pafp WINTER BLOSSOMS // ESCAPE

[cottonsprig]

They're given seconds. Cottonfang holds her breath as she and Downypaw slip out of the medicine den, barreling towards the nearest tunnel. She hopes that the night's shadows cloak them well enough, and that her sister holds true to her word. Regardless, the two of them utilize their sparing knowledge as a former tunneler and a fledgling - in total, they must have the knowledge of one not-so-experienced one.

"Stay close to me," Cottonfang whispers quickly, though she feels as if this is the upteenth time in the last thirty seconds she's said it. The blue smoke pauses briefly, feeling the wall of the tunnels behind them. She starts ripping at roots, disheveling the dirt best she can without causing the entire tunnel to collapse on them. It's sloppily done, as Cottonfang affords the diversion hardly a minute, but she hopes its enough. Regardless, they're off once again, and hopefully far enough to be turned loose. For now.

[ please wait for @BLUEFROST and @downypaw to post! ]​

 

[BLUEFROST]

She counts to ten, as promised. She sits amongst scraps of herbs, beside Wolfsong’s lingering ghost, her sister’s fading scent. Slender green eyes turn toward the exit of the medicine cat’s den. Her vision is blurry—she has to blink to clear the tears that have gathered in the face of her hasty, duplicitous goodbye. After several heartbeats, Bluefrost tightens her jaw. The blood still trickles freely from her shoulder, and her claws are full of dirt she’s scraped free from the vacuous bottom of the den she sinks into.

Bluefrost blows air through her nose, and then she gathers herself. She will not betray her Clan.

She bursts through the medicine cat’s den and shrieks. “Cottonfang is running! She has someone with her—I didn’t see who it is! She’s running away!” Her yowl slices through the thick silence that has fallen onto their camp like snow. “Quick! After her!” She catapults herself from the den, toward the gorse tunnel that leads into the moorland. She can hear camp stir to life behind her—she can hear her Clanmates waken, blood warm in their mouths, fire in their veins.

Run, run, you harebrain. Run like the world depends on it.

, ”​

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[downyfur]

Downypaw's breaths come in gasps around the pungent bundle of herbs Cottonfang had shoved towards them. She pelts after her with hardly enough time to break through the gorse tunnel, let alone enough to process just what exactly had transpired before "sleeping" eyes. Small paws, built for burrowing rather than sprinting, barely touch the cold earth in their flight. No thoughts of freedom, at last or even plain hope weigh her mind down. Only the iron tang of fear keeps them aloft, the necessity of doing something and doing it now.

Bluefrost's yowls echo behind the pair, just barely over the sound of dried grass breaking beneath their rabbit feet. She had spared her not a glance, not while she feigned slumber beneath the sisters' watch, nor while medicine cat and apprentice darted past her in the first, crucial seconds of escape. "I didn’t see who it is!" In that moment, Downypaw decides it is a mercy that Sootspot would not find out who it was that escaped until the sun rose. A mercy another one of Sootstar's daughters had granted. For the past moon their life had hinged on these small mercies, this one they might never get to pay back.

The rousing of camp is drowned beneath the thrum of the blood in their ears. They dart into the tunnels before Cottonfang, putting on her shoulders the burden of burying their tracks without burying the makers, but they hesitate in bolting headlong into the tunnels like their nerves wish to. Cottonfang is the only star in the sky tonight, and the night is long and winding. The sound of roots snapping, earth crumbling—sounds no tunneler wants to hear—and they continue into the great dark.​

 

[SNAKEHISS]

Not too long ago, Snakehiss had found himself in a similar predicament — a couple of clanmates wishing to turn their backs on Sootstar, hoping to slip through under the cover of night, instead caught by his alert gaze and nearly sicced upon. He had let them go then for reasons he doesn't entirely know, or at least he doesn't want to acknowledge.

Upon hearing the alarm sounding for the escape of Cottonfang, however... an acidic bitterness wells upon his tongue. "Cottonfang," The deputy growls, rising from his nest quickly. Snakehiss knows that any cat is risking their own life by remaining under the iron rule of Sootstar. He knows that Sootstar is a tyrant who damns the moors and the memory of his ancestors. He knows that he would rather be anywhere else than here, but that it's now far too late for him.

If Snakehiss was willing to spare the medicine cat some sympathy, perhaps he would be glad that the blue smoke finally mustered the courage to leave her mother behind. However, Snakehiss wanted nothing more than to sink his claws into her for the humiliation she'd caused him. She does not get to just run off and join the rest of her kin at the horseplace. She does not get to have her happy ending, no longer living under the scathing eye of Sootstar and Bluefrost with metaphorical claws at her throat.

If she wasn't going to suffer miserably here like he was, then she was going to pay for her foolishness. "Get them! We can't let them escape!" Snakehiss cries, hopefully rallying the others quickly enough. The moor runner breaks into a run, lean muscles rippling under his dark-colored pelt as he follows Bluefrost out of camp and tracks Cottonfang's scent like a mad bloodhound.

₊ ⋆ * ⊹ ₊ ☾ —— 𝙞𝙩 𝙣𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧 𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙮 𝙬𝙖𝙨 𝙚𝙣𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝

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• 

  ✰ SNAKEHISS
  —— he/him; deputy of windclan
  —— bisexual; single; not looking
  —— long-limbed black tom with green eyes, a small white chest patch, and a notable bite mark on his right foreleg
  —— "speech", thoughts, attack
  —— link to full tags; @ on discord for plots.
  —— penned by beatles

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[HARBINGERMOON]

☾ Harbingermoon was deep in the embrace of restless slumber when the unsettling call of cats running from camp rudely disrupted his peace. An irritated growl rumbled in his throat as he begrudgingly forced himself to rise, the pains in his gut and the scars from Venomstrike's retaliation a constant reminder of his discomfort. I'll kill that fool if I see them! His eyes squinted against the unwelcome intrusion of light as he swayed on his swollen paws, signs of his impending fatherhood.

