The Great Falling Out

Things weren't right with Asterspark. Poppyheart just knew it. He was his brother, his only littermate, and as such the two of them were very close. They would always play together and explore the camp together as kits. They would always train and play-fight and eat together after their apprentice training and chores. They would always sit next to each other at Gatherings. They would always share their secrets, admit their confessions, been each other's shoulder to cry on.

Poppyheart knew Asterspark. And he knew that his brother just wasn't right.

Ever since Sparkfeather's death during the great battle, Asterspark had been growing more and more distant, more and more reclusive, more and more depressed. He was slowly yet surely decaying from the inside out, becoming a hollow husk of the cat he used to be. Sure, he was never the happiest cat in ShadowClan to begin with, but at least he was still, well, Asterspark. Now... he barely even recognized his brother anymore. And that really saddened him.

Poppyheart had tried finding new and better ways to get Asterspark out of the warriors' den and out doing something productive. He offered hunting patrols with friends and family, sharing tongues and fresh-kill, even just exploring their territory even though they knew and recognized every last pine tree and mushroom like the back of their paws. But nothing seemed to help.

...Well, there's no harm in trying again, right?

The fluffy ginger-and-white tom quickly found Redpaw, the cat he had wanted to invite for the friend-exclusive hunting patrol -- and the cat he secretly had a huge crush on -- and grinned happily. "Hey, Redpaw! Do you want to come hunting with me and Asterspark?"

Redpaw was worried for her friend Orchid- no, Asterspark. He’d changed his name; she’d have to remember that. Ever since Sparkfeather’s death, he’d… retreated into himself. Become even more reclusive and self-centered, not even being close with his brother anymore. Which was concerning, because up until then his relationship with Poppyheart had been the closest she’d ever seen siblings be. It made her wish that she hadn’t been the only child of her father. She’d always thought of the two brothers as her own family, her best friends, but now they seemed to be falling out and it worried her more than she’d care to admit. She just wanted everyone to be happy. When Poppyheart approached her and asked her to go on a patrol, she agreed with a smile, concealing her worry behind her normally cheerful expression. There was no need for them to know about her concern- hopefully, everything would be fine.

And if it wasn’t, she would make it fine.

Poppyheart grinned happily and led Redpaw over to the warriors’ den, where Asterspark had hidden himself within once again. ”Asterspark, let’s go on a patrol. You, me, and Redpaw.”

”Pass...” came the quiet grunt of a reply from the curled bluish-gray lump.

”Come on, brother! You’ve been laying around doing nothing for so long now. You have Clanmates to take care of. If Scorchstar and Froststone find out just how little you do, they may get mad.”

”What’s the point?...” Asterspark grumbled. ”What’s the point of doing anything? We all do the same thing every single day. Wake, hunt, eat, patrol, fight, sleep, repeat. Why do we throw our lives away with such a dull routine? It’s life-risking, deadly, and pointless. If we were all joined together in peace, Sparkfeather wouldn’t have died. So why do we have to go through all of this? What’s the point of living if we’re just gonna die soon anyway?”

Poppyheart let out a soft sigh. Some of the things his brother said he could emphasize with. He, too, wished that the Clans could just join together and live in peace. But that wouldn’t solve all the world’s problems. After all, the battle that killed Sparkfeather was one against former Clanmates and rogues, not another Clan. And life was not meaningless, either!

The ginger-and-white tom snorted, then stormed into the den, and after some noises from inside Poppyheart began dragging Asterspark out by his scruff, the heterochromic tom growling and trying to squirm away.

”Let me go, Poppyheart!...” Asterspark growled.

”No! You need to get out of your nest and do something productive!” Poppyheart growled back around a mouthful of short bluish-gray fur.

Redpaw followed Poppyheart to the warrior’s den, hoping against hope that his brother would shake himself out of his funk and finally decide to get back into his warrior life. But instead, he went on a rant about the life he’d vowed to lead and refused to come out of the warrior den. Almost disgusted at her friend’s actions, the russet she-cat watched incredulously as Poppyheart literally had to drag Asterspark out of his nest. “You can’t hide from your responsibilities, Asterspark,” she told him, disbelief fraught in her tone. “When you became a warrior, you vowed to serve your Clan with your life. How is this fulfilling that promise? Yes, war between Clans may be pointless, but Sparkfeather died protecting her Clanmates from a maniac and his group of exiles and rogues. Life still has to go on- who will feed the elders and queens if no one hunts? Who will defend us if no one keeps our borders?” Her green eyes stared into his mismatched ones, fire burning in their depths. She loved Asterspark as a friend, but he had to have someone smack sense into him. “Sparkfeather didn’t die so that you could hide in the warrior’s den and refuse to do your duty. She’d be disappointed if she saw what you were doing right now. Just come on patrol, Asterspark?... Please?”

