family trip around the moon * dogbite

[BEAR]

Fat prey sitting between his paws, he's settled comfortably on the ground. For the night he's settled uncomfortably in his nest, the soft moss too soft, the bodies lying in the den setting off something in his stomach that has him lying in camp, nursing food to take bites from. Padding of feet suddenly fall in earshot, and he's gritting his teeth. Something stirs uncomfortably in his chest. He sounds a warning at the warrior trotting by, pushing the mouse closer to himself with a curled paw. He can see it, the stranger is going to spit and take and- The sound pauses, and the stranger gives him an incredulous look before continuing his journey to the warriors den. He's tired, the tense grief having him wound tight. Bear's ready to snap his jaws at the next unlucky SkyClan cat passing by.

That unpleasant sensation in his chest lingers. "Don't do that again." Bear gruffs at their tail, keeping his tone low to disguise the wobble, unhinging his jaw to take an excessively large bite. The company he's kept for a long time has been his own. Companionship was something he has long since discovered is not for him, he isn't made to live around others. But here he is, surrounded to some degree, everywhere. Unwilling to be smothered by it all, he's retreated by the freshkill pile, the shaggy feline kneading his paws in the dirt. There has been a time where his family accompanied him, when he knew Dogbite, but the clean, strong figure he's met has his wary, wondering if they'd ever truly known each other.

It's perhaps a cruel question, given he's the one that pushed his family away and gone off on his own. "How do you.." Bear has to think about it, "how do you live with these cats?" He can't shake the growl of discomfort that slips into his words. "They're-" He shakes his head. "It's hard, to be around them." Admission arrives through gritted teeth, it's the kind of concern that's always kept in his head, under his tongue. Rusty from a lack of communication beyond what's strictly necessary, the words sound stilted and unnatural to his ears. "Why did you come here?" It seems he's missed too much, but the words are a demand, not helped by his poor social skills.​

 

[DOGBITE]

✦ Duties seemed to be the only thing keeping the younger cat away from his brother. Whether it was hunting, patrolling, training or cleaning he was off at work none the less. Now the day was winding down to a tired lull and clanmates were shuffling into their final routines. Dogbite's was the answering growl resonating from their stomach. Better get to eating something before it eats itself. Ever since his bout of illness the warrior took meal time far more seriously. Wandering closer to the pile his trek was soon halted by the familiar scent of home. It radiated softness and comfort that no other smell had ever provided him.

It was strange to label a particular aroma as such but it was unmistakeable and akin to the suns warmth. Eventually, his good eye landed on the frame of Bear and inflicted delight from said sight. Spotting the rather hearty meal between the others sandy paws he decided it best to ask. Turning away from the pile he eagerly bounded to the side of his sibling. Catching the tail end of the others nervous ramblings. Dogbite's earlier elation is cooled by the genuine anxiety written across his brother's face. All thoughts of sharing soon thrown to the wind. Causing the scarred tabby to look on with worry. Sighing audibly, he plopped himself to the floor in a space close to the larger feline's side.

Neither they nor Bear were the best when it came to words but he would surely try his damndest. Maybe I can distract him for a bit. Food can wait just this once. Clearing their throat the smaller Skyclanner offered gentle reassurance in the form of a light laugh. Once the chuckling dissipated he addressed Bear's concerns. "You'll come to love them sooner than you think." A brittle smile warbled on his maw as he fondly recalled his own transgressions upon joining. The earlier lightheartedness proceeded to evaporate as a sadder tone took hold. "After Mom died I was lonely and tired of fighting over garbage heaps. My life felt meaningless without her and I needed an escape." Finally speaking his hard truth caused their words to shake subtly.

Pulling on an emotional chord he hadn't the luxury to spare in a very long time. His brother was no stranger in Dogbite's eye and that alone made their deepest truths easier to discuss. Upon exhaling their voice returned to its earlier softness. "You want the truth?" Cocking his head to the side they eyed the prey again. Allowing a momentary pause before drawling on. "I heard about a group of cats calling themselves Skyclan and went there to find a purpose. It was hard giving up my roaming days and I didn't take warriorhood very seriously at the start. Yet, despite the odds I proved myself and survived. In a strange way I'll always be thankful I made the choice to leap off that fence and into something bigger than myself." His earlier smile returned with newfound strength.

Gaze flickering through recent memories of meeting Blazestar and Orangeblossom. Spending time with Twitchbolt and Bobbie his first few days of training. Skyclan hadn't been a leisurely stroll through a two-leg garden nor had he earned the approval of many cats around that time. Learning how to properly hunt, track, pray and live like he never had before urged them forward against the doubt. Echoes of bubbling laughter, erupting cheers, and cries of joy. Receiving his warrior identity and touching noses with his apprentice Littlepaw. All of it seemed like beautiful stars and sunsets to the scruffy feline. Of course the bad came with the good but their heart clung to the happiness. Swimming languidly in the depths of his favorite moments.

