A nice day, (Ghostpaw)

[Jackal]

Opalstar was strolling down the lakeside, sniffing the fresh morning air. He had decided to take a walk that morning to just clear his mind of all the things he usually had to think about. He had taken a little water from the lake, and had gotten a mouse for breakfast. Now, he had decided to walk a bit around the lake, maybe wander around Lightningclan territory a little more, than go back before sunhigh. He knew that this morning he wouldn't be missed. He walked, slightly mewing to himself a old song his mother would sing to him as a kit about his favorite hero, Firestar. He wasn't expecting to meet anyone, so he mewed loudly, and didn't look around.

[aciddwolf]

For Ghostpaw, this was a fairly good day. It wasn't too cold yet, and no cats had bothered her yet, save for her mother requesting her to locate a mouse or rat for a young queen who needed food, however, that had been earlier, and easy to locate. Now, the white she-cat's stomach was growling from only getting a taste of the small creature that she had given away, and was telling her that food was necessary at this point in time.

The apprentice stood silently with water lapping against her paws, eyeing a small fish that swam almost too near the banks, in a small cluster of reeds, as if it would be captured by the small waves that rippled through the water, and trap the prey in the sand, however, the small meal did not fail to prevent itself from getting too close.

Just as the white cat swiped the glistening creature out of the water, mewing grew loudly, causing the finned prey to react instantly and swim into hiding, only causing a spray of water to be given, rather than a fairly pleasant meal. As if the water in between the she-cat's paws hadn't been bad enough, some stupid cat had to be noisey!

"Hey, rat-brain!" Ghostpaw hissed, crawling out of her hiding place among the reeds, to locate the cause of her lost meal, "you. Owe. Me. A. Fish," she meowed irratabley. "I'm hungry, and you were being needlessly noisey enough to scare away my prey," she accused, though easily knew that the cat would not get her a new fish.

[Jackal]

Opalstar gave a start when he saw the white cat walk toward him. Opalstar grimaced at her words.
"Sorry about that..." He tried to recognize her face, but other than a small notion that he knew her deep in his belly, he couldn't place the face in any clan. "I am not good at catching fish... but if you don't mind a mouse or something, I would be happy to get one for my mistake. Also, might you happen to be a loner? Rogue?" He said this without any sarcasm or disrespect, he just was curious. Opalstar looked into her eyes, seeing something familiar, but not placing it anywhere, and not directly so. He mentally shrugged, and waited for her response.

[aciddwolf]

"Not a rogue," Ghostpaw sternly put in, "and I'm not really a loner, or housecat," she added. Without giving a complete answer, the she-cat's tail twitched, "a mouse will do. Anything fresh, I don't care, I'm too hungry to be picky," the white cat mewed simply. It was true, if there was a mouse not even the size of her paw, she would be happy with it.

Her pelt rippled softly against a breeze drifting acrossed the lake, "I live in upwalker territory -- but not in their nests!" she added instantly, so as not to make him think that she was a kittypet. "A lot of cats are around there, so I thought coming here for a meal would be a better idea..." Ghostpaw meowed. Her stomache let out another protesting growl, but the young cat easily seemed to ignore this, "and you smell like cats and plants," she pointed out dully, as she parted her jaws to taste the cat's scent.

[Jackal]

"Well that would be expected as I LIVE in the woods..." Opalstar mewed in laughter, and sniffed the air. First, he smelled the white cat, who smelled a stale scent of the twoleg homes, and beneath all of her smells, was a smell he knew... but couldn't quite place, but when he smelled it a shiver ran up his spine, but not like he was scared, but a shiver of pure joy. He was curious about the smell, and decided to find out what it was, but he couldn't openly ask her.
"By the way, my name is Opalstar, what might yours be?" He sniffed the air again. He smelled the area around him, and, happily, smelled a squirrel about 30 feet from where they stood, while noisily scrambling through the underbrush. He smiled devishly at the cat, willing her to be silent.
"Stay here for a second. I will be back with some food."
Opalstar stalked away from the cat, toward where the squirrel was. He unconsciously wanted to show off his hunting form, and tryed to make it obvious his proficency in hunting to this new cat. He stalked about 20 feet, before finally seeing the squirrel. It was gathering nuts, chattering slightly. It had no idea he was there. He very silently and slowly walked the last 10 feet, finally getting in pouncing distance of the squirrel. Right before the pounce, the squirrel squeaked, and started to turn it's head toward Opalstar, but Opalstar was already in the air. The squirrel let out a strangled squeak as it's neck was biten into. He took it in his mouth, and trotted back to the other cat.

