Questions and Answers [Closed]

The paws that carried her home almost felt as if they were not her own. How long had it been since she had last stepped paw into ThunderClan territory? Two whole moons. Just two moons, but they had almost seemed like eternity to her. Judging from the changes that had taken place, she could have been away for a whole lifetime. To think that Leopardstar had retired, and Marshstorm had taken his place. The former deputy was Oakstar now; she did not think that she would get used to his new name anytime soon. And who had filled his old position, but Beartooth? Never before had Hailpaw considered the possibility of her adopted brother being the second-in-command of the clan. It was not that she thought him unfit for the position. He was a strong warrior capable of inflicting incredible damage in a brief span of time. His appearance, too--he was tall and practically built like a wall of muscle. His protruding fangs and additional claws only served to make him look even more imposing. Considering those aspects alone, he would definitely make a charismatic, awe-inspiring leader. The thought had... simply never occurred to her. Marsh--no, Oakstar--had chosen well. Once again, however, the white-furred she-cat was made aware of how much could change in the brief window of a couple moons. Was he still the same Beartooth that she had known? Such thoughts scared her. If she closed her eyes, if she only blinked, what more would change? Would he disappear from before her? Trooping along at the back of the ThunderClan patrol, her yellow gaze was fixed on his hulking frame up front. She knew that many a curious pair of eyes must have been lingering on her pelt. Among these cats were those that she had never seen before, who must have been born after her departure. Oh, she must have been quite the interesting presence to them, with her pelt still stinking of RiverClan scent--the 'paw who was easily as large as some of the senior warriors. At the moment, she had more important things to do than humor them. The changes that she faced felt almost overwhelming. There would surely be much she had to get used to when they got back to camp. But she would get used to them. She probably could. There was just one issue that she had to get to the bottom of, at all cost.

The thought of Ridgelight had haunted her every day, ever since her sister's visit to her water-bound prison. Hailpaw had to find out why her sister had been exiled. StarClan help her--she did not want to lose another family member.

Through the darkness, the great cliffs of the ravine loomed. The apprentice stared up at them, drinking in the sight of their shadowed silhouettes. How she had missed this sight... How she had anticipated seeing them again, and she was only now realizing that fact. Who had thought that it was possible to miss some rocks? Within the protective embrace of these rocks, her most precious memories had taken place. The gorse tunnel had been repaired; in comparison to its devastated state after the flood, it looked almost as good as it had been before. Hailpaw hesitated slightly before entering. When she emerged, a cool night breeze was the first to greet her. Here was home, at last. She recognized High-rock, the dens, even the fresh-kill pile. This much, at least, had not changed. Emotions prickled within her, ones she had never thought she would feel when she had left to become a rogue moons ago. "Beartooth!" She called out, suddenly wondering if her brother would turn around. They had not spoken a word to one another back at Fourtrees, but now... Now they were home. "What's wrong?" She asked, flashing a pained grin as she stepped towards him, "Not going to welcome your sister back?"

The gathering had been just like the others. Always something for leaders to go on about, words he was comfortable tuning out in favor of making it through the event. Beartooth had never been one to enjoy being in the presence of so many strange cats. He hardly had an affinity for building relationships, and found it pointless to engage with most cats from other clans. That was simply a road block in battles to come. Thunderclan was his home, his family, and that was what mattered. It seemed on this particular night, there was to be an amendment to his kin. Something would be made right once again. His estranged sister who had found herself condemned to time in Riverclan would be allowed to make her way home once again. He had missed Hailpaw. In his youth, and into warriorhood, the she-cat had been both a sister and a friend. Losing her had taken a part of him with. Pieces that seemed to constantly be fractured by circumstance.

