THIS ONE’S FOR ELISE — travelers

[Starlingheart]

"SPEECH"
Dawn creeps in the sky when they depart from the hills that hold the moonstone within their depths. Tears still stain her cheeks from when she wept over their mother. Watching Briarstar disappear before her all over again brought on a fresh wave of loss. She was glad to have seen her but oh stars she missed her mother.

She almost wants to ask her brother if they can sleep at the moonstone. She does not want to leave the cave, does not want to face the clan and their expectant faces, waiting either for her to fail or save them. Her shoulders feel too small for the weight they would soon have to bare and already she feels weary.

They make their way back home, across the moors. As they do, Starlingheart looks around with wide green eyes. The last times she had been here had been under the cover of darkness, she had been unable to see everything around her but now that she is she wishes for the night sky again. It feels too open here, too exposed. She finds herself wondering how Wind Clan lives like this and she finds herself constantly looking to the sky, expecting something to come and carry her off.

She moves closer to her brother.

// @PITCHSTAR Starling and Pitch are traveling home after the ceremony! Anyone is free to reply before him.
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[Dandelionwish]

Under the canopy of stars he feels so much more comfortable than in his den, its why he left to walk and its why he now lay on his back facing the sky and wondering if Rosepaw was bored in StarClan or not...he couldn't imagine looking down nervously and knowing he couldn't stop what he saw happening even if he wanted to. The rustle of grass and sound of steps has him rolling to his side to look around cautiously and he's surprised the see other cats in the distance.
The dark shapes of figures moving in the darkness has him briefly on edge, he remembers Nettlepaw's mangled form after that rogue got the jump on him and the fox they had chased off not even a few days prior-but after a moment of intense staring he makes out the ShadowClanner's moving swiftly back to their border. His fur prickles uneasily, there's very few reasons cats visit the moonstone. To seek guidance is an easy and dismissive answer but there was also leaders getting their lives, medicine cats getting their names....
He sees Pitchstar first, his spotting all but invisible in the dark and then he sees Starlingpaw clinging to his side. Bonejaw is not there...
Dandelionwish feels dread bubble up in his chest, horror rising bile to the back of his throat. Where was Bonejaw-what happened-why was the leader and medicine cat apprentice here alone...?

He rises to stand from his lounging, head high and tail raised so he's more visible and his approach is not taken as an attempt to sneak up on them; he knew how jumpy Pitchstar was. The chocolate dipped tom tries to keep his voice steady as he greets them, "Howdy! Nice night ain't it? What brings ya'll out here? Hope everythings alright?" His eyes dart from Pitchstar to Starlingpaw, green and gold flashing nervously. The obvious question was there but he didn't ask it.

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[Periwinklebreeze.]

IS IT OVER YET - CAN I OPEN MY EYES?​

periwinklepaw | 04 months | demi-boy | he/they | physically easy (pacifist) | mentally easy | attack in bold #ccccff​

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The boy can never sleep. At least, it feels that way. And so it's no surprise that when he sees dandy slipping away he follows. After all, Sootstars rule is no apprentices out without adults, and dandy is an adult, right? He's not sure if the other notices him, but either way he doesn't seem to say anything until they come across the travelers. He remembers pitchstar from his visit to the feast, but not the other. He stays quiet as he draw close, peering out from behind dandelionwish.

// retro because i finally have a chance for that peri/starling interact

 

[MALLOWLARK]

"We're all looking to freeze to death tonight!" Mallowlark made a ringing joke, thrumming throughout the air with a laugh as he caught sight of all the figures standing in the night. What could they possibly all be doing out here? Trying to catch their death of cold? On cue a cough spluttered from his maw, but he choked it down well enough, in tango with his bubbling laugh- gigantic grin set completely stone-still upon his features, the fluffy white tom made his tottering approach. There, though- there stood two cats he knew not, not at all, and with owlish fascination his silver eyes flung wide- burned into them, fierce.

Eye-contact and a grin, he was dressed to meet a new friend. Friends, by the loss of it. "I don't know you!" he chimed, gaze snapping in a flash between the two. If they were from another Clan perhaps he should, but he had to admit he did not pay much attention to many cats in the Gathering. There were a select few... a select one, really, who enraptured him. From where they hailed, he could not decipher- with that murky smell, perhaps the shadows or the water?​

[ PENNED BY PIN ]​

 

[hyacinthbreath]

♚ Hyacinthbreath always keeps close to Dandelionwish in moments like these, when he ventures from camp and into the territory to take walks with her son in tow. Periwinklepaw deserves peace, trust in him- and she gives him that, watching from a distance to make sure he doesn't get attacked by another Rogue. She wouldn't know what to do with herself if he got hurt because she was naive enough to let him leave camp with only Dandelionwish- not that Dandy couldn't handle himself well enough.

They needed Dandelionwish unharmed. They needed a bodyguard.

