the land down under (open)

Though he spent most of his time nearer to the River border, Felix could never stay in one place for too long. So though he remained nearby, he found himself walking through different parts of the town. This one was especially close to where Perch had left him. He hadn't seen her since. If he looked closely enough at the fence, at the border between the stone pavement and the softer grasses smelling strongly of ferns and bird feathers, he could almost see her walking away. But of course he couldn't. That was just his imagination. What he did see was a bird on top of the fence. One with its back to him. It was too good a chance to pass up... and he was hungry anyway. He crouched still for a moment, making sure that his prey wouldn't see him move out of the corner of its eye. Then, in a swift movement, he jumped.

Unfortunately, a loud sound from further away startled the bird just as he leapt. He landed right where it had been moments before as it fluttered off into the Clan territory's trees. Felix frowned in annoyance, staring after it. His tail lashed once. That had been unfortunate. But what was the source of the sound? Rogue, kittypet or wild cat?

Felix tried to catch a bird and failed. -3 SP

The member 'Ash' has done the following action : Dice roll

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'Hunting Dice' : 7

A border patrol usually wasn't the most eventful thing in the world, for which Graywind was grateful for. Still, she kept alert as she padded along the twoleg fence. The strange smells carried on the wind made her nose wrinkle, but it was rare to actually find a cat here, though Graywind of course knew they existed. Most of them seemed smart enough to stay off of Skyclan territory, at least. The fresh scent of someone who wasn't Skyclan made her wary still, and even more because the scent was very, very recent. Graywind paused, then leaped to the top of the fence in one powerful move.

A loud clatter sounded, and Graywind blinked as her eyes focused on... "Foxtrot-?" Graywind began, then cut herself off as she spotted the strange tom before him. "Who are you?" She questioned, an edge of wariness but not outright hostility to her voice. That must have been the scent she had caught on the wind. "You're a bit close to the border." She added, fluffy tail tip twitching. And Foxtrot was outside of it... She gave her clanmate a questioning look, but her gaze was quick to find the unfamiliar tom again.

Felix didn't have long to contemplate his failure, as the source of the sound quickly made himself known. It was one of the wild cats. He didn't smell like the river--he smelled strongly of the musk of trees and bird feathers, just like the scent markers on the other end of the fence. The wild cat was accompanied by another. A molly who named the other tom as "Fox Trot." Another strange name. That, if nothing else, marked their wild cat status. Felix blinked at them for a moment, his frustration dissolving in the presence of new company. His golden gaze was unshakeable. Then he smiled. "I leapt up here to pursue a bird from my own side of the fence," he explained pleasantly. "but it flew off at a loud sound. I believe that was one of you? No worries, I'll find other prey. And I have no intention of stealing yours, believe me. I'm not that kind of rogue."

Since he already knew one of their names, his customary trade of information could not really take place. It would be best to offer his own in a gesture of goodwill. Perhaps he could learn from them... and perhaps one of them would be willing to spar with him if he asked politely. "My name is Felix. I am a loner who lives in this area. I heard you called Fox Trot. And, you are?" He turned to the silver tabby patiently.

The stranger introduced himself as Felix. A strange name, to a clan cat who had never known anything else. She wondered what a 'Fe' was, and what sort of cat would give another 'licks' for their name. Just... weird all around, but Graywind wasn't rude enough to comment on it.

Her jaws parted to give her own name, but Foxtrot beat her to it. Graywind glanced at her clanmate, Really? Golden eyes seemed to say, but Graywind wouldn't say it in front of a rogue.

"So long as the only thing carrying your scent across the fence is the wind." Graywind muttered, tail tip twitching back and forth.

Fox Trot. Gray Wind. Mist Paw. Were all wild cat names this way? Felix blinked in acceptance. "Well, it is nice to meet both of you, Fox Trot and Gray Wind." They weren't being very friendly to him, all things considered, but at least they weren't being overtly hostile. He'd met far ruder cats before. It might not be too hard to convince one of them to fight him; all he would have to do was jump over to their end of the fence. But he didn't want an actual battle. He had no intention of intruding. Perhaps if he had been here strictly as a wanderer rather than a pathetic loiterer. Was there some better way to get them to open up in conversation?

All he could do was try. "So that is where you live, then?" he asked, gesturing with his long-furred black tail to the trees behind them. "I take it you are not of the same group as the river cats, given that your scent is different. What are you called, then? Tree Clan? Or perhaps Bird Clan? Why have you chosen to live there?" Hopefully he wouldn't come off as too annoying for asking questions. If they were loners or rogues, he would engage in a trade of information... but he had very little of value to offer them. "I recognize that I have only been asking rather than answering. If you have any questions for me, I would gladly do my best to satisfy your own curiosities. I wander around the outskirts of this forest. I've seen cats that smell like river silt, and cats who live on open plains. Perhaps I could offer information about them?"

The rogue talked, more than Graywind had expected. The mention of river cats made her immediately think of Riverclan. And the cats on the moor could only be Windclan. It seemed this tom knew the forest plenty, and the offer of information was tantalizing. The guess at their clan names brought a small smile to her lips. Treeclan or Birdclan certainly would have fit them. Before she say they were in fact Skyclan, Foxtrot spoke up, mentioning how they lived in the trees... And adding a few embellishments.

Graywind glanced at him, golden eyes narrowing slightly. Really? Her looked seemed to say, You are such a terrible liar, she thought. She fought to keep her expression neutral, however. It wouldn't do to call her clanmate on this in front of the rogue, after all. And part of her did find it funny, truth be told. Still, there was no chance that the rogue would actually believe that, right? Turn into bats? The idea almost made her snort.

