[BlooRey DVD]

[smear:74ffd2]Echobreeze[/smear:ffffff]

~~~~~~~~~

The little she-cat pelted through the marshy territory. With the rain that spattered around her, plastering her coat to her sides, she could feel her paws sinking even more than usual, as though the territory were trying to swallow her whole. And it wouldn't take that much either, considering just how low to the ground she was normally. It isn't much further now... She could almost feel the end of the ever-present rain as she dove into the cover of NightClan's underground camp. She was fairly certain that she could see the entrance a couple dozen tail lengths in front of her.

Or she did, before drops of rain managed to get into her eyes, momentarily blinding her. She gave a violent shake of her head, trying to dislodge the onslaught of water. Her green eyes blinked furiously, pupils contracting and dilating, trying to see past the film of water that had collected in her eyes, trapping everything behind a weird, thick and clear wall. It distorted everything just enough that she couldn't make out what everything should have been. She thought she was continuing in a straight line as she slowed slightly, unease bringing her pace down. If it hadn't been raining, she probably would have stopped. But she really hated getting wet like this.

Her paws moved in a path that was ever so slightly to her right, bringing her closer and closer to terrain that was soggier than what she was already walking on. Her gait was odd, half lurching, half running. But the steps she was taking made her just heavy enough that the instant she touched down on the marsh-covered ground... Her right forepaw sank, swallowed up well past the bend of her leg. With a sharp sound of alarm, she found herself effectively, and a little painfully, stopped in her path. The mud was cold and stuck to her leg. Her claws flexed uselessly beneath the earth as Echobreeze tried to collect herself, hind paws scrabbling to try and get a hold.

She tried to pull back, tried to get her paw and leg free of the all consuming mud, but it seemed the more she did that, the more she sank, until her right leg was completely swallowed up by the mud, the rest of her saved only by her chest and the slightly more solid ground beneath her left forepaw. Her ears tipped back as she wriggled, hindlegs scratching at the earth as she once again attempted to pull herself free. But she didn't have the right angle. She needed to be taller, to pull herself upwards slightly. Or she needed someone else's help, which didn't seem to be happening as every sane cat was inside the camp in weather like this.

Her right hindleg slipped suddenly, her paw becoming trapped in the mud, leaving the small tortoiseshell to lean awkwardly on her left side to hopefully stop her from sinking further. Glancing about as much as she could, she gave a shaky, uncertain call. "Can... Can a-anyone h-hear me..? I n-need help..." Wasn't this just perfect?

[Insidious]

H O L L O W C R Y

Pacing around camp, the corpse of a dead bird gently clenched within his jaw, the warrior searched for someone. He wasn’t entirely sure who he was looking for. One second his golden eyes were glistening, digging through the food pile to find something suitable for her, and the next he was walking through the rain, looking considerably more lost than he had a few minutes before. The sensible part of him told him to give up on the task, return the dead bird to its place in the food pile, and then retreat back to the warriors’ den for a night’s sleep until the rain was gone. However, he couldn’t help feeling like there was a good reason for him to remain persistent. Obviously someone important had managed to influence this peculiar action of his; he was hoping that, once he saw her face, everything would click.

In the distance, barely audible over the pounding sound of rainfall, he could’ve sworn he heard the sound of a she-cat’s muffled voice. Dark brown ears swerved, waiting to see if he’d hear it again - was his mind playing tricks on him? - before he pursued the general direction that he assumed the voice to have come from. Never one in his life had he been so determined, and even crazier was that he hardly had the inklings of an idea as to what was driving him to continue onward. He simply followed the path of his paws, trying really hard to pretend that the mud wasn’t annoying, until he came upon a sight that had his whiskers twitching in amusement.

Echobreeze, the she-cat that he had quite the encounter with a few days earlier, had her right forepaw jammed deeply into the mud, the rest of her body too small to properly aid her in getting free. He had approached from behind, and taking her frantic movements into account, he assumed that she had no idea that he was here. He placed the bird that he had been carrying in his jaws on the ground, taking a handful of cautious steps toward her, watching to make sure he didn’t get himself into a similar situation - he wasn’t much larger than her, after all. Oblivious to the fact that he didn’t even have to think about helping her - under any other circumstance such as this, he would have cracked himself up and probably abandoned the cat until the next morning - he ducked beneath her very slowly until he was certain that he had a decent hold of her. “Don’t move or you’ll get us both stuck in this mess.” And surely enough, when he started to inch backward, the she-cat’s body came up with him. Once her paw was fully out of the mud, he slid out from underneath her, shaking out his ragged fur to no avail with the increasingly heavy rainfall.

He retrieved the bird that he had left nearby, having forgotten whoever it was that he had been looking to give it to before. Echobreeze probably needed it more than whoever else had been on his mind, anyway. Placing the dead bird at her paws, he flashed a half-smile, not caring that they so happened to be standing in the middle of this bad weather. “Am I going to have to save you from some kind of dilemma every time that we meet? Next time I might not be feeling so helpful.” He teased, the amusement having yet to fade from his eyes.

How had he went so long without noticing her before?

… Why was he thinking about noticing her, in the first place?

[BlooRey DVD]

[smear:74ffd2]Echobreeze[/smear:ffffff]

