pafp i can always reassemble to fit perfectly for you | stealing?

Sep 2, 2024
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I'm cold.

Brilliant blue eyes flicker open, greeted by the nebulous darkness of the moments just before dawn. Rimekit allows her vision to adjust, taking in the familiar shapes of her parents and siblings. With how cold and dark it is, she half expects grandfather Weaselclaw to step out of the shadows, his low voice gracing her ears once more. But such is not the case. All that can be heard is the shivered breaths of her loved ones and the chatter of her own teeth.

The pale child shifts to tug some more moss closer but finds the edges of their nest are dried and crackling from the cold. A victim of the early cold front in and of itself. Rimekit wonders if the apprentices will bring more in the morning… but waiting until morning does not help her now.

Impatience seems to be the motive behind her next action.

She is a blur of white and smoke, stubby legs churning against icy ground as the kit disobeys a key rule and leaves the nursery unattended. Rimekit believes mother will forgive her though – she is simply getting more moss for them. Perhaps Bluefrost will even praise her for her ingenuity and independence! Maybe then the dappled child will be just as praised as her sister, Asterkit (again, a small flicker of jealousy makes its home within her fragile chest).

Somehow she reaches the medicine den without being caught. Whether it be too dark for anyone to see her, or someone does in fact have eyes on the two moon old kitten and is hanging back to watch her carefully. She's unaware and frankly unbothered. Familiar herb scent wreaths around the child as she creeps into the den. Hazy memories float around her mind, begging to be seen and acknowledged, but Rimekit hasn't the time to unpack those. The stash of moss in the medicine den is all the kit cares about. It lingers in her vision, a beacon of hope for a warmer nest, and Rimekit is a whisker length away from snagging some when a ghostly figure appears in her peripherals.

Oh no…

// please wait for @cottonsprig
[ penned by kerms ]
 
The chill has put her on edge for a multitude of reasons, the common inevitable now far closer than before. She claims that it is the incoming leafbare that frightens her; the lack of prey and warmth, specifically, bother her like the idea does any cat. But as the seasons turn, she finds that the creeping feeling down her spine resonates a new discomfort beneath her pelt. She will be relinquishing her title as medicine cat in due time. Two more seasons after leafbare, she hedges her bet. Sooner, maybe... Celandinepaw is an eager student.

She flips between eager to end her residency, tired of the expectation and continued lies through sharp white teeth - but the end of it means something new. Her curiosity bares fangs in face of fear, brandishing sharper claws in order for her to not grow inconsolable with the oncoming new. But now she finds, as she stirs in the night, that even her silent but bold attempts to assuage her discomfort will come to fail. She hardly was a good tunneller even under Scorchstar's tutelage. Would she do better now, if given the chance? (Is it a chance if she has no choice?)

Blue eyes focus on nothing as she ruminates in her thoughts, pathetically some would say. Pride glimmers in the depths, the smallest sense of power being all she can grasp in comfort. She's still here because she made the decision to be. WindClan would be in disarray without her (... without her, they would've never had their troubles to begin with.) It's a tremor of a back-and-forth before she notices little white paws and a sharp, determined gaze.

Her eyes, she notices, recalling them from her reflection in some ice. But honed like daggers, like her sister. Guilt stirs in her gut but she says nothing in that regard, thinks nothing - Bluefrost has sacrificed enough in favor of her sister. Accusing her of raising the litter the way she would... it would do nothing but drive a wedge between them.

"It's late, littleling," Cottonsprig speaks finally, and she can't help the softness of her tone. She rises her head, looks on to the child with a warm spark of fondness, banishing any trepidation that lingered prior. "Your mother will have my hide if you stay here for long. What are you here for?" she asks, head tilted slightly.

