#cws | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

tmd-clangen · 9 months ago

Text

MOON 0 | SMILING MOON

part one | part two

cws: violence, blood, eyestrain (art)

The two apprentices went on for quite some time while the smiling moon slid through the sky. By the time both of them were starting to get exhausted, they were laying back-down in the sand, giggling about all their attempts of things.

Sure, they were both really sloppy, but they were having a great time. A pretty fun time with at least some learning experience, with their back-and-forth tips and critique to each other.

“Ready to get back to it?” Leappaw meowed after they’d been laying down for a while.

“For sure,” Irispaw replied, rolling himself back up onto his feet.

But that was when, from downwind, a new scent blew in. It didn’t smell like prey; it smelled like another cat. Multiple other cats. “Mousedung, Leappaw,” Irispaw hissed, “there are cats coming!”

“What?!” Leappaw exclaimed with shock. His ears pinned against his head and he quickly got himself up.

This is horribly sudden! Irispaw looked around swiftly before spotting the nearest barrel. “Quick– get in here with me!” Irispaw whispered urgently.

He turned to it and dropped his body without hesitance, crawling in through its hole. Leappaw followed after a little too quickly, butting his head into his side before Irispaw fully turned to give him room. It was a tight space with both of them inside, a little too tight for Irispaw’s liking, but it would have to do in a situation like this.

The two apprentices held their breath as the sound of pawsteps soon arrived alongside the scent. Then, voices. They were incoherent for some time until the scent became stronger and the footsteps louder. With that, the voices were clearer.

“Heartstripe?” A somewhat young-sounding voice called, similar to their own. “Check it out, there’s pawprints here.”

“Pawprints?” a second voice echoed, feminine and questioning, assumedly belonging to whoever ‘Heartstripe’ was. “How many?”

Two soft thmmps, and the sound of pawsteps muted. They must be in the sand now, Irispaw thought, biting his lip. Have we already been caught so fast?

“It looks like two sets of them. Two cats,” the first voice said. Irispaw heard Leappaw’s breath hitch in his throat. “They’re not big tracks. It doesn’t look like their claws were out.”

“Well, I recall Star Night and Orangepaw stopped by here yesterday. Could still be their tracks,” Heartstripe hummed.

Irispaw nodded quickly as if there were anyone seeing it. Yes! We’re definitely not new cats around here, definitely your… wait.

“Star Night,” Leappaw murmured out, sounding as surprised as Irispaw felt. “That’s a leader title. Is there…”

“Another colony around here?” Irispaw finished his thought, blinking with realization. Heartstripe does sound like a colony name. She must be a warrior. I wonder who the younger cat is…

“We’re on someone else’s territory,” Leappaw whispered with a lilt of worry in his voice. “We gotta get outta here.”

“You think?” Irispaw shook his head. The other two cats were still talking outside. “But we can’t right now. Not while they’re lingering around here.”

And so… the two of them waited. And waited, and waited, and waited, on and on and on. A ludicrous amount of time passed and all either of them could do was listen as the two cats scuffled and sparred in the sand clearing, assumedly training, just like he and Leappaw were supposed to do.

Irispaw gritted his teeth. This wasn’t at all how he wanted things to go, it was so frustrating! Only the Cosmos knew how much training they were going to have to make up all on their own. They couldn’t afford to have any time robbed from them.

They also couldn’t afford to be caught by a rival colony. Stars, Poolgleam’s gonna freak out when we have to tell him about this… Irispaw worried.

After what felt like almost two hours, the two cats seemed to be quieting down. They sounded like they were exchanging compliments and settling down to go back to their colony. Irispaw nudged Leappaw slightly.

Leappaw startled and almost yelped before Irispaw shoved a paw over his snout. “Were you sleeping just now?” Irispaw asked him, a little astounded.

Once he removed his paw, Leappaw whispered back unconvincingly, “Uh, definitely not.”

“Okay, sure, well, I think they’re leaving now,” Irispaw told him. He slunk forward a little. “I’m going to check.”

Irispaw poked his head out of the opening of the barrel, looking around. There were definitely tons more pawprints in the sand now, and a few stray pieces of fur, but he couldn’t see either of the cats around. He cautiously stepped out of the barrel completely and kept himself close to the ground, tail low.

