I JUST NEED TIME ;; visiting graves.

[Fireflyglow]

Fireflyglow's paws feel heavy. The wind blows roughly against his face, a minor bite of cold to it which makes him scrunch his nose. Gravesites long occupied, the smell of lavender faint yet still present, signaling the buried ones locations. His paws reach out, tapping along the ground before he huffs with frustration. "Why did you have to go so soon?" He asks a particular gravesite, milky blues squinting as he stares off into the distance. The smell of mint hangs in the air from his presence, yet from the way he clenched his jaw, it seemed he didn't visit this place often- if at all.

A sigh leaves him.

"...I told Greeneyes that I love him. You probably always knew how I felt about him, pa. If you were here, you'd have told me to tell him sooner, huh?" He chuckles softly, sniffling away his runny nose. There were no tears to give to this grave, already spent and wasted over a long period of moons of loss. "I can't carry on your legacy through kits. Howlfire and the rest of my siblings.. They did that for me. All I can do is.. Is do my job. I know." He whispers softly, Blazestar's grave so well taken care of. His paw brushes over the ground blindly, as if seeking comfort.

The sound of leaves rustling catches his attention, and Fireflyglow lifts his head to greet his fellow visitor. "Have you come to visit as well?" He asks the unknown, the direction of the wind making it a bit harder for him to make out who it was. ​

SKYCLAN MEDICINE CAT ✦ 25 MOONS ✦ CHUNKY, BIG-FOOTED SEAL POINT ✦ TAGS​

 

[KITESTORM]

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Kite has never lost a loved one and they can only hope that their parents and siblings are still alive and well as they can be. So, it is not the need to grieve one who lays beneath layers of nettles and dirt that lead Kite to the graveyard. It was just a curiosity, a need to visit one more place within this unfamiliar- but increasingly more dear- territory. They've finally found the courage to come out to these sacred grounds with hopes they may pay respect to those who came before; send a silent thanks to them for all being a part of the clan Kite persistently learns the ways of.

Inky fur emerges from brush, as silently as they can manage as to not to disturb the mint scented feline beyond them. Kite pads softly out of the foliage, head inclined downwards nervously. They have never been so close to death, though they cannot see it Kite knows what lies beneath the ground in marked graves. "I have..." Kite murmurs airily, padding towards Fireflyglow. Their nostrils flair slightly as they come closer, the seal-point's perfume-like scent wafting through Kite's senses.

Kite settles not too close to Fireflyglow and sighs wistfully, eyes lingering graves. Will I be buried here...? A thought for later. Kite turns their small head towards Fireflyglow and mews quietly, "I don't believe I have met... you properly. I am Kite." Their distant gaze dips to the site below Fireflyglow's black paws. "Who are you visiting... if I may ask?"

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•  
• — black tabby with a small stature and compact muscles ; TAGS
  — 39, ages every 21st
  — they/them
  — speech
  — peaceful powerplay allowed

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[Howlfire]

Despite the deep love she holds for her departed father, Howlfire isn't sure she has actually visited the graves very often. A shame really, she reflects, since Bazestar is the only parent she can visit. Little Wolf lay buried in the mountains far away from home.

She's been in a reflective mood in recent days, and that is perhaps why she feels drawn to this place, not to talk, but to sit and ruminate. Blazestar is not the only fallen cat here that she cared for, there are clanmates long passed, who dwell here peacefully. Howlfire does not know Fireflyglow nor Kite were here, and gives a little start when she sees the two of them. "Don't mind me," She mews, chuckling nervously as she brushes past Kite. "It's peaceful tonight.." Howlfire muses, sitting close to her brother, but peering towards Kite as she spoke. "Who are you both visiting tonight?" She asks, echoing Kite's earlier question.​

 

[edenberry ?!]

It's a selfish indulgence, to parade amongst the treaded earth where their dead have lined the fields and pretend they have some stake in this world. Maybe they do... and just haven't realized it yet. There are many here that Edenberry would never be able to identify, had never met... perhaps more painfully, are the ones they do recognize. Tawnystripe most especially, stings like nettles in their pelt.... No kits to care for his resting place... Fireflyglow, a gentle ghost that he is, tends to them all with tender care. Still...

He deserves flowers that mourn him.

They creep up behind the gathering figures of bereaved clan-mates, daisies held tightly in their jaw. There are many hearts here today and that makes the burden not so heavy. "Hey," they mew in greeting, gently moving past Howlfire with a glance that doesn't meet her eyes to go about their mission of decorating their former mentor's grave.

Picking up their head, they turn back to the crowd with a twitch of their whiskers. "Hope you don't mind... I was coming to see Tawnystripe. How's.... how's Blazestar?" They use current tense, as if any of them might actually be able to talk with them, to laugh at exchanged jokes.... a flimsy attempt to try to deny the permanence of their absence.

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𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊 i want no more than this

• -- edenberry / skyclan daylight warrior / any pronouns / 16 moons
  -- mostly white with black pinstripe and green eyes / scarred face and back
  -- color #728c69​

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[DOEBLAZE]

The unfortunately well - worn path to the graveyard is like velvet under her calloused paws, each step nearly polished to a sheen of packed earth from how often she makes this journey. A drooping bundle of late - summer wildflowers is clutched in her jaws, the edges of multicolored petals just beginning to purple from the promises of morning chill. When she sees Fireflyglow there, though, as she rounds the corner, she quietly thanks the quicksilver stars that she's had the presence of mind to keep the grave more neat of old bouquets than it has been in past moons. A stark reminder that she is not a lonely mourner.

