SAPPHIRE STONES — bones

[EERIENIGHT]

// tw: animal skeletons

Once an unknown kit in the nursery, the tom begins to settle into the role of a ShadowClan kit.

He's even got an answer to one of the many questions asked the night he appeared. A name - Eeriekit. He isn't quite sure what it means, but he likes it. Eeriekit, Eeriekit, Eeriekit.

The inky tom is very serious about his role as a ShadowClanner. He belongs to ShadowClan, so that must mean sitting in the shadows, right? He likes sitting there, likes how his fur blends into the darkness. And, it's fun, watching the older cats - the warriors? - as they make their way around the camp. As they leave. As they come back with food.

Today's observations aren't as fun. Patrols have left the camp basically empty, void of the interactions between the older ShadowClanners. Boring.

Eeriekit looks around for something more entertaining, and it's deeper in the shadows that void eyes catch onto a sight more interesting than the day's empty camp.

Bones.

Remains of someone's meal, most likely - half-buried in the soil. Spidery limbs inch forward to investigate the bird, dark eyes wide as he stares down at it. He paws at the soil, clears it away from the skeleton in an attempt to get an even closer look. He frees the bird's skull, places it gently at his own paws.

"Woah..." he speaks, eyes filled with wonder as the kit looks down at the object.

Poor thing. He'll keep it in his nest. A new friend for him.
​

 

[QUILLPAW.]

For the most part, Quillkit didn't concern himself with the other kits' fascinations, as long as they didn't bother him. Puddlekit has been obnoxiously loud, making up things and trying to get him to beleive in them, always promising it was real this time. It never was, though he had learned to control his volume and leave Quillkit alone.

For some reason, today he decided that he would indulge his curiosities.

Their green eyes landed on a tom with fur the color of the Clan's namesake. Nearby, half-buried, was a skeleton of a bird.

"What're you doin' with that?" Quillkit huffed, padding over to Eeriekit. "I'm not gonna stop you, but I really dunno if you should play with that thing. Don't you think it's kinda... creepy?" He had never been one to scare easily, but these bones unnerved him. Something about the skull just made him shudder.

"Speech"​

[ WE JUDGE EACH OTHER WITH FIRE ON THIS EARTH THAT BELONGS TO NO ONE. ]​

 

[HEMLOCKSIGHT]

"Oh just let him have it. Nothing weird about keeping bones here and there." Hemlocksight huffed as he paused in his aimless wandering in order to address the kits. His icy cold gaze was set upon them and the skull in question, and it eventually spurred the smallest of smirks out of the usually grim tom. "You know, there are some cats out there who use bones to predict the future. You should try collecting some and giving it a go." It would amuse him more than anything if they dared to follow through with it.
​

 

[pumpkinpaw.]

Pumpkin hasn't ever seen the point in keeping bones and little trinkets, but when Eeriekit (the newest addition) finds a bird skull it piques her interest to the max. She pads over to the growing group, tilting her head, batting her eyes at the pristine skull. "Eerie! Thats so cool!" she blinks slowly, offering the little kid a smile and listening thoughtfully to Hemlock. "I don't think its creepy at all. It looks cool!" she offers reassurance (though not exactly) to Quillkit.

Her eyes flutter back to the bird bones, tilting her head once more as she examines it over and over. Perhaps she'd have to ask Eerie where he found it later, considering he found it in such good condition... Mhm! She wants a cool bone trinket too, now.
​

"speech"​

 

[FLICKERFIRE]

╭── ⋅ ⋅ ── ✩ ── ⋅ ⋅ ──╮​

She trots into camp with a mouse in her jaws, burning eyes quick to narrow in on the kits gathered around something that barely protrudes from the earth. Flickerfire flings her catch in the general vicinity of the fresh-kill pile before swaggering over to where Hemlocksight sits, surrounded by children poking around at something.

A bird carcass. She wrinkles her nose. "Hey, I had that for breakfast yesterday," she says, grinning. "Betcha never saw a bone stripped so clean, huh? I never waste food."

She gives Hemlocksight a curious look, laughter dancing in fiery eyes. "The future! Do you know how to do that?" The tortoiseshell scoops the bones toward Hemlocksight with a swift paw, grinning. "Tell mine right now!" She orders.

