private NO ONE TOLD YOU WHEN TO RUN | privetfrost

His time in the Dark Forest had provided him with insight — knowledge that he never could have ever anticipated, never even dreamed of knowing. Snakehiss had believed his ex-mate to hand over the entirety of their brood to him on that cold leafbare day, but to his shock, she had taken a single kit for herself. She thought she would be able to hide this away from him, to raise their son in his absence, to teach him the ways of Sootstar and her loyalists. Now that Snakehiss possessed the ability to dream with his kin, though, would they even listen? Especially his son, who was now moons into adulthood and set in his ways?

Would Privetfrost even believe him when he told him the truth? How cruel and ironic the universe was, casting his own blood as the role of his killer. Snakehiss believed StarClan had a paw in this, too. They must have; they only wanted him to suffer.

Whatever happens next cannot possibly have a crueler fate than death itself. Snakehiss is already crawling at the bottom, an aimless soul who is doomed to eternal loneliness. If his own son were to reject him, then he would accept it as such. There were other, much younger children he could convince to see his way.

The wiry, ivory-patched tom appears before the likely confused mirror of himself. Snakehiss realizes that Privetfrost must remember him, must be hallucinating that he wasn't dead and that he had to finish what he started many moons ago. "Don't waste your time trying to kill me again. I'm already dead." The male grunts, a dark pupil narrowing as he says so. There is a small sense of satisfaction that he finds, knowing that Privetfrost is the powerless one here. This was not the world of the living. "We have never properly met, Privetfrost. I am Snakehiss." Privetfrost. A name that Snakehiss at least approved of. Some of WindClan's strongest warriors had born a similar title, such as Juniperfrost and Tigerfrost.

He begins to pace now. He does not cower before the cold eyes of his murderer. He fears nothing in this state, believing himself to possess immortal powers. "I come bearing a revelation, Privetfrost. I know who you are." Snakehiss states cryptically, studying the sharp features of his kin as he rounds the other. "You are not some lowly rogue, blindly following the ideals of a fallen queen and scavenging for crowfood to survive." That is not what he should be, anyway. His potential is being squandered by embarking on his current trajectory.

Small paws halt in their tracks, the Dark Forest warrior now face-to-face with the dreaming tom. "You are my son." A pause lingers in the tension-wracked air.

Of course, Privetfrost could try to deny all he wanted to. It was an understandable response. Snakehiss himself could not believe the secret that Berrysnap had hidden away this entire time. "It is the truth. You have WindClan blood in your veins. Moor cat blood." He could ask Berrysnap himself if he wanted to deny this. Like it or not, Privetfrost had always been meant to run the heathery hills, not live the sorry life of an outcast he had now. "Your destiny lies in the moorlands, not in DuskClan." That is not to say that undertaking such a destiny would be an easy feat. Scorchstar surely would not allow him to stay... unless he inherited the cunning hunger and sly tongue that Snakehiss had.

  • ooc: @PRIVETFROST
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    ✶ snakehiss. warrior of the dark forest ִֶָ𓂃 ࣪˖ ִֶָ་༘࿐⋆。𖦹°⋆.ೃ࿔*:・
    ㅤamab male, he/him | bisexual, mated to no one
    ㅤdied 10/19/24 at 23 moons
    ㅤformer windclan deputy & exile | mentored rivewhisper
    ㅤsh black w/ vitiligo, green eyes & a single white patch on chest, torn-out left eye & a torn left ear w/ heavy scarring
    ㅤfather to rowanpaw, viperpaw, wasppaw, laurelpaw, & privetfrost ( with berrysnap ) & cornflowerkit, rainbowkit, ivorykit ( with ternstar )
    ㅤwritten by beatles, ic opinions | tags
 

This must have been a nightmare, damnation in the form of disorientation. When Privetfrost awoke next, he did not feel the sharp nettles and scrub leaves of his nest nip back at him. Damp earth-scent surrounded him, almost suffocating his nostrils with its omni-presence. The tomcat quickly collected himself, standing upon his feet to where he had happened now. The sky above Privetfrost cloaked itself in endless black, as though darkling canvas devoid of the white peeking through, thorough and unfettered as it unraveled. Trees twisted ceaseless into the night, perhaps reaching for the stars that would not reveal themselves here, a fruitless endeavor. No sound erupted from the world, though he did not know whether to be comforted in the solitude or fearful of the silence. The ground beneath Privetfrost tapered in torn shadows, as though the flesh of a naked and swarthy animal, though it did not heave and rasp as a living thing did. It was simply still, like a pocket of time had been cut from the universe, and he rested daintily upon it. And yet, he felt that he had been told of this place...

The Place of No Stars.

His pallid image appeared before him, though this time he came dappled and rended in white, wiry patches. He did not see where the man had come from, though that did not matter. Ivory teeth bared at the sight of the walking corpse, still as gaunt and destitute as he last remembered him. "You!" The Duskclan cat growled, the hair upon his backside now bristling, like outlines of puce against dying twilight sun. What could this ghost possibly want from him? He was not a superstitious cat, and yet the revenant of the past came before him with sallow and sickly verse. And yet, Privetfrost found himself utterly powerless in what seemed to be the other's domain, as if he were perpetually stuck and hiding beneath the underbrush. He took one step backwards, realizing that he was the prey. It was a special sort of fear, a thrumming in the heart and the rushing of blood in the eardrum.

