short story library

Yoshachu wrote:

Cat or human?: Cat
Dialogue prompt: #9
Genre: Cute and fluffy
Other preferences: Maybe some cute things like happy purrs and whisker tickles X3

stormgaze's point of view:

It seemed as if time was never on my side. I always tried to carve out time. I tried to rush things so that I'd have opportunities later on, but time always closed those gaps and made it so that I could never do anything. I could never escape my reality, and it was practically driving me to the point of insanity. There was only one thing- er, sorry, only one cat who kept me away from completely losing my mind. Our love was forbidden, and it pained me to think that Raindapple was risking everything for me. We had once been able to freely love each other. My exile from RiverClan had been tragic, and my mate had followed me right up to the RiverClan border.
"Let me go with you," She had told me, her beautiful brown eyes watering, "The Clan won't be same without you."
I had simply given her a soft, sad smile, "Please stay in RiverClan for me. Take care of our kits. They need you, Raindapple. We'll see each other again, I promise."
My mate had given me a reluctant look, and our goodbyes had been brief yet heartfelt. After I had turned away from the love of my life, I had continued to look back at her gray-pelted figure until she had been completely out of sight.

My promise to see her again hadn't been fulfilled for moons and moons. Now, my chance had finally arrived. Raindapple was going to see me again, and I couldn't wait to be graced with her presence.

My paws took me on a walk that I found familiar. Starting at Fourtrees, I began my trek towards RiverClan's territory. I wasn't a stranger to this place. I had grown up here, I had trained here, and I had created memories, here. It was unfortunate that I was no longer welcomed in my own former home. I could practically smell the scent of my mate, and I could practically hear her soft, calming voice in my ear as I padded alongside tiny streams and ducked around bushes.

"Intruder!"

The fur on the back of my neck rose as I spun around to face the source of the voice. I was greeted by warm brown eyes that weren't exactly the warmest at the moment. Raindapple had her back arched as she sank her claws into the dirt, but once the two of us locked gazes, she seemed to calm herself down in a heartbeat. Her eyes were stretched open as wide as an owl's as she stared directly at me. It was as if I was an illusion, and she couldn't believe that I was here. Honestly, I couldn't believe that she was here.

"St-..." She paused, choking on her words as tears began to pour out of her eyes.
"I'll give you a heartbeat to calm down," I said, grinning.

"Stormgaze!" She exclaimed, racing straight towards my direction and tackling me in a playful yet forceful way.

She immediately began to cover my face with loving licks as I let out a laugh of joy and surprise. I was so glad that she had recognized me. It would've been awkward and tragic if she would've considered me to be a stranger. My heart fluttered as she stared down into my gray eyes, and I stared up at her beautiful brown ones.

I began to push her chest with my front paws in an attempt to get her off of me.
"Stop shoving me!" She giggled, climbing off of me.
"Shoving? I'm only tapping you."

Purrs were rumbling in both of our throats, but mine faltered a bit when I began to think of our kits. How were they? Were they alive? How old were they?
"How are Cloudkit, Streamkit, and Silverkit?"
"They're Cloudface, Streamlight, and Silversplash, now." Raindapple told me with a proud smile on her muzzle.
The purr returned, "Do they remember me?"
"I remind them of you every single day, my love."

All seemed to be right with the world. My mate was here, my kits were alive, grown-up, and they still remembered their father. Everything seemed so peaceful. The moment seemed to be still, but it was a tranquil still, a still that I wanted to last forever and ever. I wanted to rise to my paws, twine tails with Raindapple, and head back to camp to dig into a freshly-caught fish with my family around me. It could've been that way. It all could've been that way if it wasn't for the mistake that got me exiled from RiverClan, my former home. I didn't hold a grudge against RiverClan or Emberstar. In fact, I still loved them more than ever. They had every right to cast me from the Clan, but it still hurt to be away from my loved ones. I had to embrace the moment that I was captured in right now, because, after today, the chance to see Raindapple might not return.

