[div style="width: 50%; line-height: 14px; text-align: justify; font-family: arial; font-size: 13px;"]There was certainly no shortage of work to be done with the makeshift clan's arrival to this forest, and Rainstep found himself entirely consumed by the ample tasks at hand. Hunting for food, border patrols, constructing nests and dens for his clanmates. His head was spinning in no time, garbled messes of thoughts swirling in his mind that only further fueled his daze. He caught himself in a loop, and one day he sought to escape from it before he could be stuck within it forever.

The tom stepped out of the clan's camp on his own once more, this time heading west from their camp towards the sound of bubbling water. The sun shone bright across the horizon, though the light was preparing to duck behind it and succumb to peaceful moonlight. He took what little time he had left beneath the sunlight to travel, spotting a clearing he had never seen before as the rushing stream grew louder and louder. As he broke past the shade of the trees, he was exposed to the clearing, all of its contents illuminated by the orange sky, a river made of flames running just beside it. Within this meadow lay immense boulders with flat surfaces atop them as though they were crafted especially for a cat to bask within the sunlight upon them.

He dared not venture into the river and the foreign lands beyond it, partially due to the clan-wide orders not the exit the territory and partially due to the fact that he was far from an experienced swimmer, but he was certainly intrigued by this landmark. Rainstep pushed onward further into the clearing, powerful hind legs springing him onto the top of one of the boulders. The stone below him felt warm from the sun's touch, yet not blazing — truly relaxing. In mere moments he found himself resting the entirety of his frame upon it, letting his legs dangle haphazardly from the boulder as he leaned his head down upon the rock.

It was nice to rest your eyes once in a while. Especially in a place like this.

[member=23449]MISTYSTREAM[/member]

[div style="width: 50%; line-height: 14px; text-align: justify; font-family: arial; font-size: 13px;"]Rainstep's eyes fluttered back open far quicker than they closed once he finally settled down upon the rock, sensing the presence of another cat beside him. The clinking of a pebble upon the much larger boulder stirred him, and he turned to meet the frankly unclean form of his sister Mistystream, whose pelt was dirtied with mud and face bore its classical gleam of mischief and playfulness that long evaded his own maw. "Indeed." Admittedly, he grew up much faster than Misty did, despite the fact that they had lived for about the same moons and endured very similar childhoods together. Perhaps he was just truly his parent's son — stoic, ambitious, unfeeling. It didn't take long to realize that his sister was different than him in that aspect, but it had never meant that he or his family loved her less.

"Hunting for trinkets?" the tom mused with the ghost of a smile upon his face, gesturing briefly at the little pebble that Misty had carried with her as he spoke. Her fur was soaking across most of her pelt, a sign of her ventures into the nearby waters. She was a much more proficient swimmer than he, so their stark difference in appearance made sense to him.