Duality [Cheddar]

It was nearing sunset, soft lights flickering on the strange stone trees that rose from the cracked pavement surrounding the patch of wilderness within the twolegplace. Twolegs had left, the area free of their kits and dogs, and having wrapped up her search for the twoleg-stolen Bloodstrike for the day, something made her paws linger here. Memories of a different time flooded her mind at the lush greenery around her, memories of hunting with her clanmates, of a gray and white tom clawing a snake into piecess as it had attacked an apprentice. She'd been eager to fight, admired Wrenspring's bravery, whilst being somewhat disappointed that she hadn't been able to get her own claws on the snake at all.

What a different time that had been. It was greenleaf again, but the heat didn't burn her pawpads and make her exhausted. This wasn't the heat that had sparked that all-consuming fire that had led to her first venture here. She wasn't the overeager, bright-eyed apprentice she had been back then. She wasn't even the same cat who had found the coneflower among the frost-stricken field hardly more than two seasons ago. Things changed fast, whether wanted or not.

The silvery tabby slid beneath the sharp twine of the fence carefully, longing for the feel of soft grass on her paws instead of the hard, unforgiving stone pathways. The stone was smoother than Skyclan's territory, as strange as it was featureless. The grass felt nice against her paws, and there was precious little of it among the parts of twolegplace that weren't abandoned and left for nature to slowly reclaim.

A heavy sigh escaped the she-cat and she shook out her pelt once free of the sharp twine that had dug into her fur. At least she hadn't left large clumps of it behind like she had when her leafbare coat was at its' longest. Stertching, she padded forward, single eye scanning her surroundings alertly.

It was almost time for the fluffy tom to return home, but after a day of exploring the nearby human park, he'd found a comfortable spot on one of those metal seat sort of things that the humans rested on to groom himself. He'd been at it for a bit, until mid lick he spotted the sight of a cat making their way along the edge of the park. Setting down the paw that he'd been cleaning, he couldn't resist the urge to make a new friend, or try to at least. "Hi there!" the cross-eyed male mewed happily. Judging by the condition of her pelt and the scars that riddled her body, she must've been one of those clan cats. Wow, he'd sure been seeing a lot of them lately!

Beechfang's head snapped up at the sound of a tom's unfamiliar greeting. He sat on one of the strange tree-like structures that the twolegs liked to sit on, some ways from where she'd been prowling through the grass. She hadn't been expecting to meet another cat out here, much less what looked to her like a soft kittypet. He lacked the ragged thin bodies most rogues had, so clearly he must've been eating well, at least. His greeting had been downright cheery.

"Hello," She responded, somewhat less cheerfully and much more awkwardly. "I wasn't expecting to see anyone else out here."

He usually didn’t see too many cats out here either, but he was always happy to see a new face. He hadn’t seen this cat in the overall area and wondered if it was because he was new or maybe she was, but either way he couldn’t wait to get to know her more. Of course, she didn’t seem as glad to see him as he’d been, but he didn’t mind. Not every cat was as friendly as him and he was fine with that. As long as he could try and bring a smile to their face, he was content.

”Yeah, not too many housecats come out here, but I enjoy watching the humans and their dogs play,” Cheddar chuckled in reply. The she-cat that stood before him seemed so rugged and if he was to guess, he’d say a bit tired as well. Maybe she had been looking for a place to camp for the night. In that case, maybe she would have a few moments to relax here, seeing as though it was a prime spot in the evening. ”Wanna sit with me?” the fluffy tom mewed with a large smile on his maw, his fluffy tail motioning at the empty spot next to him. She could always decline, but he decided he'd might as well ask. ”It’s almost sunset and is usually really pretty from this spot,” he added, hoping she would say yes to his offer. He wasn't able to provide much else, but maybe being a friendly face was enough for now.

"Humans... Is that what you call the twolegs?" She stumbled over the foreign words a little. It must've been, however, for who else in their right mind would keep and play with dogs? They were foul beasts, and no cat Beechfang had ever known would like anything about them, unless it happened to be fighting them.

