Where has the time gone? / dream + private

[ROEFLAME .]

ROEFLAME — break the air to feel the fall.

For days now Roeflame had been a shell, huddled up in her nest within the medicine den with only her labored breaths and pain-laced coughing proving she still had life somewhere inside of her.
The delirium had faded, only playing behind closed eye-lids in strange fever dreams. With the help of Berryheart and Lichenpaw she is able to eat the herbs given to her, numb to their taste, but tonight she wouldn’t stir, her flank rising and falling in a broken pattern.
Roeflame was still there, confined to her mind.

When her eyes finally do open, it is with ease, her body is able to move fluidly as she uncurls herself from where she awoke in the grass. Was this another fever dream, or had she somehow wandered out of camp?
The scenery is splashed in lilac tint, and Roeflame knows she is not where her physical body lies, not when stars twinkle amongst the foliage.
Looking from side to side, she knows after only a heartbeat exactly where she is, where oak and pine create a shaded canopy overhead, where she once met Snowpath time and time again.
Roeflame gives herself a shake, trying not to relish in the relief of her broken fever. Her mind was clear, too much so for this to be a dream. The only conclusion she could logically come to was that she hadn’t been strong enough to fight the illness, that it had taken her just as it had Frostglare. She inhales a steady breath, shaking her head softly in denial. She wouldn’t let Starclan take her, she would fight for her right to live, demand that-
The soft rustle from somewhere behind her gives herself a pause, instinctively thinking she had been caught by a Skyclan warrior.
Yet, there are no borders here, no differing scents. Warily she turns, starlit optics widening in a combination of awe and anguish at the star freckledfeline across from her.
Suddenly, she is almost too stunned to speak, aware of all the things she wanted to cry and yell at the other. Instead, there’s only one word that leaves her maw, the only name she could muster at the moment.

"Frosty?"


@Snowpath
"speech"

tags​

​

 

[Snowpath]

"...been a while." It's a placid greeting, spoken in what might be a lighthearted way but he can't help but feel uneasy. You would think being dead would spare him such grievances but the moment he sees her here he is horrified. StarClan knew of the sickness, the ailment that crept and crawled through the clans and sunk its claws in where it was not wanted. He'd been worried for her long before she got ill, remembered the way her voice gasped, knew her lungs to be weak - the day she fled from the battle that had been Morningpaw's final moments had been enough an indicator.
"You're going to be okay, dumb deer."
She was not to be here, not yet, life still clung fast and certainly she'd be saved before that tether that bound her to the world of the living severed. That she was so sick she drifted was worrying, but he would not deny being happy to see her again face to face. To speak to her, to tell her...
No. No, it would be cruel to. It would hurt more than whatever the sickness was doing to her. For her sake he held his tongue, they were friends passing by one another; never bound, never to be more.
Yet, he couldn't hide some things. "I missed you, you know... what do you think of the name? Snowpath? I rather like it, sorry I couldn't share it with you at the gathering..."



​

 

[ROEFLAME .]

ROEFLAME — break the air to feel the fall.
Despite it all, the others greeting costs a brief burst of laughter from Roeflame, perhaps because she may have been expecting some sort of wiser, more ominous version of Snowpath, or maybe it was simply better than to cry.
She can sense the unease from the dappled Skyclanner, and she might feel the same if there weren’t already a storm of emotions brewing behind her hazy toned gaze.
You’re going to be okay, dumb deer.
Instead of speaking, Roeflame only nods, subtle relief lifting off her chest in an exhale.
In truth, she wanted to listen to his voice a little longer before she spoke, collect her thoughts so they did not all spill out.
He continues, and she moves closer, unsure if she tried to embrace him that she wouldn’t simply fall through his starry form.
”I would say I’ve missed you too, but I think you already knew that." She finally begins, her voice soft and almost unsure. The warrior pauses, tilting her head to look him in the eyes. "I couldn’t have thought of a more perfect name myself… and don’t worry, I can handle being stood up." She lets herself grin, enjoying being in his presence once more.
"Theres so much I want to say, but I don’t think we have that kind of time… I wanted to tell you something, you know, before- but now I think it would just hurt too much." Roeflame has to look down as she speaks, her words chosen carefully.
"It’s easier for me to think you knew what I was going to say that night, and I hope it’s okay if I want it to stay that way. Some days I miss you
so much it hurts." She speaks as though her grief for the tom was a confession, and she supposes it kind of was, even in this ethereal world.
"Have you seen Morningpaw here? How is she?" She does not mean to phrase the question as though catching up on an old acquaintance, but she finds herself lost for words, as the pale tabby so often was when her friend was alive.

"speech"

tags​

​

 

[Snowpath]

The blue tabby smiles, shrugs his shoulders goodnaturedly to the compliment - Blazestar had bestowed on him a good one and he was happy to carry the name to StarClan with him. Many before him were not so lucky.
"I know..." He cuts in to her admission, that she'd wanted to say something to him before he died and he smiles gently, "...I wanted to as well, but...I know now my heart has always been for my clan and it would have hurt us both - because you are the same." He trails off, thinks of loyalty and pain and how cruel the code was and yet how important it was as well; Morningpaw knew, of course, that he had considered breaking the very law made in honor of her death and forgave him for it, she was kind that way. He'd never met a kinder cat. Truly, the world below was too harsh for her - he was only sad she never got her name, forever adorned with a paw.
"She's doing well, we both are..." Snowpath had found her as soon as he realized where he was, they were friends now and he didn't feel like he deserved her understanding still, but he accepted it - it was a start.

"You know...Burnstorm is...he's a good guy. I remember him as a kit visiting SkyClan, I remember saving him from a hawk once." A paw raises, touches his forehead tenatively where the scar still split the fur between his ears. It still lingered, as did the wound on his shoulder but the one that had killed him - the tree - showed not a mark. He often wondered how it worked, how you were displayed in the heavens after death and he imagines it is with the form you were most comfortable in life. He found pride in the scars he'd earned in service to his clan and so they stayed.

"...I want you to be happy."
She would not have been happy with him, they both knew that as much as he wished otherwise. Torn between eachother and their clans, their homes and their affections. It was the same cruel fate that had taken Morningpaw then and he felt tremendous guilt at almost placing it on Roeflame's shoulders as well.
"I want you to know, that all I ever wanted was for you to be happy...and if that includes me not being in the equation then I can live with that...or well-" Snowpath rolls his shoulders again, laughs, "..you know what I mean."
​