[Rowan]

• she/her • 31 moons • thunderclan/warrior •
kitty softpaws t1

OrangeFlower blinked, but she didn’t shy away. Her ears flicked slightly at the coldness in his words, but she had expected it — hoped for it, even. If he had let her have this too easily, it wouldn’t feel real. It wouldn’t be earned.

"I know they haven’t worked before," she replied steadily, though emotion pooled quietly behind her voice. "But I’m not asking to spend my days lounging in the nursery. I want to raise the next generation — teach them, care for them, support queens who don’t have help. Some warriors fight at the borders. I want to fight for our kits, SpiderThroat."

She swallowed, tail curling slightly as the weight of her words settled in her chest. "I want to be there for the kits whose parents can’t be.” Like her own. Once she became an apprentice, both were gone. And her father was never really present regardless, while mother was…something else. “The ones whose mothers die in kitting, whose fathers are buried before they even know their names. For the kits who feel alone, like they don’t belong. I want to be someone steady for them." Her voice trembled slightly but didn’t break. "And I want to help the queens who need support — who are too young, too tired, too afraid to do it all alone. I can assist with births if WolfHawk teaches me so. I can clean nests. I can soothe the ones who cry late into the night and give their mothers a few hours of peace."

Her eyes glinted, not with tears, but with quiet certainty.

"I’ll stay up with the sick litters. I’ll take in kits from other queens when I must, and raise them like my own until they have their paws under them. Until they wouldn’t need me anymore. If there’s a queen who can’t nurse, I’ll be there. If there’s a tom with no mate who needs someone to raise his kit, I’ll be there."

She looked at him, green eyes burning with grief-fueled definition.

"I’m not walking away from my duties. I’m walking into the one I was meant for. Let me prove it."

└> . . . @Starfall