✦ Stars Catvent 2022

[faelyn]

↬ catvent day: 3

↬ username & id: faelyn #967122
↬ clan archive: faerie <3

↬ word count: #189 words!
↬ prompt: // featuring eli

and from a weeping willow tree, a little ruined sock adorned a broken branch, one kissed by the billowing winds countless times, it had become like a witch's fingers.
bejeweled with the blooming essence of babbling streams and enchantingly delicate fronds of freckles of gold and jades alike, and so each strand had been draped upon the little ashen sock. one that had been there for seemingly an eternity.

and it was there in front of him.
a reminder of the blossoming rose of hope that had been so eagerly unfurled into his heart. hope to find a soul who cared... who would slip a beautiful gift into the little ruined sock and hush the storm in his heart.

the soul never came.
and so the little ruined sock had remained empty ever since. ashen. alone. like every winter solstice.
but, the prince of the seas lets the sock drape with the strands of gold and jades... but every moon between awake and asleep - a moon dilated with the essence of the aftermost of the year, he checks the little sock.

only to see nothing.
maybe an occasional spider

[LiLi041]

↬ catvent day: three

↬ username & id: LiLi041 925966
↬ clan archive: eNUF

↬ word count: 232 words
↬ prompt: Santa opened her stocking ahead of time, completely on purpose. She opened every other cat's stocking ahead of time too, not that she'd admit it.

She used to be Santa, after all! The real Santa, who presented small gifts to children and opened a candy store filled with delicious and sometimes dangerous candy (in excess- anything is dangerous in excess, after all- even the best, most tasty candy). Now in this world, she's told that some other mysterious Santa was giving out gifts? Ha! She'd never believe that.

So she opened them, one by one. She expected them to be empty, but- huh? she mreowed in confusion. What was this? There was a variety of small gifts in each one, from each of the different cats in the clan. Sparkle had put a cute little rainbow charm in each stocking. Primavera had left a mini-cake in each. Wolf had placed a different colored flower in all the stockings.

Santa's first urge was to dump everything out before putting hers in, so she could be the only Santa giving gifts, but... her heart warmed a little more, the more she pawed through the little gifts.

Alright, she decided. She reached in to her bag of gifts and gently placed a little tiny branch, with the promise of the addition of a little power increase, into each stocking, before hanging them all back up.

[feather ']

↬ catvent day: three

↬ username & id: feather ' +979911
↬ clan archive: the still waters !!

↬ word count: 386 words <3
↬ prompt:

They wouldn't mind if he took one look… right?

because out lay the nineteen stockings, stitched with that special lucent thread only to be seen during winter months, and with all of them braided together to create this… it was impossible to resist.
He presses himself against the pure snow, with his head bowed, he places one paw in front of the other, quietly sauntering towards the stocking… but freezing as a cat glances at him, suspiciously. Pearprickle was watching him,

He manages a quiet laugh, ''Hi Pearprickle! It's so cold outside! Don't you agree?''

Pearprickle grunts softly, offering a nod, but still watching him through those weary eyes.

He couldn't let him know.

He topples into the snow, managing a smile that seemed to ease Pearprickle's suspicions, but not enough. His heart races, and he searches his surroundings, flinging white snow into the air, squinting as it flies everywhere, but mostly at himself. Pearprickle turns away, relaxing.

''Beanpaw, go help Yolknose cook some food.''

–

He flops onto his belly, maybe if he was flat enough he'd get to his stocking, without anyone knowing. He squirms towards the wooden wall, just a few more inches, until he could—

''Are you okay?'' A sharp voice seems to pierce through the air, ''Seriously Beanpaw, I was looking for you,''

He rolls over, eyes wide as he sees who glanced back at him, Ivydrift, that mean teacher. '' Yes, miss? No homework… right?'' He looks up at her hopefully, ''Please?''

Ivydrift frowns, pushing a stocking towards him, ''If you'd consider this work.''

His eyes widened, ''Thank you! I won't forget this!'' Maybe this could make up for your meanness, maybe….

''Just return it back to me when you've finished.'' Ivydrift slowly disappears into the distance, '' You're welcome.''

He runs his paw over the smooth surface of the stocking, there was no way this could be happening, but it was. A cat gave him a stocking! He grasps the stocking in between his teeth, pouring out the items… but no it wasn't a gift… it was work. Billions of dictionaries, to worksheets that had fallen out onto the snow.

