private still feeling sick ࿐࿔ robinheart

[lichenstar]

✦˚.✦˚✦˚✦˚ ✧ ˚✦˚✦˚✦.˚✧

CLAIM THE BURIAL I SEEK IN DREAMS FLOWING RIVER CEMETARY ✧

• The sky is gloomy with the signs of leaf-fall.... It'd been this same time last year they'd been ousted from their homes, encroaching on ShadowClan for a place to stay while rogues made a mockery of their home, trashed it and discarded. When Smokestar had snuck into the dark to find Cicadastar... to kill him with loving mercy.
  
  The sound of paw-steps in awkward pattern summons her attention, bright blues scouring the horizon to find its source- it is fluttering leaves and gentle breezed smiles.... Dampened by an ever-present grief. "Robinheart..." Her brows pinch together in a polite quirk of lips, "It's good... to see you..." Something about her presence lifts a burden... a weight... maybe it is her proximity to Brookstorm. Maybe in that tiny way, it eases the strain on both of their shoulders, to sit beside someone that knew her well. That misses her. Maybe not the same way but just as deeply.
  
  "Are you... glad to be... back in the nursery?" Her kittens were so big now... it wouldn't be long before they'd be eye level with their elders with all the confidence and sass to accompany their bigger size. Did she feel like she'd missed out on too much, being stuck in the medicine den so long to mend a broken bone?
• about
  
  speech hex code ✧ #6368A5
  
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  tagging ✶ @robinheart
  penned by tieirlys
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[robinheart]

The gloom of leaf fall blankets Robinheart like a well worn cardigan. All of the growing pains of the year prior still linger, but they remain in dull throb. Her rivalry turned romance with Brookstorm had been in full swing - blossoming in the mire of Shadowclan whilst rogues terrorized their home. It somehow led to where she was today… widowed with shadows of her love curled against her night after night.

She does not intend to find Lichenstar, but their sudden proximity draws her towards the blue point. Uneven paw steps signal her approach and Robinheart bares a gentle smile as eyes of chipped newleaf sky meet twin suns. "Likewise, Lichenstar," the tortoiseshell queen echos as distance is reduced between the two. Drawn together by politeness, tied together by kinship to stone hued warrior who hunts the rivers of silverpelt. Robinheart settles near the River Queen, reverence in her stature (chin tilted down ever so slightly, tail curled around bent hind leg). A breeze tugs at her pelt; the winds of change whispering that her life will soon take a new direction in the moon to come.

Ever changing just as the river itself.

'Are you… glad to be… back in the nursery?'

She hums something incredibly tender at the inquiry. "Yes." Her features, already soft despite moons of hardship, soften even more so. She is gifted with the chance to speak of her children; a present any mother would gladly open with delight. "My gratitude to Moonbeam and Gentlestorm knows no bounds. They are the reason I am alive and returned to my place as a queen," Robinheart murmurs upon the breeze, her words featherlight and pure of intention. "I missed so much of my children's early moons. I am glad to have this time with them before they become apprentices…" her brows knit ever so slightly. They would be apprentices soon. Sooner than she fully realized until facing Lichenstar - imagining the leader calling them forward at the next meeting. "It will be so soon, won't it?" Robinheart asks quietly. Does Lichenstar already have mentors in mind for her children? Does she see potential in them as potential had been seen in Brookstorm? Or has Robinheart's softness infected them too greatly?​

[ penned by kerms ]​

 

[lichenstar]

✦˚.✦˚✦˚✦˚ ✧ ˚✦˚✦˚✦.˚✧

CLAIM THE BURIAL I SEEK IN DREAMS FLOWING RIVER CEMETARY ✧

• The freedom of being able to curl up in the warm comforts of the nursery is not one easily afforded.... it comes at great sacrifice from those outside its bounds. Lichenstar missed that comfort... Longs for a time where she could sneak a quick nap in between patrols. When Smokestar could cast her a menacing glare anytime Hazecloud complained about her lack of presence. Don't ignore her. She hadn't meant to...
  
  Her reverie is cut short by Robinheart's response, a resounding yes. She expected no other answer... A small smile pulls onto her face, glad to listen to the young queen sing her song of gratitude. Gentlestorm's name sticks out and as much as she had resented that deal, it was a worthwhile cost. She'd have to thank that tom later... she wouldn't be able to thank Howlingstar until they met again in StarClan. "I know... how you feel," she replies slowly. Winter had been a miserable time to have a litter.... How many milestones had she missed? How many times had Hazecloud lovingly kept the wool over her eyes so she might pretend she didn't?
  
  She doesn't like to consider it.
  
  "Yes... quite soon," she purrs in agreement, "It's... a challenge. To find.... a mentor who... might endure... the same snappish... personality their... mother had." If anyone should know, it would be the blue lynx point, who'd mentored Brookstorm the moment she was big enough to leave the camp. It had come with a lot of headbutting... "Maybe your... gentleness... will temper that... fire."
  
