Roleplay

Ashwing was running on a short nap, back pressed to the nest Poppythorn was laying in, sharing soft words with the she-cat about nearly anything he could think of. He reasoned with himself that it was for Poppythorn's own sake and sanity, but he knew it was quell his own sudden feelings of unease.

On the one hand, he was glad Twigstar was warm and welcoming of Aspenkit, and had no doubts that he would take care of Poppythorn until she left for home. On the other, he had to go home soon and leave his friend behind in this odd, rocky home where she would be subject to scrutiny by those who did not share in their leader's friendly demeanor. He really wanted to try convincing Poppythorn in coming home with her kit, but knew it was both a fruitless argument and completely out of the question. He didn't want Aspenkit, or any kit, to witness something so gruesome.

It might be better this way, he thought as he watched Aspenkit squirm around, blind and deaf and so, so small. Everyone deserves somewhere safe to call home.

He was brought out of his thoughts at Oakshadow's presence, eyes narrowing and tail lashing at his words. "All due respect, but I'm sure whatever it is you speak of can be discussed in my presence." Besides, if Oakshadow was going to be here, then Ashwing had to be, too.

---

Sleep did not come easy for the bronze she-cat last night.

Everything that had happened felt too surreal, like a bad dream that had gone too deep way too fast. If it not for the slight throb from her tended and healing wounds, Dustrunner would have believed it really was a dream.

But the slight ache that she felt as she stood said otherwise, and it took a few deep breathes to set her mind straight.

You're fine, you're fine. They're fine. Everything...will be fine.

Taking a few more heartbeats to collect herself, Dustrunner made her way outside carefully, mindful of her still sleeping Clanmates (what was left of them). Emerging from the den, the leaf-fall sun was still just as bright and warm, and it felt like a soft caress on Dustrunner's fur; it was as if Starclan witnessed all that had happened, and forgave them for it. A trick, they seemed to say, a sleight of hand that used loyalty to obscure the truth.

Even under their forgiving gaze, Dustrunner felt shame prickle down her spine.

She spotted Rustfur in the clearing and made her way to greet him. "Good morning, Rustfur!" She called, bringing her A-game to the field. No matter what she felt, Dustrunner must put her Clan first. They all had to support each other in moving forward, and maybe down the road they would begin to forgive themselves. "How are you?"

---

Twigstar emerged from his den with a stretch, purring gently as Mudclaw brushed past him to do his own rounds. As he left, Twigstar noticed Jasminepaw coming to the entrance and greeted her good morning.

"Where are you heading off to?" He purred, turning his gaze to look around the camp, "And where is Crystalgleam? I might have missed her when everyone came back last night. I'd like to have you both present with Stormwind and discuss what happened last night."

Rustfur | DawnClan | Dustrunner

Rustfur picked his head up and managed a small smile as Dustrunner ran over- ran, because she was incapable of walking anywhere- and his turn of thought made him purr.
"Good morning," he mewed pleasantly, sitting himself down, and unobtrusively studying the brightening glint in her amber eyes. She had been so quiet last night. It was almost unnerving, but Rustfur couldn't blame her.
It occurred to them that though he had not been there, maybe it was possible for him buoy his Clanmates. He knew the general details of what had gone down last night, and judging only from his Clanmates' reactions and the wounds on the dead, he knew it had been straight out of a nightmare.
As he tried to purr, he cast her sidelong looks every now and then, wondering how to broach the subject on his mind. Because he wanted to speak about, well, a delicate topic- actually, he wanted to speak to everyone individually in the Clan, because that battle had hit them all hard and... Well, he wanted to help.
And he'd chosen Dustrunner first because frankly, she was the least likely to bite his head off. Plus she walked- oh, sorry, ran- right up to him.
Rustfur smiled slightly and swallowed, nerves suddenly sparking to life to tickle his stomach.
What if she decided to shut him down? Great StarClan, what if she started crying?
StarClan, no.
Crying females were not at all Rustfur's area of expertise.
But he couldn't just sit here and talk to her like he didn't know something was wrong.
"Dustrunner... Uh. How're you, um, doing?"
Oh, fabulous, Rustfur. So eloquent.
He winced, shifting awkwardly from paw-to-paw, and tried to explain himself, "It's just that you were very quiet last night, and it was...freakishly silent without your chatter, in all honesty. Like, weirdly quiet, you know? I mean," he shrugged, a heat rushing under his pelt. "Not that you could know, obviously, because you...can't talk to yourself. Or I suppose you could, but why would-" He sighed and cut himself off, cheeks red. "Not that that's the point."
He shot her a small smile, hoping he didn't sound as painfully awkward as he thought he did, and continued cautiously, "I know the battle last night was..."
He trailed off, unable to think of the right adjective to describe it, and instead chose to brush his fur reassuringly against hers to remind her that it was just him, just Rustfur, her playmate from kithood and partner-in-crime from apprenticeship.

