- Dec 1, 2022
- 15
- 2
- 3
❝ SOMETHING NEEDED ME ONCE ✿°.✧ ————————————
Watching over kits keeps Bramblesong more than busy enough, but it's also a hard habit to break: in her free time, she cannot stop herself from watching her clanmates with the same close attention as she would an unruly kit. The same protectiveness, too. She has made children of the whole clan, fretting over adults as much as she does apprentices and newborn kittens, though the prickly warriors rarely subject themselves to her caretaking with good graces. She knows she should stop – they're not her children, for all that she projects that misspent affection on them all, and she knows some dislike her overbearing ways. She knows, and won't: Bramblesong did not survive forty moons on her own by giving up easily. They're hers, every single caustic and ill-tempered cat, hers to watch over and worry about and care for.
Unfortunately she is only a queen; the role comes with some disadvantages. Her words weigh heavy in the ears of kits, but warriors are all too happy to dismiss them, thinking her sphere of influence limited to the nursery, her softness irrelevant to their violent lives. As if she had never hunted, never fought, never been where they are; as if she did not earn her scars as they did; as if her position is a burden to be suffered and left behind at the earliest opportunity rather than a deliberate choice, a way to prioritize the nurturing of life over the dealing of death. She will not begrudge them their opinion: she was the same, once. But she takes it as her mission to prove to them that her usefulness goes beyond what her claws could achieve, were she to unsheath them once more.
It's only a matter of finding the right way to do it. Warriors take some persuading before they will allow themselves to be taken care of; sometimes, outright trickery as well.
Take Chilledgaze. She has been worried about them lately – it's easier than worrying about everyone at once in the grasp of leaf-bare, and the deputy has given her plenty of reasons for concern. They seem to be everywhere, doing everything, trying to keep the clan together by sheer force of will. Their efforts are appreciated... But Bramblesong worries they are running themself ragged. Shadowclan's greatness can wait: this cat needs a nap. Seeing as she cannot make them take one the way she would a kit, she decides to try something else.
Bramblesong sits outside the nursery, heedless of the cold, and waits for her deputy to walk by. She calls out their name, in that cheery, high-pitched but firm voice she uses to corral kittens.
"Chilledgaze , dear, would you happen to have some time to spare for me?”
She doesn't have anything she requires their help with, but perhaps she can convince them that keeping her company and taking a break for a moment is a task of the Utmost Importance for Shadowclan's wellbeing.
Watching over kits keeps Bramblesong more than busy enough, but it's also a hard habit to break: in her free time, she cannot stop herself from watching her clanmates with the same close attention as she would an unruly kit. The same protectiveness, too. She has made children of the whole clan, fretting over adults as much as she does apprentices and newborn kittens, though the prickly warriors rarely subject themselves to her caretaking with good graces. She knows she should stop – they're not her children, for all that she projects that misspent affection on them all, and she knows some dislike her overbearing ways. She knows, and won't: Bramblesong did not survive forty moons on her own by giving up easily. They're hers, every single caustic and ill-tempered cat, hers to watch over and worry about and care for.
Unfortunately she is only a queen; the role comes with some disadvantages. Her words weigh heavy in the ears of kits, but warriors are all too happy to dismiss them, thinking her sphere of influence limited to the nursery, her softness irrelevant to their violent lives. As if she had never hunted, never fought, never been where they are; as if she did not earn her scars as they did; as if her position is a burden to be suffered and left behind at the earliest opportunity rather than a deliberate choice, a way to prioritize the nurturing of life over the dealing of death. She will not begrudge them their opinion: she was the same, once. But she takes it as her mission to prove to them that her usefulness goes beyond what her claws could achieve, were she to unsheath them once more.
It's only a matter of finding the right way to do it. Warriors take some persuading before they will allow themselves to be taken care of; sometimes, outright trickery as well.
Take Chilledgaze. She has been worried about them lately – it's easier than worrying about everyone at once in the grasp of leaf-bare, and the deputy has given her plenty of reasons for concern. They seem to be everywhere, doing everything, trying to keep the clan together by sheer force of will. Their efforts are appreciated... But Bramblesong worries they are running themself ragged. Shadowclan's greatness can wait: this cat needs a nap. Seeing as she cannot make them take one the way she would a kit, she decides to try something else.
Bramblesong sits outside the nursery, heedless of the cold, and waits for her deputy to walk by. She calls out their name, in that cheery, high-pitched but firm voice she uses to corral kittens.
"Chilledgaze , dear, would you happen to have some time to spare for me?”
She doesn't have anything she requires their help with, but perhaps she can convince them that keeping her company and taking a break for a moment is a task of the Utmost Importance for Shadowclan's wellbeing.
———————————— ✧.°✿ AND I KNOW SOMETHING WILL NEED ME AGAIN ❞
