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Post by niftyshark on May 18, 2019 20:47:35 GMT -6
It was a white she-cat who came out of camp first, and Coyotestorm appraised her for a moment. It was only a moment though, because he was desperate to return Dark’s body. He was also torn, because as much as he wanted to help his kits, he didn’t think he could play that role. He also didn’t want to become an inter-Clan scandal since the information wasn’t known. Sharp-eyed WillowClan warriors might see the connection based on the circumstance alone, but he wasn’t about to acknowledge those allegations. He set Dark’s body down. “Coyote attack,” he said briefly, eyes boring into the she-cat. He didn’t bother giving her any more information, since he doubted she needed to hear it. “You need to get your medicine cat.”
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Post by theatricals on May 18, 2019 20:50:39 GMT -6
Chirppaw looked at the tom, almost expecting more of an explanation, but her own shock was painted on her face, and she gave a short, almost unnoticeable nod. She looked over at Haypaw, wondering if she might catch his eye, but it was impossible. Turning away, she raced over to the medicine den, watching as the cats that remained in the camp slowly started to exit their dens, curious and anxious over the strange scents around them. "Bayflower," she called out when she reached his den. "We--we need you out here."
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Post by gingerluna on May 19, 2019 18:43:03 GMT -6
Bayflower had been about to leave to check on the elders when Chirppaw bounded towards him. As she spoke, he nodded, and rushed past the rest of the Clan alongside her. He was instantly was taken aback by the sight of blood, eyes widening as he stared at Dark's body. The wounds were so deep...she was already dead. What could've caused them? He looked up and recognition flashed in his eyes. The RavenClan warrior who'd stopped him at the border, and at his side, Haypaw and Beanpaw. Oh, StarClan now, they'd... His thoughts cluttered in his mind, and he simply stared at the group for a long moment before speaking.
"Chirppaw, could you take Haypaw and Beanpaw to my den?" he asked, knowing he needed to get the two apprentices away from the stranger and their mother's body. "Find someone to sit with them...Flareheart, maybe. I'll be right there." Shrikestar would surely need to attend to the scene, and with Dark gone, Haypaw's mentor was the closet thing to family the two had left.
He met Coyotestorm's gaze. "Tell me you didn't do this," he murmured, remembering Falconwind and feeling a twinge of guilt that he couldn't let the tom into the camp without asking him this awful, disgusting question first. "Tell me what happened."
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Post by niftyshark on May 19, 2019 19:00:18 GMT -6
Coyotestorm held on firmly to Dark, as if setting her down would make her vanish for good. He waited until the white she-cat led his kits away before he focused on the young medicine cat. The words Coyotestorm heard out of his mouth shocked him, and his eyes blazed like a wildfire as he stared Bayflower down. He placed Dark protectively by his paws as he bared his teeth, barely keeping his rage in check. “I didn’t do this.” The mere thought made him feel sick, and he could swear he felt flames licking at his paws as the traumatic memories threatened him behind his eyes. “I was nearby and heard screaming, and I found... your warrior... like this. Those two apprentices were with her.” His breathing was coming quickly as his grasp on his control waned. “RavenClan is not filled with murderers, though perhaps I can’t expect a cat close with StarClan to be partial.”
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Post by gingerluna on May 19, 2019 19:07:01 GMT -6
Bayflower remained steady in his stance, but inside his heartbeat was thrumming like a flooding river. He didn't doubt Coyotestorm for a second, and a surge of rare anger shot through the medicine cat as he remembered Falconwind. "I'm so sorry," he said immediately. "I was lied to before, a murderer was let into camp and /helped/, and I cannot..." He paused, and took a deep breath, meeting the tom's gaze. "I cannot repeat that mistake. I believe you. I'm so sorry." He looked down at Dark, steadying his breath as best he could. "You've done us a great service, I cannot thank you enough. Are you injured? I'll speak to Shrikestar, perhaps you can rest here for awhile. I know this must've been a shock." He turned, motioning for Coyotestorm to follow. Dark's body needed to stay outside of camp, at least until it was cleaned. No one else needed to see her in such a state. His duty was to the living before the dead, and this tom needed to be checked over. "I'll call the elders over to see to her. You've done more than your part."
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Post by niftyshark on May 19, 2019 19:35:44 GMT -6
The pale tom didn’t relax. He knew of Falconwind’s betrayal, and he knew the situation was uncanny in its similarity, but he still couldn’t bring himself to accept the apology. All Coyotestorm could manage was a shake of his head before he followed Bayflower into the WillowClan camp. Immediately eyes were on him, and he could hear not-so-subtle whispers. He didn’t even realize Dark’s blood was soaked into his chest, and he tensed upon the realization. He sighed, voice hoarse, and edged towards the medicine cat den. He couldn’t see his kits, so he assumed they were inside, and it occurred to him almost dully that he didn’t know their names.
