camp WITH THE STRENGTH OF A GREAT TYPHOON [ swimming lesson ]

[claythorn]

Claythorn is at the rivers edge with her brood- and the two she accepted in the fold as such. Two figures stand nearby, ones more willing to slip into the water then she, but Claythorn was working on it. She could stand in the water now, slowly getting over the overwhelming anxiety and fear that bit her as she tried to swim. But she could stand in the water. Mismatched golden eyes shifted towards the five she had gathered, a hum following. "You five are going to learn to swim today." Claythorn remarks, stepping into the water.

Her paws are flame-gold dipping into cooling waters, ones that worry her briefly that will be too chilled for her kits- then the sun warmed water overtakes what must have been icy fear gripping her, her toes and legs warm in the eddies. The queen steps in until it meets halfway up her legs, and that's when she turns to look at her kits, tail sweeping in the water. "Go ahead and step in. Don't be afraid- one of us will catch you if you start to float off." A slight tease, a lighter side that her kits were privy too often.

Vision lifted then to Cicadaflight and Robinheart alike- these two had her innate trust with her young. Eyes softened briefly at either of them, then shifted her attention back to her ilk. Who would be first?

‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ ┌── THOSE FIVES WORDS IN MY HEAD ⋅❁⋅ YOU SAID ILL NEVER LET YOU GO! ──┐‎

• "speech"
  // @CICADAFLIGHT @robinheart @SPARROWKIT @DARK-KIT @eelkit @DROPLETKIT @ONYXKIT
  // no need to wait for them!
  

• 

• CLAYTHORN she/her, queen of riverclan, sixteen moons.
  ⭃ LH chocolate torbie with mismatched golden eyes, scars across her right cheek and over her left ear. cold exterior and threatening glares, built for stamina/battle and not swimming (tall/muscled)
  ⭃ mentored by darkbranch (npc) / / mentoring no one
  ⭃ mated to otterbite / / mother to dark-kit, onyxkit, sparrowkit, eelkit, dropletkit
  ⭃ peaceful and healing powerplay permitted / / underline and tag when attacking
  ⭃ penned by dallas ↛ dallasofnines on discord, feel free to dm for plots.
  

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[robinheart]

She takes on the role of friend, fellow queen, and lifeguard with ease. Present in the lives of these kits since birth, Robinheart looks to Claythorn’s brood with as much love and affection as she affords her own children. They are the future of Riverclan. They are deserving of lives built on stability and trust.

Robinheart’s early moons had been spent displaced and in the beech copse - a temporary home after the camp flooded. It was a time of uncertainty, made all the harder by illness that soaked to her marrow and held her back as her siblings transitioned to apprenticehood. It made her reckless. It gave her a false sense of needing to prove her worth. From there she struggled, she floundered, she shackled herself in crimson chain stamped with ‘kittypet’ and ‘attempted traitor’ for moons to come.

If she can, she will try to save any Riverclanners from a similar fate. She will be the ever present guide she wanted when she was a child. For her children, for Claythorn’s children, and for all the children to grace river blessed shores.

Citrine gaze softens as she finds mismatched golds and nods encouragement to her friend and fellow queen. “Don’t let my leg deter you, I am a strong swimmer. No one will float away on my watch!” She promises with a grin, though deep down grief gnaws at the pit of her stomach. These swimming lessons, as important as they may be, always dredge up memories of Brookstorm. All the ‘what ifs’ that still haunt her despite Hazecloud’s wisdom.

She has a duty to her clan to ensure the next generation are strong and mindful swimmers. She has a self-imposed duty to ensure no one grieves the loss of a mate as she has.​

[ penned by kerms ]​

 

[DROPLETKIT]

Swimming. It's something Dropletkit has never done before, but its something she meets with excitement. Swimming sounds cool and the water can't be too bad! Except... It is. When Claythorn gathers up her kittens and brings them all to the waters edge, dread sits like a stone in her belly. Pink eyes try to avoid the sunlight that refracts from the flowing current, squinting at their mother, at Robinheart, at Cicadaflight and then the sky feels too bright. And as they think more, what happens if they go under? Do they just disappear like Magpiepaw did (to where, Dropletkit has no idea...)?

