Open Territory LIKE I BELONG IN MY OWN SKIN — Icy River

[Frostmoth]

It is no secret that Frostmoth often finds himself alone on RiverClan territory once patrols are assigned and tasks have begun for the day. Of course, he is always tactful with his slipping away. He always makes sure he's on one of the earliest patrols, and by the time he returns his clanmates have either seen he's already been out of camp or are too busy to pay him any mind. This way, he isn't bombarded with meaningless questions or pulled into organizing beyond what the bulk of what he decides at dawn.

Today, he manages to get away from camp before sunhigh. It's still morning. The sun is in its strange limbo between dawn and afternoon, hanging lazily in the sky as if it doesn't really want its rays to warm the air at all. And they don't. Frostmoth's pace is quicker than usual, trying to get his blood to course quicker and warm his extremities. His breath clouds ahead of him, but he swiftly breaks through it and moves toward the river. Prey has already begun to run thin for RiverClan. A natural expectation of leaf-bare, but Frostmoth still finds himself trying to look for ways to make up the dividends. Perhaps he can bring home a fish or two.

However, when he comes upon the riverbank he finds that his paws crackle in the mud, and he comes to an abrupt stop. Frostmoth finds his pelt prickling with dismay as he realizes that the edges of the river have become crisp with ice. The bicolor reaches forward with one paw to place pressure on the solid edge, letting it crackle away and float downstream. The river, he realizes, seems to be flowing slower too. He grimaces. Hopefully this doesn't mean the river will be freezing as snow begins to fall and the temperatures begin to drop...

OH, MY GOD ★ MAKE ME IN YOUR IMAGE

• "SPEECH"
• ★ FROST — he/him, riverclan deputy, 25 moons
  — penned by carat, feel free to ping or dm for plots!
  — longhair black and white bicolor with blue eyes
  — peaceful powerplay ok! all interactions ok!
  
• penned by carat!

 

[Silverspirit Silverspirit]

A preoccupation with keeping RiverClan fed had brought more than just the deputy to the water's edge. Silverspirit was perched above the thin sheen of ice, his body curved like a crescent moon, blue-silver in the reluctant light, breath spilling from his half-open mouth. The hope of catching at least a kit's bellyful of fish had lured the tabby out once his time had become his own: the state of the river had been an unwelcome surprise to Silverspirit, just as it was to Frostmoth. His leaf-green eyes flicked up as, some paces away, Frostmoth appeared. The two-toned tom didn't seem to have noticed him yet, or else had deemed acknowledging him less important than contemplating the ice forming on the river. Silverspirit understood: it was more than a little troubling. A bit of ice edging the river's flanks wasn't too much trouble, but if it spread...

"Leaf-bare's delights never seem to end." Silverspirit spoke quietly, rising and taking a few steps to stand alongside the deputy. He watched the water which defined and sustained them as it drifted silently past, his eyes narrowing slightly. "It seems to be slowing down." Having survived a few leaf-bares at this point, he knew what to expect from the coldest months of the year, but it brought him little comfort in the moment. Of course, it wouldn't do to jump to conclusions, but it made him feel even more certain that trying to squeeze in a few extra hunts here and there was the right call. After all, he had more time on his hands now that Damselflyfrost had earned his warrior name; adjusting to a new, apprentice-less schedule had been among his priorities of the last few weeks. "Any business in particular bringing you here this morning?" Silverspirit inquired of Frostmoth after another moment's silence: implicit in the question was the offer of assistance or company, should the bicolor desire it.

 

[Damselflyfrost]

DAMSELFLYFROST

.

DAMSELFLYFROST — RIVERCLAN WARRIOR

A pale-bodied seal point with striking blue eyes. He moves with a swanlike grace and confidence, each movement decisive without calculation. In public, he is kind and affable, a friendly face around RiverClan — but in private Damselflyfrost becomes much colder. Harshly critical, selfish, and yet self-loathing, her tongue can become as sharp as her claws in the right circumstance.

14 moons old | He / She | Bisexual
Antlion x Unknown | Sibling to Dragonflyflame
Mentored by Silverspirit | Mentoring none
"Speech" & Thoughts
Biography | Toyhouse

It's funny how solitary cats often find company. Some of her clanmates would be shocked to discover that Damselflyfrost vastly prefers her own company to theirs, spending her time behind her skull while her paws lead her about the territory with no real destination. It's an impulse she often disguises with duty: go to the river to hunt and reflect, mark the borders while you imagine yourself loved, strip the trees of whatever cobwebs you can find for Jinglemoon's benefit every other sleepless night.

