once upon a summer (open)

One of Tinypaw's patrolmates had just so happened to be his sister. The warrior had little better to do, and had taken up just about any opportunity possible to be able to patrol near the Twolegplace farm. Something about the onyx tom she had met there found her curiosity, trapping it in a cage that was somehow even more deadly than the traps she had heard about. Part of her had felt a need to keep an eye out for a literal trap of that sort, even though they had been dismantled long before her birth. Such evidence was in the fact that she now walked the forest with her full warrior name, never having even come across such a fiendish creation.

Her feathered tail seemed to lift on a silent breeze at the sound of her brother's voice, her two-toned head lifting with a now-roused curiosity. Stranger? The question instantly seemed to draw her in, pulling her away from the territory marker that she had been thoroughly re-scenting. It had gotten somewhat muddied as of recent times, the scent that she recognized deep down still calling to her. Confusing her.

Mistwalker blinded as she followed the sound of Tinypaw's voice. "Who did you find, brother?" While there was hope that tinged at the very outermost corner of her words, she found herself drawing in. Right back to that very mask of Perchstar's, her head rising taller. Shoulders becoming more tense as it pushed her into that regal image of the leader's daughter. The one who had earned her warrior name first of her siblings, not the one that had nearly wasted away in the medicine den to the fate of an illness. Part of her couldn't help but thank the stars for that very fact, that she now stood to continue to walk the forest. There were still conversations left unfinished. Mysteries left unsolved that floated at the back of her mind on an idle day.

However, if you wish to return again, then I may tell you my name. I will be more likely to do so if... if you bring your siblings.

One of those mysteries swirled deep, deep down as the familiar pelt of raven fur came into view. Her instinct was to brush it off as the wrong cat, to stifle the hope that wanted to rise up, up, up. Instead, she pushed it right back down. Down, down down, squashed beneath her own metaphorical paws. It still seemed to break free, roiling and rippling as she studied the tom further. Took in his scent, only to be reminded of it yet again. Something far away, foreign. It stung her nose, much like the scent of twoleg-made objects. Yet... the faintest glimmer of recognition. One look right at her brother told her as much, stirred her memory of some sort of connection. It felt too far away, too much to truly draw the pieces together that she felt like she should have known. A murky reflection, at best. No- it was just the fact that she had interacted with this particular stranger before.

"Oh. Hello, nameless one." The words found themselves answering her surprise before she could fully stifle it. Mistwalker's gaze stayed on Tinypaw. Her body language spoke an invitation for a polite conversation, but also protection. Ever so slightly, her chin dipped downward, just as her feathered tail seemed to find its way along the ground in an arc that served as a shield behind her sibling. It wasn't that Tinypaw needed it, but instead was the warrior fulfilling the duties of her position. She would let her brother guide, but not hesitate to keep him out of harms way if the Stars so decreed that tensions would rise. Deep down, though... through that swirling mist of her true thoughts and feelings, she knew they wouldn't. "Tinypaw, I've seen him before. But never got his name." Simple facts spoken, to inform her kin of just why she spoke in the way she did.

He... had remembered her name? The molly gave a bewildered blink for a passing moment, shuffling on surprised paws. Though, it was a name that had been in the past. She had since moved beyond that small title, come into something much more fuller and regal. "I have earned my full name since we last spoke, it is Mistwalker now." A single glimmer of pride came and went in that otherwise impervious blue gaze of hers, just enough to provide the context to the tom that it was something to celebrate. She was unsure just how much of their ways that he knew, but the fact that he had continued to stick around certainly surprised her. Not enough to show it beyond that blink, though thankfully, his attention had seemed to remain on her brother.

Then... he upheld his bargain.

Felix.

The name was certainly odd on her tongue, foreign. He certainly was no clan cat, though the nickname of 'nameless one' was one she had grown fond of. Having to replace it instead of keep it was somewhat saddening, but it satisfied her deeply to know just what he was called. It tugged at something deep within her, something she could not quite place. That sensation was simply lost to the further mists as he asked his question. Just how much did she trust this tom? Instinct told her to trust him significantly. Training told her to shred him apart, fur by fur. Though he had never stepped onto true Riverclan territory, not yet earning her wrath. "Yes. Sisters." She affirmed. No names slipped her tongue, nor a number. Tinypaw had been revealed simply by association, and she had profited from the exchange in turn... "Two sisters." There. He knew there were four. That surely was enough information to have shared in exchange for his name.

"Felix..." Mistwalker tested out his name, puzzled at the way the syllables came together. Certainly, it wouldn't be leaving her mind anytime soon. "You remembered me. I did not expect that."