camp I’D FORGET THAT WE EVER KISSED — intro, praying

[fleabounce]

˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥ Dusk eases over the evening sky with the same gentleness as a bird settles into her nest. The honeyed horizon fades into purple, and then settles on black; a bruise in reverse. It’s the brilliance of Silverpelt that beckons Fleabounce from her curled place in her nest. She stands into a stretch and steps through her limp until she settles into her rabbit’s stride. Once outside the protective shelter of the warrior’s den, Fleabounce cranes her head backwards in simple admiration of the burgeoning starlight filtering down through the crossed branches of ShadowClan’s sparse tree cover.

"StarClan bless our hunters," Fleabounce’s voice comes monotone, but she speaks around a warm smile, and feels the rumble of her words in the middlemost point of her throat, "Bless them to be clever enough to outsmart any frog or toad that crosses their path, and bless them to be quick enough as that they might actually catch something that isn’t covered in warts."

Fleabounce finishes with a flourishing bow skyward, and then rises with a titter and a snort, self-amused from her joke of a prayer.

"Anyone else wish to add anything before I close off? StarClan is feeling kind tonight, I can tell it." Her words come wholly separated from one another, carefully plucked and colorless where the rest of her is not.​

SHADOWCLAN WARRIOR ▫ CHOCOLATE TORTOISESHELL WITH AN UNUSUALLY SHORT TAIL ▫ 81 MOONS

■■■■■​

 

[lilacfur]

With a large number of their fiercest gone, Lilacfur had felt the impact of their absence quickly. Patrols had become smaller, tighter with only a pair or so to keep one another safe. ShadowClan's luck being on the poorer end of things, Lilacfur half expected the bears to return to flush the rest of them out once again. It all kept her terribly on edge.

The work had certainly been cut out for her on top of training her apprentice between patrols, sending her to her mossy nest with achey limbs and a tired brain. Hardly anything woke her now except for the stirring of her denmates in the morning, but otherwise her rest was peaceful. The long-furred rosette was not afflicted by nightmares or stricken from dark fears as some of the others may be.

Fleabounce had lured her from her sleep, though. A single round, pale eye opened and revealed to her the silhouette of the older warrior, bathed in starlight while she prayed. She followed Fleabounce outside on careful, dainty paws before resting quietly beside her. Lilacfur held a grand sense of admiration in her senior warrior who bared the years of survival and still appeared so soft, so gentle, despite it.

"You can?" Lilacfur's amber sights shift from Fleabounce to the twinkling sky ahead. She searched for the brightest star of the bunch- Briar's Star, and smiled as though it were confirmation to her question.

"I see... Mother, StarClan, I pray that you bestow your graces in their path. Give them shelter so that they stay warm and safe from the teeth of any dangers." ​

[ sad hello's and mad high low's ]​

 

[NETTLEPAW ♡]

Despite his mother's strong connection to their warrior ancestors, Nettlepaw had never paid StarClan much mind. They existed, he knew that much. It was mere fact- Chilledstar had nine lives, and where else could those come from? He'd not once prayed to them, though. Seemed a bit fawning... and you'd never hear anything back, would you? Not as a regular old warrior- or an apprentice, in his case. He was probably even lower on the pecking order.

Maybe having a medicine-cat mother put him a bit higher on that list. Maybe. So praying had that tiniest possibility not to be pointless, which was what first enticed Nettlepaw closer- and even then, he was not one to despise the pointless. In fact, frivolous activities were some of his favourites. I can tell it, Fleabounce announced, and Nettlepaw didn't exactly believe her- but how much would she hate him if he said so? Surely it was better to pretend. And if he pretended enough, he believed a little bit too.

Settling at his aunt's side, Nettlepaw cast his eyes to the sky, creased slightly with his smile. "Since you're feeling kind..." he spoke easily, convincingly, as if he could see a spirit right in front of him. "Wouldn't hurt to put a half-dead mouse or two right in front of a hunter's pounce, would it?" If they had that sort of power. Even if it wasn't a proper prayer, he hoped the earth cats would find the image funny.​

penned by pin ♡​

 

[fleabounce]

˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥ Lilacfur asks for reassurance so earnestly that Fleabounce nods her confirmation without thought. She doesn't know, not truly, but doubt is not what Lilacfur needs to see, and so it is what Fleabounce needs to say. Her smile doesn't falter or wane or strain under the weight of her coming lie, as there isn't any guilt in offering what little comfort she can in a world keen on snatching away larger and larger portions.

"Of course," Fleabounce replies with her plucked words, but Lilacfur is already looking up and away — presumably offering her own prayers to the darkening sky. She softens as she watches Lilacfur in profile, and then turns when Nettlepaw's scent joins them. It's only the end of his own prayer that she catches, but Fleabounce knows enough that she can assume the rest.

"Would that be kind?" She prompts slowly, her head tipped like a listening dog and then, unexpectedly, Fleabounce bursts into laughter, "Was this hunter pouncing into empty space before the mouse came?"​

SHADOWCLAN WARRIOR ▫ CHOCOLATE TORTOISESHELL WITH AN UNUSUALLY SHORT TAIL ▫ 81 MOONS

■■■■■​

 

[NETTLEPAW ♡]

Would that be kind, asked Fleabounce. Why wouldn't it be? He grinned with intense giddiness as her words erupted into peals of laughter. That noise soothed him and thrilled him all that once. He'd be in the good books for that one, he would guess- it wasn't an unkind laugh, something jeering. She'd laughed because of something he'd said. It was the exact opposite feeling to when Screechpaw had told him he was no fun- because this was proof he was, wasn't it?

Laughter was contagious, and it split through Nettlepaw's words too. "Oh, don't laugh!" And it was clearly a joke, a demonstration of jesting hypocrisy, because Nettlepaw laughed too. Joy, in this trying time. That was what they needed. "How demeaning to those terrible hunters among us! They won't forgive you for being so judgemental." He dressed himself with a very-exaggerated grumpy frown, chastising this much, much older cat. It took all his strength even to keep an expression of pretend anger fastened upon his face. ​

penned by pin ♡​