His gaze swept to one side and he froze. There were the two cats, with their backs turned, talking about something or other. Now was their best chance to get out of here undetected. He tapped his paw on the ground twice, and a minute later, Leappaw crept out of the barrel as well and joined him.

Irispaw repeated the tapping gesture with a swipe of his paw and then gestured from Leappaw to himself with his tail, ordering him to follow fast. He began to creep forward through the sand as quickly and quietly as possible, and Leappaw stayed very close. Irispaw felt like he couldn’t breathe as they got closer and closer to the sloped wall of the clearing.

Then, behind him, Leappaw suddenly yelped.

Irispaw’s head shot back with alarm. Leappaw held his lightly bleeding paw above a sharp rock that had been hidden in the sand. The moment he looked up at Irispaw with wide eyes, he realized his error. And in the same moment, the heads of the two cats turned rapidly over their shoulders, just as alarmed.

One of them was a smoke-ginger tom with white brows and underbelly, staring at them with surprised hazel-green eyes. The other was a mostly white she-cat with patches of brown tabby fur, her own sage-green eyes looking just as taken aback. She whipped fully around and, though her expression seemed almost frightened if anything, unsheathed the claws of one paw and swiped them above her head vigorously.

In an instant, the ginger-furred tom spun on his heels and charged toward Irispaw and Leappaw.

Irispaw shrieked with fear, turning around and bolting toward the wall. Leappaw cried out and ran after him. Irispaw dug his claws into the dirt slope and tried to scramble his way up, panic enveloping his mind. Even further panic surged through him when he felt the snag of teeth on his tail. “No! Stop!” Irispaw screamed.

The cat yanked him down and his claws came loose from the earth, dropping from the slope and falling back-first hard into the sand. In an instant his assailant’s heavy paws were against his own wrists, pinning him down. Irispaw cried out and tried to bat against his underbelly with his back feet, but the other cat was significantly larger than he was– and apparently a whole lot more durable, completely unflinching even when Irispaw made contact.

“You quit that!” Irispaw heard Leappaw yowl. He looked past the ginger tom’s shoulders only to see Leappaw taking a wide bound back off of the high slope. Leappaw made collision and clung to the cat’s back, making him holler with surprise as he staggered and let Irispaw free.

Irispaw took a moment-long gasp and clambered back onto his paws. He backed away rapidly and darted back to the wall, beginning his way up, but over his shoulder still watched round-eyed as Leappaw dug his claws into the ginger tom’s back. The cat hissed in pain and wrenched himself to one side, flinging Leappaw off. Leappaw, however, managed to land skillfully on his feet and charged forward again with an angry cry. Before the tom could draw back, he swiped at the cat’s front legs and drew a few droplets of blood from shallow cuts.

“Foxpaw!” The white-and-brown she-cat finally shouted, shaking herself from stillness. She began to run over and Irispaw’s fur stood even higher. He let out whimpers of distress until at last he finally made it to the top, hauling himself over the edge and back onto flat ground among the fronds.

He whirled around and looked down to see Leappaw aiming one more swipe at the tom’s haunches, having darted around him now. “We have to go! Get out of there!” Irispaw screamed.

The swipe made lightly-bloody contact and then Leappaw backpedalled fast, head shooting up to meet Irispaw’s eyes. As the ginger tom hissed and backed away as well, Leappaw called back, “I’m coming!” then ran for the wall.

The white-and-brown she-cat nearly came right for Leappaw, but when Irispaw thought she was going to catch him for sure, she instead came to a screeching halt to tend to the ginger tom. Leappaw scrambled up while Irispaw watched her fuss over his wounds and ask him repeatedly over and over if he was okay.

Leappaw nearly slipped again and Irispaw jerked his head forward to catch Leappaw’s scruff in his jaws. With both their strength, he was hauled up finally. “Going, going, getting out of here!” Irispaw cried, not wasting another moment before he bolted through the ferns and into the forest.

Leappaw followed him swiftly and yelped, “We are absolutely not telling Poolgleam about this!”

“You mousebrain, we absolutely are!”

