Dawnhawk Reveal, The Sequel [OPEN]

Ryepaw kept silent as his father began to speak again. He did not know anything about the Asylum, nor much about SkyClan, but he knew the whispers of tension that were associated with them both. The Asylum was nearly forbidden knowledge. The undue stress which overwhelmed his elders at the mere mention of it kept Ryepaw from inquiring further, and so he was left to speculate in kittish daydreams about what horrors those cats may have committed against WindClan. He knew, at least, that they had taken two clanmates' lives, and enslaved WindClan for a many few moons. The rest was up to his imagination, and he ran wildly with it. The Asylum, in Ryepaw's mind, sat upon thorns of bones and skinned cats, their maws thick and red with blood. There was nobody he could ask comfortable to assuage his nightmares. The Asylum was the boogeyman, not to be mentioned, not even in jest. The unspeakables. His father had been one of them.

Goldenrod eyes cascaded across the scene unfolding in disbelief, and the apprentice could not stop his jaw from loosening into a slight gape. The Tallrock became a pile of bones, and Dawnhawk's white paws seemed crimson in the light. Exile was the cruelest of fates, reserved only for the most low of criminals. In their nursery games, if they wanted a dramatic end to war, they made a grand show of exiling the "warrior" responsible. He'd never met a real exiled cat, and

"My own father." Ryepaw's grandfather. He looked down at his own bumbling, awkward legs, thick with sinewy muscle and heavy-boned. These legs were built to spring nimbly from trees, not chase too-fast rabbits through narrow tunnels and across rolling fields.

Ryepaw ran out of things to think about, except the Code, which he had been reared on, and promised his allegiance to above all else.

Do not hunt or trespass on another Clan's territory.

An honorable warrior does not need to kill other cats to win their battles.

The word of the Clan leader is the warrior code.

Lilacstar had approved this.

Two, two cats. Clanmates.

Ryepaw looked back up at Dawnhawk, feeling nothing but visceral terror, and at last saw the world through rabbits' timid eyes.

As her father began to speak, Ashpaw could do nothing but listen. She listened long, and hard, to every single word her father said. She learned something. Her father sounded like a coward. He betrayed his clan for an Asylum that came and went, and he was willing to kill for them. He didn't accept his fate with his clan when he came out on the losing side, he ran. He killed a clanmate to ensure his own selfish survival. Ashpaw had been prepared for the admission of being from Skyclan, even the possibility of something more sinister, but nothing like murder. All she could do was break her gaze from her father, and look down to her paws as he finished up his spiel.

Dawnhawk, the very mention of his true name filled her with ice. A coward, who fled from the consequences of his bad decision. A murderer, who killed his clanmates, rather than fight to defend them. Copperfox's warning came true after all, her father must be one who had no regard for the warrior code. Perhaps he had no regard for Starclan as well? A question to ask another time. As she finished her thoughts, she looked over her shoulder, blue gaze searching for her brother. In the back of her mind, she had noticed the lack of his presence, it didn't take much to find him though. He looked scared, and somewhere inside Ashpaw, that just made her furious. She couldn't show that now though, Dawnhawk could still be dangerous, nobody knew what he was planning, nobody knew if he was still lying! Had Lilacstar asked Wolfstar about this, to ensure that Dawnhawk had done nothing else? Did she take his word, the word of a murderer and liar? For a few moments, Ashpaw looked blankly at her brother, besides his mentor instead of her, and their mother, for a few heartbeats, before returning her gaze upward towards her father. She elected to stay silent, listening to what others had to say instead.

Sunnyskip blinked as Nightwind, no, Dawnhawk, began to speak. Her tail wrapped loosely around their daughter, a lump in her throat forming at the thought. She had kits with Nightwind, but... Nightwind and Dawnhawk were the same. Her mate being from SkyClan certainly made the leaping suddenly make sense, as well as his reaction to her asking him to teach her. She frowned as he revealed his past layer by layer, just like his fur had shed. He had murdered, lied to, and betrayed his birth clan.... Would he do the same here? Her tail tip twitched relentlessly back and forth. Why hadn't he told her? Why was she as surprised as the rest of them? How different was Dawnhawk from Nightwind? What about them, their kits? The family they had made, she knew that Nightwind cared about them - or at least she thought they did. Had that been an act too? Another pretty lie? Where did they stand in Dawnhawk's mind? The tom's eyes met hers, and for a heartbeat she thought about looking away. The eyes were the same though, they hadn't changed... So she held her ground, looking back up at him as he continued to speak, apologizing.

Her ear flicked, it was almost as though he was focusing an apology to her.... He seemed genuine... But he had seemed genuine before, as Nightwind. Stars, this was all too confusing. There were too many strings, connections... She couldn't follow a thought to completion before it got tangled up in several others. He mentioned something about more details he only wanted to share with his family... Was she included in that? Was Ashpaw, or Ryepaw?... He finished by requesting to be known as Dawnhawk rather than Nightwind, and Sunnyskip felt the lump in her throat again. The question arose in her mind once more, how different was Dawnhawk from Nightwind? Sure, he was the same cat, but.... What else had he hidden from them all, from her? It felt like her heart was breaking, like she was grieving a cat that had simultaneously existed and hadn't. A low rumble in her chest revealed her emotions, but she quickly cut it off, glancing down at Ashpaw and finding Ryepaw in the crowd. She suddenly wanted them both close, but her son didn't seem to be interested.

