dare to hope [open - return topic]

So this was it. After moons upon moons of travelling, of sleepless nights and untamed anxieties, the answer to both Brackenpaw's and Ambersun's question lied several fox lengths away from them. A nervous tremor ran down Brackenpaw's spine, did he want to know the answers he'd been seeking? He'd tried to remain hopeful, to have faith, but after they lost sight of the clans' tracks all those moons again, there'd be nothing. Not a sign. No scent on the wind to tell him his siblings were alive, that his family survied. It had just been him and Ambersun and the stars. The stars that hadn't answered his cries, and his pleas when he had found time to let his emotions out, to beg to the heavens to know. It had killed him, and sometimes he had hoped it would, so if his worst fears came true, he could be reunited with his family again.

The badger pelt the tom had earned himself in his brief alliance with the rogue, Ajex, sagged over his frame. It was larger than him and it dragged through the dirt, but he treasured it none the less. It marked the growth he had experienced in his moons away, a change in maturity, better impulse control, and the fact he'd learned to tolerate and even possibly forgive Ambersun. He supposed she had saved him and guided him here, pending on if his siblings were alive or not would determine if he forgave her or not. Blue eyes, hidden beneath the badger's head, flickered to his companion. "I'm not sure I want it to be confirmed that they died." admitted Brackenpaw in a hushed voice, his tail anxiously sweeping the ground. He shook his head "I suppose it's best to just rip the cobwebs off."

He pushed forwards, into the tunnel that was the entrance to what was his supposed true home. His heart hammered against his chest, sounding ever so similar to the thump of the badger's mighty paws. The scent of SkyClan enveloped his senses, and for a moment he was certain he'd emerge the other side and there would be Honeypaw and Harepaw and Shatteredsky sharing tongues. They would turn around, and see him and all would be right again. He had hoped, but when he emerged from the tunnel there were no familiar faces.

Not one.

His heart sank. There were cats, so many, milling about, participating in clan life, but none of them were his cats. A lump formed in his throat and he tried desperately to stop the tears from welling in his eyes. "They're not here." he said to Ambersun as she appeared beside him, voice thick and choked. "I can't even smell them, it just smells of SkyClan." No anger at Ambersun rose up though, all he felt was defeated and tired. "Maybe they're on patrol, or asleep." Brackenpaw closed his eyes, blinking the tears away.

A warrior passed by, one he didn't recognise and the brindled apprentice turned to them, swallowing the lump in his throat. "Excuse me," he mewed. The warrior turned to face him, confusion lacing their features, obviously surprised to see two random cats, one which donned a badger pelt. Brackenpaw ignored the look and continued anyways voice hoars, but loud making his and Ambersun's presence known. "Can you help us?  We're SkyClan... We've just... We've been separated for a while now. This is Ambersun, and I'm..." he hesitated, worried at the sound of his name they'd tell him the worst new of his life, but he had to know. "... Brackenpaw. I'm looking for some cats, but I don't see them, has the morning patrol left already? Are they still asleep?"

ooc: please wait for mamen to post with amber before replying please :) and also the warrior is an NPC

Ambersun was tired.

Tired of walking, tired of the anxiety, tired of feeling alone. Maybe tired from the sleep they couldn't get on the long trek back home from Highstones. At this point, she was ready to slump in the warrior's den and take a long nap.

Brackenpaw's... vulnerability surprised Ambersun, though she was proud of him for admitting his anxieties out loud. Giving the young tom a warm smile, Ambersun nodded. "I'm a little worried, too," she said. "I certainly didn't expect this journey to take this long." Together, the two of them faced many trials - having to avoid the wolves while bounding on the treetops, finding out where the clans went, the gathering of prey to eat before they made their journey home from Highstones. Without the traveling herbs, she was starving, and the sparrows kept on dying.

