Post by wynnyelle on May 30, 2008 20:03:55 GMT -5
ooc: Pantherfang, if you ever return to the game, feel free to have Cheetahpelt chase any of these interlopers away, or make friends with them. ^_^ Here's hoping you DO return!
ic:
Cozette leaped in bouncing, zigzag fashion through the grass, after a rat she had missed on her first pounce. Hearing the rodent rustling just ahead of her she made a final leap. Her front paws came down on the hapless critter's body, stunning it. She crunched down on its neck to kill it quickly. She was hungry, having not eaten very much in the past day or so. Her mind and body had been consumed by another sort of hunger, for another kind of critter, the kind that swaggered tall and proud and called himself a tom. But she had failed yet to find a suitable mate. Her mother had warned her about this, that she might just have to settle. But Cozette wasn't one to settle for something below her standards, not with regards to a decision so important. Cozette bit the head off the rat, spat it out and chomped down on the blood filled neck and shoulder area of her prey. She would just keep looking.
~*~*~*~
Ghafula had come out here remembering that Cheetahpelt had said something about heading out this way. The land looked promising, full of endless rolling plains of tall grass, which was Ghafula's strength when it came to hunting. Stepping through the grass, he smelt some small last vestige of old scentmarks left by his old tom friend. There was no sign that the other male had been here recently at all.
What had become of Cheetahpelt? Had he followed his dream of running his own clan of cats, or, like so many kithood dreams, had that fallen by the wayside, in the face of the fact that it was a challenge just to survive?
If he was here once, he'll likely be again, thought the serval male, who stood still in the grass using those huge ears for what they did best--picking up the ultrasonic squeaks and faint footfalls of his prey. He heard prey not far off, but instead of tuning in and then making a pounce for it, he stood there, completely still. What he had heard had been suppressed by what he had just seen. Staring at him from the grass farther off, in the shadows of a copse just beyond, was another she-cat. And moreover, she looked strikingly like him.
~*~*~*~
Cozette purred. Yes, her dear mother had perhaps been wrong about her never being able to find a suitable mate. That one looking back at her, golden in the late day sun, looked likely. The she-cat, now calling her season out loud, paraded herself towards him, making no secret about her needs.
Ghafula realised he would look stupid if he continued to stand here and do nothing. He walked boldly towards her, closing the distance between them and revelling in her lovely, exotic appearance. She looked so unlike Rhianna, and sounded and smelled so different too. She called to him in a way that just felt right. The two cats met, and sniffed noses. Cozette hissed; Ghafula took a step back, then when she did not strike out at him he groomed her. Everything about it felt right to him, and everything that followed his grooming her felt right as well.
~*~*~*~*~
Ghafula was the first to break the silence that he and she had woken up to the next morning. "Do you live here?" he purred.
"I do now," said Cozette. "I was going to ask the same of you."
"Well...if you live here, then it's up to you to let me stay or kick me out." He smiled.
Cozette licked his cheek. Though he spoke in jest, she knew he was still giving her the power to run things with what he had said. "You can stay then. Who are you anyway? Are you from around here, or...or what? It's not every day one of our kind just steps out from the woods and says hello."
Ghafula grinned, a little goofily. "Well that was one big hello we said."
Cozette laughed.
"I'm Ghafula, and no I'm not really from around here. I grew up west of here, came from a twolegs home actually. I escaped. Your name is?"
"Cozette. I'm proud to say I was born out here, though my mother was a twolegs escapee as well. Moffet. Do you know of her?"
"No. My mother's name was Giza. I--I never found out who my father was."
"It doesn't much matter, " said Cozette. "I never met my father either. My mother told me his name was Rafiki. After the storm, they all got out and went their separate ways."
"The storm?" said Ghafula.
"My mother said that before I was born, a great, horrible windstorm hit the lands, with rain and everything. It tore up the twolegs' nest and all of them got out and made a run for it. My mother chose never to return." Cozette shuddered. "I hate twolegs. They took my mother's claws...one day I'd love to meet one and rip off every single one of THEIR toes. Nothing but dung, they are." She sat up, stretched and began grooming herself. Her heat was fading, and as it waned, new instincts were beginning to take its place.
"The twolegs were going to do that to me--that's why I left." Ghafula rolled over onto his other side so that he could watch her groom. She was radiant.
"Twolegs are nasty, nasty creatures," said Cozette.
Ghafula didn't know quite what to say in response, so he did what he usually did when he didn't know what to say. He fell back on what he honestly felt. "I ran away from them, but the ones I lived with in the first twolegs nest--well the big fat lady, she was really nice. True, she did take me away from my mother when I was very little."
"Which should never have happened." Cozette's tail lashed side to side and her brightly patterned ears angled backwards. "You still harbour a little bit of the kittypet's way of thinking, don't you. I suppose it's hard to shake completely when you were raised that way. My mother never completely did, now that I look back on it."
