private THE ABYSS STARES BACK \ sootfam

[BLUEFROST]

Of all her littermates, Bluepaw has been the only one to see their mother die.

She wears a cobweb-swathed wound now, her ear eerily reminiscent of Adderpaw’s and Weaselclaw’s, but her shame is that a SkyClan apprentice had been the one to claw her. None of that burns like the searing, trembling storm of emotion she’d endured while crouched over her mother’s body. The rattling breath as death had taken her—the way her body had cooled, stiffened, the fur feeling odd under Bluepaw’s nose. The startling flare of life in glazed green eyes, contorted expression as she’d shrieked awake. “Fire!”

Bluepaw is haunted. She cannot bring herself to ask Sootstar about the experience. It’s not her place. Her mother had gone to StarClan, and she’d woken again to live another day, to lead WindClan into glory once more.

But the look in her mother’s eyes upon awakening had been hunted, not peaceful. There’d been anger there—and fear, animalistic and gut-wrenching.

“I watched the kittypet leader die,” she murmurs in a low voice to the group huddled around her. “But she died too. She died, and she looked… she…” Her gaze is clouded. “She woke screaming.”

// @Adderpaw @HARRIERPAW @cottonpaw @MOORPAW @Cloudedsky @SOOTSPOT

✧ INFO.

•  
• 
  — bluekit . bluepaw
  — she/her, apprentice of windclan
  — bisexual ; single
  — long-haired blue she-cat with white and green eyes
  — “speech”, thoughts, attack
  — penned by Marquette
  — art by Meg

​

 

[Addervenom]

Life doesn't discriminate

Adderpaw's ear is bandaged much like his sister's, coated in a thick film of webbing to allow the tender wound underneath time to heal. Salmon pink tongue rasps over his tabby striped coat, combing through pale fur to keep his appearance presentable. His uninjured ear flicks idly once she begins to speak, announcing the death of skyclan's kittypet leader by their mother's claws. "Good." Adderpaw rumbles between licks. He wouldn't think their mother capable of doing anything less than claiming a leader's life. The less lives the better in his opinion it. He briefly wondered how many lives the tom had. Not that it mattered, surely Sootstar held the most lives out of all the clan leaders. Then Bluepaw admits Sootstar also perished in battle and his grooming halts abruptly.

The length of his tongue flicks behind ivory teeth, maw closing as his eyes pan toward his sister, her gaze clearly haunted by the event. He almost felt as if the news itself delivered a backhanded slap against his face. "She died by his claws?" He asked, digging for more information from the blue molly. She couldn't have, there was no way the kittypet king would be capable of such a feat, not when starclan looked after them so dearly.

But another piece of the puzzle is added to the equation, the way she apparently awakened once starclan restored her body. He's never seen their mother lose a life and he prays he never does. Adderpaw's expression hardens, tucking a single ivory paw underneath his chest whilst adjusting his weight. "Perhaps it was an omen, something to look out for." He uttered thoughtfully. "Did she say anything when waking?" He asks, lashing his tail. ​

Between the sinners and the saints​

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[Cloudedsky]

( ♬ ) Limbs tucked graciously under her bulking body, she watches idly as Bluepaw begins to speak. The battle with SkyClan and WindClan was something sporadic, like the coming of a Green-Leaf storm and she had not been apart of it. Apart of her wishes she could have been, to further prove her strength to a mother that held no light of pride in eerie verdant irises as she did for the others. She wonders—will they ever receive that treatment? Will they ever know how she feels? Of course not. You just have to try harder. You have to. Cloudedsky's ears pull forward with interest at the mention of the kittypet king's demise, by their own mother's claws at that, and she feels herself pulling closer with piqued interest. "She killed him, did she? A win for WindClan—" Words cut off abruptly as the next words slide from her sister's tongue. But she died too.
A lump immediately forms in the depths of her throat, her tongue dry and her maw slacks in utter shock. Sootstar—killed by SkyClan's leader? She didn't wish to believe it, but what would come of Bluepaw telling tales? An ashen tail flicks against her flank, a piercing grief passing over her at the thought of standing where Bluepaw once did—watching the life leave their mother's body. No wonder the gaunt look in her eyes looked so frightened. She felt as Adderpaw did, unbeknownst to them both—felt as if she had been slapped across the face and she is silent for moments as Bluepaw continues. Their mother screamed 'Fire' as if blazing licks of flame touched her heels. Sunburst eyes widen, her heart thumping rapidly. What could that mean? Her gaze tears from her sister to Adderpaw now as he speaks, quelling a bit of her apprehension. "Perhaps it was, but wouldn't she have announced it to the clan? Do you think that her concil knows?" Her tone is hushed, spoken with a certain grace in hopes that no one else could hear them. Sootstar was StarClan blessed, a warrior and leader worth of their attention—it could only be something such as an omen for the clan to look out for.


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( You should see me in a crown ; I'm gonna run this nothing town )

 

[SOOTSPOT]

Eyes narrow as Bluepaw speaks of battle, as much as it was a relief to avoid such things, more and more the chimera doubted the ability of his clanmates to keep those who mattered safe. Sootstar was a fighter, born from the ashes and sent as StarClan's chosen to do wonderous wrath in their image, but no cat was strong enough to do it alone. He leaned forward to hear more intently about Blazestar's death, temporary but a significant blow all the same. Then, his younger sister continued. 'She woke screaming'. Something stirred in his gut. A nervousness; the growing realisation that one day, his mother would die, perhaps sooner than they all anticipated. He tried to count her remaining lives in his head and found the numbers muddled to the point where he could only answer with one thing: she had too few for him to feel comfortable. Paws kneaded into the ground on instinct before Sootspot caught himself and coiled them back to below his chin, shuffling just a few mouse lengths closer to his sister as she spoke of matters beyond simple gossiping. 'If the kittypet king did kill her... it'd be a display of weakness to admit it...' he wanted to say, but found his jaws locked tight.

