[Deleted]

It had been many moons since Stoneclan had been driven from their home and every night Silentcloud would wonder just when they would get to return home. Sitting silently as he name suggested staring at the stars wondering what their ancestors were doing about a whole clan being driven out of their home. The fear that starclan didn’t even care about Stoneclans’ displacement was always at the back of her mind, she tried to drive it away with the work in her day to day life. Even though they had been forced into the mountains Clan life continued on close to what it had before, each day they grew stronger and she knew it wouldn’t be long before they took back what was theirs. Besides working to keep herself busy she found herself losing time with a certain tom, he was a best friend of sorts but she was honestly having a hard time pinning a word on hers’ and Eagletalon’s relationship. So as it was nighttime and ritualistically she sat staring at the stars her thoughts turned to the tom she had befriended so many moons ago, the one who had helped her survive the bitter defeat that drove them here.

[Fawn]

[smear:dbb623]EAGLETALON![/smear:cc380a]

44 Moons // Tom // Senior Warrior // StoneClan

Eagletalon returned to MountainClan's camp with a brace of rabbits, once again wading through the now familiar pelts of cats both StoneClan and foreign, pausing to allow a small party of kittens to race by in pursuit of a capricious butterfly. Setting the fresh kill down onto the pile, Eagletalon twisted around to smooth down the fur sticking up along the center of his back, having gotten some kind of pine-sap stuck into it when he was out hunting, the unruly substance ignoring the short length of the coat and holding on well.

In the midst of this impromptu grooming session, blazing golden eyes lifted from his dark sandy ticked coat to scan the clearing, a distinctly spotted coat what he chose to settle on. Even though it was time for most cats to be catching up on their shuteye, the Clan seemed unusually restless – the older warriors being no exception. After obliterating the pine sap and stretching, sturdy sinews pulled tight, his back popping, vigor restored, he approached his silent friend sitting there staring at the stars.
”What's on your mind?” he mewed, tone warm and with it's usual spirited edge.

It had been a while since he and Silentcloud had exchanged more than pleasantries, and due to the significant time lapse, Eagletalon wasn't entirely sure of his feelings these days; on one paw, he would never forget the warm greenleaf days they'd spent earlier hunting and chatting like close friends, and on the other paw.... he could clearly picture the broken-spirited Silentcloud in Ivypaw's den, the entirety of StoneClan in a state of desperation and defeat. Obviously the loss of their territory to StormClan wasn't Silentcloud's fault, but his most recent memories of her were sad and stressful to recall, though recollections of happier times managed to bleed through.

Perhaps it was time to make some newer memories?

Instinctively he glanced around to call over Hawkstar – maybe they'd go explore the mountainside like they were a couple of rowdy apprentices again – but then time caught up with him, painting pictures of Hawkstar's busy busy life as Clan leader and soon-to-be father of Frozenrain's upcoming litter, as well as mentor and peacekeeper between StoneClan and MountainClan.

He would catch up with Hawkstar later.

For now, Silentcloud looked as though she could use the company instead.

[Deleted]

Silentcloud could have added another adjective to her name as she lay stretched out staring at the stars, stone. She was like the rock she lounged away on, unmoving and nearly lifeless it would seem. For all Eagletalon knew she was part of the mountain anymore, she had always been part of the mountain and would go on to be part of it for all time. Unmoving and unspeaking as well as cold and distant, just part of the stone scenery they were learning to call home. She didn’t mean to ignore him; she just found such peace in staring at the stars each night. She eventually snapped out of her little trance and mewed a soft apology, “I’m sorry Eagletalon, I was just thinking…” She patted a spot next to her on the stone with her tail inviting the senior warrior over for a bit of rest and relaxation with her. With any luck the spirit of the stone that brought her peace and comfort as she laid upon it would infect her friend too. She realized a few moments later that he had actually asked her a question which she had unintentionally dodged, quickly trying to rectify the situation she answered with one simple word. “Home.”

[Fawn]

[smear:dbb623]EAGLETALON![/smear:cc380a]

44 Moons // Tom // Senior Warrior // StoneClan

Home huh?

Eagletalon let out a small sigh, taking up the empty seat beside her, tail lightly brushing against Silentcloud's. "Who isn't these days? Though as far as 'greenleaf getaways' go, this place isn't so bad." He had no choice but to look on the bright side of things - after losing so much seemingly one right after the other, the battle-scarred warrior had been forced to take on a new perspective or else be swallowed up by grief and misfortune.

