TAGS \\ "YOU'RE NO LONGER LAUGHING, I'M NOT DROWNING FAST ENOUGH" ─ the night is very unfamiliar to this gentle, cautious soul. it is the very fear of the unknown manifested, and it's hold is deep on a slumbering camp. to be quite honest, the aversion to cold shadows and cobwebby corners shouldn't be as strange of a concept to most, as it tends to be. but maybe that's just personal preference. after all, he is sunflowerdawn; the very name is built upon the imagery of the sun's light and warmth. and just that is what sunshine's rays incarnate misses at the moment - the feeling of the sun. on his back, underneath his toes, washing over angular features. to be quite honest, sunflowers still doesn't know what had possessed him to stumble upon darkclan's door with his child, probably not yet old enough to have been weaned, in his jaws. it's cold and dark down here in this cave system, definetly not ideal for any small child to grow up in. spending the rest of his life spelunking was not what sunny had quite envisioned during apprenticehood, but he doesn't know if he can say the same for tempestkit - and he doesn't really want to ask, either.
speaking of that little girl, she'll grow up in this dank underground, mostly away from the sun and all the warmth and kindness it has to offer. oh, it's not as if either of them are trapped down here or anything - far from it, actually. sunny simply can't see the appeal in hiding away under a cloak of shadows and buried, quite literally, underground. but maybe it's better to stay mostly where you know everything is, where you know nothing can go wrong. and maybe the sense of curiosity of what, exactly, could be out there has taken to his daughter, captivated gentle mind and weak impulse decision. because when the man comes to, his little girl is nowhere in sight.
don't panic springs into the already erratic thought process, and adrenaline floods the limbs, mind until sunflowers is wide awake, shaking off clinging snatches of sleep. assumptions of tempestkit's whereabouts are already popping into his head, ranging from reasonable (she's gotten up to get away from how crowded it is, i just overslept) to completely outrageous (she's been snatched up by a wild animal). this is his daughter, the one and only person in this day and age who sunflowerdawn would willingly sacrifice himself for without a second thought. he's swallowing down a lump of worry in his throat and popping his head, forepaws out of the den he inhabits when he hears it - a squeak of surprise. easily brushed aside in the subconscious of others, unnoticed, but not to the worried sunshine father. olive greens search, casting a panicked gaze over the cave walls, little water stains, moonlight drifting through to rest at the floor. then at last do they land upon the overturned freshkill pile, and, at it's foot, his child, looking more and more disappointed by the second.
the man allows himself a tentative sigh; "there you are" is breathed on soft lilt and supple whispers. he's worried for nothing. she is fine, after all. and, upon soft paws of cream and dust, the gentle soul finds his way to tempestkit's side, gentle green gaze glued on the small frame of his daughter. "i guess you felt like tonight was a good night to slip away, huh?" he asks, calmly, not a hint of anger in naturally neutral tone. "mm, you... alright here? falling into a pile of dead animals isn't really my idea of 'fun'." sunflowers snorts, acknowledging his own joke as some level of amusing. "need some help?" in some gesture of kindness, the man will outstretch a paw, attempting to help pull tempestkit back up to her feet without having to bend down and grab her by the scruff.
