Introducing: Mothwing

[mothwingofriverclan]

Mothwing leaves camp at sunrise, wanting to beat the greenleaf heat. Herbs are plentiful this time of year, and Mothwing wants to find a few to take back to camp to teach Frostpaw their scents. She’s glad that she’d found a new apprentice with a connection to StarClan so quickly after Willowshine’s death, if only so that her clanmates wouldn’t bug her. She still doubts that they really need StarClan; it had been Bristlefrost that saved them from the impostor and the Dark Forest, not a bunch of mouse-brained dead cats. Still, Frostpaw was learning her herbs well, which was what really mattered.

Heading for the lakeshore, Mothwing keeps an eye out for borage, and maybe some rosemary. Padding up to the edge, Mothwing takes a look at her reflection. She’s getting old. Her dappled golden fur isn’t as shiny as it once was, and her amber eyes are tired, but she notes with satisfaction that she’s still bigger and stronger than most of her clanmates.

There’s an odd flicker in the lake, and Mothwing instinctively swats at it with her paw--extra fish is always welcome, even in bountiful greenleaf--but it turns out to be a trick of the light. Disappointed, she looks up, and is startled to find herself at a completely different lake. It’s much smaller than her lake, and she can’t see the Gathering island anywhere. Besides, it smells completely different--is it leaf-fall suddenly? She backs up a few steps, the fur on her back raising defensively.

For a moment, she wants to laugh--is this her first ever vision from StarClan? They couldn’t have sent this to her seasons ago, when her position was in question? Then she notices the large twoleg dwelling looming over the lake, and she feels a stupid kind of relief. There are definitely no twoleg dens in StarClan’s hunting grounds, so this isn’t a vision. On the other paw... she has no idea where she is.

“Is any cat here?” she meows as loudly as she dares. Unbeknownst to her, anyone walking by would understand her words, whether they were a cat, a twoleg, or any other person.

Comments

[mothwingofriverclan]

"Partially, to avoid war," Mothwing tells him. "But also, he wasn't born in SkyClan, but he wanted to join to be with his mate, Violetshine. He wasn't good at being a warrior, so he made up his own position. Besides, SkyClan is a little more lax when it comes to the warrior code." Sometimes Mothwing wonders what it would have been like if her mother had brought her to SkyClan, and not RiverClan.

[summerdude]

"I don't think anyone ever finishes?" Magnus says, thoughtfully, absolutely not picking up on Mothwing's meaning. "Battle Practice is every day, forever."

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad shades in her tail, curled around her paws, his expression blank with concentration. "I didn't know you could make up something to be. Why is SkyClan different?"

[mothwingofriverclan]

"It's a newer clan. Sort of. When the clans began, there were five of them, but twolegs destroyed most of what used to be SkyClan's territory. The former SkyClan cats were forced to flee, and eventually destroyed. This was long before I was born." Mothwing licks her paw and cleans one of her ears. "Then a ThunderClan cat went on a quest and revived SkyClan, and now they're back."

[onthewillowsthere]

"What is RiverClan like?"

[mothwingofriverclan]

"Oh, no," meows Mothwing, alarmed. "I don't think I could take it if I was an apprentice even a moon longer than I was."

[summerdude]

"What was your apprenticeship in?" Magnus asks, very much intrigued.

[socialjusticedragon]

"Oh, you may take it! I have already had quite enough for now, but I am going to see if I can perhaps make a stew, later." He'll figure something out, at least. He's figured out tea parties and the like. "What is a kittypet, pray?"

[mothwingofriverclan]

"I trained as a warrior, then as a medicine cat. I assume you're still training to be an einherji warrior?" Whatever that was.

[mothwingofriverclan]

"Thank you." Mothwing happily chooses a trout and bites into it. If she closes her eyes, she can almost imagine herself back at camp. "A kittypet is a cat who lives with twolegs. Most kittypets choose to do it, but some are trapped against their will. I don't suppose twolegs keep any lizards like yourself as pets."

[summerdude]

"Oh, I am an einherji warrior," Magnus says. "The practice is for the final battle." He's excited by the other thing Mothwing mentioned, though. "A medicine cat? I have healing powers. I'd love to learn what yours entail."

