#brightfalcon

The Clan can’t seem to escape loss.  After slowly fading for many moons, the elder Darkpetal (160) was found dead in his nest.  Bushmask (131) and Brightfalcon (164) are saddened by the loss of their friend so soon after the loss of their children.  Tremors wrack Brightfalcon’s body as she dwells on how Darkpetal won’t see another morning.  Bushmask goes over the best moments he shared with Darkpetal in his mind, again and again, until he’s certain he’ll remember Darkpetal forever.  Airclaw (63) misses her father and wonders how she’ll move on without him.  Cressfreckle (37) and Yellowcreek (48) comfort her.  In light of their losses, ElementClan and FurledClan have decided to end the war.  It had devolved into a stalemate and both sides were able to find common ground.  Despite the end of the war, Chervilcry (100) is busy.  She pulls Midgepurr (18) aside and asks him quietly about his crush.  He looks at her confused.  What crush?  He doesn’t have one.  Peakspots (90) has been worried that Cressfreckle is spending so much time with his mate instead of going on patrols.  This leads to a fight between them that Chervilcry has to break up, and Yellowcreek starts complaining about him behind his back.  Although not all is well in their romance.  Cressfreckle wants kits, but Airclaw isn’t quite ready yet.  She wants to see how their relationship progresses before taking the step into parenthood.  Chervilcry also helps them work through it. The final member of the quadrangle, Graysong (34), has noticed that his mother is having a hard time and surprises her with some of her favorite herbs that he grew.   Sadly, while on a patrol, Pythonrush (18) is killed by a thunderpath.  Flinttooth (22) is a little shaken that she couldn’t save him, but isn’t that torn up.  She wasn’t super close to him.  However, instead of shrinking this moon, the Clan actually grows.  A tom named Luckstripe (58) and his newborn kits have joined the Clan. He and one of his kits, Mothkit (0), are fire-blessed.  Chervilcry has to put out a small fire Mothkit starts in the nursery.  But the other two. . .are star-blessed.  And one of them, Flightkit (0), is so powerful that she almost blinded Caterpillarmallow (71) when she inspected the kits.  The other, Lilykit (0), is slightly less powerful, but still pretty strong.  Yuccastar (100) is intimidated.

As the war with FurledClan continues, it claims its first casualty.  Antlersky (77) was on a patrol and fell into a pit trap set by FurledClan warriors.  It was layered with earth-blessing shaped spikes that impaled her before she had a chance to get out with her air magic.  Brightfalcon (162) is shocked by the loss of her eldest daughter so soon after the loss of her son. She sits vigil that night as grief fills her heart.  In the days to come, Brightfalcon barely stirs from her nest.  Bushmask (129), too, is devastated by the loss of his adoptive daughter.  He worked so hard to earn her affection, and he’s glad for the time they had together. He searches for cats to help but, when no one needs anything from him, he breaks down, wailing uncontrollably and cursing the world that took Antlersky instead of him.  Caterpillarmallow (69) mourns the loss of her mate.  She knew they might not always be together, but she didn’t expect them to be separated so soon.  She visits Antlersky’s grave, bittersweetly recalling all the happy memories they shared.  There is a bright spot amidst all this grief.  Graysong (32) and Yellowcreek (46) have become mates!  Yellowcreek can’t believe he’s so lucky as to have a cat that cares about him as much as Graysong does, and Graysong appreciates Yellowcreek’s help in coping with his brother’s loss.  Now they just have to see what Airclaw (61) and Cressfreckle  (35) think about polycules. . .Peakspots (88) is still recovering from his injury.  But when he’s recovered, he hopes he doesn’t end up going on a patrol with Stonefreckle (102).  For some reason, he’s never been very close with his older foster brother.  Maybe he’s jealous that Stonefreckle got more time with Nightingaletree.  Or maybe they’re just too different to get along.  Speaking of cats not getting along, Gentle (106) feels like Yuccastar (98) has been relegating the powerless cats in the Clan to useless tasks.  He brings this up with her, but the two of them just fight and end up resentful of each other.  Meanwhile, his kits are also having some tension.  Timberfleck (16) is jealous that Midgepurr (16) got to fight in a border skirmish when he didn’t.   He wants to serve his Clan too!  ElementClan seems to be the Clan of the wind-blessed cats, as another former loner named Amethystdapple (46)  has joined the Clan with medium-strength wind powers.  

Despite being an old lady, Judaschaser (128) is still an agile cat.  She manages to land on her feet nimbly after slipping on an icy rock.  The other cats account her dexterity to her star-blessed status.  Yuccastar (86) is jealous.  Bushmask (117) and Brightfalcon (150) have developed the kind of relationship that Brightfalcon didn’t have time to develop with Stormrush.  They go on walks, admire each other, and dote on their family.  Brightfalcon’s happy to have achieved this life for herself, in spite of everything she’s been through.  She does miss Rosemaryquake and Stormrush, but she still has the rest of her loved ones.  Speaking of whom, Graysong (20) has not been thrilled with how Yuccastar has been running things.  He’s even been complaining about her behind her back.  And she overheard.  Flurrypelt (20)  however, is a fan of Yuccastar.  He glares at Graysong, but his brother doesn't notice.  Pythonkit (4), who is stuck in the healer's den after he got frostbite from sneaking out of camp, has been watching Flintpaw’s (8) training.  He’s a little worried that his own training, as a powerless cat, will be difficult, and asks Flintpaw for advice.  She doesn’t have much for him.  It’s just hard.

