camp YOU CAN KICK DIRT | crushing ice

[BITEFLOWER]

bio ₊˚✧ ﾟ. Sting of the cold at his nose is a uniquely new experience, has him wrinkling his face, for once not out of some measure of frustration. Near the outskirts of camp, where the river once was is sparkling. He prods where the water was tentatively with a paw. Under his paw-pads it's shocking to the touch, causing him to jerk his paw back as quickly as he has reached out to touch it. So used to lazily submerging his paw for a lack of a better activity the cold sheen being solid and not giving way under him has him cocking his head. Despite the shocking numbness that grows at the touch, he's pouncing on it eyes and mouth widening in surprise as he he slides forward at the action.

Throwing caution to the wind, he makes a decision quickly and excitedly. The black furred feline jumps, thowing all his weight down, hears the crunch and crack under his brawny frame. The crunching and cracking continue. Sparkling and fractured, he's able to appreciate the beauty of the cold stuff, noting somewhat mournfully, that he didn't fetch Valekit to venture with him.

At the shattering he's delighted, wants to see how much of it he can smash, before he comes to the realization that actually, what little he can feel at the bottom of his paws hurts. stepping off, he notices red spotting the beautiful, shattered ice sitting in the shallows of the frozen river. He taps at this curiosity, before realizing he's imparting more red on the thing. Numbness subsiding, he twists his a paws to look at it, promptly collapsing and caterwauling dramatically at the few scratches he finds.
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[carawaysong]

-ˋˏ ༻✧༺ ˎˊ- carawaypaw is vaguely aware of bitekit's ice killing spree, but the child of greenleaf hardly understands any of it's danger. she had never even seen ice, let alone felt it crack and give way beneath her paws. but bitekit seems to be having fun, so what harm could it be? a small part of her longs to join him, escape back to the nursery for just a few moments. as much as she loves being an apprentice, it hadn't brought much more into her life than trouble.

the tabby begins to turn, head off to finish whatever duty was in high demand at the moment. but a soft thud sounds in her ears, quickly following it are bitekit's sharp wails. they pin, the noise harsh against the eery quiet that leafbare was bringing, but her paws begin moving quickly towards the kitten. carawaypaw's green gaze is narrowed with concern at the sight of the collapsed kit, she should have told him to stop playing in the ice. it would have been the responsible thing to do. guilt washes over her. "what happened, you hurt?"

‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎┌── you're in the yard 《✧》 i light the fire ──┐‎

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• CARAWAYPAW ✧ she/her, apprentice of riverclan, five moons
  ➺ carawaypaw is a pretty longhaired silver tabby with green eyes and a long, lithe frame. born into riverclan, she loves her home and has a deep fascination with becoming a warrior to provide for it. for now, she is heavily focused on her duties as an apprentice and trying to balance them with her enjoyment of less serious activities. she is currently apprenticed to nightfish.
  ➺ willowroot x poppysplash ↛ sister to bumblepaw, tidepaw, mosspaw, hazepaw, antlerpaw, and buckpaw
  ➺ peaceful and healing powerplay permitted / / underline and tag when attacking ↛ see battle info here
  ➺ penned by vayle ↛ @vayl3 on discord, feel free to dm for plots.
  

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[Redpath]

The icy water had not stopped Redpath from fishing today as she comes back to camp with a fish and frigid paws that cried out for warmth. Soon, she wouldn't even be able to fish and she'd have to hunt on land. She wasn't as good on land and she dreaded the days to come. Setting the fish on the pile, she takes a moment nearby to groom her paws and hopefully warm them up a little. Everything is peaceful....UNTIL....

Redpath hears Bitekit crying out and immediately darts to him, worried that something has happened. Was he in trouble? Had something bitten him? Was it a crab? She hates to think of what one of those little cretins could do to a kit. Her bones are strong and fully grown, kits are still small and growing. Could a crab of decent size actually break a bone? She doesn't want to think about it. She hopes this is just another one of Bitekit's antics.

"Bitekit, whats wrong?" She asks worriedly, seeing the bloody ice in the water and then the blood on his paw. "Did something attack you?"

Bitekit was a bit of a pain, but she wouldn't wish harm on him....Whatever caused him to bleed was going to pay. "Come here out of the water and lets take a look..." She'd likely get Ravensong in a moment if it seems bad, but she thinks it only seems to be a scratch.​

 

[FERNGILL]

The wailing cut through the air like a crack of thunder- and what a little storm Bitekit was. He was a handful, from what he could gather- but all kits orchestrated their fair amount of mischief, didn't they? A memory of Steepsnout- Steepkit, precariously balanced somewhere high while her siblings wailed desperately for her to come down before she hurt herself, flashed in his mind. It softened him a little to the plight of the injured kitten, even though he had- admittedly- done this to himself.