"Losing you has caused so much strife in RiverClan," My mate began, shakily, as the two of twined tails and began to stroll together, "Bushtail ended up taking one of Emberstar's lives because he disagreed with her decision to exile you. After that, complete turmoil broke out in the Clan."
My smile turned into a frown as our whiskers gingerly brushed against each other. Bushtail was my brother, and he had been so disturbed when he had found out that Emberstar had ordered me to be exiled. Taking away a life from a leader because of anger wasn't something that I thought Bushtail would do, "What happened to him? Was he exiled, too?"

"Some cats sided with him, saying that Emberstar deserved to lose a life for exiling you, Stormgaze. Others sided with Emberstar, saying that you were a traitor to the Clan, and exile was the only option. Emberstar feared that the cats that sided with Bushtail would try to take the rest of her lives, so she decided to keep him in the Clan and give him a severe punishment."

At least my brother was still in RiverClan.
Still, I found it a bit unfair that he got to remain in the Clan, even after taking a life from his own leader, while I got exiled and I didn't even murder any cats. I forced myself to put on another joyful smile in order to improve Raindapple's attitude. The last thing I wanted was for her to be distressed, especially if I was the one who had caused the problem.

"Please don't stress yourself out over this," I told her in the softest, gentlest voice I could as I rubbed my cheek against hers, "I want you to be happy, my love. Life is going to get better, and I'll try to visit a lot more often."

"Don't get yourself in trouble just so that you can see me."

As she began to gingerly draw her warm tongue over my ear as a sign of affection, another purr rumbled in my throat, "Trouble? I've already gotten in trouble. I'm not going to make my life miserable just because RiverClan could catch me talking to you, Raindapple. Wouldn't that be an honorable way to die? If I die because I went to see you, then I'll die happy.

Tears gathered in my mate's eyes, "I love you so much, Stormgaze."
I pressed my nose against her ear, "I love you too, Raindapple."

end.

I wonder what Stormgaze did... perhaps the same as Flickerpaw.

This was absolutely adorable! I really like the little vague bits such as why Stormgaze was exiled in the first place, leaving it up to interpretation for what the reader thinks happened.

Thanks again! ^^

Ash wrote:

Cat or human?: Cat
Dialogue prompt: #14
Genre: Tragedy
Other preferences: think "the greatest showman" but cats

3rd person point of view:

It had all happened so fast, Mango hadn't even had enough time to properly open her jaws and let out a scream of true fear. The only thing she could do was open her eyes in shock as she watched the flames that had once been so tiny grow into something larger. She blamed herself. Perhaps she could've stopped Milo from starting the fire, sooner. That fox-heart was going to pay for his crimes. Mango hurled herself down from where she was perched on the barn ladder and headed straight towards Milo's tall, black figure. The flames seemed to make him seem bigger than he actually was, but Mango wasn't being driven by fear. She was being driven by anger. With a furious screech, she unsheathed her hooked claws and threw herself at Milo. The two of them went rolling through the loose straw that was sprawled on the ground. The sound of horrified horses and angry, muffled growling from her enemy filled her ears. Milo would die tonight.
"You traitor!" Mango yelled, throwing mercilessly blows at the tall tom's black muzzle, "How could you betray the trust of so many cats? I knew we shouldn't of let you be one of us. I knew, the moment you strode into the barn with that tiny smirk of yours that you were up to good."
Milo used his hind legs to shove Mango off of him. He was on top, now, and his yellow eyes stared mutinously down into the she-cat's bicolored pupils.
"You had every chance to kick me out, my dear, but you chose to hide behind Ollie and let Quincy handle everything. The saddest thing is, Quincy enjoyed my company! He welcomed me, made me feel at home, and gave me a place, here. He was as gullible as Saga, Flora and all the others."

