Bumblestar stormed out of her den, letting the sharp bark ring out across the clearing. Poppykit's still body was heartbreaking, yes, but honest to the stars, was an eight-moon-old cat really freaking out this badly? Risingstorm had the body handled, so she strode past him and stepped around Nettlepaw with a growled order of, "Drop her," to block the camp's entrance.
"Hollykit, that's enough." Her tailed lifted over her back as she stared down at the kit. "I understand it's upsetting, but you're old enough now to control yourself. Step one paw outside of camp and you can consider yourself a kit for life. This situation is tense enough already; your dramatics aren't needed."
nettlepaw dark grey cat with darker spots and tail; green eyes
12 moons - thunderclan - they/them
the collector, agatha kitty, kitty softpaws t2, ultimate predator
Nettlepaw let go of Hollykit, eyeing her closely so she wouldn't try her little escaping act again. Once Bumblestar blocked the entrance to the camp, the apprentice looked to her, a stoic expression hiding their frustration.
Now what was going on outside? Honeykit left his snail in the nest and made his way to the nursery entrance, fluffing up his fur in defence against the cold winds. He heard Miss Bumblestar shouting something about Poppykit, now what had his brother done to deserve such attention from thunderclans Nobel leader. In fact the moment he made his way out into the clearing he noticed other cats were talking about his brother. What? Was Poppykit suddenly popular and social or had he done something to get himself in trouble. The small torbie tom weaved his way past other kits till he spotted driz and decided to head to him first. Why was driz shouting and he looked so upset too! With hurried pawsteps he reached his brother and bumped him on the shoulder gently. "What's wrong, are you okay?" concern laced hi words before he then turned to the two older cats by him. The warrior seemed to be insisting he go back to the nursery which was a good idea, it was freezing out here as for the Hornet-
Wait poppy...? Why was this hornet carrying his sleeping brother like a piece of prey. Just rude!
"Um sir- why are you holding my brother like that? Please put him down he doesn't like being touched". His voice was more firm now, was this why Drizzlekit was upset, on behalf of their brother. Turning full attention to his probably sleeping again brother Honeykit narrowed his eyes slightly. Such attention, what had he done? "As for you Poppy, you know it's too cold to be out here. You can sleep in the nursery like you usually do. Not out here. Now stop causing a scene. There was a beat of silence as Honeykit wait for a response. None was coming. Poppykit looked way too still, way to....not..
"Poppy? Wake up you can't keep doing this"
Nothing?? Now the panic was starting to seep in, the distress. What was wrong!! Everyone was talking, everyone seemed upset!
"what's happening?? What's going on! Is poppy okay? Poppy wake up!"
Rosekit The Rose Petal Princess
What good is a princess to an empty kingdom...
The world was strangely slow as Rosekit watched the events play out in front of her. Death was not a stranger to Rosekit.. not to her family. Loss wasn't a stranger to Rosekit.. not to her family. Watching her brother collapse after losing her second mother and oldest sister, was something that she couldn't handle. It felt like everything that Rosekit has ever known was falling with Poppykit as he collapsed and everything in the world exploded all at once. People were screaming and trying to run, people were focusing on this STUPID BRAIN DEAD CAT-
"Drop him.. put Poppykit down you... you monster! Who says you have any RIGHT to touch him!" Rosekit was trembling, forcing her grief- a wailing and swirling storm in her chest- to present itself like the storm it was. She has always faced things with anger, it was something she was proud of. Anger was better than the coldness of sadness. Anger made her burn like the stars in the sky at night, just as destructive, and just as gorgeous as they led the midnight world. But this wasn't an ambient flame from far away anymore. Rosekit wasn't a star. She was a wildfire, the trees collpasing in on themselves as they crackle. The flames swirling around a single clearing, and in the middle of it all was a a patch of rain drizzled poppies, a bee resting there, soon to go pop like the crackling flames.
Rosekit shouted again, racing towards Risingstorm, her grief taking her already naive judgement, clouding her vision in an ash-filled haze. "Let Poppykit down now! YOU MONSTER!" Her claws unsheathing between one moment and the next, but she managed to halt beside Honeykit. He was in disbelief. "YOU ARE A STRANGER! YOU DON'T KNOW ANYTHING! You are a heartless creature!" Curse after curse left her muzzle as glared at Risingstorm, if looks could kill perhaps it would be Risingstorm's limp body being carried out to be buried before all of his family even knew of the passing. "I JUST got here, and if it weren't for that stupid Hollykit you would've been gone with him already! You would've taken him from me! From Honeykit and Drizzlekit and Dad before we even got the chance to say goodbye! Dad doesn't even know!"
