Not Guilty

Mintwhisker sighed, glancing at the storm clouds gathering on the horizon. A small, prickling sensation of dread had begun to appear at the back of her mind. If Starclan told her about Goldeneye, then... was it possible that they had also chosen to reveal the truth about Sedgestrike?

She couldn't put it off any longer. She would rather have Tinystar discover the truth now, in his own territory, instead of at the gathering.
The short-legged she-cat pushed herself to her feet. "Now or never..." She muttered, padding across the clearing and pausing just outside Tinystar's den. "Tinystar?" She mewed, her voice tentative as she peered through the moss that hung in front of the entrance. "I need to speak with you."

Having been laying peacefully in his den, curled up with his long tail wrapped around the bottom of his body, Tinystar's ears twitched at the sound of a cat's soft voice. Slowly opening his dreary eyes, he found himself not surprised to see his granddaughter, Mintwhisker, at the entrance of his den. Letting out a yawn, the diminutive leader sat up and stretched his tired legs out in front of him, his claws digging into the soft earth bellow. "You may enter, Mintwhisker," Tinystar mewed with a smile on his muzzle. Curious as to what the tawny pelted molly had to say, he also found himself concerned at the news in which she might be bearing. Over the course of many moons, he'd learned that a medicine cats who wished to speak with their leader alone usually lacked the bringing of elementary subjects, such as the clan's opulence, though he wished that was the case every so often, instead of what seemed like constant unfavorable relations...

"Tinystar... I- err, I have something to tell you." The medicine cat mewed, stepping into the den awkwardly. Her large ears twitched. "I, uh..."
She should just say it... But as the words tumbled out of her mouth, she couldn't help wincing. "I killed Sedgestrike."

Before Tinystar could react, the small she-cat let loose an avalanche of words. Her memories of that fateful day were convoluted, twisting and uncertain. Did she kill him? Casting her mind back, she couldn't remember much. Eyes, claws, his jaws open in a silent yowl. "B-But... well, I was in a tree, a-and then I-I saw... him... just below me... a-and I didn't know what to do." That was true. How she ended up in the tree in the first place, she couldn't say, but now that she thought about it...
The rough scent of pine trees filled her nose. There he was... just below her, looking over Skyclan's territory.
"I thought he was going to kill me. S-so... I moved, and he saw me. I could see his claws from where I stood. B-but... I think he was surprised. I knew that I couldn't outrun him, s-so... I pushed him off of the branch before he could do anything."

The silence that filled the den after Mintwhisker finished speaking made her wince. Taking a shaking breath, the she-cat took a moment to compose herself before opening her mouth again.
"I decided not to tell you immediately because I knew that after the whole ordeal, the entire clan needed to gather themselves.
I know that what I did was wrong. It's against every law, every code that we have. I was scared, yes, but that's no excuse for my actions." Shut up! The young Medicine Cat shook her head, biting her tongue to keep herself from speaking any more. Tinystar needed some time to think.

Ears forward and eyes fixed on the younger she-cat as she began to speak, his heart quickly dropped to his stomach. Mintwhisker had killed Sedgestrike? Memories of the day in which Sedgestrike had taken one of his nine lives flooded over him, which sent a shiver up his spine. Now that he thought about it, he had wondered why they hadn't seen or heard anything on the whereabouts of the exiled tom, so this finally relieved him of such curiosity, to some extent.

Continuing to listen to Mintwhisker, he tried to imagine the situation in which the medicine cat must've been in. Unfortunately, her experience with the fiendish warrior had been very similar to his. In the end, Sedgestrike's fate had been the same as Tinystar's, which left him a bit surprised that StarClan could be so crude. 'I guess what goes around really does come around,' the small leader thought to himself as his granddaughter finished. Letting out a soft breath, he looked down to his small white paws, processing everything that she'd told him. Was he to be angry at her, or just disappointed? Yes, she's killed a cat, but is was out of self defense, at least from what she was telling him... so she had every right to do so, at least from what he recalled that the warrior code stated...

