HOLOGRAM \ mallowlark

[POLLENFUR]

It's been moons since her paws have felt the wind-worn grasses of the moorland. Pollenfur now is accustomed to wind barricaded by trees and Twoleg nests, her world made of concrete and asphalt rather than heather and gorse. The sun still rises, though, no matter where she finds herself, and with it's ascent she follows. There is no self-pity gnawing at her heart. There are only memories she wishes to outrun, a she-cat she wants to meet under the glow of the moon when the rest of the forest lies dormant.

Pollenfur often thinks of her kin. Brightshine, how stifled and lonely she must be without her sisters, under the iron paw of a leader who cares not for joy. Emberfang, who she still hasn't found, even after moons of searching. Mallowlark and Echolight, abandoned. She mourns Echolight's kits, kits she will never know because of her defecting.

Pollenfur walks along the boundary of another Clan territory. This scent she knows well -- SkyClan, the tree-dwelling ones, the one Sootstar had condemned so fiercely. She's nervous, as she always is when close to Clan territory, and when a strange scent assaults her senses she lies flat in the pine needles, immediately submissive. She will not fight them. She cannot.

But it's not a stranger accosting her. Pollenfur's ears prick again, amber eyes wide as moons. "Mallowlark?" The unexpected arrival of her nephew has her stumbling, stuttering stupid. This is the last place she'd expected to see him -- and he is well, unmarked, white pelt full, figure well-fed.

"...What are you doing here?" She rises slowly, eyes darting to the left and right of her kin. Is he alone? Can she speak to him here? The idea of leaving without doing so tears at her like enemy claws. Her heart twists in her chest to see the boy she'd help raise, displaced as he may be.

// @MALLOWLARK ​

[ PENNED BY MARQUETTE ]​

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[MALLOWLARK]

Though he was happy here, day-painted and dawn-touched, there was part of him that mourned the moors. Ancestral home, tainted... his grandfather and tail-half buried there. Mounds of dirt, bones in the earth that he'd never be near again. There were compromises he had to make for this life- and he'd broken things at his paws, too. Felt himself bleeding still at the touch of the fragments, but- here, there was a healer to soothe him.

Pollenfur's disappearance had worried him- but he knew his aunt better than to think she had died. When he had moved to SkyClan and found Dandelionwish there, someone who had been written off as a rotting corpse in his mind and mourned in private, the ever-hopeful part of him had wondered whether Pollen was here, too. She wasn't, of course- but it was all the more reason to believe she had not died. Perhaps she'd followed the silver string of love to wherever Honeytwist had ended up, and they were-

Well, his mind could not wander on that possibility for very long, for- patched in the foliage, painted fur in leaf-gaps... he'd recognise it anywhere. When his father hadn't been bothered to raise him, hadn't wanted to leave plush kittypet life behind, she'd stepped up to help. How could he not know her at a glance? And- and, in case it needed confirming, she spoke his name! Taken aback, of course- because oh what a surprise!

Where Pollenfur had faltered, Mallowlark's expression stretched into one of absolute and total glee. His smile pushed the boundaries of possibility at the sight. "HAH- Pollenfur!" Though both emotions were present in his rising tone, in the involuntary cackle that had burst from him for a moment, happiness much outweighed surprise. Her question- well asked, because of course she wouldn't know why he was here- hung in the air for a moment as Mallowlark almost stumbled over his charcoal paws to get closer to her.

"Oh, this is- I didn't think you were dead, but- but you're alive!" Nothing but joy on his face, even- even though she had cowered from him for a moment. Had other Skyclanners clawed at her? Thunderclanners pounced on her? "I- I live here, now!" And he'd almost fallen over his words, but at least he had managed to give her an answer, stuttered and simple as it was.​

☺PENNED BY PIN​

 

[POLLENFUR]

She can feel some of the tension leave her body as it becomes clear Mallowlark isn't with a patrol of cats. She scents the air again, just to make sure, but she can find only the achingly familiar scent of the nephew she'd helped raise. Slowly, Pollenfur rises to her paws, and warmth glows behind amber eyes like a rising sun. "StarClan, how I've missed you," she murmurs, stepping forward to press her muzzle against his. Even in this gesture, she can feel the curve of his smile, and it causes her eyes to dampen with tears.

