horseplace THIS BIG BURNING BED ✧ drying milk

[POLLENFUR]

Pollenfur, too tired and too afraid to move her kits even with Hyacinthbreath’s help, still remained tucked into loose straw and chicken feathers in the tiny Twoleg nest. She worries the dust is not good for her kits’ tiny lungs, but they are still so small, and it’s quite the distance to the big barn where she and her mate had made their proper nest.

She half-turns to nose at one of the kits—one of the white ones, the one with fur like a bird chick’s fuzzy body, and she curls her thick tail around the other two. “Soon, we’ll get you all into a proper nest, my loves,” she murmurs. “Bear with me… your mother was foolish, taking a walk so close to your time…” Though she smiles, the reprimand to herself was real enough. Had Pollenfur’s itchy, stubborn paws not led her away, her tiny babies would be enveloped in warmth in a clean, protected environment.

She sighs, a paw straying over each kit’s little body. The fluffy one she’d nosed—Downy, her other mother had named her—is nestled comfortably beside a kit who at this moment could be a twin. She’s sturdier, bigger, but the white fur on her pelt is slick instead of puffy. Finch.

When she gets to Rose, she frowns. The other two kits had been sleeping until she’d roused them, but Rose had been active, awake. The tiny tortoiseshell is doing all she can with her toothless mouth to get her share of mother’s milk, but Pollenfur can feel that despite her tiny daughter’s straining, there is little forthcoming. The queen’s expression is troubled, and she turns to seek her mate or another cat visiting nearby. “I could have sworn the milk would come in full by now,” she says, her ears flicking back delicately. “It almost seems like it’s… it’s coming less. But that can’t be right, can it? Does it take even longer?”

✧ INFO.

• mate and baby tags @hyacinthbreath @FINCHKIT @downykit but no need to wait if you want to post with a loner or mouser :)
• 
  — pollen . pollenfur
  — she/her ; loner ; windclan warrior
  — pansexual ; taken by Hyacinthbreath
  — long-haired chocolate calico with amber eyes
  — “speech”, thoughts, attack
  — penned by Marquette
  — pixel by Birdman

​

 

[FINCHPAW!]

╭──── ⋅ ⋅ ──── ｡･ﾟﾟ･ ─── ☀︎ ─── ･ﾟﾟ･｡ ──── ⋅ ⋅ ────╮​

If she were truly able to recognize herself, to perceive and understand her own thoughts and feelings, Finch might think that being asleep is remarkably similar to the void of Before - before her first sensations, before the feeling of being pressed lovingly to the sides of others, and especially before this newfound and wholly unpleasant feeling nagging at her insides. Stirring awake as Pollenfur brushes gently over her prone form, the kitten begins to squirm, feeling out her surroundings even as she lets out an indignant mewl. There's the slight rumble of what she is not yet capable of recognizing as her mother's voice, which certainly isn't the source of her unhappiness - rather, that comes from somewhere inside, somewhere that demands more. More of what, she's not quite sure, though instinct drives her to press closer, to search out something to satiate this...hunger, is what she'll later learn to call it, though for now it's merely a stab through her gut, a wrench in her stomach.

Try as she might, though, Finch cannot seem to satisfy her growing hunger pains, and that only seems to make it worse. The milk that she longs for, that she needs just as she needs to breathe, simply isn't there, and the longer she goes without, the more the hunger seems to grow. Tiny paws batter uselessly against Pollenfur's stomach, likely not much more than a tickle to the queen, but the kitten doesn't stop there; when she still finds herself hungry, Finch will begin to cry out, snubbed mews turning into reedy wails the longer she waits without being soothed. Hardly even having a mind to herself, right now the only thing she's concerned with is a full stomach and getting back to sleep, though it seems that neither of those things are in any condition to be fulfilled right now. As she searches once again for something to stopper the hunger, Finch's cries begin to taper off into muffled sniffles, tiny face buried into Pollenfur's side to drink up what little she can find before that, too, fades from her.​

i want to spin something out of nothing - (☀︎) - lead to gold, spring from winter

• OOC: --​
• 
• 
  - Finch
  - She/her (AFAB)
  - 0 moons
  - Loner
  - Hearty & scruffy chocolate lynx point with splashes of white and bright blue eyes
  - Art by Jay & base by googaoo respectively! <33
  - Minor powerplay allowed!
  - Penned by Hijinks​

 

[Irispath]

He comes to check on Pollenfur often, her being away from the big barn worries him. It wasn't as protected, and he wants to be sure she's safe. He doesn't usually stay too long, feeling like its a sin to even be present through no reason other than his own mind. He lingers a little longer today, sitting nearby and letting his gaze sweep the area. If anyone came in looking for trouble, he'd be here to stop them.

But it seems the trouble that arrives is one that he cant fight. He looks to Pollenfur and her kits as she speaks to them, reminded of Echolight and their kits when they were small. The jab in his chest makes him look away, but her next words bring his gaze back.

