What We Came Here For [Nightwind]

The Sky was still dark when Swiftpaw slipped away from Windclan's camp. Sleep had been elusive, as ever, and she'd finally given up for the night... Morning, rather. The sun would be rising soon enough, though for now the moors lay steeped in shadow.

Picking a seemingly random direction, Swiftpaw trotted away from camp, then broke into a sprint. It felt good to run. The wind ruffling her short fur was much less bothersome when she wasn't trying to sleep, and Swiftpaw had improved after a while of living on the moors.

Still, for all that she now acted the part, Windclan didn't feel like family. Her mother was dead, her friends and siblings and mentor-figures (far more than Tawnyflare was or could ever hope to be) were gone. Dead, or simply scattered, Eleos didn't care which. Her mother had set her on this path long before her death, and this was the path she would walk. It didn't change the ache in her chest at the thought of how far she was from family, however.

Eleos slowed her pace as she approached the remains of an old stump, then bunched her muscles and sprang upwards. From her vantage she could see well across the moors in all directions, and it became clear that she was one of the very few things stirring at this hour. The lynx point sighed quietly, gaze drifting across the territory. Was her mother among the stars, like the clan's ancestors? Eleos wasn't so sure. She did not hold the ancestors in as high regard as the clans seemed to, but her experience at the moonstone had showed that they at least existed. She wasn't star-struck, and would not worship them, but it was something she could respect well enough.

Nightwind was always up early, earlier than most cats in both Skyclan and Windclan wanted to be. He figured even Shadowclan would be starting to wind down when he was wide awake. Was it a sign that he didn't truly belong anywhere? Perhaps, perhaps not. He knew that no matter what, he was a Skyclan cat... but he had been banished from his home. Now he felt like he was just dust in the wind... He had been in Windclan long enough to know that he didn't think quite so lowly of them as he used to. They were foolish, trusting, mouse-brained, optimistic idiots... but he was pleasantly surprised to discover that even cats like these had a place with him. He hoped, a small hope, that one day that place would not be beneath his bloodied claws. He was prepared to do what he must, regardless of his newfound liking for the clan of the wind, and for that reason he always kept a bit of a wall between his heart and the cats he ran the moor with.

Speaking of which... he noticed a she-cat flying across the landscape. He dropped down into a stalking position and froze to watch her. She jumped up onto a stump, the only stump in the whole field... and just sat there. He was surprised to see someone else awake this early. He crept closer through the grass, and the wind gently blew her scent toward him. Oh... that's Swiftpaw... Suddenly feeling mischievous, Nightwind closed in on her location in complete silence. As long as the wind wouldn't betray him... well he was about to scare the living daylights out of this apprentice.

Once he was satisfied with the distance between the two of them, Nightwind bolted forward, still managing to run fairly quietly. Not that it would matter much. His Windclan speed combined with his Skyclan jumping abilities was one heck of a combination. He wrapped his forelimbs around her shoulders and took her off the stump.

"PAY ATTENTION, APPRENTICE!" He bellowed as the collided, though the end of his sentence came out in a bit of a huff as the two cats hit the ground below. At least the grass was soft. And now... he wrapped all of his legs around her to prevent her from clawing him to ribbons, at least for now. He didn't even bother hiding his laughter. His shoulders shook and he wheezed. Even if she wasn't amused... at least he was. That was all that mattered.

For a while, Eleos was content to sit and let her gaze wander over the moors, lost in her own thoughts. It was strangely peaceful out here, without the expectations, without Tawnyflare's constant hostility. Peaceful...

Until it wasn't. A dark form slammed into her with a yowl, sending both of them tumbling across the grasses. Alarm shot through her and she snarled, claws reflexively unsheathing, but the tom had wrapped himself around her. And then she registered the laughter.

"Nightwind!" She sputtered, squirming in his grasp, though her claws had sheathed upon realizing this was a clanmate. He wasn't one she knew well aside from his mischief-causing with Sunnyskip. The other she-cat seemed to like him well enough, though Swiftpaw would reserve any judgements until she actually knew a bit more about the dark tom.

"Get off of me, you big furball!" She protested, "Seriously though, you reek." She added, grimacing.

Nightwind had a smug grin on his face and let her go once he was sure she wasn't about to tear his fur off. He got to his feet and was about to give her an exaggerated, offended look... but then he realized... she could smell the oil. Oh that's not good... Quick to have a story prepared on the spot, he was ready to give it, should she ask.

