[ti]Open[/ti]Wicked Games

[Cosima]

BROOKSONG - -

Hunting was not her best attribute by far, but she did enjoy getting better at it. Feeding the clan was very important to her, and she was not one to turn down a patrol if it meant she might beat up some stray Mothclan warrior along the way. On this particular patrol, an evil-eyed crow had slipped from a claw-length's grasp. It had angered her enormously, enough that when the others were finished, she stomped her way back to camp, huffing and puffing.

Slipping into the warrior's den, she immediately went for her own nest and settled in. Her heartbeat began to beat slower as she fell into a deep slumber. Her eyelids were opened to see strong pine trees all around her. Brooksong's nose was filled with many scents unfamiliar to her. However, this was just a dream, so she care not about the smells.

She decided to get familiar with her surroundings while she was at this place. The further she explored, the taller the pine trees appeared to be. They stood like giants all around her, and only Starclan knew who could be watching her from their high branches.

Brooksong was caught off guard by the flapping of wings from a branch above. There was a crow, very much alike the one she had been hunting for before. Since she was dreaming, she was sure that she would be able to catch it, no matter the size of the tree before her. Her claws unsheathed, she dug them deep into the bark beneath her paws and slunk up the tree, using each limb as a step ladder to the next. She was prepared to make the kill this time. Giving her best crouching stance, she sprung at it. She did not expect, at this angle, for the bird to spread its wings and fly in the other direction, causing her to fall from the branch. She fell numerous fox-lengths, landing on the hard ground beneath her.

Man, did that sting. Normally, she would have been able to catch her balance easier, but something about this was so much like real life. After licking her wounds, she looked up to the night sky above. There were no stars, only darkness. Could this be more than an everyday dream?

It quickly became apparent to Brooksong that someone was watching her. "Show your face," She growled, rising to her paws. She was more than ready to protect herself from any possible enemy.

[LupTacco]

        ---=||=-Sootface-=||=-

                Resentment coursed through him, stewing in his thoughts about the circumstances that had brought him here so early. A part of him, one much bigger than he expected and yet not at all surprising, hoped that his last foe had died as well. Knowing the ways of the clans, however, he doubted it. As it turned out, access to a healer was more beneficial after a scrape than running off into the wilderness weak and half-delirious. He doubted his body would ever be found, either. From his own recollection, it was probably drifting down some stream, long gone from the clan's territories by now. Perhaps he was encased in ice. Perhaps it didn't matter anymore. 


                Shaking pine needles from his back, he scanned the area with narrowed eyes, but as usual it was eerily, oppressively silent. The only sound came from the clicking of the green needles falling seemingly endlessly to the forest floor. Boring, boring, boring. He was a night cat, certainly, but this stretched the definition of night beyond his liking. Not even any stars. A bitter chuckle rolled his shoulders. Of course the ancestors wouldn't want to darken their vision by bothering to show themselves here. If only they could still feel my claws, they might remember what fear is, the vicious thought coiled about his mind. Such a thing seemed impossible, but it was something to daydream about at least. Words and idle musing were all that seemed to be left here. That, and... 


                Somehow, the cats of the clans seemed able to visit this place in their dreams. He didn't pretend to understand it, nor did he care why or how it happened. He only cared about two things- dodging the endless drudgery of ghost boredom, and finding someone to speak to Sagespiral for him. Well, three if he counted that ridiculous notion of finding out how to walk among the living again. He hadn't met many yet, but the fact that they could come here at all was a well of some sort of twisted hope he fully intended to drink from until dry. 


                He heard a sharp caw- ravens? Or was it crows? He never cared to learn the difference. Just another dumb bird as far as he cared. But, more interestingly, he also caught the sound of frantic clawing, a brief silence, and then a muted thud. Was someone hunting? Ears pricked, he crouched, prowling forward to peer between the shadowy ferns. He felt a tremor of excitement upon discovering the culprit- yet another dreaming cat! With a light, trilling purr, a feline grin curved his features. But- surprisingly- even in her obvious confusion, she seemed to catch that he was there. Lifting his head proudly, a cool smirk on his face, Sootface stood and stepped forward to reveal himself. 


