Oh my gosh, you guys are absolutely incredible. I can't believe Take Flight has gotten over 100 reviews in just the first eleven chapters. Thank you all so so much! ^^
On that note... I'm really sorry about the late upload. I meant to get it typed up on Sunday/Monday, but Sunday I got back late and Monday I had to do some quick, last-minute homework and I only got about half finished. Then my brother's graduation was Tuesday and Wednesday I went out driving most of the afternoon because I need to cram in about ten more hours in the next half week before driving school starts. I, uh, left it kinda late. ^^; Whoops. Oh well. But it's done, thank goodness!
As for next chapter, it's actually not quite written yet. I have about five pages in my notebook and I usually try to have about fifteen, which means I probably won't be able to get it finished in time for this weekend, so I might just have to skip it this week and post the next chapter the weekend after next. Sound okay?
Oh, and I almost forgot to mention, my last day of school was yesterday! :D I'm out for the summer, free until next August! I'll be pretty busy during these next couple months, though, unfortunately, but I'll be sure to keep you updated on my uploading schedule so those of you who don't have accounts know when to expect a chapter. I'm afraid I do, in fact, have a life, though it mostly consists of writing camps and things. ^^;
Now, on to review replies~
QLK: I've forgotten my name a couple times when guest reviewing, I get it. :) I'm trying to tie this story into the main plotline as much as possible, which would then include BloodClan rallying their forces before the battle with the four Clans. Ravenpaw and Rowanpaw aren't going to be around for the actual battle, though, they'll be off having an adventure of their own. ^^ And yes, Thalia wanted them to return to the Clans as apprentices, though by the time they turned six moons she'd given up on forcing them there. She gave them apprentice names because she still harbored the hope that, someday, they would rejoin their birth Clan.
BrightMind: Haha, thank you! Welcome to Take Flight, I'm glad you like it this much! -hugs- Your support means so much, thank you! I'm sorry you don't like Ravenkit/paw's brashness, I'm afraid that's partly due to her immaturity. She'll gain a bit more sense as she grows up, so you can look forward to that! I'm sorry you had to type in the entire link, I forgot people can't copy and paste with FFN. (-irritated sigh-) I get it's to prevent plagiarism and all, but it just makes things super difficult! But anyway... Yep, you guessed it. ^^ I was a little sad to let Thalia go, but it starts off a bunch of cool things, so I'm not too downtrodden about it (I sound like such a terrible person... haha). Yes, actually I'm trying to tie this story into the canon series as much as possible! Ravenpaw's and Rowanpaw's parents are canon characters, I'll give you that. And yes, unfortunately there were a few suicidal thoughts in the last chapter. ;-; But in Raven's defense, she'd just lost her (foster) mother. Oh, and one more thing, you submitted the 100th review! Congratulations and thank you so much! -hugs again-
Shadow: -hands Happy Meal- Thank you! :D Not quite, the OCs will come later... there is a quick mention of something concerning them in this chapter, see if you catch it!
Eradrin: Plot twists! :D Globals was a ton of fun, I'm glad I got to go! It's probably my last year, I'll be too busy next year, unfortunately, but I made sure to make it count. ^^ Have a fantabulous day!
Nightbird: Haha, if it was a dog they'd have a lot to worry about! XD Aw... I would've loved to read the review! Oh well, this past one made up for it. :)
Leopardstar: It is indeed a new character! I hope you'll like her. :3
SK: Thaliaaaaaa! Although now that she's dead Rowanpaw and Ravenpaw will be able to have bigger, more interesting adventures. I'd say that's a pretty fair trade...? Maybe?
"Yo."
I spun around, claws shooting out of their sheaths, wide eyes staring upward, desperately trying to make out the owner of that voice. I'd turned in a full circle before realizing it had come from near the ground along the opposite wall. My gaze focused on a pair of dark brown eyes glimmering from within a shadow.
Rowanpaw stepped forward, and though he held his chin high and shoved forward his ears, I could see his too-stiff tail quivering. "Who… are you?" he asked, his voice shivering.
The eyes blinked. "Who did you expect?"
