YOU PUT UP YOUR DEFENSES 𓆝 [ searching ]

[pebbletail]

(☼) it's become a daily thing, this ritualistic searching of the riverside. pebblepaw does it in his off time, so that foxtail isn't annoyed with it taking away from his training. snow dappled paws traipse along the rocky bank, where a rainstorm only last moon had washed out the brush and undergrowth. the shore seems almost naked without the foliage usually lining it, so bare that pebblepaw swears he can still find pawprints from where his brother was last seen. riverpaw is what drives him, what pushes him to be out of camp while his paws still ache from training and patrols. the boy's head is low, dark nose sniffling for any scent he can catch, any sign that his brother may be here (may be alive.)

it's hard to not cry thinking about the way he'd waited for riverpaw's return. the battle with the twolegs had been successful- hazecloud is back, as is eve, and all the other stolen cats, but riverpaw, sweet, brave riverpaw, is gone without a trace. no blood spatters, no leftover twoleg traps. no kittypet has seen him. it means he must still be around, must've gotten washed downstream. he's making his way home, pebblepaw just knows it. don't tell him his brother is dead.

a trembly willow tree keeps the sun off the young apprentice's shoulders as he scans the area, noting each stone he's turned. he doesn't think there's anywhere left he hasn't checked, but that can't be true because if it was, riverpaw would be home. pebblepaw stands in the middle of it all, trying to fight tears that keep sneaking their way down his face. riverpaw is not here. riverpaw is not home.

I DO NOT HAVE WINGS, LOVE ☼ I NEVER WILL

• // counts for salmon (but feel free to lmk if you want me to change the fish) o7 riverpaw you are missed" #848DAE"
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• PEBBLEPAW ☼ HE / HIM, APPRENTICE OF RIVERCLAN. MENTORED BY FOXTAIL. 7 MOONS OLD, PENNED BY LAVS
  
  
  a large blue tabby with low white and vitiligo. pale blue fur covers the length of pebblepaw's stocky body, sliced through with darker tabby stripes and spots. baleful orange eyes peer out of heavy set sockets, and his muzzle, paws, and tail tip are dashed with white.

​

 

[splashdance]

Where Splashpaw had drawn comparisons between them before, this is not a sorrow she has experienced. At least, not from Pebblepaw's perspective. To lose a sibling and never know of their return... well, that is what she's condemned her own to experience. Except they are forced to know exactly where she is yet pretend they do not. She wonders if their tears are real, if they shed at all... if they participate in sniffing the border over and over again, knowing they will not come across her scent, but hopeful that somehow, they will.

She did not meet Riverpaw. StarClan must be sick in a way, replacing one lost apprentice with another one by happenstance. Regardless, to be named after his own Clan meant he must've been a marvel somehow. Maybe he was brutish and brave, or soft-hearted and affectionate. Maybe he was just Riverpaw, and for his home, that was more than enough. Splashpaw does not ask questions, for the strings in her heart are pulled taut enough in just watching her new friend search endlessly.

"Does he look like you?" Splashpaw asks as she moves to stand beside Pebblepaw, head lowered some. She figures with the way his head sweeps, he's searching again. His mother and younger sibling have returned, leaving only a littermate gone now. "I can keep my eyes peeled, too, if you want...?"​

 

[pebbletail]

(☼) warmth appears next to him, not of the sun, but of shadow and starlight, a dainty body smelling of river water and pine. splashpaw stands next to him, her head lowered, dark fur barely tickling his own stone hued pelt. he shifts his weight, sniffling and scrubbing a paw across his eyes as an attempt to hide the grief flowing from them. "uhm," he whispers, voice catching before he clears his throat. "kind of. he's my color, but his stripes were- are -darker, and he's got, uhm, white, more white on his body. his eyes are blue." he can picture riverpaw like he can picture the color of the leaves, or the smell of his own nest. rakish grin across his face, bottle brush tail wild and waggling, his brother had been- is -a light. he carries on him the colors of his namesake, shadowy dark blue, foamy white accents, and sunlit turquoise eyes.

"that would be..." pebblepaw trails off as he glances up to meet his friend's gaze. "that would be really nice of you." he attempts a purr, and it comes out rusty, turning into a cough as he tips his head away. "he disappeared during a storm. we all thought the twolegs had gotten him... but i guess not." or they had, and they'd taken him far from this place. he doesn't want to think about the alternative, that his brother's body may lie miles downstream, picked apart by birds and insects.

I DO NOT HAVE WINGS, LOVE ☼ I NEVER WILL

• // " #848DAE"
• 
  
  
• 
  PEBBLEPAW ☼ HE / HIM, APPRENTICE OF RIVERCLAN. MENTORED BY FOXTAIL. 7 MOONS OLD, PENNED BY LAVS
  
  
  a large blue tabby with low white and vitiligo. pale blue fur covers the length of pebblepaw's stocky body, sliced through with darker tabby stripes and spots. baleful orange eyes peer out of heavy set sockets, and his muzzle, paws, and tail tip are dashed with white.

​