Mythic Glade (MountainClan RolePlay)

Redwing's ears perked, she had seen right through his ploy "Oh my gosh, could this go more wrong?!" He broke into a run to catch up with her. "I'm sorry, Finchstar, I meant no offence." He gave her a very apologetic and uncertain expression, keeping his head and tail low in apology. He walked pace with her. He was both terrified, and frustrated. Barely keeping a foot moving forward. He... Honestly didn't like talking with Finchstar. But she was his leader, and he did what she said. Outwardly he still just looked... Tired.

(Welp so much for bringing them closer together. They just don't mesh xD)

Finchstar's tail sank, and she let out a sigh, looking as tired and frail as a cat much older than her. "Perhaps I should save my strength. We don't know what's out there." As she said it, the two cats came to the border that marked the edge of their expansive territory. The tundra, marked only by a few large boulders and trees, stretched out before them. Her ears instantly perked at the thought of a fresh challenge.

Redwing hesitated at the border's edge, looking back and forth. He fluffed his tail and took a few steps across the border, glancing at Finchstar until she crossed the border herself. Then he matched his pace with hers, resorting to silence now as they walked, his nose flaring as he scented for danger.

Finchstar fluffed out her short fur to buffer the cold wind, but it only made some parts spike out like a hedgehog. They walked in tight silence, surveying the land for signs of trouble. Finchstar caught a flash of movement out of the corner of her eye and turned to see a gray wolf prowling several tree-lengths away. It wasn't looking at the two cats, but it would surely notice them in only a few heartbeats. "Get down!" Finchstar hissed urgently and hooked her claws into the deputy's pelt and dragged him against the rocky outcrop the cats had been walking near. Finchstar's black pelt blended with the shadows cast by the rocks in the morning light, but Redwing's russet pelt stood out like a bloodstain. "It's going to see you!" Finchstar meowed in a quiet yet panicked tone.

Goldy wrote:"Redwing, come back here!" Finchstar instructed lightly. "I believe Quailpaw hurt his hind paw last night while I were, ah, absent. He doesn't need to train this morning, surely?" She had briefly talked to the camp guards upon her return, and the warriors had told her the news of Quailpaw's injury. "I thought perhaps you'd like to spend time with me today." The black she-cat looked expectantly at the large tom with her head cocked slightly to the side.

(We can keep RPing with Rook and Quail if you want! It looks like me and twist are going to RP with Finch and Redwing for now, it's up to you)
Quailpaw looked up from the lazy spirals he had been tracing in the dust next to the moss bed. He tried not to show his hurt from Rookpaw's cold meow, but at least the black tom no longer seemed to be in a rage. "Are you sure? I can help you sort herbs if you'd like. Or bring you new bedding, or..." the gray-brown tom's voice trailed off. He still felt rather guilty about upsetting Rookpaw and hoped he could make it up to him somehow.

Rookpaw sized up Quailpaw, dozens of tasks piling up in his mind. I can make him change the elders bedding, or even make him fetch me cobwebs, or maybe... Rookpaw puffed his chest and meowed curtly. "Once your leg is feeling better, you can teach me that move you showed me earlier."

Redwing hissed as she clawed his pelt, and pulled him to the ground. He nearly clawed her back for how tense he already had been, but didn't. She was right though, the wolf would see him. No matter where he hid. He needed to get away from Finchstar. How could he do that though? He couldn't let anyone see his Ability, her most of all.. Yet he really needed it here. He closed his eyes tightly in desperation. "Run Finchstar! Get away! It'll notice me, I'll lure it away." It was a fake plan, but he made it sound good.

Quailpaw's orange eyes widened in surprise before he broke out in a pleased purr. "Of course! It's not too hard to get the hang of, it's all in the balance." He glanced at his injured paw, where the pain had all but been replaced by a slight throbbing. "It should be fine soon, thanks to you!" He shook out his long fur and sat up, his hind leg sticking out at an awkward angle to avoid straining the paw. "Until then, if you're not too busy, could you show me some of the herbs? They're so interesting, I don't know how you can keep them all straight in your head." He looked at the other apprentice with wide, begging eyes.

