Closed Backwritten Leader's Den i'd hate to see you cry // urgent matters

[Fujimoto]

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Twolegplace still clung to his pelt like claws around a leaf-bare mouse, but Fujimoto did not care to roll through the wheatgrasses to hide it. His journey to twolegplace had him wishing to stand up for Fitzgerald in the moment of humiliation. To have banded alongside Flowercloud and voice his own weighted words- but he hadn't. Fuji had sunken into his cowardice but now, today, that would be different.

"Hawkstar, I-I have something to-to discuss with you. Now, please." The torbie squared his shoulders and stilled his jaw to get a hold of his stammering, lifting his head high as he addressed the older molly. It felt wrong to stand before the leader in mirrored posture, not wanting to assert himself as some sort of challenger but he knew the moment he retreated into himself again, it was over.

"We ha-have been here... long enough for k-k-kits-kits fresh from the, um, journey to reach apprenticehood. We... have lived through t-two seasons in our new home as C-Coffee-Coffeestar dreamt of. I think it's... I think it is time to welcome the k-kittypets back into rank. They-They''ve already attempted to make their own! They want this... this life." Fujimoto took a deep breath as he adjusted the footing of his paws, feeling as though his legs might just give out from underneath him.

@Hawkstar @stormcrow

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[Hawkstar]

LEADER OF SKYCLAN

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Hawkeye had been a relentless warrior. The claw-marks gouged into the red-clay cliff-sides of the ravine were hers, scored by hardened talons that scrabbled at the unforgiving rock long before they reached for an easier branch or foothold to pull herself up from. Chilly rain-water settled in those claw-marks in the lonely days after SkyClan's departure from their forgotten home, and when the snows came, that cold water froze into ice, and that ice expanded those claw-marks into fissures that now housed a small family of bats - all unknown to the cat that had originally made those cracks in the wall.

Hawkstar was now hundreds of pawsteps away from that cliff-face, a thousand thoughts from the water that made the ice that made the fissure to house the bats, and a million lost seconds of sleep away from the idea of ever thinking about the ravine again … but still those feelings lingered. The feeling of the hard earth beneath her ragged paws stung in every step she took away from what home was. The feeling of breathlessness at the top of the ravine, staring down an unknowable distance, where cats milled from cavern to cavern, looking more like ants than her clanmates, unrivaled by the swaying treetops they now claimed as their own. Hawkstar's body missed the gorge and all the rugged beauty it had represented in her youth, even if her eyes and her mind were pointed sharply in the direction of her forest.

And it was Hawkstar's body that reacted first to Fujimoto's words.

It was a small thing: a squint, a wink, a wrinkle under the eye, the same little crinkle that was present when Coffeestar's patrol first came across a little pointed teenager, a bell collar around her skinny neck, her tail curled over her back in pleasant curiosity of these funny-smelling cats. A golden tom approached her first and asked her name, and in a dream, several hundred sleeps every from that moment, she told him "Hawkstar". but then, in the truer version of her story, it was just … "Lacey".

Lacey had been a kittypet, a kittypet that Hawkeye killed in a flash to protect her clan, but again, in a truer telling, Lacey had died and been reborn into Hawkeye, just as Hawkstar died and was reborn again to protect Downykit. There was little difference in the lives before and after resurrection, save perhaps the vestiges of narcissism that clung line cobwebs in her mind.

"Don't stutter. Confidence is a virtue I require of my council." but notably, she does not immediately counter the words that are uttered from chattering teeth. Hawkstar instead turns, her one working eye sharp, but not quite hardened into a glare. It was … softer than that, more … contemplative.

"Kittypets always were the centerpiece of our clan under Coffeestar." she relents a bit, allowing her daylit Sun Guard a little bit more than she would have allowed under any other circumstance. "There are no less than three other clans within this forest, all of whom jockey for positions against our borders. If we could win over more soldiers, more cats that do not count as empty bellies to feed… then maybe we would not suffer so greatly at the hands at fate."

A wall of soldiers … disposable pawns to be used in place of her own invaluable warriors. What was a kittypet life to the life of her children, her friends, or the warriors she had nurtured from birth? And if the kittypets should survive a skirmish or even a battle, maybe… just maybe… there could be a reputation and a home to be gained from their loyalty.

"I don't trust any kittypet to truly know what the life of a warrior entails, but maybe a strong hand - a tutor - might be what they need. You say that they are attempting their own … clan …" Hawkstar wrinkled her nose at the very word, at the very idea of her culture being bastardized by some soft kibble-filled kittens playing in the woods like kits fresh from the nursery - with no elders or queens to help with the accuracy of their game, no less! "Then they must have a leader, correct? Someone I can reason with, at least?"

pointed torbie

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64 moons

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she / they

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bio

 

[stormcrow]

♱ When Fujimoto calls the meeting, Stormcrow gives him a questioning look, though she poses no questions. She follows, quietly, and settles as close as she feels she is allowed to Hawkstar, looking at Fujimoto with something like mild curiosity. His words are cut up, his nervousness clinging to his shoulders like cobwebs. And they hit her ears unpleasantly, unwelcome. More kittypets? Well, of course Fujimoto would want that, wouldn't he? And the idea of a bunch of kittypets attempting to form a… clan… it's repulsive. What do they know of honor, of fealty?

But she doesn't speak, and waits for Hawkstar to voice her opinion. Something flickers in her king's eye, something she does not voice when she speaks. Stormcrow doesn't point this out, but nods thoughtfully.

"I agree with Hawkstar," she says at length. "If they are capable of feeding our clan, of fighting for it– then perhaps… there could be a place for them, here…" she wraps her tail around her paws, thinking. "A test would be prudent, I think. At least some sort of proof of their capabilities. We can't just let any kittypet that feels up to it wander in. And loyalty– they must be loyal." She thinks of Fitzgerald and her lip curls ever so slightly, barely perceptible at all. "What use are disloyal soldiers, after all?"

What use would the kittypets be if not to fall on the battlefield instead of their own warriors? They would die with honor, which is something few kittypets can say. Though they may not comprehend it.

♡ STORMCROW. 44 moons
temporary mentor of teaselpaw,
daughter of snowveil
peaceful powerplay allowed
ooc -