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

[rememberettersberg]

"Just Nightingale is fine," he says, near-automatically, as he does to most everyone. "I'm not, no. A mere wizard, I'm afraid." This is so understated as to be almost comical. "Do you have a profession?"

[onthewillowsthere]

"Who is Mistystar?"

[mothwingofriverclan]

It hurts Mothwing's heart that she almost wants to reply, my friend, but that isn't really true any more. "She's my leader, in charge of RiverClan. The one who recently exiled me."

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad sits with that, and the way it feels -- perhaps it's because she's a cat, but he feels as if it's easier to understand her. He knows the difference in the sounds the castle strays make, the difference between a welcoming, noticing sound and a plaintive one.

Finally he says, "I'm sorry."

[wickedwit]

"It's using words together in a pointed, pleasant way." He has to think about that definition before committing to it. It's somehow easier and more difficult to explain to a cat than it would be to any other living being. "I'm more of a rhetorician than a poet. Rhetoric is using words deliberately to persuade someone of something. Poetry is more for the beauty of it. Are there sounds you find more beautiful than others?"

[socialjusticedragon]

"His name is William Laurence, and he is the finest captain you could ever see. I have known him since I hatched. He is honorable, and intelligent, and kind -- and an abolitionist, and he has very strong morals...and he is not here, and I miss him very much, but he will turn up sooner or later. He always does." He sounds -- a little disconsolate, but certainly stubborn in his belief that Laurence will show up here. Temeraire can be very stubborn when he wishes to be.

[mothwingofriverclan]

Mothwing's seen lambs on WindClan territory, and it shouldn't surprise her that twolegs can take down such big prey, but it does. "No, I probably wouldn't like this falafel," she agrees between mouthfuls of moss. "StarClan warriors also still hunt and eat, so it makes sense."

[mothwingofriverclan]

"A wizard?" Mothwing doesn't know what that is. "Yes, I'm a medicine cat, a healer."

[mothwingofriverclan]

"Thank you," Mothwing meows simply. She moves to sit close to him, happy to have made a friend here.

[mothwingofriverclan]

Rhetoric, Mothwing understands. She can hold forth pretty well herself in that department.

"I hadn't thought about it like that before, but we certainly choose names with care," she meows. "We get the first half of our names from our mothers, and the second when we come of age, from our leaders. They have to be good at understanding which words sound good together."

[mothwingofriverclan]

Temeraire describes William Laurence more like a clanmate than like a twoleg, and Mothwing's heart clenches with pity.

"He sounds wonderful," she meows. "Wait, what is it that he wants to abolish?"

[onthewillowsthere]

Her closeness seems like such a gift that he restrains himself from asking if he can touch her fur and find out whether it's as soft as it looks. Instead, he sits quietly with her, and works on his sketches.

[rememberettersberg]

"I practice magic. Are you aware of the concept?"

[socialjusticedragon]

"Oh, slavery." He scratches his talons in the dirt a little, displeased at the very mention of it. "It is -- an awful human thing, where they think they might own another human, and make them work, and put them in chains. I cannot understand it, but I am glad Laurence does not like it."

[mothwingofriverclan]

"Oh. Yes, though we don't have a word for cats who use it. It's very rare for us to have it, and I didn't really believe in it until I saw it with my own eyes."

[mothwingofriverclan]

"That's terrible." Mothwing's eyes widen. "I've known cats to be tyrannical leaders, but never to that degree. No one does that... here, do they?"

[rememberettersberg]

"How interesting. You make me wonder if the stray cats in my world have an organised society we know nothing of." He pauses to consider. "Are there, um..." How to put this delicately. "Are there cats who live with humans where you're from?"

[wickedwit]

"I'd be curious to hear more about your culture, if you'd like to share." He'd also like to pet the beautiful cat, but he restrains himself. "Is there a story behind the name Mothwing? There isn't much of one behind Claudius," he says wryly, "other than that Claudius was the name of an infirm leader disliked by his family¹."

¹ Well, when you say it like that, Claudius.

[mothwingofriverclan]

"I think my name was mostly chosen because my pelt is fairly pale, and wing sounds good with moth," she admits. "Your name reminds me of my nephew. My sister Tawnypelt--also a pretty self-explanatory name, honestly--named her son after our father, who was also a widely disliked leader. I think she meant for him to redeem the name, and to show that she wasn't ashamed of her heritage. Do you think your parents meant your name like that? Are you related to the first Claudius?"

[mothwingofriverclan]

"Yes. They're called kittypets. My mother was one. You don't think you're from my world?" she asks. "You sound like twolegs I've heard¹, except you can actually talk, but I think that's part of the magic of this place."

¹By this she means he has a British accent. Don't ask me how she's able to tell that.

[rememberettersberg]

Nightingale nods solemnly, trying very hard not to let his face convey that he finds the word kittypets kind of adorable. "I suppose you're right, we very well could share a world. How would we ever know? Do you know what the, ah, twolegs call the place that you're from?"

[wickedwit]

"No, the first Claudius was a Roman," he says with a faint smile. Describing everything anew, to someone who has a culture and heritage removed from his own, lets him take another view on it. "You have leaders among your kind -- do you have nations or tribes? The Roman Empire was a very old nation of twolegs that fell after trying to rule all the other twolegs it came into contact with. I always thought my parents named me that way as a warning. My brother's a leader, and they wanted me to know that if I tried to take his place, I'd fail. Tawnypelt sounds far more admirable. Has she redeemed her name?"

[mothwingofriverclan]

"No," Mothwing sighs. "It would be nice if I could understand twolegs better at home. Then maybe we could ask them not to destroy our territories. Hmm... do you know a place with a big lake, and one small island in it? Also a horseplace nearby?"

[mothwingofriverclan]

"We have clans. And there is one tribe," she adds. An ancient clan sounds like the tales of LionClan, TigerClan and LeopardClan the elders like to tell, but of course those clans weren't real. This Roman Empire is more like the real TigerClan, the one her father had run. "Yes, her son became a leader as well, and he's doing a better job than his grandfather. Why didn't your parents want you to be the leader? Surely your brother could have chosen you as deputy."

[socialjusticedragon]

"Oh, no, I would not have it; and neither would Enjolras!" A dragon can be a very fearsome thing to contend with when he is in a Mood, after all. "All of the humans here are quite good, at least all the ones I have met."