Truthfully, she knew as much as Brackenpaw did about SkyClan's current state, but she still believed that everyone was alive, that everyone they cared about would be there to greet them when they came back. It was what kept her moving forward instead of crying on the ground somewhere. And she still did that, late at night when Brackenpaw was sleeping, worrying about her clanmates. She was sure they were no longer a day behind the Clans anymore, and Brackenpaw's anxieties about his loved ones made Ambersun worry too. Did Silverwing and Crookedlight survive the wolf attack?

Did Honeypaw, Shatteredsky, and Harepaw survive, or did she promise Brackenpaw their safety all for nothing?

When they entered the oh-so-familiar tunnel leading back home, Ambersun didn't see anyone nearby. No familiar faces anywhere, no Silverwing or Crookedlight, and none of Brackenpaw's siblings either. Brackenpaw, in his desperation, approached a SkyClan warrior - who was that? She didn't recognize him, and he didn't recognize the two of them, so was he born after they were left behind? - which led Ambersun to pad behind him, quietly searching for the faces of her friends.

Wolfblossom was finally returning from an early patrol, making her way through the familiar trees of home with ease when a strange scent had caught her attention. And it was heading for camp.

Fur lifting, the deputy (no, not leader, not until the stars had named her would she allow herself to be called by that title, even if she had named Honeydew as her successor) leapt from branch to branch in pursuit. The scent trail lead toward camp, she realized with a sinking feeling of dread. Cat. But there was no clan scent, so it must be rogues. Wolfblossom quickened her pace, leading her patrol swiftly toward home.

Whoever the rogues were, they had entered camp already. Rather than leap to the ground and follow them through the tunnel, Wolfblossom contiuned through the trees that circled camp. She could easily drop onto them from above, surprise them if they had violent intentions.

The first cat her eyes landed on was a face she had not seen in moons. A ginger she-cat with green eyes. "Ambersun!" She began, excited to see the face that the clan had thought lost after their escape from the lake territory, and then her eyes landed on the other... Thing. A badger-

Wolfblossom nearly fell off the branch she had perched on, instead leaping and landing ungracefully behind the beast.

-Not a badger, she realized. There was a cat under that. And one she would have recognized anywhere. "Brackenpaw? What in Starclan are you wearing that for?" She asked in disbelief, "Great Starclan, get that thing off of you before someone mistakes you for the real thing. Where have you two been? I told you not to engage those beasts at the lake and you didn't listen and-" Wolfblossom cut herself off with a low growl. "Foxdung! We thought you were dead! You stars-forsaken mousebrain! What were you thinking?"

Wolfblossom paused, glancing toward Ambersun. "Uh. Welcome home. I am glad you both made it out of there."

A loud thump sounded behind, Brackenpaw and he spun round coming face to face with his grandmother. Relief flooded through him, a familiar face! “Gramma!” he mewed ecstatically. ”I defeated, and it keeps me-“ he was cut off as the deputy lurched into a lecture, and he frowned. Couldn’t it wait? There were far more pressing matters, like the whereabouts of his siblings. The brindled tom had half a mind to interrupt her back, but he closed his mouth, letting Wolfblossom vent out her frustrations. In typical Brackenpaw fashion though, he ignored her rant, immediately jumping to the answers he had to know immediately. “Where are my siblings? Honeypaw, Harepaw, Shatteredsky, where are they? Are they alive?” he asked shouldering past Wolfblossom, still wearing the badger pelt. His blue eyes frantically searched the tree line before he turned back to Wolfblossom. “Are they with you?” his eyes were wide, why were they here yet? “They’re not dead are they?… Gramma?”

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He was met only with silence from Wolfblossom. His lip twitched, why wasn't she answering? He couldn't wait any longer he had to know, was she really going to keep the fates of his siblings from his after moons of travelling? His tail began to puff, the maturity he liked to think he had achieved melting away. The tom opened his mouth to yell, to scream, because he just couldn't do with these games anymore. His siblings were dead, and his grandmother refused to answer him, to settle his aching heart. The words were forming on his tongue, lips curling into a snarl-

- Only for a voice he'd assumed dead to call out, and then a familiar form to barge past Wolfblossom.

