Warrior Cat Clans 2 (WCC2 aka Classic) is a roleplay site inspired by the Warrior series by Erin Hunter. Whether you are a fan of the books or new to the Warrior cats world, WCC2 offers a diverse environment with over a decade’s worth of lore for you - and your characters - to explore. Join us today and become a part of our ongoing story!
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It wasn't hard to tell that Singedwolf had not been comfortable watching Littlebird give birth. Although he had seen much bloodshed, a kitting gone wrong was a different thing entirely. He had tried to put on a face of indiffrence, but it wasn't hard for her to see through his mask any more.
It had bothered him more than he had lat on, yet he had stayed and defended her when Leatherstar had come barging in. She couldn't help but wonder what he thought of all the recent developments.
It was one of those strange enemies he could not fight, and how he loathed to admit that. His claws flexed even as he stood guard over the Promised, restless as ever, waiting for every unseen threat to descend upon him and face his wrath. It was not unusual that after a long day of guarding that he'd catch glimpses in the dusk, or as the night grew long for him to wonder if every innocent cricket was something more sinister. These uneasy guesses kept him awake despite pressing blankets of exhaustion, and they distracted him from his thoughts, but he was vigilant not to let his guard down even to pursue a noise that only existed in the recesses of his mind.
The shadows and whispers were nothing compared to the bloodbath of the birth he could not control, and he glad was to set it aside. The death of the kits did not affect him too greatly, but it was unsightly to witness, and he preferred to keep long away. If it wasn't for the unannounced arrival of their father, he would have stayed away entirely - instead, he had to list his threats and remind the tom of who exactly was guarding Littlebird, though he doubted for a moment Leatherstar would forget.
The nest felt colder without Skipstep there beside her as she awoke, but as always Singedwolf was near by. She supposed he would be close after Leatherstar had barged into the center of their camp demanding to see her. How long had it been? It was dark.. so a day? two? It was difficult to tell.
"You should get some rest" she murmered, slowly lifting her head so that it wouldn't be sent spinning. She wondered how long he had stood guard, watching over her and her newborns. With how tense he seemed, her guess was he had been there since that day. "You don't have to leave, but at least lie and close your eyes"
Singedwolf scowled. He didn't look back, but the tension in his shoulders - and the fact that she knew him - made it clear what he thought of that idea. "I'll rest in the morning," he replied gruffly, "and not a moment sooner." If he closed his eyes, he knew he would indeed sleep; though he was an insomniac, probably because of how strange his sleep schedules had always been, he was exhausted enough it wouldn't matter. He hadn't sleep but a few minutes since she'd given birth, and he was nearing the end of how long even he could delay the inevitable.
But not while it was dark out. He loathed the sunlight still, but at least it would illuminate the camp enough any threats would be clear to every cat in the camp. Not that he trusted any of them not to be the threat themselves, but he couldn't stand guard forever, so it was the best he'd get.
"You worry to much" she murmered, but didn't press the issue. She knew better than to try to force him to do anything that was against his wishes. He was stubborn and independent, but she trusted him more than many of the other cats that were part of this clan.
"I have slept long enough, but I'm not going any where" she reassured him as she bent down and nosed one of kits closer when it began to stray. Honestly she didn't know if she could even stand if she wanted to. Foxstar had warned her against trying to move to soon, less the bleeding start once more. She didn't have much blood left to lose.
But neither could she sleep, the nightmares that plagued her made her fear closing her eyes.
"Too much? I leave you alone for a few minutes and you get pregnant, nearly bleed to death, and the WinterClan leader comes waltzing in here trying to take his kits home. I'm not worried about anyone coming after you, I'm worried that your head is so full of feathers you can't see a dumb idea when it walks up and helps exile you from your home."
He was testier than usual. That was the lack of sleep, no doubt, but it was everything else as well. He hadn't signed up for this, for any of this; he had been chosen as a guard for her father but he had not imaged it would ever translate into sitting here like a fool watching his daughter fall to pieces. He had not planned on being chased from his own home and forced into this forsaken land where they worshiped the sun and started fights like their life depended on it. As the kit started to stray from its mother, he jerked back slightly, his burned mouth twitching. One kit was more than enough for him, and Littlebird still occupied that spot.
"For now I am stuck in my nest, and am a lot less likely to get into trouble" she teased lightly, not taking his harsh words to heart. "I thought you would prefer to save your strength for when I am able to move around" she shrugged, laying her head back down on her paws.
It wasn't hard to tell that he was uncomfortable being around the little ones, he flinched every time time they moved or cried. It was actually rather amusing to watch such an intimidating figure frightened by something so small.
