Unaware (open)

[Phantom Shadow]

Soft, grainy sand churned beneath the she-cat's paws. She could feel it shifting, moving, brushing against her pads and worrying between her claws. Her calm blue eyes stared patiently at the black tom before her, whose fur looked like patches of midnight sky in the dim light of the spirit-stones. He gave her a nod, and she prepared her muscles for his advance. He leapt into the air and landed where she had been a moment before. The she-cat dodged to the side and then swiped at the tom's shoulder when he landed. She saw his mouth part, a thing that cats did when they exerted themselves. He turned to face her, lashing his tail. Then he darted forward and tried to move into her blind spots, where she could not make out his advances. But she was well aware of his strategy and moved along with him, her eyes wide and observant as she watched him. He launched himself at her and managed to knock her off her paws with his superior bulk. She opened her mouth in surprise. To any cat the sound she uttered was very unnatural, but she could not tell.

Her brother pinned her down with one paw and she could not see the impish grin she knew would be there. She stopped struggling and felt his weight ease off. The she-cat stood slowly and glanced over at her brother with a smile.

"Good work, Hushedsong!"[/b] he said with a few deft gestures of his tail and paws. She nodded and glanced at the spirit-stones that shone softly overhead. There was something of a vibration in her chest.

"What is that?"[/i] she asked with two flicks of her paw and a long lash of her tail.

"I'm not sure. I think someone must be hunting bats."[/i] Burntshadow glanced up at the dark entrance to the training caves that led into the tunnels. Hushedsong wondered what noise a bad made. Her brother always made funny faces when he tried to describe it to her. She glanced over her shoulder and blinked once before tipping her head to the side–her version of a sigh.

She felt a tap on her shoulder and turned to watch her brother sign. "Want to go another round?"[/i]

She shrugged, not caring one way or the other. Her attention was diverted for the moment, but it would not take long to get it back into place. Facing her brother, she crouched and waited for him to attack again, unaware of anything else that was happening around her. Burntshadow moved in tight circles, his tail lashing and his eyes staring at her, calm and calculating. She waited for his advance with an expectant expression on her face.

[Birdstar]

Thrumming paw steps vibrated off the narrow cave walls, they paused and then scuffled around as if some-cat was confused to as to which way her prey disappeared too. The vibrations in the cave slowed until there was barely any sound left being made. Almost like a mouse was tiptoeing around the dimly lit caves underground of Spiritclan.


Pale blue eyes stared into darkness as a small, lithe she-cat slipped along the tunnels of the Labyrinth of Spiritclan, her ears were pricked as fanned across her narrow head as she tried to get a feel of the walls around her and to where they turned or traveled. She used her long whiskers and thin tail to do the same, her ears pricked for sounds, though she hardly had the need.



Every little sound came easy to her, a bird pecking at a worm in the forests of Shadeclan, the gentle lull of the ocean waves as they crashed onto the sandy beaches of Duneclan, the loving purrs of mothers to kits atop the Whispering Hill, and finally the bats that were ultimately silent down in the tunnels of Spiritclan. Despite her disability of having sightless, blank eyes, her other senses were heightened to an extent, except for her hearing which she was gifted with extreme heightened hearing. It pleased her at times and sometimes it gave her a busting headache, she had learned to block most of the sound out when hunting. This particular time, she was closing up on a bat when she head a couple of cats training not far from where she was hunting.



The silver and gray tabby she-cat padded along on her dainty paws to where she entered a cave from which the sounds and scuffling noises alerted her that she had found the cats that belonged to the same clan as her. Her sightless eyes looked around, though truly unable to see anything, just a slight reaction that she would do before remembering that everything would forever be black. She slightly wondered if Starclan could have given her a gift to where she could regain sight, but all in all she was pleased with the warrior she had turned out to be. The small she-cat sat down, listening to the training as it carried on, her tail wrapped around her small paws.

[Phantom Shadow]

Burntshadow was circling his sister when he heard pawsteps and turned to see one of his Clanmates standing in the entrance to the training area. She sat down in the sand, to listen presumably, since Burntshadow could tell even in the dim light of the spirit-stones that she was Desertrose. Who, he knew, was blind. Hushedsong had obviously noticed his distraction and turned to take in the sight of the she-cat.

"Hello, Desertrose," Burntshadow meowed, pricking his ears. "What brings you to the training caves? Was that you hunting bats earlier?"

