The future's in your paws. Shape it well.Roleplay in a cat Clan of warriors. Based off the Warriors series by Erin Hunter. Takes place in an AU before the cats in the books existed.
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Subject: fate, how's it taste? (c) Sat 25 Nov 2023 - 14:30
"If Bloodstar no longer leads this Clan, and Beechfang is exiled to where she can do no more harm, then RiverClan will show no enmity to SkyClan. ... However, if it is found that you are lying, then our agreement will be off."
Perchstar moved purposefully through the large crowd of cats, her face as neutral and emotionless as always. Leader. She was a leader. Only any who knew her exceedingly well could catch the slightest hint that anything was amiss. Her eyes, the light blue of leaf-bare ice, were cold enough to freeze over. Perhaps that was why everyone was moving so quickly out of her way as she walked. She kept attempting to clear her mind, but conversations continued to swim. Conversations that she'd had with Briarstar. Conversations she'd had with Birdstar.
"I know that relations with SkyClan in the past have been... tense. There was a time we very nearly went to war. However, I believe that such will no longer be necessary with you in charge. The offending parties have since been removed, and though Cloverheart will never come back to life, I trust that such recklessness will no longer be tolerated under your rule. Despite everything, I have nothing against your Clan. And I find myself feeling... positively... towards you. So, if you would be willing, I would like for us to put those events behind us and focus on moving forward. As long as no specters of the past resurface, our future ought to remain bright."
She really had believed it all was over. She really had believed that SkyClan was no longer a Clan of murderers, a Clan of liars. That they could be allies. The mere thought now made her nauseous. All this time that she'd let her boundaries down, that she had extended her trust to cats like this, and they had been lying this entire time. Who else was lying to her? Mottlestar? Poppyshine? No, certainly not. But she could no longer be certain. Her pawsteps hit the ground hard, her eyes narrowed as she tracked down the enormous gray she-cat.
“The same friendship I offered earlier, I extend to you and your Clan. If you should ever have need of our claws, or our herbs, or--in extreme circumstances--a warm nest in which to sleep, then they will be yours."
Friendship. With SkyClan. With Beechfang's daughter, no less. What a joke. There she was--ahead of the group, talking happily with her Clanmates. She must feel so smug. She must have been so confident in her ability to fool the leader of RiverClan. So confident in her ability to have an alliance while hiding a filthy code-breaker behind her back.
“I am happy to bury grievances and stand on even, amicable ground with you and your Clan. The river will be peaceful ground again,” Birdstar had said. Hilarious. She must have been laughing behind her teeth. Bury grievances? More like “I am happy to make you bury your grievances while I shelter the fox-heart who murdered your friend in cold blood within my camp.” How stupid was she? How stupid was she?
Finally she made it. Perchstar stood there, face a complete mask of neutrality and calm. To explode right here in front of the entire Clan would be asking for trouble. Now that the farce was up, likely they would pile on her and try to kill her, just like Bloodstar had done when things didn't go his way. So she was the perfect picture of a calm leader when she spoke. "Birdstar. A word?" Cold eyes slid between her and her companions. "Alone."
~~PM me here or on Discord if you want a topic with any of my cats!~~ ~Wonderful Signature by Xaandiir!~
downfive Former Staff
Characters : [R]owansong [Ro]okflight [S]ilverhawk [P]igeonpouce [F]ish [T]wilightkit Clan/Rank : [R] RiverClan T5 Elder [Ro] RiverClan T4 Warrior [S] ShadowClan T3 Warrior [P] T2 RiverClan Warrior [F] T2 Rogue [T] RiverClan Kit Number of posts : 2483 Gender : any or username Age : 22
Subject: Re: fate, how's it taste? (c) Sun 26 Nov 2023 - 0:19
Birdstar
A ripple of unease had caught in the air. The fabric of malaise did not seem spread over SkyClan, at least--they had been blessed so far, more than they had any right to be--but Birdstar felt it. Sticking in her fur like burrs, ignorable but deeply uncomfortable. The pricking feeling grew into ball of nerves, coiled tightly and shaking against each other in her gut. It was the sort of feeling that came with scenting rain while skies were clear and blue; the knowledge there was brewing havoc and storm with no knowledge of what, or when, it would come. The sensation was not so disruptive as to keep her from engaging with her Clanmates, speaking around her while she nodded amicably along, but it gnawed at the back of her mind. There was a brief distraction when approaching pawsteps, heavy with their intent, made her ears swivel back. The accompanying voice that called for her, while well-ingrained in her mind, bore no familiarity in its brisk chill.
