Open to Join Shrouded Safe (13LG20)

Survival demands caution, but greatness requires daring
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Night gave witness to another cat below, half shrouded in darkness as the sun slowly swept down beneath the horizon. Now would have been the perfect time to stiffle through the heat, catch something for his belly, but Kosmo had just eaten and left the side of the she-cat in his care. The kits were eating better now that their dams milk flow was increased, and seemed to thrive despite being moved around constantly. They were well on their way to becoming the light he needed in his life - and to celebrate, went off to explore and enjoy the night by himself with no other reason than because it was his desire.

The night was his and things were looking up.

His foot falls changed from padding against the grasses to slipping over the grey rocky path that separated his old stomping grounds from two-leg territory. It was much easier to see a monster once its sunlight glared around the corner, and seeing none, crossed without a problem. He slipped through a fence on the other side, but paused once he caught scent of another cat nearby, the edges of this territory clearly marked.

Odd eyes searched for the source of the scent, and barely saw a massive figure as it moved. Surely that wasn't a cat! It must have been the size of his late grandsire in scope. Treading with a decorum of respect, the ticked mink tom called out. "Pardon me - I don't mean to intrude. I merely noticed how near you are to my territory across the path. And, likewise, close to the Clans."

He brought with him the mingling scent of the wilds, distinctly catmint along with milk-scent and the tiniest hint of kits.

Survival demands caution, but greatness requires daring
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Keeping his eyes glued to the strange, large cat above, standing on the roof. Well, it seemed like he was luring him down either way. The impersonal distance, however, wasn't conducive to a conversation, so... sensing that Duke didn't deny him permission, took to the assumption that it was perfectly fine.

He leaped onto the picket fence, barely a teeter despite his size. He blinked up at the tomcat, still at a height disadvantage, but something gave him the idea that he'd be lacking even nose to nose. "There are multiple clans. Four to be exact - all living in the forest." He clarified with a curt nod.

Each of his toes stretched out, extending a curved claw each, before he leaned down to nibble at a toe, finishing with a cleaning lash. "Thunderclan is especially intriguing. You don't know if you run into a savage or a scholar. Which one are you, may I ask?" Everything about his scent seemed solitary, with only the garden around him clinging to his pelt. Kosmo's whiskers twitched as he settled on his haunches, his marred appendage draped over the edge.

"My name is Kosmo, by the way. Figured I'd spare you the pretense."

Survival demands caution, but greatness requires daring
✧ ⭒ ♦ ⭒ ♖ ⭒ ♦ ⭒ ✧

 

Introductions were a simple matter for a cat. Most could be identified by smell alone, and while names weren't always required, Kosmo enjoyed the thrill of theater. Whether not a real name was given wasn't the point. His own was uttered in truth, at least this was his born given name. A powerful title that would stretch farther than any claw of Starclan above. One day more cats would know of it, but for now he was fine in knowing that only the revelation rested with that of his female friend, and now... Duke.

Without knowing its meaning, it sounded like a sturdy name, indeed, and Kosmo couldn't help but smile. "You have no idea how refreshing that is. Mystery is all fine and dandy, but sometimes it pays to not beat around the bush." Thunderclan had been all business, hardly appreciating that he had spared a couple of their warriors scars in the process.

With care, the tom rump wiggled, sending his form across the fence and onto the roof above, still quite a few lengths away. Didn't hurt to be cautious, but Kosmo had a feeling that this tom was warming up to his company. "Thunderclan... Well, it's funny you should ask. There's a story to that. An intrigue of the worst possible way, "He began, his voice carrying the exaugurated note of mysticism as he lowered his frame to nestle on the large of his front paws. His tail waved behind him in the night, the moonlit rays playing across his much lighter pelt, although pointed extremities framed his odd eyed stare.

"It began with unprecedented death, and a deep, foreshadowing sadness" Purpose laced his voice like honey, sticky and hopeful to lure this large grizzled creature into a web of story.

Survival demands caution, but greatness requires daring
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Images began flooding into his mind, the fires of memory hot. It wasn't so personal yet, and it would build the stage for the atrocities that followed. It was a shame that this particular tom wasn't so keen on the dramatics of it all.

Kosmo barely kept a whine from his lips, chiding his new companion lightly while he watched him grooming his forepaw. A back leg angled towards a cinnamon tipped, tufted ear and gave it a scratch, some relief from the dwindling night heat.

"You're no fun." The smile on his face did little to condemn Duke, and he was not entirely discouraged. Embellishing was part of his charm, an act that kept his face from darkening with the weight of it all.

"My ancestors were from thunderclan on my dame's side, granddame to be specific. She was wrongly exiled from her birth clan for over-mourning her kin in death. She eventually met and was taken in by my grandsire, who ruled a vast swathe of land south of the clans. He looked to expand north, take territories and give her the revenge she sought to take for herself after the life she had known. Cats congregated to him - exiles, loners, misfits from all corners of the land, and created a vast empire."

