[doghouse]

Originally Posted by Doodle

Feathersong could see the visible surprise on Horseradish's face when she had moved closer, but she assumed that not many of her clanmates would approach a cat from the Syndicate- everyone else believed all the rumors that were spread around camp like a wildfire. The way the tom's eyes had skimmed over her pelt hadn't escaped her notice, either, and she was thankful that she had groomed before leaving the camp earlier. Not a piece of fur should be out of place, and she kept herself from checking this. A light laugh escaped her as his compliment. "Thank you," she purred back, her smile widening the slightest bit as she took in the other tom's posture. He certainly seemed relaxed around her, nothing vicious about him. The molly blinked at his name and title. "Fighter?" She meowed quietly in question, but shook her head a moment afterwards. How rude was she to question the titles of the Syndicate; surely he must have thought Feathersong calling herself a warrior was strange. "Nice to meet you, Horseradish," she amended her question with a polite and cheerful meow. While this was a typical thing to say when meeting someone, she really meant it. This tom was quite handsome, and not to mention she was very curious about him and his home. She already found herself enjoying his company, unlike what her clanmates would have thought.

The molly shook her head at Horseradish's warnings, though her smile faded into a slight frown as she followed the tom's gaze behind him. "I didn't really think all that was true," she admitted. "I mean, whats the point in killing cats for no reason? They could live their lives and it wouldn't affect you guys." Though if a cat from within the Syndicate was referring to others he worked with as murderers... then it must be true, right? This worried her a bit as she didn't think that there really would be cats that bad, but then she wondered if perhaps Horseradish was just trying to intimidate her. Wasn't that what the clans did with one another so that they wouldn't be attacked? With the battle not far behind them, Feathersong decided that he might be trying to make the Syndicate look stronger so that Skyclan would be less inclined to attack again. The molly brought her gaze back to Horseradish as there were no cats behind him. "Besides, I could ask you the same question," she pointed out. "You're at the border, even though some of my clanmates could have came out at any moment." She decided it was probably best not to point out the fact that it would make more sense for him to be afraid of her clan, since they had been the ones that won the recent fight. The molly figured that he wouldn't appreciate her pointing this out. "It's a rather odd place to pick for a grooming session," she tacked on a bit humorously, her whiskers twitching as she spoke.

Her expression stayed teasing, if a bit flirty with what she said next. "But yes, I am lucky to have met such a kind, non-murderous cat such as yourself," she meowed with a slight purr. Feathersong wasn't typically a big flirter- at least, she didn't typically start up flirting. She would respond to it, of course- who wouldn't? But normally she let the tom take the initiative. In this case, however, she was fairly certain Horseradish was interested in her- at least, he had called her name pretty and it seemed he thought her appearance was attractive as well. Hopefully the molly wasn't reading things wrong, but in that case she could just play it off as a teasing joke. This tom didn't know her, anyways. For all he knew, she joked around like that with every cat she met. But she was fairly confident that Horseradish wouldn't get uncomfortable with her slightly flirtatious comment, as it wasn't like she was throwing herself at him. And maybe he'd even return the comment with one of his own. If not, that would be fine- nothing let this molly down for long, not even rejection. She had gotten over her ex-mate, hadn't she? So she could handle a tom she barely knew not wanting to flirt with her, no biggie.

Horseradish nodded, flashing her a gentle smile and then turning to study the ground in an embarrassed manor, a trick he often found useful. “Yeah,” he muttered, shuffling his paws slightly, “fighter. It's the rank that defends the Syndicate and learns mostly combat skills,” he replied, being as vague as possible without seeming vague at all, since the name somewhat spoke for itself. He looked back and refocused his amber hues on hers, then quickly looked away, still pulling off the somewhat embarrassed act. “It's a pleasure to meet you as well, Feathersong,” he replied, shaking himself, as if ridding himself of embarrassment that had of course, never really existed, but had been well displayed and easy to think of as real, which was the whole idea, since he knew that if he were in Feathersong's place, he probably would've fallen for it, as many cats did. He slowly went back down into a comfortable crouch, now fairly certain that she was caught, trapped under his spell, though not entirely, nor in the way he had planned. Already, Feathersong seemed like the perfect victim of his affection, which usually was just what a cat wanted, but not with him. You don't want to catch Horseradish's eye, or you do, but not for very long. Nobody really like Horseradish, only who he pretended to be, which didn't bother him, though few even took a chance at being alone with him, not once they actually met Horseradish, which Feathersong had not.

