private round the decay of that colossal wreck — lichentail

[RAVENSONG]

Since the meeting he had wanted to find Lichentail. Boneripple had gotten into trouble many a time before—that would never change until Cicadastar finally grew tired of it. But Lichentail—a member of Cicadastar's own council—was to be punished so? He had not known the lead warrior had been a part of that commotion until that meeting. It was an unfortunate reality—one any cat could cringe at if they imagined themselves in Lichentail's paws. Ravensong certainly felt so.

Spotting the pointed cat, Ravensong stood up to his paws and padded over. The warrior that was attending her at that moment—per Cicadastar's orders as Ravensong recalled—would be greeted with a dismissive flick of his ear.

"Lichentail is needed in my den so I may check up on her injury. She will be back in your paws before you know it." Ravensong purred in a raspy manner. A harsh glance was given in Lichentail's direction for her to play along. When all was settled, she would be led back into Ravensong's den. He motioned with his head toward an empty half-nest in the clearing of the den.

"How are you feeling?" He asked nonchalantly, digging about in his storages.


@lichentail

​

 

[lichenstar]

Having offered to start some idle chatter with the poor idiot stuck tailing her around all day, she tried her best to make the situation feel less like being under house arrest and more like a chance to properly bond with some of her clan-mates. Maybe if she could remind them that she was friendly and stubbornly loyal, the sneers she'd catch in passing would die down some. It was at the familiar voice of a dark-furred tom that the stripe-dipped cat turned with a confused frown. She was in the midst of opening her mouth to dismiss the nosy medicine cat and insist she was perfectly fine when his glare gently encouraged her to shut up.

Offering a small nod to her supervisor for the day, she meowed a small apology and slipped past them to hurry after Ravensong. He motioned towards a nest, delicately crafted by someone with more skilled paws than her own and sat down with a small huff. Her eyes trailed after him, quirking a brow in a silent question before he prompted her for some kind of status report.

"My ear feels fine," she replied, gaze flicking towards the corner of her vision as if she could see it herself, "Is there something wrong? Does it look infected? I swear I was on my best behavior at the Gathering last moon!" The last thing she wanted was a lecture about not caring for her own wounds properly- she had been something of an escapist nuisance previously and didn't want to give the poor boy any more trouble than she already had.

"I'm just..." A sharp exhale- a sigh of frustration, "Stuck here... sitting around, wasting my time. And evidently, yours. Why? Has Hazecloud been talking about me?" Maybe a little overeager to ask the question given the strenuous relationship the two blue mollies shared but if anyone was gonna gossip to the medicine cat, it was his sister-like figure who was never far from his side.​

 

[RAVENSONG]

"Good." Was his reply, looking up from the dip in the mud where he kept his freshest herbs. Ravensong quit his act and approached the lead warrior with an elegant, neutral look to his face. His eyes briefly passed over Lichentail's ear, but it had healed up nicely. "You know why that is, right?" One of those long ears twitched. He did not wait for an answer. "It was because you listened and kept in the medicine den until I told you to go. Petalnose is in here day in and day out." That might have been an exaggeration, but Ravensong felt like it was close to the truth. The brown and white tabby was always getting into trouble.

"It's not a waste of my time." He corrected her. At the mention of Hazecloud, his ears pricked but Lichentail would eventually be let down for that topic. He did not understand why half of RiverClan seemed so engrossed in the romantic pursuits of others. He knew Lichentail and Hazecloud had been close, and it seemed rumors were spreading that they were getting closer again?

"That's a question for Snakeblink." Ravensong replied. He rolled an obsidian-colored stone over his paw and flicked it out of the medicine den. He listened for a squeal of a huff to confirm that if there were another nosy kit poking around they'd run off. Hearing none, he continued.

"I'm surprised, is all." He murmured. "Like I said, you generally obey the rules, even if stubborn. So why was Cicadastar so explosive with you? I did not see what happened. That's what I want to know how you're feelng."

☾₊ ⊹ темная ночь — dark is the night

•  
• 
  RAVENSONG of RIVERCLAN
  — LH BLACK POLYDACTYL MALE (CARRYING CINNAMON, DILUTE) a tall, slender creature with pitch-black feathery fur, large ears, and a sharply angled skull held up in an aloof manner. smells of dried herb, speaks with a low and rumbly accent and walks with an elegant slinking gait.
  
  — born in twolegplace and orphaned at a young age, he joined riverclan at its inception and began training as a drypaw warrior known for a bitter temperment until beesong made him his medicine cat apprentice. after his mentor's untimely death, he had been named ravensong at the moonstone, young heart revitalized with anger and guilt. he is a somber and thorough medicine cat that guards every word spoken in the confines of his den.
  
  — secretly loves "the stars but not so much what inhabits them"
  — openly suffers from chronic migraines
  — single, but "it's complicated"

​

 

[lichenstar]

Hmph. Yeah... right. Sitting patiently, not patrolling, wasting time. Seemed like a great tactic for healing maybe but a horrible, mind-numbing hell-scape for the work-crazed blue. "Yes yes," they digressed, ear flattening at the small but forgiving chiding she received. It did manage a small smirk at the mention of Petalnose's constant visits. At the very least, Lichentail was the type to dodge and evade rather than rush head-first into a fight! It made her more resilient and less of a battlefield burden! Something she prided herself on (though it seemed she could not dodge everything, if scars were any evidence.)

