- Dec 18, 2022
- 534
- 230
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──⇌•〘 INFO 〙 //cw for death/murder, violence, some gore. tldr provided at the end
please wait for a few posts between Wolf and Sunstride! we will let y'all know when it's open
this takes place after the gathering (was gonna be set prior, but it seems close to wrapping up so hopefully this won't bite me in the ass)
The sun rouses slowly this dawn, more quickly than during leafbare but without the bright-eyed vigor of greenleaf. During the night, the clouds misted the moors with a light rain, and the morning humidity lifts the smell of well-fed soil into the unhurried breeze. Wolfsong fills his lungs with it, closing his eye and tipping his chin skyward, the fur of his throat making as though to rustle like the lea. But the wind falters, snared by drying mats the color of the dilated pupil of blood in a body's bent shadow.
Wolfsong lowers his head to watch the earth take its next drink. Her limbs lie in stiff repose, heavy skull flattening long grasses. Her jaws are slack around the drooping remains of her tongue, ragged.
He licks his lips.
WindClan's leadership is primarily earned through skill and merit. This was not so in the world he knew as a child, a world he shared with Sunstride— Sunnvar, in those days. Blood determined power, whether shed or shared, and Sunnvar was the leader's eldest son. His only son. He did not have the luxury of spares if the worst befell Sunnvar, and perhaps that partly explained how greatly expectation bent Sunnvar's neck.
Certain interests, desires, and dreams known by those of lower standing— they were not to be had by Sunnvar. He would need a brood of children, a strong bond with another colony to dissuade greedy enemies. There was an understanding between Sunnvar and Wolfsong (then Ellisif) that he did not want a molly to share his nest. It was a guarded secret; there was no predicting what his father's reaction might have been if Sunnvar defied him in this, too.
But secrets seek even the barest trickle of light. Sunnvar never knew of her unwelcome eavesdropping; she judged rightly that she would get what she wanted from his guard beast, who knew how dangerously close the coil of tension between father and son was to snapping and lashing any in range. It was his unhappy silence for hers.
He had risen when the moon reigned to check the borders. With him, he had taken only two others, and it was less a patrol than it was a scouting foray. It would be far easier for a single cat to remain undetected than several, and if they were attacked under the veil of darkness, a warning would make all the difference between victory and defeat.
Of all the faces to see at the copse of trees separating the moors from the thunderpath, hers was the least expected. He found her sniffing around rabbit prints, likely in search of her next meal, and he tracked the moment the breeze shifted directions and her stiffened spine.
In the wan glow of the moon, he saw recognition sharpen her pale eyes. "Ellisif," she greeted, without friendliness. "Or are you called something else these days? Dogbitten?" She laughed derisively, and a cold smile displayed Wolfsong's teeth. He took several steps back; she watched each carefully, though the slight flattening of fur told him she thought it a safe sign. Surreptitiously, he shifted his rear paws firmly into the dirt.
"No. To you, I am Eyetaker." Too late did she realize his positioning for what it was, and her side hit the ground hard under his weight. She didn't have the leverage to twist away fast enough from the slash of his claws, tilling blood from her nearest eye. A desperate buck dislodged him, and he rolled neatly away as she staggered to her paws. She was taller, and ate well enough that he would need to avoid the brunt of her strength, but she was now down an eye. It had already affected her balance.
When he lunged for her again, it was not at her newly blinded side— she was anticipating that. She was no fool, though neither had she been clever enough to realize he would not receive her presence peaceably. His claws struck the back of her front leg, catching on muscle and tearing, and she nearly buckled as she whirled to evade him. Both sides now weakened, Wolfsong circled her, forcing her to overcompensate for her blinded eye and injured leg.
"You would have been safer had you stayed," he said, changing direction and watching her struggle to keep him in view. "Such a long journey you could have ended anywhere else. But here you are— fate smiles on me."
And it did. By the time he wore each leg into bloodied feebleness, he had taken only scratches in return. The worst wound she inflicted was the panicked drag of claws across the sides of his front legs when he took her other eye, digging it out of her face with hungry relish. Her struggles had ceased to little more than jerking flails of limbs by the time it rolled to the ground, deflated by punctures. "For hearing what you should not have," he rasped in a snarl as he made ribbons of her ears, tearing at thin skin until little more than stubs remained, heedless of her weak yowls.
"Wait, his father—" She wheezed, trying to twist her head away from him. A talon snagged her panting tongue for the snap and saw of his teeth, and her struggles made it easier to tear the tip free.
He spat its reddened corpse out beside her eye. "A weasel's tongue." Whatever she wanted to say, he was certain it did not matter. They had left for a reason, and Sunstride did not need her poison festering in his ears.
He tore her throat open with his teeth and stepped off of her twitching body dismissively, swiping fur from his mouth. A snake silenced before the dawn. A good omen for this day, he was certain.