"Are you trying to tell me you always smell like the flowerfields?" He taunted. He caught some grass in his claws and flung a clump of it at her, all in good fun of course. "Good thing I wasn't a predator. You'd be in serious trouble right now Swiftpaw." It probably sounded like a lecture, but he honestly didn't care what the apprentice did in her free time. Still, a lesson to be aware of her surroundings wasn't a bad thing either.

"Hardly. That however, is foul." She scoffed, ducking the pawful of grass that was thrown her way. Of course, the wind caught the grass and she wound up with a few blades of it clinging to her shoulders, anyways. Eyes narrowing, Swiftpaw gathered her own clump of grass to lob at Nightwind.

"I'm sure your pelt would deter any predators that happened to be lurking." She added, a smirk crossing her maw briefly before dropping away. "I'm not in trouble, am I?"

And the game had started! Nightwind dodged the grass fairly easily, as the wind had been blowing more in his favor for the moment. "Your annoying mouth might be more effective in deterring predators..." He quipped, though the smile on his face told her to not take his insult to heart. Suddenly curious to see if he could dodge as well as a Windclan apprentice, he began to sidestep and hop left then right in a confusing off-pattern of directions. "Practice your swift strikes on me. I need to get better at maneuvering." With that, he jumped forward and flexed out a paw to thwap her on the shoulder, though his claws were sheathed. "You're not in trouble with me." Though now she wouldn't be in trouble at all even if another cat did show up. She wasn't alone anymore.

Swiftpaw smirked back at the playful insult, twisting away from the light tap to her shoulder.

"You'll have to be quicker than that." Swiftpaw teased, watching as the tom danced back and forth. She struck out at him with quick, light blows, keeping her own claws sheathed as well. She was, of course, ready to dodge any attempts he might make in return. Nightwind had caught her off-guard earlier, and she didn't intend for that to happen again, playful or not.

Nightwind danced around most of her strikes, but a few caught him on the shoulder or at the base of his neck. He launched a few out at her too, though careful that his claws were still sheathed. This was more fun than he expected it to be. He got caught up in it. For just a moment he forgot that he was Nightwind, not Dawnhawk. He forgot that he was a Windclan cat, not Skyclan...

And in that moment Nightwind made a mistake. Showing his true nature for just an instant on pure reflex, Nightwind kicked off of the ground, landed all four of his paws on the side of the stump, and kicked off of it to launch himself toward Swiftpaw.

His heart stopped as he pushed off of the bark... He wasn't even sure that his paws would hit Swiftpaw... his only thoughts were how to play this off like it was nothing. Just as he had been trying to play off that his unusual scent was nothing...

A few of her strikes missed, some landed across Nightwind's shoulders and neck. He retaliated with his own strikes, and Swiftpaw relaxed as the traded light blows with each other. This impromptu sparring session, if it could even be called that, had an entirely different feel to it than her training sessions with Tawnyflare... But Nightwind had no reason to hate her like her mentor did. He was pulling his blows in the interest of not hurting a clanmate, she presumed. Tawnyflare sparred in a manner wholly different, a manner that wasn't... entirely unfamiliar to Swiftpaw. Not that she would admit that to anyone. She made little attempts to hide her animosity, and that usually pushed Swiftpaw to work harder to dodge. Sparring with Nightwind on the other paw, Swiftpaw found herself actually enjoying it. She didn't let her guard down, because that would be foolish, but she didn't have the same reluctance that she did when sparring with Tawnyflare.

When Nightwind kicked off the ground, planting his paws on the stump and launching himself toward her. The move was unlike anything she'd seen from a Windclan cat so far... And not like anything she'd seen a rogue use, either. Swiftpaw twisted beneath him, and lashed out with one paw, aiming to hook one of Nightwind's legs and bring him crashing to the ground.

"I'd heard you weren't from Windclan, either. Move like that would be useful in the trees... Less so out here." She goaded, pale blue eyes never leaving her sparring partner's as she scrambled to her feet.

Nightwind, any other time, would have been annoyed by his performace. Today however, he felt lucky that there was more to Swiftpaw than she was letting on as well. He didn't know any apprentice with no battle experience to be able to hook a hind leg that quickly and send their opponent to their belly. Nightwind exhaled sharply upon impact, but sprang back to his feet quickly. He turned to face her, and she was speaking again already. He clenched his jaw, wondering what he ought to do now. It didn't take him long to decide on what to say about the matter.

