You again? [C]

Poppyshine

Poppyshine focused her gaze on the river. This was one of her first outings she’d taken since her run-in with Softfall where she didn’t have someone accompany her. She’d been a warrior for quite a while now, and had grown both as a person and as a fighter. She didn’t want to be so afraid to go near the border, nor did she want to be so afraid of the river, so she’d faced both of her fears with no one in tow. She trembled and felt like the world was spinning around her, but she was doing better than she had expected. Poppyshine took a deep breath as she watched for a glint of sunlight off of scales of fish. Once she spotted one, her claw dashed into the water and wrenched out a fish. Her muscles relaxed as the fish struggled and then fell still on her claw. Catching prey had been much easier for her clan with leafbare being a distant memory. She was glad that her clanmates were no longer going hungry.

Looking up, her hackles raised when she saw eyes leering at her from the trees across the border. It took another moment before she realized who the eyes belonged to: Softfall. It made her fur rise and she stared with wide eyes, for a moment frozen. He made no move towards her, which was at least a little comfort. She reassured herself, silently, that she was still on her side of the border. There was no reason for him to be upset…After blinking a couple of times and assuring herself that he was not a hallucination, she tried to will herself to relax. He must have another cat with him. He was not a threat. He was patrolling, or hunting, and that was allowed.

Poppyshine looked down at the fish in her paw. She thought back to their confrontation: You take and you take and you take while there is nothing for ThunderClan left! She was not the one to take the Sunningrocks from ThunderClan, but she was just as inexperienced as Softfall. To expect him to have the same grasp of the clans’ politics was foolish. Her mind also went back to her brief interaction with Cinderpaw at that Gathering, long ago: Land prey is scarce during leaf-bare... unlike that fish you Riverclanners love. Leafbare was harsh on ThunderClan. Even if Poppyshine had not been hunting, it was no wonder that Softfall had assumed.

Still…she could not shake the thought that he had tried to kill her. Had he? She could not be sure. It certainly felt like it in the moment, but after such a long time, the fear had started to ebb away, save for the occasional nightmare. She hoped that Softfall wouldn’t have killed her; she hoped that he would not hurt anyone else in her clan. He was only doing what he thought he had to for his clan, even if his methods were harsh. If he had truly done those terrible things, or attempted to…Poppyshine desperately hoped that age and punishment had taught him to reign in those thoughts. She wondered, if ThunderClan was doing well, would he no longer hold such harsh and vicious feelings towards RiverClan? If RiverClan showed their own care towards their neighboring clan, would ThunderClan no longer hold them with such terrible hatred?

It was not the time to make enemies and hold grudges. Softfall hurt her greatly, and hurt her clan, but she would not try to hold it against him. If she were to continue being the enemy that he painted her as, then she would only strengthen his convictions. Building better relations with ThunderClan did not involve claws and bites. It involved compassion and care.

Poppyshine raised her gaze again to look at Softfall, but there was no longer fear in her eyes. She pulled her paw back a tad and then tossed the fish across the river. It landed on the other side, right near the border between their two lands. Then, so as to not make it seem like she is trying to trap him into anything, Poppyshine stood and left. If he decided to take the fish or not would be his decision, but Poppyshine refused to continued this feud between their two clans that started before she was even born. She could not control how the rest of her clan felt, but she forgave Softfall for what he’d done.