The Jay's Song [Jaystar]

Things had, Birdsong noted, certainly been lively around Riverclan recently. She padded into camp with a pair of birds and a fish dangling from her jaws, carefully setting the prey down onto the fresh-kill pile. With leafbare looking to be a harsh one, the clan needed all the prey it could get, and Birdsong, for all that she was no longer Skyclan, wouldn't let the skills she'd picked up go to waste. The beech copse wasn't the rocky forest she had grown up in, but the trees were something she was familiar with, and so the birds had been an easy catch.

She turned, stumbling back slightly in surprise. Wrapped up in her own thoughts, she hadn't realized she was alone. Stupid of her, all things considered. Light green eyes took in the dark-furred cat standing before her, struggling to remember what the tom's name was. He'd been appointed as leader recently, and things simply hadn't settled down enough for her to get to know most of her clanmates beyond face recognition.

"Ah... Jaystar, right?" That was it, right? Or she'd just made a fool out of herself. Which... Honestly? Would be very Skyclan of Birdsong. Eugh.

The faintest brush of downy, freezing rain wreathed across the narrow bridge of Jaystar's muzzle in an irritating, entirely distracting flash of brief movement- winding carelessly against the overly tender divot of his sensitive nose, gently splintered fragments of a lingering chill prickling lightly against the weight of his whiskers and curled lips. Giving himself a rigorous shake in response to both the unwarranted stimulus of the gradually shifting of the dreary weather, the tom was caught in a momentary suspension of syrupy surprise blossoming within the fathoms of his bony chest as Birdsong promptly startles at the realization of her unwitting company.

Birdsong was the latest in a seemingly never-ending line of slipped through the cracks, happenings that somehow occurred within the grey and obscured reaches of his red focused vision, lost to the calamity of the past few days. Though the conversation entailing the bits and pieces of Dewlight's acceptance of Birdsong had been quick and meaningful, little had stuck- the lingering discomfort of outsiders flaring to life at the remembrance of what had transpired last time. "Yes," Jaystar drolled out, low voice heavy against the suddenly stifling backdrop of the slow-going camp, "forgive me, I did not mean to startle you."

The dark tom seemed less happy than some with her presence, though it wasn't something Birdsong would fault him for. She was an outsider to Riverclan, and her strong haunches and build marked her so clearly Skyclan even a kit would know it, if the birds that appeared on the fresh-kill pile didn't give it away. Given the history there, she was almost surprised that there wasn't less open hostility towards her, though most of her new clanmates had been if not welcoming, kind enough. Even with recent events making more cats on edge, it was a drastic change from how things had been for Birdsong.

The apology was appreciated, but ultimately unneeded. The gray tabby had shaken off her startlement with ease, expression clearing faster than the weather seemed to be. "Oh, don't." She shrugged, offering Jaystar a small grin, "I of all cats should know to be aware of my surroundings by now."

The compounding silence, frigid with mutual discomfort, wreathed across the barren and shambling bones of the drizzle-dusted camp with all the allure of a circling vulture. The stifling lull in conversation was plagued with the gentle whisper of light sand and rainfall shifting- a feathery patter of discordant tinkling, the faint tremble of impact as downy dampness collided with hard churned earth. Muted shades of stark greys and muddied browns hung heavily on the gentle curl of the riverside, a finely-made webbing of shadows curling hungrily across the sparsely vegetated earth of the island, curious gazes of uninvolved onlookers offering the only occasional disruption. Truthfully, Jaystar was a bit at a lost at where to steer the apparent conversation; he could certainly fall into the familiar warrens of his mothers indulgent speaking manners when it came to those who stuck out like stark bones upon open hills, but Ivystar's penchant for working herself up into a frenzy in regards to outsiders was something that felt entirely too raw and open. Compassion and empathy, right?

"All is well," Jaystar conceded after another unpleasant lull in conversation, keenly aware of the chasm-like power imbalance held in this staunchly unfamiliar situation, "although I suppose now would be the apt opportunity to ask how you've found yourself faring. I hope you have not experienced any hostilities."

The sense of discomfort was an unpleasant weight in the air between them, made all the stranger by the fact that Jaystar was clan leader, newly appointed, and she the distrusted outsider. She was sure that neither of them enjoyed the feeling, at least.

"Your clanmates are more welcoming and less battle hungry than my kin are." Birdsong replied, tail flicking in the vague direction of the forest across the river. "It's a refreshing change... I haven't heard my uncle's name at all this morning. I can't say I miss the obsessiveness." Skyclan was right to want vengeance, of course, and Birdsong had no love of the pale golden tom either, evident in her tone.

"Turtlefur and Dewlight have been helping me adjust. If anyone's unhappy with me being here, they've kept it to themselves."