//tldr: Wolfsong went out early with 2 NPCs to check for any signs of enemy clans (nps are watching another section of the border). He finds a cat from his and Sunstride's old colony who found out Sun's gay af (which was only a problem for him bc he was next in line for leadership). She had blackmailed Wolfsong with this info while they still lived there, which he obviously didn't (and still doesn't) appreciate. He kills her before she could tell him (potentially) important info, which he's convinced would have just been another lie.
please wait for a few posts between Wolf and Sunstride! we will let y'all know when it's open
this takes place after the gathering (was gonna be set prior, but it seems close to wrapping up so hopefully this won't bite me in the ass)
The sun rouses slowly this dawn, more quickly than during leafbare but without the bright-eyed vigor of greenleaf. During the night, the clouds misted the moors with a light rain, and the morning humidity lifts the smell of well-fed soil into the unhurried breeze. Wolfsong fills his lungs with it, closing his eye and tipping his chin skyward, the fur of his throat making as though to rustle like the lea. But the wind falters, snared by drying mats the color of the dilated pupil of blood in a body's bent shadow.
Wolfsong lowers his head to watch the earth take its next drink. Her limbs lie in stiff repose, heavy skull flattening long grasses. Her jaws are slack around the drooping remains of her tongue, ragged.
He licks his lips.
──────
WindClan's leadership is primarily earned through skill and merit. This was not so in the world he knew as a child, a world he shared with Sunstride— Sunnvar, in those days. Blood determined power, whether shed or shared, and Sunnvar was the leader's eldest son. His only son. He did not have the luxury of spares if the worst befell Sunnvar, and perhaps that partly explained how greatly expectation bent Sunnvar's neck.
Certain interests, desires, and dreams known by those of lower standing— they were not to be had by Sunnvar. He would need a brood of children, a strong bond with another colony to dissuade greedy enemies. There was an understanding between Sunnvar and Wolfsong (then Ellisif) that he did not want a molly to share his nest. It was a guarded secret; there was no predicting what his father's reaction might have been if Sunnvar defied him in this, too.
But secrets seek even the barest trickle of light. Sunnvar never knew of her unwelcome eavesdropping; she judged rightly that she would get what she wanted from his guard beast, who knew how dangerously close the coil of tension between father and son was to snapping and lashing any in range. It was his unhappy silence for hers.
──────
He had risen when the moon reigned to check the borders. With him, he had taken only two others, and it was less a patrol than it was a scouting foray. It would be far easier for a single cat to remain undetected than several, and if they were attacked under the veil of darkness, a warning would make all the difference between victory and defeat.
Of all the faces to see at the copse of trees separating the moors from the thunderpath, hers was the least expected. He found her sniffing around rabbit prints, likely in search of her next meal, and he tracked the moment the breeze shifted directions and her stiffened spine.
In the wan glow of the moon, he saw recognition sharpen her pale eyes. "Ellisif," she greeted, without friendliness. "Or are you called something else these days? Dogbitten?" She laughed derisively, and a cold smile displayed Wolfsong's teeth. He took several steps back; she watched each carefully, though the slight flattening of fur told him she thought it a safe sign. Surreptitiously, he shifted his rear paws firmly into the dirt.
"No. To you, I am Eyetaker." Too late did she realize his positioning for what it was, and her side hit the ground hard under his weight. She didn't have the leverage to twist away fast enough from the slash of his claws, tilling blood from her nearest eye. A desperate buck dislodged him, and he rolled neatly away as she staggered to her paws. She was taller, and ate well enough that he would need to avoid the brunt of her strength, but she was now down an eye. It had already affected her balance.
When he lunged for her again, it was not at her newly blinded side— she was anticipating that. She was no fool, though neither had she been clever enough to realize he would not receive her presence peaceably. His claws struck the back of her front leg, catching on muscle and tearing, and she nearly buckled as she whirled to evade him. Both sides now weakened, Wolfsong circled her, forcing her to overcompensate for her blinded eye and injured leg.
"You would have been safer had you stayed," he said, changing direction and watching her struggle to keep him in view. "Such a long journey you could have ended anywhere else. But here you are— fate smiles on me."
And it did. By the time he wore each leg into bloodied feebleness, he had taken only scratches in return. The worst wound she inflicted was the panicked drag of claws across the sides of his front legs when he took her other eye, digging it out of her face with hungry relish. Her struggles had ceased to little more than jerking flails of limbs by the time it rolled to the ground, deflated by punctures. "For hearing what you should not have," he rasped in a snarl as he made ribbons of her ears, tearing at thin skin until little more than stubs remained, heedless of her weak yowls.
"Wait, his father—" She wheezed, trying to twist her head away from him. A talon snagged her panting tongue for the snap and saw of his teeth, and her struggles made it easier to tear the tip free.
He spat its reddened corpse out beside her eye. "A weasel's tongue." Whatever she wanted to say, he was certain it did not matter. They had left for a reason, and Sunstride did not need her poison festering in his ears.
He tore her throat open with his teeth and stepped off of her twitching body dismissively, swiping fur from his mouth. A snake silenced before the dawn. A good omen for this day, he was certain.
──────
//tldr: Wolfsong went out early with 2 NPCs to check for any signs of enemy clans (nps are watching another section of the border). He finds a cat from his and Sunstride's old colony who found out Sun's gay af (which was only a problem for him bc he was next in line for leadership). She had blackmailed Wolfsong with this info while they still lived there, which he obviously didn't (and still doesn't) appreciate. He kills her before she could tell him (potentially) important info, which he's convinced would have just been another lie.