Muttering a departure to her Clanmates, Birdstar turned to greet her guest. Perchstar's expression was flat, as it always, but her blue eyes were sharp and piercing here. Meeting them immediately gave the impression her blood had gone cold, or it'd all been drained out of her entirely. There was no bristling alarm to be felt; only understanding, frigid and grim. Birdstar could not imagine what would have Perchstar marching through SkyClan's rank to request a private audience other than the very thing that was sure to be causing the thick, stormy scent of anger rolling off her pelt. Vindicated, the roiling nerves of expectancy took their leave, replaced by a sudden frigid hollowness. Someone may have crawled beneath her belly and gutted her while she'd been distracted, for how Birdstar felt. She could not take her eyes off Perchstar's, assuming it'd be taken as an expression of guilt before their conversation began, but Birdstar ached with the desire to turn away and look for Beechfang. Ensure she was unbothered, wherever she was at the moment... maybe send a few warriors to quietly part from the larger group and covertly shepherd her away from prying eyes and ears for the next few days. For the rest of the journey, if it were feasible.
It was not. Perchstar's stare was unyielding, waiting, while her thoughts turned. She had been quietly, constantly braced for this day from the moment Beechfang--Bloodstrike too, before her--rejoined the Clan. Guilt and fear worked against the somber acceptance in her cold chest; as did the stubborn, leonine instinct to protect what was hers that had earned her her position in the first place. But this was not a conversation for her to participate in; it was a conversation for SkyClan's leader.
Whatever emotions went alight within her, Birdstar's own features mirrored Perchstar's in their lack of affect. With a wordless nod of assent, she rose properly to her paws and turned away. She led them out of the mingled throng of cats, taking several agonizingly uncomfortable moments until they were a respectable distance away. When the voices of the Clans were a little quieter and Birdstar was sure they had the privacy to speak without being interrupted, she turned back to Perchstar. Justice is apparently not something SkyClan cats are born understanding. Whatever you may think it is, you're probably wrong. Her mouth felt bitter and thick, like she'd choked on pawfuls of mouse-bile. Swallowing around the feeling, Birdstar lifted her chin in regard for her counterpart and asked simply, "I'm listening, Perchstar. What's happened?"
Subject: Re: fate, how's it taste? (c) Sun 26 Nov 2023 - 13:39
Perchstar was not sure what reaction she was expecting. One of attempted innocence? One of immediate hostility? She was not quite expecting the start of guilt that flashed across Birdstar's features. Guilt. So she had known that she had done something wrong... and she had done it anyway. Or perhaps she was reading too far into this. It was hard to look at things properly with the bitter taste of anger that clogged the back of her throat. At least she acquiesced with very little trouble to walk away. It was only due to her moons of hiding emotions that Perchstar managed to keep a straight face and calm steps as they sequestered themselves from the crowds. For the very first time, a splash of uncertainty whispered in the very back of her mind. How should she go about this? The confrontation? It would be so much easier to pretend that it had never happened. But a glassy-eyed corpse that haunted every nightmare ensured that such a thing was impossible. If only Birdstar had decided that the alliance was worth a knock to her family's pride. Bloodstrike, Briarstar, Beechfang, Birdstar. They were all the same. It was sickening. Once again nausea turned her stomach, but she cooled it with the sour tang of betrayal that had been making her nerves raw since the name had left Mistwalker's mouth. There was no going back. She would not forgive this trespass a second time.
At Birdstar's words, however, Perchstar could not keep her eyes from narrowing in disbelief. “What has happened?” Though it was unlike her, she let out a breath that sounded very much like a bitter, mirthless laugh. It felt like choking on her own previous mercies. “You have the gall to look at me like that and ask me what has happened. As if it is not your fault. As if I would not like very much to continue under the delusion that you are my ally and my friend. A delusion was all it was, after all." Rambling would do her no good. Pretending would do her no good. There was no way to rescue herself from this feeling, crushed between the heavy rocks of vengeance and perfidy. Her ear flicked once, as if to wish the unnecessary emotions away, but she could not get rid of the hot rage simmering in her stomach. Looking at Birdstar made her feel ill. Did she seriously think she could get away with it? That she could play the leader of RiverClan for a fool? The fact that she had almost succeeded--!
Perchstar exhaled long and hard. Expelling the air within. Allowing the heat inside her to be exchanged for intense, freezing cold. Then in a swift movement, she unsheathed her claws and struck Birdstar full across the face. Slashing into the fur of her cheek, leaving three clean, uniform marks that began to ooze red.
Her voice was quiet, but carried with it the freezing chill of every cold night she'd spent with the memory of a friend's bloated body in the river. "Tell me," she said. Each word was pronounced clearly and distinctly, and nothing could have been so accusing and agonized as her eyes. "Did you let that code-breaker back across your borders after I offered you my trust, or did you look me in the eye and profess alliance while knowing that you had a murderer sheltered safely in your camp?" There was no snarl written across her features. She could not give Birdstar even that satisfaction. Her claws had returned to being sheathed, as if the moment of passion had not been allowed to break through. Every emotion was contained only in the narrowing of her gaze, the slight pinning back of her ears, the fierce way that her breaths rose and fell in uniformity. "Did you think that I would never find out? Did you truly think me that stupid? Or did the thought of your dishonest selfishness simply never occur to you?"
