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Moon 8
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Halfway around the world lies the one thing that you want
Buried in the ground, hundreds of miles down
Fogfreckle hasn’t stopped shuffling around since sundown. Moonstar may not have her eyes open, nose tucked firmly into her tail, but she can tell that he hasn’t stopped moving because the constant shff shff sound of him shifting around in his nest is driving her to madness.
Willing sleep to come just a little bit faster, Moonstar flattens her ears as close to her head as she can get them and fluffs her tail up against her face.
Shff, shff.
Fed up, Moonstar uncurls her tail from her face and sits bolt upright, mouth open to shout at her brother to just lay still already, but Fogfreckle cuts her off by springing quite suddenly to his paws. Having not seen him do much more than curl in a ball for two entire moons, the sight shocks Moonstar into stillness.
“I can’t,” he meows into the darkness. “I can’t do it. I’m not going to suffocate in this– this– cave for another heartbeat. I’m going hunting.”
Moonstar’s annoyance flees from her immediately, like a mouse slipping from her claws. “Wait–” She scrambles to her paws, panic overtaking her as Fogfreckle reaches around to grab the edge of his cobweb wrappings in his teeth. “Wait, don’t! You can’t– what if your wounds open back up–”
With a wild tug, Fogfreckle rips at his cobwebs, pulling the sticky strands away from his fur. He keeps going, yanking at them, agitation and annoyance etched in the sharp lines of his thin limbs. Moonstar reaches for him, attempts to get him to stop, and Fogfreckle spins around with his hackles fluffed out and swipes at her. Narrowly dodging the reach of his claws, Moonstar gasps, retreating.
For a heartbeat, both cats stare at each other, tension thick in the air between them.
“Stop treating me like I’m a helpless kit,” Fogfreckle spits, torn cobwebs hanging from his jaws. They lay tattered against his white fur in shredded strands. “I’m fine! I don’t need you to– to play medicine cat at me! Don’t tell me what I can and can’t do!”
His words sweep against Moonstar like a cliffside gust, the hurt they bring almost physically pushing her back. “I… I…” Several emotions cycle through her in the space of a single heartbeat, until it finally settles into a pulsing anger that crackles over her pelt like lightning. “I’m only trying to help! I’m looking out for you– we only have each other, in case you’ve forgotten,” she snaps, voice nasty, horrible satisfaction welling within her as the words strike her brother and he recoils. “We left the rest of our family behind, buried under a landslide!”
“As if I could forget!” Fogfreckle explodes. His reflective eyes are almost as sharp as the claws he’s sinking into the earth. “I can’t– I was useless to help them, and I’ve been useless for moons to help you, letting you go out on your own every day, when I’m the only one left who can keep you safe!”
All of the anger rushes out of Moonstar, fast as a roaring river, as she stares at her brother, heart shattering.
“I’m just–” he continues, yowls bouncing off of the boulders around them. “Sitting around in this dark hole, doing nothing from sunrise to sunset, wasting time we could be using to find a new camp and you– if something happened– I could lose you, too– Moonstar, I wouldn’t even know–” Fogfreckle breaks off on a hiccuping sob, voice losing its volume as it takes on a shaky quality and he ducks his head, hiding his pained expression from his sister.
Moonstar stares at her brother’s shaking shoulders. Guilt claws at her insides for the words she spat at her brother, the memory of her lost Clanmates sitting like a stone in her throat.
“Fogfreckle… I can handle myself,” Moonstar mews quietly. “I can handle both of us! Look at me,” she says, gesturing to herself with a sweep of her tail. “I’m here, aren’t I? I’m fine! I’ve been hunting for us for moons and I’m fine. You’re the one that’s hurting, and I’m– you need to let me take care of you sometimes, too.”
After a heartbeat of silence, Fogfreckle mews with a wet, broken voice, “you’re an awful excuse for a hunter. But,” he adds, flicking his eyes towards her, “you’re a pretty good sister.”
A bubble of incredulous laughter escapes Moonstar before she can stop it. She can’t even be mad about the hunting bit – he’s right. She hopes he’s right about the sister part, too. She butts her head against her brother’s with a purr.
“I’m supposed to protect you,” Fogfreckle whispers.
