Open Territory maybe you just like the control // otter spotting

[SABLESTAR]

A quick flick of his tail is the only command he gave his apprentice, encouraging her to move alongside him as he led her down a scent trail. The sun had hardly peaked it's head above this surface of the horizon, telling him morning was not far ahead of them. The night had been uneventful for anything out of the ordinary, not since the Clan had placed the remains of those ancient cats back into the soil. He had still slept poorly since, however, struggling to shake the lingering sensations of the dream they had cursed his Clan to experience.

He had felt death.

Sablestar thought he had nearly experienced the sensation before. In the moments before Hawthorne had spared his life, when Grey had ripped claws through his brothers flesh and he stumbled into Cicadabuzz's den soaked in his own blood. When Fleecefur had touched her nose to his and gifted him the lives of a champion in her name. It was nothing in comparison, it didn't feel as real as it had that night. It made his pelt prickle to recall on it, but it sat in the crevice of his mind like a lurking predator.

"There's something in the water." He warned Stoatpaw, looking at her as her stark pale pelt glowed in the dawn. "It could be dangerous, so do not wander." The tuxedo padded no closer than a fox-length from the murky surface, watching in the distance as furry figures chattered at one another. Round faces with long bodies- they looked more like over-sized weasels yet swam as comfortably as a fish! "Never seen one of these before... You?" Stoatpaw had lived here before ShadowClan, even if for a short time. Maybe Timber had come across one before.

this heart beats cold like the devil his own

• @Stoatpaw
  "mew"
• 

  SABLESTAR— he/him ･fifty-four moons ･leader; shadowclan ･penned by gonkpilled

  a black and white tuxedo with dark amber eyes

 

[Stoatpaw]

——————————————— Together, we'll make our way home ✦

The apprentice picked up quickly to take attention to when Sablestar was around, particularly the flick of his tail, which he more often than not used to summon her to his side for something. This time, at least, it was nothing supernatural, haunting, or deathfilled as the last. Her strides were long enough to keep in time with the large tom, but her breath didn't once catch with exhaustion as Sablestar sniffed the air, leading them both to something. She sniffed in kind, trying to identify what it might be. There was something in the air; she squinted as she walked, trying to decipher what it might be, the sun of the new morning glancing across her vision; it was familiar somehow. Though most of the mells of the pocosin were, there was little she was unfamiliar with here.

So when Sablestar halted their walking as they came upon murky waters. Timberfrost always warned her to be careful around these, so being led here was a surprise. Though she looked to Sablestar as he quickly warned her not to wander, she was smart enough not to in this scenario. Especially as her fur bristled following Sablestar's gaze. In the water were a pair of very distinct critters bobbing with their mouths moving. Were they talking? Not like she could understand them if she could hear.

Her head tilted as Sablestar asked a peculiar question; she scanned his face for a moment, unable to tell if he was joking. "Those are otters!" She spoke matter-of-factly, with an air of confusion in her voice like it was as obvious as what a mouse was. "They look soft, but Father always warned me their teeth are dangerous."

She supposed her constant questioning as a tiny kitten was helpful in prospect. Being so small, she was always being carried about, but with open eyes and thousands of questions from curious kittens, they were lucky to have come from where they did; otherwise, Timberfrost would not have had one answer for her. She thought for a moment; she and her family weren't from here, somewhere further off that was damp but smelt nothing like the waters she'd passed by. It made her wonder.

"Where you came from - where everyone else came from - did you really not have otters there?" Her voice hums in her head, not wanting to take her gaze from the fluffy creatures. "Father and I saw them in the big river, and once when we got here. We moved from our first den 'cause he was worried about them once leafbare started." She wasn't exactly as small and helpless as before, but it was not as if she'd gotten that much bigger yet. But her mind still wandered to the place her clan lived before, a colony they called it, there was an ever-burning curiosity about it but getting answers was always easier said than done,

——— While you were sleeping,

Everything changed at once. ———

• 
  Stoatkit
  ✦—Shadowclan apprentice | 6 Moons
  ✦—She/Her
  ✦—"SPEECH", 'THOUGHTS', ATTACK
  ✦—A slender white cat with faint lilac markings and blue eyes.
  #96d5f1
  ⤷ Written by Phoenix