Between talking to Owlheart initially and then to Foxfur... Foxcry was finding that while she didn't want anything to the dreams, that were becoming more consistent regardless of whether she was awake or asleep, was something that she had to face up to.
Yet, even when she opened her mind to the dreams, they were vague. They showed her flashes of a place and the sounds of chaos. She tried to piece together where she was seeing, but it took her well into a moon before the night she realized where she was seeing. The large tree she was seeing in the distance was the Meeting Tree and there was the river running beside it, which marked it as the portion closer to RiverClan camp! It might even be within RiverClan's territory. Jolting awake, her fur ruffled, she took a few moments to calm down. She'd begun sleeping next to Owlheart lately, finding comfort in having him nearby. Looking over to see if she'd woke him, she realized that even if she had to go to the place she'd seen in her dream, she didn't want to go alone. But if Owlheart was true to his word, something she didn't doubt for a moment, then she wouldn't have to.
"Owlheart." She whispered, nudging him a little with her paw. "Owlheart, there's someplace I need to go. Will you go with me?" She asked him quietly. It was as vague a question as her dreams were, but she didn't want to wake any other cat in the process. She waited, trying to stall her growing anxiety. Oh ForestClan, she was really going to go and find out what all of this dream nonsense was all about, wasn't she?
EvilSilverDragon
Posted: Wed Dec 25, 2019 7:21 pm
"mmbm..stupid bird.." Paw kicked out from his left hindquarters as non-celestial dreams drifted. Memories of the great journey long ago, and fragments of various other (mis)adventures. A sense of alert filtered through before all of the sudden he was on his paws, crouched low with ear searching.
That residual anxiety smoothed and leaned over touch his head to hers, "I am with you." Where and why, especially at this time, didn't require answers for action.
When he leaped up, Foxcry was worried that she's disturbed him terribly. Her ears flicked back, but then he was pressing his head to hers and she uttered a soft, "Let's go." before she turned away from him and padded quickly out of the den.
She didn't stop to glance if any cats were awake or giving her odd looks. She didn't stop to see if Owlheart was following her either, or thought to slow down. He was with her, he'd said it himself. Now, she just had to get through this next part on her own. She headed towards the Meeting Tree, keeping alongside of the river. She would have to cross it eventually, but until she absolutely had to, she preferred to keep warm, especially while leaf-bare was still present.
Her paws felt light, her ears alert. Kept awake with her anxious energy, when it was finally time to cross the river, she plunged in. The water had begun to melt as it got warmer, but not warm enough to make the water at all pleasant to be in. Foxcry wasn't a fan of the water and refused to fish unless absolutely necessary. However, she swam across with relative ease, if a bit more kicking and sputtering than needed. When she got to the other side, she took the time to run her tongue through her fur and over her paws to work the feeling back into them.
Then, she set off again, pressing forward until she could spy the Meeting Tree in the distance. From there it was more of a guessing game, wandering around until... well she hoped until she would remember something.
It would seem luck, if you could call it that, was in her favor tonight. As she rounded a corner into a small clearing, she began to bristle. She scented the air, searching for a threat, but she couldn't catch wind of anything. Blinking as she stared around the clearing, lit only by the moon above, casting things into silvers and shadow. But... she knew this place. She closed her eyes and thought of her dreams. Of the sound of chaos and fighting... She brought the flashes of action to her mind, sat down and tried to remember.
She was nestled next to her mother, her throat sore and she felt tired so much these days. Her brothers joked and teased her, saying that she had been born tired, but her mother would scold them. "Sunny was born this way, you mustn't speak ill of her for what she can't help." Her mother would say. Yet, Sunny's mood was a happy one. She enjoyed laying limply by her mother's side as she watched her brothers play together.
She liked it when her mother would talk about their father, a warrior, she called him. Brave and compassionate, her mother was in the forest to try to locate their father. It was a slow process, but they would find him, she was certain.
Her brothers were impatient. Sunny woke up one night to the sound of them whispering one night about how they were going to find their brother. She had asked if she could come along, but they hushed her and told her they were only pretending and to go back to sleep. She did and when she and her mother woke the next day, her brothers were gone.
Her mother was frantic and set out to look for them, carrying her sickly kit along. They traveled faster, hunting less in favor of trying to find her brothers. The hard way of traveling, though much of the time she was being carried, was taking its toll on the kit. One day, when her mother finally stopped to rest near a river, she'd heard the terrible cry of a young cat. Her mother picked Sunny up and raced to the sound.
It was there that they spotted her two brothers and the beast they were being attacked by. A mangy reddish-orange beast, with a long muzzle and snapping teeth. One of her brothers was hanging limp from its jaws, the other cowering in fear, when her mother arrived. Her mother dropped her and lunged at the fox with a fierce cry. From there, all was chaos and broken pieces.
Her brother's body falling from the fox's mouth. Her mother shouting at her kits to run. Her mother's body falling to the ground from the fox's mouth. Her remaining brother had disappeared. Sunny felt jaws closing around her neck, but she hadn't been killed. The smell of milk and blood. The color orange. Darkness.