~~~~~~~~~

There was a moment when Echobreeze thought she might be stuck out here until the storm subsided. Her voice was barely audible over the roar of the falling rain. Her ears felt plugged with water, and no matter how much she flicked them, they never seemed to clear. Everything around her seemed to be trying to squash her. A small shiver caught her, her small frame victim to the cold water that fell from the sky to drown her. All these things piling up on top of each other made it nearly impossible for the she-cat to hear the approach of the tom from behind her.

And then he was suddenly beneath her. Green eyes were wide with alarm as she stared down at Hollowcry's dark head beneath hers. She couldn't find the words to protest, managing only a soft squeak to acknowledge that she'd heard him at all. Her body was tense, unmoving. Whether that was because she was listening to the tom, or she simply couldn't find the right muscles to move at all was a mystery. So she just... Sat there. On top of Hollowcry as the tom pushed up carefully.

She could feel the mud sucking at her trapped paws. Her left back paw was the first to come loose, and as if on instinct, she kept it high, almost clinging to Hollowcry's fur. When her second paw was finally free, she found herself perched rather awkwardly on his back. Until he moved and she slid off. Stumbling slightly, the little tortoiseshell just barely managed to catch herself before she was sent face first into the muck. That would have been even more embarrassing than the situation Hollowcry had already had to rescue her from. Trying not to think about how the mocking tom always seemed to catch her doing something stupid, the she-cat gave her muddy chest fur a few quick licks to flatten it.

Her green eyes were drawn to the bird in part because he retrieved it and set it in front of her, in part because of the words he spoke next. Embarrassment ran rampant through her, ears tipped back as she pawed nervously at the ground. Unable to meet his gaze, she whispered softly. "S-Sorry... I sh-should have been m-more careful... I d-didn't mean to get s-stuck and m-make you help me..." The little she-cat could still feel the cold sinking into her limbs, and didn't manage to stop the shiver that overtook her.

"I-Is... Is th-this for m-me..? If s-so... Th-Thank you... You d-didn't have to..." Her gaze moved towards the camp, before slowly meeting his. The stare was short lived however, for she dropped her eyes again, pawing embarrassedly at the ground for a second time. "I-It... It's r-really raining out h-here... M-Maybe we should f-find shelter b-back at camp...?" Why can't I look up at him?

[Insidious]

H O L L O W C R Y

- - - - - -

He noticed it when the tiny she-cat shivered. And then, of course, he noticed that he was paying attention to insignificant details that shouldn’t have mattered to him. It didn’t matter that she was cold - she got herself into this whole mess in the first place! And now, all she had done was bring him into it, too. He resisted the urge to scoff, to offend her, to say something, anything, that would have her walking back to camp alone with her ears pinned back and her tail tucked between her legs, shivering the whole way.

Instead, he reclaimed the gifted bird sitting idly at her paws, standing pressed against her side in his best efforts to keep the rain from pelting her anymore. “Come on,” he spoke, his voice slightly muffled from the bird hanging from his teeth. “If we stay like this, then you probably won’t feel the rain as much, since you’re obviously cold.” He made it seem like it was the easiest thing in the world to be standing so close, so personally, to someone he hardly knew. In that single second that their fur brushed, his heart beat twice when it only should have beat once. It was like his heart was trying to tell him something important, something that he couldn’t be bothered to recognize on his own. Ignoring it for now, he fixed his attention back on the shy feline taking cover at his side, wondering how long it’d take before she accepted the offer, or decided to run away from him again.