Pity glimmered in the meadow green of Ferngill's sighted eye- his pupil tracked the spatters of blood across the smashed ice. Fingers of blood spread across the ice from the dots.

"Oh- Bitekit, hurry out the water!" he hummed, voice trembling with a significant wabble of worry. "Be- be careful touching the ice, too... it'll sting." He swayed on his paws, not willing to risk unsettling anything by scooping up Bitekit by the scruff, but all the while grimacing with pointed apprehension.​

✦ penned by pin ✦​

 

[BITEFLOWER]

bio ₊˚✧ ﾟ. Green, furiously blinking eyes greet the apprentice. He's mourning his unhurt paw pads, feeling shards prod at him elsewhere. The black kitten quickly upturns a paw to shove in Carawaypaw's direction, as close to her face as he can reach showing off the few, shallow scratches he's attained beading. When Redpath comes zooming over he similarly shoves it as close to her face as he can reach. "It attacked me!" He shrills, heart beating wildly. Few beats later he seems to recognize it doesn't hurt, only stings irritatedly.

The tone in his high voice quickly becomes more subdued. "It's the ice. It's stupid." Is muttered down at the remains of his stomping grounds, looking ready to throw his claws at it. When Ferngill instructs, he listens, a rare occurrence. He's too focused on himself. Is he okay? There's blood? Isn't that bad? Ice rains down from where it's beginning to melt on his fur as he steps onto waterless and iceless ground. "I hate leafbare." Declaration dismissing his enjoyment he's derived from finding all kinds of different ways of raining snow down on his clanmates.

"Why's it so hard?" He grouses, face scrunched, peering narrowed eyes down at the ice that he's speckled with red. He's more than prepared to fight the shards glinting back at them. The scratches on his paws are shallow, his concern rapidly diminishing with the attention-span of a kitten. The unpleasant jolt in his stomach at the sight seeming to settle somewhat.
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[FERNGILL]

I hate leafbare, Bitekit declared. If he hadn't been so worried, he would've laughed- it was a realisation everyone got to eventually. His own had been Cicadastar sinking beneath the surface, ice creaking and cracking apart- Houndstride leaping forward and heaving the leader from the depths. The memory of glossy blue, drained of a soul- it sent a small shock through his body, a hoverfly wingbeat, a shudder of a memory.

A single eye scanned the kitten, studying him for a few long moments; a check-up, best he could manage. But Bitekit's concern no longer lay with lacerated paws, but with the state of the ice itself. Playing along, until Ravensong got here... that would probably be the best thing, wouldn't it? "I think the water protects itself, so... it can rest, in Leafbare." It wasn't entirely true, just something Lichentail had woven a week or so ago, but ... it was a nicer thought than it all being pointless.​

✦ penned by pin ✦​

 

[EELPAW]

Initally unaware of what was happening, she would find herself following the warriors as they rushed over to Bitekit, glancing between them in confusion. They seemed fine, so what was going on? Why was Bitekit screaming and crying? The warriors were concerned, but why? "What's wrong? What is it?" Moving towards the ice to sniff it, she would reach out a paw to attempt to touch the ice as well.

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[hazecloud]

It's still... odd. The changes she expected to occur within her, as described by a few queens before, were not quite all there. It was an active effort from the molly to push down the anxiety caused by not feeling the 'full experience' that had been detailed as she spent more time within the nursery. That it was no implication she would be a bad mother, that she wouldn't be floundering with what to do when they arrived.

"I started jumping at the sound of another kits cry before mine even arrived!"

"You'll become so protective, like you have the strength of a bear to protect your kits."

She's late to arrive at Bitekit's distressing cries about the ice. An apprentice, warriors, even another kit is there to save Bitekit from the pain and she is the last when she should have been the first, right?

"Can one of you get @RAVENSONG for these cuts? They should be looked at just in case." Hazecloud sighed tiredly as she rest beside Bitekit and offered a fluffy tail to warm his paws in. The gesture helped shove away the guilt trying to bury itself underneath her skin."Ferngill's right, sometimes the forest, the river, needs to rest for a while. So it wraps itself up in snow and ice until it's ready to wake up again for greenleaf." ​

 

[RAVENSONG]

"I'm here." Ravensong mews softly as he pads over at the sound of Hazecloud's voice. His dark eyes flit over the scene before him. No attacker in sight, apart from the shattered ice, which Ravensong quickly deduces is the source of Bitekit's problems.

