private heaven knows I've let you down

[ashpaw!]

They're nearing the old twoleg camp, at this point... a walk together through the territory, kinda casual, chatting and fishing on and off. It's different now, Iciclefang a warrior — Iciclefang, isn't that a wonderful name, as beautiful and deadly as the molly it belongs to — and Ashpaw, well, not. She doesn't even feel like she's close. She knows Cicadastar will probably hold her back — she's been trying her best to make her peace with that. She needs more training. It's... fine.

It doesn't feel like they're just friends anymore, the way they were before. Iciclefang sleeps in a different den now, doesn't answer to a mentor, and right now she's technically supervising Ashpaw. So it's... weird.

Icy definitely still likes having her around though, so maybe Ash is reading too much into it. Maybe it's not that big of a deal? She'll catch up and then it'll be normal again. She just has to work hard, that's all.

" — yeah, I was talking to Fernpaw the other day, and — "

She cuts off, ears perking up, pupils dilating. "Oh. Heard something." A mouse, maybe?

She lowers into a hunting crouch; land prey is still prey and she's not half bad at hunting this way. Wait for it... there. She leaps forward, and her right paw hits soft earth, but her left paw lands on something cold.

Oh, she has a chance to think. What — ?

Then there's an awful snapping sound, and pressure, and pain.

With a short yelp, Ashpaw's jerked to a stop by the metal contraption that has grabbed her paw. Blinded by the pain, she doesn't move for a second, mouth hung open in shock. "Ow — oh StarClan, oh fuck —" she sucks in a breath, hisses through her teeth, eyes squeezed shut — "Iciclepaw , I- "

The old name, without thinking. She barely notice her own mistake. "Iciclefang," she corrects herself, though it shakes a little this time. What is this? She shifts and more pain races up her foreleg, and a howl rips out of her throat. Dimly she notices that there's blood on her leg. Yeah, blood makes sense. Woozy, she lowers herself to the ground — tugs at her paw again and yelps again. Fuck. Fuck.

"It's a twoleg thing?" she gasps out. "Icy — Icy, what do I do — I — it hurts — p-"

She almost begs. She comes so close to begging but won't let herself. She isn't a kitten this time and — and Iciclefang won't leave her. She knows that. Desperate, she scrambles for an idea, something helpful something to do something that will GET HER OUT OF THIS.

"Can you try — can you look at the, the jaw — "

The thing biting her, what keeps it closed around its prey? It isn't an animal, not a predator like they're used to, but maybe it can still be killed. "Can it — can it open, agh, fuck — "

Her voice breaks. It hurts so fucking bad. And ... this is a twoleg thing, that much is obvious, this cold silver stone. She wonders, cold horror pooling in her stomach, if their time to act... is limited? If...

Is she imagining the sound of heavy footsteps coming closer?
​

—— " i found gold in the wreckage "

✦ ooc ✦ character information ✦ recent events

• it's one of those paw clamp traps, not meant for a cat. u can powerplay the twoleg if u want or it'll enter in my next post!
  
  @ICICLEFANG
  
  
• - 11 month old orange tabby with green eyes
  - apprenticed to lead warrior willowroot
  - crushing hard on iciclefang
  - happy-go-lucky, mischievous, hardworking
  - very friendly, but defensive of riverclan!
  - got real fucked up as a kid so if she seems like she was fucked up as a kid, that's why
  - "speech"
• - KICKED FOX ASS
  - she is on a JOURNEY
  

​

 

[iciclefang]

Iciclefang has felt a subtle difference between herself and her former denmate since her early ceremony. There's not only a shifted power dynamic, but there's an acknowledgment somewhere in her subconscious that she has grown beyond them all. Her littermates, all tagging along after her with 'paw behind their names still, has her realizing that some space exists between them now.

She'd hoped she wouldn't feel this way with Ashpaw. After all, nothing has really physically changed between them. Iciclefang and Ashpaw are still only a moon apart, but somehow -- somehow the ginger she-cat she's so fond of seems left behind somehow. She hopes Ashpaw doesn't feel that way, too.

