This chapter... -cringes- Definitely not my best work. I'm so sorry, I hope you enjoy it anyway!
Partway through exams, I realized there needed to be another chapter in here for a future plot thing to make sense, so I had to write one more chapter purely on the computer. It started getting bad about halfway through when I mistakenly wrote an argument. If I haven't mentioned this before, I kinda sorta think arguments in my writing suck, so after it killed my motivation to write for about a week (yes I was procrastinating my studying... ^^;) I deleted and rewrote that bit. But by then it was already a day overdue from when I said I'd update, and I really wanted to get this chapter finished. So here ya go, a late, vaguely messy chapter with a super hurried ending. :)
Despite the ehhh writing quality I believe I can make this up to you, because I am proud to say I have drawn a scene from this chapter! I'll insert the link at the proper place within the chapter if ffn will let me. I honestly hate the anti-link tendency of ffn. But yeah, if you don't already know, I have a Deviantart account I use fairly frequently, so if you have an account on there too just let me know in a comment and we can "watch" each other, however creepy and stalkerish that sounds! ^^
Also, I'm going to try starting a "facts" thing, where I post random facts about Take Flight you might find interesting. Or you might not, I mean you have a right to not find things interesting I guess (this last paragraph is about the same quality as the writing near the end btw, just as a warning). So anyway, here's the first fact:
I originally intended for Ravenkit to be called Ravenkit from the beginning, but after the addition of the raven I figured she should probably change her name. Possible starter names for her included Ivykit and Breezekit.
Let me know what you thought of that fact in a review! Sorry if you've heard it before, I'll hopefully remember to add in another next chapter!
EDIT: I left this chapter for a couple days, then went back and edited it. I don't think it's so bad now, fortunately. ^^ I'm sorry all these chapters have been pretty relaxed, be prepared for some major plot developments next chapter!
Annnnnd... on to review replies~
Nightbird: Man, you stay up late! ^^; That's cool though, do you bring your laptop and tablet and everything under the covers with you? XD
Shadow: Ah yes, homework makes Ravenkits out of the best of us. XD Thank you! Although Marmalade is technically not my character, he appeared in a couple canon books I believe. He's definitely in Yellowfang's Secret.
SoWW: Define "function." ^^ Yeah, the Enclave's just... sketchy, yep, sketchy's a good word to describe it.
Guest: Did you forget a name? ^^; Nice!
Leopardstar: Naw, it's all good! :) It's nice to get reviews a couple days late, it reminds me to write. Swift and Kiku sound absolutely adorable! Same to Buttercup, Blossom, and Bubbles! ^^
Eradrin: Heyy! :D Sorta long time no see! -hugs- Thank you so much for reviewing, I hope you have time to get all caught up in Take Flight soon! I'm super psyched you're reading this, as the first (and only, for a long time) reviewer of the Misty series I definitely have a lot to thank you for. I hope you'll enjoy this book just as much as you did the Misty series!
My outstretched forepaws crashed into Rowankit's shoulder, sending him staggering to the side, overbalancing and toppling over into a roll. Taking advantage of the opening, I bounded quickly onto his back, crouching low to keep my center of balance in line with his. If he wanted to throw me off he'd have to unbalance himself again.
But it seemed Rowankit had thought up another trick since the last time I'd used this move. Lunging suddenly to his paws, he kicked his hind legs into the air, sending me flying forward. But he wasn't strong enough to fully complete the move and I ended up flopping awkwardly over his head instead of crashing to the ground, his ears crumpling forward under my belly fur.
"Mrr—row!" Rowankit instinctively ducked his head down, scooting backwards in an attempt to free his head. Figuring the fight was probably over at this point, I dug my foreclaws into a tuft of grass warily poking its head upward into the alley, letting my hindquarters slide over his forehead, landing on the ground with a thump. As I righted myself, a dab of something cold and rather wet landed just to the side of my spine.
Twitching my back fur a couple times, I glanced skyward. It couldn't have come from the roofs; there hadn't been any rain in the past couple weeks, and besides, standing where I was near the center of the alley, they didn't hang far enough out to reach me. It must have fallen from the uniform pelt of gray coating the sky.
The drop of rainwater began to slide down my flank, tickling each hair it touched along its path. I twisted around, licking at my white fur, catching the droplet with my reaching tongue. But just as I managed to smooth the white hairs into a comfortable lay, I felt paws slam into my side, knocking me to the ground.
I tumbled feet over spine, rolling with the momentum of Rowankit's leap, a startled breath huffing from my parted jaws. "Hey!" I complained, staring balefully up at my brother's triumphant grin.
