A Place To Rest

[Stormfire]

[shadow=black,right,300]Shadow[/shadow]

The gentle night wind whispered through the moon-lit grass. Approaching from a nearby cliff, a loner known only as Shadow padded silently towards the pond. Not knowing who to expect there at that hour, he was cautious in his steps. He shivered as the breeze shifted and brushed his fur the wrong way.

Reaching the pond, he settled down for a drink, and found the water much colder than he expected for Green-Leaf. Twitching his whiskers to get the water off, he caught a near by mouse and settled down to eat, hoping he would have some company, although he was just here to rest.

[Deleted]

A dark gray lump was resting quietly in a dark den, the smell of earth and the sounds of beetles cracking through stones the only thing on her mind. It had been a long day of sleeping for her; it seemed all she did these days in her elderly state was sleep more than ever. Why, she hadn't slept this much after kitting any of her many litters!

At the thought of kits, her mind began to recall some of their faces, the ones she had favored the most. There was one tom who had this pelt so pale that he could've blended in with the snow! She loved his deep purr until the day she sent chased him off to wander on his own.

...What was his name again? Fire?

She always did love to give unrealistic names to her offspring. Helped her remember them better in moments like these.

A sudden scent had her flicking open her eyes, pupils dilating. Hunger gripped at her belly.

This was the unmistakable scent of rodent blood. Her mouth was watering before she could comprehend what rodent blood meant - predators.

"Time I stretched my bones," she muttered to herself, gripping the dirt in her claws as she lifted her heavy body and arched her back. "And stole a nice breakfast."

A smile of eagerness came across her muzzle as she padded out into the open air, testing for the scents of canines - that was the only worry she had out here, any other predators that would be mouse-hunting she could more than deal with.

It must've been close by, the mouse-murder, because the scent was fresh and strong, and she caught another smell with - mingling scent of tomcat. Interest piqued, she began to wander forward in the direction the smell was wafting from, feeling the saliva in her mouth warm and trickle. She hadn't had a mouse in days, and mice were tender and delicious - her favorite morsel. Many a mice she had caught in her many moons.

Shaking her shaggy, unkempt fur, the female quietly poked her head underneathe a bushel of thorns, eyeing the cat just a few tail-lengths away. It was a younger tom, fur blacker than the night around them. She licked her lips as she spotted the rodent carcass, though she realized not much of it was left. She'd have to act soon if she wanted a bite.

Stalking forward with her tail held high, she rounded the tom until she was face-to-face with him, only a few pawpads away. She eyed him, clearing her throat and giving a slight cough, and then decided to speak.

"Haven't seen you around before," she greeted in a gruff manner, neither warm and welcoming though not particularly in an unfriendly way.

[Stormfire]

Raising his eyes to see the newcomer, Shadow saw a dark grey she-cat looking down at him. As he scanned her face, her golden eyes were impatiently waiting for a response. Finally, when it seemed like nothing was going to happen Shadow spoke. "Just came to this area," he started. "My brothers didn't want to come; they wanted to stay near my mother. I haven't found a spot to stay yet, but I saw this pond and smelt prey and figured it was a good place to rest."

Looking past the long haired cat in front of him, he peered towards the small pond, listening to the water trickle. He was wary that this cat had brought friends, and would steal his food. Shadow wasn't going to jump to any conclusions, either, so he decided on remaining friendly for the moment.

Turning back to the she-cat, Shadow relaxed. She didn't seem nervous. That either meant she had attacked cats tens of times before, or she wasn't going to attack him at all. He had to keep reminding himself that this wasn't the bad part of the forest anymore, that he had lived in for a short time.

"So," he began to ask, more friendly this time. "What's your name?"

[Deleted]

A loud snort was her first response to his first statement. Grown kits, and toms at that, wanting to stay near their mother? "How silly," she muttered under her breath. She imagined the few instances when a couple of her own kits had tried to stay near her side after they were well past the nursing age. She quickly put an end to their naivety and chased them away mercilessly. There was no need for a young cat to stay with its mother and never establish its own family. It was cruel for the kit, actually.

Her eyes seemed to reflect a sense of humor as well as a scoff as this pitch-black tom continued to explain himself.

"Good place to rest, except I don't know much about the likes of you," she told him, a small threat underlying in the sentence. If this tom was here to start a Clan or to take over any territory, she'd gladly chase him out. Especially if he was already part of a Clan.

