private LIKE PETALS, WE SCATTER ] featherspine

[BLUEFROST]

She'd asked the first Moor Runner to walk by her this afternoon to accompany her through the heather tunnel and into WindClan's territory. A bristling auburn pelt and narrow gilded eyes grunts agreement, though Bluefrost knows Featherspine likely wishes he could have busied his paws with other chores. Still, she is grateful for his quiet pawsteps, for the way his eyes dart from side to side as they crest a windswept hill. Her own steps are shaky after too-long; the new weight she carries is burdensome, and has stolen her grace.

"I apologize. I cannot walk any faster than this," she murmurs, stilling and panting to catch her breath. The breeze ruffles the thick mane about her neck and throat; she inhales, breathing in rabbit, gorse. "Thank you for waiting for me."

She wonders if Cottonsprig labors so to move great distances now, wonders if her sister has someone to ask after her, to press their flank to hers and steady her steps. But if she does, she is keeping it a well-kept secret. Thriftfeather would be the one she'd choose over Featherspine to be with her now, but... he is somewhere far from here, lost in the scrublands with baked dust under his paws and deputy duties laid across his shoulders.

"Shall we continue?" She fixes Featherspine with a curt look after she recovers.

『 out of character. 』 ✧･ﾟ:* 『 about. 』

• ooc: @FEATHERSPINE
• 
• Bluekit . Bluepaw . Bluefrost, she/her w/ feminine terms.
  — “speech”, thoughts, attack
  — 17 moons old, ages realistically on the 14th.
  — mentored by Sootstar ; mentoring Brackenpaw ; previously mentored n/a.
  — windclan lead warrior and queen. sootstar x weaselclaw, gen 2.
  — penned by Marquette.
  
  
  lh blue smoke she-cat with white and emerald eyes. aloof, dignified, poised, haughty, composed, distant.
  
  

​

 

[FEATHERSPINE]

There was something likeable about Bluefrost, apparently... though Featherspine supposed Pinkshine would manage to bleed a good personality trait out of a rock if she set her mind to it. Yellow eyes glinted in the ligh, nose twitching against any possible scents of danger; as much as trust wavered when it came to Sootstar's daughter, his duty of his Clan came above any personal feelings. Unavoidably, she was his superior now- and by her own father's decree, too. There was little argument to be had, in that case ... she did wonder where her grudge-holding had stemmed from, however. Everyone seemed not to look twice now at the cats who had stayed at Sootstar's side.

Though ... he had stayed at his own father's. It was a nuance he offered little charitability toward- little, but some. Bluefrost's breaths were heavy- Featherspine's slitted pupils scanned her form for any signs of faintness, but she seemed to be shakily upright. "It's fine." She would never carry her own kits; for once, she withheld her judgement at the idea of it being this tiring. Likely, she wasn't exaggerating. "So long as you c-can," she murmured, eyes darting about again, soon pivoting to tread the path ahead.

He dreaded that there would be some awkward silence between them, though equally had no idea how to enter into a conversation with an expecting queen. She knew nothing about mothering, about nurturing ... "D-Do you have any ... ambitions for your litter, or is it still too soon?" For once, there was pleasantry past the signature steeliness that Featherspine always bore.​

✦ penned by pin​

 

[BLUEFROST]

Sunstar's son gives her a look through slitted citrus-sour eyes. "It's fine. So long as you c-can." Bluefrost's gaze darkens with the implication. "I am not that far along yet," she murmurs. She gives her stomach a rueful look, knowing soon it will be interfering with every movement she makes. She has seen enough pregnant queens in her lifetime to know the timeline she's on now. "I can keep going."

Featherspine continues to flank her as they move along the moorland. It's quiet, despite the richness of greenleaf birdsong, despite the wind sweeping through the corridors of grass and earth. Bluefrost is lost in her own thoughts, thinking of Thriftfeather and Cottonsprig, of kits and secrets, when the warrior accompanying her speaks again.

"Do you have any ambitions for you litter, or is it still too soon?" Ambitions. Bluefrost gives the she-cat a curious look. "For them to be healthy, primarily," she murmurs. "It will not be easy to do, considering the plague-ridden rogues my sister insists on bringing into our camp."

Did you have ambitions for us, Mother? Bluefrost tilts her face toward the sky, as though she'll find Sootstar there among the golden-bellied clouds. Did you lick our fur clean and demand we follow in your pawsteps? That we become as great as you were, that the forest would know our names? Something stirs in her belly.

"And... I want them to be happy," she says after a few heartbeats. "I want them to know where they belong and never doubt it." This moorland had been conquered by her kits' grandmother, had been protected in bloodshed by their grandfather. They deserve to be here and to feel the wind sweeping through their pelts; they deserve to be children of this moorland.

"And I want them to know their history," she adds, quiet. She knows this will ruffle Featherspine's pelt, but she does not care. She wants her children to know where they came from, that they descended from greatness, that ferocity and cunning and legend runs through their veins... whatever it had cost her mother in the end, it will not cost them, she vows to herself.

