[Swept Away Topic] Bridging the Gap

Dapplepaw stood still in shock as a large strange tom cat came charging towards her and Thornbriar. Taking a step back as the two cats collided, her fur bushed and her ears flattened as she saw the tom land on top of her mother. She charged forward, butting the shoulder of the tom as he stood up. "Get off of her! I'll... I'll fight you!" she exclaimed, looking up at Asterspark defiantly. Which made it all the more surprising when Thornbriar rolled up to her feet and wrapped her tail around her, and spoke as if she knew the cat.

Slowly relaxing, although she still kept a look of apprehension on the tom, she watched quietly as another tom came up. Licking the fur on her chest in an effort to appear relaxed, she watched the new, strikingly colored tom as he approached while still keeping an eye on the blue-gray one. Her attention was grabbed again by the malice in her mother's voice, and her ears perked up along with her head as she lunged forward from beside her and dragged the newcomer to the edge of the wooden structure and threw him over the edge. Watching wide-eyed in horror, her now quiet voice escaped her throat. "M-mom? What are you doing? Stop it..." Just then she heard the snap, and ran to the edge of the bridge just in time to see the ripples of water where the tom had dropped into the water. She bunched her legs to jump in after and help before she saw his head burst through the surface of the water. A breath of relief escaped her jaws and she turned to her adopted mother, tail bushed out nervously. "Why did you do that?... We should help him..."

Egretpaw wasn't quite herself these past few days, nor had she been for this past moon. The usually curious and motivated she-cat found nothing but a cold pit in her stomach at the thought of moving forward after this. She had practically no one in this tiny group of cats they'd gathered and picked up along the way. The only family among them were Berrycloud and Sparkfrost, sort of. 'Does Sparkfrost even count as a brother anymore?' He was just a blank slate now. She wanted to find solace in someone. She was too young to be without her mother. The grey tabby squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head. There was no place to mewl like a newborn kitten here, no matter how much she wanted to hide from the world and wait for her mother to come find her. 'She's gone now. I know it.' There was no way Finchstream or Cloudstone had survived. Her mind wanted to add her siblings to that list, but her heart refused. She had to have somebody. Her brothers, she'd seen them that day, in those last moments. Raggedpaw, Ospreykit, Magpiepaw, she'd watched as they all got swept away. And Cranepaw, well, she hadn't seen her at all. Her paws felt icy as she followed behind the bedraggled group. How could she even complain? Everybody had lost someone in all this, she wasn't the only one.

She hadn't even been with the group when they fought those dogs. She'd been off somewhere trying to hunt. She hadn't earned to right to complain when her pelt wasn't marred with wounds like the others. Head low and ears drooping, grey paws padded in line with the others. Then, they stopped. The young apprentice looked up warily, wondering faintly if there was some obstacle in their path. Cats gathered around a distinctly Twoleg object, though she swore she was hallucinating other voices drifting from the other side. A few cats bolted across the bridge, and despite the warnings of Scorchstar, she took a step onto it as well. Across the way, she could see them - other cats. Conflicting emotions fought in her chest; optimism that her family would be there, and realism reminding her not to break her own heart if there were none. A single voice let optimism win.

"Egretpaw!  Raggedpaw, Cranepaw!  A-Are you there!  Say...Say s-something, please!"

Without care for her own safety if the bridge collapsed, Egretpaw sprinted across the wood, claws scoring gashes in its damp surface as she honed in on the source of the voice. She knew it. She knew that voice well enough that she could risk her life for it. The source appeared a bit sooner than she'd anticipated, and she slammed into the cat at almost full force, sending them both sprawling. 'Oops.'

The young RiverClan she-cat scrambled back to her paws and pressed her face into her brother's pelt. "Magpiepaw! You're here, you're alive, oh thank StarClan." Though now that she glanced around... she couldn't see any of their other siblings. "I'm sorry if I scared you."


-----


Where was that light? That first peek of the sun rising over the dark horizon at sunrise?