"I wasn't raised entirely by them," said Ghafula. "I had my mother for the first part...I still remember her a little. Then, after I left the twolegs completely, I raised myself. I had a great friend called Blizzard...I wonder about him from time to time. I'd like to go back and see him sometime. Maybe we both could go."
"I won't be going anywhere for a while," said Cozette. "After yesterday and last night, I'm pretty sure I'm expecting kits." She looked at him with her hazel eyes. "Have you ever been a father before?"
Ghafula had known that was what he was getting into, and he felt as ready as he ever would, but it still blew his mind. "No. have you ever been a mother?"
"No. I guess we're in it for the first time together. That is, unless you want to skip off and go your own way from here." Cozette was kind of hoping he would hang around, but she would not pressure him.
"Oh--no! No, I want to stay. Why would I want to leave, and miss out on that! And leave you to do all the hunting?" Ghafula was a bit surprised she would suggest so flippantly that he could walk out on her and she would be okay with it.
"My mother raised me alone," said Cozette. "And she was fine with it. But I'm glad you want to stay." She leaned in close, reached her head up and licked his cheek.
Ghafula's purr widened out into a thunderous rumble and he nuzzled the she-cat on the top of her head. "I'm glad I want to stay, too. And I mean it. I want to." Her affection, coming on the heels of passion, was the first time a she-cat had treated him this way. Despite the impression that their lust had left on him, he found her behaviour now reached him somewhere deeper. "It must have been hard for your mother...raising you alone...hunting for you. And all without the claws that were her birthright."
"My mother went through a lot," said Cozette. "She's still out there, somewhere. When I told her I was leaving in search of a mate, she told me I might never find one of our kind, and would have to settle for one of the Others. I said that first I would at least try, and she told me that once I was successful, to come back and see her, or even if I wasn't successful. My mother learned how to hunt even without her claws--you probably know that you don't actually use your claws much if at all when hunting anyway--and always was good at staying out of trouble from enemies. But it's hard for her. Especially since she's been on heat again too. She said that she was thinking of seeking out an Other tom to mate with her--but personally, the thought of it disgusts me." Cozette looked down and hissed.
"The Others--they're not so different from us," said Ghafula. "I grew up thinking I was one, or was something like one, for a little while. And I was in love with one too. That was before I met you, obviously. But...yeah. It's true."
Cozette looked up at him, not with disgust or surprise, but sadness. "You were raised by twolegs, with Others as well, I presume?"
"Yes," said Ghafula. "It's in my past, and though it's over, I won't renounce it or pretend it never happened. It's a part of me."
ic:
Cozette leaped in bouncing, zigzag fashion through the grass, after a rat she had missed on her first pounce. Hearing the rodent rustling just ahead of her she made a final leap. Her front paws came down on the hapless critter's body, stunning it. She crunched down on its neck to kill it quickly. She was hungry, having not eaten very much in the past day or so. Her mind and body had been consumed by another sort of hunger, for another kind of critter, the kind that swaggered tall and proud and called himself a tom. But she had failed yet to find a suitable mate. Her mother had warned her about this, that she might just have to settle. But Cozette wasn't one to settle for something below her standards, not with regards to a decision so important. Cozette bit the head off the rat, spat it out and chomped down on the blood filled neck and shoulder area of her prey. She would just keep looking.
~*~*~*~
Ghafula had come out here remembering that Cheetahpelt had said something about heading out this way. The land looked promising, full of endless rolling plains of tall grass, which was Ghafula's strength when it came to hunting. Stepping through the grass, he smelt some small last vestige of old scentmarks left by his old tom friend. There was no sign that the other male had been here recently at all.
What had become of Cheetahpelt? Had he followed his dream of running his own clan of cats, or, like so many kithood dreams, had that fallen by the wayside, in the face of the fact that it was a challenge just to survive?
If he was here once, he'll likely be again, thought the serval male, who stood still in the grass using those huge ears for what they did best--picking up the ultrasonic squeaks and faint footfalls of his prey. He heard prey not far off, but instead of tuning in and then making a pounce for it, he stood there, completely still. What he had heard had been suppressed by what he had just seen. Staring at him from the grass farther off, in the shadows of a copse just beyond, was another she-cat. And moreover, she looked strikingly like him.
~*~*~*~
Cozette purred. Yes, her dear mother had perhaps been wrong about her never being able to find a suitable mate. That one looking back at her, golden in the late day sun, looked likely. The she-cat, now calling her season out loud, paraded herself towards him, making no secret about her needs.
Ghafula realised he would look stupid if he continued to stand here and do nothing. He walked boldly towards her, closing the distance between them and revelling in her lovely, exotic appearance. She looked so unlike Rhianna, and sounded and smelled so different too. She called to him in a way that just felt right. The two cats met, and sniffed noses. Cozette hissed; Ghafula took a step back, then when she did not strike out at him he groomed her. Everything about it felt right to him, and everything that followed his grooming her felt right as well.
