birds of a feather -- blazestar

[Orangestar]

This is the second time Blazestar has allowed WindClan refugees into their pines in the last two moons. The second time his heart has been softened against dismissal of the moor-runners. Once Dandelionwish and Daisypaw are settled, and the camp begins to wind down into a tense quiet as if holding collective breaths, Blazestar retreats to his den and his deputy follows. Orangeblossom leans against the entrance of the den, fixing her leader with an impassive brown stare, and flicks her tail.

"So. What happened back there?" She questions simply. She'd seen the strained expression on his face, heard the breath of his daughter's name on the breeze, put two and two together ... but Orangeblossom wanted to hear it from him. Assumption would only get her so far. In the back of her mind, other topics blink in and out like twinkling stars, but she dismisses them in favour of waiting.​

✦ ooc ✦ info

• @BLAZESTAR
• 
  ✦ orangeblossom, deputy of skyclan
  — mentor to eveningpaw
  ✦ 26 moons, she/her
  ✦ fluffy white and ginger cat with brown eyes. torn ear, scarred muzzle, scarred right legs. walks with a limp.
  ✦ bi, single. @ on discord for plots.
  ✦ "speech" — attack in #e08550

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[BLAZESTAR]

Blazestar's body sinks into the familiar worn comfort of his nest, feeling as though he's carried all of Fourtress on his back the past few moons. He needs to sleep, to face the morrow with a fresh outlook, but a shadow darkens the entrance to his den. Sharp brown eyes meet denim as his deputy studies him.

"What happened back there?" Blazestar sighs. He knows Orangeblossom is referring to Dandelionwish... and Daisypaw. The Ragdoll meets her gaze steadily, but it will be obvious to the orange-splashed she-cat that he's weary from the experience still.

"Dandelionwish could prove useful. He was a medicine cat, after all." He begins to knead the moss in his nest as he speaks. "As for the kit..."

A tiny tortie face flashes behind his eyes again, blood seeping from a torn throat, her whispered prayer falling on SkyClan's ears. "Please... don't... cry." His face creases with his sorrow. "I couldn't send her back. Not if there was a chance she could be killed. She's not old enough to fend for herself."

After several heartbeats, the tom says, "I cannot send another child to her death." It's the closest he can get to a confession.​

[ PENNED BY MARQUETTE ]​

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[Orangestar]

He's weary, she can tell in the set of his eyes and the slant of his whiskers. She'd leave him to rest soon, but Orangeblossom has always faced problems head-on and fresh, for better or for worse. She needs to know why he's made this choice, invited exiled WindClanners into their midst again for a chance at a new life. The deputy looms, silent, as he speaks; though she doesn't like it, Blazestar's logic regarding Dandelionwish is sound and she accepts it. With a dry curl of her lip, amusement lights her gaze briefly between Blazestar's words.

"I agree, though Dawnglare won't. Can you imagine him taking advice?" Her question is half rhetorical, unanswered for a beat in favour of explaining his judgement on Daisypaw.

Blazestar's words hang in the air for a long moment, Orangeblossom studying her leader with a calculating gaze. Another child. Blazestar had been a pampered kittypet once upon a time. The sins of his origins wouldn't weigh this heavily on the cream-furred tomcat. There is, however, a more recent event which might. Morningpaw's death had shaken the forest to its roots, forced the Warrior Code into play - divided Blazestar's children between their homes and stripped them of a sister. Questioned each and every one of their loyalties.

Orangeblossom, with the vast majority of her kin and friends in SkyClan, had not been faced with such a moral dilemma. She knows that Blazestar and Little Wolf had known each other before the Clans were formed, with the ThunderClanner following her family to their new home, and that in of itself would have presented issues one way or another. The death of their daughter had only expedited the process.

As a cat whose loyalty was not heart-bound to any cat outside of her own Clan, emigrant twin aside, Orangeblossom would simply not have that issue. The cats around her, and their home in the pines, was all she needed to solidify that trust. She would do everything in her power to preserve that, especially now that she had found closeness with Hailstone, and found trust in Blazestar and his trust in her as his deputy.

After a long moment, a drawn-out silence, Orangeblossom glances behind her to make sure no errant kits were listening in and takes a step into Blazestar's den to speak. She does so, quietly:

"Is this about Morningpaw, then?"

— info

• bonus: prompt 6
• 
  orangeblossom. tags.
  — she/her, skyclan deputy.
  — mentor to eveningpaw.
  — attack in #e08550. uses trees as an integral part of her fighting style.
  — mean enough to note that her thoughts don't reflect my opinions as a writer haha.
  — penned by mercibun; @ me in any official tabbytales discord for plots. :]
  — art by merc!<3
  

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[BLAZESTAR]

"I agree, though Dawnglare won't. Can you imagine him taking advice? Blazestar almost smiles, but it does not meet his eyes. "Perhaps not. Only StarClan could humble that cat, and I think even they would fail."

He can feel Orangeblossom eyeing him, and when he meets her dark eyes, he dreads seeing judgment there -- judgment over accepting these WindClan refugees into their Clan, but also judgment over something deeper.

When she crosses into his den, her voice lowers, and Blazestar tenses. "Is this about Morningpaw, then?"

The Ragdoll bows his head. Some days are better than others, admittedly, when it comes to the family he's lost. Seeing Daisypaw splashed with blood, terror stark in her expression, had thrown him into the recent past, had seized his body and shook him to his roots.

"I feel it will always be about Morningpaw, if I'm honest with you," he says, pain in his voice. "Until you experience that kind of loss... and I pray to StarClan you never do -- you will never understand." His lower jaw trembles, but he does not break. "Losing a Clanmate, a parent, a friend, is heart-breaking. Is hard. But losing your kit..." He closes his eyes. "I'm afraid I will see her face behind every kit's until I join StarClan myself."​

[ PENNED BY MARQUETTE ]​

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