Jasminepaw | Skyclan | Twigstar

He did what?
Jasminepaw whipped around.
You did what?
She swelled alarmingly like a bullfrog.
"Twigstar," she began, forcing her voice to sound calm. "I like you very much. I also think you're a fantastic leader. But," She puffed herself up, eyes flashing, "with that in mind, and with all due respect, how could you possibly forget Crystalgleam?"

Bone/Bane|sky|eachother, Deathwhisper, hollyeyes, Willowstar\

Bone awoke before her sister, blinking open her eyes. Instantly she remembered the events of the previous night and looked in the general direction of the skyclan camp. "Bane, wake up." she meowed quietly.

Her sister laid silently for a second, and lifted her head, eyes still half closed. "Hmm? Oh, good morning bone. Are you ready to train? I'm sure Twigstar can train us today." she meowed. her sister sighed. "Bane, we're not home, remember?" she asked.

Bane didn't remember. "Yeah, we are. we just fell asleep in a weird place." Bone shook her head. "yeah if a weird place means in another clans territory. bane, we missed the fight. We couldn't protect Twigstar, and we fell asleep in another clans territory!" she mewed.

Bane shook herself awake. "Then let's go home! Bye Hollybutt, bye deathwhisper, bye Willowstar!" She meows loudly enough to wake Fallingstars body from the depths of the quicksand. "Come on Bone, let's go home." she purrs and walks out of the duskclan camp, Bone scrabbling along to follow.


Mousethunder|soon to be dawn|Lynxfang

Mousethunder blinked her eyes awake to find she wasn't near the grave she had been digging. "Huh?" she lifted her head, groggily looking around, only to realize she was in the elders' den. As she looked around, she realized she was alone.

But despite this, she pulled herself to her feet and began walking outside, looking around to see if anyone else was awake. Surely they were. "hello?" she asked, looking around. Due to sleep-deprived eyes, she didn't see anyone else in camp.

Maplebush|Sky|Marshwater, Lightkit, foxkit

Maplebush awoke to hear her kits shuffling around. "You're awake. Good morning!" she meowed quietly, lifting her head to smell for any familiar scents. "Marshwater?" she called out and laid her head down beside her kits.

Willowstar|dusk|Hollyeyes, deathwhisper.

Willowstar was startled awake by the sound of the twin skyclan apprentices awakening. "Oh! Goodbye." she meowed, only to realize what the had just said. She chuckled a bit. her sides ached from the battle, and the laughing only made them hurt more, but she didn't mind.

"Good morning Hollyeyes, good morning deathwhisper." she purred, lifting her head. She glanced around camp, looking sadly at the medicine den where she was sure many cats were injured, and slowly pushed herself up. her paws quietly tapped on the ground as she padded to the medicine den to check on her clan. "hey, is everyone in here doing ok?" she asked, worried.

Lionpaw|dawn|Kinda everyone that he happens to walk past

Lionpaw woke up in his own medicine den, shocked. "wait what how did I even here?" he questioned, only to not care a second later. "good morning, cidermoon, Good morning greypaw." he whispers without checking to see if they were there.

Stretching for a second, he padded out of the medicine den calmly. "Good morning." he meowed to pretty much anyone he passed, heading to the leaders' den, where he was sure Fallingstar would be peacefully discussing the night with Dogeye.

Deathwhisper | Dusk Clan | None

Destruction everywhere-

The scent of rot overwhelming senses-

Stop, stop! Please-Stop hurting me! Wait!-



Kill me you freak, do it. I know you want to you savage…



I’m sorry my son … I’m sorry for the world I’ve left you in.

---

And then he was back where he can hazily remember the last place he was at before losing conciousness from exhaustion and much needed rest requested by his body. The alarming realistic voice of Adderstrike making him shake violently for a few brief moments before calming down. It was just a dream … just a dream. Deathwhisper didn’t even know how his mind could’ve still remember and used the voice of a mother he only heard once or twice. For a moment, he nearly believed that maybe the other had visited him in a dream but dismissed the thought in the next. It can’t be possible … Most likely just his mind playing one of its annoying games with it again.

