Private Territory A PEASANT'S LABOR [ cicadabuzz ]

This thread is private! Only post if you have permission!
This thread takes place outside the clan's camp in its territory.

serpentberry serpentberry

i imagine you're still out there
ThunderClan
117
14
Freshkill
35
Pronouns
she/her
Played by
Nya
It's truly pathetic and hypocritical, but her anger unfurls like a hungry flame. She had been on the border when her sin was committed; her herb was something she could've plucked by her own paw! StarClan bless her, she could've stolen the damn thing herself and faced the consequences that way - that kind kitten of an apprentice was hardly involved at the end of the day. But for Cicadabuzz to send her leader's own son into her camp to steal her supplies? The boy is lucky her claws don't crest his face instead, out of respect of his mother.

No; children are fallible and often excused from the trouble they cause. They only follow the paw that guides them. If Cicadabuzz had journeyed into her own territory and cusped the herbs bugself, then Serpentberry's bone to pick would be far smaller. No. She wants their whole carapace on display in her den. She wants to line her nest with the brittle pelt they boast. To use Juniperstar's own son against her... disgusting.

She's almost too patient by her own standard. She waits on the thunderpath, even whilst monsters roll down it. Their thunderous roar doesn't scare her any longer, not when her directive rests just beyond this tarmac and stone. Her tail ticks once, twice, and then three too many times before she dives across the road and into lands she hasn't tread in moons. It's almost instantaneous. The way the ground feels damp beneath her paws, the moistness in the air. She didn't hunt here often, but Serpentberry can still recall the old winding paths and middling streams. It's only a flutter of a thought - how much has changed?

She scents the air. The molly figures she may find Mothbite or Stoatpaw or maybe Magpiepaw themself and insist to be brought to Cicadabuzz. Instead, bug's sent is fresh in the area. They had trodden through here not long before she arrived. Serpentberry grinds her jaw as she presses further and further into the marshlands. She sees them fussing over a small plant, and rather than addressing the upper paw she may have, Serpentberry bites out a laugh.

"Oh, so you are capable of finding your own roots and petals?" She can't help it, taunting bug. Her tail lashes behind her, "I thought you were lame in every which way, given you've gotten kittens running around to find supply for you."
 

CICADABUZZ, 31 moons / shc + med. cat
a SH cinnamon tabby/chocolate tortie chimera w/ black eyes
parent to cloudberrypaw, hemlockpaw, mistletoepaw ; mentor to magpiepaw
a reserved, pragmatic healer driven by duty rather than sentiment
Cicadabuzz does not flinch at the sound of Serpentberry's voice. Bug doesn't turn or jolt or stiffen. Only the slow lift of one ear acknowledges her presence—deliberate, measured, unfazed. The air between them is cool and damp, heavy with the scent of the marsh and the subtle iron tang of resentment. Bugs paw presses once more into the damp earth, claw neatly severing a sprig of goldenrod. Bug tucks it carefully into the fur of bugs tail with the herbs already gathered—horsetail, bindweed, marigold—and then finally rises to bugs full, narrow height. When Cicadabuzz turns, bugs expression is unreadable. Bug blinks once, slowly, as if Serpentberry were no more than a passing breeze brushing too close. There is no shame. There is no apology. Only the flat calm of someone who has already weighed a decision and accepted its cost.

"Funny," bug murmurs, voice like wind through reeds—thin, dry, without inflection. "I thought you preferred to hide in shadows spitting venom rather than get your own paws dirty." Bug does not raise bugs voice. Cicadabuzz speaks like one who does not care if bug is heard, only that bug has spoken what bug needs to. Bugs gaze drags slowly from Serpentberry's claws to her narrowed eyes—never quick, never fearful. "Would it soothe your pride if I'd done it myself?" bug asks, tone as bland as river silt. "If I'd stalked into your camp and stepped on your tail? Or do you just need someone else to blame because you are displeased I took advantage of your folly?"

Bugs ears flick once. A breeze stirs the edges of the herbs in bugs fur, and bug looks briefly to it, as though it deserves more of bugs attention than Serpentberry's anger ever could. "I sent my apprentice. He did what was asked. He did not fumble. He did not harm. You should be glad I did not come myself." Bug begins moving again—not away, not toward, but beside, brushing damp grass with bugs tail as bug leans down to neatly sever the stem of an herb with a bite of bugs teeth, neatly adding it to the collection. "I suggest you go home, Serpentberry. Your fury's stale, and I've no time to warm it up for you."

 
The rage only heightens where it is not matched. Serpentberry is intoxicated on her own frustration, eager for someone else to shout with her, to scream into nothing. But bug does not award her that. They know too well how to burrow beneath her skin and fester there, no different than a tick. Their voice carries unwanted, as if dignifying her with a response is their lowest priority today. If she could breathe fire, she would incinerate them in an instant. But even then, bug would only glance through her, with those beady black eyes. Uncaring, unwilling. She snaps her jaws and pushes a smile further.