"Ha! Gotcha!" He pressed his paws into my shoulder, sitting down on top of me to keep me pinned.
[snowfall16. deviantart (the "dot com" won't show) / art/ Gotcha-607703978] [remove spaces and parenthesis]
"I wasn't looking, I thought our practice was finished." I stuck out my tongue sullenly, annoyance flashing behind my eyes.
"Ah, see that's where you went wrong." Rowankit's eyebrows rose superciliously. I snorted with laughter; he looked dumb when he was trying to be wise. "You need to always be prepared for an attack."
"Yeah, yeah, Thalia," I grunted, swatting at his hind paws, which were just within my reach. "Now get up, I need to breathe."
"Right-o." Rowankit pushed himself to the side, sliding off onto the stony ground.
"I felt a raindrop, anyway, we should probably get back to the nest," I added as I staggered upright, ruffling my fur to rid myself of the second pelt of dust I'd acquired from hugging the ground.
"Rain? Really?" Rowankit glanced around, twisting his body for a full range of vision. His eyes landed on a point about a car-length from our nest and, following his gaze, I spotted Thalia curled against the alley wall, her eyes shut.
I bit my tongue uncertainly, raising an eyebrow at Rowankit. "You think we should wake her?"
"I… I dunno. She told us we should let her know if it starts raining, but she shouldn't get wet, she's definitely covered by the roof." He hesitated.
Another drop of rain splashed against my body, this time just above my cheek. I lifted my paw and, after giving it a swift lick, drew it through the soft fur behind my ear, muffling the droplet before it had time to trickle down toward my jawline. Glancing around, I noticed a spray of damp spots beginning to form on the ground.
"Let's wake her up," I decided. "We might get in trouble for letting her sleep."
"That doesn't make any sense. Why wouldn't she want to sl—?"
"Oh, shut up." I knocked my shoulder into his as I padded toward Thalia. "You know what I mean." Cautiously placing a paw on her foreleg, I gave my foster mother a gentle shake. "Um, Thalia?"
Her eyes flew open at once. Blinking twice to get the blurriness of sleep from her vision, she automatically scanned her surroundings before focusing on me. "Ravenkit? What… why did you wake me up? I was sleeping!"
Thalia grumpily pushed herself up into a sitting position, eyes squeezing shut as she stretched, yawning. "This'd better be important," she grumbled.
I took a couple of quick steps backward, drawing up words through my throat as though I'd spent several days without water. "Th—There's a… I think there's a rainstorm coming."
Thalia's gaze flashed upward, then skidded across the hard ground, picking out the spots of rain lining the alley. "Mmm," she muttered. "It seems you're right." She heaved herself to her paws, giving her chest fur a couple quick licks to get the sleep-taste out of her mouth. "Right, let's head back into the nest. We'll be protected from the rain in there."
I clenched my jaw as Thalia passed me, her body creating a gentle touch of wind against my whiskers. "I hate just sitting around in the nest. It's boring!"
"You can stay out here if you want," Thalia shrugged, casting me a vaguely irritated glance over her shoulder. "I don't care if you get all wet in the rain. But I'd guess it'd be pretty uncomfortable."
I glared first at her, then up at the sky, as if I could bore a hole through the clouds and bring back the sunlight. But I had to admit I disliked the rain; it was uncomfortable, what with all the raindrops dripping down my flanks, the dampness weighing down my fur in patches. It was like being pelted with little pebbles. Finally, as I felt another couple drops hit my back, I gave up, stumping over to join Thalia and Rowankit in the nest and slumping beside them.
My eyes naturally fell downward, resting on my paws. I unsheathed my claws and began to knead the ragged material of the nest as exaggeratedly as possible, pulling it up as high as I could (almost to my knees) then pushing it away toward Thalia's tail. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the rain beginning to fall in earnest, spattering against the hard ground as it made contact, dampening the constant layer of grayish dust.
Sighing for a second time, I pushed myself backwards, toppling over and rolling to lay spread-eagle against Rowankit's paws. He jumped; he'd been focusing entirely on the rain. I grinned up at him, waiting for him to retaliate, adrenaline buzzing through my fur at the prospect of a fight, but he merely blinked and returned his gaze to the alley. I narrowed my eyes in annoyance and turned onto my side, grumpily resting my chin on my paws.
"I'm boooored!" I complained. "There's nothing to do!"
"You could always sleep," Thalia deadpanned. I glanced over to see her muzzle, like Rowankit's, tilted outward as she focused on the strengthening rain. Judging from the sound of it, it was becoming a downpour.
