camp revival || first swim

[ashpaw!]

Ashpaw has not felt water through her fur in weeks.

There was certainly no such thing in the twoleg den, in her tiny silver cage. She hasn't felt the river's current, its soft sand and smooth pebbles under her paws, how it feels to pull against it ... there are a lot of things she didn't get to feel in the time that she was taken from her clan, but this was one of the hardest losses. Like most of her peers, she grew up in this river, one of very few constants through a turbulent childhood.

Now, with wounds scabbed over and better-fed muscles recovering from her journey, she takes her first steps back into it. And she doesn't have words for how it feels. She catches her breath, struck once again by the realization that this is real... that she's finally home.

She steps in further, wading into the stream surrounding camp, staring at the ripples and the sun that glitters off of them. She doesn't go too far. Just enough to feel it against her belly, lapping up at her shoulders, a cool and comforting embrace.

She closes deep green eyes, soaking up every bit of this feeling.
​

—— " i found gold in the wreckage "

✦ ooc ✦ character information ✦ recent events

• ashpaw tries not to cry challenge (SUPER HARD) (IMPOSSIBLE) (#EPICFAIL)
  
  
• - 12 month old orange tabby with green eyes
  - apprenticed to riverclan warrior willowroot
  - crushing hard on iciclefang
  - got real fucked up as a kid so if she seems like she was fucked up as a kid, that's why
  - well-intentioned, cagey, jumpy; responds violently when startled; perpetually exhausted; territorial, unfriendly to non-riverclanners
  - soft spot for kits
• - kidnapped from riverclan by twolegs! but she made her ESCAPE!!!
  

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[Mosspool]

Mosspaw was silent as she slipped into the river beside her sister, staring at Ashpaw the entire time. It still didn't feel real that she was back. Some small, scared part of her whispered that the moment she looked away Ashpaw would be stolen away by twolegs once more. It was an irrational fear, and she knew that, which was why she had told no one about it. She had, however, stuck by her sister's side as often as she could since she returned. Of course, she didn't let it interfere with her duties, but as soon as she had a moment to spare she tried to find her way back to Ashpaw's side.

Not wanting to startle her sister by not announcing herself, Mosspaw touched her tail to her side, just to let her know she was there. As she did, her gaze caught on the scars and scabs that lay there. Her fur bristled. She wished that Riverclan could fight off the twolegs as simply as they had fought off Windclan. That way they could make sure nothing like this ever happened again.

The water and Ashpaw beside her soothed her though. Brushing up against her sister, she stared out into the waters before them, shimmering with sunlight. Just enjoying the feeling of having her family at her side once more.​

 

[FERNGILL]

The river was kind. As cruel as it was, as it had been, Fernpaw would always and forever say that the river was kind. He was alike Ashpaw in the way that they both felt the river as a constant, rippling and moving and yet stable in their lives. It was the only thing Fernpaw had ever felt in control of. Had felt destined for- the embrace of the water had always come easily, and he was glad to see that- even after her time away, taken by creatures he'd only ever seen as a danger- Ashpaw had taken easily to being back in the water.

"How does it feel?" he asked her as he approached, wading through the shallows. He was not sure what else to say to her- where to start, really. Fernpaw supposed all that was important was that she was home- was glad she was home, she was safe. Someone had to have hope, he had said, and... that hope had paid off, and sat in the river now, green gaze sealed.

He lingered, stopping, tail suspended an inch above the surface. Being without the river... Fernpaw could not fathom it, this comfort being out of reach.​

✦ penned by pin ✦​

 

[dovethroat.]

An avid swimmer himself, Dovepaw was always interested in the first submergences into the river waters of the cats among RiverClan. Thought not everyone did it, and it was not as if it was some regimented, coming-of-age ceremony within the clan, but there were always murmurs about it. Little gossip, small talk, things like that. And while this wasn't Ashpaw's first swim, it was certainly a swim that came with a similar sort of effect.

Used to people stepping on eggshells when speaking to him, Dovepaw almost felt bad doing the same to Ashpaw—but even Dovepaw, in all his self-pity, could admit that Ashpaw must have been through worse than he. Certainly on a physical level. He swallowed oddly, having passed by her during a swim of his own.

"W-Water is... e-especially n-nice now," he mumbled.

What the hell, Dovepaw? He wanted to dig his face in the sand. The water is nice? Could he not come up with anything else?

[⋆]​

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[Snakeblink]

MAYBE I'D BE A SAINT IF I WEREN'T ————————————​

Snakeblink’s propensity for stalking is a well-known fact, often criticized by clanmates for being strange, creepy, invasive. He usually evades demands to cease, politely hemming and hawing as if he has any intent to change when he doesn’t ignore them completely, but what he wishes he could say is this:

Look what happens when I’m not watching.

So much time spent shadowing young Ashpaw to ‘keep her safe’ — all so she could be taken away the moment he stops paying attention. It doesn’t matter whether or not he could have done more against the twoleg than Iciclefang: what matters is that he wasn’t there to try, and the maybe, that nagging feeling of possibility, has haunted him ever since (would have haunted him forever, had she not survived to come back to them).

He might have saved her, had he been there, and so her disappearance must — in his twisted logic — be his fault somehow.

It’s that irrational guilt that kept him in Cicadastar’s shadow when Ashpaw returned to the territory, instead of rushing to her immediately; and that same guilt that now has him returning to old habits, hovering near Ashpaw while she takes her first steps back into the water. He doesn’t join her: it would feel like overstepping, somehow. But he does watch like a hawk as her sister joins her and as other apprentices swim by, bringing her back into the gentle flow of clan life with soft words. He even hums to himself in silent agreement of Dovepaw’s comment, not quite noticing its awkwardness: the water is nice right now.
​

——————————————————————————————————— so god damn lonely ​

ooc. information.

• 
  
• — Snakeblink • he / him. 42 ☾, riverclan warrior
  — a sleek, skinny tabby with long ears and a scar over his right eye.
  — gay, not actually evil, penned by @Kangoo
  
  
  

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