[Deleted]

i walk the fields through the fire
taking steps until i found solid ground
followed dreams reaching higher
couldn't survive the fall

---

Four black paws beat the ground in an uneven rhythm, a testament to the dedication of the cat they belonged to. After moons hiding out in the mountains, StoneClan, aided by TreeClan and the loners of MountainClan, had taken back what was rightfully theirs. It had come with a cost, though; the StoneClan deputy had suffered a gash that sliced into his right hindleg, rendering the limb partially useless for the time being. It was certain it would heal properly, but until then, he should be resting.

Unfortunately, Wolfclaw was a selfless cat, and quite stubborn. Rather than follow Ivypaw's advice to rest, he refused to sit still, his Clan before self attitude dominating his actions. As it was, he was making his way toward the moss meadow, on a mission to collect moss to fill the elder's den. They had arrived home in leaf-bare, and the dens were icy cold. Most of the apprentices and younger warriors were out minding their own, from hunting and border patrols to training and maintaining the camp.

Not far from the camp, though, he was stopped short by a strange sight. Growing from the normally barren dirt was a patch of poppies. Wolfclaw padded closer, noticing that the ground there was slightly raised, as though...

As though cats were buried there.

Something clicked in Wolfclaw's mind. There had been no trace of their fallen anywhere in or near the camp. But here.. who would have.. He didn't have all the answers, but one thing was certain in his mind. Someone had come to the battlefield, collected their dead, and buried them. As if that wasn't enough, though, that same cat had planted poppyseeds, to mark the gravesite.

Wolfclaw's silver-rimmed head dropped as he realised the gravity of this place. His mother, his father, and all the others who had lost their lives in a senseless war. The thought filled him with both sorrow and anger. They didn't have to die, but the time for retribution had already come. StoneClan was back, but at what cost? Wolfclaw didn't want to think of it anymore.

He shook his head, as though it would help clear his mind, and stood. As a sharp wind cut through his fur, he lifted his head, inhaling deep. For a moment, he held it there, collecting all his grief and anger and guilt and regret into that single breath of air. When he exhaled through his mouth, he let all of those emotions leave with it. There, in that single breath, he let go. He let go, and when he took in his next, his heart felt lighter and his head felt clearer.

Feeling like a weight had been lifted from him, the silverbacked deputy carried on, limping from the poppy field and toward the moss meadow.

---

W O L F C L A W

[Insidious]

Crowdance

When was the last time that she had taken some time to herself? It had certainly been a while, given the recent circumstance of StoneClan. They had needed the support of each and every one of their devoted cats, and sadly enough, those odds were not in her favour. She had been required to participate, to involve herself, and to against every fibre in her body talk to those that shared her home. But now, thankfully, StoneClan had returned to the valley, fought for what was theirs and won. It had not been an easy battle, but regardless she was grateful that it had concluded and that they could now settle down and return to their ordinary ways. Almost immediately, the senior warrior had set off on her own. It was the first time in a while that she was able to get some privacy, and she had every intention of using it up until somebody was bound to worry about her whereabouts. The StoneClan terrain almost felt awkward beneath her paws, having accustomed to the feel of the mountain’s tough and rugged surface. It was a happy kind of awkward, comfortable and familiar, and anyone that knew a thing about Crowdance knew that she could only ever be content in what of her surroundings was familiar.

Until she noticed a speck in the distance, one that, as she neared, grew increasingly apparent as a feline as opposed to the rock she had formerly presumed. Her heart skipped a beat, the hair on the back of her neck straight as pins as she prepared herself for another confrontation. How had she been so careless! StoneClan had only just returned, so how could she have gone off exploring and not expected some kind of lingering RainClan and/or LightningClan presence to intervene? She had been about to hiss, that was if the noise would have even come out, before her nose wrinkled and the scent of StoneClan invaded her body. She relaxed slightly upon realizing that there was no true threat here, narrowing her eyes and attempting to figure out precisely who else had decided to escape from camp for a short while. Eventually, she was able to pick out the unique details of his fur and recognize him as Wolfclaw, the dedicated deputy of StoneClan. From what her intelligence inferred, he was supposed to be in camp and resting his injured limb as advised by Ivypaw. It took nothing surpassed a fleeting moment of observation to confirm her suspicions and take notice of his apparent limp, though she couldn’t stop herself from instinctively clenching her tongue and bringing a stop to the pending conversation before it had even started.

She decided it would be best to simply continue her stroll, acting as though she had never taken any notice of the tom. This way, she wouldn’t have to go out on a blind whim and start a conversation, already painfully knowledgeable about the lack of topics she would be able to offer to him. In her head, she briefly filed through a few simple ideas, preparing herself for the moment that he would take notice of her, for she was ever one to take into complete and total consideration the most horrendous possibilities. Needless to say that Wolfclaw, himself, was a horrendous possibility. She would claim herself to enjoy his company, could she have it within herself to even begin preaching of the friendships she’d never be able to have. He was a genuine tom, caring of his clan, faithful and friendly. There was plenty about him that any cat, any she-cat really, would be able to enjoy, even Crowdance. But, of course, that was ridiculous. He was a deputy, and she was some shy, awkward and tongue-tied senior warrior that blinked disgusted eyes up at the sun. They were so different, and it was becoming increasingly evident that her time for love was passing as she continued to age.

Not that she was thinking about it anyway.

