A Pleasant Walk Along the Beach... Not

[Crewe]

Dragonsong was bored, and had a vague sense of irritation that had been hovering about her head like a cloud since she had first awakened this morning. Understandably, this led to a rather annoyed warrior, and an annoyed Dragonsong was not a pleasant Dragonsong to be around. Thus, after suffering through looks filled with very thinly-veiled antagonism around camp, the big ginger she-cat had got up and left.


This was a bad idea, Dragonsong grumbled to herself as she again shook sand from her paws, absently lifting her right forepaw to use her tongue to remove the annoying grains from between her claws. The ginger warrior was walking beyond the high tide line in the sand, preferring not to get her thick fur wet and so become cold and more irritable for the rest of the day. However, she was still on the sand, and that meant she was endlessly getting the stuff stuck between her claws and pads.


Drawing to a halt, Dragonsong sighed and shook her paws out again. She briefly considered heading back to camp, or going to the Drylands instead, but that required passing all the cats she had told, very publicly, that she was going to Sunrise Shores. In doing so, she would be admitting that she had changed her mind and was going back on a decision. Dragonsong's pride was too much for that, so, lacking other options, she would have to continue her trek across the shifting surface of the beach.


Why does anyone ever come here, anyway? Dragonsong thought. It didn't seem like a place that would hold any sort of allure to someone with their wits about them. Though, come to think of it, there probably weren't all to many cats around that did have their wits about them.


Sighing, the ginger warrior continued on, deciding that as soon as the sun began to set over the water, she would turn for home. By that point, she would have been gone for long enough that no one could question that she had gone through with her decision to take a walk on the beach.

Though, if sunset ended up taking too long to come about, she might just have to cede upon her decision, just a little...

[shallow]

Alone time. That was what Willowfeather needed the most, a chance to stay away from the irritating cats that hung around camp 24/7 and a chance to clear out her head and think. Breathing and thinking and not going completely insane was something that was hard to do for Willowfeather, especially as of late. Everyone seemed so irritated and mad (perhaps at the weather? or maybe it was just this sense that they had been so happy for so long and they needed a distraction from this phase of happiness), so Willowfeather had got up at o' dark thirty and left camp, knowing that barely anyone came out here.

She was planning to set up a little makeshift camp and stay out all day, perhaps even though the night; wouldn't the clan be proud if she walked into camp, seemingly after being out for only a few hours in the morning, and watching as she held dozens of prey by their fragile tails and plopping it on the fresh-kill pile? Perhaps the fame in camp would only be momentary, but momentary fame was good enough for her: being attention deprived as a kitten (and being a recluse) always made her crave the attention.

The sun was midway through the sky, and the prospect seemed simply amazing to her. Willowfeather had already caught several different types of prey, and was now taking a break, wandering back and forth aimlessly. She wasn't really thinking; but not thinking was a break from the stresses of the world, as she was told many times by her brother and sister to leave them alone and go get run over by a monster or something. Silence, as awful as it might sound, was a relief to her compared to the noises back at camp.

The gray tabby's ears flicked up as she noticed another figure in the distance. Ginger tabby, close enough to see her, but not close enough to call out her name in greeting. With a little irritated sigh, she watched the figure for a moment. As the wind rushed the familiar SoulClan scent towards her, she let out a sigh and turned away, walking away from the figure. She wasn't in the mood to deal with grumpy, annoying, old cats. And that was what most of SoulClan was.

If the cat wanted to talk to her, she would have to be approached. Hopefully, it wouldn't come to that.

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[Crewe]

Dragonsong sighed and stopped again, taking care to get all of the sand out of her claws and pads. The endless shifting, barren surface of the beach stretched out in front of her, and the sun, that had ever-so-unhelpfully not set, was thinly veiled by clouds. The wind off the water cut through her thick fur and Dragonsong shivered a little.

There isn't even any prey here, she thought, irritated. If there was something to be caught, she wouldn't mind the place half so much. But there was nothing, and that just made it worse.

Though, the lack of prey wasn't exactly hard to imagine. There was nothing for it to eat on this barren landscape. Just sand and salty water. The rats that frequented the land around the SoulClan camp couldn't survive here, unless things came regularly and died. Which was... about as hard to imagine as the lack of prey. Hm.

