Nodding to Woollyfeather, Blackhawk turned toward the tombs, StarClan... It was the paradise of bones, rotten flesh and the scent of the death...It would be a hard task... But he haven't chosen this task for nothing... He was ready, ready to dig and maybe even found horrors in the dirt.. But he was ready, approaching a grave, he started to dig...
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"I am ash... I am embers... My flames once danced bright. My flames now fade... But it returns from the depths... The fire devours me whole... It's the birth of something greater..."
-Inferno, the revengful-
Last edited by Red Dawn; July 12th, 2023 at 01:38 AM.
With a flick of his tail, the Enforcer looked at his little group of helpers and let out a soft sigh. Still disappointed in the lack of participation, he'd simply have to make due with everyone present. "We have about 10 graves to attend to, some might require a partner," he glanced over towards one that was completely dug up, the corpse would need two cats if they wanted to keep it mostly together. "Just give me a call if you need assistance, I'm going to start with the far grave," the tom spoke, dipping his head a little and turning to head to his work.
It wasn't long before the tom was digging. His claws were going to ache after this, but it had to be done. He'd dig it deep enough to push the scattered remains back into its rightful place. This one was fairly decomposed, nothing but bones which made it easier to deal with than the newer graves.
Nodding to Hawkbite, he approached a grave, it was stinking here, but he had seen and smelled worse than that, he started to dig the grave...
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"I am ash... I am embers... My flames once danced bright. My flames now fade... But it returns from the depths... The fire devours me whole... It's the birth of something greater..."
Darkfall had heard Woollyfeather’s call but had been in the process of cleaning some of his wounds from the battle against ThunderClan. He couldn’t really reach the problem ones on his face, so he ended up leaving those alone despite his severe discomfort. Also… he wasn’t really sure if he even wanted to go to the grove at all, he had a considerable amount of negative memories attached to the place and as a result made it a habit to avoid it whenever he could. After seeing the decent-sized group of cats that left to help, he decided he’d give it some thought.
After he finished the regular cleaning of his wounds as he had been previously instructed, and giving the idea some thought, Darkfall rose to his paws and limped out into the territory after the group that had left earlier.
As he approached the resting place of the clan’s deceased, the stench of rotten flesh hit his nose, causing him to gag a bit. ’Alright Darkfall, get yourself together. This much is nothing.’ He thought to himself. Truth be told, the smell wasn’t the problem he found himself having as he carefully followed the scent of the group that had left before him. The real issue was that the majority of his family was buried here, or would eventually receive a marker denoting that they were deceased. The reminder was painful and he found himself struggling to focus on the task in front of him, the pace of his breathing rapidly increasing. Closing his eyes, he mumbled some short affirmations to himself before proceeding forward.
Having composed mostly composed himself, he eventually found Woollyfeather. He remembered one of his first interactions with her being during a patrol as an apprentice where he was unfortunately not the nicest/ Approaching her, he offered a queasy half smile ”Hello there Woollyfeather, I apologize for being late. Is there anything I can do to help out?” he asked.
Woollyfeather took a moment to watch the others get started on restoration, noting where everyone else had taken up their own tasks before trotting away to find something to do.
The lilac-point gets around to clearing away a pile of sticks when a voice, not one of the ones that initially offered to help, caught her attention.
Blinking, she turned to face the warrior— Darkfall, her mind reminded her. "Ah, yes! More paws are always appreciated! I sent more cats to restore graves, so if you could help with general cleaning would be great!"
She paused a moment, giving the tom's injuries a once over. "While it's not mandatory to work with a partner, if you'd rather not work alone, I wouldn't mind working with you. There are a few things I could benefit from having some extra muscle behind."
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[All prompts are optional!]
Lead, Hawkbite — @SuspiciousMindz (Beneath a pile of sticks resides an ugly surprise...)
~~~~ Dawnstar — @Undertaker (The wind blowing through the trees sounds an awful lot like howling...)
-- Blackhawk — @WhiteDawn (An odd smell hangs in the air. Is it just the area... Or something else?)
-- Larkfire — @Rose (You're digging a hole, when suddenly the soil shifts and you fall in!)
-- Salamanderskull — @Zei (Oops! You trip and find yourself falling into a bush!)
-- Deadfeather — @RandomAckermann (Among some scattered debris, you find a pelt that seems familair....)]
Lead, Woollyfeather — @/Abyssopelagic
~~~~ Shadowlily — @Dirtfur (Eww, rotten prey scraps)
-- Vixensnarl — @Lillian (A bird flies overhead, dropping something small on you! How rude!)
-- Nighthound — @lio (You stumble upon a few surviving flowers! What do you do with them?)
-- Echoshine — @Galaxy_ (Hidden within the hollow of a tree, you find a small pile of pretty pebbles. What do you do with them?)
