TW: Sensitive Content Private Backwritten SkyClan in our bedroom after the war // hawkstar + post gathering

[stormcrow]

mentions of blood/a dead body. takes place on the night after the gathering/during rosebellys vigil.

In the aftermath, there is only silence. The stench of blood hangs heavily in the Skyclan camp, as if it's seeped into the very bones of this place. Rosebelly's body is lying still in the darkness, a shapeless lump. It makes her sick. Stormcrow's paws feel heavy. She is weary in a way she has never been before. Whatever emotion had been going through her king as she helped her back to camp, it had somehow leaked into her, taking hold of her heart and digging its foul claws into it.

Now, after the clan members that stayed back to protect the camp had been briefed, they could finally rest. They could finally sit vigil for Rosebelly.

In the darkness of night, her paws find their way to Hawkstar's side, whether by smell or hearing or something else, she does not know. She is too tired to question the red string that seems to tie her to her leader at all times– the string which sometimes seems more like a noose than anything else. But so be it, she thinks. She will wear the noose with honour.

She lies down next to Hawkstar under the cover of night. She does not think about why she needs cover to do so.

"You did what you thought was right," she murmurs, unsure if her words will do anything to comfort or reassure, but feeling nonetheless that she must try. "And I find no fault in your logic. These cats… if they insist on it, they will learn the hard way what upholding the warrior code entails." After a moment's hesitation, she softly adds. "Let me help you…"

She reaches out, and begins to clean Hawkstar's fur, meticulously grooming the blood from it. It is not intimate, but religious in nature.

"In the future, should you ask it of me– I will be your sword, your executioner. You need not dirty your fur with blood, Hawkstar. All you have to do is ask, and it shall be done, precisely as you command it," she murmurs. "It is true, your path is not easy, but you do not walk it alone. Wherever you go, I will follow, lest you ask me not to."

Please don't ask me not to.

♡ STORMCROW. 54 moons
mentor to stonepaw,
daughter of snowveil
peaceful powerplay allowed
ooc - @Hawkstar

 

[Hawkstar]

LEADER OF SKYCLAN

.

Rosebelly's body lays between herself and her clan. Her apprentice, her foolish, ungainly apprentice who had broken their code by his murderer's admission, was too still under the light of the waning moon. He should have been able to see the clans gathered together. Hawkstar could even imagine what look he would've shot her when they inevitably learned what heathenism they shared the forest with, but now? Now Hawkstar could only stare at the dead, cold corpse that Flowercloud had returned with. All done up in flowers and bows, a more macabre sight than his blood that still clung to the underside of her claws.

"They learned nothing." Hawkstar mutters to her sword as she leans into the cleaning. It would never come out, that stain that Juniperstar had cursed her with, the stain of being rejected from a heaven she was unfamiliar with. "Their StarClan did not punish them. They did not condemn them as the murderers they are ... and then I stooped to meet them where they were, and I made monsters of SkyClan. Why would I ask you to carry that burden instead of me? Do you really think that little of me?"

pointed torbie

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67 moons

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she / they

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bio

 

[stormcrow]

Stormcrow stills for a moment at her king's words. The taste of blood on her tongue is not unfamiliar, nor is it as unpleasant as it usually is. There's a sweet metallic tang that sticks to the roof of her mouth like rotten honey. It is not Hawkstar's blood, but in Stormcrow's dreams moons from now, it will be. Strands of Hawkstar's fur are swallowed, settling somewhere between her heart and stomach, proof that if only for a moment, yes, they were this close, they were this intertwined.

She has not yet shared tongues with their ancestors in Starclan, and until her death, she knows this is the closest she will come. Some part of her even thinks this may be something holier– some more ancient ritual– is there anything as old as devotion? As the wish to be one?

At length, she continues her movements. In between, she murmurs, "if violence is the only language they speak, how else could we have responded?"

She wishes she could curl around Hawkstar like the breeze, comfort, reassure, offer some strained tenderness to only be witnessed by the moon. She sighs, brow furrowing though her leader does not see this.

"If you had backed down, gone back on your words, they would've thought us weak. Rather a monster than that. At least this way, they will think twice before taking another Skyclanner's life."

A beat. She hesitates, mind toying with the line between them, that neither of them had ever drawn but had nonetheless appeared.

"For you, I would bear it– it would be no burden. It would be an honour. I am at your every command, no matter the weight of it. I am stronger for your faith in me, for the trust you have in me. There are times when… there are times when I am even afraid of what I would do if you asked it of me." A quiet confession, tucked into the place between shoulder and spine with a steady lick of her tongue. The darkness beckons her to spill her heart, the things she has hidden away for many moons now. "I can think of nothing, of no one I hold higher than you."

♡ STORMCROW. 54 moons
mentor of stonepaw,
daughter of snowveil
peaceful powerplay allowed
ooc -