Cracks [Primroselight]

Beechface stalked toward the medicine den, catching sight of Primroselight's striped tail disappearing through the entrance. Her ears registered the words still being exchanged as she left her siblings and grandfather with one of the rogues, and her lip curled in anger. Tail lashing, she forced herself to continue toward the medicine den, though by her unsheathed claws and the rest of her body posture, it was clear she was thinking about turning and burying her claws into the throats of the rogues. Both the one who had inserted himself into the argument and the one that was unfortunately her littermate.

Was Ashstorm one of them? It was sure starting to look like it. She'd defended Dawnhawk, and then even had the other rogue with the weird name sticking up for her and asking if she was okay. The same rogue had insulted Primroselight and Copperfox, along with Beechface herself. Bitterness rose within her, preventing the large medicine cat from speaking as she ducked behind the entrance to the den.

And Wolfstar. All he could do was chastise her? As if she was the one putting her clanmates in danger? Beechface wanted to spit in disgust. She would never... Was that really all he thought of her? Tears stung her eyes at the thought.

Rage (so Beechface told herself) still cutting off her ability to speak, Beechface said nothing, merely slumped down next to Primroselight's soft frame, resting her chin on the top of her sister's head.

Why? Primroselight wanted answers to all her questions: why was her family such a mess? Why didn't everything ever do right? At least Beechface had joined her - she needed to just vent to someone. Maybe she could help her littermate as well. It was good to know that she could rely on at least one of her sisters. The fire within her was pretty much gone now, only revealing how upset she was. Her face was soaked with tears, but more still came, this time not of rage but sadness.

She buried her face in Beechface's long pelt, trying to find comfort. She was acting like a kit, but she was past caring. After sitting there for a bit, she lifted her pale eyes to her sister's. "Why? Why our family, our clan?" She was probably being a bit of a pain, but loosing her temper had left her broken. "I hated getting angry like that. Feeling like I wanted to hurt Dawnhawk, and Ashstorm, and Wolfstar, but I hope I did. It was my petty revenge for them ruining my perfect plans. I shouldn't have interrupted in the first place. Copperfox clearly didn't want my there, but then I just lost it." It was undoubtable that her sister had more experience with loosing her temper. Primroselight knew that revenge was what had driven her. She wanted Dawnhawk to pay for what he'd done, but while Wolfstar was in charge, that probably wouldn't happen.

Beechface closed her eyes as Primroselight buried her face against her shoulder, uncaring of the tears soaking into her fur. Her fluffy tail wrapped protectively around Primroselight, though Beechface wasn't sure what she could do at this point.

"Copperfox didn't want either of us there... At least he... tried, I guess?" Beechface curled her lip as she continued, "Dawnhawk doesn't give a rat's tail about anyone but himself, he never has." The pair of littermates had certainly never gotten along, and whatever hopes Smokefeather had had for them at least being civil with each other had died long ago, and were now buried deep. Beechface silently vowed that they'd never near the surface of her own thoughts again.

"I don't know why Wolfstar..." Beechface now found herself blinking back tears of her own. She'd looked up to the leader more than anyone, except for maybe Bloodstrike. And he'd gone and thrown being medicine cat in her face. She was still reeling from his words, more than anything. Ashstorm was stupid, but she had the excuse of being young and Dawnhawk being her former mentor. What excuse did Wolfstar have?

"I thought he did once..." Primroselight said quietly. After their hunt together, she had hoped that her littermate would make a turn to being better, and maybe try to bicker less with Beechface. She had been stupid and naive to believe that it would ever happen.

It was clear that if there was a rebellion, Wolfstar would be no use in it. Faint ideas of rising up had crossed her mind before, leading to her spar with Ivypaw, which had been just in case something happened. If they found a weak point in Asylum's forces, every warrior and apprentice would need to be ready. But she couldn't talk about rebelling now to Beechface. There was unwanted eyes and ears everywhere now. Anyway, her thoughts were unlikely to work, just a passing hope on the breeze. There was too many rouges around - it seemed as if there was at least two to every Skyclanner.

"It wasn't fair for him to scold so so much. You didn't do anything more or less than anyone else. I still can't believe that he didn't even directly put Dawnhawk in his place." Their brother was gaining far to much power for her liking, now replacing Bloodstrike in doing apprentice ceremonies, even though he wasn't technically the deputy.

Beechface listened to her sister speak, tail flicking to lightly brush her flank in a weak attempt at comfort. There was nothing she could say that would be comforting at this point, but at least one of her siblings was as upset as she was about the entire thing.

"I don't know what Wolfstar is thinking. He's got nothing but feathers in his brain if he thinks criticizing the rogues is worse than what they've actually done." Beechface exhaled in frustration. His rebuke for her had stung more than Beechface wanted to admit, but Primroselight didn't need to know that.

"Dawnhawk is untouchable. He has guards following him everywhere." Beechface muttered darkly.

Talking with her sister was helping to calm Primroselight down a bit; she had now stopped crying and instead her mind was spinning with ideas of rebellion. She knew that any attempt to rise up would be in vain, but that didn't mean she couldn't dream about it. "Maybe our brother only ever wanted power. To be in control. And so, of course, as soon as he has some authority, he shows his true colours."

Are any of the other clans having this much trouble? She thought. Asylum had cut off all means of communication between them by banning Gatherings, medicine cat meetings and conversing at the border. She had only seen one Thunderclan cat since the take over, and it had been from a distance across the border. Maybe the other clans had got off better, and hadn't had a clanmate betray them. She leaned into Beechface and whispered, so no sly, watching rouge could hear her words. "I wish we could do something about this. I hate feeling helpless. But I guess there's no point in dreaming of the impossible."

"Don't call him our brother." Beechface muttered sourly. She was ashamed to be related to that sack of foxdung. They shared parents, but that was it.

"Maybe, he's a power-hungry, but so are half of our family members. Yet they don't go around betraying the entire clan and pretending they have the greater good in mind." Primroselight seemed to be calming down, at least, and Beechface gently pressed against her in return.

A weary, still-frustrated growl rumbled in her chest. "I wish." She said quietly.

Primroselight hung her head at how low Dawnhawk had sunk. He wasn't even worthy of the title of brother any more, and she felt guilty for slipping up. In her opinion, a more appropriate name for him was 'fox-hearted rouge'. "I should get going..." she said. There was stuff to do, now that she had stopped crying like a kit.

She leaned up and gave Beechface's cheek a friendly lick. "Thanks for everything, sis. Thank you for being here for me when I most need it." With that, she padded out of the medicine den, purposely avoiding everyone she had fallen out with. The fresh-kill pile wouldn't stock itself, and Primroselight had taken to only eating her own catches, as to avoid help given by Asylum.

"You're right... I might go and check on my herbs... It would be better than staying in camp at least." Beechface sighed. Part of her wanted to just stay in the den with her sister, but they both had their own duties that wouldn't tend to themselves.

Affectionately, Beechface nuzzled her sister's shoulder in return before standing. "I love you, sis. You know where I am if you need me." She watched as Primroselight slipped out of the den, then turned to her herb stores with a sigh.