She draws back just a second, searching his twinkling pale eyes as he tells her he lives here. "Were you... exiled?" Hesitant. Why else would he be in SkyClan? "Your mother, your sister...?" Oh, is Brightshine here? Is Echolight? "And... and Echolight's kits?" Surely, fortune could not be so kind.​

[ PENNED BY MARQUETTE ]​

​

 

[MALLOWLARK]

He bounded forward to embrace her, as glad as he could possibly be to see her face again. Their life on the moor, on that now-poisoned land, had been half of the reason he had not wanted to leave. Loyalty to his family and the memory of their ancestry, bent on the knowledge that WindClan would eventually fall into the trap of devouring itself. Mauling itself... but it had been too agonising to wait for its jugular to tear. "I've missed you too," he affirmed, laughter spilling from him incessantly, squeaking and crackling in his throat. He didn't want to cry. This was supposed to be happy.

He swallowed- words croaked against his throat as he gave his answer in the form of an enthusiastic shake of the head, one that grew slower and slower the more he recognised the hope in her eyes. Oh, how he too hoped they were all here. But- he'd ripped them apart even more to flee to here. And even though his mother and sister had understood, he had still left them behind, burrowing through the rotting corpse of the home they had once loved. "I-" and it hitched in his throat, catching on a giggle that soon broke into a small sob.

"I left. I lef-left them." his words wobbled. How much of a dream this had been with Dawnglare, and yet- yet there was still a wound in his chest that only a return to the past would heal. Never would he surrender what he had now, but that did not mean he felt no guilt. "I- I came here to live with my mate. He's the- m-mm-medicine cat, and I- couldn't have asked him to go there." His voice thickened on the last word, shuddering with underlying bitterness. He was really starting to cry, now- he let a bit of his weight fall on his aunt's side. "I was- seeing him for- for so long, and I... I had to choose. I had to give one of them- one of them up."

There was no need to tell her his choice.

Though he was audibly sobbing a lot more than he would have liked had he more control over the matter, the film of tears that shone over Mallowlark's wide gaze was very much real. ​

☺PENNED BY PIN​

 

[POLLENFUR]

Pollenfur's eyes glaze with tears as Mallowlark bounds closer to her, and she can't help but press her muzzle to his. His scent is different, stripped of much of its moorland essence and layered with the scents of this pine forest, strange metallic echoings of Twoleg items. The scent of a SkyClan warrior. His laughter, uncontrollable from birth, hitches when she asks him about his mother and sister, and his words tremble with effort.

"I left. I lef-left them." The chocolate tortoiseshell's gaze softens. "I- I came here to live with my mate." Pollenfur is surprised to hear this -- she would never have guessed Mallowlark would find love with the SkyClan medicine cat. Had never known he'd stolen out on wintry nights to meet with his lover, stealing moments.

"Oh, Mal, don't cry," she murmurs, and she rests her head on his shoulder for a moment. "Surely you know I'd never judge you for following your heart. And you know your mother wouldn't, either. We all just want you to be happy. It's all we've ever wanted."

After a heartbeat, she pulls back, studying his face, the tearful glaze of his silver eyes, and asks in a quiet voice, "Are you happy here? I've worried for you, stuck in WindClan with... with all that is happening there." She realizes that so many of those she cares about have scattered like petals on the wind. Hyacinthbreath is a RiverClan warrior now, and Mallowlark is in SkyClan. Brightshine and Echolight and Echolight's kits remain in WindClan, while Emberfang roams, far from her.

"Our family has been broken so much. One of us deserves to find happiness," she asserts. She lifts a dainty white paw to wipe a tear from Mallowlark's pale cheek. "What's this mate of yours like, hmm? Perhaps I can meet him someday." She doesn't want to make him sad anymore. She can't bear to see Mallowlark cry.​

[ PENNED BY MARQUETTE ]​

 

[MALLOWLARK]

Her words- he swallowed hard, nodding along with them as if they were some holy gospel, eye-contact unbroken. It was- was what Brightshine and Echolight had said, too. That they wanted him to be happy. To not worry. And he wanted to heed it desperately, knew they were immune to the creeping rot just like him, but that did not stop the fretting that over time their will would be eroded and there would be nothing left of them on those moors. That every one of them would have been run out by the iron-clad claws that had rended their home apart.

Pollenfur shared that worry, it seemed. Echolight was tied down by her kits, and Brightshine by her ancestry. He only hoped they could stick it out- had the faith that they could, but the possibility of them failing still ate away at him like a parasite. Ever-uncontrollable, his shoulders shuddered and his breath hiccuped. But despite it all, when she asked if he was happy, his grin glowed with every ounce of sincerity in his body when he answered. "Yeah," he said, eyelids fluttering for a moment. "Really happy. 'M learning to- climb, 'n catch birds, and... I don't have to pretend about anything anymore."

