me and the devil [p]

[iliri]

Smallsky
long-furred, small chocolate tabby with faint classic stripes and bits of white; deep lapis blue eyes
purrks: n/a

---

Vengeance.

That was the one word that echoed through her mind.

The single word alone traunted and hissed through her like a raging fire that couldn’t quench. It kept growing and growing as it viciously licked through the dying meadows, eating away at the red and yellow hills as it became a vibrant infernal blaze that was as bright as the scorching sun within the mass of stars. Its embers would die and turn to ash, only to be lit again by the roaring flames of her rage and be set on a rampage to destroy everything in its path. This was only the mere beginning of her growing rage, as it had only begun to grow ever so soon upon the aftermath of her death. Being stuck in the deepest paths of the vast abyss with the place of no stars was something that Smallsky absolutely despised. Or, rather, something that she had zero intention on looking amongst. Her deep, lapis blue hues stared into the eternalized tenebrosity of the forest, staring past the tall, dense trees that blocked an foremost of her view. The chocolate molly had grown adjacent to the cold, thick air in which held an echoing silence that drew a chill up one's spine. After being in the bleak, vast place for so long, Smallsky had grown used to its eerie presence.

The place itself masked a scent that Smallsky had found herself growing used to over the time that she had been stuck in the shadowy forest; the scent of dampened earth, rotting wood, and rotting fresh-kill. At the start, it gave her a mild displeasure to take in such a revolting stench that caused her nothing but the mere urge to gag each time she took in a breath of air, but overtime, she grew used to its vile odor. Smallsky took the odor as more of a welcoming embrace whenever she entered a new part of the seemingly endless landscape of dark lands. The only thing that seemed to keep the place at least somewhat in a lighter value was the pale sickly light that cast itself amongst the gray forestry that decorated the dark landscape. Mist often wreathes the thick, sticky, bare forest floor, of which her naturally rounded paws seemingly sunk themselves into every time she trudged through the shadowy forest in solitude. Her ghost-like body was almost clearly translucent within the Dark Forest itself, the only thing eliminating out of her fading body is her cold, dense, deep blue eyes.

As of recently, the chocolate-furred feline was currently walking through the eteralized forest. Her limbs caked with the fungus and mud that clung itself to fur as easily as oil would to a duck’s feathers. Her shoulders were slunk, and her claws would recklessly dig into the marsh-like dirtgrounds whenever she would feel the impending urge to tear into the lifeless roots and damp earth. Bits of dirt and other sorts of debris would get stuck under her razor sharp claws, of which were a pain in the tail to get out whenever she was given the proper chance to clean out the unusable tools meant for fighting. The singular thought alone was more than enough to make the darkened spirit let out a scowl, as her mind trailed on and on about the wonders that she had witnessed during her time within the place of no stars. Of course, it wasn’t often that she was rewarded with any news of what’s happened as of late, but when she does gain the information of what she desires to know, she gets exactly what she wants to be given.

The first thing to come across her mind was her firstborn; her daughter, to put it simply. The thought about her daughter was enough to make the Smallsky irk against the thought of even thinking about her children, let alone her oldest. It wasn’t often that she thought about them, let alone Springpaw of all of them. As much as the tabby hated to admit it, but the chocolate feline couldn’t help but feel quite surprised that the headstrong leader–Bumblestar, or whatever her name was–picked her own child of all of the rest of the apprentices to take up upon the role of medicine cat apprentice. It made the molly merely scoff, yet she couldn’t give out any sort of initial praise for her eldest gaining such a title. She looked far too much like her own father, yet nobody bothered to make much connections about such facts. About the fact that their own medicine cat apprentice was half-clan of all things. Then again, it wasn’t like the former ShadowClanner could really look upon her former clan as such prosperity. They held a former kittypet as their main medicine cat and a half-clanner as their medicine cat apprentice. It was considered pathetic in her own eyes, but she had other things to look forward to than just the mere succession of her own daughter gaining a high-and-almighty title.

Something that had really caught her attention was the whole situation that seemingly dwelled between her former mate and Brackenfire; a molly of which Smallsky had tarnished her former friendship with. She hadn’t thought much of the molly other than the fact that she had decided to betray their friendship and murder her in cold blood. The vast memory of her death wasn’t anything more than just a simple fragment in the chocolate tabby’s mind, but it was more than enough to infuriate her of what she had done. Brackenfire betrayed her; went behind her back just to kill her and sneak herself away to flirt away with her former mate. In speaking of the RIverClan tom-cat, Smallsky could almost feel herself curling her nose up just from the simple mention of the tom-cat. He was nothing more than a fraud that the molly had been around for at least a few moons, but it was more than enough to make the molly grow close with the gray feline and eventually bear a litter of her own with him… but of course, they never interacted again, as much as her heart desired for it to happen, of course.

