Wandering Mess known as Swamp

Swamp wanders hopelessly. His tail drags behind him and he doesn't care where he is going. In fact, he seems to be going in circles. Mud, leaves and twigs are stuck to his fur and his lifeless eyes scan the surrounding area without even noticing details.

A young cat, Snow, bumps into him. She yelps and flings back. Her clean white fur clumps up on the ground and she shoots up. Her icy, glistening blue eyes meet up with the soggy cat and s hint of disgust stains her expression. She gets to her feet and backs away. "Who are you?" She scans him, horror and sadness in her eyes.

He slowly looks up to meet her gaze. His lifeless eyes don't seem to register any of her emotions. "I'm Swamp," he mumbles. "I expect you don't really care though. No one does." An awful stench is emanating from him but he doesn't seem to notice. Instead he lowers his gaze and wobbles on, looking as though he is ready to collapse.

She watches him wobble and runs up to him. "Oh, no, Mr.. I am not gonna let you go on. You're obviously in no condition to travel!" She scrunches up her nose at the stench, but then sniffles as it burns her eyes. "Do you need some food? Water? Maybe even a quick wash?" She puts a paw on his shoulders.

He stares at the cat for a moment as he runs her words through his mind. Did she offer to help him? "I'll be fine. I've made it this far, haven't I? Besides, I'm not letting some young cat take care of me. Fellry taught me to look after myself." he insists. His next step however leads to him collapsing. "A bite to eat would be nice I suppose," he says quietly.

"All right." She turns and starts to walk away but when he collapses she runs back. "Woah!" She takes him by the scruff. "My den is this way." She takes him to a cave. "My brother is not here at the moment." Putting Swamptail down, she ran inside the moss cave and got a squirrel. Coming back out with it, she placed it in front of him. "Here." "A fresh caught squirrel. There's plenty more if you want." She smiled and sat beside him. She was a bit out of breath, but got over it. "Who's this Fellry?" "Is it a cat you know?"

He nibbles halfheartedly at the squirrel. "Yes, he's a cat I used to know." he tells her. He begins to eat ravenously but pushes the squirrel away after a few bites. His stomach can no longer handle large amounts of food, due to his self neglect. "Thanks for the squirrel."

She nods when he pushes away the squirrel. "Yeah, it's better to just eat small portions at a time so you don't overwork her stomach." She smiles. "Your welcome. I suppose you feel a bit better...?" She sneezed slightly. Now, are you sue you don't want to freshen up your fur a little?
"Your not gonna make it very far in such poor conditions. You call that taking care of yourself?"

"well considering the state of my life I feel I have done a very magnificent job. But I suppose I could wash some gunk off my fur... In a river? No way am I licking it off." He slowly stands up. "And a drink would be nice..." He seems more stable and his tail no longer touches the ground. It's still drooping and pathetic, but he looks considerably better. Even his eyes hold more life.

She sighs."Now, a little food is all you needed!" She looked around. "Now, there is a stream right behind this cave. I'll lead you to it if you want." She smiles to herself at the great job she did for helping him. "Now, let's get to that stream."

He nods slightly. "Yeah, lead the way I guess." His mind drifts back to Storm and Fellry and his tail begins to droop lower again. "Oh Storm, I'm sorry," He mutters quietly.


(sorry it's a short one again...)

She hears him mutter something about Storm and look back at him. "Hmm?" "There's a storm? WHERE?!" She looks around manically and flattens her ears. "I don't see anything in the sky..." She looks at Swamptail curiously.

"no. There's no storm. I was referring to cat... My brother." He steps into the stream and enjoys for a brief moment the pull of it against his fur. He tries to push the past out of his mind. If he didn't, what he had done would kill him. He stares at the water allowing it to drag away his emotions.

She watches him as he stares at the water. "Umm... are you all right, Swamp?" She puts a worried face on and watches him carefully. "Uh, be careful out there..." She mutters. " Sitting next to the stream, she lashes her tail nervously as she thinks of what he might do.

