A Little Snooping

The deep brown tom swiftly ran through the IvyClan territory, not really caring if he was caught. He was actually looking forward to finding someone amongst the brush. Unable to see very well from his position, he clawed his way up a tree. It was a little taller than the rest so he could see farther. With his ears perked, he simply waited on the highest branch of the tree.

A pale white she-cat with faint golden markings silently padded through the forest. She had heard pawsteps that sounded unlike that of prey and more like that of another cat. Deciding to investigate, the young warrior had also scented the presence of a cat she didn't recognize. Their scent was not like that of a clan cat, rather, more like that of a rogue or loner.

Silentstep's ears were pricked as she padded past one of the taller trees in IvyClan territory. She stopped however and looked up as she recognized the marks on its trunk as claw marks. The scent she had detected earlier also surrounded the marks.

She looked up, seeing the brown tabby tom in one of the higher branches. The pale she-cat prepared herself for an impending attack as she took a few pawsteps away from the trunk.
A small hiss escaped from Silentstep's jaws as she attempted to ask the loner what he was doing on IvyClan territory.

Wolfeye had made himself cozy in his little nook, and even caught a bird while he was waiting. When he had finished the loner scattered them at the base of the tree, not bothering to properly dispose of them. After his meal hie splayed himself out on the branch so that his paws dangled.
After thinking no one would come, out of the blue appeared a brightly-colored she-cat. His gaze almost immediately found its way to her face. He wasn't startled by the hiss at all, but rather amused and he chuckled at her reaction.
"Hello there," he began, noticing how the cat was at a loss of words. She was obviously of Ivyclan as her scent was masked by their own. But of course, it didn't bother him.

IvyClan didn't get many cats on their territory that weren't clan cats, so Silentstep was unsure of how to go about this. Of course.. she knew she was probably supposed to chase the loner out. he was eating their prey after all... but these cats knew nothing of the warrior code and for all she knew, could know nothing of clan boundaries.

However, Silentstep managed to pluck up her courage slightly, the feathers and bones that lay at the bottom of the tree reminding her that she couldn't just leave him be.

"W-what are you doing on IvyClan territory?"
The question, much to her disappointment, sounded more like the beginning of a friendly conversation rather than having a tone that told someone else that they shouldn't be here.

He couldn't help but examine her and stayed silent for a minute or so. He didn't hear her coming, so she must be pretty light on her paws. But at the same time she gave off a nervous appearence.
Seeing the cat's desperation causing her to stutter, he decided that he had more of an advantage. Even with this, he wouldn't climb down the tree as he wasn't a fool. He has had a good amount of experience to know how to avoid trouble and staying on his ledge was a good choice.

Instead of climbing down, Wolfeye chose to continue with his laid-back approach since it seemed to be working.
"Oh so this is Ivyclan territory? You sure have have delicious prey roaming around...Is there something wrong with me being here?" he meowed, making himself look innocent. Despite being a loner, the large tom knew enough of tthe warrior code to answer his own question.

"Well.. yes... actually," she replied. her naturally friendly personality seemed to be shining through despite the fact that this was a loner, a cat she had never even seen before.
"We have many cats to feed in the clan so we'd rather not have loners and rogues stealing it from us!"

Silentstep's pale fur made her stand out in a forested territory such as IvyClan's. It was lucky that one of her talents was her perfectly silent pawsteps, otherwise there was no doubt that her pelt colour would cause her to be a rather poor hunter.

However her silent pawsteps weren't the only one of her talents. A second, admittedly less useful ability of hers was her instinctive deductions. For some reason, she couldn't quite put her paw on it, but she felt that this loner wasn't as clueless about clan ways as he made himself out to be.

"But how am I in any way being a thief?" He continued, asking another uneccesary question. Before she could answer, he let out a sigh and climbed carefully back down onto the forest floor. She didn't seem to be much of a threat and it looked as though no one from her clan was around. He took a few steps towards her then sat down.
Just out of curiosity, he even turned away for a second to see if she would spring into action.
If she did, it was okay with him because he could easily overpower her. But he really wanted to test her, she seemed friendly enough.