She ought to have waited for an answer, but the demanding questions kept flowing, like a river that could not be stopped, whose flow could not be stemmed, overfilled with the churning rapids of fury. "Did all of your words mean nothing? Every promise of aid, every civil interaction, were you laughing at my sincerity? At my foolishness in ever trusting you?" Despite all of this, her tone never reached any higher than a low alto. She wanted to scream, to rage, to growl, but her neutral leader voice would not break its vice grip. It was only her eyes. Ice freezing over. "I was. I was a fool to ever trust the word of a SkyClan cat. I should have known that you care for nothing but yourselves. That every word from your mouth was a lie." The venom seeping through her veins finally spat itself out in her next sentence. "I should have known our friendship meant nothing to you, Beechfang's daughter." For a moment, she closed her eyes. Cloverheart's face would not leave her be. Then when she spoke again, her voice was as calm and snow-cold as ever. "Then tell me. What did you think I would do when I found out you had omitted every truth?"
~~PM me here or on Discord if you want a topic with any of my cats!~~ ~Wonderful Signature by Xaandiir!~
downfive Former Staff
Characters : [R]owansong [Ro]okflight [S]ilverhawk [P]igeonpouce [F]ish [T]wilightkit Clan/Rank : [R] RiverClan T5 Elder [Ro] RiverClan T4 Warrior [S] ShadowClan T3 Warrior [P] T2 RiverClan Warrior [F] T2 Rogue [T] RiverClan Kit Number of posts : 2483 Gender : any or username Age : 22
Subject: Re: fate, how's it taste? (c) Tue 28 Nov 2023 - 11:20
Birdstar
Birdstar wondered, briefly, how her invitation to speak would be received; an inclination made with unassuming mundanity, directly in the face of Perchstar's eyes alight with knowledge beyond her... it was a poor choice of words, though she would not have changed them. However Perchstar's ear was turned, Birdstar would not implicate her family or herself before she heard her obvious suspicions confirmed by the RiverClanner herself. And swiftly, she did: in an instant response, her sharp eyes narrowed and she retorted with the denouncement of their allyship, friendship, as delusion. Birdstar's teeth set together so tightly she could feel the groan of pressure reverberate within her skull. She released a tense breath through her nose in rhythm with Perchstar's own and, with effort, tried to unlock her jaw to speak in futile protest. The hinges would not give before gray and white fur flashed, a movement registered too late to duck. Birdstar wasn't sure she would have dodged, even if she'd had the opportunity.
Claws cut past her fur to pull through flesh. Birdstar's head was dragged with the momentum of the blow, even if it did not carry immense force. Her teeth shifted from grinding themselves blunt to instead pressed into her tongue. It kept the hiss of surprise and pain trapped in her throat. Blood had already risen to accept the openings made for it, hot and matting in the wisps of her fur; she could taste it in her mouth, too, welling around her bite. Instinct made the muscles of her shoulders ripple, filled with the urge to strike back and defend herself, but Birdstar didn't move beyond the twitches throughout her body. Each score stung terribly, as if the claws that delivered them remained hooked and ready to unthread more skin. Duller pain radiated from the site of impact, pulsing waves spreading across the entire right side of her face. Birdstar stared where her gaze had been turned, watching droplets of red spatter over the brittle grass.
The blood not filling her wounds thundered in her ears, cracking shelves of ice. Perchstar's voice was surprisingly clear against it, frigid waters pushing the floes along. However little she'd deserved to, she'd considered Perchstar a friend, and the words she spoke now were piercing. Some mordant piece of Birdstar admired the neutrality she affected; the effort it must have been was deeply familiar to her. The rest of her failed to compile any thought or emotion nearing coherency. Guilt and fear were thrumming in her veins--anger, too, all primal beyond wording. Birdstar's whiskers trembled. The way Perchstar spoke of her Clanmates-- the way she spat Beechfang's name--made the hypocrite's rage in her broil. The relentless, uneven kick of her heart against her ribs was like that of trapped songbirds, final moments spent in panic before teeth ended their terror. And much like them, there was nowhere the desperate flutter of her wings could take her. The claws already encaged her, fatal jaws already collared her. Struggle would only invite a faster, dirtier end.
Birdstar wanted to ask what the point of this was--the conversation, the questions. Why Perchstar did not walk away after her blow had been dealt. The answers she pressed for had clearly already been invented. Nothing she said would matter to the other leader, however much she wanted to plead her earnesty in everything that wasn't strictly regarding Beechfang. Birdstar spat the blood out of her mouth and finally angled her head to look up again. To meet Perchstar's eyes, brimming with contempt and hurt, was to hurtle off a cliff's edge, but Birdstar sought blue. Whether there was point to it or not, she had to speak-- speak soon, answer to Perchstar's demands. Answer genuinely. There was no worth or success to be found in further lies.
