Black Dahlia [C]

Honeycomb watched Dawnhawk contemplate about whether or not he should bury the hare. Amusement shined in her eyes briefly until he turned towards her and asked her a strange question. The she-cat froze for a second, mind trying to find a less-confusing answer. "Well um...you know. He's Redfall. Pretty sure the only cat he cares about is Sienna...and maybe Wrenspring." Her warrior ceremony...well Tigersong had showed up. That was nice. Redfall...didn't. "Redfall didn't show up on my ceremony. My brother did. I'm sure my dad feels proud. I am his apprentice after all." Things could've been a lot less complicated if he wasn't my mentor...

Dawnhawk listened to her words, noting that she tried to defend Redfall despite the fact that he was just never there for her. He wasn't about to believe that she didn't feel conflicted. It was a slower game this way, but it was still one he could play. He nodded without any expression on his face, just to let her know that he was listening. "I'm sure my father and even myself showed up for our apprentice's warrior ceremony. Why wasn't your own father and mentor not at yours? The least he could do is offer you a congratulations." His voice was calm and his tone was steady, but he allowed a slight look of disapproval to show on his face. A moment later, a flash of pity for Honeycomb as well. Just as suddenly as it was there, it had gone again. Dawnhawk shook his head.

"I know I'm not Redfall, but I'd like to extend an additional congratulations to you on his behalf... since he hasn't." He made it sound like he genuinely wanted her to feel better, which he did, but he also hoped to but a little bit of resentment toward Redfall in her as well. It wasn't like it was unwarranted anyway, the deadbeat that he was. "Sienna was your mother? You don't resemble your dad in appearance much... I guess you take after her?" Thank the stars for that.

Honeycomb started to answer the question, but suddenly choked on her words. "W--well. I'm sure he's busy. And kind of distracted. It's...it's been hard for us." Shrugging slightly, Honeycomb awkwardly dipped her head in a thankful gesture. The mention of her kitty pet mother made the she-cat's heart deflate. "Yes. Sienna was my mother. A kitty pet. I...think I'm the only kit who looks like her. My littermates are all very ginger like my dad." She flicked her black tail tip, the one Sienna had too. Chuckling softly, Honeycomb turned her gaze towards Dawnhawk. "I'm the eldest sibling. All I have now is...Tigersong. My other littermates...Maplekit is missing and the others are as well." Honeycomb envied Dawnhawk. At least he had siblings, a lot of them. She was lonely at times without her mom and dad. Honeycomb's only friends were Shrikesong of ThunderClan, her brother, maybe even Dawnhawk by now.

Dawnhawk was surprised to hear that Sienna was a kittypet... that Redfall had had kits with a kittypet. His brain was actually boggled enough that he stared for a moment before he blinked it away. "I personally think parents should always make time for their kits," His thoughts flashed briefly to his own mother, whom had only ever had time to kick the snot out of him when she was upset with him. Maybe that was why he felt such disgust towards Redfall. He had been in Honeycomb's paws already, though she was lucky that she had a parent that only ignored her instead of outright physically abused her.

"But I won't say anymore on the matter. If you think Redfall's actions are excusable, then they must be." And he let it go, for now. He hoped she would give her own words some thought though. She had to know that Redfall was in the wrong, but maybe she didn't want to fully acknowledge it. "Your mother must have been very pretty then. I haven't interacted with Tigersong much but he seems alright." He moved off of that subject and thought for a moment. "If you ever do need company, just ask the Asylum cats where to find me. They usually know or can lead you to me. We can do whatever you'd like." And he meant that. He inched his way a little bit closer to her, but refrained from any physical contact for now.

He wanted her to initiate contact this time, if she was ever going to.

"Your mother must have been very pretty then."

Honeycomb's cheeks warmed a bit and she ducked her head to avoid eye contact. "Yes. She was. I guess that's why my dad loved her." Her pelt burned in embarrassment. No tom-cat had ever noted about her appearance before. After pressing down her emotions and regaining her composure, Honeycomb nodded at Dawnhawk. "I might. If I ever get picked up by a hare and dragged across the territory, I might." The she-cat was never going to let the slightly older warrior forget about the hare accident that just happened. Her yellow-green eyes glinted with mischief. Honeycomb was an expert at spreading rumours. "Maybe I should tell Shrikesong about it, now that we're both warriors."

