evening flowers [c]

"Did you find the ones you wanted?"

Thalia's voice was curious and encouraging. She had noticed that Batswarm kept his distance from hunting and fighting (she thought that most of ShadowClan had noticed that by now; most of them had lived with the tom since he was a kit, after all), but he had taken an interest in her flowers. And if he was interested in making one for himself, she certainly wasn't going to stop him.

After all, she still fought rarely and knew herself to be an awful hunter. Oh, somewhat better ever since she'd been trapped at the farm with little more to do than reminisce and chase mice, but still pretty terrible.

"These." He hadn't bothered to to pick them, but his fluffy, diluted calico tail swished delicately beside them: daffodils. White ones with pale orange -almost pink- centers.

He had grown to admire their brilliance as new-leaf grew stronger. Though paired with his own beauty, they were outclassed. It was a shame, but they would only add the slightest bit of flare to his gorgeously pale mottled coat. Far better than wearing a disgusting pelt of another beast.

He looked to Thalia expectantly. Surely she wouldn't make him do this himself?

Thalia looked over the flowers: daffodils, a good choice. They were beautiful, though she thought all flowers were. She tended to mix different kinds together, create a new kind of beauty that couldn't be found without making it herself, but picturing a crown of daffodils for the cat before her... It seemed like a good choice.

For a moment, Thalia simply stared back at him.

And then she realized what he wanted.

She swallowed a sigh, as well as her newfound suspicions as to why Batswam avoided patrols, and gathered up the flowers to carry with her own.

"There's a place close by that's peaceful enough to make them, so we don't have to carry these all the way back to camp like this."

Most of their territory was wet and muddy marshes, true, but they had the hidden outcropping and the pine grove and some places that were mostly dry; most of them not too far from their borders with the other Clans.

Batswarm nodded once Thalia had gathered up the needed supplies, glad that he wasn't the one who had to pluck them from the dirt. A place close by... Pine Grove was the only one that came to mind, leading the way without ever asking if that's the place she had meant. Besides, those idle monsters held clear, shiny objects that let him view his reflection perfectly; something needed for when the flower crown was done.

Carefully choosing a spot in the Grove, he sat down expectantly, as if he were expecting the crown to have magically been crafted before they even got there.