Just a lost puppy

[me]

Four-moon-old German Shepherd puppy Wildpaw crouched down on her belly near the edge of MireClan's camp to rest. Her breath came in pants and spots danced at the edge of her vision, she had run so fast from the mountainous area northwest of MireClan's territory.

Her mentor had been leaving a trail for her to track, and she had simply been following the trail when her mentor had called out, warning her to go home, there was another cat there from a different clan. She knew very well the importance of her existence remaining secret, so she had dashed home, as fast as her legs could carry her. Which was quite fast, after all, she was already a little larger than the average full-grown cat. She didn't think that the other cat had seen her.

She must be a secret, she knew, but she couldn't help wishing, just a bit, that the day of her StarClan-predicted destiny would arrive when she would be revealed to the other clans, as the greatest weapon of MireClan.

And then, after that, she would be allowed to come to gatherings and go on border patrols, like the other warriors.

[wolflover1458]

Silentpaw was running through the forest, away from everything that was everywhere. It all meant nothing to her but pain, it was all pain. She could hardly believe what she had been forced to live through so far. She hated her life, it just wasn't getting any better. Would it ever? Nothing was going to change her life around though, she was Silentpaw, she couldn't speak, she couldn't tell anyone she hated her name, even if they could tell by how she looked.Her white pelt ruffled smoothly, and her brown eyes flashed a she sensed rushing water, a river. Instinct told her to go there, the instinct that dreams bring to one.

She was running towards the river, unable to get there, when suddenly she was there. Looking down at a kit, so close she could bend down and catch, drowning in the river. Silentpaw did nothing to help this kit, though, just stared at it as it mewled pathetically, asking her to help it, pleading. You think you have problems? Silnetpaw thought, stubbornly looking at it, I do to, but does anybody care? No, they don't. You aren't the only one with problems in the world, why do you need more than I need? So Silentpaw sat there, staring at a kit she could save as it drowned in the river. Suddenly the kit changed, its pelt became a white color, the eyes a dark brown, and that pathetic mew became a noise no verbal cat could make. Silentpaw was suddenly staring at herself, drowning in the river. Suddenly, she heard pawsteps behind her, and...

Something smashed into Silentpaw, then jumped away. Annoyed, Silentpaw awoke to find the den empty. Someone has obviously been there, but why had they woke her up? She had been so close to seeing what was behind her. Had she been given a message, from StarClan? Silentpaw didn't know, but she didn't like having that dream. She had stared at a drowning kit, and that kit had turned into her, and Silentpaw had drowned herself in a river. This was to strange for her, and now she was in a bad mood, a very bad one. She often was, but this time it was worse because of the dream.

Her sensitive nose and eyes quickly picked up the scent of everything in the camp, in a way no other cat would be capable of. The first thing she caught the scent of was that dog, Wildpaw. Silentpaw wasn't actually sure how she felt about Wildpaw, but she knew the rest of the Clan was confused about the dog, but some of them seemed to like her, in a way they had never liked Silentpaw, one of their own! That had just gone a little over her head and made her just to mad. She hadn't actually seen Wildpaw before, and wasn't sure if Wildpaw knew about her. Still annoyed, Silentpaw marched off past Wildpaw, determined to ignore the dog, and lay down, looking over the place and wishing that her life was better, that she was called Whitepaw, and that that dog, that everyone seemed to like better than they could ever like a mute cat, wasn't there anymore. Wildpaw was the secret weapon of MireClan, so she had heard. And what was she? A silly, mute apprentice that didn't have any friends because she didn't get along with anyone. Life was rough, and unfair. It was these kinds of things that Silentpaw really, really, hated. A lot.

[me]

Oh! There was a young cat! Maybe she would want to play? Wildpaw, having got her breath back, decided to ignore the glare that the cat had sent in her direction earlier. A lot of them tended to look at her with fear, or annoyance, or wariness, or anger, which usually faded slightly, if not completely, after they had gotten to know her a bit. From what she had gathered, it wasn't usual for a clan of cats to adopt a dog. And she hadn't really talked to this one before... so it was probably that.

She got up, stretched and yawned, and then trotted cautiously over to the cat. She'd gotten a few slaps from cats she had gotten a little too close to before, and she didn't want the unpleasant situation to repeat itself. "You. I. Play? Chase? Hide?" Her speech was very awkward, as were the movements she made with her tail, ears, whiskers, mouth, and eyes to accentuate her words. And her voice had a strong dog accent.

