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tmd-clangen · 6 months

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MOON 0 | SMILING MOON

As Poolgleam evaluated the herbstores within the strangenooks of the monster, he hummed thoughtfully. His count of most things was at least semi-favorable; he had the bare essentials, if anything, and that brought an air of peace to his mind. But he felt… burdock was important, and he wasn’t currently in possession of it. His brows furrowed. That should change.

By all means, I should still be able to find some. The tall plant was hardy even through leafbare, so he reasoned it was likely still possible to find it around. The sooner he did, the better. He looped his tail under the handle of his small wicker basket- unfortunately the only one he’d been able to make so far, too busy otherwise- and held it up to carry, paws carrying a dull tap tap tap against the monster’s insides as he exited through its open wound.

He drew in a breath of the chilly air, blinking rapidly at a snowflake that landed on his nose. Then, hearing laughter, Poolgleam looked back up and saw all four of the little cats playing in the snow, seeming to be having a great time. Leappaw and Irispaw appeared to be sparring, kicking piles of snow at each other and fighting totally unfairly, while it looked like Bushkit and Serpentkit were trying to build their own pile of snow as big as they could. The pile was already taller than them, and Poolgleam chuckled.

As he padded over to them through the paw-deep snow, he meowed, “I’m going to go out to gather some herbs, okay? Don’t go anywhere while I’m gone.”

Leappaw stopped frolicking for a moment to look over at him, his tail held high and a cheerful smile remaining on his face. “Yeah, yeah, of course! We’re having too much fun anyw–OOOUF!” A clump of snow was thrown directly into his face by Irispaw, who cackled with glee and stuck his tongue out.

“Goodness, you kids are wild,” Poolgleam huffed with amusement. “I shouldn’t be gone long.”

“Okay!” Bushkit squealed from over by the big snow pile while Leappaw gave an exaggerated yell and barreled right into Irispaw.

Poolgleam nodded to himself then walked past the young cats. Not much more than a fox-length away, though, he turned his head back over his shoulder. “Hey– hey, all of you, please don’t stay out here too long, okay?” he meowed worriedly. “It’s going to get very cold soon with all this snow and I don’t want any of you freezing and miserable.”

“Sure, we’ll go in soon!” Irispaw called this time. He went down seconds later to Leappaw’s batting at his face, and retorted with a shriek and kick of his legs.

A somewhat relieved smile crossed Poolgleam’s face. He knew out of any of them that Irispaw would be the one to really make them all take shelter in the monster when they needed to. With that fret taken care of, he slipped through the hole in the shiningfence and made his way out.

Leaving the kids alone was still something he was always anxious about. Several times he’d nearly clawed himself awake at night to check on them, just in case, even when the secure part of him knew they were safe as long as they stayed within the boundaries of the shiningfence. And even more safe with the Smiling Moon shining in the deep dark sky above. No beasts would be around to threaten any of them… he could have been resting easy all this time, but his mind still found itself wandering lost in the realm of the past moon’s horror.

His jaw clenched tightly. He had to cope with this, all of this. It was just the five of them out here now… he had to make it work. Thinking about this wasn’t going to help with his search right now, anyhow. His recollection, helpful as ever, pointed out the most likely growing spot for the burdock would be near the thunderpaths he’d scouted out several days ago. But while he could remember the thunderpaths at least, he couldn’t remember whether he’d actually seen any burdock plants there.

Poolgleam attributed it to his muddled mind at that time… in the still-red sky, he’d been trying to scour the entirety of the nearby area to make note of its landmarks while also avoiding all the beasts crawling about. His searches had been hasty and only half-thought through, so while he could remember the key lays of the land at the very least, no specific details about them were recalled. Now that it was safer… he was probably going to have to do another big comb-through of the territory.

Puffs of fog trailed from his mouth as he kept it open to catch the scent of the thunderpath, first and foremost. After wandering around for an amount of time that was a bit too long for him to be pleased with, it wasn’t hard for its acrid feeling to catch and he followed the trail. Evergreen trees towered around him until they grew sparser and sparser just over the span of half an hour.

