The Sward -- Part 1: The Meeting
The land was a maze, nothing like any of the inhabitants wandering it had seen or experienced before. Grey-ish sand stretched endlessly in all directions. There was no grass to sooth paw pads and no moss to make beddings, only sandy and grey rocks that lay clustered or spread in random patterns on the ground. There was no shelter either. The only trees present were long and thin blackened trunks with no branches or leaves, yet they creaked as if they had thousands of outstretched limbs caught in a storm.
Despite the horizon being clear of obstacles, no cat could see the way out. It was only the trees, the sand, and the rocks.
Some of them had freshly arrived, others had been wandering for moons, even possibly years. In all that time, none of them had seen another cat’s face, only glimpses of shadows too far away to notice or too quick to disappear for anyone to realize what it was that they had seen–or to believe that it had been real.
But one day, five lost souls converged in the direction of the largest spindly tree, either hoping to climb it and spot a way out, to give themself a goal to work towards, or by utter luck, and the lone cats would not meet one face for the first time in a long one, but four.
First it was glimpses that they, at this point, began to tell themselves were simple tricks of the mind or land. But the closer they grew, the more solid those figures became.
Flashcry stumbled through the broken and rotted trees, finally having seen the shadow of another cat. He hardly dared to hope that this one is real, after so long of no interaction. But it is real this time, and his unsteady paws carry him in a trance to see exactly who he's meeting. Are they hostile? Are they dangerous? He can hardly bring himself to care, so long as he can see another face.
Raisel shook his head, once, twice, and a third time. and yet the outline of a cat was still there. Heart pounding, he started running towards the shape.The sand and sharp gravel beneath him cut into his paws, and he dodged around the sharp scraggly “trees” growing out of the ground. The cat was still there–not a trick, not yet–and he ran as fast as he could, never taking his eyes off of the figure, too afraid that it would disappear the moment he looked away. Their back was facing him, and Raisel skidded to a stop. The sand beneath him and momentum he’d been building, however, did not help him and before he knew it he barrelled into the cat, slamming into them and knocking both of them to the ground with a hiss.
Meanwhile, Bouncefur, a ginger cat, had stopped dead in their tracks as they squinted at a familiar looking shape. “Oh StarClan, oh StarClan, oh StarClan,” they breathed repeatedly, unable to do or think of anything else for several more heartbeats.
Another cat. A real one this time.
They bounded over quickly, skidding to a stop as they noticed a few more shapes, one of which had barreled into the original shape. Oh crap, maybe they were in over their head. Was this a gang? Were there gangs in this place? The ginger tabby was hesitant, but started sneaking closer to see.
Sandhowl flicked her ears. Was that a startled yowl she heard in the distance? Beyond that, voices? She doubted it was anything other than her mind, or the land playing tricks on her, or even hope driving her to hallucinate, but what was there to lose in investigating? Taking a breath, she padded in the direction she was sure the noise had come from.
To say that Flashcry was startled was beyond an understatement. He had not so much as glimpsed the hair of another cat in as long as he had been in this awful place, and in one instance a body had barreled into him, sending him to the ground with the air run out of him. He hissed against the weight of the body above him and it hissed as well, clearly pained, before scrambling back.
Flashcry stared, eyes wide, at the ‘attacker,’ then back at the figure that had held his attention. It moved closer now, near enough for him to see that it was a black cat with light blue eyes.
The black cat looked at the both of them, clearly just as surprised to see another living creature, then her gaze flicked up, behind either tom.
Flashcry followed it, and was surprised even further to see yet another cat staring at them. Their ginger fur was lifted slightly, and their eyes seemed wary and uncertain.
The black cat, Laureldawn, plopped down and sighed, rolling her eyes at the newcomer’s alarm. “Keep your fur on. I won’t kill you. The others might, but I probably won’t.”
Flashcry’s ears pricked at the sound of another voice. For a few heartbeats, he said nothing, only drank in it like it was cold water in the middle of a drought.
Then his attention shifted to the fluffy ginger cat that seemed to tense up at any interaction. Maybe they were just as unfamiliar with the sound and sight of other cats as he was. Curious, he padded up to them, trying his best to seem nonthreatening. "What's your name?" He asked, titling his head and ignoring how strange it was to hear himself speak.
Bouncefire opened their mouth, dry from a lack of use, to respond, but cut themself off when yet another cat, pale as the ground, neared the group cautiously.
“Well,” they said, eyes blinking, “this is unexpected. I don’t suppose any of you know the way out of here?”
Sometimes interactions aren't too-too clear, but I think+hope I did well in writing it down as a story.
Flashcry saw Laureldawn and his attention was on her, and that's why his back was to Raisel.
Raisel saw Flashcry first and ran to him, and their moment of impact was witnessed by both Laureldawn and Bouncefire (who I'm guessing saw Flashcry first as well, given that he is noted to be the 'original shape'), and heard by Sandhowl.
Let me know if you think anything should be different!
Flashcry belongs to @indigo-flightly-falls
Laureldawn belongs to @ambitiousauthor
Raisel belongs to @wills-woodland-warriors
Bouncefur belongs to @elementaldeityoffood