"Erm… no one." I paced forward to stand beside Rowanpaw. His tail flicked to the side, brushing my forepaws, warning me to stay back. Oh, please. I trod on his tail as I advanced.
The strange cat laughed, her voice echoing around the boxes and crates stacked against the walls. Rowanpaw flinched against me, his eyes wide, fearful. For once I didn't blame him; when she laughed, she sounded an awful lot like Sneer and the other rogues. A vision of Thalia's and Wasco's mutilated bodies filled my mind, but I blinked away the pressure of tears. Now was definitely the wrong time to fall apart. I needed to be strong—strong for Rowanpaw, strong in the face of this unfamiliar she-cat. I was the strong one. I couldn't give in to weakness.
"Who are you?" I growled, forcing my ears backward and taking a step forward, letting her know I was on the offensive.
"You've already asked that."
"But you didn't answer," I countered.
She didn't reply immediately. I glanced at Rowanpaw uncertainly, and from his wary expression I knew he was thinking the same thing. Why won't she reveal herself?
Then, another rustle sounded from the shadowy space. I breathed out a sigh, relieved I wouldn't have to resort to intimidation to force her into the open, when I spotted a muzzle emerging from the darkness, followed by a face, then chest. The breath shot back into my lungs with enough force to make me cough. Suddenly I knew why this cat hadn't wanted to show herself sooner.
She was a munchkin.
"I'm Moki," she said, lifting one stunted black and white paw to her belly and glancing nervously between us, leaving most of her body half-hidden in the box's shadow.
"Um… Rowanpaw," my brother meowed hesitantly, glancing in my direction.
I couldn't answer for a moment; my tongue appeared to have swollen large enough to block my throat. For a heartbeat, I tried to speak, to introduce myself, but all I could utter was a sort of hoarse mutter. "R… Rave… mw…"
Out of the corner of my eye I could make out grassy hills flashing past through the open door, cast into a tangle of orange light and shadows by the setting sun. A large, black raven soared over the empty plains, and I imagined I could see its head turned toward me. Why did you want me to get on this train? I growled inwardly at it. What am I supposed to do with this munchkin? How do I act? What do I say?
Distantly, I heard Rowanpaw clarify, "Ravenpaw. Um… she's nice if you get to know her I guess." He glanced in my direction, eyes wide, trying to make eye contact, but I didn't return the gesture. I didn't know what to say, what to do. My mind filled with a numbing, faintly buzzing whiteness, like listening to far-off cars on a bright Greenleaf day. She seemed almost… normal. But Royce had said munchkins were half-cats, only capable of rooting around in moon-old rubbish for food. Did Moki eat crow-food? Did she smell like rotting meat? Unconsciously trying to avoid accidentally sniffing her, I shuffled backward a pawstep or two.
"Careful!" Moki's warning almost came too late. I froze just as one of my hind paws slipped over the edge of the train, dangling for half a heartbeat in the open air before I snatched it back, heart overheating with exertion as I stumbled forward out of harm's way.
I was almost too scared to look in Rowanpaw's direction. Sucking in a quick gulp of air, I shot him a glance, taking in a brief glimpse of his dilated pupils, half-flattened ears, gaping jaws, and stiff, bushed-up tail. "S… sorry," I muttered, keenly aware of Moki standing two and a half tail-lengths away.
"You…" Rowanpaw fought for words, struggling for several long moments before giving up and lunging toward me, shoving me up against a stack of boxes. "How dare you?" he hissed. "How… dare you?"
My teeth appeared to be fused together. As Rowanpaw raged on, I struggled to form a coherent sentence.
"What were you thinking, going near the door like that? What in the sky powers is wrong with you? You could have… you could have died!"
I pushed myself away from the boxes, knocking Rowanpaw backward. Noting with a faint spark of pleasure how I still stood taller, I leaned forward over my brother. "I'm an apprentice; I can look out for myself!" Rowanpaw's eyes blazed before me and his mouth opened furiously as though to retort. "You don't need to keep protecting me!" I spat.
