private LIGHT THAT BURNS THE SKY [family]

[BRANCHPAW]

𓆱 Branchkit still doesn’t speak much, in spite of his age and improved vocabulary. He could, of course, but why would he when Snowypaw helps talk for him anyway? He loves his black-and-white big sister the most—she even stayed with him and his littermates in the nursery even when she didn’t have to! And even when he was sad, Snowypaw always had a way to make him smile! But Snowypaw… hasn’t come back to camp for a few days now. The little tabby tom feels lonely without her around. It’s okay, because he still has his littermates and his cousins, but he’s confused. Where is she? He finds two of his older siblings hanging about camp, and rushes over to them on significantly steadier paws than he’d had in younger months.

Blinking wide blue eyes up at his kin, the boy speaks up at last. "Snowy?" He wishes she were here now. She would know exactly what to say, how to ask. She would be optimistic about everything, wouldn’t she? The boy finds himself wanting to cry, thinking of his sister out there in the territory somewhere all alone—was she taken by a fox? A rogue, like the evil cat that’s Marblekit and Sycamorekit’s other parent? His worry increases, and his little ears pin themselves back against his head. "Where?" Where is she? Where is his sister? If anyone knows, it’s Bonepaw. Bonepaw knows everything. And if he doesn’t, then Shadepaw has to know, right?

𖠰𖠰 see me in the shadows

• ooc: @Bonepaw. @SHADEPAW @FERNDANCE
• 
  BRANCHKIT ❯❯ he/him, kit of shadowclan
  𖠰 fluffy lilac tabby with white spotting and amber eyes. quiet but cheerful, very naïve.
  𖠰 son of ferndance and needledrift
  𖠰 peaceful and healing powerplay permitted
  𖠰 penned by foxlore

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[SHADEPAW]

Shadepaw knew that Snowypaw's departure wouldn't be easy on their younger siblings. The night-black apprentice had gotten the closest with the triplets when she hung back in the nursery. Even after she finally made it to the apprentices' den, she remained the nursery's most frequent visitor. Shadepaw loved her little siblings, but her paws didn't trace the path to that thorn-shielded hollow quite as frequently. Yet the river sang its siren song to Snowypaw. Shadepaw was left behind, trying to fill a gap that could not be filled, trying to answer questions that she could not come up with good answers to. When Branchkit pattered up, she braced herself for the worst, but still, for a few moments she could not find words. She just stared, pained, at the little lilac tabby.

There was a fragility, a vulnerability, on his youth-rounded face. The tiny flattened ears, the wide eyes, the confused set of his mouth. The simple question wasn't only to Shadepaw, but she took it upon herself to the shoulder the burden of answering it, trying to lift a weight off of Bonepaw's mind. "Branchkit, she's... gone." The truth, details omitted, delivered in a whisper-soft voice. Snowypaw was not marked as dead, not disappeared, not on another clan's territory, just gone. "She's... missing from ShadowClan." Also true, just not missing from everyone in it. Still, Shadepaw felt like her words were all wrong, all twisted up. She felt that flash of heat in her ribs again, a tense pull, a sharpened claw, angled toward Snowypaw. She had to go live her life, but what a wreck she had left in the aftermath. She could wash herself of it in the river and Shadepaw was stuck in the mud. "She's gone, but it's really complicated. I'll tell you when you're a little older, okay? She's safe- well, I think so." She winced, struggling to balance on the line between revealing too much and not keeping Branchkit entirely in the dark. "Just- Snowypaw's not going to be around anymore."​