Skyclan was a smaller world where he would never have to sleep or fight alone again. Sated by the thought he added one last touch. Their sound barely above a whisper as they concluded. "They gave me a reason to keep living when I had nothing and now that you're here... It's like a dream." Bittersweet pain bloomed within their chest at the admittance but so did much needed relief. Loner life had been rough on them both with their matching scarred bodies and haunted gazes. His brother was undoubtedly here. Sitting beside him in the place they cherished most. He was alive and safe. That was more than Dogbite could've ever asked for.

•°.⋆ INFO

• ooc ;
  Sorry for the lateness and mobile post! I'll definitely clean this up once I'm on PC <3
• 
  
  
  
  ✧ 30 moons old
  ✧ skyclan warrior
  ✧ he/they ; single
  ✧ child of npc x npc
  ✧ "speech", thoughts, attacking
  ✧ peaceful powerplay allowed
  ✧ penned by tasmagoric

​

 

[BEAR]

You'll come to love them sooner than you think. He swallows. "I don't know if that's something I can do." Mournful stare is directed at the overcast sky. "It's always been best.. To not be around me." His self-imposed exile, solitude, whichever title it's received has been enforced so rigidly by himself, he's simply accepted that company was never goin to be something he needed.

He has to be a good older brother, he can't miss any more opportunities. He takes a beat to let Dogbite sit, and with great effort, pushes the prey he's been so protective of towards them, avidly ignoring the survival instincts that have alarm bells gonging in his head. "If I'd known she had.. And you.." Words sit heavy in his mouth. They're sticky, inhabiting his mouth in theory, but never quite making it out the way he intends. "I would have been there." He gruffs. Doubts he could have done much to help, but the thought of the younger, stuck in the same spots Bear has left him - the brutal vacancies of alleyways is disconcerting. But they're places he has long since thought they were never to escape, that they would be confined to, doomed to die in.

He has to say it. Push the words out or they'll stay forever locked behind his jaws. Regardless of the idea in theory, the words aren't gritted out. Self taught restraint is hard to break. Instead of trying to put an apology into words he resigns himself to looking on the younger with a sad familiarity.

The fondness that Dogbite recalls joining the clan is strange to him, he can't imagine the little feline he once knew ever subscribing to such a life. Once such a distant prospect, he's almost entirely sure his presence only serves to embroil SkyClan with the bloodshed that's bound to follow him. Bear laments, he's missed so much. While Dog - Dogbite rather has been making something, has things in his life he's clearly worked towards. Goals, achievements he's accomplished. Bear isn't sure what he has to show for moons of survival, aside from the scars they've both gained. Tries very hard to ignore the stab of emotion that feels sour.

"You look happy. I'm glad you've found that. Living here, it's better for you than out there. Got everything we never had a chance to." He jerks his head in the direction of the areas they once called home, to the wretched blood stained alleyways. Place where he has fled, for the same result. A dry chortle escapes him. "What a shit life we had." Never knowing any other way of living, he's finding an odd affinity for the easily available prey, the soft nests.

"I'm not." staying. He clears his throat, wants so badly to spill his guts, confess his wrongs to selfishly alleviate the guilt he's harboring. "You're here. Never thought I would see you again." It's like a dam, he can't stop the words from spilling past his lips, "I... I've clearly missed many things. I want to stay." He can't say it's a lie. Draws out the question that's been bouncing around in his mind. "Much wasn't said about how... Do you know how she died?" It makes him feel ill, but he has to know.

/ooc no worries at all!!
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[DOGBITE]

✦ MAJOR TW; graphic depictions of death, animal abuse, poisoning, starvation, bugs, grief, and depressive thoughts. Please do not read if you're not in a good headspace right now.

They listened with patience despite the urge to interject. With the absent moons stretched out between, there was still no mistaking the other's scent. Even when the larger tom had come layered in filth, the smell of home was undeniable. Bear was his brother, and as far as Dogbite knew, he was the only family they had left. His worry melts at the soft confession, and the prey is all but forgotten. Gently, he aims to bunt his brother's shoulder—a silent offer of comfort. I know you would have. I know. Following the other's gaze, he watches the distant stars twinkling above them.