--
Darkfall — @Darkclaws]
{Next Event Post: July 21st}
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Profile picture drawn by Rani and used with permission
That was one grave down. Hawk nodded with satisfaction before he'd move onto the next. The one besides it wasn't too bad, but there was more debris on it than the last, so the tom was quick to begin digging.
The Enforcer removed a layer of foliage to reveal his worst nightmare: SPIDER!
It was a spider, but not just any old spider. . . it was one of those giant, furry, ones that moved super fast -- humans called them wolf spiders -- and it was bigger than his paws! "BAAAHHHHH" A shriek of terror left the tom's body, harder than any battle yowl he might've produced in the past. It was probably loud enough to echo across the entire forest!
Hawkbite fell backwards and in flailing mass of kicks and screams, attempting to scurry away from the monster. His pelt was littered with dirt and leaves as he rolled back over to run towards Woollyfeather. His friend could save him! "WOOLLY HEEELP"
Just like in any other bad horror movie, the tom was tripping over his paws getting to her and the words about a spider were fumbling out of his mouth. He didn't even notice the chaos he'd started yet.
Hell... His grave was stinking like nothing he had ever smelled, he suddenly sensed something hard in the ground, jeez... The grave was in a bad state... The poor cat that was there had lived a rough time...When he finally managed to dig the hole, he noticed that the dead was half a skeleton, he really wished to have something protecting his face right now... To not help him, Hawkbite screamed, making him jump, for a second he thought that the body would jump on him in rage saying "What are you doing to my grave?", calming himself, he continued to engrave the body until he found soemthing that even smelled worst: A twoleg... Box thing? Filled with rotten food, oh Starclan almighty... He removed the box thingy and finshed to engrave the body...
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"I am ash... I am embers... My flames once danced bright. My flames now fade... But it returns from the depths... The fire devours me whole... It's the birth of something greater..."
Larkfire had taken up her task with silence, not complaining as she continued to dig graves and properly cover the dead. Really, it was a simple task. Digging, burying, that was all to it. So long as she made sure she was careful with it.
However, as Larkfire sifted through graves, she came across one that required more attention than the others. It needed to be emptied more and dug further down, as somehow it'd filled up with soil and yet still.. there was the paws of a dead cat poking out. Grimacing, Lark began working. She tried to ignore the sour feeling spinning in her stomach as she dug. This grave was one of the newer ones, and it was still rotting.
Swallowing down the bile in her throat, Larkfire began digging deeper, trying to make the grave larger so that nothing could dig this cat up again. She continued, dirt coating her paws and soiling her grey pelt, when suddenly... oh stars above, Larkfire heard a loud, panicked howl. That scream had been one of absolute terror, it was no little matter. Her head snapped up, ears immediately swiveling as she tried to prepare for whatever danger was heading their way. Except, Larkfire had misjudged where her footholds out of the grave were... and she slid further down into the loose soil.
The youngest enforcer let out a quiet gasp - okay, maybe it wasn't so quiet - of surprise as she lost her footing, the ground seeming to give way under her as she disappeared over the lip of the hole she was digging. It was deeper than she'd expected, as if the ground had caved here on it's own. The molly twisted, hitting the ground with a hiss as she landed hard on her shoulder. Ah, stars. Ah... That was surely going to bruise later.
Again, another yell from Hawkbite sounded from above, this time something to do with Woollyfeather, and Larkfire scrambled into a crouch, letting out a pained gasp as her left shoulder throbbed with protest. "Ah.." The molly grimaced, and then came face-to-face with the corpse in the grave. A face... that she recognized all too well.
[ Powerplay permission given by @/xavier. ]
Her reaction was instant -- Larkfire gasped breathlessly and recoiled back with such force that she hit the wall. There wasn't much space in here - she'd forgotten that bit - and loose soil came tumbling down on her head. "Bleeding burning skies." The damsel cursed, gagging at the scent of rotting corpse and moist ground. But above all, Larkfire refused to look down at the dappled, very-much-dead turkish angorra that sprawled beside her. Larkfire refused to look at the corpse of her little brother, Daypaw. She hadn't even realized it was his grave. Her brain had been on autopilot, just doing her job.
But now she realized that she'd hit the ground on a protruding, sharp stone, and the jagged, pointed rock was skewered into her shoulder, blood leaking out of the wound and making her entire left front limb almost impossible to move. Embedding into her shoulder, if you will.
...For the love of all things good and holy, she was stuck, unable to climb out without further injuring herself.
Ears straining, Larkfire waited to hear any more chaos from above, her limbs tense with uncertainty. What had Hawkbite been yelling about? Was there a predator? The last thing she wanted to do was draw whatever-the-thing-is's attention to her while she was trapped down here... with Daypaw's corpse... She didn't want her little brother to go through anything more. All she wanted was for him to be given peace, with death.
