Destruction and Discoveries [Closed]

Burningsun couldn't get out of the camp fast enough. As soon as it was done, she whipped a quick comment to the clan about going to the creek before taking off into the forest. She was able to control her speed until she exited the prison, camp, but as soon as her paws hit grass she sprinted. Running through the forest, the warrior didn't even consider going into the trees like she always did. Everything felt weird, wrong different. Still, the blood clung and clogged her paws. It was so thick she could hardly move her claws. The irony taste still stung in her mouth, clinging to her taste buds almost as if to punish her. Of course she had tasted blood before. But that was prey. This was her leader.

Without even realizing it, Burningsun made it to the creek. Stopping suddenly to avoid plunging straight into the whispering waters, her multicolored gaze found her reflection. Her heart stopped. Blood covered her face. Instead of the ginger-red her pelt usually was, she donned the dark red of dried blood. Her white chest was crimson. Her paws looked foreign and unattached to her body. Despite being only a little ways from camp, Burningsun felt completely alone. Like she was the only cat in the universe.

Slowly, she laid down. Almost cautiously, as if the creek would jump out and kill her for her justice. After a few heartbeats, she dipped her paws in the current, emptily staring at the art before her as the blood mixed and churned with the fresh water. She should clean her face now and yet.... She felt solid. A rock sitting here, eroding slowly with every wave and being dragged downstream. Souless. Never ending.

At some point after leaving the camp behind, Lightfang had realized he was probably in violation of some rule or another. That this was objectively reckless. That in his Clanmates’ eyes, possibly even his family’s, he was running after a traitor—for the first or the second time, depending on who you asked. Shortly after, he had realized none of those things mattered. There would be time for them later. For now, Burningsun was his top priority. It turned his stomach to see Tinystar lying motionless; he couldn’t imagine how it would feel to have the taste of Tinystar’s blood on his tongue. What he could imagine was enough to send his paws onward, ever faster, toward Moonlit Creek.

He had no idea what he would say. He had no idea what he would do. There was no script, no training, for situations like this. But nobody else had gone with him, and though he and his clumsy thoughts made for a less-than-ideal source of comfort, they would have to do. Perhaps Burningsun would prefer to bear this alone. Still, she deserved to have a choice.

Only when he saw a flash of ginger through the trees did he stop running. She was here. She was alive. That thought brought him up short, his heart drumming against his chest hard enough he feared it would bruise, and he realized just how worried he had been about the alternative. Lightfang closed his eyes, letting the relief pass over him; now wasn't the time for that, either. Then he padded forward to stand at Burningsun’s side, mere kitsteps away. Not afraid. Not afraid of her. Crimson lines wove into the water. He looked at them, then at her, concern laid bare in his eyes as they caught on her bloodied chest and face. ”Burningsun,” he said, voice soft. That was as good a place to start as any.

She couldn't recall how much time had passed that she laid there with her paws in the water. All she knew that her paws were starting to ache. As her name registered in her ears, the warrior didn't turn to look at first. It was clear who it was, and a sense of relief had crashed over her. Someone came. Someone cared. Slowly, she pulled her clean paws from the water and turned her head to face the pale tom. Her eyes were blank, and stared at him in an empty way, void of the usual happiness and love that danced in her eyes when seeing her best friend. His soft voice played in her head over and over again. Burningsun. Burningsun. Buringsun. Burningsun. That was her name, for sure. Time passed, about a minute, and finally Burningsun attempted to speak.

"I..." She didn't know what she wanted to say. There was a lot to say, and yet, at the same time, nothing. Her priority slowly came to head and she realized what she wanted. "I, I need help." Her voice said softly, and raspily. The blood clinging to her chest- she wanted that gone. She wanted him to be close. She wanted his comfort. "I don't know how to get this off." Burningsun rather die than lick the blood off herself, and her thought process didn't think of emerging herself in the creek. For the first time in their friendship, she needed Lightfang to tell her what to do.

An eternity passed before Burningsun raised her head. Her pelt was Burningsun’s, her mismatched eyes were Burningsun’s, but the look in them was foreign and lost. The stars-given determination they had held atop the Tallbranch had vanished. When she spoke, her voice, too, was different from the one Lightfang had grown up hearing. It came soft and slow, and cut him to the heart. She was always taking the lead, speaking out, supporting him; he was always trailing behind, watching the world move without daring to alter its course. Off the battlefield, bravery didn’t come easily to him. He never would have been able to challenge Tinystar. He hadn’t done it for his sister; he couldn’t have for a stranger, even if StarClan had ordered him to. But Burningsun wasn’t asking for courage. At least, not in that way. The specifics of what he was meant to do were no clearer than they had been moments before, yet, now, he was sure of one thing: he would not leave.

