TW: Sensitive Content TW: Death Backwritten TC MOM, AM I STILL YOUNG? CAN I DREAM FOR A FEW MONTHS MORE? // burial.

[rowanpaw]

tw for death, grief, brief mention of a dead body. also, this takes place some time after this thread

☆ When Rowanpaw wakes up again, she's lying in one of the nests just outside the medicine cat den. Someone must've moved her, but she can't say with certainty who. Her leg is still aching, her heart somehow feeling too big for her chest, and her mother– where is Serpentberry's body…? How long had she been out? They wouldn't bury her without her, would they?

She stands up slowly, having learned her lesson now. She tests her leg gingerly, wincing at the pain. Dammit. How was she supposed to be able to bury her mother like this…? She'd have to ask for help. She remembers, albeit vaguely, that Magnoliapeak had for some reason offered to help, so after chewing some poppy seeds to dull the worst of it, she hobbles out into the camp and finds her.

Together, she, Magnoliapeak, and Juniperstar begin to dig the grave for Serpentberry. Others are bound to join too, and although Rowanpaw would rather be alone with her grief, she knows she cannot. She's not the only one who lost a mother, or someone they loved.

Once the grave is deep enough, they move the body. Rowanpaw, too weak to do much more, sits by the edge, eyes glassy and her ears flat to her head. Her mother does not belong in a hole in the ground, she belongs between the stars.

"Oh, mother…" she whispers.

She should say something, shouldn't she? As the medicine cat? When they buried the three kits' mother, she hadn't said much, but then she didn't know the molly at all, and the molly did not know of Starclan and hence would not go there. But Serpentberry– if Rowanpaw had not been too late– really is among the stars now.

"Serpentberry was–" she starts, trying very hard to keep her voice even– "she was… she was my mother and mentor, and everything I know, I learned from her. May her journey to Starclan's endless hunting grounds be easy, and– and may her memory be a blessing to those who knew her, and may her name be remembered forever as that of Thunderclan's first ever medicine cat."

☆ ROWANPAW. 14 moons
mentored by serpentberry,
adopted daughter of serpentberry and thornstar
peaceful powerplay allowed
ooc - @Magnoliapeak and @loonstar mentioned

 

[OWLBARK]

Owlbark acted as bodyguard, as he always did. A lonely farm dog watching his flock making sure they could do what could be done without interreference. He didn't truly think any assailants would be swooping in - they had established themselves fairly well in the forest. He could also not think of another excuse to give as he trailed his friend's funerary procession. Friend was still a tentative title he gave to the deceased medicine cat. She was conniving and cruel to others at times, but she cared for him in certain ways.

Serpentberry had been the cat at Hawthorne's side and the mother of his kits. She and Juniperstar felt like his last tethers to him, and he had just lost one half. The deputy sat himself back from Rowanpaw's tender process and watched the dirt moved away to cover the rotting molly at their side. He dipped his head at her words of love for her mother. There is a bitter part of him that wished Rowanpaw had said more, but he could not even think of what to say differently. What else was there to say for someone who loved so hard? Too hard at times.

I'll keep an eye on them, Serpent. I'll make sure they are kept safe by my claw, in lieu of your fangs, he thought. May StarClan and Hawthorne guide her path. That was as much as he would give her, and he knew she would also give him the same if the roles were reversed. He would miss her. He would think of having her sharp tongue to aid him where words failed him. His friend.

Owlbark kept his bowed for a moment longer before pulling himself deeper in the shadows to let the other cats do their last service to Serpentberry.

i turned 'round and there you go *ੈ✩‧₊˚

• ooc: owl out. :(
  
• 

  ☾ OWLBARK
  ☾ THUNDERCLAN DEPUTY
  ☾ 58 moons, ages every 1st of the month
  ☾ open to peaceful interactions
  ☾ "SPEECH #687A63"
  ☾ penned by muddly

• toyhouse
  playlist
  pinterest

 

[Dewshine's icon Dewshine Dewshine]

Come on, come on
We can go away

.