Again, much too long for his comfort. At least he finally found the slick black thunderpath, gazing down its trail. Large metal trees with hanging glowing boxes were interspersed regularly along it to light its way. The Smiling Moon was making its way closer to the horizon, now, a little over halfway through the sky. He looked far out, gazing past the rolling landscapes below the nearby cliff and at the distant ocean. Nearby the ocean and its long-spanning beach were settlements that looked like they’d once belonged to twolegs… a very colorful looking gathering of twoleg dens on the section of the beach directly in front of his gaze, and to the further southeast an incredibly long and large bridge that was surrounded by countless other twoleg dens.

Poolgleam shivered slightly and decided he’d spent long enough with his eyes on the landscape rather than in the ground where he’d find what he needed. He sniffed at the air and kept his jaws parted again, pressing his head a little lower to the ground. Of course, he didn’t want to dip his nose into the snow, so he didn’t actually get all that close…

He was at this for what felt like, and unfortunately was, a very long time. Gazing up at the moon once again and determining his time, he’d been out here walking down the trail of the thunderpath for far too long. And still no sign of the burdock… was his sense of smell really failing him right now?!

If it’s fruitless out here, I should really get back to camp… make sure they’re all safe… Another tight shiver ran through Poolgleam’s body and he shook his head. “No, no, they’ll all make sure of that th-themselves,” he murmured aloud, trying to reassure himself that they would be just fine until he returned. He really needed to find this burdock…

The snow fell harder and continued to blanket the land heavier, coating his fur with cold white flecks that sent chills through his bones. But he wouldn’t give up just yet. They needed burdock. His pace grew more hurried. “By all the stars!” he cried, throwing his head up with frustration. “Where is this damn heeeer–”

His gaze leveled again and suddenly he was staring right at the towering plant. Poolgleam berated himself in his head for ever thinking to swear on them and instead exclaimed “Oh thank the Cosmos, finally.”

He unsheathed his claws and got to digging through the snow. Getting past the white layer was the easy part, but when it left behind the chilled earth below, that’s when things got hard. He gritted his teeth as he sank his claws into the cold hard dirt and tried to dig. Huffs of exertion left his jaws and with that only more and more puffs of cold foggy breath.

Poolgleam was shivering more and more as he went. The biting freeze in the air and in the ground was leaching into his body, slowly but gravely surely. But he couldn’t give up yet… He was so… At long last, he saw the long black roots of the burdock streaking through the cold soil and gave a gasp of relief. The roots looked like they trailed underneath the thunderpath as well, far too anchored to even try to dig those parts out.

He reached his paws towards the roots and leaned forward–

Then Poolgleam gasped again, this time from the sheer cold, catching himself just barely before he fell over. The roots were right there but he knew the signs. His body was demanding he go home and he had to obey it. He let out a breath that quickly ascended into a frustrated growl. How foolish he was to spend such a long time out here even without result! He was incredibly lucky he hadn’t already succumbed to the cold. But now he needed to get back to camp fast.

Poolgleam wasn’t sure how quickly he could.

-----

But, just barely fortunately for him, it didn’t take long with the newfound urgency in his steps. In the heavy snowfall and the moon headed even further toward the horizon, now the young cats were nowhere to be seen; likely having turned in an hour ago when it was really getting bad. More lethargically now, he slunk through the hole in the shiningfence once again and gave himself a groan of effort.

Just another minute of trotting through the snow and he made his way back through the open wound of the monster and into the cleric’s den. With the chills in his body making him absolutely miserable and leaving him drained of energy, he didn’t even feel like jumping into his proper nest on top of the softbody. He instead slunk into the thinpelt nest underneath the metal frame that held up the softbody.

Poolgleam began to lick at his pelt the wrong way, hoping to dissipate the chills enough that he’d be able to rest well for some time. The burning up would cease… If he could just handle that, he could handle eating feverfew in the morning to help soothe it further. But right now, he just needed to sleep… he was so tired.

He found it funny how he’d been the one warning the kids about staying out of the cold, lest they get chills, as he drifted off into unconsciousness.

“As the snows of leafbare blow around camp, Poolgleam eyes the herb stores and decides he should still be able to dig up burdock. He heads out to replenish their stocks. However, he doesn’t manage to sniff any out in a timely manner and by the time he does, he spends too long trying to dig up the roots that he is inflicted with shivering. Arriving back at camp, he’s just miserable and cold and desperate to rest.”

#tmdclangen #moon 0 #clangen #gilded colony #poolgleam #leappaw #irispaw #serpentkit #bushkit #i was planning on adding art to this one but i just wasnt feelin it. sorry amigos

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