Not to mention nowadays he was also relied upon as a source of strength, both by those of the younger generations looking up, and by those he considered his closest friends - Hawkstar, Hailstrike, and the she-cat whose company he was currently in, though they'd fallen a little by the wayside lately.

Intending to remedy that, as well as draw Silentcloud out of whatever potentially painful place she was putting herself in by thinking about their old territory, Eagletalon cast one wild golden eye onto his friend. "Aren't you taking your name a little too seriously? It's been a while since I've been able to hear the sound of your voice." The dark golden tom wore a small grin. "Tell me what else you're thinking about."

He'd never been the kind of cat who was capable of sitting and staring at the stars - he was much too action-oriented, too vocal to do such a thing when he was in a good mood. He couldn't help himself but try to strike up a conversation.

[Deleted]

Silentcloud felt a soft brushing beside her as Eagletalon lowered himself to be with her on her magical rock. She didn’t show any response at his attempted humor looking stone faced as ever, she wasn’t at all upset she thought it rather sweet he was trying to cheer her up. She almost wished she was capable of even giving him a soft purr of laughter for his effort, however in her current state it was almost like being caught in a trance and her thoughts consumed so many of her functions she was forced to just lie and stare. As he attempted to reach her again with words, she was pleased it wasn’t small talk he was attempting to engage her in. He wore a grin and there was still some comedic value in his words but unlike last time there was substance she could actually follow up with, she may have found it difficult to laugh but intelligent conversation would flow out of her in spades while she was in her trance like state. “I suppose I am sorry for not being more social, there is just nothing more calming to me then staring up at the stars at night. Without this release I would have been crushed by the burden of the Stoneclan cats many moons ago.” She sighed as she thought hard at how to answer what was on her mind, nothing was really… coming to mind (pun intended.). “I suppose I’m not quite thinking at all, just letting the beauty of the stars wash over me.”

[Fawn]

[smear:dbb623]EAGLETALON![/smear:cc380a]

44 Moons // Tom // Senior Warrior // StoneClan

Eagletalon looked at her with a new kind of respect, feeling an entirely unexpected pang of grief at Silentcloud's rather sage words. She sounded just like Fallingstar. He covered up that sudden spark of longing with a small chuckle, his grin waning into a smile. "You sounded just like my sister." Well that's one way to handle stress. For Eagletalon personally, he had difficulty engaging in the kind of trance-like state Silentcloud was apparently under; he'd mistaken her for being somewhat hot-headed or quick to start a fight, but that wasn't it at all.

She had her quiet moments too, and Eagletalon didn't feel uncomfortable when he was witness to them - though he was sociable enough that very few things in life unsettled him in a social situation - in fact, some of her serenity was beginning to rub off on the battle-scarred tom.
"Sorry, I know I'm interrupting your star-watching, but... do you think StarClan's looking back?" the tip of his tail flicked with an uncertainty he hadn't felt since kithood. "So much has happened lately, it's hard to fathom their silence - you'd think they'd send us a sign by now, something to let us know we haven't been forgotten."

Had they?

Eagletalon didn't have great huge piles of faith as far as StarClan was concerned – he had adapted to the basics, that StarClan gave leaders nine lives, and that the Silverpelt was where warriors went where they died, but he had never been scrupulously faithful. Still, even to one as “unpious” as he, their behavior struck like a lightning bolt, leaving nothing but confusion and unhappiness in it's wake.

[Deleted]

A smile touched her lips as Eagletalon commented her resemblance in his mind to his sister, she took this as a large compliment given with great Respect. “Your sister was a great leader…” She said a certain shimmer in her eyes as they made contact with the toms. She turned back to the stars and closed her eyes almost able to feel the light of the stars washing down over her like the waves of an incredibly vast ocean coming to shore; she listened to his next question unmoving. When he had finished she turned her head to look at him again and picked herself up slightly so she could scoot closer beside him, their fur of the sides were intertwined now as close as they were. “I think they are watching…” She said simply closing her eyes and snuggling into his shoulder with her head, “I also think they care deeply about what’s happened, however we are a strong clan of warriors and they expect us to take care of ourselves. They want us to take back what is ours and it’s not their job to help because in reality… we lost the battle. We weren’t the warriors we should have been on that day, but when we return the other clans will tremble at our might as we show them the most terrifying display of force they will ever see in their lives.”