***

Finchstar bunched up her muscles to run before the image of her brother's broken body flashed in her mind. "I won't be responsible for another death!" She snarled at Redwing, panic flaring in her expression as she looked for an alternate solution. She stood between the tom and the wolf, hoping that her black pelt would somehow shield the red tom from the wolf's line of sight despite being much smaller than the bulky red cat. "Listen to me." She hissed. "When I say, run, run, and stay close to me." She crouched low, and turned again to her deputy. "Trust me." Immediately, she broke a boulder off of the outcrop using her Ability, sending a shower of pebbles over the two cats. The breaking rock made a splintering groan, and the wolf's head snapped towards the cats, malice lighting its gaze. "Run!" Finchstar snapped, and hurled the chunk of stone at the wolf before darting away.

Redwing liked this plan much better. He tensed his muscles, bolting after his leader, kicking up dirt with his hind claws as he bolted after the much faster Finchstar.

After a few few yards he slowed down, making sure he went unnoticed, then bolted to the side, among some bushes, he crouched, and turned invisible. He waited until the wolf hared by towards Finchstar. "no you don't." He sprung at the wolf, keeping invisible so it didn't try to dodge him, and slammed into it's shoulder. It was unbalanced by the sudden force, and fell to one side with a yelp of surprise, crashing. Redwing knowing Finchstar would look at the sound of the wolf's cry, quickly turned visible again, and started slashing at it's eyes, until the wolf stood again, throwing him off.

Now that it could see him, it turned on him. Redwing arched his back, and fluffed his fur, taking on an aggressive posture, and slashing and lunging towards the Wolf whenever it tried to go near him. It was a trick allot of small prey animals used to intimidate bigger predators. the occasional mink or mouse had tried it on Redwing when they spotted him. Sometimes their behavior had made the burly tom think twice. Long enough for the prey to bolt away at least.

But in the present, Redwing was slightly ashamed that he had to use a prey tactic to try and deter the wolf, growling and hissing, and swiping. After a bit, realizing the wolf wouldn't back down, but was waiting him out, Redwing sprung at the wolf, latching his claws into it's mussel. His weight made the wolf lower his head and yelp. Pawing at Redwing, who stuck on like a thorn. "DON'T WORRY ABOUT ME FINCHSTAR." He hissed. Knowing exactly how to get out of this. "JUST RUN! I'LL BE OK." He was thrown off the Wolf when it rolled trying to dig it's nose into the ground to get him off. Redwing stumbled back before the wolf could snap at him, he took a moment to look and see if Finchstar had run yet.

After a few seconds of haring away, Finchstar skidded to a halt and turned to see if her boulder had hit its target. The wolf was staggering backwards and let out an angry, surprised cry, the stone lying near its leg, and for a heartbeat the black cat didn't see Redwing and wondered if he had made his escape when she suddenly realized he was fighting the wolf alone. His image seemed to flicker a bit, only for a moment, but Finchstar brushed it off as an aftereffect on her mind from using her Ability to hurl such a heavy weight.
The red tom fought valiantly, and Finchstar noted his cunning tactics. When he hissed at her to run, she knew that she couldn't leave him to fight the larger animal alone, despite it appearing severely weakened. She hurled herself forward at the wolf and slashed at its side next to Redwing, matching his blows as the creature twisted around, snapping, but not quick enough to bite the warriors.
"You get back on its shoulders, I'll claw at its face." She snarled at the tom and leaped towards the front of the wolf, hoping to blind it. The pounding in her head made her mind cloudy and she misjudged her leap. Finchstar felt the wolf's teeth sink into her throat.

