(No name yet) Seabreeze

[Dolomedes]

Seabreeze
He/him | Riverclan Warrior | Moons: 15 | Purrks: None |
“Ocean waters rising above your neck
You feel the glass start to crack.”

Howdy, its me! I finally wrote something, though its a wip and hasn't been edited or proofread at all. I figured I'd put it up anyways and edit it later. Its about my boy, Seabreeze
I am also not very good at writing so the quality is mediocre at best.

Though it got..dark much quicker than I thought or intended lol. So there are horror elements and stuff. If there's any triggers you think I should add, just let me know

TW:
- implied death
- body horror? (there is a scary creepy guy)
- mild description of injury, book level, I think
- I don't think there is anymore but again let me know if you think I should add some.

 

It starts with a simple field. Empty and vast with nothing but grass and rolling hills. You have nothing to change your new environment but yourself.

That is until you have someone, or people, to guide you and give you tools, plants, and seeds to fill the space and make it your own. For most, it starts with your parents. Then friends and family, mentors, even brief acquaintances can contribute. Some of the changes you make happen all on your own.

It slowly becomes a flowering hill, forest, or diverse field. Each patch of flowers and plants stemming from one event or encounter after another. An orchid here, a remnant of a past relationship. A few pumpkins here and there from some fun in the fall.

For Seabreeze, he imagines that his field is sporadic. A front of redwood trees with a variety of succulent plants at their roots. Behind them odd mixes and matches of sunflowers, roses, iris, blueberry bushes, and apple trees. Alongside a million other plants, creating together the cacophony of his life thus far.

It was beautiful in its chaos, lost in thorns and brambles was everything that had ever happened in his life. River reeds from his home, some patches of dandelions that never even got to bloom. Some cherry trees and raspberry bushes from memories of greenleaf in his early kittenhood.

Though bad events in life are just as common as weeds in a forest. Oftentimes the bad moments are small and manageable. A prick from a roses’ thorn or a splinter from a tree. Other times it can be as potent as the poison from a belladonna plant.

It prevents you from accessing those corrupted memories. You can leave it to fester, spreading past its original confines and spreading to other parts of your field or you can find ways to prevent the spreading. Perhaps one day even cutting back its hold, but just like every plant of the mind you can never completely get rid of it.

In his field, Seabreeze’s trauma comes in the form of a plant called a kudzu. It isn’t inherently harmful. Often mistaken for ivy, it grows fast and is hard to get rid of. It has been with him for a long, long time.

The tom thinks it first took root in his mind in his early years, with his family, so far back he remembers the sweet smell of the nursery wafting around the memory. In a long story short: His parents were not good, they were not in love, it showed. Seabreeze and his sibling grew up in a not-so-stable environment. Not that it was bad, it just wasn’t the best. Eventually, his parents left, Seabreeze left the nursery early, already so near apprenticeship that it was just a moon before he should’ve left..

As you can imagine, losing parents can cause a lot of issues, this is when the first of the kudzu appeared. It expanded in the shadows, over the years. A garden of the mind is quite expansive after 15 moons, so maybe that is why Seabreeze never noticed how far the roots and branches reached through his memories.

At least the warrior hadn't noticed until he was visiting his sister’s grave. She had been a casualty in the nonstop between them and Thunderclan. A freak accident, they call it. She was only an apprentice, though so ever brilliant. Fast, smart, determined, a leader…everything Seabreeze wasn’t and that was what he adored about her. She would’ve been the best of them all if her life wasn’t taken away so quick.

The memories here took form mostly as mangrove trees, cattails, lotus flowers, and jasmine flowers. It wasn’t gloomy like you would imagine a swampy area where a mangrove would grow, rather it was stuck in a forever sunset. With the sun rays hitting the water just right and lighting it up. The lotus flowers grow in a variety of colors, and a light breeze carries the scent of jasmine. The mangrove roots twisting and turning down into the water, almost completely foggy as you peer in to see the bottom of the pond.

She had been one of the only constants in his life. From the beginning until now. 10 moons had passed and now she too had left. That wasn’t his concern at the moment, if he thought about her any longer, Seabreeze was sure to start spiraling out of control with no one around to distract or save him, there was no telling how long he would remain drowning in his thoughts.

