crying in the night | watching snowfall

E

ELKSKULL

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Most cats have retreated, huddling up with others to try and keep warm. The snow has been falling and falling and falling. The sky continuing to weep and shed fluffy tears. One such apprentice has been out all morning just watching the way the landscape is a white haze. Listening to the howling of the wind. The sombering song that begs for the cold to stop, for it to all cease and be erased. It brings a frown to his pink stained muzzle to hear it. The singing too sad for his young heart to bear. And yet he endures it and what it can potentially mean for the clan. His paws shift against the blanket of white, swipping snow here and there. It's light, fluffy, he blends in as if he doesn't exist but he knows different. He feels, he has pain, and that makes him alive. Or does it? A soft sigh pulls from his throat and he watches the cloud of his breath float off into the air. "It's so horrid, your singing. Why cry so much when it'll be green again?" Yes...it'll be green again at some point and life will return. Nature didn't have to lament so much and he finds his eyes rolling.

But there is not much to see. The conditions are a white out, visibility low and unyielding to any of their eyes. Really this is the first time he has had to endure leafbare and this is the first time that he has made a decision on this time of the year. "I don't like it. It's the worst. Hurry up and leave already." As if he can actually command nature and her hideous soul sucking song. He wishes.
 
The seemingly endless nature of the snowfall was weighing on Badgermoon just as heavily as the snow itself weighed upon the land and its inhabitants; he had never seen anything like it, and he feared what it meant for them all. As the storm intensified, leaving camp became increasingly risky, even impossible. It was a break from work in the worst possible way; there was little that could be done in these conditions, but bellies were still empty, cats were still sick, and their troubles with other Clans still simmered away on the backburner.

Therefore the bicolor tom had taken to pacing back and forth, his white-tipped ears flat against his head, coat fluffed out against the biting wind. The movement helped burn off his restless energy, and would keep him from freezing where he sat. To his surprise, a figure materialized out of the whiteness: he had nearly bumped into them, in fact, as their coat melded seamlessly with the swirling snow.

"Ah, sorry." Badgermoon called out over the roaring wind. He narrowed his yellow eyes, realizing he wasn't totally sure who he was speaking with - they seemed young, though, and aggravated by the weather. "I don't think we've met before. My name is Badgermoon." was it nonsensical to be exchanging pleasantries in what felt a once-in-nine-lives sort of storm?
 

Bunnywhisker hadn't experienced a proper snowfall yet. At least... not to memory. She feels something as out of sorts as this would ring with familiarity in her mind's eye but it simply doesn't. The warmth from her body only does so much to melt the snow that falls in contact with it, and like many other cats, Bunnywhisker spends her waking moments simply pushing it around. Clearing the nursery for what feels like a thousand times in an hour, staring upwards wondering when it'll stop, counting the flakes that land in her dirt brown pelt - it's endless.

It doesn't take long for her to abandon her seemingly useless task of moving some snow here to the other snow over there - Badgermoon seems to have lost his mind, talking to a mound of snow himself, and she can't resist the jab that sits healthily on her tongue as she strides ever closer. It dies quickly, however. Elkpaw's pink nose and blue eyes are hard to make out with the storm, but she catches them before she says anything that'll ultimately embarrass herself. Her nubbed tail twitches with dissatisfaction, the urge to sit immediately becoming a greater urge to remain standing. Snow is cold.

"Whatever green is left, we should tie it all in your fur," Bunnywhisker decides to comment after a moment of standing close by. "We'll lose you in this flurry, easily." Her tone is matter-of-factly, as if her suggestion is an end all be all for Elkpaw, and poor Badgermoon, who missed out on being the crazy for the hour.
 
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He's been sitting there for some time, staring into the blank abyss of snow. Really he has little thought that others would be out in this. In this horrible wailing that nature has given them but he is proven wrong when one of his clanmates almost bumps into him. His head cranes up for a moment, the snow still swirling down before he finally lands blue eyes upon the older warrior. Introductions are made and he tilts his head. Badgermoon. Yes, yeah. He has seen him about and around. Doing this and that. Of course, of course. A brighter grin stretches his muzzle before it becomes lazy and disappears. Of course. "Yes, yes, I've seen you. All about. I'm Elkpaw. Isn't this wailing annoying?" His eyes lift back up to the sky once more before he puffs out a sigh. With a shake of his head he is about to move, to warm up his limbs before someone else speaks. Turning to look over his shoulder he blinks those sweet blues, hearing her words.

Him, dissappear? It almost makes him laugh. He would never just be lost. That is unacceptable and he shakes his head a little before he finally stands up and shakes the accumulated snow from his pale form. "I'll never be lost. Besides, this helps me when I'm finding your food. Right?" He turns his figure towards the other, a sweeter smile forming on his maw. He wishes he was able to hunt right now but this weather. Ugh
 

He hated this!. Ugh. Sunsetbreeze wished to go back to camp so he could find Galeforce and demand to let him use them as his warm pillow right now!. That tom was big and fluffy which served him perfectly to be his personal pillow to use for warmth right now. But no. Here he was stuck outside into the cold as the snow just keept on pouring wildly down at them like the sky was angry for some reason.

