Private Thread Straight at the Corner

We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now

‧₊˚ ⏾. ⋅

The dewy grass felt pleasantly cool against Jasper's pavement-hardened paw pads. Passing through Whitehart had put him at ease, more than he would have thought possible before leaving his colony. He was pleased with the cooling weather; being a black, fairly long-furred cat, summer's heat had been less than comfortable. He halted a step behind Kosmo and followed his gaze. Whatever the other cat saw in the vegetation remained invisible to him. 

For a few beats, Jasper waited, hoping that Kosmo didn't really expect him to reply to his almost certainly rhetorical question. "...Food and sleep?" Jasper guessed doubtfully once the pause had gone on long enough. 

His insides squirmed self-consciously. Joining SkyClan had been by far the most interesting and consequential thing he had ever managed to do, and he couldn't help but wonder, if he made it too obvious he frankly had little to no idea what was going on, would Kosmo take his offer back? Hunting he had experience with (hunting in Whitehart, anyway), and he could defend himself fairly well, but about everything else beyond Whitehart he was clueless. It was exciting when he was on his own but embarrassing the moment he had company. 

Survival demands caution, but greatness requires daring
⋆｡°✩ ⭒ ──● 𓄿 ●── ⭒ ⋆｡°✩

Jasper's answer was certainly the foundation of what made a cat act and behave normally. Kosmo mismatched eyes moved from the vegetation back toward the black, mif furred tom. "A body can't fight without those things." His lightly into the damp earth as he continued along the edge of the road.

"With enough food and rest a cat can face any challenge with thoretical confidence head on - but we are here for the opposite. For what makes a cat tremble with uncertainty...And for what the body will try to reject."

The cinnamon tom paused near the tree line, looking across the road toward the distant forest beyond. Hidden beyond the layered scents and foliage was where they would stand. Jasper may not be entirely privy to a sparrow's secrets, but certainly he was aware of the medicine cat's talents.

"Search for earthen pods between the clumps of grass. They will have benefitted from the recent rainfall and swelled up by now..." He tipped his nose down into a patch of emerald stalks, whiskers alert as if the muddied scent wouldn't tip him off first as he hummed to himself.

Survival demands caution, but greatness requires daring
⋆｡°✩ ⭒ ──● 𓄿 ●── ⭒ ⋆｡°✩

Kosmo looked up the moment the pale sphere rolled through the grass at his paws as a pleased hum moved passed his lips. "Exactly." He crouched beside it, one paw resting lightly against the rounded surface without crushing it. His mismatched eyes studied it with the quiet appreciation another cat might reserve for fresh prey as he tested its strength...It was delicate, thin skinned, and browning...

"This will do."His claws carefully scraped away the last clumps of mud still clinging to its surface. He turned it once, examining the skin for any tears before giving a satisfied nod. "Leave them whole." He would have complimented the cat, but a bulging thing out of the mud and grass wasn't too hard to see. "Let's grab one more."

Mismatched eyes swept up beside the road, the mud and grass stark against the steel grey of the pavement before his head faced his companion again. "Even a grape leaf may struggle to fit this in it to carry..." Chuckling, he rolled the swollen pod into the broad leaf he had brought, barely fitting over it...but it could be carried.

"We'll have to remember this place..." He suggested as he trotted off, his eyes catching another half buried. Without worrying about the state of his paws, he carefully excavated the orb from its earthen hold. It was a tad smaller than the first, but more brownish. Ripened.

The road remained quiet beside them save for the distant rumble of a passing monster. Kosmo scarcely acknowledged it. His attention had already drifted back to the orb he rolled free. In the distance, the familar black shape of his winged shadow dipped to the ground with something in her talons.

Seemed like her hunt was successful too.

We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now.

₊˚ ⏾. ⋅

A smile almost came to Jasper's face when Kosmo confirmed that he had completed his task correctly, but he stopped himself before he could look like an eager kitten. That kind of perception he just couldn't abide, especially so soon after his recruitment.  The thought of being regarded as some sort of goofy juvenile by the other SkyClanners almost made him nauseous. 

Jasper trailed behind Kosmo and silently helped him dig out the second pod, then followed to watch him pack it up, flicking his eyes to the other cat's face when he spoke. It occurred to him that, possibly, he was being too quiet. It wouldn't do to offend his new boss, he figured, so he attempted to contribute to the conversation. 

"So… what's this for, anyw…." Jasper's voice trailed off as a dark shape in the sky caught his attention. A bird? Oh, the raven. His gaze followed it as it neared. "Is that raven your pet?" He asked the question without thinking and felt his pelt warm with embarrassment the moment it left his mouth. Up until this point he had been ignoring the issue of the raven, fearing Kosmo's judgement in the case that this sort of thing was commonplace among wild cats.

Survival demands caution, but greatness requires daring
⋆｡°✩ ⭒ ──● 𓄿 ●── ⭒ ⋆｡°✩

Kosmo's ears rotated toward Jasper as the silence stretched, his expression crossed between disbelief and personal offense. "Pet...?" That very word tasted particularily unpleasant. "She is my partner. She owes me nothing."

Such a question seemed a scandal, but Kosmo knew that none of the cats in his company guessed the extent of their connection. "I do not command her; I ask...and sometimes she listens." She was his shadow, his eyes...and he was her muscle and shared wit. They were more like mates or kin.

Still, Kosmo acknowledged Jasper's aide to unearth the orb. Whether it be brown from its muddy hold or the exact tint of its flesh, he couldn't be certain, but moved it none the less with his forepaws towards the other leaf.

"She's working just as hard as we are, although her quarry is something else entirely." He flashed the other tom a hollow smile, mind wandering to the details of his vision - ever closer to the reckoning.

Survival demands caution, but greatness requires daring
⋆｡°✩ ⭒ ──● 𓄿 ●── ⭒ ⋆｡°✩

Kosmo paused in the middle of folding the second broad leaf around the swollen pod as the lines of his whiskers twitched. He looked up instinctively at Jasper, giving him a nod. "Oh, a name? Of course she has one...Just not one your tongue can manage."

His mismatched gaze lingered on him before he drew a slow breath. Then, unexpectedly, a deep, guttural sound rolled from somewhere low in his throat, vibrating across his muzzle. It wasn't a cat's voice. "Krrra-okk... rrhhk... kraaaugh." The noises clicked, rasped, carrying rough harmonics with alien syllables. "Ravens know one another by voice just as much as sight or smell."

Finishing his fold job, he assigned that one to Jasper to carry back while he touted the original. The larger one. "It might be a good excerise to see which name she might prefer. In our tongue." After unearthing what they could, it would be best now to return soon.