The urgent cries of Bluefrost and Snakehiss compelled the exhausted tom to action, his maw contorting into a nasty grimace as he reluctantly trod out after the deputy. Anger surged through him at being forcibly awakened, blending with the hormonal rage coursing through his veins. With a thundering gait, he shoved through the exit, emerging into the frigid expanse of WindClan moors. His senses immediately snapped to attention, nose twitching as his good ear swiveled, attempting to discern any trace of the escapees.

Soon, he caught up with his fellow Loyalists, the simmering fury evident in his muttered curses as they collectively sought the whereabouts of Cottonfang. ☽​

 

[SHADOWRUNNER]

\╱╲I SEE A RED DOOR & I WANT IT PAINTED BLACK╱╲/​

The hope of fulfilling his need for a full night's slumber slipped all too swiftly from his grasp as the call went out. Again his mind raced to days in recent past and it made his pulse quicken as his paws carried him from the warmth of his nest. The tunneller locked his sights onto the patrol before he hurried to join it, racing after Harbingermoon and the others. The sound of his own pulse thundered in his ears as he began to sniff the ground in search of the scent trail. Though deep in his heart he didn't wish to find it. He didn't want to find Cottonfang and the others, he didn't want to hurt or kill them.

"What am I going to do?!"

NO COLOURS ANYMORE I WANT THEM TO TURN BLACK
╲╱╲╱╲╱​

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[juncoclaw]

-ˋˏ ༻☽༺ ˎˊ- Cottonfang is running!

The cries of anger and dismay from the loyalists fill Juncopaw's ears, which twitch and swivel each and every way before she finally takes bound after Snakehiss and Harbringermoon. She pretends not to see the malice from Snakehiss, the bloodthirst of Harbringermoon, which both manifest into something of her own: disbelief. WindClan's medicine cat escaping - what left did they have? Who would become a healer after Cottonfang? There was no other way. They had to catch her.

Juncopaw represses the ideas of a potential friendship between the two unlikely cats - they had spoken once, and barely since, yet there was some delusion to the silver molly's mind as she continued to look, to watch, to try and interact. She follows the rest of the patrol now with a shielded gaze, masking the confusion in her brain. Why would Cottonfang throw it all away? After so readily accepting her name?

‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎┌── I AM THE ANGEL ⋅❁⋅ SENT DOWN FROM ABOVE ──┐‎

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  JUNCOPAW[/color] ✩ she/her, moor-runner apprentice of windclan, seven moons.
  ⭃ an antagonistic blue-silver tabby chimera she-cat with green eyes.
  ⭃ mate to no one. daughter to former gin rogues. apprentice of mocking-grin.
  ⭃ peaceful and healing powerplay permitted / / underline and tag when attacking
  ⭃ penned by ixora ↛ @.ixora on discord, feel free to dm for plots.
  

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[✧ Honeybadger.]

NO DIFFERENCE BETWEEN YOU AND I
WE SHARE THE SAME SUNSHINE FROM THE SAME SKY ​

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

honeybadger & 13 moons & male & he/him & windclan moor runner ​

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It takes longer than he wants to admit for the chaos to rouse honeybadger from his rest, grey eyes blinking blearily for a moment as he tries to figure out what is going on. Of course, it doesn't take much - eyes widening and short limbs pulling himself to his paws as swiftly as ever - a battle cry already upon his lips. He's not the swiftest of his clanmates - to short, too bulky and stout. But surely - surely, if he could just get close enough, he could put them in their place. He doesn't think twice- following eagerly in snakehiss and juncopaw without another thought.

━ actions & " speech, " & 'thoughts/quotes' ━

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━ W E ━ W E N ' T ━ B L I N D ━ G O I N G ━ E Y E ━ F O R ━ A N ━ E Y E ━

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

 

[SOOTSTAR]

What?

Sootstar is dunked into a world of confusion the moment her eyes flutter open from sleep. Bluefrost is yowling, Snakehiss shouts out orders and cats hiss into the night. Through their anger she hears a name, Cottonfang.

Pushing out of her den she races forward, bits of moss still clinging to her pelt. A stripe forms down her back as fur bristles, Cottonfang- she was deserting? How?! How had this come to be?! They had just spoken- Cottonfang had just promised her loyalty to WindClan! To Sootstar!

She lets out an ear-piercing yowl, wordless but filled with rage and a tinge of sorrow for the loss of another kit. How is it that she has failed? That another child has abandoned her for the flame pelt of Sunstride.

It was time. They’d attack, they did not have to follow the blue medicine cat to know where she and her turn-tail companion was heading. ”WindClan, to me! Tonight we stain the ground in traitor blood. Cottonfang will be WindClan’s last turn-tail, and the first to regret it.” Tonight she’d bury her traitor kits and leave the rest to the dogs.

☾ INFO BATTLE

• 
  » Soot ․ Sootstar
  » WindClan Leader
  » She/her ․ Mate to Weaselclaw
  » Tiny blue smoke she-cat with green eyes.
  » "Speech" ․ thoughts ․ attack
  
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  » A high-stamina foe who can be difficult to hit.
  » Excels in quick, short moves.
  » Fights to kill and maim
  » Fatal attack of choice is an underbelly dive.
  » May powerplay minor harm. Can powerplay healing

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