WAIT JUST A LITTLE WHILE — captured

[Echolight]

How long had it been, now?
Too long.
The thought is a breath as the calico glides through the tall grass, dewdrops only just beginning to form under the dim light of the civil twilight. Long limbs stretch far as she barely skims the ground, soil and trampled moor grass flying beneath her.
Yewberry was gone, Dandelionwish, Mallowlark, her aunts, Daisypaw.. her heart still aches at even the vague thought of her lost daughter. She’s grateful though, grateful that the former medicine cat whisked her away from it all, she could only pray to the stars that they were safe- all safe.
The distant silhouette of the horse place comes into view and Echolight forces herself to a stop, soft pants all too loud in the silence of early morning.
With a quick shake, she sits. Tail covered fire-licked paws as she stares out into the distance. The chase had been endless, chasing the ghost of Elmbreeze, on the heels of Larkpaw and Sparkpaw, watching as her beloved son slowly grew into the shadow of his mentor, how her daughter refused to bat an eye to the truth around her. She chased after Vulturemask, after the bond that never truly got to form, broken by her own anguish.
With a furrow she looked to the ground then, why? Why didn’t she leave with her children when she got the chance?
When the sun finally begins to rise, casting the moors in heather and pink, she looks around. because this was my home. A thought she had clung to desperately for so long that now… it only seemed selfish, foolish. She could have brought them to Riverclans border when they were born, demanded to see Elmbreeze so he could face what he left. The fantasy was better than the reality that her first love was most likely in the stars, now.
No, she could only look on with a somber song in her heart at her children, her daughters glossy fur and her sons wide eyes, traits of their river heritage that were so subtle, no one batted an eye.
How warped in her thoughts she must have been, to not catch the scent before it was too late.
A shadow looms over her, freakish arms extended with a piece of ragged fabric clasped between them.
Echolight jumps, already breaking into a run.
It’s too late. Her veins turn to ice as the twoleg pounces, bundling the warrior up in a blanket as Echolight kicks and hisses.
They’re never out this far… never! Her mind tries to reason as she feels herself being clasped to the twolegs chest, her heart dropping to her paws when she realizes she can no longer move in the odd bear-hug the thing had her trapped in.
"No… no! My kits! I need to get back to my kits!" She cries when the twoleg turns with her in tow, towards the horse place.
Echolight’s fear turns to frenzy as she sinks her teeth into the twolegs shoulder, the flesh tasting rancid in her mouth.
The twoleg shrieks and drops the calico, tangled up in the fabric. As she spits it’s blood from her tongue it calls, something Echolight can’t understand… doesn’t have the time to understand. She books it, fleeing in any direction that was away.
The cage is dropped before her before she can backtrack, the soil under paw turns to cold metal as she skids, her shoulder ramming against the back of the mesh with a thud and a scream- both muffled by the sound of a door being snapped urgently shut.
She’s spinning, both mentally and physically as she grasps at the latched door, digging frantically when she begins to be lifted off the ground by another twoleg, another freak.
"My babies! I can’t leave babies!" She cries. It doesn’t matter, she knows that as she’s shoved into the belly of a monster, her desperate chant lasting the entire walk she doesn’t remember being carried on. The belly’s entrance slams shut with a frightening crash, and her view of the moors is abruptly cut.
Momma loves you. Is all she can tearfully think as the monster awakens, rattling her cage.
I’m so sorry.

//tldr; near the horse place, Echolight got nabbed by a couple of two-legs that had been stopped nearby. The only traces of her would be her scent + twolegs, and possible signs of a struggle! :,))

"Speech."
​

[ WHAT A TIME ]​

 

[Morningsong~]

Morning light shone gently over the moors, casting the lilac chimera aglow in his namesake. He was named for the morning, the cool air, the calm light. He was early to rise to see the sunrise each morning. Life had been cruel to his family, but with every beautiful sunrise he was renewed with hope that things would get better. Shaking his short fur out, he followed his mentor out on dawn patrol. Gorseprickle was the opposite of him, hated rising early. He always saw his mentor deflate when assigned to dawn patrol.