He would always catch up to her, should she choose to run like she had the last time. This scenario had the added bonus of ensuring that they’d both probably get stuck in the mud if she ran away, but he knew that his instincts to hunt her down and make her see that such a tactic would never work with him would overpower him. Besides, if he did end up getting stuck, then it’d finally be her turn to save him instead of the other way around. She owed him as much, considering this was the second time in a row that he had helped her out, and also the second time in a row that he had every intention of keeping it to himself when, just as easily, he could make her the laughing stock of NightClan by twisting a few words. Why was he being so nice to her? It didn’t make any sense.

Now, he mused, wasn’t the best time to be thinking about it. The rain was only starting to come down harder the longer that they stayed immobile, and it was time for her to choose whether or not taking shelter beside him would be such a bad thing or not. Pale yellow eyes were unwavering from her face, waiting for a sign that she’d sooner they walk as far away from one another as possible. He wouldn’t like that option, and sure, he’d probably persist that they do otherwise, but he waited for that sign nonetheless.

What was this strange, unnatural thing that she was doing to him? When would it stop?

- - - - - -

Tags: BlooRey DVD
Word Count: 561.

[BlooRey DVD]

[smear:74ffd2]Echobreeze[/smear:ffffff]

~~~~~~~~~

When he took the bird back into his mouth, the little she-cat figured that this was the end of the uncharacteristic nice streak the dark furred tom had been exhibiting for their past few encounters. And then he did something so strange, so alien to the little she-cat that she very nearly fell over. His fur was suddenly brushing against hers as he moved to stand beside her, between her small body and the pelting rain. The change was felt immediately. Less water was bombarding her, which was undeniably an advantage to her in this weather.

She could feel a strange sort of electricity darting through her fur as she stood beside him, stock still. Paralyzed and unsure what to do, she was left in a strange predicament. There was something familiar in the way he let his fur brush against hers. It reminded her of Gorgelight. And this strange familiarity... It was almost comforting. But at the same time, she felt guilty for feeling comforted. Like she was somehow betraying Gorgelight by finding solace in the brush of someone else's pelt. It was a strange clash, one that had her poor little stomach feeling as though it were tied into knots, and was ready to leap out of her throat.

Her pelt heated up slightly in embarrassment when she realized how long she'd been standing there in silence, standing and letting Hollowcry, a tom who'd just gone out of his way to pull her out of mud that had been trying to drown her, continue to get sodden in the downpour that wouldn't quit. With a slight start, the little she-cat somehow found the words to stammer out. "O-Oh... Th-Thank you H-Hollowc-cry..." For a heartbeat (and perhaps one more on account of her heart seemed to skip a beat), she was able to meet his pale gaze with her green one.

But it only lasted that moment. With another flash of heat she dropped his gaze and whispered. "W-We should g-go.. Y-You're getting a-all wet... A-And it's all my fault..." Small ears tipped back at this notion, thinking about how much of a burden she always was on everyone in NightClan. With a soft sigh that deflated her chest, Echobreeze quickly glanced in Hollowcry's direction once more. He appeared to take her words as a sign, for he began to pad back towards the entrance to the NightClan camp.

Her little paws were soaked, the water seeping in uncomfortably between her paw pads. But she kept going, knowing that this wouldn't stop until they were safely within the shelter of NightClan once more. She just hoped that this rain wasn't enough to flood the camp again. She didn't like it when NightClan flooded... She was so small that it became even more dangerous to her. Their movements didn't stop, the tortoiseshell having to bound occasionally to stay with him, to stay sheltered beside him, but she managed to keep up. Relief swamped her when they were finally under the cover of the camp.

Moving a safe distance into the shelter, she sat down to give her wet fur a quick lick before glancing up at him again, nervousness making her pelt feel as though it were standing on end, even though it wasn't. She checked to make sure. "A-Again... Th-Thank you... And I'm s-sorry for c-causing you trouble..."

[Insidious]

H O L L O W C R Y

- - - - - -

