change my mind (c)

Daypaw had begun to push the Asylum to the back of her mind. It was difficult to miss the fact that there were still strangers in the middle of the camp, but she had trained herself to ignore them. Most of them seemed unapproachable anyways, so she had no intention of introducing herself to one. Truthfully, however, the Asylum cats didn't have to remain as strangers... she could always at least make an attempt to speak to one, but the painful fear of losing her life to the claws of one of them constantly remained in the back of her mind. There was no possible way that she would be able to see them any differently. They had killed one of her Clanmates, an innocent cat with a long life still ahead of her. She had seen the look on her mentor's face, she had seen how hard Downtuft had tried to conceal his tears, and she had never seen him snap like that before. She would never be able to forget that.

Earlier that day, she had gone on a hunting patrol that was made up of too many Asylum cats for her taste. Despite the fact that she had learned to ignore them, it was hard to forget about the fact that they were there when she was in the middle of the moorland with over four of them. Her discomfort had caused her to become a nervous wreck, and almost every rabbit that she had tried to catch ended up getting away. Coming back to camp empty-pawed was humiliating, and all she wanted to do now was curl up in her nest and catch up on sleep. She looked towards the fresh-kill pile with an ashamed look on her face. She would feel absolutely awful if she ate without contributing anything, so there was practically no point. Daypaw held back a sigh as she started to head back to the apprentices' den, but she was thrown off when she accidentally padded straight into an unfamiliar cat, meaning that they were probably apart of the Asylum's numbers.

"Oh... oh my gosh, I'm so sorry. I wasn't trying to attack you or anything, I swear. It was an accident. Please don't kill me, I promise it was an accident." The she-cat began to ramble, letting words tumble out of her mouth without even thinking twice.

Short though his “vacation” at Asylum’s makeshift base had been, Pyrik had gotten just enough time (and just enough rest) to clear his head somewhat. The moor had proven itself to be cruel and lonely and impossible to wrap his head around in so many ways…but it was also his mission, and its residents were meant to be allies. With WindClan’s dead so recently buried, few cats were willing to bridge the gap. But somebody needed to, or else things would only get worse. Maybe…maybe he had to be that somebody.

One step at a time. Pushing his misgivings aside, Pyrik tucked his fox pelt beneath his nest before venturing into the sandy pit WindClan called home. He wove aimlessly between their scattered nests. Was he supposed to talk to one of them, or was just existing in their camp wearing only his own skin enough for now? A distraction came in the form of something bumping rather hard into his side. He turned to find a gray-and-white she-cat halfway through an apology. His first instinct was to reply in kind: “No, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have been standing in the way—”

At that point, Pyrik’s ears caught up to the words spilling out of the she-cat’s mouth, and he pulled up short, open bewilderment plastered across his face. He’d gotten used to seeing hostility everywhere he turned (as much as a cat could get used to that sort of thing). This…wasn’t hostility. Being afraid of the pelt was one thing—part of its purpose, in fact—but…no one had ever been afraid of him before. There wasn’t time to unravel how he felt about it. “I’m not gonna kill you just because we ran into each other,” he said, muzzle wrinkling slightly at the thought. “Wait, I mean, I’m not gonna kill you in general. Um, at all. As long as you don’t try to kill me—” Okay, he needed to change the subject now. Sooner, if possible. Pressing his forelegs together, Pyrik gathered himself up to his full height, which wound up being half a whisker shorter than the she-cat’s. ”I’m Pyrik. What’s your name?” As he spoke, he caught himself shuffling from side to side. Apparently, nervousness was contagious.

Daypaw was instantly sent into confusion as the Asylum cat began to ramble, too. It threw her off track. She had no idea how she was supposed to keep this conversation going now. If the tom was reacting the exact same way that she did, how was she supposed to change her attitude now? What was even more confusing was the fact that the tom had even apologized in the first place. Asylum cats were supposed to be cold and ruthless, and everything they did had a malicious intent. At least that was what Daypaw believed they were supposed to be like. Visible shock coated her face upon the Asylum tom stating that he wouldn't kill her simply for running into her but it melted away once he followed up with clarification. It was almost as if she was searching for things to be afraid of. If this tom was being genuinely kind then there was no reason to purposefully look for reasons to dislike him. She attempted to relax, but there was still a slight glimmer of unease in her yellow eyes.

Daypaw was still getting used to the format of Asylum names. The ones that she had heard already were so strange to her. Theron? Roe? Thalia? Now Pyrik would be another name to throw into the mix. Their names didn't reflect nature at all. It wasn't like she had ever seen a "pyrik" while going out on a hunt. Everything about the Asylum was so strange, and it seemed as if they had no similarities to Clan cats other than the fact that they were both full of cats that were loyal to each other. If she looked at it from a simplistic view, perhaps the Asylum and Clan cats weren't that different at all. At the end of the day, if WindClan had decided to invade the Asylum's camp, she would do it for her Clan. She would protest and find it to be morally wrong, but she would still do it. It was possible that there were some Asylum cats who felt the same.

"I'm Daypaw, it's nice to meet you, and I'm sorry again for running into you." Her voice, despite the fact that it was still quiet, was much calmer this time.
"Oh! And I won't try to kill your or anything so I guess you don't have to worry about that... the last thing I wanna do is kill anyone."