Silentstep opened her jaws to answer but then realized the loner was climbing down the tree. She took a few silent pawsteps backwards as if she didn't want to be too close to him. Once he sat down, she seemed to relax slightly. Even so, the young she-cat didn't sit down. She remained standing, her blue eyes searching for even the slightest malicious intent in the tom before her.

She watched as he turned away. It was only for a few seconds but she knew there was nothing he could do by just turning. If anything, he was creating an opening for her. He was either being extremely foolish, or rather tactical. Even so, the pale furred she-cat didn't make a move against him. Instead she simply flicked her tail at the tom's movement.

Not surprised by her failure to attack him, the tom turned his attention back to her. He still didn't scented or heard anyone and knew that she was alone for sure.
"So are you going to run me out or what?" Yet another experiment, but it was a little more risky. He was a good distance away though, not too close, yet not too far.
Wolfeye really didn't know what he intended to do if she still didn't budge. He would probably wander off on his own or, he could stay put and have fun with his naughty tricks and shenanigans. Choices, choices, he thought to himself, starting to move off-topic.

"In all honestly I don't know what i'm going to do." she replied, deciding to be up front honest with the loner.
"Even you could tell that if I got in a fight with you, your bigger stature and frame would overpower me and you would win. Which means physically chasing you out would be impossible as it would come out in pretty much the same way. All I can do is watch you until another cat comes or you leave of your own accord."

Silentstep probably shouldn't have said everything so bluntly like that, but to her the tom didn't seem like he was a bad cat. And besides, he wasn't a rogue, otherwise he would no doubt have tried to fight her already.

Even though he had predicted her not to run dumbly after him, what he didn't expect was for her to give him an entire list of reasons as to why she wouldn't.
It was silent for a moment as he tried to conjure up a reply, but he couldn't. He felt weird, the strange sensation of sypathy overwhelming him. It was unwelcome and he tried to shake it off.
Finally, he let out a huff and spoke,"I know what you're doing. You're trying to persuade me by making me feel guilty..." What he didn't add was the fact that it was working. With another fired up huff, he seemed to leave, disappearing into the bushes. But instead of going for good, he came back a few moments later with a fat vole in his mouth.
"Here, take it...er...it's a..." after trying to think of exactly what it was for, he simply ended with "Just take it."

Silentstep watched the loner with her head tilted slightly as the short moment of silence seemed to draw on longer than she would have expected. At the tom's reply she blinked. She hadn't meant to truly do anything. Silentstep really wasn't a strategic cat, though sometimes this could come handy as an advantage as the little unexpected things she did would often be interpreted in a certain way by the offensive party. Such as what had just happened. The young she-cat resisted the urge to chuckle slightly.

She then realized that the tom had gotten up. He disappeared into the bushes. Silentstep remained standing there for a second before she sat down, her golden striped tail neatly curled around her paws and her head still slightly tilted.

The same loner returned a few moments later with a vole hanging limply from his jaws. Blinking again, she watched as he put it down and struggled to define why he had given it to her.

"Thankyou?" she replied, a small note at the end of the word made it sound almost like a question. Her head tilted to the opposite side before she glanced at the plump vole on the forest floor.

Wolfeye had gotten the vole yes, but why? He wasn't exactly sure, maybe it was becaause he felt sorry for taking their food. Well it didn't matter now, as he had already gotten it, and now there was yet another pause. He wasn't acting like his usual self and his cunning words seemed to disappear.
The utterly confused Wolfeye soon made a quick recovery though as he finally grasped an idea of what was going on once more.
"I have nothing but one question...why don't you just go and get help, I could be sitting here for a long time you know." he said, speaking with a smirk on his face.

Silentstep shrugged as best as a cat could.
"I guess if I just walk away now you could find a hiding place anywhere on our territory. Of course we'd find you again eventually but you could end up stealing our prey for months. "
The young she-cat didn't see any need to skirt away from the truth since she had already left herself open to whatever the loner might throw at her.

