go!

[alkaline]

fenneldrop
SHADOWCLAN TERRITORY

"The Icy Heartlands."

She hesitates, then follows her mental path through the pine trees. Over fallen logs and mossy boulders and under deep thickets of thorns, she leads the apprentice (markedly not hers) further into the territory.

"Y'know, I dunno much 'bout you," Fenneldrop begins, starting a small conversation to keep the stillness at bay. Her keen eyes sweep through the shadows, still alert even now for those snakes slithering silently. "D'you have a mom? I might know her. Or a dad, too. Or any siblings? Cousins? The works?" she asks.

Being a creature that slept during the day and woke at the most inconvenient hours, she didn't get to know many of her diurnal clanmates. She often didn't go to gatherings or meetings, unless Dawnstar's yowling woke her up, thankfully. So now she was left with this mystery of the rather skilled Bitternpaw; who the hell was he? He was likable enough to be memorable. She figured she'd want to get to know him better.

@silver.

[silver.]

he/him // 7 moons
41/100

---

Not the direction he expected conversation to turn at all. When the topic of his family is brought up the young cat grows uncomfortably quiet. What was he supposed to say? His dad was a good for nothing deadbeat that ran the moment responsibility reared it's head? Or that all he's ever wanted was to have a mother? He would never admit it. It would make him look weak. But entering the world on such a sour note just seemed... Unfair to him. Sure he wouldn't trade life for anything but if he were dealt a kinder hand perhaps things would have been different for him growing up.

Heaving a sigh he lets his tense shoulders relax. There was nothing wrong with talking about it. He was over it. Definitely over it. Wasn't holding onto anything family related at all... Right.

"I have a brother. His name is Silverpaw. He also resides in Shadowclan." A pause to gather his thoughts, mind lingering on the image of his brother while he does so. What was he up to right now, he wonders? "As for my mother... She died giving birth to us. I never had the chance to meet her. Never met my father, either. Some loner that didn't want us. Or so I assume."

fenneldrop | @alkaline

[alkaline]

fenneldrop
THE ICY HEARTLANDS

Well, she knew no Silverpaw, either. Her mouth twitches to make this remark, but she falls silent as Bitternpaw continues.

She wonders what it would be like to go her whole life without her mother. To never know her, the way the apprentice did his.

Her own mother was dead now, albeit after a mighty seventy-two moon life. It ended on a note of debilitating illness that Fenneldrop had tried her best to cure (knowing only poppy seeds and cobwebs) despite the hopelessness of it all. She had never really accepted that her mother died that way, not peacefully.

Her expression melts into sympathy as she fixes her gaze upon Bitternpaw's pale pelt. "I'm sorry," she murmurs. She hesitates and takes a slow breath before adding, "Maybe your father did want you. It doesn't do well to assume, you know..."

She glances away at the trees. "...or, uh, I guess y'have a right to feel that way, I jus' wanted to look on the bright side..." she trails off sheepishly.

To distract herself from this, she gestures to the scenery before them. "The Icy Heartlands," she introduces to Bitternpaw.

@silver.

[silver.]

he/him // 7 moons
45/100

---

"If he wanted me I would have met him. I think he made his decision by now."

What a pathetic tom his father was. To have left his mother alone, pregnant with his kits, to die out on the territory in search of him. Of course he wasn't born, and had no mother alive to tell him the tale, so he can only assume that what he did was in his own best interest. The fact that no other cat in all of Shadowclan would ever be able to tell him the truth is frustrating but the dead can no longer share their secrets.

He only wishes that he could have spoken to her at least once. Maybe they'll be reunited in Starclan one day. But for now he needs to focus on his training and not what could have been or might be.

"Tell me about this place."

Glancing about at the cobweb adorned trees, he takes note of the ones that have fallen. Just seeing them toppled over has him puffing up a bit in alarm but he says nothing. Only stares wide-eyed at the carnage. What was going on here? Were twolegs encroaching on their space? Dawnstar definitely had to know, right? Maybe he ought to talk to her.

"Has it always looked like... This?"

fenneldrop | @alkaline