Welcome to Gaia! ::

Ash stretched and crawled out of his den. The sun created bright patches that danced across the forest in time with the swaying trees. Arching his back, Ash headed off in search of breakfast. Ever since he was little, he had to hunt and take care of himself. He didn't know why his parents abandoned him in this forest. Maybe they lost him, or maybe they dumped him there of purpose. Either way, he was happy. Ash had learned to be completely dependent on himself, which meant he never felt lonely. Of course, he'd never had a friend before so he didn't know what he's missing. I hope I catch a rabbit today! He went along with a little extra spring in his step at the thought of a big juicy bunny.

After a while of wandering around and drinking out of puddles, the wind shifted and he smelled food. Crouching low he hurried as silently toward the scent. Once he spotted it, Ash carefully stayed downwind as he stalked as closely as he could to the little brown creature. Its ears flicked this way and that and his nose twitched like a leaf in the wind, it didn't seem to notice he was there. Ash rocked back on his haunches and launched himself at the rabbit. His claws grazed its tail, but it was too fast. He rushed after it. If Ash had known better, he would have given up and gone off to find a slower meal, sadly he was a persistent fellow and chased it until it disappeared into some tall grass. What he didn't realize was that it had gone into its burrow, so Ash plowed after it as fast as he could. He came to an abrupt stop when his front paw dipped into the hole causing him to trip and go tumbling. Ash yowled loudly as his paw twisted and was yanked from its trap.

Ash rolled around in pain, "Why? Why? Why?! Evil rabbit! Curse you! I hope you starve to death and fall into a snake hole and get killed and-and-and then have a tree fall on you and crush you and-!" He shouted loudly at the rabbit until he heard another creature crashing through the grass towards him. He froze and tried to quietly sneak away, but putting any pressure on his paw caused him to cry out in pain. Not wanting to be found a coward, Ash called out. "Who are you? How dare you intrude upon my territory!" This probably would have been very intimidating, had he not whimpered while trying to back away.

"I'm fine!" He blurted, a little too quickly. "I was just out...hunting when...um...when I..." Ash laid down and poked at the ground. "I got bored! Yes! I got bored and decided to...to...to rest! Here. In the grass..." He patted the earth in front of himself. Unable to see the female cat he crawled closer to her, careful not to put any pressure on his injured paw. He peeked through the grass at her, making sure to stay close to the ground. "Who are you? I see you have a Neck Trap. Did the Forest Killers capture you? Have to come to escape?" Having rarely spoken to other cats or left his territory, Ash was always interested to hear news of the Lifeless Areas. What he called places inhabited with more buildings than natural plant life.

"Me? Hurt? Heh heh, No..." He felt a little awkward lying about something that was really really obvious, but was glad when she kept talking. Food... Ash had been so surprised by this female's appearance he'd forgotten how hungry he was. "My story? Oh...Mine's kinda the same as yours, except that no one came to take care of me...I was alone when I woke up, so I really have no idea what happened. I lived off nothing but scraps the first few months, but as I got older I learned how to hunt. Now I'm able to take care of myself just fine..." He nodded. Though I'm probably going to have to go back to eating leftovers until my paw heals. He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. She was lean and her coat looked smooth and shiny. She seemed to be a somewhat self-reliant cat, if she had the sense to come out in search of food instead of waiting for the Forest Killers to bring her their own kills. "May I ask for your name?"

"Lillian..." He said softly, testing the way it sounded on his tongue. "You can call me Ash." He flicked his ears and nodded, "Yeah, there is a stream that runs into a pond near my den. It's right over here." Ash rose and wobbled/limped towards the stream and his pond. "There, ouch, are some, jeez that smarts, pretty good sized fish, ow, in there. I just, oh, careful now, haven't figured out how to catch them yet." Luckily, they weren't very far away from it, so Ash didn't have to suffer very much as they made their way over to it.

Ash blinked and stared at her as if she'd just barked like a dog. "How did you do that?" He looked at her wet fur and the fish that tried to in vain to escape her grasp. Moving slowly closer, he sniffed at the fish. It thrashed its tail and smacked him on the cheek. "Whoa! Hey! Make it stop!" He leapt back hissing, his tail thrashing in anger and embarrassment. He wouldn't have reacted this way, but the poor cat had never encountered a fish out of water before and wasn't exactly fond of being wet.

He turned slowly to the steam and looked into the water. You idiot! Look at what you've done! Now you have to try. Ash edged closer to the water. It's gonna get me all cold and wet! And worse, I'm going to look like a total bird brain when I fall in for putting all my weight on my injured paw. He glanced back at Lillian, happily munching on her fish. I could ask her for help, but then I'd look weak. He sat awkwardly near the stream until he saw a fish swimming by. Here goes nothing... Ash launched himself as hard and fast as he could at the fish. His surprise at actually landing on the fish was ruined by the jolt of pain that shot through his body and forced him to black out.

Ash coughed and spit up water. He thought about trying to sit up, but he didn't want to risk blacking out again. "I lied..." He couldn't bring himself to look at her. He felt like such an idiot. "I hurt my paw when I was chasing the rabbit you smelled. I didn't want you to think I was weak or anything, so I lied about what happened...I'm sorry if I made you worry."