Private just along for the ride || owl

[wrenkit]

She was hungry.

Tired and scared, too, but no feeling dominated Wren's mind and body, all-consuming, as hunger did. Her tiny body had somehow become a vast cavern, each pang of hunger a bouncing echo, persistent in their reverberations.

Wren had long lost count of how many days had passed since her journey began. Too many, in the young molly's opinion. Her heart ached for everything that grew further with each step she took. Why did her mom send her away? Knowing how great the distance between her and her mother spanned was more painful than malnourishment- insurmountable, for all that Wren had been the one to create it. But Wren promised to listen to her mother's instructions, simple and firm directions to march away from their home and never to look back.

Unfailing compliance had brought Wren to her current location, plodding slowly past tall, snow-covered oaks. A ways back, she had crossed a pungent scent line that unsubtly screamed "Cats live here! A whole lotta them! And we're bigger than you! Hesitancy gripped the kitten only momentarily. For all such markings were a threat, a warning to any who dared to trample past, it was a promise, too. Other cats meant food, Wren had learned early on. You just had to be sneaky and fast enough to steal it- the Outside was not much different than the mill, in that regard. For all kittenhood gave her clumsy limbs and loud missteps, she'd still managed to steal enough to fuel her travels, even if the victims of her food theft had managed to get a few swats in revenge.

Consumed by memories of her past successes, the kitten was unaware of how each step she took crunched, snow compacting to form a condemning trail of tiny paw prints of a tiny thief. All of her previous scores had been from others like her- older, but cats surviving on their own, with meager meals to show for it. This forest seemed to boast of a much larger population, and surely, to Wren's young mind, that meant a significant food supply was ripe for the picking.

___________________ life is a line on the road ❁ it's stranger than i thought ___________________

• "speech" @OWLBARK
  

• 

• WRENKIT sher/her, future thunderclanner, four moons.
  ❁ shorthaired tortie point with blue eyes and curled ears; currently malnourished
  ❁ copper character

 

[OWLBARK]

Owlbark did not remember much of his kittenhood. He vaguely remembered a warm twoleg den with dry and crunchy food he did not like. He remembered the twolegs forgetting to fill that bowl for days on end. He remembered the cold that nearly took his life when they let him outside and never inside again. He learned two things that day. One, that twolegs are not to be trusted. Two, no one in this world will ever be able to provide for you. You have to provide for yourself.

The resolve that had come over him that day was enough to drive him to hunt for himself and learn how to defend himself. Owlbark still hunted for himself, but was content giving his extra to the clan. It was a pleasent routine he had given himself these days. He rose before sunrise, eyed the state of the freshkil pile - always pitiful - and then went out to patrol and gather food. This routine also let him escape before Brightpetal, true to his name, brightly suggested taking other cats with him. The few times he had caught him before he could escape camp, the other cats had only hindered his hunt-

Like now. Owlbark had assumed he beat his clanmates to the territory this morning, but obviously some heavy-footed cat had caught up to him. He had already caught a mouse and was hoping for one more before returning to camp. That seemed impossible now. The tom rolled his eyes and followed the obvious crunching to... a kitten. The scrap did not smell like ThunderClan. She didn't even look like any of the queens in the nursery currently. A rogue kit?

Owlbark set his mouse down, sloppily covered it in snow, and crouched low. The kit had not spotted her yet. She seemed set on just plodding through the snow to some unknown destination. She was so skinny. Her ribs protruded from her tiny body and her tail was just a thin whip. He had intended on chasing her from the territory, but he couldn't bring himself to after seeing just how boney she was.

Still in a crouch, the tom carefully moved through the snow to stand before the kit, looking down at her with narrowed eyes. "Who are you?" he huffed.

i turned 'round and there you go *ੈ✩‧₊˚

• ooc: -
  
• 

  ☾ OWLBARK
  ☾ THUNDERCLAN WARRIOR
  ☾ 51 moons, ages every 1st of the month
  ☾ open to peaceful interactions
  ☾ "SPEECH"
  ☾ penned by muddly

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