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Post by Solaris on Apr 15, 2023 17:10:20 GMT
Day 8 of Fire Moon 2021 End of the Road
Fire Moon 2021
Day 8 | Greenleaf
Roots returns home from the Moonstone journey and reunites with Crackle, Foxy, and the others.
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Post by Solaris on Apr 15, 2023 17:14:32 GMT
Fire 8, 2021 | chishio Every journey has a beginning, and every journey has an end. That’s what their father always used to say. More than a half-moon had passed since Roots reached the Moonstone, the original destination, the endpoint of a goal they had been itching towards for two moons. And now they were done, and they had seen the stone, bathed in its awe-spiring, overwhelming, and all-powerful glow, and now they were sent to carry bear another task for StarClan. Another journey, another quest… A goal, a new destination. That was when it realized it was only first step of a journey it barely embarked on. It peered into a future marked with countless stones placed at various intervals, and at each stone was another goal. The awareness of now small Roots was compared to the grand scheme of things was both a reassurance and a terrifying notion. But, it now knew that they were part of something bigger! And not only that, it proved Foxy and Crackle wrong! Though, the thought was met with a sad ache in its heart, recalling how far away it was from its home and its family. Roots needed to return. They had traveled almost all-day, after taking a last look at the foreign landscape, of mountainous ranges, of murky and thick forests, monster-roaring thunderpaths, a glade of Fourtrees, and then, their spirits rose when they saw the familiar, rounded bumps of hills dotted with moorland flowers. They padded farther in until they saw the Home Tunnel just over the hill’s peak. They breathed out a sigh of relief, lifting a head up as a wind picked up. The moors were mostly unchanged in the few moons Roots had left. Oh, how it dearly missed the comfort of rolling around in a field of heather flowers or nearly tumbling into a bramble bush before narrowly steering to the side at the last heartbeat or running freely around the flat plains, with only the wind at its side—and how could they forget? The tunnels. The darkness, the coolness, the smallness of the tunnels, and Fieldflight and Sunchaser! How those tunnels felt like secret tunnels only Roots knew the access to. Such were the things that were sorely absent from Roots’s travels. But now, they were here. They had just finished rushing down the hill, moving with an eagerness mixed in with worries of the reactions of their kith and kin. They stepped closer to the invisible boundary that marked the entrance to the Home Tunnel’s territory, but paused before fully entering. As they watched from the border, Crackle and Foxy were sharing a piece of fresh-kill together… “Roots?!” “Um, hey.”  Crackle
They/Them | 39 Moons | Rogue
Crackle bit into the hare they and Foxy had cooperatively hunted down. It was their usual method of hunting hares and rabbits: one cat would wait in one spot, typically surrounding by bushes or rocks with a clear pathway at the front, while the other cat would chase the hare to the first. It was a fine tactic for a humid, finely roasted afternoon, and it yielded successful results! They relished the enticing juiciness of the hare, chewing on the meat, and then letting the taste linger in their mouth for as long as they could. When they swallowed the remaining morsels, and the taste vanished, they found themself in reality again. “That was probably the juiciest hare we’ve ever caught,” said Crackle, licking their lips in contentment. “And I know I say that about almost every other hare, but I swear it’s true this time!”Standing up, they waited until the blood flowed down to shake out their sleepy limbs. They stretched out their legs and yawned. When their eyes reopened, they noticed a cat standing at the boundary of their home. Their fur jumped out at the sight of a familiar face. “Roots?!””Um, hey.” |
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Post by chishio on Apr 15, 2023 23:04:55 GMT
Foxy | She/Her | 37 Moons | Rogue Foxy took a bite out of the rabbit at her and Crackle's paws. It was true, the two of them had done a great job - the classic hunting technique of the moors was useful. Especially for trapping larger prey like the plump rabbit the two of them are eating now. She turned her head to Crackle, ears pricking with their words.
"It was a very good hare." She agreed - and Crackle does say that about every hare. Foxy's lost track of the amount of times her mate's said something of that sort.
It's fun every time.
Still loafed, Foxy turns her head to the new voice approaching them.
Root.
She can't help but feel a little bit hostile when her sibling approaches.
"Hello." She murmurs.
None of them look prepared to talk. Foxy doesn't know what she's supposed to say. She's glad Roots isn't hurt, at least. |
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Post by Solaris on Apr 17, 2023 4:19:13 GMT
Fire 8, 2021 | chishio The words died in its mouth, not that it had any words to begin with… But as its gaze passed from Crackle’s shocked expression to Foxy’s hardened look of an almost-anger, it was aware of just how much explaining it had to do. So many events occurred since Roots left the Tunnel. So many new cats met… Was it even possible to summarize the journey?
“Uh… sorry for disappearing for a few moons… without any word,” Roots started, though their pelt was growing hot as they fumbled over the explanation. There was really no good way to go about it. No way of beating around the bushes, moving around clear-cut answers. They just had to brace the brunt of their inevitable reactions of disbelief.
They breathed in, reminding themself that they now knew a group of cats like them. Cats who heard the prophecy. Maybe cats who could see ghosts? But Roots wasn’t alone.
“I know it’s a lot to take in, but… I was on, uh… A journey! I was on a journey. A journey to find a place. This place was called the Moonstone. And I had a-a… a dream, and in this dream, I saw a cat. Her name was Windstar. She said she was from… WindClan,” it paused, in anticipation for the questions the two cats would probably have. Then it continued. “You know those stories Rooster liked telling? About those clans? They’re real. And the ghosts in the tunnel, they’re real too! I swear on it! Now, Windstar, she was the founder of WindClan, and she appeared in my dream, and she told me a prophecy to find… to find the Moonstone.”
Roots exhaled.
“And I found it. I found the Moonstone.”
Crackle
They/Them | 39 Moons | Rogue
Fire 8, 2021Crackle’s jaws were hung open, still shocked at suddenly seeing Roots appearing out of nowhere. Like a ghost, Crackle thought humorously. Even more incredulous was the straight-up gibberish being spat out of its mouth, raining down like a torrent of senseless words. It was relentless, huh? Barely stopping to catch a breath before going on and on about… what even was the topic?
“Whoa! Slow down, buddy. One sentence at a time,” Crackle said, approaching Roots after shaking off their surprise. The last snippet they caught was about them finding something? A… a… a moonstone? What in the moons was a moonstone? “I haven’t seen you in moons, and now you’re here yammering about ghosts and clan cats? Are you okay? Are you sure you’re not the ghost?”
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