private WHERE THE RED FERN GROWS — family meeting

[POLLENFUR]

It has been a full cycle of seasons since she's laid eyes on her daughter, on her sister's kit. When a trio of cats approaches the Horseplace, Pollenfur's heart lodges in her throat. Her breath begins to feel hot against the fur on her chest. Downy, my beloved, you've come into your own. The calico queen's tail tip begins to flick, anxious, as she waits with the blood roaring in her ears. Brightshine is looking thinner, but still, her green eyes glow with warmth and love for her kin. One warrior beside her is sinewy, but built small, lean; she has her mother's calico pelt, and, it seems, her spirit. The other...

Downy. They stand no taller than the others, but their fur is thick, soft, waving back gently from a face wearing caution. Pollenfur sees the gray tints in their coat, and her paws go numb, her head swimming. Hyacinthbreath, you would not believe your eyes. Tears threaten to tug at the corners of Pollenfur's amber eyes—eyes that match her child's in shape, if not in color.

"Hello! Hi!" Pollenfur, in a burst of nervous energy, leaps from the fencepost and hurries across the field toward her kin. She lifts her tail in a friendly curl, her smile chasing shadows of melancholy from her tired face. "Brightshine! It's been so long. And you two..." Her grin turns mystified. "Your names, they must be different now... what are you called?"

『 out of character. 』 ✧･ﾟ:* 『 about. 』

• ooc: @downypaw @PINKSHINE @BRIGHTSHINE!
• 
• Pollen . Pollenfur, she/her w/ feminine terms.
  — “speech”, thoughts, attack
  — 60 moons old, ages realistically on the 1st.
  — mentored by n/a ; mentoring n/a ; previously mentored Melonpaw
  — loner, formerly a windclan warrior. npc x npc, gen 1.
  — formerly mated to Hyacinthbreath, currently mated to n/a.
  — penned by Marquette.
  
  
  lh chocolate tortoiseshell with white and amber eyes. intellectual; mature; whimsical; philosophical; absent-minded; avoidant.
  
  

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[downyfur]

Warriorhood, at last, takes her back to the Horseplace. Alongside their kin, one tunneler and one on the least ends of moor runner, Downyfur's strides are easy and unstressed. "Pollenfur!" Brightshine had said, and Pinkshine had echoed. After all these moons, Downyfur still has little idea what to think of their aunt. Her distance they can understand, her love in spite of it too. Still, it feels off somehow. Like Luckypaw had left Scorchstorm and Frostwind, the new tunneler can't imagine no resentment at all between their mother and her sister.

Regardless, she comes into the greeting with a warm smile on pale jaws. "Hi," they purr, mirroring the curl of her cream-chocolate tail with their own plume. "It's nice to see you again." Banal pleasantries run in her blood by now, leaking from her gums and veining her eyes. They have hardly missed her; what was there to miss? Still, they hum, "It's too bad we couldn't visit because of the fire... My name?" They artifice some pride into their smile, poking out a few notches of pearly teeth. "I'm called Downyfur now." She glances at Pinkshine, patiently awaiting the burst of her own re-introduction.

windclan warrior | "speech." | tags​

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[PINKSHINE]

" Aunty Pollenfur! " Pinkshine reflects the friendly curl of both her and Downyfur's tails with her own high up in the air. The foggy memory of the tortoiseshell's face from apprenticeship is allowed to reform and reshape into something she can properly remember. Amber eyes... brown - and - orange fur, kinda like Brightshine's, and kinda not. She navigates Horseplace with the ease that Pinkshine wishes she had all those moons ago, bounding from her twoleg - made lookout to meet the three of then. Your names, they must be different now. Pinkshine brightens, trying to exchange a look with her sister. " Downyfur ♪ ! " Like a repeat of the meeting, she sings.

She realizes super suddenly, the resemblance of their names... Did Sunstar do that on purpose? Did Sunstar know Pollenfur? ...As more than the Horseplace cat they had met while Sootstar was still around? She wonders... but, that can wait. " I'm Pinkp– shine now! " With a burst of pride, she says. " D'you think it suits me? Sunstar said I'm... um... " What had he said? " Compassionate! And Downyfur is kind! " She recalls before the silence can go on for too long. Her tail falls into an excited twitching motion. " He probably thinks you are too, Pollenfur! And... And that's why... " She trails off, the thought suddenly hard to explain. She looks back and forth between the two of them. That's why he um... saw Pollenfur in them... or something.​