living. on. the. "edge" [open]

[mushu]

Cricketsong padded thoughtfully along the flattened grass beside the gorge. It was nearly past sunhigh and the greenleaf sun was hot on her fur despite its pale color. She didn't mind as spray from the foaming waters mildly graced her coat.

The gray she-cat's ears swiveled forward at a rustle in the tall grasses ahead of her. Opening her mouth slightly, she recognized the scent as rabbit... Instantly dropping into a hunter's crouch, Cricketsong carefully pulled her body forward, muscle by muscle. Through the grasses, she could make out two tall, tufty ears. She twitched her ears in satisfaction, praying to StarClan that the creature would soon be a meal for the cats of WindClan.

Just as she prepared to pounce, the rabbit jumped, seemingly spooked, and dashed off. Growling in frustration, Cricketsong gave chase. It wasn't long, however, until she gave up. The rabbit already had too good a start and there was no catching it.

"Fox dung." She muttered furiously, skidding to a halt. Without realizing it, Cricketsong had drawn precariously close to the most dangerous part of the gorge. Even more water sprayed her coat now, turning it an even darker shade of gray.

Curiosity pricked at her pelt and she drew closer to the edge. In all her moons, Cricketsong had never been to this part of the gorge before... Young WindClan cats were warned never to stray here. Crouching down, Cricketsong drew herself forward slowly until her paws were at the edge of the stone. Claws out and tail twitching, she brought her head forward to look over the edge.

The sharp rocks jutted out arrogantly from the walls of the gorge. White foam sprayed everywhere, causing Cricketsong's eyes to widen in pure wonder. She felt amazement crawl along her spine all the way down to her tail. Blinking, she pondered when she had last felt like this... Like a kit again, so in awe of a world she had never experienced.

[Heathclaw]

"Of all the stupid, idiotic, annoying, irritating.... ARRGH!" Tigerstripe fumed as he stamped across the WindClan moors, scaring off prey for miles around with the force of his sour mood. Usually, this wasn't the most desirable behavior to have on a hunting patrol, but the surly young tom didn't seem to care. Nor did he seem to be part of any organized patrol at the moment- and any creature that could hear his ranting would soon find out why. "Worthless lazy bums! Who needs them!? I can do just fine by my own, thank you very much! Jerks..."

Tigerstripe didn't really pay heed to where he was going- he never did when he was angry. Instead, he'd just let his paws take him where they wanted while his mind focused on stewing up his bad temper. And so he wasn't surprised when he found himself in the far reaches of WindClan territory the next time he looked up. He'd been distracted from his tirade by the thunderous sound of roaring water, and he blinked curiously as he saw the ground earth he was walking on cut off sharply ahead of him. This was the gorge! He'd been told not to come here before by the other warriors, because it was dangerous or something. Tigerstripe smirked- a bit of danger hardly mattered to him. And besides, there was already a WindClan warrior here with him- although not one that he recognized. He wasn't good with names.

The young cat crept up to the edge of the gorge, and peered over. His mouth opened, and a silent, "Whoa" crept out. The rush of the water, the howling of the wind, the sheer height- what a rush! This was living! He glanced back up, and smirked at the other side of the gorge. "Least we don't have to worry about RiverClanners attacking us over this thing, eh?"

[mushu]

Another cat-scent blew towards Cricketsong and she tensed, flexing her claws until she recognized it as WindClan. Not bothering to glance behind her, she relaxed and identified the scent as one of the younger warriors, Tigerstripe. Glancing sideways, she saw he had inched up to the edge as well. The gray tabby warrior saw the wonder she felt standing her fur on end reflected in his own wide, yellow eyes. Cricketsong felt a prickle of surprise, not expecting that a younger cat to appreciate the beauty StarClan had presented them with.

"But I bet the beebrains would try!" She growled over the roaring water, her whiskers twitching. She took in his striped, tabby pelt and the way his muscles were bunched beneath it. Twitching her ears uncomfortably, she turned her wide green eyes back to the gorge. He better not have noticed that, she thought, almost angrily. That's just what he needs... Thinking another wide-eyed she-cat is swooning over him. She almost snorted aloud at the thought.

[Heathclaw]

Tigerstripe let loose an appreciative laugh at his clanmate's comment. He wouldn't put it past those RiverClan beebrains to try either, although he didn't feel very worried about such an attempt succeeding. Even he wouldn't be so mousebrained as to try such a stupid idea. "We'd have to be more worried about ShadowClan, I think," said Tigerstripe, jerking his head back towards where the ShadowClan/WindClan border had to be, many thousands of foxlengths away. "If we ever have to worry about an attack, it'll be from them. But I bet we'll crush them anyway. Yeah!" he said, cheerfully belligerent.

On the other hand, there remained the fact that he had a brother in ShadowClan. Heathfur had urged him to forget about Bramblekit, but Tigerstripe couldn't just cut someone out of his life like that. Every now and then he caught himself wondering how his lost brother was doing, and wondering if he ever thought about him. He didn't think he'd be able to fight him if they came face to face. Well, unless he was a jerk, thought Tigerstripe half-jokingly.

But that was enough pondering over things that were probably never going to happen. "Hey, so what are you doing here, anyway? Don't tell me you just came out for the view," Tigerstripe chuckled, before realizing that he'd just metaphorically stuck his paw in his mouth. What if she asked him the same question? He could barely tell a decent lie- and then she'd know that he skipped out on his hunting patrol. Mousedung...