Tail twitching, Dragonsong checked the sky again. The sun was in the same position it was when she'd checked a minute ago; that is, still high in the sky. Idly wondering whether there was any way to make the sun set faster, the ginger tabby warrior turned and started walking back down the beach. Hopefully it would take her longer to return to where she began her seemingly endless trek than it had taken for her to find her way to this spot. Dragonsong shoved the lack of logic in that thought to the side; pessimism was not what she needed at the moment.

But... what's this? As Dragonsong cast her gaze down the beach, she noticed a gray cat. Her immediate reaction was to bristle; she didn't immediately recognize the cat and the wind was blowing towards the stranger, giving no hint as to allegiance, maybe she was an enemy warrior come to raid!

But what enemy warrior looks for prey here? Hadn't she, Dragonsong, already seen that there was nothing to catch? No, this cat had to be of her own clan. And that put Dragonsong in an awkward position; she couldn't be openly rude to her for no reason. This wasn't an enemy to be taunted. Besides, conversation would be a welcome distraction from the endless blandness of the beach.

Dragonsong discreetly sped up her pawsteps, not moving so fast as to slip on the sand but steadily gaining on the grey warrior. As she got close, she caught the stranger's scent and realized that she was, indeed, a fellow SoulClan cat.

"Hello," she said, doing her best to sound pleasant and friendly regardless of her mood. "My name's Dragonsong; I'm afraid I don't recognize you; what's your name?"

It seemed like a good enough impression to her ears. Dragonsong cocked her head and gave the grey tabby and friendly look. She hoped vaguely that she wasn't overdoing it; weird looks would only aggravate her temper and she didn't want to scare off her only hope for a distraction.

[shallow]

Willowfeather narrowly avoided a rather irate sigh as she heard the steady sifting of sand behind her. Swiveling her ears and resisting the urge to let her hackles rise and face the other warrior with an annoyed tone, she simply slowed down until the two of them were nearly side by side. It was useless to try and outpace this warrior; although she might be lithe for a SoulClan cat, she didn't want to seem rude. Ever since she had stopped speaking with Lightheart, she had realized that being anti-social (or, rather, asocial; her mother had always shoved the difference between the two words in her head) would get her nowhere in the clan; and she wanted to be somewhere. So, with a half smile to herself, she turned to face her clan-mate, a pretentious smile sliding across her face as well.

"My name's Dragonsong; I'm afraid I don't recognize you; what's your name?"

Although it was a rather shameful thing to admit to anyone, even herself, Willowfeather wasn't surprised that Dragonsong didn't know of her. She wasn't the most popular cat in the clan: she didn't have tomcats padding after her (this one she didn't mind. she'd end up rejecting them all anyway), she didn't have a posse of cats wanting to speak with her (this was a little harder to reassure herself she didn't need), and she most certainly didn't have any close friend to call her own, ever since Lightheart had ditched her. The thought of her ex-best friend made her cringe, so instead she focused on the dead center of Dragonsong's forehead, willing those thoughts to stay out of her head. Even if she knew they wouldn't.

"Willowfeather." She purred sweetly, trying to keep the exaggeration of said sweetness out of her maw. "Nice to meet you. What are you doing out here?" With her tail, she gestured at the shores and the lack of anything around them. There certainly wasn't anything exciting to do, so she didn't understand why Dragonsong would be out here. She would probably have a couple of friends to hang out with back at camp; instead, she had to waltz around and barge into some nice, alone Willowfeather time. Although it was rude, she couldn't help but wish Dragonsong would walk off and leave her be.

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[Crewe]

Dragonsong looked down on the smaller warrior, meeting her eyes. Her ears twitched and she shifted her focus so she was looking past the other warrior's face, and not directly into it. Her ears pricked up as she caught the voice of the grey tabby, and the ginger she-cat shifted her gaze again, meeting Willowfeather's eyes before turning to face straight ahead.

"Willowfeather? It's nice to meet you too," Dragonsong dipped her head courteously, looking at the other cat sideways. "I came out here to escape the... irritation of the rest of our lovely, easily-annoyed clanmates. Unfortunately, I chose the wrong place to announce as my destination, for this shore is a forsaken, barren wasteland." She nodded once sharply, then glanced at Willowfeather again. "In truth, I could ask you the same question. Why leave the comfort of camp and the surrounding, prey-filled, much-easier-to-walk-on lands?"