Set in his goal, the pale warrior blinked. ”Okay.” Wash away the blood. The first step toward normalcy. They would have to return to camp at some point, however long it took, and SkyClan would be difficult enough to face with clean pelts. ”It’ll be easier with water. We should start there.” Finally, he closed the distance between them to rest his tail along Burningsun’s side and carefully guide her into the creek, stopping where the current was weak enough that even he couldn’t worry about either of them being swept away. As the water splashed around his legs, he found himself unwilling to break contact. His tail remained, barely brushing against her, assuring her he was there—assuring himself she was, too. "I can help you wash it off," he said after a moment of silence, tone unchanged, "or I can just…stay here." Lightfang was not a terribly intuitive cat. Burningsun had said she needed help, but he wasn't the type to assume what he could and couldn't do, not anymore; nothing about this situation made him willing to challenge that.

Everything around her seemed to take so long to take place, as if it was happening three years ago and just now making it to reality. She could see Lightfang move towards her, could feel his tail on her back, but it wan't quite connecting yet. Burningsun obediently followed him into the creek, the chilly water fully hitting her. Being the mainly small cat she was, the water easily reached her chest. The blood began to wash away as it did with her paws, slowly turning the crimson on her chest back to white. All that remained from the Trial resided on her face. She could hear him speak, but she said nothing back. Instead, she chose to plunge her face into the cool liquid, and held herself down there until her breath ran out. She did this over and over again until she was shivering and clean.

On the last plunge, reality seemed to slowly start to connect again. Her body shook from the cold water... Fear... A lot of things probably. Without instruction, her old self starting to slowly inch its way back, she headed out of the water and stood on the bank. Turning around, she stared at Lightfang still in the water. "I'm cold..." She whispered, a little more firm than the one before. It surprised her, the distance. How it made her feel. In that moment, she wanted nothing more than Lightfang to be right next to her. Right there. Her best friend. She wanted... No needed him to get out of that creek.

As it took the blood out of her pelt and carried it downstream, the water seemed to bring something back within Burningsun. She didn’t respond, for which he was almost thankful. Instead, her answer came when she submerged her face in the creek. Lightfang’s tail stayed where it was. He watched as she went under again and again, his shoulders tensing ever so slightly each time only to relax when she surfaced. Though her muzzle was dripping by the end of it, she looked just a bit more like herself. She hadn’t been swept away. The blood had washed out. A younger Lightfang might have taken it as a sign that they would recover from this. He wasn’t so naïve anymore.

Burningsun turned toward the bank, and the worry coiled around Lightfang’s heart finally began to loosen its grip. While she was someone he would care for no matter what state she was in, it was a relief to see her move on her own. Without him. Water lapped at his fur; the moment passed as quietly as it had come. In a terrible way, it was good to be needed, to be the strong one for his friend's sake, but this…this wasn’t right. Though Lightfang couldn't imagine any other outcome now, something in him wished the trial hadn't torn them all apart.

When he lifted his head, he was startled to find Burningsun staring in his direction, shivering. ”I’m cold…” Of course. Leaf-fall wasn’t too far away, and they weren’t RiverClanners. Somehow, she still needed him. Perhaps he was reading too much into it; on the off chance he wasn’t, he would follow anyway. Shaking off his shock and a good deal of water, Lightfang picked his way across the creek bed until he was beside her on the bank. Ignoring the sudden chill on his legs, he began to groom Burningsun’s shoulder. It was a gentle, hesitant motion, far too bold for him, yet contact and gestures were all he had. After several moments, he pulled away slightly. ”Is this helping?” Helping chase off the cold, helping to ground her; anything as long as it was useful.

Burningsun's eyes closed as Lightfang joined her on the bank... She purred slightly. A sense of comfort, and warmth radiated from where his tongue lapped at the water on her reddish pelt.Her heart ached. From so many things. But this. This helped. When the pale warrior paused, she took a seat and looked up at him. "Yes. It is. Can you please keep doing it?" Her voice was just that little bit more firm. She waited until he laid down next to her again and started lapping before slowly working on her paws as well.

As they worked to dry her off together, her mind wandered to their life so far. At this very creek, she and Sandpaw had sneaked out and spent their first night together. She remembered it clearly. Sandblaze was so full of life then. Energetic. Mysterious. They had sneaked out many nights after that. It was young love, she was sure of it. But then her mind wandered to the conversation atop the rock, shortly after her naming ceremony. The pain she felt that night, she thought she would feel nothing that horrible again. She was wrong. This feeling right now was the worst. Neither of them was the same as they were that night, even now.

Then her mind wandered to Lightfang. He was always scared and timid. He didn't have his scar then, that day she had forced him up the tree. From that day on, Lightpaw had been her best friend. Leading him to training sessions, pumping up his confidence whenever he was down. Helping him through the exile of Delta. He had always been good ol' Lightfang. Always. And here he was now, clearly glowing out of his comfort zone to be the strong one this time.

Suddenly, Burningsun stopped laughing and turned her head slightly to look at Lightfang. The sun was filtering through the trees and hitting his pelt ever so slightly. She woke up every morning next to him, it kind of looked like then. She thought back to all of those days with him by her side, her deputy to her leader. It was in that moment that Echoflame's words made sense.

"They should shine like a bright light in the darkness, and be your never dying hope. "

It was Lightfang that Echoflame spoke about.

It was Lightfang.

It was always Lightfang.

It would always be Lightfang.