My mind suddenly went empty; I'd used my last comeback. Hastily, I clawed through my mind, searching for something else to attack him with, but it turned out I didn't need to. At the word "protecting," Rowanpaw's fight suddenly drained from him, the doglike rage vanishing as though quenched by a well-placed raindrop as the blood appeared to flee from his muzzle. My gaze melting into his, I read the echoes of a single name pulsing through his body. She wouldn't have wanted us to fight. She'd have wanted us to protect each other. Somehow I couldn't bring myself to push the notion away.
Rowanpaw gasped in half a breath and clamped his jaws down onto his lower lip. I mirrored his blink as he stumbled backward, this time of his own volition. He blinked twice more, eyes shining with moisture, before breaking our intangible connection. Whipping around, he darted headlong across the open space, his striped tail winking out of sight between two stacks of boxes.
Silence filled the air, punctured only by the rushing howl of wind against the open side of the train. As rivulets of air wrapped around my tail, ruffling the fur against the direction of its growth, I tucked it in close to my body, pressing it to my hind leg. My gaze remained fixated on the dusty wood of the boxes, currently hiding my brother.
As the tense quiet pervaded, filling every shadowy corner and crevice, fizzling out my adrenaline like storm clouds blocking warm rays of sunlight, my courage steadily drained from my body. With each passing, pounding heartbeat, I found my pupils encased in more concrete, refusing to drift away from Rowanpaw's hiding place.
A soft cough reached my ears and I swiveled them around to angle toward Moki. It took several determined blinks and a sudden surge of willpower to force my irises to follow suit. The black munchkin appeared to be halfway consumed by the shadows behind her, only the white streaks on her legs really visible in the air's increasing gloom. Outside the train, the sky had darkened from purple to an almost black navy blue.
"I'm, um, sorry to interrupt," she meowed, nodding out the open door, "but it's getting rather late and I was wondering if you wanted me to show you where you could sleep? I mean, I'm guessing you'll stay the night."
For a moment, I hesitated. While the prospect of remaining in the company of a munchie unsettled me, my shoulder still throbbed from where I'd hit it while leaping onto the train. And, noticing my quick glance at the folds of countryside flashing past, Moki confirmed my growing suspicion. "Now that we're farther from the station, we've begun speeding up. It would probably damage that shoulder even more if you tried disembarking now."
Instinctively, though it drove a dog's claws straight through my muscle, I shifted to distribute my weight evenly amongst all four paws. "What are you talking about?" I snapped defensively.
Moki shrugged, ignoring my question. "The train's not going to slow down until it reaches its next stop tomorrow evening. You might as well. And I figured, since I'm about to bed down myself, I should ask."
It seemed we had no choice. Not only was my shoulder already injured, but what with Rowanpaw behind the boxes, I highly doubted he'd be willing to venture into the unknown tonight. Biting my lip, I considered Moki's suggestion.
I could accept her help. Though it would be luxurious to roll into a nest, taking the weight off my paws in exchange for the opportunity of a bit of relaxation, it would force me to acknowledge Moki's superiority here. I just couldn't seem to be able to wrap my mind around that concept. If I stood up straight I was just taller than her. And…
And I'd spent the afternoon hiding in a rubbish can. No matter how much Royce might've protested, I figured agreeing to accept Moki's help would at least be more dignified than that. Tomorrow I could assert my dominance all I wanted, but tonight I needed a warm place to sleep.
"Sure," I muttered, fixing my eyes on a point just above her ears. "Fine."
Moki's eyes widened in surprise as my paws prickled uncomfortably. I nibbled my tongue, wondering whether I'd made the right decision. Would it have been smarter to establish myself as the Alpha, then demand a nest for the night? It would be good to get into that practice; if something went wrong we couldn't run to Thalia to fix it.
For a moment, I felt pressure building again in the back of my throat. Hastily, I bit down on the insides on my cheeks, my preferred tactic for battling this particular enemy. But for some reason it didn't work; if anything, my opponent grew stronger, traveling swiftly from the base of my tongue to my eyes. I chomped down harder, grinding my jaws slightly and blinking a tad more often than what was strictly necessary. Stay strong, don't think, don't think…
Finally, the pressure receded and I relented. Touching my tongue briefly to the sides of my mouth, I tasted the salty tang of blood. It didn't matter much, though; the wounds would close by sunup. The crisis averted, I turned my attention back to the munchie, whose somewhat overlarge eyes were fixed on me expectantly as though expecting an answer.
