We're Here (Umbre's Kits)

[Marrowbone]

Just in front of the Circuit's barn, many of the strange cats were out and about, enjoying the Leaf-Fall sun before it became too cold to lounge. Ciosce was playing with a group of juveniles and kits, sweeping up the newly-fallen leaves and then scattering them again, Quree and Sodapop were for whatever reason gathering acorns and other nuts from the roots of trees, and sunning themselves on the stones in front of the barn were Deck and Clopar.
"You know, the grass frosted over this morning."
Deck mused, tail flickering and an eye on the shenanigans of the kids. With a rather annoyed look on his face and head on his paws, Clopar just answered,
"Feh."
"Oh, that's right, I had almost forgotten you hate the cold."
"Feh."

Meanwhile, headed in their direction trekked the small group of Umbre and her kits. The look on Umbre's face was of ponderous*. Two of her kits had died to today, and it had spooked her so bad she had agreed to take her surviving children to go join the Circuits. And she would report everything she found to Nimblestar. Spying was always a risky affair, but Clopar sounded like a rather unstable cat, and hopefully she wasn't putting her kits in even more risk by associating them with the crazy tom. But Fracture had already made up his mind to join up with them, so whatever happened was unavoidable.
By her paws Apple had wandered off a few tail-lengths. She found herself squinting through the browning foliage; There was something odd over there. It looked like patches of plowed earth; Still with perfectly green herbs growing in neat little rows. Like those twoleg gardens their family had passed while coming to this forest. Did Twolegs really come this far back in the woods just to plant herbs?
Suddenly something bright white, orange and black streaked by, almost bowling the poor kit Apple over. The strange streak was followed by a white cat that ran behind it, shouting,
"Moooom, Jackle's tail is on fire again!"

Clopar's head lifted from his paws as all other eyes swiveled towards the sounds of shouting coming from the woods. Jackle came flying from the bushes, the tip of his tail smoking, and yelling in a panic,
"Hothothothothothothot!"
Deck sat up and waved her granddaughter over, meowing in a cool tone,
"Ciosce honey, go throw some water on your uncle please."
"On it!"
While Ciosce and Jackle disappeared to find the hose, Jackpot ran up to his mother and Clopar, panting from keeping up with his be-fired brother.
"What happened this time?"
"We were playing with firecrackers. Kinda got out of hand. Reala's whiskers won't be growing back anytime soon."
"Which is exactly why I always tell you kids to steal a fire extinguisher from the humans before doing stuff like that. It's what a responsible cat would do."
Jackpot liked his shoulder in embarrassment. Fire extinguisher-- Of course!
"Oh, Clopar, some cats are almost here. I think they're looking for us. I passed 'em in the woods."
"Really? I wonder what for."
Almost on cue Umbre's head poked out of the brush and looked between all of the cats running around, before resting her gaze on the yellow-and-purple tom that had been described to her. This must be the place. She signaled with a twitch of her tail that it was okay to her three kits.

((Duuude, I left like no room for other people to post here O.o Ah well, I might fix that later. That's the problem with action/dialogue-heavy situations in roleplay, I suppose.

* I seriously have no idea what word to use here. I feel like I’m trying to translate something =p ))

[» Sacrifice]

Clopar wasn't the only one who happened to be in a bad mood, although for Fracture, it was something worse then just the cold, which he welcomed. The chilling, icy needles had distracted him for a moment, but after keeping up a steady trek through the forest, the icy feeling had faded away. On the outside that is, anyway. Ears flattened, tail lashing, the young skeleton tom had refused to make any type of conversation, though they had tried a couple of times. No, today he wanted to wallow in his own personal misery, and seeing Apple so happy made his fur want to stand on end. Did she even care, what had happened? That they had lost a brother and a sister all in one fatal blow? Or about how the one at fault here was the Clans, not the Circuits. If they hadn't come to the clans in the first place, none of this would have ever happened. It was all the clan's fault, but mostly MapleClan's. It had taken a bit of time for him to come to it, the blame had first been on himself, but now, this seemed to be right. It couldn't be his fault; he hadn't caused the sickness. The Clans had, with their unwillingness to meet the conditions of the Circuits.
All their fault.
They need to pay.
They would still be alive.
This has to be a dream; there has to be a way to reverse this.
They will pay.

So deep was he in his thoughts, Fracture barely had enough time to jump out of the way, sharp golden eyes narrowed in a dangerous matter; but it didn't matter. The cat was already on fire, he couldn't do much worse then that. He was ready for the second streaking form though, and casually sidestepped the she cat without so much as a second glance. There was no calls out in his usual teasing manner, there was no playful banter that he might have tried once upon a time. There was just a quiet, more observant but with a sneer to it, behavior to the tom. Almost as though this whole fiasco amused him, almost. He wasn't the only one amused though...

Almost as though he was made of the shadows himself, another cat came forth, and made Fracture blink once or twice to make sure he wasn't seeing things. Normal enough, the other tom had a deep purple, almost black coat, his tail tip checkered red. A thick cape that had dark streaks and stars on the bottom hid the rest of his back, but Fracture had seen a flash of white when the tom had moved. That all was normal enough with him; but when Fracture met the eyes of the tom, he had to stop the urge to flinch. Strangely enough though, after the first shock, he seemed to be almost...interested in this tom. Which in itself was very strange, and not just due to the fact that he had lost someone today. With his ear studs, and stud right above his eye, the shadow tom seemed to scream 'bad influence' to anyone who just glanced at the tom. It wasn't his looks that made Fracture look twice though; it was his eyes. With one half light blue, and other light green, it was nothing that he had ever seen before. Maybe that was why he couldn't stop staring, even when the half gaze met his own sharp golden one. And for a moment, it was almost as though there was a staredown, neither of the two looking away, before for no real reason, Fracture nodded ever so slightly, and managed to break his gaze away.

And then suddenly, the tom was gone once more, although Fracture had been watching the other tom the whole time. Reminding himself that this was the Circuits after all, Fracture felt his flare of interest fade, replaced by the feeling of nothing, aside from maybe a touch of hate every now and again. Moving forward so he wasn't quite so far behind, he had stopped at the first glance of the tom, he managed to catch up just in time to beat Apple, and entered the opening first, head and tail raised up high, defiance in every ounce of his being. All an act, but who knows, maybe once he got his feet back under him, that defiance would become real again.

"That one wants to join for his own means of recovery, or revenge, and the rest are kind of just following him. But he would have come without them, if they hadn't chosen to follow." A voice rang out, before the strange tom appeared once more, and once again, in the shadows. Ears flattening, Fracture snorted softly, rolling his eyes at the other tom, but didn't say anything. The statement was true enough, he supposed. Fracture looked at the dark colored tom once more before turning his gaze onto the tom that had been described to them. There was a spacy air around the tom, but underneath that, Fracture knew there was a sharp witt, he used the same air sometimes when he wanted someone to think he wasn't always there. You heard more that way, then if you presented yourself with all you had. And reactions were always fun, he mused with a shrug.

"That is true. My family and I do wish to join the Circuits."
Fracture said, eyes locked with Clopar's, although not so in a way to challenge the other tom. It was more as if he was trying to figure the other tom out, mirroring the look the purple tom had given him.

It wasn't working.

[Bah. I don't like it too much, but it's done.]

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