Warrior Cat Clans 2 (WCC2 aka Classic) is a roleplay site inspired by the Warrior series by Erin Hunter. Whether you are a fan of the books or new to the Warrior cats world, WCC2 offers a diverse environment with over a decade’s worth of lore for you - and your characters - to explore. Join us today and become a part of our ongoing story!
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11.06.2022 The site has been transformed into an archive. Thank you for all the memories here!
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Foxfable let out a soft sigh as his gaze flicked across the coast. Today was a slow day, which meant he'd simply sat by the ocean for most of it, staring off into the great abyss that was the crashing ocean. The water was strangely comforting to him, but he supposed that was because he hadn't been in the water during the attack. Maybe it was because having a job made him feel like he was finally contributing to the clan. Not that Garden Keepers weren't important; they played a vital role in the way the clan worked. But, during his entire time as garden keeper, he longed for more, longed for the feeling of doing something to make up for the fact that he consistently drained the herb store. Coast guard had given him a way to do something, and having a purpose helped with the hole that resided in his chest. The physical wounds his father had left him had healed, no longer raw and bleeding but instead thick, winding scars. The emotional wounds were still raw, though, even when he tried his best to ignore them. The position gave him a chance to, gave him something to think about while the world turned around him that wasn't the guilt that he carried with him. Being busy meant that he could forget the look in Fallenredemption's eyes when he told the apprentice to run, could forget the sadness in his mother's eyes when they re-located, could forget the torment of imprisonment. He welcomed any chance he could to be busy, even though the business took a very clear physical toll on him. There was a tiredness that never quite left it, and there were days his shoulders slumped. Still, he pushed past that, pushed beyond his physical limitations. The alternative was drowning in his head, and Foxfable refused to do that. He didn't want to be a victim his whole life, which meant that he had to do his damnedest to move on.
He let out another sigh, before the soft crunch of the sand alerted him to the presence of another. His head quickly turned in the direction of the noise, the speed of his movements reminiscent of a subtle paranoia that still lurked under the surface. Immediately, though, upon recognizing the other, he relaxed again, a small smile turning the corners of his lips. "Oh, hey, Sunstar," he meowed, offering her a respectful dip of his head. "Didn't see ya there."
As much as she wanted to avoid it, the sea pulled her to it now. She could still remember being submerged in it, the water cold on her skin but searing down her nostrils, yet there was a lull in the way the waves sloshed into the white sands and the seagulls shrieked above, unfettered by the turmoil of SummerClan below. She could stare across it and lose herself in the sight and sound easily, more contemplative than she'd ever been in her life, but lately, she drew away from it again. Coming here and escaping her troubles was becoming a repetition she was consciously trying to avoid.
The recent acceptance of her lives illuminated all the discord she'd been repressing- and it made Sunstar excruciatingly aware of the parts of herself that she thought had drowned that night in the sea. She was slowly, paws-dragging-in-the-mud and with agonizing tentativeness, tiptoing towards something that resembled herself: the Sunpetal she left behind, the Sunpetal that got her here in the first place. With all the expectations saddled on her shoulders, piece by piece she had chipped away at the parts of herself she felt would be unfit, the parts that might throw her clan into another war or invite calamity, while forgetting that those pieces were what had pulled them through in the first place. It would take time to gain them back- time and faith and effort.
And the first thing she had to do if she wanted to move forward was conquer the demons swimming around the Southern Sea. They hadn't drowned there, despite her best efforts, but staring across the ocean and not into it without flinching away after a few moments wasn't any progress. It was that resolve that brought her down to the shore, and that resolve that made her step more confident than SummerClan had heard it in moons, and it was that step that startled both Foxfable and Sunstar. "Oh!" She laughed a little, relaxing as she saw her mentor's son. Though she was very close to his mother and best friend, the two had little interactions themselves; she only knew him as the good-hearted, wheezy Coast Guard who'd proven where his loyalties lay time and time again. It had been enough for her, but wasn't it time she get to know him better? "Hi, Foxfable. I didn't expect to see anyone out here... although I really should have, huh?"