[rememberettersberg]

Nightingale is sitting in the doorway of the summer house that has become his office, watching a breeze tease slow ripples out of the glassy surface of the lake. He doesn't hear her speak just yet, but the sight of her makes him smile a little.

"Hello pretty thing" he says, wondering. "Did Shen Qingqiu dream pets into existence here after all?"

[wickedwit]

Claudius's own face flushes, the tip of his ears red. "You -- ah --" Talk is too obvious to say. Understood is obvious, too, though closer to the reason Claudius is blushing. "Apologies." He pulls his hand back, now mortified by what was meant to be a prelude to petting. "That was rather forward, wasn't it? My name is Claudius. It's a pleasure to meet you, Mothwing."

[mothwingofriverclan]

"It's my home," Mothwing sighs. "But it's been through a lot. We like to swim, and we like to decorate our dens with shells... we're always the most well-fed clan, since we live by a river that feeds into a lake and no other clans like to fish, but even that doesn't stop us from getting into trouble." She thinks about the impostor, and how he'd convinced Mistystar to exile her. "We're definitely too proud."

[onthewillowsthere]

"Do you like to fish? Do you like water? What kind of trouble?" This is too many questions at once, he is well-aware, but everything about Mothwing is so interesting. Especially now that Magnus has given him the inner monologue of some of the Mansion animals, he's fascinated to know what they're all thinking, and Mothwing so far has been willing to let him ask.

[mothwingofriverclan]

"I don't have any powers," Mothwing meows shortly. "I just learned my healing herbs the best I could, and I have many moons of practice."

[mothwingofriverclan]

"I don't think this is a dream," Mothwing replies. "I'm a real cat, as far as I can tell. My name is Mothwing, and you are?" Greeting twolegs is becoming oddly easy.

[mothwingofriverclan]

Mothwing lets out a mrrow of laughter, her own embarrassment fleeing like a water vole into its hole. Claudius reminds her a little of Owlnose right now.

"It's alright," she meows. "I don't normally understand twolegs, either, but this place seems to be crawling with you lot."

[mothwingofriverclan]

"I do like fishing and water," Mothwing meows, a little amused by such a basic question. Of course, it's a worthwhile one. She's sure there's plenty of cats in other clans who might enjoy it, if given the chance, and probably a few RiverClan cats who secretly don't. "As for the trouble... let me put it this way. Do you have a code you follow? Laws that govern the behavior of your clan?"

[onthewillowsthere]

"Yes."

[rememberettersberg]

"Goodness me." Nightingale is surprised, but only mildly. "I apologise for greeting you so familiarly, I didn't realise you were a new resident." Hello pretty thing? he thinks to himself, appalled. For God's sake, Thomas.

[summerdude]

"Which makes it monumentally cooler," Magnus says. He laughs a little. "I'm a very bad warrior, so I try to be good at other things."

[mothwingofriverclan]

"I thought so. We take our code, the warrior code, very seriously," Mothwing explains. "And sometimes, that's good. It's important not to kill prey if you don't plan on eating it, for example. But other times... well, the code is kind of stupid. Anyhow, most recently, we lost contact with StarClan, and an impostor ghost possessed one of our leaders and convinced the RiverClan leader to start enforcing the warrior code as harshly as possible, mostly for his own ends." Mothwing sighs. "I myself was exiled from RiverClan because romances with cats outside one's clan used to be forbidden, and I am the product of one of those relationships. We got rid of the impostor, but our clan is still recovering."

Mothwing's not sure she'll ever forgive Mistystar for giving in to the impostor's demands. It feels good to tell someone about this; she's not sure anyone besides Icewing and Harelight really understands what she went through. Besides, twolegs aren't really people, so she can open up to them and it won't matter.

[onthewillowsthere]

"Do you miss it?" softly. He can't help thinking of Camelot, and the trouble with being a child of two people who weren't meant to come together.

[wickedwit]

"Ah, yes. It's by the grace of the mansion -- I say the mansion, but we're in the woods, and it's more of a metonymy. A poetic figure. I don't know whether cats have --" Claudius clears his throat. This is a unique opportunity, he supposes, to have a cat's perspective. "Do your kind have poetry?"