“Where did you get that from? We protect each other. I’m sorry for fussing over you so much, just–” Moonstar releases a huff of breath and sits back heavily on her haunches. Her tail swishes the ground. She waits until Fogfreckle sits across from her with a shaky sigh. “I worry about you, too. It doesn’t make you any less brave to need help. I worry about you because I care about you– not because I think you can’t deal with it on your own. Not because I think you’re weak.” Fogfreckle’s mouth twists into a grimace as he casts his eyes to the side, avoiding Moonstar’s gaze. A weak smile lifts the corner of her muzzle. She’ll never get her brother to admit out loud how much stress he puts on himself trying to stay responsible for the both of them, but she knows now. She knows.
She pushes herself to her paws and gestures at Fogfreckle with her tail. “Well, we’re not getting any sleep now. You’re seriously up for hunting?”
Clearly relieved at being rescued from having to talk about his feelings in any further detail, Fogfreckle twists around to pull the remaining shreds of cobwebbing from his back. He licks his fur into place, carefully covering the freshly healed pink marks of where the eagle had sunk its talons into him. “I can hunt. It doesn’t even look that bad anymore, see?”
Moonstar smiles. Thank StarClan she doesn’t have to do a botch job wrapping him with fresh cobwebs anymore; she’s really not cut out for it.
With a stretch, she pads from under the boulders, pleased beyond relief that they won’t have to spend another night under these suffocating press of rocks. “Let’s go hunting, then.”
///
Don't ever forget, We haven't lost it all, yet.
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moonstar boutta crash out after the last update
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Moon 7
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“All that’s left to do is to find some more cobwebs for you, bring you water-soaked moss, catch us both something to eat…” Moonstar ticks each item off on her claws, recounting the list in her head for the sixth time since waking. She’s been going over it since the sun rose, making sure she won’t forget anything her brother may need while she’s out. “Are you feeling okay?” She asks, reaching a paw towards his cobweb-covered flank. “Does it hurt at a–”
Fogfreckle’s tail easily flicks up between them, blocking her paw. She leaves it hanging awkwardly in the air between them for a heartbeat, confused, unable to tell if he had done that on purpose or not. “Really getting into that leader mindset, huh?” Her brother mews, and though there’s a slight smile to his mouth, his words fall flat as they reach her ears.
On purpose, then.
Moonstar blinks at him, trying to remember where her thoughts had gone before they’d been so succinctly cut off. “I’ve got to stay on top of things with my deputy out of commission, yeah?” She mews lightly. Her neck fur prickles with unease as the smile drops fully from Fogfreckle’s face.
“Yeah.” His voice is painfully blank. He turns his muzzle away from her, as if the boulders crowding in around them are somehow more interesting to look at. “S’pose so.”
Moonstar fidgets from paw to paw, unsure of the sudden tension stifling the two cats in the crammed space. She runs through her mental list yet again, turning each item over in her head like smooth pebbles to see if any of the contents could have pricked at her brother in a way she hadn’t considered. Try as she might, she can’t figure out how the term ‘water-soaked moss’ would have been able to turn his mood sour.
“You’re being really brave about this,” Moonstar starts, switching tactics. Her brother is still staring blankly into the darkness, turned away from her. “Sticking it out through the pain like this. I know it must hurt.”
She reaches out a paw once again, intending to rest it against his flick, but his ears flick backwards and he pushes himself out of reach. Her paw drops, the confusion at his attitude starting to morph into a hurt that yanks at her like brambles.
“I’m not a kit anymore, Moonstar.”
“...Yeah, I know,” Moonstar mews slowly, feeling like she’s padding on thorns. “You’re– you’re my deputy! You’re–
“Could you just leave me alone?” Fogfreckle curls into a tight ball, wrapping his tail over his nose. His shoulders are sharp in the dim light that issues from the crawlspace entrance, the fur along the back of his neck spiky and agitated. Moonstar frowns at the shape of him in the gloom.
If he doesn’t want her emotional support, fine. She swallows down the ball of hurt that is lodged in her throat like a bird bone and lets it out with a rough sigh. Screw her for trying to be helpful. He can rot, for all she cares, as long as he stays here and stays out of trouble.
She stalks towards the entrance of their makeshift den, shoulders brushing the boulder above her. “I’ll go get your moss.”
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Moon 6
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Cold wind whistles through the rocks Moonstar and Fogfreckle are hunched under, bringing the crisp scents of first leaf-fall. With a shiver, Moonstar presses closer to Fogfreckle for warmth, but startles back as he lets out a pained hiss. She rests her gaze on her brother for a moment, eyeing the bristled, spiky fur of his pelt that sticks up around the cobwebs she did her best to wrap him with, stiff with dried blood.