Feeling a small bite near her rump, the female carelessly tossed her body around to get on grip on the flea causing the irritiation. She effortlessly cracked it between her fangs and then repositioned herself. It was obvious by this display of ease and the fact that she just showed the tom her vulnerable flesh that she feared him none at all. She proceeded to give her pelt a quick shake and lifted her chin a bit stubbornly.

"How entirely rude. I feel no need in telling you my name since you haven't bothered to offer your own!"

She gave a quiet cackle, a bit condescendingly.

[Stormfire]

Shadow narrowed his eyes at the sharp response. "If you find me rude," he started. "Then we don't have to keep talking. But if you want to know my name, it's Shadow." Raising himself off of the ground, he scanned the area around the pond for some shelter to settle in for the night.

Gritting his teeth, Stormfire realized that he would probably need to ask the cat still standing next to him where to rest if he was hoping to find anywhere soon. Turning back to the she-cat, he asked what was on his mind, knowing he would most likely get a sarcastic and condescending answer.

[Deleted]

Zamille found the tom's answer just a rude as she expected it to be, and also amusingly sensible. This was certainly a different generation these days, knowing no common courtesy at all, but the tom's point was reasonable and she considered just swiping his leftovers and taking off without a word. She shrugged the thought off; she was tired today, probably didn't have the energy to outrun a youngster if he chased.

"Shadow? I had a daughter named Shadow, I think," she spoke out loud, more to herself than to the other loner. "Took after me."

Once again the scruffy she-cat took to giving her pelt a rough scratch with her hindclaws. She took a few pawsteps forward as the tom asked his next inquiry. She chuckled again.

"Are you that helpless? How long have you been a loner?" she growled, giving the tom a look of incredulity. "Hasn't your queen taught you to scratch a den in the earth? There isn't much around here that you could take for yourself, unless you wanted to sleep with foxes tonight."

She let out a long mrrow of laughter before starting to run her claws through the dirt.

"You just dig!"

[Stormfire]

Letting out a deep breath, Shadow felt irritation building up in his chest. He didn't like this cat at all. He felt like he would rather sleep with foxes than listen to this cat's continuing insults. As he heard the loner ask about what his mother had taught him, he snorted. "Didn't your queen ever teach you basic manners? Y'know, the ones the ones that make a good cat?" As he said the last sentence, he looked the cat right in the eyes.

Shaking his head, Shadow took the last few bites out of the mouse, and buried its remains in a patch of soft earth. Getting up to have a drink from the pond, he saw a sardonic look the she-cat's eyes. Turning away from her, he stepped closer to the pond and began to drink.

[Deleted]

Zamille was glad she had decided to pursue the company of this tom. Of course, she had been too slow at nabbing the rest of that tasty-looking mouse, but it was well worth hearing the words coming out of this cat's mouth. She gave him another long, clearly amused look and bared a couple of fangs in a toothy smile.

"Manners are no good out here, son," she growled, lashing her tail as if her mood matched hre tone of voice. "Best lesson my kitter gave me was to never get too friendly; except of course when it was in your favor to fake it," she explained, a glitter of mischief in her eyes.

As the tom lapped up the water of the pond, the shaggy gray she-cat padded over to his side and sat there for a few moments, peering at their reflections.

"I'd be careful of this pond. Two-legs often dump their rubbish in here," she mewed as she remembered the terrible stomach pains she had gotten moons ago from drinking that water. "Such wonderful, filthy creatures. 'Bout as bright as you, here, Shadowy. I doubt they'd know how to dig a den either."

[Bear]

I can see you're all wondering about that ad on your Dragonpages. ^^;

Since now most bugs have been fixed with the game, we can proceed onto this matter.

This is just a TEST banner. We're testing the placement now because all that space to the right and left WAS originaly intended for advertisments when Thaz designed the web layout of the Dragonpage long ago.
But since it's so awkward having one big ad on the left, we'll move this add to the top. It will be under the two banners already placed there, same sized so it won't bother anyone.

Well as you know, the new server costs much more than the old one. Considering the new server needs to handle much more traffic than we expected. And this costs money and it's expensive too. As many other sites for this reason we're planning on adding a Paypal DONATE button to the site. We'll add it as soon as possible.

Thank you for reading.

Draconis & Thaz