Under any other circumstance, he would have been inclined to agree with her in saying that this was all, quite clearly, her fault. The rain was soaking his fur to the point of discomfort, but he didn’t dare voice such a distaste of his aloud, for it seemed as though she felt bad enough for everything that was happening as it was. She hadn’t meant for him to show up and save the day (again) so, really, he didn’t think that she had to be apologizing as continuously as she was. He had chose to go out on a hunt for the noise that had captured his attention back in camp, despite the weather conditions, so the discomfort he was now feeling was of no fault other than his own.

When did he start taking responsibility?

The two of them didn’t speak the entire way back to camp, but for him, the silence was relatively peaceful and of no bother. He didn’t feel as though they had to constantly be talking to each other in order to be close. He could look at her from the corner of his eye, and all of her nervousness and awkwardness spoke louder than words could ever hope to - she was adorable, in her own special way. There was a time when he would have laughed at her because of how much she stuttered, but now he was getting used to it. He considered it as being a part of who Echobreeze was, and if he wanted to be around her more often, then he’d have to learn to accept it. And he did want to be around her more often. It was an unusual longing, one that he didn’t quite know how to react to. She was making him feel strange things. She was making him think strange things, too.

Like, for instance: he could look around at everything around them, and in some way, shape, or form, he could relate it back to Echobreeze. He saw some of her in the trees: the weather had them dancing and bending at angles they weren’t accustomed to, and sometimes he thought she walked the same way, what with how often she got herself into the types of messes he had to save her from. Speaking of the weather, he could relate that back to her, too. Even though it was annoying, and at first uncomfortable to stand in, you got used to it quickly. That had been his first thought of her at one time - annoying - but now he couldn’t ever imagine using such a term to describe her. Everything around him was tied to Echobreeze; it reminded him of her in weird ways that probably didn’t make any sense outside of his head.

Perfect.

She was perfect, just like all of this crazy weather that he hated and the ugly way that the trees were moving.

It was among some of the strange thoughts she had filtering in and out of his head. He didn’t know how to stop them, which, in a way, was maybe good… because he wasn’t sure if he wanted them to stop yet.

They arrived back in the warriors’ den, something of which he was equal parts thankful for, and a little saddened by. He placed the bird that he had been carrying in his jaw beside her bed - it was for her, after all - before returning to stand beside her. His dark fur was drenched to the bone, and on his head some of the individual tufts were hanging limp and threatening to conceal his yellow eyes. He gave himself a quick shake to expel some of the water, trying to do so as lightly as possible as to not get the she-cat any wetter than she already was. “No trouble,” he mewed smoothly, flashing one of his famous half-smiles. “I’m beginning to consider it as being one of my warrior duties. I do it often enough, so it might as well be, don’t you think?” He had seen the she-cat trying to groom her appearance into looking a little better when he had been placing the bird beside her bed, and examining her up close now, he saw that she had missed a single spot on her ear. Before he could even think to correct his train of thought, he leaned forward and smoothed it down with his tongue, feeling too natural in the gesture for there to be any room for embarrassment. He lingered close to her for a heartbeat longer than he should have before he finally created some space between them again, the moment there and gone in a flash. Analyzing her now, everything was exactly where it was supposed to be. Even though she was soaking wet and had some leftover mud clinging to her paws, he still thought she had possibly never looked better, and so he voiced aloud the single thought that had been plaguing him throughout the whole evening before he could even begin to consider what it’d sound like coming from him.

“Perfect.”

- - - - - -

Tags: BlooRey DVD
Word Count: 874.

[BlooRey DVD]

[smear:74ffd2]Echobreeze[/smear:ffffff]

~~~~~~~~~

In a pathetic attempt to dry her sodden body, Echobreeze ran her tongue rapidly over her chest fur. Realizing just how absurd the motion had been, Echobreeze opted to just lower herself into a seated position. Her coat would dry on its own anyway, right? She could rasp her tongue over her wet pelt, but that would involve twisting herself into various ridiculous positions. She was so tiny as it was that doing that made her appear kit-like. A lot of cats would say the bigger cats had it tough, because they had further to twist. Being basically the same size as a kit though? There was hardly enough of her to twist.

