Trapped water reflected glass-like over a winter so cold it suspended the shallow brooks in time. Thousands of stars shone through the gaps of evergreen branches, looking down upon the smooth river rocks from the other side of the ice. And, like a moment frozen, it was quiet; the night windless and otherworldly still. If there was a moon for Chrysalisgaze and Cloudbearer to find this night, the tall conifers of their territory obscured it from them, choosing instead to cradle the skyclan warriors within their own branches, shielding against the revealing moonlight.
From within the latticed canopy, an owl rolled its head, yet to decide whether it was bored or hungry. Its breath puffed in delicate ghosts before it, either unsuspecting of the scouts operating beneath it or uninterested in contesting them in this deep, still, frozen evening. On a night as picturesque and blanketed as this, only the suggestion of the preceding day's foxes, wolves, rodents, and patrols could be found in the half-filled pawsteps, smoothed by the last brisk snowfall of dusk and wholly unthreatening with the time their shallowness gave away. In the silence, they'd only the gentle crumple of undisturbed snow beneath two sets of paws to keep them company. For hours, it could have only been that.
Except in stillness, lumbered breathing carried like ghosts on the night, echoing through dozens of dark trees that trapped the sound beneath their tall canopies like chambers. In this, their sentinel forest was both their doing and their detriment, as it revealed an uninvited presence but obscured the size and location of the threat.
In the distance, a robin called in defense of its nest.
@Chrysalisgaze @Cloudbearer