[aciddwolf]

Ghostpaw was about to respond when she realized that the strange cat had spotted something. The she-cat barely even moved, to watch the tom kill a squirrel with, what appeared to be, ease. A soothing purr emitted from the cat, "interesting... I ask for a fish, you offer to catch a mouse, and you end up with a squirrel?" her purr almost seemed to be with laughter ringing through it. "Not bad - not the best either, though. I think that my mom's friend is the best hunter... great at catching rats, too," her tail twitched a little. The squirrel would be a nice change from her main diet of rat.

"You do?" curiousity seemed to prickle at the StreetClan apprentice, having caught that he lived in the woods, "where in it? Or are you a rogue?" her final question seemed to come out almost as if she could taste bile in her mouth from merely thinking of the word. It brought recent memories of an orange LightningClan cat calling her clan rogues.

"Wait... Opalstar? What's that got to do with it again?" the phantom-like cat seemed to be trying to think of something. She was remembering what her mother had said about star ending a clancats name. She knew it wasn't StarClan, because that had little to do with living cats. After a couple seconds passed, she didn't seem too interested in remembering, as she shrugged it off, "my name is Ghostpaw."

[Jackal]

Opalstar smiled, and spat the squirrel down at her feet.
"Well thank you... I appreciate it. As for my status. I am Opalstar, the leader of Lightning clan, warrior of great honor, hunter of squirrels." He smirked at Ghostpaw, as he now knew her name was. "If you have paw at the end of your name, that means you are an apprentice, and it shows the path your paws are starting on. If you have star, it means you are a leader of a clan. And I am far away from being a rogue." He mewed with laughter.
"... Ghostpaw? Interesting..." He frowned inwardly, as he realized that was the name Flarepaw had told him yesterday ((sorry about the timeframe, realized this was either after or before, and if it was before then the other thread would be changed.)) He looked out over the lake, pondering the new development.

[aciddwolf]

"Of course, of course, leader... I knew that," the apprentice mewed lowly, as if kicking herself mentally for forgetting something like that. "I just... forgot it," was her finishing statement on her lack of memory about the clan. "My paws are on no direct path, unless it is to crash into a wall," she meowed simply. It was the truth, in her mind. Her life was at a standstill, and her best friend was dead. Something seemed to click in her mind after registering it for a few moments, "wait! LightningClan! You know... er..." Ghostpaw shifted on her paws, realizing she couldn't ask about Flarepaw. Quickly, she thought of something else, "I hear it's nice... to live in the forest," she covered what she was going to ask with a statement.

The white cat's ears twitched, "where I live, it doesn't matter what your name is, because there's a chance be eaten by a dog -- or sometimes another cat -- anyways, especially if you're a wandering kit," her body shifted, to take a glance at the squirrel. The cat sat down, staring at the freshkill for a few seconds, and raising her head to stare at the leader. "Actually... I'm not too hungry... I think I'll save it for later," once again, her stomach protested this idea, but seemed to fade as she wrapped her tail around her body. It would have been better to save it for a young cat or elder that couldn't hunt as well as the other cats, however, the pain in her stomach refused to allow her to pass the oportunity to eat something other than rat.

"Interesting?" Ghostpaw was now bent closely to the still warm fur of the fresh-kill, however, had yet to bite into it. "What's interesting?" she mewed.

[Jackal]

Opalstar sensed what Ghostpaw was about to say. He thought that if she didn't want to talk about it in a regular situation he would not try to pry, but right now was not a normal situation, and Flarepaw was at risk.
"It is nice to live in the forest." Opalstar smiled, looking at Ghostpaw. He smelled that scent he knew again, and it nagged at the back of his mind. "Ghostpaw... Might you by any chance now a cat named Flarepaw?" Opalstar became serious, but, not wanting to intimatade Ghostpaw, he still kept a sense of niceness with his question. He would try to investigate the smell later.

