Post by Glowy on Jul 25, 2011 15:29:04 GMT -10
Somewhere in the place of infinite night (because the stars only appear at night, you see), lights surrounded a pool. They gathered around this looking-glass because it was their link to the world they had left behind. This pool showed many things- things that were, and things that are, but not the things that had yet to pass, for even the very wise cannot see all ends. More often than not, the pool showed many things at once, but not now. Not this evening. The members of the Clans within a Clan were not concerned with the affairs of their kin, but rather with those of the ones who called themselves The Chosen Ones. Sad murmurs rippled through the lights. Some heads shook, some turned their faces away, some lights dimmed, but nobody would dare touch the surface of the pool and disturb the vision.
Dovepaw of FogClan attended to her duties the way she always did- slightly begrudgingly, but with enough effort and speed to prevent herself from being called lazy and losing a meal... or worse, blood. And, as always, she was being watched. Eyes kept her in check from their places, imagined and real, in the shadows. Eyes and scars and hunger, they controlled her life now. So she tried to change Volepelt’s moss quickly, limping on her leg that still ached from the last time she’d made a mistake.
Thrushflower was by her side the instant she stepped out of his den, stabbing her shoulder with her paw and sneering. It ached, but Dovepaw kept walking, head down and trying not to meet the Council Member’s eyes. Thrushflower stopped her, though, waving her tail in front of Dovepaw’s face. Her eyes hardened as she looked at the white she-cat, screwing up her nose.
”It’s a wonder that Volepelt’s taken you as his apprentice. You’ve spent all morning changing his bedding, a chore that would take a clanborn apprentice less than half that time.” That was true. Dovepaw had been spending a long time changing Volepelt’s bedding, but that was only because she was trying to find the softest moss for her mentor and was putting little bits of bird-down in it. She would do anything to keep him from punishing her, even a little subtle kissing up now and then.
The lights stirred, some closing their eyes in sorrow. Though the pool did not show the future, they knew what was to come. And Dovepaw, so innocent, and so very, very vulnerable...
”I can smell the weakness of your blood from here, kit. Perhaps we should get rid of some of that weakness, hm? Would you be able to do your duty to your clan then?” Thrushflower waved her claws in Dovepaw’s face, grazing the tips down her cheek experimentally, expecting a flinch at the least, but what she got in return was a hiss and a glare.
”I survived for moons in this forest, by myself, as a kit. You dare to call my blood weak? And you, not even clanborn! Do your standards not apply to yourself, then?” Dovepaw rose up in defiance, eyes burning. This was a battle she would lose, she knew, because Thrushflower was not hungry or injured, but she still had to fight. Sometimes honor was more important than anything.
If any of the lights had been related to Dovepaw, they surely would have burned brighter in love and pride. As it was, though, the only reaction she got was a collective gasp. Some of the lights shrunk back from the pool, not wishing to watch the next moments, but their comrades shook their heads and gestured, silently, to the pool. The tension was thick. Some could have said the pool was letting through feelings, not just images, infusing the night land with anger, rebellion, defiance, and bravery.
Thrushflower leaped at Dovepaw, and the world was turned red. This time was different, though. This time, Thrushflower wasn’t out to humiliate anybody, wasn’t out to teach a lesson. She had been insulted, and she was out for everything she could take from little Dovepaw. Who did she think she was? Dirty little upstart kittypet! They would see how weak she was when she could no longer move, or think, or breathe.
“I’ll kill you for that! You never talk about me that way. NEVER. You understand? You don’t know a thing!”
”You afraid of the truth, then, Thrushflower?” It surprised the warrior how the apprentice just laid there and took her fury. She didn’t fight back. She didn’t beg for mercy. She didn’t do anything except breathe harder and harder, then sink down to the ground when her legs could no longer hold her up. Oh, her fur was changing colors. And then Thrushflower was on top of her, claws digging in to her shoulders, and her mouth was closing in on Dovepaw’s neck to snap it. Oh yes, snap it like a twig, she would, and then she would have nobody taunting her with her past besides herself.
Dovepaw wasn’t afraid to die. She had no soul. So it wouldn’t matter, all those things she had done and hadn’t done. The lights shifted to prepare a place for their newest member, a place by the pool that she might see and learn. Dovepaw’s shady form was beginning to gain more light as her earthly life dimmed. You can never create or destroy energy, you see, only change its state.
