So Long, Goodbye [Robinloft]

[apparently i've had this saved to my notes for the past month and i just forgot to post it oops. It's kinda lazy but i thought why not go ahead and post it y'k? Also look it's Willowpond who has never made an IC appearance nobody knows who she is but she's here. Also sorry if this doesn't belong here i didn't know what else to do with it lol]

[Robin's death topic in case you want to read that]




And just like that, Robinloft was awake again. She took in a sudden, deep breath. Her eyes fluttered open to meet the same treeline that her gaze rested upon moments before her vision went dark. She was lying in the exact same place where she was just being pinned down. Had she blacked out from pain? Maybe blood loss? What had happened to her? She concluded that she couldn't have been out for more than a few moments, as the rays of the setting sun still cast their saturated light over the land.

Above her stood the still figure of Briarthorn. The Shadowclanner's chest was still heaving and her wounds were still bleeding. Most noticeable of all, her muzzle was red and dripping with blood. There was this look in Briarthorn's eyes as she looked down on her, one that Robinloft couldn't quite read. A growl rose in her throat. "Don't look at me like that." She scrambled to her paws, quick to drop into a battle stance to prevent the other she-cat from injuring her further. It was a miracle that Briarthorn didn't take the chance to rip her pelt apart while she was unconscious. She was going to make her regret not taking that chance.

Tail lashing back and forth, she took a few steps backward, determined to finish this fight. There was something odd about Briarthorn, she acted as if she hadn't even acknowledged her presence. Then, she noticed something large on the ground laying where she had just walked from. She mistook it for a shadow at first, if only that was what she really saw. It felt like time had stopped, and maybe it did. Right in front of her laid her own lifeless body, littered with opened wounds, fur wet and shiny with fresh blood. Her initial response was to panic. Was... Was this real? The body she looked at seemed as if it were just sleeping, that it would open it's eyes again in mere moments to return to the fight or to flee home. But something told her those eyes would never open again. Her legs felt weak, as if she were going to collapse. "This... This can't be real." Now she understood why the first thing she noticed when she woke up wasn't the stinging of wounds nor the fatigue that came after a long fight, but instead a newfound strength. Her gaze moved from the corpse to her paws, which she found to be speckled with stars. She couldn't believe it, but at the same time the heavy feeling in her gut knew that what she saw was real. She roughly shook her head. "But... i can't go! I can't die yet! I have so much more i want to do, that i need to do!!" She cried, not sure who specifically she was crying to. "I.. I need to be there for my kits! I need to be there for them as they grow up! I want to see Songpaw become a warrior!" Her voice steadily grew louder as she spoke. Tears formed in her eyes, blurring her vision. What would her kits do now that they didn't have a father or a mother? She fell to the ground in defeat, burying her face in her paws.

Robinloft didn't know how long she remained there, or where Briarthorn had gone, but at some point she felt a slight nudge on her flank. Immediately she raised her head, determined to prove that it was all a dream and that she was just now waking up back in her nest. She was instantly disproven. The cat who had nudged her was a cat she recognized from long ago, one that meant more to her than anything. "Mama?" Standing in front of Robinloft was her mother, Willowpond, who had died when she was young, but not too young to forget. She remembered waking up to find her dead that dreadful morning as if it were yesterday, fresh grief resurfacing at seeing her face after so many moons. "I've missed you so much." Robinloft's tear-filled gaze lifted to meet Willowpond's. Robinloft's expression was heavy with grief, but a smile found it's way onto her face. She stood up and buried her face into the fur on her mother's chest, a scent she thought was long gone pulling forgotten nostalgic memories from her mind. Memories of how she would bother her mother to play moss ball so early in the morning that the sky hadn't yet gotten the chance to turn blue, or how her mother would softly hum to her when she woke up scared in the middle of the night from a nightmare.

"I've missed you too, dear." Willowpond leaned into Robinloft's touch, her heart warming now that she was finally with her daughter after so long. It was painful having to watch her grow up from a distance, not being able to be there by her side or to help her when she was troubled. Now they could finally be together again. Mother and daughter. Still, she felt like Robinloft was ripped from her world too soon. "I wish you would have waited a little longer to see me again, though." Willowpond herself knew the pain Robinloft was feeling, she had gone through it many moons ago.

Robinloft said nothing in reply. She wanted to stay in this moment forever, feeling like a kit again, wrapped in her mother's embrace. Willowpond did too, but she knew this moment had to end. Robinloft had been here long enough and they needed to leave soon. Finally separating from Robinloft, she looked at her with a solemn, yet soft expression. "It's time to go, dear."

Robinloft let her gaze drop to her paws. "But... What will happen to my family? My kits? What will they do without me?"

"It will hurt, but they will move on, just like you did. They're strong, they got that from you." Willowpond rested her tail on Robinloft's shoulder. She said only two words more. "It's time." Robinloft hesitantly nodded. Something about the way Willowpond spoke made her feel as if everything would be alright. And you know, maybe it would be. She gave the forest one final glance before forever leaving it behind.