[Battle of the Tribes] Daily Drabbles

[Tiarana]

7/25 - Are you there? - Hollyhock XIV - 105 words (Murkcrow X, Wasp X, Dogrot V)

Now Hollyhock had something else on her mind. Lately, she felt a little funny. Kind of strange. In ways her mother had warned her about. She nosed at her hips thoughtfully.

"Is there someone there...?" She didn't really need to ask. She knew.

Hollyhock wasn't so sure how to feel about this. Maybe they were Bristletail's, maybe they were the result of an idle dalliance in the woods. More pressing, would they be born blind? She suddenly felt very irresponsible.

And, was she really prepared for this? Hollyhock agonized over the situation. Maybe she shouldn't tell Bristletail, but he would probably be happy about it.  

[fluorescein]

oK, TOMORROW AT WORK I'LL FINISH YOU UP.
Let's not count how many that would be  

[phoenix kiss]

s p i r i t u a l
wintershadow | 2 of 5 | 194 words

He is by far not a spiritual type -- or maybe just not in the sense that he sometimes gleans from Wood Spider, as she invokes something that makes her poultices and charms and trinkets actually work. Wintershadow stands silent at the edge of the clearing, standing there in a stupid, helpless sort of silence as he watches her. There is something about her, he thinks; it has to be that she's a legendary. It does feel that there is something listening, like the swamp has condensed itself, like maybe he should expect to see the Crane, with a capital C, walk into the edges of his vision.

When he surprises himself by sighing -- an interminable amount of time has passed, lost to thought -- she is blinking at him. She has crossed the clearing, silently, to smile at him. He bristles for a split second before it turns to chagrin. "It doesn't work the same way for everyone, Wintershadow," she says, patiently (she is always, always patient). "I think you do just fine by wanting to believe."  

[Tiarana]

7/26 - Walls - Hollyhock XV - 144 words (Murkcrow X, Wasp X, Dogrot V)

Babies...Hollyhock had come to dread the idea more and more. She would be trapped, trapped with Bristletail and a bunch of babies. Her babies. Bristletail was not like to let her go until they were grown. It would be months and more before he might even consider seeking out a zikwa. In the meantime, all she could do was suffer to coddle them, little babies more capable than she was, suffocating them even as her mother and her sister suffocated her, because there was nothing else she could do and she knew no other way to love...

Babies. Hollyhock would take the long and dreary days when she could at least leave at any time over the cage of family. And yet, there was an odd sort of joy there. She could not deny that she wanted to meet them, and love them.  

[Blinded By My Silence]

WOW ITS BEEN A WHILE  

[fluorescein]

Wow. It's Saturday  

[phoenix kiss]

k i s s
wintershadow | 3 of 5 | 141 words

He can't think of the last time he'd spent time with anyone. The thought has eluded him for an entire day, a day full of mindless housekeeping that the Vale required. He'd gone weeding with Honey Trap and Sing Out, listening to the two does chatter about this and that, who had interest in who, who'd batted calf eyes at who, and had tuned it out: but the thought remained, around sundown. They'd asked him questions, too -- who had he kissed, or made moon eyes at, recently?

The thought is no one. He doesn't really have any interest. There's the occasional fantasy, sure; a song written about a dark-furred, dark-eyed buck; there is advice given to does about what to say to their paramours; there has been a lack of that in his own life, and he's fine with that.  

[Tiarana]

7/27 - Candy - Wasp XI - 126 words (Murkcrow X, Dogrot V, Hollyhock XV)

The fruit-soaked-in-fermented-fruit-drink had been a rousing success. Wasp smiled to himself and tidied the piles of skins and meat he had just finished separating. Trading tortoiseshells of the stuff for fresh kills was a great idea. He could eat something raw and bloody for a change.

Of course, that much meat had to be dried. It wouldn't be raw and bloody for long. But for a change, his mother had enough meat to char everything she wanted, and he had enough meat to not eat everything she charred for a week at least.

Now Wasp would just have to figure out how to actually cook (or, anyway, prepare) the meat. The vistas of culinary appreciation he had lately reached had not provided him that insight.  

[phoenix kiss]

s o f t
wintershadow | 4 of 5 | 152 words

It has been a long day spent in talks with Bird's Eye View about what to do about the Vale. The tribe is growing, their area expanded -- and in expanding, they'd come across a huge patch of briarthorn, with thorns big enough to pierce skin. It'd been nasty work, and even their biggest caretakers couldn't make anything of it. They'd called in the hunters, too, and none of them had made progress. Ends-the-Chase had come away with a deep scratch down his ribs and an even more belligerent attitude. But now night has come down, and everything is quiet; around him the slow, soft breathing of his tribe measures out the night. Some sleep paired off; some sleep underneath large bushes, or out in the open, and some stand watch at the perimeter. Wintershadow himself sleeps on a large pile of soft, freshly-plucked lamb's ear.

Sometimes being a leader has its perks.  

[Tiarana]

7/28 - Forgotten - Wasp XII - 109 words (Murkcrow X, Dogrot V, Hollyhock XV)

He thought he had forgotten something, but he couldn't for the life of him remember what it was. Wasp frowned and tapped his horns on a tree. Nothing. He got all of the supplies his sister asked for, all of the firewood his mother asked for, pretty little stones for his other mother and his other sister. What could he possibly be missing? Something for Murkcrow? No, that wasn't it. Wasp looked around him, and then he realized the problem. Where had Dear Sweet Turtle gotten to? Wasp looked around. No sign of the little git anywhere. "It was just here," he groaned. "It was following me just fine."  

[fluorescein]

Hoho ho Monday. I am making curry  

[Amorpheous]

Farewell Smile: 2/5

5. Loneliness

Loneliness came with not even knowing yourself. Some kin are capable of being alone without being lonely, but Farewell Smile is not one of those kin. The unfortunate thing was that Farewell Smile also felt her most conflicted when she was with others. Their expectations, or her expectations of their expectations of her, turned her to conflict and confusion.

Perhaps, in that sense, she was better off being alone, but she could only bear that particular pain until she sought to alleviate it and, in the process, turn to a different type of pain. It is for the best though for loneliness is static and she needs to grow.

109 words  

[Tiarana]

7/29 - Forgotten - Wasp XIII - 100 words (Murkcrow X, Dogrot V, Hollyhock XV)

"Have you seen my turtle?" Wasp asked his giggly aunt, when he met her on the fairly well-worn trail down to the family clearing.

"Your turtle?" She asked, giggling at him. "Why would you even be looking for that thing? Let it go, man. Let it go. Ash is probably eating it right now."

"I would, but it has all my stuff!" Wasp frowned and looked down the trail. After months of fending his family away from Dear Sweet Turtle, Wasp had developed a weird sort of attachment to the thing. He wasn't about to admit that to anyone, though.  

[Amorpheous]

Farewell Smile: 3/5

27. Happiness

Her understanding of happiness was fleeting. It came in unbidden smiles drawn from her when she is capable of smiling and it was forgotten the moment those times passed. It was too hard for her grasp and when she asked herself what it felt like to be happy, she could not conjure up the feeling for herself. She is stuck with vague memories and the facsimile of the expression on her face, practiced until it has become ragged with teeth and poorly hidden grimaces.

One day, she hopes that happiness will come easily and true. For now, she practices and while it is fake, it must do for now.

109 words
already rolled 5 so substituting 27  

[fluorescein]

Tuesday