camp creaking trees | nightmares

[magpie!]

AMÉLIE

---

Although Amélie had finally gotten used to life in SkyClan, the nightmares hadn't stopped.

That night was particularly bad, actually; she awoke just past moonhigh with a start, coming straight from a foxhound's crushing jaws into the icy chill of a leaf-fall midnight. Now that many of the kits had left the nursery to become apprentices, Amélie felt profoundly alone, and the nights were only getting colder. When the little kitten (still little despite being a moon away from apprenticeship herself) made her way out of the nursery and into the frigid open air, tears hot on her cheeks, her eyes were instinctively drawn up to the sky.

She didn't want to think about dogs, or about teeth, or about pain. She didn't want to think about anything at all. A few tiny sniffles left her, and after wiping a paw over her face, her whispering voice broke into a soft sob.

She just wanted to go home. ​

---

SMALL AND CUTE ♡ SKYCLAN KIT ♡ TAGS​

 

[TWITCHBOLT]

Knowing the pain of being ravaged by nightmares with no warm love to lull you back to sleep, perhaps it was fate that Twitchpaw awoke that night from a terror as well. From practice- and after a lot of complaining from his denmates- the bicolour tom had learned to suppress his shrieks when he awoke from the throes of a particularly nasty slumber, instead electing to bolt out of the fern-curtained exit of the apprentice den and into the frigid night air. Taking heaving gasps, steadying his heartbeat and knowing seeking comfort with his parents was pathetic at his age- and would likely be fruitless anyway- Twitchpaw collapsed to a seat, letting his odd eyes adjust.

Oh- there was someone out. Not someone but a kitten, eyes glassy in the pale moonlight. For a moment he sat in complete static, rime creeping at his bones from the shock- but away did he shake the frost, a physical twitch bending his neck and bringing him to his feet. On feather-light paws he made a careful approach, clearing his throat quietly in an effort not to startle the child. "Hey, hey- it's... alright. Did you..." he hesitated, swallowing. A stupid question, really- why else would a kit be up in the night? But he had to ask, he had to. "Did you have a bad dream?"

Voice low, wide eyes aswim with shaky compassion, he awaited an answer. Or companionship, for he knew not how useful he was at diffusing something like this...​

penned by pin ✧​

 

[MORNINGPAW ☆]

╭── ⋅ ⋅ ── ✩ ── ⋅ ⋅ ──╮​

Her first night away from her mother. Morningkit's sleep is light. Every movement in the foreign SkyClan nursery disturbs her, sends eyelids flicking to reveal anxious blue eyes. She's feeling the warm, heaving flanks of her littermates against her, but they are not Little Wolf, and she finds herself desperately homesick. She loves their father, and SkyClan is okay, but she wants her mother. She wants her grandmother, her uncles, her aunts, her cousins. She wants her home.

Another kit, one she did not know and who had not spoken to them when they'd been brought into camp, jolts awake. Her fear scent is bitter. Morningkit watches the muscles twitch beneath her pelt, the silvery rain of tears shining on her cheeks as she leaves the nursery.

She frowns. It makes her sad to watch this kit she does not know sad. Why is she crying? Where is her mother, her father? Morningkit knows if she has a bad dream, she can at least go find Blazestar, or she can talk to one of her brothers or sisters.

But this kit seems to be very alone.

Morningkit trails her, poking her head out of the nursery's opening. Moonlight illuminates her pale fluff, her wide cerulean eyes. She watches a strange older cat approach, an apprentice, and try to reassure the sad girl.

She sits on the other side of the crying girl, face drawn with sympathy. "Don't cry. It's going to be okay." Her voice is soft. "Do you want to share the nest with us? I don't know if you'll fit, but... but maybe if not, I can share your nest? S-sometimes that helps me, if I have a bad dream... if I get closer to my mother."

- ,,​

​

 

[magpie!]

AMÉLIE

---

When Twitchpaw first approached, Amé was apprehensive, but she recognized her from her silent days of observing the camp from a faraway corner -- one of the apprentices. His comfort brought her away from the heavy emotions of terror for a brief moment, but the question brought it all back in an instant, and with a quiet squeak, Amélie nodded and lowered her head. A nightmare. A very bad one, at that -- dogs, and twolegs, and teeth, and blood.

It was so strange, though. Even now, as she thought about her entire life before SkyClan, when she thought of that young twoleg pup who brought her to the dog, their face had degraded into a blur. A memory dipped in water.

What exactly had her life been like before the dog bite, anyway?

Amélie moved a bit closer to Twitchpaw when Morningkit approached, perhaps subconsciously wanting someone bigger to be near her. She hadn't exactly met Morningkit formally, but they shared the nursery, so of course Amélie understood some part of what her denmate's 'deal' was. Morningkit had a much happier life than what Amélie was used to, and at the offer to share a nest, she was... Apprehensive.

As soon as the thought of dog teeth flashed through her mind though, Amé's fur spiked up and she nodded, hastily, before wiping a paw over her cheeks to dry her eyes. She couldn't go to sleep alone after a dream like that, definitely not. ​

---

SMALL AND CUTE ♡ SKYCLAN KIT ♡ TAGS​

 

[watson]

wait around, i'll smile again​

---

Watson would considering taking the offer of nightmares just to get a chance at a few minutes worth of sleep to fill the empty air of the night. IT would certainly improve his worn look, the same one squinting into the dark. His first thought upon seeing a group of kids so late at night is that they're up to no good of course but as he nears enough to see their faces, they all look thoroughly miserable in one way or another. Ah, how awkward for him. Being the only adult here, he feels obliged to try to help though he's little experience with children. "Is everything alright? Scared of the dark? Orrr, monsters in your nests perhaps?" It's not unlikely in his mind that the young Skyclanners could be afraid of some of the scary stories being told around camp for the season. Watson would never admit it, but one or two had him looking over his shoulder during his moonlit walk. Yet looking at them, it seems more than that and he's sure that he heard something or another about bad dreams on his way over.

"If it's dreams...." Would you like to talk about it? Are you alright? "Well, this is hardly the place to discuss them. You'll have the sniffles if you all stay our here. Especially with wet faces. All of you, come along." He huffs out a visible breath and gestures them back toward the bushes and ferns with his sweeping tail. The only difference between talking there and talking here is a cough.
​