hey, shista [closed]

Sprucethorn's words lingered on Darkflower's mind, a constant throughout her day. She was a warrior now, with warrior duties, but she could never shake the thoughts. She sat, just by the entrance of camp, paws resting on a piece of fresh-kill and tail flicking gently, as she watched the clan go by. she'd finished her duties for the day, and now the warrior had a brief moment to rest. Her body may of been resting, but her mind wasn't. It was still going over what happened on her moonstone trip, and every time she went over it, she felt more anger towards her father. How many cats knew the truth about Rippedstar, that their leader had once been from WindClan. Now, Darkflower was questioning everything about him.

It felt wrong in Darkflower's heart to keep something like that hidden from her siblings, but at the same time, she didn't want to destroy their image of Rippedstar. Still, she wanted it off her mind and to share her troubles with someone else. Her eyes flickered across the clearing, catching site of a familiar black and white pelt. Lilypaw! Darkflower smiled to herself, it was quite coincidental that her sister had just shown up. Maybe it was starClan's way of showing her to tell someone.

"Lillypaw!" mewed Darkflower, "Come here! I want to talk to you... And I got food!" The tuxedo she-cat beckoned her sister over with her bush tail. A sense of guilt nagged at Darkflower, but she was sure Lilypaw would understand, and if she didn't she wouldn't tell the others. Still, she couldn't make any promises about Lilypaw and how she would act.

Lilypaw padded into camp, a small squirrel clasped in her jaws. Her black tail twitched as she dropped it on the Fresh-Kill pile, a satisfied grin on her face. Another job well done. With a purr, the small white she-cat turned to congratulate the rest of her patrol when a familiar voice made her turn, her dark ears perked. Darkflower. It was her oldest sister, relaxing by the entrance to camp.

"Darkflower!" Lilypaw trotted towards the tuxedo she-cat happily. "What did you want to talk about?"

OOC: look it's trash ^

Darkflower flashed a grin as her sister joined her. Although she appeared happy, she was at an inner war with herself over how to tell her sister about their father. Pushing the thoughts aside, Darkflower removed her paws from the piece of fresh-kill and pushed it towards Lilypaw. "Here," she mewed "We can eat this while we talk." Darkflower's whiskers twitched anxiously and she took a deep breath. It'll be fine. It'll be fine. It'll be fine.

the passing of another cat's pelt by where she and her sister sat, snapped her out of her trance. Darkflower had never felt this anxious in her life. She didn't ant to make it weird, yet everything about her must of seemed off. "Lilypaw?" mewed the she-cat's voice shaking "How well do you think you knew our father? it's for research purposes."

The long-legged apprentice chewed her bite slowly as she considered Darkflower's question. What was this about? Darkflower seemed uncharacteristically nervous.
"Well," She began, her voice laced with uncertainty. Was this a loaded question? Would her answer affect how her sister viewed her? "As well as any of us, right? I mean, I barely remember him, so I can't say I knew him as well as Mintwhisker or Tinystar... But I know that he was really just a normal cat. Born and raised in Skyclan, just like all of us were. I mean, he wasn't entirely average. There must've been something about him that made Crowstar choose him as his deputy." She finished hurriedly. Starclan, was that disrespectful? She hoped she wasn't being disrespectful.
After a stretch of silence, she spoke again. "Actually, now that I think about it... I really don't know him. At all. I've heard stories about him, and I tried to learn as much as I can, but... Well, I wish I could have a conversation with him. I wish I could go back in time, and talk to him when he was a kit. I wonder what he'd tell me then."

