TW: Sensitive Content Open Camp SkC back from the dead / INTRO

[Acornheart!]

{$title} TW for blood, injury, malnourishment, fainting, illness

ACORNHEART
HE/HIM
30 MOONS
SKYCLAN WARRIOR
SPEECH |

THOUGHTS

| LUCIDITY

PENNED BY PLOT

Acornheart had been traveling for so long that he was surprised his own paws were still attached. If it weren't for the feel of glossy, dewy grass below them, itching at his cracked paw pads, he'd think they were phantoms, spirits guiding him on his holy path.

No, Acornheart was very much alive, by the grace of the ancestors, and he walked with a divine purpose.

Return to SkyClan. Return to his family. Uphold the teachings and the faith.

Ensure the Clan survived their journey as he had been told they did.

Familiar scents soon graced his senses, guiding him moreso now than the ghosts from his past.

Hawkstar. Flowercloud. Duskpool. Applelight. Mousefang. Others, too numerous to name, and unfamiliar scents painted in the familiar. They were here. They'd grown.

He had a home to come back to.

Despite the exhaustion, the aching emptiness in his belly, the slick blood that marked his path as paws were sliced by sharp blades of grass... despite all this, Acornheart raced towards the concentration of the scents. Towards SkyClan.

Pine trees laid shadows over his fur, brief shafts of sunlight shining against the white on his pelt. He was stained and matted and on death's door, but he couldn't allow his journey to end here. Not when he was this close. He crashed through the forest, uncaring of anything that might scare at the noise. The scents were ever stronger.

He burst into the clearing, his vision blurred and unrecognizing any potentially familiar faces. This was his Clan - he'd found them! He-

"Sk-" Before Acornheart could finish his call, his voice ragged and strained from unuse, the world spun around him. He felt his body crumple to the ground, and all went black.

​

OOC: Ah dang some dude just ran into the clearing and fainted. Daaaaang.
Context: Acornheart was on the journey but went missing and has been presumed dead. Newer cats of the Clan wouldn't know him, but founders would be familiar with him as he is one of Coffeestar's children!

 

[brightnose!'s icon brightnose! brightnose!]

BRIGHTNOSE ──

skyclan | sun guard

​

Brightnose's head snaps up when an unknown cat bursts into camp, her mouth hanging slightly ajar over her dinner. She blinks once, then twice - who on earth is that? And how did they make it to camp undetected?
Jumping to her paws, she rushes over to the other cat's collapsed form in the center of camp. Could this be somecat from a different Clan, or even a loner of some kind? Brightnose doesn't think she's seen him around recently... Whoever he is, he definitely doesn't look well... he's practically skin and bones.
"Does anyone recognize this cat?" she calls out across camp, hoping there will be answers instead of more questions. But strangely, the longer she looks at him, the more and more he seems to look vaguely familiar to her... funny, he almost looks like-

Brightnose gasps.
"S-someone get Hawkstar and Swallowbreeze! Now!!" Her stomach churns and her fur stands on end as the realization hits her, the pieces falling together in her mind. He is, in fact, a SkyClan cat - he'd gone missing during their journey to get here, back when Brightnose was only an apprentice. Despite not knowing him all that well herself, she remembers the grief that had stricken SkyClan when he'd dissappeared.
"It's... it's Coffeestar's son," she breathes. He looks so different like this... he's truly suffered to find his way back home it seems, but against all odds, he's alive. It must be a miracle from StarClan that he made it all this way alone...

now i will tell you what i've done for you

fifty thousand tears i've cried

• ooc:
• "speaking" | thinking | action

 

[cygnetscratch]

Cygnetscratch can't help her immediate reaction to the stranger bursting into their camp. After Chrysalisgaze's attack, and her own lesser one, she's deemed this forest cursed and unsafe. Her claws dig into the ground as she stands tall, a growl rumbling in her chest - but, then, the tabby crumples with hardly more than a syllable leaving his tongue. Brightnose is quick to succeed upon him, turning her gaze over the cats that've also gathered closer. The white furred molly grinds her teeth as she, too, advances in curiosity, and reaches the same conclusion as Brightnose does - albeit, much later.