"But I don't wanna sleep!" I insisted. Returning my gaze to Rowankit, I suggested hopefully, "We could always play-fight."
"No. There will be no play-fighting in the nest, I believe I've been clear on that." Thalia shot me a brief glance.
"But there's nothing else to do! We've gotten sick of all the other games, right Rowankit?" I nudged him with my shoulder, but he didn't react. Thanks for all the support, I thought sarcastically, rolling my eyes.
"How about Dust-Rat?"
"That's boring!"
"You could climb the metal cans."
"We've already tried it. They're too high."
"You could try again."
I rolled my eyes again. "We tried yesterday. I doubt we've grown much since yesterday."
Thalia gave in. "How about practicing your hunting crouches?"
"Hunting stances. And you've already said they're perfect, so why bother?"
"I only said that so you'd focus on practicing your battle moves."
"And what better way to practice them than play-fighting?"
Thalia gave in. "Okay… Shadow-stalker?"
"We need the entire alley for that one."
She went quiet for a couple heartbeats, apparently running out of ideas. She opened her mouth, hesitated, then meowed, "You could always play Clans."
That caught me off-guard; I'd never heard of playing Clans before. Pushing myself onto my elbows, I gave Thalia a quizzical stare.
She shrugged. "I mean if you're that bored, why not practice for when you join the Clans?"
That sapped all my motivation in the space of about half a heartbeat. I slumped back down onto the nest of grayish rags.
"Listen, I know you'd prefer to stay here, but think of it as one of your adventures. You don't know what the Clans are like, what life could be like with them. In all my years living here, I've heard of multiple cats joining the Clans, though I've never known a cat to leave the Clans and come here. The Twolegplace is like the slime at the bottom of rubbish cans compared to the freshly caught rabbit of the Clans."
My ear twitched, though otherwise I didn't react. I wondered how she knew Rowankit and I had eaten a rabbit during our time at the Enclave, how she'd known to relate the Clans to one. Maybe she'd smelled it on our fur as we made our way back here; it had been a pretty fragrant rabbit, especially when compared with the car exhale, crowfood, and dirt of the city.
"On top of that," Thalia continued, "those other cats—Rusty, Boulder, and Red, among others—they didn't have any kin there. They knew virtually no one, and yet still chose to join. You two have Clan parents. Don't you want to meet them?"
"But we've already got parents!" I protested, blinking up at her and widening my eyes. Maybe if I acted cuter she'd quit insisting we leave. "You're our mother and Toby's our father."
"Foster mother," she corrected, "and Toby's barely around, you can hardly call him any sort of father." She bent down, shoving her muzzle under my hind legs and flipping me over, forcing me to look up at her. I stuck out my lower jaw stubbornly. "Ravenkit, you've got to stop getting so attached to me. I won't be around much longer, just look at all the gray on my muzzle!"
"You're gray all over, what—"
"You've got to go back to the Clans at some point, so why not prepare a little now? You don't have anything else to do."
I didn't have anything else to do, but I still didn't want to give in. So, clamping my jaws shut, I tilted my head upward, away from Thalia's face, staring out at the pounding raindrops. They'd begun hitting the stone with enough force to throw up breaths of mist with each collision. Tendrils curled under our minimal shelter, wrapping around my ears and paws. I batted halfheartedly at them.
"I'll play Clans."
I jerked up, staring at Rowankit in incredulity. No way! What was he doing?
Merging our gazes, he shrugged. "I'm bored. Why not?"
"Ugh," I muttered, dropping my head back onto the rags with a dull thunk. It kinda hurt but I refused to wince.
Thalia smiled at Rowankit, a couple faint purrs emanating from her throat. "Well then, I'll have to tell you the rules, won't I? I suppose Ravenkit can listen in if she's really that bored, can't she?"
I shot Rowankit a raindrop-fast glare, but he wasn't looking at me and didn't notice. Thanks a lot. I groaned at the prospect of being forced to listen to Thalia's endless praises of the Clans. For a heartbeat, I wondered why she didn't go join them herself if she loved them so much, though I figured it probably had something to do with Toby wanting to remain a kittypet. She'd probably prefer to stay with him.
Although now that I thought about it, I supposed it wouldn't be bad to listen. Even if I didn't want to live in a Clan, I certainly wanted to meet my birth parents. If I learned the Clan rules I could avoid as much conflict as possible when I tried to find them, thereby increasing my chances of success. Wriggling my shoulders deeper into the rags to give my neck more support, I closed my eyes.
