development STARE VICTORY IN THE EYES ☽; screaming

[WOLFWIND]

The waves crash together, coalescing into one.

She can feel the churning waters more than she sees them. There's a bristling in her spine. Her ears prick forward. Her eyes are closed. damp stone is underfoot, slowly deepening with every drop of color that falls atop it. A storm rolls over the horizon, and it brings with it a question. Wolfwind meets it with the lashing of her tail, and sunburst eyes opening to see just what it was.

She could not pretend she didn't hear it. She could not close her eyes, and will it away simply because its a thing she cannot see. She cannot pretend it isn't raining. And though it begins to soak her to the bone, to make her feel more fish than cat. Even though it drags and drags and fills her with awful, sodden dread; rolls off the edge of her muzzle with the scratch of a feeling that nearly drives her mad. Despite all that, it would not kill her.

In fact, she stands against it; silhouette of something standing tall at the peek of sunningrocks. Her claws may scrabble and her tail may lash for balance, but she fights against it. She would not be killed by it, nor would any other. She'd be damned if she'd let it happened. She'd be damned.

She'd dive into the churning waters below, if she so had to. The storm weathered the walls and slicked the ground. It dragged the physical form and rocked the wave, but even the storm was not everything.

And how do you beat a storm?

It asks the question; low rumble across the sky. The deepening of clouds, the pelting of rain. And the thing is– she isn't standing alone. Howlingstar is standing with her. All of ThunderClan is, aren't they? That damned idiot from ShadowClan– her sister, even if she stood on the other side of it.

Crack of lightning, the storm shrieks. Wolfwind only has to shriek back louder.

And so she does.​

 

[crowflower]

Crowflower tries her best not to feel like a creep as she crouches beneath a rocky overhang, watching Wolfwind scream her lungs out into the howling wind and rain. In her defense, she was at Sunningrocks long before Wolfwind or the storm ever rolled in...

Ever since Thunderclan had won back Sunningrocks, Crowflower had spent long hours learning how to catch water snakes and searching for salamanders beneath the rocks. Very rarely did she ever return to camp with something useful because she normally got distracted by oddly shaped stones or watching snakes swallow fish whole. In fact, she had retreated to this shallow overhang to try and crack open a strange, lumpy rock that felt hollow when the downpour began. She had been vaguely aware of someone else approaching as she turned the rock around and around between her paws, searching for a weak point, but Crowflower had a habit of ignoring other cats until they approached her. She didn't have many friends and preferred to do her own thing. It was quite easy to live in her own little world. At least, it was easy until someone started screaming and Crowflower couldn't resist the urge to slink from her hiding place and see what anguished soul was yelling into the wind. Her eyes widened when she realized that it was Wolfwind.

There was something powerful in the image of the sodden blue molly standing defiantly in the face of a powerful storm, lightning crackling across the grey sky as thunder boomed its challenge. But there was also something kind of...well...Crow wasn't sure how to describe it, but it felt emotional. Like everything Wolfwind usually disguised behind a mask of disdain finally broke open and was poured out to be whisked away by the storm. Crowflower spent several long moments admiring the she-cat until she realizes that she was observing what was probably meant to be a private moment and she immediately felt ashamed and a little strange. Say something, say something, say something, she thought with a rising panic. Wrenflutter would know what to say. She was always so good with words and everybody loved her. Crow was the shadow to her sister's sun. For a split second, Crow considered just slinking away. She was stealthy enough--Wolfwind would never notice! But, as she turned to leave, her paw slipped on a loose stone which bounced all the way down to bottom. Had it happened to anyone else, Crowflower would have found it comical. She was mortified.

"Um," she said lamely. Are you okay? Why were you screaming? I'm sorry for watching you in silence that was very weird and completely by accident. "Would you like to help me break open this rock? I think it's a geode." Crow wanted to fling herself into the river to be carried away to a distant land. Or maybe crawl out of her skin and leave it behind for someone else to find. But it was a really cool rock. She thought so, at least.​

 

[BERRYHEART]

A scream to rival the storm- fur flattened by the rain bristled in response, attention well and truly captured. It was not a bloody-murder yowl of pain- to as he'd come to recognise, at least. No, it was a shriek that sounded as if a geode was being cracked, that something was being shattered and a gleaming truth was being revealed. There was catharsis in that tone, perhaps... or maybe he was digging too deep.

Silhouetted by bolt-flash, and fading from white-light soaked to a familiar pattern, Clamours stood raucous upon that rock. Fur spines to mirror the stones she stood on, eyes a fire as hot as fork-lightning. A rain-lashed face poked out of the undergrowth, lopsided features angled up to settle upon his niece. Was her shout a victory-screech, long overdue? There had not been much time to celebrate, what with all the injuries after the battle for the stones. She seemed not to falter at this summit... thankfully, she seemed unhurt.

