SablexRain [Once upon a time...]

[Whiskers]

Ah, this cat was quick. Good. Sableheart was quite patient, but she didn't wanna waste precious time spelling out what should be obvious for any cat who used his noggin-- and Rainpaw had seemed like that type of cat to her, or at least, the type to catch on when things were pointed out to him. The fact that he had noticed the right thing, had seen through what all the rest deemed 'hatred,' 'distaste' or 'disgust' pleased her greatly. She was so tired of telling everyone that Gingerstar did not hate toms, dang it, and she was tired of them telling her that yes, in fact, the leader did. She shouldn't hold the young cats to it; it was often hard to see what was right in front of your noses, simply because you're scared to look right at it in the first place, because the answer isn't what you want. And what cat would want their leader to be scared of 'em? It was easier for cats to pretend she was heartless, because then, she was at the very least filled with the strength and bravery required of her.

But Rainpaw wasn't like her other sons and daughters in Pineclan. Maybe it was because he was truly an outsider, and he hadn't adjusted to the way the clans were or the way a leader was supposed to be. He looked at Gingerstar with open eyes and saw truth there. And the rest of his personality seemed to present itself as an honest, bluntly cut figure, someone who doesn't like to mess around with half-truths, or one that didn't trade in honesty for things that were more comfortable. She didn't know. She hadn't learned enough about Rainpaw to really tell about his character. She'd get 'im within the moon though, 'specially if she charmed him enough to get him to come back and visit. Oh she hoped so. She would love to have more conversations with this one-- and she had a feeling that he had more stories for her, than she had for him.

"Ah, well at least you know where to look," she responded, as all these thoughts waded under the surface, sparkling behind her eyes, growing brighter as she continued to watch Rainpaw and learn about him. "I heard from somewhere a long time ago that 'the eyes are the windows to the soul.' Well, I believe they're also the doors. Enter bravely, Rainpaw."

"But oh-- enough of all that. I believe you can handle yourself quite well when it comes to Gingerstar, as long as you remember she's just as scared of YOU as you are of her! Oh, and she doesn't bite. Much. Well, maybe she does a LITTLE, but I'm sure you'll make the best of that. Ah...anyway! Where was my mind going?

A slight pause followed and Sableheart chuckled at herself as she searched her beebee brain. The joys of being older!

"Right right! Sorry, darling, sometimes my mind, it just gets away from me! Clever devil it is. But yes, now that lovely Gingerstar isn't around...do you mind telling me more about you? I could sense you were uncomfortable before and I know that things like your past-- your family--" her eyes grew soft and she smiled warmly, "are hard to talk about. But if you're up to it, I would love to hear about your family...how you lost-- oh you used a different word-- how they were...ah...taken from you. And if you want, I'll tell you about mine after."

Ah yes, she wasn't sure that it was his family that had been 'stolen' from him. But she had a hunch, and she figured she'd go with it. She had a feeling she wasn't wrong, which meant that Rainpaw wouldn't have to denydenydeny it or avoid it. He could just go on and say what he wanted, or excuse himself if necessary.

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[glowlynose]

Rainpaw could feel Sableheart searching for something inside of him, but what it was he did not know. What were the expectations of those sparkling eyes? What was she searching for? Was she... what was she doing? Was she sizing him up? Was she testing him? Was she trying to determine his worthiness to be Gingerstar's best friend? He could handle her. He doubted that there was much else she could throw his way. And now she was giving him advice, telling him not to be afraid like he actually was afraid.

He wasn't though. He and his Freckles were going to become best friends. There wasn't a single darned thing that she could do to scare him. Well, unless she pulled a stunt like she had when they were fishing, jumping into the freezing water. He could have lost her, dammit! She could have frozen! He would not lose her before they became best friends. That was the reason he was where he was. PineClan did not mean much to him, not really. It was all Gingerstar. She made this place home, not his clanmates. Sure, his clanmates were cool and everything, but Gingerstar was what held them together and what bound Rainpaw to this place, body and soul. There wasn't anything she could do to scare him away, not now.