"Oh, it would," she breathes. Her tone is honey, luring them like a fly. They move to a new plant, and she saunters ever closer, her paws gracing the wetlands as if she's always loved them. "I miss you, you know. It would bring me such joy, Cica, to hold you once more. Don't you miss me?" You don't. She tremors knowing she's lost them. They have children, a profession, a kitten masquerading as an apprentice and a thief. And yet, she trills a purr no different than a snake's hiss. "You could have asked me," she pleads, but she knows her own answer. Bug knows. It is no secret. Serpentberry only draws closer.

"Magpie-" she pauses, eyes falling. A child - he's a child. He does not need to be denoted by a 'paw name yet. Her tail rattles, "Does not know better. You utilizing a kitten to dredge up what the land can't offer you is pathetic, Cica." The pout, the warmth, the illusion of allure. It fades instantly. "I suggest you go home." Bug says with no indignation. They've no time for her. She'll just take what they have left.

Serpentberry launches, gnarling her claws into the pelt of her old friend. The anger bubbles up again, exposing itself in furrowed brows and a clenched jaw. "I think not, little bug," she trills again. She rears back, "You've taken something from me; I hope you know how to use it~" And she throws forward, lodging her fangs deep into the other's throat and waiting for the crunch.
 
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CICADABUZZ, 31 moons / shc + med. cat
a SH cinnamon tabby/chocolate tortie chimera w/ black eyes
parent to cloudberrypaw, hemlockpaw, mistletoepaw ; mentor to magpiepaw
a reserved, pragmatic healer driven by duty rather than sentiment
Cicadabuzz does not move when Serpentberry closes in. Bug does not flinch from her voice, even when it dips into that mockery of softness—the honeyed venom she so often wielded like a claw. Bug knows the sound of it too well, has watched it unravel others, snare them in the ghost of tenderness that never truly lived in her. Bug does not rise to the bait. Not when she purrs. Not when she lies. Not even when she says she misses bug, because the ache of those words has long since stopped landing—or so bug tells bugself. Still, something shifts behind bugs expression. That history—whatever threadbare thing remains of it—does not slow her descent into fury.

And then—her voice, again. The child's name on her tongue like a warning bell. Bugs paw freezes over the earth. A single blink. That's all the space bug gives to the flickering in bugs chest, the dull throb of consequence. Serpentberry doesn't let bug linger on it. Her voice curls like smoke—then sharpens.

The world erupts.

Bug barely registers the claws until they land. Pain blooms across bugs sides, hot and electric. Her weight drives bug to the earth, breath crushed out of bug in a low grunt. Bug twists, but not to fight—only to protect the herbs tucked beneath bug. Reflexive. Instinctual. Useless.

"I think not, little bug."

Her words find the edge of bugs hearing, blurred by the rush of blood pounding in bugs ears. Bug opens bugs mouth—not to answer, not this time—but to inhale. To brace.

Too late.

Her fangs find bugs throat. The pain is immediate, searing. Then cold. There is no scream. Only a shallow sound, like wind escaping a hollow reed. Cicadabuzz stiffens beneath her, jerking once—twice—as if bugs body might still try to respond. As if some hidden instinct might convince bug to fight back. But bug is a healer. Every breath bug's taken has trained bug to know the line between life and death, between a wound and a killing blow. And Serpentberry knew exactly how to land it.

Bug could kill her. If bug moved. If bug struck. Bug knows where to place bugs claws, how to end a life with precision. She is close enough. Vulnerable. But so is bug, and bug cannot move. Bugs body twitches once more. Bugs limbs shift, scraping against the mossy earth as if reaching for something unseen. Not herbs. Not safety. Perhaps bugs kits. Or bugs apprentice. Or something simpler—sunlight, breath, time. Blood spills down bugs chest in a thick, slow stream. It drips, stains the goldenrod that bugs teeth had severed moments before.

Bugs body stills.

 
Serpentberry holds, clenching her jaw ever tighter if she must. They buck and twitch, paws searching for something but never finding purchase. Eventually, they still, and the darkness of their eyes only deepens. The molly unlatches her teeth from bug's throat and hovers above them for a long, strenuous moment. She's killed before - slipping berries into meals or leading souls onto the thunderpath. But her mouth remains filled with the blood of another in a way it never had before. It doesn't thrill her, nor does it disgust her. It just... is.

She steps away from bug, watching as the blood drains down their chest. Petals of a golden rod flower tinge and stain red by their maw, and the glimmer of life returns to her.

Gingerly, Serpentberry nudges her nose to the side of Cicadabuzz's cheek. A warm gesture, kind even, as she purrs, "Thank you for this, sweetling. We'll call it even now, yeah?" They lie in death and she smiles, the useless, dirty, ill-gotten goldenrod happily tucked between stained teeth. Her tail sweeps behind her, acid green gaze flickering about to see if anything else of theirs is of use to her. It seems in bug's final moments, they managed to hide anything worthwhile. A tsk leaves her lips but she doesn't press, knowing her time in the pocosin lands is treading thin.

"See you in the stars, Cica," she chirps, turning back to the rumbling thunderpath several foxlengths away, and leaving.