As the feeling of rest slowly faded away, a thought dashed across his head, Wasn’t I thinking I should be sitting in vigil last night … But as he tried to stand up the deputy was quickly reminded of exactly why he didn’t do that and what caused him to sleep so easily as well. It was no longer bleeding, but for the opening to close will take longer than a single night. Although, Hollyeyes probably knew more about how injuries work than he did. If Star Clan’s on his side maybe he doesn’t even need some rest: unlikely, but still hopeful. Although, its starting to feel like Star Clan’s just not there anymore after Mu and all that … He shuddered a little at the thought, worry starting to rise again in his chest as he glanced around to see if Willowstar is awake of if Hollyeyes is around.

Instead he was met with two cats with quite the odd markings greeting them goodbye and out of manners he puffed, “Farewell.” A hint of a smile was on his face, but it faded back into the frown when he saw Willowstar, reminding the deputy of their current situation. Standing up with some effort and a couple of wobbles, he said, “Wait Willowstar! Once you’re done with checking on the clans, “ As I failed to do because I’m weak …, “We need to talk about what happened. There’s much to be discussed, either here or somewhere else if you prefer.”

---

Lynxfang | Dawn Clan | No one in particular

The entire time the sun was gone, after bringing Mousethunder back she went straight to her nest and didn’t appear back again. She spend the night trying to get some rest and can forget about the entire fight and … Fallingstar- Well that. The large warrior didn’t even want to think about it right now. Lynxfang just wanted to ignore it if only for a few moments but her mind refused to give her mercy. With only herself and no one to talk to and do, the time alone forced her to just rethink and replay the same scene over and over again in her head with no results but unpleasantiness on her face in the morning.

As she padded slowly out into the open, she was slouching a little and her eyes distracted. With no clear destination in mind, she just needed to do something and get her mind off of all the mess that happened.

Crystalgleam| Skyclan | Hollyeyes, Willowstar

Crystalgleam would love to tie her ears together at the twins scream, how they ended up here was a mystery, but the day was so eventful that she could care less now. She only waved her tail to say goodbye and stood up seeing Willowstar padding towards the medicine den. "You know you should really take a long rest today. We tried to heal everyone we found, unfortunately some cats died, but you know about that. The rest is Holleyes work, i checked up on Dawnclan and Skyclan"
she said.

Standing now at the entrance of the medicine den she called for the white tom" Hollyeyes, if you don't need me, then i will go back. The rest of Dawnclan is gone and my clanmates aswell." she then approached Hollyeyes. "Should i ask them to come back?" referring to Ashwing and Poppythorn in a low voice.

Marshwater Foxkit| Skyclan | Maplebush and the kits

Hearing his mate's voice calling him he slowly rised up his head, still groggy from sleeping. "Yeah? Good morning, love" he yawned, rubbing his eyes.

Foxkit woke up as well and gave her mother a little nose kiss. "Morning"she squeaked.

Hollyeyes | DuskClan | Willowstar, Deathwhisper, Crystalgleam (briefly)

”Hey, Hollypaw...” Her white and yellow coat glittered in the sunlight. But her back was turned to him. He was sorting herbs for Gorsefoot outside, since it was rather cold in the den. The light seemed sickly everywhere except around her.

“I’ve been thinking about that house. Do you think there’s still cats trapped inside?”

“Who knows? Maybe the stranger two-legs freed everyone.”

“But what if they didn’t? There’s probably a lot of queens and kits like Mom and us still trapped in there.”

“And a lot more awful cats that bullied Mom and hated her for bringing more cats into the house. As if it was her fault.”

“They were products of their environment, they would be different if they were outside. We were. They don’t deserve what might be happening to them.”

“I don’t want to talk about this anymore. We’re here, Sunpaw, and safe and relatively clean. We don’t have to think about that anymore.”

And then she was fading, fading as more and more cats entered his line of sight and blocked her out and they were covered in grime and urine and feces and the stench was so overpowering-

Hollyeyes awoke to Crystalgleams voice, head snapping upwards. Willowstar has already sprang from her den in the short time that he had been asleep, blast her. And Deathwhisper was similarly looking about ready to defy his wound. Still, everyone else who had survived looked stable enough. And those two strange twins seemed to have left as well, though of course, not without making a point of insulting him.

I want to retaliate but I... honestly don’t even know their names. He thought hazily, too tired to do anything but sigh. He turned back to Crystalgleam, and dipped his head in gratitude.

“Thank you, Crystalgleam. I should be able to handle it from here.” He replied, and paused at her other question. “I need Ashwing back. Poppythorn... it will be up to her.” He said quietly. Then, Willowstar and Deathwhisper- “Deathwhisper, you can get up today, but no hunting or running, am I clear? Don’t strain yourself or I’ll make you come back if you can’t handle that much. And Willowstar...” He swallowed hard. “There are also other things we all need to discuss.”

