[ti]Open[/ti]Let the Storm Come

[ladyspectral]

It was that time, the sun was high in the sky and the heat was too much for the rogue's paw pads. Away from the sight of the stars, so the ancestors of the clans were blinded to them. The perfect time for a meeting with the rogues.

The rotting den was large, far more spacious than the alleyway. While the alley had been good, it was like a nursery. And the clowder had outgrown it. It wasn't safe anymore. A flat rock sat off to the side, and in the far corner stood a few piles of pebbles. Memory piles, she called them. Rocks lasted longer than any cats, rocks never forgot.

She padded across the smooth, slippery ground and leaped up onto the flat rock. Pebbles rest in front of it, as well as a sharp thorn, propped up between two rocks. "All cats of the Alliance, please gather! It is time to share news!" She announced with a yowl, head held high. As the rogues approached, she began to speak. "This lunar cycle has been kind to us, and we have found the Rotting Den thanks to our brave scouts, hunters and warriors. I hope it will serve us as well as the alleyway did. With the move, I believe it is time to introduce new traditions. All of our kits face challenges, but we don't honor their growth as we should. This is why I introduce the Ritual of Growth, a marker meant to show their progression from kit toward a cat ready to learn."

She looked down to her kits, a purr in her tone. "Hecate, Artemis, Orion, and Scorpio. I ask you to step forward." She instructed, continuing,"Do you swear to remain loyal to your kin, no matter what events may come or the future may hold? Answer, then prick your paw on the thorn. Just enough to draw a drop of blood, not too hard." She explained, voice suddenly very serious.

The rogue she cat again looked over the gathered cats. She had faith in them, her gathered kin. Together, they could ride out any attack their enemies may throw. And now, they had a foundation to make this family their own. Her gaze drifted over toward the two memory piles. If only they could see what the Alliance had become. What it was becoming, where it was going.

Let the storm come.

----

Artemis didn't expect to be called forward, jumping. Viper gave her a small nudge, and she shyly moved to the front of the crowd. Mom looks serious... She thought to herself, hesitating under Honeyheart's suddenly strict green gaze. She wasn't used to being looked at like that. Especially not by the she cat who raised her, usually gentle in spirit and always kindhearted.

At the question, Artemis nodded her head. Of course she would be loyal, family mattered more than anything else to her. She raised her voice, calling up to the white and ginger she cat,"I will remain loyal, no matter what may come in the future! For my family!" She called out, hesitating for a moment before stepping toward the thorn. She gently placed her paw pad over it, wincing as she pressed down until she felt the sharp prick.

The tri colored she cat limped back to Viper's side, licking furiously at her bleeding paw.

Miss Tactical LupTacco Fireflake

[LupTacco]

And we are far, fro-om home, 
But we're so happy

ORION
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{✿·✿·✿}
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The young little tom was not quite used to technically living indoors yet, often refusing to go forward when the boards would creak until he could find the one place to put his paws that wouldn't cause the horrible wooden groan. And the stairs- he hated them. Really, the only thing he liked a lot about it were the windows, the waxy, rheumy panes of glass from which he could watch and remain unnoticed by most things going by. There was one way up, all the way in the highest part of the dilapidated den, with a couple of missing panels between the metal wiring that was used to support and shape it years before- this was his favorite of all. The attic was by consequence his favorite place to hang out, and of further consequence he tended to be late to meetings. 

Orion scrambled down the stairs, almost tumbling over himself a couple times, and even softly sliding into the wall once, before he skidded to a stop at the bottom floor and out into the meeting place. He forced himself  to stop a moment, not wanting to tilt over any of the memory stones, and approached with heavy breaths the gathered cats and the large, smooth stone his mother now addressed them all from. He took note of the sharp thorn but didn't think it to be of any significance until he heard his mother speak on it. Ritual of Growth? He didn't really get it, but Mother had come up with it, and he was ready to learn. He was so ready.

Sitting up with a proud, puffed up look as he was called along with his siblings, he strode forward with his nose still in the air, a testament to finally getting used to the way he had to move his legs to keep his weird paws from touching together that he didn't have to watch them from the bottoms of his eyes. His sister Artemis took the first turn, nudged up to the task by his older half-sibling Viper. I don't need no pushes, Orion thought defiantly, moving over just a bit so he wasn't quite in range of an easy little shove.

Before any of the others could go, he moved forward, "I swear absolute loyalty to this family and whoever you bring into it." He pressed his paw against the thorn, maybe a little too roughly, grimacing and glaring at the offending object before lifting his paw and walking as normally as possible to sit near Viper and Artemis. Sucking on his pawpad until it stopped dripping red, he glanced with skewering severity at the remaining two siblings. Wonder if they even have the guts to do it. It struck him that him and his littermates were the first to do this- Honeyheart had said this was new. I'm more of a rogue than any of these old rats around me now, he mused triumphantly.

[Fireflake]

Scorpio the Rogue

---

Scorpio raced in his mother's direction as her voice rang out through the den. He paused in the crowd, stepped forward when told to, then stopped again. His pale green eyes locked onto the thorn. His paws shifted in place and his constantly bristled fur puffed up a bit more.

Scorpio picked up one front paw, then the other one, as he stared down at them. His gaze flicked up to the sharp thorn just as Artemis blocked his view. Next came Orion, and Scorpio looked around to see everyone watching them. And Orion was looking at him. A frown flickered across his face. He straightened up and strode forward without hesitation. He had just been waiting to make his grand entrance, of course.

"I promise that I'll remain loyal to my kin!" he announced shortly, looking around at the gathered cats. He stamped too hard onto the thorn, trying to outdo his brother. Biting his lip, he looked pridefully at his mother. It was the thought that counted. Not the blood now trickling out onto the ground. Even so young, Scorpio saw a promise as a very big thing. It meant trust. He'd never think of betraying his mother's trust.

---

It doesn't count as late if it's the same month.