Way Too Far From Home… [East Shore Topic - Open]

Streampaw’s jaws were hurting, bad, but he refused to even loosen the grasp on the bundle he had managed to snag from the medicine cat’s den before the flood carried him away from the clan. He had no real reason besides, literally, feeling he just had to. More than once he was about to drown because of it, only being able to use his nose to get the occasional breath of fresh air here and there.

His paws had grown tired of fighting against the water currents a long time ago, and now he just basically floated downstream, allowing the river to carry him to only StarClan knows where, fighting to not pass out and only forcing himself to move when he felt he was about to due to lack of oxygen. So when the water finally let go of him on a swallow enough zone for him to no longer have to swim up to get some oxygen, he wondered for a good couple seconds if he had lost such fight and was now on StarClan’s hunting grounds.

After several minutes immovile, he finally got to his paws, rather shakily, opening his eyes. Two things were clear: 1) He was not in StarClan, 2) He had no idea of where he was, at all.

After quickly dragging himself out of the low murky waters he had been resting on and onto somewhere that was somewhat drier, he placed the bundle down, feeling his jaws ache and sting as they finally let go of it, the strong grip he had to keep on it to not let it get lost in the waters taking its toll.

He opened it and looked at it, he had been successful on saving most of its contents, even if they were now wet, but a good portion of the smaller items and seeds had managed to somehow get out of the bundle at some point, causing him to curse under his breath, wondering if he had better skills at making these, he would’ve been able to save all its contents.

However, it wasn’t until he realized that saving these herbs would have been useless if there was no medicine cat that knew how to use them in the first place that he raised his head and looked around “Uh….H-Hello?! Is anyone else here?!” Was he alone? Oh StarClan, he hoped not.

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As soon as his paw felt anything solid under it, Hawkstrike immediately held onto it and darted out of the water with heavy pants. His whole body ached from his constant trashing and fighting against the current while the water carried him away, but he couldn’t care less, all he knew was that he somehow had made it out alive from that watery The Dark Forest and he was not going to let it drag him away again.

Seriously, how RiverClan cats could feel so comfortable underwater? Yes, ShadowClan cats lived on marshes, but at least they usually kept their bodies out of the water and didn’t risk drowning all day just for a slippery fish or just because.

In the name of the Dark Forest, he seriously had to hate water now if it made him think anything positive of ShadowClan.

After shaking the water off his pelt to the best of his ability, he quickly started to look around in an attempt to figure out where he was. Well, only thing he knew now, was that he definitely had no idea of where he was, other than this was definitely not clan territories anymore.

He felt a cold chill go down his spine as he got on guard due to this. Wouldn’t his fur be sticking to his body thanks to the water and mud that covered it, it would be standing on end, as he looked around with unsheathed claws. He had no idea if he was alone or not, and, if he wasn’t, if those around him would be friendly, enemies or even think of him as potential prey…and he wasn’t willing to let any of these unexpected and potentially dangerous creatures land the first hit. After taking a deep breath he started to walk, trying to either find any way to return to the territories or any other cat that may had survived the flood and made it out here too.

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Nightheart’s eyes opened abruptly as she quickly got to her paws, coughing and honestly feeling dizzy. She had no idea of how, but she had somehow managed to survive the flood even after something had knocked her out cold. StarClan surely had to be watching over her if they didn’t let her sink to the depths to never make it out again.

She had to take a good couple minutes to herself as she coughed up water and tried to get rid of the dizziness, quickly going through everything she knew to make sure the hard hit on her head hadn’t done any damage. She had to admit, her memories of the whole flood were blurry at best, but at least they were still there.

Shaking her head, she finally got on her paws and started to look around, not recognizing where she was. Now, she rarely left WindClan’s territory, she had no reason to unless it was a gathering, but something in the back of her head was telling her that she wasn’t in the territories anymore…she had to find a way back home.

“Hello?! WindClan?! Anybody?!” She was praying to StarClan she wasn’t the only one that made it, she couldn’t have been the only one that made it….

In the hours between the initial flooding and now, she'd somehow found sleep. Egretpaw still clutched the patch of reeds she'd been washed away with, in a deep, exhaustion-fueled slumber with her nose barely above the surface of the water. The RiverClan apprentice bobbed gently with the waves, up until she turned slightly, pushing her nose into the water. She woke with a jolt, snorting and sneezing, taking a moment to realize she was still in water. 'Still?' A brief, beautiful heartbeat passed before the events of the hours before came crashing back to her. She stifled a cry. Gripping what was left of her life raft with tight claws, she whipped her head around for someone. Anyone. To her dismay, not a familiar pelt was in sight. Ears turned back, she paddled towards a low shore, suddenly feeling very tired once again despite having rested.