Loaf!

Meta: So. . .this is a heavy moon. I almost cried when I saw that Yellowcreek had died. And then Fumblekit. . .Per the game's rules, an insecure leader will let the Clan vote on whether to keep or get rid of the kit. I went through and decided which cat would vote what, and, based on that, getting rid of the kit won. For the sake of the story, I had Yuccastar initially decide to exile Fumblekit (which is a death senetence for a newborn kit in and of itself), but, once she thought she was out of sight of the Clan, I decided that she would most likely kill the kit. And Cressfreckle took Yellowcreek's place as a witness. This moon was hard to write and I did my best to include any trigger warnings I could think of in the tags. Let me know if I missed anything.

Brightfalcon (163) is really struggling with her children’s deaths.  She won’t get up from her nest and just wants to lay around all day.  She’s old.  Maybe it would just be better if she went to sleep one day and didn’t wake up.  Why live when half her kits are dead?  Caterpillarmallow (70) is also struggling.  The combined stress of the war and the loss of her mate have left her with constant nightmares.  She can’t work, leaving the young Healers to fend for themselves, even though they, too, are grieving and  have lost siblings.  Graysong (33) feels like he should be more torn up over Flurrypelt and Antlersky’s deaths, but he just wasn’t that close to either of them.  And now he has Yellowcreek (47) as a mate and he’s busy replenishing the herb stores and healing injured cats.  He doesn’t really have time to grieve his littermate or older sister. There are also some tensions between Needlepelt (23) and Frostheart (23).  Frostheart is jealous that her sister gets to go on more patrols than her, since, as a Healer, she is less likely to be attacked by FurledClan.  Needlepelt notices that Frostheart is jealous, but, instead of talking to her sister, she gives bitter herbs to her father, who she knows Frostheart is close with. Meanwhile, Yuccastar (99) feels conflicted over the new Star-blessed cat in the Clan.  They enjoy spending time with Faiththrift (41), but feel like she doesn’t do anything useful on the battlefield and her powers are weaker than Yuccastar’s.  Chasingskip (32) is feeling a little closed in by the camp and his parents’ continued attention.  She just wants to have some time alone and ends up taking that out on Midgepurr (17).  

The combination of leaf-bare and the war is wearing on the Clan.  Brightfalcon (161) is devastated by the loss of her son, just a year after she lost Rosemaryquake.  She’s not sure she wants to go on in a world where her kits are dead.  Can’t she just go back in time to last leaf-bare, when they all were still alive?  The war with FurledClan has led to ElementClan having to adopt new routines.  Yuccastar (97) has their strongest wind-blessed cats flushing up drifts of snow on the borders and often puts Peakspots (102) on border patrols, so that any cats who remember Nightingaletree see her son is still out and fighting.  But after a border skirmish leaves him with a bad wound, he has to take a rest in the healer's den.  In his absence it doesn’t hurt to have Yellowcreek (45) do a little dark-cursed demonstration.  Just so they don’t forget who they’re dealing with.  Yuccastar has also recovered from greencough and came out as nonbinary, using she/they pronouns.  They seem to be having a bit of a mid-life crisis and doubting herself a lot more than they used to.  Meanwhile, Antlersky (76) is getting along with her brother, feeling the need to bond with her remaining siblings after Flurrypelt’s loss.  Meanwhile, the quadrangle cats are bonding.  Cressfreckle (34), Airclaw (60), and Graysong (31) had a nice talk while eating, and Cressfreckle purrs for a long time at one of Airclaw’s lame jokes.  However, Yellowcreek is taking some time by himself. The demonstrations haven’t helped Yellowcreek’s reputation with some of his clanmates.  He notices that cats like Bushmask (128) and Flinttooth (19) have been nervous around him lately.  He wishes they would just relax and that Yuccastar wouldn’t ask any more of him.  But he decides that he won’t stop using his powers to protect his Clan, if that’s what Yuccastar thinks is best.

After serving the Clan for many moons, Bushmask (121) has decided that it’s time for a rest.  He thinks fondly of the Clan he knew when he was young, as well as the Clan he has come to know in his old age.  He remembers playing with his sister as apprentices, using his powers to hunt in cold leaf-bares, grieving the loss of his sister, falling in love with Brightfalcon (154), and raising their kits together.  He’s excited to spend the rest of his life in the Elders' den with her.  Cressfreckle (27)  has been spending time with Graysong (24) and Yellowcreek (38) lately.  He really enjoys the time he spends with the two of them.  And he’s glad to see that Graysong has been getting along with Yellowcreek, even remembering his favorite piece of prey.  Graysong’s brother, Flurrypelt (24), is not as big of a Yellowcreek fan.  He thinks the dark-cursed cat is weird and annoying. Graysong ignores his comments, even when Flurrypelt splashes him with water to try and get his attention.  Meanwhile, in the apprentice’s den, Flintpaw (12) still feels like she’s struggling in training.  She can’t even pass it off as being powerless-Pythonpaw (8) doesn’t have magic and he got praised by Yuccastar (90).  What is she doing wrong?  Frostheart (14) is feeling a bit separated from the rest of the Clan.  Their friendliness and constant nagging are just getting at her.  She wants to escape.  So she goes on a patrol, all by herself.  And meets up with a loner, an older she-cat named Swallowbelly (101) with an injured tail and a medium strength water blessing.  It’s nice for Flurrypelt and Chervilcry (90) to have another water-blessed cat in the Clan.  Maybe Chervilcry will even get some help with mediating!