"How arrogant can you get?" Mango screeched, bucking him off, "You're going to kill innocent animals! The flames are too big to put out, now!"
Milo simply smiled, "Ah, yes, but don't you think I have an escape plan of my own?"

Rising to his full height, he whirled around and raced directly into the darkness of the smoke. The red tabby instantly chased after him, but paused once she felt the black clouds begin to irritate her lungs. She could die if she stayed here. What about Ollie? Her brother needed her. Another image of another cat filled her head. Gadget... she still didn't know how to feel about him. Well, she did. She knew that he loved her, and in return, she had feelings for him. However, she knew that the two of them could never be together. It couldn't happen. Gadget was perfect... and Mango wasn't. All of the cats in the barn had some sort of 'problem'. All of the Clan cats were deemed perfect. They had all their limbs, perfectly smooth, slick pelts, eyes the same color, and perfectly hooked claws. When Mango had first opened her eyes, her mother had brought her to the barn to be with the 'misfits'. The rogues were looked at by the Clanners as imperfect. Mango had one green eye and one yellow one, Saga was missing her back left leg, Ollie had a stumpy tail, and the other rogues, except for Gadget, had their own 'issues'. Their little family had been nice and peaceful until Milo had come around. Why should Mango try and kill the cat who had disrupted the peace, when she had the other rogues to help protect? Stopping and turning around so that she could escape the worst of the smoke, the ginger tabby began to dart towards the barn ladder to get up and out of the tall, wooden building.

Meanwhile, outside of the barn, Gadget was panicking. It was a miracle that his paws hadn't torn up the grass as he paced back in forth. His amber gaze stared at the flames with an intensity that was so strong, it could've had the ability to make the flames disperse. He wouldn't stop looking until he knew that Mango was safe. The way that she had walked out on him that night... after everything she had said. He had thought that she'd finally come around and become his mate, but that hadn't happened. Gadget couldn't stand knowing that she was dead. He wouldn't let her die. Plus, it wasn't like any other cats were doing anything. Ollie was carefully trying to calm down a wailing Saga, Flora and Gucci were getting the ash out of their fur, Noel was calming down her kit, Blade, and Quincy was watching it all. What was Quincy doing? He was the head of the rogue group. Wasn't he supposed to do something to help Mango? Narrowing his eyes, Gadget looked back towards the fire. If Quincy wasn't going to be a leader, he was. Without saying a word, he darted towards the hot, repulsive, red tongues of the fire. Mango was in there somewhere, and he wasn't going to come out without her.

The gray tom heard the panicked shouts of warning coming from the cats behind him, but he didn't look back or have any regrets or doubts. It was Mango's safety first.

Then, he was gone. Swallowed by the darkness of the smoke and the brightness of the fire. It was like one long, painful labyrinth, but it was all worth it if he found the ginger tabby that he was so desperately in love with.

"OLLIE!"
It was Mango, darting at the speed of light towards the group of rogues with a fearful light in her bi-colored eyes. She had climbed up the side ladder inside of the barn and leaped from the top window to safety. Her once red fur was now covered in soot and ash, but her green and yellow eyes were as bright as ever.

"You're safe!" Ollie exclaimed, joyously, as his sister affectionately collided with his shoulder.
"Wait, you two! Don't celebrate yet. Gadget went to save you. He doesn't know you escaped, Mango!" Gucci called from where she sat with Flora.

The ginger tabby exchanged a terrified glance with her brother. That was when a large shadow loomed over the sibling duo, and Quincy sprang into action. Noel leaped to her paws and went running after her mate.

"Wait! NO!" She screamed, not wanting any harm to come to Quincy.

Flora leaped in her way to stop her from going any further.
"We can't lose you, too." She whispered to Noel, quietly.

A loud creaking noise stopped all the rogues from saying anything else. Something was wrong. Mango's eyes immediately looked up towards the source of the sound... the roof.
"It's going to collapse..." She muttered, fear preventing her from screaming.