She didn't need to make herself look any stupider in front of Hollowcry. She was certain that the brown tom already thought her denser than an oak tree. But that was okay. Most people thought something similar of her. That is... if they even noticed her at all. Risking a glance in his direction, her soft green eyes noticed the way his soaked brown fur hung in front of his eyes. She had to stop herself from trying to fix it, knowing she would just make a fool of herself anyway. She couldn't reach that high without doing something stupid.

He seemed to have it all under control anyhow. Giving his coat a good, solid shake, miraculously not getting her any more wet than she already was, he flicked the fur out of his eyes, before turning his attention back to her. It was right about then that a smile crept across his lips. A smile like nothing she'd ever seen before. It only took hold of half of the brown tom's lips, creating an effect that was... Really distracting... Distracting and... C-Charming...

Her gaze was suddenly glued to that grin, her bi-colored face tipping slightly towards the darker half. It was like nothing else existed... She hadn't really heard his words, but at the same time... At the same time her subconscious had registered every last word, and had even come up with a full-fledged reply to him. Green eyes wide with curiosity and fully taken with his distracting smile, she responded much more smoothly than if she'd been aware of her own words. "Yeah... Y-You're right... I would probably just... D-Disappear if you... If you didn't s-save me every time..."

There was another pause as she took a soft breath, her subconscious deciding it wanted to draw in his scent. Strangely relaxed by his scent, the effectively distracted she-cat wasn't even aware of the way her lips moved in a soft and timid smile, brought on by Hollowcry's. "Just.. One of y-your... Warrior duties..." She was vaguely aware of the way he was leaning in towards her, yet no reaction was brought forth. Her daze would not be broken until something far stranger happened. Hollowcry's rough tongue suddenly rasping over her head, flattening a piece of fur that had been sticking up at a strange angle, would do the trick just fine.

Everything seemed to just shut down then. Echobreeze was a statue, standing stock still, green eyes stretched wider than the moon as she stared at Hollowcry. For a bit, she wasn't even breathing. She didn't hear him announce the single word that had been plaguing him all evening. All she could hear was a strange ringing in her ears, along with the sound of her own heart thudding in her eardrums. Why is... Everything leaning...? It wasn't until she collapsed into a small pile of flailing limbs that she realized nothing had moved. Nothing except her. Unsure as to how she'd ended up flopping ungracefully into her nest, legs just buckling weakly beneath her, the only thing Echobreeze could think about was getting up.

Getting up and hopefully not looking like a total buffoon in front of Hollowcry. Though she was pretty sure she'd already messed up part of it. Pieces of moss and various feathers were scattered into the air as she clumsily clawed her way back to her paws. And of course, Hollowcry's work in flattening her fur was completely undone now. Adorned with a feather here and a piece of moss there, her now-spiked fur was fluffed up in embarrassment as she ducked her head in shame. "U-Uh I... I d-didn't... Y-You... I r-ruined i-it..." Hiding her eyes behind her tail as if the saying 'if I can't see you, you can't see me' were true, she shuffled her little paws nervously. "C-Clumsy... R-Really clums-sy... I... You... I m-mean.. I-If you w-want you.. I sh-should... E-Eat th-the... Can b-bird j-join like y-you i-if m-me.."

Jerking at the complete nonsense she'd just spouted, her pelt heated up a thousand degrees before she managed to reorder the words to make a little more sense. "I-I s-should e-eat the b-bird you g-got me.. Y-You... C-Can join m-me..? I m-mean.. O-Only if y-you w-want... To..." And that was when her voice trailed off pathetically, bathing her in silence as she stared down at her paws, looking utterly bedraggled, and sounding absolutely absurd, she was sure.

[Insidious]

H O L L O W C R Y

- - - - - -

It should have given his ego a boost to see a she-cat hardly able to stand on her own paws in his presence - and, rest assured, it did - but it was squished down and labeled insignificant in comparison to his desire to help her back up. She was already embarrassed as it was, and he was beyond certain that it wouldn’t help if he did anything more for her, so instead he settled with blinking pale yellow eyes down at her, watching as she got back onto her paws and hid behind her tail. He, quite honestly, didn’t know what to say. Everytime he did something remotely kind, borderline affectionate, she wound up in an ungraceful heep on the floor or spoke in a clumsy mess of words. Was that her shy, awkward way of saying please stop invading my space? The last thing he wanted was to be, StarClan forbid, rejected. Maybe he was trying too hard. Maybe she had no interest in him whatsoever and was just too socially awkward to do anything to make him leave her alone.

