Fallen Feathers [Open to RC after Reap posts]

OOC: Continuation of Strange Sight.

Swanpaw had done as Owlcall instructed without complaint or snark, darting ahead of her brothers but never straying from their line of sight. The trio encountered nobody on the way back, the territory quiet but for the calls of birds and the sound of the wind... Or maybe it was the blood pounding in Swanpaw's ears. At least her paws weren't shaking now that she had something in front of her to do, but as the entrance of the camp came into view, Swanpaw slowed, glancing back at her brothers who carried Hawkshriek between them. Turning, the apprentice forced her paws forward, carrying her through the camp entrance.

"Poppyshine!" Swanpaw called, as Ravenpaw and Owlcall carried their fallen clanmate behind her. Her voice now shook where her paws did not, a pathetic waver to her word that she wished was not there. With Perchstar so sick, the apprentice seemed to default to calling for her mentor and the clan deputy, her claws digging into the ground. Once again, she came to camp with a body. Another clanmate taken before their time, another death that should have been prevented.

By the time they had finally reached the camp, Owlcall was thoroughly tired from carrying Hawkshriek's body, but he forced himself to keep going. This was a clanmate after all. He wasn't going to give out and pass off the tom to someone else. His pride wouldn't let him. Blue eyes watched as Ravenpaw slipped away from beside him and over to the outskirt of the make shift camp.

Carefully he approached the center, carefully laying down Hawkshriek's body. Letting the still soaked side rest on the ground, while the part that was slowly drying face the clan. He was certain the tom's body would be cleaned up for burial but he didn't want the clan to see the tom's ugly side right away. He needed to be remember as he was. At least as much as he could be.

Once Owlcall was satisfied with how the other looked, he stepped back and sat down, knowing others would be out with questions in no time at all.

One of the perks of being retired to the elder's den meant that she had plenty of time to rest. It also meant that any happenings in camp were always there to reach her ears. Ceremonies, gossip, or the unfortunate bad news that had a cat yowling across the camp for either her mother or adopted aunt. Mistwalker's head snapped upwards as she heard that very call, one of the apprentices calling for Poppyshine. With a painful grunt, the molly made it to her paws, willing her joints to at least somewhat work for her as she moved towards the call. Though, as she got closer, she found herself freezing in place.

It wasn't because of the cold that she froze. No, it was what she saw. Alarm widened her gaze, and her already feathery tail seemed to fluff to be almost triple its size as she beheld the sight in front of her. No.

She hadn't seen him around camp in some time, but she'd presumed he may have been relegated to Sandyshell's den due to the illness that had sunk its way into the Clans. This? This was much, much worse. Standing still for several moments before finally willing herself to move closer, Mistwalker had no words as she sunk to the tom's side. Hawkshriek was her friend. One of the few other cats who knew her hatred of weasels. He had been there when the first one had latched onto her paw when she was younger, the memory welling tears to her eyes as she pushed her nose into his fur to mourn.

His scent was almost entirely gone. It had been some time.

Two emotions boiled beneath her fluffy pelt: grief, and vengeance. Grief took a stronger hold as tears threatened to push past her iced gaze, which had frosted to a look that may as well have been a death-kiss to whatever it was that had caused his passing. Forcing her eyes shut, she pushed her nose into his lengthy brown fur further, keen to hold a vigil.

Kitespring saw Hawkshriek's body get dragged into camp.

At first she thought she was seeing things. It must have been some... predator that lurked around this area, or maybe a hare that they caught, or something else. But as she stepped closer to the scene, trying to stay further away with her sickness, it was clear that it was the golden-brown tom.

Kitespring couldn't process it. Every loss, every cat that died. She was old enough to have seen many deaths, and every one of them hurt. She could... almost forget about the others, learn to accept the changing of the seasons as they passed, but every one still weighed on her soul.

Learning when they died hurt less than the days after. Kitespring missed the cats in her den, how they changed and grew. Seeing her sisters and brothers, now all gone. It... didn't feel real until then. Dovesight's death hurt the most. Kitespring found herself popping into the medicine den, calling for 'Dovey'... only to find her white pelt not there. It took moons for her to get used to it.

At least with this death, she didn't have to deal with that.

She turned to Poppyshine sobbing. Stars, she didn't know how she would be dealing with this. Another son, gone. How many was it now? Kitespring didn't even remember anymore.

The pitfalls of long life, huh? When a warrior dies, you'd almost rather be the dead warrior than the grieving one. Kitespring would rather have died during the Dark Forest when-

No, that's not true. She wouldn't have wanted to die, just because of the cats around her. The pain she would cause Poppyshine, and Dovey, and Rushie, and her Adi, and-

Poppyshine's question snapped Kitespring back to reality. They were standing side-to-side now, Kitespring's tail resting on top of Poppyshine's.

You're sick, Kitespring, the voice inside her head reminded her.

I know I am, but I can't just...

You can't just go up to RiverClan's deputy and stand by her, her inner voice finished. She needs to be healthy to help RiverClan.

But she's not just RiverClan's deputy, Kitespring argued back. She's my friend, and- and I-

And I love her.

She didn't mean a familial kind of love, nor the love that a close friend gave to another. No, this was... more than that. She remembered her little childhood crush on Poppyshine, how nice and kind she was, and how she loved every second she spent with her. It was something she thought she lost. Through all of these tough times, the one thing that pulled her through was... Poppyshine.

You can't tell her now, her inner voice huffed.

Kitespring agreed with her inner voice, for once. This was not the time for that. But she did stay where she was. She didn't know if she should be this close to Poppyshine while sick. But right now, Poppyshine was sick too - sick with grief, and Kitespring had to help reassure her that everything was alright.

Her call had roused the camp, as she'd known it would. Mistwalker and Poppyshine, Kitespring lingered away from the slowly gathering crowd. Her mentor's grief stung, just as it had when her siblings had grieved so openly when she had stumbled into camp with Morningpaw's broken body.

"We saw something caught up against that twoleg bridge in the lake." Swanpaw forced herself to face her mentor, blue eyes closing against the sight of the body Poppyshine stood beside. "Owlcall dragged him out of the water... Too late." Something hot burned at the back of her throat and the apprentice swallowed, head lowering. Their clanmate had been there for some time, from the state they'd found him in. Swanpaw had thought nothing of how little time he spent around camp, had anyone else not thought of it either?

"There's scratches on his pelt... Raccoon? The water makes it too hard to tell." She was unsure and it reflected in her voice. The water had washed away any scent that Swanpaw might have been able to find, or perhaps in her shocked state she hadn't looked as long as she could have. She hadn't been as close to Hawkshriek's body as her brothers. Some beast had done it though, that much was clear. The question was, what? What monster would have attacked one of her clanmates?

Owlcall shook out his fur, trying his best to clear the dust and water from his fur that he had gathered from carrying his fallen clanmate. It helped him to clear his mind for a moment too.. After everything that has happened over the last couple moons, it was starting to take a toll. First Pigeonpaw goes missing, then illness hits everyone, and now a clanmate is killed? Just when will it all end?

"What Swanpaw says is true, though I have to disagree with what. Those claw marks do not match up with anything I know so I am more inclined to think it was another cat.. Not to mention with everything that has happened I wouldn't be surprised if Skyclan acted up again." He wasn't sure.. It could have been something else, but they discovered him too late, there were no scents, or anything for them to follow, the scent was also washed away from Hawkshriek's pelt. Despite how much he wanted it, he didn't think he was going to get any answers. At least not any time soon.