—
Shrikestar was in his den, resting after a dawn patrol, but the murmurs he heard outside in the camp roused him to full alertness. He angled his ear to the den entrance to listen, and the urgency he heard made him rise to his paws. He stepped out into the sunlight, squinting against the sun, halfway to its sunhigh position. It took him a moment to adjust, but when he did, he was briefly stunned into motionlessness. Cats were clustered at the edges of camp, giving a wide berth to a... RavenClan warrior perched by the medicine cat’s den. The faint smell of blood permeated the air, and it was enough to leave him completely confused. He only saw Bayflower upon quick inspection, not his deputy, so he approached the medicine cat in the center of the clearing. “What’s going on?” he questioned, struggling to tamper down on the alarm in his voice.
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Post by gingerluna on May 19, 2019 19:43:08 GMT -6
Bayflower stepped alongside Coyotestorm, guiding him carefully through camp. As he spotted Shrikestar, he quickly turned away from the warrior, trusting him to wait until he was done speaking to their leader. He stepped up the tom. "Dark is dead," he murmured under his breath, not wanting to fuel the panic. "I don't know what killed her yet. She was with Haypaw and Beanpaw when she died, they're in my den now, and this RavenClan warrior says he heard screaming and found her dead. She's at the camp entrance now. I need to look after Haypaw and Beanpaw, and ensure he's alright." He nodded towards Coyotestorm. "It's....it's bad. I think it must've been an animal attack. I need to..." He looked over to the medicine cat's den, feeling torn between different duties. "I need to attend to my patients. Could you send someone to take Dark's body somewhere secluded? No one else needs to see her like that."
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Post by niftyshark on May 19, 2019 20:01:43 GMT -6
Shrikestar blinked rapidly at Bayflower, unable to comprehend what was said at first. Dark, dead? His eyes slid to the RavenClan warrior in the camp, towards the medicine cat’s den, then back to Bayflower. He took in a deep breath, but it did little to calm his nerves. What was he supposed to do in a situation like this? It was one of many aspects of leadership that he still didn’t feel comfortable with. He swallowed, then nodded. “I can have the elders clean her and prepare her for mourning. Please focus on tending to injuries. I’ll get the elders and keep the clan calm.” At least he would try. He had no idea how to start, and he didn’t know what to do without knowing the full circumstances. He angled himself towards the elders’ den, readying himself to speak with them.
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Post by silentpaws on May 20, 2019 6:35:45 GMT -6
The sudden quiet punctuated by whispers had already drawn Floodfield out of the elders den by the time Shrikestar had reached him. "Shrikestar, what happened?" he asked urgently, looking past the leader to the cats gathered in the clearing. The presence of a RavenClan warrior in the camp didn't surpass him, instantly taken back to Owlscreech's death far too recently, and from the corner of his eye he saw Briarpool duck back into the warriors' den. Clearly Coyotestorm's arrival hadn't surpassed her either.
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Post by niftyshark on May 20, 2019 6:54:54 GMT -6
Shrikestar knew to expect the question from the previous leader, but he couldn’t provide a clear answer. “Dark’s dead. There are patients in the medicine cat den, her kits were with her and survived.” He was worried about their mental states, but he had more than one thing to focus on, and he was confident Bayflower had that covered. Beanpaw was his apprentice, so he could assess him later. “Apparently the RavenClan warrior found them, and Bayflower thinks perhaps it was an animal attack.” He glanced over to Coyotestorm, but the tom looked lost, staring at nothing. He moved closer to Floodfield and dropped his voice. “I don’t think this is that... same situation, but I want to double-check for foul play.” He pulled back and gestured for Floodfield to walk beside him so they could head for the camp entrance, where Dark supposedly was.
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Post by silentpaws on May 20, 2019 7:07:02 GMT -6
"Of course," Floodfield said quietly, following on beside Shrikestar as they crossed the clearing. At the mention of Dark he had been instantly taken back to the first time he'd met the she-cat, when she'd first come back with him to WillowClan and made her home there along with Rippleflare and Cloudfern. She'd seemed happy in recent moons, in the Nursery raising her sons. Now he could only hope that that had been the case. It didn't escape him that there was irony in Shrikestar and him still standing together to deal with a problem despite their flipped positions, but if the deputy was away from the camp then Floodfield was happy to give whatever support he could.
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Post by niftyshark on May 20, 2019 7:40:27 GMT -6
As the body came into view when they exited camp, Shrikestar stilled. Almost immediately he knew the damage done to the body couldn’t have been due to a cat. Limbs hung askew and almost off the body entirely. Deep gashes marred her pelt and loose skin, and he couldn’t imagine what other damage wasn’t easily visible. “What could have done this?” he said a little breathlessly. Was this on their territory? Or... was Dark off of their territory? And how were her kits involved? That prompted several questions he didn’t want to think about at the moment. “How are we going to prepare her? I’m not sure we can hide this much damage.” His face twisted as he finished, and he had to resist the urge to look elsewhere.
