sensitive topics I NEVER WANTED TO SAY GOODBYE — discovery

[LITTLE WOLF]

TW: mentions of death and blood

If there was anyone who loved being a mentor more than any other cat in the world, it was Little Wolf. She found a certain joy in guiding a young cat, in shaping them and molding them to be the best they could be. Not just for the clan, but for themselves as well. Her charge was young Ragwortpaw, a little scatter brained at times but she always had the best of intentions, and the ebony furred warrior believed wholeheartedly that one day, the gray furred she cat would make a fine addition to ThunderClans ranks.

Their training session had been primarily focused on hunting today, and Little Wolf was relishing the warm breeze that ruffled her fur, a sign that green-leaf was finally upon them. She is glad to have the shelter of the trees shade, lest she burn in the pounding sun. How any cat survived the heat while out on the moors she did not know. When Ragwortpaw comes to her and asks if she could take a break from training in order to grab a drink of water she doesn’t think anything of it, she nods and tells her apprentice not to be gone too long and finds a shady spot to lay down and rest while she waits.

It does not take terribly long before Little Wolf starts to wonder where her the gray furred molly had gone. Had she gotten distracted by something? She wonders. It was certainly a possibility. She pushes herself to her paws, determined to go and find the wayward she cat and bring her back so they could resume training.

She does not go far before the smell hits her. The pungent reek of the thunderpath mixed with the acidic stench of blood. For a moment she pauses, trying not to let the worst case scenario cloud her brain and make her panic. Perhaps Ragwortpaw had simply found prey that had been left behind by a monster…

The grass parts and Little Wolf makes her way onto the verge, only to freeze in horror at the sight before her. There, on that hot black surface with her own blood pooling around her lays her apprentice. She lets out a strangled cry and rushes forward, stumbling and not bothering to check to make sure it was safe first. Luckily, the thunderpath was quiet. As she gets closer she sees the thing she had feared the most. It didn’t take a medicine cat to know that her apprentice, her goofy, kind hearted apprentice, had gone to the stars. "Im sorry, I’m so sorry Ragwortpaw" she says, tears streaming down her face and staining her cheeks as she lowers her head to the young girls shoulder and presses her nose to the gray fur she had become so familiar with. "Please. Morningpaw, Graystorm, watch over her…" She knows she should move soon, knows she should get off of the Thunderpath before her life is claimed by a monster as well but her grief keeps her frozen in place. She wants to move her, wants to get her back to camp but she cannot do it alone, and she doesn’t want to leave her here, not like this.
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[Flycatcher]

Flycatcher is on a seperate patrol not far from the thunderpath when Little Wolf's strangled cry reaches his ear. The noise is so sudden that Flycatcher jumps when he hears it. After a moment he blinks and looks in the direction of the sound, noting it seemed to have come from the direction of the thunderpath. The deputy pads cautiously in that direction, all the while a tense feeling growing in his stomach. It was not so long ago that he had heard Moth's pained cries coming from the thunderpath, his sister hunched over the fallen body of a niece he did not know. When he first steps out of a bush near to where Little Wolf and Ragwortpaw are, he thinks he is reliving that moment again, and that this is some cruel dream. It doesn't take him long to realise it is not a haunting dream.

"Ragwortpaw?" He speaks the apprentice's name softly as he edges towards the thunderpath. Flycatcher looks cautiously from side to side before daring to put a paw on its unusual surface. When he approaches, he holds back from getting too close to Little Wolf, letting her have a brief moment to mourn. He is no medicine cat but even he knows Ragwortpaw is gone, her life no doubt snatched by that of a monster. He didn't really know Ragwortpaw that well personally but he could remember when she and her littermates were brought back to camp. He could remember her bright if somewhat scatterbrained personality. He could remember how Roeflame had treated Ragwortpaw as a sister. Oh, Roeflame. The thought of Roeflame makes his heart ache, already knowing how this would wound her emotionally. "Little Wolf, I'm so sorry," Flycatcher says speaking to the black she-cat. He feels bad for interrupting but knows they cannot stay here. "We should move her. She doesn't deserve to stay here on this wretched thunderpath. Ragwortpaw should be brought home...so her clanmates and family can say goodbye."​

 

[ROEFLAME .]