But even more difficult than talking were manners and etiquette. Don't stand too close to cats... don't stare at them... don't pounce on their tails.

Still, Wildpaw seemed to be doing pretty well currently, not even letting her eyes stray to the tempting tail, and remembering to blink and glance away occasionally.

[wolflover1458]

Silentpaw heard that dog come up behind her and talk to her. Her speech was strange, but at least she could talk. For a moment, Silentpaw almost felt sympathy for this dog, and she had had it once before, but it had vanished. This was friend she would have loved to have, someone who was different, just like she was. The moment had been lost when everyone looked at the dog liked they had never looked at her, been confused or frightened of the dog, but gotten over it, because she was a weapon from StarClan. Silentpaw was a cat who hated her name. She turned to glare at the dog, but when she turned her head, she found it suddenly hard. Silentpaw could sympathize with how this dog might feel different, with how anyone might feel different, but she had long since ignored those feelings. Silentpaw didn't get along with anyone, she was just that way. No one really wanted to be around her either. Wildpaw was the first to come up to her in a long time. It was hard to ignore the longing to want a friend, someone to be by. What if she could be Wildpaw's greatest friend, the one that understood her most.

As annoyed as part of her, the pitiless part that her drowned her dream-self as a kit, the rest of her wanted to try it. Silentpaw decided she could give Wildpaw one chance, and try to be her friend. It would be her only friend too, likely the only one she could ever get. How could she respond, though? Did Wildpaw realize she couldn't talk? Silentpaw rather doubted it. A flicker of her old glare crept back into her brown eyes as she opened her mouth and made a sound so strangled no cat could ever hope to ever repeat it. It was a sound Silentpaw didn't know how she made, but also the only one she ever made. She was mute to words, but not to sounds completely. Yet if Silentpaw were to scream, or cry, or laugh, it would be an alien sound, unlike anything a cat had ever heard or made. Perhaps this had drove others away while she was a kit. Silentpaw could feel the hairs on her rising, as the part of her she lived under so much longed to rear back and hiss at this dog, yet she couldn't hiss like any other cat did, but she could look threatening. Her tail curled up as her whole body tensed, and she didn't do much about it either. If Wildpaw ran off from her, this wasn't anything knew, Silentpaw was used to it.

[me]

For a clumsy puppy, Wildpaw could move fast when she was startled. She scrambled awkwardly backwards away from the scary cat, keeping her eyes carefully on it. Why had it made a sound like that? Wouldn't it answer her? She knew that she wasn't great at speaking, but surely the cat could understand her.

Or maybe... it couldn't? Wildpaw thought quickly, but she couldn't remember a time when the cat had spoken at all.

Maybe it was mentally retarded! In which case, it certainly wouldn't be able to understand her. Wildpaw backed away slowly and deliberately now, placing every paw down with care. When she thought she was far enough away, she stopped, crouched, and jumped forward, landing just out of claw's reach of the cat. As the puppy landed, she slapped her front legs down hard on the ground, keeping her chest and forelegs pressed against it while she stuck her rear end and tail into the air, wagging it rapidly. She put her head to the side with a quick, birdlike motion, pricked her ears forward towards the cat, and yelped, giving it her best "puppy eyes".

Hey, if the cat was retarded, it would need to be spoken to in body language, wouldn't it?

[wolflover1458]

Silentpaw's eyes narrowed as the dog backed away. She saw the dog jump forward and automatically jumped up, arching her back and making an odd strangled hissing noise as strange as her other noise. The dog had just been out of her reach, but it would have won a fight anyway, it was bigger, way bigger. She was rather amazed at its actions. Exactly what was that dog doing? She had heard it perfectly. Did Wildpaw think she was stupid? Silentpaw's strangled hiss became louder and her hairs all rose up. If she actually knew how to fight, she would take this dog down. She wasn't stupid! This dog might want to play, but was that how she went around it? Everyone was like that too her. Maybe not exactly that way, but it was just bad as anything else they might do. The worst part was she thought she might actually like this dog. She didn't want to get along with someone who thought was stupid. Maybe Silentpaw was a lesser cat because she couldn't talk, although she didn't believe that, but she wasn't going to be treated like it, especially by Wildpaw.

[me]

Oh no. Now she had gotten the cat really angry, and it didn't seem to be stupid or have trouble understanding her... Wildpaw scrapped her "mentally retarded" theory and skipped to her next one; the cat had had a throat injury sometime in the past and ever since then had not been able to talk.

