no snowflakes are the same (solo)

Although it was easy for Ceres to say that she had grown accustomed to living within SkyClan's walls and hunting within their borders, she still felt a sour feeling whisk through her veins whenever she stepped out into the territory and glanced up at the trees that surrounded her. Perhaps it had to do with the fact that she despised feeling small, perhaps she was jealous that she still couldn't climb a tree as quickly as the SkyClan natives could, and perhaps she was still homesick. However, no matter how much of an irrational hatred she had for those trees, the she-cat still found her paws carrying her straight outside of camp and directly into the territory that night. She wasn't the type of cat to enjoy aimless night strolls, but she also enjoyed the feeling of stepping through the snow and hearing it crunch underneath her paw pads. She could barely see the snowflakes as they silently drifted from the clouds to the forest floor and landed on her nose, but in the milky light from the moonlight, she was able to slightly differentiate the flakes as they draped themselves on top of the bushes and branches.

Being alone was the perfect opportunity for her to settle out her thoughts despite the fact that she wasn't one who particularly enjoyed thinking too hard about things. Thoughts of her sister began to linger in her mind as she slipped through the snow and ducked under low-hanging branches. Everyday, although she wouldn't admit it, she missed Mirae more and more. The Clans weren't allowed to attend Gatherings or trespass onto each other's territories, so Ceres had no way to contact her whatsoever. It was a relief that she had been sorted together with Shira, but her circle didn't feel complete without the third sister. There would be a day where they reunited, right? It would happen one day. Ceres paused once her paw brushed against the edge of a rock. The silvery surface of it was being subtly illuminated by the moon, just enough for her to lean down and watch as the stray snowflakes melted a few heartbeats after touching its surface.

She had never had the opportunity to look at them this closely. It fascinated her that every single one of the flakes that landed on the rock looked different from one another. In fact, that probably meant that none of the snowflakes in the forest were the same. It put a smile on her face. The next thought the haunt her mind were the SkyClan cats. Surely their view of the Asylum had changed by now? If Ceres was getting used to living here then she was almost certain that they were used to them living there, too. She and the other Asylum cats were not the villains that the Clan cats wanted them to be. What other group of cats would reach out to help the Clans make it through the Leaf-bare weather out of the graciousness of their hearts? Nobody was expecting the two types of cats to become best friends, because Ceres certainly wasn't interested in getting that close to a SkyClanner, but they had to reach a middle ground and at least respect each other, right? No, that was stupid. She had barely any respect for them. She would watch them mill around camp and talk amongst themselves and simply roll her eyes and head the other way. The best days were when she was able to flee the camp and head back home for a while to talk to the cats that she had grown up with. Those were the cats that she respected. That was her family.

Her smile faded as she gingerly stepped over the rock and continued on her trek. There were plenty of things that the Standard was still interested in. For example, what exactly was Fourtrees? Her involuntary eavesdropping had given her enough information to know that Fourtrees was where the five Clans used to meet every moon to attend Gatherings, but she had never seen it before. She had no interest in seeing a Gathering in action, though. If she couldn't even stand being around the cats of SkyClan, there was absolutely no way that she would be able to deal with the other four Clans, too. At least, if there still were Gatherings, she would still have the opportunity to see Mirae. That wasn't how she wanted to reunite with her sister, though... not in the midst of other Clanners and their strange smells and even stranger names.

Her eyes traveled up the base of one of the trees. If the sun was out, Ceres would've considered climbing one of the trees, but she wasn't about to risk getting injured because of the minimal light. How embarrassing would it be for her if she had to return to a Clan full of tree-climbing weirdos and confess that she broke a limb because she was trying to imitate them? She huffed as she tore her gaze away and started heading back in the direction of camp. Strolling alone wasn't the therapeutic experience that she had thought it would be. In fact, being out here was only consuming her with negativity. That wasn't who she was. She paused to shake off the snowflakes that dappled her multi-colored fur before she stepped back into SkyClan's camp. Now wasn't the time to be immature. She wasn't here because she wanted to be, she was here because she had to be, and she wasn't about to disregard her responsibilities just because she was jealous of trees. It wasn't like she had much else to look forward to, though.

At least the snowflakes were pretty.