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Post by Hellion on Jun 11, 2014 1:12:52 GMT -5
Gracklefire
The thing about growing old is that sickness is harder to fight and fevers difficult to break. Gracklefire was no different, her head throbbed and her entire body shook with the sickness. It was clear that it wasn't green cough any more but there was something troubling the she-cat and there was one easy explanation. The death of Roughthroat had stopped her recovery, it might have not been a out right decision by the she-cat but it was what her heart wanted. The young tom that in his rough love kind of way had brought her out of the sadness of her earlier mistakes and into the glory that was her present but now quickly fading into her past. Roughthroat would never again wake her with a gentle nuzzle or join her with a hunt, he had been buried with the honours of a deputy and she left alone in the medicine cat den to try and finishing fighting off her illness but his loss had only weakened her. It was clear she was closer to death and if the fever didn't break soon she'd most likely fade away into nothingness.
During the rare times she was able to focus and wake from her near constant sleep she requested with a dry throat from her kits to be brought to her. They all visited her Starlingcry couldn't stay long the smell of sickness had her uneasy and quickly left her mother with a gentle nuzzle, Cedarbranch was next to come and the black she-cat struggled to focus but the heat of the fever had her fading in and out. Looking toward the cat that filled the entrance way into the den and a sad kind of happiness filled her face. "Oh Roughthroat I knew you weren't really gone from me. I knew it! You were too strong too stubborn to die like that." She croaked out her voice raw from dehydration and her speech slightly slurred with the wariness of the fever and over all sickness. "Please sit with me I'm afraid to die or am I already dead? Are you here to take me to StarClan? I would following you to the Dark Forest and back if you'd ask me too. Please don't be dead." She pleaded to the figure ahead of her, not knowing that it was in fact her daughter Cedarbranch but in her sick and tired mind it was Roughthroat.
Attempting to sit up she almost fell back over as her amber eyes blinked rapidly to try and focus better. "Roughthorat! Don't just stand there!" She growled at 'him' upset that he hadn't come closer, she wanted him near her, she needed to lean on him now to get better, it was torture not having him close.
Where nothing breaks and nothing hurts.
There's a waltz playin' frozen in time
Blades of grass on tiny bare feet
I look at you and you're lookin' at me.
@ghostlight |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 11, 2014 1:38:13 GMT -5
Cedarbranch The Image of You
Night and the spirit of life callingAnd the voice with the fear of a child answers Wait! There's no mountain too great Hear these words and have faith
It had been a hard Leaf-Bare, cats got sick, cats fell, cats... died. It's hard enough to see a clan-mate or a friend pass away to such sickness that had gripped Nightclan like the talons of an eagle around it's furry prey... But to watch your father pass away, the rock of the family, your role model... How is a cat suppose to come back from that? How is a cat suppose to continue being strong when the strongest person they knew passed away from something that seemed so small at the time...
Cedarbranch passed her sister, Starlingcry, their fur touching slightly as they traded places. It was the young she-cat's mother who was still in the Medicine Cat's den. She wasn't getting any better, but instead worse. The long haired, blue-gray she-cat couldn't loose her mother too, not after loosing her daddy.
Her paws stopped at the entrance of the den, the smell of sickness flooded over her sense of smell, as she wrinkled her nose, unable to keep the odor from entering her nasal passageways. Her ears pricked up when she heard the rough croak of her mother's voice.
Roughthroat.
Cedarbranch's blue eyes widened with pity and endless mourning, her ears flattened against her head as her mother's words ripped into her heart, tearing what was left of her strong form apart. Taking a shaky step forwards, she opened her mouth, "Mother..." She whimpered out, unable to keep her voice steady. All she wanted was to curl up at her mother's side and to have Gracklefire tell her it would be okay, that it was just a bad dream.
Why couldn't it all just be a bad dream. She didn't want her mother to look at her and see Roughthroat, she wanted her mother to see her, a fresh warrior... She wanted her father to see her... She wanted her family to be whole again, why did Starclan have to tear them apart, why?!?