Today she finds herself stewing on a recent failure — a fish that slipped just out of her paws, so close she could feel it, and yet — as she makes her way to the river's shores. It is only when the mud resists her weight that she is drawn from her thoughts (stupid, stupid, stupid, and the like), shocked at the way the ground cracked and gave way to her with such hesitance, as if the mud were sick of being so pliable and so hardened itself against her.

Damselflyfrost withdraws his paw from the frigid dirt, shaking off the wet excess. It scatters across the frozen surface of the bank, black shrapnel. It is only then that his mentor's voice floats downstream on the languid current — the warrior's ears prick and he scans the opposite bank only to find Silverspirit and Frostmoth there. A wry smile spreads across his pitch-dark muzzle. He'd not been keen on company, but having noticed them now it seems rude to stick to himself. And so the moggy trots upstream until she is squarely across from the duo, tail flicking affably at them.

"Good morning," he calls, blue eyes raking across the pair. It is hard to ignore the strange expression on Frostmoth's face, as though the ground had just given way beneath him. It is then that his gaze falls fully to the river, resting upon a drifting sheet of ice. It's... strange, he thinks; back on the docks, the ocean had seemed so untamable, and so the river too seemed untamable by cat or even by nature. And yet here, now, the ice conquers it, encroaching upon its current, freezing out its residents. Maybe the fish will be easier to catch, he thinks, but it would be a stupid venture — the danger of falling into the frigid water would be too great. If only the ice were not so weak — it shivers beneath a single reed, it seems, breaking at a whisper of bird's wings and spiraling downstream — he might perch upon it to access the deeper waters and the bigger fish, but any cat with sense would refuse that method, and Damselflyfrost did pride himself on his sense.

There is a heavy beat of silence as he finally meets the same dismay that Frostmoth had met moments earlier. It seems to be slowing down, Silverspirit remarks. Damselflyfrost squints, smiling still but lacking any humor. "Maybe the fish will slow, then, too," he purrs, finding his reflection in the black and churning waters. His gaze lifts to his clanmates once more. "That would do us some good."

​

 

[frigidsnap]

Frigidsnap is no stranger to quiet walks through Riverclan territory, and today is no different. The cold has only been getting worse, and its almost time for Riverclan to find themselves completely frozen over in their territory. That's the one thing that she didn't really mind about the shipyard: the sea would never freeze like their rivers will. The earth below is chilled against her paws, her chin tips up and then her head tilts to the side in a half-rolling motion, nose scrunching up. Her pelt is already thin, more wispy than actually useful against the cold, but she guesses it at least came in handy for the heat... Whatever...

She's so caught up in her head that she hardly recognizes the sound of chatter until she's right upon it, and she abruptly stops right at the edge of it, blinking not once, but twice to clear her train of thought. She lingers near the group, not too close, but not far enough to be excluded. She's not even sure why she lingers, she prefers her own solitude, but something about spotting her brother's expression has her freezing. Her eyes linger on him for a little too long, scrutinizing. What are you thinking? Nosy as she is, she doesn't display it, her eyes flicking towards Silverspirit instead. Right across from them, Damselflyfrost. Her lips purse in to a thin line, her tail tip flicking back and forth in thought. Maybe the fish will slow then too, that would do us some good, the purr rumbles in Damselfly's chest, and before she could stop it, she finds herself humming a "...Right," mild, awkward agreeance, it would be good for them after all. She clears her throat immediately after, as if she'd never spoken out loud before.

She glances back at the icy depths, too inviting for her own good. Theres something hypnotic about the way it churns and Frigidsnap tears her gaze away once more. You're being weird. "How much snow do you think we'll get, here...?" she only hopes that the other clans don't take the river freezing (even with as thin as the ice currently was) as an invitation to cross it, especially Shadowclan.