A snarl began to rise up in Asterspark's throat, but he stopped himself before he could spit at the apprentice. She, just like his brother, was just worried about him. That's all it was. But what she had said about Sparkfeather still hurt.

...But she was right. Sparkfeather would have been very disappointed in him if she were still alive. And she most certainly wouldn't have let him get away with as much lazing around as he's doing right now.

With a heavy sigh, Asterspark tugged himself sharply out of Poppyheart's hold and rose up to his paws. "Alright, alright, I'll come."

"I knew you'd come to your senses eventually!" Poppyheart grinned happily. "Now come on, let's go!" He turned and slipped through the camp entrance, leading the way to Carrionplace. "I don't wanna hunt in Carrionplace, just around it. I don't think anyone's hunted around here in quite a while, so there should be some good prey here." He immediately heard the scuffling of a mouse underneath the pine litter, and with a quick crouch, stalk, and pounce, he caught it.

"Heh, good catch, bro," Asterspark mewed with a soft smile. He had to admit, spending quality time with his brother was starting to make him feel better already. Though he was finding it far too easy to replace Redpaw with Sparkfeather in his mind. He shook his head and forced his mind back to the here-and-now, and he began searching for some prey of his own. Spotting a lizard resting on a rock, he crouched and stalked up towards it slowly before pouncing on it, pinning his paw against its tail. Unfortunately for him, however, the lizard's tail popped off with ease and it zipped under the pine litter and out of sight, despite Asterspark's best efforts to track it down again. He growled lowly, his air of serenity now disrupted, and he stalked back to his brother and friend.

The member 'Yoshachu Scorchachu' has done the following action : Dices roll

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#1 'Hunting Dice' : 2

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#2 'Hunting Dice' : 9

With an audible sigh of relief, Redpaw followed the two brothers, thanking StarClan that Asterspark had come to his senses. She was still worried about him, but at least he was still listening to her and Poppyheart. She'd seen his anger at his words, but hopefully he wouldn't hold it against her? Noticing the blue-gray tom's smile, she smiled herself, keeping a blush from her face. She'd helped... that was good. Now it was all up to his brother to get him back to his regular self. So she went off to hunt just like they did, ears pricked up to hear any small sound of prey. Soon, her sharp eyes spotted a small, plump mouse hiding under a bush. Crouching down in natural response, eyes narrowed, the dark red she-cat leapt for the prey, claws unsheathed. She caught it easily and brought it back to the place she'd started from, burying it with a few quick swipes from her paws. Now that she'd started hunting, she was beginning to feel better. If only Sparkfeather could have been here... Asterspark would be happy.

The member 'Ash' has done the following action : Dices roll

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'Hunting Dice' : 7

Poppyheart's head shot up when he saw Redpaw returning with her freshly-caught mouse, and he grinned widely. "Hey, that was a great catch, Redpaw!"

Asterspark flinched a little. His brother didn't even sympathize with his missed catch, or try to encourage him to try again. He just went ahead and congratulated Redpaw on her own successful catch. Embarrassment and shame rose in his chest, which began to manifest into frustration. What was the point of coming along anyway if no one was even gonna acknowledge him? His eyes narrowed at his brother and friend. "Well, since I clearly can't catch anything, perhaps I should just go back to camp so I won't disrupt your guys' hunting... or flirting."

Poppyheart's eyes widened, and his ears grew hot with embarrassment. "I-I was not flirting with Redpaw!"

"Oh, no? Because you seemed to be way more interested in congratulating her on her catch than supporting me when I missed mine."

Redpaw smiled back at Poppyheart when he congratulated her, blushing a little bit at the compliment. "Th-thanks, you too! I didn't see it, but I'm sure you did great." However, no sooner had she looked up from her paws than she saw Asterspark's hurt expression. Ohhh, no. Immediately, the fluttery happiness that had struck her at her friend's compliment dissipated at the look in his brother's mismatched eyes. This wasn't good. "That's not what was happening!" she shot back immediately to her friend's defense, knowing that it was probably true. Poppyheart was too good for her anyways. "He was just... complimenting me, and I'm sure he was about to encourage you to try again! You're a warrior, after all, it was just a mistake that you missed once. I'm only an apprentice, so Poppyheart probably figured that I needed the encouragement." But her arguments fell flat at the anger she saw in Asterspark's face. They'd been having a great patrol just a few moments ago... what had happened?

