some r&r time [rosepaw]

Batsong had some free time and seeing her good friend nearby she smiled happily and went over to her to spend time with her.

She ran over to Rosepaw and playfully pawed gently at her in greeting and nuzzled at her friends shoulder in happy to have her back and around.

"Do you want to spend some time together?" she asked Rose. She wasnt sure what they would do but maybe rose would have ideas and maybe just having time together in general would be okay too

Rosepaw was almost asleep on her paws, after travelling overnight to the moonstone with Sparrowthorn, and startled when Batsong ran up to her. "You surprised me!" she grinned, pawing back at Batsong in friendliness and returning her nuzzle.

"It's good to see you," she purred. Batsong had been busy in her den a lot and Rosepaw hadn't seen her in a little while. The last time she had been standing beside Batsong, had it been that night...? The panicked yowls and the bitter taste of herbs held between her teeth. She tried not to think about it.

It had been too long since she had spent time with her friend ~ that was what was for sure. "I was just going to lie in the sun~" she hummed, "~or in the shade..." Finally, she laughed a little sleepily, "Maybe half-and-half!"

She felt dead tired. Heavier than the earth. She felt like she could sink right through it. Even the bare ground felt soft... She shook her head with a hard blink of her golden eye, the tufts of her ears and wispy fur shivering with the vigorous shake awake. "If you wanted to do something, I'm happy to," she assured her good friend. The brisk breeze out on the moor, or a task to do, would wake her up. However Batsong felt, she was happy to match with her.

Batsong purred nodding at the idea of resting in the sun and shade.

"Sounds like a good idea. Yes, lets rest and recover some. I would be happy to do that with you" she nodded happily just to be with her friend for along time.

Rosepaw looked tired so Batsong thought this would be good to just have some time togetehr.


Settling in the half sun and half shade she invited her friend to come join as she looked up at the clear sky watching the peaceful clouds overhead

Rosepaw was a little relieved when Batsong agreed to lay down with her, allowing herself to flop onto the warm earth. In the green-leaf season, the sun-baked earth never really cooled down even when the sun wasn't at its peak in the sky. Rosepaw still enjoyed the warmth at this time, used to a cosy life in the houses and distant garden, soaking up the sun on half of her body while her head lay in the dappled shade of the gorse. There would not be much of this before it became unbearably hot again.

Rosepaw gazed up at the peaceful puffy white clouds floating in the clear blue sky, which she had come to imagine as Flutterpetal and their other lost clanmates. In such a happy moment, her chest still tightened. She rolled over to look at her friend, musing thoughtlessly, "Do you ever want to get away from it all, the stress?" ...and just live in peace?

The constant effort to eat, the checking of borders, ever-present threats, grief in the aftermath of war, leadership and a view of the stars Rosepaw just couldn't find faith in, there was much she wished to get away from. Starving in the snow as a kitten had felt simpler, now in the suffocating heat it all felt like too much.

She wished she could just have her beloved WindClan, the sense of home, the vast fields and flowers, Batsong and Whisperear, without the feeling of burden and entrapment that had plagued her since her first moon back. She sighed sleepily, her thoughts buzzing like bugs, so loudly Rosepaw wouldn't be surprised if Batsong could hear it too.

Her friend had her own responsibilities and burdens, so Rosepaw wondered distantly how her friend would take her absent-minded question. Her eye blinked heavily with tiredness, drifting somewhere between conversation and dreaming. When she closed her eye and dreamed of home, was it the warmth of the sun baking the moorland, or the cosiness of a house? The blooming flowers of the fields, unknown to her until recently, or the garden? She did not know ~ it all blurred together, confusing her.

And did she really know any of her loved ones? The same as before, and yet so different from how she had remembered them. The older cats she had grown up respecting many seasons ago had endangered the clans. Her friend had started a war, and Flutterpetal had died, and Sootstorm had attacked an elder, and Whisperear had gotten angry. It made her head spin. What, who, even was WindClan anymore?

She blinked her golden eye open again to regain her bearings, to search Batsong's face for the comfort she still somehow couldn't help but find there.

Batsong purred softly cuddling up close to her friend so happy to have Rosepaw back after the long disappearance of her good friend.

The sun baking them in their cozy part of the camp felt very nice and getting to share it with a lifelong friend... what else could one wish or ask for beyond that? Batsong thought to herself

Batsong purred softly thinking about Rosepaw's question. "yes, perhaps so. Over my life I have learned slowly from my mistakes. I think it is better to be happy than to seek out justice. Better to hold the ones you care about close.

She smiled back happily to her friend as she also was getting tired and rested her head down beside rosepaw's

She gave a little pause just enjoying this time with her friend.
"Rosepaw? Are you asking if you want to go back to where you adventured to when you were away?" she whispered quietly.

She nuzzled her friend gently "I lost you once and every day I missed you so much.
I don't want to have that happen again. Whatever you choose to be your path I want to go with you.
I want to always be by your side if you should want me there."

She gave a stretch and tired yawn.

"If you want to go back to where you were in the cool garden and live there. I ask that I can come with you."

she gave her friend a gentle hug as she closed her eyes also drifting on the borders of sleep and awake.