”I would prefer if you showed some capability for rational thought, and I would prefer if I was free on my own instead of chained to this godforsaken clan.” He glared around then resentfully. A clan that worshipped and claimed to use fire: unbelievable. He had known Foxstar mad, but this was a step beyond; he half expected her to drink the flames herself and see if they transformed her into a god. The rest of the cats in this clan were just harebrained moths, too enchanted by the pretty lights to realize what danger they were in.
Littlebird chuckled and licked Fernkit. He had always been this way. The words he spoke cold, sharp, and hurtful. Yet if you looked beyond them you could see a warmth about them. Sure he had mocked her, but had chosen to remain by her side. He could have slipped away at any point or left her to her fate, and yet he remained. The only thing holding him here, was his connection to her.
"I am happy to have you with me, yet you could still leave SunClan if it was what you truly wished" He always claimed he was staying for her sake, but she had seen the look upon his face any time flames would appear. It turned the fearsome tom into a quivering mess. She didn't really understand his fear, for he wasn't really one to open up about his past. "Well since we are both going to be stuck here for a while, you should tell me a story about your time in WinterClan" she purred almost like a young kit asking and elder to entertain them,
"I swore a vow to your father," he reminded her curtly. That wasn't exactly true, but it was close enough to the truth - he didn't doubt Goldenstar would approve of him watching over his daughter, though just about everything else that occurred might've driven him mad. At her request he rolled his eyes, but said nothing at first, rising and circling to settle down again. It was a slightly less comfortable position, and the movement forced him to stay awake and alert. A story sounded like a dumb idea, but it would serve the same purpose: what cat would fall asleep mid-speech?
"I don't have any good stories, little bird," he grunted, his tail drumming on the ground beside him. "It'll give the little one nightmares just to hear of it."
"They are to young to hear you, and to young to understand your words" she replied refering the the fact the newborns could not hear for several days after they were born. He could speak freely without worry of scaring the little ones.
"Most of the time I was in WinterClan, my father controlled what I saw and heard. I don't want to be sheltered, I want to know what was really going on in WinterClan. Why did father hate my mother so? Why was Understar there when they died?" Goldenstar had controlled her expososure to clan drama from the day she been born. She knew that her mother had been in prison by the time she was born, but she had never been told why. Her time there was confusing, to much for her young mind to comprehend. Just vague memories and flashes that she had managed to piece togather.
"You don't know that," he muttered with a mistrustful look to the young ones. He couldn't remember what it was like to be that young, so who was to say they couldn't hear and understand everything that was said? They seemed devious enough for it. He drew his tail closer to himself.
Then he sighed. Singedwolf understood why she wanted those answers, but he also knew perfectly well she wouldn't like the answers. "Your father never loved her, but he didn't hate her, either. Not exactly. He wanted an heir, she wanted power, but she didn't follow through on her end of the deal. Your siblings died and she took in a stranger's kits." His tail waved airily. He didn't pretend to understand the finer details of what went through the leader's mind, but he doubted Littlebird would care for those anyway, and this would be suitable enough. "As for Understar?"
Well, that drew a laugh from him, a cruel and rough sound like a cough forcing its way up from his scorched throat. "He saw an opportunity, and he took it. If he hadn't stepped up someone else would have, and it would have ended the same." A distasteful snort. "Perhaps not with your damn apprentice as leader, though. That was just a foul trick."
"That explains their complete lack of affection for one another" if her father had been angered by her siblings passing there was little wonder that by the time she was old enough to begin forming memories that the two cats had little to do with one another. Her father had always been about bussiness, and expanding their family. She remembered him talking about taking on another mate to have more children, and how that she would be expecting to take on a pure-blooded WinterClan mate when she was old enough. Leatherstar was the tom he had chosen for her, and part of her knew that is why she had fallen so easily for his charms. Her father had wanted her to be with him, and it was a way to carry out his wished. She had never imagined that he would go on to turn WinterClan on it's head.
"He had wanted me to be with Leatherstar... For me to rule WinterClan with him by my side one day, and continue you our family's full-blooded WinterClan line. I suppose he never imagined that he would die that day" then the nagging question that had haunted her since that day came to mind. "It's my fault he died... Isn't it" she asked in barely more than a whisper.
She could remember watching their fight from the sidelines with Proudlion. He father had wanted her to see how traitors were dealt with, but she had been to young to understand. She had thought that the two of them were just sparring, until her mother was lying there bleeding out. She had ran out of the crowd, placing herself between the two combatants, doing anything she could to stop the violence. At her one simple word 'father', his gaze had softened then his warm blood had washed over her as her mother slashed his throat. She didn't remember much after that, having been scooped up by Singedwolf and passing out from pure sock. That moment of her father's blood covering her had been a reooccuring nightmare since she was little, her father's voice always ringing in her ears.