  • ooc //
  • MEDICINAL KNOWLEDGE
    ♥♥♡ WOUNDS ; can confidently stop bleeding and mend lacerations. will often request that you keep your injury clean and wait it out first.
    ♥♥♡ INFECTION ; as a side effect of likely her own doing, very dutiful with technique and treatment shortly thereafter.
    ♥♡♡ ACHES & PAINS ; will defer to a dark tunnel and rest. if pain persists, maybe she will offer something.
    ♥♡♡ BROKEN BONES ; has never dealt with a broken bone. likely will ask that you never move. ever again.
    ♥♥♥ TRAVELING HERBS ; learned well from her previous mentor. will pile even too many remedies to tough the wilderness with.
    ♥♥♥ KITTING ; having kittens of her own and helped several others with their litters, she is very well versed with calming techniques and quelling pain.
    ♥♡♡ POISONS ; she knows what they are... but that isn't enough, isn't it?
    ♥♥♡ ILLNESS ; having worked through two yellowcough bouts, she is confident in her remedies. much else... she's operating on trial and error.
    ⸻ cottonsprig is a dutiful and excitable medicine cat. she enjoys company and loves conversation. she'd rather not have too many curious noses snooping around her den... but who is she to quell curiosity?
  • hLNSgig.png
    ⸻❥ cottonsprig is the primary medicine cat of windclan. a former princess to the moors, she harbors many guilts for her actions throughout her short life. she has no consistent partner, unwilling to commit and settle, and she is training celandinepaw in medicine.
 
She stirs sometime after Rimekit has abandoned their nest. The absence of a single kit does little to immediately alarm her; after all, they all shift in their sleep, and Rimekit especially likes to cuddle with Thriftfeather intermittently. But the sleep drains from her eyes as she scans the nursery. Rimekit is the easiest to find in the gloom with her mostly-white pelt amidst the grays and creams of her littermates; it's easy to see she's managed to escape into the frigid night.

Irritation clouds her vision. She shifts against Thriftfeather, no doubt no disturbing an entire nest of sleeping kittens so she can find a singular escapee. "Shh. I shall be right back," she murmurs in an attempt to soothe them, but she will not be surprised if every single one of the kits follows her out into the freezing clearing.

She is just in time to see a gold-streaked tail tip disappear into Cottonsprig's den. Bluefrost frowns; steam curls from her nostrils, a gentle exhale. And why there? Why is she drawn there? She's reminded of Comfreykit burrowing into Cottonsprig's side, of Foalkit reaching for her sister's plush fur. StarClan can be cruel; she knows that now, though perhaps not as thoroughly as her littermate.

Bluefrost pokes her head into the medicine cat's den. The air is fragrant with herbs and her sister's scent. Cottonsprig sits alone, illuminated by the moon, and before her sits Rimekit. Two pairs of piercing blue eyes stare back at one another. For a moment, Bluefrost doesn't know what to say, how to interrupt, but she manages, after a time, to clear her throat.

"I am sorry, Cottonsprig. I just woke up and she was gone." She gives Rimekit a cool, scolding look. "What were you thinking, young lady? You know better than to leave the nursery without me or your father. Now you've woken up all all your brothers and sisters just to sneak out here and bother the medicine cat." Her tone is stern, though it would have paled in comparison to the voice Sootstar would have used with her.

  • ooc:
  • 69334192_7vVwuq2U19bWMTh.png
  • Bluekit . Bluepaw . Bluefrost, she/her w/ feminine terms.
    — "speech", thoughts, attack
    — 23 moons old, ages realistically on the 14th.
    — mentored by Sootstar ; mentoring n/a ; previously mentored Brackenpaw.
    — windclan queen. sootstar x weaselclaw, gen 2.
    — mated to Thriftfeather.
    — penned by Marquette.

    lh blue smoke she-cat with white and emerald eyes. aloof, dignified, poised, haughty, composed, distant.

 

Where she expects a scolding is instead a gift of soft fondness. A warmth only a healer could provide caressing youthful ears and briefly quelling fears of being caught red pawed in her disobedience. Rimekit gazes upon her aunt, bright blue eyes meeting in mirrored reflection. The sharpness she has inherited from her mother softens ever so slightly. Her guard is lowered just enough to show her family member that she is still just a child, learning from her mistakes.

