𓆝 . ° ✦
Plague rests in her nest inside the makeshift nursery, while dusk falls upon them. At her side, her three children, finally reunited. Unfortunately, it does not cast as warm of a feeling upon them as it should. Not with the way they had separated - with Yewkit blindly choosing her friends in the medicine den over her family. It had shaken her to Plague core, losing her. It had inflicted more pain than she had felt since.. Hemlock."I would like to tell you a story,"
the queen mews softly to her kittens, sleepy but still awake. Her gaze lingers particularly long on little Yewkit, her latest troublemaker. So much pain the little scrap has caused - but, with her knowledge, she knows a way to prevent such an escapade in the future. "The story of a Dove and a Jay. It is no mere nursery tale, so listen closely, my little ones."
"Once upon a time, in a forest far from here, a dove left the warmth of her flock. She was young and light-hearted, thinking the world would always be kind to her. She wandered too far, beyond where her mother's voice could reach."
Ivory, herself, had been quite similar back then, too much of a dreamer to see the shadows beneath the sunlight. "One day, while she was foraging for food, she came across a blue jay. He was proud and clever, as most jays are. His wings shone like a false star - bright enough to make her forget the darkness creeping at the edges. Now - one thing you should know about blue jays is that they are very territorial, and they have superb memory. One step onto their branch, and you are never forgotten."
A soft chuckle escapes her throat; she remembers the time she and Hemlock had dared to hunt a jay… and how, for moons afterward, they couldn't pass through its territory without being relentlessly swooped at."So.. by all means, he should have chased the dove out of his home. But.. there was something about her that caught his eye. Her quick tongue and daring smile met his sharp wit and proud posture like two puzzle pieces snapping into place. They met in secret for days, watching the stars and sharing stories. When she should have feared his territory and his flock, she instead felt safe in his presence. She felt he would keep her warm. She trusted the jay the moment they met, because, well.. she had fallen in love. She never heard how quiet the forest grew when he was around, how no other bird dared to fly near.
But the dove did not know the truth. The clever jay had already chosen a mate and built a nest. He had hidden it well, letting the dove believe his heart was hers. Each meeting wove a brighter future in her mind - a future he never meant to share. To him, she was a passing thrill; to her, he was the world.
And so, under the moonlight, they continued to see each other. Until, one day, the dove found herself with eggs."
A joyous day, it would have been - for the dove, and for Ivory. It would have been the final push for the young lovers to unite and live the life they always dreamed of, together. "One night, she brought him to her nest that she had prepared, just for the two of them. But instead of rejoicing, the jay was angry, with eyes as cold as snow. He had never intended for their relationship to go this far, for the dove was merely a distraction. Finally, with venom in his warble, he told her that he had a mate at home, and that they, too, had built a nest for their eggs. He was not willing to forsake his status and pride for what he thought to be mere fun and games.
So, betrayed and heartbroken, the dove flew through the night and took the jay's eggs, tucking them beside her own. Blinded by love, she truly believed he would choose her, if only she showed him they were meant to be.
When the jay returned to his nest the next day, he saw his eggs missing. Angered, he hurries to the dove, and sees her sitting atop her eggs. Some a star-like white, and some a baby blue. He chased her and her eggs away for good, returning to his mate without a backward glance. The dove, with a heart cracked like thin ice, flew away with her eggs beneath her wings into a storm as cold as leaf-bare, and vowed she would never love so blindly again."
At last, Plague resolves her story, letting her gaze fall softly upon her kittens - though a knowing warning lingers in the way her brows crease. Her gaze sweeps over all three of her children, but seems to keep pulling back to Yewkit - like a hawk circling its prey.
"Do you know what happened to the dove when she got caught in the storm, my darlings? The wind chilled her to the bone - it tied her to the ground. It picked her clean, until when the morning comes, there is nothing left but feathers that no one remembers."
Just like Ivory, she thinks. Plague's jaw sets, tightening at the bitter memory - the change in Hemlock's gaze when he found her out, the way her friends and family snapped at her heels like a hungry pack of wolves.Her voice shifts into something raw, and her gaze becomes unblinking, as if recalling a terrible memory.
"The jay forgot her. He took her warmth into his feathers and flew home to his own nest. His own priorities. The forest forgot her, too - some say when a storm whistles through the trees, it's her calling for the ones she trusted to keep her safe. But the forest does not answer, and the jay does not return."
Plague's tail curls around the kits now.. not soft, but close. Binding. For a moment, her body grows still, and her breath catches.
"They say they'll look out for you - they'll keep you warm. And then, one night, the storm comes.. and they don't."
There's a moment of silence now, chilling and eerie, until Plague seems to wake out of a trance, fixing the kittens with her loving gaze once more. "It is a dark story, kittens. But it is one that you must hold close to your heart. I tell you this because I love you."
"We are not so different from our prey, you know. Cats have their priorities, their egos, their prides.. and it will not always be you, no matter how much you will it."
Yewkit putting her trust so blindly in the medicine cats and her little friends the night of the flood was foolish - if they had to choose between Yewkit and their own kin, or the herbs that created their jobs, or their own lives, would her little dove still be here today? "Others may forget.. but families never do. Trust given so easily snaps when the wind blows, but blood.."
she draws out the word like a vow, "..blood binds, and it holds. You are my responsibility, my pride. There is no truer trust than the one between kin. The forest will forget you, my little doves, and so too will the jay. But I never will - and neither will your siblings, all of you. Trust wisely, my loves.. trust in me and guard your hearts.. and you may never be swept astray like the dove."
Plague looks more firmly at Yewkit now with the warmth drained from her gaze, twisting into something accusatory and betrayed. With little more than a whisper, she lowers her lips to the kitten's ear."Do not forget this again."
✧ ° . ✶ . ° ✧
- ooc: — @Yewkit @Drearykit @Phantomkit
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a complex molly; timid and meek on the surface, but what dwells beneath?
