STILL MY GUITAR GENTLY WEEPS \ butterflytuft

[BLAZESTAR]

The cats honoring Daisyflight at her vigil have cleared, leaving only two sitting before the scattered blooms representing her body. The sun has set, but the moon's rise is slow and deliberate, peeking faintly over the treeline. The gloom is thick and intense, and there's still a scent of rain in the air.

Blazestar towers over the yellow-bequeathed tortoiseshell who bows before the flowers. He looks at her, grown but still so small and fragile-looking, no stronger than the crushed and trampled blossoms Dawnglare had set out for her mother's death. His heart aches for himself, but also for her -- the only mother she'd known has been taken from her, and she'd had to watch it happen, helpless and detained.

The flame point's voice is soft. "I will never forget the day I brought you to camp," he says. The trembling black-and-orange bit of fluff, flat beneath the brambles, unmoving, unwilling to trust. Once he'd finally managed to coax her out, he'd thought her far younger than she had been. "Gaia." "She wasn't happy at first. Maybe you remember." He smiles. Daisyflight's green eyes had slashed into him like claws, and her words had been like ice. "You've managed to catch me in a particularly motherly mood. Very well."

His smile fades, but only a little, only at the corners. "I could see her soften, though, as soon as she saw you. And it was the first time I saw her like that. Soft." His heart aches, and for a moment, he catches a scent beyond the rain and broken stems, stomped-on leaves, a scent he's loathe to forget now.

/ @butterflytuft​

[ PENNED BY MARQUETTE ]​

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[butterflytuft]

Butterflytuft has never felt a grief like this before. She remembers missing her mother that had nursed her when she'd been taken away, but it wasn't grief. She was too young to know grief, back then. She didn't grieve her twolegs, either. In fact, finding herself in the pine forest after getting lost was the best thing that had ever happened to her. Because the tom sitting next to her had found her. He'd given her a home. Her true home. And when it's just them left before the shower of blossoms, she scoots closer to him, finding his presence comforting when she feels so alone.

Her fluffy ears twitch when he speaks, watery eyes lifting to meet his. She wasn't happy at first. Maybe you remember. She sniffs, holding back another wave of sobs. "She looked kinda scary. I do remember," She mews back softly, the beginnings of a smile playing on her muzzle. A hiccup. No, don't cry again. "But that night it stormed hard. I...didn't really know what rain was back then. Or thunder and lightning. She held me really close and groomed me, and made me feel safe." She remembers that night so clearly. How comforted she felt, and how Daisyflight welcomed her as she snuggled into her pregnant belly to hide from the storm. "I miss the nights in that holly bush, Blazestar." ​

 

[BLAZESTAR]

Blazestar allows Butterflytuft to tuck her tiny ginger-splashed form closer to his side. The grief in his former apprentice's silvery-green eyes is palpable. Her tears threaten to spill as her body trembles with pent-up sobs. "She looked kinda scary. I do remember." Her smile wavers like water, but she speaks. She brings Daisyflight back into existence with her memory, a memory purer than driven snow.

"She was fierce as a storm," he murmurs in response to Butterflytuft's memory. "But she could be gentle, too, like the warm rain that falls to bring the forest to life. She loved you even though I'm sure part of her wanted to resist."

His heart aches as Butterflytuft whispers, "I miss the nights in that holly bush, Blazestar." For her, for her siblings, for a half-gray calico face that will not scowl his way again.

Blazestar gently presses his muzzle to the top of the young warrior's head. "I'm so sorry. I'm sorry you had to be there to see it when it happened. StarClan spared me that." He draws his head away, tilting his face to the dreary sky. A wind stirs the remaining petals Dawnglare had scattered to represent Daisyflight's body -- and he watches them move with a moment of panic.

They couldn't blow away. If they did, she'd be gone. She'd be truly gone.

And yet, they do. A gust buffets the crushed blossoms, and they scatter throughout camp, into the forest beyond. Blazestar watches them with mist-veiled eyes.

"You are stronger than you give yourself credit for. I know there's some of Daisyflight in you, too. And she would want you to keep your chin up." He turns his blue eyes back to her sorrow-creased face. "And I do, too."​

[ PENNED BY MARQUETTE ]​

 

[butterflytuft]

Butterflytuft hangs onto every word he says, eyes downcast. The ghost of a smile remains on her maw as he speaks so fondly of her, and she agrees with everything. She had been the definition of a force of nature, protective and nurturing and powerful all the same. She had been exactly what any warrior should strive to be.

She feels his muzzle press against her head and she closes her eyes, accepting the comfort willingly. When she opens her eyes again, the flowers are tumbling away, carried off by the breeze. She can feel her leader tense as they do and thinks it may be her time to do the comforting. She looks up at him with a small frown before leaning against his side gingerly, head tipping to lay on his shoulder.

You are stronger than you give yourself credit for.

She pricks her ears softly, brows lifting for a brief moment in surprise. She's never been called strong before. Does he really think she is? After a long moment of silence, she whispers, "Thank you for giving me a family, Blazestar." It's something she has wanted to tell him for a long time. With Daisyflight gone, she knows now is as good a time as ever. He needs to know how grateful she is for the life he gave her by bringing her out from that bramble bush and into this camp.​