- ,,​

​

 

[HEMLOCKSIGHT]

Hemlocksight shifted his attention towards Flickerfire and he gave a scoff of amusement, that is until bones are cast his way. The tom leered down at the scattered collection before offering a shrug of his shoulders as he gathered the bones together in front of him. Once he had a neat pile he then scooped it all up between his forepaws before tossing them upwards. Once they landed on the ground he leaned over them and studied the layout of the objects with a soft hrm of curiosity. "My, my, there's going to be a surprise in your near future. The bones also give tell that you will find love in an unlikely place." He was making it up of course, but who knows, maybe he could really read the future. Hah!
​

 

[SHADEPAW]

Shadepaw and Eeriekit were a lot alike. She clings to the shadows, enjoying the way they blend into her pelt, somehow making her inky fur darker than the night sky. The shadows are cold and devoid of the warmth of the sun. For some, that might be a deterrent, especially in these colder moons. But Shadepaw likes the cold, enjoys the way it seeps into her bones and digs into her lungs. She can't explain why, she just does. It reminds her of a cold night hunting in the marshes, slipping between bushes and trees, feeling the swampy ground grab at her paws.

She's pulled from her thoughts of how nice the shade feels when Eeriekit makes a discovery she'd wished she made first. Bones, discarded from someone's meal. What a waste, she thinks. Bones were delightful, the way they looked, the way they rattled together. As a kit, she used to play with them instead of mossballs, reveling in the groans of her siblings when she opted to arrange them in neat shapes instead of playing games with them. It brings back fond memories, happy memories, of her mother, of comfort and safety... when life was better. She pushes away the choking feeling in her throat that comes with thoughts of Briarstar and pushes herself to her paws to approach the cats now surrounding Eeriekit and his little discovery.

"Bones aren't creepy. This one loves bones. They tell so much about a creature - how they died, what their life was like. Though, she has never heard of bones telling the future. Only StarClan can do that, she thinks," Shadepaw says as Hemlocksight attempts to read Flickerfire's future with the kit's findings. "Suppose we will see if this fortune comes true."

out of character information

•  
• ☾ SHADEPAW —— she/her, 6 moons, shadowclan apprentice.
  —— a small black she-cat with amber eyes.
  —— link to bio, toyhouse. penned by regina.

​

 

[EERIENIGHT]

And then, suddenly, his little moment to himself is interrupted.

What seemed to be a practically empty camp just moments ago was now bustling, a crowd surrounding him and his treasure.

Eeriekit looks up, away from his skull friend and towards the fawn kit who arrives before him first.

"Creepy..?" he echoes, abyss-filled eyes wide as he looks up at Quillkit. It's... It's just bones! Was it creepy when other kits found feathers? Was the bird creepy when it had feathers? Eeriekit doesn't think so.

And he's glad for Hemlocksight and Pumpkinpaw, for appearing before him and assuring him - and Quillkit - that, no. His friend isn't creepy. Cool, as Pumpkinpaw tells him. A cool friend, his treasure is. Hemlocksight even says that his bird can tell the future! Kinda like StarClan, from what he's heard, though Shadepaw's words tell him it's not quite the same. Eeriekit wonders if birds have their own StarClan, wonders if his bird is flying among the stars now.

It's a note that Flickerfire seems to pick up on too, as she begins to swipe away the bones from him. She's stealing his friend! Panic rises in him and he snaps his teeth together at her, getting ready to bite the lead warrior as inky paws swipe back at the skull.

"Mine," he tells her, a hint of warning in his voice as he scoops the bird's head back towards him. Just in time too, as Hemlocksight is suddenly throwing the bones in the air. The warrior inspects them as they land, and Eeriekit follows, inspecting them too, as if he knows what he's meant to be searching for. He doesn't, because, why would he know?

Eeriekit reaches a conclusion, looks up at the lead warrior with large, round eyes. "Death," he answers with an affirmative nod. Because they were bones. They had to be a sign of death, right?

Or... Love. As Hemlocksight tells Flickerfire. Doesn't really make sense.

Eeriekit prefers his own answer, he thinks.
​