It still doesn't feel real, even as Dewshine helps dig with shaking paws. Burying those lost during the war between Thornstar and Sablestar before they became Thunder and Shadow had been easier. She had barely known anyone. Faces she didn't-and would then never- recognize. But this was different. Serpentberry had been kind to her. Had nursed her wounded leg after Coalstrike tried to kill her. Not once had she cared about her origins as a kittypet. Not once been disapproving of her and Copperstorm despite her and her mate's tension.

Rowanpaw speaks and it takes everything in her not to crumble. It feels so final. It's real. It's real and she desperately wishes it wasn't. That she'd open her eyes to find herself curled around Copperstorm and hear Serpentberry's voice drifting into the warriors den. It's a wonder that Rowanpaw and Juniperstar are somehow keeping it together.

Gingerly, as if the petals might crumble into dust before they reach their destination, Dewshine places a sprig of lavender on the molly's body. The body... What a morbid thought. "Who's going to harass Copper over my kits now, Serpent?" She whispers, barely brushing the hairs of her ears with her breath. "...I wish you had lived long enough to see them."

If she says anymore she fears she might cry, and she turns to hurry away from the scene.

36 moons

◆

thunderclan warrior

◆

she/her

◆

bio

We Don't Need Them

DEWSHINE

✦—"SPEECH", 'THOUGHTS', ATTACK
✦—Silver She Cat W/ Orange Eyes And Dark Stripe Along Her Tail
#8f85c2

 

[THUNDERFLASH]

His head hurts. It aches, even. His eyes are dull, staring forward. Thunderflash is pretty sure he used up every last ounce of good favor with Ghoststrike to bring him out here to the vigil, leaning against him, half blind with cobwebs stuck over his eye. Serpentberry would be gnawing his ear off right about now about this. Rowanpaw might just kill him, if she was anything like her mother. Serpentberry. There's a hiccup, the sharp inhale of air of a sob, then silence as he stands there. His head is pounding. Serpentberry won't be there to feed him poppy seeds and snap at him about getting hurt again.

Because she cared. It wasn't anger that continued to boil- it was purposeful, if not venomous, that she spoke to him like that. He was hard-headed. Thunderflash took advantage of that for too long, didn't give her the chance to relax a little around him. The wound down his side, the one over his eye, his shoulder. Serpentberry wasn't really around for this concussion, for the eye he feared he was blind out of now. No, she was dead. She leaves behind children. She leaves behind a mate. She leaves behind a clan, entrusting it to Rowanpaw's memory and intelligence.

A single baby blue, dull and red-rimmed, stares at the grave as it's filled. As those sorrowful gather to say their pieces. Thunderflash doesn't have words in his throat, in his mind. All he knows is the ache, and he isn't sure it's from the more-then-little bump he received. It's from this. The loss of a friend, once of his closest friends. His thoughts are clouded and disjointed and achingly full of grief, and he isn't even the closest to this wound. His gaze tears from her soft fur turned so cold, staring up at @GHOSTSTRIKE for but a moment. He looks back forward, unsure what he was even searching in the other's hardened gaze.

"... I'll miss ye." He whispers out, voice scratchy and hoarse from the lack of use while concussed. "Rest well. Y' deserve i', Serp." Thunderflash says, and if Ghoststrike doesn't speak, he nudges himself to his feet and turns to stumble back to camp with the help of the Storm Guard.

_________ I'M LIVING LIKE A LANDMINE ☆ WAITING TO EXPLODE ! ______________

• "speech"
  

• 

• THUNDERFLASH he/him, thunderclan warrior, twenty-eight moons.
  ☆ a sh/lh chocolate tabby with low white and stunning baby blue eyes. stands of average height with a 'mohawk' and spiky-shaped mane.
  ☆ mentored by n/a / mentoring hopepaw
  ☆ whichever relations / want listed
  ☆ peaceful and healing powerplay permitted / / underline and tag when attacking
  ☆ penned by dallas ↛ dallasofnines on discord, feel free to dm for plots.