 

Duke was willing to assume he didn't mean the lands immediately south of the Clans' territory, the area that appealed to Duke and that Kosmo had called his territory. Duke hadn't encountered many others there when he'd gone over during the past few moons to hunt. If a so-called vast empire had ever existed there, it was long gone. So had they just left? Or had they fought and lost badly enough to abandon the entire area?

Survival demands caution, but greatness requires daring
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Functioning fit, Kosmo recalled the tales that were passed down to him from his granddame and grandsire, not having lived through these golden years himself before he was born. He had to steel himself to any emotion that threatened to well up in him. It wouldn't do to let it burst out from him and potentially damage whatever this budding relationship may be. Still, he continued with a cautious note, pleased, at least, that Duke was giving him the notes of an apt listener.

"My mother was born from them, heiress to a grand inheritance, but I suppose nothing good can ever last forever. Circumstances led us out of those lands, and settled elsewhere for a time, but eventually my old grandsire yearned for his old stomping grounds and took us all with him. My granddame passed peacefully, but peace was not afforded to my grandsire, who lost his life by a monster on the path saving my dame.

"By all accounts, she inherited his power and lands, and we returned to this place. I wonder if we stayed here and tried to survive the drought we might not have lost so many, but I digress. Our small band lived there - but were splintered and separated by flooding on the river banks. So myself and my dame made due as we could on the clan borders during the cold times.

He lifted himself, standing tall, powerful muscles beneath his ticked pelt as memories rushed to him. His half tail weaved like a viper, and while he wasn't as tall as his companion, he felt as solid as any oak. "Thunderclan took her from me. She was murdered - and I saw it happen. And then - well, it may be in the past, but that doesn't mean it shouldn't be there to forge my future. I'm the inheritor of the Cabal now for better or for worse - Worse for some, I'd image. They'll be feeling the sting of the forest's curse - if they haven't already." He muttered darkly, finding himself pacing the length of the rooftop to let off steam, a restless behavior that burned with every paw fall.

"Who knows if the others survived the winter...I nearly didn't. And now with Belladonna and her kits I've begun to reestablish myself there - but why does it have to be so complicated?"

Survival demands caution, but greatness requires daring
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The night glared down on the lighter tom, its moon nearly full. His pelt flickered as he moved back and forth along the rooftop, muscles itching as thoughts raced. Duke's sympathy went in one ear and out the other, still fogged by his own pains, raked fresh in the light. It hadn't been the first time these ideas festered, every scenario played over and over again in his mind, and his odd eyes closed, paws stopping on the edge of the roof.

"The Clans have a long and decorated history - they claim to be the descendants of legendary cats, but with that history is also the lesser known relationship of Clan enemies. Groups opposed to the Clans for one reason or another... Violence begets violence, unsuccessful and dull. But what if the Clans could be shaken without claws or fangs?"

Kosmo's eyes snapped open, wide and staring as they turned to settle on the grizzled male. "Oh, well, my bloodline is a whole tangled mess - but while I respect my grandsire's vision, I don't believe that militaristic tyranny is the answer... No, it has to be subtle to succeed. It needs to sow doubt and confusion. Be more deadly than nightshade." He was mumbling now as he turned away, using the height of the roof to stare over the rock path and towards his territory where he seemed destined to live... or die.

"Purpose is different from heritage, eh, Duke? Have you found yours?"

Survival demands caution, but greatness requires daring
✧ ⭒ ♦ ⭒ ♖ ⭒ ♦ ⭒ ✧

 

From the advantage of his rooftop throne, Kosmo could stare into the vast span of trees and clearings that were the forest of the clans. He watched bats dart swiftly between boughs and the wide wingspan of a hunting owl through the orchards. Every creature had a purpose in life, and maybe just as much in death. He didn't know where birdlike ancestors went, but he understood where the clan's ancestors did. Remarkable truths that even the clans had forgotten, it seemed, from his short encounter with Tigerrush. She couldn't hear the voices around her, even if they weren't focused specifically on them. Perhaps they had lost the gift.

Tyranny, it seemed, was something Duke wasn't a stranger to. With his size and disposition it wouldn't be too remarkable to imagine that he'd share a place at his grandsire's side as a general to police the populace. It was true, Kosmo hadn't the bodies or resources yet to physically threaten the clans, but with unspoken ways, he could burrow his way deep, unseen and unfathomable to their crude minds.

He turned towards Duke again, before stretching himself against the span near edge near where the gutter fed out. "Tell me a bit about yourself, Duke. I've been rude in running my mouth without any consideration to what you could share. Have you spent time with a large group of cats before?" He wanted to pry, to learn the grizzled male's secrets before he revealed more of his own. After all, Kosmo had been quite generous so far and he had much to learn about the residents of Whitehart.