Arc one (open to one RC cat)

Snow caked Riverclan territory, the glimpses of sun causing the reflective white fluff to shine and blind whoever stared in the direction of the sun.  Leaves and the fresh snow that were the last to fall crinkled and crunched under those who wandered without a care or inexperience, cool but fresh air and wind traveled down the distant mountain tops bringing with it the promise of more snow.

The blues and greys that covered the territory with little flashes of colour like the green brown of the dying grass and the bright yellow of the sun brought peace to Oakpaws heart as she traveled by the river, clouds ghosting past her lips as she wandered; the tranquility and silence of the forest disturbing the peace and comfortable feeling that graced her somewhat silent paw steps.

It was eerie, was it not? That not even a bird call or a smack of a fish on the waters surface graced Riverclans part of the forest? Amber eyes opening just a bit more from their previous half-lidded position she she could scan the waters more effectively. And there, she saw something caught on the bank.

Curiosity gripped Oakpaws paws with it's black thorny tendrils and coaxed her down to the river bank, the cold of the snow hardening the ground and making it harder to tread. Claws unsheathed she carefully made her way down to the thing that was washed up, cold fur beckoning and trying to convince the thing it was attached to to go back into the water.

Stopping before the thing Oakpaw loomed over the water-heavy grey pelt of a.. cat? The world stopped for a moment, just a moment as she reached over with bated breath and pulled the thing onto its back to confirm that this soggy bloated corpse was indeed a cat. The world continued spinning on its axis. But Oakpaw was still, contemplating, thinking, her brain firing neurons and synapses as they connected solutions to this problem but some connections fizzled and died.

Oakpaw didn't know this cat so that was one thing she didn't have to worry about, who could this cat could have been? She asked herself but found she couldn't muster up the will to care. But the one thing that only seemed to tug at her heart was that she didn't really care. Oakpaw realized that she never really did care, she never really understood why she didn't. But she never understood why other cats did. She got strange looks sometimes for acting strangely.

Shrugging her shoulders she looked at the problem that presented itself to her mind once more, unsure of what she could do. No one would care for this rogue would they? She didn't. So why would they? Though to a nod of caution the she-cat checked the slope up and down and over her shoulders before shoving the water logged rogue back into the river to be washed up further down stream, out of sight out of mind.

Shaking out her brown fur she scratched her way up the slope and onto some-what safer grounds, before going on her merry way. The peace of the forest once more lulling her back into a sense of peace and tranquility. Stopping for a rest she picked up her snow clogged paws and licked them furiously to remove the clumps of snow.

Breathing in the frigid air, filling her lungs to the brim and holding it there, exhaling in a steady breath her ears flickered for any trace of rodent that was relatively close to her location. It seemed that Oakpaw was in luck as she spotted a relatively scrawny water vole, eyes locking onto the small prey animal. Tail flickering as she watched, the vole disturbed by her tail flickering went to skitter away, but with luck on Oakpaws side she managed to catch it but not without the snow that rested on the rocks and grass beneath her flew up in a puff.

Oakpaw was just about to kill it before her eyes went unfocused with the thoughts of the dead corpse she found earlier. Claws that were still unsheathed dug further into the vole, and hearing its squeals of pain and terror brought no feeling of guilt with it. Sitting down Oakpaw scratched at it curiously, tossing it around like she would a moss ball. Her curiosity growing ever more as she realized that even if she felt no emotion before, she surely should be feeling some now? Oakpaw was entranced by her curiosity and sense of wonder that she didn't realize that there was a cat drawing ever nearer.

There was a splash of wave-like shadow against the water. A towering figure seemed to stand before Oakpaw. They were just a blaze of fallow color against the rock-like riverbanks. An array of pointy teeth seemed to show. A grin graced the unknown cat's features, as the female feline stood, muscles bunched in a half-sitting position.

"Don't play with your food," she warned. She leapt down onto another rock, still basking in the shadows. Fur prickly and coarse, her blue eyes shining like pearls buried within the confinement of an oyster. Her movements were fluid and strong as her tail lashed slightly, from side, to side. The core of her eyes were like a rod of coal, mere slits in pools of crystalline blue. Tabby markings streaked her fur, like a coursing river through a plot of solid land.