”Oh, yeah, just a mistake,” Asterspark spat, his tail lashing back and forth, letting his sour mood loose with no filter. He just couldn’t believe those two. After all that had happened with him and Sparkfeather, the two had the gall to add insult to injury by flirting with each other right in front of him! He didn’t need to be reminded what had happened with his true love! ”Like how going on this patrol with you two lovebirds was a mistake? Like how letting Sparkfeather fight in the battle was a mistake? Like how our birth was a mistake? Like how Blazeflight falling in love with Scorchstar and then pawning us off to Minnowcall so she wouldn’t get caught for sleeping with ShadowClan’s leader was a mistake?!”

Poppyheart’s eyes widened. ”What... What was that last part?...”

Snapped out of his fury, Asterspark flinched with a soft squeak and quickly looked away. ”U-Uh, n-nothin’!...” Ohhh, great StarClan, he just messed up bad.

Redpaw's ears pinned back against her head at Asterspark's hostility, green eyes full of fear again. This wasn't the same tom that she was used to going on patrols and sharing tongues with.... he'd never been the same since Sparkfeather's death, but now he was completely, entirely changed. Every word spat out of his mouth tore another wound in her heart. She didn't even notice the strangeness of the last sentence, or Poppyheart's confusion. All she knew was that her friend was yelling at her and his only brother. “Asterspark,” she whispered, frightened, “please…”

Poppyheart took a pace forward, his eyes beginning to dull with confusion and desperation. "Asterspark. What was that last part you said?"

Asterspark took a step back as his brother took one forward, slowly shaking his head, his ears pulling back. "N-No, Poppyheart, it was n-nothin', please..." he mewed weakly. He didn't want his brother to find out. He didn't want his temporary moment of weakness to cost him everything he had left.

"Asterspark." Poppyheart was glaring at his littermate now. "Tell me. You and I have always told each other everything. Why are you keeping this from me now? What... what's happened?"

The bluish-gray warrior averted his gaze, his fur growing hot and his paws itching with desperation to get away from this place. He didn't want to tell Poppyheart what he knew. He couldn't! That would rupture his own personal anchor of happiness and optimism he so desperately and selfishly needed, now more than ever after the passing of Sparkfeather. "Please..."

Asterspark's expression had changed from frustrated and angry to scared and desperate. What had he said? What did he know that he was trying to keep from Poppyheart? Why had they started to fight in the first place... was it her fault? All that Redpaw could do was sit in despair and utter confusion as the two brothers stared into each others' eyes, Poppyheart angry, Asterspark evasive. They had always been such good friends... What would happen now? She found herself praying to StarClan that they would all be okay.

Poppyheart was practically on top of Asterspark now, glaring angrily at him. ”Tell me, Asterspark! I deserve to know what you’re keeping from me! Tell me the truth! Now!”

Whimpering and shutting his eyes tight, the bluish-gray warrior finally spoke. ”Alright, fine!... We... We aren’t Minnowcall’s kits.”

Poppyheart’s eyes widened, and his mouth fell partially open in utter disbelief. ”Wh-What?...”

Well, the cat was out of the bush now. There was no more turning back. ”We aren’t Minnowcall’s sons. We... We’re still Scorchstar’s sons, though, just... just not Minnowcall’s.”

”If... If Minnowcall isn’t our mother, then... who is?”

Asterspark heavily sighed and hung his head. ”...Blazeflight is.”

”Blazeflight? But I barely even know her!... She’s our mother?” Poppyheart’s normally bright and lively amber eyes darkened and dimmered as he glared down at his paws. ”...Why?”

”I-I dunno, bro,” Asterspark mewed shakily. ”I dunno, I-I think Blazeflight just didn’t want to be found out—“

”No!” The ginger-and-white warrior snapped suddenly, startling his brother. He glared at him with anger. He had been betrayed by his only brother. ”Stars, Asterspark, I’m not talking about Blazeflight, I’m talking about you! Why didn’t you tell me this sooner? Why didn’t you tell me who our mother was sooner?”

Asterspark stared down at the ground, his whole body quivering with tension and fear, feeling sick to his stomach. He wanted to just sink into the ground and disappear.