Backwritten Territory ThunderClan this night has opened my eyes // serpentberry

[rowanpaw]

(takes place immediately after this thread)

☆ Rowanpaw pads through the undergrowth, eyes on the lookout for any herbs that might be useful, enjoying the late new leaf sun as it flickers through the treetops. Her mind is elsewhere, drifting, thinking of a certain she-cat, the molly with the herbs who smells like pine and youth stolen from Rowanpaw too young.

Then, suddenly– the smell of blood. A smell she knows far too well, the smell of her nightmares, that sometimes seems to drown her… she shivers, eyes flicking this way and that, trying to pinpoint where it's coming from. The Shadowclan border? Oh no… oh… she takes off running, darting through the woods like a rabbit chased by something worse than either cat or fox– and breaks through a bramblebush into a small clearing where she sees–

Her mother.

No, Serpentberry. This is… Serpentberry. Blood is dripping from her maw, goldenrod held between her teeth. Rowanpaw's heart is beating like the hoofs of a runaway horse. Part of her fears for her mother, but another part… a smaller part… fears Serpentberry. Poison and blood. But, no– no– she shakes her head.

"Mother," she says, voice quivering as she hurries to her side, "are you alright, are you hurt? What happened? Oh, don't tell me it was one of those traitors– I'll– I…" she'll what? Poison them all, like Serpentberry had taught her to?

No, she's a healer, she… the whole reason she became a medicine cat was so she wouldn't have to fight or kill… but if Shadowclan took her mother from her, then…

"Mother," she says again. "Please… tell me what to do…"

☆ ROWANPAW. 11 moons
mentored by serpentberry,
adopted daughter of serpentberry and thornstar
sister to maplefrost
peaceful powerplay allowed
ooc - @serpentberry

 

[serpentberry serpentberry]

Trailing across the thunderpath once more is not an arduous ordeal. Even as her paws clasp the more familiar grasses and clovers of her home territory, the gravity of her actions do not pummel her with distress or discomfort. Satisfaction is a more fitting connotation, as if a stolen life minted with the gift of bloody goldenrod truly is the proper trade off for what could've just been a childish endeavor. Sanguine hues stain her, but the ichor belongs to another, and that only furthers the trill in her throat happily.

Thundering paws make the forest quake, and through the undergrowth soars her daughter. Lamb to a slaughter, that one - she'll have to teach her self preservation (or self defense) next, if she's apt to chase down any bloody individual who tickles her nose. An apt quality for an aspiring medicinal student, especially someone as kind and careful as Rowanpaw. No cat will be amiss in their injury or illness with her around. (Serpentberry decides to dwell on the surplus of positives her daughter procures, rather than the disaster-chaser she is.)

"My little sapling," She rumbles, placing down the goldenrod. The scuffle all but crushed it, little reddened petals quick to fall from the base. She'll recollect the useless bits later, "I'm not hurt. There's nothing to be done here," no scratches to mend, no tears to wipe away. None of her own, at least. The other's voice quivers and Serpentberry feels as if she may have to coddle her daughter more, should she begin to cry. "I was settling something with our friends from across the way. Did you know that Cicadabuzz was sending one of Juniperstar's sons to steal from our stores?" Incredulousness leaks into her voice and her eyes search her daughter's gaze, trying to sap out the emotion, egging the other on for some kind of reaction.

 

[rowanpaw]

☆ Settling something with Cicadabuzz…? Who'd sent Magpiepaw to– to steal from them?

"What?" Rowanpaw says blankly, staring at Serpentberry, "I thought he had your permission to take those, I– I mean…" she recoils slightly, not used to the anger in Serpentberry's face, though it has perhaps always been there. Rowanpaw just refused to see it. She shivers, and shakes her head. "I'm sorry, mother, I thought… I assumed he'd asked you, so I didn't…" if she's made a mistake in revealing her involvement in the affair, she does not realize it. "And would… would Cicadabuzz really do something like that…? When we talked, I–"

Oh no. Now she knows she's fucked up. She hadn't told her mother she was going to talk to the other medicine cat, had barely told her about Swallowpaw– just briefly, about the time when she gave her the advice about catmint. Not about the second time. Or the planned third and fourth, or the half moon meetings… she'd wanted to tell her when it was all settled, because she knew Serpentberry would worry, and may not let her go. But if it was all worked out and Rowan was okay, then… then she wouldn't be upset, right? Although now… with Cicadabuzz having done this… she doesn't know. She hesitates for a moment before deciding to continue, even if it meant a scolding. She believed what she was doing was right, that it was for the best. Serpentberry would see that, right?