"Moss." The word falls from her maw carefully, wrapped in foggy exhale as it fights against the chill of the air. "I want… to take some. It is… cold," she answers carefully, almost robotic in order to enunciate her words clearly. Rimekit is her mother's daughter, but for a split second her features soften completely and she is entirely Cottonsprig's flesh and blood. "Please?"

The sound of a throat clearing snaps her walls sky high once more, shoulders rigid and ears clamping down against her skull. Rimekit removes her gaze from her aunt (it is almost painful to do so… her heart yearns for more exposure to fond glances) and looks upon the frosty scold of her mother. "I was cold," Rimekit confesses in rasped reply, a frown tugging at her maw. "I did not… wake them," she adds as the frown deepens to something akin to defiance. The kitten thought herself careful and quiet in her escape. "I was going to… bring moss back. For us." She was trying to do something nice. Could her mother not see that?

Was her chance at earning the blue smoke's praise as dead and crumbled as the moss their family slept upon?

Rimekit glances back at Cottonsprig quickly, hoping, hoping, that the medicine cat might shine some mercy upon the wayward child who was only trying to help… even if she had done so in the wrong way.
[ penned by kerms ]
 
The child speaks like her mother (Cottonsprig does not flinch as she makes the unfortunate relation.) Clipped and calculated, as if every syllable has run drills in the labyrinth of her mind. She pulls words apart, too, like Bluefrost - quick is her sister's speech but rarely does she crush words into shorter phrases. Rimekit, it seems, is apt to do much of the same. Her heart pulls as the child expresses her misery about the cold and her want to stay warm. A gentle please and the softness around her eyes...

Does she see herself in Rimekit?

She does not have time to think about it. Bluefrost arrives in the maw of her den, fatigue wearing on her muscles. She can see how her sister tenses, holds her gaze for no longer than a few seconds. They must share the same pitiful thoughts; how cruel a child can unknowingly be. To experience the softened tone of her true mother yet know no difference. She allows her sister the right to chide little Rimekit for her exploration stunt, debating whether or not this is an issue she can allow herself to intrude on. It is her den, her supply, but... would it be taken otherwise?

Rimekit bites back in earnest, and Cottonsprig decides with a stir of her tail that she can be some form of a fun aunt, if not a permissive mother. "It's too late in the night for your bite, Bluefrost," she jests with a wave of her paw. The morsel of moss that Rimekit had aimed for is torn from the rest with gentle claws, pawed into place beside the snow-white kitten. "A cold kitten is of no bother to me," she murmurs shortly thereafter. A shift in her weight again as she rests her head on her paws, speaking in a sleepy, "The two of you should be off, now, before the chill of the night burrows to your bones."

  • ooc //
  • MEDICINAL KNOWLEDGE
    ♥♥♡ WOUNDS ; can confidently stop bleeding and mend lacerations. will often request that you keep your injury clean and wait it out first.
    ♥♥♡ INFECTION ; as a side effect of likely her own doing, very dutiful with technique and treatment shortly thereafter.
    ♥♡♡ ACHES & PAINS ; will defer to a dark tunnel and rest. if pain persists, maybe she will offer something.
    ♥♡♡ BROKEN BONES ; has never dealt with a broken bone. likely will ask that you never move. ever again.
    ♥♥♥ TRAVELING HERBS ; learned well from her previous mentor. will pile even too many remedies to tough the wilderness with.
    ♥♥♥ KITTING ; having kittens of her own and helped several others with their litters, she is very well versed with calming techniques and quelling pain.
    ♥♡♡ POISONS ; she knows what they are... but that isn't enough, isn't it?
    ♥♥♡ ILLNESS ; having worked through two yellowcough bouts, she is confident in her remedies. much else... she's operating on trial and error.
    ⸻ cottonsprig is a dutiful and excitable medicine cat. she enjoys company and loves conversation. she'd rather not have too many curious noses snooping around her den... but who is she to quell curiosity?
  • hLNSgig.png

    ⸻❥ cottonsprig is the primary medicine cat of windclan. a former princess to the moors, she harbors many guilts for her actions throughout her short life. she has no consistent partner, unwilling to commit and settle, and she is training celandinepaw in medicine.
 