It took will to not think of growing up with both the white-pelted she-cat and Ridgelight. That was a past he needed to swallow. While they hadn't spoken much at the gathering, due to his position now and the lack of will to speak with others, there would be plenty of time in camp. The deputy padded back with few words falling from his maw and his gaze trained ahead. Returning home would mean swiftly retiring to his nest with Ferretnose and Harefoot on either side. But tonight foretold of another event. That confirmed by the call of Hailpaw. Ice seemed to freeze in his throat as Pricklebush's name left her maw. But the medicine cat had strong ties with her as well. And his own discomfort would not prevent him from greeting his sister. While he was a rarely affectionate creature, Hailpaw had always been one of the few cats he would brush his coat against with ease. He padded towards her and nuzzled the side of her maw before pulling back to meet her gaze with a weary, fanged smile.

"Welcome home, Hailpaw, it has been a long time."

In the second or two that it took Beartooth to respond, Hailpaw experienced the horrible agony of uncertainty. What if so much had changed between them, that Beartooth no longer saw her as family? Anxiety caused her heart to pound. Her facial features felt cramped, and she wondered how long she would have to maintain her forced smile. But then the ThunderClan deputy turned. As her bright yellow gaze locked with the hazel-green one of her brother, Hailpaw felt a wave of relief sweep over her from head to toe. Oh, he was still the brother she remembered him to be. Insignificant as it might have been to another cat, that small detail was a sort of salvation to her. A soft but gravelly purr rumbled in her chest. After her long imprisonment in RiverClan camp, it almost felt like a dream to see her family members again. Ever since she had learned of Ridgelight's exile, the white she-cat had spent every waking moment thinking of her littermates. What if she lost one more of them while she was stuck in RiverClan camp? If she had not occupied herself with work, the apprehension would have driven her insane. The Beartooth standing before her now, however, was neither a hallucination nor a figment of her imagination. She had almost forgotten how tall he was; even when he had bent down, she had to strain slightly to reach up and return the gesture of affection. How she had longed to see him, to breathe in his familiar scent again. Home meant little without the cats that made it up.

The celebration was over all too quickly. Caught up in the moment, Hailpaw almost forgot about the matter she wanted to discuss. It would be so easy to sweep it aside, to pretend that all was well. Hailpaw was not going to give in to temptation, however, not after she had finally come so far. No matter how terrible the truth was, she had to know. The joy that had warmed her to her very toes just moments ago receded, and a numbing cold swept inside in its stead. "Beartooth." She spoke gravely, once more looking her brother in the face. "I met Ridgelight while I was in RiverClan camp. She told me that she had been exiled, and that she had come to say goodbye. She refused to tell me anything else... Ever since that evening, I have not seen her again." She paused for a moment, allowing Beartooth to digest the meaning of her words. "What happened while I was gone? Why was Ridgelight exiled? Tell me, brother; you have the answers. I must know." Her voice wavered as she made her plea, and desperation flashed over her features.

Beartooth had always been rather inept when it came to reading emotions. And yet, he had grown up with Hailpaw, he knew her well. Something was off in her demeanor before words came from her maw. A quizzical look swept across his expression. It fell in an instant. What parted from her tongue was a name that instantly set pits of creeping, ice cold dread straight into his heart. How many moments had he spent trying to force her memory from his mind? How often had he turned away from Houndpaw to desperately pretend that the apprentice was not the product of his love for Ridgelight? His elongated fangs dug deep into the soft flesh of his lower maw. There were scars from moons of wear. But it didn't prevent the pinpricks of pain that normally came with such an action. Now, he didn't feel them at all. It seemed to be a foreign sensation.

He couldn't bring himself to find any sort of speech. It was impossible to consider that which he had hardly spared a thought. Those many long claws dug into the earth, steadying the bulky tom as he swayed ever so slightly. The deputy was revered for his strong and fearsome exterior. Inside, he was as soft as the down on a sparrow. Beartooth's green gaze was wrought with many mixed emotion but one shone through above all else: unimaginable agony. He wished more than anything in the moment that some other cat might show up and replace him so that he would not have to speak aloud that tragedy that had befallen the clan. Hailpaw had lost a sister, he had lost a mate and a dear friend. the clan had lost their clanmate, and the souls of a few small kits had been offered to Starclan far too soon. His maw parted ever so slightly. The words couldn't come. All that came out was a pained sigh. But he had to say something. Hailpaw deserved answers, and he couldn't deny his sister that. Ridgelight had been dear to her as well.