"I– I went to talk to Cicadabuzz, on the border. I followed… I went with Magpie and that Shadowclan warrior… because– because there's something that I want to do. I've been planning it with… with Swallowpaw, the medicine cat apprentice from Skyclan who helped me, who helped you–" she moves closer to her mother now, ears flat to her head, eyes pleading. "There's so many things to learn about healing, about being a medicine cat– about Starclan too! And we thought that… that maybe it would be good if us medicine cats, from all the clans… if we could meet and discuss those things. If we could learn from each other. I don't… I don't want to see any more pointless death, mom. I want to learn everything I can so that I won't… so that I won't have to watch anyone else die."

She takes a deep breath. She's still shaking slightly, terrified of her mother's anger, which she is so used to receiving but has not yet experienced at the paws of Serpentberry. Her birth mother was cruel, but Serpentberry has been nothing but good to her, and the idea of her rejection, her anger, of being left behind again all alone– she can barely stop herself from bursting into tears.

"You can– you would come too, of course. I– I was going to tell you. I just… I just wanted everything to be settled, so I could tell you and… and maybe you'd be… maybe you'd be proud of me," she says, and squeezes her eyes shut to keep the tears back. "I– I'm still your daughter, right…?"

☆ ROWANPAW. 11 moons
mentored by serpentberry,
adopted daughter of serpentberry and thornstar
sister to maplefrost
peaceful powerplay allowed
ooc -

 

[serpentberry serpentberry]

There is not as much reveling as Serpentberry anticipated. While she feels her heart flutter in delight with the youth's fear and confusion, her heart drops to her stomach in a rare sense of astonishment when Rowanpaw all but admits that she had a paw in the disaster as well. The acid on her tongue burns through her throat, the sharpness of her gaze only growing to a knife's point.

"You knew." Serpentberry says it with a cold chill. The cruelty of her kill reinvites itself to her frame, and though her love for the molly still sparks in her heart, all it does for the fraying moments is shackle her paws to the ground. She knew, but didn't know enough. She didn't ask questions and just assumed that all would be well. Serpentberry listens as her daughter rambles an apology, an explanation - divulges that she's been sneaking around, knowing full well her mother wouldn't approve. The medicine cat can only feel herself grow colder and colder as the traitor before her insists that she is anything but. And then -

"I'm still your daughter, right?"

A taut string plucked and snapped. Whatever cold swept through Serpentberry becomes the hot, unbearable, greenleaf sun. Her smile spreads and she presses forward, nudging her bloody cheek against her daughter's crown. This is as much your mess as it is mine. She has a companion in her murder, whether or not Rowanpaw sees it, too.

"You'll always be my daughter, Rowanpaw. Please, never fear - I would rather lose my life than lose you," she chirps with her usual, sickeningly sweet tone. A promise, if there were any. The truth in the end.

"Sneakier than the ShadowClan muck, you are," she sings it like praise, trills her tongue in a beautiful purr. "And for the benefit of others. You are more and more like your father than you believe." Perhaps Thornstar would detest his lover today, knowing what she's done, knowing what she continues to do. Or maybe his love would blind him, just as Rowanpaw's does to her. Serpentberry curls her form around the russet-brown form of her daughter, drawing her ichor-laden tongue across tall ears. "I think it is a lovely idea. Poor timing, but I'm sure everything will be cleared up again by then." With Cicadabuzz dead, she need not worry about little paws being directed by antennae and pincers.

A long sigh, a paw drifting through bloodied petals. Her ears crane slightly, "I am proud of you, Rowanpaw. But remember where you belong," a sharp bite of her tongue again. "You are my daughter, and ThunderClan's next medicine cat. Do not stray far from your duties."