by eagle, » Tue Mar 16, 2021 12:20 am
Username (CS + Site): eagle,
Clans: quickclan, highgarden, evergreen park, eventide
Name of the Clan your cat/group is going to: quickclan
Which cat/group are you trying out for: group 1 - lily of drongos & little macha (drongolily and machapaw/machamare)
How will this cat/group fit into your Clan?:
indentit was a pain like nothing lily of drongos had ever experienced before, let alone imagined in his darkest of dreams. his paws ached from walking through the night in his struggle to put the past behind him, but the abrasions on his pads was nothing like the stabbing pain that seared through his heart. with each step, lily of drongos willed his mind to turn off, even for just a moment, so that he could find peace among the endless longing for what he lost. their names echoed over and over in his head without respite, to the sound of his paws landing heavily against the ground. he had failed them, each and every one of them. little minnow, little oolong, little wing, little jasmine, little bengal... his beloved kits, gone or left behind. tealeaf of ginseng. his moon, his skies, and his stars. his love was gone, taken from him when all he had ever done was promise that he would keep her safe.
indentthe family he had worked so hard to love and care for had been taken from lily of drongos, and he could barely keep his head up, but he continued to strain his neck, pressing forward. and, through it all, he looked back only to find his only remaining daughter when she stopped in her tracks. "little macha?" he prompted her, but she didn't move. instead, she kept her back to him, her eyes straight towards the horizon. "we should keep moving," he said after a long pause, testing to see if she would answer him. part of him wondered if she would start an argument and demand to turn around, but lily of drongos knew his youngest daughter well, and he knew that she would follow him wherever he went.
indent"what if he's following us?" little macha asked instead. "what if he changed his mind and is just a little bit behind us? we should wait for him."
indentthey both knew that it was false hope, and lily of drongos knew that little macha knew this; she was smarter than she had ever been given credit for. "we can't stay out in the open all night," he said. there was no need to utter what they both knew as truth - little oolong would stay in the home that took the lives of their family. "it's not safe," he prompted little macha when she didn't answer him immediately.
indent"where is?" it was a whisper in the wind, so soft that lily of drongos might have missed it another time, when all of little macha's littermates tended to speak over her, even if unintentionally.
indentlily of drongos swallowed thickly around the lump in his throat. he lifted his chin and breathed in the cool, clean air. "there's prey around here somewhere and we should find it," he said. "then we'll need to sleep. we can't keep walking like this without rest." any reservations that little macha might have had went unvoiced when lily of drongos flicked his tail. she followed him without complaint or argument. he felt a pang of grief in his chest, different from the multitude of recent pangs - it was not for the deaths, but for his remaining daughter who would follow him to the ends of the earth, and his desire to do all he could to keep her safe, no matter what.
indentlittle macha slept with her nose tucked tightly under her tail, shielding her from the final rays of sunlight as evening shifted into dusk. she had been napping for most of the afternoon after a long morning patrol and hunting trip with several of the quickclan warriors. she told herself that it was just temporary, just for a little while so that she and her father could recover from their long travels and the flood. little macha told herself not to get comfortable, as they would be moving on any day now.
indentthe sound of voices roused little macha from her nap, and she blinked blearily as shapes moved on the other side of the brambles, from the outside of the apprentices' den. siskinpaw and sunpaw were loud when they argued, and their ginger pelts were bright in the fading sunlight when siskinpaw pounced at her brother. other shapes moved like liquid shadows through the screen as other quickclan apprentices joined in the fray. the smell of the wind and the packed earth of the moorland and fields was pungent in little macha's nose, and she missed the fragrant flowers and sounds of babbling water that she had been born into. quickclan, she decided from the moment they crossed paths with the patrol that took them in, was a strange land.
indent"oh! i didn't realize anyone was here," a voice said from behind little macha, and she recognized violetpaw's scent.
indent"i can go," little macha said quietly, but violetpaw shook her head, gesturing with her tail for little macha to settle again.
indent"no, no, please, i must have been interrupting you," violetpaw said. of all of the apprentices she met, little macha thought that violetpaw seemed the friendliest and kindest. not that the other apprentices weren't nice, but the majority had grown up together and were rarely spotted apart. there were clear distinctions of groups. yet, violetpaw seemed to stand apart from the larger groups of apprentices, and the little tabby sat down when little macha settled again, resting her chin on her paws. "my mentor, vermilionsky, has an issue with how loud i am. he says i scare away the prey because i ask too many questions sometimes, but i can't really help it. how am i supposed to know what to do without asking him?" it was rhetorical question, and little macha didn't offer an answer. she was incredibly tired, and it didn't matter how long she slept. she was always so tired, and violetpaw's voice was soothing. "- sometimes he's joking, i know that. vermilionsky doesn't have a mean bone in his body. but, anyway, he always tells me that i don't give myself enough time to think, and and he would've thought it would be the exact opposite because i was a medicine cat's apprentice and -"
indent"i didn't know that," little macha said quietly, not sure if violetpaw would even make note of the remark. but, to her surprise, violetpaw nodded quietly, cutting herself off from her past statement.