He was planted near a river bank, just staring at how much change the river experienced with each and every fold of the water lapping up onto the soaked gravel and dirt. How was it that it could change so easily and never lose sight of what it was? The tom shook his head and turned his gaze back to her grave. Seapaw, you’re just being silly! It's a river, not a cat!

Seabreeze was concerned for the younger cats of the clans. Scared they may be having issues with accepting the constant change in their young lives as the tides of the adversaries and fights fluctuated,

“Are you watching over them?” Seabreeze’s mew was loud in the quiet of the night, only the river’s water acting as a white noise behind it.

There was no answer. Why was there no answer? Couldn’t Starclan allow her just one message, one phrase, one goodbye. Seabreeze didn’t know how much longer he could keep himself on land. The water level was rising and with it sunk deep into his field, the plants drowning in their roots slowly, only the most stubborn of them remaining.

Seabreeze was losing sight of who he was with each and every night, as the moon loomed ever closer, dragging the tides into its arms and taking everything he had with it. Why was it that every cat was fine besides him? Why couldn’t everyone else know what this was like? He was being illogical now, countless cats felt similarly, no one cat hasn’t experienced pain and grief, but he felt so, so alone.

His blue eyes turned to the river. The moonlight lit up its small waves. Shimmering stars reflected in its deep, dark blue. Lighting it up like it was silverpelt itself, almost as though he could just reach in and grab the stars.

Ask them for answers…
Seabreeze stood up slowly, taking deep and moderated breaths.
Find his sister…
His pawsteps made no noise, the earth beneath them turning softer as he approached.
Demand that they do something.
The stars were so clear in its reflection.
Surely, they could do something, anything, to stop such senseless bloodshed.
Mocking him.
The stars stared, Seabreeze stared back, they said nothing at all.

Seabreeze dove into the river. The icy water crusades through his blood and threatens to slow his limbs and envelope him. Blinking his eyes open, Seabreeze wasn’t able to see anything. All around him was nothing but darkness, it was night, yes, but he couldn’t see anything. The stars, the moon, the world. It was all gone.

Seabreeze kicked up, but he couldn’t breach the surface. No gravel, no river bed, no air, nothing, nothing, nothing! The stars still did not speak to him. Seabreeze’s lungs burned and his body was cold, his legs kicked uselessly but there was nothing. No current holding him in place, he couldn’t feel anything. Only his own body, it was like he wasn’t even there anymore. He wasn- claws sank into his back flanks.

Seabreeze’s eyes shot down to meet the abyss. Distorted paws, arms that reached further down, disappearing into the darkness. They were longer than countless foxes, they were bony, no sign of flesh. The fur that clung to them matted with dark red and the claws looked like they were ripping open their own paw pads, twisted and broken as they cut into Seabreeze’s body.

He was being pulled down. Flashes of a spotted tabby, with eerily similar markings, formed each time he closed his eyes as desperate tugging failed to dislodge the grip this monster had on him. It grew darker, if that was even possible. Seabreeze could barely see his own paws in front of him as he kicked and tried to swim away.

The creature did not relent its grasp. Seabreeze, turned to look at it again…

It stared at him. Eyes wide and unblinking. Face distorted and its neck torn open showing its insides as red floated from it into the surrounding water. Teeth the size of Seabreeze’s tail hung from its too wide mouth. Far beneath it, barely seen through the haze was countless twisting and turning plants that were so thick he couldn’t see through them. He can’t see what they covered, the creature’s body?

Seabreeze would’ve laughed hysterically if he could’ve. Why…the Dark Forest was no forest at all…why- The creature’s breaths were hot on his back legs and he knew that he was going to die.

Seabreeze closed his eyes.
He was so sorry.

Plot twist: Seabreeze doesn't die, it was just his trauma manifesting in a night terror.

After thoughts and notes:
- Its not very smooth in my opinion.
- The transition from good plant symbolism to bad water symbolism isn't as clear as I would like
- Certain themes are not as clear as I would like
- Writing in general could be better lol

Please leave any feedback if you want I'd appreciate it.

[Dolomedes]

Also forgot to mention that the creature is giving CatNap, to be honest