Sentimental | Swimming

[Snakeblink]

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

Up and down and across the forest, nowhere felt right. The pine forest of Skyclan smelled too strong and felt too dry, like thorns constantly threatening to dig into paw pads; the marshes, familiar as they seemed, were too muddy and cold, with a faint smell of carrion that he might have been imagining most of the time but remained nonetheless pervasive.

When it comes down to it, there’s nowhere Snakeblink wants to be more than on Riverclan territory.

He sinks into the water with a faint sigh of relief, eyes narrowing into relaxed slits at the cool press of it rising to his shoulders even as his lungs seize briefly from the cold. Persistent aches he had pushed to the background seem to melt, carried away by the current, while his mind jolts awake from its previously tired, muddled state. He feels lighter, almost weightless, even as his paws dig into the silt and sand and ground him solidly. He hasn’t had time to do this sooner: too much to do with the former colonists and the journeying cats’ return. He hadn’t realized how dearly he had missed the sensation.

It’s good to be home.

A push of his paws send him into deeper water where he paddles into a half-circle, surveying the rushing stream for fish. Hearing pawsteps at his back, he calls out softly without looking back: ”The water is nice, if you would like to join me.”​

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

ooc. information.

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• — Snakeblink • he / him. 46 ☾, 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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[Nettlepaw-]

NETTLEPAW ♂
RIVERCLAN
APPRENTICE
THREE MOONS
BLIND IN BOTH EYES
BIOGRAPHY AND TAGS
APPRENTICED TO PIKESPLASH
PLAYED BY SHEOGORATH​

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When the apprentice had heard the stir of water, his curiosity had driven him to investigate. Stepping onto the shore, Nettlepaw recognizes the scent and voice of Snakeblink. Despite the invitation, the RiverClan youth finds himself hesitant to just simply jump right in. He'd like to learn to swim, but he's concerned he'll lose track of direction in the water. If the current pulled him too far from the territory, he wouldn't even know it. But at least with Snakeblink present, the blind apprentice feels a bit safer. Quiet as he is, Nettlepaw cautiously places his front paws into the water, then takes a few steps forward. The chilled fluid laps at his belly fur, threatens to lift him off the mud and pebbles of the sunken ground.

"Where does the river end?" Nettlepaw questions aloud, a bit anxious to push off into the deep channel. He wants to know where he'll eventually come to stop, if he does float away, down the river. Did a river even have an end? Did it go on for eternity? "Mother used to say RiverClan's dead would swim the river all the way to StarClan." It hurts to think of Reedflower so soon after her death from Yellowcough, but he can't help but wonder if there's truth in the stories. If he floated off unseen, would he eventually emerge in StarClan?
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[bubbleburst]

"GOT A LITTLE CASH NOW SO THAT SKIRT IS DIOR"​

Bubblepaw, like Nettlepaw, stands on the shore. Except her own hesitance to join Snakeblink in the water isn't spurred on by uncertaintly, but rather the chilliness of the water in the cooling autumn air. She inches a little deeper than her fellow apprentice, paws sinking into the silt of the banks ever so slightly. "It's a lot less fun to get in the water when it isn't so hot," Bubblepaw comments with a small frown as she feels the cold water soaking through the coat on her forelegs. "Do you ever get used to it? Do you swim in bare-leaf?" The questions continue as they form in her mind, boiling over in her curious mind.

Nettlepaw raises his own question, and Bubblepaw finds herself blinking as she is totally unsure of what the answer to that might be. "Do you think it goes on forever...?" Bubblepaw tags onto the question her fellow apprentice has posed, a slight mystified edge to her voice. To her, forever means the river would lead to StarClan eventually. Though even she knows better than to try her luck getting there. Until its her time, she better leave the meetings with StarClan up to Smokethroat and Ravensong.

"Oh! Oh!" Bubblepaw pipes up again as she has the semblance of another idea "Or... What if all rivers come from and lead to the same place?" She would like to think of rivers as having some sort of parent just like everything else does. "Maybe somewhere... There's one biiiiig river, and our river comes from that one!" Of course, in her line of reasoning this only applies to rivers and creeks. Lakes and ponds are different from moving bodies of water, so they must stand on their own.

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✦ ★ ✦​

 

[Moonbeam]

Swimming, it was something Moonpaw loved to do but she hadn't been in the water since they fought the rogues to take the territory back. At the mention of the water being nice the white-furred apprentice quietly slipped in herself, claws extending and a sharp breath taken in as she realized just how cold the water was now and ears pinned to her head for a moment before she looked over to Snakeblink, not daring to get in further. "You said it was nice! It's cold!" Lighthearted announcement made to the older tom before her head tilt slightly, "When the water freezes over in leafbare, is it colder than this? Are we even able to swim then?" She'd heard so many different stories, some from those she trusted and others from those she didn't quite know and she couldn't tell which were jokes and which were truths. Had long-furred cats truly swam around after breaking the ice? Would she even want to do that with how cold it was to her now?