Darkflower's gaze saddened as her sister spoke, she'd felt the same about her father. She didn't want to dampen her thoughts of Rippedstar."I thought the same thing," mewed Darkflower. Her tail flicked as she mused how to word her next statement. How to tell Lilypaw that their father wasn't who he seemed. Lilypaw i ssmart and she'll understand. The tuxedo cat took a moment to compose herself. "It is just that..." she started, feeling the uncertainty rising up again"It is just that on my moonstone trip I talked to this cat called Sprucethorn, and I'd never heard of him before... Like at all. And... Well, he smelt of WindClan, which is odd... I thought we could only be visited by cats from the same clan. So, I asked him who he really was, Sprucethorn of StarClan just wasn't going to cut it." Darkflower paused and took a deep breath. She needed to get through this and have it actually makes sense to her sister." He replied and said he was from WindClan, which I'd already guess, but then... Then he said that he grew up with our father,and that they trained together as apprentices... Until Rippedstar left WindClan."

Lilypaw turned to meet her sister's eyes, her black-patched face growing darker with every word her older sister spoke. Darkflower's words made no sense, whirling around her head in a confusing blur. All she could say was what flew through her mind. "He... Sprucethorn...? Windclan?! I-I..." She shook herself, her clear-blue eyes narrowed. "Are you... I mean..." Skyclan was her family. That's the only thing she had been sure of in this wild, crazy world.
Skyclan was her in her blood, pure and true. And she fought for that; her family, bound by spirit and soul, flesh and marrow and heart. To suddenly realize that she wasn't as closely connected to Skyclan as she thought was... shattering. She had based her entire life around Skyclan. For Skyclan, for Skyclan, for Skyclan.

"We... I can't... I can't." She stuttered, standing suddenly. "I-I... Windclan... I need to... I gotta go."

After the words left her mouth, Darkflower immediately wanted to take them back. The look on her sister's face, the disbelief, the horror. She shouldn't of told her. Whatever sign StarClan had tried to give her was wrong. They shouldn't of told Darkflower about Rippedstar. They were wrong, and now the tuxedo she-cat had messed up horribly.

Lilypaw's hurried words rushed through Darkflower's ears, she had no idea how to react. What to do. What to say. She was useless. She'd only been trained to hunt and fight, not how to deal with the knowledge that her father was some WindClan runaway. Her sister was even less cutout for this sort of news. "Sprucethorn?..." her blue eyes glanced up and down Lilypaw searching for something, not entirely sure what. "I..I...I'm sorry... I don't... I don't know... Lilypaw?" mewed Darkflower. "Don't... Please... We... Can... Uhh... Talk to someone at the gathering? Lilypaw...?" The confusion and Desperation was clear in the warrior's voice.

"Okay. Okay okay okay okay okay." Lilypaw turned back, her clear-blue eyes shut tight in an expression of concentration. Everything she knew was a lie. Everything! She couldn't live in Skyclan without being pure... that was just wrong.
"Let's... let's talk to Brindlestar, or-or a senior Windclan warrior... and then maybe..." Her voice trailed off as the reality of the situation set in.
She couldn't live in Skyclan anymore.

Would Darkflower come with her? Would she even speak to her after what Lilypaw had decided to do? "We talk to Tinystar... a-about what will happen next." Her voice was firm. She had seen what had happened with Crowstar's kits. Mistyrain and her brother, separated by borders. She didn't want Brindlestar to storm Skyclan camp like she had last time. It would be better if things were arranged quietly, just her, Tinystar, and... Darkflower, if she was willing.

A feeling of relief washed over Darkflower as her sister seemed to calm down. It'd be alright, or at least Darkflower hoped. Her sister began to speak again, more calmer and more rational. Darkflower nodded, it made sense and it seemed rational enough. However, Lilypaw's next words were not as comforting... There was a next?!"N-next?" The warrior could barely think about now, let alone alone later.

"Y-yes... of course there's a next." She mewed, her voice squeaking. "I-I don't know yet- I might... we could- well, I-I'm not too sure... Let's just focus on whether or not this is true. At the gathering, w-we could ask around, talk to warriors who look like they know stuff... about Rippedstar." She couldn't think, she couldn't breathe. Right now, all she could do was just talk and listen, talk and listen. She needed to be somewhere quiet, a place she could think.