private EVERYTHING STAYS 𓇼 HAZECLOUD

[shellpaw]

clanmates tell shellkit that she shouldn’t drag hazecloud around. she’s heavy with kits, they say, as if the girl isn’t aware, she can’t be chasing you around all day now, can she? they ask this like a question, but never quite like shellkit’s answer — sometimes she thinks they don’t even want her to answer at all.

today, however, it is hazecloud that takes her out. she’s had a good day today, shellkit had ; the headaches had subsided, the place up in her nose and behind her eyes that throb with dry pain had eased with the moisture in the air. she’d even been watched by another warrior while her queen and lichentail took a nap in the nursery. it was fun, but shellkit liked to have hazecloud with her. she knew her scent like a bird knew the morning sky, like a fish could swim, like a cat knew it’s way home. it’s ingrained in her, marred into the curves of her tender skull ; safety. true, utter safety. it eases her like a poultice, puts that ever - present strain of illness seemingly to ease.. or perhaps she is simply less afraid of it with her around. as if the queen could take away the weight on her chest, the difficulty she had to breathe with just a touch of her nose to a gaunt alabaster cheek.

there is something for her to see at the shore, the ice - encrusted waves around the outskirts of camp where sand strews family across the grey - white expanse. the evening was still cold despite the gentler winds, a fine mist settling low across the dark, feeezing river. she eyes it warily as they near, only ever having witnessed it’s might from the center of camp. never allowed too far, the brittleness of her lungs not to be trusted near the waters until now. whats algae? to what’s shell? had come quickly once shellkit had finally infiltrated the nursery again, sidling onto lichentail’s side to watch the litter in her queens belly fight to get out. a shell was here, apparently, ” its safe? “ the words ghost her tongue, river soft and corroded with sick grit at the back of her throat.

her paws touch the bare sand and she shudders at the feeling, spreading her toes at the grainy feel. brr.. the waters look intimidating this close ; deathly still and deep, shadowed near the bottom. she can see shadows beneath. carefully, the child weaves closer to the molly, bumping lightly into her arm as her gaze never wavers from the icy depths, ” how close.. are we going? “

𝐈𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐀𝐑𝐌𝐒 𝐎𝐅 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐎𝐂𝐄𝐀𝐍 𓇼 𝙎𝙊 𝙎𝙒𝙀𝙀𝙏 𝘼𝙉𝘿 𝙎𝙊 𝘾𝙊𝙇𝘿

• i. @hazecloud HEHEHE
  
  
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  SHELLKIT 𓆉 SHE / HER, KITTEN OF RIVERCLAN. KINDLING xx UNKNOWN, NIECE TO SMOKESTAR. 3 MOONS OLD, SMELLS LIKE SALT & RIVER BLOOMS. PENNED BY ANTLERS.
  delicate lilac - striped molly with sugarplum eyes she is pallid ; platinum splotched with ribbons of shell - touched cream, wisped ends like memories of a distant shore. feather breath and elderdown fur conceals a body worn fragile by tumultuous youth, too thin in some places and round with baby fat in others. her face is short - muzzled, framed half mast by eyes coined warm, sugared amber.
  
  currently exhibiting symptoms of whitecough. this includes a running nose, wheezing, sluggishness, and labored breathing. please keep contagion in mind.
  
  

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[hazecloud]

There was plenty to learn and taught in the moons she had been given Shellkit and her littermates. They were the perfect windows of parenthood in the short time before her own brood would arrive. The three of them were remarkably different yet so similar, the resemblance as siblings clear in the way they matched play and shared laughter. So gentle with one another, protective and curious. Hazecloud is lucky to have been given this experience of what she considered a head start.

Of the three, Shellkit had been the most attached to her like a burr tangled in her pelt. Pebblekit was resistant to her tenderness at times, accepting her kindness only when mirrored by the other two. Riverkit was rather in between as he often sought her for reassurance but jumped into the social gatherings of their Clan far more quickly. The lilac painted molly was a bit more special outside of their closeness, but also watching closely to the slow thaw she was fighting. The ice never seemed to truly melt away from her coat that day, and the foolishness of Smokestar's sister had been costly to the little ones growth.

