Knife of Dreams [Challenge]

Beechfang was silent as she gazed out over the stone wall she perched on, harsh gaze sweeping over the rows of empty, decrepit twoleg nests. The thunderpaths here had no monsters on them, though not far in the distance she could see a dead one on its' side. It could only be described as mangled, side torn open, missing paws, and eyes smashed in. It had been abandoned by its twolegs just as the derelict nests and overgrown gardens had been.

Her gaze returned to sweeping over the area, the old sense of familiarity guiding her paws as the pale tabby landed on the hard gray stone beneath the crumbling wall. It had been a long time since she'd spent any real time here; the previous had always been with her clan or at the very least a sizable patrol. Now she had neither. Her ears remained pricked, jaws slightly parted. She had met rogues that had made their homes here over the seasons, though the less-than-pawful of scents she picked up while making her way through the decrepit section of twolegplace were unfamiliar to her. They weren't the freshest of scents either, but that did little to reassure Beechfang. One could never be too careful. Dawnhawk had taught her that, and Rainstrike before him, though Beechfang had only learned her name when the one-eyed rogue had shown up with the Dark Forest.

Funny how she and her brother had fought beside each other at one point. He'd defended her, even though they'd never seen eye to eye. Because they were clanmates. Because they were family.

Beechfang had squandered that. Again and again.

She and Dawnhawk had found Spottedstar, looking like he had three paws in the grave as he'd stumbled through twolegplace in search of the clan. She could almost feel the ache she'd had in her chest, both from Rainstrike's claws and from the smoke and ash that had clung to the old leader like a shroud.

Beechfang shook her head, shaking off the memories as she padded onward. Despite her thoughts the tension in her shoulders and the way her ears twitched said she was very much alert and aware of her surroundings.

A nest loomed in front of her, hauntingly familiar. The garden remained overgrown as it had been when Skyclan had sheltered here, and the nest itself looked like it hadn't been disturbed. There were small cracks that led into the space beneath the stone edifice, and Beechfang inhaled slowly, once more checking for recent scent. Nothing but mice and the stale, musty scent of a nest that hadn't been used in a long time.

Not an ideal place to lay her head to rest at all, but this was what she had now.

Rather than slip into the earthen space beneath the nest, Beechfang continued to walk, making a slow circuit of the perimeter. The outer stone wall of the garden was crumbling, moss and other plants creeping over the side. Nesting material, she made note of, but did not stop her investigations just yet. The sun was low in the sky, but a nest could wait. The place looked deserted, but that didn't mean it was, and old twolegplace had plenty of shadows to hide and watch from.

She hadn't been exiled just to die of carelessness.

It felt wrong to mark territory that was not Skyclan's. Beechfang would just have to get used to it. She wasn't Skyclan anymore. If she closed her eyes, she could picture Dustpaw's fluffy tortoiseshell-tabby frame, sour and angry. Primrosepaw's relentless optimism in the face of the clan losing the only home they'd ever had with nowhere to turn. Smokefeather and Wolfcall and Sagelight, exhausted but doing everything they could to hold the clan together. Adderpaw's horrifically burned visage, fighting to stay alive just as much as she fought the restrictions necessitated by needing to heal placed upon her. She could remember hunting with Wrenspring and Swansong. Neither had judged her for lashing out at the unfairness of it all, even Sagelight had borne her temper with more patience than Beechfang had ever known. And all of them were gone now. Even cowardly Sunflower.

The only one left was Bloodsta- Bloodstrike. A very different Bloodstrike to the one who had stayed in this nest with the clan. Though, Beechfang supposed, she wasn't the same cat she had been back then, either. From leader and medicine cat to exiles.

How the mighty had fallen.

The member 'kjSage' has done the following action : Dice roll

---

'Invasion Dice' :