pafp float along | water therapy

[robinheart]

She is coming up on the end of her healing journey - mere sunrises remain until Moonbeam decrees Robinheart ready to return to the nursery. The only task at hand now is strengthening her leg muscles. The tortoiseshell has been diligent in her daily walks and low impact exercises, making sure to push herself just hard enough to make positive progress towards healing. Pushing too far and she threatened to undo moons of effort. Pushing not hard enough and she would stagnate. It was a precarious scale that could easily lean one way or the other should she not be careful (example being when her leg buckled trying to get up too fast after Graykit’s accident).

It is suggested to her by the ivory medicine cat to try her paw at swimming. The water will keep some weight off of her mending joints while simultaneously strengthening the muscle as she paddles through the gentle current. Robinheart readily agrees, though in the back of her mind she feels subtle trepidation about entering the source of her mate’s downfall. You can’t let fear run your life - Brookstorm wouldn’t want that, she reminds herself.

“Come along, let’s go up to our ankles first, okay? And then we can ease in a bit more once we’re comfortable,” Robinheart instructs warmly, her plush tail waving her gaggle of kits towards the shallows of the river. If she could begin swimming again then she feels she can offer basic swimming lessons to her brood as well. Exercise and time spent with her beloveds - a two birds one stone situation. “Greenleaf has warmed the waters so be aware that the river will not always feel like this,” she adds as she slowly wades in, citrine eyes scanning the riverbed for cursed grasses or vegetation (just to be safe) before beckoning her children in.

// please wait for @rivuletkit @ALGAEKIT @Redkit or @Foxkit to post first <3 just a cutie mode family swim/exercise thread​

[ penned by kerms ]​

 

[Redkit]

The white mistress of the medicine den had finally allowed his mother to escape from her evil clutches. How much longer until she would fully be gone and away from Moonbeam? He had been protecting his siblings from Moonbeam in case she tried to steal them as well. She already had stolen Rivuletkit once and still had their mother. Redkit was surprised to see his mother walking like the previous encounters with her. She always seemed to be resting her leg. That stupid mutt that hurt his beautiful mother and baby sister should've died for their sins! His nose scrunches slightly as his mother enters the waters, and he attempts to grab her tail, ignoring her words, and tries to pull her back out. ”No sw-im, you get hurt again. Out, out.” The plump boy instructs as his tiny paws hold steady in their placement as he heard stories of what happened to his sire and his mother's beloved. Red's curled ears flatten as she insists on them getting in the water, which wasn't an uncommon occurrence in Riverclan as they always loved the water, but how could he right now? What if his mother slipped on the rocks because of her bad leg and hit her head like Graykit's playmate the other day?

”Mmn... Not safe... I'll protect.” Redkit grumbles as he shoots a glare at any bystanders that weren't his mom or his siblings (including Foxkit). He slowly dips a paw into the water and allows himself to get used to the temperature before easing the rest of his paws into the shallow waters. The vibrant red tabby observes his mother for a moment before turning to his siblings and offers himself as a support to help them ease into the shallows as another safety measure.
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[Foxpaw!]

Foxkit lingered uncertainly at the edge of the water. His last experience in the water had been before his arrival in RiverClan, when he'd fallen in and had to be fished out by his mother. Not that this had dampened his curiosity, but the furious scolding he'd recieved had caused the wobbly kitten to keep his distance. Slowly, he dipped one shaky paw into the water before shuffling the rest of the way in as he tried to hide his nervousness.

Because of course, he wanted to learn to swim just the same as any other RiverClan cat. But even simply walking sometimes proved difficult for him. He fell down all the time. What if his shakiness cost him his balance in the water and he couldn't swim up fast enough? Would he drown? He looked up at Robinheart, forcing a small smile before turning to his remaining siblings on the bank and beckoning them in with his tail. He couldn't be scared now. His siblings were so little. He had to look out for them.

