The Rhythm of the Rain

A continuation of this topic
"Explain."

Clear blue eyes briefly met murky green. "I-" Droplets of water streaming from both their pelts kept time to their breathing, one steady and silent, the other sharp and staccato.

"The truth, this time."

Starclan, she didn't want this. She didn't want... any of this. The rain was pounding her eardrums, clouding her mind. Courage and her gaze dropped to the floor as the older cat's clear, soft voice rang through the den. Echoes mingled with the dull roar of wind and gale.
"S-sorry?" Feigning deafness gave her a purpose, brief and futile as it was.

Silence. Outside, the storm gained momentum. It's almost time to decide.

A cracking branch made the younger cat blink, and just like that, the seal of silence was broken.

"Did you know?" A different kind of softness crept into her voice, tinged with moons of hatred. The green eyes widened almost imperceptibly.

"Yes."

"Then why-!"

"To prolong the inevitable. To prevent this moment from happening."

The rhythm of the rain changed as the howls of the wind reached new heights. A swirl of dark shadows- leaves, creatures, or something in between -rushed past the entrance.

"I would've found out eventually."

"Hmm."

Lilypaw shifted where she sat, her chin trembling with indignation. There was no way to win this one.
"Rippedstar was born in Windclan." The words felt alien in her mouth, and she spat them as if they were venom. "And you kept it a secret for all these moons."

She was met with an impenetrable wall of silence.
"I can't stay here."

"Where will you go?" She made sure to keep her voice low and smooth. Rippedstar had asked her to care for these kits, her brothers and sisters by mind and heart and nothing more. For moons, for seasons, she had done so.
And now they knew. They knew, and she couldn't shield them from it any longer. Surely, most of them would be able to move on, to let the sands of time wear this jagged-stone memory down until it became smooth and forgotten. Most of them... but not her.

And if she was going to carry out Rippedstar's orders, she knew that she would have to let Lilypaw slip through her paws, to come and go as she chose. She had to trust that this young, sopping-wet apprentice would be able to survive outside of the forest that they called home.
There was little protection on the moors.

Lilypaw sighed. "Windclan, if I can." A home she had never known. "I never had a mother. Rippedstar is all I had, all that tied me to Skyclan." Rippedstar didn't like to talk about their mother. She died bringing them into the world. "The greatest sacrifice for the greatest gift."
"I can't live here. Not now. Not when I know, deep down..."

"That you don't belong."

Mintwhisker flicked her tail. "Tinystar won't let you return here. If you leave, you'll never set foot in Skyclan territory again. But if you're absolutely certain..."

The storm reached it's peak and the wind snatched the she-cats' words, pulling them higher and higher into the night. In the cozy den lined with herbs, feathers, and fog, a decision was being made.