A Slight Encounter

[Yoko]

The dreams of a deaf cat are like silent films, not that a cat knows what those are. In any case, Snowpaw was having a rather pleasant dream...

It was still greenleaf and the sun was high in the sky, and bright even in the ShadowClan Camp. Snowpaw stayed in the shade of the apprentice den because too much sun would burn his pale skin. Dustpaw was just getting back from training with the leader of ShadowClan. He sighed. Some mentors actually gave a mouse-dung about training their apprentices. He curled his toes in embarrassment that he had not even been taken hunting. Dustpaw was trotting over, waving her tail in elaborate ways to indicate her hunting had gone well, but Snowpaw was distracted by a scent...a dangerous one.

Snowpaw raised his head. The silence was just the same as always, but the scene was quite different. It was not sunny and warm, but pitch-black and rather cold. His blue eyes glanced over the dark lumps of his clanmates' bodies. Only his fur glowed white as a ghost in the sheltered gloom. His eyes widened. The scent was still there! He had to warn someone, but no one would understand.

The white apprentice got on his hind-legs and shoved Dustpaw rather hard.

Wake up![/color]

[Mousy]

Hmuh?

Oh, whatever happened to be up in the sky (because StarClan most certainly didn't exist), something random had woken her up. Dustpaw rolled over on to her other side, trying to escape the thing that was prodding at her. When she discovered that she couldn't escape it, however, she sat up, elegantly dragging a paw over her head. Then, her amber eyes met with her brother's cobalt. She rolled her eyes, murmuring,

"Oh, if only you could speak, brother.

Well, she had given up on that idea moons ago.

She had always known that her brother was different, right from the start. She had always defended him, too. And she always would. Ice could never come in between them, no matter how hard he tried. That wouldn't happen.

Then again, she wasn't too normal herself, as Ice could easily tell you...

Ice, nestled quietly in a corner of his Host's mind, had been rudely awoken by Dustpaw's annoying brother batting at them to get up. He growled, and then complained,

Dustpaaaaaaw... Kill him or somethiiiiiiing...

Naturally, his Host didn't humour him with a reply.

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[Yoko]

Snowpaw watched his sister's lips move blankly. Now how was he to tell her that he had scented something bad? Their system was working rather well so far, but there were a few kinks in it. He decided to go with the simplest idea and touched his snowy white paw to his nose.

But mouse-dung! Now he had no idea what to tell her what he had scented. Why hadn't she scented it herself? Were her scenting skills lower than his. He touched his paw to her nose.

Sniff!

He moved his paw back to his nose.

Do you smell, what I smell?

[Mousy]

Dustpaw blinked, baffled, when her brother touched a paw to his nose. She looked questioningly at him for a second, until an effeminate voice floated in to her head.

He smells something, Ice informed her matter-of-factly. Now kill him. I want to sleep.

Shut up, Dustpaw shot back. Then, she scented the air. There was something strange, but she couldn't quite put her paw on what it was.

She was probably just about to figure it out when Snowpaw touched a paw to her nose, and she was overcome by the scent of Snowpaw (mud, mostly). He then touched his paw back to his own nose.

Dustpaw finally understood.

Do you smell what I smell?

Snowpaw, you little genius!

Dustpaw nodded, patting dark paws on the ground and simeltanously siganlling for them to leave the den. She ran out, knowing that that would fix all doubt in her brother's mind.

Early morning jog, Dustpaw? Ice questioned grumpily. While he couldn't feel breeze buffeting his fur, the motion made him feel sick.

Well, whatever. Dustpaw was in a determined mood with this, whatever it was. Proabably some kind of suicide-mission. Weird girl. Sighing, he closed himself off from Dustpaw and attempted to return to sleep on his side of the mind.

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[Yoko]

When Dustpaw beckoned him to leave, Snowpaw breathed a sigh of relief (not realizing how loud this was). He crept over the sleeping bodies of the many other apprentices. He looked back at them wistfully. No need to worry, ShadowClan. Dustpaw and Snowpaw were going to save the day. Or the night...It really was cold out and very dark. The moon wasn't anywhere to be seen. That was a shame...Snowpaw liked the pale moon. It made the night look so much prettier.

Snowpaw paused beside the main camp entrance. Well if course they weren't going out that way. Not with a warrior guarding it. He looked to his sister. The scent was moving fast away. He didn't want to lose it. Who knew what trouble that beast could cause.