"NO. NO!" Noel continued to scream, but this time she buried her face into Flora's shoulder.

More creaking noises echoed through the grass. Mango pressed against Ollie, not wanting to see the results. Noel was still sobbing, Flora willingly let her cry into her fur. Blade, the tiny, cream kit, was wailing in confusion upon seeing his mother so sad. Gucci was trying her best to soothe the tom-kit by licking the fur on top of his head in a slow, steady rhythm. Saga came to stand on the other side of Noel to provide some more comfort.

That's when one side of the roof came down. The other side was just barely clinging to the walls to hold itself up, but the flames engulfed that, too, and it came down quicker than the other. The heavy, wooden roof made a loud, startling sound that could probably be heard from the Clan that lived on the farthest side of the forest. It made the flames fan out even more, and some of them began to catch the grass that the rogues had escaped to.

Gadget and Quincy were nowhere to be seen. There was no way they could've survived that fall, even if StarClan had been right there with them.

Mango didn't notice it until she blinked, but she had been crying the entire time. There was no chance for her to tell Gadget that she loved him. Now, the reason why they couldn't be together was that he was dead. Gone. No more.

"There's no time to mourn, now," Saga spoke up, "We have to go... I don't know where, but somewhere. The flames have swallowed our home, and they'll swallow us if we don't shove off, now. We'll have a proper mourning for Quincy and Gadget once we find somewhere, anywhere, to stay."

The entire atmosphere that surrounded the rogues seemed to be dark, dismal, and dreary. It seemed like the kind of atmosphere that would be present during a rainstorm, but Mango knew that a rainstorm was the one thing they could use, now. It would put the fire out, but it wouldn't restore the former glory of the barn. There had been live animals in there besides Quincy and Gadget, so the amount of deaths had been immense. All the she-cat could do now was cling onto the fact that she was alive, and so was her brother.

It would be so hard to move on.

"We can never be together, Gadget."
"Why not? Look up, Mango. Do you see the stars? They seem to be scattered, but they have a certain order. There's a certain way that every single star is laid out. Fate has been decided in the night sky. What if we rewrite the stars? They don't have to keep us apart. Mango, it's up to you and me to figure this out, and I want you to say yes."
"Gadget, I'm sorry... I-I do love you, b-but this will never last for long..."

We're bound to break and my paws are tied...

end.

authors note; hey, ash! sorry this took so long. i hope you liked the fact that i decided to go with the fire scene from the greatest showman.

the greatest showman spoiler:

I love it
Just
Perfection

<3333

So great! I love

Awesome...

i haven't forgotten about requests! i'll get back to doing those very soon. for now, i'm just going to go ahead and upload something i wrote last christmas with my non-warriors OCs. it's not my best piece of work, but eh.

trigger warning(s): panic attacks, depression, anxiety.

I hated bragging, but I was actually pretty proud and excited about what I had prepared for today. Thanks to something that happened during my childhood, I got to pass something on to Nick that most people wouldn’t even understand. Because of what my parents had done for me when I was a kid… I still believed in Santa, but I didn’t believe in it the way that everyone else thought. Everyone one else tries to pass the beliefs on to their children that Santa Claus lives in the North Pole, and he has tiny elves that make the toys, and on the night between Christmas and Christmas Eve, he flies around the world on his sleigh to deliver toys to all the good children of the world. Sure, like most children, I had believed in that, too. Honestly, though, I liked the way that I currently believed in Santa way more. On my head I wore a red Santa hat that had the typical white puffball on the tip. I stood outside in the middle of the snow, and I watched as the wind picked up tiny bits of it and carried it to different places.

My heart longed for winter and the holiday season, if it was already here. I longed for the chance to spread the warmth, love, cheer, and hope that came with the Christmas season. I longed to change people’s hearts for the sake of goodness. I longed to pass on a belief that’s rare, but could be widely accepted. So, what better way to start passing on the legacy by sharing it with the one person I loved more than anyone else in the world? I instantly lifted my head once I heard crunching in the snow which signified the arrival of someone other than myself.