[aciddwolf]

Ghostpaw took a small bite of the fresh-kill, savoring the taste of the creature, however, as the question of Flarepaw came up, she no longer found the taste enjoyable, and could barely manage to swallow the small bit. It was unpleasant to be asked this, as she hadn't figured he would mention anything, having assumed she hadn't been too obvious about her question.

"I do..." she answered drying, pawing at the squirrel as silence filled her mind for several seconds. "...Why?" her ears twitched back against her skull, feeling uncomfortable, as she wasn't possitive that having stated she knew the tom was a safe thing. For her, or Flarepaw. Especially since the orange furred cat had allowed her to eat on their territory.

[Jackal]

"He has... feelings for you. At least from what I was able to discern yesterday. I mean, I am his clan leader." Opalstar went slowly, not trying to freak Ghostpaw out. "He wanted you to join our clan. And... I have had the same problem as he has... I wanted to learn more about the situation before deciding on anything. And, I wanted to hear your part of the story." He watched her eat and waited for her to respond.

[aciddwolf]

"I know he wanted me to... he tried to get me to follow him back to your camp..." Ghostpaw mewed quietly, forcing down another bite of the squirrel, "I refused to. I live with StreetClan. It's my home, where my family and friends reside," was her final responce, "the forest is not my home," she shook her head a little. "I don't understand him... I tried to kill him not long ago... and he shakes it off as if it were just some dust."

The white cat straightened her back, "I've grown up knowing only my mother as kin, and her friend - StreetClan's leader - as close to me. My best friend died recently because he was too tired and hungry to continue fighting, and the cats of the streets are going to terrible lengths to feed themselves." After a short pause, she quickly added, "I didn't return to your territory a second time to steal prey. I was there to make sure that my closest friend was not being eaten away by crows." Though it sounded bitter, she hadn't been certain what the clancats would do to one that did not belong to their clan.

"My reasons for being there wasn't good. I, personally, do not care, though this shows little to no respect to you, I'm not going to treat you as if you are of any rank different than I am," her low meow seemed to fade into the air, as she stared down at the squirrel.

[Jackal]

Opalstar felt saddened.
"I am not accusing you of anything. I just wanted your opinion on it. He wants permission to get you to come to our clan. But if you don't want it what's the point?" He felt a strange twinge at the name Streetclan. ((just a thought, should we have Sabby join this thread soon? Just to get things really start to go? and as Ghostpaw still doesn't totally trust Opalstar... it might be funny to find her reaction to the truth.)) "Don't let love interfere with your loyalty. Streetclan isn't considered a true clan, but still, loyalty is loyalty. I will honor your wishes." He smiled. "Now! Eat your fill!"

[aciddwolf]

(You read my mind about Sabby, I was already going to bring her in during this post!)

"What's this I'm hearing about love and loyalty?" a small cat weaved out of thick bushes that reeked with the scent of numerous rogues and loners, most of which who were tall enough that their ears would have been capable of being spotted over the bushes. "Surely you realize that I find our clan considered a clan," the sand-colored cat meowed to Opalstar, almost as if she knew him. "Just because it isn't in the forest makes it nothing less of one of your own cats." With that, the she-cat took her place to stand alongside the white apprentice, who was actually slightly taller than the interrupting cat, though younger by far.

--

Ghostpaw's eyes flickered to the sand colored cat, "mom?" she mewed, her tail twitching with annoyance at the fact that the cat had been spying on her. Her body shifted again, and looked at the squirrel, now seeming more hesitant to eat it than ever.

[Jackal]

Opalstar looked confused. First, Sabby came walking out of the bushes. That in itself was enough to make a cat queasy. And, then, Ghostpaw called her mom. Then, Opalstar didn't faint, but his mind fainted. He sat down, his eyes staring at Sabby.
"... Sabby?..." He said in a weird voice. "...Mom?..." He sat there with a weird frown on his face as his mind saw through this last turn of events.