private let you know // lupinepaw

[cottonsprig]

It's early morning. Cottonpaw wakes with the slow realization that she's still stowed away with three other Clans, in a fourth's territory. Much less, sequestered against a treacherous tree, forced to stay oh-so close lest they all be banished for one's mistakes. Blue eyes tempt fluttering closed again, unwilling to face the facts of their lives in that moment, however sleep doesn't welcome her back. Eventually she gives in, standing to stretch.

It seems a handful of other cats are, too, lingering about. She sees some leave makeshift dens and tries to pick out differing Clans purely on their scents and builds alone - a skill she needs to maintain despite her shift of work. She healthily avoids the RiverClanners, finds herself neutral with ThunderClan, and eventually settles on a SkyClanner, however not for no reason. "Oh..." she breathes slowly, trotting towards the dark furred femme.

"Hi...!" she greets, her tail swishing back, "Um, I'm Cottonpaw, and you... have a spiderweb stuck in your fur," dignity is spread far too thin, and though she has little to no affection for the SkyClan cats, too, she'd rather help the other avoid embarrassment. "It must've gotten sewn up in the night, and you walked right through it," she's noticed more of that lately, too. In the makeshift dens, in the trees and bushes. She seats herself, "If you're willing, I can help get it out, and make sure you've got no more?"​

 

[LUPINESONG]

❀‿ Lupinepaw had never truly realized how grateful she truly was to call Skyclan her home. The pines kept the forest floor cool during the scorching days of greenleaf and the needles fell to create a cushioned blanket on the ground. She appreciated the pines of Shadowclan well enough, but they seemed so sparse and few between, with disgusting slimy swampland stretching between each tree. Lupinepaw missed waking to the cheerful twittering of songbirds in the morning, instead, she scarcely slept at night, kept awake by the mournful croaking of toads singing hymns of their devotion to the muck.

Though, Lupinepaw doubted if she would be able to sleep a wink even if every creature in the marsh was silenced. When they fled Skyclan territory, overwhelmed and defeated by strange cats with gnashing fangs and slashing claws, a part of her accepted that it very well could have been the last time she'd seen her home. The other cats huddled around the burned-up tree spoke about fighting back and getting their territories back, but she had the sense of how bleak things really were. The only foods the sparse territory had to offer were stringy, cold-fleshed frogs and sickness-spitting rats.

Half of their clanmates were already wasting away in Shadowclan's medicine den somewhere deeper in the marsh, and Falconpaw among them—he's already been sick for so long... Would they tell her if he'd died? Or has it already happened, and she should have been sending her prayers to him in Starclan instead? Starclan seemed like it would be a much nicer place to be than here, though, if her memory served well enough... Was that an inappropriate sentiment?

Lupinepaw rose from a cold night of poor semi-sleep, paws itching to move even if they would do little else but get muddier in the process, figuring she would try and find some spare reeds to neaten up her makeshift nest... or something. She nearly jumped at the sound of a voice calling out to greet her, meeting a small blue cat's eyes with her own widened jade. Lupinepaw only blinked for a moment as the girl—Cottonpaw—introduced herself, mostly trying to parse through her muddled scent... "Hello, uhm...?" Windclan...? Realizing only slightly delayed what the other was telling her, Lupinepaw was washed with surprise all over again.

"Oh, mousefluff! Do I really?" She craned a long neck toward her own fur, to no avail, "That's like, so embarrassing..." Lupinepaw turned her eyes back to Cottonpaw, who was already seated and offering her help. She found herself straightening, collecting herself in front of the petite Windclanner into a cooler—or less scattered, at least—version of Lupinepaw. "You're so sweet! I would appreciate the help, yes, thank you Cottonpaw..." She purred, sitting alongside her, "I can try and get some mud out of your fur too if you'd like... It's not too bad but... you know Shadowclan is kindaaaa..." The black smoke trailed off, wrinkling her nose to dramatize what she left unsaid.

"My name's Lupinepaw, by the way," she added, having nearly forgotten to introduce herself.

JUST LIKE THAT ⊹₊°❀‿ THE MOON GOES FLAT

• OOC: dont feel like you have to reply with the same length! i wrote more than i intended to originally lol
• 
• 
  — lupinekit . lupinepaw
  — trans she/her. 6mo apprentice of skyclan
  — ??? ; single
  — tall, long-haired black smoke with low white and green eyes
  — smells like sweet lupine flowers and young pine needles
  — "speech", thoughts, attack
  — icon by saturnid, fullbody and chibi by nya
  — penned by eezy

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