Mallowlark is following them, and Hyacinthbreath feels the courage to step out of the darkness of the frozen, rotting heather to join them. It's that stuttering apprentice again, Starlingpaw, was it? And Pitchstar is with her. She resists the urge to roll her eyes at the tom, annoyed by his presence. The one who had a stick shoved so far up his ass he couldn't make dirt anymore. Riiight. She looks unamused as she settles in beside Mallowlark, tail swishing curiously behind her.

"Sootstar gave them access through the territory for StarClan-related events, I believe. I'm assuming that's what it is, if they've come through here." She mutters softly to Dandelionwish, going still in the quiet.​

 

[PITCHSTAR]

he isn't looking forward to the trek back home.

in the open moors, he feels exposed. like a target is on his back, clear as a greenleaf sky, for all to see. in every rustle of grass in the bitter wind, pitchstar swears he could hear pawsteps closing in on him. he could see the cold blue eyes of fleecefur, stalking his every movement. waiting for her chance to pin him down with claws floating above his throat. he could feel the blood spurting with every beat of his heart, coating his neck and chest, while fleecefur watches with a smirk.

he needs to get them out of here. they need to move faster-

the grass rustles again. this time, he isn't imagining pawsteps; another cat emerges to intercept them. pitchstar hisses, instincts telling him to jump in front of his baby sister with his claws unsheathed. he expects to see a pale she-cat pointed with black. instead, he's met with a cinnamon sepia tom he recognizes as dandelionwish. and then, as if the dam had been broken, windclanners begin pouring out of the tall grass. one in particular, the large white tom with the ink-dipped paws, makes the shadowclan leader's fur prickle. why is he moving like that? and what is with that smile?

pitchstar wishes the windclan patrol, or whatever the fuck this was, had left the nutcase behind at their camp.

"we're on our way home from the moonstone, so don't get your tails in a twist," pitchstar snaps to no one in particular. he doesn't care to explain what happened to them; all he wants to do is hurry to the safety of camp.

the shadowclan leader moves to continue, beckoning starlingheart along with a flick of his tail tip.​

 

[Starlingheart]

All the muscles in Starlinghearts small scrawny body tense as the grass rustles. She is not a great fighter, and her body is not exactly what you would call in fighting shape, but she would defend herself, her brother, with her life if she had to. When the fronds part and she is face to face with two familiar green and yellow eyes, when a voice so recognizable it was impossible to mistake him for anyone else speaks she relaxes. Dandelionwish was not exactly what Starlingheart would call a friend, but he was familiar and she knew him to be friendly enough.

Her eyes dart to the cat who stands just behind him and she tries her best to smile but it's so hard to do it, not after seeing her mother, not after the weight of the clan had been so unceremoniously dumped upon her narrow shoulders. Instead she dips her head in greeting. She wants to tell Dandelionwish what had happened but two more strangers come and Starlingheart winces as one of them grins at her menacingly. He proclaims he does not know them and she looks to Dandelionwish for reassurance that this cat was one of theirs. When no one moves she speaks. "E-everything everything is f-f-fiiiine" she says, she can see in the way her brother began stalking off that he did not want to talk to these wind clanners. "My n-naaa-n-name is is St-starling-Starlingheart" she says to Mallowlark, eyes flicking to the other cats as she scans their faces for their reactions before turning to pad after Pitchstar.
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[Dandelionwish]

Dandelionwish doesn't think the name significance would mean much to his clanmates who probably only knew Starling in passing, but it meant a lot more to him in that moment than any of the other commentary he was listening to. As his clanmates formed behind him he felt a prickling along his spine and a cold chill born of something other than the freezing winds. Suddenly they're at the border with ShadowClan and the thunderpath smells burnt and bitter, he's seven moons and shaking next to Sootstar as she screams for Honeytwist to be exiled for what she'd done to Bonejaw; he had sympathized with her then but to find out she was no longer the medicine cat and now Starlingpaw-Starlingheart, a full moon younger than he had been: was.
His expression remains neutral but he knew Bonejaw wasn't dead, Pitchstar would have been much more aggravated, Starlingheart looked dejected but she did not look to be grieving. He wondered what happened and realized he didn't care. There was no excuse for abandoning him....Dandelionwish blinked before mentally correcting himself: Abandoning HER.

"Meant nothin' by it, Pitchstar-just check'n on our neighbors! Safe travels back!" His tail lashes as he watched the rosette tom stalk off and his mismatched gaze turns to focus on Starlingheart one final time with a nod, "A good name, if ye need anything-" The word felt heavier than he thought it might. He wanted to tell her he understood, he wanted to tell her it would be okay; but he knew none of it would help and frankly...it might not. But still... "If ye need ANYTHING at all, give a holler-I'm happy to lend a paw." With a final smile in farewell he turned, squeezing between Hyacinthbreath and Mallowlark as he trotted his way back to camp. He hoped she would be alright, whatever had happened, but he knew that first night alone in the den was the worst...

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