Still, it doesn't change how she feels about Ashpaw in the slightest. She listens to her chatter with half an ear, spending the time gazing at the way the sunlight glows against her orange pelt and the way the wind ruffles her fur. It's good to take a walk, casual, after Ashpaw and Iciclefang both have recovered from the assaults against RiverClan. It's good to look forward to things, to Ashpaw's warrior ceremony, to--

"Oh. Heard something." The tortoiseshell stiffens beside her. She had been too busy listening to and admiring her flame-colored coat in the newleaf sun. She hardly has time to scent for trouble before Ashpaw crouches. A terrible metallic snap cracks the air, and Ashpaw shrieks in pain.

"What happened?" Iciclefang demands. She moves the reeds and stares with dawning horror at the thing biting into Ashpaw's foot. The sun glints off of its steely silver jaws, unrelenting, tightly held. Something about it -- something about it reminds her of --

"Hold still," she orders, but Ashpaw struggles to do so. The pain must be unbearable -- it's not like a fox's teeth, there's no give at all, no movement. Ashpaw is chained to the earth, and every movement she makes elicits a squeak or a shrill cry of agony.

Each one pierces Iciclefang's heart. "Can it -- can it open, augh, fuck -- " The tortoiseshell peers closer at the jaws. Nothing about the mechanism makes any sense to her, and all she can think to do in the moment is try to pry the upper half of its jaw off of her with her own teeth. The metal scrapes and screeches, and the taste is foul, laced with blood. It doesn't move. Why doesn't it move?

Steps thud somewhere behind them. Close, too close. Iciclefang's fur fluffs out, and she arches her back, coming to stand protectively over Ashpaw. "I knew it," she spits furiously. "This is a Twoleg trap!"

And all she can think about is Cicadastar, crucifixed after saving her life. Blood streaking down his jowls, a silent prayer for them to run, to live as he could not.

A shadow falls over the two RiverClan felines, and Iciclefang hisses with every inch of ferocity she has. She can barely see the Twoleg's face, it's so tall and obscured with shadow, but she hopes it's thinking twice about trying to touch Ashpaw.

It doesn't. A fleshy paw descends, big as her head, aiming for her friend and the trap that secures her. Iciclefang does not think twice. She lashes out, viper-quick, sinking her teeth into the paw as deep as they'll go. The Twoleg utters something like a yelp, and Iciclefang, with grim satisfaction, feels blood trickle into her mouth. That will teach you to mess with a RiverClan warrior, she thinks boldly. Perhaps it will flee, and she can get a patrol out to look at Ashpaw's trapped paw.

But the Twoleg does not retreat. One of its hind paws, heavy and covered in something like shiny stone, lashes out toward her. It connects, hard, with her chest and belly, almost scooping her off of the ground, and the force of the kick sends her flying away from Ashpaw. Her cry is deep -- it's more painful than anything she's ever felt, bruising every rib she has, and she rolls helplessly into the dust.

She's too far away now, and when she tries to get up, the immediacy of the blow leaves her gasping for air. Her eyes are wide now, like a kit's watching its mother leave it -- "Ashpaw, no!"

// tl;dr she bit the shit out of him and he kicked her real good​

[ PENNED BY MARQUETTE ]​

​

 

[ashpaw!]

And of course Iciclefang doesn't leave, tells Ashpaw to hold still, pries at the metal jaw — the pain spikes as Iciclefang pries at the horrible contraption, and Ashpaw turns her face into the dirt to muffle her screams. Her leg twitches and jerks as she tries to pull her paw free, barely stomaching the pain but she has to try. For Iciclefang. For Willowroot, for her siblings, for her friends, for — everyone who loves her.

She curls her hind paws up to kick and claw and scrabble at it, but like Iciclefang she can't do a thing; it doesn't budge, and all she achieves it making it hurt like a motherfucker. She screams again into the dirt, hot tears on her cheeks. Fuck. Fuck!