A next paw stepped down. In the light, it shone almost a burnt brownish-gold; almost a raw umber in the wreathe of rocks surrounding it. Mist lifted up from the river, surrounding the unknown she-cat. She couldn't see if the young Oakpaw was frightened. She spoke gently. "It's alright. Don't be scared of me." The cat, resilient to the sunlight, finally stepped out. A light wind frosted Fallowpaw's fur. She was as large as a fully-fledged warrior.

Fallowpaw stalked forwards. "Aren't you going to do something productive out here?" she asked. The question sounded sharp, as it rolled off of her tongue. The sleek she-cat bent by the bank of the flowing river, and with that, she remained silent. A wisp of a reed caught her gaze. Her pelt flashed as she pinned down the head with a swift paw. "Hmmph," she scoffed, as if she expected more out of the feign hunt.

Fallowpaw's cattiness could be considered unrivalled sometimes, yet now, it seemed to melt away, like wax on the top of a candle. "A cat like you, barely more than a kit, out alone?" Fallowpaw marvelled. The she-cat groomed her pelt down, and finally reached the base of her tail. She caked it with cleansing saliva, making it as glossy as possible, in the promoting, silver-gold sunlight. Fallowpaw met eyes with Oakpaw.

She seemed almost surreal. "It's fine - I'm open to everything, after all," she purred. "Like... new ideas." Fallowpaw peered down into the water, where fish flitted back and forth. Possibly to Oakpaw's surprise, the apprentice did not dip her paw in, to attempt and try and catch the fish. The comfortable, piscine scent was familiar to Fallowpaw. She drank it in proudly.

She curled her tail around her paws, looking at Oakpaw with a kind smile.

Oakpaw stood up rigidly at the unknown voice, fur prickling from her rump up to the top her head as she whipped around to identify the half-stranger Fallowpaw. The shock from the sudden appearance of the cat wearing off, allowing Oakpaw to speak boldly. Cautiously Oakpaw watched and assessed the she-cat approached her, speaking to her in a calming tone of voice.

"I'm not scared of you, don't be so absurd! I'd have to be dumber than a beetle." Meowed the young apprentice, her voice flat and pitching oddly as she tried to sound offended, she was affronted that Fallowpaw would think her afraid though. The water vole caught between her paws and the ground twitching and giving off barely audible squeals.

Oakpaw turned her attention back to it and tugged at every limb and tail, ripping at fur as she watched it jerk and twitch before falling still and silent. She killed it? Well that was a pity. Bending down she took a bite of it, the taste of distress thick on her tongue. Disgusted Oakpaw pushed it towards Fallowpaw with a snort.

"No, I was merely out for a stroll. I hardly care for your opinion on the matter." Boldly stated the brown she-cat, her amber eyes narrowing at the sleek she-cats criticism. "Why are you out here? Hardly looks like you're doing anything productive. I wouldn't call criticizing me productive either." Remarked Oakpaw, tilting her head at the she-cats antics as they continued.

Meeting each verbal partial tongue lashing with her own the brown and burly she-cat huffed. "A cat like you, almost a warrior, out alone?" Ears pressing against the back of her head as she mocked the fallow-hued she-cat, tilting her head side to side as she mocked her. Oakpaw had seen her brother do it as he spoke with one of their sisters, and thought it good to use it had seemed to irk them at the time. Amber eyes met with blue.

"Yeah uh-huh." Oakpaw mewed, just barely gracing her with a response as she got to her paws and padded to the river bank and she herself watching the water and fish that swam in it, their scales just glinting in the light as their grey and white hues blended into the rocks beneath them.

Fallowpaw grinned, a smile stretching across her maw. "If I'm almost a warrior, who says that I can't be out alone?" she asked slyly. She dropped down to look at Oakpaw, the surly landscape certainly a vast one. The opposing she-cat's pretty brown pelt definitely caught Fallowpaw's eye. She nodded approvingly, but bitterness was sour on her tongue. "Is there anything wrong with me being out here, too?" Fallowpaw questioned. "Or," she added, "Does this happen to be your territory?" Fallowpaw's tone was not threatening or interrogating, but it was blatant. She could take Oakpaw's taunts - she found it rather amusing, that.

