[☯] — vanillacloud & brightfinch | rise #660 & #661

[aergia]

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• •
stormserpent
VanillaCloud
female
20 moons
LotusClan
warrior
• •

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• •
aergia
Brightfinch
female
20 moons
OceanClan
warrior
• •

ｔｗｏ
ｓｉｄｅs
──────────
ｓａｍｅ
ｃｏｉｎ

[StormSerpent]

VanillaCloud [ 113 / 500 ]

~ • ~ • ~

Three cats stood precariously by a cliff edge with a large crevasse down the path. Two of the cats were almost identical in appearance, both calico’s, and sat closely. The last was much smaller, a brown-and-white tom, who was on the other side and bracing himself as far from the edge as possible.

“Bet you won’t” the chocolate calico called out.

“Brightpaw! He doesn’t have to if he doesn’t want to.” Her near twin responded. “It’s okay Sparrowpaw, we’ll come back.”

“Don’t be a bird-brain Vanillapaw! You dared him after all” Brightpaw bit back. “Just do it!” she yelled louder.

Vanillapaw looked at her brother in misery, no good would come from this.

[StormSerpent]

[aergia]

Brightfinch [ 116 / 500 ]

With a sudden cry of fury, Sparrowpaw launched himself forwards. His leap was perfect, except for one fatal flaw. On the take off his hind leg twisted and instinct told him to look back to check if it was alright. His front paws hit the other side of the crevasse hard. His back paws did not.

“Sparrowpaw!” the sisters exclaimed in unison, sprinting forwards.

The small apprentice struggled to pull himself up, his short arms barely holding him. Until they weren’t.

From a distance, it would be hardly noticeable; he was so small and the cliff was so large.

The only trace of him left was in memories. Memories that Brightpaw and Vanillapaw would die with.

~ • ~ • ~

[aergia]

[StormSerpent]

VanillaCloud [ 385 / 500 ]

VanillaCloud surveyed the area, keeping a keen eye for any surprises or trouble. She didn’t have the same vantage points available to her as she had in her last clan, but LotusClan had served her well over the moons.

They’d taken her in when no-one else had, a sodden muddy wreck of a cat who refused to speak for the first moon of her new life. To this day, VanillaCloud remembered the argument, the fear and guilt that brought her entire world to a halt.

~ • ~ • ~

“We can’t go back” Brightpaw said, looking over the edge. “I can’t even see his body.”

“His body!” Vanillapaw yelled, furious at her sister for ever allowing this to happen. “If you hadn’t forced him to do that stupid dare, none of this would’ve happened in the first place.”

“You’re the one who dared him! It’s not my fault.”

“I can’t even look at you.” She yelled, pacing back and forth, tail flicking.

~ • ~ • ~

It was her worst memory and it was burnt into her skull. She’d told not a soul of this event, none save her and Brightpaw, or whatever her name was now, knew about it. The cats she called her family were clueless about this aspect of her past, she daren’t tell them, deciding she beat herself up about it enough as it was.

~ • ~ • ~

“You can’t look at me? It’s all your fault! It was your idea to do this in the first place!” Brightpaw retorted, shooting a scathing glance at Vanillapaw.

Feeling hollow, Vanillapaw could do nothing as her sister continued to hurdle excuses at her. She collapsed near the edge, not missing the gleam in Brightpaw’s eye as she did so. Her heart ached in a way she hadn’t thought possible, even the death of their mother hurt less. Her siblings were all she had left, as she was about to lose both in one day.

“I can’t live with you.”

“What?”

“You heard me.” Vanillapaw said weakly. “I look at you and I see Sparrowpaw. You’re right about one thing however. I can’t go home.”

As if StarClan was judging them, it began to rain. Mud speckled her coat as she descended from the cliff, never to return again.

[aergia]

Brightfinch [ 382 / 500 ]

Brightfinch felt the ocean breeze twist through her fur, occasional salt spray splashing her face. She grimaced at the sharp stinging but quickly recovered, she ought to know better than to look out over SeaCliff with wind like this.

Staring down over the edge, memories of her past forced their way into her mind. She burnt with hatred as she remembered that fateful day where everything had gone wrong.

~ • ~ • ~

“You’re leaving me?” Brightpaw said, mouth agape as she stood in disbelief. Her sister spoke no more, simply marched down the path. Soon, the only trace of her was left in her footprints in the mud.

Brightpaw was struck but a sudden wave of sadness and lightning began to strike in the distance. She could see out to the ocean from here, a dull grey against the stormy skies. Everything seemed so hopeless. Wanting to return home, she knew all that were left were strangers, strangers who had pitied her since birth. The loss of a mother while kitting was always a tragic occurrence, but it had been what made the three siblings so close.

Rain soaked through her fur and froze her skin. Brightpaw couldn’t feel any of her legs as she made her way down the path which was almost a mudslide by now. Taking a final look back, she glanced to the peaks before turning away for good.

“It wasn’t my fault.” She mumbled under her breath. Rain drowned out more than just her words as she slipped again, landing face first into a fallen branch. Her body trudged on, but she lost a part of herself in the process.

~ • ~ • ~

She walked along the cliff feebly, as if the wind would topple her at any moment. A storm was surely brewing, she ought to head back to camp.

“It wasn’t my fault.” Brightfinch said to nobody in particular. The wind stole her voice as she cried out in frustration. It was a pitiful sound, the sound of a kit without a mother, a sister without a brother.

~ • ~ • ~

The rain grew steadier as she ventured further and further from the mountains. She didn’t know where she was going, but she knew it had to be far, far away. Away from her past, from anything that would haunt her, from her sister.

[aergia]

VanillaCloud total word count [ 113 + 385 ] = [ 498 ]
Brightfinch total word count [ 116 + 382 ] = [ 498 ]