The talon marks that are sunk into his back worry Moonstar. She wishes she had listened better when she was an apprentice, when their old medicine cat, Loudtalon, had been rambling on about herbs. She doesn’t want to try mixing a poultice for her brother in case she gets it wrong; she wouldn't even know where to begin. The most she can do is change his cobwebs when the blood starts to soak through and pray to StarClan that infection doesn’t set in.
She’s been doing her best to keep his wounds clean, but he’ll need new cobwebs soon. With a heavy sigh, she rises to her paws as much as the rocks crushing in around them will allow, her shoulders brushing the ceiling. Her ears have been pinned to her head for so long now that she thinks they may get stuck that way.
Moonstar moves towards Fogfreckle to give his ear an affectionate lick before she leaves, but he ducks away from her, wincing at the movement.
Moonstar halts and pulls back, chin wobbling.
Puffing her fur against the biting wind, unseasonable for this early in leaf-fall, she squeezes her way out of their makeshift den in search of three thing: cobwebs for her brother, fresh-kill for the both of them, and someplace they can finally call home.
With Fogfreckle injured, her search is limited.
Moonstar pads across the mountain, eyes sharp for the movement of prey but mind elsewhere. Before Fogfreckle was confined to his nest to heal from the eagle attack, they were constantly on the move. So far, they haven’t found anywhere that would make for a good camp. They’ve slept in abandoned dens, up in the branches of trees, tucked under scrubbly, thorny bushes – but a place big enough for two cats to sleep is nowhere near large enough for a camp.
They will rebuild NimbusClan. StarClan decreed it – StarClan chose her as leader. It has to be for something, she has to have something, some trait or destiny or something that StarClan can see that she can’t, or they wouldn’t have chosen her. Her stomach churns uncomfortably at the thought.
Her mind strays to worse thoughts, the sharp glide of golden wings slicing through the air a constant in her mind this past moon. She can’t shake how odd it was – sure, it’s not strange that a mother would want to protect her eggs – but the way it shifted its beady black glare from Moonstar to her brother seemed tainted with something more than just a mother’s protection.
With effort, she shakes the subject from her mind and sets to canvassing this section of mountain. She doesn’t want to stray too far from where Fogfreckle is, so she’s been going out in a different direction each day in the hopes she’ll find something suitable. Today, she pokes her head into a shaded clearing of pine trees, only to be met with the blinking eyes of several racoons peering through the needles – sniffs around the opening of a fox den that smells very clearly occupied (hurrying away as quickly and silently as her paws with allow) – and shrinks back into the shadows of a leafy bush when a pair of twolegs turn a corner onto a twolegtrail, speaking loudly in their foreign tongue and likely scaring away all the prey in the area.
She only manages to catch one meager mouse – but that’s fine, because it’s Fogfreckle’s favorite, and with a cobweb-coated twig cradled carefully between her teeth, she doesn’t think she’d be able to carry more than one piece of fresh-kill at the same time, anyways.
Fogfreckle stirs as she presses back into their den, her head angled awkwardly so she can get through with the stick clamped in her jaws. He glances at her as she pushes the mouse towards him, and then looks down at his paws as she sets to working clearing the old cobwebs from his fur. She tries to be gentle, but she’s no good at this medicine cat stuff. Fogfreckle grimaces the entire time and lets his mouse go cold, not sharing a single word with his sister as she rasps a tongue over his wounds, cleaning the dried blood from his fur.
Moonstar goes to sleep when she’s done, stomach rumbling, and tries not to cry.
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SOMEONE HELP THEMMMMMMMMMM I’m manifesting anything good to happen to them rn cause they deserve it
and for the ask game:
🐀 for both cats!
🤝 for the author!
he literally never stops daydreaming about mice in game
🤝 If you could collab with any other clangen creator (or just want to shout out your favorites), who would it be?
OH MAN THERE ARE SO MANY GOOD ARTISTS HERE!! I'm open to collabs with anyone (I don't bite!) but some of my bestest friends (even if we're only friends in my head) I'd love to collab with are basinclan, ranchclan, direclan, cutieclangen, tidalclan, boughclan-clangen, astray-clangen, cycloneclangen, featherclan, gutterclan, canary-clan, and castaway-clan! I love this community, and I'd be down to collab with anyone who is interested 🫶 (and I think crossover events are so fun and cute!)
Asks are from this ask game!
Interlude 5-6
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now who could this be
Moon 5 Part 4
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Fogfreckle’s body hits the ground hard, rolling halfway down the slope as Moonstar slides down after him, pebbles skidding out from under her paws as she rushes to his side.
