~ Sparrowflight ~

Eyes scrunched shut in a restless sleep, Sparrowflight was awoken rather suddenly by the unpleasantly familiar scent of iron. Green eyes snapped open as she began to heft herself to her paws, ready for whatever seemed to have happened, but a familiar voice froze her in her tracks. Slowly, almost imperceptibly, she turned her head towards the voice as a tumultuous flow of emotions bubbled up to the surface.

"Mistyshade?..." her voice was hoarse as she forced the name out of her jaws in a whisper, before turning around fully.

There she was. Her mother, back from wherever she had gone and apparently injured (although the linger scent of herbs gave her some consolation that Sundust must have already looked at it). Opening her mouth to speak once more, the molly abruptly shut it again before delicately stepping her way out of the den. She desperately needed to hear this 'explanation', but it wouldn't do to wake up the rest of her peers in the process.

Making her way to a secluded spot in the clearing, and hoping Mistyshade followed, Sparrowflight settled onto her haunches before forcing her face into a neutral expression. "Where in the stars did you go?... Did... Did you see Brightpaw or Tulippaw?"

The worry and stress she had been simply stuffing down for the past few moons was finally beginning to crack through. She hoped desperately that her sisters were ok. Stars, she'd barely gotten to know them and poor Tulippaw was blind. She couldn't be faring well if she was all by herself.

[ @luminous ]

~ Sparrowflight ~

Her ears drooped slightly as her mother stated that she hadn't even known they were missing as well. She could only hope and pray to Starclan that they were possibly together and taking care of each other. As her mother began to explain her absence, a whole mix of emotions flooded her.

How could she be so FOOLISH! It was an awful idea to attempt taking on a badger by herself; a task that was usually carried out by a whole patrol of cats. Her tail twitched once as her mind mulled this over, but the frustration was slowly being overcome by relief. Her mother was back, that was all that mattered. Hopefully her younger sisters would return as well (and perhaps a certain tom who had seemed to disappeared) then all would be... mostly well.

A hefty sigh escaped her jaws as Mistyshade asked for her forgiveness, and she pushed herself up onto her paws to approach her. "Of course I do Mistyshade," she murmured, bumping her head against her adoptive mother's shoulder with a tired smile. "Just don't do anything like that ever again, or I'll have to stick you in the elder's den so Ridgeclaw can make sure you don't go disappearing on me again."

I was a joke... Except it wasn't really. But for now her mother was back, and that was all that mattered to her.

[ @luminous ]

~ Sparrowflight ~

A huff of a laugh escaped her as her mother returned the bump, but her expression faded back to uncertainty when she asked about Newtheart. "I haven't seen him since just after Brightpaw and Tulippaw left... Perhaps he is taking care of them."

Yes. It would make sense if he had gone out in search of his daughters, even if it was an unannounced excursion.

"I'm sure he'll make his way back soon, just like you. And... I'd like to think he was a good father, don't you fret about that."

Her tone softened as she continued to speak. Her mother had clearly been put through the ringer recently, and deserved some rest. But her? No, she couldn't rest more than necessary right now. There was still work to be done, stragglers to bring home, and a certain group of occupiers that needed to be ousted from their territory.

"I'm fine mother," she chuffed, pulling a smile onto her face as she spoke. "I've just been busy with... well everything recently. Starclan seems to have given Buckbranch another chance to rejoin us here, so I hope he'll be around for a while yet. It is a little odd to be on patrol with a previous leader, but he's got a good head on his shoulders and cares about his clan very much."

She silently hoped that the recent kerfuffle on their border patrol hadn't changed that, but as that was NONE of her business she kept that from her story and moved on to the last topic.

"Aspenstar met... A rather unfortunate fate while defending Shiningskies from a coyote. It ripped all 9 of her lives from her... Thunderclan has been... Well its been a touch more messy than usual, as I'm sure you have gathered."

[ @luminous ]