『 out of character. 』 ✧･ﾟ:* 『 about. 』

• ooc: —
• 
• Bluekit . Bluepaw . Bluefrost, she/her w/ feminine terms.
  — “speech”, thoughts, attack
  — 17 moons old, ages realistically on the 14th.
  — mentored by Sootstar ; mentoring Brackenpaw ; previously mentored n/a.
  — windclan lead warrior and queen. sootstar x weaselclaw, gen 2.
  — penned by Marquette.
  
  
  lh blue smoke she-cat with white and emerald eyes. aloof, dignified, poised, haughty, composed, distant.
  
  

​

 

[FEATHERSPINE]

StarClan, that she would tire more later, that her gait would be so bouldered down ... he was not envious, that was for sure. She gave Bluefrost a nod though, daring not to argue with both a pregnant cat and a superior. Supposedly, Bluefrost would like to seize every moment of freedom while she stil had it ... of a kitless life, before being beholden to doing good for your children, to shaping lives that you loved like no other.

And Featherspine sighed inwardly at the thought, felt a choking tightness. It was an aspect of life, like friendship and love, that he had never given thought toward. Was motherhood something you earned, or something you were born with a talent for? He supposed time would tell ... for Bluefrost, more imminently.

Healthy. That, Featherspine could appreciate - a scoff left him at the mention of the loner kit Cottonsprig had brought in, lungs incensed with sickness. "I hope b-by the time they come along, we will b-b-buh... b-be less willing to herd in more mouths to feed," Featherspine murmured, agreeing with the sentiment. Cottonsprig had, for as long as Featherspine had known her, been a cat with a quilted heart that welcomed love sometimes too easily... often, he could appreciate that about her. Not always, though.

Happy. Featherspine nodded. No matter their ancestry, these kits would be proud, strong WindClan warriors. And to know their history. Their ancestry- their bloodline, presumably. She stilled for a few moments, eyes narrowing a little. Was Sootstar not best left forgotten? Did continuing to spread word of her conquest plant more seeds of rebellion? Their borders would break like dams eventually, under relentless onslaught from DuskClan members, if there lead to be more detractors.

"Every b-buh... b-bit of it?" Sootstar's glory? Her conquest? Her madness, her death? Featherspine paused, before offering in a rime-raked voice, "I suppose ignorance will only d-do them harm. Regarding WindClan's reputation ... and their lineage." There was a sincerity beneath thin ice; every apprentice ought to know the story. What Featherspine was truly interested in was how Bluefrost would tell it. Bluepool deserves to be a part, Featherspine thought, remembering all of a sudden that there was noble blood slumbering here.​

✦ penned by pin​

 

[BLUEFROST]

Featherspine is quiet as Bluefrost lists her ambitions for the kits growing in her belly, and when she speaks, it's with thoughtfulness belying the edge in her voice. "I hope by the time we come along, we will be less willing to herd in more mouths to feed," the warrior grunts, and Bluefrost inclines her head in agreement. "My sister," she murmurs, shaking her head; the wisps of pale fur in her mane fly about her face with the motion. "She is the culprit, most of the time. She and Periwinklebreeze."

A frown trembles over her face. "She... she was the culprit," she murmurs softly. Cottonsprig's disappearance is like a fresh wound that refuses to heal — and though she knows the truth about her sister's departure, it makes it no easier to deal with. She could still be dead, or hurt, and Bluefrost would never know it.

"Every bit of it?" Featherspine asks, his eyes narrowing shrewdly. No doubt he's thinking of a slitted, domineering green gaze, of madness spewing from spittle-flecked jaws. She lifts her chin, her posture proud.

"Every bit of it," she mews. "The good, the bad... all of it. They will know about Sootstar's greatest achievements, and they will know..." Something wavers in her green eyes, and she looks away, out toward the horizon where wheat-grass blows, "They will know of her downfall." Her voice is edged, forlorn.

"They will know of those who came before them and wrote their histories over this territory. They will." She thinks of her father, his limbs flashing through the heather, his eyes burning, teeth bloody from a recent border patrol skirmish; she thinks of Harrierstripe, his claws lost in thick, pale fur, his eyes lolling with madness; she thinks of Cottonsprig, afraid, cowering from StarClan's judgment, slipping away from her trueborn home in the dark of night.

She thinks of Sootstar, looming from beneath the earth, her smile broken and terrifying, her smell like dust and rot.

"I know what it looks like," she murmurs. "But I will raise these kits to be loyal to WindClan." She fixes Featherspine with a blank look, a weary one. "That I swear."

『 out of character. 』 ✧･ﾟ:* 『 about. 』

• ooc: —
• 
• Bluekit . Bluepaw . Bluefrost, she/her w/ feminine terms.
  — “speech”, thoughts, attack
  — 17 moons old, ages realistically on the 14th.
  — mentored by Sootstar ; mentoring Brackenpaw ; previously mentored n/a.
  — windclan lead warrior and queen. sootstar x weaselclaw, gen 2.
  — penned by Marquette.
  
  
  lh blue smoke she-cat with white and emerald eyes. aloof, dignified, poised, haughty, composed, distant.
  
  

​