                "Try to fly, little lady?" his voice was full of laughter thinly buried under half-feigned aloofness. 

[Cosima]

BROOKSONG - -

While there was still some ringing in her ears from the fall, she heard a tom's voice loud and clear from behind her.

"Try to fly, little lady?"

The humor in his tone thoroughly vexed her. "No. Why should it matter to you?" Brooksong snorted, turning to face him. Her eyes, once sharp as blades, grew softer as she scanned him over. She had to admit, he was highly attractive. His eyes were an envious green that seemed to glow in the dark environment. He was of a slender build with scars littering his rugged, grey pelt. However, she could not tell what clan he was from, if he was even from one. His fur appeared to be somewhat damp and he smelled strongly of water, hiding any scents from his pelt. Had he been swimming recently? "Ha, the idiot probably doesn't even know how to wash himself," she thought. She was not going to let his pleasant appearance distract her from the matter at hand.

"Who are you and why are you here?" Brooksong snapped, her tail lashing in the air. She remained in a defensive position with her claws out and teeth bared in case he tried something funny with her.

[GnawingOnIce]

Tanglefur was trying to get rest, lying beside the log that jutted out of the ground. He kind of had nothing better to do. His ears perked up and he lifted his head from where it was laying on his front paws when he heard voices, one he couldn't identify. The other's voice was.. Sootface's? He assumed. Tanglefur stood and stretched before heading over to the voices.

When the two cat's came into sight through the fog, one of them was a living cat.. for some reason. He padded over to Sootface and sat down, curling his tail over his paws and gazing at the living cat. "Shouldn't we ask you how you ended up here?" He licked one of his paws and drew it over his ear, ignoring the fact that this living cat, whatever her name was, had unsheathed claws and was showing signs of aggression.

[LupTacco]

        ---=||=-Sootface-=||=-

                "Didn't mean any harm by it," he cooed, sitting with his tail curled at his side. He couldn't help but think she was looking him over- approvingly, perhaps? She wasn't so bad herself- silvery coat, with an intriguing dark pattern of something between stripes and spots. If the sharpness of her claws and the edge to her voice were any indicator though, she wasn't exactly looking to flirt- Not yet, the tom quipped to himself. His ears flicked as he heard someone else enter before he could answer her other questions- he recognized the uniquely disheveled yet eye-catching ginger pelt of Tanglefur. 

                He nodded at his fellow Dark Forest cat's statement. "He has a point. I'm supposed to be here- you seem a little too... lively," Sootface spoke in a low voice, as if having an intimate, personal conversation despite there being three cats there, one ready to claw either of the other two. 

[Cosima]

(Brookbrook is so naive to the fact she's went to sleep and visited Hell like it's a time-share)

BROOKSONG - -

Another cat had joined them. It was another tom, a ginger tabby. His unkempt fur was sickeningly draped to his bones as if he hadn't eaten in moons. Like Sootface, he was covered in scars as well, but he was far too old to her taste. This was by far Brooksong's strangest dream.

"Shouldn't we ask you how you ended up here?" The skinny tom asked, cleaning himself. Both cats did not appear to be frightened of her defensive posture for whatever reason and she began to lax up somewhat. "He has a point. I'm supposed to be here- you seem a little too... lively," The other tom-cat added. Maybe she was wrong all along? She looked down at her own paws and back up at the two cats before her. They were both lacking of color almost, their pelts dull and void of saturation. Perhaps she was somewhere unworldly? Are these two cats... dead?

"So this is a dream, yes?" She meowed, an eyebrow raised in thought. "And from the looks of it, you two... are ghosts." The sky above caught her attention once more. "You would think Starclan would have more stars... so this place has to be... not-Starclan? No, no, I've heard the name before..." She thought back to when she was a kit, when she and her siblings would be scolded into behaving or else they'd be sent to...