"The trees are our home. We navigate them like other cats might walk the forest floor." Nothing anyone didn't know about Skyclan, of course. "You've traveled a fair bit, if you know of Windclan and Riverclan." Skyclan shared a tiny section of border with one, and the other was thankfully across the forest. Hopefully that distance would be enough to keep their foolishness aimed at other clans that were not her own. "You've met more than a few clan cats, I'm guessing?" No clan took kindly to trespassing, some more than others. She knew her mother and aunt preferred a more diplomatic approach than to immediately jump to claws, and given that this tom was only close to the border and not overstepping it, Graywind was inclined to hear him talk, at least.

Felix could not help but let out a quiet huff of laughter at Fox Trot's response. Did the tom really think him so naive? He had teased Perch with those superstitions, but knew for a fact himself that they were not true. It would have been much more interesting if they had. "And I can turn into a tiger when I fight," he responded easily, his tail waving once lazily behind him. "How interesting that we have such strange differences, despite being only cats." However, the name "Sky Clan" rang true. It fit alongside the River Clan. It did not quite make sense for them to be named after the sky if they could not, in fact, fly, but he decided that the naming conventions of forest cats would never make sense to him anyway. Either way, he filed that useful bit of information away in his mind for later. The place directly beyond the fence was Sky Clan.

Gray Wind seemed unamused by Fox Trot's tall tales, and Felix thought he caught her narrowing her eyes at him. She did not appear to be lying when she mentioned that they often walked in the trees, though. Interesting. He had climbed a tree once or twice, but none so big as the enormous oaks that loomed over the border. He preferred walking on fences and rooftops... but he could sympathize with the desire to see the world from below. It made one feel so free to look at the blades of grass becoming uncountably indistinct and small. How funny, then, that he looked down on the two tree-dwellers now. Perhaps it was a shame that these Sky cats would never know the pleasure of viewing the bright lights of a skyline from a sun-warmed roof. Then again... perhaps Perch was the only wild cat who deserved his best-kept honor. "I have spoken with several," Felix responded to Gray Wind's question. Wind Clan... that must be the moor cats, given that she referred to them only after I mentioned the ones who live in fields. "None from Sky Clan yet though, until just now. You are the first. Lucky you!" His pride was, of course, unserious, as indicated by the way that his golden eyes sparkled with suppressed mirth. "I find your ways interesting, though certainly not enough to join. I simply enjoy meeting cats of all different backgrounds and opinions. I learn more with each one I speak to. Traveling is what I do; I am a wanderer. Do you not get tired of staying in the same place all the time? Do you never feel the urge to see what lies beyond the pointed stones, beyond the mountains and the trees? To see an ocean? A city?" He was genuinely curious. How cats like Perch could stay put was something he simply could not fathom.

Graywind smirked at the tom's banter. It was silly and ridiculous, both had been. She was glad neither seemed to take it so seriously, though. The two spoke, and Graywind felt her curiosity grow. Foxtrot's words were a surprise - she had always thought he was Skyclan. She hadn't known the older tom wasn't born to the clan. "I can't imagine what that must be like. Skyclan's all I've ever known. I've stepped away from our borders to go to the moonstone, and to go to gatherings, but we always return home." She murmured. "I don't think I could bear to be away from my family and on my own... But you both must've seen a lot." She was... Curious. More curious than a clan cat should probably be about such things. An ocean? City? Golden eyes regarded the loner, though Graywind hesitated. Foxtrot was Skyclan, she could probably just ask him... But Felix, she thought, must've been far more traveled than someone who joined the clan as a kit.

Felix blinked slowly in interest, peering down more closely at Fox Trot as the tom spoke. He had been a wanderer, he said? A loner, like him, as a kit? But then he had joined these wild cats. Interesting. Perch had mentioned something about inviting one to "join" the River Clan. It seemed that this Sky Clan did the same, despite being so standoffish toward outsiders. How did one join, exactly? And why would they?

"I would rather have a companion at my back than extra speed with which to flee. But I suppose that is where we differ."

For the companionship, then, he supposed. For the feeling of being in a group. Of being protected. Of being needed. Not something he had ever wanted, of course. He needed no one. He was his own cat. He needed no one... not even Perch. He simply liked her. That was different from needing her, and it had nothing to do with the fact that he was lingering for so long in this cramped town by the forest. Nothing at all.

Fox Trot mentioned that it was lonely wandering, that he didn't have any place to call "home." Felix had never had much of a home, but he found it better that way. His home was whatever nice house let him in or whatever shelter he found to rest under. His home was the sunrise in the morning and the cityscape at night. Who needed a bed in the same old place every night? "Why join Sky Clan?" he asked, genuinely curious. "Rather than the other groups in this forest? Or, rather than becoming a housecat or remaining on your own? I was under the impression that wild cats did not like outsiders."

Gray Wind spoke next. Felix turned to look at her, studying her countenance as she spoke. She seemed... as interested as he had been in the idea of staying, she seemed interested in the concept of wandering. Sky Clan had been all she ever knew. So she had been trapped in the forest this whole time? It seemed that the wild cats were not taught about the outside, but simply sheltered in their safe groups. How many others among them would never know how far the seas went or how deep the valleys grew? Tall plants, even taller mountains, stretching as far as one could possibly see and yet beckoning everything to be seen? Hills so high you feel like a bird? Never having the curiosity to look and see for yourself? "You'd be surprised," he told her. "The world is larger than you could possibly imagine. While you might miss what you know at first, all it takes is a few sunsets over skyscrapers to make you feel right at home. The whole world is my home, and the wind and the trees are my family. When you spend your life exploring and seeing things that no one has seen before, it's hard to feel lonely."