Dawnhawk noted the change in her behavior, however slight. He managed to keep a smile off of his face, but things were now going in the direction that he had planned. She mentioned the hare, which brought his eyes back down to the monstrous rabbit-creature. Dawnhawk chuckled. It had been a fun ride at least. "Hey I still killed it." He pointed out. Though the thought of her catching a hare almost made him snort. Almost. She needed a lot more practice before she'd be able to catch a hare. She should start by trying to catch a rabbit. He was about to suggest as much when she mentioned Shrikesong. That name... it was familiar... Oh right! That one! And then dread hit him like a truck.

"We have a Shrikesong in Skyclan?" He asked, playing dumb. But he needed to think of something else. Something fast. Doing the only thing he could think of in a pinch, Dawnhawk was suddenly on his feet. His tail whipped back and forth in excitement as he eyed Honeycomb.

"By the way, to ride a hare... you have to pounce on it just right. Like this!" He then proceeded to tackle her, albeit gently and with sheathed claws. She had panicked at his touch before... maybe this would be enough to distract her. Maybe now she'd even like it.

Honeycomb rolled her pale green eyes. "Yeah, yeah. If you hadn't reacted faster it could've taken you right off the gorge." Chuckling lightly as Dawnhawk seemed to struggle to remember a Shrikesong, Honeycomb shook her head. "Didn't realise I said that out loud, but nope. Shrikesong, Shrikepaw then, was a friend I met by the ThunderClan border when SkyClan still lived in the RiverClan camp." Flinching in surprise as Dawnhawk suddenly leapt to his feet, Honeycomb tilted her head in a question. "Wha--eek!" Screeching in surprise, Honeycomb barely leapt out of the way when the slightly larger warrior attempted to tackle her onto the ground. Her right paw slipped and she flopped onto her belly awkwardly. "I suppose you'd have to tackle a hare way harder than that." The ginger commented, between breaths of laughter. I wonder if that was on purpose to distract me from my last comment or...maybe it was just teasing.

Shrikesong of Thunderclan.... no doubt about it. It was the Shrikesong that he had spoken to. Another she-cat that had had eyes for him. He was supposed to meet her again at one point, but he had business with the Asylum and never went back to the border to see her. Maybe at some point he'd pay her another visit, but what would she think of him now? It probably wouldn't be good. Honeycomb already knew of his involvement and yet she treated him the same as any good Skyclanner would have. So far, that made her more valuable than Shrikesong, even if his intentions with her were only to infuriate Redfall.

He had missed his tackle, but saw that she went down on her belly regardless. A mischeivous twinkle in his eye, Dawnhawk moved quickly to playfully pin her head to the ground with a lazy forelimb. His other foreleg rested over her shoulders and his teeth settled gently on the side of her neck as he pretended to kill her, "the hare". Once he had "made his kill", he took his teeth off of her and gave her an obnoxiously smug smirk.

"I don't need to tackle it at all if it trips over its own feet." He was teasing and made it obvious so she hopefully wouldn't take offense. He brought himself back up into a stand, but left one front paw on the back of her shoulders in a mock "victorious" stance. His chin tilted back, he rolled his shoulders backward and puffed out his chest.

"Details aside, I just killed my second hare for the day!" His paw was still on her shoulder blades, but he put nearly no weight on it, not wanting to hurt her. "And this one has pretty stripes! Does that count as extra points?" He said, in his most triumphant and arrogant voice that he could possibly muster. He was trying to bait her into fighting back a bit, or maybe he'd get some quippy response from her. Either way, if he could at least make her forget about Shrikesong, that was good enough. He needed to come up with a plan for later.

