[Deleted]

The tom saunters across the clearing with a fresh squirrel and mouse. It had taken him a almost no time at all, as usual, due to his luck. The squirrel had been absorbed in a nut, and when startled, ran right into the warriors paws. Not long after, he spotted a mouse and managed to kill it based on some skill. It just always seemed to work out for Ashflame. He never came back from hunting empty handed, which only boosted his ego. To him it just seemed as though he was extremely skillful, and always boasted of his hunting.

Dropping his prey onto the pile he decided that he deserved something to eat after a successful hunt. Selecting a squirrel that, in the warriors opinion, was slightly smaller than the one he had caught. On his way over to his usual spot he realized he wasn't hungry yet. Settling down he put the squirrel in front of him. Looking around he realized that not many others were in the camp. Grumbling he decided to eat his squirrel and go back out hunting.

Stretching his limbs, the warrior quickly made his exit, lest he be assigned a patrol. Ashflame did not enjoy the patrols as much as hunting. It was nice to be alone every once and a while. Smelling the air the tom continued on, but soon realized this wasn't one of the times he didn't want to be alone. Deciding to seek out company, Ashflame came across a clan mate's scent. Following the path the scent soon turned into a familiar one. The scent of Fallenleaf spurred the tom on. Cleaning himself, he continued on his way. Soon he spotted the light colored she cat.

Sauntering over to her, Ashflame began, "Fallenleaf! I didn't see you there. I managed to already catch a squirrel and mouse. How is hunting going for you?" When he reached her Ashflame sat, making sure he was still taller than the she cat.

[BlooRey DVD]

[smear:f3e471]Fallenleaf
[/smear:f8c56a]

~~~~~~~~~

The senior warrior's day had begun much like any other day. The muscles in her left shoulder were incredibly tight, wound up in such a way that couldn't be attributed to sleeping on it weirdly. The ache was so deep, it was just shy of a searing pain. Grunting as her pale eyes opened slowly, she lay there, immobilized for several moments. When she was finally able to curl her toes again without too much trouble, she began to work through her exercises. Slow half circles turned into careful extensions and retractions. She could feel just how tense it was all through its length.

No matter how much care Ivypaw had taken in setting her dislocated shoulder, there had only been so much that could be done. She figured now that any damage that lingered was permanent, that she would have to learn to live with this burden for the rest of her life, however long that may be. There was still a part of her that was struggling to accept that. She couldn't retire, not yet. But that would mean she would have a long road ahead of her. A long road of re-learning how to function on primarily three legs.

As she rolled to her feet using her hind legs as much as she could, the pale she-cat wondered if that was possible. If one could learn to fight with only one eye, surely there was a way to do so on three legs? She hadn't been as useful as she would have liked over the past few moons since her injury. She hadn't been able to fight alongside her Clanmates when they'd returned to StoneClan's territory. This knowledge weighed on her as one of the heaviest regrets she'd lived in her sixty plus moons.

Padding with a heavy limp, she exited the warriors den. Taking a brief moment to shake out her coat, Fallenleaf decided to head out and test herself. Limping past the fresh kill pile, she wandered outside of StoneClan's camp. The stones were familiar to her, but harder to maneuver over now. Her left leg was far weaker than her right, making her weight change awkward and rushed whenever she used her left foreleg. Though her gait was strange, her left leg never extending quite as far as it should, there was a strange pride and power with which she moved, something that had been there before her accident.

No matter how proud she might be, hunting was something she was still trying to remaster properly. Though she could lower herself into a hunter's crouch without too many protests from her leg, she couldn't stalk forward like she normally did. It took her countless repetitions to sort out something that might just work. Gently placing her bad leg down, just as a stabilizer, she made sure that most of her weight was on her good leg and hind legs. Knowing that she couldn't stretch it the same way she did the others, she knew she had to find a way to actually move forward.

Her tail began to compensate for some of her balance problems, staying off to one side, snaking on occasion. When she did finally manage to move forward, injured leg stepping slowly and gently, it looked a bit awkward, as her steps were much shorter than usual. But she had been over all pretty steady. That was a good sign. The pain was minimal, more so a stiffness than any actual agony. A new determination settled in over the senior warrior. She would find a way to do this.

Applying the new techniques was far harder than she expected. Considering she had been out since just after the dawn patrol had left, and the sun was now well into the sky, she should have caught plenty. And yet, here she was empty pawed. Little mistakes kept costing her her kills. Forgetting about her injury, her tail overcompensating, or shifting her weight too quickly left prey scrambling away from her. Annoyance bubbled within her, leaving the older she-cat just about ready to quit and stalk/limp back to camp like a frustrated apprentice after their first attempt at hunting.

Her salvation came when those pale yellow eyes caught sight of a mouse scurrying up on one of the nearby rocks. Her movements were slow, calculated, jaws parting to test the wind, to ensure the scent was being blown in her direction. Narrowed eyes never left the tiny, unsuspecting creature as she sent a silent prayer to fartClan. Sneaking from rock to rock, hiding momentarily behind each one, letting the mouse think it was safe, she slowly closed the distance between herself and her prey. The lack of undergrowth meant there was nothing for her awkward, limping gait to disturb. It was perfect.

And then she leapt. Claws splaying out, the sun casting her shadow away from the mouse, she let her injured leg's claws land, caging the mouse, pinning it there, while her other forepaw took the landing, rescued rather quickly by her hind legs. The jarring motion sent a shock wave up her good leg, bothering her bad shoulder, but she didn't let that stop her. Stooping quickly to deliver a killing blow to the mouse's neck, she flicked her tail triumphantly, purring slightly. And then her moment of victory was interrupted by an unfortunately familiar voice.

Pale yellow eyes turning to land on Ashflame as he sauntered up to her, she let her haunches lower to the ground to give her bad leg a rest. When she heard what the tom had to say, the senior warrior gave a slight snort. "Then perhaps it is time you get your nose checked, Ashflame. Judging from the direction you came in, and the way your scent is drifting this way, you walked a path nearly identical to the one I took here, which means my scent would have been all over. Hunting's fine, thanks for your inquiry. Now what is it that you want? Do you wish to give me full accounts on your extraordinary catches? Because I'm really not in the mood."

[Deleted]

Fallenleaf's snappy response only spurred Ashflame on. Rejection didn't deter the warrior. In fact, it did the opposite. It increased his drive to reach his goal. By default, when any she-cat spurned him, he couldn't help but try to make her like him.

Scenarios ran through the warrior's head at lightning speed. His memories of any encounters with Fallenleaf, any snippets he heard of her. It was actually quite amazing what the senior warrior could remember. Of course, he never shared that with any of his clan mates. He remembered things like what Honeygaze had said at the Gathering ten moons ago. Of course, he had trouble remembering things like when he was supposed to be on patrol, but to Ashflame, that wasn't as important.

Yet unlike with most she-cats, Ashflame didn't want Fallenleaf to like him. He wanted her to approve of him. For the first time in a long time, he wanted to be friends. Shocked at this discovery, the warrior tried to ignore this friendly feeling. Picking a pre-thought up speech, Ashflame made up his mind. A smile crossed his face and he thought, the chase is on. But even as he went to say words he had spoken many times, he couldn't.

Now the warrior realized he had an obstacle to overcome. Amazingly this helped and he began in his charismatic voice. Ashflame said, "You got me. I came here so I could talk with you. It was actually quite hard as you gained a lot of ground, quicker than I expected. It's hard to get a moment in camp alone, so this was the only way." Flicking his tail around his paws, he continued, "Where are my manners? Is it ok if we talk for a little while, Fallenleaf?" This always worked, so Ashflame smiled and waited for his strengths to work.

OOC: Please feel free to take this wherever, as it would be fun any way this works out.

[BlooRey DVD]

[smear:f3e471]Fallenleaf
[/smear:f8c56a]

