Ask to Join Shared Night

What I dream, the day might send. Just around the riverbend.

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The rustle at the camp entrance announced Otterwhisker's return as she slipped in with a shake of her pelt. Her paws were slightly damp from the short walk she'd taken around the edge of camp, and the cool night air had done little to ease the familiar stiffness in her joints.

As she spotted the white shape of Lilyriver, a faint smile pulled at her whiskers as she padded towards her fellow elder - now joined back in the Elder's Den. "How are you settling?" She voiced softly over towards her as she neared. "Only so much staring at the wall of the Elder's Den can tolerate."

Otterwhisker settled onto her haunches beside Lilyriver, stretching her forepaws out before tucking them beneath her chest."Missing your kits already?" As someone who had sucessfully raised seven kittens for RiverClan and would have more if possible, Otterwhisker huffed good naturally. Starclan, at times she viewed all her Clan her children.

I am shaped by the trials I refuse to surrender to.

༄༅:･ﾟ 🕊 ･ﾟ:༅༅༄

Lilyriver's ears perked at the sound of approaching paws almost instinctively. She had been so active and alert while in the nursery that the habit must have grown on her. But with a deep sigh, she turned to face Otterwhisker. "Something like that." She answered, somewhat vaguely as she cleaned her paws.

"Surely you miss yours, they visit pretty frequently from what it always seemed." She added, there wasn't a lot of time where she and Otterwhisker got to just talk. But it wasn't foreign concept for them to get along, at least from recent memory. She recalled the chocolate mink being one of the first to know of her litter when she found out the information. Clamsneeze also on that high pedestal. 

Her long white fur almost seemed a pale blue in the soft blue and white light of silverpelt. Night was usually when Lilyriver felt the most calm anyway, it was quiet for the most part and nothing really happened that would cause any worry, if she had some in the first place. "Glad to see the den hasn't changed to say the least. Happy to have some apprentice to pick out your ticks?" she chirped with a mischievous flick of her tail. It wasn't lost on her that Skypaw had overcompensated for... something by being doting, however. She would talk to her about that.

What I dream, the day might send. Just around the riverbend.

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Otterwhisker's whiskers twitched at the question before her muzzle twisted in exaggurated offence. Just as quickly though her eyes narrowed with equal mirth turning her head towards Lilyriver. "Once! Perhaps twice." She corrected. "And I manage well enough." She lifted one paw and inspected it with great seriousness, flexing her toes before setting.

"I may be old, but not helpless. I can still reach my own ticks. Nevermind if my joints complain about it." Her gaze drifted toward the apprentice den again, and her expression softened somewhat at remembering what her gaggle of apprentices had done to the Elder's Den once they became of age. She still saw much of them. Boon of having a large family.

Otterwhisker gave a small, satisfied purr. "Merryaster visits the most but I wouldn't say she's doting. She just likes the company. Never seems like a lonely moment, with any of them. Having some apprentices in the den makes it more lively, though."

I am shaped by the trials I refuse to surrender to.

༄༅:･ﾟ 🕊 ･ﾟ:༅༅༄

Lilyriver's body shifted comfortably as Otterwhisker spoke, she was Lilyriver's senior, but not by much, they'd grown up around each other for the most part and Otterwhisker had always been somewhere around when Lilyriver needed someone to talk to, should she feel like it was important enough to talk about.

She let out a snort of laughter at the response Otterwhisker made about ticks and stretched out her front paws, contrasting Otterwhisker's folded ones. "I'll bet best prey that Skypaw will offer to try and fix everything that gets stuck un your fur. She's the gracious and generous type." she purred as she spoke and thought of her kits, a gentle humming that warmed her chest. Now that her kits were grown, she was starting to feel her age catch up to her, if the eye injury hadn't sent her to the elders' den, she'd be due to go anytime soon. How old was she now? Sixty something moons? Where did the time fly off to?

"You'll be a well looked after cat, Otterwhisker. You did raise half of the warriors' den after all." She hummed, eyes narrowing with a similar mirth that matched her purr. "Skypaw and Galepaw have fine mentors, don't you think?" She chirped, almost teasing the fellow elder, but there was something genuine in her eyes too, perhaps the perfect mix of things.

What I dream, the day might send. Just around the riverbend.

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At the mention of Skypaw fixing everything that dared to become caught in Otterwhisker's fur, she gave a doubtful hum. "Skypaw might, but she could just as easily be distracted by a dozen other things."

There was a certain fondness in Otterwhisker's expression at the thought of being well looked after even if, in practice, she wouldn't enjoy being doted on, but it was quickly replaced by a slightly skeptical look at Lilyriver's final question. Her dark eyebrows narrowed with some mirth. "Fine mentors?" She repeated, testing the language.

"You're asking me that about my own daughter, you know. Coldstar too. I should hope you aren't asking because you have some reason to doubt either of them." Absent from real accusation and only a teasing sort of suspicion of a cat who knew how to turn a question around on somecat.

"Certainly they have fine mentors. Perhaps the best. Could you have imagined any other cat mentoring them instead?" She smiled over at her, her tail giving a half flick as she began to lick her shoulder fur down.

I am shaped by the trials I refuse to surrender to.

༄༅:･ﾟ 🕊 ･ﾟ:༅༅༄

Lilyriver's ear twitched "I wouldn't have picked better if I had been leader." She stated, thinking that Otterwhisker deserved to know that she was in no state, nor position to appose the choices of Coldstar himself. The assignment of Galepaw to the leader himself was an interesting choice within itself, but she knew it was not a bad one. "Just a dry attempt at some idle chatter I suppose." She added to herself before tucking her paws under the white fur of her chest.

