{$title} Happens the night of October 4th. After being AWOL for days on end, after talking with a new friend, Thunderpaw returns to camp following the disappearance of Rainpaw.
———————————————— Everything she's ever known is gone, gone, gone. ✦
The apprentice had finally wandered back across that great expanse, parting her newfound companion with a quiet ache. Both their searches had ended up fruitless, not a glimmer of either cat they sought for. But, Thunderpaw promised to return, check in on the other molly, for in the wake of such loss, finding company she could find a genuine comfort in was... Different. Refreshing almost.
So, it was as she padded back towards her home, the day falling to night, moorland turning to forest turning to wetlands. Hesitating at the river border, Thunderpaw found herself in doubt. She knew they would be upset, or at least horrendously worried. Her stomach turned to knots as she watched the water rush past, cool and ceaseless. Flecks of the depths reaching out and spattering her pelt, rustling uncomfortably as she realised just how cold the night was growing. Leafbare had sunk its fangs into the very earth, and these nights would only get colder...
She swallowed hard; she couldn't mull over her own thoughts too long, only driving herself to another breakdown. Instead, repeating her mentor's kind words in her mind, molly crossed the stepping stones into Riverclan territory. Oh, how she could only dread Russetfall's reaction... She wasn't sure the molly would be mad at her, but she knew damn well it wouldn't be a celebration she would return to. Nonetheless, however Galepaw would react.
Thunderpaw faultered, somehow he made it the hardest to come home. She could face reprimanding from her mentor, coddling from Wavesong, or even the pity from the others. But the cruelty of her brother? Somedays, it made her wish she was the one to have vanished; it felt easier than to face his snide remarks covered by his weird round-about way of talking. She wanted nothing more than to curl up in her Mama's paws, safe and sound, but she didn't have that anymore. She didn't have her sister, who loved her or a brother who would even tolerate her.
What did she have left?...
It was another thought she shoved to the side. She would still make something, anything, that meant she wasn't aimlessly coasting her own existence, a ghost amongst the living, caught in a body that should have been returned to the Sunset Meadows with her mother.
That was why she still, albeit wordlessly, walked into camp - even in the face of the rising moon, even after three nights from her home - she still returned. Her head not held high, there was no triumph in her coming back; if anything, the weight of that morning was still heavy on her shoulders. But if it was something she was to deal with, Thunderpaw would always choose the family who had chosen her, despite everything, to seek refuge with. Riverclan would always be her home, as long as they were still willing to have her.
- Tagging @PIKESTAR @Russetfall @Jinglemoon @Wavesong Please let one of these four reply first!!!
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Thunderpaw
✦—Riverclan apprentice | 11 moons
✦—She/Her
✦—"SPEECH", 'THOUGHTS', ATTACK
✦—A stocky cinnamon sealpoint molly with long curled ears and cold blue eyes.
#C08969