"Yes I've lived most of my life in a forest far from here, but moved recently into the Twolegs areas before being accepted into Windclan, thanks to my sister." Most of it wasn't a lie. "As you can see though... my fancy tricks don't work out so well." He feigned a sheepish grin before shaking the grass off of his fur. "You fight well... and think quickly... for an apprentice." If she wanted to play that game, he would prove to her that he could play it too. He'd wager he could do it even better than her.

"Mom taught me some things, I was on my own for long enough after she died to pick up other things. It was that or perish." Eleos shrugged nonchalantly. No chance he believed that she was as inexperienced as the rest of the clan seemed to think she was. The scar across her left shoulder was a reminder that she wasn't inexperienced, though so many in the clan had overlooked that and the nick in her ear entirely. Pale blue eyes narrowed at Nightwind's explanation of his own skills. Hiding something, just as she was. Yet there was a degree of truth in his words, just as there had been in hers. That was the only way to make things seem believable, after all. She took in the dark tom thoughtfully, noting the messy, dark fur and strong haunches. He'd sprung off that tree stump like a natural, just as she'd pulled the leg from beneath him without so much as a thought.

"Strange to think how accepting of outsiders Windclan is, I can't imagine the other clans would accept so many into their ranks without question." Something in Eleos' tone said she thought it was foolish of them, but she didn't say so. They'd accepted her, even pushed for her to stay. Her own family had been accepting of others, but they hadn't been so blind or naive.

They were both aware of eachother's hiding something. It certainly intrigued Nightwind, and he immediately began to look for as many clues as he could find. The scar on her left shoulder... his eyes narrowed at it. Her short fur made it easy to see, unlike the medium-length fur that he had that hid marred Captain's scars. Copperfox had seen to it that they were not nearly as recognizable as they had been before, but they were there, if one knew what to look for. That would mark this she-cat as a rank one Asylum Scout, if that was what it was. Still, it was hard to be sure with only one mark.

"I certainly would be more cautious, but to each their own I suppose." And he would say no more on that matter. "How is training with Tawnyflare going?" He was fairly sure that was her mentor anyway... besides... a change in subject would probably be best for them both. Nightwind didn't want to tell the apprentice any of his secrets, so for now, he wouldn't be prying into her's.

Blue eyes narrowed as Swiftpaw watched him look at her, as if trying to find some clue about who she was. Naturally his gaze came to the scar across her left shoulder. It was in plain view, the single slash could have come from any number of predators or twoleg contraptions. Eleos wasn't ashamed of it and didn't particularly care who saw it. It was only distinct in that it broke up the pale, short fur surrounding it, as scars tended to do. Plenty of cats had far worse, as far as scarring went, and most assumed it was gotten in some fight or another... Exactly as they were supposed to.

"She's one of the few who seems to despise me, but she doesn't seem like she enjoys the company of others much. If you listen closely, I think you might hear her cursing the idiot apprentice on the wind, even." There was a hint of humor to Eleos' words, but there was no twisting the truth there. Tawnyflare had been a Windclan kit, taken and trained by rogues. Rogues she spent much of their training sessions cursing in some form or another. It was only natural that she would distrust outsiders, though Eleos believed she was no less hypocritical for it. She had been one of those very outsiders, raised upon a lie, but an outsider nonetheless. Eleos was trying to carve a place for herself in the clan that had so graciously accepted her into their ranks, and she was scorned for it. If Tawnyflare hadn't been so brutish, Eleos would've called her hostility reasonable.

"I see. She wasn't fond of me when I came here either. She certainly wasn't thrilled that I could catch hares as easily as a Windclan born cat could." He smiled at the memory. The hunts had been brief. Still, he knew more about Raisha than even she was aware. He had been there when the stolen kits were being given their names. He had been there when they trained. If anyone was going to recognize him, it would be her. He had been her captain after all, and yet she still wasn't able to recognize him.

"I wouldn't let her get under your fur. She seems like she has something to prove and her displaced anger has nothing to do with you, but a battle within herself." It was the best and most honest advice he could give the apprentice. He liked Swiftpaw... but he'd be keeping a much closer watch on her or a bit. They were both hiding something... What a fun game to play to see who discovered who's secrets first...

Hopefully he wouldn't have to kill her shortly after.

"I can imagine how that must've gone." Swiftpaw smirked. Tawnyflare had been nothing but criticism since the start.

"Her problems are her own. She spends as little time as possible with me, no real loss." There were other Windclan cats she could go to if she wanted to feel accepted, and there were other Windclan cats who would be more willing to teach her what she needed and wanted to know. Tawnyflare didn't do any more than she had to, and that was okay. She had faults, weaknesses, just like any other cat.