Mom is at it again. (Closed)

After beating the snot out of Sleekpaw the large she-cat made her way back to the nicer parts of Starclan, where eerie mist didn't touch. Specklefur had wasted a night on scaring the young newly exiled tom to death, but she didn't regret it one bit. Specklefur wanted this done and out of the way in one night, but though disappointed she could wait.

So on the next night Specklefur managed to summon her daughter Darkstar to the Star Oak, a frown sitting upon her face as she looked up at the giant branches that spread from the trunk of the tree. A faint wind whistling through her scar-free fur. Specklefur had discovered through much adventuring that the closer she got to the Dark forest, the more apparent her scars and age.

Where was this?

Darkstar's eyes opened to unfamiliar skies. She stared at them, still on her side, trying to figure out what was wrong. It took so long that when she finally realized, she felt like an idiot for not recognizing the problem the instant she saw it. There were no stars. Nor a moon. Where was she?

The leader stood up and looked around. 'Is this Starclan. Am I..dead?' No, that couldn't be it. She had eight more lives left. It was more than likely that a Starclan cat wanted to speak to her. The last time she saw her warrior ancestors was during the battle of the Dark Forest at Fourtrees, and even then they had been covered in silver blood. Perhaps tonight she would see how they were supposed to look. The thick-furred she-cat turned and walked around the  huge celestial tree she had woken by, and quickly spotted a familiar pelt.

"Specklefur?" She stared at her mother's form with some surprise. The last time she'd seen her was at her ceremony to become a leader. A smile played across her muzzle for a moment. 'She's still got that sour look, like she's just smelled crowfood.' Death had certainly not softened her.

Anger made Specklefurs fur bristle and raise along her back, her face schooled into a stiff frown as she turned to look at her daughter. "Darkstar." As she looked at the Thunderclan leaders face, Specklefur felt a bit forsaken and disappointed Darkstars lack of action grating her nerves. "I've had enough of your actions." She snapped. Striding forwards with muscle rippling under her pelt, as she towered over her daughter.

"Your lack of action is sickening, I watch you from Starclan everyday, my rage growing ever more as I see your lack of action! You're stupid if you think letting your clanmates disrespect you will get anywhere!" She snapped, pushing her snarling face into the three-legged she-cat. "Have I taught you nothing? I spent the rest of what was worthy of my life in Thunderclan teaching you how to protect yourself and the minute I was a cold dead body laying on the ground dead, you were off being pushed around by your clanmates!" Specklefur was steadily working herself into a rage, her tail lashing behind her violently.

It was true, the moment Darkstar and Beanfoot were born she was teaching them how to protect themselves and their clanmates. She didn't want them being like her and living a life of misery because of other cats. But it seemed it was all in vein, Beanfoot was dead and Darkstar was being pushed around for being three-legged and soft! Specklefur was going to flay every-cats ears once she finished with her daughter. "You ought to be glad of what I taught you."

She wasn't surprised at the berating she was receiving, but it was grating all the same. "I know." Darkstar stayed standing and took her mother's words. Her hackles did not raise. She had no excuse for her actions, except perhaps from being extremely inexperienced. The she-cat closed her eyes and bent her ears back slightly when the larger warrior got in her face. She knew better than to talk while Specklefur talked.

But once she was done, she still did not raise her voice. "Mama, I know you tried to make me strong like you are. I know you tried, but I'm just... not who you want me to be. I'm not." She thought of her recently deceased daughter, Plumblossom, in that moment. For a heartbeat she thought that she should've raised her kits as Specklefur had raised her, but that thought was gone in a moment. If anything like the rocks tumbling into camp had happened, she would never want her kits to feel as she did then. "I endured your teaching because, well, I thought that I might make you proud one day."

She'd been made deputy too soon. Spottedstar had died too soon. Oliveheart had died too soon. Specklefur and Beanfoot had died too soon. The Dark Forest came too soon. "But I have no idea what I'm doing. You taught me to protect myself with fighting and a sharp tongue, but that doesn't work when it's against my own Clanmates! I'm not you." She realized in that moment that she'd sounded too vulnerable, so she quickly put her guard back up again. "I want to do what you would have, but my head is telling me it isn't the right choice."

Specklefur was choked into silence, her face twisting in grief before contorting into anger once more but she gave her daughter some space. "I never intended for you to take after my sharp tongue, that made me lonely and sad. I never wanted you to take that from me. I want you to be strong enough to prevent this! The kits and apprentices, warriors and elders that take your name and drag it through the mud! I've told you stories about Soulfang, how my mercy made my life and the life of those who were victimized by his claws worse. How he almost slaughtered me in my own home! Do you know how terrible that was? How scared and humiliated I was?" She choked, her body quivering not with anger but grief this time.

"I was able to stand by and let you be until those apprentices attacked you in camp. You know what I did to Sleekpaw that night? I ripped his pelt, his ears, his eyes. I tossed him into a sludgy pond and nearly drowned him. And I told him to pass on what I did, what not to do to my daughter." Specklefur almost seemed completely mad as she recalled the other night, the satisfaction over-coming with despair as she realized that she was turning into Soulfang himself with her actions. She wasn't going to stop despite.

"I don't want to see any cat suffering that, I don't want my daughter who is carrying on my legacy growing sad and weary from the insults of those... those mongrels!" She spat.

Darkstar now had a faint frown on her face. What did her mother want? She listened silently as she had always done when she was smaller, however now she was beginning to understand her harshness. Had she just wanted to prepare her and Beanfoot for the world? She swayed slightly on her paws while hearing the story of Soulfang once again, inwardly thankful that she had not yet met a cat like him in her lifetime, but was sure that she would at some point.

"You.." Her eyes flickered with surprise, hearing what she'd done to the recently exiled apprentice. She didn't know if she wanted to laugh or sigh. 'They'll think I have to rely on my dead mother to defend me.' The she-cat dipped and shook her head. "What they say means nothing to me. I know that with or without an inexperienced cat's input I will lead my clan to the best of my ability. I cannot make them fearful by punishing them for speaking bad of me, fear will not win their loyalty. If I show that what they say does not affect me, perhaps they will stop." She squared her shoulders. "But that doesn't mean I will tolerate what those two did to my clan. Never again will they, or anyone else like them, be permitted to act as Sleekpaw and Dawnpaw did." There was a somewhat hardened look in her eyes.

They softened quickly. "I don't have carry it alone, Mama. Not like you did. I have my sons and many loyal Clanmates who do not doubt my strength. It isn't weak to rely on those who know you are strong." Darkstar felt tempted to put her head under her mother's chin like she used to, but she was certain that now wasn't the time. She missed Specklefur so much, despite how fiery she could be.

'It hurts me to see my daughter degraded, Darkstar. How much I have to put aside just because I'm dead." She huffed, despite putting on a frown she felt just the least bit chastised. At least her daughter has grown, and that was one of the many things to be proud of. Nodding in approval the she-cat bowed her head and took a step forwards, letting her fur lie flat.

"I'm sorry for all the grief I've caused you, for all the grief I gave Thunderclan. But I'm not sorry for why I gave all the grief I caused. I am proud of you, and I hope you'll make Thunderclan great." She meowed, a smile marking her face as she stepped forwards and rested her nose to her daughters head. "But don't let it happen again or I'll march my butt down there and teach them all a lesson, and no one wants that." She warned, albeit playfully.