"Snakehiss..." Privetfrost rolled the name upon his tongue, an acerbic and distasteful sensation. It was the name of the man he had murdered in cold blood and the cadaver that he had left as buzzard's and maggot's play. It made little difference whether those that met their end had names, but this one held an air of gravitas with it. Snakehiss paced around him, and Privetfrost's own whiskers twitch in electric disdain. How arrogant... if I could kill you twice - no, thrice times over, I would take that opportunity in the blink of an eye.

At his next words, Privetfrost let out an audibly sardonic snort. If he were capable of finding humor in such an absurd sentence, then a laugh would surely erupt from his maw. "Your son? Hah! As if I would ever believe someone like you. You are correct: I am not a lowly rogue. I do not blindly follow some dead queen's ideals nor do I scavenge to survive. But, I am not your son. I do not come from weakness. It is not in my nature to be like you, Snakehiss. My destiny is not with those that infest the moor." Low voice rumbled as he faced his father's piercing gaze, as though Snakehiss' sloe-eyed glare were carved in the same rugged hands that had crafted his, and the unspoken thread beneath the two had only tightened. Tension had become palpable, and his bristles swam motionlessly in the thickness between the two. Privetfrost had little reason to believe that these were still not the words of his father, but rather an addled beggar who had only come to bedevil him. But he would be foolish and remiss not to acknowledge the spitting image before him, though this tomcat had been abraded and worn by the unkindness of time, only exacerbated by the sunless stage where he found himself now. Is that... what I will become? What my deeds will make of me? I know that I shall die and become food for the crows. But my legacy will continue to live on, right...? Uncertainty, for the first time in forever, seeded within the fertile soils of his mind. He shook his head and rid himself of such impurities before continuing.

"You could be only a dream. Some apparition borne of guilt or sadness. If you are who you say you are, then prove it. Tell me about my supposed family. I guarantee you, they will not compare to me." The thought of having family in Windclan intrigued him, to say the very least. If they were still alive, then he had a sliver of a suspicion that he had already crossed paths with them...

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  • OUT OF CHARACTER. hello father
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  • PRIVETFROST & HE/HIM & 15 MOONS
    —— Deputy of Duskclan / Snakehiss x Berrysnap / Former mentor of Mizzlepaw
    —— Wine-dark and white-tipped, almost like a magpie. He has black fur except for the tips of his ears, his muzzle and chin, a blaze on his chest, bottom portion of the legs, outer end of the tail, and along the upper ridges of eyes. He has ghost striping that can only be seen in certain sunlight and cold, fern-green eyes.
    —— A cool and calculating despot with little regard for those that do not fall within his plans. Hard to befriend and harder to maintain a steady friendship with, though he will humor one if they have something to offer him. Ambitious and ever-inquisitive of the curiosities of his own mind.
    —— Penned by Tempest. Contact on Discord (naruk4mi) for plots and threads.


 
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SNAKEHISS

burn the page, my little dark age

The Dark Forest warrior anticipates a reaction such as this. Their existences were so tightly intertwined after all; both the killed and the killer as well as the sire and the son. It was hard to believe. Rarely were two destinies ever concurrent, but in an extraordinary series of events, it had become so. "Do not... deny the truth, Privetfrost. I do not take you as... naive." Even though he was. Running with DuskClan—those wretched exiles and rogues—and pledging loyalty to all they stood for was the epitome of foolishness. Then again, it was all Privetfrost knew. He had been reared by those mongrels. Damned Berrysnap. Snakehiss mourns the potential of what should have been a moor-raised child; perhaps he wouldn't have turned out to be a disappointment. Aside from their allegiances, Snakehiss and Privetfrost shared a sharp-edged cunning and conniving mind. He could achieve what Snakehiss had only dreamt of.

Even still, the dark tom does not see the truth staring him plain in the face. Snakehiss' expression sours when he thinks of his former mate, the loyalist molly who he had never loved in the first place. He thinks even less of her now, knowing her "secret" that she had kept for all these moons. "You... should be asking Berrysnap. She... hid you from me, after all. It was... because of her selfishness... that you grew up without a father. Without proper resources. Without a clan." He rasps with a lash of his jet-black tail. At least the remainder of Snakehiss' brood had been afforded the luxury of ample food and shelter. Snakehiss knows little about how DuskClan lives, but he is almost certain that the rogues do not live a particularly opulent lifestyle.

Snakehiss informs the DuskClanner, "She... took you away from the rest of your littermates." Anything to try and turn Privetfrost against his own mother; anything to try and sway him to his side. Of course, it wasn't as if Snakehiss was without his own faults, but his son didn't need to know that. "They are... in WindClan. Wasp, Rowan, Viper, and Laurel are their names... if you must know." Snakehiss hopes that Privetfrost interrogates Berrysnap about this. She would be lying to his face to claim that he did not have any blood relations in the clans.

His time here is short; he can feel Privetfrost's image begin to fade, evaporating like fog in the face of the sun. Eyes narrowing, the skinny tom steps forth, parting his jaws to press onward, "The past does not matter, Privetfrost... We can begin anew... Here, now..." He was not too far gone, not tainted by the presence of StarClan, not like the other children were. A glimmer of hope lives within Privetfrost, a chance that Snakehiss' legacy still stood a chance.


  • ehhh one day's difference but i'm gonna say that this is retro to rowan death
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    SNAKEHISS is a wiry, shorthaired black tom with one emerald green eye and a hollow left eye. Littered with scars and tears. White, patchy vitiligo covering his pelt.
    Died 10/19/24 at 23 moons old
    Former exile & deputy of WindClan
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