Pretty as a picture

Amongst the unnaturally dark bushes, a slender she-cat laid on top of a hollow log. Her eyes were a gleaming amber, and her pelt lush with multicoloured splotches as most calicos were. Slightly smaller than a warrior, she watched carefully out of necessity, not all cats here served their leader. Some were loners who were no better than the rogues that she despised, warriors who'd lost themselves to the forest. Weak, that's what they were. She was never weak, her heart never faltering. Her loyalty was to the darkness, and she'd serve it till the day she died. The darkness was stronger, stronger than those pesky cats in the Starlit plains.

And that was all that really mattered to her in the end. Strength.

Which was why she had been chosen for the task of converting Shatteredsoul. She knew a warrior who longed for power and vengeance when she saw one. He would make a good addition to their forces. So she remained on her log, waiting for him to come by.

Icy eyes of blue daggers snapped open as Shatteredsoul's body jerked awake. A silver haze curled around the small, black and white tom and surrounded him in a blanket of fog. Tall, gnarled grey trees towered over him and their bare branches intertwined like a woven basket to cover the dark sky above him. No light shone down into the ghastly forest and the echoing silence whispered through the dead trees and sent chills down Shatteredsoul's spine. He unsheathed his claws and dug them into the bare ground as he took a deep breath and relaxed. The...tranquility and eeriness of the place soothed him and seemed to satisfy his power-hungry soul. He loved it, and somehow he knew that this wasn't the forest of Thunderclan's territory. He was in the Dark Forest.

The first thought that came to his mind was death. The last he could remember, Shatteredsoul had fallen asleep in Shadowclan's territory after being banished or whatever you want to call it. A lump formed in his throat as he imagined thousands of ways that he could've died in his sleep, one of which containing Thrushstar killing him. Why did he fear Thrushstar? The Shadowclan leader was weak and pitiful. The warrior hissed and dismissed the thought, then stood up and started to walk. He had to of been there for a reason. Shatteredsoul stayed silent as he crept through the darkness like the haze around him. There had to be somebody around, right? His gaze scanned the area but found nothing, which was odd because he felt a stare piercing into him. The runt crouched down and hissed in hostility. "Show yourself, I know your there." He slowly crawled forward, but stayed alert in case if anyone decided to jump out on him.

"Behind ya." Blossompaw called out, still lounging on the hollow log lazily, waiting to be noticed. The leader hadn't been joking when they'd told her that Shatteredsoul would be unmistakable, he had a black and white flecked pelt like no other cat she'd ever met. And beyond the physical, he had a air of menace, of hostility and fury that only came with the inevitable realisation that the clan and leader you once respected were shadows of their former self. She'd had that realisation as well, though she hadn't been exiled like the tom. She'd had her throat torn out by her own mentor, a short-sighted old fool, left to bleed out in the middle of camp. Blossompaw had great plans for the tom, he was more like her than he realised and their leader had given her permission to train him. She'd make him the greatest warrior in the forest, and help him cause chaos in the forest.

All in the name of the Dark Forest, of course. "How'd ya know I was watching ya? Most can't tell till I call 'em over."

Shatteredsoul stopped walking once he heard the voice of a she-cat speak. He silently unsheathed his claws and narrowed his blue eyes of ice before looking over his shoulder without turning around. There, on a log in some dark bushes, was a calico she-cat. He was about the same size as her, because he was the size of an apprentice, even though he was warrior-aged. "I have a...gift of knowing when someone is watching. It's something you teach yourself to do when you trust nobody," he growled as he turned his body to face the same way his head was. "Don't fool me for a weakling; I'm smarter and stronger than I look." He flexed his razor sharp claws, then got down to business.

"Who are you and where am I? Why am I here?" Though he'd never admit it, the tom was starting to get creeped out by the dim forest which he had found himself in. He just wanted to know how he had woken up in somewhere different than he remembered falling asleep at. Was this an afterlife of some sort? Was he dead? His thoughts suddenly jumped to his little sister. If Shatteredsoul was dead, then Fracturedpaw would be devastated to hear the news. He needed to protect her; she was the only one Shatteredsoul cared about.

OOC: WCC Canon, no one knows what the Dark Forest is, this is our first DF plot. You might want to edit your post.

"Poor, poor Shatteredsoul. Can't trust anyone, got exiled by Thrushstar." She teased, the calico hopping down from her perch on the log with a graceful leap with her claws unsheathed. Her golden eyes gleamed as she noted his claws were out as well, he looked adorable, trying to look strong when he was barely bigger than her. Cute. "Ya sure that yer strong though? 'Cause if ya were, ya should have been able to beat that old windbag." Blossompaw leant in to whisper, before ducking out of the way in case he took a swipe.

