MOMENT IN THE SUN [ reintro ]

[springflame]

( ♬ ) spring is scared he doesn't know the way back. as the twolegs trek into the forest, big paws crushing plants and sinking into half dried mud, he crouches in the cage, heart hammering. the air smells acrid and dense, perhaps the cause of his captors' coughing as they move further. the cage swings violently as one of them falls, and spring lets out a hiss, snarling obscenities that go unheard by the twolegs as they steady themselves. spring is angry, and tired and he just wants to go home. his stomach still hurts, the scar trailing along his lower abdomen red and raw, although not bloody. it's been half a moon since he was taken, and nothing feels the same. stars, nothing looks the same either. his beloved marsh is dry and soot strewn.

the twolegs march a little further and then set down the cage, cooing softly at spring through the bars as he lifts his lip. a trickle of laughter escapes one of their maws as they begin to undo the latches, a big hand reaching within the prison to grasp him by his scruff. embarrassment and anger flood into one and he lashes out with thorn sharp claws, scoring them down the arm and dashing from the cage. behind him, the twolegs shout in surprise, but he's too far gone for them to do anything. his paws bound lightly over the ground, senses finally catching up to him. he knows this place, he swears he does, but nothing looks real, and nothing feels the same. there is only a faint scent of shadowclan, and it comes from all around. he's lost in his own home, bewildered and terrified. there's a great scar across his stomach. he is forever changed.

his voice warbles out, throat dry, rasping a call for aid. "betony?" amber eyes scan the horizon, turning in place, heart pounding. the twolegs no doubt have receded, having done their job, but faintly he wonders if shadowclan is even here anymore. no, of course they are! briarstar wouldn't let them leave! the thought of the leader is little comfort but it does calm his nerves a little. the icy queen would never give up the marsh. she's too proud for that, and that's why springflame respects her. still, a creeping fear sends his heart fluttering, anxiety filling his voice as he calls again, "betonyfrost? bet? anyone? please!"

// spring is back babeyy!! feel free to have your character recognize him or assume he's a kittypet, as he smells like twolegs. he was taken a half moon ago to be neutered by twolegs and is now back, but lost. tagging @betonyfrost but feel free to reply before them! ​

( I SEE THE SIGNS OF A LIFETIME ; YOU 'TIL I DIE' )

 

[betonyfrost]

POST CODE

• It should be hard, Betonyfrost knows, to take in the totality of destruction around her. It should be hard, and yet when Betonyfrost walks through the marsh, beautiful in ways that are ugly and ugly in ways beautiful, a trail of pawprints dappled in the thin layer of ash in her wake, Betonyfrost cannot help but take it in as just another change. Something to duck her head and accept, despite the heat in her chest demanding elsewise.
  
  But then she hears the voice of a ghost and freezes, one paw still suspended just above the ground.
  
  "Spring?" She asks, her voice little more than a whisper.
  
  Betonyfrost runs then— seeking the spirit and uncertain from where it calls. Her head can’t seem to stop it’s to-and-fro movement, eyes searching for what she isn’t certain she can see. She very nearly passes it, nearly misses the dark shadow against the gray-black of the ash.
  
  Her first thought as she skids to a stop is that she had assumed a spirit would look different. Semi-transparent and star dappled. Springflame looks like himself, looks exactly as he had before. Betonyfrost stares at him, expression unreadable, for what feels like seasons.
  
  The time passed is that between one blink and the next.
  
  Then Betonyfrost is running, she cannot stop running, right into the physical weight of Springflame with a toppling force that sends the two of them sprawling. She presses her cheek to his in greeting. He doesn’t smell like himself. He doesn’t smell like ShadowClan, but that can be fixed.
  
  "You were dead," Betonyfrost says, "I thought you were dead."
  
