private I WISH YOU ONLY KNEW, SHE STUCK AROUND FOR YOU — sootstar

A gust buffets Bluefrost’s pelt. Tiny crystals begin to gather upon the tips of her sapphire-tinged pelt, and her breath, warm as smoke from a woodland blaze, plumes hazily before her. Snow crunches under her wayward paws as she crests a hill where a lone figure sits, staring into the star-scattered sky. Her mother had once stood tall and imposing—she’d had to look up into her face, into the narrow emerald of her fiery gaze, but the two of them are merely shadows of one another now. Bluefrost is quiet as she joins Sootstar upon the mound of snow that overlooks the moor, the skies—and the moon blankets everything in frost-pale light, cool and watchful and unforgiving.

Sootstar.” She has not spent time alone with her mother since her warrior ceremony—the Clan had dissolved on itself shortly after. She dips her head in a gesture of deep respect, but there’s nervousness behind the gesture. She remembers the fervor Sootstar had spoken against Moorblossom with, and she keeps the memory at the forefront of her mind now.

…The stars are bright tonight,” she murmurs, almost absently. “It means nothing, though. They are not with us.” Phantoms stare at them from silver-bright eyes, laughter unfurling from ghostly muzzles. She blinks up at them, imploringly, as they twinkle and fade and shimmer out of existence. Are you truly up there? Are you condemning me as she has you?

To Sootstar, she turns, and she shakes her pelt out, fluffing it up against the chill in the air. “How are you, Mother?” The word feels awkward, but she has used it purposefully. I am your daughter. I am your kit. Do you remember it—do you remember us all at your belly, needing you?

[ @SOOTSTAR ]



, ”
 
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Specks of white coats the tiny cat’s pelt of ash. Green eyes shine against the black with near the same luminosity of the stars, but instead of warmth they burn colder than the snow at their paws. Her camp has fallen silent with only the sounds of whirling wind in her ears, that is until her own shadow moves to stand before her.

Bluefrost was among the few of her kits she felt she could truly trust, after the betrayal of Moorblossom it was difficult to look upon any of them with pride or warmth. If one had been capable of turning tail on her, what would stop the rest? At least with Bluefrost, Sootstar knows she can trust the tunneler to not abandon the teachings of her mother.

Bluefrost’s words against the crisp air are almost ghostly, she gazes up at the stars with disdain. Surely they watched her cackling now, but her quarrel with them was far from lost. Once WindClan recovered from their losses they’d rise again- they would, the four clans will fear them a reap the consequences for their slights against the moor clan.

Mother. Sootstar gazes upon Bluefrost awkwardly, a title she had scarcely called the leader by. It would flood the heart of the average queen with warmth to be beckoned by such a maternal name by their child, but it means little to Sootstar.

Sootstar purses her lips and looks away from her former apprentice, ”Oh…just grand. My deputy and medicine cat have betrayed me, taking half the clan with them.” She meows, words dripping with biting sarcasm. ”What a… hare-brained question to ask.” The former mentor scolds with a scowl. ”It’s always a guessing game… In this clan on who’s next to betray me. I’m surprised more and more. Each. And every. Time.” There was no one she could trust fully, not a single cat. The death of Weaselclaw has doomed her.
  • » SootSootstar
    » WindClan Leader
    » She/her ․ Mate to Weaselclaw
    » Tiny blue smoke she-cat with green eyes.
    » "Speech"thoughtsattack
  • » A high-stamina foe who can be difficult to hit.
    » Excels in quick, short moves.
    » Fights to kill and maim
    » Fatal attack of choice is an underbelly dive.
    » May powerplay minor harm. Can powerplay healing
 
Bluefrost’s query of Mother is met with blank green eyes, a face that twists into a sneer at her question. Her leader’s ire is scathing, but the young tunneler only bows her head and takes the berating like claws to her face. “Of course. It was a foolish question. Forgive me, Sootstar.” Any daughterly feelings the young she-cat had been harboring vanish like fog in a brand of sunshine. She finds herself floundering in the space Sootstar leaves her in. “It’s always a guessing game… in this Clan on who’s next to betray me. I’m surprised more and more. Each and every. Time.”

Her neutral expression creases into a frown—pretty, but slight. “Surely those who would betray you have gone already.” She tucks her tail against her body, shivering both from the frost in the air and the hopeless gleam in her mother’s gaze. Identical emerald eyes seek her now. “And you have said it before… they will pay for their disloyalty with their lives.” Nevermind that this includes Moorblossom, Gravelsnap, cats she has known since infancy. Nevermind that. “We who remain will help you.” There’s no passion in her voice, but neither is their subterfuge. Bluefrost remains steadfast beside the she-cat who’d birthed her and trained her from a bumbling three-moon-old kit.



, ”
 

Sootstar laughs, Bluefrost’s attempts to bring peace to her mind doing little. ”I was naive too, once.” She purrs a rumble, sickly sweet with sarcasm. ”There will always be more traitors, Bluefrost. Emberfang. Hyacinthbreath. Dandelionwish. Badgermoon. Sunstride. You pick one out, another rears its head.” Never again would Sootstar assume her clan free of traitors, never again would she assume she had the support of her own kits either.

It’s difficult to look at any of them, even newly promoted Sootspots, and feel any warmth, any love. She has been shown now how easy it’d be for even they to turn tail, to betray their own mother!

Bluefrost- she if any could not be poisoned, surely? So close she has kept the blue-kit to her chest, from mother, to mentor, to leader, her teachings and command was all Bluefrost knew. All she should know. ”All I can hope for is that Moorblossom is the last and only failure of my brood.” A challenging glint flashes across her eyes, similar to the look she had given Cottonfang. The medicine cat had held steadfast to her loyalties, would Bluefrost?
  • » SootSootstar
    » WindClan Leader
    » She/her ․ Mate to Weaselclaw
    » Tiny blue smoke she-cat with green eyes.
    » "Speech"thoughtsattack
  • » A high-stamina foe who can be difficult to hit.
    » Excels in quick, short moves.
    » Fights to kill and maim
    » Fatal attack of choice is an underbelly dive.
    » May powerplay minor harm. Can powerplay healing
 
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