Her icy blue eyes flicked around the camp, she had remembered it when she was an apprentice, back when she wasn't even thinking about kits, an unscarred, untrained little kit herself. Eager and ready to face anything that came at her, which was eventually... Myrtlemist, and the scar over her eye. It wasn't an eventful life, but it was one she wouldn't change. Sure there was grief and loss, but that is a part of life, even the young warriors and her own kits had lost in their lifetime, they will lose again, and again. She just hoped they would find ways to handle it like she had.

Lilyriver then let out another sigh as she glanced up at the glittering coat of Silverpelt. "I guess that'd be it for me then? I was risking a lot to have Skypaw and Galepaw now. I've served as a warrior enough. I think that's it. Stories and entertaining kits ahead. Got any good ones Otterwhisker?" She tilted her head to the chocolate she-cat with a tilt of her head. "Stories, I mean."

What I dream, the day might send. Just around the riverbend.

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Otterwhisker paused in the middle of grooming her shoulder, her teal eyes shifting thoughtfully toward Lilyriver. Stories? At this hour? A mischievous glint crept into her eyes as she tucked her paws beneath herself, clearly settling in for a bit of reminiscing.

"I suspect kits might enjoy the ones with a little more mischief in them but I have one or two you might appreciate." She chuckled, shaking her head as earlier parts of the conversation worked its way into her tale. Recalled and somewhat improvised by the warm love of the river in her heart. "There was once a little clam who lived in the river shallows. Now... this little clam was rather peculiar in what...every time someone swam too close or brushed against its legs, it would curl up tight. It was convinced that the world was full of dangers and that the safest thing to do was shut everything dangerous out."

She made no matter to be animate; there was no gaggle of expectant young faces staring up at her, but even still, her voice fluctuated like the tide in her telling.

"As the seasons passed, the clam grew thick, sturdy shell around it. Nothing could crack it - hard as rock, and no current could carry it downstream! But...when the other creatures; the worm-tails, the blue gill, and the trout swam together exploring the river, the clam remained tight and tucked away in that same spot he'd always been. His shell was the envy of the riverbed! All the protection he could ever need..."

She cleared her throat before giving her dark leg a singular swipe of her tongue, allowing a pause that would have certainly been alloted for kittish questions.

I am shaped by the trials I refuse to surrender to.

༄༅:･ﾟ 🕊 ･ﾟ:༅༅༄

Lilyriver laid her head against the tops of her paws, glancing at the thinning fur at her paws, the pink pads grown soft after the rest that she had been given after her warrior duties. But still, she perked her ears as she seemed unusually attentive to Otterwhisker's story, the theatrical pause would have given time for kit questions, but Lilyriver wasn't a kit anymore, there were no questions she could ask.

She curled her tail gently around her snow white pelt and opened her good eye, moving her head to look over at Otterwhisker, of whom was sat at her blind side. "Go on." She meowed with a smile, ears still perked with a little more youthful interest than she would let on.

With a few tentative rasps of her tongue over her long fur, Lilyriver prepared to listen just as attentively to the story that Otterwhisker wished to unravel to her. The story she had asked for. Perhaps, like with kits, it may help her get to sleep, even if it was in the middle of the camp floor. But she was still curious about where the story would go.

What I dream, the day might send. Just around the riverbend.

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Otterwhisker's tail flicked against the ground as she gave a tiny, knowing grin. Of course Lilyriver was no kit, but she played the part of attentive listener well. The old she-cat obliged her.

"It was one of those days when a young bluegill stopped beside it and asked why it never came out to enjoy the river and the clam simply told it that it had everything it needed! So the bluegill asked again the next day...and the day after. But the clam's words never changed. And eventually the bluegill stopped visiting altogether."

A note in her voice changed, continuing softly. "And so...the clam lived on. Safe and sound - shell and all - but not a single friend to share the river with until it grew so hard and so tight that it became a rock in the riverbed."

Sighing she looked over her towards her partner with a flick of her dark ear. "The moral...of course, is that a shell might keep you safe but it won't keep you company. Everyone should open themselves up now and again." Every good story should have a lesson, even if she could have changed the story so that the clam eventually enjoyed the occassional visit.

"What do you think, Lilyriver?"

I am shaped by the trials I refuse to surrender to.

༄༅:･ﾟ 🕊 ･ﾟ:༅༅༄

Lilyriver lifted her chin from her paws as Otterwhisker finished up her story, giving an attentive blink of her eye as the story came to a close and the morel was shared. Ah, right, not all of them needed to be necessarily entertaining to mean something. It was probably more entertaining to a kit if anything else.

"I think I know of some cats that could benefit from it." She chuckled dryly with a flick of her tail, although there was humor in her gaze. It wasn't uncommon for Lilyriver to talk about something such as a story, she's argue she was slowly reaching the peak of her performance regardless of age. perhaps she was already well past it. But with a relaxed roll of her shoulders, Lilyriver let a smile peek out from under the gruff. "It's a good story, Otterwhisker." She confirmed.

To Lilyriver, it had felt so long since she got her scar, and it was a while ago, the cat that gave it to her was long dead now. Enough for Lilyriver to not be bothered to think about her much anymore. At least absently anyway. "You've got a knack for tales. Maybe you could catch up to Tangleloon one day." She joked, warmer this time with a playful flick of her tail. "I know some kits that would enjoy it."