Post by Jackalstep on Aug 16, 2016 0:27:32 GMT -5
Maybe it was a dream, or maybe it was her memories, Cygna wasn’t sure. But she knew she didn’t belong in a safe, sheltered place. Something deep within her urged her to explore, to find out what was in the World Beyond.
That was how she thought of it, the World Beyond. She could see it through the windows of her home, and in blurry images in her mind that came to her when she was feeling sleepy and introspective. Great big trees that smelled fresh and alive, not laid over with Upwalker scent like the sad, droopy little plants that sat in pots on the windowsill.
Cygna wanted out. She wasn’t born to a safe, comfortable life; she had been born to be wild and free. Sure, she liked her housefolk, but she wasn’t particularly attached to them. Abandoning them would cause her no grief.
She spent her days careening around the house, knocking brightly colored objects off of tables and shelves. Her favorite thing to do, however, was when her housefolk were home. One of them would be clomping along, and suddenly Cygna would spring out of a hiding place to grab their feet and batter them like prey. Then whichever Upwalker she had ambushed would squeal and try to shake her off.
It was great fun. Startling her housefolk would probably be the only thing Cygna would miss about being a kittypet.
One morning when the memories (or were they just dreams?) were stronger in her mind than they had ever been before, Cygna grew desperate. Originally, her plan had been to tear apart a screen some summer night when her housefolk left the windows open. Her plans changed abruptly when she felt the urge to travel so sharply it hurt. She would leave today, never mind the fact that it was still spring and often rainy.
Ding dong! The noise that announced the arrival of a strange Upwalker rang through the house. Scarcely able to control herself, Cygna bolted down the stairs and skidded to a halt near the door. Soon, her housefolk would come to open the door. They always did.
Sure enough, the adult female Upwalker clomped to the door and swung it open. There was a big brown box lying just outside the door, and Upwalker made a happy sound when she noticed it.
Cygna, who usually loved to play in boxes, couldn’t care less how happy her Upwalker was. It was time to go!
She darted between the Upwalker’s legs and out the door, ignoring the big creature’s horrified shrieks. The grass squished comfortably under her paws as she ran, turning suddenly to a hard, rough gray material as she drew farther away from her old home.
As fascinating as the world was, Cygna knew she had to get away quickly if she didn’t want her housefolk to find her. So she ran till she couldn’t run anymore, rested for a bit, and then kept on moving at a fairly good clip.
It was sunset when she stopped out of sheer exhaustion. Instinct told her that it would be safest to sleep in an elevated place, so she climbed the nearest tree, with a massive effort from her tired muscles.
When she had settled down in a crook where two branches met, Cygna looked around and really took in her surroundings for the first time. So this was the World Beyond! At the edge of the town here, and perched up high as she was, she could see for a longer distance than she had ever imagined existed.
Hills and fields rolled away in the immediate area, and giant hills formed a dark, jagged line along the horizon where the sun was slowly sinking. A massive flock of small birds was swirling in the sky, gradually moving closer and closer to a huge tree that was far larger than the trees she’d seen from her window.
And it was all hers to explore!
Cygna traveled for moons, gradually figuring out how to hunt and how to stay away from dangerous creatures. She wasn’t very good at hunting; her white pelt and larger-than-average size were a distinct disadvantage for a new hunter. To keep from starving, she had to resort to scavenging from Upwalkers, which hurt her pride.
One sunny summer day, with weather much like she had envisioned for the day of escape in her original plan, the young she-cat came to a great big body of water. By now, she was familiar with streams, which was what this resembled, but somehow, “stream” just didn’t seem to fit this placid, majestic brown snake of water that slowly went on its way.
Stretching across this big stream was a road, a real road, suspended on thick gray trunks and with a green network of metal arching above. It was fantastic! Cygna had seen many strange and wonderful things in her travels, but this was the best yet.
She had thought that she would want to travel forever, yet somehow, as soon as she saw the road and its green arch soaring over the big stream, she knew she had found her home, and was loth to leave it.
All Cygna wanted to do now was cross the big stream, using that road, and see what was on the other side. Perhaps there she could find somewhere to make a den for herself; on this side of the big stream, there were some Upwalker dwellings that smelled of dog as well as other cats, and she didn’t want to get in their way.
She walked along the edge of the road, treading the narrow path that formed between the white stripe and the grass on the side of the road. Excitement fluttered in her belly as she neared the bank of the big stream. She was actually going to cross water without getting her paws wet!
Once the road began to leave the ground and go over the water, it narrowed slightly, so Cygna pressed close to the gray wall, out of fear that if a car came, she would be hit. A low rumble approaching quickly set her fur prickling, and without looking to see what as up there, she sprang up onto the gray wall in between some of the green metal things.
The car swept by, stirring her thick white fur. For a heartbeat, she made eye contact with a young Upwalker inside the car who looked absolutely shocked to see a cat standing right there.
When the car was gone, Cygna turned her head to look down at the big stream, and the sight took her breath away. She was right over the middle of this lazy stretch of water, which flowed on its way many tail-lengths beneath her.
