Brookestream and Pridestep {{Love's Raging River}}

[khwaish]

I peeped through the clustered bramble and scented into the thicket.
The light trees were scattered behind the river's fall, deep beyond the black boulders where my warm nest awaited. My frosted fur brushed slightly with a sagging bush and the fish immediatly started to scatter. I bounded after them and leapt high above the ground, pouncing on a silver's tail. He squirmed viciously and nipped at my paw until I blundered clumsily into the river’s depths. Come on, you kittypet! I thought to myself. Quite frankly, I had a reputation of being light on my feet and graceful. Frustrated, my pelt bristled as I danced away onto the shore, light on my paws like I was known to be. My nose twinged and I sighed as Pridestep’s sleek figure lolled into view. Inside I leapt with joy. His expression hardly changed as he padded over towards me. I tried to stay calm over his beautiful gaze.
"Catch anything?" he asked, his eyes never falling off my gaze.
I smirked and flicked my tail towards the river.
"Almost, until you came."
He chuckled lightly, a rare occasion. I beamed with pleasure and hopped between the slippery stones. Nothing could bring me down.
He followed behind, less excitement in what he let show. Soon we had both slid into the warming waters, pelts plastered against the rush that pumped through our veins. We were together like we had always been, yet something was different.
I usually held everything back, my feelings, my love, my yearning.
I didn't just want him as a mate- I needed him there.
I knew he didn't feel the same. I wanted to try. I needed to try.
"Tired yet?" he asked, interrupting my thoughts. I hadn't realized how far off course we had ventured. Soon we would hit ThunderClan territory.
"Let's stop here, then," he filled in for me after a long silence. His sleek, wet figure padded over to the smooth stones, helping me up with my jaw filled with silver fish. Light trickled in through the little branches, letting the whole stream fill up with light and a certain dazzling aura that was just irreplaceable. Buds were starting to open, the frost finally melting away into oblivion the days before. A few stems of yarrow mingled in with the flowering plants. I mentally marked the place where they had been found, looking around for any other useful herbs.
Pridestep watched me, brow raised. I blocked him out of my mind like TwoLegs blocked themselves against nature in their nests. I knew he had always wanted me to pursue the dream of Medicine Cat. It was too late- I was a Warrior and had already chosen my path. I wouldn't have wanted it anyways.
I loved kits with all my heart and have always wanted my own- not to look after them when they came down with Greencough or got cuts in their paws. I wanted my own kits.
My own with Pridestep.
Medicine Cats couldn't bear kits; it was against everything Pridestep believed in. Maybe that was why he wanted me to follow the path. He didn't want me afterall.
I dropped the last fish I had been carrying and buried it close to the yarrow, lazily stretching, eyes squeezed tight and nose curling. My heart fluttered wildly when another nose brushed mine.
"You alright?" his black mane had dried now, bushy against his filling muscles. I gazed at him, hoping somehow he would realize, just know for once how much I cared and loved him. It seemed impossible. But StarClan was there, above, now. They were watching, guiding and willing me on. And with StarClan, anything was possible. Anything.
I stood, stretched out to him, brushing against his midnight pelt.
"Brookestr-" he started... and stopped suddenly. I stared at him, passion evoking and pressing into his deep eyes. He could see now. He could finally see.

Status: Finished
Word Count: 625
Comment: Bit Shifty and Wordy





My heart seemed the fly out of my drying chest.
All words were lost, sticking to the top of my tongue like mouse bile being choked down. I was bewildered, fractured and hurt. We were friends- the best of friends.
But would she ever just leave it at that- that we were just friends.
I had heard the tale of Stoneclaw and Rainstar when I was just a kit, from my future mentor, Mothbend. Stoneclaw and Rainstar had been the best of friends not unlike like me and Brookestream. And... when one left the other... the other strived to move on.
Maybe it was for the best that we were just friends.
It would be painful for awhile... a long time. But we would both be better off. She would be better off with anyone- anyone but me.
Her gaze pierced through my deafening eyes and I quickly decided my move, not even bothering to review, to get a sign from the stars. I raced away, down the stone path and down to the camp. I skirved around the dens, avoiding any questions and continued to race away.
My paws felt broken as if I had stumbled on bracken thorn. Everything ached from the tip of my slashing tail to the point of my dark nose. Everything was fine now. But nothing would ever be the same.