The words became clogged in Brackenpaw's throat and he began to choke and splutter. Shatteredsky.Alive.Shatteredsky was alive. A strangled noise climbed out of his throat. All the anger Brackenpaw had felt for his brother had dissipated atop those mountains, all he'd wanted was to seem him alive, and now here he was. Welcoming him home, asking about his pelt. Clearly he wasn't the only one that had matured. "Later brother where's-"

He hadn't seen the flash of cream barrelling towards him, and it slammed into him at full force "Wh- I'm SkyClan!" Then the most familiar smell hit, and a voice he'd recognised anywhere to speak, sobbing into his chest. "H-Honeypaw?" he mewed, only to realise he was now crying too. He curled his head around her, pulling his sister closer, he never wanted to let her go again. "I'm home." whispered Brackenpaw affirming her words, disbelief at his own statement tinging the words with a sense of wonder. There was a weight off his chest, at first the apprentice thought it was a mental feeling, but when he opened his eyes Honeypaw had retreated backwards. She was so much bigger now, and she held herself differently, with a confidence that hadn't been there when he last saw her. It made him feel conflicted, proud of the warrior she was becoming, but sad that maybe his siter wouldn't need him so much anymore. At least they would finish their training together, perhaps earn their names together. His tail flicked at the thought, and he sat back up on trembling paws, leaving the badger pelt on the floor.

"You've changed so much, both of you. What about Harepaw?" he mewed, eyes wide, surely his siblings would have mentioned Harepaw by now if he were dead. Blue eyes scanned the camp once again for his sickly brother's pelt. "Where is that badger fodder?" Perhaps not the kindest nickname, but it was meant endearingly at least by Brackenpaw's standards. After straining his neck a moment longer, he returned his attention to those infront of him. Seeing Honeypaw's smile almost had him crying again, but he had to be strong again now. "A rest would be nice," he replied "And I'm sure Ambersun would like to rest too. I just... I don't think I can even begin to think about lying around when I don't know where Harepaw is.

"Badger fodder? I would like to think I'm a little more useful than that." Harepaw commented as he approached the growing group. He was trying to get some rest in the den, but the commotion outside didn't let him sleep. He cringed internally at his own comment. It was bad enough that others saw him as useless, but he didn't need to be adding to it with his own comments. He sat far away from the group, not really wanting to be around Shatteredsky too much, or Honeydew for that matter considering how the former acted about the latter. "Glad to see you haven't abandoned us for good." Harepaw stated, a slight positive inflection to his tone.

It sure was a really really good thing Wolfblossom spoke when she did. Falconmoon had been in the trees above, as silent as a ghost. He'd seen the approaching "badger"... but he knew it was no badger right away. Flashbacks of the Asylum stirred an ugly, blood-thirsty thing within the white and gold tom. He'd gathered his paws beneath his body, crouched, and spine poised in an arch ready to spring down with silent but lethal intentions. He would have embedded his fangs into the back of the "badger's" skull, wrenched his jaws one way then the other, then ripped sharply up and to the side. An executioner's blow.

Thank the Stars above multiple someone's had said Brackenpaw's name... Thank the Stars above that Brackenpaw answered and Falconmoon recognized his son's voice right away. The fact that Ambersun had been with him had been no comfort, honestly, because he too betrayed Skyclan at one point in favor of some pelt wearing rogues.

"Brackenpaw..." He said loud enough to be heard, finally moving from his perch above them all. He said his son's name like a breath of relief. As the monster that resided in the darkness of his heart retreated back into the abyss, Falconmoon's expression softened to an almost kit-like joy.

He landed gracefully, smoother than any squirrel, and rushed forward to rest his chin on his son's head. "Thank Starclan you're safe. You too Ambersun! What... what happened???" He did however, eye the badger pelt with some disdain. A lash of his tail further signaled his displeasure, but he'd get that story out of his son in time.

Then he'd insist he take it off and never ever wear such a thing again.