Seeing Stars [Elmbreeze]

[Echolight]

One pawstep after another, that was all she was trying to focus on. Her mind was a wind-whirl of emotions, her decisiveness shredded to bits, tipping between the fence of Windclan and leaving her rightful home, her family, Leechpaw- a tom she hardly knew but was assigned to be his mentor, another cat that now relied on her.
Paw step after paw step.
Kresteltalon.
Haze.
Unsheathed training.
Reasons to leave flickered in her mind like a broken lightbulb, one after the other.
Keep walking.
Ears flattened to the back of her skull, her brows furrowed.
Brightshine.
Mallowlark.
Heavy snow.
Pollenfur.
Emberfang.
Leechpaw.
Her many reasons to stay countered in resistance.
"Ugh!" She finally exclaimed, her head spinning. Defeated, she gave up on her walking, her legs were burning and she had been walking since midday.
Tilting her head up, she scrunched her muzzle towards the pastels of the sunset painted sky. Surely it was time to go back now, but… where was she?
Curiously, Echolight began to fully take in her surroundings. A stone bridge to her left, the continuing river to her right.
"Fuck." She sighed under her breath, not only had she managed to leave Windclan territory, but she was lost.

@ELMBREEZE
"Speech."
​

[ WHAT A TIME ]​

 

[ELMBREEZE]

Sometimes late at night, away from the prying eyes of his clanmates during the day, Elmbreeze liked to walk the furthest boundaries of his territory. Sometimes he would go further beyond that, venturing as far as fourtrees. He often thought about what it might be like to go beyond that, to swim across the river and explore the fringes of ThunderClan and SkyClan territory, and walk the land freely as he had long before the clans were established. But unfortunately, he could not and more importantly, he would not. Elmbreeze did not want to give other clans any reason to attack RiverClan or complain about his wanderings.

Usually, on his travels, Elmbreeze would be alone, his only company an owl hooting in the distance. He had seen other cats before too - mostly loners and rogues - but had stayed away from them if he could help. Tonight he would not be so lucky.

He does not see Echolight until she is almost right in front of him, the wind carrying her scent away from him and helping obscure her for a little longer. When Elmbreeze first sees her, his first sight is of her scarred face and collar bone. He pulls back in surprise, not sure what to make of her appearance at first, her scarred features giving her something of a ghostly presence against the backdrop of the forest. When she starts to move around, looking at the surrounding area, he can tell she is not a spectral cat as he had first imagined, but rather a very much alive one. Even with her scars, she is a striking cat.

He holds back a short while before deciding to approach, noting that she clearly seemed a little unsure of where she was. Elmbreeze steps out of a nearby bush calmly and slowly, still keeping a short distance between them so as not to startle her or encroach on her personal space. "Are you lost?" He inquires, with a small tilt of the head. When he tilts his head the faint whiff of another scent finally hits his nose - WindClan. "You are from WindClan?" Elmbreeze asks, looking to her confirmation. For all he knew she may not have been a clan cat and simply another cat who lived on or close to the moors.​

 

[Echolight]

As if the curse under her breath was magic, the leaves nearby begin to rustle.
Quickly, her attention snaps in his direction, her first instinct was to drop into her defensive stance, but before she could do so he begins to speak.
Are you lost?
His voice contains no hostility, only curiosity, but the edge returns when he asks another question shortly after.
"Yes." She replies simply, deflecting his first question- it wouldn’t be smart to admit that she didn’t know where she was to a stranger- and judging from his glossy pelt and the faint scent of fish- a stranger from an “enemy” clan at that. "Riverclan?" She prompts, tilting her own head.
Subconsciously, she thinks back to a time where she might not have been so wary, where she would have greeted the handsome tom with a warm smile and a request for directions, it is a bittersweet thought, as now she is apart of the infamous Windclan now.
She sits, keeping her posture straight, and tilting her head back to its normal stance. She keeps her gaze on him, her eye flickering occasionally to his paws, watching to see if he’d attack, she couldn’t be too cautious during these times, after all.
"Speech."
​

[ WHAT A TIME ]​

 

[ELMBREEZE]

Based on the question she returns to him, she is a clan cat then, and his nose was not failing him when he believed he had scented the moors drifting from her. "So obvious?" He asks, laughing as he spoke. When the laughter fades, Elmbreeze notes the way she keeps looking at him, and how her gaze kept flickering to his paws. "I'm not going to attack you," Elmbreeze blurts out, looking at her with a serious expression for a brief moment. "I'm not that kind of cat." Easy words to say, but not so easy to prove given the current situation.

An awkward moment passes between the two where Elmbreeze is not certain of what to say. "My name is Elmbreeze," He finally says, regaining the cordial tone he had when he spoke earlier. "What's your name mysterious warrior of WindClan?"​

 

[Echolight]

The small amount of relief that causes her shoulders to relax is subtle, but there all the same when he confirms that he wouldn’t be attacking her. With a small remnant of unease she breaks into a low laugh.
"I guess you can never be too careful." Her reply was a little warmer than before, but there is still that awkward pause of silence that comes after she speaks. She parts her maw to say something else, but the stranger beats her and introduces himself.
Echolight cannot help but think of how fitting of a name it is, and she repeats it once inwardly to remember it. "Echolight." She officially introduces with a light dip of her head, finally able to bring herself to maintain steady eye contact. "Though, not really mysterious I admit" she joked, the paranoia that had grasped her before now gone. "What brings you here? Don’t the Riverclanners live on an island?" She prompted with a small tilt of her head, a little sheepish to admit that she didn’t know much about the other clans.
"Speech."
​

[ WHAT A TIME ]​

 

[ELMBREEZE]

She's right when she says you can never be too careful. Elmbreeze finds it a little ironic to hear such words come from the mouth of a WindClan cat, especially if the tale Blazestar spoke of at the most recent gathering was true. After he tells her his name, she responds in kind with her own.

"Echolight," He echoes. Elmbreeze repeats her name two more times, as though testing it out. "That's an unusual name, but it suits you," Elmbreeze admits, dipping his shyly, as though embarrassed to have blurted that out. Her question about what he was doing here and whether RiverClan lived on an island made him smile. "Do you want the true answer? I was exploring," He tells her honestly. "Probably not the best idea with the borders in place now, but I can't help it, I've always been inclined to explore and see the world. As for your other question - yes, we do live on an island. But our territory encompasses more than just that."​