Sweetsong of RiverClan
She/Her
34 Moons
Purrks:
Herbal Knowledge T1; Flock Together T1; Dreamwalker
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She gazed at him for a long time. In her heart, she knew she needed to hear his story. Someone needed to know how deep his pain went. To hold it and share its burden...but she shook her head, though she smiled with an apology.
"You have spent enough time in those dark places." She whispered,
"Let's enjoy this," She turned her eyes back to the water, taking a long, deep breath.
"I think I was meant to find you, Crowpaw....so I will find you again. I will hear your story then..."
Sweetsong eyed the line where the water met the sky.
"Do you think...we will see the sun rise here?" She asked him,
"I've never had...a dream like this...so dark and cold..." Sweetsong shivered.
"This part of your dream is so much nicer...you should be here more..not in that scary cave..."
She could remember the last nightmare she had had. It was when...she was alive. Her sister, the beast known as Poisonberry. Sweetsong could feel herself shrinking down. Her cave had been a thicket, with tangling thorns and brambles, cutting her pelt and ears, and then they had become...her sister's silver and white paws, her claws tearing at Sweetsong...
"Pathetic," She would hiss. "Weak. You will die, sweet little sister, and no one will remember your stupid name, or your bleeding heart..."
Sweetsong could remember every word, every barb, jab and cutting insult.
But she also remembered finding her sister's body. Broken and stiff...she had died hunting at night...snatched up by an owl. The feathers and blood showed she had put up a fight and had freed herself...but the branches piercing her body had told Sweetsong just how horrible her death had been. She had fallen onto a branch, snapping it off, but it had been stuck inside of her ribs as she kept falling...and she had landed on it a second time, the impact sending more of the broken wood through her silver and black tabby body.
None would know how deeply Sweetsong blamed herself...she and Poisonberry had argued that evening...over Boulderkit, Poisonberry's son. Sweetsong hadn't liked how twisted the young kit had been becoming, seeing troubling signs of cruelty...but Poisonberry had screeched at her, belittling Sweetsong, sneering that she should have had the damn kit herself if she wanted to be a Queen so badly...
But even then her paws were drawn to the medicine den...to herbs and healing. The argument had ended with Poisonberry tossing Boulderkit back into the nursery by his tail and storming out of camp just as the last of the sun's light had faded behind the distant hills and trees. She had stayed with Boulderkit for as long as she could, but when Poisonberry hadn't returned by moonhigh, Sweetsong had set out to find her...
"I know what it is like to have family who loathes you," Sweetsong admitted after a long while of silence.
"To see you as lesser...to be unwanted...I know the conflict of relief and...anger...Only one cat has ever made me...angry...and that was my sister..." The small pale ginger she-cat whimpered, her ears falling.
"I was in that dark place too once...after she died...but when I realized she wasn't going to haunt me...that she would never...hurt me again..my nightmares stopped." Sweetsong looked up at the sky.
"I want to believe she went to StarClan....but I know deep in my heart she was never meant to go there....the things she's done...said...what she would have done if she were still alive...I know she went to the Dark Forest...that's where cats who are truly wicked and unforgiveable go..."
Sweetsong sniffled, lifting a soggy paw to wipe her nose.
"Cats couldn't believe we were related...and sometimes...I couldn't either..." She no idea why she had shared this. It was a not-so-secret secret to Sweetsong. Poisonberry's death had gone on and few had mourned..she hadn't been a likeable cat.
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SpiritedWarrior