~~~~~~~~~

The pale furred she-cat considered the male long and hard, her pale yellow eyes narrowed into slits. It was rare that this particular tom wanted to talk just for the sake of talking. There was generally something else to it. With a slight snort, she rolled her eyes, picking up her mouse and moving to scrape a little bit of dirt onto it. It was a task that she found surprisingly more difficult than it should have been. She could either use her injured leg to scrape the dirt, which was a little bothersome to her sore shoulder, or she could use her good leg, which meant putting a lot of weight of her bad shoulder.

There was no winning in that situation. She only just barely slid by, swinging her damaged shoulder, albeit a little stiffly, until she figured that her kill was safe. Of course, she wasn't really planning on going very far, but it was still better safe than sorry. Limping away a few steps into an open patch of sunlight, the senior warrior let herself flop down rather ungracefully, not really in the mood to keep up appearances around Ashflame. A long sigh escaped her as she settled down into the warmth, feeling it seep into her injured shoulder in a rather relaxing manner.

After giving her shoulder fur a few quick licks to settle any fur that might be sticking up, she tapped her tail on the ground, as though impatient. Taking a moment to examine the younger tom again, she figured that there really was no point in trying to fend him off at this point. Too much energy wasted on a useless endeavour that way. And so she conceded, giving a slight dip of her head and an inviting flick of her pale tail.

"Alright, Ashflame." She began, her voice taking on a rather serious tone that wasn't so uncommon for her these days. "If you are so desperate to speak with me, then fine, come and speak with me." Unsure of what it was exactly that he wanted to talk about, if made her a little uneasy. Not to mention being permanently injured made her wary of others a lot of the time, not liking the idea of being looked down upon or pitied because of it. "Now, what is it that you wanted to speak with me about, hm?"

And then she waited in silence for the other cat to begin.