Nor had his other victims, as he was a bit of a cheater, and never played fair when he toyed with others' hearts, mind and emotions. Fun as it was, it had its downsides as well, and he could never be sure of how one would react. If the heartbreak would destroy them, or drive to a deep desire for revenge, the latter one being very undesirable, and he would probably have no choice but to kill them if that happened, though he may leave them alive, if he thought that killing them wasn't worth it, and they posed no threat. He was quite confident that Feathersong posed no threat at all, although whether this pleased him or disappointed him, Horseradish wasn't quite sure. But little matter, since that was of no concern until later on, maybe a couple of moons into the future, if not a season or two. It depended on how long he could stand to be around her, this time period varying depending on that cat and their personality. “I'm not sure, but it's not a pleasant thing to live with. One day you've got a friend my your side, the next day, they've been killed, but such is life,” he said quietly, his eyes glazing over with memories as he remembered faintly a best friend of his from kithood. Their death had been devastating to him, and had practically turned him into what he was today. He shook himself, pushing down his memories and refocusing on what was going on now, that being all that mattered.

“Mmm… that's true I suppose,” Horseradish meowed, nodding his head in agreement at what the SkyClan warrior said next, his amber orbs darkening for a split second as she spoke. “And yes, but why should I worry about that? I've done nothing wrong, nothing to provoke anyone,” the mottled fighter said, all if which was only half true, since no, he'd done nothing wrong to do with SkyClan currently, though he couldn't say that that was true about the Syndicate, since he had many cats angry at him, for various reasons that he couldn't name. “And that it is, but not much of out territory is exposed to sunlight, and there's other cats everywhere. Here, there's usually fewer cats,” he replied, this being one of the few things he'd told her that was not a lie, as a great majority of what Horseradish said was usually a lie, unless he was speaking with a cat that already knew his true personality. He easily could've asked why she was at the border, not to mention alone, since most cats knew better than to do that, especially after that humiliating battle, which Horseradish still resented the very thought of. He looked past Feathersong, into SkyClan territory, scanning for other cats, almost hopeful at seeing some, then maybe he could put on a show. But when there was none to be seen, he showed no sign of disappointment.

“Oh? I'd say that I'm the lucky one,” Horseradish purred, a bit surprised by the flirty air he picked up from what she said, but not about to show it. “You see, I'm lucky to have met such a friendly, pretty she-cat with a name that matches, instead of someone else,” he purred, picking each word careful before he spoke it so that he didn't say anything that seemed ill intentioned or rude. He wasn't known for saying things like that, but it even he slipped up every now and then it said something hurtful, though there were many times when he would've very much liked to say something hurtful, but had to restrain himself and hold on to his friendly and harmless air. Despfeedhow hard that could be sometimes, and he would've much preferred to say something that stung and hurt them, which was what he often did to healers, weak cats that weren't good for anything, as anyone could learn their "skills", and then there would be no reason to keep the weaklings around anymore, and it would be very fun to rid the Syndicate of all those weak links and extra mouths to feed, that being all they were. “It's quite a coincidence– I mean, that both of us just happened to be at the same place, same time,” he purred, knowing that this would only get to her if she believed in StarClan, which he did, but had no father in it. His faith rested solely in the Dark Forest, the Place of No Stars, or whatever everyone was referring to it as nowadays.