There was no way this could be happening. but still, her words echo ring inside his head, ''Return it to me when you've finished.''

He was never going to be done. Never.

[canadianhowl]

↬ catvent day: three

↬ username & id: dascanadiansparkle + 523964
↬ clan archive: galactic skies

↬ word count: 373
↬ prompt: Firestrike wasn’t actually expecting much for him this year. Usually he never got much due to his behavior and tendency to just not want to spend this time of the year with the others. Maybe a sneak peak wouldn’t hurt? Not like there’s be anything in it but maybe there’s a chance this year?

When night fell, Firestrike snuck out of the den and crept his way towards the area the clan stuck all the socks. He sniffed out his sock and there it was… It was even a surprise they kept his in the mix at all but still, he had to keep the goal in mind. Alright.

The tom quickly dumped his sock out and… wait… that’s a lot of stuff. A few shiny trinkets, pretty rocks, a few candies, some bugs, and… what was this? A necklace with this cool red orb attached to it? Wow this was a lot. It was overwhelming that this year the clan decided to spoil him. Firestrike held back his tears before gently putting everything back and the sock back in place. He stalked back into his nest before plopping down on his side.

“Haha I saw where you were going boy. Don’t think you went unnoticed.”

The voice started the younger tom and he scrambled up to turn around just to see his father right there.

“Dad! Hey uh… yeah I guess I did go find out. It’s just, no one ever cares enough to get me a lot of things.” He explained with a defeated sigh.

“Well you did that to yourself. Kid, even so I thought it was time you got your recognition around here. You’ve grown a lot since you were a little kit. Dare I say you’ve made me proud. If you want a hint, I gave you something this year. I think it’s time you deserve the family trinket to pass down to your own little rats.” Dragonfruit explained with a small gruff. Even with their words, they had a smile on their face. “Now sweet dreams kid. You’re on the morning patrol.”

And back down Dragonfruit went right to sleep leaving Firestrike in his thoughts. He did think and he smiled. Alright, maybe this wasn’t too bad.

[sunny-skies]

↬ catvent day: three

↬ username & id: sunny-skies // #888283
↬ clan archive: valleyclan

↬ word count: 166 words
↬ prompt:
ever since the concept of knitted socks filled with little gifts had been introduced to valleyclan, piperbrook had been thoroughly intrigued. and there was hers, hanging only a few feet away from where she stood. even though she had always considered herself a fairly patient cat, her curiosity had begun to build up over the past few days.

it wouldn't hurt if she just took a peek.

piperbrook tentatively peered inside and briefly scanned over the contents of the woven sock. a bundle of tiny pinecones, an assortment of vibrantly-colored flowers, and a small, fleecy plush mouse were the first things to catch her eye.

the first thing that she wanted to do was to tell everyone, eager to shower her clanmates with gratitude. though, even if she wasn't able to enjoy her gifts quite yet, just seeing them was more than enough to make her day. she would be fine with waiting a little longer, and anticipated the day when she could open them again.

[craig?]

↬ catvent day: three

↬ username & id: craig? 629149
↬ clan archive: https://toyhou.se/Almondclans/characters/folder:2689362

↬ word count: n/a
↬ prompt:

[jay.]

↬ catvent day: three

↬ username & id: jay. + 688591
↬ clan archive: the aurora borealis

↬ word count: 567 words
↬ prompt: if anyone was going to look in their stocking early, it would be adderpaw. it wouldn't be out of malice, however, but more just the curiosity of what people got him. he would feel awful for checking later on but would make sure to put everything back neatly and still play up his reaction to what people got him, because to him the items are still incredibly special even if he had already seen them before.

the first gift would be a piece of olivine from his mentor, wolffang. she has a knack for collecting pretty rocks and minerals and adderpaw has always expressed interest in starting a collection of his own, but has never been able to figure out where to start as wolffang refuses to tell anyone where she finds these minerals, nor let them remotely close to the location due to the fact she doesn't want others risking getting hurt just for some rocks. adderpaw has always been fascinated with the olivine and peridots that wolffang has collected over the years, so for this christmas wolffang went out of her way to gift him one so he can start his own collection. this gift means the world to him and he will forever treasure it, especially since it marks the start of his collection.

the next gift, while not of high value, is still extremely sentimental to adderpaw. it's a piece of fabric from his best friend bearpaw. bearpaw lurks around the edges of the twolegs' dens and always managed to nab scraps of fabric from them and refashions them to be accessories for himself. getting a hold of this fabric is hard as it is not always usable. in order to be matching with his best friend bearpaw decided to make a make-shift bandana for adderpaw, so he can also wear it around his neck and have something to bond with his best friend over - fashion.