Eyes flicked over to the two younger apprentices and Moonpaw let a small hum leave her as she thought about the question. "I don't think it ever ends, I've never seen an end at least." And by this point it felt as though she had been everywhere within the territory. Small nod to Bubblepaw as she mentioned the idea of the main river coming from an even bigger one. It would make sense to her, considering the river that ran by camp connected to the larger one along the borders of the territory.

☾₊ ⊹ give me a ghost of a smile

• mentor tag @salmonshade
• 
  ⋆ ratkit - ratpaw - moonpaw - moon???
  ⋆ female - she/her - 6 moons
  ⋆ homosexual - not looking
  ⋆ apprentice of riverclan
  ⋆ peaceful powerplay allowed
  ⋆ attack - "speech" - thought
  ⋆ penned by tikki

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[Asphodelrain]

*+:｡.｡ [TW for brief nightmarish thoughts in the sentences with {**} ]

Asphodelpaw lingered stiffly behind the gang of gangly-limbed apprentices, icy blue eyes narrowing. Much like Moonpaw, Asphodelpaw hadn't traded paw on his homeland's water since the rogue attack. Unlike Moonpaw, he couldn't bring himself to break that streak now. He followed the ivory molly's steps, watching her paws reach for the flowing, playful water before submerging within, and - Asphodelpaw jumps as she suddenly cries out! {**} His mind is already flashing to images of drowned paws bursting out of the water and grabbing her with vengeful claws in order to yank her into the depths of a watery grave when he realizes - she's fine. She's always been fine. It's just him who's being...childish.

Frustration colors his cheeks red, his gaze darting from one cheerful cat to another before pointedly spitting out "There goes any hope of catching fish in this part of the river." Lowering his head against his shoulders, he added callously, "With screaming voices like yours, maybe in every part of the river" He glares at his fellow youths, ignoring the longing to comfortably join them and justifying his rattled nerves with the fact that there really can't be any proper hunting today, not with the noise, or the splashing - he isn't wrong about that! Granted, he doubted Snakeblink's intention was to hunt at all though, considering how languid his swim has been thus far, but still. Shouldn't they be concerned with feeding the mouths at home first and foremost instead of prioritizing these silly questions?
{**}After all, who would even want to see the end of the river...his eyes trail nervously after the current, his tail twitching tight against his paws as he pictures far too vividly a dam made of...drowned loners...

Swallowing back bile, he does finally perk his ears up at one interesting part of the conversation.
"When the river freezes over" he echoes, thinking of the stories he'd heard from older clanmates about the perils of Leaf-bare. He'd always hoped they'd been exaggerating. He'd been born in the beginning of green leaf, so the idea of a frozen climate was beyond him. Though as the winds swept across his form in increasingly colder breaths, he supposed he'd lived in denial for a little too long. Still, he finds himself asking, "That actually happens? But then - how're we going to hunt?" He knows he ought to feel more fear when asking - and a moon ago, hearing the stories of past leaf bear had struck fear in his heart...but today instead he feels his chest lighten at the idea. Just for a moon or two, to not have to look at the rushing pull of water lapping hungrily at his paws and drowning him in his dreams sounds like a reprieve. Then surely by new-leaf he'll be over his petty little nightmares.

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-: ✧ :- tags

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  Asphodelpaw ;; 7 moons | Riverclan apprentice
  
  

 

[Prairiesun]

don’t fear your life boy◈—————————————————————————
The river was like it had been when he learned to swim for the first time. Cold and powerful it threatened to pull him under the current. Thankfully he had been nicked by the scruff before it could and a slightly less powerful part of the river was chosen for swimming practice. The memory didn't haunt the tom though, actually he was quite fond of it. It was a good reminder for him to watch for currents and to never rush too quickly into the water. Getting into the river was maybe the only time he showed any type of caution, maybe the idea of a watery grave was just too ironic for him to toy with it.

The little flock of apprentices made him grin as he approached the bankside. Most of them stood watching Snakeblink enjoy his time floating, all of them asking questions and pondering the chilly water. Prairiesun walked past the group and slipped into the water, putting his head under quickly so he could adjust to the temperature as soon as possible "I don't know 'bout you all but I do like me a good cold dip." he drawled as his head popped out from the water dripping "And who said anything 'bout fishing? Ya'know we can relax every so often?" he asked Asphodelpaw, the poor kid looked nearly stressed out of his fur and Prairiesun couldn't help but think he could use some sort of remedy for it. While he waited for more questions and concerns from the apprentices he tried to float on his back, it wasn't going well.
grow and change◈————————————————◈penned by WriteAboutRadish
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