[Fawn]

[smear:dbb623]EAGLETALON![/smear:cc380a]

44 Moons // Tom // Senior Warrior // StoneClan

Eagletalon felt the brush of her pelt against his, bodies so close now that his side would begin to grow warm, the she-cat's head laid upon one heavily scarred shoulder - Eagletalon now almost regretful he'd let himself get so damaged. The mottled flesh couldn't have felt very nice to lay against, but he didn't call any attention to it - instead listening to Silentcloud's words, ears pricked and heart throbbing quietly against his chest.

He personally found their silence to be peculiar, when everycat knew they could use a little guidance - he admired and envied Silentcloud for her faith, to view their reticence in a way that was positive - but Eagletalon had grown tired and impatient of their deceased ancestors, and somewhat disagreed with Silentcloud's opinion on the subject. "I think you're right about showing them our might, but I think you're wrong about us not being the warriors we should've been, that day." Eagletalon himself had fought near to the death, unleashing what felt like a hundred moons of training and battle experience upon the heads of their foes, desperately trying to force back the incoming tide, the raging storm that sought to wipe them out of existence.
"We were out numbered, even if we fought with all the strength of TigerClan. There wasn't a single StoneClan cat who did not give all that they had in that battle."

The battle-marred warrior glanced over his other shoulder - the one unoccupied by Silentcloud - to the collection of dens and nests just behind them. "If we can get MountainClan to lend us a little of their strength then... Maybe we can give 'StormClan' a taste of their own herbs." He looked to his spotted companion for her thoughts, finding he valued her opinion just as much as those other select few cats he had in his close circle of friends.

[Deleted]

Silentcloud lay against the scarred warrior, listening to his every word as he explained his views of what had happened. She could hear his words rumbling from deep inside him, the sound of his breathing and heart beating mixing with them to make a truly lively and majestic sound. She focused on that and allowed herself to relax, her tension eased out of her muscles as she put more and more of her weight into the tom until he was all that held her from collapsing on her side. There was another silence after he had finished talking that she created on purpose, she had an answer already prepared but the beauty of the sounds the toms life made needed to be uninterrupted for just a moment. “I may be speaking for myself when it comes to that Eagletalon… It was my home. It was home to us all, and I should have given my last breath to defend it. Many fought to near death then fled, but could you imagine what we could have done to their invasion if we fought beyond that. They would have been decimated.”

[Fawn]

[smear:dbb623]EAGLETALON![/smear:cc380a]

44 Moons // Tom // Senior Warrior // StoneClan

Eagletalon uttered a small sigh, looking up at the swath of stars scattered like so many dew drops, not upset, more along the lines of that same trance-like state Silentcloud had just been in. This rock and this night had that kind of effect, didn't it? Even on a somewhat 'spiritually disconnected' tom like Eagletalon.

He was able to take her weight with ease, so many moons of muscle tone and strength had him supporting Silentcloud with little more bother than a casual flick of the ear, his posture straightening slightly to become more comfortable a pillar to lean against. "And if every cat in the Clan fought to their dying breath, then who would be there after we drove away StormClan? Our ghosts?" Eagletalon had trusted Wolfclaw's judgment in calling for a retreat, especially after Hawkstar had lost a life to the RainClan deputy - their home had been worth dying over, of that he had no doubt, but not if, by dying over it, there was nothing left of the Clan to call themselves a Clan anymore.

Imagination stirred, Eagletalon could picture a few stragglers amongst the battlefield, if everyone had done, as Silentcloud said, fought beyond their last breath; some would undoubtedly be LightningClan and RainClan survivors, but it would be StoneClan whose numbers were dwindled the most. It would've been an even worse massacre than what had already occurred.

It had not been the case where they had disappointed StarClan; if anything, it felt like the other way around.

[Deleted]

Eagletalon had a point that Silentcloud couldn’t refute, she felt him shift slightly to be a more solid base for her leaning. She became lost in the movement and his touch and yet again another silence fell over them but just like anytime previously it wasn’t awkward at all, it was in fact a greatly relaxing moment just as all the previous ones had been. So laying there she suddenly became inspired in a near philosophical way, to her the outcome wasn’t just about who survived but the message their actions sent. “What would remain would be a ragged patch of earth where our collective battle cry would be heard by all who set their paws on the battleground for generations to come.” She said softly into his shoulder, “It would speak to those in whispers of our brave warriors who gave their lives and decimated a great and wicked force…”

[Fawn]

[smear:dbb623]EAGLETALON![/smear:cc380a]

44 Moons // Tom // Senior Warrior // StoneClan

"Ahhhh." Said Eagletalon, finally understanding just what she was getting at. "You speak of leaving behind a legend, tales for those who witnessed StoneClan's finest moment to share with their offspring and their children's children. To live on through stories and whispers in the dark." Not a terrible way to end, but StoneClan still has some fight in us yet.