"There are four Clans in the forest; ShadowClan and ThunderClan border the city and RiverClan and WindClan reside farther away. Each Clan has a swath of land, their territory, they devote their lives to protecting, as within it lies prey, fresh water, and other materials necessary for survival. They also make their camps in this territory, in which they sleep and spend much of their time. The cats in each Clan patrol and mark the borders multiple times each day to ensure there are no trespassers."
"Sounds tedious," I muttered. Thalia ignored me.
"Now, having never been a part of a Clan myself, my knowledge is unfortunately rather scant, so there may be a bit of false information from here on. Most if not all cats start as kits like you. When they reach the age of six moons, they become apprentices and change their names to having a suffix of '-paw' to represent this increase in rank. After learning how to hunt and fight, these apprentices become warriors. Or, I suppose, they could become a medicine cat if they so desired.
"Warriors are the 'lifeblood' of a Clan, or so I've heard. They hunt, fight, guard borders, and train apprentices amongst other tasks. An exceptional warrior may be chosen to become the deputy if the previous one dies or steps down. Deputies rise to becoming leaders in a similar situation. If a warrior is not chosen for deputyship, they can have kits, and when they grow too old to perform their usual tasks they retire and become elders."
"So," Rowankit interrupted, his head tilting to one side (I opened my eyes to look at him and for a moment everything looked blue), "so what does this have to do with the game? How do we play?"
"Well, in the game you name your Clan and assign ranks to different cats. For instance, you could be Rowanstar of RubbishClan if you so desired."
"Rowanstar?"
"Oh, right, I forgot to mention! When a deputy becomes a leader they drop their warrior suffix and take on that of '-star.' Warriors change their suffixes to describe a particular aspect of their personality or appearance, or even to show off an accomplishment. I believe I mentioned apprentice names…?" Rowankit nodded and Thalia continued. "So you could become Rowanpaw, then Rowanstripe for your tabby stripes, then Rowanstar."
"Cool." He grinned. "Although… I don't know how I feel about RubbishClan. How about CityClan?"
"Or AlleyClan, or EnclaveClan!" I burst out, forgetting for a moment that I was supposed to not be paying attention. Thankful for my fluffy coating of fur, I clenched my teeth and rode out the wave of embarrassed heat surging into my face, determinedly not looking at Thalia. Figuring I might as well keep going now that I'd started, I continued, "I wanna be Raventalon, the battle-scarred deputy." Unsheathing my claws, I kneaded the nest fiercely.
"Then I accept my position as the head of… how about StormClan? Because of the storm." He gestured around at the pounding rain."
"Nah, how about MistClan? Because we're stealthy and silent like the mist," I argued.
"Sounds good. I accept my position as the head of MistClan. I'll be Rowanstar." He puffed out his chest.
"And who am I?" Thalia asked, a wide smile firmly in place. To keep my pelt's heat in check, I insisted to myself that smile was due to the fun of playing with us instead of self-satisfaction.
"You can be Thaliawisp, the warrior," Rowanstar decided.
"Mmm, I've always wanted to be a warrior." Thalia looked between Rowankit and me. "You know, Clan kits can't wait to be warriors, loyally serving their Clan."
Groaning inwardly, I kicked at the nest. Not this again. "Let's just play. What do we do?"
"Well, I'd say Rowanstar should decide," she replied. "He is the leader, after all. What should we do, O great leader?"
"But that's not fair! I wanna be leader!" I complained. "Why does Rowankit get to decide?"
"Rowanstar."
"You can be leader next time. I thought you said you wanted to be the deputy?" Thalia blinked at me.
"Well yeah, but that was before I knew—"
"Let's pretend there's a dog invading the camp," Rowankit decided. "Thalia, you be the dog."
Thalia nodded, but opened her mouth hesitantly all the same. "Most Clans aren't so worried about dogs, but rather—"
"You can be a dog," I insisted, sidling toward my brother and standing astride him.
She sighed but, to my satisfaction, gave in. "All right, a dog it is." She crouched, growling low in her chest and swinging her head from side to side.
I had to admit, Thalia made a pretty good dog. She had the right stance—feet apart, paws turned slightly outward, and shoulders hunched. She kept her tail up, bushing it for added emphasis, and shoved her ears forward rather than flattening them like a cat. Strands of saliva even hung from her lips, swinging gently with the motion of her head.