"Heard you over the thunder," he remarked, a smile twinging his crooked jaw. Had that been her aim? An investigation, to see whether a yowl could truly be so tumultuous as to outdo a storm itself? Or perhaps... there was simply little else to do, stuck in the rain... ​

PENNED BY PIN ☾​

 

[ROEFLAME .]

ROEFLAME — break the air to feel the fall.
Roeflame admitting she did not like storms would both be as likely as fish flying, and a downright understatement.
The thick, ominous clouds are warning enough as the young warrior trails behind Berryheart, who’s departure from camp had given Roeflame the opportunity to stretch her legs, and lend the brindled tom a helping paw if he happened to find any blooming medicines on his outing. It was her almost-healed eye that was affected after all, not her limbs.
She almost trips as her eyes are glued to the skies, nervously waiting for the first drop of rain to fall.
The humidity is sticky as the clouds reach their breaking point, and the downpour finally does come.
Ears flattened against the warm droplets, only barely caught by still growing leaves in the tree tops.
When the thunder begins, so does the screaming. A rush if adrenaline strikes Roeflame as she pinpoints it to sunning rocks. A border skirmish? No, that was no battle cry.
Both anxious from the Thunder overhead and the screaming that seemed to fight against it, she looks to Berryheart.
She walks on uneasy paws alongside the other, until the drenched form of Wolfwind comes into view from where they had paused behind the dark undergrowth.
Roeflames eyes widen as she watched in both awe and concern. Wolfwind was loud, defiant, and rambunctious, all qualities that Roeflame had always admired in the young warrior, even as a kit- but she can’t recall seeing the warrior so emotional before, even if it reflected in only ferocious screams.
She steps out alongside Berryheart, just as a black limb pokes out from just under the stone Wolfwind still stood on. Crowflower is quick to offer the blue molly a rock to crack open, while Berryheart comments on how her screech was heard over the rolling thunder.
"Uhm. Are you okay?" Roeflame finally piped up, it seemed like the only other logical thing to say.

"speech"

tags​

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[WOLFWIND]

She doesn't stop until she feels it's right to. And however she's judging that you couldn't beg her to explain. She hardly knows herself.

Her voice dies in her throat. Stars knew she wasn't someone to relish in any wetness, far from a river-dweller, but she stands there all the same, wetness making her thick coat cling to her like a second skin. The tension leaves her shoulders. Her eyes burn defiant at the rumbling overhead. She waits, dares it to send another crack of thunder. It never does.

Wolfwind's attention is finally drawn by Crowflower, hardly a whisper on the wind compared to at all, but Wolfwind catches it still. She turns her head. And any sorta answer struggles to come to her. Her expression remains resolute. Careful, as if she's waiting for something.

And she can hear Berry down below– turns to look at him, too, and spots the half-smile on his crooked maw. Wolfwind can't help but smile back "Yeah?" The thought sends a warmth flooding through her, that she's managed what she sought to do. Unconsciously, she lifts her head higher, puffs her chest out further. It's only a distant roar, now. She wouldn't let it get the better of her again.

Her smile turns to Roeflame– falls, for just that second it takes to think about it, but she feels like she's honest as she answers. "I feel... good."

And her eyes fall to Crowflower last. Now she was ready.

"I dunno what a geode is, but I like cracking!" She exclaims, sliding from the rockpile more gracefully than she ever would've as an apprentice.​

 

[crowflower]

Wolfwind howls into the storm, head held high and chest puffed proudly. Crowflower feels like she's witnessing a personal moment, an important moment, that holds meaning far beyond her ability to understand it. When Wolfwind finally turns those luminous eyes toward her, the dark-furred cat feels the scorching heat of the summer despite the cold chill to the air. Gold meets green. Embarrassment courses like poison in her veins as her last words hung strangely in the following silence. When Wolfwind shifts her gaze to the other cats, a smile exchanged between Wolf and the medicine cat, the urge to slip away unnoticed burns stronger than ever. What was I thinking? A rock, seriously? Pebbles crunch underfoot as Crowflower shifts her weight, preparing to disappear amidst the falling rain and piled rocks.

She's not expecting Wolfwind to turn back to her, those luminous eyes pining her in place with the full force of the sun. A soft sigh of relief whispers from parted lips as she releases a breath she had not released she was holding. Her embarrassment burns away in an instant, a pleased, albeit small, smile brightening her features as she makes space for the others around the strange, lumpy rock by her paws. "It's a special rock that's kinda hollow inside like an old tree," Crowflower explains with a confidence she lacked only moments before. "There's usually a different kind of rock inside and they can be lots of different colors." The first time she found one, it cracked open by accident. She has dedicated much time looking for more ever since. "Would you like to do the honors?" She asks Wolfwind a little shyly, but her eyes are shining.​