Hushedsong watched her brother speak, trying to figure out what he was saying. But she was very bad at lip-reading on the account she had no idea what some shapes were supposed to mean. She got that he was talking about bats and caves and hunting but that was about it. Tired of trying to interpret his words, she turned to look at Desertrose. Hushedsong wondered what it would be like to be blind. It would surely be as tiresome as being deaf. Cats always assumed you were weak and ineffectual if you were disabled. Hushedsong twitched her whiskers. She and Desertrose could serve their Clans just as well as any cat! They had both proven that well.

[Birdstar]

The silver tabby flicked her ears, fanning them over her head as she listened to the tom speak. She could tell by his scent who he was, Burntshadow the Healer for Spiritclan. The other scent came from his sister, Hushedsong. She knew the she-cat was deaf and mute, it was hard enough to be blind, for some reason the other cats acted like she was deaf too, speaking about her like she wasn't there, she could only imagine how Hushedsong felt.



"Yes, that was me." Desertrose tipped her head to the side before continuing, "I got distracted when I heard you two training down here." Her ear twitched before she stood and made her way over, her tail flickering behind her to keep her balanced as she tried to determine her distance to the walls of the cave. "Do you train Hushedsong?" She asked, curious since they were both healers.

[Phantom Shadow]

Hushedsong watched Desertrose as she walked slowly closer. The she-cat was obviously speaking about something. Hushedsong turned to her brother. Burntshadow turned to her and began signaling, explaining what Desertrose was saying.

"She says that she is the one who was hunting the bat, but she heard us and came to see what we were doing."[/i] He paused, glancing at Desertrose, and then back at Hushedsong. "She wants to know if I train you."[/i]

Burntshadow turned to Desertrose and nodded slightly.

"I'm mostly the one who works with Hushedsong, yeah." He glanced at his sister and watched as she made signs with her paw.

"I have done training by myself, too, thank you very much."[/i]

Burntshadow grinned lopsidedly. "Hushsedsong says that she can train by herself just fine, though."

[Birdstar]

A soft smile touched the silver she-cats muzzle as she rotated her ears to listen to Burntshadow, "You're lucky to have your brother help you out." She tilted her head. Her sister, who resided in Galeclan, helped her out a lot since the two clans were very close, however her father of Spiritclan used to spread harsh and rude rumors about the blind she-cat before he disapeared strangely.



Desertrose's ears laid back against her head before pricking them up again, she could hear other warriors farther down in the tunnels, some were hunting where the river ran through the basin of the caves. "Forgive me for asking, but how do you two comminucate?" She asked, her whiskers quivered in wonder. She had always wondered that question.

[Phantom Shadow]

Burntshadow smiled at the compliment and signed the she-cat's words to Hushedsong.

"I hope she really said that and you're not making it up,"[/i] Hushedsong signed in reply, her mouth tweaking into a mischievous smile.

"Never!"[/i] Burntshadow signed back, pretending to look outraged. Hushedsong smiled widely and twitched her whiskers in amusement.

"Tell her that yes, I am very lucky."[/i]

Burntshadow turned to Desertrose. "She says she knows she is lucky. Though she also suspects that I made that compliment up to make myself look better." He chuckled.

Her question caught him off guard until he realized that she could not see. It seemed that she did not recognize, therefore, that they moved often when they spoke to each other. Well. Even if she did notice that he supposed it would seem like twitching to her.

"We gesture to each other with our paws and ears and tails. It's a kind of language we made up." He signed these words to Hushedsong, as well, so that she would understand what he was talking about.

[Birdstar]

A soft purr of amusement arose in Desertrose's throat at the gesture about the coment. Her ears twitched again, picking up more sounds before she responded to Burntshadow's anwser about their cominucation styles. "That's incredible." She said with a soft voice of awe and shock. To think that the two littermates made it to where they could cominucate when comunication seemed all but lost was a wonder to the blind she-cat. "I wish I was able to see to where I could comunicate with her." She tipped her head to the side, she didn't often wish to see, she enjoyed being diffrent, she 'saw' the world in a diffrent way than every other cat could, sure other cats would discribe what was around them, but to her she could imagine things that probably wern't there, she could make up a whole world in her head.

[Phantom Shadow]

Burntshadow considered this.

"Well, I could teach you how to say some things, and try to fit it so that Hushed can let you know what she is signing. It's a bit complicated, though. Not many cats can make sense of it, or are willing to try."

Turning to his sister, he signed, "She wishes she could see to be able to talk with you herself."[/i]

Hushedsong smiled. "That's really nice of her,"[/i] she signed. "Thank her for me."[/i]

Burntshadow turned back to Desertrose.

"Hushedsong says thanks for the consideration, though."