"SO you put him down, and let me and my family grieve him before he's buried and gone!" She finished, her tail lashing viciously behind her, the only thing preventing her from taking violence against the hornet was the fear of marring Poppykit in the process. But she was far from done, her fire still raged, raged with a million stars, all imploding across a dying universe and she knew that after this was over Rosekit would be burned from the inside out. A dead, starless sky. A forest reduced to ash. Taking a moment, Rosekit turned to Honeykit, reaching forward to press her forehead against his with a rumbling purr, and then her crying eyes shifted to Drizzlekit next, "Drizz, help Honey please..." Because Rosekit was afraid that if she should stay, she should burn her remaining family on accident.
The moment's flickering flame once more turned to blazing inferno as she turned her gaze onto whatever this warrior was saying, "You get away from Drizz now. Drizzlecloud is gone- maybe if you actually cared rather than pretending you know things, you would know that! And maybe next time, you should let family comfort family when they lose someone- rather than suggesting my brother go to our missing mother! YOU go to the nursery- because if you think for a second that my family is going anywhere when we deserve to say goodbye, you deserve nothing more than to be the one in Poppykit's place." Rosekit didn't stop her tirade, she was always a cat that spoke all her thoughts about what she thought was right or wrong but this was without any sense at all.
"AND YOU HOLLYKIT!" Rosekit screamed, turning her gaze on Nettlepaw and Hollykit from where they are in the distance, "Why don't you just go! A clan is about being selfless in the face of danger for the sake of your family! You have failed obviously, from making Poppykit's death all about you. Cats like you deserve to die alone, because perhaps then you'll learn what selfishness gets you. A cold grave and no one to mourn it." Rosekit stood panting from all her yelling for a moment, looking at her brother's, before dropping her head and finally collapsing into a ball of tears and weeping. The rain to the fire, and putting her out. The spirit was gone. And now she could do nothing but pray that she would be allowed to say goodbye to her brother proper rather than other strangers deciding that she couldn't for her. She was so tired. Drizzlemom, Kestrelkit, Poppykit- hell even Spring! What good was she at all if she couldn't even hold her family together? What good was a princess to an empty kingdom, she wasn't anything.
Rosekit dragged herself to Honeykit's side and just cried. She cried until she felt like she was suffocating, hiccuping on air that seemed to carry no oxygen.
nettlepaw dark grey cat with darker spots and tail; green eyes
12 moons - thunderclan - they/them
the collector, agatha kitty, kitty softpaws t2, ultimate predator
Nettlepaw knew that Rosekit was right, even if she was so young. Sighing, the older apprentice padded forward and joined Rosekit in mourning, dipping their head solemnly. After a moment, they spoke up with a gentle tone.
“Listen, I.. know how you.. are feeling. And you’re.. right to feel.. that way, Rosekit. Grief isn’t something.. to be pushed aside.. nor exaggerated — you’ve.. seen what’s happened.. to Hollykit. But we.. will get through.. this. You will.. get through.. this, Rosekit. And.. it’ll be.. okay. I promise.” They tried to give a small, lopsided sympathetic smile, all while softly wrapping their tail around the younger cat.
“Everything will.. be okay, I promise.”
Hollowpaw had been planning on ignoring the screaming. Kits like to scream and it takes a special skill to tune them out, a skill Hollowpaw hasn't quite mastered yet. And so, the cried of death came to him and dragged him away from his task. The clearing was... a mess to say the least. Stupid Hollykit was having some sort of... thing about seeing death. It was pathetic. What cat hasn't seen death in this Clan enough to learn to cope with the sights? Hollowpaw had certainly seen more than his fair share.
Perhaps it's unfair, Hollowpaw had been at the sick camp in the throws of the plague, he's a mediine cat, he's seen plenty of death enough that a body of a random Clan member he'd never taken the time to know hardly phases him. But it phases others, and Hollykit is old enough to be an apprentice, yet she still acts like this? Grow up. That's not all, though, because stupid Honeykit tries to scream at the corpse to wake up as if that will change anything. And Rosekit... is saying a lot and Hollowpaw barely has time or energy to comprehend any of it other than she's angry and taking it out on anyone and everyone. She's right about one thing, though, family should be allowed to grieve first. Just another reason to hate Risingstorm!! The moron won't even let families grieve the loss of their sibling or child!! Yeah, totally hornet material. If he'd tried to take Bravepaw away before Hollowpaw could even properly process the fact she was dead, he would have lost both his eyes.
This isn't about Risingstorm, though, or Hollykit, or anyone else who involved themself needlessly. This was about Poppykit and her family.
"She doesn't need to hear that from you," he sneers at Nettlepaw's attempt to comfort Rosekit. "What she needs is to grieve the loss of her sibling. Put Poppykit down, let them say goodbye, I wanna check him for sickness." He shoots that last bit at Risingstorm, "you can bury him after, but bring his dad with you." Allow the parent time to grieve where they don't feel like they have to put on a brave face for their remaining kits.