He would not share with her the less-than-warm arrival. It didn't matter, anymore.

Our family has been broken so much. One of us deserves to find happiness. What left him then was some amalgam of giggling and crying, like a mix of every involuntary and uncontrollable expression that slumbered within him and burst out at any given moment. He only oped he could carry the mantle for the rest of them... could smile for them tenfold if they couldn't manage it themselves.

"He's-one of the- the cleverest cats I've ever met. He knows so much- an-and- he, he always listens to me. And he laughs at my jokes." Frighteningly uncommon. He could ramble for longer, but- his curiosity was as barely-contained as his laughter. "You... you should meet him. What... what are you doing, now?" Surely she was not.. simply wandering. Had she met anyone else? Had she met Emberfang, too?​

☺PENNED BY PIN​

 

[POLLENFUR]

Pollenfur is so relieved to see his smile that she lets some of her fear ebb away. He tells her he is happy, that he’s learning to climb and catch birds, that he doesn’t have to be afraid or pretend to be who he isn’t any longer. “I never thought I’d see you climb trees,” she purrs, briefly reaching up to nuzzle him. “Perhaps I’ll have you teach me. Hyacinthbreath has taught me to fish… imagine…” Another Clan cat she should not be seeing openly… but SkyClan is friendly toward kittypets and strays, are they not?

She inhales sharply as Mallowlark describes his mate. There’s a gleam in his star-silver eyes, one she’s never seen before—the glowing warmth of a cat in hapless love. Something Echolight no longer has, that Brightshine lost long ago, that Pollenfur is lucky to have found a second time.

“I’m so happy for you. Finding love like that… it comes so rarely in one’s life. So cherish him, love. Hold him close.” She rests her tail tip against his ivory flank. “I could meet him someday, surely… but not today.”

Pollenfur hesitates. What is she doing? “I don’t stay in one place, Mal. I am everywhere and nowhere. It’s… it’s what I’ve always wanted.” A ghost of a smile graces her face. It’s not exactly what she’s always wanted, with her family in places so hard to access, but it’s as close as she can get—for now. “But perhaps one day soon, I can come to your border like this, and you can bring your mate so I can meet him.” She gives a small nod of affirmation.
​

[ PENNED BY MARQUETTE ]​

 

[MALLOWLARK]

He chose not to disclose to her that the tree climbing was not exactly successful, yet- in fact he had been more unsuccessful than perhaps even moor-bound Sootstar would be if she had attempted it. Oh, but- that thought, of her falling out of that tree like a bumbling kitten, like he had- it made him laugh, inexplicably. What noise would it make? A crack, if she landed wrong... but probably just a thump.

His eyes lit up with the smallest tint of surprise as Pollenfur mentioned Hyacinthbreath, and his ears swivelled to the attention. But he let the information take root in his mind, stay there, as she spoke of how lucky he was. Oh, and how he knew! Something in the sky, or buried in the earth, was looking out for him. It had been great fortune that had lead to their meeting, and... fortune again for many of their circumstances. They were together, that was true... and he was sure it was meant. Despite his shattering entrance into SkyClan, Mallowlark would never risk changing anything. He purred as her tail brushed him- as her eyes danced with admission. I am everywhere and nowhere.

"I'm never gonna let him go," Mallowlark promised, though it seemed a redundant promise to make. From the moment he had told Dawnglare he loved him, that had always been his intention. And Pollenfur, her roaming... if they were both happy, then that was what mattered, wasn't it?

"I'm glad you're- you're happy too, though. And fishing!" The surprise bubbled from him in cry-laughter. "I- I'll bring him to meet you, definitely. And- Hyacinthbreath, she-!" Excitement began to spill from him. Oh, how many Clans would their family splinter between! One day there'd be one in each, he was sure... "You- visit her, often?"

He'd known about Honeytwist- had wondered for her fate. But he'd also known that, after the medicine cat had been exiled, Pollenfur had shared a friendship with the former lead warrior. Was there something else there, too? And- and, perhaps, if he were to ever go to a Gathering... he might be able to ask Hyacinthbreath about his aunt more regularly, if they met often enough for Pollenfur to learn fishing...

\ omg this is unreasonably long and super late sorry LMFAO​

☺PENNED BY PIN​