[Birdstar]

There was an irritated flick of Desertrose's long, thin tail before she replied, "No-cat is willing to try because they think it's a waste of time. They think we are a waste of time." Her mew was sharp and painful as she growled it out. "They can't see that we are just as good as they are, I don't need to see to hunt or fight, and Hushedsong doesn't need to hear or speak to take care of other cats. We are perfect the way we are." She added stubbornly.

[Phantom Shadow]

Burntshadow had a hard time signing Desesrtrose's words to his sister. The she-cat was talking really fast. He summed it all up pretty quickly.

"She says that other cats do not take the time to try to understand cats like you and her. That they don't recognize that you are just as good at helping your Clan."[/i]

Hushedsong glanced at Desertrose curiously. She had never had many occasions to have conversations with her. With their disabilities it would be difficult. But Hushedsong thought it was really too bad that they weren't friends. She would like to be.

"That is true,"[/i] Hushedsong signed. "Our way of life is difficult, but in some ways we are stronger than others because of it."[/i]

Burntshadow turned to Desertrose.

"Hushedsong says that you're right. She also says that you both live difficult lives, but in some ways that makes you stronger than other cats."

[Birdstar]

The blind she-cat's tail brushed the rocky ground beneath her, it almost seemed as if her pale eyes moved to look from Burntshadow to Hushedsong, maybe just a trick of the light the spirit stones gave off. Desertrose opened her jaws to reply, "I'll leave you two to get back to practicing." She meowed in her gentle voice, "I have to go find a few bats before returning to the camp, I'm sure the other warriors would find something to jeer at if I came back empty pawed." Her tail lashed behind her, she knew that even if she came back with something, she'd probably get jeered at anyways. Cats could be so cruel sometimes.

[Phantom Shadow]

Burntshadow pricked his ears and tipped his head to one side.

"Well... if you want, we could hunt together. I'm sure Hushed would want to." He indicated the entrance with a flick of his tail and signed the word for bats to his sister, his head tipped to one side to indicate a question. Hushedsong watched him steadily with her calm eyes and then glanced back at Desertrose. She wondered if the blind she-cat didn't like being around another cat with problems. They would probably make a fitting but detested sort of pair, and the Clan was already hard enough on both of them as they were. But she would like to get to get to know the cat. Hushedsong felt a vibration in her throat as she made a strange sort of noise and nodded her head. She really had no idea how Desertrose would interpret the "noises" she made with her voice. To her they felt nice, if not odd, on her generally unused vocal chords, but sometimes cats seemed disgusted with her when she tried to make sounds. She supposed they were ugly to other cats. But they felt beautiful to her.

[Birdstar]

Desertrose's ears pricked as she turned to where she thought Hushedsong was, more or less where she heard the noise come from. It sounded a bit like a struggled purr, but a happy noise to the blind she-cat's ears. It almost felt comforting, like someone actually wanted her there, someone besides her sister, who was in a diffrent clan. She felt a slight jump of her heart, a slight feeling of belonging and want. She stepped forwards, her paws almost silent on the rocky floors below. "You wouldn't mind hunting with me?" She asked in a slightly quivery voice, she didn't mean to sound despreate, but it felt good to have someone ask her to do something with them. Her thin tail flickered, brushing the wall and sending a happy tapping through it. Desertrose could feel the vibrations with her paws, but she could also hear, so she hopped that Hushedsong could interprete her own way of showing she was happy.

[Phantom Shadow]

Hushedsong watched Desertrose's reaction. She could not, of course, make out what the she-cat was saying, but she could tell that Desertrose was happy. The way she flicked her tail sort of looked like one of Burntshadow's signs, and a smile lit up Hushedsong's face. She turned to her brother, her expression eager.

"She asks if we wouldn't mind hunting with her."[/i] he sighed.

Hushedsong nodded enthusiastically. She would enjoy hunting with Desertrose, observing the way she compensated for her disability. Since she did not go hunting often, Hushedsong always looked forward to those trips with delight. She also liked to give Burntshadow the time he needed to feel useful. He had always hated being a healer, and that reality hurt Hushedsong. She wanted him to be happy, to serve their Clan as a warrior, but he had vowed he would never leave her. And so they were together. Happy in that, at least.

"We'd love to, if you'd have us," Burntshadow said. Hushedsong watched him and saw his smile. She had no reason to think he would sign his words to her, since she knew the gist of what he would say. So her attention went back to Desertrose.

