Agata Forest || Pine cones

[Sporecloud]

Sorrow and pain wracks the forest as often as love and joy sounds through it's boughs. It's the way of the world, one cannot exist without the other. Such is the balance, and though it is bittersweet, we can only drift along like leaves in the streams.

Sporecloud strides through the forest on quiet paws as if not to disturb sleeping spirits. To most cats, it would seem she is wandering aimlessly. To her, she is looking for something specific. Fortunately her prize is abundant in the pine forest. She is looking for pine cones! Any shape will do as long as the meet her standards. He eyes scour the needle laden ground as she searches for the perfect pine cones.

With how many are around, it doesn't take long. Sitting under a pine tree, she begins to gather the cones into a pile. It is a small pile, stacked in such a way that they wont tumble over from imbalance. At the base, it looks as if there's an entrance to the small structure. She settles beside it and admires her work.

What started as a silly hobby became a comfort, and sprouted into believing in little nature spirits who wander the land. Learning of Starclan justified her beliefs, because if cats can become spirits, surely there are other spiritual creatures out there? She shows the forest respect and care by building little houses for its spirits.

She has always been in tune with the nature around her, thanking the land for its gifts whenever she takes from it. This is how she gives.

Of course, anyone else probably thinks this looks like a silly hobby. She doesn't mind, they are all just mother nature's children surviving by her good graces.

"If only I could make them bigger...." She says to herself. Because what if there are BIGGER spirits???? They deserve a little pine cone house too.​

 

[edenberry ?!]

Little tail going flick... flick... flick.... Anticipation in withheld breaths as they watch careful paws work in harmony to craft, create, invent! What an exciting display... what a unique thing to do. It reminded them of Hazel, how the hatted molly had done some fun ritual to make sleep more restful. Was this another ceremony like that maybe? Dying to know and not getting answers from sitting and waiting, Edenpaw decided to take action.

"What'a doingggg~" they purr the question as they approach, looking between Sporecloud, the creation on the forest floor and back again. It was like a tiny Twoleg house! But small... and... made of different stuff. Yeah! Craning their neck to get a good view, they even crouched down to stick their nose closer to the makeshift 'door' before stepping back and rubbing their nose to recover from the overwhelming scent of the cones and their sap.

"Are you gonna try to live in there?"​

 

[TWITCHBOLT]

SkyClan was teeming with cats who had... artistic or unorthodox pastimes. He supposed it came with the package of having the most open borders of any of the Clans; though the other four surely had their fair share of kooks, he would bet good prey that SkyClan had the most. But... it'd probably make him a hypocrite to judge, and neither would Twitchbolt pretend as if he belonged anywhere else, or would want it any other way. It simply meant... some activities drew quite quizzical glances. Like this one.

A perplexed expression hid itself badly on Twitchbolt's face, and Edenpaw's suggestion that the pinecone-stack was some kind of nest answered very few of the thousand questions whirring around in his skull. "I don't think it'd be very comfortable..." Twitchbolt said through his teeth, grimacing at the mere image of it.​

penned by pin ✧​

 

[Sporecloud]

She smiles at the two who join her, who are understandably confused at what she's doing. Who wouldn't be?

"It's not a den for me..." She says. "It's a den for nature spirits! I believe there are little spirits that inhabit the forest and the world around us. To show my love and respect for them, I make little dens for them to rest in." She explains. It may sound weird to them, though she does consider the possibility that it doesn't considering Dawnglare is their medicine cat and he's weird enough for the entire clan. She respects his views, respect for nature is important.

"We may not be able to see them... But I like to think they're what keep the forest healthy." She finishes. The forest they live in is sacred, it is their home. They should take care of it just as much as it takes care of them.​

 

[TWITCHBOLT]

Sporecloud seemed vastly unbothered by the pure bafflement that was radiating off of Twitchbolt- something that, to some level, he respected. He couldn't help the perplexed spasm of his eyelids as she delved into an explanation of her beliefs, of nature spirits that were invisible and helped run things. While believing in StarClan, maybe it was hypocritical to find that confusing. But- it just seemed like the same abstract sort of... unidentifiable thing his father might have believed in. And oh, how he instantly despised himself for likening Sporecloud, who bore nothing but a sweet smile, to Ravencall. Pushing away judgemental suspicion, he let a smile wobble its way onto his face.

"It's a... nice idea," Twitchbolt said, attempting to sound enthusiastic. He scrutinised the little huts for a few moments, nose twitching- they seemed quite sturdy and well-made. Vaguely impressed, an emotion suppressed by his still-present confusion, his wide-set eyes flickered back up to her face. "Wwww-where'd you even... even pick this up...?" Was it another set of poetry-obsessed parents with their head in the clouds? Or some odd legend that had flitted over here on the back of a bird...? ​

penned by pin ✧​

 

[SILVERSMOKE]

When attending gatherings, everyone he had talked to had convinced him that ShadowClan was the strangest clan. 'The mud seeps into their brain' had been one theory, 'they had lost their senses of selves with grief' was another. Watching Sporecloud play with pinecones, and then explain that they were dens for little creatures, the Lead Warrior wished to make a claim that his own home was full of individuals too weird to survive outside of a collective. Disappointment flooded his features momentarily, his odd-eyed gaze shifted towards the exit of the camp in a silent plea to find an excuse to leave, only, with the sickness, it seemed about as dead as his soul after learning about the other's beliefs. The very idea of beings intertwined with the forest made them partially responsible for killing Snowpath, didn't it? Silversmoke rolled his shoulders. With the clans getting advice from dead cats and the medicine cats seemingly worshipping something beyond them, he supposed 'nature spirits' wasn't the most outlandish use of one's faith that he had seen, even if he didn't know how safe it was to believe in something so dangerous. Still, the tom's mouth moved before his brain, expression, and voice equally deadpan. "Right."

His peer asked where Sporecloud had picked it up and Silversmoke bit his tongue to prevent answering for the other. Former loners and rogues all had their own belief system, some grounded in 'survival of the fittest', others looking to the water and seeing shapes and colours which held more meaning to them than it would any clan cat. Silversmoke hadn't believe in anything but his own code until SkyClan, even now, StarClan seemed more like a guideline for morality than a be-all and end-all for it. "And how do you know when a spirit has moved into a pine cone?" He asked, hoping he would not come to regret indulging Sporecloud in her special interest.


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[GREENEYES]

Greeneyes' own beliefs are an odd amalgamation - one of the Stars and Mother, held together by his own mother's remedies, ceremonious in his memory.

Perhaps this makes him more open towards the strange structures Sporecloud builds than some of his other clanmates, as a bright gaze observes pinecones balanced against one another to form something reminiscent of a miniature den. At first, he wonders if Sporecloud is building them for the kits, for the bugs some of them seem to pick up and name, but it's not the case.

"Nature spirits?" he echoes, stepping closer to the pinecone den to investigate it further. "Hmm..."

It almost makes sense to him, Sporecloud's explanation for why she does this. If Mother exists, and StarClan sends messages through nature, Greeneyes wouldn't be surprised if there are more spirits that his sight fails to see. He wonders if something that small would be disciples to Mother, or if they worked for the Stars instead.

"Have you ever seen one before?" Greeneyes asks, pulling his gaze away from the tiny home to look at the freckled warrior who built it. "What do they look like?" The warrior thinks back to the fireflies that sent omens in Fireflypaw's direction - were they the nature spirits Sporecloud speaks of?
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