Watch the sunset? Beechfang stared at the tom warily for a moment, glancing around. Was this some sort of trap? Watch the sunset with him? "I'm a complete stranger to you, I'm a rogue. And that's the first thing you ask me? To watch the sunset?" She stared at the tom, genuinely baffled by the complacency and seeming trust. "Not worried about the big, scarred stranger at all?" There was nobody else around, so Beechfang slowly padded forward, though her wariness showed in the tense line of her shoulders. With the ease that her Skyclan-born strength had given her, she leapt to the top of the weird twoleg structure, taking care to remain as far from the tom as she could.

Nodding at her question, he couldn’t help but extend his blue, cap-covered claws in excitement as she jumped up and join him.

A rogue? That must’ve been what they called strays around these parts. The amount of new terms and names to learn in this new place excited Cheddar and he couldn’t wait to learn more. As the silver tabby continued to speak, he shook his head back and forth, a smile on his muzzle. "So? You're a stray, but not all strays are bad. And besides, anyone can watch the sunset." He wasn't actually sure what most other rogues were like, but if they were like this, though a little on the weary side, he didn't have a problem with them at all.

Turning his crossed gaze to the she-cat who was keeping an obvious distance from him, he focused his eyes onto the large scar that spanned most of her face and couldn't help but wonder about her past. Was she born a rogue or had she had a loving family at some point? He certainly wasn’t the best judge of character, but being a house cat like himself had taught him a lot of things; one of them being how different strays were from him. The things they went through on a daily basis to survive, the hardships they endured... he could never live such a life, but kudos to them for being able to live under the open sky.

The fluffy tom turned his eyes back towards the setting sun, realizing that he'd been staring for a good while and hoped she hadn't noticed. The array of warm colors in the clouds above sent a chill down his spine and he couldn't help but appreciate this new place in which he and his humans called home. Did his new acquaintance enjoy the wonders of nature as well? While he was overly cheerful most of the time, her lack of smiling made him wonder even more. Maybe she'd lived outdoors all her life and so this was nothing new to her? Or maybe she had a bad experience and maybe the thought of sitting in a familiar place such as this wasn't very appeasing to her.

"And I’m not sure what your scars are from, but I bet they tell some good stories," Cheddar chuckled after a few moments of silence. He was very curious as to who or what had ripped her fur down to her skin, but he wasn’t going to pry, not yet anyway. He wasn't quite sure what she needed to hear right now, but he decided he's might as well just speak what he was thinking. The worst she could do was snap at him, he figured. "And while I suppose it’s a sad thought, I have a feeling those scars have stayed with you longer than most cats have," he added softly, shuffling his big paws back and forth before wrapping his fluffy tail around them.

Wait a minute.

His claws were blue. "What's wrong with your claws?" She asked, fighting and failing against the curiosity at the strange sight. She'd never met a cat with blue claws before.

Beechfang's ears slid back as she noted the tom staring at her rather than the sunset he'd asked her to watch. She supposed a kittypet wouldn't see many cats as rugged and careworn and so heavily scarred as she was, but still. "Staring is rude, you know." She chided. It didn't make her as uncomfortable as it once had and her hackles no longer raised, but it was still rude.

His next remark did make her hackles rise, however, and her claws flexed against the strange twoleg structure as she eyed the ginger and white tom. "Not good stories, no." Stories of bloodshed and betrayal, of Starclan's wrath... Nothing a kittypet could possibly understand. And it was none of this kittypet's business, as far as Beechfang was concerned. Somehow, the scars had become all she had left of her life as a clan cat. So much of what Beechfang had known was no gone, lost to her. The scars stayed, though, the kittypet wasn't wrong. "Perhaps so." She added stiffly. The kittypet was, maybe, more observant than she'd given him credit for. That didn't mean Beechfang liked it.

"If you're going to pry, I'd like a name to call you by, at least."

"Oh these?" He should've know that she would ask him about the covers on his claws, seeing as though not a lot of cats had them, especially wild ones. "They protect my claws, or something like that," the fluffy tom chuckled. He was only able to guess as to what they were really for, since he wasn't exactly able to understand his humans.