After a few moments of the two cats sitting in apprehensive silence, Tinystar gathered his thoughts together and looked back up, his light blue gaze resting upon her shoulders once more. "While I do not appreciate such undesired death that came to Sedgestrike, no matter what his actions were in the past, you did have a right to do what you did," he began, hoping what he was about to say was correct. "The warrior code states that 'an honorable warrior does not need to kill other cats to win their battles, unless they are outside the warrior code or if it is necessary for self-defense.' Luckily for you, killing Sedgestrike was out of self defense, so I have no need to severely punish you, but, you still have a cat's blood on your paws and while it wasn't necessarily against the code itself, his killing most likely could've been avoided, so I will still have to decide on your retribution," the white and grey tom continued, his tri-toned tail slowly swishing back and forth. Most cats wouldn't even blink at the thought of their killer being dead, seeing as though it was probably for the best, but Tinystar wasn't most cats. Sedgestrike's judgement had been clouded, enough for him to take one of the little leader's lives, but he still believed that no cat deserved a death so soon after their said mistakes and even exile. Instead, Tinystar fancied that Sedgestrike should've lived long enough to find humiliation about his ways and at least suffer a little more than be relieved of his futile existence so quickly. Part of him felt that such an ideal was a bit harsh, but even so, he would take such an opinion to the grave. Some cats deserved mercy for their actions, but even so, he believed that there was always a line to be drawn as to which cats were shown any amount of grace, in accordance to their deaths. "But, I am extremely disappointed that you didn't tell me sooner. No cat should be afraid to tell me things that have taken place, especially something like this. So that was a substantial fault on your part," he mewed. Was every cat fearful to talk to him about imperative matters? First Spottedpaw, and now her, and it wasn't like he was some big, intimidating cat... which made him wonder if it was simply his rank that caused such cautiousness.

"I just hope that what you're telling me is the truth, Mintwhisker," he added in a more assuaged tone. He hated to be so skeptical, especially towards his own kin, but it was times like this where the entire truth was needed. If she lied to him and her transgressions were discovered later on, it would make matters much worse, which was something the SkyClan wanted to avoid at all costs. "Is there anything else you want to tell me?" he asked, giving her once last chance to confess anything she'd left out or skewed from the original anecdote.

Mintwhisker dropped her gaze as Tinystar spoke. "N-no..." She mewed, her voice soft. "I-If I'm being honest, I tried so hard to get rid of the memory... but no matter how hard I try, I can't forget the claws, a-and rain... and fear... him, on the branch below me, a-and... he turned, and saw me..." She trailed off, her murky gaze dim. She'd worked so hard to block out that memory, and now, when she needed it most... "I-I..." Did she kill Sedgestrike? As she forced herself to recall the moments before the tom's death, she could remember claw scores in the tree bark, and anger, and... blood? Everything was fuzzy. "I know I should've told you sooner, b-but... I'm sorry, Tinystar." She was so confused. It was an accident, right? Surely, surely it was an accident. She wouldn't do something like that. Even Sedgestrike.
One of her oldest, closest friends, turned enemy... "I just... I tried so hard to block out the memory... I used to wake up in my den, gasping for breath..." The taupe she-cat's face began to twist in an effort to hold back a flood of tears as she was suddenly met with a solid mental wall. Suddenly, she couldn't speak, couldn't breathe, couldn't think. It was as if something incredibly heavy was settled on her chest. Her breathing quickened as dry sobs wracked her body, half fear that she really was a murderer and half the result of several moon's worth of stress, anxiety, and guilt she couldn't quite place.
For a while, all the Medicine Cat could do was crouch on the floor of the den, trying to make sense of her whirling thoughts. I can't remember I can't remember I can't remember. She kept returning to that thought, an anchor in the whirling storm that was her mind.

Eventually, she managed to pull herself together. "I'm sorry." She paused for breath, succumbing to a hiccuping silence. The herbs she had taken in order to forget about that dreadful day had done their job well. The more Mintwhisker thought, the more tangled her memories became.
"I wasn't in the right state of mind, and it was a severe lapse of judgment on my part. I know that I deserve whatever punishment you see fit for me. " Her voice trembled, her murky green eyes vast and empty as she stared hard at the flat earth beneath her paws. Her mind had fallen silent as abruptly as it erupted. There was just one thought that rang clear through the wasteland, a final bloody flag left alone on the battlefield.
Make it stop, make it stop, make it stop. The little she-cat, so prone to worry and terror, felt a strong urge to remove herself from the situation as quickly as possible. There were herbs that she could take- poppy, honey... soon she'd sink into a blissful slumber and be free momentarily from the thoughts that plagued her mind. Please, please, let me go.

Listening to Mintwhisker as she spoke about her memories, it was obvious that whatever she had retained from that fateful day was painful to think about and he didn't want to push her. "While you waited some time to tell me, I'm glad it came out eventually. In the end, it's better to tell the truth and face the punishment than to hold back and face the consequences later on," he mewed, a soft smile on his white muzzle as she continued on about being sorry and wishing for his appropriate judgement. As of now, he didn't know what exactly he'd do, but he presumed that something needed to be put in order for her waiting so long to tell him. Luckily for the both of them, the fact that Sedgestrike's killing was in self defense made matters much easier on his part, seeing as though such an action wasn't actually against the code. "I need some time to think on your retribution, so until then, continue your usual medicine cat duties," he mewed with a curt nod. "You are dismissed, Mintwhisker," Tinystar purred, hoping he'd said everything in a way that wouldn't cause his granddaughter to worry anymore than she already was.