A yawn broke the quiet night, a pastel tabby bearily looked at the wall before shoving himself up. He had smoked a little after he woke, and he was sluggish, "so sleepy..." he murmured as he stumbled out into the cold air. His fur already began to chill even more and was already no longer melting. His breath smelled vaguely of sugar and smoke as he huffed breath after breath as he staggered to a beach. He flopped down, laying on his side, sweeping his tail over his stomach as he looked up at the stars and listened to the rolling waves.

"Keeping my paws in place is harder than I thought..." he breathed out to stars, "I know that the molly I left behind understood and did not mind I was a wanderer. She knew I would not stay, and I tried." Sherbet's voice was scratchy and watery, "I wandered to find a home, even leaving my siblings...we all left but I was the one who left first..."

"My paws feel warm," he murmured as he looked at the ocean waves rolling ever so slightly over his paws, he hadn't noticed the waves had gotten further up. He was still learning about the ocean and how everything worked. It was so overwhelming, but this was the one place where he's been able to curb the wandering of his paws. He was sick of wandering, always moving.

He wanted a home.

Maybe the discens should have been sleeping. But she just couldn't. Something gripped her with a gentle but authoritative hold and she was unable to get comfortable. She was thinking of her mom and dad - where were they? The hurricane seemed so far away yet so close as she stood from her little den, hearing someone shuffling out of camp.

Blinking away the darkness, she began to follow Sherbet. She took a stare toward the stars, pointing out constellations in her head. When she first arrived in camp so many looked to the stars for guidance.

She hadn't realized she stopped until she heard him speak. Drift blinked, but neared him before speaking herself. "Maybe the warm love of everyone in Palm Glades is warming your paws?" She chuckled slightly, going to sit beside him.

She stared at the ocean before speaking in a softer tone, "I have a hard time looking at the ocean, now. I mean, it's pretty, but it's a.. well, its a bitch."

"Speech"

The tabby giggled softly at that, "I don't really know a lot of you yet, but it still makes me feel warm and fuzzy to hear it." he murmured. He pushed himself up onto his belly and tucked his paws underneath his chest. Sherbet's green eyes gazing up at the stars, "It really is a bitch, maybe not in the sameway for me and you, but it represents different hardships that don't just disappear overnight." A tune bubbled in this throat, but he snuffed it down, "I remember hearing somewhere that sometimes, to get stronger, you have to face your fear head-on. It doesn't have to be now, or anytime soon, but one day...you will conquer it."

Sherbet shivered despite being naturally cold, as he recalled something, "The ocean reminds me too much of sheer cliffs as huge rocks tumble down. I would wish upon anything that you never had to deal with what you did. No one your age should go through something like that hurricane." He had heard from wandering around camp how Drifting showed up, "Being surrounded by the ocean must be hard since then, huh?"

Drift gently shook her head to his words. Yes, the hurricane was bad, and even now she would still get nightmares, "But the hurricane isn't what makes me see the ocean with a grain of salt." She huffed, remembering the talk of what happened to Medusa.

"Medusa nearly drowned. I wasn't there when it happened, but for the days after it everyone seemed to talk about it." like it was a form of gossip. God, they even thought it was starclan's way of saying she didn't belong. Tough shit, star-cats. She belongs and so does everyone else who finds the glades a home.

"Now that Medusa has died and came back, it's not as bad, but I can't step into water deeper than I am tall."

"Speech"

"I understand." Sherbet hummed, "I may not say why now, but I understand." He looked up at the stars, "I noticed you two were close. I'm glad you have that."

Sherbet swept his tail up and laid it next to his front paws so he could dust some sand off of him. He was melting a little due to waves washing over his paws, "If you don't mind, could you tell me about some of the constellations? I don't know very many of them. Where I was born, you could not see them in the sky during night or day. I barely knew which way I was going on my way here." The cold tabby breathed out, seeing his breath billow into the air, "I hear you know a lot about them." A soft grin flitted on his features, his tail swept out as if to curl around the raptor but thought otherwise as he is very cold; he didn't want to cold-shock Drifting.

