[ti]Private[/ti]A Mouse For You

[Bumblebee]

Turtletongue had spend who knows how long out hunting. The Mistclan camp was crowded with hungry mouths, many of which couldn't go out on their own to find it. The prey had fairly been hunted down at this point, making for longer hunts with less and less coming back. The grey tom, always happy to help in any way he could, had been more than willing to join every hunting patrol sent out the past several days. Today he had been on at least two long hunts, coming back with scarcely enough to sustain just his own clan, let alone the two others that were currently being housed. 

He stretched, having just dropped his few small catches on top of the pathetic fresh-kill pile. His gaze scanned the crowded camp. The cats currently living there were all stressed and crowded. The kits seemed to enjoy the additional playmates and a few of the older cats here and there were content to have friends, siblings, and children sharing their space.

He stopped as his wandering gaze landed on a single, strangely marked she-cat. He had noticed her a few times since Mothclan had showed up at their border what seemed like moons ago. She seemed to be quite uncomfortable in the camp. He wasn't sure if it was the strange camp, the mashup of clans, the strangers, or a mix of everything that led to her seeming to try and blend into the shadows, but he felt compelled to try and make her as comfortable as he possibly could while she was living in his borders.

He scanned the fresh-kill pile for a second before landing on a decent looking mouse, which he swiftly grabbed and trotted over to the she-cats side. "Hello. Sorry if I am pestering you at all, but I couldn't help but notice you since you arrived and thought you might enjoy some companionship. I'm Turtletongue. Mistclan warrior." He felt the need to add in the last part since there were three clans sharing the land currently. "I brought a mouse.' A pale paw was used to push the small creature towards her. "I figured it would be closer to what you were use to in Mothclan and might help you feel a touch more at ease here. I thought that perhaps, if you don't mind awfully much, we could share it." Of course under normal circumstances he would have simply offered her a kind word, a mouse, and companionship should she need it, but most everyone had to share their food since the prey was running low. Besides, what's the worse that could possibly happen? A nice friendship as far as he was aware.


Broadwaykat

[Broadwaykat]

To say that Mottledfeather wasn't at ease in the strange surroundings was an understatement - here was a cat who tried her best to disappear from amidst her own clanmates as best she could, and she was transplanted now in an alien territory with three times the usual amount of eyes baring down on her. The shadowy, splotchy pelt that served so well to hide her back in the more lush territory of Mothclan practically made her feel as if she glowed amongst the rocks and shimmery waterways that made up a great deal of Mistclan's lands. She did her best at first to disappear from the camp, but as prey dwindled down there was less and less of an excuse for her to go out not to mention she hardly new the territory all that well to be any help on a hunt to begin with.

She had taken to slinking against the walls whenever she could, trying to project an air of please-don't-notice-me - for all the good it seemed to do her. With so many cats in the one camp, she was bound to get under someone's paws - and truth be told she was beginning to feel more like a scolded kit than an adult warrior by how many times sharp words and muttered grunts had been thrown her way.

What she needed was a kind word - even though she didn't know it herself. And while Turtletongue didn't know what he was doing, it seemed he had the right sort of heart to get it. Even if Mottledfeather turned on him with wide eyes and a somewhat terrified expression - as if he had offered her a still live and poisonous snake and not a much needed meal.

"I-I - " She stumbled with some words, an 'I'm alright' or 'I'm not hungry' would have been fine for the circumstances, even though neither was true. But at that moment her own belly betrayed her by grumbling loudly; it had been at least the better part of a day since she'd bothered a decent mouthful for herself, her appetite all but gone over the last few days.

"I suppose I..." She started again, before finally swallowing with a bit of finality and agreeing in a way that was more question than statement. "Yes? I-If You'd like to? "

Bumblebee

[Bumblebee]

The almost frightened expression on the molly's face when she turned towards him caused a strike of worry in him. Had he offended her? Or perhaps just startled. She certainly looked more startled than anything. He waited patiently as she stumbled, seeming to grasp at empty air for words to answer him.He sat, the mouse at his paws, a soft, warm smile on his face as she finally stumbled out her answer. She seemed so unsure about the whole thing, which he wondered was due to talking to a stranger or just how she was. Or maybe both?

Turtletongue nodded slightly to her response. "I would quite like to. So many cats in one place it seems a waste to eat the mouse alone and a waste to not use this chance to meet cats I might not be able to otherwise. Personally I think the divide we have set is a touch silly and we should all just get alone." He purred, grabbing the mouse and moving to settle down in the shade.

"But that is a whole different talk. You are from Mothclan, correct?" He lightly moved the mouse closer to her, welcoming her to take the first bite of the grey creature.

[Broadwaykat]

It wasn't that she hadn't felt opposed or threatened within her own clan - far from it. It was just that they had learned that they would get so little from her. She had seen how they treated one another, the few who tried to make a bridge to her, and backed away when she shied away from them.

This tom, though, had no such experience with her. He had simply come forward to offer kindness when all she had been used to as of late was outright invisibility or the occasional muttered grumble. She was taken aback by it, but at the same time -

She was famished.

"Thanks." She whispered, without a trace of a stumble - taking a quick bite of the grey morsel and finding it quite to her liking. She was more specialized in hunting birds than rodents, and so, as she didn't often share with others, the mouse was a rare treat indeed. She took another nibbled at it before she realized what she was doing, and sheepishly passed it back towards the tom.

"Sorry. But yes. I am. Although, I suppose...it's hard to tell. Its hard to think that we're going to have a separate camp again, after so long." She studied her paws as if they were the most interesting thing she'd ever seen.