Redwing saw her coming and narrowed his eyes "Great! Can't she just do what I asked?" Now he couldn't go invisible again. But it was mere seconds, while Redwing was midleap towards the thrashing Wolf's shoulders, where he heard Finchstar scream. Landing, he looked over at her, and saw the wolf sinking it's long sharp teeth into her neck "FINCHSTAR!!" He wailed. He bunched all the strength he could muster into his paws, and leapt over the wolf's brawny skull, and landed firmly on it's eyes, barely stopping himself from landing on it's mussel and causing it to bite down further on the smaller she-cat. "LET GO!" He screeched with such passion an emotion and terror in his voice, it was more emotion then he had showed in a looong time." he furiously and near aimlessly slashed at the wolf's eyes and nose, desperate to force it to let her go without killing her.

Time seemed to slow down

the tom felt his heart racing, pounding in his chest and in his ears making him short of breath. He felt his paws and claws ache with the immense force he was using to keep his claws flexed to their absolute deathly maximum, and to still keep his toes stiff enough that his claws would slice through the wolf's stiff pelt instead of be dragged and bounce across the surface of it's skin. Every muscle in his body ached with the tension in them as he tried to free Finchstar from the wolf's grasp. At this moment he didn't care how hard she was to deal with, or how afraid he was of her, or how much he didn't like her, or even really that she may have more lives to spare. Each one was precious, and he was not about to let a cat die on his watch.

As blackness crowded Finchstar's vision, she heard Redwing's screech and knew he was fighting the wolf with everything he had, although everything felt distant besides the pain in her neck and head. One of the tom's blows must have landed, because she felt her skin rip free from the wolf's jaws and she thudded to the ground, bleeding out from her throat. She made a feeble effort to stand, but her legs only churned in the air, and the black leader knew that she was going to die.
Finchstar had never lost a life before. After what she did to become leader, she wasn't sure if StarClan would truly allow her to rejoin the living. She closed her eyes, and the sounds of the battle faded around her.
Even if I do come back, if Redwing doesn't succeed, the wolf will kill me again and again. I can't help him anymore. StarClan save him.
StarClan save me.
Finchstar had never really had faith in StarClan. Of course, she knew that they existed, she had seen the starlit warriors for herself when they gave her her nine lives, with apprehension in their voices and warning in their eyes. Ravenstar and Ospreywing, Finchstar's murdered brother, had not been present for the ceremony, surely unwilling to forgive their kin for disrupting their great plans for MountainClan. Her mother, who died of illness when Finchstar was an apprentice, had given her a life for compassion, knowing that it was what Finchstar needed most. She recalled the barely suppressed fear in her mother's gaze.
But what use were a bunch of dead cats?
None of the StarClan warriors had been eager to give the young cat her leadership. How could she count on them to bring her back?
Finchstar wouldn't beg for her life. She was too proud a cat to promise to change, to become a kind and generous leader, with a sobbing meow and pleading eyes. Let the dead cats worry about the consequences of having a murderer as leader. Let them be afraid of her, for her Clan, for the good of the forest. If they told her she wasn't fit to be alive, or to even be a StarClan cat, she would go to the Dark Forest with her head held high.
Still, she hoped to return. More than anything.
As the bleeding in her throat slowed, Finchstar was reminded that she wasn't dead yet. Summoning all of her remaining strength, she lifted the nearby stone with her gift, the one she had thrown at the wolf earlier, and dropped it on the wolf's back.
Immediately, her vision went black. When she opened her eyes, a warm forest sprawled in front of her.

Redwing saw the wolf drop Finchstar, and leapt off. He placed a paw on her shoulder, desperately meowing incoherent desperate babble to himself. He turned invisible, concentrating all his effort to conceal Finchstar as well. He physically shook with effort, his head pounding. Once they were both invisible, he couldn't break contact with her. Still resting his paw on her shoulder, he reached down and grabbed her scruff. He then moved his tail over her hind end, and pushed himself under her body. All while the wolf was looking around, desperately trying to find them. Once her corpse was securely on his back, he turned and ran. He hissed at her "You should have just listened to me! None of this would have had to happen! Why do you NEVER listen to me?!" With no one around to hear him, he felt free to vent. He barely noticed when the wolf was smashed by the rock, but it had died when the rock broke it's spine.