"Well, it is my job, after all," he meowed with a slight chuckle, an easy, yet respectful friendliness in his tone. The ease in which friendliness came to him was something that he was proud of: despite the odds, he hadn't broken. This wasn't to say that the tom never felt like he was about to break- the last few moons had tipped him to the near tipping point. But, he had made a commitment to himself: no matter what happened, he was resolute in the fact that he would not let life harden him. He had seen first hand what it looked like to let trauma do just that. It made cats cruel, unable to empathize, unable to do anything but sit and writhe in their anger. No matter what curveballs life threw at him, he refused to let it take his spark. "I figured since I wasn't on an actual mission today, I might as well make myself useful. You never know when a sea monster is going to pop out of the water and lay siege to the shore." The amused tone in his voice made it clear that he wasn't being serious. Although at one point, he had believed in the fantastical, he had seen enough of the world to know that monsters didn't take the shape of mythical beings, they took the shape of cats.
He invited her to join him along the coastline with a flick of his tail. "I do have to say, though, I'm equally surprised to see another soul out here. The wind's been making the waves a bit larger than normal, and no one's been adventerous enough to take a swim. Can't say I blame them, though. I know I sure wouldn't want to go out there on a blistery day like today." As if to echo his sentiments, a breeze from the north ruffled their fur, leading the tom to shiver slightly. "I'm glad to have company though. Lookout can be awfully lonely sometimes."
Sunstar briskly fell into step beside the tom. It was pleasant to note that their strides matched pace unconsciously, her short legs finally allowed to amble at a comfortable speed alongside Foxfable's undersized frame. "I think all of SummerClan is good on sea monsters and high waters for the next few seasons," she teased quietly, though they both intrinsically understood that beneath the humor, there was still a deep, burning hurt. "I think they're becoming more comfortable now that we have the Coast Guard. How do you like it, other than the occasional loneliness?"
The wind continued as they did, trailing ahead of them along the gray shore, and stirred small clouds of sand she had to squint her eyes to avoid. The chill couldn't break through Sunstar's forcefield of thick, protective fluff, but she shivered anyway; the sea was deep and writhing at her right, and the black water reminded her of her almost-death.
He, too, was relieved at the ability to be able to take shorter strides. Especially on days where his chest felt particularly tight, it felt like his fellow treasure hunter was three times his size. Keeping up with him meant his little legs had to move twice as fast. He was glad to be able to slow down. "Yeah, I guess you're right," he meowed with a chuckle, although it was more of a sharp exhale than a real laugh. "Good thing you've got us to fight 'um off before they get to the rest of you, innit? I'm totally kick ass at fighting things that are green, and only things that were green." The accuracy of that statement was probably a little more true than he'd like it to be; although he had trained under Phantomfox and become incredibly adept at working alongside Rosypaw, now that he fought alone, it felt like the only thing he could beat was a blade of grass. But, perhaps that was being a little too tough on the little guy; he certainly tried his best, didn't he?
He tipped his head at her question. "The loneliness really isn't too bad. And when it is, it makes coming home all the much better." He wasn't away from home overnight as often as the adventurers were, but there were still a few nights a week that he bedded down in the great wilderness. "I like it a lot, though," he admitted with a smile. "It makes me feel like I'm... contributing to something bigger than myself, ya know? It's helped a lot with..." His voice trailed off. "Well, you know." He really didn't have to explain to Sunstar what happened. In fact, out of all cats, he figured that she understood what he had gone through probably better than most. After all, not only did she lose her father (albeit temporarily)(Foxfable considered his own father dead to him), but Ratstar's family had been confined to the prison at first too.
"I could ask you the same thing. How's leader treating you?"
"Oh, thank StarClan," tone manifesting Sunstar's measured wit, she halted her progress only long enough to dip into a seamless curtsy, mimicking a lady giving thanks to her valiant knight. It wasn't an unusual distinction either; the resident Fisherpounce still sported a childhood moniker, Sir Fisher, after being knighted by the then-Sunkit. "We shan't worry about seaweed monsters nor animate tree demons so long as Sir Fox prowls these shores."
Straightening back up, Sunstar shed her playfulness as one might a suit of armor, in keeping with the knight metaphor. Her face was more somber as she nodded, understanding what he referred to without him needing to say it. It was best to remain as such. Images of her Papi's wounds and Pinesimmer's glee still affected her, though she tried to keep up a brave face when she wasn't alone. Her clan didn't need to see the weakness she felt it was. A vulnerable leader was a dangerous one, one that opened them up to further harm.
"Leader is... well, it's very busy," she managed to say once she wrangled her thoughts into something cohesive. The water, as her eyes skipped fleetingly across it, seemed to deepen and darken the farther out along the coast they traveled. "I spent a lot of time watching Papi be a leader so I thought I was fully prepared for it. I know, crazy right?" She chuckled. "I'm still learning it and figuring it out, obviously, but I do love it. It's everything I'd ever wanted."
