Firefly Cove

[Jayvines]

~ Sparrowflight ~

A choked gasp shuddered past her lips and Sparrowflight seemed to physically flinch, as Nectarflame's swift reprimand struck her directly in the heart. She... she couldn't be gone... Not when... When they had so much more to do. But the grief and pure brokenness that seemed to seep from the golden bengal's pelt was real. The swiftly cooling body of her sister--oh stars, Nectarflame had said she was her sister.

Pausing a moment to pressing her nose into Cindersky's pelt, Sparrowflight gave her one last chance to breath... to shudder... to do anything but lie still... But the body underneath her didn't move an inch. Not even as she silently pleaded to any cat listening in the stars above to send back one of the last few cats she had left as family in her clan.

"Why..." she finally managed to choke out, peeling her face off of her now tear-stained silver pelt and beginning to carefully groom away the remnants of her grief and frantic herbs usage. "Why didn't she come back?... Starclan... They give leaders 9 lives, but... But she didn't come back..."

It didn't make sense. Aspenstar had been struck down all at once, but it was a horrendous wound. This... Green eyes scanned over the lacerations on Cindersky's fur with sorrow and finally noted the scent of badger clinging to her. This looked just like an unfortunate accident that any warrior could die from. Leaders were supposed to withstand that! They were supposed to have 2nd and 3rd and up to 9th chances! She hadn't given up her lives to Sparrowflight yet, so she should still have all 9 left...

With a shuddering breath, Sparrowflight forced herself to her paws and grabbed ahold of the silver molly's scruff. Her body felt like mud, all slow and muddled as she hoisted her sister onto her back before turning to Nectarflame once again, but this time with sorrow and confusion in her gaze.

"How... How did this happen..."

Her voice was barely more than a hoarse whisper; full of regret and the sorrow of kin taken too soon.

[ @implimm ]

[plum]

[ @Jayvines ]

There would be a time for regret later, where she would consider the manner in which she reviled the young she-cat today. But it would not come soon- She felt many things right now, but apology was not one.

Turning her eyes down to Cindersky again the Bengal offers nothing in response to the grief-filled inquiry. Perhaps it did not need any sort of answer, not all questions did anyway. And... It was not for Nectarflame to say, not if Sparrowflight was unaware. Her love had many secrets and some she kept even from the golden she-cat, but...

Nectarflame gingerly assists the leader in getting Cindersky off of the forest ground. Her body was already turning rigid as the dead always did, and the awareness that this was going to be her new reality burns at her like a fire she could not smother. The fact that she and Cindersky would never lie together again, share tongues or prey or soft words of love in the late evening settled into the golden she-cat in such a way that she knew in her bones it would not go soon.

As she moves to steady the body of her mate, something prompts her gaze to fall to where she- they had lay together. Tears spring to her eyes again suddenly, and in an instant Sparrowflight is gone with the rest of the forest as Nectarflame sways and lurches down, nudging them with her nose. Bloodstained flowers that lay askew in the soiled grass, she had almost left without noticing.

She did not want this.

She did not want any of this.

Gently pulling the spilled flowers together again, Nectarflame stands back up with them. The senior warrior does not cast any form of look at her Clanmate nor the body of her mate- Adamantly staring straight ahead instead.

In so many other worlds, Cindersky would wake up again or return to them in the following days. But they were here, and while those things did happen, they happened to cats more deserving than Nectarflame. And even if one sustained the argument that the golden cat was just as deserving as everyone else had been, the warrior wanted none of it. Grief was a war against the heart itself; Every memory another battle, every empty moment without them just another wound she would have to lick alone.

Nectarflame had not the strength to endure this twice.

"These should answer that." A dull gaze moves to Sparrowflight. This was happening because of Nectarflame.

The cat looks away again and sets off for camp. It was, after all, only tail-lengths away.

[BrokenRose]

BrokenHeart was sitting in the open meadow feeling the crushed wildflowers below her paws. Her tail swished back and forth, back and forth, back and, and so on. she closed her eyes and lifted her muzzle smelling the fresh breeze. a slight smile grew across her face. Then she opened her eyes to hear something behind her. she turned around to see |____|

[lucidense]

Acornpaw ran most of the way to firefly cove, enjoying the feeling of wind on his face, buffeting his fur. He stopped in his tracks once he remembered what he was here for- didn't want to scare away the prey. He looked back at Dayflame, cheeks reddening a little as he put on a nervous smile. I'm not a kit anymore- I need to prove it. "So.. uh, you're the boss. What do you want me to do now?" @Angelique

[Madelaine]

Dayflame
━━━━━━♡♥♡━━━━━━
Female[she/her]

Moving alongside the apprentice the senior warrior headed to Firefly cove. She was a little nervous as this was her first time actually training an apprentice after her actual one died. She was just glad she wasn't a mentor. It scared her a bit on getting a new one. She enjoyed helping others though. "Okay first things first show me your best hunters crouch, so I know what I'm working with.", she meowed. Dayflame didn't want to teach the apprentice the same thing twice, so she was making sure that it didn't happen.

