Respect is earned... and so are scars (c)

(OOC: this topics follows directly after her warrior ceremony)


Following Firefly out of the clearing and leaving behind the chaos that she'd managed to cause, Sweetheart let out a sigh. "I said what I said for a reason, you know," she mumbled glumly as she dragged her paws against the ground. "Who gets the name Sweetheart? That's like what toms call their mates. It's embarrassing!" the newly named warrior complained, not bothering to check if Firefly was even paying attention.

Oh, Firefly was paying attention alright. To her own breathing, anyway. The blood in her ears had begun to build into a roar, her chest beginning to feel tight - and not just from the sickness that still lingered in her body despite Fawnshine's best efforts. At first, the anger had been at Curlyfluff not speaking up sooner (or at all), but now it was directed at the insanely rude and unbothered attitude that came from the spawn of Rosethorn. Stars, her sister was never as bad as this. Leading the newly named warrior out of their makeshift camp had at first been to keep Crocusfrost from dirtying the feral's reputation further; though Firefly doubted anyone would truly care since it was in retaliation to making their tiny beloved leader shed tears from the words of her own granddaughter. Regardless, it would be the elder warrior who laid claw on the pelt she had sworn to protect, even after today.

"You disappoint me." Not once did she stop in her uneven walk as she fought to contain a sneeze. "I want to preface this by saying I do not see you as your mother, nor do I expect you to ever be like her - not like she was ever any better." Russet paws came to a sudden stop, body and scarred face whirling around to face the young bully in the making. Rosethorn was a handful, yes. But never like this. Had she made someone cry, she would have at least apologized. But not Sweetheart. There was no kindness in her olive eyes, and her brow was scrunched as she snarled her next words. "Your actions today were unacceptable. There is a time and place for such arrogance, and this was not it. To openly mock and chastise not just your leader, but your own flesh and blood? Despicable. I don't expect you to understand what responsibilities the adults around you shoulder every day at such a young age as yours - let alone one that leads an entire clan - but I do expect you to have even a speck of empathy. Something I thought your mother and father had passed along." Her thoughts flashed back to the defeated look on Mottlestar's face, the tears she tried so hard to hide in her exhaustion and sadness. It made her claws flex in and out, disturbing the ground they both stood on. The very thought had almost made the short-furred warrior's own eyes prick with tears. "Name-calling on top of that... I wonder just who you learned from?" Obviously not her father. Though she wished the curly tom had been around to correct it before it got so out of hand like today. "You are close to making enemies in a place you can't afford to. Perhaps you should have stayed an apprentice, saving us the trouble?" Eyes danced between Sweetheart's yellow ones as she desperately searched for any semblance of regret. "If the next thing out of your mouth is about your warrior name, then believe me we can arrange for you to never have one as long as I live." Her words were harsh, she knew that. But was talking to a brat like this in a nice way going to change anything? Firefly held extreme doubt in that one.

She watched the young molly's mouth open and close between every sentence as though she had something to say. "Speak. Explain yourself."

Ears pinned against her head, the newly named Sweetheart practically rolled her eyes to the back of her skull as Firefly drew on and on about her being a bad clanmate, or whatever. Scoffing and kicking up some dirt with a fuzzy paw, the molly half paid attention until she a response was demanded of her.

Explain herself? Explain what? She had been given a quite frankly dumb, kittypet-like name and she was furious over it! So many of her clanmates had gotten cool names that made them sound like battle-stricken fighters, so why was she to be cursed with a name that described the essence of the soul? Whatever, aunt or not, she didn't owe Firefly anything, nor did she owe her an explanation.

"I don't owe you anything, especially an explanation," the fluffy molly growled under her breath, meeting the scared warrior's olive gaze. Why did no cat understand her? Was she really so alone in her own clan? "You're not the one with a dad that doesn't care about you and a leader who thought some cutesy name was a good idea," she ended up continuing, somewhat surprising herself that she kept on talking and quickly moving her gaze away from her aunt's. Well, there was no better way to become understood than to just speak from the heart, she supposed.