He carried her into the bushes, and a few steps into the tree-line, collapsed from the effort of maintaining the cover of invisibility over both of them. he fell unconcious, and returned visible.

Finchstar looked around, but no StarClan cats seemed to be present. In fact, the forest wasn't StarClan at all, it was MountainClan's territory. "Not willing to show your faces, are you?" She called into the trees, but the wind in the pine needles was the only answer.
Feeling curious, she walked through the trees, following the familiar route to camp. The silence in the forest was unsettling, like there wasn't a single creature alive. When she arrived at the camp, it was completely, and the faint scents revealed that no cat had been there in about a moon.
"Hello?" Finchstar called out, the hesitation in her voice undermining the tone of authority. There was no response.
She suddenly heard the voice of Redwing breaking through her dream. "You should have just listened to me! None of this would have had to happen! Why do you NEVER listen to me?!"
She understood the omen as clearly as if a StarClan cat had delivered the warning personally. Her Clan was going to fall apart if she continued to forge her own path and ignore the reasoning of her deputy.
Abruptly, her eyes opened to see the red tom collapsed next to her. She swung her head around, but there was no sign of the wolf. Redwing had dragged her to safety under a bush, and she felt a flash of gratefulness for the loyal cat. She heard his breathing and knew he was alive, but glanced over him to check for severe injuries, which he didn't seem to have.
For a moment, Finchstar stayed still and considered the weight of her dream. A warning. But could the proud cat put aside her own ambition and listen to Redwing? She rested her head on her front paws, feeling drained but free of pain.

Redwing was only out for about five minutes before he blinked his eyes open. His whole body ached, especially his odd colored eye. He very shakily, as if he was barely able to stand, sat up and looked over at Finchstar. He heaved a sigh, when he saw she was awake. Whether the sigh was out of relief or annoyance one couldn't really tell. In a raspy tone that was barely above a whisper, he asked in his usual serious voice "are you ok?"

He didn't stand all the way, just stayed mostly sitting up, his front legs visibly shaking with effort. It'd take him between 15 minutes to half an hour to fully recover his strength after spreading his ability onto another.

Finchstar didn't answer his question, although she appreciated his concern. The wound on her neck was healed without so much as a scar. "Are you?"
She saw the effort he put into sitting up, and knew that he must feel even more exhausted than she did. What the two cats needed was fresh-kill, but clearly neither one was in any shape to hunt. "We both need to rest before we can return to our Clan. Is this bush safe, or did you see any place safer we should go?"

Redwing looked around, and his ears perked when he noticed the wolf. "the....Wolf is dead." He maintained his serious tone. "I think this place is safe for now." He let himself half purposefully lay, half fall back down the ground. He wasn't so much hungry, he was just drained. He had never tried to use his ability on another creature or object before. And he mulled over the fact he had learned he could do that, even if it obviously came with great costs.

While laying, he took the time to shakily and haphazardly clean his claws after the fight. Carefully running is rough tongue over them.

As he did so though, his ears twitched back and forth, listening for more danger.

Finchstar studied the tom as she lay beneath the bush. Redwing was clearly worn out to the point of shakiness This doesn't seem to be normal exhaustion. It's the kind of fatigue cats get when they've strained their Ability.
She wondered what kind of gift he could have potentially used to fight the wolf. Perhaps strength? He has the build for it. Not speed, certainly. Perhaps he's just nervous and tired after the fight. He did watch me die, after all.
Finchstar's chest was still covered in blood, so she began to lick it roughly before realizing she needed to say a word first. "Redwing, thank you. Without you I would have lost more lives than one."