He looks over at her, his eyes once again lifeless. "Sorry. I was just thinking of my brother... I had a rough time growing up..." he explains. For some reason he feels as though he owes this cat something. An inkling of trust wells up within him. It's a rather unfamiliar feeling for him, having only trusted two cats before.

She smiles and nods. "We've all had rough times in our life. Don't worry. Me and my brother... we were lost from our home just a few days ago. Now we live her, without notice." She stands and licks a paw once more. It comes to sight that it's oddly shaped, and that she winces when she steps on it.

He clambers out of the stream. "My life has been harder than most. But what's wrong with your paw?" he asks quietly. He hopes its nothing serious, and knows he can do nothing if it is.

"I get the feeling." "And um, I broke it yesterday. Fell in a ditch. It really hurts, but I'll live. Nothing major." She smiles and flicks an ear. "What now? Before I found you, I was wondering. I'm pretty bored."

"okay. I'd try to help. I knew a few herbs and such for small things but... Well last time I tested my knowledge I made a rather fatal mistake so I think I'll stay safe," he says, half laughing. "I killed him." he mutters quietly to himself. He shakes his head trying to banish the thoughts from his mind again. When that doesn't work, he lies down and buries his face in his paws.

She almost puts a paw on his shoulder than moves back. "Well, I'm sure if he was alive, he would understand you were just trying to help. We all make mistakes. Some are just... a little worst than others. But that doesn't mean you have to beat yourself up about it. I'm sure he would be devastated to know you were mistreating yourself. Look, I've done a lot of mistakes in my past, one in particular I'm not proud of..." Her voice trails off. "So just, try your best to... to.." Her voice breaks slightly and a tear balls up in her eye. "Take care of yourself." She says, half crying.

He looks over at her. "He was my brother. My only family. Storm was the only person left who cared about me." His voice grows louder and soon he is yelling. "I killed him. If I had let him be he might have lived." He stands up and begins to pace back and forth. "No, Storm would never love me. He probably wouldn't look at me." Swamp seems to have forgotten someone else is there. In his mind, it's just him and his past. Anger wells up in him and he tears at the ground with his claws.

She wipes the tears and shakes her head. "How do you know that? You weren't deep inside his mind when he was alive. Right now he must be watching down, ashamed. Ashamed that you, his only brother, treating yourself like crap!" She normally never cursed, only when she was really mad or trying to get an important point across. "Can't you see all you're doing is hurting yourself?"

He looks at her then looks away. "He was so sick... I didn't know what to do.. Of the two of us he was better with herbs. I remember Fellry telling us something important about some berries. So I went and found them. I was so excited. I thought I had the cure. Storm was going to be well again. But it didn't work. No, he died so fast after he ate the berries I hardly had time to think. No wonder my parents abandoned me. Fellry died, Storm died. Now I'm here alone. I don't want to be alone. I'm almost scared to be alone. But I'm more scared of getting attached and losing that cat." He sighs and calms down. "What did you do? Or is it too much to bear like killing someone?"

She smiled, then froze when he asked the question. "I..." "When... when Ripplepaw and I were living in our Twoleg nest," She sniffed and a tear threatened to escape her eye. "And Ripplepaw... had a son... but I- I didn't like him, and I told him bad things, about him, and Ripplepaw... he was just a kit-" Tears came gushing down her furry white cheeks, dampening them. "And he hated me. I tried to apologize, but then, the next day, he was gone... he was only 3 moons old... I've, I've never seen him ever since." She was now looking straight at the ground, a puddle of tears at her paws. "When Ripplepaw came back from his hunt, I told him a badger chased him away. I never told him the truth. And I don't know what to do." Her muzzle was trembling as she spoke and her ears were drooping sadly.

Swamp nods understandingly. "It's hard isn't it? Dealing with things and having no one you can tell..." He sighs. "But like you said, we all make mistakes. You didn't mean to make him runaway, and it was his own choice too. Besides, he could be having the time of his life out there. Maybe he found someone who taught him to hunt and fight..." In his mind though, Storm had found more negative options. Maybe the cat was alive, but was starving and getting beat up.