The pale furred warrior got back onto her feet and picked up the vole. She wandered over to the trunk of a nearby tree to bury it for later when she could find it again and bring it back to the camp. Since she wasn't hungry there was no reason why someone else in the clan couldn't have it.

"So what exactly are you planning to do? Follow me around until help comes? What if I were to attack you right now? There's no one around to hear you and for all you know, I could be a dangerous rogue looking for someone to fight or even worse." With this, he unsheathed his claws with the same smirk on his face as she turned her back to him. He didn't stand to attack, as he was just toying with her and really didn't plan on harming anyone other than the poor vole and unspecified bird.
By now, he knew, she would probably answer him with some smart answer, which pestered him like a biting flea. But that partially added on to his fun because that meant that he could keep trying with different tactics to get her to leave. Tactics that he could use for later encounters. There he was going off-topic again.

"If you were a rogue you would have attacked me by now already. Which means your not and you're just a loner." she replied as she finished burying the vole. When she turned back around she didn't even give the now unsheathed claws a second glance, knowing from his previous statement that at least for now, it was just a bluff.

"What I don't see is why you continue to bait me with your comments. Do you want me to attack you?"

He sheathed his claws, but he was still not satisfied. Before he could retort to her answer she had already thrown a question aat him. He had to think for a moment.
"No, I just like to bother people. Or maybe that would be a yes..." he said purposely, trying as best as he could to hold in his chuckles.

The pale she-cat sat down again, her bright blue eyes continuing to watch the loner's every move.
"Well if the answer was yes you'd be waiting for a rather long while.
Why would you want to bother other cats anyway. It's not like you get anything out of it, except maybe a few scratches from a cat who you push one step too far."

Wolfeye didn't change his facial expression as he didn't before. "Oh, is that so?" he meowed sounding rather content with himself. The time during the conversation he seemed to be inching closer. He disguised the movements with stretches so that it would at least take a while for the warrior to notice.

"I never said anything about it happening. It's just a possibility. Some cats have a rather short temper actually."
Her mind flashed back to when she had spent part of her kithood in the elders den. Some of the elders could get pretty snappy over some of the silliest things.

Silentstep watched the loner carefully as he continued to stretch. Though she didn't show it, she was a little uneasy as no cat she had ever seen before stretched that much.

By now, he was no more than a foot away. At the same moment he reached that distance, the tom executed a leap and pinned her. But as he didn't intend on hurting her he only stayed that way for a few moments before letting go.
"Well you had a flaw in your plan. You're forgetting that some cats have patience and brains. If I were a rogue, I could have just killed you right there! I know I'm devilishly handsone," he said pausing for a moment,"But you don't know who. You can trust out here." He didn't know when this had turned into a full blown lesson...maybe he got bored.

Silentstep rolled her eyes. Though she was weaker than Wolfeye, as soon as he let her go she leaped at him and pinned him in return. The retaliation wasn't something that she wouldn't normally do, so in this way, she knew she would at least surprise the loner.
"There never was any plan you know." she replied truthfully before she too let go of the tom. She stayed on her feet despite the fact that she doubted this loner would actually try to harm her.

"So what happened to the whole being a hero and doing it solo thing?" he replied, getting back on his paws. He didn't expect her to attack him atleast not so quickly. He shock his fur to get the dirt off and started scratching his ear. In all truth, it was pretty hard to keep such dense fur clean by himself.

She shrugged, flicking her tail and quickly glancing up at the sky before returning her bright blue gaze to the loner who was now cleaning his incredibly long pelt.
"You could always just bathe in the river." she commented, noticing how hard it seemed to be for him to clean his dense fur.

"Heck no! Are you crazy?!" he shouted, suddenly seeming more lively than ever."If I go-" and suddenly he cut himself off with a grunt."I don't know, maybe you should try feeling how comfortable it is to have your thick fur drenched in cold water for a good amount of time." he said, as if he thought she was being dumb.