"It hurts to look at, mama..." their voice is just barely audible, a whisper and you'll miss it, but shes already making her way in to the water, orange and brown patchwork fur floating, pulled gently by the current. She looks pretty, their mama always does, but theres something ethereal about how the water pulls her mothers fur... Mama affirms that no one is going to float off and they'll be saved if they do. Immediately does some fear about going under dissipate, ebbing away as they cautiously take in their siblings reactions. I just have to do it. I don't want to upset Mama. I don't... She has never known the ire of her mother but she fears it all the same.

Robinheart speaks of no one floating away on her watch, another small bolster of confidence (that serves little as of right now) and her eyes shimmer with barely-disguised tears. This isn't fun! It hurts! And Dropletkit doesn't want to get wet anymore. What was once an inviting and fun idea is spoiled by the sun, as is most of the ideas she has... I just have to do it and get it over with. Maybe its not scary... Their thoughts urge them to push forwards; Robinheart and Cicadaflight wouldn't let them go under. They take a deep breath in, screwing their eyes shut and pushing past the fear of it anyways, hesitant paws charging straight in a little further than Claythorn had urged them to, baby-soft fur now soaked and heavy-feeling.

It's somewhat warm, but its also cold, and its a sudden chill that runs down their spine. It's a weird sensation that immediately shocks Droplet out of the discomfort from how the sun feels, eyes opening ever so slightly so they could see; the sudden freezing sensation makes her reel back and sneeze, ears pinning back. Paws flounder beneath them as they realize the ground beneath them is disappearing as they're pulled by the current, desperately searching for the riverbed that they could touch on their tippy-toes and when their paws finally make contact with the pebbles below, they back-track back to where the water only overlaps their paws.

An ashamed look lays on their face, hoping that the adults were paying more attention to their siblings instead of them. I don't like this... I wanna go to bed, mama, I don't want to learn how to swim.

𝖢𝖮𝖬𝖤 𝖮𝖭 𝖮𝖴𝖳, 𝖫𝖨𝖦𝖧𝖳 𝖳𝖧𝖤 𝖶𝖠𝖸 ݁˖ ❀ ⋆｡˚ 𝖫𝖤𝖳 𝖴𝖲 𝖲𝖤𝖤 𝖳𝖧𝖤 𝖧𝖮𝖬𝖤 𝖨𝖭 𝖮𝖴𝖱 𝖣𝖱𝖤𝖠𝖬𝖲

• ❥ dropletkit
  ❥ afab demi-girl .☘︎ ݁˖ she/they .☘︎ ݁˖ 2 months
  ❥ riverclan kit .☘︎ ݁˖ adopted by claythorn & otterbite
  ❥ fluffy albino she-kit with dusty rose colored eyes .☘︎ ݁˖ very soft & fuzzy
  ❥ "speech, F3C4C5" .☘︎ ݁˖ thoughts
  ❥ single .☘︎ ݁˖ too young to consider love
  ❥ smells like flowers & milk .☘︎ ݁˖ distant nostalgia
  ❥ penned by chuff

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[ONYXKIT]

༺♡༻　Onyxkit is ready. She was born ready, her fur fluffed up in the indignation of youth.

Swimming. Excitement thrums through her, threading into every river-toned fur on her back. Slicked, silky; you'd never know her to have outsider blood. She approaches the river with all the confidence she can measure, faces the gaping and seemingly infinite maw of the riverbed.
"I'm not scared!" she chirrups petulantly, watching her mother tread slowly into the depths. Only halfway up her legs, and yet it seems so impossibly deep. She's far from her mother, and yet the water wraps around her ankles, laps at her knees.

She glances to her sister, alabaster and fragile as a lily. Confusion scrunches up her nose in distaste. She's talking nonsense, what a weirdo. "Um, I dunno what Dropletkit's talking about. It doesn't hurt me to look at," Onyxkit corrects, glancing over to her mom with a roll of her eyes. Dropletkit is probably just making something up 'cause she doesn't want to admit that she's scared.