Redwing looked at her, and parted his jaws, clearly about to say something. And his face showed that it was most likely less then nice. But he thought better of it, and just nodded, giving himself a chance to control his tongue during said nod, before replying "You're welcome, Finchstar."

He took a deep breath. "I'm glad your ok." Redwing murrowed, laying down completely again.

Finchstar curled up with her tail tucked over her nose. Should I tell him about my vision? She decided against it, not wanting any other cat to know that StarClan themselves had revealed her weakness. She let out an amused huff at herself for taking the word of a bunch of dead cats over her own instincts and motives. "Redwing, do you think our Clanmates are content?" she asked around her tail. She felt she could be candid with her deputy while they were both recovering from their near-death (and, she supposed, her death) experience, and hoped that he felt the same.

Redwing looked at her, he hesitated a good long moment, thoughts flitting through his gaze like snow past a cat while they were running. After the aforementioned moment, he replied slowly "I-I'm not sure, Finchstar." He kind of looked away. "I catch them talking about you.. About us... Behind our backs allot. To be honest I feel like yo-our leadership is standing on a pillar of sand. It can be washed away with one wrong move." He didn't want to go into more detail, for fear of making her more mad then he was sure this declaration of the truth already would. He looked away, preparing himself for her to lash out verbally. Although in the back of his mind, he wasn't sure if she had the strength.

Finchstar's teal-ringed tail lashed in anger, not directed at Redwing but at the disloyalty of MountainClan. "A pillar of sand, hm? If that's the case, how can we prevent a collapse?" Her anger was washed away by simple tiredness and she took a deep breath, ready for a rare moment of honestly. "I feel a storm is coming, Redwing. Any pillar would have trouble standing, much less our pillar of sand." She glared at the ground. "I've never had the honor of my Clanmate's trust or faith. My leadership is held in place by fear and intimidation. A Clan needs a solid foundation to inspire real loyalty, and I can't give it that foundation on my own."

Redwing flexed his claws. "So do I." He sighed "honestly the only way I feel it can be prevented is with a gentle touch. If y-we're nicer to our clanmates... Maybe we'll earn their respect." He wasn't used to being this honest, it made him feel vulnerable, and like the words had been dug right out of the pit of his stomach and dragged out into the open, leaving him ready to gag, and with a vile taste on his tongue. In an attempt to appease his leader, he sighed, and added, trying to make it not sound forced, (and very much succeeding) "I'll do my best to be better about that." The sorrel Tom also sounded tired. Although he was slowly recovering his strength.

Finchstar looked at her deputy. "Redwing, you've struggled to earn the respect of our Clanmates nearly as much as I have. The only difference between us is that you've succeeded." She thought of the way her Clanmates had reacted with prejudice to the tom when he first joined the Clan, and the way they respected him now as their deputy. "Maybe all we'll ever be is a kittypet and a murderer. Could compassion ever change that?" Finchstar knew that expressing her doubts was a normal and even expected part of a leader-deputy relationship, but she hated the way her words sounded like weakness.

Redwing fought every urge to spit how he really felt about Finchstar to her, knowing his clanmates felt the same. Even so, he admired her attempt to actually relate to him. Even if being called a kitty pet made him tighten up inside. "I don't believe that, Finchstar. Look at where we are. Leading a healthy clan. We got this far with compassion. I'm sure it's limits don't end there." He heaved a sigh. "I was given Quailpaw after all, before you became leader."

"Can it even be considered a healthy Clan?" Finchstar questioned, looking less like an unpredictable leader and more like the young warrior she was. "They fear me, Redwing. I'm af- I don't think I could let go of any of my power over them without the two of us having a mutiny on our paws." She'd started to say 'I'm afraid,' but stopped before she could sound weak. She protected her power like a rogue protecting a piece of fresh-kill in cold season. The leader was always on guard, ready to stop herself from admitting any faults and silence and dissenting comments. It was exhausting.