" Hello, " she greets the impromptu gathering in low, reverent tones. Surprisingly, though, her voice does not waver—the tabby stands upright and steady, her forest - dark eye fixed firmly on the faces of each passing visitor. She dips her head to set down her spray of faded wildflowers without much hesitation or fanfare, straightening up to meet Fireflyglow's sightless gaze. Kite, Howlfire, and Edenberry all gather in a solemn bundle of pelts that she readily joins, happy to melt into the backdrop of multicolored fur.

" I'm here to visit Blazestar, " she finds herself saying near - painlessly; she feels slightly away from herself, though tension gathers in her shoulders like a flock of grackles. If the snatches of Fireflyglow's meow she had heard between the trees during her trek were any indication, he is too, but she refrains from voicing her conclusions. Instead, she stands quietly amidst the gathered cats, breathing in the smell of flowers and bracing mint that rolls off of the medicine cat.

" The same as always, " she answers Edenberry with a seemingly disapassionate flick of the ears. She does not say dead, but the word hangs in the air—weightlessly, though, free of the heavy connotations she's long assigned it.

OOC : —

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[Fireflyglow]

Wherever Fi wanders, a ghostly path follows- the pawsteps of his ancestors echoing in his own footsteps. He is star-blessed, holy and yet.. Mortal, all the same. He too will join the stars one day, and that is a comforting thought for the seal point as he listens to the voices around him. One by one, more cats come to join his side. His sister, bless her soul, seats herself next to him and Firefly leans into her body almost instictively- just as he had when they were kits, scared and traumatized from the loss of their baby sister. He finds comfort in her presence, knows that she too feels the presence of their father in these moments of grieving.

Kite politely introduces themself, and Fireflyglow's ghostly gaze softens almost immediately. "Fireflyglow. I am Howlfire's brother." He leaves out the cheeky older brother part of his self-introduction, because before he knows it, Kite is asking him who he is visiting. Fireflyglow's blind gaze returns to the direction of the smell of wildflowers as Bob- no, Doeblaze sets down a new set. Fireflyglow purrs in thanks to his step-mother.

Edenberry announces that they are here for Tawnystripe. Dead, alongside the rest of their fallen clanmates. Blazestar is a beloved figure in their clan's history, and yet it feels like he is spoken about with such reverence that he feels like a legend told to kits now. He deserved to have his legacy told. Fireflyglow wouldn't let the memory of his father die out.

"Is that so?" Fireflyglow chuckles softly, his deep voice vibrating in his chest as Doeblaze mentions being here to visit Blazestar. It wasn't a surprise. His step-mother had been tending to Blazestar's grave in his absence. "I am here for him, too. My father.. He was a good tom. Too kind for this world." He speaks softly, unafraid to speak of him in the past tense. Grief had already taken its hold on Fireflyglow, now only the memory of his father allowed him to live his life in the present. "You would think being able to see him in my dreams would be enough.. But it never is. Nobody ever talks about how lonely it is, being a medicine cat. We are merely living history books, retelling the stories of the cats long gone." He hums softly, smoothing a paw over the wildflowers Doeblaze had brought.

"I know that Blazestar is proud of all of us. Even through everything.. We still chose each other."​

SKYCLAN MEDICINE CAT ✦ 25 MOONS ✦ CHUNKY, BIG-FOOTED SEAL POINT ✦ TAGS​

 

[WOLFGRIN]

The crowd in the graveyard gives Wolfgrin pause. Privacy is a luxury when you're packed into a camp with dozens of other cats like mice in a burrow, but his visits to Flamefeather's grave are better left as a solitary affair. His mourning is ugly, a raw, unhealing wound that bleeds but does not kill. Even the thought of having eyes on him in the rare, lonely moments when he gives up his composure makes him feel furless.

He hesitates several paces back, feeling miserable as he takes stock of his Clanmates' faces. Fireflyglow, Howlfire, Edenberry, Doeblaze, and... Kite, was it? They're new, he thinks, at least he hopes they are. It'd be awfully embarrassing if they've been here for moons and he just hasn't noticed them. Though he supposes he could be forgiven; being haunted by the specter of your still-burning mate in dreams does things to the mind.

It seems like they're going to be here a while, mourning Blazestar. Wolfgrin can come back later, when he's sure to be alone. He casts a longing glance past them, to where Flamefeather's grave sits, clean except for a single wilting flower that he hasn't yet had the chance to replace.

/ ooc: feel free to catch him before he can skedaddle :>​

[ EVERYTHING DESERVES TO LIVE ON ONCE IT'S GONE -- ☀ ]​

 

[KITESTORM]

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Howlfire's brother, Fireflyglow introduces himself to Kite and this familial connection allows them to realize he must be visiting Blazestar, the prior leader who Kite has heard so much about. Their round head dips politely at Howlfire and Kite casts a quick look between the two, intending to find some sort of shared characteristics between the two- they couldn't but it dimly reminds Kite of their own family, easing a thin-lipped smile from themself. Kite shrinks in their dark fur, awkwardly, when they are asked who they are visiting. "I guess... no one in particular... just, those who came before?"

Kite falls quiet as Edenberry and Doeblaze join them and as they did before acknowledges them both with quick nods and begins to shuffle away from them. They feel as though they are intruding on their mourning and that it may be a mistake to have come when there is no one beneath the dirt they have any connection to. They linger in the background, besides the undergrowth they had emerged from and watches the strange interaction between Doeblaze and her children. Will I be like that around Magnolia... if she were to join Skyclan and reunite with Florabreeze? Kite remains long enough to listen to Fireflyglow's brief eulogy before slinking away, tail lowered as they pad back to camp with a darkened expression as they wonder if they would be buried in that graveyard, if they'd be afforded such a honor.

✦ ╔═══《✧》═══╗

•  
• — black tabby with a small stature and compact muscles ; TAGS
  — 39, ages every 21st
  — they/them
  — speech
  — peaceful powerplay allowed

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