But that was his problem. Morningpaw loved the mornings, loved greeting everyone with his singsongy voice, likely exhausting the others who also hated rising early. Such is how he started today, prancing out onto the moors to begin the day.

He thought nothing of it at first when he caught his mother's trail. He hopped after it hoping to see Echolight at the end.... But he saw a different story.

He felt his heart sink and his blood chill as he arrived at the scene of his mothers capture. "No....What happened here..." He whispered.

Crushed grass and twoleg smell, and the faint staining of blood on a few blades of grass.

".................."

He huddled on the ground and wrapped his tail around himself tightly, his ears flat against his head.​

 

[VULTUREMASK]

Echolight had and would always have a special place in the medicine cat's heart. She had been his first mentor, the one who had trained him to become a warrior which had got stripped away from him not even one month after his warrior ceremony. He had never had a opportunity, a choice to become the warrior Echolight always had thought he could be. Instead he was forced into a new and different path to pick up the pieces of what the ones before him had shattered down. Vulturemask life had never been easy, no, constantly he felt like he was walking on eggshells. Life wanted to break him, to destroy him until there was nothing left of him.

Today was just another proof of that. Life really loved to take from him, over and over again. If he had been the main character of the story then surely he would have been written of as a tragedy.

Vulturemask had been out collecting his herbs after paying a visit to Rosepaws and Snowfeathers graves. He had thought visiting the horseplace would be a good idea to find catmints on but oh instead he walked right into yet another sad tragedy. He could smell the stank of twolegs, the fear of his former mentor as she was taken away from them - from him. He dropped the herbs he had been holding in his mouth, the medicine cat's eyes stared wide at the scene. Morningpaw's cries reached only deaf ears. why.

That was all he could think.

Why her, why them but never, never him.


​

 

[Larkfeather !]

Rabbitpounce is hot on her heels, but just out of reach as always as the two begin their morning training session with a race.
She was going to be a warrior soon, alongside her brothers- and she could not be more ecstatic. No more training sessions, or being an assistant, she’d be a warrior, with her own name.
Larkpaws running is cut abruptly and she bounces to the side, catching the scent of both Morningpaw and her mother.
Rabbitpounce calls out something, but Larkpaw only gives him a vague explanation.
Rabbitpounce is soft, not quite as stern as the other mentors- and he follows in pursuit.
The scene Larkpaw skids to a stop to is not one she had been expecting. Morningpaw is huddled on the ground, and Vulturemask is staring off with a glasses expression.
”What…?” Her question falls short when a sudden and foreign stench stings at her nose, her entire muzzle crinkling at the slap.
”Wheres mama…? Morningpaw, where is she?” Larkpaw turns to her brother for answers, her brow furrowing as frustration grew. ”What… where..?” The answer was obvious, but painful. Surely there had to be another explanation- mama would never let herself be taken.
She wouldn’t.

”Speech.”

[ YOUR SILVER LINING ]​

​

 

[WEASELCLAW]

Echolight’s scent, flattened grass, the stench of Twolegs. Weaselclaw’s heart sinks as he realizes what’s happened to their Clanmate. The Twoleg kits who’d injured his son are indicative of a bigger problem. They are invading, getting ever closer to where they don’t belong. He exhales, breath shallow. Morningpaw and Larkpaw begin to panic, and Vulturemask only hovers over her scent-laden spot with a bitter expression.

He’s taken @sparkpaw. out this morning to practice tracking. He regrets this choice almost immediately.

