PAFP SkyClan Journey Wherever you are, you live in my heart - Intro

[Maiseyleg]

{$title} Please wait for Hawk to reply! Title from 'Starlight' by Babymetal

ababababababa The seasons change, we are not the same

indentMaiseyleg arrives to an empty camp with her worst fears realized. 'They've already left. I'm too late.' In the time that she had been ill, kept inside and doted upon by her twolegs, Skyclan had decided their home was no longer habitable. They can't have been gone for more than a day or two, Maiseyleg can still see nests set up in the dens, and spare herbs stowed away. The rats have taken no time at all to move in, however. She had to tussle with a few to make her way over here. ' I can hardly blame them. This place has become a total warzone. Still, her stomach twists with apprehension and thought. She knows some of the other daylight warriors had been adverse to the idea of leaving their homes, and firmly decided to stay with their twolegs if the clan were to find a new home. Maiseyleg was sure she had made her intent to serve the clan very clear, but she can't push the doubt out of her mind. 'Did they think I abandoned them?'

indentDelays aside, Maiseyleg would stay true to her promise. Although it pained her to leave her twolegs alone, she had sworn an oath to Skyclan. Where it went, she went. She could still smell their scent lingering in the wind. If she left now, to follow it, she might still be able to catch up.

indentShe sets her eyes on the horizon, in the direction of her home. There was no time to say goodbye. In just a few hours, the trail could fade, and Maiseyleg would be left with no way to find her clan. Her heart still longs for her twolegs, though. They had kept her stomach full, warmed her in the winter, treated her wounds, and kept her long white fur silken and smooth. When the fighting with the rats began in earnest, her twolegs had fussed over her endlessly, applying strange ointments to her every scrape and cut. At night, she would lay between them in their nest, and they would wrap their arms around her. It broke her heart to imagine how they would react to find her missing, just after she had recovered from her illness.

indentMaiseyleg slips her collar off of her neck. It's brand new, gifted to her to replace one the rats had destroyed. It's a delicate, light blue thing, with a shining silver charm bearing her name. 'It's beautiful... they wanted me to look beautiful.' Her throat and chest tighten. Ever so carefully, she places the collar on a flat rock, as if it were an offering on an altar. 'I need to leave this life behind me, but at least I can leave them with this.' Fighting tears, she turns away and runs in the direction the scentrails led her in. She doesn't look back.

indent The blizzard was making it harder to see, and the bitter cold made it hard to keep track of the scent. Maiseyleg had no choice but to stop and take shelter if she wanted to survive. Surely, if the rest of the clan had taken shelter too, she would be able to rest without losing their trail 'But if they haven't stopped, I could loose track of them forever.' Even so, she wouldn't be any use to Skyclan as a corpse.

indentSalvation comes, as it often does, in the form of a twoleg den. Maiseyleg was more than used to leaning upon the kind will of twolegs, when the moment called for it. All she would need to do was yowl miserably for a bit, and she would have a place to stay for the night. Stepping high through the rising snow, Maiseyleg makes her way towards a lit window on the first floor. She had prepared herself to put on quite a show for the residents, but she had not prepared to see the den chock-full of cats, waiting out the storm.

indentIt was Skyclan! She had finally caught up! She wasted no time in banging on the window, trying to catch their attention. "Everybody! It's Maiseyleg, I'm here! I made it!"

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Maiseyleg | 63 moons | Warrior of Skyclan ababababbnihfibnfdifdhfhababa

 

[Hawkstar]

HAWKSTAR, 59 moons / SKYCLAN LEADER
A long-legged short-furred seal point tortie with one electric-blue eye; heavily scarred
Mentoring ROSEPAW ; mother of STARLITPATH
Prone to corporate attitudes, harsh words, hazing practices ; generally morally dubious
Tagging MAISEYLEG

---

Six weeks of long journeying had left SkyClan's new regent exhausted. Yoked to the responsibility she had once coveted (greedily, stupidly), Hawkstar was more husk than hallowed leader, her fur dull and her one electric eye nervously dancing from clanmate to clanmate instead of piercing each of them in turn. With each pass over the clan, she counted and recounted her members, checking against the tally in her head for anymore lost. One down... two lost... we had to keep moving, we had to -

It was that ugly refrain (we had to keep moving, we had to) that kept Hawkstar up, kept her totaling the counts of casualty that would set her trial in her final days. She imagined Coffeestar's cold, starry eyes on her lifeless soul, weighed and measured against the lives she had sacrificed to move the clan she had been given to protect from one barren wasteland to another unbound unknown. How could she ever justify that toll in a place where all life was counted in equal measure? How could she... justify it now?

The rest of the clan bustled their way through the kittypet's nest, sniffing at odd things and blinking at the rest with a sort of .... curious disdain she had once reserved for the daylight warriors that came and went as they pleased. But... hadn't she also been a daylighter, all those seasons ago, before StarClan had given her a chance at redemption, at life through duty and loyalty? They all started somewhere... they all-

A sharp rap at the window startled her from her mindless reverie, electric blue whizzing to meet - oh StarClan be damned, it was her.

Hawkstar scrambled from countertop to back door, emerging from the available flap with a hard look of disdain plastered on her scarred face: well, welcome to the show, traitor! "How kind of you to finally show up. I thought I told every daylight warrior the same thing: don't bother calling yourself a SkyClanner if you can't be on time, and look at you now! Bedraggled, unrested, and distinctly not respecting the orders I put in place! Give me one good reason why I should let you in this nest and not lock you outside for insubordination."

