- Jan 4, 2024
- 43
- 11
- 8
✞ The day is like any other. Blizzardkit—no, it is Blizzardpaw now—follows their mentor back to camp, their silky white fur stained a muddled brown by the amount of dirt that they have collected on their way through the tunnels. They do not mind the tunnels, they have found. The worms and other creatures make for a fun sight each time they trek through the darkness; and they do not mind the darkness at all, though their mentor seems surprised every time they turn around to find the apprentice's pale form standing like a ghoul amongst the pitch-blackness. Blizzardpaw would find it amusing, were they not distracted by the gloomy atmosphere.
The change from being cradled in the night-dark tunnels to being scorched by the bright rays of the sun is the worst part about being named a tunneler. If they had it their way, Blizzardpaw would never leave the tunnels. They have peeled one too many sunburns, their delicate skin unable to handle the exposure for long. Today is no different, and the apprentice makes an effort to extend their time in the tunnel for as long as possible, asking their mentor this and that, idle questions meant to delay the inevitable.
But when the snow-white apprentice emerges from the tunnel and steps into the gorse-walled camp, they are greeted not by blinding sunlight but by a much dimmer landscape than expected. They had not spent that long underground, had they? Webthorn seems just as confused, tipping their head to the side, and Blizzardpaw wonders if clouds had simply moved in more quickly than expected.
They look up, but there is not a cloud in the sky. No, what they find is much worse. Much more unsettling. Instead of the burning of their eyes when they look up to the sun, they feel nothing. And in the sun's place, all that they see is a black hole, with a halo of faint light around it.
"The sun…" They murmur, voice wavering, crackling like dry twigs beneath clumsy paws. "It disappeared. It's… gone." Slateheart. Where is Slateheart? Rattleheart? Lakekit and Periwinklebreeze and Sunstar? They do not know why they have been struck with such a sense of panic. Everything seems okay, it is just that… the sun is gone. They actually prefer this to the blazing light it normally puts off, but they can only think of one explanation for this. "StarClan must have taken it from us," they declare at last, gazing up at the blacked-out sun with rounded pink eyes.
The change from being cradled in the night-dark tunnels to being scorched by the bright rays of the sun is the worst part about being named a tunneler. If they had it their way, Blizzardpaw would never leave the tunnels. They have peeled one too many sunburns, their delicate skin unable to handle the exposure for long. Today is no different, and the apprentice makes an effort to extend their time in the tunnel for as long as possible, asking their mentor this and that, idle questions meant to delay the inevitable.
But when the snow-white apprentice emerges from the tunnel and steps into the gorse-walled camp, they are greeted not by blinding sunlight but by a much dimmer landscape than expected. They had not spent that long underground, had they? Webthorn seems just as confused, tipping their head to the side, and Blizzardpaw wonders if clouds had simply moved in more quickly than expected.
They look up, but there is not a cloud in the sky. No, what they find is much worse. Much more unsettling. Instead of the burning of their eyes when they look up to the sun, they feel nothing. And in the sun's place, all that they see is a black hole, with a halo of faint light around it.
"The sun…" They murmur, voice wavering, crackling like dry twigs beneath clumsy paws. "It disappeared. It's… gone." Slateheart. Where is Slateheart? Rattleheart? Lakekit and Periwinklebreeze and Sunstar? They do not know why they have been struck with such a sense of panic. Everything seems okay, it is just that… the sun is gone. They actually prefer this to the blazing light it normally puts off, but they can only think of one explanation for this. "StarClan must have taken it from us," they declare at last, gazing up at the blacked-out sun with rounded pink eyes.