just keep running, just keep running...

[cadmiumsundance]

MRROW!

Caddy reared up in surprise when a glass vase burst into his tail. He turned, hissed, jumped to the other side of the fence. Ignoring his stupid owner's calls. Owner? He's not even fit to be an owner. he thought furiously, darting forward. His paws led the way. He didn't know where he was going. Somewhere. Somewhere better than over there. he thought, giving an angry hiss. But Mr. Brown wasn't part of his life anymore. Just a memory. A very vivid memory.

His paws soon found an old dirt road that he recognized. He started licking the smear of blood on his tail from the vase, pulling out small shards of glass. A new beginning. he meowed, narrowing his eyes at the wind buffeting his fur. It was becoming nighttime, but his bright blue orbs lit the way for him. He darted across the road two seconds before a car zoomed past.

[yoyo]

Well, she didn’t exactly want to set up an orphanage for newly abandoned cats, but… The need in her to help someone was overpowering. A call to her that she needed to answer. Like being hungry, for example. Only, in this case, she was hungry for… For what? She wasn’t looking for thanks or for other cats to be in her debt. She was looking for… For that feeling when you’ve done good. The silver tabby couldn’t exactly explain it. It was just this warm kind of feeling that she got when she helped someone else. She sighed, giving up on trying to explain it. It was just this… Feeling. She’d leave it at that.

Her research had told her that all the new strays came here. She wasn’t sure why. Maybe the humans thought that this was a convenient place to drop off their unwanted kitties. Or maybe the road was… MAGIC! She had played with that idea for a while, thinking that maybe long ago dragons were abandoned here by their human owners, and the dragons had made the road magic. But wouldn’t magic go bad after a while like milk? Thus, this theory was soon proved invalid. Ah well, Detective Juniper wouldn’t rest until she found the answer!

Smiling, she made her way to the road, and just as she did, she heard a cat speaking. Yes! My lucky day,’ She thought, and smiled a little bigger. With a new spring to her step, she started to walk up to the cat. But, not before a car came out of no where and almost hit her. She hissed and her fur fluffed up. Not the best way to make a good first impression. She licked a paw and tried desperately to flatten her fur so that she didn’t look disheveled in front of the newcomer. Like she dodged cars everyday. But there was nothing she could do to stop the rapid pounding of her heart, which she was almost certainly sure the tom would hear. ’Get over yourself,’ She said to herself and stood up, looking at the tom as if she had only just noticed him.

She quickly sized him up and decided that he appeared to be friendly enough. So, giving him a small smile, she introduced herself. ”Hiya. I’m Juniper Stormfeather. Are you new here?” By ‘here’ she meant this region that lots of strays like her called home. She wasn’t entirely sure why they all decided to live here, or why they all ended up here. They just had, and it was as close to a safe haven for cats as there ever was, and Juniper called it home.

[cadmiumsundance]

The car's wind along with the wind of the night almost knocked him over. He didn't quite clear the road. His claw touched the car's tire lightly. The result? He felt on his nose and rolled over in some mud. Angry, he started washing himself. The mud coated his light ginger fur brown. His blue eyes were like blue flashlights in the night. As he looked up, he saw a pretty silver she-cat. She seemed friendly enough. Maybe she could help him. As she watched him, he saw her lips moving. He relied in his ears for the rest and resumed licking himself. He was really embarrassed. This stray must think he was stupid, getting in the way of a car like that. The mud tasted horrible and cold on his tongue, but he kept lapping and lapping. Juniper Stormfeather. he thought. He waited for her to finished her sentence before looking up, ears perked.

Hi. He gave a sheepish smile. I'm Cadmium Sundance. He licked one last bit of fur off of his shoulder and glanced guiltily at his paws. Sorry if I splashed any mud on you. He needed friends out here. He didn't know anything, and he needed to know something. He hoped that Juniper would help him. She has a nice name, he thought, and smiled a little bit.

[yoyo]

She wanted to laugh, but she was afraid that the tom would take it the wrong way. She didn’t want to laugh at him, but rather, more with him. Well, not really that either. She wanted to laugh at both of them. Because they had both almost met their death with that car, and she was pretty sure that he had been as embarrassed about it as she had. Settling for another smile, she kneaded the ground with her paws to try and rid herself of some of the left-over adrenaline that she was still feeling after barely escaping from the unforgiving tires of the human invention.

Laughter still danced in her hazel eyes as he spoke to her. She hoped that if he picked up on it, he didn’t take offense to it. Because… Well, the reason had already been explained, and we’ll try not to be redundant. Fair? Anyway, so her eyes danced with this laughter; More like sparkled, really. It was a common thing for Juniper to have her brownish-green eyes express this kind of emotion. She was usually always in a good mood, and loved to laugh.

Inwardly, she sighed. If only everyone loved to laugh like she did! Like that stick-in-the-mud-I-can’t-tell-you-my-name-until-you-save-my-life Sable Frozenleaf. But she was determined to change that about him! He deserved to laugh, he was pretty nice if you looked underneath the surface. To her, he was like clay in her hands. Waiting to be shaped. And she would shape him to love to laugh! And hopefully, he would have many reasons to laugh. She wanted to laugh at herself at that moment. ’So selfless, huh, Juniper?’ She smirked.

”Hello. It’s nice to meet you,” Juniper said, giving him a warm, friendly smile. She would help him, no matter what, she decided. He was too friendly not to! She remembered the last cat she had met out here by the road. Sable, of course. They had an… interesting first encounter which ended up with Juniper screaming at him. Not a good first impression, really. ”No worries! No mud got on me, actually, and even if it had, no biggie, it’d come off,” She said, still able to keep that smile on her face. Really, anyone would think that it was permanently frozen there. ’Cadmium Sundance,’ She repeated in her head, ’That’s and interesting name. Kind of poetic, actually…’ She quickly stopped herself before she forgot to talk to him. She had a habit of doing that sometimes. ”Are you a new stray? Do you need any help? We could be friends,” She offered, not trying to overwhelm him, but unable to stop herself from blurting everything out. This was Juniper Stormfeather, after all.

[cadmiumsundance]

The laughter glimmered in her Juniper's eyes. Caddy was about to narrow his eyes when he thought o f this - she was so friendly...why would she want to tease him? So he let out a short purr. He kind of liked this Juniper already. She was better than Mr. Brown, being stuck in a dog house and only coming out when his fat little friends were around. Maybe being on the streets would be nice.

Caddy smiled when Juniper said it was nice to meet him. You, too, he purred, and licked the last bit of mud off. She reassured him that he got no mud on her. Caddy's smile couldn't have been brighter. He was getting a safe feeling inside, but not outside. It was getting darker little by little, and now he felt a little chill. I wish I had extra furs, like humans, he thought.

Are you a new stray? Do you need any help? We could be friends, she asked.

Now Caddy was sure she wasn't bad. Sure. I'd love to be friends. And....I do need a lot of help. I don't know anywhere around here. he purred.