 

[loonstar loonstar]

juniper

"and this time, she won't be forgiving"​​

every dragging motion of claws through the dirt is matched with a generous watering of tears. this earth would be fertile with grief, would grow saturated with loving memory even if it killed her to do so. it takes so long and no time at all at the same time, time skips in great intensity between the heavy thrums of her heart. had it gotten slower? decaying in its energy... lowering her into the recess of earth that stands as testament to her devotion, she can only stare. she looks impossibly small... much too gentle for the sharpness and zest she'd had in life. it's wrong.

this is all wrong.

Rowanpaw speaks and it feels like she's dragging her claws down Juniperstar's back- she winces, openly and without hiding it, to refer to her in the past tense so suddenly. like she had not just been there, hissing and grinning the day before. she is your mother. she is a blessing in the font of memory. she is.... gone. the cord weakens, twisting under the pressure as it prepares to relieve itself of the overwhelming tension. "Please watch over us," she implores the unflinching face of a sleeping love. a request she is not fit to ask of her.

she reaches low to touch her nose to the daffodil hues of her cheek one last time, pulling away as it grows suffocatingly hot in the company of so many others. she cannot linger here, in the wake of so many prying eyes; those who had the capacity to recognize this for what it was. for what it wasn't named out loud but spoken in every twining of tails and brush of tongues. they hadn't hidden it and equally so had not felt it necessary to shout from the top of the leader's den for all to hear. what had been witnessed was testimony enough to their bond.

she shuffles to her paws, casting Rowanpaw an look devoid of pity for her when she can already sum up so little for herself. this was to be her medicine cat now... and there would be no other options to turn to. ears fold flat against her head as the chocolate tabby pries herself from the gravesite of her partner, wandering listlessly towards the open expanse of the forest to have some peace, some quiet.

──✩°｡⋆⸜ ✮

•  
• juniperstar
  leader of thunderclan
  seven lives remain
  

 

[Heartpaw]

Everything stays right where you left it
Everything stays
But it still changes
Ever so slightly, daily and nightly
In little ways, when everything stays

.

Heartpaw could hardly imagine losing her mother. Just the thought made her chest tighten. She could only guess how much Rowanpaw must be hurting right now… and not just her, but Rattlepaw, Thistlepaw, and Leafpaw too. They were all alone now... Motherless AND fatherless... And the very idea of it made her throat ache. And Juniperstar... her poor leader had looked so sad too. The whole camp seemed to carry the weight of it, the silence heavy, the air thick with grief that clung to every whisker and tail. Heartpaw pressed closer to her mother's side, feeling the familiar warmth seep into her trembling frame. Her fluffy tail curled tight around her paws, and her golden eyes shone with unshed tears as she stared at the clearing.

Surely StarClan would take care of their medicine cat now… wouldn't they? They'd watch over her, let her run through the stars and hunt freely, safe and whole again. No sickness. No pain. No one to harm her. A small sniffle escaped her before she could stop it. She buried her face in her mother's soft fur, trying to muffle the quiet, shaking sobs that followed. " I hope she's happy there... " she whispered, her voice almost lost against Palefern's pelt. " And that she finds the cats she loved again. "

All around her, the world seemed dim and heavy, but in her heart, Heartpaw tried to hold on to the thought of peace, the kind she wished for every cat who ever looked up at StarClan's light.

Speech, thoughts/emphasis

6 MOONS

𖧧

THUNDERCLANNER

𖧧

SONG

𖧧

bio

 

[Copperstorm]

You walk along the edge of danger
AND IT WILL CHANGE YOU

.

Copperstorm remained frozen for a long moment, ears flat against his skull, golden eyes fixed on the freshly turned earth. The sharp tang of soil mixed with the coppery scent of blood and tears, and it struck him like a physical blow. Serpentberry… gone. And yet, even in this moment of loss, the memories tangled like brambles in his mind. He could feel it all, the grief, the anger, the hesitation. ' She… she was the cause of my brother's death... ' he thought, jaw tightening as his paws pressed against the dirt beneath him. Together with her brother, she had struck a blow that had changed his life forever. And now, she was gone. The finality made him feel hollow, yet somehow heavier, loaded with both sorrow and the bitter edge of injustice.

He swallowed, trying to organize the chaos in his mind. How could he reconcile this? She was cruel at times. She made mistakes, grave ones. She cost lives. Yet she had also taught him, healed him, and even in her sharp words and scolding, she had shaped him into the warrior he was. She was everything and nothing he expected her to be… and now she was gone.