She straightened back to height without shaking out the tension that built in her neck. Her expression was blank, a mirror of Perchstar's, but--much like the pools of tortured blue she held onto--her eyes reflected the swirling depths of her emotions. Birdstar took a shallow breath through her nose and said, "Don't speak on all of SkyClan that way. Many of them did not even know her before her return. Don't implicate them as fools in my decision." A scoff came between words before she began to answer properly. Of course my dishonest selfishness occurred to me. It hasn't left my mind for seasons." The feathery end of her tail twitched once. "I wouldn't have made my decision if I weren't aware of my own greed." For a fluttering second, she glanced down at her paws. She could still see the dry blood staining one, before she blinked and it was gone. Birdstar feared the stain on her cheek would linger in her reflection long after she was washed clean. As quickly as her attention wavered, her eyes returned to Perchstar's.
"Before the alliance was formalized," she went on, "I sought her out to rejoin the Clan, at the urging of other family. I knew what would come of it. The consequences terrified me, but..." Birdstar's voice drifted. She had to close her eyes for a moment, swallowing thickly around the lump of her heart in her throat. Love for a mother was not a conviction great enough to levy against the weight of murderer. There was no nuance in the rake that bled her. She opened her eyes again with a breathless, humorless imitation of a laugh. "I couldn't have said no. She stole the life of your medicine cat, but my earliest memories are of her milk-scent." Cloverheart's star-speckled face, lingering in mind, pushed to the forefront of her thoughts. Birdstar almost thought she could see the small molly standing just behind Perchstar, sneering. Her heart seized painfully in her chest. Birdstar half-wished it would stop altogether.
When the contraction tamed enough to gather breath, she willed herself to continue. Where such an impulse to ramble through her answers came from, she didn't know, but it possessed her. Perhaps it shouldn't have been such a surprise; she never could stand to let perception skew intent. "I omitted from you her place in our ranks, but not a word of my good will was a lie. I admired you, Perchstar, however much I'd hated you as an apprentice. I thought of you as a friend. I did, truly, want to see the old blood washed from our Clans' relations." She should have known better. SkyClan's tragedy was one their ancestors never tired of writing. "You would have had our claws, our herbs, our aid, for any manner you requested them. But they would not come at the expense of my mother rotting in Twolegplace alone.
"I am not a fool, nor do I take you for one. How or when, I could never have guessed, but you would learn of Beechfang some day. I knew she was not a secret to be kept forever." Birdstar turned away, looking toward the shifting mass of Clans tree-lengths away. Several cats had taken notice of them, watching with apprehension. She looked across as many faces as she could see before tilting her chin up slightly to take in the thick clouds rolling slowly across the sky, purple mountains reaching for them. "When you did, I thought you might come to SkyClan to demand her throat. Maybe that time you would fulfill your desire with force, no matter the answer you got or who tried to stop you." She spoke plainly, even wistfully, as if recalling a bountiful hunt. "Or, because that approach failed with my predecessor, you would simply rally your Clanmates. You march on SkyClan either way. A life would be lost, either way."
Birdstar slowly looked to Perchstar again. The taste of blood was heavy on her tongue even though the flow had stopped several minutes ago. "I don't expect you to lead a war now--not here. Not with the involvement of every Clan. Though you may ask for her life anyway, or ask we abandon her here. You may even see the former done yourself, so you can finally be rid of her." There, Birdstar's eyes sharpened and her jaw once again grew taut. "If I thought she were a threat any longer, I would kill her as I did my sister. No other pair of claws will take Beechfang's life." Just the hyperbolic thought of such made her stomach turn, folding around itself. Despite the way it threatened to make her legs tremble, she swiftly pushed on. "While I regret, and have long regretted, the damage it would do to you and the working relationship between our Clans, I do not regret making the last seasons of her life easier." Her claws flexed just enough for the tips of them to scrape silt from the earth. The shadows across her face seemed darker, gathering in the wrinkles forming on her nose bridge and her narrowing eyes. "That is not a decision I intend to change. Take whatever you'd like of me if it will seem like atonement to you, Perchstar, but you will not have her."
Subject: Re: fate, how's it taste? (c) Tue 28 Nov 2023 - 13:31
Freezing ice permeated every corner of Perchstar's body--every bit but the heart, which sent futile waves of heat, anger, burning rage and pain. But the cold was too strong. It continued to win out, overpowering the fiery passion, even as Birdstar spoke. Even as every word only stoked the flames. Not that any words could have offered so much as a breeze of relief, but every sentence seemed to be the wrong one. The situation grew only more agonizing, her previous trust in the she-cat all the more a farcical mistake, the full understanding of the crime even more of a mockery.
