Waterlogged Dreams {Open}

[cobalt]

I would rather be wrong
Than live in the shadows of your sun
My mind is open wide
And now I'm ready to start

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The sun woke the tom painfully early, orange rays piercing the humid air. When he woke, he was dripping with rage and grief and fear yet again. But mostly, he was just dripping with water. Vireobreeze rolled out of the shallow puddle he had likely squirmed into in his sleep, his yellow-green eyes still half-closed and blinking rapidly against tiny rivulets of clear liquid. He sleepily let his tongue hang under the tiny stream for a moment, not really thinking as he allowed the warm water to run down his throat. His mind was still blank, his eyes still misty with dreams, and he was still quite confused as to why he was out of camp, lying in a puddle instead of his nest, drinking the water that was running between his ears. He let his blurred gaze drift to the pointed gray-blue appendages, watching thoughtlessly as he flicked them. His brain then registered that he was still tired, and the warrior started to drift back into soothing sleep.

The tom snapped awake when his head hit the water again, this time sitting straight up in shock. He instinctively looked around in his confusion, claws unsheathing automatically, before remembering where he was and why in the world he was there. That warm, dry nest that he was supposed to be in was now waterlogged and hopeless. Everything he knew had been taken by that pure, clear liquid. Only his sodden, hopeless clan, his family, remained, and they were forced to leave the wondrous lands that they knew so well in favor of this unknown, dryer ground. Vertigoclan's land. He shook his head, flinging water against a thick pine. The camp had been too crowded and Vireobreeze had volunteered to sleep outside of the camp with a group of several cats, were sleeping nearby or had already left for the day. Stupid puddle. Stupid Vertigoclan. Stupid Vireobreeze! Why the heck didn't you leave it to the others to roll into random puddles?

His calculating green gaze swept across the ground, finding the remains of the nest he had fallen asleep in. It wasn't much, just a little moss and bracken over the bed of dry needles that covered the earth. It was really no wonder he had rolled the short distance to that idiotic puddle. Nonetheless, the Tempestclan tom sat back in it and began to rasp his tongue over the dry pineneedles sticking to his wet fur. Everything just seemed...surreal. He was so unsure of everything right now. He never had any really strong connections in his normal life, but now even what little piece of safety and belonging he had found was gone. Like my very being is waterlogged, he thought. He wasn't even sure whether he was truly hopeless or just completely numb.

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Now I'm ready to start
My mind is open wide
Now I'm ready to start
Not sure you'll open the door
And step out into the dark

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[lily ♫]

It bothered him, all of these cats on his territory, running rampant. But still, Reflectedrain was thankful that his own home hadn't been destroyed. Staying in camp was nearly unbearable - sick, injured, and starving cats lined the dens and the clearing, the constant buzz of hushed conversations and the stench of fear imminating from nearly everyone of them was enough to drive him to madness. He'd barely been able to sleep in his den the night before, thoughts of being attacked or his own land being flooded making him into an insomniac. Finally, the VertigoClan tom had drifted off, only to awaken earlier than the tabby tom would have liked to.

And so, he stalked out of camp as quietly as he could, the feeling of being watched increasing as he made his way out of camp. 'They're hungry, all of them. And I can't provide for all of them. I'm still bound to my own Clan, aren't I?' His thoughts swirled in his head, a pounding ache beginning to resonate from deep within it. Frowning and looking quite displeased, the tom took to the pine forest like wildfire, though with all of the rain dampening the ground and everything around them, a wildfire would have been highly unlikely.

Shaking his head, his emerald flecked cerulean gaze caught on a small group of cats sleeping just outside the entrance to camp. A few had already woken up, but one, a gray and white tom bearing the stench of TempestClan, caught Reflectedrain's attention. His head was wet, his fur spiked up in several different directions, giving him a strange appearance. Cocking his head to the side, the young warrior's expression remained neutral, his eyes an average width, as he spoke to the other tom. "You didn't have to sleep in a puddle, y'know." He remarked, half-joking, but then noticed the untidy nest nearby. Frowning, Reflectedrain took a few steps closer to it, prodding the thin pile of and moss where it lay just on top of the needles with a forepaw back together before turning back to the tom.

"We've got some nicer things to make nests out of, if you want. Not even we're always accustomed to the needles." He admitted, raising his paw up and showing the other tom the scar on his roughened paw pad from where a needle had lodged itself into the infected surface just a few moons prior to the flooding. "All the water doesn't help, either. Softens 'em up, actually. So, since you and your clanmates, CelestialClan, and especially ZephyrClan need to be careful where you step." The tom warned, stepping away from the TempestClan tom and sitting down, his tail tip twitching as it laid neatly on the ground behind him. "I'm Reflectedrain, by the way." The VertigoClan tom introduced himself to the gray and white one, dipping his head respectfully before watching the tom as he stood nearby.