From there, it was hazy, likely a result of her sickness growing into a fever, Foxcry thought numbly. She remembered the sensation that she had to find... something. And that she wanted her mother. She couldn't remember more than that. But... she'd had a family before the fox. A feline family, with brothers and a mother and somewhere, a father. But not anymore. Her mind felt clouded and confusion and despair seeped into her fur faster than the icy water had from the river.
Emotion bubbling up, she tipped her head back an let out an awful wail, before she collapsed into the snow and wept. Foxfur had said she ought to embrace her memories, but now she wished that she had done more to push back against them. She didn't want to remember that she had a family, a nice family, only to lose them to a fox... Everything was so upside down now!
Chest heaving, she fought for some reprieve of pain through her, but she couldn't hold back the pain in her heart, that she'd been suppressing for so long. She had thought the vixen had raised her single-pawed. Foxcry hadn't even considered that she'd been stolen her Fox Mother. Why the creature had spared her life was a mystery. She remembered her past, but that brought forth more questions and now that the dams were open, they weren't going to be closing any time soon or give her a reprieve to think on any of her memories logically. At least, in this time of hardship, she had thought to bring a friend...
"O-Owlheart?" Her voice sounded so raw. Her throat was sore. "I-I remember. I remember everything. About... about my family." She managed, before she buried her muzzle in her fore paws again.
EvilSilverDragon
Posted: Fri Dec 27, 2019 5:20 pm
This was her journey, Owlheart just followed behind. No questions, just a few steps behind. With ears perked, eyes searching for danger, He looked out for trouble as she went where she needed to go.
Landmarks stand out, familiar scents drift around them as the the Meeting Tree came into view. Even a place of peace received steady vigilance
There was not a moment hesitation following her right through the icy river. Riverclan born and bred, a little icy water would never deter or slow his pace. Ease of a practiced swimmer kept him going. Not exactly comfortable, but a life time of stories about the River made it as much a real. safe place as the camp itself.
Once out, the tom cat had enough sense to back away from Foxcry as he shook the water back where it belonged. Not dry enough to be comforting, he stayed the instinct to nuzzle against her. This time wouldn't warm just make her colder. Leafbare is a miserable season.
Never questioning, his paws followed her without hesitation. The occaional rub against plans along their path only there to serve as a guide back. If they needed one and not because he wasn't watching where his paws were going once. Nope, completely intentional from start to wherever finish was.
From one shadow made by moon and tree, to the strong scent of 'wrong'. Ears flattening, he approached from her left lower to the ground looking for threats. There wasn't anything he could see, other then her reaction. That was enough.
Watching her suffer, it hurt so deeply that it felt like his own pain. Oh Forestclan, he wished it was, wished he could take it all from her. She'd suffered her whole life and their clan had failed her. Owlheart couldn't fail her too.
Curling around her, he nuzzled her and purred deeply. Rumbling, he tried everything in his paws to try and sooth her. Lamely, he could only say "I am here, Foxcry, take as long as you need." He could watch for dangers while she dealt with whatever painful memories she'd found.
Foxcry's sides heaved as she wrestled to get herself under better control, but she couldn't find it in her to stop the flood of emotion that came bursting out of her. She wept until her sobs turned to breathy shudders and then finally she finally fell silent.
Her insides and out both felt so raw and vulnerable. She pressed herself closer to Owlheart. She wished she was back in RiverClan camp, where she would walk across the camp to Stonebelly's den to ask for some honey for her throat or poppy seeds to promise her a dreamless sleep. But she wasn't in the camp, she was here, in this place of despair.
"My-" She rasped and then stopped to cough, hoping to clear her throat. "My mother wasn't the fox. She was a cat." Even her voice seemed to tremble. "I had brothers that wandered here, where they met the fox. My mother died trying to save us all, but I was sick, so I couldn't run. My fox mother picked me up and stole me away, while my family died in its wake." She blinked and gulped down any more crying that would've surfaced from telling Owlheart the truth of things. "Why should I have to remember something so horrible, when I was just settling in at RiverClan?" She turned her gaze to Owlheart. "And how am I going to admit that I was wrong about so much, to anyone at home?"
EvilSilverDragon
Posted: Sun Jan 26, 2020 12:50 pm
Rabbitleap should be here, she was so much better at comforting others. So Owlheart did the only thing he could do, just exist and keep watch. His heart ached for her, the pain she clearly felt was tactile. An enemy he could fight. Memories could not be fought just lived through.
Soon, she started to speak of her traumas. So she was sick before she was found? Talk about a warrior to be that young, that sick and still manage to walk as far as she did.
Grooming the top of her head. he tried his best to help soothe some of the torture shes enduring. "Someone must have thought you needed to remember." Glancing up at the sky pelt, it seemed like something they would do. Starclan maybe.
Admit? "You don't need to, Foxcry, just live your life. Through your actions everyone will understand." It was never too late to rebuild bonds,.