Poppypaw said nothing, felt nothing as his group halted before a Twoleg contraption. What was the holdup? They needed to get moving. They needed to get home. The tom peered slightly over the heads of the group, hearing yowling and whatnot. The ThunderClan tom moved to the edge of the group and saw more cats before them. And yet he only felt... more nothing. Was he supposed to be excited? What for? A blank green gaze moved slowly across the pelts on the other side, seeing no one he'd run to. As he had expected. Without a word and indeed without anyone to glance in his direction, the red apprentice moved to simply lay among the tangled weeds until the group settled down enough to get moving again. He supposed they'd all band together now, unless Scorchclaw wanted to separate RiverClan from the rest and go off on their own. Before, he would've thought "good riddance", but now, now he didn't have the energy to care.

Screeching from the bridge caught his attention and to his mild surprise, there was a cat dangling over the edge. He remembered that obnoxious tomcat, now hovering dangerously over the water; he was a complete idiot. And his name was Poppypaw. Well, he probably had a warrior name now, every imbecile seemed to earn their name before he did. He watched with faint amusement as he fell into the water, with another tom rushing down via a more graceful route. His gaze fixated on them mindlessly, following them without a single thought. Dead eyes in an empty skull, moving only for the most basic instincts.

Where was that light?

Mothpaw could only watch in confusion, and then horror, as her current mentor dragged her brother and former mentor across the bridge and threw him off of it. "Thornbriar! What are you doing?" she asked, a mixture of angry and confused and generally upset that was unfamiliar and unpleasant to her. She didn't even stop to wait for a response, dashing to her brother when he surfaced. "Poppyheart! Are you okay? Please be okay..."

She'd lost her mother, and for a time she'd the rest of her family (time in which Thornbriar had become the closest thing to a family she had, and one she cared deeply for, which somehow made it all worse). She couldn't handle losing anyone else, not now, not after so much had already happened. Still, she turned her gaze to Thornbriar again, hurt and betrayal written on her face, finally looking for a response. Her mentor had better have a very good explanation for what she'd done, as far as the apprentice was concerned. "Why?"

(occ: laaaaate)

Leopardstar abruptly turned at the sound of his name to see a familiar white pelt race towards him; for a brief moment, he thought it might be Hailpaw before the she-cat spoke again.  "Gladepaw...?  Gladepaw!  Yes, it's me!  ThunderClan is here!"  Before he could say anything else though, another voice rang out through the crowd...one his heart had yearned for ever since he had awoken upon the shore.  "Copperheart!"  His ginger tabby son raced towards them, and the leader met him with open paws and a relieved sob, purring as he wrapped himself around his two fully-grown adopted kits.  "Ohh...I'm so glad to see you kid!"  Tears brimming in his eyes, the golden spotted tabby tom pulled away, listening worriedly, as Lynxtail asked about Batpaw.  As relieved as he was to have Copperheart back, his mischevious daughter was still missing...and it felt as if his heart had broken all over again.  If she's not with them...then...where is she?

---

Before his eyes could even register what he was seeing, Magpiepaw was sent sprawling onto his back, hitting the hardwood of the Twoleg structure as a warm weight crashed against his small body...one that smelled haunting familiar.

"E...E-Egretpaw!"

A sobbing cry escaped him as his beloved sister nuzzled his face, and in the moment, he almost didn't have the strength to stand back up.  His legs were weak and shaking from pure joy, and tears flowed freely down his patched face, but he didn't care if she teased him.  She was here, she was okay!  Slowly getting to his paws, he pressed his head against her chest, trying to stem his sniffles before trying to talk.  "I-I-I'm so g-glad you're okay!"  His voice was still a bit shaky, but nonetheless, he followed his sister's dark amber gaze as she scanned the crowd...the color suddenly looked incredibly familiar.  "N-No, it's fine!  Hey, O-Ospeykit is with u-us too, he's a-around here somewhere..."  As he looked around for his far-from-kitlike brother, his heart swelled; everything was going to be okay after all.