"Yeah, well, she can't bite me the way she usually bites. Just don't work. Well, I mean, she can bite but it ain't gonna go nowhere. Ain't gonna do nothin'." He smiled, his voice deep and gravelly. There was no doubt that he meant every word he said. Ah, but now Sableheart was asking him about his family. How had she known that he'd lost his family? Had it been his eyes? His voice? Well, whatever it had been, he couldn't back out now.

"Hmmm, my family. Well, it all started once upon a time when a young prince moved to a new kingdom with his mom and dad. This young prince was very lonely, you see, 'cause he didn't have any friends. But one day he met a princess named Analucia, and she showed him all kinds of things about the kingdom, things like horses and cowboys and clovers with four leaves. She fell in love with him, or so she thought, and she used her magical powers to trick him into thinking he was in love too. When they found out she was going to have kids," he swallowed, trying to moisten his mouth, "They had to run away from the kingdom because the king and queen wanted to kill the prince. So they ran and ran until they found a place that was uninhabited, and they established their own kingdom there.

"They had two daughters. The prince loved his daughters dearly, and when word passed by that there was a dragon threatening their kingdom, he left on a quest to ask Analucia's parents for help. When he got to the old kingdom it was deserted except for the cowboys. His quest had been for nothing. So he left for home. When he got there, Analucia and his kids were gone. Kidnapped. Taken by a horrible monster that had ripped up the land and left giant dents in the earth. So he set out to track them. Eventually he lost the trail when it hit a road, but he kept on anyway. He didn't have nothin' to live for no more- just a lonely cowboy prince who'd lost his horse and his herd.

"And that's how my family was taken from me." He finished with a sigh, his whiskers drooping. This was why he hated telling stories about himself. He liked Ana's stories much better, the ones about princesses being locked in towers and rescued by princes, about brave knights slaying dragons and all that jazz. He had no emotional ties to those stories, they were just good adventures. He wished his adventure had been better. But adventures were always better when you had a goal in sight, and he hadn't. He'd just walked.

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[Whiskers]

Sableheart was enraptured in Rainpaw's story, completely enthralled. With every word told in Rain's rich and deep voice, she found herself surrounded by the story, practically living in it. Rainpaw had the voice for storytelling, that's for sure. His deep country accent only added authenticity. Lord, she could probably listen to him talk all day (but don't tell her dear old Felix that; he'd get his tail all in a twist). But his beautiful voice aside, he knew how to craft a story as well, and what a story it was. It was filled with fairy-tale as it was supposed to, but always, there seemed to be sadness around every corner for the Prince, whom Sableheart was smart enough to realize was Rain himself. A cowboy prince, he had called himself. Well me oh my, she had never met a real-life cowboy before. How exciting.

But a cowboy with a broken heart was a sad sight to see. Cowboys were meant to have the whole skies in their hearts, miles and miles of blue and sun and opportunity. But a broken cowboy was one with nothing but clouds. And getting a family taken away by a monster would exhaust any hope left in the already-beaten-down cowboy prince.

But what really caught her attention? The fact that the princess had tricked the prince into falling in love. That was no fairy tale romance. Or perhaps it was too much fairy tale, too much. After all, love was the seed of truth in every fairy tale, right? It's why it was called true love! And if Rain's story didn't have any true love in it-- it wasn't finished. Period end of sentence. She refused to believe in any story that didn't have love.

"That's a real sad story, hon. It's unfortunate you're carrying that around. But at least it's not complete, yet, so it can always turn around, as long as you keep your chin up. And ohh...I promised you my story now didn't I? Well I'll keep it brief, don't wanna bore you too much. It's a good one when you're feeling down though, so remind me to tell you all of it when you're really hurting,"

"See there was this little girl named Sarah, who was down on her luck and very, very sick, near dying actually. I was her cat from the time I was just a baby. She was so sick though that I was a danger to her and so in the middle of the night, I was snatched. I was driven off to some big ol' house somewhere I didn't know and dropped there. I couldn't near believe it, I just knew that I had to get out of there and back to my Sarah, who would need my love and support all the more if she got sicker and sicker. And long story made short, I did get out of that strange house. But only cuz of that lump right there, Felix," she motioned over to a brown tabby snoring only a few taillengths away.

"Without him I'd still be stuck away somewhere I didn't wanna be. And without him, I'd be wandering around looking for Sarah. But see, he saved me. He loved me. And so until you find love, your story is far from over yet. And it will have a happy ending, I swear it. After all, look at me. I'm here and I'm over the moon. And I know Sarah is okay, all grown-up, healthy and happy."