ROEFLAME — break the air to feel the fall.
It hadn’t taken long for the warrior to drift away from the patrol led by Flycatcher, caught sideways by the vague scent of squirrel.
She keeps her due diligence to keep up with the remainder of the patrol, having been scorned one too many times for wandering too far.
Unfortunately, she loses her trail as quickly as she caught it, and turns to sulkily return to whatever Flycatcher had planned for them.
She knows instantly that something is wrong when she emerges from the shrubbery, led to the Thunderpath by Flycatchers scent. After witnessing Graystorms death, the mere thought of seeing another body causes her stomach to churn, she doesn’t even want to see who it was.
It’s only when she sees the familiar lilac of her baby sisters pelt, unmoving on the scalding Thunderpath, does she force herself to look further, heart sinking with every pawstep until the body of Ragwortpaw is in clear view. Something rips free from her throat, a sound she couldn’t describe or even register. Ragwortpaw had been just a child, surely it was only yesterday had Roeflame come home with a bundle of fur cautiously pattering behind her.
This wasn’t real, it wasn’t true. It couldn’t be.
Roeflame is only a flash of ivory and tabby as she races towards her adoptive kin. She wasn’t quiet or mournful as Little Wolf and Flycatcher had been. No, it was pure anguish that parted her maw and stung salt at her cheeks.
"Oh Rag… you have to get up. Please get up." The warrior pleads, there is no delicacy, none of the grace she was supposed to have. Roeflame had broken her most sacred vow, to protect. She had failed Ragwortpaw, and it’d only be later when her senses had cleared that she’d know how desperately she failed, when the scent of the swamp lying under the stench of monsters would register.
Lightly, she places a forepaw against her sisters still flank, finally looking to Flycatcher and Little Wolf. "Help me get her off… please." She echoes Flycatcher, "I… she needs to go home."
"speech"

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[leopardtongue]

☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ── | The thunderpath was not something Leopardtongue liked to go near if it was at all possible. She knew there were times when it was important to cross it, but the less she was near it the better she felt, and it was for reasons like this. She wasn't scared of getting injured or killed herself, no, but she was constantly worried about seeing her clanmates on that pavement, and she would much rather not know what happened to some of those that had died here, wished that they could just believe that they had ran off somewhere or joined another clan, still living and thriving and running around hunting for their favorite foods. This seemed too final, too cruel.

Nose wrinkled instinctively as the female walked forward, stopping at the edge of the pathway before looking both ways twice, double checking to make sure nothing was coming before stepping forward, towards the cats gathered in one of the most dangerous spots they could possibly gather. "Come on," Leopardtongue would choke out, whether it be from the smell of the thunderpath or from holding back tears only time would tell, "Let's get her off the path, get her - and us - to safety." StarClan please let no monsters come their way.​

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[LITTLE WOLF]

Voices pull her out of the quiet corner of her mind that she had retreated to and she looks up at the deputy with tear filled green eyes as he approaches. She is opening her mouth to say something, but the sight of Roeflame makes her promptly shut it again. No one should ever have to go through the pain of losing a sibling… Loss is something she was getting all too familiar with. First with her father, her daughter, her brother, and now her apprentice. Was this some sort of divine punishment, she wonders? If it is, she is sad that Ragwortpaw had been caught in the cross fires. She wants to curl herself around that gray pelt, like she would do to her kits when they had been much smaller, she wants to groom her fur and tell her everything will be okay.

Other cats are saying they should move Ragwortpaw off of the Thunderpath and all Little Wolf can do is mutely nod. Seeing Roeflame desperately try to wake her sister up is a special kind of pain, if twists in her heart like a claw. They were right. It would not be good if another monster came along, and Ragwortpaw needed to get home. "Someone grab her scruff and I’ll- I’ll take her tail…" she moves into position, though her eyes have become glassed over, like she’s just in a bad dream.

She wishes it was.

"We’ll make sure she gets home don’t worry" she tells Roeflame softly. She would make sure Ragwortpaw had a good burial, as much as it pained her to return someone to the earth while they were still so young…
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[Flycatcher]

In the time it takes for Little Wolf to respond, Roeflame and Leopardtongue also appear. Whilst the latter keeps more of a distance, Roeflame draws closer, letting out an anguished wail that damn near breaks his heart to hear. Eventually, Little Wolf stirs, agreeing that they needed to get Ragwortpaw off the thunderpath and back home. When she asks someone to help grab her scruff and move her Flycatcher steps forward. "I'll do it," He says without hesitation. He looks back to Leopardtongue and Roeflame, his gaze lingering on his former apprentice for a long moment. "Can you lead us home safely? Make sure nothing gets in our way as we bring Ragwortpaw home?"​