She pulled herself onto the litter-laden coast, feeling the weight of her soaked fur once she left the water. With shaky paws she looked around for somewhere to go, or something to tell her where she was. No such luck. Movement in the corner of her eye drew her attention, and she soon spotted a brown tabby nearby. Perhaps she got too hopeful, she suddenly stood up straight and called out, "Scor-" Her voice suddenly halted. This tom wasn't her deputy, it was someone else entirely. Her dark eyes widened. Egretpaw had never met a cat outside of RiverClan before - beside Starlord - she had no idea what other cats were like. Was this cat washed away in the flood too? Or did she... did she wash up on his territory? She took a step back, setting a paw in the filth-frothed water. She could swim away if she needed to, right?

Heronflight finally felt ground on his paws as he looked around.  The gray tabby was no longer in RiverClan, confused about where he had ended up.  He sat down on his haunches, waiting for any other RiverClan cats to appear.  The warrior gazed at the large Twoleg nests, seeing how large they are.  The tom, perplexed, backed away slowly to see what it looked like, accidentally backing up into another cat.  "Oh!  I'm sorry!  I didn't mean to bump you like that," he apologized.  I was just staring at Twoleg nests, nothing unusual.  "My name is Heronflight.  What's yours?" he asked the apprentice who smelled of ThunderClan (Streampaw).

@Night

Hawkstrike’s ear instantly flicked towards the unfamiliar voice. With a snarl on his muzzle and eyes that appeared to be lit on green flames, the chocolate tabby turned to face the stranger, his pose aggressive and letting know he was not hesitant to attack, maybe even kill, anyone that he deemed could be a potential threat to his safety, no questions asked…and being in a completely unknown place, hearing an unknown voice, almost anything fell in that category.

His green eyes didn’t land on the enemy he was expecting to face, though.

Instead, they fell on the smaller figure of an apprentice aged cat he was unable to recognize. He wasn’t sure if this cat was another clan cat survivor or a rogue, the mix of new scents with how the raging waters of the floods had successfully washed away most of the usual clan scents on the cats around him made him hesitant to make a verdict at all.

“Who are you?!” His voice was anything but friendly, just because there was a chance this cat was also a clan survivor and was apprentice aged didn’t give him any sense of tranquility. He was carefully trained in many ways and knew all the ins and outs of dirty battle techniques and complex strategies during the Dark Forest reign, using an apparently innocent and harmless cat as bait to lay an ambush on another cat being one of them. His nose was trying restlessly to pick up ore scents around him, but…it was harder than he thought to recognize anything, and the strong scents of mud, litter and twolegs could easily mask the scent of any cat that could be hiding “Are you alone? Or is there anyone else with you?”.

Honestly, Egretpaw had her age to thank for. Hawkstrike had always found a certain weakness within himself towards kits thanks to event of times past and secret dreams of his own, and apprentice aged cats still held just enough of that youth to trigger some of it. Should she be fully grown by now, the chances of her getting attacked right on the spot and subdued prior to him saying a single word instead of him asking first would’ve been way too high

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@Mamenchisaurus

Streampaw stumbled lightly when Heronflight bumped into him, almost losing his balance, before turning to look at him. A wave of emotions washed over him when the older cat spoke and introduced himself to him. Heronflight, a clan name….he had to struggle a bit to recognize the scent of his clan over all the other scents surrounding them, plush the water washing off most of their scents while it carried them there. RiverClan…or at least he hoped he got that right and it wasn’t just the water of the flood making him smell like it or his nose no longer working correctly.

He was not alone….

Oh StarClan, he was NOT the only survivor, there was still hope for the rest of his family to be alive, somewhere, looking for him….but if this cat of RiverClan had also be carried here by the waves, it meant not only ThunderClan was suffering. Was this only a thing between ThunderClan and RiverClan? More clans had been hit by this StarClan forsaken flood? Maybe…oh no, all of the forest?

“I-its fine…I’m Streampaw” He meowed after clearing his throat a bit. He looked at him for a bit, trying to remember his last gathering…no, he was almost sure this cat was not a medicine cat. With a soft sigh, he turned towards the bundle of herbs he had managed to salvage and carefully wrapped it again with a bit of trouble, trying to do a better job this time, he had already lost part of its precious contents to the waves while being swept away, he wasn’t willing to lose more. He seriously had to ask Pricklebush for lessons on how to do it properly when they met again…if she…no, no, he was not going to think on that. Pricklebush…no, the clan as a whole, all the clans, were strong, and StarClan was surely watching over them like his mother used to tell them. They were going to meet again, he just knew it.

“I manaed to salvage some herbs, but I’m not medicine cat…you think there may be one around here that could make good use of these?” He said once he was done.