“Hey, Mira,” Nick greeted me, pausing once he stood beside me, “Sorry I’m late. Am I late? I mean, you didn’t set an actual time and-”
I cut him off, “You’re not late at all.”
He seemed taken aback by my calm demeanor. Even I was a bit confused by how calm I was acting.
“Is something wrong?” He asked, crossing his arms.
I shook my head, “No. C’mon.”

Nick lifted an eyebrow briefly before following close behind me. I knew exactly where I wanted this all to go down. I had it all planned out… and while it wasn’t going to be in the form of a letter, like my parents had done for me, sometimes talking face-to-face is the best option. When we both reached the spot that I had wanted to go, I paused to let Nick see where we were.

“It’s a bridge,” He muttered, “Not the bridge back home… but it seems like it.”
I looked over at him and nodded, “Yep. I just thought this would be a nice spot for today.”
I sat on the edge of the bridge and swung my legs around so that they could dangle. Nick did the same.
“Okay… this is gonna sound weird, I know, just… don’t say anything judgemental.” I started it off with a bit of unease in my voice.
Nick frowned, “Why would I ever judge you?”

I shrugged, looking down at my hands, “I-I dunno, because people have done it before. Anyways. Day seventeen is about Santa Claus… and I still believe in Santa. No, I don’t believe in the guy in the red suit and red hat who rides a magical sleigh with reindeers that fly. I mean, I’d love for that to be true, but I know that that version of Santa is a fantasy.”
Nick nodded, “You’re telling me stuff I already know, Mira.”
I shook my head, “No! Trust me, this is different. When I turned ten, my parents gave me this letter that I read one night. This made me stop believing in the ‘ho-ho-ho’ Santa, but it made me start believing in the real Santa.”
Nick didn’t say anything, he just placed a hand quietly on my shoulder as a silent sign of telling me to continue.

“The Santa that I believe in doesn’t live in the North Pole… he lives in the hearts of everybody during the Christmas season. No matter what you believe in, it’s always there, and you have a choice to unleash it or not. Santa lives in people, and those people keep the Christmas spirit alive. Santa is the magic of Christmas, the joy of Christmas, and the love of Christmas. He teaches a good lesson to children… he teaches them to believe in something that they can’t see or touch. You can’t see love or joy, and you can’t touch it, either. Since children usually believe in Santa so much and end up not believing at some point in time, they leave a huge, empty space in their hearts. That space should be left to believe in ourselves, and in our family, and in our friends. We’re always going to have to believe in something that we can’t see with our eyes or touch with our hands. So, that’s how Santa manages to give presents and spread joy throughout the entire world in a single night. He has a lot of help from people around the world who have hearts that are filled with joy. People like that make sure that a job gets done every year during the Christmas season. Otherwise, Santa’s job would be impossible. So, I guess what I’m trying to say is that Santa exists as love, magic, hope, happiness, and peace. I’m on his team, and I want you to be on his team too, Nick.”

I paused and placed one of my hands on his chest. I felt his steady heartbeat, and for a while, I didn’t want this moment to be interrupted.
“Santa is in there… but we all have a choice about whether or not we want to unleash him.”
“Mira, that’s… amazing.” Nick broke the silence that had followed my speech.
He stared out at the view that we were facing. The entire sight was like a winter wonderland. The lake was frozen over, the trees that were usually green were blanketed with a thick coat of white, and the ground was covered with soft snow. During winter, the world was white, and despite the fact that the snow came with cold weather, I loved it anyways.

“How am I supposed to believe in Santa if I can’t even believe in myself?” Nick spoke again, trying desperately to avoid my gaze. From what I could see, his eyes were flickering with insecurity and pain.

I couldn’t think of anything to say off the top of my head.

