private you will never break the chain / brightfam intro

[POLLENFUR]

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧ Dawn breaks lavender over the hilly horizon. A she-cat with sleepy honey drip eyes pushes skinny flanks through the heather and windblown grasses of the moorland. Ears flick against the cries of a harrier in the distance, the scuttle of distant paws against firm earth. It's almost cool, but she knows soon the sun will scorch the dew from the grass and there will be little shade, little respite from the heat.

Not for the first time, she's thankful for the burrows she and her family have called home. She muses that they might be more rabbit than cat, more mole than feline, but at least they are safe from the relentless hot sun in a terrain with nowhere to hide.

She'd gone out before the stars faded, simply wandering, head in the clouds. She had intended to hunt on her way back, but she finds herself having arrived empty-mouthed. She laughs to herself, a quiet mrrow meant to convey how foolish she'd been. Thankfully, Sunshine's kits are grown now and can fend for themselves. There are plenty of capable adults who can take turns hunting.

She blinks her almost lazy amber eyes at the bodies within the burrow, whiskers trembling as she speaks. "You're all missing the coolest part of the day, before the sun drives us all underground," she says. Pollen twists her head and gives gold-flecked brown shoulders a lick. She tastes of the open air, the morning sun, heather, and an ever-present soil undertone derived from living beneath the surface for so long.​

✦ PENNED BY MARQUETTE.​

 

[BRIGHTSHINE!]

It wasn't often that Sunshine slept in. Normally, the molly was up with the sun, unable to waste even a moment of daylight. So when Pollen's voice drifted into the abandoned badger set they called home, she perked up immediately, head lifting from her forepaws as she blinked away sleep from emerald eyes. "What'd I miss?" She chirped, already climbing to her paws and giving her back a nice long stretch. A loud yawn escaped parted jaws before the calico finally straightened herself and looked around at her family. Everyone was accounted for, except...

"Where's Heavy Snow? Is he out hunting?" A disappointed pout rested on her face as she found no sign of the white-furred tom. It was no secret the two were very close. Most would even say they were the best of friends! He was the one member of their colony that wasn't related by blood, but he'd always been there to help them - he even helped to raise Echo and Mallow! Sunshine would look expectantly towards her sister at the den's entrance, tail curling over her back.
​

"speech"​

 

[MALLOWLARK]

Grey eyes shot saucer-wide at the slightest disturbance- his aunt's voice ripping through his ears and cleaving him from his unmemorable dream. Sturdy legs held the large tom up as he squeezed through the exit, looming over his sleeping relatives like a grinning ghoul. And into pale morning light he stepped, smile too-wide decorating his face. A slate gaze creased not with his facial expression, and sharp teeth made his grin look almost like a grimace- at least, to those who did not know him so well.

In pondering of his mother's question, his head snapped to a side-loll, eyes flickering to look up at the bruised sky. A purple dawn- it looked almost like a bruise or a wound, but a beautiful one! Mallow's ears perked up, almost forgetting for a moment what he had been thinking about. Heavy Snow, Heavy Snow...

Hunting seemed a sound guess. He met his mother's shining grin with his pale imitation, all too much and ever-unmoving. "Oooh, you think he got anything? Maybe he found somethin' that'd just died-" the thought blandished a distinctive giggle from his belly, crackling through his throat. "I did, the other day- some crow, had- like, worms in it or something. HAH!" It was hardly a funny thought, but the way the flesh looked- it had been grotesque, moving as if the thing was alive and yet bled of soul all the same!​

[ PENNED BY PIN ]​

 

[EMBER]

One might've expected the spunky she-cat to be an early riser. With a cat as rowdy as Ember is, no one could fault them for the assumption. However, she is quite the opposite. Perhaps it's the sheer amount of energy she spends in a day, racing across the hillsides and chasing after hares. Or perhaps she is simply contradictory by nature. Either way, it is a rare sight to see the flame point awake before sunrise unless she is dragged from the confines of sleep by force.

Unfortunately for her, this is exactly what transpires today.

Pollen's voice cuts through the still morning air. Ember awakens with a snort, bleary eyes blinking at her chocolate tortoiseshell sister. She nags over them missing the coolness of dawn before the sweltering sun blazes over the moors... Ember, however, doesn't seem to be listening. She gives a dismissive flick of her tail tip. "Yeah, well, if it means I get t' have a few more heartbeats of sleep..." She rolls over onto her back, briefly stretching her legs out in midair. It looks completely ridiculous, but she doesn't care.

It's Sunshine's whine that lifts the drowsiness from the flame point's face. Still lying on her back, Ember tilts her head, looking at an upside-down Sunshine with a sly smirk. "Probably picking you a bouquet of roses," she comments with a chortle, her whiskers twitching. It's no secret that her sister and Heavy Snow have been making goo-goo eyes at each other for a while now — Ember just wonders how long it's going to take them before they realize it themselves.

Her nephew's odd remarks do not phase her; in fact, it pulls a mrrow of laughter from Ember's chest. "A bouquet of roses and breakfast delivered to your nest! How romantic," she winks playfully at Sunshine, sticking her tongue out. Then, she shifts around in her nest until she's sitting upright, grinning at Mallow as he retells the story of his gruesome finding. "We should go back and look for the remains; the skull would be cool decoration for the den, don'tcha think?"​

 

[Echolight]

"You didn't eat it, right Mal?" A soft but teasing voice echoed from still inside the burrow, quickly followed by Echo poking her head out to shoot a smile at her brother.
Her morning had started off late, she'd sheepishly admit, and her tree trunks that were legs were begging for a stretch, but her family's chittering had caught her attention, and she wanted to be apart of the conversation. As she fully emerged from the exit, she'd catch the last of Ember's teases, though not catching exactly who she was going on about, Echo knew the obvious- and only answer. "I would hope he would know better than roses!" She added in with a flick of her scarred ear, "Orchids or sunflowers would be much safer" she hummed, moving to sit beside her mother with a playful grin. "Hunting, however, is a fantastic idea! Anyone care to join me?"



What a time, What a time, what a time—
"Speech."​