[Hellion]

Valiantstride

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The day's warmth had stirred life within StoneClan. Cats ventured back and forth between hunting and enjoying the heat that the stone captured. Valiantstride had been one of those that lingered perhaps too long on the stones. His gold and black fur loved and welcomed the warmth to push away the chill of leafbare. His eyed hinged on being half closed but the movement of the camp prevented any midday napping on his part.

Coming to terms with the impossibility of getting to sleep, the tom rose to his paws and stretched. Letting each leg to lift off the ground to get the full extension. Feeling a little more limber, his eyes focused in on a few of his clanmates. There was a certain cat that he knew very little about and Valiantstride was a cat known for knowing everyone. Flicking his tail as a sign of determination he trotted toward her, dipping his head in greeting.

"Skunkspots, would you like to go hunting with me?" He asked her kindly, offering her a chance to decline if she felt the need. However, he knew that few cats would be so inclined, the Clan needed food, two head were better than one. As the tom waited for her answer he pondered on her parents. Why would they give someone so pretty such an ugly name? Was it a cruel joke? Perhaps they wanted a daughter that saw past a cat's name to the cat on the inside. Regardless of their reasoning, Valiantstride was determined to treat Skunkspots as he would any other StoneClan cat, as an ally and new friend.

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There's an art to life's distractions
To somehow escape the burning weight
The art of scraping through
Some like to imagine

Fawn

[Fawn]

Skunkspots
25 Moons. Warrior somehow. She-Cat. StoneClan.

Look at him. Just lying there on the stones as if no one was going to notice the way the sunlight hit his fur just right or how glossy he looked and—
Stop that right now.

The sensible part of Skunkspots' brain snapped her back to focus, and her skin stung beneath her pelt like a bad sunburn. Not for the first time, the she-cat found herself mortified at her own behavior and caught herself gawking like a slack-jawed vole at Valiantstride. Stupid stupid stupid. There were so many things wrong with that, that cynical inner voice of hers didn't know where to begin scolding her.

For starters, he was far too handsome a tom to give her the time of day. Secondly, she was a bumbling antisocial mess of ineptitude. Thirdly, weren't the other two enough evidence for why she should stop staring at him?

He's getting closer! Her thoughts flailed and squelched together like a cat stuck in belly-high mud, her startled white-and-black face lit up with astonishment and horror both as Valiantstride walked over to her.

Oh StarClan, why? Why were they doing this to her? It's as if they liked seeing her suffer. With a panicked gulp, she stepped aside, hoping he would just pass her by—spare her the embarrassment that would happen if she opened her big fat mouth—but suddenly her own name had been spoken. Worse, amazingly worse, Valiantstride had just invited her to go hunting with him.

No! Yelped the voice in her head.
"I—uh—okay." She choked, feeling like she might drown under the weight of the unexpected. Skunkspots knew then and there that she had something of a self-destructive personality; it was if she liked putting herself in risky social situations where she would then become the laughing stock of the Clan, or worse, solidify her place in Valiantstride's mind as being a hawk-brained hunter and a terrible cat to spend time with.

Despite all of this, however, Skunkspots' heart still tripped over itself, and her face briefly scrunched at this unwelcome sensation beating in her breast.

It was... She didn't dare call it happiness; there were far too many ways she could upset, offend or horrify the handsome StoneClan tom to safely call it happiness.

But it was... close.

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Word Count: 374 Words
Tags: Hellion

[Hellion]

Valiantstride

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Valiantstride found her stumble endearing. She didn't seem the type of hang around with other cats much, he figured that was the cause of her stumble. Flicking his tail as he lead the way out of camp, he set the pace to be a brisk walk. He wasn't in a hurry and personally enjoyed just getting out of camp and taking a walk. Saying they were going hunting put some motivation into why they left.

A silence carried between the two and Valintstride found it awkward at first. He wasn't a chatterbox but he did enjoy carrying on a conversation. Figuring since it was his suggestion to go hunting, perhaps it was his duty to start the conversation too.

"So, Um Skunkspots, how you been?" He asked, finding it difficult to start talking to a cat he hardly knew, but that was the reason he invited her to hunt in the first place. He found the kinship shared between Clanmates special considering his siblings died before he even knew he had any. For a moment he thought about asking her about anything exciting but realized if he did it would sound like relaying boring inter-clan news, nothing he didn't already know.

Flicking his tail to expel the awkward feeling he had, the golden tom did his best not to stare at her as they walked and he waited.

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There's an art to life's distractions
To somehow escape the burning weight
The art of scraping through
Some like to imagine