living in the blond heart of wheat || autumnal changes

[betonyfrost]

POST CODE

• The sun crests the horizon in the same way it always does; a predictable steady climb that exists hidden from Betonyfrost behind a curtain of scattered pine and coiled thorn-thick undergrowth. It chases the night chill and offers warmth to the muddy ground in the same way a vine offers pearl white berries to the sky: tentative and unreaching. It chases the night chill, but not as well as it would have done so days ago. It chases the night chill, but not enough to warm Betonyfrost’s bones.
  
  She cranes her head, tired and curious, to the world around her. There isn’t much in the way of broadleaved trees in the marsh— less so that live unscorched, but the ones Betonyfrost sees, is it that they have yellowed and bronzed and reddened at their tips? Is it that they are less full than they had been, even from a quarter of a moon ago? Even a scant few days?
  
  Betonyfrost notes these changes in silence, content for once to let the world change without resistance.​

• "[color=#ddafeb][b]speech[/b][/color]"

shadowclan warrior | blue mackerel tabby | tags​

 

[Firedawn]

YOU WILL ALWAYS BE ENOUGH​

---

"The changes happen so slowly and yet so suddenly too, don't they?" The familiar and warm voice of Firedawn would sound behind the blue warrior. She would take a seat beside them as she also looked up to see the leaves that were just starting to change colors, "The days will be getting colder soon. I wonder if we should begin stocking up on warmer nest materials..."

Firedawn would look to Betony for a moment and purr lightly, "We aren't that far apart in age, do you remember your first Leaf-Fall?" ​

 

[FLICKERFIRE]

Flickerfire is only marginally older than Firedawn and Betonyfrost, and she remembers the last leaf-fall, before the competition with Rain's group for prey and territory. Before Moth had died and Briar had gotten nine lives only to lose them all in a sickening blow from a monster.

She saunters to the other mollies, grin cheeky as she calls, "Can't imagine the fire will've done much for our prey situation." Sure, it hadn't been nearly as bad as it had been for ThunderClan - a thought that makes her frown before smoothing her expression over - but fire just before the leaves turn is a remarkable spot of bad luck.

She flicks her black tail and mews, glee in her voice, "Hope you ladies like crowfood!"
​

PENNED BY MARQUETTE​

 

[CHILLEDSTAR.]

"flickerfire i swear before every star out there, if you're having an argument with yourself again, i-"

chilledgaze suddenly stops talking, taking a quick glance at betonyfrost and then firedawn. their ears twitch about the change in season, and suddenly chilled is sighing. they hated it. change was the one thing anyone could count on, and yet chilledgaze didnt like that change brought. still, they can enjoy the little bits of it. leaf-fall was always pretty, but anything after that wasnt the greastest. as flickerfire said, it won't do anything good for the prey. the forest fire alreadg drove most of it off to hide, too. this would be no better.

"we won't starve."

a silent promise. they have to make sure their apprentice can hunt even the most hidden mouse out there. they'd need it.
​

[ NOBODY ELSE MATTERS, GIRL ]​

 

[betonyfrost]

POST CODE

• It's Firedawn to break the silence. Betonyfrost isn't surprised, although she startles just the same. It takes her a moment to realize what Firedawn is talking about-- she must have noticed Betonyfrost looking at the trees.
  
  "The change was-- it was faster than I thought it'd be," Betonyfrost responds, and to Firedawn's next question, adds, "Ah, a little?"
  
  Scattered leaves that Betonyfrost pounces on. A bent line of geese in the sky, flying to an unknown place. The scent of her mother when she was still around, and the comforting purr of her father. There is a blank space where their faces should be, and Betonyfrost has known about it but she chooses pointedly not to dwell on it. She has always been so easy to leave behind and--
  
  Betonyfrost doesn't dwell on it.
  
  "I remember Leafbare far better," Betonyfrost says like an offering, half convinced that Firedawn will hate her if Betonyfrost doesn't give something.
  