But it wasn't really important at the moment anyway. She had obviously offended the cat, and one of the last things wanted was to alienate herself from her new clan and pack.

She took a few steps closer to the strange cat (although, in the same movement she tried to look as if she was cringing away), flattened herself down on her belly, rolled to her side and then onto her back. She kept her legs bunched up, displaying her fluffy belly to it. Her tail waved frantically and ears flattened back as far as they could go, head turned to the side so she could watch the cat. Wildpaw squeaked, and then tried to speak. What was the right word?... She felt like she should apologize, but she didn't know the right word. "I... sad... ashamed..." No, those weren't right, but it was the closest she could think of. Hopefully her "mentally retarded" theory would have, in fact, been wrong, and the cat would understand her words...

[wolflover1458]

Silentpaw's hissing stopped as Wildpaw did another strange antic. She was glad to here that the dog seemed to be sorry, anyway. She relaxed, a little, but was ready to jump on this dog anyway. It was in reach now, and even if Wildpaw would win, Silentpaw could at least get a point across. She was a bit curious as to what this dog thought of her. Wildpaw apparently didn't know that Silentpaw had been born with the inability to speak. She hoped Wildpaw didn't feel the least bit self-conscious about having issues speaking, because Silentpaw would have loved to be able to speak like she could, at least. Silentpaw opened and sort of said "It's fine," though of course it didn't sound like that, which was a good thing since Wildpaw wouldn't know what she had said, and Silentpaw would never, ever, had been caught saying that to anyone. The only reason she could get away with it was because no one knew what she was actually saying.

She was, of course, still annoyed, and not about to forget how the dog had acted before. If Wildpaw wanted to stick around with her, she would have to be careful. That was why no one stuck around Silentpaw, it was to much work. The dog was different, though. There was no one else Silentpaw might have dropped her glare for, even a little bit. It stills flared in her eyes, but not as much as with someone else. Yes, she was going to be as careful as she could be, but there was nothing wrong with enjoying herself just a little bit. Maybe Wildpaw would stick around her anyway. It almost felt nice to have someone say they were sorry, too.

[me]

Wildpaw flinched away as the cat made the weird sound, trying to flatten herself even farther into the ground. But the cat didn't seem to be mad anymore; well, maybe slightly, but at least it wasn't quite as mad as it had been before. She slowly relaxed, her feet following to one side of her body, then pulled them underneath herself and stood up. She backed away slowly from the cat, taking care to keep her head lower than its head, keeping her tail so far between her legs that almost touched her stomach. However, she felt slightly annoyed, and wuffed a disgruntled "Play" at the cat before turning and trotting off. She had just wanted to play, after all, and her mistake had been understandable. After all, what was she supposed to think when the cat couldn't talk right?! Back to her usual place at the edge of the camp, she curled up in a sulky furry ball and stared uninterestedly at one of her claws.

[wolflover1458]

Silentpaw watched Wildpaw leave, and was almost quite glad she did. Okay, maybe all she wanted to do was play, but no one wanted to play with Silentpaw. Even her siblings had stared at her, wondering why she couldn't talk. The only thing she knew how to do was fight. Even that she didn't know to well. It was beyond to go up to Wildpaw and say anything. Of course she had misunderstood Silentpaw, and that was good because Silentpaw wasn't going to back down from the reputation she had built up around herself. She liked it anyway, it was better than them being near her. They all shied away from her.

Except Wildpaw, she hadn't done that to Silentpaw, she had asked her to play, something no one had ever asked her. She had been sorry for upsetting Silentpaw, and she had even left her alone. She wasn't like that others, and that was pretty nice. It almost hurt to think it to herself, but Silentpaw was sorry she had gotten mad at Wildpaw. She looked around. No one was there. It was just her and Wildpaw. No one would witness her doing anything. Yet. Looking around cautiously, Silentpaw starting creeping over to Wildpaw, who really wasn't all that far away. She didn't have any idea how to play, especially with someone so much bigger than her, and probably the size Silentpaw would be when she was fully grown herself. Yet Wildpaw was younger than her, and not even fully grown. Imagine having someone like that as her best friend! Someone who could no what Silentpaw thinking, someone who could actually get across what she wanted to say. If that could ever happen (and how likely was that, really?), it would the best thing that had ever happened to her. Still, she had no idea how to do this 'play' thing.

[me]

Suddenly Wildpaw heard something behind her and rolled over towards it to see what it was, and found that the tip of her nose was buried in the fur of the cat she had met earlier. Hastily jerking away and standing up, she flattened her ears back and wagged her tail in apology.