His amber eyes studied the starlight for a moment longer, before he turned his face towards her ears, lowering his voice just like she'd lowered hers - finding that if he spoke in greater volume, he would break whatever spell this place was currently weaving. "I prefer living legacies to legends, Silentcloud. If I can do one thing in this life and one thing only, it's to make sure that StoneClan survives."

Even if I die fighting to reclaim our territory, that will be enough.

He didn't mind dying so that others could live. He had lived a full life, as full as a tom such as himself could live anyway - he had grown old enough to see his closest friend, his brother in all but blood become leader of the Clan he was unabashedly devoted to, to see Hawkstar find the love of his life and start a family. He had outlived the sister who should've outlived him by many many moons, and he had seen little Cricketpaw become Cricketleap as proud of her as he imagined he would be if he had a little sister just like her.

What was left for him then, other than to ensure that his Clan survived the chaos they'd been hurtled into?

It had crossed his mind once or twice to start a family, and while he wasn't overly sentimental about it - if siring a litter with a she-cat he could get along with would help out the Clan, then so be it - Eagletalon had always figured that, if he was meant to fall in love, then he would've done so by now.

Perhaps that window had opened and closed without him even realizing it?

Eagletalon almost let out a soft snort. It'd be just like him to overlook something as monumental as that.

[Deleted]

Silentcloud lay still as if asleep for quite a long time; she remained just as she had for their whole conversation. However after a while it wasn’t an as if situation she actually had fallen asleep, her breathing which was soft before slowed as her body relaxed as she drifted off deeper and deeper into her rest. She would remain that way for a silence long than any of the others previously before speaking out of nowhere, “Why can’t our legacies be a legend?” She had woken up and remembered she had a question to answer, finding the proper one in her dreams. So laying there she left that idea for her companion to ponder, why couldn’t Stoneclan have both? As she picked her head up to look at the stars she thought about it herself, why didn’t Stoneclan have both? Why was Stoneclan at the verge of having neither at the moment?

[Fawn]

[smear:dbb623]EAGLETALON![/smear:cc380a]

44 Moons // Tom // Senior Warrior // StoneClan

"They will be," Eagletalon relaxed his jaw, having spent that last few reticent moments enjoying the quietude between them and the stillness; after not talking for such a lengthy stretch of time, to him his voice sounded foreign and unwelcome, as if it interrupted the tranquility. "When we go back."

There was never any doubt that StoneClan belonged in the forest, regardless if the four other Clans rose up to try and force them to stay away - they would find a way to return, even if it took every last able bodied Clanmember to do so. Desiring to speak with Hawkstar about their potential return, he glanced to Silentcloud; it felt as if they stayed here any longer, she'd end up asleep, for it was late and the nightscape was particularly serene.

"Ready to turn in?" he murmured at last, chuckling a little in case he would have to wait through another very long silence for a response. If he wasn't careful, Silentcloud would fall asleep against him and he'd be forced to stand sentry the entire night - and he would, if carrying her to her den would disrupt her peacefulness. It wasn't as if he hadn't slept sitting upright before.

[Deleted]

Silentcloud was able to hear his encouraging words; she felt the same as the tom and knew deep down that they would return stronger then ever to their forest home. However she wasn’t able to respond to his question about heading back to their nests for his assumptions had been proven correct, Silentcloud was asleep for a second time on the rock next to him. Each moment that passed her body became a bit heavier as all her muscles relaxed preparing for a full nights rest, her breathing slowed and deepened as well signally how far gone she was from one moment to the next. It was good that Eagletalon had prepared himself mentally for a long night out in the open because it looked like that was exactly what he was going to get if he didn’t wish to disturb Silentcloud. In all honesty however he didn’t have to do anything of the sort, the she-cat was known for spending many nights sleeping in this exact spot without others company; another night alone wouldn’t matter one bit.