  And then there is Flickerfire. Betonyfrost doesn't know what to make of her-- does she hate Betonyfrost? The suspicion lives somewhere in the back of Betonyfrost's head, a shame like a tangible weight. Flickerfire would have every reason to hate Betonyfrost. She doesn't respond, instead only quietly accepting that she wont be eating if the choice was between feeding herself and someone else.
  
  Chilledgaze is a pleasant surprise. Betonyfrost perks, and finds herself taken by Chilledgaze's optimism. ShadowClan wouldn't starve, and Betonyfrost wishes she could believe it. Oh, how Betonyfrost loves them. She could be content with this; learning all of the tiny details of their mind. Betonyfrost could live her whole life only looking, if her heart will always feel like this.
  
  "You probably remember your first Leaf-fall," Betonyfrost sighs wistfully and hopes that maybe Chilledgaze could tell her about it, then wishes with everything in her that she could snap the words back from the air. What had she been thinking? Wasn't that an odd thing to say? Firedawn had asked her the very same thing, but the words that came out of Betonyfrost's mouth felt so much more.​

• "[color=#ddafeb][b]speech[/b][/color]"

shadowclan warrior | blue mackerel tabby | tags​

 

[hailpaw.]

A groan would escape her jaws as the warriors talked about leaf-bare approaching. While not old enough to fully recall leaf-bare herself, the talk about it getting colder and having less food? It was not something Hailpaw found herself willing to go through. It just sounded like more work to her. “You mean I have to do more work? There’s no way I’m doing anything in the cold and eating less food.” She’d complain, glancing towards her mentor for any help she could toss in her direction. Surely Flickerfire wouldn’t be that cruel to her?
​

✦ ★ ✦​

 

[FLICKERFIRE]

A blunt-toned voice from a black-pelted, blue-eyed feline stops Flickerfire's tail from its endless dancing. She gives Chilledgaze a faux wide-eyed look, surprise etched in every feature of her face. "What! Me! I've never argued with anyone a day in my life. 'Specially not myself. Do I look crazy to you?"

She shrugs at Chilledgaze's assertion that the Clan won't starve. She certainly hopes not; if so, she'll have to start raiding the Carrionplace. She's done it before, and her stomach is tough, but she isn't positive the less ... experienced cats will be able to tolerate it.

Betonyfrost doesn't pay much mind to Flickerfire or any of the other cats there -- except Chilledgaze. The dark tortoiseshell warrior frowns, gaze restless from the blue tabby's face to the black feline's. What's the issue? Is only Chilledgaze important enough to reply to now?

She's about to say something cutting to Betonyfrost when a familiar high-pitched voice catches her off guard. Hailpaw, her remaining apprentice. "You mean I have to do more work? There's no way I'm doing anything in the cold and eating less food." She gives her mentor a beseeching look.

Flickerfire glares Hailpaw's direction. "You will do whatever your superiors tell you to do, including stand upside down until the blood pours out of your ears, if you have to." She rolls her eyes at the other warriors, as if to say get a load of this slacker. Flickerfire herself is Slacker Queen, but that's irrelevant. This is a teaching moment, after all.
​

PENNED BY MARQUETTE​

 

[Starlingheart]

Starlingpaw had noticed the changes as well. The subtle way the breeze had become colder, the leaves changing over in thunder clan. Red like the blood seeping from the wound in her paw. She would try to escape the cold, snuggling as far down into her nest as she could but it had seeped into her bones, there was no respite from it now. She wishes her mother were here. Desperately she yearns to press herself into her jet black fur and be conforted by her scent and her warmth.

She is gone though and there would be no such comforts for her or for her siblings. Not anymore. She eyes the adults as she sits nearbye, idly listening to their conversation, biting her lip at the mention of a prey shortage. No thanks to the fire. “A-a-ar-are we - we-we we’re n-n-no-not g-g-going to s-s-st-star-star-starve are we?” She chokes out quietly, concern in her stuttering words as her green eyes lift and search the adults faces, trying to gauge their level of concern. Chilledgazes comforting words are not enough to sway her. She needs more of them to say it. ​