With a tightening of her haunches, she leapt back onto her log to look down at the warrior. "Ya should know by now, I'm not StarClan. I'm not a dream either. I'm Blossompaw, of the Dark Forest. I'm here to make ya a better warrior, if yer not afraid of StarClan and breaking the code." Her every word was taunting, goading him to take a risk with her. She hadn't pulled out her trump card yet though.

OOC: Sorry, I just assumed they knew about it because they know about Starclan.

IC: "I didn't get exiled, I left," Shatteredsoul hissed back with a flash of anger in his eyes, revealing a hidden fire deep inside of him. His muscles tensed and he started to jerk his claw upward to slash across the she-cat's face, but he stopped himself before it got an inch off the ground. The black and white cat regained the control of his actions and quenched his anger, slightly ashamed of his unusual outburst. Stress was getting to his head, that's all, right? "Do you really think I'm stupid enough to attack a leader when I am surrounded by his clan, even though I can beat him? If I laid a paw on him, every warrior and apprentice in that camp would've swarmed me, and I can't handle fighting seventeen cats at once. Nobody can, no matter how strong. I'm going to plan an attack and kill him when all of Shadowclan isn't there to interfere." It was as if his explosion from earlier had never been spoken, because his calm stature had been restored.

He took a few deep breaths to make sure he'd stay calm as he spoke to answer Blossompaw's words. He didn't ask about what the Dark Forest was, because he knew that questions made cats look dumb and clueless. "I don't give a mouse dung about Starclan nor the code; you should be able to tell that by now if you were really as smart as you're acting to be. Besides, you're a measly apprentice and I'm a warrior, how are you supposed to make me a better warrior? All apprentices are good for is sucking in the air I could be breathing and getting in the way of everything." He lashed his tail from side to side and growled as he hid all signs of interest from his face the best he could. The fish was nibbling, but it wasn't hooked just quite yet.

OOC: Nah, it's cool

Blossompaw simply looked on with glee as the warrior imploded, unfazed by the spitting hisses or the aborted swipe at her muzzle. She'd had worse from others in the forest, their claws were sharper, meaner and always aimed to gouge out flesh, to disfigure her. A runt like him couldn't strike fear in her, not when he was so alone an vulnerable. These were the woods that she'd walked for many moons, she was over thrice his age, her name forgotten by her own clan, too many years passed since she'd walked the earth.

When it seemed that he was finally done, she raised a paw to lick and began grooming herself. It left a deliberate awkward silence between them, one that she would fill in time. Only when her fur was in place, she spoke in slowly, taking her time. "...Oh. Ya done? It seems to me, that ya just got a bunch of excuses. Couldn't even rally a few warriors behind ya to kill one stupid, insane leader. What yer precious Fracturedpaw gets ganked while yer gone. Some warrior you are."  

She deftly dodged away from him, her tail swinging teasingly behind her as she settled behind him, forcing him to turn if he wanted to keep an eye on her. "The way you are now, there's no way ya beating Thrushstar. Ya need strength, ya need numbers. You can mock me all ya want but only I can give ya that. But, I guess a lil hands on demonstration will help ya better. Fight me then. Show me yer warrior strength that yer fond of boasting about."

He hated her attitude, and how she acted like nothing was going on. She sat there, grooming her fur, in the middle of a conversation. The awkward silence was gnawing at his brain, slowly making him go crazy, but he refused to speak again before she did. When Blossompaw finally spoke, Shatteredsoul felt more anger rising up inside of him, but he kept his feelings cooped up rather than out. That had to be unhealthy. "Don't you dare bring my sister into this," Shatteredsoul replied with a voice that he hoped sounded relaxed for dignity purposes. Blossompaw was trouble, and he needed to keep Fracturedpaw safe. He never really thought of how the stranger knew his sister, and that he loved her so much, or what had happened when he got exiled.

The tom didn't turn around because he didn't want to show fear of what she may be doing when he wasn't looking. He took the insults and brushed them off, telling himself that if Blossompaw could do it, so could he. Shatteredsoul could see that his mocks toward her had no effect, thus he would try to act the same way she was. "I...I crave strength...I hunger for numbers." He took a deep, shaky breath and prepared himself for what he was about to do. There was only one cat in the whole entire world Shatteredsoul feared, and that was now officially Blossompaw, but he'd never dare admit it.

The runt slowly turned around to face her, with eyes narrowed to slits and fangs barred. He crouched down low to the cold, dry ground and stared at her with his claws out and his muscles tightened, ready to pounce. He couldn't bring himself to fight Blossompaw, and he waited for what felt like an eternity to him before he convinced himself to attack. Don't be a coward, she's an apprentice! Fight her already! With a loud yowl, he leaped with his paws outstretched toward her, hoping to land on top of Blossompaw and pin her down.