Assuming Risingstorm actually listens to him, Hollowpaw steps in first to sniff around the body, searching for lingering signs of illness. It's weird... Poppykit smells healthy, other than, of course, the fact that he's dead. Brows furrowed, he presses his nose into the fur around his neck, but still, there's nothing there. Maybe a twinge of sour sickness, but that feels more surface and less like it's coming from within. As if someone he'd been around recently was starting to get sick and the sent simply clung to the kit's fur.
"I can't tell what happened..." he mumbles under his breath, looking down at the body with confusion before shaking his head and glancing over to Rosekit and Honeykit. "Poppykit wasn't sick. There's nothing for you to catch. You can say goodbye." He wants to ask them where their dad is, so that he might say goodbye as well, but he doesn't even know who their dad is to ask, so he keeps quiet, sticking nearby in case anyone has a problem with family saying goodbye.
You deserve nothing more than to be the one in Poppykit's place.
Sweetsunrise winced, the words hitting a nerve. She hadn't known Drizzlecloud was missing. ''There's---There's no need for that. I was...I was just trying to help,'' she murmured, her tail bushing, before she turned tail and walked away, ears lying flat against her head.
[ @Dolomedes | Rosekit ; thanks for the character development ]
[ @Neptune. | Hollowpaw ]
[ @dino. | Bumblestar ; just because she's here lmao ]
[ @/others ]
__________________
Sootstorm is a ShadowClan Warrior. If she is needed, feel free to mention me!
Sootstorm is open to teaching apprentices ambush training! ShadowClan Apprentice Training
nettlepaw dark grey cat with darker spots and tail; green eyes
12 moons - thunderclan - they/them
the collector, agatha kitty, kitty softpaws t2, ultimate predator
And to think they were helping.
Nettlepaw paused to look at Hollowpaw. Why wouldn’t anyone ever let them help anyone? Wasn’t this what Bumblestar wanted from them — helping the clan move on, not dwelling on dead cats? It was all pointless, wasn’t it? Probably. But they pushed that aside, even if it was for only while responding to Hollowpaw, and raised their head to speak.
“I.. understand, Hollowpaw.” they mewed with a blank — seeming uncaring despite all their previous contradictory actions — expression, before sighing and padding towards the apprentice’s den. They were exhausted from all of this.
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"when I'm big and strong, I'm going to be the best leader ever! or...was it the best warrior? yeah! i'll be the best of whatever I am!"
╔═══*｡❅*⋆⍋✧ ✦ ✧⍋⋆*❅｡*═══╗
Hollykit of Thunderclan (she)
8 moons old
╚═══*｡❅*⋆⍋✧ ✦ ✧⍋⋆*❅｡*═══╝
☾☽☾☽✿❀✿ her head was spinning, the utter confusion of the camp, the death of a clanmate, and now she absolutely knew the leader didn't like her now...or...or...she didn't want to be a kit forever she..."I'm sorry." she whispered in a choked sob as she turned to nettlepaw "I..I shouldn't have ran" her eyes looked up to the leader for a moment, then she looked down at the ground, she didn't...she didn't want to be in this clan anymore...but she had no where else to go. she looked at poppykit's body as her family members surrounded her body. Rosekit was right, this wasn't about hollykit, this was about poppy...poppy...he didn't do anything wrong...he died...and it wasn't his fault...why was Holly kit acting like this? how would any cat take her seriously if she couldn't even decide what she wanted...she was worthless... ✿❀✿☾☽☾☽
»»——► Risingstorm | Tc | He/Him |Head Hornet ◄——««
“- I am the dirt under your claws, Nothing’s gonna clean me out. -”
Risingstorms Lowered poppykits body until it was on the ground “ Drizzlekit…Kits arent allowed outside of camp, But… The hornet paused I’ll take you or maybe your father will take you out to willows rise so you can visit poppykit the hornet said he felt sorry for the kid he really did; he knew recently that his mother had went missing so it must have been hard on them, and now their brother had passed.
The head hornets eyes flickered to hollykit who was trying to run for who knows what reason she was far too old to be acting like that, but other cats were already running after her so he turned his gaze back to drizzlekit and now honeykit. The head hornet winced at Honeykits words of asking his brother to wake up…he wasnt going to wake up. Honeykit- risingstorm tried to say, but was cut off by rose kit.
He wasnt going to lie, the kid had every reason to lash out, even at him. Risingstorm sighed tailt sawing behind him slightly as he moved back slightly As hollowpaw approached and cleared the body of any sickness, Now risingstorm was going to let the family say goodbye and bury the body after with spruce jumper if the tom wished for him to go.
@Neptune. @Dolomedes @burntToast @c1nder
(his emotions don't reflect my own <3 love you all)
Re: ThunderClan Clearing
nettlepaw
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Re: ThunderClan Clearing