"The council is..." Eyes narrowed as he cut himself off, a fire licking his tone as he remembered the weakness within their ranks. He trusted Sootstar's judgment, he did not trust those beneath her to act with the best intentions. From the long line of mousebrained medicine cats to the Lead Warriors who failed time after time to act when it mattered, it seemed that trust was something that could only be saved for his family. He gauged for a reaction from the apprentices and shook his head. "It is perhaps best they do not know for now." Should they smell blood in the water, who knew what they would do to solidify their own power? Sootspot was seldom grateful for a poor imagination, as his brain tried to tell him what his mother looked like while screaming, this time, he felt lucky that the sight was too incredulous to comprehend. Still, it was one that existed according to Bluepaw, it was enough to dry his throat as he tried to decipher what it meant. It didn't take long for him to find an excuse, something that made sense.

Though his tone was hushed, he spoke with conviction. "StarClan has been tainted by kittypets and false leaders. Half of the clans that walk alongside WindClan's deceased do not deserve it. I imagine it is pain from seeing our own marred by such disgusting creatures." But what could be done about it?




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[MOORBLOSSOM]

Bereft of the patience to settle amongst her family members, Moorpaw moseys in circles around their hunched-over proportions. A keen ear is lent to the evolving dialogue, cutting through the doubts and blasphemes against all which they held dear to garner an understanding on what had happened in the brush with SkyClan. Their exchange of words bring about a predominant realisation. There ought to be a hidden rationale behind why Sootstar shielded her from the grislier elements of clan life, for she carried not the wounds nor the memories of battle that burdened her siblings so.

Sootspot's avowal puts her circular dance at a standstill. In what manner StarClan functioned remained far beyond her grasp, yet she imagined this to be the norm for anyone who walked among the living. The inner mechanisms of the heavens and the influence they held over the feline clans were opaque at the clearest of times. But, it is the meagre understanding of StarClan that serves to guide WindClan forward. It is their belief in their ancestors and the spirits of the past that provides them with the strength to prevail. But, her half-brother's final insistence provokes a question. She hopes it is a question pondered by her siblings and the entire clan.

"If..." she begins, hesitation raw in her tone. Her regard is poised on Sootspots, whom she converges on slowly. "If WindClan is StarClan's favoured, and they want all'a the clans to be like us... then why do they help cats who're not us?" Tainted by kittypets, he had said, and false leaders, too (but Moorpaw didn't know what that meant). Emerald eyes call upon the attention of Bluepaw and Adderpaw, who'd spoken of Sootstar's death at SkyClan's spurs. "Like, why'd they let the kittypets kill our Mom? Why don't they want us to win no more?" She shakes her head, vaguely afraid. What would happen next if StarClan kept their tails turned to WindClan? Might they strip Sootstar of her lives in one fell swoop, like they had with the leaders of less honorable clans? Moorpaw didn't know. It was impossible for anyone to know. A frown tugs at the lines of her maw, smearing her profile with addled alarm. ​

 

[BLUEFROST]

Bluepaw sits, unease prickling through her fur as she listens to her littermates and half-siblings speculate. All share the sentiment that Blazestar dying to their mother’s claws had been a good thing—but all of them, even the older warriors, are troubled by their mother’s death. She kneads the earth with her paws—the gesture betrays her when her voice and her mask-like expression will not. “She said, “fire,”… but she did not say anything else.” Fire, and the look of panic on her face had been dreadful to witness.

Cloudedsky seems doubtful there was an omen, but she does suggest perhaps the council is aware of it if there is one. Bluepaw shrugs. “I’m not sure if she would tell them or not.” She flicks her green gaze from Adderpaw to Cloudedsky to Sootspots, waiting for her oldest brother to speak.

There’s a touch of distaste in his tone when he mentions Sootstar’s council. Bluepaw’s nose twitches. “What’s wrong with her council?” He’d not said anything—but she must hear what her brother thinks. Is he scorning Weaselclaw, or is it the others? She searches his gray-shaded face, but allows him to continue. What he says makes sense to her—that StarClan has been tainted by kittypets—but to speak such a thing aloud…

“You can’t mean that,” she objects softly. “StarClan is… We cannot give up on StarClan. Perhaps they did not know kittypets would be their ruin…” She blinks. “Our mother returned to us because of StarClan. SkyClan or not, we mustn’t lose faith, Sootspots.” If they lost their faith, then they would be lost.

Moorpaw’s voice is hesitant, and Bluepaw’s eyes widen just slightly at the introspection her sister delivers. “Who are we to question StarClan’s methods?” This conversation has taken a dangerous turn for the young girl. She was born before StarClan, christened beneath their open skies. She’d been raised in their light, guided by fierce paws who tread the path before her. Bluepaw cannot fathom a world where StarClan is not right—and where WindClan is not StarClan’s favored.

✧ INFO.

•  
• 
  — bluekit . bluepaw
  — she/her, apprentice of windclan
  — bisexual ; single
  — long-haired blue she-cat with white and green eyes
  — “speech”, thoughts, attack
  — penned by Marquette
  — art by Meg

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