”THRUSHFLOWER!” Tawnywhisker was livid, and beside the two she-cats in a heartbeat. ”Remove yourself from our leader’s apprentice, THIS. INSTANT.” Thrushflower did. The blood on her paws made prints on the dirt where she walked, which Tawnywhisker inspected with disdain, narrowing her eyes at her fellow Council Member.
The lights were shocked. That was Tawnywhisker. They had witnessed the corruption of her heart and mind as she sought to gain power and respect. They had seen her straying from the path and falling into thickets of nettles, troublesome things that pricked at her soul and caused her more pain than anything. They had seen how she believed the pain to be good. And now they were seeing... what were they seeing?
”You forget your place, Thrushflower, and you have forsaken the Code. Did you assume that the Commandment ‘You will not kill your enemy in cold blood’ did not apply to you?” Tawnywhisker was dealing with a veritable kit. ”If Dovepaw has done anything worthy of punishment, it is Volepelt’s responsibility as her mentor to deal with that.”
”Tawnywhisker, she was-”
”Silence! I don’t want to hear it! Get out of my sight. Oh, and Thrushflower, take some time to contemplate the reason that you were named after the most beautiful and sacred of plants. Contemplate, remember, and change. Do not show yourself to me until you can repent of what you have done.” Thrushflower sneered at Tawnywhisker and spat at her feet before moving on. She told her that it wasn’t over, to which Tawnywhisker replied with a stony silence. This treatment of her leader’s apprentice was most definitely over.
”Why, Tawnywhisker?” Dovepaw’s voice was barely more than a whisper. She tried to focus on her savior’s form, but found that she could not blend the multiple images her head was scattering the world into.
”Justice,” the warrior replied simply, allowing herself a smile. ”You had done nothing to deserve death. Not from what I saw, at least. And Thrushflower needed somebody to put her in her place for once.”
Now Dovepaw’s shade was dimming, becoming the same shadow of the living that walked the night land. Stars no longer filled her eyes. She was alive. But the lights were still confused. Tawnywhisker’s shade had been one of the darkest of them all, along with those of the Council Members and even Miststar herself. But now it was regaining some of its definition. If you peered through her chest, you could almost see a heart again, and a heart never showed unless it was good. The darkness was rolling off of Tawnywhisker’s body in waves, sinking into the ground and travelling to the place from whence it had come. The transformation was not complete, but it was significant, still.
A lioness padded into the clearing on paws set all a-glitter, come to address the unasked questions. How, the Clans within a Clan wanted to know. How, and why? Because it had been planned. It had been chosen. To truly appreciate the light, sometimes you have to taste darkness first.
[/center]Dovepaw of FogClan attended to her duties the way she always did- slightly begrudgingly, but with enough effort and speed to prevent herself from being called lazy and losing a meal... or worse, blood. And, as always, she was being watched. Eyes kept her in check from their places, imagined and real, in the shadows. Eyes and scars and hunger, they controlled her life now. So she tried to change Volepelt’s moss quickly, limping on her leg that still ached from the last time she’d made a mistake.
Thrushflower was by her side the instant she stepped out of his den, stabbing her shoulder with her paw and sneering. It ached, but Dovepaw kept walking, head down and trying not to meet the Council Member’s eyes. Thrushflower stopped her, though, waving her tail in front of Dovepaw’s face. Her eyes hardened as she looked at the white she-cat, screwing up her nose.
”It’s a wonder that Volepelt’s taken you as his apprentice. You’ve spent all morning changing his bedding, a chore that would take a clanborn apprentice less than half that time.” That was true. Dovepaw had been spending a long time changing Volepelt’s bedding, but that was only because she was trying to find the softest moss for her mentor and was putting little bits of bird-down in it. She would do anything to keep him from punishing her, even a little subtle kissing up now and then.
The lights stirred, some closing their eyes in sorrow. Though the pool did not show the future, they knew what was to come. And Dovepaw, so innocent, and so very, very vulnerable...
”I can smell the weakness of your blood from here, kit. Perhaps we should get rid of some of that weakness, hm? Would you be able to do your duty to your clan then?” Thrushflower waved her claws in Dovepaw’s face, grazing the tips down her cheek experimentally, expecting a flinch at the least, but what she got in return was a hiss and a glare.
”I survived for moons in this forest, by myself, as a kit. You dare to call my blood weak? And you, not even clanborn! Do your standards not apply to yourself, then?” Dovepaw rose up in defiance, eyes burning. This was a battle she would lose, she knew, because Thrushflower was not hungry or injured, but she still had to fight. Sometimes honor was more important than anything.