She jumped back down onto the road and ran as fast as she could to the other side. The road seemed to lead to a town, and not too far away, she could see fences and huge houses. Oh, well. There were probably going to be Upwalkers wherever she wanted to live.
It was kind of relaxing to just wander through the tall grass, listening to the swallows chirping overhead as they pursued insects. Yes, despite the Upwalkers’ proximity, Cygna felt she could settle down here.
The only problem was that there was a large feline population here. The white she-cat was within sight of a little grove of oaks and alders when the reek of their border markers crashed overpoweringly into her nose.
Gasping, she buried her muzzle in her paws for a moment until she felt recovered enough to sniff the markers again. This seemed to be a place where the territories of two distinct groups of cats met. How interesting. She’d met groups of cats in her travels, but they had never been quite on this scale before.
“Hey, you!” An unexpected yowl caught Cygna’s attention, and she whirled around.
Four cats were approaching her, led by a dark brown she-cat. The brown cat was followed closely by a gray-and-white she-cat, and slightly farther behind were a young gray tabby tom and an even younger gray-brown she-cat. They all had scars and looked quite capable of handling themselves in a fight.
Cygna swallowed nervously, and made her posture as nonthreatening as possible, carefully avoiding eye contact and keeping her tail low.
“What are you doing on BridgeClan territory?” the brown she-cat demanded in a firm but unaggressive voice.
“Uh… I’m a traveler,” Cygna replied quietly. “I’m just looking for a home.”
“Well, you can’t stop here,” the gray tabby tom piped up. “This is Clan territory, and rogues aren’t welcome to just hunt wherever they feel like it.”
The brown she-cat flicked her tail across the young tom’s muzzle. “Hush, Firwhisker, don’t be so unwelcoming. The warrior code tells us to challenge trespassing cats, but only to make sure they mean no harm. Surely you heard her say she’s looking for a home; since when has BridgeClan turned away a stray? Have you forgotten that Batfang was once a stranger?”
Firwhisker huffed. “I was just defending our prey, Mudstream.”
“So? What about it?” the brown she-cat asked, turning her attention back to Cygna. “Have you any interest in joining BridgeClan?”
Whoa, what? Cygna’s head was spinning. Clan? Warrior code? And what was up with the weird names? “I’m sorry, I don’t really understand what you’re talking about,” she said finally. “What’s a Clan?”
“We’ll test Thrushpaw, shall we? Thrushpaw, you explain to this loner what Clan life is like.” Mudstream looked at the young gray-brown she-cat.
“Um, okay,” Thrushpaw meowed. “Uh, so, um… A Clan is a lot of cats living together. We have a leader and a deputy in charge, and a medicine cat to take care of us when we’re sick. The, uh, warriors hunt and fight, and the apprentices, like me, learn to warriors. When you get too old to hunt, you know, you retire and become an elder and the Clan looks after you to reward you for your service. Well, mostly the apprentices look after the elders. Um… Did I miss anything?”
It sounded intriguing, the idea of cats really being united and protecting each other like that. All of the groups Cygna had met previously had been rather disorganized, with little room for weakness.
“Very good, Thrushpaw,” Mudstream praised the younger cat. “What do you think, loner?”
“Well…” Cygna felt a little hesitant. What if she didn’t like the Clans after all? Would they let her leave?
Almost as if she could tell what the white she-cat was thinking, Mudstream added, “If you aren’t sure, that’s okay. Asphaltstar will probably let you stay for a half-moon or so until you make up your mind. Okay?”
“And if you can’t make up your mind,” the gray-and-white she-cat said, speaking for the first time, “we’ll leave you out for the coyotes to eat. But don’t worry. They only like to eat cats that are easy to see.” Her face was completely expressionless.
Horrified, Cygna took a step back. Coyotes? All of a sudden, the good parts of Clan culture vanished from her mind, and she saw the cats before her as heartless savages. “Maybe I’d better just—what?”
Mudstream and Thrushpaw had both let out rather loud mrrows of laughter, while Firwhisker looked on disapprovingly. The gray-and-white she-cat’s tail-tip twitched, but it was difficult to tell from what emotion.
Firwhisker snorted when his Clanmates showed no signs of speaking out. “That’s Iristail,” he grunted. “Don’t ever believe anything she says.”
Oh. It had all been a joke. Cygna allowed her muscles to relax. Perhaps joining the Clan wouldn’t be so bad after all.
“I’m sorry,” Iristail meowed, a look of amusement spreading across her face when she saw the obvious relief of the white-cat. “It was too easy for me. I’ll try not to scare you too often, if you join BridgeClan.”
“Okay, yeah, sorry about that,” Mudstream put in, her voice still a little shaky with laughter. “So anyways, what do you say? I think I’ve already asked you that a ton of times, but you never answered. Well?”
Well… Cygna loved this land, and that road crossing the big stream, didn’t she? It would be a perfect home. “I think I’d like to come with you.”
Author's notes: This was for a Tuesday Challenge over on Figment. We were supposed to write about a newcomer, with bonus points for not being mysterious. This story ties into the world of The Fox and the Pigeon, as Cygna is Swanpaw, the new BridgeClan apprentice announced in Chapter Eight of that fic.