Lost in thought, she tries to recall the tom. Her memory is hazy and bright, through the lens of a child. She knew him then, didn't she? Downy-furred Cygnetpaw, likely trotting alongside him? She can't recall when they lost him... did he see her shift? Would he be surprised to see her as she is now? Her claws scrape against the ground as she discerns that as much doesn't matter.

"Whoever he is -" Coffeestar's son, a lost SkyClanner - she does not yet lose merit in as much, "- he got to our camp without being stopped. That's an issue." Perhaps too blunt, a worry for another time, the molly still states that they can't ignore the obvious in favor of the euphoria of another coming home to them.

 

[Teaselfeather Teaselfeather]

Let me die, let me drown, lay my bones in the ground
I will still come around when the time for sleep is through
Over hill, over dale, through the valley and vale
Do not weep, do not wail, I am coming home to you

.

Recognition flickered in Teaselfeather's mismatched hues as they peeked past Brightnose, eyes widening at the sight of someone long believed lost. But he wasn't gone, there he lay. Acornheart...! He vaguely recalled the tom, but the other had been lost during the journey... One of the many... Brightnose had already called out orders, and when it became clear that their sister would not act, Teaselfeather took it upon themselves to follow through. " That is a problem we can deal with later, sister... " they breathed softly, brushing against her flank before springing off with speed and grace. First, they sought Swallowbreeze. If Hawkstar happened to be nearby, all the better.

" Swallowbreeze! An old friend has collapsed at the edge of camp... He seems in urgent need of medical attention. " they meowed, flicking their tail toward the corner of camp. " I have reason to believe he may be one of Coffeestar's children. " they added quietly, casting her a brief glance before moving to find Hawkstar.

" Hawkstar...! Acornheart has been found at the edge of camp. " they called as soon as they located her. " He doesn't look well. I've already urged Swallowbreeze to attend him. "

After a polite nod, they searched for two more, two important people.

" Mousefang! Applewish! Your brother... At the edge of camp! "

Speech, thoughts/emphasis

15 MOONS

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SKYCLANNER

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SONG

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bio

 

[SWALLOWBREEZE]

they didn't lose a ton of cats on the journey, but the ones they did still stuck in her mind occasionally. swallowbreeze was a young 'paw when they first left, thanks to her new position, the girl's brain was forced to work overtime. she probably remembers more than cygnetscratch, or brightnose— she's a bit jealous, honestly. to be that naive again is a pipdream.

she's busy checking on her most recent patient when teaselfeather finds her. "oh..." she mutters, allowing the words to flow and register. "oh! oh, stars."

chrysalisgaze will be fine if she hurries out for a few minutes. she stops over the tom's skinny, matted body, gingerly poking around to see if anything was broken. in her honest and very professional medical opinion, acornheart looked not good. his state was a bit out of her depth, but that's something she'll keep to herself.

"i agree that this cat is acornheart." mousefang and applewish can cuff her ears if she happens to be wrong, either way, "i need some help carrying him to my den, carefully, please... he is very weak and i suspect has fleas and ticks."

 

[brightnose!'s icon brightnose! brightnose!]

BRIGHTNOSE ──

skyclan | sun guard

​

Cygnetscratch is the first to speak up, with her sister close behind. While Teaselfeather calls for Swallowbreeze and Hawkstar, Brightnose looks to Cygnetscratch with a look that's almost deadpan in nature.
"Of course it's an issue, but we should focus on the task at paw."

Swallowbreeze pads forward at her name being called, assessing the situation and confirming what Brightnose had already suspected: this is, in fact, Acornheart. Brightnose steps closer to the medicine cat - she's already standing here, she may as well help carry him to the medicine den.
"I'll help," she says, though a frown tugs at the corners of her mouth. Hopefully it won't leave too bitter a taste in her mouth to drag his dirtied pelt all the way to the medicine den… she tries to shove the thought out of her mind before her skin begins to crawl.

now i will tell you what i've done for you

fifty thousand tears i've cried

• ooc:
• "speaking" | thinking | action