But why had the cat come over to see her -- what could she want with her? The puppy sat down and tilted her head to the side in that odd way that dogs have, watching the cat carefully with her yellow-brown eyes. At least the cat didn't seem to be aggressive anymore... rather, she seemed... unsure and tense.

Could it be that she changed her mind, and wanted to play?

Well, if so, she obviously couldn't communicate it, and so it would be up to Wildpaw to do something about it. Cautiously, still not at all sure that this was what the cat wanted, she repeated her earlier pose: front paws slapped down against the ground, chest pressed against the ground, tail lashing back and forth, and rear end stuck high in the air. "Play? Run chase hide catch run?" She said hopefully.

[wolflover1458]

Okay... so what Wildpaw had said was taking a while to register. Still, she did seem to want to play. Silentpaw looked around, her brown eyes darting everywhere. There was no one there still. She thought about what Wildpaw had said, and thought her siblings had played this kind of thing before, though she never had. Still, running was easy, and so was chasing, and hiding, and catching, and more running. Which one was she supposed to do? She wasn't really sure, but maybe it didn't really matter to much. Wildpaw probably knew how this worked out anyway. Once she had her language worked out, it would be much better. Silentpaw, on the other hand, could never say something like that. Pushing that thought aside, Silentpaw tried to think of what she was supposed to be doing.

After a bit of thinking about it, Silentpaw crouched down, wagged her tail slightly, then jumped into Wildpaw and skidded away, then started to run off. She was pretty sure that was what it meant, Wildpaw chased her, then Silentpaw chased Wildpaw. That seemed simple enough, and you could even think of it as good training, it would help in getting away from an enemy cat, or catching one. Who had ever thought that games like these could be so useful. The first thought Silentpaw had that didn't cheer her up was how Wildpaw was far larger than her, with longer legs. Ignoring this thought and the anger and unfairness this brought about, Silentpaw pushed herself faster.

[me]

The puppy yelped with surprise as the cat pushed her, then, as she saw her running away, she yelped again, louder, and gave chase. The cat was fast; she had to speed up her gait to a casual lope to catch up.

Wildpaw poked the cat in the side with her long nose, then skidded to a stop, turning about as abruptly as she could manage. Her claws gouged furrows in the ground. Now she charged off into the forest, her feet scrambling to speed her flight, and then she abruptly turned from her path and jumped into a patch of tall grass to her left.

The ground was soggy here. The mud came just over her ankles and soaked most of her tail in sticky brown slop. Try as she might to be still, she couldn't help but wiggle a little bit from the discomfort of the cold sticky smelly stuff.

[wolflover1458]

Silentpaw twisted around as she felt the wet puppy nose, partially in surprise, and partially in anger. By the time she twisted over to retaliate, Wildpaw had run off. A bit annoyed, Silentpaw stood there to catch her breath then raced after the puppy. She lost Wildpaw in the forest and seethed with frustration. Still, her main thought was how helpful this could be in battle. Silentpaw almost thought it would be fun to pretend she was attacked by a fox or something, just get Wildpaw to come out. She had never played these kinds of things before though, and did sort of want to try it out, a little bit, maybe. She opened and mouth and tried to pick up the scent of the puppy. Following the trail a bit, but finding it rather hard because she wasn't used to this kind of thing. Silentpaw hadn't actually done any training with Gullshadow yet, so she wasn't any good at tracking. Wildpaw would know a bit more than her, but Wildpaw was doing the hiding, not the finding. This game was so strange, yet also kind of fun, in a weird way.

She already knew there was no way she would ever let anyone else know about this, or act like this around anyone else. It just wasn't how she acted. Silentpaw traced the scent clumsily to a grass and looked up at it curiously.

[me]

The puppy waited in the mud and grass for several uncomfortable seconds, but heard nothing. Was the cat even going to follow her, or find her? Well, she couldn't stay here forever...

Cautiously she stepped forward, her paws making a squelching sound in the mud. Just barely hidden by the grass, she paused, and tried to listen again, but the sound of a slight breeze in the grass covered any sounds that a cat might have made. Finally she poked her nose out and barked, delighted at seeing her friend. She crouched and then charged away again, this time choosing a path through the drier parts of the forest and avoiding any tall grass.

But, barely out of sight of the place where she had hidden, she tripped over a root and went sprawling on the ground. She squeaked, more out of surprise and annoyance than pain, and awkwardly twisted her body to the side to get up. Oh no! Now the cat would catch up to her!