“I’m sorry,” he tells his apprentice quietly. “She’s gone. Her scent trail… it’s been… the wind…” He’d never liked Echolight, and the she-cat hadn’t liked that he mentored her son, but he would spare his apprentice this final hurt if he could have. “We can still try to follow it.” He looks at Sparkpaw with a surprisingly gentle expression.
​

[ PENNED BY MARQUETTE ]​

 

[sparkspirit]

While his siblings are crushed beneath the weight of this discovery, Sparkpaw can only feel– hollow. An all-accompanying emptiness. His time with Weaselclaw had taken everything. No longer did he have the time to curl up by her nest and speak of his day. No longer did he search for her wisdom, or her comfort. Maybe part of it was shame. After all, he was a traitor's son. What would become of him if it got any worse? If they knew that he was spending time with a too-soft molly who shared as much of his family's blood as he had, one who had chosen Yewberry? At least he had a choice, Sparkpaw had told himself.

His choice was distance, and it had not served him well.

With blue eyes that are vacant in a way that is quite unlike him, the tortoiseshell tom stands at his mentor's side and sucks in a slow, deep breath. Savoring it, maybe. The last of her smell. Perhaps when they returned home, his siblings would vie for her nest in the warrior's den, or curl up there together. But standing here on the windswept moorland is where Sparkpaw says goodbye. A miserable, empty goodbye that feels like letting something go. "There's no getting her back, is there?" Finally the apprentice looks up to Weaselclaw, gaze solemn and vacant. "Chasing it won't do any good." It's as if saying it himself takes the weight off his shoulders, makes it so someone else's refusal to seek her out won't sting so terribly.

"Can I go back to camp for a bit?" The only sign of hurt thus far, Sparkpaw's voice cracks.

˗ˏˋ〘  OOC 05.20.2023 〙´ˎ˗

• ooc: —

• sparkpaw, sparky. dmab male, he - him - his.
  ──── apprentice of windclan. loyal to windclan and weaselclaw.
  ──── 06 moons old. born on 12.15.22, and ages 85% real time.
  ──── echolight x elmbreeze, adopted by yewberry. brightfam.
  
  a long-limbed, trim sterile tortoiseshell tom with mostly black fur splashed with the occasional orange. he has a singular white mark on the back of his neck, as if he had been bitten there. has a fresh scar across the bridge of his nose.
  
  

  

• "speech"

​

 

[Morningsong~]

"Twolegs took her...." Morningpaw replies to Larkpaw, tears beginning to form in his eyes.

He briefly acknowledges Vulturemask with a lingering glance before he looks down again. Echolight was his mentor, was he hurting too? He didn't know the medicine cat well, often avoiding those who seemed prickly. He had enough anxiety. He wondered if he should comfort him, though.

Weaselclaw and Sparkpaw arrive and he almost wants to take Weaselclaw up on his offer to look for her. But what could they do against Twolegs?

"It's not fair..." He mumbles. "T-twolegs have been showing up more often... If only we could teach them a lesson....." He says, a rare craving for violence shining through.

" She'll come back to us one day.... I want to believe she will." He wants to believe. He wants to have faith... But It's shaky. What if she never finds her way back home?​

 

[WEASELCLAW]

Sparkpaw’s reaction is not what Weaselclaw had expected, but he has long since abandoned that knowledge of his apprentice. The dark-furred tomcat stares with vacant blue eyes into the horizon, and Weaselclaw’s own oft-hard gaze softens. “There’s no getting her back, is there?” Weaselclaw wonders if it would be kinder to lie, but he cannot. He shakes his head. “No. There’s no getting her back unless she escapes on her own and returns to us that way.”

Sparkpaw’s siblings cry and mourn together, but Weaselclaw’s apprentice is stoic in a quiet way. The tabby watches him, realizing what a warrior he’s become—despite the grief in his posture, Sparkpaw does not insist on chasing foolish dreams. He asks if he can go back to camp, presumably to mourn in solitude… and Weaselclaw gives him a nod.

“Go on. I’ll have to report this.” He exhales, tearing at the moorland earth with his claws. Another warrior, lost.
​

[ PENNED BY MARQUETTE ]​