camp A LOST CAUSE // kits

[nightingalecry]

[ umm this is loosely timed around the aftermath thread! @Periwinklebreeze. @DEATHKIT @Witherkit @/frightkit , no need to wait for them! ]

Nightingalecry feels her shoulders weep with blood from stinging wounds. She doesn't even know who she's faced off with, in truth. The details are fuzzy. What she does remember is far off - a silver and black tail flagging from the gorse wall, racing away with the others of Sootstar's hounds. It had hurt then, and for the time in the interim, Nightingalecry had been scared to check the nursery. She spent it checking the camp entrance, talking (loosely) with the cats that didn't look at her too oddly - until finally, she couldn't hold back anymore. She had to know.

Her heart shatters as it collides against the cold, hard ground. A queen rests loosely around a bunch of kittens - her kittens, her little, fuzzy furred babies. Their litter.

"Where...?" She breathes, and every exhale hurts, as if she's run a marathon. The queen looks upon her solemnly, their own pelt tousled in the fight. A light apology lifted through the air, but no true explanation. Nightingalecry isn't sure she wants one. Everything hurts and she lurches closer. He left - just so easily, he left. They disagreed on so much, this was inevitable - so why does it hurt? "May I?" she asks, and the queen nods and steps aside momentarily.

Nightingalecry dips into the nest, curling tight around her three kittens. She wants to sob, everything in her throat and chest begging her to, but she doesn't. She won't have milk for these young, leaf bare souls - never will - and soon she'll have to pass them on to a queen who does. Her ears fold back as she makes quiet, hopeful promises. She does not pay close attention to other children lingering about, nor the warriors that might've dipped in to check on the nursery.​

 

[RATTLEHEART]

Their mind is a rush of emotion and pain still, struggling to entirely make sense of all that had happened. The rational part of their brain was filing things away in their respective little boxes, making note of the many, many, many things that needed to be done to return to some sense of normalcy. The emotional part of their brain was worn down though, torn between the chaos of the battle and their stinging wounds. They had gone along with Bluefrost to get them patched up, but it would take some time before the ache faded entirely. Pain, though, was not enough to keep them from surveying camp once more, letting their paws carry them automatically to each place they wanted to check in on.

It didn't take long for their path to trail into the nursery, the smell of blood at least fainter inside then it was out in camp. Truthfully Rattleheart wasn't sure who they expected to encounter underneath the gorse bush, but Nightingalecry's presence did cause them to blink in surprise. "Nightingalecry? What are you..." The words died in their throat when they saw the nest that she was settled in, along with the tiny bodies that she was curled tightly around. In spite of the joy that kits were meant to bring, the soft promises that left her muzzle didn't sound like the happiness they were used to. They didn't dare ask what the cause of her sorrows were, knowing a wide variety of things could have upset her - and none seemed like the type of thing she'd want to talk about in front of her little ones.

So instead they just took a step back, giving her plenty of space as their eyes lingered on the kits. "What... what are their names?" It truly felt like so much had changed in such a brief period of time, no apparent other parent to the children suddenly jumping into clarity in Rattleheart's mind. Though they suddenly found that they couldn't really fault Nightingalecry for not leaving - not when she had a slowly growing family that might not have survived the tumultuous trip to the barn.
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[ PENNED BY EO ]​

 

[SCORCHSTAR]

༄༄ Where Rattleheart goes, the calico is never far behind, and this is no exception. Scorchstreak cannot find anger within her heart as she gazes down upon Nihgtingalecry―there is no fury directed toward whichever other parent had so clearly abandoned the she-cat and her kits, no anger about whatever had happened to make Nightingalecry look so broken as she curls around the little bundles of fur. There is only pity, a terrible sympathy that weighs her ears down against her skull as she stares down at the family. At least they won't be alone, she thinks. At least they won't be raised in a WindClan that, looking back, was a horrible environment to raise kits in. These kits will never truly know of Sootstar, and the thought is a comfort.

She does not move closer, but she peers at the kits all the same when her sibling asks their names. Does the silvery tabby even know the names of these kits, if she has only just been united with them? They must have belonged to someone who either perished in one of the battles, or fled along with Granitepelt. The tunneler will not ask whose they are―for all that Scorchstreak cares, they are Nightingalecry's alone. "Do you need me to bring you anything, Nightingalecry?" She may not be nursing these kits, but that doesn't mean that the other warrior won't need anything to eat, or more fresh moss to lie on.​

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[Periwinklebreeze.]

TASTED LIGHT BUT FED THE DARK
WAITING FOR THEM ALL TO SEE​

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periwinklebreeze ❀ 18 moons ❀ demi-boy ❀ he/they ❀ windclan moor runner​

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It takes longer than he'd like to pick his way from the crowd - mismatched gaze searching for familiar silver pelt. When he finds it, he follows - pawsteps light despite the steady throb of injuries that line his frame. It doesn't matter not compared to his sister, to her safety.

" Nighty, " When she disappears into the den, she isn't alone - familiar forms picking their way after. But... periwinklebreeze doesn't speak to them, just presses on by to join his sister and the kittens at his side. For a moment, jaws part wide in silence - but what can he even say? There is nothing that will change what has already happened, that will make things any better. It's not okay - it's not alright.

" I'm sorry, " he says at last, voice a trembling whisper. That he had left, that ebonylight had left, that she will have to explain to her kits why they've lost their father. Nose touches her ear gently - hoping to convey the affection for his sibling he knows they've not always been the best at showing. And the he turns his attention to more important things - like the bundles of fur curled up into her side.

" H-hello there, " he says warmly, with a slow blink in their direction and a cheerful smile on his face. Despite everything, this kits are just that - kits. There's no need to worry them with the problems going on outside the den walls, or to hold their fathers sins against them. Doesn't he know that better than any of them? " It's n-nice to meet you - I'm p-p-periwinkleb-breeze, y-your.. uncle," he says slowly - though at not quite a moon old, do they even know what an uncle was?

Eh - it doesn't matter. He's just glad to be home.

━ actions & " speech, " & 'thoughts/quotes' ━

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T O ━ L O V E ━ M Y S E L F ━ I S ━ W A Y ━ T O ━ H A R D

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[DEATHKIT]

Deathkit registered her mother quickly, taking in the changes that made her seem different than the last time she'd entered the den. She scented the metallic tang that split through the air as she neared, and her eyes widened at the lines of distress decorating Nightingalecry's face. Something had changed, and she could not answer how.

Her nerves still rattled with a feeling that was unfamiliar to her. There had been so much noisiness outside of the den. It did not matter now, but there were many more gazes on the litter as there had been in days before.

"Mm…" she formed slowly. "Mom?"

The promises she made were not understood, but the tone of them breached through her dictionary of words. She quietly huddled into Nightingalecry's fur, paws reaching out to touch her mother's nose, trying to erase the crestfallen emotion in her voice. There was another voice mingling with the molly's own, and Deathkit's vision traveled up to Periwinklebreeze. She blinked at the warmth in his voice, at the last word he said. The kit cooed at him, something as close as she could get to that sound.
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