The future's in your paws. Shape it well.Roleplay in a cat Clan of warriors. Based off the Warriors series by Erin Hunter. Takes place in an AU before the cats in the books existed.
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Subject: darling, everything's on fire (c) Mon 23 Sep 2024 - 14:15
Life in ShadowClan had received so many upsets lately that it felt as if the ground shook beneath her whenever she tried to find stability. Some had been good changes--like Fishpaw joining the Clan, or the new addition of Bubblebeam as a pleasant surprise. However, there had also been... problems. First and foremost of which was Wolfpaw's illness. Hedgepaw tried her hardest to move past the terror she had experienced, and to keep moving forward with her own progress as an apprentice, all the while hoping for her brother's swift recovery. She dwelled on it as little as possible. Images emerged in her dreams, blurry shapes and shrieks and chunks of fur, but she closed her eyes harder to will them away. In the light of the moon when she awoke, everything was okay. Camp was still safe. Everyone else wasn't scary. She still had Mamma, still had Hawkmist, Quillsplash, Fishpaw, Fernpaw, even Bubblebeam, and of course Silverhawk. Big brother Silver. He had always been a figure of stability and peace in her life. He always knew what to do. He would always be there for her.
After returning from a particularly exhausting patrol, Hedgepaw dropped the fresh-kill she'd caught in the pile, and was going to take a piece to eat--but she glanced around before doing so, and became distracted by seeing Silverhawk not far away talking with someone. She could not see the cat's face, but from the fluffy gray tail and the soft paws, she judged that it must have been Bubblebeam. What surprised her though was not their conversation, but the warm smile she saw on her brother's face. Normally that smile was reserved for his family and Hawkmist. He had many smiles--some bigger, some smaller--but she'd never seen him look at anyone else like that. Hedgepaw tilted her head to the side, considering the scene before her. Silverhawk had been one of the cats who knew Bubblebeam as a friend and invited her to ShadowClan, so it made sense that he would smile at her like that. Still, she couldn't deny the mixture of curiosity and longing swirling up inside her. What made the two of them such good friends? And... was it really a friendship, or something stronger? She didn't know much about the mate kind of love, having not seen much of it through first-paw experience, but she had occasionally wondered whether Silverhawk would ever find himself a mate. He seemed so content to simply give different smiles to most Clanmates, other than his family and Hawkmist (who might as well have been an honorary family member). Did he really see Bubblebeam as a friend? Somewhere in the back of her mind, she felt a sudden desire that was difficult to deny. If Silverhawk did choose a nice she-cat, then that would mean Hedgepaw would have an older sister. She wanted all the cats she loved to be close and bonded in ways that could not be severed. She wanted them all to be as close to her as she was to them. So... the idea of Bubblebeam officially being a member of the family seemed suddenly very appealing indeed.
Regardless of all the strange cavalcade of thoughts, though, mostly Hedgepaw just loved her brother. It seemed like as good a time as any to spend some time with one of her favorite cats in the whole entire world. So after Bubblebeam walked away, the small apprentice approached Silverhawk. She moved with stealth, as had become their custom, and gently batted at his tail from behind to signal her presence. When he turned around, she offered a wide, genuine smile. She loved her big brother. "Hey, Silver!" she chirped warmly. "What's up? What were you talking about?"
Subject: Re: darling, everything's on fire (c) Tue 24 Sep 2024 - 5:30
SILVERHAWK
The darker the weather...
Bubblebeam was a miracle. Did she even have to put any effort into the endeavor of lifting Silverhawk’s spirits? No, surely she didn’t. She merely needed to exist in his presence and his heart was buoyed. Silverhawk hadn’t felt right for several days, verging on a week or more, he’d stopped counting the time. He refused to let go of his fury regarding his demotion, and now the alarm of the situation with Wolfpaw which, similarly, would not leave his mind… All together, it was almost too much for him to bear. Not that he was inclined to detail his stress to anyone, even if it was evident in the slippage of his usually regulated composure (which only added to his constant aggravation). But when he had a moment to sit and talk with Bubblebeam… his concerns were nearly forgotten. Silverhawk was not capable of putting either of the largest stressors from his mind entirely, but he could push them far enough away to- to smile. He wasn’t sure how often he smiled these days. It was always easier with her.
