Post by ShinoDino first of her name! on Apr 18, 2020 22:08:58 GMT -6
Compare me to none
I got the heart of a champion
I got the heart of a champion
No one knew where he was right now.
But it had to be this way.
Grayheart had snuck out of Owlflight’s den in the bleak of night just after moonhigh. The grumpy medicine cat had fallen asleep over his herbs again, and Jokeheart and Cloudshadow snored on alongside the group of shattered apprentices.
Getting out of the camp had been only too easy - Skyheart tried her best, but the pale femme stayed in a permanent brain fog and consequently wouldn’t notice a tornado rolling through the camp, much less a very un-obvious cat sneaking out of the dirtplace tunnel.
Grayheart slunk through the shadows, the night leering at him. He used to like the night well enough, but now it just felt menacing. The tree branches grabbed down at him like claws, the bushes pulling at him with thorns like teeth.
So many apprentices injured. Dawnstripe captured. Shadestorm . . . well, Owlflight wasn’t telling anything but clearly the former rogue tom had been through a lot.
So rogues have been attacking ThunderClan. And here I am, going to find one,
Grayheart grumbled to himself. He padded softly, trying not to disturb the wraps still around his paws and claws.
But I have to do this. Mom will probably kit any day now - and Aru deserves to know. The kits deserve that much.
And maybe Aru does too.
The squelching between his toes made him grind his teeth. Owlflight’s poultices were working, but clearly they were not made for walking. Of course, Grayheart felt he’d been in the medicine cat’s den for far too long just for some damaged claws.
The young tom dove down the slope (losing a paw wrap in the process) and searched for any shred of Aru’s scent.
Like he’d ever forget it. The rogue’s stench had remained lodged in his nostrils ever since that fateful day. Everything about Aru had cemented itself behind his eyeballs and in the deepest depths of his soul, in fact.
StarClan above, he was worse than dead if anyone saw him this far from the camp alone . . .
Ah ha! Grayheart nearly yowled in triumph as he picked up the scent he sought. So faint, yet so inexplicably there. Not even his own scent or Lunamoth’s could be detected.
But Moonshadow’s lingered too.
Grayheart stopped. He’d made this excursion all about Aru and the kits soon to be born. But he had another, more important reason, for his mission. A reason that he’d tried so, so, so hard to ignore. To forget.
He owed Moonshadow.
And he understood her.
Ever since the rescue mission, Grayheart’s dreams had been filled with memories long forgotten.
Memories of Moonshadow curling around him and Lunamoth in the nursery, her calming purrs drowning out the scary thunderstorms. Moonshadow watching him stumble around the nursery as he tried to find his balance to walk for the first time. Her letting him hold on to her tail with his needle-sharp baby teeth until he got the hang of it. Moonshadow halting in her lessons on the warrior code to give them badger rides around the den.
Moonshadow hadn’t been the best mother. The memories of the lectures and the aloofness and the coldness with which she’d tossed them out of the nursery at six moons old still hung fresh in his mind. But now he understood why she’d been that way.
She’d been too young. And all alone. And the whispers must have been even worse back then than they were now.
And she was not a perfect cat. He’d needed her to be perfect because he’d only had her.
He could have done more. Like when Lunamoth had disappeared as an apprentice . . . he’d chosen to retreat even more from Moonshadow instead of seeking comfort in her. Instead of comforting her.
And I fell in love with a RiverClan cat . . . who am I to sneer at who she loves?
I’m a hypocrite, that’s what I am. I wouldn’t even exist if she hadn’t made the choices she’d made.
The similarities between his mother and him still didn’t sit well. Still his stomach churned like he’d eaten bad fresh-kill. But somewhere within him, the combination of little siblings to come, Lunamoth’s excitement over the kits, Moonshadow’s quiet strength, his own love for Greenpaw, and his Aunt Dawnstripe’s love for Shadestorm that defied all logic . . .
all combined to thaw his heart.
Grayheart practically leaped over the border to follow the waning scent trail. His anxiety at being found by a ThunderClan warrior dissipated . . . to be replaced by a paralyzing fear of being discovered by a nefarious rogue. Or a Twoleg. Or a monster.
Or any of the countless things that awaited a young green warrior outside his borders.
All of the things his mother had risked for love.
Grayheart gritted his teeth and slunk through the night, following the smallest scent trail. Sometimes, he swore the scent didn’t really exist. He steered clear of the site of the rescue mission. The scent did not lead there and Grayheart had no desire to return to that scene.
And if the scent had led there, he had no idea what he might have done.
A quiet exhale hissed through the air, his only offering of thanks to the cold stars above.
The scent led him to one of the many mine entrances. Here, the scent of Aru hung stale, but much thicker. And more recent.
And Moonshadow’s scent too.
Something broke within him and Grayheart struck out with his forepaws. His long half-healed claws burst through the remaining poultice wrap and through the soft bark of a nearby tree. Hot tears followed the spray of bark to the ground, as much from pain of the soul as the pain in his claws.
“There’s no one else to do this but you,”
he growled.
“It’s up to you. You can change your little siblings’ lives. It has to be you.”
Still he kept going, following a winding scent trail. The night gave way to dawn and Grayheart gave way to sleep, rising again at twilight to continue.
If Aru usually stayed near the mine, surely he wouldn’t go any further than he had to? And he’d likely stay somewhere similar?
Please, StarClan . . . I know I’m flouting so many of the Clans’ laws . . . but please . . . help me find Aru. Help me put things right.
The wind shifted and the young tom’s heart leaped into his throat. The scent. The one he sought.
Fresh. So fresh that Aru might well be standing before him, invisible.
And he’d given absolutely no thought to what he’d say.
Just, “hey you’re gonna be a Dad again, Pops”?
What did one say in this situation?
His blue eyes caught a flash of tabby fur through the bushes and Grayheart gulped. Well, he’d just have to hope that whatever his brain decided to have him say would work. If he stood here much longer he ran the risk of spooking Aru and either getting attacked or having to track down the tom all over again.
Head level and heart racing, Grayheart stepped through the scrawny bush and cleared his throat.
“Hi . . . Aru.”(ooc) Who am I? (It's totally Kayla) leaving the setting vague for you so you can build where Aru might have settled. <3
I'll leave a rose on your grave
It's the dove and grenade
It's the dove and grenade
