Listen to me sweetheart...‡ Nightingalecall

[Ebonylight.]

*+:｡.｡ Ebonylight was a cat who did not take kindly to losing. She had had enough of that when she lived on the streets, fending for herself at a young age and expected to starve before she reached adulthood. She had tasted the dry burn of death and had vowed that if she where to die she'd at least go down fighting. If nothing else, she'd go down taking. But when the time came, she had actually fled. Watching her powerful queen fall to a tsunami of cats like a disturbed hornets' nest and knowing she had put her bets on the wrong horse very nearly had her screaming then and there, composure lost just as her odds where. Maybe she could've manipulated her way out of execution, but she hadn't thought that far ahead - the idea of being felled in such a brutal way as Sootstar had been too much, so off she went.

Nightingalecall should've followed them. The fucking -
Deep breaths, Ebby, deep breaths....
She should've followed them.

Instead, Ebonylight stood atop the crest of a low hill, high enough for her to see a large portion of the wind-swept home she'd once happily run through. Her eyes were trained in the direction of camp, her chest aching with humiliation. To think her kits and mate where back there - Nighty better be taking good care of them. They ...they were sure she was. Man did they miss curling up tight around her, pressing their nose into her soft fur...

"Damn it all Nighty, why didn't you follow me" he breaths, his grimace widening to show no one at all his teeth.

Then, as if summoned by his longing, in the distance he saw...yes, that had to be her! Even from so far away he'd recognize that beautiful shade of slate grey anywhere! But Ebby kept his feet planted, squinting against the sunset's dying glare as he waited to see what she'd do if she spotted him in turn.

*+:｡.｡ Updated 1/2/24

• 
  
• 
  
  
  
  GENERAL:
  ‡ Ebonylight
  ‡ DFAB— He/They/She — Pansexual
  ‡ 17 moons — Ages 1 moon every month real-time
  ‡ Windclan — Moor-runner (Loyalist)
  ‡ Mates with Nightingalecry, father to Frightkit, Deathkit and Witherkit
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  COMBAT:
  ‡ Physically hard | mentally hard
  ‡ Attack in bold black
  
  injuries: None currently
  ‡ recovering from pregnancy

[/COLOR]​

 

[nightingalecry]

She leaps from a poised hunting crouch, and the unsuspecting rabbit falls far too easily. Nightingalecry doesn't pride herself in much - especially when her world is constantly falling apart - but she prides herself in this, at least. It'll feed the queens in the nursery, that's for sure. And a weaning kit or two, too. They won't be bothered by her just so long as she's constantly serving them in the best way she can. They will not chase her from her young, for they are all she has left (... of Ebonylight.)

She rests the rabbit at her paws and cranes her neck up once again, tasting the air. The wind blows something familiar in her direction, but she cannot ignore the sour taste that accompanies it. Nightingalecry humors that it must be hate when she spies the charcoal pelt in the distance. He hates me, he has to, she tells herself. I didn't go with them. I stayed behind, yet she lurches forward, wholeheartedly accepting the fate she continuously damns herself to.

"Hey...!" she calls to her, heart aching. Oh, she just wants to hold them again, "Can we talk? Please," she's hunting alone, and no patrol is due this way for hours now. Nightingalecry... she just wants to tell them that their children are okay. All that and more, but if she's only afforded moments, then she'll ensure that her lover knows she's doing her all to protect their young.​

 

[Ebonylight.]

*+:｡.｡ TW; Abusive themes

He recalled vaguely the first time he'd seen Nightingalecall all those many, many moons ago. Padding uncomfortably beneath the open skies, calloused paws unfamiliar with the prickly grass they crushed underfoot, the scent of cats somehow more overwhelming than that of wild fauna and untamed life. There, among all the new faces Ebby would soon grow alongside - betray and be betrayed by - was the one. A silver lynx with mismatched eyes, two vibrant pools that reminded Ebby of the sparkle of rainwater as it dripped clear and bright from the heavens into muddied, poisoned puddles at his feet. His eyes glowed to see her again as a mix of emotions only she ever managed to stir inside him suddenly came clawing to the surface.

And though hate was certainly at the forefront, claws unsheathing within the shadow of the tall grass as her gaze met his, they liked to think love was what kept them rooted in place. Love for her, for their children, for what she owed them. Though they supposed - and prepared - for the debt they owed her in kind as he searched her face for the blow they'd dealt her during their...farewells. Their smile twists upward still as, predictably, Nightingalecall's body is tense not with the preparation to fight as Ebby's is, but with nervousness and hesitation. Yeah...that's their girl. A doe like no other, beauty found only in the pearls within the whites of her eyes. They loved being the one to soothe those fears of hers away without ever having to lift a finger.
Fuck, they missed her so much.

Keeping the illusion of never shifting her gaze from Nighty, Ebby scans the land behind her mate through her peripherals. It's not difficult - from her spot atop a hill and Windclan's endlessly open fields, if there is a patrol waiting to ambush, she'd have seen them by now. But also, who is she kidding? Nighty would never hurt Ebby. She wouldn't have picked her if she'd ever held the inclination.
So Ebby allows her guard to drop and languidly begins to step down from her peak. Walking over the border, ease dripping off her shadowy person, she takes her sweet time in approaching her mate. Not former mate - no, no. How can it be former when Nighty's rainy skies still pool like that? All for Ebby. And she relishes in that fact - that even miles away from her love, Nighty is and will always be Ebonylight's.

Finally, he stands before his mate, and her smell envelops him once more. Cottongrass and heather, morning dew and kitten down. "You haven't been grooming yourself properly" he notes, his smile a tinge sad for his poor, beautiful mate - positively useless without him, it seems. Reaching out a paw, he aims to hook it around her neck and pull her close, not particularly gentle but not particularly harsh. Rasping a tongue over an unkempt spot behind her ears, he whispers, "How're your wounds, my love?" Love and hate, concern and mockery, an apology intertwined with a threat.

Fuck how he missed her.

*+:｡.｡ Updated 1/2/24

• 
  
• 
  
  
  
  GENERAL:
  ‡ Ebonylight
  ‡ DFAB— He/They/She — Pansexual
  ‡ 17 moons — Ages 1 moon every month real-time
  ‡ Windclan — Moor-runner (Loyalist)
  ‡ Mates with Nightingalecry, father to Frightkit, Deathkit and Witherkit
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  COMBAT:
  ‡ Physically hard | mentally hard
  ‡ Attack in bold black
  
  injuries: None currently
  ‡ recovering from pregnancy

​

 

[nightingalecry]

There's something unknowingly fearful in her smile as he meets her half way. Her skin itches as he approaches her, long legs too elegant to belong to someone so ruinous. Nightingalecry almost waits for permission as the other inspects her, and entirely feels crestfallen as Ebonylight points out she has not been caring for herself. Her heart hurts as its beating speeds up.

"I've been busy," she offers the excuse too easily, claws arching into the ground. "I'm - I've been given a second litter of kittens. I'm feeding six of them, now," Nightingalecry tries her best to not stammer through her words. She feels that every syllable must be right for her lover, for she deserves only the best (even when confronting abandonment by her.) Nightingalecry parts her lips, debating whether or not to name the new three kittens for Ebonylight, before deciding against it.

"Wolfsong does well in his profession," she says lamely, as if she cares less for her condition in comparison to them. "What of you? Do you follow Granitepelt, or are you on your own?"​