If any of the lights had been related to Dovepaw, they surely would have burned brighter in love and pride. As it was, though, the only reaction she got was a collective gasp. Some of the lights shrunk back from the pool, not wishing to watch the next moments, but their comrades shook their heads and gestured, silently, to the pool. The tension was thick. Some could have said the pool was letting through feelings, not just images, infusing the night land with anger, rebellion, defiance, and bravery.
Thrushflower leaped at Dovepaw, and the world was turned red. This time was different, though. This time, Thrushflower wasn’t out to humiliate anybody, wasn’t out to teach a lesson. She had been insulted, and she was out for everything she could take from little Dovepaw. Who did she think she was? Dirty little upstart kittypet! They would see how weak she was when she could no longer move, or think, or breathe.
“I’ll kill you for that! You never talk about me that way. NEVER. You understand? You don’t know a thing!”
”You afraid of the truth, then, Thrushflower?” It surprised the warrior how the apprentice just laid there and took her fury. She didn’t fight back. She didn’t beg for mercy. She didn’t do anything except breathe harder and harder, then sink down to the ground when her legs could no longer hold her up. Oh, her fur was changing colors. And then Thrushflower was on top of her, claws digging in to her shoulders, and her mouth was closing in on Dovepaw’s neck to snap it. Oh yes, snap it like a twig, she would, and then she would have nobody taunting her with her past besides herself.
Dovepaw wasn’t afraid to die. She had no soul. So it wouldn’t matter, all those things she had done and hadn’t done. The lights shifted to prepare a place for their newest member, a place by the pool that she might see and learn. Dovepaw’s shady form was beginning to gain more light as her earthly life dimmed. You can never create or destroy energy, you see, only change its state.
”THRUSHFLOWER!” Tawnywhisker was livid, and beside the two she-cats in a heartbeat. ”Remove yourself from our leader’s apprentice, THIS. INSTANT.” Thrushflower did. The blood on her paws made prints on the dirt where she walked, which Tawnywhisker inspected with disdain, narrowing her eyes at her fellow Council Member.
The lights were shocked. That was Tawnywhisker. They had witnessed the corruption of her heart and mind as she sought to gain power and respect. They had seen her straying from the path and falling into thickets of nettles, troublesome things that pricked at her soul and caused her more pain than anything. They had seen how she believed the pain to be good. And now they were seeing... what were they seeing?
”You forget your place, Thrushflower, and you have forsaken the Code. Did you assume that the Commandment ‘You will not kill your enemy in cold blood’ did not apply to you?” Tawnywhisker was dealing with a veritable kit. ”If Dovepaw has done anything worthy of punishment, it is Volepelt’s responsibility as her mentor to deal with that.”
”Tawnywhisker, she was-”
”Silence! I don’t want to hear it! Get out of my sight. Oh, and Thrushflower, take some time to contemplate the reason that you were named after the most beautiful and sacred of plants. Contemplate, remember, and change. Do not show yourself to me until you can repent of what you have done.” Thrushflower sneered at Tawnywhisker and spat at her feet before moving on. She told her that it wasn’t over, to which Tawnywhisker replied with a stony silence. This treatment of her leader’s apprentice was most definitely over.
”Why, Tawnywhisker?” Dovepaw’s voice was barely more than a whisper. She tried to focus on her savior’s form, but found that she could not blend the multiple images her head was scattering the world into.
”Justice,” the warrior replied simply, allowing herself a smile. ”You had done nothing to deserve death. Not from what I saw, at least. And Thrushflower needed somebody to put her in her place for once.”
Now Dovepaw’s shade was dimming, becoming the same shadow of the living that walked the night land. Stars no longer filled her eyes. She was alive. But the lights were still confused. Tawnywhisker’s shade had been one of the darkest of them all, along with those of the Council Members and even Miststar herself. But now it was regaining some of its definition. If you peered through her chest, you could almost see a heart again, and a heart never showed unless it was good. The darkness was rolling off of Tawnywhisker’s body in waves, sinking into the ground and travelling to the place from whence it had come. The transformation was not complete, but it was significant, still.
A lioness padded into the clearing on paws set all a-glitter, come to address the unasked questions. How, the Clans within a Clan wanted to know. How, and why? Because it had been planned. It had been chosen. To truly appreciate the light, sometimes you have to taste darkness first.