[Birdstar]

The blind silver tabby let out a gentle purr before responding happily, "Ok, well, I'm sure most of the bats have fled farther down into the labyrnth." She tipped her head to the side, her ears fanning accross her head as she listened for the specific sound of a bat. It was a hard sound to explain, but with her intense hearing, she knew what it was. "There is a flock of them just below us." She turned her head towards the tunnel behind Buntshadow and Hushedsong, "I suppose that tunnel will lead us into the caves below." She meowed, her blind eyes shifted from left to right as if she were straining to see.

[Phantom Shadow]

Burntshadow glanced at the tunnel as he signed the information to his sister. His movements were quick and efficient, and it only took a few moments since he knew how to condense information for the sake of time. Then he padded towards the entrance of the tunnel with his sister following closely behind. Glancing at the tunnel Desertrose indicated, he made an approving sound and nodded, both for Desertrose and for Hushedsong's benefit.

"That's the way," he meowed with a gesture of his tail. His sister nodded her understanding.

[Birdstar]

Desertrose trotted forwards into the darker, narrower cave. Her small, nimble paws kept one in front of another, supprisingly straight for her not being able to see anything. Her long, thin tail waved around behind her to keep balance and to help keep aware of the walls around her, her ears fanning over her head to widden her range of sound. With ease, she narrowed down the sounds she heard to the scruffling of pawsteps from Burntshadow and Hushedsong behind her along with the near soundless movements of the bats along the top of the cave a bit farther down.

[Phantom Shadow]

Hushedsong padded just behind Burntshadow, watching as the dark tunnel engulfed his black fur. She, however, seemed to glow a little in the darkness, her white fur just barely visible. The she-cat's blue eyes stared forward, hard, trying to make out the form of her brother and Desertrose in front of her. She could not listen to see where they were, so she padded quickly and nipped at her brother's tail. He lifted it and allowed her to keep the tip in her teeth, so that she didn't lose him. Hushedsong did not mind the dark tunnels, usually. The walls were often close around her, and she preferred that to wide open spaces, where anything might drop from the sky and snatch her away without her even noticing. Other cats in the Clan had said that such a thing had happened to many deaf kits. Hushedsong was happy to have at least made it this far. She had her brother to thank for that.

[Birdstar]

The blind, silver tabby she-cat flicked her tail, it brushed against the narrow cave wall, sending a pattern of vibrations through it's rocky surface like a message. Desertrose's ears fanned accross her head to listen closely, hearing the slight wing rustle of a couple of bats, unsure of the viberations the Spiritclan cat sent off.



The silver she-cat tipped her head to the side, knowing it was probably hard for the other two cats to see, fortunatly for her, she never saw. With a slight murmer to Burntshadow she quietly mewed, "Above your ears..." She knew the ceiling was closer than it might have felt, just a few ear-lengths above their heads.

[Phantom Shadow]

Burntshadow listened and looked hard into the darkness. He didn't mind it so much, really. The tom preferred openness and sunlight, but the dark was safer, usually, for his sister. He padded on in the darkness, listening, looking. Then he heard Desertrose's voice, and tipped his sister's chin with the tip of his tail to signal to look up. He couldn't really make out anything at first. Then he saw the shimmer of bat eyes in the dark, a glow that was faint but distinguishable from the dimness around them.

"If we frighten 'em we should be able to get them to swarm. Might be able to catch a few." He glanced back over his shoulder and saw his sister's eyes shining in the darkness at him, looking ghostly.

[Birdstar]

Desertrose noded at Burntshadow's coment about frightening the bats above their ears. With a flick of her tail, the blind she-cat crouched low, her ears flicking along with her tail to feel her surroundings before she jumped up, her claws scratching along the roof of the cave, making a painful screeching noise among the rocks. With the fluttering and flapping of leathery wings, the bats scattered, frightened by the sudden movement and noise that awoke them from their deep sleep. Desertrose scrambled a bit farther down the dark tunnel, away from the two cats she was with as her nose caught scent of a couple of fleeing bats. Her ears fanned over her head to catch the specific beats of a certin bat before her claws streached out to slice the bat out of the air.

[Phantom Shadow]

Burntshadow listened and heard the fluttering wings of bats as they began to leave their perches. He touched his sister's chin with the tip of his tail, and she looked up and smiled widely. Burntshadow raced forward and launched himself into the air with a powerful leap. His muscles rippled beneath his pelt, and he felt a surge of adrenaline pumping through him as he fixed his claws into a soft body and leather wings and pulled one of the bats down to the stone floor of the tunnel. Hushedsong leaped and caught one in her mouth, killing it cleanly before settling down to see if she could get another.