"Mother..." She tried again, stepping forwards before collapsing and pressing her face into the chest of Gracklefire, she didn't care about the strong smell of sickness anymore, didn't care if she got sick. She just wanted Gracklefire back, she couldn't loose her too. "Gracklefire, please..." She said softly, "Please don't leave me..."
"I need you mother..."
He lives in you, he lives in me He watches over everything we see Into the water, into the truth In your reflection, he lives in you
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Post by Hellion on Jun 11, 2014 2:16:22 GMT -5
Gracklefire
No! No! No! She screamed in her head, the cat in front of her couldn't be Cedarbranch. It had to be Roughthroat, those eyes were so much like his and that pelt it was stormy like him. It couldn't be her daughter. Cedarbranch was still small a little kit that chased and played with her siblings. She wasn't the strong and beautiful she-cat not yet, she should always bee the little kit Gracklefire nursed and groomed before she became Cedarpaw. The she-cat in front of her should be crushing on her first tom not coming to comfort her mother who had lost her mate and losing her life. Gracklefire didn't want this for any of her babies she wanted only happy lives for them but instead StarClan took that away.
It was hard to blink, her eyes were tired but she didn't stop. She blinked faster and faster until she was sure it wasn't Roughthroat and now looking over her kit's features she let out a sigh. It was Cedarbranch coming here to watch her mother waste away. No matter what Gracklefire would always be able to see her kits even in a pitch black cave. Cedarbranch looked so much like her father but Gracklefire had spent enough time in both their company to know the difference, even if it was painful to admit. Roughthroat carried scars on his pelt from battles, Cedarbranch was fresh pelt and new life, her mate's eyes reflected his life, Cedarbranche's eyes were sad but not tired. Not matter how much she begged it was time to face the fact, Roughthroat was not there and he wasn't ever going to come to her, not for along time.
Closing her eyes in defeat she placed her tired head in her paws but felt the sad warmth of her daughter nuzzling her way closer against her. For a moment Gracklefire was transported back to their early days in the nursery where she would sit all day and just watch them sleep. Sometimes when he wasn't busy Roughthroat would join her and they'd talk about their kit's futures as if they were able to plan out ever detail. She wanted to be at that time again before this sickness took him and destroyed her new life, she had been reborn from his love only to die with him.
Through the sickness she caught the sent of Cedarbranch as her daughter kept close and the still feverish she-cat felt something change within her, a realization had happened even in her grief. A part of Roughthroat is in ever single one of their kits, he lived on in them and his love lived on in her. She opened her eyes slowly and saw her daughter there curled up against her and felt the sharp sting of regret, she had allowed the grief to consume her and in turn almost consume her kits. Hearing her daughter plead for her to stay had a new kind of life stir within Gracklefire. It wasn't the same kind of living that she had prior to his ordeal but it was stoic kind of living. She needed to be strong now for them, she wouldn't give up, Roughthroat wouldn't give up if the roles were reserved. He would fight all of the dark forest to make sure his kits were okay, he'd mourn for Gracklefire but he wouldn't let his grief consume him and already Gracklefire had started to fail him.
Her sickness wasn't gone but instead of the will to die there was a growing will to live. She would keep going to honour Roughthroat, she would try and get better to help her kits overcome their own grief she couldn't go to StarClan knowing they were left to suffer while she was given freedom to rejoin him. "I'll stay here just a little while longer." She thought to herself and half mumbled the words as she started to wiggle, adjusting herself so she could sit up enough to nuzzle Cedarbranch's ear.
