AUTUMN KILLED THE SUMMER ✦ LEAVES

[DOEBLAZE]

SkyClan would not be SkyClan without their territory's generous coating of pine. Swathes of perpetually green boughs cloak the land, the only indication of the seasons a broad dusting of snow atop evergreen branches when the days grow short and dark. That, and the smattering of leafy, more ThunderClan - esque trees that dot the territory; only a few of them, lest they be identical to the forest Clan, but enough that they could be used as a rough measure of the seasons. They serve their duty now, as Doeblaze pads alongside her patrolmates steadily towards the ThunderClan border, where the lonely trees are most common.

" Oh, look, " she mrrows, her pawsteps slowing but not quite stopping as she lopes towards an oak, one proudly unfurling its leaves towards the generous sun. Said leaves are just beginning to rust flame - orange at their edges, as if kissed by tongues of fire. Gold and flame hues freckle the tree but don't quite overtake it—merely a couple of leaves there, a smattering of gilded yellow here. Just enough to indicate that it's time to wave an unfortunate goodbye to greenleaf. " The leaves are starting to turn. "

Her raspy, subtle twang is tinged with a slightly rueful tone as she regards the ginger - tipped branches. Soon, she knows, the whole tree will be colored a rich saffron, as if it had never been green at all—making the deciduous trees stand out all the more among SkyClan's many evergreens. Unconsciously, she sighs; the bright colors are a reminder that leaf - bare draws ever nearer, and with it, the evaporation of easy prey and long days of sun. The thought of bone - chilling winds and blanketed snow makes her wince and set her teeth tight together, crimson slush flashing behind her eyelids for a moment before she slams the trapdoor shut on that particular stinking oubliette.

" Guess leaf - fall's coming on, " she notes, glancing over at her patrolmates with her muzzle rumpled slightly in a grim sort of anticipation. A mournful exhale unwinds from her chest, though it's thankfully not even close to fogging in the air. " I suppose greenleaf can only last so long. "

OOC : —

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[FANG]

It's difficult to believe that SkyClan's blessed weather will ever end. Even now, as Doeblaze stops to stare at the mosaics bleeding through the oak's green leaves, the heat feels all-encompassing, oppressive. The heavy weight of his coat pushes him toward the cool shadows at the border, avoiding the unabashed sun peering through the overhead canopy.

Doeblaze's soft, gravelly lilt draws his eyes upward, chasing the verdant marigold curved along one dipping bough. It's a novel concept. There are pines at the border, but they're diluted between pockets of oak, holly, willow. It is difficult to imagine the canopy stripped nearly bare.

A member of the patrol in name and purpose alone, Fang's antisocial nature lends him to silence. In the lull left by Doeblaze's idle musing, however, he can hear the phantom scoff of Cherryblossom pinging against his brain. Say something! she'd chastise. His awkward quiet comes across as frightfully unfriendly.

"Perhaps...it'll be a mild season," Fang murmurs, voice rough with misuse. Yellow eyes remain latched to the treeline. It's wishful thinking—inwardly, he'd never let himself be so naive as to wish for the best of anything.

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[Springshine]

Green-leaf had been unmercifully hot, yes that was true, and it was also true that Springpaw had not done well in the heat. Her thick black pelt more often made things worse for her in regards to her training. By mid-day, her paws felt too heavy, her coat burdensome and so unbearably hot. So much so that she often wished she had been born in RiverClan instead, so that she may slip into the waters and find reprieve there. In the shade of the pines, it wasn't so bad though. Green surrounded them in full force, it was glorious the way the birds sang so loudly, the way life exploded despite the oppressive heat.

Now though, the weather was starting to cool. She was perhaps among the first who noticed, the heat having affected her so, and she reveled in it, let the breeze run cool, relieving, fingers through her pelt. That first day the weather began to take a turn she could have whooped with joy, could have sang at the top of her lungs with all the joy she felt as energy once again coursed through her veins. The only thing holding her tongue was her mentor and her patrol-mates, who she is certain would not approve.

"Isn't leaf fall the BEST?" She asks, as if she has not said the same of every season thus far. Well.. every season other than leaf-bare, which was just horrid in her opinion. "I'm ready for better weather, that's for certain" she asserts, rolling on her paws as if in emphasis to how good she was feeling in this moment.

( ˚ʚ♡ɞ˚ ) my heart I surrender

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  SPRINGPAW SKYCLAN APPRENTICE ; SHE / HER ; SISTER TO PUMPKINPAW
  

  A small she-cat with fluffy black and white fur and bright blue eyes

  ✦ Easy in battle + has little to no formal battle training
  

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[Chickbloom]

Doeblaze’s remark wasn’t incredibly deep or moving. It was the kind of smalltalk one would expect around the prey pile, but it set Chickbloom’s mind whirring nonetheless. Amber eyes darted upwards, narrowing at the leaves that were beginning to mimic his hue. For some reason it only clicked now that the whelp was coming up on his twelfth moon in Skyclan.

The former kittypet had joined in the depths of leaf-bare, so the anniversary was still a ways off, but it was hard to fathom nonetheless. The baby bird had been practically useless back then, yolk-stained paws too unsure of themselves to catch any sort of prey. Chickbloom nodded to himself, silently vowing to make up for that past incompetence when food began to run thin. For now though, there were still a fair few weeks of easy hunting.

“I - I haven’t lived through a leaf-fall in the wild…n-not yet” Chickbloom squeaked in response to springpaw. “But I wouldn’t - y’know, um - mind it being a little colder. H-Hopefully Fang is right, t-though. Last leafb-bare was…t-too much for me, I think.” If there was one thing he missed about being a kittypet, it was stepping into a warm den at the end of each day.​

 

[SILVERSMOKE]

The tabby's broad muzzle was pointed towards the evergreens, finding splotches of brown and orange hidden amidst their branches where other trees had intertwined with them. He felt the crunch of leaves beneath his paws as he walked and with it, came a mixture of anticipation and relief. Leaf-fall often brought about a great battle between the self and the duty. Prey would undoubtedly be scarcer as it fled underground from the enroaching snow, yet, he could move more freely when it arrived, carrying heavy fur that almost seemed made for the cold. Perhaps Johnnyflame hadn't been entirely teasing when he suggested using the tom as a blanket.

As the small talk picked up amidst his clanmates, Silversmoke's ears twitched and he forced himself to look upon them, to try and engage where before he'd just ignore it. A quick look around offered him the insight to believe his story would be a good one. "We were snowed in one moon. Many of the Daylight Warriors couldn't come to camp." Many, also, had not returned to SkyClan after the fact. He considered that the start of his resentment, until talking to others, until experiencing captivity himself - sometimes, it was not always possible to leave a Twoleg nest, no matter how much one's heart yearned for the wild. "WindClan chose to attack that moon too, for whatever birdbrained reason. They didn't last long." He didn't know if any of the current SkyClanners, newer than SkyClan's first leafbare as a clan, would be privy to the story.

He blinked rapidly after he spoke, the silence feeling heavier than a blizzard. It wasn't exactly an inspiring thought he'd offered them, and he couldn't even claim that last Leafbare was any better. Though warmer, they'd lost Blazestar towards the end of it, something he wasn't interested in bringing up with Doeblaze around. "I doubt we will get three bad Leafbares, but be prepared for anything."
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