 

[ALGAEKIT]

Greenleaf light shimmered and splayed upon the river, like tonic dousing the blessed waters, the strength and pride of her clan. Algaekit had often admired the river from afar, though her paws only knew of the land so far. It daunted him as much as it captivated him, that slippery body of energy, flowing to the sky and into the grounds. As she followed Robinheart to the edge, she saw the vigor of the waters for herself, as it kissed the ends of the sandbanks softly. It would surely be as kind to him as it was to the world around it, so he did not harbor fear for the unknown, but rather the sort of curiosity that ate one alive in its desperation (or fervor, for both were one and the same).

"I wanna get in." She mewled to Redkit, and slowly placed her front feet into the river, feeling as the light tides rendered her once-dry paws awash. Owlish head tilted at his brother's reluctance to allow their mother into the river, as though he believed that the stream would pluck her away from their grasps. She knew little of the river, but she also knew that her mother had the strength of resilience. Algaekit waited for a few moments more, simply reveling in the novelty of it all. Curl of a smile painted itself upon eiderdown features; she welcomed it all, the tenderness and the grace and the sheer awe of it all. Finally did the kitten submerge her legs in the shallows, and the waves now culminated around her littler body, as though it were flushes of thick honey laden upon her wiry pelt. Keeping his tail up from the water's prying vortices, he stole a glance at both Foxkit and Redkit. "It's cool, right?"

𝙻𝙾𝚅𝙴 𝚃𝙷𝙴 𝙼𝙰𝙳𝙽𝙴𝚂𝚂 𝙾𝙵 𝚃𝙷𝙴 𝙵𝙴𝙴𝙻𝙸𝙽𝙶 ·₊˚☄ 𝙳𝙾𝙽𝚃 𝚁𝚄𝚂𝙷 𝚃𝙷𝙴 𝙵𝚁𝙴𝚂𝙷𝙽𝙴𝚂𝚂 𝙾𝙵 𝙱𝙴𝙶𝙸𝙽𝙽𝙸𝙽𝙶

• OOC:
  
• 
• 

  —— ALGAEKIT / He/She / 3 Moons
  —— Kitten of Riverclan / Sibling to Redkit and Rivuletkit / Mentored by N/A
  —— A wiry, wild-furred blue tortoiseshell with high white and freckle-like spotting. Brilliant yellow eyes, like twin molten suns.
  —— Chaotic, obsessive and strange, Algaekit is a weirdly refreshing character to encounter amongst the sea of her dutiful kin. Beset by nature and her patterns, he is quick to connect the dots even when no such connection truly exists. Somewhat easy to befriend, provided that one can handle his bluntness and honesty at times.
  —— Penned by Tempest. Contact on Discord (naruk4mi) for plots and threads.

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[robinheart]

There is a gentle tug at her tail, a plea for her to turn back and set multicolored paws upon the banks of the river. Robinheart slows her entrance into the whispering tide and shifts her sunny gaze to Redkit. “It’s okay,” she coos. It’ll be okay, she wants to add but stops herself, noticing her middleborn’s concern. It is aptly placed for a child with little worldly experience. The tortoiseshell cannot fault Redkit for being worried. “This part of the river is shallow. It’s gently moving. I would never put myself or you four in harms way,” Robinheart continues in the hopes of emboldening her son.

It seems to work.

Slowly the kittens enter the water, one by one. Goslings following after mother goose. Robinheart smiles, pride welling up in her heart at the sight of them. They’d be true blooded RiverClanners - she would make sure of it. “That’s it, slow and steady. Feel how the water tugs ever so gently at your paws? Feel the coolness of it soaking to your skin? The river is the lifeblood of our home and only RiverClanners know how to navigate the waters,” she instructs, wading in a step deeper as she tries to recall lessons she has heard other parents teach their children when they first learned to swim. “Today we are just getting acclimated so there is no rush to learn to swim. That’ll come later when you four are comfortable in the water. Right now just enjoy the feeling of the river, the pebbles beneath your paws, the sound of rustling reeds and insect wings.” Maybe you can even hear your mother’s voice whispering on the breeze, instructing you just as I am. ​

[ penned by kerms ]​