Status: Editing/Revising
Word Count: 221
Comment: Same- Bit Shifty and Wordy

[swift]

[atrb=border,0,true][bg=black] He's the reason for the teardrops on my guitar; The only one who's got enough of me to break my heart; He's the song in the car I keep singing, don't know why I do.. -- POST WILL COME LATER. -- He's the time taken up, but there's never enough; And he's all that I need to fall into.. Drew looks at me, I fake a smile so he won't see. -- Status: NOT FINISHED Word Count: -- Song: Taylor Swift -- Teardrops on my guitar Comment: Will complete this later~

[khwaish]

I felt myself brushing past the reeds and flying over the slippery stones towards the opposite stream where Brookestream had just confided her love. Her love for me. It hadn’t been long since the incident. It had been dawn when we were out, now midday and ranging towards dusk. We hadn’t talked in what felt like moons and when I returned for freshkill, word was she hadn’t returned. The solid orb had filtered light into the sapphire sky, StarClan vague and almost dimmed tonight. I stumbled past the pile of water creatures, the aroma filtrating my nostrils and making my mouth water with famine and hunger. It weighed down on my grief for my companion, the loss like a kit without a mother. I nearly gagged at the thought; Brookestream’s mother had perished in the great flood last newleaf.
I settled down as far from camp as I could bear and curled my dark nose into the dark soil. It should have felt damp and refreshing; instead it was hard, cunning and cruel.
It seemed as though I was sitting in vigil, a thousand thoughts willing their way into my flesh, yet some force greater than even StarClan blocking them out. I felt like a kittypet, being boxed in and looking out through a glass window, the world revolving around me and not even knowing what was outside.
But outside lay the worsts of the world- the sorrow, the misery, the cold; the unbalanced beings from sickness to strife which would strike at all from the inside out.
We all had a choice presented to us from the minutes we had been born into the world. To live life the primordial way like Clan cats did- living on the edge, adrenaline sweeping through every pinpointed nerve of your body and giving off this wonderful feeling of accomplishment and wonder. You could live like us or have everything in front of you, never working a day in your life. Sure, you would be well-fed and sheltered and clothed with a shining, strong pelt, but was that enough? Is that enough for a cat who was meant to live? Only the individual could answer that.
Once we all had chosen our paths, StarClan became and followed us through our adventures and journeys that really did last lifetimes. Where was StarClan now? Why did this happen... this happen to me?
It struck me as fast as the last battle had when I had twisted my hindleg when a ThunderClan apprentice struck me from behind. There was a tumbling of stones that poured into the river from the opposite side of camp, a caterwauling shriek... and silence.
I raced forward as fast as my bulging legs could take me and sprinted along the riverbank, searching for the faintest sign- a clue.
A white pelt seemed to struggle to the surface, ear torn and bloodied, a vast gash running across her snout. The words seemed to flash across my mind-
Brookestream-
Badger-
"Hold on!" I rasped and slid into the flooding river, once a small stream, now as vast as Silverpelt. My legs were giving out by the time I had reached her sinking form, holding onto life just barely, just barely. A sudden gush stretched me a few foxtail lengths away.
I was almost there, paw extending, pulling back, my throat choking on her sleek red injury-
And then I was on shore- no, not on the shore, in the Medicine Cat's Den. Cats seemed to shout around me, sending out patrols to take care of-
"Badger." muttered one of the elders, a scraggly tawny pelt.
I stared up at him with deep eyes, shoulder pulling back everytime I tried to stand.
"Where is Brookestream?" I pleaded, heart pounding and sinking down to my lower belly.
"She- she didn't return."


Status: UNFINISHED
Word Count: 622
Comment: Will be finished eventually, Brookestream is not dead.