“Fogfreckle?” Moonstar’s voice wavers as she reaches him in a spray of stones, hovering a scraped paw gently over his bleeding body as she hesitates. He’s just lying there, chest rising and falling shallowly, as blood oozes from thick punctures along his back that stains his pale fur red. Should she roll him over? What if his bones are broken? He’s not dead, by the grace of StarClan, but she’s no medicine cat – she has no idea how close he is to death or how much worse she’ll make it if she tries to move him.
The circling shadow of the eagle drifts over them with another ear-splitting, screeching cry, and Moonstar’s fear makes the decision for her. She grabs Fogfreckle by the scruff of the neck and begins to haul him farther down the slope. She doesn’t want to injure him more than he already is, but she knows it’ll be worse if they’re caught out here on the open mountainside once the larger predators in the area catch scent of his blood and come to investigate.
Fogfreckle doesn’t make a single nose of pain as she pulls him through the dirt. She drags him as far as a tumbled collection of boulders and stones, squeezing into a space between the rocks that is just big enough for Moonstar to fit her body through and drag Fogfreckle in after her. The space is tight, without a lot of room to move, and Moonstar has to swallow panic and bile as the walls seem to press in around them.
“This is best,” she says aloud to herself, “foxes or fishers can’t reach us in here. It has to be here.” The self-soothing doesn’t do much to abate her claustrophobia, but Fogfreckle makes a pained noise in response to her voice and all thoughts of herself vacate her mind.
Fogfreckle whimpers as Moonstar licks his wounds clean, flinching as she clears dirt from the punctures with her rough tongue. She doesn’t say anything while she works, but she nearly sags in relief with every flinch and whimper from her brother. He’s okay. He’s okay. He’s alive and he’s okay.
“Stay here,” she says at last when she’s cleaned most of the blood and debris from his fur. It’s still oozing sluggishly from his wounds, bright and wet. “I need to find cobwebs. Do you think you broke anything?”
“I don’t think so,” Fogfreckle murmurs, voice weak and faint with exhaustion.
“Reckless,” Moonstar murmurs back, licking his forehead once. “Alright. Okay. Stay safe. Please, please, stay safe. I’ll get us help, okay? I’ll find someone to help.”
Moonstar scrambles out from under the claustrophobic press of rocks and pelts back up the mountain, swerving trees and boulders and leaping roots as she climbs higher and higher. Panic and grief strangles her thundering heart, pushing her to run faster and faster until her legs are burning. She reaches a break in the pines, a ledge buffeted by the wind, and yowls at the top of her lungs until her voice runs ragged.
“HELP! SOMEBODY, HELP! PLEASE! HELP!”
Her voice echoes back to her across the mountain, mimicking her fear. When it fades, there is only the sound of the mountain. Wind in her ears, the rustle of leaves in the trees, insects that hum in the sun. A sob escapes her, then a full blown wail, and her body collapses beneath her as the lack of response presses against her.
They are alone. At sunrise, she awoke as the leader of this clan, and at sundown she is so terribly, horribly, awfully alone.
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Moon 5 Part 3
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Live in the Northeastern USA and want to save endangered golden eagles? Visit this link to see what you can do to help, or donate here!
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“The nose knows,” Moonstar boasts loftily as she follows the scent of bird over the crest of a cliff and into a nest large enough to easily fit her and her brother, who climbs up beside her a moment later.
“Ha! As if we couldn’t see this massive nest from halfway across the mountain before we even got up here,” Fogfreckle snorts, his eyes going wide as they land on the two cream colored eggs nestled together in the middle of the messy bundle of twigs and feathers. Light glints off of their speckled shells, gleaming in the Greenleaf sun. “Whoa, they’re huge! And look - one for each of us!”
“All thanks to my incomparable scenting skills,” Moonstar insists, muzzle curling up into a playfully smug expression that she knows will get under Fogfreckle’s pelt.
“Sure,” He grins back, expression going just as playful. There’s a teasing shine in his eyes. “Incomparably foxdu–”
Moonstar inhales loudly through her nose to press her point, inadvertently drawing a bit of loose, fluffy down towards her that sticks to her wet nose. Her eyes cross as she attempts to look down at it, rearing back a little in surprise. The down feather is tipped gold and sticks fast, following her as she pulls back.
Fogfreckle laughs, nearly falling backwards out of the nest. “You’ve got a little something,” he snickers, “to the left–”
A sharp, stuttered cry from above slices across the cliffside, silencing Fogfreckle mid sentence. The sound lances through Moonstar, freezing her heart.