"The Place of No Stars," She purred. The words felt cold on her lips. All she had ever known was that if you had led a happy,  purposeful life and didn't break the warrior code, you went to Starclan. She was sure that her mentor, Emberfoot, and her mate had gone to Starclan because she could see their stars twinkle beside each other in the night sky, right above their son's star. Were evil cats really banished to a place like this? And if she was here... what could that possibly mean?

"If you two are ghosts, I would like to hear how you died." She decided it was fit to ask a little bit about them while she was there, even if it was the most grim moment of their lives. "Oh, by the way, the name's Brooksong, not 'little lady'." She purred in Sootface's direction, giving him a sideways grin.

[GnawingOnIce]

"So this is a dream, yes? And from the looks of it, you two... are ghosts. You would think Starclan would have more stars... so this place has to be... not-Starclan? No, no, I've heard the name before..." Tangle listened as the she-cat made assumptions, saying this was all a dream, most likely from Starclan. "Does this look like Starclan to you?" He chuckled. "We're not ghosts. We're real, we could inflict real wounds on you if we wanted." He held one of his forepaws up and flexed his claws.

"The Place of No Stars," she finally purred. "Correct. Or Dark Forest." She asked them how they died and told them that her name was Brooksong. "Starvation." He answered simply, his voice monotone and showing no emotion."If you'd like to hear what I did to end up here, I could tell you that, too."

[LupTacco]

        ---=||=-Sootface-=||=-

                "Drowned," he meowed simply, a little too quickly. If he thought about it long enough, he could almost feel the water weighing his fur down, filling his lungs until speaking seemed impossible. He shook his head just a little to clear it- the repetition of this place was disorienting enough on its own. No way did he need to be walking around feeling like he was still there in the river. Never mind that he could feel his scars as if they were fresh again, almost feel the blood running down his shoulders. Ugh, he groaned inwardly. The sensation made his skin crawl and his lungs ache, even though he had no need to breathe really, not anymore. It felt wrong to just stop doing it. Outwardly he made a strong effort to appear as unmoved as ever, but the tell-tale brief swiveling of his ears did their best to telegraph it in spite of him. 


                  His eyes narrowed at her name- Brooksong, huh? He was no fan of Owlstar when he'd seen her at gatheringss, but she had decent taste in naming her clan's apprentices it seemed. "One wonders why such an honorable IvyClan warrior would wind up here in her dreams," he murmured, maintaining his stare. 

[QueenChaos]

(Joining in with Crowclaw)
Crowclaw had been trying to get some sleep, up high in a tree. His ears pricked when he heard conversation down below him.
His eyes slid open slowly, and he looked down.
Sootface and Tanglefur he recognized, but who they were talking to, he didn't.
Bunching up his hind legs, he sprang, landing gracefully but frighteningly next to the three of them. His lip curled in a sneer when he saw it was a living cat.
"Tanglefur! Ssssootface! Who issss this cat? What is she doing here?" He meowed sharply. His black, soulless glare shifted over to this unknown she cat.
She was clearly alive, and she stank of IvyClan.
"An IvyClanner, eh?" He hissed. He licked his lips, exposing long bloodstained teeth.

[GnawingOnIce]

Tanglefur jumped back and hissed when Crowclaw jumped down from the tree where had, supposedly, been watching them. "Crowclaw! D-don't do that.." He stuttered, afraid to admit that he had been scared, his voice getting quieter toward the end of his sentence. His ears slowly turned backward, and he looked down at his paws. 

"Tanglefur! Ssssootface! Who issss this cat? What is she doing here? An IvyClanner, eh?" "Apparently." He growled, glaring at the dark-furred cat. He padded slowly over to a tree that was on the other side of Sootface and Brooksong, and no where near Crowclaw. Tanglefur had grown to dislike him, something about him just made him suspicious. Tanglefur didn't know much about the Clans, he had been here a very, very long time.