[Mousy]

Dustpaw nodded when her brother suggested going a different way. She heard Ice sigh, snarlingly, in her mind.

Oh, way to GO, genius, he muttered to himself. Dustpaw, on the other hand, touched the tip of her tail to her older brother's back and licked his ear gently, her way of thanking him, and padded, shadow-silent, towards a seemingly-unoccupied corner of camp, hoping that her (amazing) deaf brother would have the sense to follow.

Well, he was clever enough to figure out that something was wrong.

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[Yoko]

Snowpaw stirred a little when he felt a light brush on his back. After all, if he were being yelled at he couldn't hear it. Luckily, it was Dustpaw and not some nosy warrior. She licked his ear and he gave a small smile, knowing she appreciated his help. Then she padded into the shadows and he trotted quietly after her. He wondered how they would escape the camp without notice, though obviously there was only the one cat posted at the entrance. Which way should they go? He bounced on his paws a little. They were losing the trail! It seemed like it was going deeper into the swamp.

[Mousy]

Should I really be doing this?

That was what was flying through the mind of the dusty-brown apprentice as she and her brother followed a trail of some sort to the swampy marsh. She was just glad that Ice wasn't trying to take over, though. She could hear him complaining angrily.

There are better ways to spend a night, you know, he snarled. Dustpaw, as she usually did when he started troubling her, ignored him. Like sleeping. He put extra emphasis on the 'sleeping', and Dustpaw knew that her lazy Other Half wanted nothing more than to be back in the warm apprentices' den, asleep.

Well, there was no turning back now.

You're an idiot, you know, Ice continued, trying to get Dustpaw all riled up. We're following an idiot deaf tom towards a possibly-dangerous scent somewhere out in the marsh. The marsh! he snarled, causing the hair on the back of Dustpaw's deck to bristle.

I have had it with you complaining! Snowpaw is my brother; I wouldn't have it any other way! I would never kill him and never abandon him! What if he wandered over boundaries?! Or got attacked?! she yelled back.

Hmm... Good point. We wouldn't really need to do anything if we just got him attacked. Yeah, I like that idea, the dark voice inside her head purred. Yeah, get him attacked. Let's do that.

That caused Dustpaw to snap.

"Shut up, shut up, shut UP!" she shrieked, not realizing that she was speaking aloud until... well... she realized, really.

But, regardless of her irritating Other, she carried on running, praying that Snowpaw wouldn't wonder what was wrong with his little sister.

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[Yoko]

Snowpaw lead with his small pink nose raised high. The scent was positively disgusting. He was getting a little mad that it was on their territory. Well, he and Dustpaw sure would show it...or them...The scent was really strong so either it was really stinky or there was more than one...Well, they couldn't turn back now.

It was brighter out here. A small crescent moon lit what little sky there was above the marshy territory. Snowpaw did his best to stay clean. He was a white cat after all, and keeping his fur clean, especially in ShadowClan territory, was very difficult. If he came back dirty it would be evidence that he and his sister had gone out.

Speaking of his sister...She was walking behind him and he looked back just to be sure she was keeping up okay. What he saw amazed him. It seemed like she was...yelling? He could not hear it, but she looked mad and he knew it must be loud. He flailed his tail angrily to the side and scowled.

Stop it!

But deep down he was worried...Was she hurt? Why was she mad?

Something moved behind her. His blue eyes widened. He pointed his tail over his head and behind her.

Behind you!

Too late, it crashed down on her. Something small and furry...and cat like...

[Mousy]

NO! Ice shrieked, but it was already too late. Whatever it was was barrelling towards them.Seeing that there was no alternative, he ducked down, dug clawd in to the creature that had barrelled in to him and Dustpaw, but it reached up and clawed across his throat. He rolled off it, but it rolled back on to him, pinning him from above. Because of the darkness, he couldn't see much, but what he could see he knew he would never un-see.

It was horrible: amber eyes glowed in the faint light, and claws dripped blood - his blood - on to the wound, which stung as painfully as the sting of a bee or a wasp to the nose.

"Get away!" he shrieked, partly at the creature and partly at Snowpaw. "I'll kill you!"

But, of course, he didn't.

The creature and him continued tustling on the ground until, with a final spurt, the creature bit down on his neck. He rolled away, but felt the most horrible sensation in the world... his flesh ripping away from him. With a final shriek, He threw himself at the creature, launching hinself at its back, and jumped on, not letting go. His claws raked at his sides, and he motioned urgently for Snowpaw to do something, because the bloodloss was already getting to him...