┌─────── ∘°∘♡∘°∘ ───────┐
@lucidense
└─────── °∘∘♡∘∘° ───────┘

[lucidense]

Acornpaw nodded, crouching down and bunching up his legs. Overall, his crouch was surprisingly good, aside from the fact that he looked a little wobbly, which was probably the source of his problem with accuracy. He looked up at Dayflame with wide green eyes. @Angelique

[Jayvines]

~ Mistheart ~

White paws skittered eagerly through the underbrush as Mistheart led the way to Firefly cove, only glancing behind herself occasionally to check if her patrolmate was following. She was terribly excited to have her skills needed again. Hunting was fine enough, but Mistheart's love lay solely with finding and collecting up bits and bobs of inanimate objects so herb duty was just swell!

"Sundust needs as many cobwebs as we can find!" she chirped, twisting around so Asterdance could hopefully understand her. "Oh! And if you see any big red flowers with uh... black and yellow middles! They need those to. Apparently that's what poppy flowers look like."

She was gonna find so many things. Sundust wasn't every gonna need webs or poppy seeds ever again!... Or at least not for a while.

Coming to a stop with a little hop as they entered the cove, Mistheart gave Asterdance a crooked smile before her grey eyes settled on a *PERFECT* stick for web collection.

"Race you to see who can collect the most webs?... If you wanna?" she asked, snatching up the twig in her jaws and leaning away as she prepared to bolt to the left side of the cove.

[ @x ghostie ]

[wolfie]

== > @Jayvines

Asterdance walked side by side Mistheart, beginning to finally awake. It was good to spend time with their best friend's sibling. Mistheart seemed nice at the very least, but they couldn't help but ponder on what Bushtuft might be doing. They were... really zoning out. Blink. Blink.

They squinted at Mistheart's mouth, only picking out a few keywords that told the warrior what they needed to know. Poppy seeds and cobwebs. That was their mission today. Not too hard, herb patrols were.. pretty fun. Not as fun as hunting but not as boring as border patrol, a nice balance. However.

There was always one way to spice it up. Especially with Asterdance.

Competition.

How could they resist?

A playful smirk swiftly came across their face, "Ah... I don't know, I'm pretty tired... maybe we can take it chill, you know?" Asterdance suggested, pure mischief twinkling in their amber eyes. Suddenly, they jerked their head to look behind Mistheart. "WOAH! Dude, DUDE!! What IS that?" They exclaimed in shock, but they didn't bother to stick around.

The moment the statement left their mouth, Asterdance scrambled to pick up a good ol' stick. Efficient. Throwing their head back, they looked to their patrolmate. A wild grin was now being shown, "You're ON! Loser catches the other their favorite prey! SEE YA!" They yipped in excitement, sprinting off to go search. They. Were. So. Going. To. WIN.

[Softspoken]

(Open)

A small she-cat sat quietly among the flowers, shuffling her paws against the grass tickling her underbelly. She adored being out here and was usually alone on her small trips to her favorite spot.

Blushface's eyes followed a bird flying overhead, folded ears twitching with delight.

``I could stay here all day..``

[Jayvines]

~ Mistheart ~

For half a heartbeat Mistheart was worried that Asterdance would turn down her offer(it wouldn't have been the first time a patrolmate merely wished to get things over and done with so they could head back to camp), but the spark of mischief in their gaze kept her own crooked grin widening on her muzzle. However, the sudden shocked shout to look behind her had the small grey molly whirling around, fur fluffing up as she startled while her competitor dashed off with a whoop of challenge.

Oh, it was on.

"H-hey, no fair!" she trilled, skittering off into the undergrowth on the other side of the cove while she attempted to calm her prickled fur as she scanned the darker crevices shaded from the sun. Asterdance was gonna end up hunting down a songbird for her as long as luck stayed in her favor.

Aha!

A shimmering wisp of gossamer glinted from a fallen log and Mistheart scampered over to roll up the cobweb onto her stick before peering further into the shadowy interior. Score! Three more glimmering groupings of sticky web were strung up along the musty smelling interior. Wiggling her way in, the small grey molly quickly collected each sticky prize before crawling out the other side (and thoroughly ignoring the bits of dirt and foliage stuck to her pelt after her squeeze through the small, crumbly space). Now onto flowers!

White paws skittered further off into the foliage before a bright red something caught her eye. Pushing past a low fern, a pleased grin spread over Mistheart's muzzle as a flower seeeeeeeeming to match Sundust's description came into view. With a quick nip and a tug, she plucked the stem from the ground before trotting back towards the cove clearing thoroughly pleased with herself.

Asterdance couldn't possibly beat her finds!

[ @x ghostie So sorry for the delay! I got us an extension to the 23rd I've just rolled a D20 (got a 15 for webs and 10 for poppies) to determine this. If you wanna also roll to see if you beat Mist's collection ]