indent"oh yeah, before i came to quickclan, i was training to be quartzclan's medicine cat. obviously it didn't work out that way but... vermilionsky is very patient and a good mentor. i'm learning a lot from him, even if it wasn't what i originally had my heart set on." there was a prolonged beat of silence, during which little macha supposed she must have made an inquiring expression, for violetpaw flicked her ear curiously. "oh, didn't you know that i wasn't from quickclan originally? or, i guess there are a lot of us to keep track of, huh? i was pretty overwhelmed at first, too."
indent"what was it like?" little macha asked when violetpaw had fallen silent again.
indent"quartzclan?" when little macha nodded, violetpaw didn't hesitate to launch into a long story of her old home. her longingness for kin of the lotus, for her family, pierced deep in little macha's chest. she felt herself drift from violetpaw's words until, after a long moment, violetpaw allowed for another brief silence before asking: "what about your old clan?"
indentlittle macha couldn't answer. her words were stuck deep in her throat, clogging in her mouth. violetpaw blinked, her eyes clear with understanding when she recognized little macha's trouble. "right, i'm sorry. i shouldn't have asked, i didn't think..." she trailed off. "do you want to be left alone?" violetpaw asked.
indentlittle macha allowed herself to think about this. quickclan was a large clan, no doubt, but she felt so entirely alone, with her father beginning to pitch in with the hunting patrols and the many strange voices and faces entirely unknown to little macha. but violetpaw had a nice voice, even though she asked a lot of questions and talked faster than little macha could keep up with. she was kind, and entirely present. she reminded little macha of her own littermates, and little macha realized, with a start, that listening to violetpaw made her feel less alone, even for a brief moment.
indent"you don't have to go," little macha answered honestly. violetpaw blinked at her against before offering a gentle smile.
indent"alright," she said. "how about i tell you more about quartzclan? i think you would've liked my old mentor, and -" and so little macha settled in, listening to violetpaw and watching the way her facial expressions moved as she told story after story. finally, little macha felt a moment's worth of peace.
indent"hey, drongolily, don't fall behind!" a voice called out his name, and drongolily turned his head to where duneserpent was standing beside hawkrise. the pair of mates wore beaming grins when drongolily let out an acknowledging grunt.
indent"i'll be there in a minute, i just want to check on machapaw first," he answered. "i'll catch up with you," he added, hearing duneserpent's teasing shout before the rest of the hunting patrol climbed up the ridge, out of the quickclan camp and off into the moorland.
indentit had been some moons since drongolily and machapaw arrived in quickclan. admittedly, it hadn't been an easy process, but, as drongolily approached the apprentices' den and found machapaw sitting beside violetpaw and coalpaw, he felt secure that the decision to leave their former home in search of a new one had been the right choice. quickclan, for all that it wasn't kin of the lotus, was a nice home. drongolily supposed that there would always remain a piece of himself in his former home. he remembered all of the times spent with cloud of embers as they built the clan from nothing; he remembered the faces of his children and the warmth of his mate's fur against his own. he dreamt of walking through the gardens every night, and he woke with the scent of flowers and tealeaf of oolong still in his nose. but, with each passing day, he felt the pull of the moorland. when he first arrived at quickclan, cyanstar had described the feeling of chasing a hare across the moorland, through fields, over gentle rises and through streams. cyanstar said that every true quickclan cat felt the same urge, when the wind would lick at their fur and they would know that they were made to run to the horizon and beyond. drongolily - he felt the same pull, and he saw the glint in his daughter's eye as well. it was subdued, faint, but she was young, and she was even more adaptable than he first thought.
indentwhen he came closer to the small group of mollies, machpaw lifted her head from where it was resting on violetpaw's shoulder. she grinned and stood, murmuring a quick word to her friends before meeting drongolily.
indent"i saw duneserpent and thought that you were already off," machapaw said after allowing drongolily to rest his nose atop her head; he noticed that she had grown even taller than he remembered from the night before when they shared dinner.
indent"not without saying goodbye," drongolily said. "i heard bluesky mention that he was going to fetch you for training," he added. machapaw nodded.