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Post by silentpaws on May 20, 2019 8:00:28 GMT -6
Floodfield had seen the aftermath of many terrible deaths during his time as leader. He'd even been on the recieving end of a few. But nothing could have prepared him for the state of Dark's body. Immediately he knew Coyotestorm had to be innocent; there were no similarities between the injuries on Dark's and Owlscreech's bodies, it was impossible that a cat could have killed her. "Something large," he replied to Shrikestar's first question, running through options in his mind. "Possibly a fox, though I'd say even larger than that. Some sort of dog; either a coyote or a wolf. And probably more than one." Being torn to pieces by a pack was a horrible way to die and he could only pray that StarClan had taken her quickly. As the second question he gave a quiet hum of acknowledgement before he said "Let me worry about that. I don't think I can make her look unmarked but I will make sure there is a body her kits can mourn over." There were ways he could position her limbs to make it look natural, and perhaps the worst of her wounds could be covered in lavendar as well as her pelt dressed in it as was tradition.
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Post by niftyshark on May 20, 2019 9:33:32 GMT -6
He didn’t know how anyone could make such a body look presentable, but he didn’t doubt Floodfield in the slightest. “I will leave you to it then.” Shrikestar didn’t want to stop and think what a coyote or wolf problem would mean for WillowClan. What if they came right to the heart of camp? That would be sure to cause a panic. He turned away from Floodfield and the body, walking back towards the camp entrance. He would have to calm and inform the clan of what happened, and he thought through his words on his way to the speaking rock. He barely felt confident in them himself, but he knew delivery was just as, if not more important, then how he felt personally.
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Post by silentpaws on May 20, 2019 9:59:19 GMT -6
{ timeskip }
The Clan had been told, and Dark's body had been laid in the centre of camp. But with the deputy still out on patrol, Floodfield had left Whispcall and Prickthorn to begin preparing the body as Shrikestar had another job for him. Despite the irony that he was still performing leadership duties in his retirement, he was glad to have been given something to do in the chaos as he approached Coyotestorm. The RavenClan tom had hardly moved since he first arrived with Haypaw and Beanpaw and looked lost in his thoughts as Floodfield approached him.
"Coyotestorm," he said to catch the tom's attention, his voice quiet to keep the rest of the Clan from listening in. "I'm sorry to ask you this so quickly, but I need to know what happened. Everything you know." While his voice was gentle out of respect for the horrors that he was asking him to recall, his 'leader voice' as Brookshine called it had made an obvious comeback. After almost falling for Falconwind's lies there could be no detail left unsaid. He almost suggested bringing Coyotestorm to his den where there would be more privacy, before remembering that the den wasn't his anymore and just remaining where he sat.
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Post by niftyshark on May 20, 2019 10:15:03 GMT -6
Coyotestorm was truly lost, unseeing of what was around him. What was supposed to be a day that perhaps freed him from the trap that was his mind only served to bury him deeper in it. He barely noticed as Bayflower buzzed around him. His eyes were riveted to Dark when her body was placed in the clearing, and she looked at peace. He wanted to go over to her, but he had to play the role of a respectful stranger, and he felt odd at the prospect. Before he knew it, Floodfield stood before him, gentle and firm at the same time. He blinked to focus his eyes against the dryness that set in, and he spent an additional moment trying to piece together his answer. No one could know the true circumstances behind what happened. He had to make sure his kits followed the same story, but that was a problem for later. He had to set the tone, and he couldn’t be suspicious while doing it.
“I was by RavenClan’s border, hunting,” he began, swallowing thickly. “One of your apprentices ran over, from the outland side, calling for help. I followed and found your warrior dead in a small clearing, and the scent of coyote was in the air. I didn’t witness it, but it was already too late by the time I got there.” He left out the fact that he saw the coyotes and that an outsider was also present. It would raise too many questions that he didn’t have good answers for.
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Post by silentpaws on May 20, 2019 10:23:49 GMT -6
So it had been coyotes then. They would have to send out extra patrols along the border to make sure they hadn't hung around, would have to warn warriors against going out alone to that area of the territory. Floodfield then reminded himself that those duties weren't his anymore, but resolved to mention the ideas to Shrikestar when he debriefed the leader. "Then I think Haypaw and Beanpaw had a lucky escape," he mused aloud, presuming that Dark had probably given herself up to keep her kits safe. A warrior-worthy death for the cat who had once been an outsider. "Was it on WillowClan territory?" he asked then, thinking through the locations along the RavenClan borderline and trying to work out where the attack could have taken place from what Coyotestorm had already said. Ashenstar would need to be warned as well, but that was something that Coyotestorm could probably do when he returned to his home.
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Post by niftyshark on May 30, 2019 7:25:20 GMT -6
Coyotestorm focused on Floodfield. Now he knew their names. He burned them to his memory. The next question had his mind racing. He couldn’t lie about that. WillowClan would be investigating, and it obviously wasn’t on their territory. He shook his head. “No, it was on the outlands side. Everything already happened by the time I got there.” His eyes drifted back towards Dark’s body, then towards the camp entrance. His clan would be questioning his disappearance soon, and he would still have to wash off the non-RavenClan scents. Of course he would be delivering news of what happened in WillowClan, so it would fit what he had to say, but he still didn’t like it. He also felt uncomfortable being unable to even grieve Dark properly, and he knew he probably wasn’t wanted in the camp for much longer.
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