He was starting to notice things, notice them as he did when he was especially shaken. Their breathing wasn’t synchronized. Willowstar had a stray hair and a half. Deathwhisper’s voice wasn’t an even tone. His nest had 2/3rds of a blade of grass. Why wasn’t it whole? Hollyeyes nervously plucked it out, and, unsure of what to do with it, kept it in his paw.

There were too many things to take in. Mu, Poppythorn, no StarClan. He was praying his sister had either died before the great battle many moons ago, or was still living strong. The medicine cat clenched his jaw, and started replacing the cobwebs on Deathwhisper’s shoulder, and put the sullied ones in a large, conveniently bowl-shaped stone that had similar waste in them. The fresh cobwebs he made sure were all the same size, and as he finished investigating them, he added,

“Willowstar, maybe it would be best to consult with SkyClan... and DawnClan... about our next moves as well.”

Cidermoon | Dawnclan | No one

Cidermoon had woken up rather late, at least by her standards. Once she had woken up, however, her eyes cut briefly towards the entrance of her den before to the nests of Greypaw and Lionpaw. She sat there staring for a few more heartbeats before getting up and limping over towards their stores. She had been up late treating the cats of any wounds that were missed and/or needed some fix up. Then there was the vigil and the...

The sudden crushing weight of failure.

Perhaps it wasn't even destined that Fallingstar would come back. Perhaps she had overestimated the capabilities of a single "rune". But, nevertheless, it still hurt her heart and grip it with icy claws of dread.

Dogeye would be a great leader, she reasoned, then moved to clean up. One thing was for sure, she couldn't wait to hear the full story of what had exactly happened while her and Rustfur were dealing with otherworldly complications.

"I'm heading out to collect some herbs." she started towards her apprentices, whether what they be doing at the moment. "If you want to come, you're free to." and then she started off.

Willowstar|dusk|deathwhisper, hollyeyes, crystalgleam.

Willowstar smiled a bit. "No, I need to make sure my clan is alright, Crystalgleam. Speaking of clans, you should head home. Your clan must be worried about you." she meowed, and looked over at hollyeyes. "of course we will. I plan to speak to Twigstar and whoever is leading The mess that calls itself dawnclan during the gathering." she meowed.

"deathwhisper, of course. Let's talk in my den. here, I'll help you." she meowed, stepping towards her deputy, intending to help him make his way into her den.

Maplebush|sky|marshwater

"Ahh, there you are!" she purred. "Everyone who left yesterday smells so much like the other clans, it was difficult to find you." she meowed. "I... I think I might want to try going outside today." she meowed, turning her head to face him.

Lionpaw|dawn|cidermoon

Lionpaw raced after his mentor, smiling. "I'll come with you!" he meowed, large feet slamming heavily against the ground as his mane flew over his face. he stumbled a bit, rolling into a tree and leapt to his feet. "I was going to ask Dogeye who my mom is, but this seems like a better use of my time." he purred and smiled at his mentor.

he looked around. "I think we should split up and meet back at camp, don't you?" he asked. "wait, what herbs do we need? I forgot to check this morning!"

Deathwhisper | Dusk Clan | Hollyeyes, Willowstar, Crystalgleam

He seemed a little distracted abnormally, not fully focusing on the conversation as he usually would. “No running and hunting, got it.” Deathwhisper was a little annoyed at no one in particular that he can’t do anything much for the upcoming few days but at least he isn’t forced to lay down and not allow to even walk. Not protesting when the Hollyeyes replaced his cobwebs, he jerked his head in agreement and thought out loud, “It’s hard to believe Star Clan really is …” Deathwhisper’s voice trailed off into the silence he exerts normally. He didn’t, no refused to think it might be forever, but the deputy was never one for spreading of false hope. But thinking that their ancestors watchful eyes no longer guarded them makes the atmosphere just seems heavier and more despairing.

When the two conversed, he nodded his head in agreement again, before adding after Willowstar finished, “Dawn Clan will figure it out, most likely being Dogeye becoming the next leader. We need to recover first, so thank you Hollyeyes for your help and do please continue. You too Crystalgleam, in no disrespect by your clan will need you.” His voice regained its even and calm tone once again, but his eyes were still darting around in caution as if someone might attack any moment. Besides that however, he was perfectly still besides leaning on the left side of his body.

Grumbling quietly, “I don’t need help.” He still let Willowstar help him anyways, gently leaning himself on her. “I agree. We need to try and get the normal routines going again.”