As her sister shuts her eyes, braces herself, Onyxkit shoulders past. She won't be beaten out by someone as delicate as her timid sister. She charges forwards, feels the tug of the water trying to pull her back. Forwards, feeling the water rise and rise, raising her chin up -

Water splashes up her neck in her overeagerness, fills her nose. "Bleh - ! Pffbt - " she sputters, pushing back on her paws to escape the onslaught -

And for a moment, she is floating, weightless.

"Look, mama!" The call is bright, delighted. The previous mishap is quickly forgotten, tiny legs kicking out against the current.

She drifts back down slowly, paws settling upon the rocks. The river laps at her chest, and she beams up at Claythorn. "I did it, didn't I?" If only for a moment, she was floating.

‎‎┌── SEE, THE SEA WANTS TO TAKE ME ༺♡༻ ( DO YOU THINK YOU CAN HELP ME? ) ──┐‎

• IC opinions she's a meanie <3
  
• no ref yet!
  

  "SPEECH"

• 
  ONYXKIT ༺♡༻ she / her, kit of riverclan, three moons.
  ➳ an elegant blue and black molly with a thick mane around her neck.
  ➳ headstrong and vain, always hungry for attention.
  ➳ claythorn xx otterbite, sister to dark-kit, sparrowkit, eelkit, & dropletkit
  ➳ peaceful and healing powerplay permitted / / underline and tag when attacking
  ➳ penned by SATURNID ↛ saturnids on discord, feel free to dm for plots.
  

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[CICADAFLIGHT]

The river beckons today, rippling and bright, and he knows that when he reaches out his paw, it will meet his calloused pad with a soothing coolness. Water has always been home to him—in the painfully remembered tumult of his adolescence, sometimes more than camp had been. He never feels more at peace than when he sinks into the velvet depths and just drifts, letting someone else control his weary limbs and shield his tired mind from everything else. Just him and the water. In some way, he understands Claythorn's distaste, but he also really doesn't. Cicadaflight simply cannot imagine a world where he was loath to swim.

It's good she's teaching her kits to swim, though, and he knows she's working on it herself. To be frank, he's honored she's invited him—alongside Robinheart, of course—to help impart those first crucial lessons. He flanks the tortoiseshell queen in steady silence, content to let the two exchange instructions to the kits and each other. Awkward should have been his name instead, maybe—Awkwardflight—for the way he stands blankly until he feels like he's needed. He's getting a little better, though, and so he meets Claythorn's mismatched eyes with his own and gives a brisk nod. Not a shot in hell he'd let one of her kits drift away.

Dropletkit takes the plunge, eyes screwed up in a way that communicates no small measure of discontent. His heart pangs sympathetically—he'd taken to the water like a fish to, well ...—but he can feel the exact sensation of ashamed discomfort rippling across their countenance. He still feels that way when it comes to a Clanwide decorating session or a long conversation with a denmate, embarassingly enough. " It's not so bad, Dropletkit. " He glances at Claythorn cautiously, lest he overstep, and advances carefully into the water near the pale kitten.

" The river can be nice, see? " He scoops up a pawful of water and lets it drip down back into its mother in a cascade of droplets. Squinting, a faded memory offers up his father's words from over a full turn of the seasons ago, retained like a precious treasure. " My own father used to say that if you respected the river, it would respect you.. "

" Try going out a little further again, but kick your paws like you're playing mossball with the river. " He motions with his forelimb in demonstration. Onyxkit plunges into the water like a natural nearby, but Cicadaflight is focused on her sibling. The dark kit's zealous confidence is bright in its own way, but he understands Dropletkit more. This small, nervous child with their quiet presence. There's a vague appeal to his amateur attempt at teaching; it's like showing Crabpaw how to dive, but softer around the edges. He can almost understand the appeal kits would have (for other cats, of course, not him). " Try to move with the water, not against it. "

OOC : —

☆

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