⊱✿⊰ The north wind blows once more, rustling through the looming pines of a proud Skyclan, and deposits a snowbound mountain flower upon its border. Life in exile was torturous in its loneliness, even as she knew that turning back home was out of the question entirely. These days all she depended on was the faint familiar scent upon the path and a blind trust in her nose and its tracking abilities. Hope and mourning chased each others' tails in perpetuity, and Lupine exerted a not insignificant portion of her focus on walking straight as to keep herself from getting dizzy in the spinning of her own emotions.
The scent of her family—or what she has convinced herself is them—leads straight into a jumble of a bunch of cats' scents. A marking of territory... or something. She stands tall, tail sweeping back and forth, and she does her best not to imagine her mother being led away as a prisoner of some snarling gang of prey-thieves. Still, desperation twitches upon her path-beaten toes, as she considers the merits of either waiting for someone to arrive or whether it would be best to walk all the way around the forest as to avoid anyone's ire. It was a kittenish part of herself that longed to meet another feline purely for the sake of having a conversation with someone living and breathing. Her impulses had convinced her that facing an aggressor was preferable to continuing to float within her self-made purgatory of memory. Lupine smoothed down some of the worst of her windwhipped tangles, and sat just behind the marked border of the pine forest. Somewhere up above, a raven cried out to its flock, and Lupine cast her eyes up toward the branches swaying in the heavens.
How many days had it been since she had slipped into Falcon's den that last time, dragging in a raven for the two of them to eat together, so like all the times before it. Her eyes were red-rimmed as they had been for the past week or longer, and by then she would not have expected him to ask after it. Holly—beautiful, fooldhardy Holly—denied her offer, her plead to escape alongside her. No amount of convincing would stir that young ram from betraying his knightly honor, this she understood all too well. Falcon, too, had his own pelt to look after. It was selfish, surely, for her to curl up beside him and press her face to his, as she always did, as she told him that she was leaving that same night. Though, it was clear that she had no expectation of him to follow after her. Their betrothal had fallen apart the same night Cougar was slain his sleep, their plans of marriage in the season of heaviest snow and then kittens in the season of returning sun fluttering into nothing more than fantasy. Tying her friend to her name would now bring him nothing but a target on his tail. She wanted, more than anything, for everyone to remain as safe as they were capable of, so away she slipped into the night, through the mountains and into the unfamiliar wilderness. Finding her mother alive was only another fantasy of hers.
It is not quite as long as she expects before she hears the faint rustling of some approaching. She sits up straight, slipping on a sheepish, yet kind face for whatever strangers were about to greet her, "Ah, hello, excuse me..! I am searching for my family, could you tell me if you've seen them?"
- ooc:
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⊱✿⊰ lupine- skyclan - 18 moons - she/her - doe x
elk
— a tall, graceful young woman with long black smoke fur. she is poised and deliberate with her movements, as if she is used to being watched. she is a charming and savvy speaker, though her wide green eyes betray a sort of innate soft-heartedness.
— lupine is polite and friendly, if wary of the intentions of strangers and tight-lipped in the face of personal inquiries. she seems somewhat anxious about navigating the the newness of clan society and is concerned about making a good first impression.
— speech in "#cbb5fc" , attack in underline, penned by eezy -