"Hello?" She called tentatively, biting her tongue and trying not to inhale too much of this rancid air. Oh, skies above, if she didn't die of not being found until it was too late, she'd surely die of suffocating on the gag-worthy scent in the air.
Azure eyes studying the older warrior for a moment, Darkfall nodded. He had noticed that the she-cat’s eyes seemed to wander along his injuries, but decided to pay it no mind. The thought that she may be pitying him did cross his mind for a moment, but maybe she really did need an extra set of paws to help out. Regardless, he was going to use this opportunity to appreciate the consideration. The dark-furred tom wouldn’t admit to this of course, his pride wouldn’t allow him to do so. As a result, he just offered a slight smile - little more than a twitch of his lips and a wiggle of his whiskers to Woollyfeather.
Fighting the urge to scratch at his face, Darkfall then turned and began the task he had seen his partner doing moments before. ”Let me help with these,” he offered warmly while pushing some of the larger sticks out of the way.
Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to concentrate on his task for long because a sudden scream pierced the air. Head swiveling to the direction of the sound, Darkfall went sprinting towards it as fast as he could (though it looked more like he was running a solo three-legged race due to the limp). He didn’t even have time to think, his body moved on its own.
As he went in the direction, he saw a shape bolt past him yelling for ”Woolly” to help. ”What in StarClan’s green forest…?” he wondered as he began to slow down. To be honest, the tom was befuddled. Absolutely perplexe. Was that Hawkbite? What could possibly have him running away in such a manner? Did that scream belong to him too? Proceeding with caution now, Darkfall carefully limped in the direction the new enforcer had come from.
As he walked forward, Darkfall heard a familiar, yet hushed voice calling out. ’Larkfire!’ he thought and once again picked up his pace. The two of them weren’t exactly talking right now, but that didn’t mean he could just leave her! What if the scream was hers? Was she alright?? What was going on??
Limping to the area where he thought he heard the sound, Darkfall glanced around. Where was she? He could’ve sworn that he heard Larkfire’s voice somewhere around here and it was hard to pick up her scent amongst the smell of the rotting dead. His attention was drawn to a hole in the ground with recently upturned earth. Carefully approaching the edge, Darkfall peeked inside. There she was! Bleeding and stuck. [B]”Larky! Are you okay? Wait right there, I'm going to help you out!” He called to her.
[pp permission granted by @/Rose]
Crouching down to in an attempt to lift her out by her scruff, Darkfall started sliding in too. Flailing his paws with an unceremonious exclamation of “Ahhh!”, he fell right into the hole with an “oomf”. Groaning uncomfortably, he began to get up only to realize that what he landed on had a soft and lithe shape to it. Looking down, he realized he had landed right on top of Larkfire and found himself looking right into her amber eyes. Dumbfounded for a moment, he just stared at the she-cat, blinking and gaping stupidly. His heart felt like it’d beat out of his chest and his head was spinning. What was this situation!? ”Umm… Hello there Larky. I’m sorry about this, I definitely didn’t mean to land on you. Is your shoulder okay…? I hope I didn’t make it worse… but uh… actually.y'know what? First I’ll help get you out in a mome-“ the black tom’s rambling was cut short when his gaze was drawn to the corpse next to them.
”Sweet mother in StarClan…” the dark tabby gasped, was that Daypaw? And the smell! The rotting corpse smelled absolutely terrible and was nearly enough to make him gag. Of course… he held it in. If he threw up on Larkfire, he had a feeling that the young enforcer would never forgive him and he would never be able to face her after that. ”Let’s… get you out of here…” he said cautiously, starting to slowly lift himself off of the she-cat. The two of them were right next her brother’s corpse and Darkfall knew all to well how much she cared for the Turkish Angora and if he found himself next to his mother’s or one of his sibling’s bodies, he’d probably have frozen up out of shock.
NIGHTHOUND
huge, dark grey tabby tom with orange eyes and many scars. he/him
Huh. Clean-up crew. Nighthound blinked as his team was assigned, briefly looking down at himself. One would think a tom like him would be on grave restoration, but nonetheless he would complete his task. The massive tom flicked his tail and went off to work.
As he was cleaning, a sweet scent reached his nose. A little more sniffing and he came across a small patch of flowers. Ah, it appears some life managed to survive. Nighthound stared at the flowers for a moment before leaning down, nipping off three stems. Three little flowers for his kits. Nighthound set the flowers aside, putting them somewhere safe before going back to his task.
However, as he did so, a loud yowl reached his ears. Briefly, he recognized the screech and incoherent yelling as Hawkbite, looking up to see the tom running toward Woollyfeather. Huh. He didn't know Hawkbite well, but it was admittedly a little amusing to see the other tom scrambling like a frightened kitten. Nighthound couldn't stifle the small chuckle that escaped him before he returned to his job, cleaning up and being sure to keep the little patch of flowers safe.
Re: Healing The Grove [Moonlit Grove Restoration]
