You Need to Know (Shrikesong)

OOC: This is set before "Waterpaw's Warrior Ceremony" and just after the events of "erase me."

Waterpaw quickly caught a piece of prey after her conversation with Kitefire to make it look as though she had been hunting.  When she returned to the group, she told them that they seemed to have caught enough and they should go back.  She was unsure if they would agree, but thankfully they did.  She walked faster than normal, trying to go to camp as fast as she could.  She needed to do what Kirefire tasked her to do: tell Shrikesong.

She didn't know exactly how her sister would react.  She assumed she'd be sad, like Waterpaw was, but didn't know for sure.  Finally, she reached camp.  Now all that was left to do was find Shrikesong.  She looked around camp and couldn't find her for a few moments.  In this time, she was somewhat afraid.  What if she went on a patrol?  What if Minkstream tells them before I get a chance to tell her?  What if I fail the one and only thing Kitefire told me to do?  But, after all that doubt and worry, she finally spotted her last sibling left in Thunderclan.

"Shrikesong!"  She said as she rushed up to her sister.  She stopped herself about a fox length between them, correcting herself for acting excited to see her, it might give Shrikesong the wrong impression.  Quickly, her posture relaxed and her eyes were again filled with sadness and concern.  Taking a few more steps toward Shrikesong slowly, she lowered her head slightly.  "I, um, I need to tell you something... about Kitefire."

Shrikesong was sitting in the middle of camp. Everything seemed to be falling apart for her. It didn't matter that with the Newleaf breeze flowers began to bloom. It didn't matter, though. The warrior couldn't feel anything. Perhaps it was an effect on directing every part of her soul to the hatred of Asylum, which once they left, her soul seemed to leave with it. She felt like an empty husk, eating and drinking and sleeping but not alive. And if she was alive, she wished that she weren't.

The brown she-cat turned at Waterpaw's call. Waterpaw. Her only sister here besides Kitefire, but she knew that her bond with Kitefire seemed to be rapidly disappearing. After all, she ran away from ThunderClan the day they were all freed, and she had already admitted that a RiverClan cat that she was fighting was handsome. As far as the she-cat knew, Kitefire was probably in RiverClan, with her RiverClan lover, leaving her sisters behind.

And of course Waterpaw is telling Shrike something about Kitefire.

"Let me guess," the brown she-cat said, her voice quiet and soft. "She's running away to RiverClan." Of course, it was more than just a random guess she made, as she had evidence to back up the claims that were made. Maybe if that one day where Kitefire had told her about the RiverClan tom... maybe she shouldn't have been as prodding back then. Maybe that would have made her not want to leave. Maybe if she was a better sister, Kitefire would have more of a reason to stay.

But deep in her soul, which she found did exist after all, she knew that it didn't matter in the end. Because Kitefire was gone, and she was never coming back.

Waterpaw tilted her head at Shrikesong's answer.  That was weird how good her guess was.  Was it a guess?  Or did she know more information then Waterpaw did?  The second seemed more likely to the black she-cat.  Kitefire and Shrikesong were littermates after all, it would make sense why she would know.  But then why did Kitefire give her the task of telling Shrikesong if Shrikesong already knew?  This was really strange and Waterpaw now needed to know what Shrikesong knew.

"Yes.  How did you know?"  She asked.

Shrikesong exhaled deeply at Waterpaw's question. "Well, it's a long story," she said. "But I'll explain it to you. First, we had a talk when Kitefire was still an apprentice, before the Asylum came and took over the clans. During that talk, Kitefire mentioned talking about a RiverClan tom, then mentioning that he was handsome. I tried to be supportive, but she denied any feelings she had for him, though they probably did exist back then still."

"And after the Asylum left, the first thing that Kitefire did was run away. Not even talk to me or Mom, just... run away from our home. I wasn't sure of where she went, but from our encounter before, I could infer that she went to RiverClan to see that RiverClan tom." Sighing, the brown she-cat continued. "I tried convincing her that she needed to stay here, to help keep our family together, but she still didn't feel at home. A couple days ago, I decided that it was no use trying to bug her into staying here anymore. Though, since she sent you to tell me about her leaving, she was probably still worried about me trying to stop her."

Her voice had a twinge of sadness, perhaps regret of not being a better sister for Kitefire, maybe something else. It was painful trying to let her sister go, but the brown warrior knew that it was the only way for her to not get torn apart by her sister leaving. Leaving ThunderClan was what Kitefire wanted, and Shrikesong couldn't stand in her sister's way with a good conscience for long. "I didn't want to let her go, but... in the end, I had to. It would have hurt more trying to keep her in ThunderClan."

The fact that she could confide with someone about this... it made her feel a little more comfortable than she had been before they began talking. Maybe that was too selfish of her. Maybe she was just being too manipulative to her siblings. She hated being manipulative. But maybe, maybe she needed to be selfish. To recover herself, to learn from her mistakes. With her family shrinking rapidly in the last couple moons - Waterpaw was the only family member she had in ThunderClan after Kitefire left - Shrikesong was in an unstable position, and perhaps the only way that she could recover was to talk with her sister a little bit.

"I see..." Waterpaw said after hearing all that had happened.  How was she so blind to what had been going on in her own family?  If Kitefire had not told her that she was leaving, she would have never been able to guess were she went.  Kitefire and her didn't talk much, but even after the night that the Asylum left, she didn't notice her sister's absence.  Immediately, a wave of guilt came on Waterpaw as she thought about what might have been different if she had talk to Kitefire earlier.  Maybe her sister would have stayed.  Maybe they could have become a good tight knit family that Waterpaw always wanted.  But she realized today that the dream was just going to stay a dream forever.  She only had two siblings left in the family that adopted her... One were she was now.  Maybe Shrikesong and her could become very close, they were all that either of them had left of a family anyway.

Waterpaw sat next to her sister and put her tail on the other she-cat's back, trying to comfort her.  "She wasn't going to tell me she was leaving either," she admitted.  "I was on a hunting patrol when I heard something and walked to see what it was.  I stopped her from running straight there.  She wanted to tell you.  She wanted you to know before anyone else, which is why she sent me.  She told me to tell you and said that we need to take care of each other now.  I and her were never really close, I'm just glad she stopped to talk to me."

Waterpaw was trying to make Shrikesong feel better, whether that was working or not she didn't know.  She wished she could help Shrikesong more than she thought she could.  She wished she had the answers for what to do and what was right.  She wished she had gotten to know Kitefire more before she left.  But that was all her fault.  She should have known better.  She should have been more observant to what was going on in her family.  And the worst part was that she could have made some of her wishes a reality if she tried before any of this happened.