Her milk isn't coming as it should....?

"You've been....Eating properly, right?" He asks. "It should be coming regularly by the time the kits come..." At least, that was his impression based on past experiences with queens. She shouldn't be having this problem.... "There must be a way to make it come more...."

Right?

There had to be some way, right? Because if not... No. He didn't want to think about Pollen losing her kits. They must find a way to get these kits milk.​

 

[POLLENFUR]

tw: child death

Pollenfur’s square amber eyes narrow with pity as one of the kits—little Finch, the thin-furred white—begins to mewl desperately, unable to get satiated. Her heart threatens to break. Rose, spurred on by her sister’s mewls, adds her voice to the cacophony. Their dam exhales through her nostrils, struggling around frustrated tears. “Please, my loves, don’t cry,” she frets, hovering over first Finch and then Rose. She laps at both with her tongue, willing to give them the comfort they aren’t getting from her milk.

Yewberry’s approach is unexpected, and the queen’s hackles bristle with momentary warning—and then she sees him, the guarded look in golden eyes, and relaxes. “Yewberry.” She shakes her head in response to him, feeling more helpless than she ever has in her life. “It doesn’t… seem to be coming right,” she murmurs, giving her kits a pained look. “Hyacinthbreath has made sure I’ve been eating, so I don’t understand…” Her eyes mist with tears. Finch’s cries quiet some, the little she-kit burrowing into her mother’s flank with all her strength.

Rose has quieted completely, though, her movements sluggish. Pollenfur licks at marbled fur again, trying to get her going again. Tiny snuffling sounds can be heard after she withdraws, but her firstborn daughter sounds so much weaker now.

“I don’t know what to do,” she says, her voice quiet with defeat.

Whether Yewberry has stayed to give her comfort or not, Pollenfur would spend the next several hours trying different positions, licking at each kit as they quiet with hunger and stress, and eventually the first-time mother drifts into a restless sleep. Her body seizes the opportunity, and she does not wake until one of the kits begins to mewl again. The queen yawns, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. It’s dark outside the nest now, and Hyacinthbreath is not here… she had fallen asleep for some time.

When she turns to study her babies, something is wrong. Finch and Downy are moving, though every movement has slowed. But Rose is lying feebly against her flank, neck pushed impossibly. She is stiff and does not respond to Pollenfur’s touch.

“No,” she whimpers, her jaw tightening with shock. Her teeth grind. “No, I… not so soon… Rose, Rose, my baby…” Her body shakes, and this time she does not withhold her tears. She buries her face into the tiny kit’s body, wailing her grief and likely rousing the others. “I failed you, I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” she cries, until the sobs become hiccups and her eyes drain of their grief.

After another hour, an hour of staring into nothing, Pollenfur knows she must do something to save her surviving kits.

“Stay with them,” she whispers to Yewberry, to Hyacinthbreath. “I will not be long. They’ve fed all they could from me tonight.” Her eyes are dull, and the voice slipping woodenly from snowy jaws is lifeless.

Her heart is broken, but she has no time to wallow. Her remaining children must survive.

✧ INFO.

•  
• 
  — pollen . pollenfur
  — she/her ; loner ; windclan warrior
  — pansexual ; taken by Hyacinthbreath
  — long-haired chocolate calico with amber eyes
  — “speech”, thoughts, attack
  — penned by Marquette
  — pixel by Birdman

​

 

[hyacinthbreath]

Nothing could compare to the loss of losing a kit you loved so dearly.

Pollenfur cradles the body of a lifeless kit, wailing her agony into soft fur. Scrawny little forms squirm against their mother, but no milk has come for them- and that is a thought that terrifies Hyacinthbreath. "My love-" Hyacinthbreath calls out to her mate, but it doesn't quite reach her. Pollenfur stands before she can move herself, pacing off to do something with determination in every step. The silvery molly sucks in a shaking breath, violet-tinted hues staring down at the deceased kit with anguish. The image of Wisteriapaw, dying without his mother by his side.. She shakes her head, curling her small body around the tiny forms of her kits as if to protect them. No, she wouldn't let Rose go yet. Not yet.

"My little Rose.." She hiccups softly, saddened that she could not feed them herself. Bitterness at her body, at what StarClan had given her when she was born. She hadn't felt this way since..

Sunflower! Wait up, wait for me! A tiny cat calls out to a golden molly in the distance, speech slurred by sleep.

She blinks, teary-eyed and painful. This feels like her entire being was ripped from her. Her nose pushes into Downy and Finch's bodies, as if to breathe in their scent. They had no idea their sister was cooling beside them, did they? "I don't know what to do, Yew.." She sobs softly, turning her gaze to her friend desperately.​

LONER ✦ WARTORN SOLDIER ✦ 54 MOONS ✦ TAGS​