As furious as he was with Leopardstar’s ruling, he was glad she’d had enough sense to let Bubblebeam into the Clan. Stars, he was grateful to have her now, have her somewhere he never had to let go.
Eventually, Bubblebeam had to go, called off for a final patrol of the night. Silverhawk nodded and waved his tail farewell, watching over his shoulder as she went. He would have wilted after she’d gone, turned sour by the absence of any comforting presence, but no sooner than Bubblebeam had made it out of camp was there the sensation of small paws swiping at the end of his tail.
There were two cats who would greet him like that: Nettleweaver, perhaps, if he was feeling brave, and far more likely, Hedgepaw. Silverhawk did not need to turn around to know which it was. He would know his family anywhere, in any way. His smile, which had started to fall, was rising again when he did turn around to blink down at his sister. ”Hedge,” he greeted softly, voice warm with affection. There was a moment, looking down at her, where he was gripped with fear: was she hurt in any way? Was she safe? In distress? Did she need him? But then Silverhawk took in the roundness of her eyes, the height of her upturned mawline, and he relaxed.
At ease, Silverhawk let his smile grow a little wider. He turned around to face Hedgepaw fully and reached out to place a paw atop her head, gently ruffling the fur there. What were they talking about? What an odd question. It made Silverhawk’s whiskers twitch. Maybe it was with amusement; maybe it wasn’t. Even he wasn’t really sure. ”Nothing important,” Silverhawk answered with a light chuckle. And that was the truth. All they spoke of was how Bubblebeam was settling, their individual schedules for the rest of the night--when they’d see each other again. Silverhawk had promised to wait for her. Why did he feel defensively about sharing that with Hedge, of all cats? He blinked and settled on adding, ”Just schedules.” Then a wrinkle, this a sign of proper amusement, appeared in the bridge of his muzzle. ”Why?” Silverhawk hummed, light and teasing as he leaned down to be closer to eye level with Hedgepaw. ”When did you get to be the nosy sort, hm?”
Subject: Re: darling, everything's on fire (c) Fri 27 Sep 2024 - 10:19
Any jealousy that Hedgepaw could have mustered at seeing Silverhawk smiling at someone else had little chance to even grow, given that it vanished without a trace when he grinned that way at her. Her big brother was still her big brother. Getting any time with him, any of the positive attention he was so good at giving, was more than enough. Her own smile only grew. The heavy presence of a paw upon her head took her back to the days when she'd been a kit. How had it been she had grown so little since then? His paw was still nearly the size of her head... nearly. Still, she rubbed into the gesture, feeling a deep purr rumble out of her chest in satisfaction. "Just schedules? Got it." She understood. When she was talking with cats she liked, it didn't matter what they were talking about--she would still enjoy it.
Asking about what he had been doing was nosy? Hedgepaw let out a good-natured huff, flicking one of her small ears in response, though her smile did not waver. "Is it so weird that I want to know what my brother's up to?" she asked innocently. "Especially when he's talking to the newest cat in the Clan." Her tail waved slightly behind her, a sign of her enjoyment of the conversation. Green eyes met their strikingly similar counterparts, glittering with a certain mischievous roguishness she'd borne even since kithood. "Don't worry, though, I don't mind. Bubblebeam seems nice! I'd never met anyone from SkyClan before. She told me that they climb trees over there. She said maybe she'd teach me. I bet she'd teach you, too, if you wanted." A small white paw batted at Silverhawk's large gray forepaw. Nonchalant, as if it didn't matter, she moved into the next point of her conversation--the question that had seized hold of her the moment she saw that smile. "You two are... friends, right? Just friends?" Of course, it didn't really matter, all things considered. It wouldn't change how she felt about either her big brother or her new-friend-possible-sister-substitute. But... she wanted Silverhawk to be happy. If love made cats happy, then didn't it stand to reason that she wanted him to find that happiness, whether it be with Bubblebeam or someone else?