Bluefrost's scolding is met with petulance, and Bluefrost frowns in response. Rimekit is stubborn, the way her sister had always been... and Cottonsprig had gotten away with murder in comparison to the rest of their littermates, including Bluefrost herself. Sootstar's wrath was one thing to witness in the nursery and another thing entirely while training under her tutelage. But Rimekit doesn't really know wrath, not really — she knows sternness, and she knows the flailing attempts Bluefrost makes to be her mother, and clearly that has settled with the child a certain way.

The smoke-colored queen frowns, her ears flattening at her adopted daughter's defiance. "They are awake, because I had to come find you. You know you aren't to leave the nursery without me or Thriftfeather." She can see Rimekit had just been cold, had just gone to the one place she figured she could count on for warmth, but the idea of her kits fleeing the nursery and roaming the camp in the bitter leafbare chill is enough to send her heart pounding.

But Cottonsprig intervenes... and Bluefrost gives her a frosty look in response. You wanted me to parent your kits, the look screams. So let me do it. She says nothing to her sister, though; she only lowers her muzzle toward Rimekit's rump and bumps her toward the opening to the medicine cats' den. "Take the moss. I will show you how to put it into the nest properly in the morning. Until then, I want to see you sleeping soundly." Her tone is cool. She gives Cottonsprig a last look before murmuring, "And say thank you to aunt Cottonsprig. It was nice of her to entertain this foolishness at such an hour."

With that, she sweeps her tail across Rimekit's flank, an attempt to get her to follow her back to the nursery.

  • ooc:
  • 69334192_7vVwuq2U19bWMTh.png
  • Bluekit . Bluepaw . Bluefrost, she/her w/ feminine terms.
    — "speech", thoughts, attack
    — 23 moons old, ages realistically on the 14th.
    — mentored by Sootstar ; mentoring n/a ; previously mentored Brackenpaw.
    — windclan queen. sootstar x weaselclaw, gen 2.
    — mated to Thriftfeather.
    — penned by Marquette.

    lh blue smoke she-cat with white and emerald eyes. aloof, dignified, poised, haughty, composed, distant.

 

There is a flutter, a flicker of something, stirring in her chest at Cottonsprig's jest towards mother followed by her kind gesture. The moss gifted to the snowy child is pulled close; a security blanket of sorts to be treasured for the rest of the evening.

Seeing Bluefrost's ears angle back paired with a frown settled upon stern yet weary maw strikes a sense of victory in the child. A petulant and snarky manner of seconds, evident by the slight smirk Rimekit bears over getting her way. See? Aunt Cottonsprig gave me what I wanted. It is short lived – an almost blink and you'll miss it moment.

Her mother's muzzle lightly bumps her rump, coaxing her out of the medicine den. Following suit is a soft huff from the kitten, who still firmly believes that she did not wake her siblings and she had done no wrong in coming to ask for moss. "Next time… I will just freeze until morning. So everyone… gets their sleep," she murmurs finally, bitterness evident in her tone as she picks up the moss in her maw. Her bright blue gaze does not meet the frosted emeralds of Bluefrost, fearing the frigid expression that lies there from continued defiance. Her ear flicks in acceptance of the nest making lesson set up for her in the morning (and perhaps cleaning out the old moss as punishment for this twilight excursion and subsequent back talk). Before she reaches the mouth of the den, she looks to Cottonsprig and dips her head in gratitude. "Thank you Aunt Cottonsprig," Rimekit recites as clearly as she can through the bundle of moss clasped between her teeth, then pads away in the direction her mother herds her.
[ penned by kerms ]