She was unsure which would have been worse--an entire Clan full of willing liars, or the fact that Birdstar's selfishness went so far as to endanger every one of her unwilling Clanmates. Neither spoke well of her, but the latter--which appeared to be closest to the truth--only made the leader fall further from Perchstar's graces, if such a thing had even been possible. To pick one cat over all, to choose the wants of the few over the needs of the many, was despicable. Such a thing went against every effort that a leader ought to make. Power came with responsibility, and Birdstar had shirked hers out of some imagined obligation to her birth mother. The ties of family were not supposed to break the onus of caring for the scores of cats whose very lives and deaths were determined by one's actions. Someone who accepted the privileges without the consequences of the leader status was not worthy to wield it.
"If you were going to disregard justice anyway," Perchstar ground out between her teeth, still managing to keep her voice low and sharp, "then how dare you accept alliance? When you knew it would end this way? Did it not occur to you that honesty would have perhaps allowed for a compromise? That even when your predecessors spat at me, I still offered words and discussion before open claws? No such words could be offered now. Not when you have trodden any bond we may once have shared into the mud. Not when I now know I can trust nothing of yours." Her head spun in circles, chasing the betrayal and anger she felt with confused stirrings of illogic. If Birdstar felt guilt as she claimed, then why still choose it? If she knew that Perchstar would not accept such a thing, then why remain close to RiverClan? In an attempt to prey on her feelings and gain some sympathy before the truth came to light, perhaps? If Poppyshine had been in charge, it may have worked. There may have been some desperation to keep a bond considered worth keeping. But nothing here was worth even a second glance. It was as if she had taken a bite of fish and it rotted in her mouth, decaying to the point of sickness. There was nothing left to do but spit out the offense.
Birdstar's sorry excuse of a reason nearly allowed another strangled laugh to escape from her throat. "Your mother. In the face of justice, of betrayal, you believe that a single tie of blood is able to hold strong?" Neutrality was increasingly difficult to maintain. Heat and cold warred again within Perchstar's light blue eyes. She scoffed once, feeling her muscles tense. "I fall short of comprehending your hypocrisy. Blood truly flows thicker than water. The blood that runs through the veins of you and your family has never once considered the feelings of someone other than yourself." Every time that Birdstar uttered the word "I" was another stinging claw against Perchstar's throat. The sheer weight of emotion she struggled under made it difficult to breathe. Not once did a reason come with respect for the Clan's best interests or anything other than the desires of Birdstar and her murderer of a mother. "You, you, you, you, you. It's all you. Will it never cease?"
At the other leader's claim that she did not lie, but only omitted the truth, something finally snapped. For a moment, the white-hot magma of rage flooded Perchstar's veins. She had to close her eyes and breathe slowly to ice it out once more. But it was with an undertone of derision that she finally spoke again. "That is your excuse? That the words 'Beechfang is not in my camp' were never technically uttered by you? What are you, a kit? Omitting the truth is no better than a lie. Every action you took, every word that you spoke of alliance or care was nothing but a bold-faced falsehood. If you truly cared about anyone other than yourself, then you would have known better than to doom your entire Clan over a single cat." She still claimed, what? Admiration? Was that the feeling that caused a lie so great it would cause every foundation to crumble beneath it? It was no longer clear whether Birdstar was just that much of a liar, or whether she was so egocentric that she was capable of caring for others and simply chose not to. Either option made Perchstar wish to unsheathe her claws again and draw blood. The single wound was not close to an echo of how much agony thrummed through her heart. "You were aware of the promise Briarstar made. Loopholes will not resolve you of your guilt, nor of the mantle that you willingly took when you assumed your suffix. You cannot escape responsibility by pretending that you did not understand it. You knowingly omitted the truth in order to benefit from it. That is a lie. You knowingly invited a murderer to shelter with you, while understanding that I would believe your words to mean that you valued our alliance over such a regressive action. If you truly hoped to bury your Clan's past, then you would not embrace it with open arms. If you truly wanted to wash away the blood, you would not have reopened an old wound. No amount of bandages will resuscitate a corpse." Cloverheart's corpse. Floating in the river. Choked and drowned to death, mercilessly, violently. Excused and allowed just because the murderer bore kits of her own traitorous blood.
A cat with less control than Perchstar would already have ended the conversation, be it with fangs or with another unpleasant method. But the desire for logic and justice was something that the RiverClan leader had been born with, had been molded by. It was why she found SkyClan's camp to reopen a dialogue that had been slammed in her face. It was why not a single threat she made was idle, and she only threatened when other options had been closed. All options had been closed. Not a single recompense could fix this betrayal. And yet, some tiny part of Perchstar had hoped that Birdstar would understand the gravity of the situation. Apparently not.