"Attack!" Rowankit leaped forward, his sheathed paws batting at Thalia's muzzle. I hastily followed, bounding forward a couple paces before performing a move of my own, pushing against the hard ground to soar momentarily through the air, landing heavily between Thalia's shoulders.
"Grr-ow!" Thalia grunted, staggering under our combined weight. After a heartbeat of struggling, she overbalanced and tumbled over onto her side.
"Yes!" I crowed, scrambling onto the flat plane of her shoulder. "Yes! We won!"
"The dangerous beast has been conquered!" Rowankit laughed, his paws on Thalia's spine. "Rowanstar and his loyal dep—"
"Battle-scarred."
"Er… Rowanstar and his battle-scarred deputy are victorious!"
Thalia coughed, rolling over far enough to unbalance me. I slipped off over her back, landing on my rump beside Rowankit. "All right, that's enough," Thalia panted. "That's enough of that for now."
Alarmed at her labored breathing, I padded closer, sniffing at Thalia's breath. She waved me away with a paw. "I'm fine. Just a little tired."
"Um… maybe we shouldn't play Clans anymore," Rowankit meowed, evidently unsettled. We exchanged a glance—it was true Thalia was getting on in years, but we'd never really thought about it. But now this, plus the cough she'd been struggling with in the past quarter moon, brought it to the forefront of our minds.
"Maybe… maybe we should just sleep through the rest of the storm," I suggested feebly, though the "fight" had started my blood racing through my body and I doubted I'd be able to relax.
"Yeah, that would be… that would be nice," Thalia murmured between coughs. "I… I'm sorry, kits…"
"It's fine," Rowankit said quickly, leaping over her body and ducking his head under one of her forepaws. "As long as you're okay."
"Erm, yeah," I said awkwardly, stepping tentatively around Thalia's ears to join Rowankit. "Yeah."
Thalia exhaled, long and slow. "Thank you."
I exchanged a glance with Rowankit, then hunkered down beside him, curling around Thalia's paw. He draped his tail over my back and curled up close to Thalia's belly, snuggling into her patchy fur.
As my brother and foster mother closed or half-closed their eyes, I resigned myself to watching the rain. I wasn't tired, but I felt like I should comfort Thalia as much as I could, what with her faulty breathing. I felt responsible for her condition, as I'd been the one who stood on top of her in victory. Had I unknowingly crushed the air from her lungs? Had I given her the cough?
In any case, though I needed to remain close to Thalia, I couldn't sleep. My only option was to resign myself to watching the rain, trying desperately to still my spontaneously shivering muscles. Laying my head on my paws, I exhaled deeply and watched as the drops splattered against the sodden ground and disappeared into the cracks between stones. It was going to be a long wait.
My only excuse is exhaustion. I haven't gotten a good night's sleep in about a week, unfortunately, and have been vegetating as a result.
I feel like I was meant to put in something else here but I forgot... Oh, right! I have decided to temporarily open OCs for this story. ^^ If you want to submit one you can, though you don't have to. I do have a couple rules, though:
1) Vaguely original names, please! No Thorn, Cinder, Yarrow... basically no warriors prefixes. You can do people names if you want. If you need inspiration go to video games or look up lists of cat names online or something. These OCs should be loners, rogues, or kittypets but could have different origins if you so desire.
2) By submitting these characters, you allow me to do what I want with them. I will stick to their character as much as I can, but if the plot needs them to die, I'm terribly sorry and will make their death tragic and sad. I will be opening OCs again later on and will do my best not to kill both of someone's OC. And when each character is introduced I will do my best to remember to credit you in the author's notes! If I forgot make sure to remind me and I'll add it in the next chapter.
3) This is a little self-explanatory, but no pink and green spotted fur or purple eyes, please. Or wings. Or demon horns. They can have collars if they used to be or are currently a kittypet, but no bracelets or glowing necklaces or anything. I apologize to your creativity. XD
Welp, I think that's about it. Submissions are completely optional and open until I post the next chapter. If you have just started reading or are trying to catch up just ask in a review or PM if you can still submit and I'll get back to you ASAP! ^^
AOTD: I'd definitely be Rowankit. I shut down when I'm tired and tend to need a ton of sleep to function on a normal basis. Judging from your reviews, I seem to be strongly in the minority... XD
QOTD: Oh no, I need to think up a question. Shoot. Um... Today's QOTD is a combination of submitting OCs, responding to the Interesting Fact, and responding to the art if you don't have a Deviantart account. Sound good? ^^; I claim exhaustion as an excuse, because, after all, I seem to be Rowankit and from the last two chapters I believe we know what happens when Rowankit gets tired.