A low rumble escaped him, his voice breaking as he whispered to the wind. " Serpentberry… I-- " He stopped, feeling the impossible weight of all his contradictions. ' I hated her. I loved her. I blamed her. I respected her... ' Every sentiment collided in his chest. " You… you were stubborn, sharp, impossible… but you healed, you taught, you protected… even when it cost others. " He lowered his muzzle to the edge of the grave, as if he could press his regrets into the earth. " I don't know if I can forgive you… I don't know if I can… respect you fully… and yet… you are gone, and the world is poorer for it. And I… I am too. "

His chest ached in new ways, torn between anger, grief, and the weight of complicated respect. Slowly, he moved, paws heavy, tail brushing the grass, as he followed Dewshine.

Speech, thoughts/emphasis

33 MOONS

𖧧

THUNDERCLAN

𖧧

SONG

𖧧

bio

 

[Thornkit]

His second burial in less moons in the time he'd spent in ThunderClan. Thornkit was no medicine cat, had no greater understanding of omens or prophecies, but burying two mothers felt like a bad portent for his future. There was a frown set firmly on the tom's face as he stood to the side as Rowanpaw delivered the final words preceding the first dirt that fell over Serpentberry's cold body, Faithkit between him and Falsekit. Of the three of them, Faithkit had shown the most emotion over the loss of Serpentberry, though Thornkit had never been good at deciphering exactly what Falsekit was feeling at any given moment. Anything that Thornkit himself felt mostly presented itself as anger.

Rowanpaw, Leafpaw, Thistlepaw, Rattlepaw, Juniperstar. They were all present, all pieces of what had made up Serpentberry's family. Thornkit found himself hesitant to count him and his littermates amongst them, and he wondered if they, in turn, considered them the same. Serpentberry had taken them in, shaped them into the visage of family, but whether they truly fit in alongside the others was another story altogether. One by one, ThunderClanners passed by to give their final goodbyes, and Thornkit watched them all closely, scrutinizing each. Juniperstar hadn't stayed after her visit to the grave, and Thornkit had watched her leave. The leader was their final bulwark against possible expulsion - he had to wonder if Serpentberry's passing would change her, would change the way she perceived them.

At some point, Thornkit stopped paying attention to the mourners, and turned his gaze upon Falsekit and Faithkit. He pressed in closer to his sister's side, comforting and grounding, as much for her sake as for his own.

THORNKIT—he/him + 02 moons
ThunderClan kit
NPC ♡ NPC | adopted by Serpentberry
Brother to Falsekit, Faithkit
Mate to N/A | Father to N/A
Mentored by N/A | Mentoring N/A

penned by Archivist

 

[Magnoliapeak]

I SIP A TOAST TO NORMALCY

Magnoliapeak sits close to Rowanpaw. She does not touch flanks with the medicine cat apprentice, nor does she barely spare her a glance when she begins to speak with regard to her dead mother. Serpentberry is laid within a grave that had been dug with silence and saline. She thinks that the medicine cat almost looks pretty, resting peacefully among gently upturned earth and thoughtfully placed herbs and flowers. Neither Rowanpaw nor Magnoliapeak move forward to touch the dead medicine cat as Juniperstar does. Though Magnoliapeak knows that she does not move for feeling like a liar, and she assumes Rowanpaw has likely had enough of seeing and moving the cold serpent. She does not envy the job of the medicine cat. Especially when she must bury her own mother.

Magnoliapeak's tail twitches as Juniperstar sinks again to fuss over Serpentberry's resting form. Murmurs rise among the gathered crowd of ThunderClanners, sharing their condolences and grieving thoughts. Some of their words are as empty as she feels. A pitiless look is shot at Rowanpaw, and the warrior touches her tail to Rowanpaw's finally. A gesture of solidarity. Would Rowanpaw have the death of her own mother held against her? Not now, but she is all too familiar with the way which resentment can grow and fester like a souring wound. Many, including Juniperstar and Owlbark, do not linger after they wish the medicine cat farewell. Magnoliapeak sits in silent visage. Even if she is the only one to remain at the end of the burial, she will still dutifully help the medicine cat to seal off the grave in finality.