She walked towards a boulder, shading herself in the shadow of the escarpment. She sighed, licking her paw and drawing it over her striped forehead. She met Oakpaw's gaze carelessly, turning her resting body to one side, and half-closing her eyes. "We both aren't crossing the border, after all," she stated, more calmly. "Mmm-mmm. If you don't like me, then just ignore me." Fallowpaw suggested.

"No there`s nothing wrong with it, I mainly just came about for a solitary stroll. This so just does happens to be my territory since we`re both in Riverclan, mouse-brain!" Oakpaw scoffed, eyes rolling as she contemplated the stupidity of the world; Maybe Fallowpaw was just caught in the moment, thrown off her game as she watched her torture the vole to death.

Watching Fallowpaw with slitted eyes Oakpaw herself sat down, not bothering to follow the older she-cat to the boulder. Picking up her light coloured paws she dragged her tongue across them, making sure the last of the snow was completely gone before licking the stray fur on her spine back down again.

"I don`t like you, but I don`t hate you either." Rather passively and matter-of-fact stated Oakpaw, her beautiful amber eyes shifting to look at Fallowpaw some-what cautiously. Despite being a clan-mate, Oakpaw wasn`t too sure of her. She could probably pounce on her or whatever easily-excitable kits did.

"Alright," Fallowpaw said. "I was just wondering if you thought you were the leader." She played with... whatever it was, I don't know. A string of moss hanging off of the side of the wall. She eventually tore it off, listening to Oakpaw's words. "What a shocker you don't hate me," she commented. "I know that some cats would die for in-clan rivalry. Just so that they can watch like the kits that some of them are." She threw away the moss that was hooked on her claw. She got up, tail swishing. "I'll do some hunting while I'm here," she decided aloud. She padded over to the bank, and dipped a paw in. She, unfortunately, didn't catch the fish, but she took out a shiny object. "Oh... a Twoleg item, I suppose," she murmured to herself. She kept it, perhaps part of a strange obsession.

She sat down, noting Oakpaw's personality. She didn't hate it, but she didn't like it - StarClan, she was starting to sound like the apprentice herself! She sat down in the sun, with the shiny object beside her. Fallowpaw made sure to keep it out of the sunlight, since it would shine annoyingly like that.

"I do not." Simply stated Oakpaw as she flickered her eyes towards the much older apprentice, watching and listening, Oakpaw seemed to ponder the she-cats remark about hate. Watching her wearily as she came up beside her she hesitantly meowed. "I do not hate, nor do I seem to like either." She was monotone once more, watching the she-cat as she missed a fish but managed to grasp a shiny two-leg thing. Interesting.

"Makes sense," Fallowpaw remarked, half-flatly. She grasped the Twoleg item with unsheathed claws. They scraped against the shiny surface of the item. Her pink tongue flickering rather near to her teeth, she set it close to the ground. She blinked at it with sharp, blue eyes. "Interesting," she meowed, as if seeming to echo the younger she-cat's intrigued thoughts. It stayed unsteadily in her paw, pressing up against her raw, salmon-colored pads, yet tilted and fell due to the absence of opposable thumbs.

Eyes narrowing she took a couple of steps away from Fallowpaw, tail softly swaying, her body betraying nothing. "I'm leaving, going back to camp. I've grown bored of you." Oakpaw meowed, unaware of the insult she spoke. Honesty was a good thing in any kind of relationship Oakpaw knew this of course, all cats should know of it. Shaking out her thick fur the beautiful brown she-cat with amber eyes, took a few moments to further scrutinize the shiny thing, allowing Fallowpaw to respond to her departure.

She didn't seem to pay much heed to said insult. She had heard it, of course- but it wasn't important to her. She knew that Oakpaw was unaware of what she said, too. "Be on your way, then," she meowed emotionlessly. She nodded towards the brown she-cat, and waved her tail as she possibly set off. She then dropped the item, observing it further. This tabby apprentice could spend moons looking at the shiny object, it seemed.

OOC: A short topic but an important one, alas it ends! ONTO PART 2

ooc;; Eee! I like this plot! Also, Fallowpaw was more ignorance than liberality cx

OOC: She can redeem herself if she wishes in another topic, like whoever has Greed for their cat. No worries

ooc;; I might. lol