"What?" I snapped, heat gathering in blotches beneath my fur. How much had been visible in my expression? How much weakness had she seen? Too much, most likely.
Luckily, Moki only blinked once before repeating what she'd apparently just uttered. "The best places for nests lie between the crates. It's because of the wind, see, they block it, so those places are the warmest in this entire train car. I've got some paper stashed away in this corner." She nodded behind her. "Hang on, I'll go grab some." I nodded in confirmation and she darted away, her dark pelt vanishing swiftly in the gathering gloom as she ducked behind a stack of wooden boxes.
I glanced over toward the crates leaning against the far wall, relieved at the information that I could sleep as far from Moki as possible. As my gaze roved over the uneven crevices, I heard something rustle in my peripheral vision, though I couldn't quite make out the source due to the impenetrable shadows. Probably the paper, I guessed, and was indeed proved correct as Moki reappeared, dragging several large, wrinkled pieces of brown paper behind her.
"Here." She dropped her burden in front of me. I leaned down briefly to sniff at it and detected the scents of mustiness and dust. I wrinkled my nose.
"Um, thanks." I swallowed my saliva and grasped a sheet delicately in my jaws, remembering the tendency of wet paper to dissolve. Carefully, I dragged it toward Rowanpaw's and my designated sleeping location, which was, helpfully, the same general area where Rowanpaw was hiding.
As my grassy irises swept over the seamless darkness, trying unsuccessfully to penetrate it, to peel it back and discover my brother hiding underneath, I couldn't help but wonder if I should go talk to him. What was taking him so long back there? Was he okay? He appeared rather quiet, though maybe that was just a matter of pride; if he sounded like he was crying or even reappeared with the slightest redness lining his eyelids, Moki and I would quickly see his weakness. He had to be strong.
But what was I supposed to do about his nest? Where did he want to sleep? I couldn't very well stuff it into a random crack and hope he found it partway through the night; he'd never find it and have to sleep on the hard ground. Maybe I could make him a nest out here, and then shove it mostly into a more sheltered space, out enough to be visible but still covered enough to be protected from the wind chill. Yeah, that'd work.
Suddenly remembering my meagre manners, I started to turn back to Moki to dip my head in thanks, a gesture I'd seen Thalia make a couple times. Then, realizing Moki's status as a munchie, I froze, wondering if Thalia would like it if I showed respect to her. Forcing down the pressure brought on again by the thought of my patchy-furred foster mother with another painful clamp of jaws on cheeks, I remained still, wondering what to do.
Finally, I abruptly turned away, hastily busying myself with the paper once more. Though I felt a pair of dark brown eyes scorching my pelt, I refused to give mine the permission to wander over my shoulder. It wasn't my fault she was a munchie.
The nests were organized fairly easily. I decided separate nests would be best for Rowanpaw and me; he'd probably want some personal space after dashing off like that a moment ago. We could always to back to sharing a nest tomorrow night. Plus, Moki had given us an even number of sheets, so there was no need for me to feel guilty about taking the extra for my own nest. I supposed I could have always tried ripping it in half with my sharp claws, but due to the finickiness of paper ripping, I was unwilling to try. It would probably just end up frustrating me.
After dragging Rowanpaw's and my nests into their respective locations, squashed in the narrow cracks between crates and boxes (Rowanpaw's closer to the central space and mine the farthest from Moki I could get it), I circled into my paper, kneading the wrinkles and even nibbling on the rough edges a little before pressing my spine into the corner's intersecting walls and letting my eyelids fall shut.