Either way, Smallsky didn’t see herself redundantly begging for Falconfeather to come back into her life. It wasn’t like there was any way that they could; the tom-cat had already betrayed her for that insufferable molly who decided to murder her in cold blood. Teeth baring, the chocolate molly’s claws sunken themselves deeper into the thick, earthy soil of the shadowy forest, her eyes gazing up towards the endless trees that descended themselves in the endless, pitch black sky. Her rage for the matter hadn’t quenched, and she had an endless thirst for revenge crawling up her sleeves. Brackenfire deserved something. Something in rebuttal for her terrible crime of murdering her own friend. If only she could twist and bind the fates of the future, then she would happily make their lives worse than the deepest pits of the bleak, shadowy forest that she compelled herself in… but of course, it had only seemed to be that her wishes were granted when recent events as of late seemed to intrigue her interest.

Falconfeather was apparently now dead. Much to her surprise, to be quite honest. Smallsky hadn’t expected the tom-cat to wind up dead all of a sudden, but to be quite fair, he had it coming for him. All his little antics with winding up with different mollies and having different arrangements of kits was more than enough to make the Smallsky grow more and more divisive of him remaining as RiverClan’s medicine cat. The thought of her former mate’s new and now former rank was more than enough to make Smallsky let out a hefty sneer. It had seemed that cats gaining medicine cat roles was something that ran in the family, she supposed. First her daughter, then her former mate. It was almost a dear shame that she didn’t get the chance to swipe her way into one of their dreams and give them information about their relationship. She would’ve been certain that she would’ve found it intriguing to come by if she had been given the chance. But… with that out of the way, Smallsky could easily feel herself growing immensely fond of Brackenfire’s immaculate suffering from the aftermath of Falconfeather’s death. Not only that, but the chocolate molly had been wanting to have a little bit of fun with the brown tabby since her passing.

With the news of Brackenfire being seemingly pregnant with Falconfeather’s kits–even if it wasn’t publicly exposed, it was easier to tell just from her swelling stomach alone and how pudgy the former ShadowClanner has become. It made the tabby herself grow a pang of jealousy that muddled within the deepest pits of her gut. Even more in frustration and rage from just her initial viewings of both the tom-cat and molly being together with one another was more than enough to drive her into a plot-hole of frustration and infatuation. Falconfeather had originally been meant to be hers, not Brackenfire’s. She stole him and cherished him as her own; manipulated him into thinking that he was hers and hers alone. But no, in reality, the sides were changed. He was hers, not Brackenfires. Even if her opinions of the tom had changed since then, Smallsky still viewed him as her own and nothing else. She had once bore a litter of his kits, and they had once been together, and nothing was going to change such impulsive facts that infiltrated her mind. Now, since Brackenfire was expecting her former mate’s kits, she was going to make her pay for everything that she had done to Smallsky and make sure she willingly paid the price for it.

Begrudgingly, the tabby approached the familiar presence of the Blackwater Bog, her eyes scanning the pond and the dead plant material that surrounded the naturally lukewarm water. It wasn’t the most ideal place that Smallsky had wanted to meet Brackenfire in, but it would have to do for the most part. Since it was approaching the colder seasons, it was becoming closer to leaf-bare, and she didn't want to risk the molly potentially freezing the moment she stepped forth from the lukewarm pond of the bog below. So, with Smallsky being close to the warming presence of the rejuvenating pond below, she placed herself onto her haunches and narrowed her eyes towards the middle of the murky water. It ripples would be mesmerizing to watch if she wanted to stay for a moment longer, but her main role here was to make sure that Brackenfire made her way to the bog successfully, and that her skills in summoning the living here to the place of no stars would be an attempt that she’d hope is successful. So, silent she waited, staring expectantly into the depths of the pond as she awaited for Brackenfire’s form to appear in the shallow parts of the pond right next to the shoreline.

@poppy [ spicy lady wanting to give bracken some good ol’ drama also wym this is long overdueeee? either way, super excited to have this get going, been working on this for a good while ]