"So I don't know how that princess tricked you...but just remember this: everything is a blessing in disguise, if we know how to play along with life's games. Remember that and life will go great for you, Rainpaw. I guarantee it."And she winked, smiling at him like she had known him a lifetime.

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[glowlynose]

Rainpaw settled down, getting himself into a comfortable position to listen to Sableheart's story. It had been a while since he'd heard a new story. Sometimes you don't realize how much you've missed something until it comes back, and he had definitely missed being told stories. Sure, it was nice to tell them, but there was just something about letting yourself get lost in the cadences of somebody else's voice as they wove a new reality around you. Stories were one of the rare forms of magic that really existed.

All of his attention was trained on Sableheart as she told a very abbreviated version of her life's story. She used to be a house cat? Who would have thought? She was a part of PineClan as much as Gingerstar was, or Crowpaw, and they were clanborn. He'd just assumed that Sableheart fell into the same category. It made sense in his mind. Then again, sometimes life didn't make sense.

He wondered if she knew that there was nobody where her tail was pointing, a space supposedly occupied by her mate, Felix. He wasn't going to say anything though. Gingerstar might think he was a mindless, insensitive brute, but he did have morals, and he wasn't about to go shattering some poor old cat's reality. If it made her happy to believe that her mate was there, he would just let her go on believing it.

"Thanks for the advice," he said with a smile. Sableheart really was a nice old cat. She was like the person he'd heard the cowboys talking about once... what has they called her? Oh! Grandmother. Sableheart was like Rainpaw's grandmother. He felt he could confide anything to her. She was just so warm and welcoming.

"But, Sableheart, how did you get here? If you found Sarah again, how come you're here in PineClan? And why did Gingerstar let you join if you used to be a house cat?" He hoped that she would tell him more instead of, well, not saying anything or changing the subject or something. Her past was so interesting! He wanted to know more about Sarah and about Felix and about the big scary house and how she escaped and why she joined PineClan without Felix and just everything. This was the first story he'd heard in a long, long time, and he wasn't about to let the details fly by.

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[Whiskers]

Sableheart was quite delighted to see how enthusiastic Rainpaw's response to her story had been! Honestly, she was so used to cats rolling their eyes at her-- silly old she-cat, they were probably thinking. And she was a silly old she-cat, but she wasn't so far gone that she didn't know the value in storytelling and in her own tale at that. Which is why she told it and shared advice, even to cats who didn't especially care. But this time...why, it felt good to get a positive response. Sableheart nearly squeaked in excitement like a kitten. It had been so long since a young cat had shown this much interest in her. It was quite a nice feeling indeed.

She smiled wide at Rainpaw and she knew he could definitely learn something from her. She didn't know how she knew, she just knew. It was one of those things, when a cat looked at another cat and saw the questions before they were asked. She could see them shining in his eyes, the silent 'am i making the right choice with Pineclan here? Should I keep looking?" It was the seed of doubt. All cats had one, but it did not necessarily have to bloom.

"Why didn't I stay with Sarah? Why because she didn't need me anymore!" Sableheart exclaimed. "When I found her, she was older and stronger. So very strong, strong enough to fight off the world and not need me to hold or keep her company. Of course I was so tempted to stay...I nearly jumped right in her lap, you know. But what we want isn't always the best thing for us or for someone else, and there's a reason for everything. There's a reason why I was separated from my Sarah, a reason why you were separated from your Princess. It's because our destinies were calling us elsewhere.

"So that's why I couldn't stay. My destiny called me. And I followed, as I always do and...well I came here! And here I believe I will stay. As for Gingerstar lettin' me in, well, it's simply because she needed cats. You see, you came a little late, honey. Gingerstar's Pineclan was not popular at all-- the lack of belief in Starclan sent cats running the other direction-- and she was just plain ol' desperate. She accepted most anyone who wanted to be a part of it. 'Course now, Pineclan is thriving and she can afford to be picky and she needs to be picky. You know what other clans say about the loners and rogues and housecats of the world? Bad, bad things. Letting one in is seen as a sign of weakness. And Gingerstar does not want to appear weak."

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