At some point, when her leg had gone from a dull ache to an actual bone-deep pain, Dusklion had stopped running. She had lost her breath, and though her tears had long since dried her throat still felt tight. Now as she limped through the forest, blood crusted along her new wound, whatever life or spark was once in her blue eyes appeared snuffed out.
The deputy didn't really pay much attention to where she was going, outside of making sure she did not return to camp. Not yet, anyways, not when she still hadn't... decided...
Stars above, there was that selfishness again.
After awhile of limping around the gray-furred eventually sank to a half-seated, half crouched position at the bank of the river that flowed through the territory. Staring into the swift moving water, Dusklion could see the faint outline of her face. She watched it unmoving as it flickered among the ripples, distorted and blurry, until eventually she had to close her eyes.
Breathe in. Breathe out. Ignore the way her foreleg ached something terrible. Think about what she wanted to say, and how she wanted to go about this. Did she want to stay in RiverClan after stepping down? How could she, when she had failed so many?
Go With the Flow | Silver Tongue (T1) [Perm] | Mind Reader [Perm]
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The small-framed tom was slowly becoming more and more self-aware. Dusklion hadn’t given him the reaction he had expected but instead rushed to get out of camp with little to no words. Had… had he messed up? Had he driven Dusklion out of her role instead of lit a fire beneath her to do better?
Ugh. This was a pain in the ass.
After waiting for the meeting’s conclusion, he decided that he should go out and make sure that the deputy didn’t get into anything stupid. It was out of the kindness out of his magnanimous heart that he was willing to give her such special attention today. She better appreciate it.
Padding out into the territory, he first determined the direction that her scent was going. She seemed to have traveled a lot of ground in a short period, had she been running? Ugh… this might be more than what he was willing to devote his precious energy to.
It took a while to find her. His head was pounding and he had to take several breaks as he was still recovering from starvation and sickness just under a moon ago. When he did, however, he found her by the bank of the river that winded through their territory and gave them their clan’s name. She looked…. Sad. Ew. Padding forward as softly as he could, he wordlessly took up a spot next to Dusklion.
”I can answer that question,” He said, at long last breaking the silence. He had just barely caught what she said as he approached and it seemed as though she was confused on how to proceed. It made sense, really, he had given her a lot to think about after all. From the claims of bias, to the hypocrisy, etc. there was so much he had grilled her for over a little situation in the meeting.
”Move on.” He said bluntly. ”You give too much credit to others – letting it influence what you think, honestly, you need to cut that out.” Turning towards her, he reached out a paw to gently bap her on the head ”You have the qualities of a good leader. You may be impulsive and make mistakes at times, but like I told you earlier, I prefer your style over your brother’s. Same with many of our other clanmates, they want you Dusklion.”
”You’re what the clan needs right now. Sure, there’s negative comments and hell, maybe I was a bit too harsh, but that’s the truth. Without your presence, I fear that the clan may have faced an entire rebellion several times over due to Fadingsun’s… methods.” A pause as he allowed that to sink in for a moment. ”You need to focus on your strengths and aim to cover your weaknesses. I didn’t tell you all of that at the meeting so that you could run away or step down. I told you didn’t I? That I didn’t want to be disappointed? I meant it. Don’t run away. Use the negativity – let it fuel you. Let it push you to become better. Not just for your sake, but for the clan’s. If you lose your position, who would replace you? Who could replace you? You’re the deputy of what used to be one of the greatest clans in the forest, you need to get yourself together and act like it. I love RiverClan, as flawed as it is now, and I believe you to be the one who can and will get us out of this awful streak of chaos and misfortune.”
There. He would allow her to speak now, having said the most important bits of his thoughts. He feared that he may have been rambling a bit, but he really needed to drive the point home. Dusklion was good for the clan, regardless of the bias, regardless of her careless action in killing WindClan’s former deputy. She was what the clan needed right now. Honestly, he wished she were the leader instead of Fadingsun at times, however, that didn’t matter at the moment. Right now he just needed her to see that she wasn’t a failure and that she was good for the clan. He meant all of the words he said, genuinely. Fishfreckle may not have been one to give compliments often, so it may have seemed a bit heavy-pawed, but being told “You can do it” meant a lot when coming from him. If he hadn’t been so confident of that fact, he wouldn’t have said it – hell, he wouldn’t have even bothered to come out her to convince her to figure things out.
Re: RiverClan Territory