  Her anger is an old friend that roars in her insides. It says YOU LEFT ME and it says STAY GONE STAY GONE STAY GONE and Betonyfrost swallows it all before it can leave her. She’s happy, she’s happy!​

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

shadowclan warrior | blue mackerel tabby | tags​

 

[springflame]

( ♬ ) he stands in the silence, the coldness of it sending a chill down his spine. there's no one here- none to recognize the marsh dweller in his rightful home. despair clings to his heart as he turns in place, wondering vaguely whether the twolegs have gone, whether he can run back to them and demand they take him away from here. he hates the bipedal monsters as much as any other cat, but they'll find him somewhere else to live- another forest that isn't echoing and empty.

tawny eyes spark with unshed emotion, his head bending to stare at his paws, chest heavy in disappointment. his faith in his clan will never break, but something still falters now. and then, there are pawsteps. rumbling across the charcoal earth, the moonshine form of someone pelts towards him. he scents the air, feels his heart leap, head swinging wildly around to find her. she's there, then, frozen in front of him, and then dashing towards him again and he welcomes her, welcomes the rush of his breath as it's forced from his lungs as she tackles him.

she looks so much older, he notices, smells like smoke but also smells like shadowclan, pine and mud and earth and all the things he's missed so desperately. "betony," he breathes as she presses against him, and he closes his eyes, relishing her touch, the fact that she's there and she's not gone, not disappeared like their parents. you were dead, she whispers, and he lets out a sob. "i know, i'm sorry. i'm so sorry, bet." eyes glassy and swimming with emotion, he'll pull away, looking at her, taking in her very presence. "i didn't mean to leave you. i didn't i swear. the twolegs got me, and they took me away and all i could think about was mom and dad and how i'd betrayed you because i left."

clambering to his paws, he worries his lip with his teeth, anxiety still flooding through every vein in his body. "i tried to come back! i clawed them and attacked them and they put me to sleep. somehow, they overpowered me and the next thing i knew..." his voice trails off, throat dry. springflame is changed- he's no longer that happy kid who worked so hard in his training. he's more ragged, tired, even as his sunlit gaze sparks, there's an exhaustion that trembles in his bones. "betony, they cut me open," licking his lips, he ducks his head.​

( I SEE THE SIGNS OF A LIFETIME ; YOU 'TIL I DIE' )

 

[FLICKERFIRE]

"Thought I smelled a kittypet," comes a blunt, mocking voice. Slithering from the dark, marshy treeline, Flickerfire's burning gaze sizes Springflame up from his shaking paws to the frenzied expression on his face as he tells his sister, "They cut me open."

Twolegs. Flickerfire fails to repress a shudder of revulsion as she considers what Springflame might have gone through. His scent is different, offensive, somehow, though she can't put a name to it. She gives Springflame a critical look, though her hackles remain flat and her claws unsheathed. "Thought SkyClan was here, but it was just poor little Springflame. What'd'y'mean, they cut you open? Why is your scent..." She wrinkles her nose.
​

PENNED BY MARQUETTE​

 

[betonyfrost]

POST CODE

• Springflame apologizes.
  
  He shouldn't need to apologize.
  
  He should apologize more.
  
  Betonyfrost doesn't know what to say to him. She doesn't know how to comfort him, not in the way his words seem to work like a balm over her heart. They cut him open and Betonyfrost doesn't know what to make of it. She doesn't know-- open? --how to even begin with something like that. Her mouth moves soundless, and for what feels like the first time Betonyfrost wants to speak but has nothing to say.
  
  "Where?" She asks, already nosing at Springflame, "Is it... something Bonejaw can help with?"
  
  The whole of ShadowClan has seemingly become uncomfortably familiar with what open means, and Betonyfrost doesn't want to see open right now. In a way, the angry red of the scar is a comfort. The twolegs at least closed what they had opened. Betonyfrost sits back and still feels the rush of something fear-like under her skin. This could be a dream that she will wake from.
  
  With the arrival of Flickerfire, Betonyfrost shifts herself behind Springflame; ever the coward. She watches Flickerfire in the expressionless way she so often watches the world, and wishes deep in the marrow of herself that she had the strength to let her hackles rise at Flickerfire's mocking tone. Instead she stays as she is, wary and angry-- the edge of overwhelmed.
  
  And she's happy, Betonyfrost reminds herself.​

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

shadowclan warrior | blue mackerel tabby | tags​