  Her paws shuffle awkwardly underneath her, sparing a peek towards sun-warmed gaze, "Do you... have any thoughts? Any... warnings... I should give," she adds the last bit in jest.
• about
  
  speech hex code ✧ #6368A5
  
  ooc notes ✦
  tagging ✶
  penned by tieirlys
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  . ˚ * ✦ . . ✦ ˚ ˚ .˚ ✦ . . ˚ . ✦ . . ˚ ੈ✧˳·˖✶ ✦ ˚ ✦ . . ˚ ★⋆. ࿐࿔
  
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[robinheart]

She nods gently at the carefully spoken words of her leader, the blue lynx point pulled into her own glimmering pool of memory just as Robinheart had been. Two mothers faced with the quickening growth of their young - two mothers kept at a distance for pieces of the lives they had created.

The old adage 'distance makes the heart grow fonder' seemed incredibly applicable here.

As Lichenstar confirms Robinheart's inquiry she feels her chest constrict ever so slightly. The feeling tightens all the more as Brookstorm is alluded to. Her mate, star glistening now, had put Lichenstar through the wringer. Still… the tortoiseshell queen knows the leader wouldn't have had it any other way. The bond between the mollies was unmistakable, even as they butted heads from time to time. "A challenge I should hope you are excited about," Robinheart murmurs with great affection, a sorrowful lilt caressing her words. "They've transformed her fire and harnessed it into something all their own… my children - our children - seem to have taken the best parts of us," she continues. It's a quiet reassurance. A promise that Lichenstar will still see bits and pieces of her former apprentice in the kits. Her citrine eyes are glazed with bittersweet memories and hopeful futures.

There is a moment of silence between the two as Lichenstar meets her gaze and asks for thoughts… and warnings. Her mind whirs with every she would want to say – everything she thinks Brookstorm would want her to say. "They've been through so much. To struggle is to strengthen one's self… but… with that can come carelessness," Robinheart begins, rolling her shoulders ever so slightly as if she could still feel the weight of her collar like ghostly shackle around her neck. "All I can ask is that they are given mentors who will instill confidence and self-control in their lives. Mentors who will see the best pieces of me and Brookstorm in each of our kits - our perseverance and devotion to Riverclan; not my mistakes or her bullheaded nature," she chuckles timidly, tail wrapping tighter around herself and gaze dropping to her paws in embarrassment. Maybe these weren't as simple as she thought? Was she putting too much pressure on the blue lynx point leader? On her kits themselves? "I…"

She swallows hard.

"I just want them to be loved and protected. Just as Willowroot loved and protected me. Just as you loved and protected Brookstorm."

It was the purest wish a mother could make.​

[ penned by kerms ]​

 

[lichenstar]

✦˚.✦˚✦˚✦˚ ✧ ˚✦˚✦˚✦.˚✧

CLAIM THE BURIAL I SEEK IN DREAMS FLOWING RIVER CEMETARY ✧

• Robinheart's teasing is a welcome change of pace... Lichenstar can't remember when her clan had grown so serious around her but Brookstorm had never cared for formalities. She'd been a biting child, with her teeth fastened to her mentor's leg with no regard for her station as lead warrior. A smile touches the corners of her lips, seriously considering for a moment if maybe a selfish piece of her wanted to mentor one of these children to honor their parents... or if it was a greedy grasping for another chance that had been squandered.
  
  "It's.... spectacular," she confirms, "I wasn't really... aware of my... more stubborn traits... until I had to.... face them in my.... own kits." A short, breathy laugh bubbles from her easily, reminded of Eveningpaw's incessant need to be a hero... the want to help so much it left her reckless. Perhaps Hazecloud hated that about both of them... the blue point's willingness to die for a cause and their daughter's bleeding heart for the same.
  
  She draws in a small breath as the tortoiseshell queen offers her sage advice, scouring her own children for their flaws before they've even truly formed. It's a hard type of introspection... and requires acknowledging the failures of your parenting to realize there are cracks under the surface of your kin.
  
  The molly nods once... then again as she's asked to find them love above all else. It didn't seem like a hard thing to promise but.... insecurity gnaws at her, reminded of Splashdance and all the effort she's put into adapting... and how many pointed stares she still gets. At the very least, her son is kind... and patient... and has all the open-mindedness of his mothers who had lived most of their lives without borders...
  
  "I promise... to make sure... they're cared for." Brookstorm is probably scoffing from her place heavensward, knowing the tragedy that befell her siblings in their youth... but she could take solace in saying she'd seen the spitfire through to her warrior name. "So Snakeblink... is off limits then," she teases, a good-natured jest after his fortune in seeing Turtledove to her warriorhood as well.
• about
  
  speech hex code ✧ #6368A5
  
  ooc notes ✦
  tagging ✶
  penned by tieirlys
• ˚ ★⋆. ࿐࿔ ✦ . . ˚ . . ✦ ˚ .
  
  . ˚ * ✦ . . ✦ ˚ ˚ .˚ ✦ . . ˚ . ✦ . . ˚ ੈ✧˳·˖✶ ✦ ˚ ✦ . . ˚ ★⋆. ࿐࿔
  
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