Enjoying the calm that's settled across him, he humors the brazen remark. "We really have, but there's still much of it left to live, hm?" Knowing there was a future for them both in Skyclan was all the younger of the two needed. Digging into the morsel he's pleased by the flavorful catch. However, the peace is short-lived as the dreaded subject had finally come up. Dogbite knew there was no amount of preparation that would ready him. Their body visibly stiffening as he halted their chewing. Yet, it was just the two of them in the quiet of the night. Knowing he was safe next to Bear and in the confines of camp, he allowed his walls to drop.

He felt atrocious dashing the pleasant mood but if any cat deserved the truth - it was Bear. Steeling themselves, Dogbite started off the recollection with a distant look. "Two-legs... They put something in the food. I- Bear, it was horrifying." His shoulders quaked from the building emotion, recalling the horrible state he'd seen her last. Surrounded in black webbings and two-legs' rotten prey. Maw half ajar and eyes staring blankly to the sun as he cried out her name. Echoes of fireworks, dogs, searing pain, and screaming two-legs added to the harrowing echo chamber that was his past.

Holding back the sudden urge to sob, he choked out a description. "Remember that big gray stretch of two-leg prey piles a few alleys over from where we grew up? Had all those massive green and silver dens full of two-leg waste behind them?" Foggy apparitions of the alleyway grew in color at the recesses of his vision. "Mom and I had to move there. We were trying to get away from the rival groups by two-leg place." Shame trickled down his back at the recollection. They'd hardly been an apprentice's age at that time, but the guilt still lingered. "They kept beating me up, and Mom wasn't as strong as she used to be, so we got pushed further and further away from all the safe spots we had stayed in." Pain continued to well in his chest as he took a shaky breath.

Strength wavering he nearly faltered in volume but pressed on. "For a while, it was okay, and the two-legs even started leaving out fresh meals for us, but something wasn't right." Their voice hiccuped again as he unravelled the truth. "They tasted wrong, and when I had eaten it the first time, I got sick for a few days. Mom managed to stomach it two more times but wasn't so lucky the third." Flies swarming and birds pecking at parts of her skin tormented the tabby's vivid memories. The badly tattered rat they'd caught that day all but abandoned in his haste to dispell the gruesome reality before him.

His stomach lurched, and he barely managed to whisper his next string of words. "If there's anything I am thankful for, it's that you never had to see her like that. You still can treasure the mostly good memories." Wetness stains the unders of his eye, crunching up his wounded face to a pitiful degree. "Mom was convinced I just had a stomach ache from all the rotten prey, but I knew it was the two-leg food. I tried so hard to stop her back then I-" Heartbreak evident in their remorseful meow, he dares not break away his gaze from the earth. They wished for an out then and there but he was already at the cusp.

Dogbite was far too gone in the waves of loss to look the other in the eyes. Terrified to witness his siblings reaction. "-I didn't get to say goodbye. W-we had fought the night before. I just wanted to find us something we could actually eat. I told her to leave that slop alone, but she wouldn't listen. S-she didn't want me to starve myself or get hurt anymore and kept taking the risk. When I got back, it was all over. Mom was gone." Grief as fresh as the day he wept into her cold neck resurfaced with a vengeance. Crafting an uglier look of scrunched anguish and a torrent of emotional wounds that would take many more moons to heal.

Losing the ongoing battle of fighting back tears they spilled down the side of his cheek messily. "I stayed there for a day before I g-gathered the strength to bury her somewhere proper. Then I went back and laid there for two more nights. Praying for anything or a-anyone to send me to her." His body felt open and raw and the shakes grew more violent as the tears poured. Even in all the distress he began to feel lighter. Moons of barricading the pain away like a wild bird begging to be let free.

The cage of tumultuous emotions had now taken to the skies rather than the depths. All his misery and woe's finally spilled out into the surface. Aiming to lean on Bear, he began to steady his ragged breathing. Blinking away the torrent obscuring his limited vision as he clung desperately to his older brother's side. Akin to a kit seeking the comfort of their guardian after a bout of bad nightmares.

✦ OOC ✦ INFO

• I won't lie I had this typed up in drafts a long time ago but I ended up rewriting it about several times. This is a really key moment for Dog and I got pretty misty eyed writing it
• 
  ———✧———​
  ✧ LH cinnamon tabby w/high white one blue eye
  ✧ child of npc x npc ; sibling to crescent and bear
  ✧ skyclan warrior ; ex-loner ; mentor to littlepaw
  ✧ 31 moons old ; birthday 07/01 ; ages realistically
  ✧ AFAB ; nonbinary ; he/they
  ✧ pansexual ; polyromantic ; single
  ✧ "speech", thought, attack, powerplay
  ✧ peaceful powerplay allowed
  ✧ penned by tasmagoric
  
  ———✧———​

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