tw; grief, descriptions of a dead body.
☆ Rowanpaw isn't sure when she falls asleep, or if she sleeps at all. At some point she supposes she exhausted herself crying to the point of something near sleep, a state of complete and utter mental and physical exhaustion where you're neither awake nor sleeping, but in an between state where dreamlike visions still flicker behind your eyelids but you can still somehow hear the world around you. She doesn't leave this state till the sun peaks through the trees, hitting her back and letting warmth seep back into her.
The body next to her is cold. It has been for a long time now. Cold, stiff, but still her mother, always her mother. She grits her teeth, scrambles to her feet, flinching as pain shoots through her leg in protest. Every muscle in her body was protesting. But it was her task, her burden alone to carry. She'd bring the body back herself, bury it herself, mourn her herself.
It's laborious work getting Serpentberry's body back to camp. What is normally a five hour walk has to be broken up into bits, because she keeps having to stop to catch her breath, to rest her leg which at this point hurts so badly it's making it incredibly difficult to move it at all. By the time she makes it back, the sun has already passed its highest point– they've been gone for over half a day. She's still crying, half due to the pain, half due to the grief, the guilt. But not regret. Not yet, at least.
She stumbles into the camp, Serpentberry's body with her, and collapses onto the ground next to her mother, her breathing shallow and the pain overwhelming. She feels eyes on her, and knows she'll have questions to answer, but she can barely even think straight.
All she manages is a weak and shaky, "please…" though what she's pleading for, she herself isn't sure.

The body next to her is cold. It has been for a long time now. Cold, stiff, but still her mother, always her mother. She grits her teeth, scrambles to her feet, flinching as pain shoots through her leg in protest. Every muscle in her body was protesting. But it was her task, her burden alone to carry. She'd bring the body back herself, bury it herself, mourn her herself.
It's laborious work getting Serpentberry's body back to camp. What is normally a five hour walk has to be broken up into bits, because she keeps having to stop to catch her breath, to rest her leg which at this point hurts so badly it's making it incredibly difficult to move it at all. By the time she makes it back, the sun has already passed its highest point– they've been gone for over half a day. She's still crying, half due to the pain, half due to the grief, the guilt. But not regret. Not yet, at least.
She stumbles into the camp, Serpentberry's body with her, and collapses onto the ground next to her mother, her breathing shallow and the pain overwhelming. She feels eyes on her, and knows she'll have questions to answer, but she can barely even think straight.
All she manages is a weak and shaky, "please…" though what she's pleading for, she herself isn't sure.

☆ ROWANPAW. 14 moons
mentored by serpentberry,
adopted daughter of serpentberry and thornstar
peaceful powerplay allowed
ooc - context
mentored by serpentberry,
adopted daughter of serpentberry and thornstar
peaceful powerplay allowed
ooc - context