within the clan it is usually tradition for the clan leader to give out gifts to the clan members in order to show their appreciation and care for them. however, in recent years, badgerstar has strayed away from this tradition, claiming he is "too busy" with his duties to take a moment to be sentimental to his clan mates. to make up for this his daughter, clementinesong, decided to step up and gift people in his place. for adderpaw she picked out some preserved beech tree leaves she had in her collection for him as the vibrant greens on them match his eye colour. clementinesong is a role-model to adderpaw, he appreciates her leader skills and willingness to stand up, so receiving such a gift from her in an honour, especially since she didn't even need to do it in the first place.

there were likely over smaller sentiments within the stocking, probably just general gifts one of the clanmates gave out to everyone, but these three are the ones that stuck out to adderpaw the most. in order to make up for looking early, even though nobody would even know, he'd go out of his way to make sure to gift these three cats in return to show his appreciation. he would also been the items he was given extremely close to him at all time, or make sure they were carefully placed around his nest in order to show them off to his other clanmates.

[ArtMajor]

↬ catvent day: three

↬ username & id: ArtMajor + 639839
↬ clan archive: blep

↬ word count: 416 words
↬ prompt: Each year, as the weather turned cold, Jadewhisper would bring out his collection of wrappings and share them with the clan. Nobody knew who had started the tradition of leaving little gifts in the cloth-wrapped nests, but the entire clan had picked it up. As the nipping winds returned this year, each cat knew that their nests would contain a small pile of gifts, but it was generally accepted to not investigate these little presents until after the first frost.

Falconflight's ear twitched as he stared at the small lump that had appeared in the corner of his nest. He'd been told about the clan's little quirks, of course, Smokestar wouldn't have let him join elsewise, but the temptation to pull the cloth back and just take a little-

He glanced around the den. Most of the clan was out, either patrolling, hunting, or helping Mochaswirl with her recovery. Although that last one was mostly Stainedfeather, the gray tom barely letting his mate out of his sight after the patrol had come back from killing one of the rogues that had led Mochaswirl towards a twoleg trap.

With everyone gone....

Falconflight's gaze zoned in on the lump of gifts again, and he slowly stretched out a white paw, gently hooking his claws on the soft green fabric bundled over the sand where he slept. Taking one last look up at the entrance, Falconflight took a deep breath, and quickly yanked his paw back, letting the fabric follow his claws.

Falconflight lowered his muzzle, and stared wide-eyed at the bright, sparkling rocks, the soft feathers, and the bleached pieces of wood that lay half-buried in the sand. Gently sniffing at them, he couldn't help but smile. Ryeblaze's scent was over the feathers, the tom having been the one to lead Falconflight towards Smokeclan over the deadly Shoreclan. Ryeblaze had listened to plenty of Falconflights tales of the sky gods, and the pure black feather shimmered in the golden light from the den's entrance. Over the bleached wood, Falconflight could scent Cloverleaf, the blind warrior another of his listeners. And over the sparkling rocks, Falconflight paused.

There was no other way to describe their scent, but as starshine. Falconflight purred as he realized Dawnflower had left him the glittering stones, and he gently brushed one paw over them, marveling at the sky blue that glittered with golden flecks. Wherever the sky-blessed she-cat had found them, Falconflight knew he would treasure them for the rest of his life.

[strawberrymwilk]

↬ catvent day: three

↬ username & id: strawberrymwilk + 793492
↬ clan archive: eclipsed night

↬ word count: art
↬ prompt: citlalli has received a bunch of oranges!?

[fleurs]

↬ catvent day: three

↬ username & id: fleurs & 981422
↬ clan archive: The Ruins

↬ word count: 112 words
↬ prompt:
Opening her stocking, Soteria was overcome with joy. The cats of The Ruins had included her in their holiday festivities, each gifting her their own unique item.
A crown made out of briarthorns was at the top of her stocking, small petals decorating the sides ⎯ a gift from Forestflame.
Three golden bells taken from old kittypet collars was in the middle ⎯ gifts from Owlscar.
A shiny pebble crafted from years under the river, ice forming on its surface thanks to the leftover water droplets ⎯ a gift from Snowsparrow.
and a piece of bark with her name engraved by claw was at the very bottom ⎯ a gift from Sedgeburn.