The Scavengers {Closed}

Tipping her head back, Chase yawned widely. The action sent a shudder down her spine. It had been a while since she had last gotten a good rest, and the lack of sleep seemed to be affecting her. A frown drifting over her features, she flicked one large ear. The wounds Shade had given her a few sunrises ago were sore. Although they had been healing much better than she had expected, they still stung unpleasantly. Just going over her memory of the fight gave her a bad mood. Of all the cats present, she had to be the one chosen. In the end, she had gotten to experience the clan's fighting techniques first hand, so the incident wasn't completely without profit.

Night was steadily approaching. Its shadows crept across the sky, slowly draining away the last of the sunlight. Even so, the streets were not swallowed up in the darkness. Light radiated from the tall metal trees and from the openings in the humans' dens. Even at night, the territory known to the clan cats as twolegplace was more or less illuminated. For the rogues and loners that inhabited it, this was the perfect time to emerge. Chase was going to be scavenging as usual that night. This time, however, Dante would accompany her. As soon as the young tom joined her, they would be heading off for the alleys.

Dante slowly got up, he had decided that it was probably best if he rested a little before he headed out tonight, he didn't want to complain later about being tired. As he padded over to the she-cat he glanced around camp, it was so quiet at night, most cats were asleep at this time.
As he got to Chase he smiled slightly "Hi Chase" he meowed as he looked up at the ginger she-cat.

He followed her closely as they walked of into alleyways. He looked around, everything looked so much different at night and much more quiet, which he kinda liked, you could think more when you'r ears wern't filled with a bunch of noise. He looked up at the star-filled sky and took a deep breath of the cold air. He looked at Chase "Why did Shade do that? Why would want to hurt you or any other cat here? His our leader.." he had been wanting to ask that for awhile now but he didn't want Shade to hear him, truth be told he was kinda scared of the dark tabby leader. He let out a quiet sigh he studied the wounds on Chase. He just couldn't get his head around it, why hurt a cat who looks at you like their leader?

Chase's bright yellow eyes flicked to Dante at his approach. "There you are." She announced. The gray tabby gave her a smile, and she flashed him a lazy grin in return. "Time waits for no one, little brat." Despite the harshness of her words, her tone was light. "Let's get going." Standing, the ginger and white rogue led the way out of the Regime's camp. As she had thought, she really felt more comfortable at night. The number of humans walking the streets had greatly decreased. Unlike the clan cats who led abnormal lifestyles, the cats of the city(?) slept in the day and roamed about in the night.

The weather had been growing colder recently. It seemed that summer was just about over. Chase's thick pelt kept her from feeling too much of the chill in the night air. Before too long, winter would roll around again. When that happened, it would become even harder to find food. Dante's voice snapped her out of her brooding thoughts. His questions surprised her. She didn't know that he had been bothered by that event. Well, this was a good chance to teach him a lesson. "This is the way things are around here. You should get used to it soon. Not every cat has that much compassion for someone they barely even know. Being too soft will only hurt you." She turned to glance at the younger cat, her gaze hard, "I can take care of myself, don't you worry."

He nodded slowly "Okay...". He keept walking by the side of Chase and looking around in the city. As a cold wind swept  through the city Dante shudderd as his fur wasn't as thick as Chase's. As he looked up into a window he saw a kittypet cuddling with it's humans "That must be a boring life... Just stuck in the same place everyday.." he mumbled.

After walking with Chase in silent for awhile he got lost in his own thoughts, the Regime was a strange place but atleast it was a place where he could survive. He let out a quiet sigh and looked around, the city to, the humans lived so diffrently from the cats.

Glancing after Dante's line of sight to the housecat in the window, Chase shrugged nonchalantly. "Perhaps. In exchange for a life of comfort, they lose their freedom. Some would prefer that." Of course, she did not. The unspoken implication hung in the air.

Before too long, they had arrived at one of the alleys Chase had in mind. The light pangs of hunger gnawed at her belly, and she was sure that it was the same way with Dante. Fortunately for the strays, the humans around this area were generous in throwing away food. A dumpster sat at the far end of the alley, remarkably reminiscent to the one Shade so often sat on. The cover was open, a sight that satisfied her. She exhaled softly. "Alright," She mewed to the younger tom, "follow me." In one powerful leap, she had made it unto the top of the dumpster. Once atop, she looked down at Dante. The jump wasn't too high for him, was it? "Can you make it up here?" She asked curiously.

"Hopefully I have better luck with finding food this time.." he mumbled quietly to himself as he rememberd the day that Chase had found him. He looked up at Chase, it was a pretty large leap but he thought he could make it, he had to make it. He nodded slowly with a determined look on his face. He backed up a few steps and leaped up towards the dumpster, the jump had been just enough for him to get his front paws on the edge, he grunted as he pulled himself up onto the dumpster.

