LIVE AS IF YOU WERE TO DIE TOMORROW
There was very little in life that Johnny had ever wanted for himself. Not because he was some selfless god of a cat, but because his basic needs had always been met, and for the bobtail that had always been enough. He always had good food and clean water, always had a warm home with gentle hands to welcome him at the end of a long day, and had always been able to come and go as he pleased to explore and to befriend the neighborhood cats. And for Johnny, that had been enough.
So why didn't it feel that way anymore?
He tried to tell himself he was acting like a kit, that he was being too hasty and jumping into things. After all, it had been less than a full day and here he was, genuinely considering abandoning his post and changing his life forever. All for a tom he'd just met and a clan that didn't even entirely like him. Stars. If some cat had shown up last week and told him this would be an issue he'd have to deal with in the near future, he might have laughed in their face, unable to imagine any scenario that would shake his resolve when it came to his housefolk.
" you belong with your own kind, too. Those twolegs owe you as much. "
Johnny wasn't sure if he was owed it or not, but the first part stuck in his ears. With is own kind. Was that what this pull was? Is that why it was digging into him so deeply even though his exposure to it had been so brief? Perhaps mercifully so, Thistleback was quick to tack on a reason more grounded in logic. Working with Skyclan would make him a stronger, more capable cat- would better his ability to protect his home.
"That's true." he agreed, lips quirking up into a smirk before cntinuing, "I doubt there's a cat outside of your forest that has the trees on their side during a fight. " He'd be able to catch just about anyting off guard with the tactics and skills Skyclan could give him- if he was willing to cut a few ties to his current life to make room for new ties to them that is. A reasonable exchange, he knew.
" well. I welcome you, Johnny. I’m sure your twolegs won’t mind. We have many daylight warriors who return home at night. "
The idea that he wasn't alone was comforting. It wasn't as if Johnny would be the first cat to do thhis, after all, and it was obviously sustainable if so many others had done it before him. A daylight warrior... it made him think of the sun; warm and bright and comforting, yet still able to scorch and burn when it suited them.
A gentle press against his shoulder as he was steered around a sharp bit of pine after getting lost in thought, and he wondered if it was possible for his admiration to grow any farther.
Johnny had conquered his own world, you see. He knew it's rules, knew it's inhabitants, knew what to expect. He was comfortable and confident within it, and he knew where he stood even if his twolegs liked to move around. And while he always managed to make friends no matter where he ended up living, nobody looked out for Johnny. How could they, when he was the one looking out for them? When his kittypet friends were being bullied or having trouble keeping strays out of their yards, it was him they went to for help. When a newcomer to the neighborhood found themselves lost, it was him that showed them the way back to their nest. And when a dog got loose from its yard and was causing chaos chasing the local strays and housepets, it was Johnny who kept the thing distracted until it's mousebrained twoleg came to collect it.
He was a protector at heart, but he'd never really crossed paths with someone else who was like him in that regard.
Until Thistleback and Skyclan.
Even now, Thistleback was considering him as they walked, making sure garden-soft paws didn't find themselves punctured by the forest floor as he spoke, weaving his webs. " It would be my pleasure, to perhaps. Show you more. Know you. " Did he understand how deep the temptation ran each time he spoke to Johnny? How much tighter silken strands became each time the piebald hellion voiced any kind of interest or praise in his direction? Because it seemed impossible that Thistle or any cat like him could really find anything of interest in Johnny, who considered himself to be rather plain even if he was always the odd man out.
"I'd like that." he admitted as fleeting silver flashed toward him- and he meant it, perhaps more than he'd meant anything in a long time. To learn from Thistleback, to know Thistleback- it felt almost as if he were being gifted something that he wasn't worthy of, and that alone made it impossible to say 'no' because Johnny was nothing if not a competitive bastard and he wasn't about to be the 'wrong choice'.
"Okay, I think you've convinced me- or maybe I've convinced myself." Johnny said with a chuckle, leaning over to give Thistle a playful bump of his shoulder. "I can't promise it'll work out - twolegs and all- but I want to try the daylight warrior thing. I think I'd regret it if I didn't."
An understatement, really. He could already tell that he'd spent every day for the rest of his life sitting on the fenceline staring into the pine forest, wondering what his life would have been like if only he'd gone back.
OPEN for Dice battles |
stine#3004
