[PRP] Finding ones self

[PeterPan_da144]

He had been sunning himself on top of a fence, soaking in the mornings rays. Eyes closed and back nice and warm, his ears twitching and his slight rising and falling of his chest as he breathed the only signs of life. Otherwise, he was incredibly still. It had been a slow morning, and Raff was not due back to the nest until much later in the day. He was to bring something for the rest of the group to eat from, though how much he brought and what it was was up to him. Some cats enjoyed begging the Twolegs for scraps. Raff would frequent the dumpsters towards the end of the day for restaurants. They always threw out something that could still be eaten.

So the majority of his day was spent lounging or wandering.

 

[pyrrh]

Aspen found herself wandering, certain she could find her way back "home" if she needed to, but determined to end up anywhere else. She sighed heavily as she walked, breaking her otherwise silent travel through a territory that she thought probably belonged to someone, or someones - every place seemed to already belong to a cat or a clan or a roaming group of loners - and she didn't know the rules of the lands because her father was so busy making googly eyes at her mother that he had never properly taught any of the three cats who'd been part of her litter. The other two offspring seemed perfectly contented to be pampered and sheltered, at Bast's insistence, but Aspen was frustrated, and resentful, and just so very absolutely *DONE*.

So she'd slipped out in the dead of night while she thought probably her family wasn't looking, having already secreted away a small amount of supplies around the place they lived so she could get to them without having an obvious collection of Things she would be Leaving With, and had picked them up in a haphazard order, giving herself plausible deniability if any of her family had woken up.

Luckily, they hadn't, and she had made her way to wherever she was unimpeded.

Aspen spied a cat nearby who was visible in a morning sunbeam, lounging on top of a fence, and she blinked at him. He seemed *relaxed*, and she realized that it was a foreign concept to her. She stopped in her tracks, staring. (258)

 

[PeterPan_da144]

The soft sound of paws made its way to his ears. Raff twitched one lightly, before listening closely to his surroundings. A dog not too far off was causing a ruckus. There were Twoleg kits in another yard. And not too far away from him was a cat. Slowly, his good eye opened, peering down at the other curiously.

"Lost?" he bemused, before slowly standing and stretching his full length across the fence. His tailless rump stuck high in the air for a moment as he did so, before he shook himself out and sat expertly on the wood. Peering down at the she-cat below him. His pelt showed signs of fights and healing scars, small patches of discolored fur here and there. The notches in his ears were another sign of these fights, as well as the claw mark scars over his right eye. Overall, though, he did not look like he was ready to fight. Instead, his voice and stance was inviting and even playful.

 

[pyrrh]

Aspen blinked for a few moments, then shook herself a little to break out of her trance. Oops. She hadn't meant to get lost in thought, and *definitely* hadn't intended to get caught staring. Too late now, she supposed. She'd have to cover it up with confidence, or indifference. Indifference could work out fine, right? She weighed her choices for a split second, and then just went for it. The only way she would finally learn, after all this time begging to get to be a proper loner with all the skills necessary, would be to just try it.

She jumped nimbly up onto the fence right next to him, using her tail to very purposefully and dramatically flick him lightly in the ear with her tail. "That's in the eye of the beholder, isn't it?" she asked bemusedly. She surveyed the land from this higher vantage point, impressed by how much could be taken in from this specific spot. It was a good one for getting the lay of the area. (172 / 430)

 

[PeterPan_da144]

His ear would reflexively flick at her tail, and he would shift on his haunches slightly to allow her more room. Dark eye looked her over for a moment, and then he would laugh.

"So you know where you are, then?" His tone was clearly very teasing. Compared to a majority of the other cats in his group, he was very laid back. He was never a Kittypet, but he'd grown accustomed to Twolegs, even though he quite despised them now. But he had also been having a harder time over the last few moons with really feeling much of anything other than indifference and amusement. He would flit from one thing to the next, never staying long and getting attached.

 

[pyrrh]

In response to the tomcat's teasing, she rolled her eyes, a soft, good natured grin on her face. She snorted. "Sure, I'm right here standing next to you... whoever you are." Aspen sat down where she was, and purposely didn't make the first move to introduce herself. Indifferent, indifferent. She definitely, totally, very didn't care, and also knew where she was, because she knew where she *wasn't*, and where she wasn't was back where she'd come from, and that meant her location was Somewhere New.

She knew it wasn't really what he meant by the inquiry, but if he had wanted to know something specific, like if she knew whose territory this was, he could have asked. Plus, he wasn't aggressive or defensive or seeming offput by her presence. So, it should be fine to be similarly sassy and oblique. If he minded she would notice, he seemed to have a straightforward demeanor and presence. Somehow, Aspen found that it was putting her at ease, and though she was trying to stay artificially icy, her facade was melting a bit, letting her personality and interest slowly start to leak through in spite of herself. (194 / 624)

 

[PeterPan_da144]

"Raff," he replied, raising his right paw to lick it a few times, before starting to groom over the right side of his face. Seemingly uninterested. "Standing on this fence on the border of my family's territory," he would continue, glancing at her out of his good eye as he washed. Even most of the Kittypets around these parts were aware of the street cats. They would still often keep their haughty taughty attitudes, but to be blatantly unaware of the street cats...

This was interesting. Perhaps she was from further away, or she was an exceptionally sheltered cat who had decided she wanted to see the outside world. Raff had known cats like that. With their holier than thou attitudes that made them think nothing could touch them. He would laugh as he watched them scurrying back home with their tails between their legs after a matter of hours. Not even days.

This one seemed different so far, though, so he was slowly growing intrigued.