fawnflower (she/her) | orchidclan

Things were restless around the camp. While peace may have existed in some places, tension grew in others. On the ground level, Fawnflower could feel something in the air that made her tail twitch, that made her stomach churn. Perhaps there was something deeper inside her that was churning, something she had almost begun to pray was true, but she didn't want to place any hope on it just yet. She didn't want to jinx herself with high hopes and lose everything once again.

Instead, she busied herself with her usual activities. She had even begun to take Violetwing under her tutelage when the she-cat expressed a desire to stay in the nursery. While Fawnflower may have felt a little twinge of jealousy at first, or a fear that her position would soon enough be obsolete, she had to also remind herself that was not what was happening. It was good that cats sought desire to help OrchidClan grow, and help the smallest and weakest live through the hardest days so they could go on to do great things. She had already felt the smallest twinge of jealousy when Ice-eyes had mentioned taking on an apprentice, but she knew that a medicine cat apprentice wasn't going to get in the way of her skills. Even as the young cat learned, Fawnflower still had her own significant role: to help queens and also help decide when they actually needed to seek out the medicine cats for help, compared to when they could just relax and let something pass with patience.

Speaking of the medicine cat apprentice, it had been clear that he had been more skittish than usual as of late. Though Fawnflower hated to think of herself as someone who might pry, she had still gone to Ice-eyes to make sure that Dipperpaw was feeling alright. She considered herself someone who had a generally close relationship with both cats, working side by side in her own right as an almost senior queen.

She had not expected what Ice-eyes told her.

Fawnflower tried to keep herself calm, but her fur still stood on edge. She had yet to approach the leader about it, understanding that there was likely no more swaying Morningstar on the subject. But stars above, how else was Fawnflower supposed to react? Certainly, she figured that Ice-eyes had given her this information not just as a confidante and friend, but as someone who had a certain relationship to the leader. Fawnflower held no fear around Morningstar, and in fact, had absolutely no problem standing her ground and pushing her when need be. Surely Ice-eyes hoped that Fawnflower might be able to convince Morningstar to reconsider her actions. Simultaneously, this was, perhaps for the first time, a moment when Fawnflower was a little tense about the idea. How would the leader react to hearing that the medicine cat had passed on this perhaps sensitive information about warnings from StarClan? Neither cat was prone to gossiping by any means - especially not about something with so much weight - but it might still break a cord of trust. At the same time, Morningstar wasn't blind to the friendship between Ice-eyes and Fawnflower, and it probably wouldn't come off as a surprise that she would know this information.

As though StarClan had heard the queen's thoughts and declared it out through the camp, light began to poke its way through and Morningstar's voice called in.

Fawnflower stood, stretching her paws in front of her before letting it roll along her spine and stretching her legs out behind. She debated how to go about this, but if Morningstar was coming to speak with her directly, it meant maybe her thoughts needed to wait. "One moment, Morningstar," Fawnflower said quietly. She did a quick habitual scan of the nursery before pushing her way past Morningstar and into the camp clearing itself.

The queen did her best to temper herself. Hold yourself back, she told herself. As much as Morningstar was her younger sister, she was still leader first and foremost. "To what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?" she asked, her voice still holding its well known soft, almost motherly quality. It was a tone that even to the leader she could not hold back.

desolate ● 714 words