"I'll won't ever try to leave you. I'll fight off a hundred angry badgers just to keep you and your brothers and sisters safe. It will be hard, you'll have to be strong but I know you can. You all will be. " With each words she said allowed she felt herself grow a little stronger as if Roughthroat was there behind her, giving her strength from the other side. "I won't be better right away but I'll be better soon." She purred softly into the scruff of Cedarbranch's neck, it was a comforting gesture one a mother would give a young kit if they were ever scared. No matter how big they got she'd never let them feel too big or too strong to come and seek their mother's comfort. "I'm sorry I yelled at you and thought you were Rough- your fa- him." She stumbled over his name and what to call him, it was too soon to utter it. "Please don't be angry with me or yourself, fevers do silly things and I didn't want to face the truth." She paused, all this talking and started to ware her out as her sickness started to tug at her again but this time it was weaker, she knew all she needed was a long sleep to feel better and she was even more determined to feel better, not just for her kits but to life on for Roughthroat. "I love you Cedarbranch more than you'll ever know and not because you look like him but because you are my daughter. She felt that it was important for her to say before she started to drift asleep. Feeling her head and eyes grow heavy she nuzzled Cedarbranch again before putting her head back gently against the moss bedding, eyes closed. "Get out of this den, I don't want you getting sick. Go smell the fresh air and let me sleep just for a little while longer. I'll be better soon I promise." She mumbled that last part and stared to doze, already the fever starting to break.
Where nothing breaks and nothing hurts.
There's a waltz playin' frozen in time
Blades of grass on tiny bare feet
I look at you and you're lookin' at me.
@ghostlight |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 11, 2014 2:41:27 GMT -5
Cedarbranch The Image of You
Night and the spirit of life callingAnd the voice with the fear of a child answers Wait! There's no mountain too great Hear these words and have faith
Ears flickered, the soft and gentle touches of Gracklefire was slowly making everything better, there was something that the blue-gray she-cat could sense, it was her mother fighting again. She was done giving up. She was going to live for herself and for her kits again. A deep warmth ran through Cedarbranch's body, lifting her ears from her head and pressing against her mother's fur once more.
Through the sickness, she could smell the scent she was use to, the scent of her mother, heavily faded, but still there, a scent that Cedarbranch never wanted to forget, a scent that Cedarbranch wanted to have around for as long as she could. She wanted her mother to be there when she had her first crush, when she first falls in love and perhaps has her first heart break and then back in love. She wanted her mother to be there the day she took a mate, the day she had kits of her own.
Gracklefire's own words put the will of life back into the middle of her five kits. Cedarbranch was different than her brothers and sisters, she wasn't the oldest and knew how to take care of things, knew how to handle difficult situations. She wasn't the youngest, who knew to look up to the older siblings for help, or to turn to a strong senior warrior to try and figure out what to do with their lives. She was the middle, and baby and a leader in her own right, that made her stand out from her siblings.
She was special in her own way, in a way that only Gracklefire and Roughthroat understood, and she didn't know how to deal with the difficult situation she was in now, or to turn to an older cat, all she knew was that when she was scared or upset or hurt she had always gone to her mother or her father. There was a reason Gracklefire had called her Daddy's Little Girl, she would always turn to her parents when she needed them. And now had been one of those times.
And now that time was over, but Cedarbranch was filled with renewed hope, she knew her mother would continue to live for her and her siblings, she knew that she wasn't loosing her other rock, not today and not anytime soon. Roughthroat would always be there, Cedarbranch knew that, he would be there in spirit, in Starclan watching over her, and her siblings and their mother. He would live in her, after all Cedarbranch did look like a copy of her father, but also in a way, she was part of him and he was part of her, she would always be.
It was time for her to leave, as her mother had said. Lifting her head Cedarbranch let a purr out as she reached forwards to touch nose to nose with Gracklefire who lay, falling into unconsciousness. Picking herself up, the new warrioress ran her rough tongue over her mother's ear, as Gracklefire had once done with Cedarbranch had been sick as a kit. "I'll come back..." She said softly, her voice soft and rough as she turned before looking back over her shoulder, "I'll bring you a Grackle... you love them, and i'm sure you haven't had one in a while..."
Padding from the den, a swift kick of wind rushed by, blowing through Cedarbranch's long fur, whipping it backwards. The blue-gray she-cat closed her eyes and lifted her head towards the sky, letting the scent of Nightclan and the forest and the sky blow through her nose, and through her fur. After a moment, she opened her blue eyes, braving the strong wind to stare at the sky, "I miss you... Please watch over mother... and us..."
He lives in you, he lives in me He watches over everything we see Into the water, into the truth In your reflection, he lives in you
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