[Deleted]

i walk the fields through the fire
taking steps until i found solid ground
followed dreams reaching higher
couldn't survive the fall

---

He padded along in silence a while. It was nice, really, to be out in open air, after releasing all the negativity that had clouded his mind. He felt lighter, calmer, freer. It was definitely a feeling he could get used to, and he hoped it would last.

Soft pawsteps pulled his ears back, and Wolfclaw turned, coming to a halt. Behind him, the tortoiseshell figure padded almost silently, seeming to ignore his presence. Wolfclaw watched her for a moment, her tall, lean form moving gracefully, every dainty paw placed with great care. He watched her perhaps a tad longer than he should have, before catching himself.

"Crowdance." He offered her a warm smile, his green-gold eyes bright. "I was just heading toward the moss meadow. The elders' den is still a bit chilly. Care to join me?" After a pause, he turned and began walking again. The rest of the short journey was spent in silence on his part, as he knew of the she-cat's preference for it. It wasn't long before the dirt and scattered gravel gave way to soft, springy moss. His smile had never faded, and he turned that smile onto his companion. "So, I know you don't like talking all that.much; anyone can see that, really.." He began carefully clawing up strips of moss, placing them aside in the beginning of what would be a pile. "But sometimes, talking is just what one needs to heal." He thought of the conversation he and Pantherstep had had days after StoneClan was driven out, that had been the catalyst to healing their relationship. It hadn't been easy, but it was paying off, and for that he thanked his sister, for having the guts to reach out to him.

His smile had faded a bit, turning into something small and thoughtful. "How have you been, Crowdance? The past few moons have been hectic for all of us; I just want to make sure you're okay." Many of the other cats were involved enough that Wolfclaw could gauge their feelings, but it was difficult with Crowdance, and a few others, as she was closed off and always at a distance. And since they were here together...

Her solidarity worried him. He was scared something would happen, and she wouldn't seek out help, and it would spell disaster for her. Or that she would drift so far off mentally and emotionally and wouldn't be able to make her way back. It hadn't been the first time he had noticed her. Wolfclaw seemed to have a subconscious tendency to seek out the outliers, reeling them to him in order to guide them and help them heal. Crowdance was no exception.

He had accumulated a small pile of moss by now, and when he looked up, he caught sight of her pretty onange and black face, her green-blue eyes blinking quietly. His heart stumbled a bit, giving a double beat when there should only have been one. He blinked his green-gold eyes quickly, casting his gaze slightly away, so her eyes couldn't capture him. A light flush crept under his pelt, and he strained to push away the attraction. Of course, she was pretty, but that didn't mean a slight attraction would lead to anything. But he did wonder - why, of all times, would these feelings be popping up now? Was it because he had finally let go of the negative emotions plaguing him, and now had room for more positive ones?

He pulled in a breath and held it for a few heartbeats, tilting his gaze downward as he pulled another strip of moss. When he released, his ears leaned forward to catch the answers to his queries, if she chose to speak at all. He hoped she would. He had a sudden urge to know her, to know everything abut her. It was sudden, surprising, definitely unexpected, but not an unwelcomed urge. He really hoped she would speak. After all, it's difficult to get to know someone withought their help.

---

W O L F C L A W

[Insidious]

Crowdance

Although she had half-expected the tom’s welcoming voice to eventually grasp her from the desire to remain unseen, that did not lessen the shock that inscribed itself within her pretty eyes as a careful gaze moved slowly from her paws to his own features, newly decorated with a pleasant smile. Her throat suddenly felt dry, and in an attempt to mask her discomfort, she offered a nod in the place of words. She opened her muzzle a tad, hoping that she would be able to say something in the place of silence to appease the deputy. However, her ears pricked in slight alarm, acknowledging his statement about her lack of initiative for conversation, and allowing her muzzle to once again close with a thankful lace alight in her eyes. She traveled a few paces behind Wolfclaw for the majority of the trip, occasionally glancing up at him to see whether he had stopped, switched paths, or had simply done anything at all that she would feel obligated to see and react to. As he began to pull up a few chunks of the moss that littered the ground all around them, she too delicately clawed at what of it surrounded her, nimble paws shredding and tearing the moss as was necessity with gentle, carefree ease.

Yes, she was fine. Woundless from battle, so it seemed, and settling back into their ordinary routines in StoneClan territory as though they had never really left in the first place. She, as an outsider, as the one cat out of so many others that likely required the genuine kindness and empathy, was one of the few that could claim herself to be okay. She dragged her blue-green eyes toward him, meeting the tom’s stare for a heart-beat before, to her surprise, they both looked away. She didn’t know the reasoning for his sudden awkwardness, though she wouldn’t be the one to inquire or investigate with some secret courage under her sleeves. “Isn’t it you we should be worrying about?” Her voice was quiet and soft, spoken out of such unused lips that despite the emphasis, there was no possible way for it to sound cold. “With your leg, I mean. Are you okay?” His words were returned to him from her own mouth, perhaps only driven to speak so that the deputy would not bring himself to think less of her company as opposed to someone more talkative, though it would not be denied, either, that she truly cared for his well-being when it came down to it.

One such as herself was simply not meant to accept the spotlight, even when it was eagerly placed upon her. She appreciated plenty about Wolfclaw: how caring he was, and how willingly he put aside his more clear issues from the recent catastrophe of StoneClan. But she could not bring herself to accept it, even from him. She had grown to understand her brand of normality, and in a way it had become her comfort zone. Someone else looking out for her had never been a particular normality, not even Larchdance had done such a thing when she had been around. That, however, had always been okay, so he did not need to change any of it.