Lay your weary head to rest | Serpent

[Water Snake]

Water Snake has lived in company his entire life: his mother, his siblings… yet he can't quite seem to adjust to the strange mix of communal and solitary that comes with living in a colony. He doesn't know where his responsibilities begin and end, if he has any; they hunt for themselves, after all, and territory hardly needs to be defended when the sheer number of cats around is enough to keep enterprising newcomers at bay. Is this all it means to live in a colony? Number? If so it seems damned impractical--they are so many he can feel the forest straining under their weight, too many paws trampling through foliage and not enough prey to feed all those hungry bellies.

He is thinking about this because he has been… not stealing, but certainly seizing a large amount of bedding material for his personal use. Should he leave some for other cats? He drags another mouthful of moss towards his and Serpent's sleeping spot, mulling this problem. No, certainly other cats already have their nests. Besides, Serpent is expecting kits--any cat would be glad to sacrifice some comfort for her own. Yes, he's sure it's fine. Other cats can travel a little further away if they want comfortable nests. Water Snake himself has been sleeping on the ground; it's not too cold yet, and the grass is comfortable enough. They can ask Hawthorne if they have complaints.

He nudges some downy feathers aside to make space for moss beneath. Is this enough? He gives the nest -- a hole in the ground overflowing with moss, feathers, soft needles and foliage, some tufts of fur from prey -- a good look.

"Perhaps a little more,"

he muses under his breath. The air was getting colder: it wouldn't do for his sister to be cold.

ooc Information

• ooc: @serpent he's been requisitioning the forest's entire stock of Soft

• WATER SNAKE — HE/HIM･ 23 MOONS ･ COLONY CAT ･ PENNED BY @Kangoo

  A thin, short furred chocolate tabby with bright green irises and a scar over his freckled right eye.

 

[serpent]

The forest is dying. Serpent had spend the better part of the moon prior experiencing it, watching as new cats join the colony carelessly. As long as paws are kept to themselves, then almost anyone is welcomed in. (Even that can be controversial, she finds.) And now, as her nearly silent steps grow heavier, and her stomach rounder, she is forced to sit by as the grounds are overhunted into leafbare.

Water Snake would've suggested they move on, she knows. He would've asked that they find new grounds, where prey remains plentiful even when snow falls atop it. But she fell in love, she harbors the kits of the leader's son - she's happy, and her brother is happy to stay by her side.

And... loot the entire forest of anything even somewhat soft and comfortable.

"I'm not having a litter of ten, Snake," she snips at him playfully, moving to bump her shoulder into his as she slips in beside him. It's awkward, with the way her belly warps her figure, but she pays little mind to it now. "Unless you'll be playing nursemaid so that I can stretch my legs, this is too much...!" Serpent laughs as she speaks. A paw lifts a downy feather from the nesting, fondness in the action despite her tone. Greed festers in her chest happily, and she feels as if she's putting on a show to any overeager ears. In truth, she adores the attention a little too much; she loves being cared for, simply put.