"She had kits and left them for a fox to kill." Beartooth wanted to rip his own tongue from his maw. It felt foreign, as if some other cat had spoken those horrible words. He had to look away and fixate his gaze on the ground. One more thing he could not stand to bear was the reaction of Hailpaw, to see her expression as she learned of the crimes committed by Ridgelight. She too would share in the devastation that had weighed heavy on his chest for so long now, and it was something that he was not happy to relate to. Soon, too, she would further see the remnant of those times. Would Houndpaw's existence haunt her as much as it had him over the moons? He swallowed and waited with dread for what she would say next.

For a moment, Hailpaw was silent. Her wide yellow eyes as she stared at Beartooth were blank, reflecting an absence of understanding. Then the realization hit. When it did, it was visible in her features. Her expression stiffened. Disbelief crawled and twisted over her face. "What?" The single word was punctuated with a scorching emotion, rising from the very depths of her being. She took a half-step away from Beartooth, yet her gaze never left his face. She searched the familiar visage before her―one that was dull, scarred, and clumsy in expressing emotion. She looked at him with eyes that saw beyond the physical, with senses that had been cultivated from a long acquaintance with him; and she felt the pain that was too deep for even the most eloquent of cats to express. What he was saying made no sense. Even so, she instinctively knew that he was telling the truth; it could be nothing but the truth. "Who was her mate?" Before she had even processed the words, she found them leaving her maw. Her voice seem to vibrate in the cool night air. Heat expanded in her chest, rushing all the way up to her head; and Hailpaw felt the all-too-familiar sensation of rage consuming her mind. It reminded her of the time she had maimed Icepaw, except there was no one on whom she could take her anger out now. The fury that boiled within her overwhelmed every other sensation, so that she could barely feel the breeze in her face. Beepaw, Leafstorm, Blizzardshine, and now Ridgelight―how many more loved ones was she fated to lose?

"Who was the father?" Hailpaw repeated―slowly, murderously―as if she had not already asked the question once before. The emotions smoldering within her were so intense, she barely knew how to hold them back. They threatened to overflow, setting her very words on fire.

Who was to blame? She had to know. Her sister would never commit murder. Hailpaw knew Ridgelight too well, and every instinct within her screamed that there had to be more to the story. Beartooth had not given her a thorough explanation; he had left out too many details. Ridgelight was neither a psychopath nor a murderer―she was different from Hailpaw. Hailpaw was the black sheep of the family, and she was the only failure the siblings needed. While she had been rotting away in RiverClan camp, who or what had changed her sister? She swore on StarClan; she had to find the one responsible and claw their face off, or else the anger within her would never calm down.

Beartooth swallowed. It was unbearable, having to face his adoptive sister over matters that were vastly personal to the both of them. The unthinkable act was something that even he had yet to process yet. And the result of the tragedy, proof of such a horrible thing, lived on in Houndpaw. There was hardly a second to consider what Hailpaw might think of the obnoxious apprentice. Because, much like in the deputy's mind, little more matter than the fact that the young tom was Ridgelight's one and only remaining kit. He hated to think about how if it weren't for her actions, Houndpaw might had have more siblings roaming the camp. But the white-coated she-cat wasn't pressing for answers of the kits, she wasn't asking if there were any survivors. No, there was a burning question that struck the scarred tom far more than he could have imagined. Hailpaw wanted to know who the father was. His eyes met her, with a broken sadness, ever telling in their nature. What he lacked in verbal expression, his eyes made up for in their soulfulness. After a long time, he finally dipped his head and let out a low, cracked meow, "They were my kits."