"I'm sorry," she wheezes between grunts and whimpers, "I'm sorry, Icy, I — " the footsteps are getting closer, she isn't imagining that, she sees it on Iciclefang's face — and the dread rises and rises in her gut as she realizes these might be... her last words to the calico. "I love you, I'm sorry," she says again. "It's okay — it's okay, you'll be okay — "

She wishes she could manage some reassurances a little more coherent, but she's terrified, and then it's upon them. And Iciclefang — fights.

Ashpaw stares with shocked, terrified green eyes as Icy's jaw slams down on the twoleg's massive paw, and that terror turns to devastation as the twoleg retaliates, sending the young warrior flying. "Iciclefang!" Ashpaw screams, moving toward her on instinct, jerking against the trap and grunting in pain as its teeth dig in harder. Fuck — fuck, oh StarClan, please let her be okay –

The twoleg's back on Ashpaw now, descending with — unbeknownst to her — no real ill intent. Caught in a trap like this, Ash doesn't have much hope of surviving in the wild; even if she did get her paw free, the damage left untreated would be catastrophic. But she doesn't know that, has no way of knowing that, so she cringes into the ground, jaw gaping wide in a frightened hiss, hind claws unsheathed and kicking upward.

But the twoleg is so massive. She doesn't stand any more of a chance than Iciclefang did.

"Icy — " she manages one last time before she's surrounded by rough cloth, forced into a tiny stuffy space, the metal jaw still clamped down around her paw. She screams and hisses but nothing gives, tumbling aimlessly in this awful confusing space, all the while those metal teeth dig into her. Trapped. "Icy!" she screams.

And the twoleg ... leaves. And with it, Ashpaw is gone.
​

—— " i found gold in the wreckage "

✦ ooc ✦ character information ✦ recent events

• idk what twoleg protocol is for when u accidentally get a cat stuck in ur bear trap, but THIS twoleg shoved her in a bag and is taking her to a shelter, just roll with it
  
  
• - 11 month old orange tabby with green eyes
  - apprenticed to lead warrior willowroot
  - crushing hard on iciclefang
  - happy-go-lucky, mischievous, hardworking
  - very friendly, but defensive of riverclan!
  - got real fucked up as a kid so if she seems like she was fucked up as a kid, that's why
  - "speech"
• - lol rip
  

​

 

[iciclefang]

The towering Twoleg casts its shadow over Ashpaw. Even injured, even terrified, Ashpaw spits, the claws on her free paw unsheathed, but she stands even less of a chance than Iciclefang had. Something envelops Ashpaw, swallowing her whole. Snuffing out her flame.

The tortoiseshell warrior struggles to her paws, gasping with the effort. "Ashpaw!" Her scream tears through her bruised ribcage and rakes the air like claws. It's the keening of a cat who has watched their lover die.

In a way, she has.

The Twoleg barely spares her a glance; had she not sank her fangs into the meaty flesh of its paw, it would not have harmed her, and still does not know the extent of the agony it had inflicted upon her. Doesn't know what it had stolen from her, from RiverClan.

"I never..." She wobbles. The Twoleg leaves without acknowledging her delayed declaration. Ashpaw, hidden from view, screams for her -- but she can't do anything. She can't even follow. Even breathing is painful. "I never even told you." She parts her jaws, a soundless shriek tearing from her mouth. Her blue eyes glitter with unshed tears. "I love you, too."

Would StarClan go with her, wherever she's going? Iciclefang shakes with pain and grief, but she cannot scream anymore. She's exhausted everything she has. The Twoleg is gone, and the cat she loves is gone with it.

Hours pass, and the tortoiseshell does not move. She does not stagger to her feet again until it is well past dark, until shadows blanket the riverland. Until the stars glow blankly overhead, and she can stare into them with defeated, tearstained eyes. "You have to protect her," she croaks, stumbling through the reeds. "You have to, because I'm not enough..."​

[ PENNED BY MARQUETTE ]​

​