"You speak as if every conclusion was foregone. As if you did not have the far easier option of being honest." Perchstar slowly shook her head, trying to keep the incredulous rage from breaking through. Heat made her claws itch. "I offer conversation, I spare your Clanmates, and for what? To be betrayed? To have every one of my mercies taken advantage of? And yet you still doubt my resolve." To hear Birdstar say so nonchalantly that she did not expect the retribution of war, simply because they now traveled in a group, almost made Perchstar's blood boil. The similarly casual statement of having killed her own sister could not edge Perchstar any further to the precipice of wrath because she had already proved her own point. She had already known that any of Bloodstar and Beechfang's blood would kill without stopping... all until actual justice was required. Somehow Birdstar expected to get away with this. Somehow Birdstar still believed that she was the center of the earth, and that the stars would excuse her every falsehood, and that Perchstar herself was too soft and kind to truly fight back. That Birdstar was somehow negotiating from a place of power, or any place at all, rather than facing down the potential destruction of her entire Clan.
And that was all. The statement, made with such laughable confience, that Perchstar would not be allowed revenge. That Perchstar would not be able to take it, either because she was worried about facing Birdstar's own claws or because she was not ruthless enough to seize it herself. A white paw lifted up and stepped down, closer. Than another. Until Perchstar was truly face to face with her enemy. Eyes of unceasingly cold blue stared her foe down, showing not a hint of hesitation or sympathy. "And how, exactly, do you propose to stop me?" Though the words remained quiet and even, they were spoken with enough force to nearly pierce Birdstar's ears, as close as they were. Perchstar did not make idle threats. "With the lives of the rest of your kin? You have decided to sacrifice them already. With your own pathetic lives, however many are left, granted to you by stars whose motives I am beginning to question? With the lives of Mottlestar's Clanmates, as if she would take your side? How much is one murderer worth the rest of your Clan? If you have written off the opinions of the rest of your Clanmates, how much is it worth clinging to the last vestige of this attempt at morality?" Every one of Perchstar's hairs lay flat, despite how badly her hackles wanted to raise. Still, the ultimatum was unceasing. "If you truly believed that I would hesitate to tear through every one of your contemptible lives to get to the piece of scum who murdered Cloverheart in cold blood, then you have never known me at all. If you truly believe that just because I am a leader who cares about my Clanmates above myself, something that you have never done in your life, I would spare your mother's sorry hide, then you are sorely mistaken. You could kill me right here, right now, become a killer just like the rest of your family, and that would not stop me. You could attempt to wipe out my Clan, and not only would you fail, but that would not stop me. The same ferocity with which my Clan would have defended yours, we will hunt you to your last breath if that is what it takes to achieve justice. If that is what it takes to avenge Cloverheart's life, then so be it. Go on then, and tell me it will be necessary, Birdchaser." They were so close now, their noses could almost touch. Perchstar's last words were a quiet, venemous snarl. "But pick your answer carefully."
~~PM me here or on Discord if you want a topic with any of my cats!~~ ~Wonderful Signature by Xaandiir!~
downfive Former Staff
Characters : [R]owansong [Ro]okflight [S]ilverhawk [P]igeonpouce [F]ish [T]wilightkit Clan/Rank : [R] RiverClan T5 Elder [Ro] RiverClan T4 Warrior [S] ShadowClan T3 Warrior [P] T2 RiverClan Warrior [F] T2 Rogue [T] RiverClan Kit Number of posts : 2483 Gender : any or username Age : 22
Subject: Re: fate, how's it taste? (c) Wed 29 Nov 2023 - 10:59
Birdstar
Nothing was salvageable now, she knew, but even offering clarity before the inevitable fall was a lost cause. The storm in Perchstar's eyes only grew deeper and the bluster of her voice continued. Birdstar was not simple enough to assume her answers would warrant sympathy, or even the understanding of logic Perchstar thought herself so full of, but the complete ignorance to what she'd actually said was baffling. No, she wanted to say, the thought of honesty hadn't occurred to me. You asked for her head once, and look how you react to the truth now. Staring down into swirling blue pools of vitriol, listening to the grate of Perchstar's voice and studying every taut line of her poised frame, Birdstar came to a realization .For all the love reserved in heart for her, Perchstar was not a creature of compromise--negotiation perhaps, or suggestion, but not compromise. To present the only options as exile or execution was not accord: it was an ultimatum.
Her flees flicked once. "A single tie of blood?" Birdstar echoed, though anything else she wanted to add was bitten off by the continued raving. Did Perchstar hold no love for her family? Would she not have made a better life, an easier death, for her own kin? Birdstar's eyes narrowed. Grief for the RiverClanner turned around and round in her gut. Low tides of disdain were building with it, cresting and flooding out any sense of sympathy at the spat series of yous. Nothing in her life had been for her, about her. She'd barely held her name for more than a moon before she was turned into a figure rather than a warrior. Perchstar had no right to claim her as she egoist, not when her next breaths were used to willfully ignore what she'd been told and decide the bitter truth for herself. Heat tightened Birdstar's throat and her claws pressed deeper into the earth. Her pelt crawled, infested with the countless itching mites of anxiety, but the nauseating fear and pain of loss could not reach her beyond the itching. Her own rage had taken over, boiling within her skin.