“After being allowed by Poolgleam, Leappaw and Irispaw set out to go training. Irispaw suggests they should try practicing some hunting techniques he used to hear about from the warriors. They don’t have a lot of success as it’s difficult to replicate everything without a live demonstration, but they do have a lot of fun! However, just when they’re getting the hang of things, a strange apprentice from another colony nearly catches them…”

#tmdclangen #moon 0 #clangen #gilded colony #[spoiler] colony #irispaw #leappaw #foxpaw #heartstripe #cws #violence #blood #eyestrain

13 notes · View notes

tmd-clangen · 10 months ago

Text

MOON 0 | SMILING MOON

"Leappaw asks Irispaw how he feels about being a warrior."

“Hey- Iris, you doin’ okay?” Leappaw pads up the curved head of the monster, meeting Irispaw, who was loafed down on its flat back. Snow falls gently from the dark sky, piling on the earth below and coating the monster’s metal pelt.

Irispaw looks up. “Oh? Yeah, I’m fine. Just watching the stars.”

“Mhm,” Leappaw hums, sitting down beside him. “Whatcha thinkin’ about? You have that face on.”

Irispaw scoffs a laugh. “Do I really?” He sighs, bringing himself more upright to sit properly as well. “I guess I’m just… thinking about what our apprenticeships could’ve been like right now if we actually had mentors.”

Leappaw nods, forlornly considering the scenario. Nightstorm was supposed to be Irispaw’s mentor, and Sootfrost his own. Two siblings and incredibly talented warriors; even if it had never been said, they would have kept the pair of tight-knit apprentices training together. That had probably been why Star Shatter was going to appoint them as their mentors in the first place– because they’d understand that he and Iris were inseparable.

But Nightstorm and Sootfrost were taken from them. Leappaw remembers the moment that Sootfrost lifted her nose from Leappaw’s forehead- and in the instant after, she was bowling him away and caterwauling, alongside the shrieking of the rest of the colony, as their home was invaded by creatures of bloodthirst.

Leappaw remembers her cry to run before her neck was snapped by the catching jaws of a beast.

“What are we even supposed to do?” Irispaw murmurs, breaking his thoughts like Nightstorm’s spine was broken shortly after his sister’s.

“I think…” Leappaw pauses. His natural instinct is to reassure Irispaw no matter what- but Irispaw stares at him with truly evaluative amber eyes. Irispaw would know if there was a lack of sincerity. He had to truly think about it.

It was going to be hard. That much was undeniable– especially in the fresh leafbare season, the weather was hardly a pleasant fit for already difficult ordeals. Any prey they might be able to find would likely be hiding in the snow… the colony so far had been lucky enough to find the fallen bodies of little animals who hadn’t made it to shelter in time, or the leftovers of beasts that ate their fill and left the rest, to feed them. The two of them hadn’t actually done any proper hunting yet, other than an instance a few days before, in which a miraculously fat pair of quail were too slow in the thick snow to escape Leappaw and Irispaw’s bounding claws. That had truly been their best accomplishment by far, and it was only the beginning.

Additionally, the two of them did not know how to fight in the slightest. Tiny spars as kittens and the rare few practice sessions that warriors had allowed them to spectate hardly did them any good. How were either of them supposed to learn how to fight? Poolgleam couldn’t teach them– he didn’t know any more than they did. Or at least, Leappaw thought… maybe Poolgleam did know a thing or two after all.

Was it pure impulse or true fighting instinct when Poolgleam violently bashed in the head of the beast that’d been so close to mauling Leappaw?

There were so many things they were going to have to learn how to do on their own. Poolgleam’s knowledge only went so far, even if he did have hidden experience of some kind. Serpentkit and Bushkit would be facing this predicament when they started training, too. Perhaps by then, he and Iris would have knowledge enough to help them, but as it stood… that’s wishful thinking.

Leappaw sighed. “I dunno, Iris. It’s gonna be really tough. But…” He looked up from his paws, meeting Irispaw’s tired eyes again.

We’re not on our own.

Leappaw smiles a little. “We have each other,” he meowed, leaning forward slightly to butt his head into Irispaw’s shoulder. “I think we can make it work.”

Irispaw considers him for a few moments, before emitting an agreeing hum. Coolly, he meows back and returns the affectionate gesture, “I think so, too.”

Leappaw purrs. Sharing smiles like the moon shines its own on them, the two of them lay beside each other to keep warm and enjoy the beautiful snow falling from the deep violet sky a little longer. We can make this work.

#tmdclangen #moon 0 #clangen #gilded colony #leappaw #irispaw #cws #death mention

15 notes · View notes