indent"him and vermilionsky are taking me and violetpaw out swimming. violetpaw's nervous, she says she doesn't like getting her fur wet."
indentdrongolily purred. "from what i've seen of the training sessions, you'll both be getting a lot more than your paws wet." machapaw shrugged, allowing her gaze to wander to her paws. drongolily dipped his nose again to touch machapaw's ear. "are you nervous about it, too?"
indentagain, machapaw managed a small shrug. "maybe a little? i dunno, i'm trying not to be."
indentas if on a cue, drongolily noticed bluesky out the corner of his vision as the lynx point tom emerged from one of the other dens with his mate. to his daughter, drongolily smiled. "you're going to be fantastic, i know it. i'm proud of you, always know that. no matter what, i'm always proud of you, and i know your mother is too," he said.
indentmachapaw gazed up at him with wide eyes. "i never stop thinking of her," machapaw said. "all of them, always."
indentdrongolily smiled again, sad. "neither do i. but they're always here with us, i know it," he said. and in that moment, with the warm breeze that ruffled their fur, drongolily could feel a press of his mate's long fur against his shoulder, and he could have sworn that, for just a moment, his other kits were standing right beside machapaw. when he blinked again, the feeling had passed, and he looked down at machapaw. "i'm proud of you," he said again, and machapaw's eyes glowed.
--
in summary: lily of drongos and little macha would find their place in quickclan, a clan known for their hospitality and eagerness to welcome outsiders into their ranks. known as a clan built for refugees, by refugees looking for a fresh start, quickclan's immense size would be overwhelming to little macha in particular, while lily of drongos will be hesitant to put his only remaining daughter into an uncomfortable position. however, cyanstar will be extremely warm and welcoming to the small family. as lily of drongos and little macha stay in quickclan to heal and recover from the flood and their long travels away from home, they will begin to find their place and settle; lily of drongos will meet and become close friends with chanterellestep and frostbound, two warriors who have experienced so much loss in their own pasts, who found companionship and love within the clan. though lily of drongos will never lose the love he held so dearly for his mate and kits, the experience will allow him to meet new warriors and to become closer to his own daughter. within time, lily of drongos will take the name drongolily, and he will assume the rank of a warrior under cyanstar's leadership. as with the kin of the lotus, drongolily will be pleased with his role of an experienced hunter, and he will be regarded as very skilled within the clan. though quicklan is not without conflict of its own, as dark spirits continue to roam and challenge the carefully placed peace, drongolily will find quickclan resilient in the face of hardships. he will always think of his old friends and departed family members, but his new home will reinvigorate his sense of peace and stability after so much felt so broken beyond repair.
meanwhile, little macha will begin her time in quickclan as extremely closed off. the pain of losing her family will continue to haunt little macha, who will suffer from fractured dreams and nightmares. her quiet personality from the kin of the lotus will turn to be closed off, even from lily of drongos. the pain, for little macha, will extend into a prolonged state of loneliness as she feels isolated in a clan so large. unlike her family, little macha will not be easy to befriend, as she rarely engages with the clan cats and apprentices who have already grown up together in quickclan. however, one apprentice, violetpaw, will continually reach out to little macha with the mutual understanding that violetpaw will be willing to talk and fill the silence when little macha finds that she cannot open up. violetpaw would tell little macha about her own experiences joining quickclan after her old clan broke apart as well, and her experiences adjusting to quickclan as a warrior apprentice when she spent many moons in quartzclan as a medicine cat apprentice instead. violetpaw's openness would reach little macha, who would, in turn, begin to tell about how she and her father traveled so far from their former home to quickclan. she would find a trusted confidante and best friend in violetpaw over many moons as they begin to grow and train together. their friendship would only grow stronger over time, and violetpaw would introduce little macha to several of the other apprentices and young warriors, including coalpaw, who struggles with her own self-confidence ever since she arrived in quickclan, scared and alone. together, the three young mollies would become inseparable. while little macha would never be out-going enough to become close with some of the other cats her age, she would find comfort in knowing that she fits in better than she originally expected, and it would only be a matter of time until she takes her full name, machamare. as she grows, machamare will hear of the select quickclan cats known for being able to speak to spirits, and her inablility to reach out to her departed family members will leave machamare broken, for a time, but she will find herself in much better conditions with the close support of her dearest friends.
Username (CS + Site): eagle,
Clans: quickclan, highgarden, evergreen park, eventide
Name of the Clan your cat/group is going to: quickclan
Which cat/group are you trying out for: embercloud
How will this cat/group fit into your Clan?:
Last edited by
eagle, on Sat Mar 20, 2021 3:06 pm, edited 5 times in total.