Dayspring spoke up, and Sunnyskip held her breath as the deputy scowled at Dawnhawk. In another direction, Swiftspirit sat silently, watching. Shrikestorm spoke up after Dayspring, seeming to share the same thoughts - but he didn't accept Lilacstar's agreement. She winced at the idea of actually losing the only remaining connection to the nonexistent Nightwind she had. She realized that Ashpaw had looked to her, so she met her gaze wordlessly. She had nothing to say right now, words suddenly seemed a foreign concept to her. Grief, confusion, and the bitter sting of betrayal had frozen her paws in place, and tied her tongue in a knot. When she lifted her teary gaze back to Dawnhawk, there was no love glimmering in their depths, only a vast ocean of sadness and a deep hurt. She had loved him, cared for him, wanted to share her world and joys with him... And he had lied the whole time. She wouldn't leave her son and daughter to retreat, she wasn't sure her paws could manage it anyway, but... Her shoulders sagged as she looked away from him, focusing her attention back on her daughter. How could she ever trust him again? Would she ever be able to trust him again? Did he deserve the chance to prove himself? They had offered it to Nightwind, would they have done the same if he had been honest from the beginning? She didn't know where to even start to process the sudden news, let alone formulate a response of any kind. If Lilacstar agreed to let him stay.... Then she supposed that was it. She could work through her feelings on her own time.

Fawnstep had been tucking into a slender rabbit, unassuming of the revelations that were about to come to light and the events that were about to transpire. It happened in a mere moment, that a strange tom with a vague air of familiarity stood before the clan, calling a meeting as if he had taken up the burden of clan leadership. Teeth clenched instinctively as he tore a strip from the meal. Without hesitation, claws were flexed from their sheathes and into the earth as he rose to his paws. Ryepaw, his apprentice, drew near shortly after the tom began speaking.

Dawnhawk.

So this was the great secret that Nightwind had been holding so close underneath his pitch black coat. Admittedly, it was hard to place the emotions that swirled through his coat. Dayspring and Shrikestorm spoke out with an obvious disdain. Their hatred was rooted in the idea that murdering another was despicable. He wanted to snap at them. Blood stained his own claws and Tawnyflare's as well. Asylum had brought death in many forms, on all sides. Fawnstep's tail lashed as he stared up at the Skyclan born tom. There was no right answer here. He was not as repulsed as perhaps he should have been, but rather intrigued.

His vibrant blue gaze flashed with intense, unreadable emotion as he glanced down at his apprentice, "Lilacstar has her reason for doing things." It was simple, the only reassurance he had for his kin. Tipping his chin in the direction of Dawnhawk, not even bothering to cast a glance around at his clanmates, "You've been a respectable clanmate and I expect that not to change, Dawnhawk. As long as Lilacstar says your word is truthful enough, I believe it. But I will treat a traitor in the same manner as the Asylum beast that attacked my patrol. You have my trust as a clanmate but if you turn your back on the clan that took you in, I'll show you how deep my claws can cut." When he spoke Dawnhawk's name, it bordered on a sneer. The words were sincere, however, Fawnstep always meant what he said.

Goldenpaw’s brows furrowed, her blue eyes clouded in confusion, then anger. Good old Uncle Nightwind, her last tie to her absent mother, turned out to be Dawnhawk the ex-SkyClan murderer with ties to the Asylum. The young she-cat suddenly became without family once again - except for her father who didn’t even speak to her that often. Old emotional wounds flared up inside her. They twisted and morphed until Dawnhawk’s lies stung just as deeply as Hollyhock’s decision to send Goldenpaw and her littermates away. Worst of all her mother showed the murderer how to hide his own identity! She glanced down at her orange paws. Shame was replacing her fury. Poor Sunnyskip and their family…

She looked back up at the golden tom as he apologized and promised to repair the damage. Had Lilacstar really allowed him to stay? She narrowed her eyes. She couldn’t tell if he was lying or not. It was true that WindClan was much more accepting than most Clans - especially SkyClan - and she felt as though their kindness could really change a cat. That cat needed to want to change though. This could truly be a case of a family rejecting one of their own. With a stab of bitterness, Goldenpaw thought that she could relate to that situation.

Dawnhawk seemed to want to keep WindClan away from SkyClan’s wrath. He also seemed to desire true acceptance. But he had murdered Clanmates for his own gain in the past and gone through great difficulty to lie until he couldn’t wriggle his way out of a tough spot. Goldenpaw’s mind was a jumble of but what if and how could it get this far and none of it was making sense. She glanced around at her Clanmates (her real Clanmates) and wondered what they thought. There was anger and shock and disappointment in their faces, yet only Shrikestorm, Fawnstep, and Dayspring spoke out. Dayspring was the deputy and she seemed to disagree with her leader, but she would follow Lilacstar’s order anyway. It was admirable, but also added to the confusion. She didn’t know how to feel. She heard Ryepaw’s quiet meow. Her heart dropped into her stomach, sympathy replacing it. However WindClan handled this… things would not be like they were before.