She had given Rowanpaw her word.

— ⋆˙⟡

✿ magnoliapeak is a thunderclan storm guard with sharp resolve and strict standards.
✿ 30 moons old, ages on the 11th of each month.
✿ currently mentoring flickerpaw and sandpiperpaw
✿ in battle, physically difficult and psychologically difficult
✿ her parents are hazelheart x bracken. she is littermate to honeysucklecry and hyacinthrain. she is gen 2 on the junipersable tree.
✿ penned by carat, see her tags here.

 

[FALSEKIT]

His mother was dead. He didn't feel anything.

Falsekit stood at the other side of Faithkit's flank, the child's face betraying nothing of whatever brewed behind the plastered mask. Many of his clanmates gathered around as Serpentberry's body would be lowered into the grave, a nest of soil and sorrow crafted just for her emptied shell of a body. It was the same as his true mother, and though she and the medicine cat of Thunderclan hardly acquainted themselves with each other, they returned to the same unforgiving earth. Rowanpaw lauded so much of Serpentberry's achievements, though Falsekit struggled to feel that it had ever mattered in the long run, as if death (permanent and unyielding as it was) would hollow out all purpose of the once-living. What did it matter if she was virtuous, or compassionate, or stubborn, or strong? The patchwork calico's ears did not perk up to hear their compliments. The molly's face did not contort into a sly smile in response to the acclaims. The tawny medicine cat apprentice wished her a safe passage to Starclan, and the contemplation only presented itself in a slight furrow of their fictitious eyebrows, as if something had bore itself naked from the stilled sea it emerged from. The fawn tortoiseshell had heard that word before, though only vague forms of stardusted silhouettes danced along his innocuous imagination. I wonder if I will see her at night. Will I know which star she will become?

Silvery-blue eyes rolled towards Faithkit and Thornkit, unblinking stare settling on how Thornkit rested himself onto his sister's side. Fiercely did fury grab at his beating heart, as though the child's own turbulent emotions aimed to squeeze him of all lifeblood, and molten anathema trickled down his rib cage. Damn their brother for relying upon their sickly sister, and damn his sister for allowing her brother to do so. Thornkit did not weep for Serpentberry, but it was clear to them that their "mother's" passing had hit Faithkit quite hard, as if Serpentberry had somehow graced her with more love or more affection than the other two siblings. Perhaps it was the time that the once-living she-cat spent presiding over Faithkit, infusing such pretty lies and fanciful thoughts into her cotton-fuzz head. Falsekit had no words to speak of the dead, but the living still required his attendance. "It's alright." Falsekit began, though they did not stir from where they sat besides the other fawn tortoiseshell tabby, as though a beast's viscera vacated into a husk. Moving from his place felt as if it were an admission of guilt, or sorrow, or grief. He did not feel any such cumbersone thing, and he did not wish for Thunderclan to think otherwise. "She is... in Starclan. So, I suppose it's not like she's dead after all. Just in another place." I wonder if our mother is in Starclan, too. Or is it only a place for fake mothers to live after they die?

SUNSHINE IS FAR, CLOUDS LINGER ON

☾

EVERYTHING I POSSESSED, NOW THEY ARE GONE

• OOC. text
• 
  NOTE: This is a very loose reference until I can draw a more accurate reference. <3​
• 

  FALSEKIT & 02 MOONS

  ​

  —— Agender / Any Pronouns & Gendered Terms
  —— Kitten of Thunderclan / Adopted by Serpentberry / Biological sibling to Faithkit & Thornkit
  —— A shorthaired fawn tortoiseshell with medium-high white and greyish-blue eyes. Walks with a confident, almost unassuming posture. Talks with a calm and collected voice, and one much too mature for their age.
  —— Outwardly, Falsekit is an affable and polite cat with natural charisma. Within the controlled walls of their own making, they are a skeptical and nihilistic soul, often going about in life in accordance to their own morbid curiosity.
  —— Penned by Tempest. Contact on Discord (naruk4mi) for plots and threads.