the apple tree

[meraki]

The sound of leaves crunching beneath paws makes a very distinct sound. A sort of crisp, soft sound that would be considered hard to replicate if there weren’t so many paws belonging to all sorts of animals, and all sorts of crunchy leaves to stomp on with the said paws. The chocolate brown pelt of the young tomcat flashed through the brambles as he bounced from one leaf pile to the next, the dead things creating the specific crunching sound that Applepaw found amusing. To any passerby, he would likely have looked like an average, overly playful cat. But to anyone who knew Applepaw well, they would know that this was not a good sign. The tomcat suffered from a bipolar disorder; and he was in the middle of a sort of manic phase. It had been days since it’s start, and with no end in sight; it was like walking on thin ice when around him. Nevertheless, Applepaw didn’t completely hate this phase. He felt light. Like air. He could float for hours on his own little cloud, and Applepaw liked his cloud.

The Havana Brown tomcat looked up, his dark eyes falling upon the familiar apple tree. He smiled to himself, and breathed in the crisp air. It was growing cold, leaf-bare was almost completely upon them. Applepaw has little sense of direction, and wasn’t aware in the slightest that his special apple tree resided outside of his clan. The only thing he knew was how to get to his special hiding spot. The thin tom padded over to the trunk of his special tree, and sat beneath its branches. The tree no longer had any apples; only in early fall did the red fruit grow. The leaves had all fallen and only the tree’s skeleton remained; its long arms reaching out into the sky, grasping the clouds with its fingerlike branches. Applepaw stared up at the sky, seeing not a cloud. The sky itself was almost white and startlingly bringht. One big cloud, he thought to himself. I bet that’s where starclan lives.
@Peachy