But then, in the midst of those oh so clumsy words, he thought that she invited him to eat with her. If she truly didn’t want him around, then she wouldn’t be asking him if he wanted to stay longer, right?

He laid down along the outside of her bed, acting as his quiet acceptance of the offer. She wasn’t entirely stable on her paws, so he thought it might be better if the both of them laid down instead so she wouldn’t have to risk making a fool of herself. She had almost been… not stuttering with him a few moments before, and he was determined to restore whatever it was that was between them to what it had been then to see if he was just hearing things. Was there a chance that she didn’t always have to stutter? Not with him? He had no right to think himself of being that special, but then again, wasn’t it precisely like him to consider himself that special?

He took a small bite of the bird, passing it over to Echobreeze afterwards. “I didn’t mean to cross a line by doing that.” He was trying to refer to what happened without directly addressing it. Last time he had been so straightforward with her, she ran away. She actually ran away without saying a word. “It won’t happen again. You have my word.” He couldn’t stop himself from letting another small smile creep across his face, curious to see if he was correct in assuming that there wasn’t a problem with it happening again. Where she was nervous, Hollowcry was confident. Where she stuttered, he had a tendency to be a little abrasive and rude. Where she kept quiet and stayed by herself, he sought out others to compete with - others to crush. There was absolutely nothing compatible about their personalities, and yet he found himself enjoying her company regardless. She was vastly different from what he was used to. Blackwolf, after all, was the kind of friend that’d have her curling up in a ball in the corner of the den - and he just so happened to be Hollowcry’s best friend.

How had their paths managed to get so tangled up?

Why, of every she-cat in NightClan, could he only see her?

- - - - - -

Tags: BlooRey DVD
Word Count: 591.

[BlooRey DVD]

[smear:74ffd2]Echobreeze[/smear:ffffff]

~~~~~~~~~

Green eyes remained on her paws, almost expecting the dark furred tom to brush her off and leave her feeling rather humiliated. Instead, there was a shift in his weight and the sound of her nest shifting slightly, and when she looked up... He was laying down just on the outside of her nest. Feeling her fur heat up, she shifted her weight and focused her attention yet again of trying to flatten out her chest fur, which had decided to curl upwards slightly, something it never had done before. Why does it just have to do this to me now?

When his voice pulled her attention from her fur, she blinked up at him shyly, just in time to see that smile of his again. The way it only pulled half of his mouth... The way her heart ceased to beat for a split instant... She couldn't explain it. Forcing her eyes to drop away, lest she unintentionally engage in another staring contest with Hollowcry's mouth, she allowed her small body to lower until she was lying amongst the scraps of her own nest. It looked in rough shape, given the fact that she'd just flailed around stupidly in it.

She couldn't help but to paw at a few of the scraps, collecting them a little closer together, flattening them down as though it would make a tremendous improvement on the over all state of her nest. She mulled his words over in her head, realizing that he had said something, and she hadn't answered him yet. That's really... Really rude of me... Noticing the bird, which he'd already bitten into, she felt a little bit better. It meant that he appeared to have accepted her invitation. It was only fair, right? He'd given the bird to her, which meant he had been the one to fetch it. Surely he deserved some of it...

Giving herself some extra time to formulate an answer, she scooted a little closer so that she could reach the bird, before bending to take her own bite. Her fur clung to her small frame, making her feel (and more than likely look) even smaller than she normally did. Chewing carefully as not to make her look incompetent in the eating department as well as everything else she was convinced Hollowcry thought she couldn't do like a normal cat, she glanced up at him.

A timid twitch of her lips was the only hint of the smile that his was drawing from her. Tracing little patterns in the scattered bedding with her claws, she managed to stammer out some sort of reply, one he'd been waiting far too long for already. "O-Oh... I-It's okay... I-I... Guess I'm j-just not u-used to.. To having o-others um... H-Help me..." It was here that she dipped her head down to take another bite, using it as an excuse not to say anything else. Hopefully that answer satisfied him... She really didn't want to look any more ridiculous in front of him than she already did.

Stupid... Stupid fur...