As the moon drifted higher in the sky, I began to regret my choice of nest placement. Crammed as I was back between the crates and the corner, there seemed to have accumulated a great amount of dust and general grime. I was used to dust, having spent most of my life in an alleyway covered with it, but it was still uncomfortable to be sneezing every nineteen heartbeats or so (I'd counted). Besides that, the train as a whole wasn't the smoothest. Pressed as I was against two walls, every jolt and rumble vibrated through my bones. The crates stacked beside me seemed to shift marginally closer with each bump, trapping me in a continually smaller area.
Finally, I'd had enough. I needed to get out.
Cautiously, so as not to accidentally tread on Rowanpaw's paws or tail and wake him (he'd fallen asleep about as soon as he curled into his nest, the lucky duck), I slipped through a short passage and into the main area.
Nighttime brought a different kind of stillness to the train. The rising moon shone bright, silver-white light across the floor—amazingly, there appeared to be less shadows now than there'd been at sunset.
Pawsteps muffled by moons of training, I padded around Rowanpaw's nest, glancing down briefly at his slumbering form. The moonlight highlighted individual strands of his fur, giving the reddish tabby pattern the appearance of being dusted with wisps of clouds. Smiling softly at his peaceful expression, I brushed past his paper bed, heading toward the opening.
Like Rowanpaw's fur, the landscape seemed as though brushed with silver, each blade of grass tipped with a faint lick of moonlight. The world appeared quiet, serene. The unexplainable peacefulness filled me with an almost nauseous sensation as scenes from the Enclave flashed across my mind. How could such peace still exist? It was so unfair.
Blinking, turning away from the opening, I shivered in the frigid wind. My short, increasingly sleek fur offered little protection from the cold. I rubbed my nose with a paw, hoping it might warm me up a little. It didn't.
"Can't sleep?" I froze (though not because of the wind) as a short, black shape padded hesitantly from a narrow opening between two boxes. Despite myself, I couldn't help but admire how well she could wear shadows—I couldn't have done it better myself.
Moki settled herself about two tail-lengths away from me, half-glancing in my direction. Apparently taking my lack of a reaction as a cue to continue, she let out a long exhale and leaned forward, pressing her face into the rushing air, letting her whiskers dance haphazardly about her muzzle. "Don't you just love the wind?" she murmured, her eyes shut in apparent pleasure.
No, it's cold and ruffles my fur backwards, I thought. I continued my examination of the far wall, trying to see past the shadows to count cracks in the dark paint.
Retreating back inside the train, Moki vigorously shook her head, letting out an odd noise. "Prrrrt! That's cold!" She grinned. "Smells like snow's on the way, too. Isn't that exciting?"
"No," I said shortly. "Snow's pointless and cold."
"Pointless? How could you say that? Who told you anything about pointless?" Moki shook her head exasperatedly. "You'll see," she promised. "When the snow comes, you'll see. It's not pointless at all."
Her supercilious mood was starting to get on my nerves. "Could you possibly be any louder?" I grumbled. "Rowanpaw's sleeping, and I feel like he'd enjoy staying that way."
"Oh, yes, sorry." Moki almost imperceptibly lowered her voice. "Is he your brother? You guys have the same eyes, though you're definitely built differently. I mean, I'm sure a bunch of cats have the same eye color and aren't related in the slightest, but you two are traveling togeth—"
"Yes, he's my brother," I interrupted. "And he badly needs his sleep, so if you could quit shouting like that, it'd be great."
For a heartbeat, it appeared as though Moki might've actually listened and shut up. But then, to my great annoyance, she started up again, though she was admittedly talking softer than before.
"I have a brother, too," she meowed. "He's like you. With normal legs, I mean. Like my mother. My father must've been a munchkin like me, though I never met him." She paused, and though I kept my gaze fixed firmly on the wall, I could feel her eyes upon me. "Did you ever know your parents?" she asked, her words almost undetectable under the noise of the wind.
I didn't feel like answering. With any luck, Rowanpaw and I would be gone tomorrow evening and wouldn't ever have to see this munchie again, so what was the point of exchanging words? Besides, she was a munchie. I doubted Th… I doubted Royce would be too pleased if he knew I was sharing a train with one of her kind.