The truth was harsh, but it was simple. Her father would not have died that day if she didn't get in the way; her mother would have, but the leader had looked strong enough to keep going. His wounds would heal and he would rule for many more moons if it had not been for that intervention. His gaze fixed on the young she-cat piteously. She had killed her father and ended an empire, but she had upended a tyrant as well. For every cat that had admired Goldenstar for his strength there had been another that had seen his cold heart when he slaughtered all those rebels and their families. He had only been the only one, of course, Singedwolf had dealt plenty of deadly blows that day; but he had been the one to give the order to put down Hazethroat's rebellion so permanently.
"Don't stake too much in your future back home. Your father had more than enough reasons to overthrow you as soon as his new trueborn mate gave him a son to become his heir. You might be named for his first mate but don't think that would get you any special treatment; you still would've reminded him of his dear deceased deputy and all her betrayals." Singedwolf grinned. The pair had seemed to get along well at the start, but it had fallen apart all too quickly; instead of falling in love Hazethroat and Goldenstar had clashed with each defiance of his rule, from the kits she'd lost to the kits she took in. His personal favorite had been the betrayal the leader would have cared about the least, when she fell in love their prisoner-turned-medicine cat. A sweet romance that ended in blood, just the way he would have expected.
The truth hurt, but she would rather here a painful truth than a sweet lie. That was one thing about Singedwolf that she appreciated, he always spoke truthfully with no attempt to spare her feelings. She swallowed hard, closing her eyes. She could still see and feel the splattering of blood upon her face and how it had seared into her mind. Her father was dead because of her, he mother was dead because of her. The guilt that had been weighing on her so heavily, only seemed to get even heavier.
What Singedwolf said was true, she would have been replaced eventually... but that didn't alliveate the guilt she had been holding on to. No matter their faults, Goldenstar and Hazethroat were her parents. Yet Littlebirds crimes? Being born and trying to stop a blood bath. Those two seemingly innocent things are what had caused her parents to die.
"I can't allow that to happen to them" he finally replied gazing lovingly down at the two kits at her side. "I just want them to grow up with two parents that love one another"
He looked down at the pair disdainfully. They were innocent now, but they would not be forever. Even if she and Skipstep could convince them that they were loving, affectionate parents, he doubted that was for the best. Every illusion had to be ruined at some point, and he thought it better they grow up understanding the world was hateful than have to learn it latter. There was no use in innocence, no value in dreams, just opportunity for deceit and trickery. Better for them to grow up cynics, to know that everyone else would be only out for themselves and would drag the kits smoldering into the deeps if it meant moving them a pawstep closer to their own goals.
"You might stop yourself from killing your friend, but the rest of it is out of your paws. Don't fool yourself into thinking you can control what happens to them."
"I know I can not control everything, but I can choose some things. I can choose to be with Skipstep. I can choose to love him" She had chosen him when it mattered the most, and turned Leatherstar away.She had chosen to raise these kits with Skipstep to be SunClan cats. Sure she would tell them about their heritage, but they would grow up in this clan due to her decisions.
It was a question that she wasn't sure she had the answers to herself. At the time all she could think about is how much her father had wanted her to be with him... It was mistake, no doubt. But why had she gone through with it? She couldn't even admit it to herself, but she still had feelings for him. She had pushed him away, chosen Skipstep, and yet her mind still went back to him. A tom that had played with her heart, used her, and then tried to still her kits. She hated everything he had become, and yet underneath it all the flames still lingered.
"Foolishness..." she whispered. Admitting to being a fool, better than admitting the truth. "Skipstep only came into my life after Leatherstar. He will be a wonderful father, and a good role model. I can't change the past, but perhaps with determination I can give them a better future"
Singedwolf scoffed, unsatisfied with her answer. He had told her a thousand times she was a fool, and he doubted it ever mattered. A fool was naive, but he had warned her again and again, and she ought to have known by then. No, foolishness was not an answer he believed in.
He leaned against the wall of the den, intense gaze fixed on her as he relied on his ragged ears to monitor their surroundings. His eyes were darkly underscored with exhaustion, and it drew attention to the shots of white creeping through his whiskers and the stiff fur on the unburned half of his face. Old, he was getting old — too old to see this last job out, perhaps, but then his life had become her sacrifice many moons ago.
He exhaled as his gaze shifted away again, burned mouth twitching, twitching. He let the silence settle in between them, keeping time by the beat of his heart. “Don’t put their future above your own,” he finally said.