It is probably the kindest correction to be given, what with how tight-wound and humiliated they felt most days now... While she could not agree she was not a waste of his time at present, it still reassured a part of her, somewhere... Even if she was in some decent amount of trouble, it had no changed her worth, at least not to those that mattered.

"Snakeblink," they meowed in distaste, "Why would I want to talk to him about Hazecloud? That tom is going to get his nose bit if he keeps sticking it everyone's business...." Though they hesitated to elaborate on why they cared if the smoky girl talked about her, she was not stupid enough to suspect Ravensong knew nothing about their... extensive history. That molly had practically scooped Ravensong up as a child and declared him a brother. Family did not often keep secrets... right?

Watching with a sudden alert stare as a rock went tumbling out of the den's mouth, she turned to fix a quizzical gaze at the healer before the more sincere part of this 'check up' found some light. Flicking a nervous, passing glance back where the rock had tumbled, Lichentail was grateful for the precaution for privacy... and for the tight-lipped lie had shared to get her here without suspicion.

"I... Ravensong, I have tried to understand it and still don't," they admitted, hunching to crouch down and knead at the moss-lined nest nervously. Pausing to shift nervously again, they creep half a step forward before settling back into nervously picking at the ground. It is exceedingly difficult to find the words to speak or the will to speak them with. His faith belongs to StarClan, right? It should make him safe... why did they still not feel safe here?

"I have been restless." An understatement, an attempt to take attention away from the more sincere answer that they refused to depart with. "I cannot help but feel I am being watched but that... Has been consistent since this," the lead admits, gesturing towards their ear with a paw.​

 

[RAVENSONG]

Indeed, Hazecloud was one of the few older warriors he genuinely liked along with the basic respect he treated (most) of his Clanmates. Although curiosity burned underneath his pelt, he did not want to jeopardize his relationship with the older molly. He knew of course, that he had strained relationship with his closest friend, one that others seemed to interpret as interest. What a joke.

But he shook his head, dismissing it. He was not here to talk about Hazecloud, though he missed the spark of hope in Lichentail's eyes. If only she could be happy again, or at the very least comfortable. It was unnerving to see any cat, but especially a lead warrior, in this position. Was a full demotion more humiliation than being treated like an outsider by being assigned a guard. Lichentail was among the most level-headed of Cicadastar's council in Ravensong's eyes.

"Well, you do have a guard." He quipped. "Do you really think our leader would want a second pair of eyes on you?" His rhetorical question lay in the air. It would not be surprising, certainly, but surely efforts were better used elsewhere Besides... "He trusts you enough to leave you on the council, though, remember that." His ear twitched. "And please do not lose yourself during this time. Do not... change." His motives were blurred, concealed, and he raised his head to meet her gaze levelly. "It will be over soon. And when you need a break from prying eyes, you come here for your wound reopening, clear?"

☾₊ ⊹ темная ночь — dark is the night

•  
• 
  RAVENSONG of RIVERCLAN
  — LH BLACK POLYDACTYL MALE (CARRYING CINNAMON, DILUTE) a tall, slender creature with pitch-black feathery fur, large ears, and a sharply angled skull held up in an aloof manner. smells of dried herb, speaks with a low and rumbly accent and walks with an elegant slinking gait.
  
  — born in twolegplace and orphaned at a young age, he joined riverclan at its inception and began training as a drypaw warrior known for a bitter temperment until beesong made him his medicine cat apprentice. after his mentor's untimely death, he had been named ravensong at the moonstone, young heart revitalized with anger and guilt. he is a somber and thorough medicine cat that guards every word spoken in the confines of his den.
  
  — secretly loves "the stars but not so much what inhabits them"
  — openly suffers from chronic migraines
  — single, but "it's complicated"

​

 

[lichenstar]

He spoke with so much age in his voice... responses that held wisdom far beyond his time. It is with this thought in mind that her stare lingers, internalizing the words he speaks but listening just past them, struggling to grasp at the exhaustion of his guidance, of the weight that fell on young shoulders when it meant consoling every wayward anxiety that festered in the clan.

It was cruel then.. to burden him more.

But his advice resonated like a gong between their ears. Do not... change. Part of her wanted to ask what that meant... how she could lose herself to something like this but, almost intrinsically, she knew the answer too. It hung behind her like a ghost, one she could sense but could not see, could not completely acknowledge. It was haunting but maybe ignoring it; there was a hope it might disappear that way.

It is a kit-like yearning then, to elaborate that her fear of extra eyes does not have as much to do with an extra, secret guard but a paranoia that had comfortably tucked itself into fitful bouts of sleep and ringing in ears when left alone too long... But it would be cruel, she insists to herself. So she will not speak it.

"I'll be fine," they extend a striped paw towards him in an extension of a reassuring touch, "Thank you Ravensong. I promise I will visit when old wounds prove to be nagging." A lie, really... though not for any judgement against him. A stubborn moral rule she had made up and would conform to...

"Do think of me the next time you need some help looking for herbs, yes? I am sure I will have nothing but time..."​