When Perchstar moved closer, Birdstar's hackles started to rise. She made no motion to move away, letting the shorter leader press her advance. She remained the picture of composure, sleek coat pressed flat, even as she began speaking of war rather than lamenting her betrayal. Birdstar's heart began to thrash desperately in her chest, but she remained unmoving. Was Perchstar so desperately set on her revenge, on seeing blood spilled, that she would slaughter any who stood in her way? Contempt had tampered with her sanity. Birdstar's tail lashed once behind her then started to whip continuously, sharply, back and forth. She thought of Beechfang's story of that fateful day at the river, how she claimed Cloverheart had come at her spitting madness, tearing at every raw nerve until there was no recourse but the cornered instinct to walk away alive. Birdstar's nostrils flared through rapid, shallow breaths, hot air stirring Perchstar's whiskers and the thin fur of her muzzle as she leaned in close. With a tilt of her head, she could close her jaws around Perchstar's neck, bite through the thick white ruff and taste warm blood glut her tongue and feel tiny vertebrae shatter under the pressure. It would be easy. It would be quick. The disgusted spit of her warrior name made Birdstar's teeth grind. She could shake, sever all the nerves, leave wounds so deep StarClan themselves could not revive her--prevent her madness from taking more lives, Clanmates' lives, the lives of family--cease the curses and the detractions---
The immense gravity of Perchstar's words sat in the air with oppressive tension while Birdstar gathered herself. Beating down the righteous blaze that threatened to scorch her from within was a momentous task. The faces of Beechfang and Wolfblossom and Rainfrost, Falconmoon and all Wolfblossom's kits, all Juniperheart's, flashing through her mind helped to cool her. She would not strike back and give Perchstar the answer of violence she desired. She would not make it easier for Perchstar to kill her family.
Birdstar exhaled, ruffling the other she-cat again. "I never doubted your resolve, Perchstar," she said, "though I thought you would have more sense than to engage in warfare far from safety and familiar herbs. And for all your interest in discretion and diplomacy, I'm surprised you consider war such a voyeuristic sport." Cordoning off a sector of the lowlands to maul each other while ShadowClan and WindClan stood by and watched seemed more kittish than wanting to be close to her mother and lying to ensure Beechfang wasn't murdered herself. Without leaning back, she continued, "I gave you your answer. If you would open the ears you've kept closed, you would have caught it.
"Go, gather your armies. Go tell Mottlestar what I've done and recruit her forces." The scuffle Sunfire had started and piteously loss had still yet to be addressed with the ThunderClan leader. Birdstar wanted to sigh, but she held her breath. There was a great creaking in the back of her mind, the low strain of an immense oak split at the base and starting to tip towards the ground. The threat of losing both her alliances, two of her closest friends, at the same time and with such violence was tearing lose a part of her she could not fasten down. "Raise every set of claws and fangs at your disposal. Ask them to kill indiscriminately for you. Kill them yourself, if your word is binding. Tear the throat out of any who stand in your way. Trample kits, queens, and elders until Beechfang is under your paws." Her heart was thumping in both her chest and her throat again. The corners of her vision were growing fuzzy and dark, eyes starting to burn. "SkyClan will not roll over and let you gut us. You should know our reputation better than that. Yours is not the only Clan taught to wield their claws. Our blood will not be the only spilled."
As the low, dangerous rumble of her voice came to an end, Birdstar leaned the very small distance forward to rub her cheek across Perchstar's. In any other context, it was a gesture that may have been friendly, but here it served only to smear her own blood across the border between white and gray. Rather than resuming her height, Birdstar followed through the motion; the angle of her boy shifted slightly and she used her advantage of weight to shoulder Perchstar's well-planted paws out of her way. She took a few steps past before pausing. Though she didn't look back, she continued to speak. "If you think me a monster, I will behave like one." Her tailed lashed again, one last time. "I hope your kits will love their sorry mother's hide just as much when it's been stained with far more blood. Don't keep me waiting on your crusade forever, Bloodstar." Then, before she could spin and actualize her desire to put Perchstar down before war broke--or before she could think to do the same--Birdstar continued walking on, paws moving with swift intent. She needed to speak with Wolfblossom and Smokepetal, Beechfang too, urgently.
