- ✦ | ━━━ 𝐒𝐘𝐊𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑
age. 41 𝘮𝘰𝘰𝘯𝘴. rank. 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘳 gender. 𝘮𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘺 apprentice. 𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘯 setting. 𝘴𝘮𝘰𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴
tags. 𝘣𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘥, 𝘴𝘱𝘰𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘥𝘧𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳, 𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬, 𝘱𝘪𝘬𝘦𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘵, 𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘱𝘢𝘸, 𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘺𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮, 𝘨𝘰𝘳𝘨𝘦𝘧𝘢𝘯𝘨, 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘴𝘵𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘬𝘦, 𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘱𝘢𝘸, 𝘴𝘸𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘴𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵, 𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘴𝘦𝘳
( post one ✧ )
✦
xxxxxx the rich scent of the earth was fainter, only lessened by the distant hum of the far away falls, carrying the faint yet familiar comfort of the landscape she had known all her life. to the dark molly's ears, which pricked slightly as she felt briarseed settling back beside her. the young medicine cat had tended to their clanmates, the ones who sat around the area with apprehension prickling at their pawpads. as valiant as they appeared, sykestar knew better than any of the moons they had lived, that fear ran tendrils of ice through their veins. she watched them as moonlight sparkled over their pelts.
for a moment, sykestar pressed back against the pale colored molly, her eyes fluttering shut. she listened forward to the sound of the echoing vastness of the smoothing stones. cool to the touch, the surface they laid on, softened how hot their fur felt after such an eventful day. thankfully, the smoothing stones were always within paw reach, a reliable feature of their home that still stood. surrounded by cats who couldn't help but reek of fear and confusion, sykestar reached inward, to follow the tingling silence and rustle of night of, and slow her heart. all the pair of eyes that watched her closely, seeking out her pelt in the dark, sought answers to questions she didn't know.
stealing a moment to herself, in private, sykestar couldn't help how easily the memory surfaced: briarseed had stood at the highrock, with their medicine cat at her vanguard. the entire clan stood below them, even sykeshadow, who was deputy at the time, watched on with wide eyes of emerald. swirling beneath the rich color of her iris', she couldn't help how a frigid shock ran through her, betraying the image of her station as a reliable, and sure-footed deputy. briarpaw had stared back down, with eyes wide with fear, afraid to show excitement for this new position as a medicine cat apprentice.
later on, that evening, sykeshadow reluctantly visited the paw in the den, her gaze straying frequently from the herbalist' dwellings, as if the sight of the den burned through her pelt.
"s-sykeshadow?" briarpaw had asked, appearing at the mouth of the space. briarpaw had shared the same fear that sykeshadow had never presented to others, she wore that confusion and loss, like fresh blood on fur. a wound stained briarpaw's small gaze heavily when sykeshadow finally allowed their sights to align. "what happens now?" the question echoed, softly. the familiar words seemed to stretch over time, over moons, through all the seasons, kind and cruel, returning to sykestar now, on the drafted breeze of the falls mist.
"what happens now?" she heard echoed, her eyes flickering open. when sykestar turned to gaze at the cat beside her, she quickly absorbed the words being shared with her, in confidence, and in faith of her leadership. sykestar quietly swallowed a thickness she felt in her throat. briarseed was encouraging the broken clan to remember their fallen clanmate with suns of hope in her eyes.
"yes, yes that is what she deserved." sykestar responded faintly, her forest laden gaze slowly trailing over the cats around her, their faces all echoing the uncertainty that seemed to rise like a blazing sun, at what was to happen next to their beloved clan. sykestar rose to her paws, her ears flattening for a second at the smooth texture beneath her paw pads. her attention flicking to mistback as she dipped her head to the molly fighting her hardships to survive another moon.
"mistback, you demonstrated great loyalty and honor for milktuft. i know things appear uncertain right now, and it seems as if we can't rely on the earth beneath our paws, but we are here together." sykestar felt the words flow from her tongue, but she could barely trace what thoughts she was conjuring. the leader felt the position that guarded the survival of her clan, force her to her paws, force words from her maw, to quell the tension that rippled under the pelts of the sitting fallsclans warriors who gathered with hope and horror. had sykestar believed half of what she said? she wasn't sure. the molly didn't act with the fire she was known for, she felt hollow. "i commend your bravery mistback....," her gaze swept away from mistback's white pelt and to the stones that stretched out from under her paws, "we miss our friend in milktuft." sykestar's paws felt heavy with the grief she was hiding. she sat like stone as she spoke to the warrior. only a twitch of her tail and a sudden numbness in her front paws, betrayed the impression that she was made of elements.
rolling her paws along the floor for a brief moment, sykestar regained composure and let her gaze rest over the clan. "mistback?" she asked with a gentleness that had not been witnessed for many moons, save for the birth of her siblings, which at times, could have been considered something only of a dream, as sykestar had worn an expression of weathered hardship since the bestowing of her lives by her ancestors.
let milktuft be another guiding light in the dark night sky. sykestar watched on silently, blending into the furious stream of cats that was what remained of the fractured fallsclan.