Moki waited for several long moments, but when it became apparent I was not going to answer, she sighed and switched tactics. "I'm going to see him. My brother, I mean. That's where I'm headed. I haven't seen him since last Snowmelt, when he and his friends started planning a revolt." She snorted. "What idiots. It'd never have worked, Kahuna's too strong."
"Kahuna?" The word burst from my throat before my jaws had time to clamp shut, strangling it in its path. Instinctively flattening my ears and curling my claws, I cursed my undisciplined tongue, my uncontrollable curiosity.
Moki looked as though she could barely restrain her delight. "Kahuna's the guru of the Avanti Tribe. She—"
"Guru? Avanti?" Since I'd already dropped my pride down a stinking rathole, I figured I might as well learn as much as I could about the world outside the city.
"The guru is the head cat, the leader of the Avanti Tribe, the only one able to communicate with the spirit of the Tribe's founder. The Avanti are cats living in a mountain range a couple days' travel from the station." Moki paused, then added, "I only know the basics, though. I'm afraid I didn't spend much time there before taking off again. I do enjoy traveling." She shrugged, though her eyes still gleamed as they fixed on me, waiting for a response.
However, now that my questions had been answered and my curiosity sated, I saw no point in talking to her anymore. What would I say, anyway? I reflected that perhaps I could relate this Tribe to the Clans, but that would mean having to explain them to her in detain and, better yet, how I came to know about them. It felt much too personal to share with anyone, particularly a munchkin I'd just met.
"Hmm, not too talkative, are you? I guess it is pretty late, huh?" Moki dampened her irises and took one last glance at the illuminating moon before resigning herself to a long stretch, jaw temporarily expanding to swallow a yawn. Twitching her fur back into place, she turned to pad toward her out-of-sight nest. "G'night."
I waited, watching her tail as it belatedly followed her body's path, trailing out to the side as she flicked it back and forth. My paws tingled at the prospect of having the train car almost to myself again. Just before she slipped out of sight, however, she paused, glancing back in my direction. I stifled a groan; why couldn't she just go back to sleep? "You might want to move your nest more into the open," she whispered conspiratorially, flashing a wink, "it can get rather dusty back in the corners." Then, without waiting for a reply, she vanished.
I didn't remain long in the central area. For one, it was too cold, what with the continual wind buffeting through the wide door. For another, it was too bright; I was definitely not used to sitting out in the open, framed by unobstructed moonlight like this.
To drag up at least a smidge of pride from its recently acquired home in the rathole, I refused to take Moki's advice, or at least not exactly. I definitely did not want to tug it out into the open, which would mean dragging it directly beside Rowanpaw's nest (I doubted even he was deep enough of a sleeper to get through that). Additionally, if I picked the open area as my den, I would be assaulted by bright moonlight and freezing wind, both harbingers of restless sleep.
Instead, with much difficulty and several failed attempts, I successfully brought my paper nest up to the top of a stack of crates—still mostly in the dark, warm corner, but without the pervasive layer of dust. Additionally, the position came with an unintended bonus; from this high up, I had a relatively unimpeded view of the entire central area, and due to the natural tendency of most creatures to not look up, it could function as both an ideal, dust-free nest location and a lookout. Admittedly, though, there wasn't much I'd be able to see. Maybe Moki cleaning her fur or Rowanpaw watching the world pass at best.
Finally free of the dust, worn out by the day's events and the lateness, I finally found myself begin to drift off. Relieved, I burrowed down into my crinkly nest and shut my eyes, giving up the bright moonlight for the soft caress of darkness beneath my eyelids.
I love Moki, she's adorable. -hugs-
I figured it might be easier if I included my personal AOTD directly below the QOTD, as it's very easy to forget a fairly inconsequential QOTD over the course of a week (or longer… ^^;). So this time I'll be answering my QOTD in this chapter, but I'd still love to see your answers in a review!
QOTD: (this is pretty out of nowhere… but I was curious) Do you keep your nails super short or let them grow out longer before cutting them?
AOTD: I try to keep my nails short but most often forget to cut them and they get grossly long. When my thumbnails start scratching my phone screen, that's when I know I need to clip them.