ENJOY THE MOONRISE ♡ AND LET IT DESTROY US

• 
  
•  
• 
  FRIGIDSNAP ♡
  
  ( warrior of riverclan )​
  ❥ tall black smoke with icy blue eyes
  ❥ sibling to frostmoth & stormswirl
  ❥ peaceful powerplay allowed but may not be entirely welcomed
  ❥ penned by chuff, tags
  
  "speech"

 

[Frostmoth]

Frostmoth hadn't noticed Silverspirit's presence until the silvery tomcat spoke up. He starts slightly, a paw stuttering over the hard surface and stopping before his two-toned pelt became one with the freezing river. He prickles with embarrassment, heating beneath his own skin, and straightens up as he pulls white-tipped paws back toward his body. "It is slowing, isn't it?" Frostmoth turns to face Silverspirit finally, hoping he's kept the shame of nearly slipping into the river off of his face "Hopefully it doesn't freeze. Where I'm from- the ocean- it doesn't get ice like this..." He shakes his head, looking back at the river.

The deputy doesn't even remember a leaf-bare so cold; not that he's been around for many, of course. Had it been so frosty last leaf-bare? He'd assumed that the snapping winds of leaf-fall had been foreboding, but not to this end. "I wanted to see if I could catch something," Frostmoth replies finally to the warrior's question "The dawn hunting patrol had trouble with the slower waters."

Damselflyfrost, too, is a captive audience to Frostmoth's blunder, and so the deputy returns her greeting with a wordless nod. He glimpses the young warrior's muddy paws, and thinks to ask "Any luck?" In his hopes that perhaps Damselflyfrost had managed to find something, even if that something had just slipped between his paws and back into the river, but his dismay is as palpable as Frostmoth's. "Maybe," he replies to her comment simply "Though I imagine if they slow any more they might just freeze in the river."

He barely notices Frigidsnap, though he isn't startled by her presence as he had been some of the others. He, Frigidsnap, and Stormswirl were used to being in close quarters with one another. His sister stares down at the ice for a long moment before snapping her gaze away, and ultimately pale meets pale as Frostmoth meets her eyes. "Don't know," he murmurs softly to Frigidsnap, a small frown crossing his face "We weren't really here for much of last leaf-bare, and it didn't snow much at the shipyard." Although Frigidsnap had already torn her gaze away from the dark waters, Frostmoth finds that his own is returning to the slow-churning water. There is something about the gentle bubbling that does not serve to calm him, but rather grant a sense of foreboding. Would the river slow to an icy halt?

OH, MY GOD ★ MAKE ME IN YOUR IMAGE

• "SPEECH"
• ★ FROST — he/him, riverclan deputy, 25 moons
  — penned by carat, feel free to ping or dm for plots!
  — longhair black and white bicolor with blue eyes
  — peaceful powerplay ok! all interactions ok!
  
• penned by carat!

 

[Silverspirit Silverspirit]

The familiar, dark-pointed picture of elegance known as Damselflyfrost was next to appear, bringing their little group to three. Silverspirit permitted a quiet purr of greeting to escape him, glad to see a well-known and well-liked face. His friend studied the ice-edged river with a humorless sort of curiosity before offering a hopeful remark: perhaps the fish would slow down, too...Silverspirit prided himself on his ability to catch fish, but he wouldn't complain about the slippery creatures becoming easier to catch. "Maybe Frostmoth's right. Perhaps we'll get lucky and they'll freeze in place." The silver tabby murmured to his former apprentice with a flick of his striped tail. Imagine that: prey stilled by nature's hand, theirs for the taking! That'd be too easy, he supposed.

Frigidsnap was soon to arrive by the river, apparently jolted out of some private reverie by the presence of her brother and other Clanmates. Silverspirit twitched his whiskers in acknowledgement of the black smoke, keeping quiet as she wondered about the amount of snow they could expect to receive. Frostmoth's voice brought his clear green eyes over and he listened as the long-haired bicolor spoke. If he noticed the deputy nearly slipping into the river, he gave no sign of it; it was not Silverspirit's way to tease or mock his Clanmates. "I see. The shipyard sounds like it was a very different place to live than here." He reflected, recalling the few and fleeting experiences he had had with the ocean. It had been a long time ago; his impression was mostly of a great, surging swell of water, impossibly vast.

"Well, I'd say that this is a very capable group. Why don't we try to bring down something together?" If the dawn hunting patrol had come back empty-pawed, why not use this time they all seemed to have to try their luck? Silverspirit stretched out his dark-banded forelegs and flexed his claws into the dirt. "We could even try something ambitious; a beaver, perhaps...?" A difficult creature to bring down, to be certain, but they were fat and filling and almost irresistibly near at hand, always tinkering with their lodges. The slender warrior inclined his head to his Clanmates, his eyes on Frostmoth in particular, adding, "Though that's only if there are no other demands on your time, of course..."