~*~*~*~*~
Ghafula was the first to break the silence that he and she had woken up to the next morning. "Do you live here?" he purred.
"I do now," said Cozette. "I was going to ask the same of you."
"Well...if you live here, then it's up to you to let me stay or kick me out." He smiled.
Cozette licked his cheek. Though he spoke in jest, she knew he was still giving her the power to run things with what he had said. "You can stay then. Who are you anyway? Are you from around here, or...or what? It's not every day one of our kind just steps out from the woods and says hello."
Ghafula grinned, a little goofily. "Well that was one big hello we said."
Cozette laughed.
"I'm Ghafula, and no I'm not really from around here. I grew up west of here, came from a twolegs home actually. I escaped. Your name is?"
"Cozette. I'm proud to say I was born out here, though my mother was a twolegs escapee as well. Moffet. Do you know of her?"
"No. My mother's name was Giza. I--I never found out who my father was."
"It doesn't much matter, " said Cozette. "I never met my father either. My mother told me his name was Rafiki. After the storm, they all got out and went their separate ways."
"The storm?" said Ghafula.
"My mother said that before I was born, a great, horrible windstorm hit the lands, with rain and everything. It tore up the twolegs' nest and all of them got out and made a run for it. My mother chose never to return." Cozette shuddered. "I hate twolegs. They took my mother's claws...one day I'd love to meet one and rip off every single one of THEIR toes. Nothing but dung, they are." She sat up, stretched and began grooming herself. Her heat was fading, and as it waned, new instincts were beginning to take its place.
"The twolegs were going to do that to me--that's why I left." Ghafula rolled over onto his other side so that he could watch her groom. She was radiant.
"Twolegs are nasty, nasty creatures," said Cozette.
Ghafula didn't know quite what to say in response, so he did what he usually did when he didn't know what to say. He fell back on what he honestly felt. "I ran away from them, but the ones I lived with in the first twolegs nest--well the big fat lady, she was really nice. True, she did take me away from my mother when I was very little."
"Which should never have happened." Cozette's tail lashed side to side and her brightly patterned ears angled backwards. "You still harbour a little bit of the kittypet's way of thinking, don't you. I suppose it's hard to shake completely when you were raised that way. My mother never completely did, now that I look back on it."
"I wasn't raised entirely by them," said Ghafula. "I had my mother for the first part...I still remember her a little. Then, after I left the twolegs completely, I raised myself. I had a great friend called Blizzard...I wonder about him from time to time. I'd like to go back and see him sometime. Maybe we both could go."
"I won't be going anywhere for a while," said Cozette. "After yesterday and last night, I'm pretty sure I'm expecting kits." She looked at him with her hazel eyes. "Have you ever been a father before?"
Ghafula had known that was what he was getting into, and he felt as ready as he ever would, but it still blew his mind. "No. have you ever been a mother?"
"No. I guess we're in it for the first time together. That is, unless you want to skip off and go your own way from here." Cozette was kind of hoping he would hang around, but she would not pressure him.
"Oh--no! No, I want to stay. Why would I want to leave, and miss out on that! And leave you to do all the hunting?" Ghafula was a bit surprised she would suggest so flippantly that he could walk out on her and she would be okay with it.
"My mother raised me alone," said Cozette. "And she was fine with it. But I'm glad you want to stay." She leaned in close, reached her head up and licked his cheek.
Ghafula's purr widened out into a thunderous rumble and he nuzzled the she-cat on the top of her head. "I'm glad I want to stay, too. And I mean it. I want to." Her affection, coming on the heels of passion, was the first time a she-cat had treated him this way. Despite the impression that their lust had left on him, he found her behaviour now reached him somewhere deeper. "It must have been hard for your mother...raising you alone...hunting for you. And all without the claws that were her birthright."
"My mother went through a lot," said Cozette. "She's still out there, somewhere. When I told her I was leaving in search of a mate, she told me I might never find one of our kind, and would have to settle for one of the Others. I said that first I would at least try, and she told me that once I was successful, to come back and see her, or even if I wasn't successful. My mother learned how to hunt even without her claws--you probably know that you don't actually use your claws much if at all when hunting anyway--and always was good at staying out of trouble from enemies. But it's hard for her. Especially since she's been on heat again too. She said that she was thinking of seeking out an Other tom to mate with her--but personally, the thought of it disgusts me." Cozette looked down and hissed.
"The Others--they're not so different from us," said Ghafula. "I grew up thinking I was one, or was something like one, for a little while. And I was in love with one too. That was before I met you, obviously. But...yeah. It's true."
Cozette looked up at him, not with disgust or surprise, but sadness. "You were raised by twolegs, with Others as well, I presume?"
"Yes," said Ghafula. "It's in my past, and though it's over, I won't renounce it or pretend it never happened. It's a part of me."