With a final, last-ditch attempt, he dug his claws in. If he was going down, this creature was going down with him...

Dustpaw... I...

But his world went black, and he could only feel the wound throbbing, and hear the vague hum of the motion around him.

The last thing he thought before he blacked-out entirely, from a combination of fatigue and bloodloss, was, This must be what Snowpaw wishes he hears...

[OoC:// Brother-brother bonding? ... Do you really think so...?]

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[Yoko]

Dustpaw!

Snowpaw raised his hackles and bristled, blue eyes wide with horror. He watched in shock. The whole scuffle was as silent as everything else in the world, but it was a terrifying silence. The kind when you could feel how bad it was, but not be able to measure it in screams. His nose twitched. She was bleeding! His sister was bleeding!

Finally breaking his own paralysis, the white apprentice darted forward, prepared to claw the beast. But Dustpaw looked furiously at him. She had never directed such hatred in her eyes...they were different. Barely, the white apprentice escaped from having his face swiped by the back-claw of the beast.

He watched, helpless, not knowing what to do. Was Dustpaw giving him orders? Had she forgotten he couldn't hear? The battle was getting bloody. Snowpaw's heart threated to burst. His eyes were tearful.

Let me help! he demanded silently.

Finally, she motioned him to do...something....He wasted no time in diving in. The apprentice circled round the furry vicious beast and tackled its side, hard. The creature released its grip, whipped around and snapped his tail so hard he heard it snap.

With a pitiful toneless wail, Snowpaw jerked away from it and swiped at the face of the dark furry monster fiercely. He ran off, hoping it would follow, but it did not. It was going to finish...maybe eat his sister. Snowpaw dove forward, ready to attack again, but something else beat him to it.

From the bushes, a small cat darted out and gripped the creature by the neck. Another, taller one, followed and did the same. They began to drag the furious, squirming creature off, and it seemed helpless in their grip.

Snowpaw hurried to his sister's side, not caring at all for what he had just seen, and rapidly began licking her neck.

Wake up!

He shoved her with his paw roughly. It didn't matter if it hurt her or not. He needed to know...was she dead?

[Mousy]

He wasn't that weak.

That was the first thought in Ice's brain. The second was, ouch.

The third was that he hated his brother so much right now.

Still, to get away from the snow-coloured apprentice, he willed himself to roll, and he actually managed it, staring up at the prodding deaf cat with angry amber eyes. he reached up weakly with a claw, which connected with Snowpaw's neck, leaving a tiny scratch. Hardly enough to injure him, but it was there; the red blood ran down his white fur and dripped on to the ground. Satisfied, Ice allowed Dustpaw to switch in.

Dustpaw rolled over on to her front, hating the feeling of the wind blowing on her chest, and buried her forehead in the ground.

"We could've had it," she hissed. "We couldn't HAD it!" She was shrieking now, disregarding how loud she was being; how much it throbbed at her injured throat. StarClan, what had gone wrong? She knew all the fighting moves; they had been drilled in to her. But this thing was... obviously, it was stronger.

Dustpaw wouldn't accept defeat, though.

She would train, long and hard, and then she would defeat any enemy that lay in her path.

But for now, she lay there, blood soaking in to the ground and mingling with dust and marsh. What had happened to the creature? Had it been killed? It hadn't killed Snowpaw; he was standing over her... bleeding...

Ice had done that.

He was the next to go.

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[Yoko]

Dustpaw was rolling over! Snowpaw edged closer to get a closer look at her neck. Snowpaw...are you okay? The dusty brown she cat reached up and swiped his neck. Snowpaw stumbled back in shock, with wide unblinking blue eyes. He reached his white paw up to the scratch on his neck. He was far from dying but he was bleeding.

Why had she done that?!

And now she was injured and getting to her paws. She looked furious. Snowpaw didn't understand her anymore. What was going on?

Slowly...he reasoned...that maybe she had thought...that he was the enemy. She might have been delusional. In any case, his sister was injured. He walked over and pressed against her side to hold her up. They had to get back to camp and have her looked at. But how could they explain what happened? Who would believe them?

One thing was for sure...the scent of fox would not be leaving his nose for a long time...

-End thread-

That was fun, wasn't it?