AFTER DARK [introduction]

[Cloudpaw .]

✵ ღ ☾ I'LL LET YOU DOWN - Her veins are cold.
Her veins are cold.
How does that happen? To be so cold you can feel the frost crawl under your flesh, to feel sick as a chuck of ice forms in your stomach.
The thunder shakes her eardrums as the rain pours, though these droplets are wrong, much too heavy… so heavy in fact, she can feel the earth begin to split under her paws, and the soil beginning to deep as she falls to a muddy grave.
Cloudy? … Earth to Cloudy? Stars girl, anyone home?!
In a mere heartbeat, she blinks back to reality- the one where she is above ground.
Her campmate stands in front of her, ankle deep in the mud while they stand in front of her, their eyes firm.
They mumble something about being stuck, and silently Cloudy aids them, her ears craning backwards against the soft drizzle of the rain. Normal rain.
❝ May we go back now? We have plenty of frogs, and the rain is getting heavier… ❞ Cloudy hums, slightly lifting her muzzle to the clouded sky as if to passively make her point. A part of her wishes she had never gone on this patrol, but her campmate had insisted they needed her tracking skills, but Cloudy had a slight hunch they were on edge with the recent events of the kitty pets.
Patiently she waits, her gaze sliding back over to her campmate as she waits for their verdict.
❝ Speech. ❞

IF YOU LET ME TOO CLOSE​

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[HOUNDSTRIDE.]

❝  Hound can certainly agree that this patrol's gone on long enough. He's never been one for frogs anyway, all'f their odd texture and gangly limbs, but food is food in these grand times. They'd caught enough to feed themselves and a few of the others, and to him enough is enough. He lifts one paw from the mud and sighs as it seems to suck him right back in. The ground's as hungry as they are– thirsty too, if this rain's anything to judge by. Normally a storm's no bother to him, but when they're out like this the marsh becomes even more of a trap than it'd been before. He wonders if that's what Cloudy's thinking of. Nightmares are familiar enough that he can see when they catch someone else. The distance to her eyes, like something's wrapped around each facet of her mind. His own don't come with the rain, but they're not so different otherwise.

She's back and he won't question. A friendlier face than his might ask if she's all right, but Hound's not the one for that. All he's good for is this: a watchful eye and careful thoughts. "Seems you're right. We'd do no good stayin' out any longer. We should get back before the journey gets any harder than it'll already be."​

out of character   tags

• n/a​
•  
• ──── complete information can be found here.
  ──── hound. trans male, he/him pronouns only.
  ──── approximately 30 moons old, or 2.5 years.
  ──── bisexual with firm male preference; single.
  
  ──── a chocolate tabby with ( stylized ) low white and intense lime eyes.
  ──── lean and lanky,  with whiplike musculature and a long, quick stride.
  ──── hound's notable features include his impressive height (fifteen inches at the shoulder), the long scar across the left side of his face from nose to jaw, his very deep, dense fur, and the confident manner with which he conducts himself.​

 

[BERRYHEART]

Berry cares not for the raucous rage of the storm, lashes of rain windblown against his scruffy pelt. It wasn't as if he was well-groomed in the first place, but he looked worse than normal, patchy pelt stuck soggy to a slender form. A sigh pushed through his muddle of fangs, lopsided jaw hanging half-parted- the mud darkened dark fur and poisoned the colour of his white toes. This would be a lot of effort to redeem...

At his feet he cast a frog, caught earlier but cast aside. He would remember it was there, but wished to avoid having its slimy flesh in his mouth for longer than necessary.

Berry was no stranger to zoning out- often he found himself drifting away mid-conversation, especially when he was talking about a topic that he found entirely uninteresting. Though, nightmares brought on in daytime was not something he had experience with. His dreams were often always pleasant, and were one of the many facets that he adored about napping. Hearing their exchange, Berry's eyes flit between Fangs and Nimbus, feeling a muffled pulse of relief swell in his chest. "Frogs..." he mumbled, reminding himself of the one he had left for later. Through mud and marshland Berry moved deftly, with height and energy uncharacteristic to his usual lethargic movements; shuffling along was no good in this murk. ​

[ PENNED BY PIN ]​

 

[BONERIPPLE]

For much of this patrol she has been a silent watcher. Merely allowing herself the time to think and what will become of the future. She has no fear of battle, she has no fear of anything really. After seeing her parents become nothing but food to a sharpclaw she does not think much on life or death. She only lives as what she perceives as an extension of her sister. Someone she can trust and rely on if things get too bad and so when Hare Whiskers deemed Briar to follow in his stead she backs it wholeheartedly. But for now she needs to keep focused on this hunt they are on. Frogs were a meager meal for her and she finds herself looking at the two she had dropped upon the ground. Her tail is still even as she follows the eyes of Cloudy up to the sky to stare for a short moment. Hm.. it would be best to just go home and take stock of what has been caught.

When they finally shift to do so she too turns to go in that direction, falling silently within the group that she had come to known as her colony mates. Her ears were perked up as she looks about the area and she takes a soft breath in before grabbing up the catches she had made and starting to shift through the soft mud and gentle rainfall.​

[ PENNED BY RHOS ]​

 

[Cloudpaw .]

✵ ღ ☾ I'LL LET YOU DOWN - The first voice to echo after hers does not match the face she had been staring so intently at, instead coming from in front of her. She moved her gaze to Hound, noting his steady gaze and matching it with her own, albeit having to lift her muzzle ever so slightly to be able to meet his gaze.
She tried not to read too much into it, she had been the first to speak after all, and the occasional times she drifted away… well, certainly ever apprentice was caught day dreaming for a heart beat or two everyone once in awhile.
The only other response is from Berry before he begins to shuffle away, catching Clpudy’s attention for only a brief moment before glancing once more in Hounds direction, suppressing a quirk of her brow.
❝ Do you think there will be flooding this season? ❞ She mused softly as the patrol began to move back into the direction of camp. Cloudy was never the charismatic type, but anything was better than the thrum of the rain in her ear.
❝ Speech. ❞

IF YOU LET ME TOO CLOSE​

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