I'm a new soul [closed/cawn]

“Okay, Salmonstripe. You can’t keep doing this.”

The words were sudden, a frown settling across the ginger warrior’s face as he dropped his chin onto his paws, body stretched out beside the river’s edge. It felt like that was what he did most of the time these days, lie there and just watch the ThunderClan border. Sure, it could have been done from sunningrocks. However, more often than not that meant he got unwanted cats throwing comments in his direction, more so than usual. The river was at least quiet, even if it held no other benefit.

However, he could only mope and think about the past for so long, and how many moons had it been now? The tom’s ears flattened against his skull. “You can do this today, but tomorrow, we’re gonna go all the way over to the WindClan border instead, got it?” Somewhere in the reeds, a frog croaked. Salmonstripe’s whiskered twitched, unamused. “I didn’t ask for your input, y’know.” Slowly, the tom stretched his front paws out toward the water, the very tips brushing the cool liquid as he let out a sigh. Not that he really should be spending that much time there right there and then either.

Despite the encouraging thoughts, the warrior didn’t move, simply lifting his head and looking off toward the border once more.

The shape came from nowhere, a ball of white flying down the back with an unfamiliar shape behind them, paused at the top of the bank. For a moment, Salmonstripe only sat there, and blinked. Well, that was an interesting way to enter the water. His gaze flicked back to the other cat, however, they were already turning away. What was the deal with that? Slowly, Salmonstripe turned his attention back to the river, and to the white form batting uselessly against the current. The thought made his chest tighten ever so slightly, old thoughts of Rabbitleap and Rowanstar etched into his mind. The tom swallowed.

However, the cat in the water was struggling, and given her size, well, fishing her out was probably the best way. Especially in the river’s lazy flow for the day. Giving a shake of his head, Salmonstripe slide forward into the water, dipping his head under briefly before surfacing again. “Hang on!” He called out, before pushing himself forward with confident kicks. While there was still a current slowly moving downstream, it wasn’t enough to faze him, as he drew up to the cat as grasped for her flank with his teeth. Yanking, he pushed back toward RiverClan’s bank. Okay, the cat was heavier than he expected.

Reaching the edge, Salmonstripe hauled one more time, thought whether he got the cat on the shore or not was another thing, before his teeth finally gave out and he released the cat’s fur. However, immediately he could taste the familiar tang of loner on his tongue. Masked by the water, but there regardless. “Suddenly all makes sense. Trying to make friends in ThunderClan, huh? I’ve tried that before, it doesn’t work very well.”