Subject: Re: fate, how's it taste? (c) Wed 29 Nov 2023 - 17:01
Sense. Birdchaser talked to her of sense, when she decided that the life of a murderer was worth that of her entire Clan. Birdchaser talked to her of sense, when her only defenses for going back on her own word were technicalities and simpering emotional statements. War was voyeuristic? A sport? How delusional could one be to not understand that choosing to dig their claws in on the hill when a flood was coming would only lead to them drowning? Drowning. Choking. Held under the water until she drowned. "Justified." "Self-defense." Every word that had been thrown at her meant nothing. No SkyClan cats were capable of logical discussion when it came to being told of justice. Sense had been thrown out long ago. Not a single word of Birdchaser's was in the same vicinity as sense.
You know how it would be if our places were reversed, do you not? If my mother--though she has long been dead and would never have inspired such illogical desires in me--had killed your medicine cat, your friend. You know that you would demand the same. And still we play through this tired song and dance. I had believed it over. I had wished it over. But you do not care.
She could not shake the foregone conclusions from her mind. The fact that such a gibbering wretch had once professed friendship and alliance, and the fact that Perchstar had believed her, was becoming increasingly difficult to stand. She could not keep her mind from whirling in on itself, from demanding to know how many other cats she knew were wearing similar facades, hiding their raving insanity from her under the guise of grinning teeth. The corruption ran so deep she was no longer sure where it stopped. If it stopped. But the words coming from Birdchaser, so foolishly confident and yet so sharply missing the point, momentarily forced the spires of rage and hurt to focus.
"Go, gather your armies."
And fate was sealed. Birdchaser would rather her entire Clan crumble beneath her paws than give up a single shred of her own pride. "SkyClan will not roll over and let you gut us. You should know our reputation better than that." Pride, pride was all it was. Not even love could be so twisted as to sign away scores of lives with the flick of a claw. All because Birdchaser could not bear to give up a single thing that she wanted, no matter how wrong it might be. All because Birdchaser was incapable of conceiving that she was in the wrong. Not a single note of the SkyClan "leader's" derision snuck underneath Perchstar's skin. She had become the river itself long ago, taking all insults in stride. She no longer cared about Birdchaser's opinion, since her former "friend" had never cared about hers, and so no single offense or barb could have its desired effect. Watching the SkyClanner strut and puff herself up with her own confidence and self-righteousness made bitter bile rise up in the back of her throat. That hypocrite simply did not see anyone not of her blood as worth caring for, as worth even considering. Anyone outside of her Clan--no, not even her Clan, but her murderous family ties--was worthless. She would throw away any life if it meant that she could have what she wanted. Pride. Pride and hypocrisy.
Birdchaser's attempted threats fell weakly, blustery, like the loud noise of wind whistling through tree branches. Like twigs dropping into a river, attempting to stop its flow. Useless. Inconsequential. Perchstar had already known the consequences of her words when she spoke them, unlike Birdchaser, who still seemed to be laboring under the delusion that this was some grand decision that she was making, that she would be fighting in self-defense instead of to keep the safety of a single murderer. She was determined to make Perchstar out into some kind of villain--despite the fact that Beechfang held Cloverheart under the water until she drowned, left her corpse to float waterlogged, and refused to accept any punishment. Despite the fact that Birdchaser, when still offered the option to avoid war, refused on some twisted sense of moral principle. As if there was any set of morality that would claim one life was worth more than a hundred others. As if there was any set of morality that justified any decision made for the sake of pride. Just like when Bloodstar and Beechfang attempted to spit that killing a murderer only made one a murderer. Stooping to their low, as if there was no way to punish the worst crime imaginable. As if at the taking of a life one was simply supposed to shrug and say "what was I to do?"
Perchstar was not a killer. Never before had she taken the life of another cat. She had fought with teeth and claws and won, had defeated opponents, but never sunk her fangs into a throat. And yet she knew she would not hesitate. She did not plan for any other cats to die, but in the heat of battle, if cats chose to defend Beechfang and would not back off, then Perchstar would not hesitate to push past them with sharp claws. Her fangs would head lethally for the jugular of the scarred demon who had murdered Cloverheart. There would be no quarter. There would be no mercy. And until Beechfang finally lay dead, SkyClan would know no peace.
There was no longer any point in responding. Even though Perchstar's flesh crawled with the very touch of Birdchaser's fur on hers. Murderer. All murderers, and somehow they believed in nothing so much as their own righteousness. Even though she tried every last ditch, desperate attempt to make Perchstar upset--bringing up her kits, calling her by the name of 'Bloodstar.' It wouldn't work. She was not a kit, to be taunted with such jibes and rise up in response. She had already reached the emotional threshhold of her anger at being lied to, at being betrayed, at having every offer of mercy spat upon. At being trodden underfoot by a murderer. No, she did not even shift her expression at the attempted insults. What was the point? She would not give Birdchaser the satisfaction. She would not give any other cat the satisfaction ever again.
As the fool retreated, self-assured in her own idiocy, Perchstar spoke one last time. Ice took over again, freezing the futile emotions from her veins, leaving her words calm and cold. "So be it. Their blood lies upon your paws."
