The Clan Renaissance

An Alternate Universe Warriors Roleplay

Gato padded under the canopy of trees, soaking in every ray of sunshine they passed with their eyes pleasantly closed until the beam left and shade covered their face once more. It was refreshing to be back in the forest, so close to home. Once they found the cat they were looking for, they might even visit their twoleg for a short time so that he knew that Gato wasn’t dead.

Or, at least, Gato hopefully wouldn’t be dead.

“The lass was near twolegplace las’ I saw ‘er,” they replied, not commenting on how bad Rat’s voice was sounding. They were sure that Rat didn’t want to hear them worrying over him, even though he seriously needed to be seen by someone who had medical knowledge.

They came to a low-hanging branch and within seconds, feathers exploded from the foliage and flew off into the distance. Their fur had spiked up when it happened, surprised by the bird, but it quickly flattened when they realized it was just that: a bird. Nothing that would harm them, though now any prey they might have caught would go into hiding.

“I pass through fairly often,” they said, glancing over their shoulder at the tom.

Gato had bad memories and good memories of Twolegplace, but they tried not to dwell on the nightmares that it sometimes brought them. They had seen death there, death that they had not wished to witness. But his new home didn’t have that tragedy etched into it. The only problem was, the nest next to it was where it happened. They tried to shake off the memories. They had something important to do here, they couldn’t get distracted now.

They looked over at Rat. “I… am not sure. She was in dae woods near twolegplace, around here, last I saw ‘er. She did’nae tell me if she were kittypet or loner,” they admitted. They began sniffing around, hoping to catch scent of her, but it had been a while since they had smelled her. The scents around here were powerful with other cats that had traipsed through recently, anyway, and the sheer number of them drowned each other out.

One moment, Rat was speaking, telling them of the time they had lived within the concrete forest known as twolegplace, and the next he was coughing up blood. Gato’s pelt stood on end. This wasn’t good. Turning, he bolted up the fence and began yowling, “Juniper! Juniper, are you here?!” desperately. Rat needed help, soon. The sickness was beginning to take them.

(( If you’d like you can do the NPC cat that tells them Juniper has gone off somewhere~ ))

The ground seemed to lurch beneath them. Juniper was gone? But she hadn’t said anything about leaving! She couldn’t, she wouldn’t, she—but she did. The reality finally hit Gato like a truck. Juniper was not there, and he had brought this sick cat into the forest and toward twolegplace for no reason. He turned to look at Rat, but the cat had fainted, probably from so much traveling while he was so ill. Gato wanted to cry out, to wail like a kit, but that would do no good. He had to do something.

Knowing little about herbs, they did know that feverfew grew in their garden and may be of some help. They weren’t particularly sure if it would, but it was better than doing nothing. Feeling Rat’s head, it felt so warm that Gato worried he was going to die right then and there. They couldn’t let that happen. Without thinking, they ran off to their nest and hopped the fence. There, in the corner, was some feverfew.

And another plant that looked practically identical. Great. They weren’t sure which was which, but they chose the plant that had the shorter white petals and the big yellow center. After they brought that back to Rat, they thought hard about what else the cat might need. Water? Water. They hadn’t had anything to drink on their trek over, and the poor cat was probably dehydrated at this point. Nodding to himself, he once again left Rat, but not before putting the stems of the feverfew under a rock so the wind wouldn’t blow them away.

They clawed up some moss under a tree and rolled it into a ball, then found a nearby stream. They drank their fill, as they were also thirsty, then dipped the moss into the stream until it was soaked full of water. Then they trotted with it dripping down their chin all the way back to Rat, who still had not woken from his slumber. Gato fretted that he might not, but they hoped that he would.

Now all they could do was sit with him and wait. Maybe if they just waited, Juniper would come back...

Gato grew more and more worried the longer Rat was unconscious. Time ticked slowly by as he sat there, waiting. They started counting the number of birds that flew overhead, but didn’t try to catch any. They were too high up, anyway. None of them fluttered to the ground for him to pounce on. At some point they got tired of counting the birds and began to pace. They didn’t see the cat that had told them Juniper wasn’t there anymore, and they doubted the cat would come back and tell them where she had gone.

Suddenly there was motion, and he stopped pacing, settling down to sit again. Night had fallen now, but the movement was enough to garner his attention. Relief flooded through him as he saw Rat rise from the ground, though it was short lived as a cough wracked his body. They could see how Rat’s legs trembled as he stood, but the other cat managed to stay on his paws.

They weren’t sure how they expected Rat to react, but it was not in this way. They opened their mouth to say something, then shut it again and hung their head. What would Rat do with them now? Would he, in his weakened state, still try to harm Gato?

It didn’t seem that way after a moment. Rat was right, though. Gato had wasted his time and energy by making him trek all the way out to this place to find a cat that they hadn’t even been sure was still there in the first place.

Their ears flattened as Rat began to murmur that he shouldn’t have trusted them, that they should have asked for them to bring Juniper to him, really anything to have stopped the situation they were currently in. Then he turned to leave and Gato leaped up, calling, “Wait! I found some feverfew, maybe it’ll give you enough strength to get back.” They did not tell him that they weren’t sure if it was feverfew or chamomile.