“You’re right Mira,” He muttered, “I don’t believe in anything. This is what depression does, it makes me lose faith in everything… and that includes myself.”
I scooted closer to him, “You haven’t lost faith in everything, Nick. You even told me yourself that you believe in the squad, you believe in your family, and you believe in me. That’s something, and that’s something incredible.”

I heard Nick begin to choke up as he spoke, “I just… I hate it. Mira, I hate it all. I hate being so sensitive, I hate having depression, I hate having anxiety, I hate being so stressed all the time… I hate the fact that I have anger issues, and I’m insecure, and I try so hard to act confident for the sake of the squad but-”
He broke off in a sob, and tried to hide it from me, but I heard it anyways.
“Nick,” I began, pulling him into a hug and letting him cry into my shirt, “I’m so, so sorry about everything. There’s nothing I can do about the depression and the anxiety… but you put so much pressure on yourself all the time. I think that’s where most of your stress is coming from. I know you, so you can’t lie to me about this. You want to please everybody, so you stretch yourself out so impossibly thin that you have no time to recharge yourself afterwards. Hun… why are you insecure? You’re perfe-”

“No! I’m not perfect!” Nick suddenly shouted, lifting his head up so he was staring at me, “This is why I’m insecure! Everybody says that I’m perfect. Charlie’s Angels think I’m perfect, the squad thinks I’m perfect, Hydie, Thomas, and Savannah think that I’m perfect. I try so, so hard to prove to everybody that I’m just as imperfect as anybody else, but the pressure just keeps coming! I don’t want to spread myself thin… but it just naturally happens. It’s just… you and the squad, and Hydie, and Thomas, and Savannah are quite possibly the only reasons why I haven’t completely lost my mind yet. I’m scared that if I don’t make someone happy, then nobody will be happy, and then I won’t be happy… and just… I don’t want to lose you guys.”

I felt tears gathering in my eyes, “You’re not going to lose us, Nick.”
“How do I know that?! You left me for Anthony… of everybody you could’ve left me for, you left me for the leader of the team that the squad is arch enemies with. Do you know how many panic attacks I had in the span of a single day? Do you know how broken I was? Mira, I say I love you every single day for a reason, and it’s because I do. If I can lose my own girlfriend then I can lose my own friends, right? By protecting you guys, I feel like I’m protecting myself… but if I’m protecting myself then why am I so vulnerable and sensitive? Why can’t I even protect my own self?!”

“Nick, stop!” I warned, trying to sound gentle, “You’re going to give yourself a panic attack.”
He twitched an eye despite the fact that he was still crying, “It’s too late for that.”
The fact that his voice was lower than a whisper when he said that gave the entire conversation a sudden ominous color.

“Nick, I’m sorry, this is my fault… I shouldn’t have even started this conversation, I-”
Nick grabbed my shoulders and stared straight into my eyes, “No! It’s not, it’s mine. Please, don’t blame yourself. Everything I do ends up becoming about me and my stupid problems… I don’t want that to be the case, though.”
Take your own advice, Nick, and don’t blame yourself for everything… it’s not your fault. I thought, continuing to look at him.

“Maybe we should go back inside. Nick, you’re having a panic attack.”
“You think I don’t already know that?!” He asked, his voice shaking.
I slowly stood up, and offered him a hand, which he gratefully took. I wrapped an arm around his shoulder as he inched closer to me.
“It’ll be okay, it always gets better.” I gently whispered.

Even though he didn’t respond, I lowered my hand from his shoulder and let it drop to my side. Nick grabbed my hand once our knuckles brushed. His breathing was ragged and uneven, and I was starting to get even more concerned.

“It always gets better faster when you’re with me.”
He lifted my hand up and placed a kiss on it.
“I love you, Mira.”
He was trying to act calm, but I could tell that a storm was still raging inside of him.
“Let’s go inside, now.” I said, and gingerly squeezed his hand before heading towards the house.