hunt for his own, living off scraps from kind upwalkers and whatever he found left on the ground or in trash. He was unable to defend himself, found himself clawed and bitten and chased away from areas in the city where other cats had staked their claim. It was only when he stumbled away from the loud and boisterous two-leg forest and into the quiet wooded area outside that he found peace.
His inability to hunt would be his demise, not for lack of trying, but at least in the woods he could enjoy touching the earth and seeing the blue sky before he went.
Or that would have been his fate had the silver and white tom not arrived. Rabbit was a loner who knew the land well-enough, was kind, helped him despite his inability to do much and even went out of his way to try and show him how to hunt. Sunfreckle would never be the best hunter in the clan, but at least now he could handle himself if it came down to it. Eventually they both realized that surviving alone was not going to be something they could manage for long, his guilt over not being good enough was dissuaded by the other's insistence that they would be more comfortable with a group; and lo'ThunderClan was found. A new clowder of cats in the forest, apparently there was a horrible battle here some time ago and the clans of this area rose from the ashes of it.
Emberstar was the leader, a kind cat and one he thought had the capabilities of keeping a group safe; there were other options but they did not bother seeking them out. ThunderClan was fine.
While unable to participate in much outside clan tasks and the occasional short patrol, he had found himself a niche in menial tasks and fetching things on request. Things were peaceful.
With nothing to do after changing the bedding out of the warrior's den, the red tabby rested near the center of the camp with his head on his lone curled paw and his gaze watching the entrance of camp carefully as if expecting something or someone. Every so often his head would lift, expression brightening, only to drop back down when what he saw moving through the bramble thicket was not what he wanted to see.
[ooc; Retro to fire despite the name! @Rabbitnose ]