The Colony A SHRIKE TO YOUR SHARP [ intro + open ]

[hazelheart]

(🜲) as leaves float across borders, color brightening the tall trees of the forest, and the sunlit meadows of the moors, the colony struggles on. it can be a dark place, this forest, where hunger drives cats to madness, but the colony is full of a rare warmth, spurred on by the close kinship of the forest dwellers. hazel's fire burns close to her heart, a low and hot flame, thriving even in the chill that permeates the autumnal air.

when day pulls on her long black coat, slinking behind the cover of the sunset, the shadows come out to dance, and dance they do. much of the forest is still alive at in the evening, late autumn fireflies flickering through the trees, hurrying away, perhaps, from the sound of pawsteps. hazel thrives in this state. she stalks through the territory, paws splashed with mud, tail dripping water onto the path behind her. a golden glowing gaze glances balefully about, color splotched nose twitching to scent the air. a musty earthen smell comes back to greet her, carried fresh on a brisk breeze. it ruffles her fur, mingling chocolate and pitch, and she sighs with delight. clutched in her maw, two mice hang by their tails, swinging gently against her chest as she walks.

it's this kind of messy peace that forces the feline out at night, her goal to fetch as much prey as possible. if she manages to dirty her paws while doing so, well, it's no one's fault but her own. tonight the sky is clear and easing swiftly from flame-lit to dark, the moon rising into the sky as evening closes down. hazel traipses across the familiar trails, eye scanning all around her. a movement above stops her in her tracks. there, in the sky, a creature soars, half hidden by trees, gliding effortlessly through the air. an interested gaze tracks its movement and hazel sets her mice down gently, tucking them beneath some leaf litter beside her. then, ears flattening and eyes wide, she crouches, hind muscles rippling with effort as she leaps up into a low tree. her stomach flips as she lands, teetering on wet bark, and thornlike claws slide out to grip the branch. above, the bat swoops, low enough that she can almost grab it…

there! deft claws snatch it from the air and the delicate webbed wings tear under the force of the catch. hazel takes it in her mouth and shakes, satisfaction warming her chest as she drops back to the ground. it is a magnificent catch, if she does say so herself, and she does. confidence sparks under her paws as she snatches up her other catches and returns to the colony's camp. prey has been scarce and is getting scarcer. that the molly has caught any at all is a sight to behold, let alone the amount she has found. pride and relief mingle in equal feelings within hazel's mind, worry only a creeping backdoor thought. sliding into her home, the chocolate tabby purrs softly as she sets the bat and her mice down. "fresh prey!" she announces, eyes, bright as her namesake, flicking around, seeking the familiar pelts of her mate and daughters. it isn't that the molly dislikes sharing her catches, but she will always make sure her family eats first.

I NEED MY GOLDEN CROWN OF SORROW 🜲 MY BLOODY SWORD TO SWING

• // she's looking for bracken, magnolia, or honeysuckle, but this is open to anyone!! " #b8a300"
• 
• HAZEL ☼ SHE / HER, WARRIOR OF THUNDERCLAN. 54 MOONS OLD, PENNED BY LAVS
  
  
  a stocky, medium-haired brown tabby with hazel eyes. this is a large cat with a rippling musculature. hazel's frame is wide and tall, shoulders broad, muzzle and eyes heavy in her skull. chestnut and chocolate fur swirl across her pelt, sliced through with tabby stripes of shadow. her eyes invoke images of a sweet summer's day, green and brown mingling into a hue quite similar to her namesake.

 

[serpentberry]

[ @Hawthorne mention :] ]

Serpent's tongue draws over the pelt of her lover, new tangles of uncertainty burrowing behind her own ears. She cannot unleash these details to him, her fears remaining purely her own. She worries that if she tells him, he will instead dwell on the mutiny brewing beneath his nose, rather than properly mourning the inevitable and devoting time to the colony as a whole. She worries, too, that her purposeful inaction will do just as much wrong unto their future; but does she harbor much of a choice in the matter? Her priority lies in his happiness and the comfort of their children. Firmly put, she believes both can be achieved just so long as he settles his affairs in order. The rest... can wait.

Green eyes tilt up and towards Hazel as the she-cat returns, a haul more plentiful than Serpent had seen in recent days. There is no hunger in her gaze, aptly spoiled by her friends and family due to her current state. Still, her gaze lights up, and she trills a quiet, "Nice catch, Hazel!" to the molly. A soft chuckle and she corrects herself to, "Catches, I suppose. Whoever gets those will have a full stomach before bed tonight, huh?" Useless conversation in a world about to be torn in two; but Hawthorne, in his mate's eyes, doesn't know that. Serpent, with as little gestures and toneshifts as she can display, hopes that Hazel will keep that under wraps, too.

"Did you go far out of the woodlands?" she asks, further edging into talk that means nothing at the end of the night.

 

[Thornstar]

He is not so stubborn as to refuse an offer of grooming and especially not so from Serpent who prided herself on looking presentable and having a lot of free time on her paws given the pregnancy, so he lay docile and compliant alongside his mate, letting her preen his ears and head with an almost aggressive swipe of her tongue as though trying to pluck the very fur from his body in the process. Hawthorne jokingly wondered if he had upset her given her roughness but he chalked it up to nervous energy and simply enjoying having him not running around in a frenzy. It was nice, stopping for once, it was not something he got to indulge in often nor did he feel comfortable doing so given how much needed to be done but he sparred this moment for her and her alone. If he caught wind to neither glance nor tone he did not react, one blue eye opening following by the other golden one as he honed his gaze in on the prey dangling from Hazel's jaws before being dropped to the ground with a twitch of his ear, "Aye, good catch indeed. A bat! Those are quick, you put those young upstarts to shame, dear Hazel." He himself had only ever caught one bat before in sheer luck, finding it low on a tree he could scale up in only a few bounds before having to drop back down. He smiles placidly, listening to their idle talk and enjoying the peace, eager to hear the answer as well, if prey was still close by then he need not worry too much for leafbare as he once expected.

 

[Milky]

☛

------"Woah, a bat! Crazy." Milky makes her way to the fresh kill pile, opening her mouth to better smell the food. She pushes her way into Hazel's personal space, seemingly without realizing that she's doing so. "Woah.. they smell so tasty!" Her eyes shone. "I've never eaten one before... they're waaayyy to hard to catch for me. I wonder what they taste like." She quickly drops to the ground, biting into the bat's wing, before remembering her manners.
"Uh... do you mind if I eat this?" She quickly asks, mumbling around the wing still in her mouth.

☚

 

[Manzanita]

*+:｡.｡

Manzanita had only ever seen the occasional bat flit through the air like an awkward moth or a fallen leaf trapped in it's own mealstrom. When she'd first seen one, she'd been certain they were mice that'd grown wings! The belief persists as she peers over Milkbelly's shoulder to look at the animal diposited on the ground. "

How come it's wings are hairless?

" she meows, disgusted by the sight, wincing at the sight of veins through the thin membrane. It reminded her of the skin between her toes...ew!
Still, her stomach begs to differ...literally - the trecherous thing has the audacity to growl!

Hoping to avoid the heat, she sniffs exaggeratedly and says to Milk, "

It's rude to ask when you've already slobbered all over it,

" although she'd closed her eyes when raising her nose, she slides a lid open just enough to glance at Hazel, hoping her display of righteous indignation is enough to earn herself a bite of that...toe...rat...thing...ugh.

"

SPEECH

"