He also should've known that this feral she-cat wouldn't be too keen on chit-chatting with him, nor accept his niceties too lightly. He hoped that someday he might be able to hear about such these stories, good or bad, but assumed their first time meeting wasn't quite the time for that. Perking his ears, he realized he'd completely forgotten to introduce himself and supposed he just got ahead of things being so excited to meet a new cat. " 'name's Cheddar," he purred with a dip of his head. He hadn't meant to pry, but if she wanted to think he was, he wasn't going to argue. "I suppose I should ask who you are as well," he mewed, followed by a yawn. He was curious if wild cats had names similar to housecats or if they followed different naming rules, or something of the sort.

Beechfang could only shake her head, disbelief (and maybe a little disgust) obvious. The collars that kittypets wore were strange enough to her forest-born sensibilities, but the weird blue material that covered his claws? It obviously wasn't natural. It must be a product of living under the harsh paws of twolegs. The tom confirmed as much. "You don't know what they're for? Whatever they are, they don't look sharp. How are you supposed to defend yourself or fight? Or hunt. Claws certainly don't need protection." She scoffed. Not that kittypets were likely to do much hunting or fighting, as far as Beechfang knew. She lifted a large paw, lazily unsheathing her own claws. They were long and sharp, and had seen plenty of blood to stain them in the past.

Cheddar... Another of those strange, meaningless names, like Harvey and Clementine."Beechfang." She responded, setting her paw back onto the twoleg surface.

"Why would I need to defend myself when I have my humans for that? Life is much easier that way," Cheddar replied with a tilt of his head, genuinely confused at her question. Why would she want to fight, wasn't that dangerous? Not to mention the effort it probably took to do so.

"Beechfang..." Cheddar took a moment to think on the name she shared. It sounded familiar... where did he know that word from? "Like a beach?!" he exclaimed suddenly, turning his blue cross-eyed gaze back to the she-cat. "I love those! The crashing waves on the edge of the giant lake, the salty taste in the air, the sand under your paws... ah, it was truly a wonderful place," he reminisced with a happy sigh, remember the time that his humans had taken him on adventures far and wide. He never knew where exactly they were going, but every place they'd gone to had been new and exciting. He hoped his humans took him to more places soon.

"I don't see your... humans... around here now. Unless you think you could outrun any wild cat to get to wherever they are." Beechfang was, in her eyes, simply stating facts. Facts that any clan cat or even rogue, as despicable as they were, understood. All of these kittypets were well and truly daft.

"Like the tree, you know... Strong, sturdy, light gray? Green leaves?" She fought not to roll her eye at Cheddar's words. Everything he described about being on a lake sounded about as appealing as a dog's fangs buried in her neck. Which was to say, not at all.

Shrugging his shoulders at her question, Cheddar lifted a paw and swiped it behind one of his fuzzy amber ears in an effort to rid himself of an itch. "I'd never want to fight any-cat, so why would they just attack me? Any-cat who goes around looking to pick a fight must be rabid," he chuckled, not at all realizing how frightful the forest truly was.

Flicking his tail back and forth, he met her gaze once again. There was such thing as a beach tree? So like... a tree with salty water leaves? This new land was full of surprises, that was for sure. "That sounds pretty crazy," Cheddar mewed, still trying to imagine how that would even work. "I'd love to see one of those someday!"

"Rabid?" Beechfang scoffed, "Not every cat has their meals handed to them and twolegs to take care of their every need. Some of us need to hunt and fight to survive." Of course, some cats just enjoyed a good fight, and to them, kittypets like this naive tom were easy targets. This one couldn't even defend himself, with those weird things on his claws that looked like they wouldn't be able to cut through a leaf, much less skin.

How beech trees were crazy, Beechfang really didn't know. Perhaps the tom was simply sheltered beyond belief. "They're all over the forest, and there's a few around twolegplace, but it's mostly oaks that seem to grow here."

He hoped he hadn't made her too mad with his comment and immediately felt bad about his comment. "Ah, I'm sorry," Cheddar mewed. "I guess I just don't know much about the forest," he chuckled. Listening to her as she talked about these trees, his face lit up with excitement. "Beach trees are in the forest? The one like right over there? You'll have to show me one someday!" he purred.

"You know nothing." Beechfang muttered tersely. For a naive kittypet, he was awfully enthusiastic about visiting the forest. "Yes, that forest." She added grudgingly. In response to the proclamation that she would have to take him to see the trees, Beechfang gave a snort. "...No." Her claws flexed, "You can view them from the fence just fine."