Once all four of his paws up he let out a sigh and smiled slightly at Chase "I might have to work on that..". He looked down, it was pretty high up.. He looked back at Chase "Okay, what's next?" he asked, eager to learn.

Dante's leap was just a little short. His front paws latched unto the edge of the dumpster. Chase casually hovered at the side, ready to pull him up if necessary. After a moment's struggle, the gray tabby managed to haul himself unto the dumpster. "Mhm," She shrugged, "it can't be helped right now. You're short. If you want to 'work on it,' do some growing." Peering into the dumpster, she scrutinized its contents. "As rogues with no humans to fawn over us, we have to take whatever we can get. Listen up, Dante. Beggars can't be choosers." There was probably no need for further instructions. The younger tom understood their purpose in coming here.

The dumpster contained several large packages covered with a strange, smooth material. One of those packages had very conveniently been torn open. It seemed as if they might not have been the first ones to get here tonight. Mixed among the many scents in the air was one of an unfamiliar cat's. Were there still cats that dared to scavenge in Regime territory? She had thought that they would learn their lesson by now. Taking silent note of the intruder's scent, Chase filed it away in the back of her mind. With one paw, she rifled through the contents of the odd package. It didn't take long before she found something that looked familiar. Human food was seriously weird. It was nothing like that the fresh-kill that the cats sometimes hunted. Fishing it out, she dumped it at Dante's paws. "It's edible despite its appearance." She reassured him, "Try it."

Dante looked at the it and poked at it with his front paw before taking a smile bite of it. He chewed at it for a few seconds before swallowing it and nodding slowly "It's actuallly pretty... good? Yeah.." he meowed as he looked at the strange piece of food. He then looked down in the dumpster and that's when he caught the scent of another cat that stood out to him, he had spent enough time in the Regime to know that no cat there smelt like this "Do you smell that to? That's no cat of the Regime!" he looked around, what if that cat where still here?... If Chase hadn't been here he had most likely run back to camp but he knew that Chase would never let him chicken out.

He took a deep breath, praying that Chase hadn't noticed his insecurety. He looked back into the dumpster and stuck down one paw into the dumpster and searched with his paws after something edible, after awhile he found something, he pulled it up and smelled it, it smelt kinda like... Bird? He looked at Chase "Is that edible?" glanced at it, what if it wasn't? He would look so stupid.. Not knowing what he could and couldn't eat, he had been lucky Chase found him, he wouldn't have survived alone..

Chase watched intently as Dante took a bite of the strange human food. When he nodded his head, she gave him a slight grin of approval. "Is it? Good." The sooner the young tom got used to such food, the better it would be for him. Turning away, she returned to her scavenging. By now, Dante seemed to have also picked up on the lingering scent of another cat. She didn't bother to look up at him, curiously scanning the dumpster's contents for other edibles. "I do. I noticed it a while ago, actually. Sometimes other rogues encroach on Regime territory. Other than drive them out when we see them, there's not much we can do about it." There did not seem to be much of interest in the dumpster. The unknown cat before them seemed to have taken most of the food. Annoyed, Chase leaped back unto the dumpster's edge. "Does the presence of a stranger scare you?" She asked Dante, casually flicking her tail. "They're already gone. I'll teach you to fight eventually, so don't worry."

The gray tabby picked up quickly, for he soon found another piece of food that the humans had thrown out. He was right in assuming that it was from a bird, even though it looked nothing like one. Lowering her head, Chase sniffed it cautiously. "Yeah," She affirmed, "doesn't seem like it's gone bad yet. Eat it, then we can move on to some actual hunting."

He nodded "Yes.. Actually it's pretty good..". He then winced slightly as Chase asked him if he were scared of a stranger "Well um.. Eh.. N-n.. NO!" he looked away knowing that Chase had seen right through that lie, he were the worst at lying, the worst. He took a deep breath, what would Chase think of him now?..

He slowly started eating the piece of bird that he had found just to avoid eye contact with Chase. He sighed quietly, he felt so stupid.. He needs to toughen up! But how?... Once he had swallowed the last piece of the bird turned back towards Chase, staring quietly at the ground with a sigh he mumbled Yes.. I'm scared not only of a stranger but I'm also scared of Shade, something just doesn't seem right with him...". He sighed, there he said it, he's scared of both strangers and the cat that is his leader, actually he was scared of most cats, both inside and outside the Regime, he wasn't the social type for many reasons, one being that most cats would scare him, the looked scary or they had this kind of aura around them that made him scared of them. He sighed once again and glanced up at Chase to see her reaction, whould she be mad at him? What would she do? Even if Chase were one of the few cats he wasn't scared of he never felt like he knew exactly what she'd do or how she'd react.