INFINITE HOPE \ lost tooth

[FERNGILL]

It was small- tiny, dented thing that'd be hard to spot anyway, let alone in the aftermath of a flood. But for the last week he'd kept trying and trying and trying, an endless endeavour began, to locate it. He had pretty stones and prettiest stones, rare feathers and regular ones, all of them sank and washed away, but... very few of them had much sentimental value. He mostly kept his collection because it was the only fruit of his moons of labour. He'd never contributed a single piece of prey, never left a single scrape on a sparring opponent. That hoard was essentially the only proof he had ever lived, and now most of it was gone.

That was a depressing thought, now he really pondered on it... but what tore him up the most was the loss of the baby tooth that Gloompaw had given him. A gift from a friend, white as snow, exchanged with a stone... in the collapse of the den, the sailing panic of retrieval, he'd forgotten something so tiny and so precious would be easily lost.

Quiet, a tiny orange speck against the muted colours of the riverland, Fernpaw half-heartedly turned a rock over with one of his too-large paws. With the tiny shift of his shoulders, he let free a sigh- he must have checked this place a million times, and- he'd lost it, he really had. He'd looked everywhere. Everywhere, and it was nowhere to be seen. The impossibility of finding Gloompaw's tooth settled in his stomach, brought up a mask of tears to film his eyes.

With a blink, a drop- another- drizzled onto the ground.​

✦ penned by pin ✦​

 

[LILYBLOOM.]

If there's one thing she knew about her brother, it was that he liked collecting a random array of objects. Lilybloom could not claim to really understand why he collected the things he did, but she had never frowned upon him for his behaviour. In fact, she had indulged him on occasion, giving him a pretty pebble or feather she thought might take his fancy. When she sees he brother searching the land, his orange fur sticking out amongst the muted riverland landscape, she can't help but pad over to investigate. "Hello, Fernie," She chirps in greeting. "Are you looking for something?"​

 

[BUCKGAIT.]

MY NAME IS BRUTUS AND MY NAME MEANS HEAVY ✧​

she has not interacted with mud or ice's children much, though fern and icicle seem to be the most prevalent to her. mainly, because icicle follows smoke, who in turn, makes buck's life a living hell. fern...is just fern. as in, his eyes are too big, and head seems a bit small still. which can seem a bit confusing at times, considering who his father is. mudpelt is, objectively, a handsome tom. not in her taste, but a wonderful father and friend. she's almost about to gloss over him, until sharp eyes lock onto the sight of small, dainty tears tainting the ground.

"fern...is everything alright?" her drawl is gentle and soft, concern lacing her speech as she invites herself next to lilybloom. fernpaw had seemed down since the flood, and she can only assume it was because of his delicately procured hoard. he's spent moons on it, and for it all to be gone in mere heartbeats...she can imagine the devastation. though buck is not aware of the lost tooth, or fern's attachment to it. only that the boy is crying, and that is all she needs to know.
​

 

[DARKWHISKER]

darkpaw understands the agony of losing something precious, having the floodwaters swallow an irreplaceable possession... his starclan-blessed pebble had almost been lost to the flood, and because of his carelessness, darkpaw had nearly cursed the entirety of riverclan. if it hadn't been for smokethroat... stars, how he owes smokethroat his life for saving the pebble—and, by extension, riverclan— from a watery grave!

but his clanmates couldn't all say the same. darkpaw's own brother had lost all of his valuables in the flood, moons' worth of collecting destroyed within a heartbeat. he finds fernpaw today, sullen as he's been since the flood, turning over rocks with his paw. what hurts the most is the film of tears in his big, green eyes; darkpaw hates seeing anyone cry, but more than anything, he hates seeing his family cry. it rakes claws over his heart, and all he wants is to take away those tears.

"hey, fernie," darkpaw echoes his older sister as he pads over, trying for a smile despite the ache in his chest. "do you need any help rebuilding your collection? i'm free for the afternoon." he could only assume that the tears gathering in fernpaw's eyes are due to his lost collection. even though darkpaw couldn't return his brother's beloved collection to him, he could at least help him start anew. ​

 

[koispots]

Koi hasn't interacted with many other cats since she had begun to shut herself off, but after talking with Gloom she feels much lighter, happier. It's the reason shes awkwardly lingering in camp today, keeping her distance but still close enough to hear all the chatter. Her nubbed tail thumps the ground as she listens until her eyes glance over Fern with tears running down his cheeks.

She nearly doesn't move forwards. Koi is terrible at comfort.

Lilybloom moves forwards instead, then Buckgait and Koi is content to curl back in to a ball as they engage in idle chitter chatter, trying to figure out what's wrong. It's only when Darkpaw speaks does she grumble lightly and rise to her paws, easily striding over to stand with the group. Darkpaw asks if Fernpaw wants help rebuilding his collection. Koi had never had one... Bass, Carp, or her own Mother had never given her anything to keep besides the bitterness from growing up. "When the river goes down, whatever you've lost, I can dive or try to search for it." both a selfish reason and selfless. She missed the way the waves flowed over her head, how comforting they once felt. And surely, if Fern lost something dear to him, she'd want him to have it back. Or maybe this wasn't the situation at all, and they're all just guessing wrong things. Oh well.
​

"speech"​

 

[FERNGILL]

Oh- he'd been stupid, hadn't he, to forget that he might gain attention. It wasn't this sort of attention he was after- everyone bigger than him looking down, pity in their eyes. Every crawl of pity in a gaze... it made his heart drop to his feet, mad him feel ever-more aware of how behind he was, how actively he flagged. Swallowing down the lump in his throat, attempting to banish it into nothingness, Fernpaw looked up at his sister and let a small, shaky smile occupy his pin-sized maw. Then- Buckgait, who spoke softly. Darkpaw, too- they all asked him what he was doing, if everything was alright, if he needed help. "I'm- oka-ay," he murmured, always a terrible liar. His voice had fractured in the middle of the word. "I just- I lost Gloompaw's tooth, 'n..." A sniffle. "I feel so ba-ad. I can... I can always find other nice rocks, but... there's only one of those."

He nudged the rock he'd been looking under with his paw, and it rolled a little. His paw ached a tad with the aftermath, and a small sigh lifted his form, deflated it again. Bug-eyes shifted to his brother, appreciation a glow in pond-scum eyes. "Yeah, that sounds fun," he hummed cheerily, voice still a little croaky from crying but injected with a new ray of light. He'd never replace Gloompaw's tooth, but he'd always be able to find some cool rocks that would replace the rest of what he had lost. What made them precious was their beauty, and there was infinite beauty in the world.

Koipaw encroached the group then- and though her offer was made in good spirit, it brought back up the insecurity that Fernpaw had been sitting on only moments before. Offering to find it- to dive beneath the waves. Just because he was bad at everything else, did she think he was a bad swimmer too? "I don't want you to do it for me-e," he shot back, his voice dipping back into tearfulness and his tone a little sharper than he might have otherwise intended. He was perfectly capable of diving and swimming himself, but- obviously Koipaw did not think so. ​

✦ penned by pin ✦​