Unlucky he had been on his hunt much to be expected he guess. Sunsetbreeze had just been about to make the decision to return back home when he ended up walking into some of his other clanmates who had been just as foolish as him to be out right now. " I hate leafbare!, i cannot wait for the warmth to come back and warm itself on my fur once more!." He complained out aloud, wanting them to hear him and feel bad for him. His beautiful fur needed the sun to look shiny!. Just look what this awful season has done to him. It was difficult to keep himself well groomed in this hellish weather!.

" Do tell me one of you have find somethng edible out here." so we can go back home! he wanted to plead, being so cold he was not even sure if he could feel his paws anymore or not. Sunsetbreeze had his eyes half closed as he stopt before the three, barely even seeing anything out here anymore. It was a nightmare, and he had been out here for hours!. But nothing. Even the prey was smart to keep inside in a warm cozy place right now. Oh how he longed to do the same. He was so sick and tired of this. He just wanted this hellish weather to pass and be over with. Was that too much to ask for?!.



 
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There are those that cower beneath the coming cold– Sunstride does not count himself among them. He lifts his head to the falling frost, allowing it to dust his fur and his whiskers, alongside the shield of his eyelids. Though he does not walk and wonder in equal speed, he gives himself to both with equal time. How gently these cats must have lived, to not know the stubbornness of a leafbare's chill! No matter how one fights it, there is an inevitability to its weight. An endlessness to its trouble. He has known dens to collapse, ears to blacken, lungs to still beneath the snow. It is as deadly as it is beautiful, and Sunstride is at its command.

With the same joy as he has always greeted the cold, he joins the growing crew. Were it not for the sound of his voice, he might have stood atop the mound of white that is Elkpaw, and not a drift of snow. "Ah, but this is no wailing, Elkpaw!" With a grin, he lightly jostles the apprentice's shoulder. "They are singing for you. Not a dirge, but an exaltation. A calling for you to see it in its whole!" The gleaming of sunlight and the stars across stretches of unbroken white, the dusting of pale speckles across a loved one's fur. The warmth of it, when properly packed, and its delightful chill in the throes of burning sickness. Snow had been his life, and life it would give– or take, should the moment call for such.

Not all share his eagerness. Sunsetbreeze's disdain drew laughter from the honey-red tom's throat, a rolling mirth. "I believe our fresh-kill pile is some tail-paces back, buried once more. We'll have to dig it out again soon, should you have no taste for frosted sinew." It was far from the worst he had eaten in his life. Another opinion so far from his clanmates'.
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  • ooc:
  • SUNSTRIDE. named for his coloration and his bold chasing of fate.
    —— cis male, uses he - him. thirty-four moons old. warrior of windclan and former rogue.
    —— cautious of clan life, but an apt learner. encourages close bonds between clanmates.
    —— loyalty uncertain, cares for those surrounding him. undoubtedly closest to wolfsong.

    sunstride is broad and bold– a creature standing above most of windclan, though not a beast beyond its borders, with fur that flames red at its base and deepens to a burnt amber with every whorl and stripe. his eyes, in comparison, are a pale summer's blue, still as bold as the rest of him.
  • "speech"
 
GOT GUMMYWORMS STUCK IN MY TEETH
shoelace | 18 months | female | she/her | physically medium | mentally medium | attack in bold red
It is on days like this that she misses the twolegplace. There was plenty of shelter there, from cardboard boxes to the space below and between bins, to the underside of porches or even the sewers, loathe as she was to enter them for fear of the rumors of others that linger down there. Her brown pelt is surprisingly clean for once - lo and behold her poor flea friends had frozen right off her pelt a few days ago, the poor things! - and she looks surprisingly sad and pitiful as she trudges over, a put upon expression on her usually cheery face. " 's cold," she whines childishly, tattered ear flicking in annoyance as the never ending snowfall continues to cling to her pelt. She gives a dog-like shake, flinging the frost onto anyone unfortunate enough to be close by.

 
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Bunnywhisker cracks a smile briefly, waiting for Elkpaw to shake the snow dust out of his fur before nudging him. "Hey," she starts, her grin only slightly stronger, "If you're offering. StarClan knows any hare stupid enough to stay out here will see me a mile away." The jest is only halfhearted. Any of them going further than their camp limits, alone, is a damn near death wish. The buddy system may as well be implemented out of the caverns with how heavy the snow has fallen.

Others join them, though only one seems to not rival the snow. Bunnywhisker revels in the warmer space the crowd provides her, fluffing her fur out if only to capture more of it. Her eyes glance over Sunstride, who's trying to show Elkpaw the wonders of snow and all it provides (just the cold, she'd utter, if not for playing bystander for a moment.) Sunsetbreeze is complaining, complaining, complaining, and Bunnywhisker is only able to hold her tongue for a moment longer. She keeps the playful attitude as long as she can, however - "Wormtail knows an awful lot about mushrooms. Maybe you could bother him for a few." Bunnywhisker hopes he detests her offer if eating fungus for dinner.

Branchfall is next, and though they say so little, its enough to pull a snort from Bunnywhisker. Again she holds her tongue, not wanting to scare off the inklings of warm her clanmates provide her in the moment. Instead, she pats down the snow beside her and beckons the other closer.​