Ears pinned back in terror, Moonstar flattens herself against the floor of the giant nest, squinting past the glare of the sun to see an eagle diving towards them. Moonstar spares a half-second glance at the eggs that were going to be her and Fogfreckle’s breakfast and thinks, briefly, mousedung. This must be a mother in fierce protection of her babies. Her feathers shine burning gold in the sunlight.
They should have just rolled the eggs out of the nest and left - they shouldn’t have been joking around like this; like kits. She’s the leader, for StarClan’s sake - she should know better. She should have done better.
The width of the massive bird blots out the sun; a giant, winged shadow that dwarfs the two cats. Moonstar is frozen in fear, her mind all at once racing and yet painfully blank. She doesn’t know what to do, there’s too many things to do, too many plans of action, and she can’t make herself move to act on any of them. Fogfreckle is stiff against her side.
As the eagle dives closer, she can see the slanted amber of its furious eyes. Quite suddenly, as Moonstar is bracing for impact, the eagle takes a bank left, predatory gaze shifting to her brother, extends its talons, and descends upon him in a frenzy of flapping feathers and unholy screeching.
Fear and rage at last boiling over inside of her, Moonstar’s muscles unfreeze and allow her to launch into action, screeching at the bird and slashing at it in an attempt to shoo it away from Fogfreckle. Blood thunders in her ears, the cacophony of Fogfreckle’s hissing shrieks and the bird’s cries sharp against her eardrums. She can't tell if her blows are even landing, or if Fogfreckle is holding his own. The giant bird's wings are everywhere, battering against her face and throwing up loose feathers and down from the nest that cloud the air.
Fogfreckle yowls as the bird sinks sharp claws into his back, and lifts his writhing, twisting body into the sky with powerful strokes of her wings. Moonstar jumps after the bird, horrified, screaming for her brother, but her outstretched claws don’t reach. She lands in the nest, hard, twigs snapping under her weight, and watches in open mouthed horror as the bird lifts her brother higher in the sky.
He twists in her grasp, a furious scream ripping from his throat, and slashes his claws along her belly. The eagle shrieks in pain and releases Fogfreckle, who falls, and falls, and falls.
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Another one! She's a pretty one too ^^
Also our first injury! Yay(?)
Edit: pretty big jump in designs after this point, new refs can be found here
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larchmask seems to be fitting in well. although coldpaw needs to learn that larchmask can interact with everyone else
she'll grow out of it
also, our first in-person introduction to one of the other clans! They are real as I’m playing the other Clans at the same time for some spice
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isn’t it a bit weird that coldpaws only 10 moons old and is having a romance with a 24 moon old warrior? thats like a 15 year old crushing on someone in their 20s. is this only a one sided crush…? i don’t ask this to be rude, im just genuinely concerned
at that moment in time, it’s purely a first-time, one-sided crush. i was a bit on the fence about it too, but i can say with confidence that it does work itself out. trust me when i say nothing uncomfortable will be happening between coldpaw and larchmask as of now.
in a technical sense, being moons into the future (i’m at moon 20 right now), i can say the situation works out in its own way. thanks to your concern, i will try and make sure that this is reflected in a respectful tone. Writing this I’m kind of thinking about Firepaw’s initial one-sided crush on Spottedleaf…
in a lore sense, i like to think this isn’t just a crush, but also a “oh my gosh, finally someone else to talk to” kind of situation. coldpaw only had shadestar and lightchaser to rely on for moons so a new face is sure to be popular. plus, i am trying to let her “childish” trait show a bit with more exaggerated emotions and expressions.
i can say in confidence though that coldpaw will be alright and learn better as she goes on. thank you for your concern, its these kinds of questions that will help me make a better story with these characters and a better experience for the readers enjoying them ^^
Everyone's havin a good time!
Well, cept the rogue.
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so~ Coldplay u got a crush on the new girl how’s that going for ya?
Denial is a river in Egypt-
Also who wants a petition made to make Coldpaw’s full name to Coldplay?
lightchaser what exactly were you arguing about
a new character has entered the arena!
no finally you have no idea how happy i was to get a new character in. it seems like a short time only 6 moons but still, survival kinda requires new blood
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repost because i messed up on one of the lore details - really it was just lightpaw's warrior name but it's important
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what was your original clan like?
i was gonna post this tomorrow but i messed up one of the moons so now i have to switch this with the queue line
i love them so much man
idkkk she looks weird but eh. cat
darkwatcher and skystar dynamic