As she waited for an answer, ears turned in the grey warrior's direction, Dragonsong's mind drifted to Willowfeather's name. It seemed to be striking some sort of bell far off in the dark recesses of the back of her mind. But the back of her mind was not a place Dragonsong's ventured to often, and was unfamiliar with coaxing the half-forgotten thoughts and feelings back into the front of her mind where she could interpret and act on them.

The ginger she-cat was stirred from her reverie by the cold wind blowing off the water picking up. In fact, there was wind from more directions than just off the water; cold air sliced through her fur and cut against her face. It was as if all the winds from the four corners of SoulClan territory had decided to converge on this one spot to drive her crazy. The sand on the beach was stirred into frenzied miniature tornadoes that forced Dragonsong to narrow her eyes and pin her ears back. There was no cover on this beach, and thus forced her to endure the torture head on.

And still the sun refused to set. Perhaps reneging just a bit on her promise to herself was all right, just a bit. After all, these were rather extenuating circumstances...

[shallow]

Willowfeather's eyes widened slightly as Dragonsong didn't hesitate to meet them, unlike the other warriors, some of which avoided her like the plague and others who simply ignored her. It was nice to find someone who could hold it, but all the same, it was flustering and she was caught off guard. After a moment's gaze, she quickly lowered her head to look at the ground, showing submission. Sure, she could be rambunctious, but that stare looked like it was a challenge, in a somewhat round-about way. Or maybe she was just paranoid. After dropping her head, she twitched her whiskers and peered up, glad to see that the warrior probably hadn't seen the submissive gesture; instead, Dragonsong stared straight ahead.

" "I came out here to escape the... irritation of the rest of our lovely, easily-annoyed clanmates. "

"Starclan, tell me about it," Willowfeather meowed rather suddenly. "I swear if I dropped a mouse on their paws they would complain about the sound it made as it hit the ground." She twitched her whiskers in amusement before letting the fellow feline continue.

"…I could ask you the same question. Why leave the comfort of camp and the surrounding, prey-filled, much-easier-to-walk-on lands?"

"Easier to be alone. Besides, once you've been out here a few times, you grow to like this place. Especially when the sun hits the water. I won't be going back until then." She gestured with her thin tail to where the water and sky touched, a childish smile sliding across her face. She didn't want to tell Dragonsong that it was only half-truth: after all, part of it was true, so she didn't need to say that she was hunting; that she had been her all day; that she wanted to show off upon re-entry to the camp. All of that was unneeded information.

[Crewe]

Dragonsong took a few steps to the side and shook herself as the wind paused, scattering sand around her. They made miniature fireworks, coming off her fur in a great tan explosion. She managed to keep the worst from Willowfeather with her distance, though a little did land on the gray tabby.

"Sorry about that,"she said apologetically, her tail twitching. "A lot more got caught in my fur than I thought." She swiped her tongue down her chest, spitting out the sand that hadn't shaken loose. When Willowfeather spoke, her head came up and her ears angled towards the gray tabby warrior.

"And then of course, they'd eat the mouse and complain about how scrawny it was," she said, whiskers twitching. She chuckled to herself, then snapped to attention at the rest of Willowfeather's reply.

"True enough," she said, dipping her head in acknowledgement. "Though I'm afraid we'll have to agree to disagree on that," she added when Willowfeather admitted to liking the beach. Imagine that! Actually liking this place!

"I doubt I could manage that," she said, ear flicking. "Though I'm willing to give it a try, if sunset is as spectacular as you say. In truth, I made myself a promise not to return to camp until sunset. For... personal reasons." She shrugged, leaving it at that.

The ginger tabby padded on in silence for a little while, glancing up and down the beach, then at the water. There was no end in sight, anywhere. The beach was... infinite. That was the right word. It didn't end. In fact, it was hard to remember beginning. When you were here, you just were.

It almost seemed a shame to think the beach did end somewhere, a place where the illusion was forced to break and stranded you back in real life. A real life that may be a bit more pleasant to be around than this wasteland, but a life where time was evident in more than just the setting sun.