 

[Maiseyleg]

ababababababa The seasons change, we are not the same

indent Maiseyleg stiffens a bit. She has expected Hawkeye to be upset with her - she had always shown her distaste for daylight warriors in the past, and Maiseyleg usually just lets it run off her back. She knows where her loyalties lie, and she doesn't need to prove herself to anyone. Now, though, Hawkeye's accusation stings a little more than usual. She had trekked through the wilderness, alone, and still her integrity was being questioned?

indent "I'm sure you told everyone you could, but I'll remind you I wasn't there to hear it." Maiseyleg does her best to keep her voice calm and level. There was no use starting a fight when they were all exhausted. "I was ill, and being kept inside by my twolegs. If I was capable of being there when you left I assure you I would have been, but it wasn't in the stars." Sick with an illness I caught fighting a war for the good of the clan, she wants to add, but keeps her mouth shut. "As soon as a was released and found you had already gone on your way, I immediately left to catch up. My loyalty to Skyclan has never wavered yet, and I'm not going to leave it all behind when my clan needs me most." Maiseyleg wills her fur to lie flat, but she can feel it prickling along her back anyways. She had been gentle and gracious to Hawkeye for as long as they had known each other, and still the verbal jabs continued! Was it never enough for her? Why, Maiseyleg ought to -

indentMaiseyleg takes a deep, calming breath to steady herself. "We've all uprooted ourselves for the good of the clan. Now, could you please let me in? It's too cold for any cat to survive the night out here."

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Maiseyleg | 63 moons | Warrior of Skyclan ababababbnihfibnfdifdhfhababa

 

[SWALLOWPAW]

skyclan said goodbye to many of their daylight warriors before leaving. the goodbyes were awkward and tense, it was easy to understand why they'd stay behind but it was difficult to fully accept. the irony of hawkstar spitting on their daylighter's isn't lost on the girl, and she hopes coffeestar isn't rolling in her grave from it. swallowpaw wondered if they'd have to say goodbye to the rank all together, would their new home even have a twoleg place?

her head turns, ears perking over the bustle of the twoleg home to hear the glass tapping. if she squints, the girl can make out maiseyleg's form over the snowfall. she kind of remembers her, but she's only able to recall the warrior not showing up one day, and that extending into weeks. swallowpaw figured she was another daylighter who quiet quietly after the rats began to take over.

"hawkstar!" she squeaks, watching the still-healing leader shoot across the household. swallowpaw follows nervously, but keeps a safe distance so the woman can't crane her neck and bite her head off. "your… your scratches..." she urges, in a poor attempt to coax the leader back inside. she needed an adult. a reasonable adult.

ʚɞ

 

[Hawkstar]

HAWKSTAR, 59 moons / SKYCLAN LEADER
A long-legged short-furred seal point tortie with one electric-blue eye; heavily scarred
Mentoring ROSEPAW ; mother of STARLITPATH
Prone to corporate attitudes, harsh words, hazing practices ; generally morally dubious
Tagging MAISEYLEG, SWALLOWPAW

---

"My scratches!" Hawkstar barked indignantly back towards the apprentice, "this idiot risked her entire life to follow some imprints in the snow and you're worried about a few surface marks? Traveling after an illness," she glared bloody daggers at the not-quite-daylighter, all storm-clouds and lightning strikes in her one good eye.

Maiseyleg had taken a good home, a safe home, one devoid of the harsh realities past the gorge - one that held none of the brutal uncertainty that tinged every step - and spat on it. Even if Hawkstar's own loyalty to her clan had driven her to this point, to the point of finding daylight warriors cowardly and weak, she could not imagine ever rewarding stupidity. "Swallowpaw, please fetch Tigerfoot and tell him to get her a good space on a soft warm surface. I don't need to lose another warrior today, no matter how flea-brained they are."

The leader let out a snort before turning flicking tail back into the nest, beckoning the spotted she-cat inside .... reluctantly. Oh, how close she was to being rid of that damned furball. So close... yet so far.

 

[Maiseyleg]

ababababababa The seasons change, we are not the same

indent Maiseyleg lets out a dissatisfied huff as she pushes past Hawkeye - Hawkstar, now, apparently - and into the twoleg den. On any other day, she would have turned the other cheek, bending over backwards to not let Hawkstar see her frustration. On any other day, she'd hardly feel frustrated at all, having left their petty disagreements in their apprentice-hood. But today, Maiseyleg is exhausted, and freezing, and hardly has the patience for Hawkstar's harsh tone.
One minute, you scold me for leaving the clan behind, the next you scold me for coming to it's aid? Is nothing I do ever good enough for you?

indentStill, a poor attitude is no reason to forget her manners. She makes sure to greet Swallowpaw as she comes in.
"It's good to see you, Swallowpaw. I'm glad you're in good health." Maiseyleg nods towards the apprentice, friendly but not overly familiar."Hawkstar is right, you know. A few wounds won't get her down - she's far too stubborn for that." She smiles gently through the backhanded insult. "I'm also doing just fine, but I can admit finding a nice place to lie down sounds nice. My paws are nearly frozen off, standing in the bitter cold like this! "

indentShe had thought spending the night in a twoleg home might ease her aching heart, but as she steps into the warmth behind the door, she finds the longing only digs it's claws deeper. I wonder how my twolegs are faring. Hopefully they aren't mourning me already. But then again, maybe having them hold onto hope would be worse. Maiseyleg can't bear to think of them still leaving food out on the porch for her, just as they always did when she stayed away overnight, for months on end, waiting for a cat that would never come home. I wish I could speak to them, let them know why I left them, and that I'll be okay. So she could reassure them her leaving was not due to a lack of love for them, but out of a duty she could never explain

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Maiseyleg | 43 moons | Warrior of Skyclan ababababbnihfibnfdifdhfhababa