Truth be told, Rhinestone had never really been much of a wanderer, all things considered. The furthest he had ever strayed from the Palm Glades was into Typhoon territory, and even that had only been for raids. Outside of that, the legate very much preferred to stay at home, not enjoying the feeling of being in unfamiliar territory. It had been awful when he had died, forced into a new body and in lands that he had no idea how to traverse. To make things all the more terrible, the serval's new form had only barely functioning eyes, making it even harder for him to eventually stumble back into Palm's territory. In spite of this, he had made it back, and he had no intention of leaving again for any extended period of time. He wasn't even sure that he was going to go and hand out his own invitations for the event that the Glades would hopefully be hosting once everything settled once again. If no one else volunteered, then he would, obviously, but if he didn't need to go anywhere, he preferred to stay home, in the place where he had been born, and would probably end up dying.

Sherbet was certainly an interesting new addition to that home, but Rhinestone found himself glad that the other was around. He enjoyed the male's mellow presence, and even though the other's very existence sort of confused him, Rhine was far too polite to question about it too much. Upon initially seeing Sherbet and Drifting talking on the beach, the feline had temporarily hesitated, unsure if he wanted to interrupt their conversation. However, after seeing how relaxed they both seemed to be, he took a deep breath inwards and moved over, waving his short tail in greeting, "Hello there, you two." The ice cold male's question about constellations caused Rhinestone's ears to perk up, and he chuckled casually before speaking, "Constellations? You're definitely right in asking Drifting about them. I never learned anything about the constellations until very recently. I was always taught that they were cats up there in the sky..." Rhine allowed his gaze to drift upwards, frowning slightly as he inspected the cluttered sky. It was slightly hard to let go of his old belief in Starclan, but it was also even harder to think that the flashes of light above represented felines long passed.

She beamed, looking to the sky and instantly noting out the most notable constellation piece, Orion's belt. She raised a claw to point at it before Rhine arrived, and she looked at him with a prideful glow in her eyes. "I can't help but love the stars. The constellations can be so complex and yet also really simple. Look where I'm pointing," She raised her claw toward the three stars in a straight line. "That's Orion's belt. From there, it's easy... sorta- to pick out the rest of it." Her claw drifted toward the red star above the belt. "That star is the most noticeable one." She lowered her claw and let out a sigh as she fell back, legs sticking out in the air as she kept looking at the stars.

"Speech"

Sherbet lazily waved his tail in greeting to Rhine, "Evening? Or rather morning." His green eyes followed Drifiting's claw, memorizing where the constellation is, "I never really thought much of the stars, they've always been there so why question them?" He hummed as he pondered the last bit of serval's words, "Cats in the stars? I could get behind that, we never quite know anything until we experience it ourselves. Who knows until it is our turn to truly expire." The ice cold tabby sighed, his breath like smoke in the cold night, "I grew up thinking of wandering spirits, peaceful and vengeful. Those who are peaceful stay and try to watch over their loved ones best they can. Vengeful ones stay and cause havoc, they torment those they believe wronged them."

Sherbet's tail twitched uncomfortably, as he questioned Drifting, "Orion's Belt...How are they named? It seems like you wouldn't just name a swath of stars that without a reason."

Rhine couldn't help but feel a glow of pride in his chest as he listened to Drifting, glad that the young discens seemed as though she was feeling happier these days. Not that he hadn't been able to understand her former anguish – things in her life had grown so complicated so quickly, after all – but he was glad to see her free of it. He nodded along with her words, before his ears perked up as Sherbet began to speak about the afterlife, the legate's interest piqued. He slowly nodded, saying softly as his short tail flicked back and forth behind him, "That's an interesting way of looking at things. Truthfully, I'm not sure what exactly it is that I believe anymore. As I said, I used to believe in the cats living up within the stars, but... that changed." The serval then briefly closed his dark black eyes, a sigh leaving him as he lowered his head. The cold betrayal of Starclan still left scars behind in his mind, even if they had faded somewhat.