Newleaf in Shadow

[Heathclaw]

"I wonder what it feels like to have the sun soaking into your fur every day," mused Lightheart, glancing up through the shadows of the dark pines at the tiny pinpricks of blue sky above. "Those Thunderclan cats probably know. Heh. I wonder if their fur'd catch fire if they sat out in the sun for too long. Heheheh."

The light colored tom was out alone on a hunting patrol, and, as per usual, was more interested in amusing himself than in catching prey. "We cats of ShadowClan don't see the sun that much. I wonder if we'd go blind if we looked at the sun head on. Heh heh."

His ears pricked up at a scratching sound from up ahead. What have we here? he thought, peering ahead through the trees. He could make out the image of some sort of bird up ahead. It was most likely a blackbird, blending in with the shadows.

"Blackbird one, blackbird two, what you can do, I can too," Lightheart whispered, slipping through the pines. He became a shadow, gliding silently across the pine needles and sticking to the darkest parts of the forest, all the while keeping his ears tuned to the blackbird.

He emerged out of the deep shadows like a wraith, a foxlength away from where his unwary mark sat, picking at the ground near a twoleg path. His tail flicked once, twice...

And then a loud crack sounded. The bird spooked, took wing, and Lightheart leaped after it, missed, and crashed headfirst into the tree that the bird was standing in front of.

"Fox dung!" he swore, staggering to his feet and looking blearily around. What in StarClan's name had happened? Had a branch fallen nearby? Was someone there? "Ow..." Lightheart whined, batting at his bruised head with his paw.

[Fernear!]

Long shadows were cast upon the pine forest as darkness did to day. The darkness was bleak and dull, of the norm you could say. A cat whom knew these shadows as if they were kin could believe so at least. Her tortoiseshell pelt was blurred to a milder version of their actual identity; such things were also common with ShadowClan cats.

Miragesoul had kept a personal silent vigil between herself and the territory for the past few moons. What had become of plans, schemes and structure was still a resident question in her mind. Before her and the forest, the lake caught light and shot bright rays around its shore and the other clans' territories. But the forest was still home to the ominous shadows. Her golden eyes were empty, no signs or hope of emotion ever showing through. They had not shown any powerful emotion since Miragesoul had last spoken to Dawnwind and Nightfeather.

Her calm stature was interrupted as a crash sounded not too far in the distance. Her ears shot back momentarily until the silence was restored, more or less. The stalked bird fled to the canopy in an array of alarm calls and a few feathers; a couple other birds responded to the warning and followed the soot-coloured bird.

Miragesoul couldn't help but smile, she knew the voice that followed the failed attempt to catch the blackbird. It was Lightheart, happy go-lucky Lightheart. And more than anything, he was another ShadowClan cat. Living alone, it seemed, had brought moons of understanding and wisdom, if you could call it that, to the aging she-cat. She felt more connected, more at bay with the land than she had ever remembered being. She didn't know if she wanted to come into contact with other cats again. But as soon as the feeling arouse, it dismissed itself. A wave of homesickness and loneliness crashed over her and soon her paws were picking up speed and needles.

She opened her mouth to call a greeting, but all that came to her face was a toothy, open-mouthed grin. Before bumping into the unsuspecting tom she cascaded into a halt, making hundreds of pine needles fly up from behind her.

"Lightheart!"

Her voice was quieter than she had expected it to be, but what do you expect from not speaking or hearing another cat's voice in moons?

-----

ooc: It seems I'm a little rusty! But I'm glad I found some time to post something :)

[/blockquote]

[Heathclaw]

Lightheart was still reeling from the impact of dashing full tilt at the tree when Miragesoul arrived on the scene, throwing needles up all over the place. Lightheart curled up into a ball and let out a mock yowl of dismay as some of the needles fell towards him.

"Ack! Hedgehog attack!"

He opened up an eye and lifted an ear a moment later, and grinned goofily up at the older tortoiseshell warrior. "Hey there Miragesoul! I think my head must have flown off when I crashed into that tree. Would you mind helping me look for it?"

He chuckled, and then rolled back to his feet. "It might be, hmm..." he said, peering at Miragesoul's ears and then circling around so that he stood facing her side. "You're not hiding it, are you? I know I'm not, 'cause I can't feel anything right now." And he dabbed his paw between his ears to demonstrate. "See? Nothing at all."

He ran around in a little circle, yellow eyes darting all over. "Maybe that blackbird took it. Tricky little piece of prey. Maybe. Nah. What do you think?"

(Lightheart needs to learn how to shut up. XD)

[Fernear!]

Miragesoul couldn't help but open a gleeful smile. Her eyes were joyous and filled with youthful rambunction, soon she was up and bouncing with the tom.

"Well, if that blackbird really did take it then I guess I'm talking to a headless tom and searching for that bird!"

Now, Miragesoul didn't have a funny bone in her body so this was as close as she could get to joking. She laughed at her own minority compared to Lightheart. His heart really is light... Hmm, he must've taken the clan's absence much better than I did... Following her thoughts she quickly dashed off to where she assumed the bird had fled. When she reached an old, twisted pine tree she looked back at Lightheart teasingly.

"Well if you want your head back why don't you come and join me? I thought headless cats were fearless enough to climb trees!"

Her mind wasn't really on hunting, just basking in the new found company. The blackbird by now had flown away towards ThunderClan territory but this wasn't going to keep Miragesoul from encouraging Lightheart to continue with his positive joking. Looking back at the splotchy tom, Miragesoul saw a bit of history kick in as it usually did whenever she talked to her clan mates. It was a futile, wretched feeling that grew up in her gut. A feeling of loss, longing and stale passion. Blackstar was apparently back, but there had been no appearances in camp, perhaps he doesn't care anymore... He probably found some gorgeous tabby to fill in as his mate. Who knows with toms' minds... She hissed under her breath while trying not to seem too negative in front of Lightheart, and continued to wait for him to come as she bunched her muscles and got into a jumping position every few moments.

ooc: No! Lightheart must not shut up! It keeps Miragesoul positive for the most part ;)

p.s. your post was a little short of 200 words but it's okay.

[/blockquote]

[Heathclaw]

"Okay, coming!" Lightheart called eagerly, bounding over towards Miragesoul and the pine tree. As he got closer he purposefully began misplacing his paws, turning his run into an unsteady lope that ended with him tumbling into a ball of whiskers and fur at her feet.

"Heh, sorry about that. The whole balancing thing is a little bit more difficult without a head, you know?" he said cheekily, bouncing back up and staring up at the tree. "Is it up there? Let's see..."

He made a show of closing his eyes up tight, and then let loose a stream of inventions. "Yeah, it is! I can see almost everything from up there! I can see the lake, and the mountains, and even the camp. Hehe, look, one of the apprentices tripped on a tree root."

His eyes popped open again. "Let's go!" said Lightheart enthusiastically, leaping up and clawing his way up to the first branch.

If he even noticed any of the tiny clues Miragesoul had dropped about her inner feelings of discontent, he did not show it. He knew about Blackstar, of course; he was one of the first cats to know, but he didn't dare mention the old ShadowClan leader in front of Miragesoul, for fear of what Darksoul might do to him if he found out.

"You're coming, right? Not going to let a headless cat beat you, are you?" teased Lightheart, waving his tail and bouncing up to the next tree branch.

(Glad you caught that! The word counter also counts formatting tags. That might explain why I was under.)