- 𝖥𝖠𝖶𝖭𝖯𝖠𝖶 ═══ ☘ [molly. 11 moons. apprentice. location camp crush n/a ]
after waking from a nightmare, she retreats to her corner of camp and considers what to do
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Fawnpaw was curled tight in the apprentice's den, her fluffy tail wrapped around her brown nose. She tended not to sleep too long, resting more than a few hours brought the vivid dreams. However, tonight, due to exhaustion and anxiety of recent events, Fawnpaw had been resting deeper than usual in the apprentice's den. And so, the young molly was trapped deep within the depths of a nightmare.
The fog was thick again. It swelled around her paws, curled, clinging in the air close to her face. It dampened her fur, hung heavy on her whiskers, whiskers that trembled as she looked around. She couldn't hear, every faint whisper around her was drowned out by a sharp, high-pitched ringing.
Fawnpaw pressed closer against the ground of the familiar, warped clearing she was in. She knew this place. The dens were blurry, looming silhouettes, and the cats drifted around her to and from the mist like ghosts. No one looked at her. No one saw her. Fawnpaw curled her tail around her leg, dropping low and pressing against the walls of the ghost camp. She knows what's coming.
She hears it first, a choked sob. And then the cat wails, a keening, raw caterwaul that makes Fawnpaw's blood run cold. She turned, ears angled to catch the other sound. Wet, soft, crumbling, cracking. No one else moves, the ghostly cat figures keep moving, unfazed, as if nothing is happening. The wailing continues.
Then the river. It floods in, sudden and deafening. The crushing ringing, is it her blood rushing in her ears or the water crashing? It rushes past her paws, pulls at her fur. The fog hangs close to the river, like the herald of chaos. The river drags her, and she digs her claws helplessly in, heart fluttering like a caged bird.
She hears the sounds, stone on stone, bone on stone. The wet slap of a something heavy. A body, maybe. She can't see it. The fog won't let her. The herald shows her only enough to fear it. Fawnpaw jerks her paws, trying to move, but her paws have sunk too deep in mud and dread. "It’s not your dream. It never was." A voice whispered. It sounds like her own?
She twists, turning frantically to see movement that swept across her vision. A shadow. Not swept away by the roaring current, standing. Watching. Eyes glow. It sees her. Fawnpaw tried to shut her eyes, to not look, but the fog had crept up behind them. She saw only swirling mist-gray, as a voice whispered distantly in her ear, "You walk on borrowed ground."
Fawnpaw gasped softly, jerking awake. Her eyes were wide and unfocused, and she blinked rapidly. She trembled as though the nightmare had not truly left her. Fear clung to her like a tight knot in her chest. Her tail fluffed, she tried to breathe slowly and ground herself in reality, but the air seemed too thick. Her nest was in a curve in the hollow log, where she felt like she could be small enough to not be seen. The texture of the bark, rough but familiar, grounds her.
The sounds in the den, shuffling of paws, rustling of bedding, and the mews of others. She looked up with confused blinks, seeing cats awake and standing around Snakepaw. Had she slept through something? Her ears lay flatter against her head as she stood on shaky paws, still trembling. She eyes Firefly, a brief anxiety bubbling from her unfamiliar scent. Fawnpaw then gave her chest a few good licks to try to calm herself, ears swiveling as she looked up and saw Snakepaw burst in with comeback to Kyanitepaw. The outburst caused a soft trill of amusement from Fawnpaw. The dream still lingered in her mind, but she focused on the warmth of the moment.
After a pause, she decided to leave and get some fresh air. Fawnpaw walked along the side of the den, low to the ground as if she was trying to blend into the shadows. As she stepped past Snakepaw, she gently brushed her tail against her flank. A fleeting gesture, but one that to her meant Thank you without drawing attention to herself. Her paws barely made a sound as she slipped out of the entrance. Fawnpaw's tail tip twitched behind her, betraying the nerves bundled in her chest.
Fawnpaw carefully led herself towards her favorite, unobtrusive spot in camp. It was beneath a ledge near the outer side of camp, half in moonlight and half in shadow. It gives her clear line of sight to the center of camp, but few cats notice her unless they are looking. She notices a small dispute between Bunnyhop and Starlingflight, and settled down in her shade. Fawnpaw set her chin on her paws, noticing that same awkward smile he always gave. The one that seemed more for others than for himself. It floated for a moment and fell, like a leaf caught by the wind in the canyon- beautiful, but weightless.
Her ears swivel as she listens for other quiet discussions from other cats, eyes flitting over the nursery. Should I gather some fresh moss for everyone? I wonder if there's something I could do. Fawnpaw looked over all of the dens carefully, spotting for any damage she could help with. But she was so tired. The weight of the fog in her dream seemed to still have its claws in her lead limbs. She continued observing the camp, instead, careful to look only at the dens and cats and never lingering long enough to notice anything in the dense fog she didn't want to see.
Fawnpaw's tail tucked tighter against herself, and she adjusted to set her paws on its end. She then tucked her paws closer beneath her chest, making herself even smaller, and let her breathing even out. The young molly felt the fog from her dream still heavy on her mind, and her gaze flitted to the rocky cliffs from which the river in her dream had flooded. "It wasn't real," She whispered to herself softly, a near prayer. Something small and sharp curled tight in her chest, but she blinked slowly, as though it might make it disappear. Fawnpaw crouched where the moonlight and the shade met. Watching the clan life unfold, her heart still thudding from a dream she didn't want to remember.
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[mentions kyanitepaw, snakepaw, firefly, bunnyhop, starlingflight ]