Shellkit had been making vast leaps and bounds from the frozen scrap she arrived as. And after catching moments shared of discussing how their family would soon grow and the names they may have, she realized that the nursery lacked exactly what the little molly was named for. Decorate shells were a bit too dangerous for kits to keep in the nursery. Sharp ridges and broken pieces could easily cut a delicate pad or nose, and stars forbid someone use it in retaliation for a scolding. It would be much safer they were kept outside, and the islands shoreline had enough hidden gems buried beneath the sand for the pair to find.

"Very safe, I'm right here." Hazecloud's voice was soft, sweetened with a gentle encouragement. The sand is softer than the hard earth further in the island. "You can go as anywhere the water doesn't touch. I don't want your fur getting wet, but I wanted to show you something here." She guided Shellkit to follow the movement of her paw as she felt around the grains. She brushed the sand away to show the beginnings of a milky white shell underneath.

"Want to help me dig this up? I think it looks like a special one." ​

 

[shellpaw]

quiet reassurance arches the kit’s back appreciatively, a gentle brush against the side of hazecloud’s leg. the sand is soft beneath her paws where ice gives way, crusting near the shore in shards of sharp, broken white. she is advised to stay away from the water, to keep from getting wet, and shellkit nods dutifully despite the way her toes spread against the grain. she wonders what it would feel like, warmed by the sun instead of being so threaded with frost, ” what does, um, “ she starts, and her voice is a rasped intake of breath ; almost cruel, almost comedic, the way her chest shakes, expectant for something dangling so precariously over her head. she’d risen a fine, ice - thin line since birth ; nested in a cradle of frost, brittle down to the bones. she blinks up towards the blue molly, blinks slow against the thick flakes of snow drifting to cling at heavy lashes, ” what does the water feel like? when it’s time to swim? “

when the water isn’t solid, and flows warm through your fur like she’d heard the warriors say — when they lounge desperately in weak sunlight, lamenting greenleaf. she wanted to see greenleaf so bad. her mind couldn’t comprehend it, not until the snow thawed their meadowlands into its willow - lined beauty once again. she is thinking of how the trees must look, with greenery draped elegantly from their skeletal limbs. she can’t really picture it — but it doesn’t matter, as hazecloud finds something in the soft sand and pulls her attention with an eager snap away from the dreary white mist overhead. her brow whiskers furrow, toddling forwards in wide steps to see, perhaps too closely, what the molly was pawing at. something solid. something curved, rippled in shades of cream and almost - pink. want to help me dig this up? she says, and shellkit nods her head so quick it’s a wonder her ears don’t come flying off her fuzzy skull.

” is it.. a rock? “ the lilac child asks, sinking thornlike claws into the ridged soil around the hard, strangely - ribboned surface, half - dusted with snow.

𝐈𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐀𝐑𝐌𝐒 𝐎𝐅 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐎𝐂𝐄𝐀𝐍 𓇼 𝙎𝙊 𝙎𝙒𝙀𝙀𝙏 𝘼𝙉𝘿 𝙎𝙊 𝘾𝙊𝙇𝘿

• i.
  
  
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  SHELLKIT 𓆉 SHE / HER, KITTEN OF RIVERCLAN. KINDLING xx UNKNOWN, NIECE TO SMOKESTAR. TWO MOONS OLD, SMELLS LIKE SALT & RIVER BLOOMS. PENNED BY ANTLERS.
  delicate lilac - striped molly with sugarplum eyes.
  
  she is pallid ; platinum splotched with ribbons of shell - touched cream, wisped ends like memories of a distant shore. feather breath and elderdown fur conceals a body worn fragile by tumultuous youth, too thin in some places and round with baby fat in others. her face is short - muzzled, framed half mast by eyes coined warm, sugared amber ---------- ° ❀ ⋆
  

  currently exhibiting symptoms of whitecough. this includes a running nose, wheezing, sluggishness, and labored breathing. please keep contagion in mind.

  
  

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