[wren]

Originally Posted by Brilliance

You would think that Staglegs knew the territory of Riverclan quite well. After all, he have been residing here since his escaped from a tyrant and horrible ill-waiting fate. Despite such, he was still getting used to the murky grounds of Riverclan. Since the ground was never completely dry, Staglegs found himself struggling to keep a hold on his speed. It’s not like he meant to travel at an alarming rate that carried others into the fray with him. Staglegs recalled being scolded more than once for his hyperactive behavior.

Here he was again.

Only, he had a good reason for running; he was hunting. The calm before the storm started as he caught sight of a water cold. The small critter left the safe haven of its habitat, rummaging through the grass. His tall frame leaned down, ears twitching from the blow of the wind. One side of his face was heavily exposed, and when the wind touched it, it made him shudder from the lack of warmth. His green eyes stayed locked ahead, however. He was pretty determined to catch this meal, for he, for lack of batter words, sucked when it came to water hunting. It made him absolutely loathe fish and that certain hunting technique. Those fish were just so hard to catch...and they swam too diligently in the water. Water voles, mice, any land creature was more his style. Per usual, Staglegs has a specific coordination when he hunted. After finding a target, he would lower himself into a crouch, then quietly creep forward until he was at a good enough distance to run and pounce. The chocolate feline shot forward like a cheetah, like a comet, if you will. Being a skilled agility master had its flaws. Unfortunately, as always, Staglegs didn’t calculate how much speed to use. He kicked up dust in his path. He bent forward to try and snatch the vole, but it was out his grasp. This caused him to groan. Staglegs knew that his failed catch was the least of his troubles because when he looked forward, he was still running, dodging trees as effortlessly as he could. A couple twigs hit him on the head, emitting hisses from him, but as he laid his eyes ahead on another cat, the light green optics widened tremendously, and he skidded on his paws to either redirect his direction or to avoid impact on the other cat. “Hey! Watch out!” Staglegs meowed loudly to the other figure. Staglegs leaned his body forward, hoping it would hinder his movement, but instead he caused himself to roll into a ball, eventually colliding with a tree. “Ow...” he muttered. Staglegs took a moment to catch his breath. He was laid upside down, so the little bits of sky filtering through the trees was more than noticeable to him. After a moment, Staglegs rolled back onto his paws, lifting himself grudgingly and shaking the debris off his pelt.

“You really need to work on pivoting...” Staglegs muttered to himself. He turned his head to see the other cat. When his eyes landed on a familiar Cream and tabby figure, he immediately rushed to her with moon-wide innocent eyes that was ready to plea for forgiveness. “Rowanflower!” The Deputy. Out of all cats he had to almost collide into her. It would had been worse if he did collide into her...it was already worse enough that he ambushed on her time of relaxation. “I’m so sorry! I didn’t - I Uh - I wasn’t - I kinda - I - I - I - sorry! Really am sorry.” His ears pinned and he shuffled awkwardly on his paws. “Forgive me? You know, I was - I - I - I was hunting and the - the little - little vermin,” he spat out, “got away - and I miss - missed - the catch and all. And, yeah. And...all.” He didn’t usually stammer, he just remembered more than a few times when other cats reprimanded him about running too fast. In his defense, running on muddy grounds was slippery and troublesome. Staglegs was just fearful about receiving another lecture on maintaining his speed. Along with that, it was mixed in with his paranoia where he imagined Rowanflower to snap at him and ask Fallenstar to exile him...heh, maybe he was being a little dramatic.

It had taken a few minutes for the cream and ginger tabby to have calmed down enough that she wasn't sucking in hard breaths and the inflammation of her eyes had gone down significantly. She settled between the foliage allowing her tail to lash behind her, a gentle breeze tickling her whiskers. The silence is nice. she settled her head between her outstretched paws and let out a yawn squinting her eyes shut and stretching out her hindlegs into a sprawl.

Peace.

She had settled nicely into her surroundings, the gentle swish of the grass and he constant drip, drip, drip of the melting snow pattering down on the growing leaves, even the scurrying of little critters scurrying around with the anticipation of greenleaf lingering in the breeze. If only she could just stay here forever stuck in this moment of serenity and just blend in with her surroundings. She blinked open her eyes once again to take in the beauty of growth. Patches of muddied snow where melting in the shadows of the elm trees, hanging trendils danced in the newleaf breeze. Why couldn't life be as simple as the seasons? The gentle crawl of each season creeping by never faltering. It was so simple. That's when graceful pawsteps filled the air, thundering towards her. With each bound she could hear the individual pawsteps slam against the damp earth never faulting only drawing nearer. Though almost certain it was a clanmate searching for her she raised her head and squinted her eyes in the direction of the pawsteps. Perhaps if I don't move they'll run right past me. her tail gave a final flick and she closed her eyes, settling her chin on her paws once again and tucking into a ball. She had no energy to deal with no border patrols or clanmates fighting for whatever reason. This was her time to sit back and relax in the reassurance nobody would bother her, even if it wasn't guaranteed it was nice to just feel as though you had the opportunity. That's when the pawsteps seemed to loose their, what was that word again? they lost their grace. Yes. That's it.

Suddenly those graceful pawsteps started thundering like a badger tumbling through a patch of thicket. Her eyes blinked back open and she raised her head and gently and focused her eyes in the direction they seemed to be coming from. She could see the foliage trembling as something or someone seemed to pass through them with less grace than they had just a minute ago. Her body screaming at her to stop as she sat up giving her tail another lash and groaning in annoyance. She just waited for the warrior or frantic apprentice would burst into view stammering about something. That's when a shout caused her to flinch and a brown furred warrior careened into the clear eyes wide with fear and tripping over their own paws as they stumbled right past her causing a brief rush of air to embrace her. She stumbled backwards to avoid the cat who was still in mid fall as they raced passed her. She managed to stumble over her own hindlegs and fall into a patch of clovers with a thud. Her vision grew blurry for a brief moment and she lay upside down like the brown warrior before she pushed herself up onto her paws, sneezing with the pollen that ahd coated her nose. Still shocked from nearly being bowled into she glanced to the side examing the upside down feline with mild amusement. The last seemed to fade away and was simply replaced with curiosity. That's when the tom scrambled to his feet and stared at her like she had an extra head. Of course. Why run into the deputy of all cats? she thought sourly as the feline reminded her who she actually was. "Don't worry about it, sometimes prey can be tricky like that" she meowed gently eyes studying.. Mhm, who is that? it became more aware to her she wasn't sure who this was exactly. She raked her mind desperately to find a name but nothing came to her. How embarassing. "no problem, and I hope you don't mind me asking your name?" she questioned embarrassed that she hadn't known even with a feature so memorable as the scars on his face.