[Empress Of Evil]

Originally Posted by Duskflight

@Empress Of Evil

To think so many moons ago this den had a different feel to it, a lighter feel, like any cat could come in here and feel as if they were at home. Now it felt dark, cold and damp. It was as if it reflected the very leaders progression from what he was when he began, to what he is now. Once such a bright, cheerful and energetic tom, and now one who can't even bring himself to trust the cats around him, not even himself to make the right choices. It weighed heavily on him, on his heart and on his mind. He had given Auroraflame her position back, after part of the clan, including her, rallied against him at the battle. At the time, he accepted he was wrong, or at least he said he accepted it to the clan but still he was conflicted.
Grousestar didn't want to trust her, he didn't want to trust anyone anymore. He felt he couldn't even trust himself. So now he sat in his den, head in his paws and eyes closed.
More lives lost and for what? Skyclan gained nothing from that. Absolutely nothing, useless battles, dragged into it because of an alliance. An alliance that only benefited them. Well that's done. I can't trust them, any of them. They're power hungry, land hungry. Overgrown apprentices who quarrel over stupid reasons. Maybe they enjoy wasting lives. It was a mistake to bring Skyclan here, we should have stayed in the mountains and let them sort themselves out. We were thriving, we wanted for nothing. It was a paradise.
The brown tabby slowly sunk his claws into the moss bedding below him, his jaw tightening in anger.
I was so naive to think I could just save them and things would be fine afterwards. That they would turn out to be good, civil cats that lived in harmony, that they were worth saving. I've realized this too late now look where we lay.

"Shut up!" Grousestar hissed to himself, lifting his head from his paws and opening his eyes to stare into the dark of his den. These thoughts were so intrusive, the only way to get them to stop was to speak out loud. Growling, the Skyclan leader would sit up in his nest and sigh. What was he doing, what was his life becoming, who was he becoming?

The ebony feline hesitated at the entrance of the leader's den. She hadn't been invited into his den, but Auroraflame wanted to enter anyway. She had noticed how Grousestar had changed in the past couple of moons. Being on camp arrest meant that she had had a lot of time to think and observe her surroundings. One of the many things she had noticed was the change in SkyClan's leader. The brown tabby had once been so cheerful and happy, but now he was distant and lacked that same happy energy. Auroraflame wanted to check on him. Even if she had betrayed him before, she was back and wanted to prove that he could absolutely trust her. She wanted to help him get through whatever it was that was making him struggle.

"Grousestar?" She called when she finally gained enough courage to push her way into the den. "Are you alright?" She managed to push her way just in time to hear the leader hiss to himself. Maybe he hadn't seen her yet. After all, her inky black pelt really helped her to blend in with the darkness of the den. Her icy blue eyes were trained on the leader as he sat up and sighed. "It's me. Auroraflame," she started, a little hesitant to talk. It didn't seem like he was doing alright. Auroraflame could relate. She had just spent the last few moons moping about, feeling like she was worth nothing and just not good enough for anyone. But she had gotten over it eventually, and so would he. Hopefully she would be able to help him through it quicker. SkyClan needed their leader to be strong, else they could very easily fall apart.

She wondered what it was that was bothering him. Maybe it was the stress of the last battle. But that had already passed. Why bother worrying about a battle that had already been fought? Was it her? Was this her fault as well? Had her betrayal stressed him out so much that now he didn't want to trust anyone? Well, she wouldn't know the answer unless she asked.

"What's wrong? I've noticed you've been a little different these past moons," she said in a gentle tone, as she settled down a reasonable distance from the nest. "I know that you may not trust me fully after what I did, but I'm willing to listen if you want to say anything. You don't have to carry your burdens alone," she said. Keeping things all to themselves would never do any good. Sometimes it was alright, but eventually it would tear them apart. Some weights were too heavy to be carried alone, and the pressure had to be shared.