"Show me your paws, Bitekit." Ravensong demands politely. The warriors could scold the kit later, but Ravensong is entirely focused on whether or not the wound needs mending. "At the very least, I might have to give you something to ward off infection." He muses to himself. "You are lucky it is not more serious."

☾₊ ⊹ темная ночь — dark is the night

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  RAVENSONG of RIVERCLAN — LH BLACK POLYDACTYL MALE (CARRYING CINNAMON, DILUTE) a tall, slender creature with pitch-black feathery fur, large ears, and a sharply angled skull held up in an aloof manner. smells of dried herb, speaks with a low and rumbly accent and walks with an elegant slinking gait.
  
  — born in twolegplace and orphaned at a young age, he joined riverclan at its inception and began training as a drypaw warrior known for a bitter temperment until beesong made him his medicine cat apprentice. after his mentor's untimely death, he had been named ravensong at the moonstone, young heart revitalized with anger and guilt. he is a somber and thorough medicine cat that guards every word spoken in the confines of his den.
  
  — secretly loves "the stars but not so much what inhabits them"
  — openly suffers from chronic migraines
  — single, but "it's complicated"

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[shellpaw]

as they do often do, small pawprints press gentle into the snow after hazecloud, river bloom limbs working in a alabaster blur to keep up. she weaves her way between the queen’s legs, drooping around her sagging belly to peer between her forelegs and keep her whiskers frost free. she’d watched from afar bitekit’s pouncing, wishing desperately that that — that could be her. that is, until he stops. he stops and looks at his paws for all but a moment before his dark pelt hits the ice, a shrill cry breaking the frigid morning air and she launches backward on her paws, alarmed. but hazecloud had gone, and she does do too.

as she nears, though, she can see the little smears of red along the river top and stares. bitekit hurt himself on the ice ; he beat up the ice and it hurt him back. ferngill speaks, something about the water resting, and her head cocks up curiously ” you woke the river up, and that’s why — that’s why it bit you. “ she says, without a twitch in her heavy eyed, stone faced expression, curiosity a feather soft lilt in her tone. she says it as though it were fact because, to shellkit, it was. bitekit was being a freak, which was a newer word she had learned from the elders that meant not normal.. and he was mean to the river, ” and i don’t think you should do that ever, ever again. “

warm amber eyes flit towards ravensong, towards ferngill, then towards hazecloud, a soft wheeze on her breath ; a glint to her gaze that meant she expected to be told she was right. the grown ups knew.

𝐈𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐀𝐑𝐌𝐒 𝐎𝐅 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐎𝐂𝐄𝐀𝐍 𓇼 𝙎𝙊 𝙎𝙒𝙀𝙀𝙏 𝘼𝙉𝘿 𝙎𝙊 𝘾𝙊𝙇𝘿

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  SHELLKIT 𓆉 SHE / HER, KITTEN OF RIVERCLAN. KINDLING xx UNKNOWN, NIECE TO SMOKESTAR. 3 MOONS OLD, SMELLS LIKE SALT & RIVER BLOOMS. PENNED BY ANTLERS.
  delicate lilac - striped molly with sugarplum eyes she is pallid ; platinum splotched with ribbons of shell - touched cream, wisped ends like memories of a distant shore. feather breath and elderdown fur conceals a body worn fragile by tumultuous youth, too thin in some places and round with baby fat in others. her face is short - muzzled, framed half mast by eyes coined warm, sugared amber.
  
  currently exhibiting symptoms of whitecough. this includes a running nose, wheezing, sluggishness, and labored breathing. please keep contagion in mind.
  
  

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[Shadestone]

Shadestone is drawn by the commotion, his one good ear pricked up to catch the fading embers of conversation. Kits and warriors alike are babbling about the river biting and ice hurting. With all of these cats speaking in codes and soft tongues, it takes Shadestone a moment to connect the dots of the situation. Ravensong is present, his dried-herb scent a dim memory of the warmer months. The scent of blood tinges his moss-and-nettle aura, though the cold air staunches the sweet copper with its frosty nip.

Show me your paws, Bitekit, he can make out from Ravensong's accented meow.

...that's why it bit you.

Ah. The kit must've been been playing on the ice, stomping at the freeze to test the boundaries of the river below. This time of year, the ice should be thick enough to hold a child's weight at the deepest recesses of the river... save the child doesn't go testing out that theory.

"Breaking through the top level of ice can be vital in the early months of leaf-bare when the last fish are still swimming. They are more sluggish then."speech is in #b4bcb4​

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