Just as Honeycomb was about to get up, Dawnhawk pressed her head and shoulders down lightly. Then, she felt his teeth by the side of her neck and went rigid. Oh no, is he going to kill me? No, that sounds wrong, he wouldn't kill me. Dawnhawk's just teasing me. A shudder of relief coursed through her body as Dawnhawk pulled his paw away from her head and teeth away from her neck. What is he doing? The paw on Honeycomb's shoulder blades were still present. Tilting her head sideways to take a look at what Dawnhawk was doing, Honeycomb rolled her bright yellow-green eyes. "Is this what you look like when you win a sibling scuffle?" Honeycomb blushed as the other warrior commented about her supposedly "pretty" stripes and stood up quickly, his paw falling off of her shoulders. "The hare escaped so now you get no points at all. Don't attempt to catch it again, it might kill you."

Dawnhawk felt his paw slide off of Honeycomb's shoulders and he made no effort to really keep her there. A sibling scuffle? Is that what she said? "No, the last sibling scuffle I had I looked fairly scratched up but so did Beechface." He shrugged. The memory was a distant one and one that had been mostly forgotten about at this point. At the mention of the hare killing Dawnhawk... well that just brought a terrible smile on his face. His tail twitched to and fro as his excitement began to build.

"I would like to see this hare try." Dawnhawk crouched low and spread his paws apart evenly in a rectangle. "I've caught a fair share of rabbits... I think I could run you down if I wanted to." That maybe sounded more threatening than he meant, so he followed it up with a light chuckle. "Come on Honeycomb... let me test my hunting skills on another cat, just for harmless fun of course. If I tackle you, I win. Alright?" He leaned his weight back on his haunches and then waited for her to either run from him or decline.

Honeycomb flicked one ear, slowly turning around, tail facing Dawnhawk. "Alright then. Let's go. As long as you remember how to get back to camp, I will forever be grateful." With that comment, she sped off, her legs burning with effort as Dawnhawk chased her. She was no WindClan cat, but at least she had the powerful haunches of a SkyClan cat. Honeycomb almost glanced back to check how far Dawnhawk was from her, but she decided against it. That would only distract her, and she wanted to win this. Narrowly avoiding a tree, the ginger almost slammed headfirst into it. Honeycomb's energy was almost entirely spent, and her breathing became slightly heavy.

She bolted. Dawnhawk gave her a few strides head start before he finally pursued. As if he were chasing a rabbit, the pale tom practically flew across the ground and ate up the distance between Honeycomb and himself. Her swerve around the tree threw him off just a bit, but he regained his footing quickly and was once again, closing the gap. Something about chasing down another cat felt exhilarating. If he could just catch her... Even if he didn't, this was good practice for when he would probably have to pursue fleeing cats in the future. Dawnhawk closed in and went for a leg sweep... but instead... his forepaw that was supposed to steady him on the ground slipped on a wet leaf. He lost his balance and missed his swipe.

"Saved by a leaf!" He shouted after her, but not angrily. He chuckled even, before he slowed his pace to a smooth halt. "Alright... well it's not the first time I've missed a hare." She won. Fine. ... Or did she? "You try. Watch the leaves!" And with that, Dawnhawk spun and bolted. Could she catch him? Was she really saved by a leaf or was she actually faster or more maneuverable than him? He wanted to find out.

OOC: Dice Rolling Now. Odds he catches her, Evens he doesn't. 10 means he misses and a predator appears?

The member 'Tara' has done the following action : Dices roll

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'Hunting Dice' : 2

Honeycomb barely had any time to celebrate her victory, before Dawnhawk sped off, dashing away, a silver-cream blur next to the trees. "Competitive, eh?" Chuckling softly, the light ginger tabby zoomed after the larger warrior, narrowly avoiding a few trees on the way. Honeycomb was gradually catching up, but rather slowly. Maybe I shouldn't have used that much energy on running away. Her lungs burning with effort, Honeycomb continued to run after Dawnhawk, rather in awe of his speed. He was no WindClanner, but he was rather fast, too. Determined to catch the tom-cat, Honeycomb sprinted at him with all of the energy she had left, before leaping up and tackling the larger warrior. "Aha! I caught you!" She laughed before jumping off of Dawnhawk to allow him to stand up. "Hope you didn't get injured, though."

The member 'Winterwillow' has done the following action : Dices roll

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'Hunting Dice' : 7