Starcrossed Lovers - Exeunt

"...And then when I'm a Warrior I'll run the whole length of the territories, and everyone will let me because they'll be so impressed that I can do it," Daringkit beamed with pride at the idea of his grand quest, "I expect no cat would ever be able to do it as fast as me. Maybe they'll make a game out of it and name it after me... Or I could ask them to name it after you or dad." The dark tom pondered, but he didn't get too long to do so because Hopekit and Mercykit had just rolled into him, wrapped up in their play fight, while Faithkit and Charitykit shuffled away to give them their space.

Talonstar smiled softly at her Kits, reaching over to where Faithkit and Charitykit were settled in the nest, giving them a couple of quick grooms each, not that they needed it, they were far better at keeping themselves clean than their over-excitable littermates.

Firpaw stuck his head in through the entrance, glancing around, "Is dad in here?" He asked, an eager light in his eyes. Ever since Firpaw had discovered Hemlockstar was his father he'd been over the moon, trying to copy everything his father did and speak in exactly the same way he did - it was all rather sweet.

"He went out to explore the territory with Jetblaze and Yewpatch, maybe if you find them you could show them around" she suggested, smiling as Firpaw nodded,
"Yes, I'll do that, see you later mum," then he was off again, no doubt shooting towards the exit of the Camp in eager pursuit of his father and older siblings.

"I keep forgetting who we're related to" Mercykit yawned, pulling away from the bigger playful tumble that had started between her, Hopekit and Daringkit, "There's just so many, like there's me; Hopekit; Daringkit; Faithkit; Charitykit; you; dad; Roseberry, her Kits Wakepaw, Deathpaw and Sleepingpaw; then Firpaw; Coalpaw; Jetblaze; Rookfeather, his new Kits; Yewpatch... am I missing anyone?"

Talonstar laughed, "You have two more cousins in the Apprentice Den, Crashpaw and Harmonypaw, your sister, their mother unfortunately died in their Kitting, but those two seem to be strong."

Letting out a sigh, Mercykit fell back dramatically, "Far too many."

It was early evening, and the rain had finally stopped, although patches of the ground were still slippery. Talonstar had forbidden some of the more dangerous paths around the mountain, particularly The Mountain Path that led to Lightningclan - they had too many accidents there on a normal day, until the sun had come out and cleared the ground again, Talonstar didn't want to see one paw on those paths.

The sky outside was a pleasant pink, rolling and stretching out across the blue, clouds lying across it like comfortable nests prepared by Starclan.

Roseberry had moved back into the Warrior's Den now, and she seemed to have patched things up slightly with Mockingbird. From what she'd heard they weren't sharing a nest, but his nest was close to hers, so hopefully Tornheart would read that as a sign to stay away.
She'd been over a couple of times to see Rookfeather's new Kits as well, they were nothing bigger than tiny balls of soft fur right now, they'd been named Sharpkit, Thicketkit, Slatekit and Flightkit, only a moon younger than her own Kits.

Crashpaw had been back a few times with Harmonypaw trailing shyly behind him to visit. The brown tabby often had a lot he wanted to say, telling her about his training and all the places he'd explored in the territory, Harmonypaw tended only to answer in short nervous sentences when she was actually addressed though.

She hadn't yet spoken properly to Jetblaze, but Yewpatch seemed happy to discover that she was his mother and in being reunited with her, still being absolutely everything she'd imagined him to be.

Coalpaw had taken the news harder than the others - if you didn't count Roseberry's whole fiasco when she first found out of course - but he seemed to be coming around now, hovering around his father, or just sitting in her den while she and Hemlockstar were there, playing with his younger brother and sisters.

Hemlockstar had kept his name, more out of pride than anything else, and Talonstar wasn't going to make him give it up.

Getting to her paws, the tall white Queen stretched, she should go and check on how Wispflake was getting along, then she'd come back and begin trying to settle her Kits down for the night.
Talonstar always forgot between litters how tiring it was when they were still young, and you often found yourself falling asleep when they did, even though it was far earlier than any fully grown Warrior would usually go to sleep.

She was halfway across the Camp when Deepwater cut across her path. Her Deputy had been doing an excellent job taking care of the Camp while Talonstar was busy with her young Kits - and the rest of her recently arrived family.
"Deepwater how can I..." But her question was cut off, Deepwater looked worried, the fur on her neck standing up slightly.

"It's Shiningwing, I tried to stop him, he's going to Nightclan, he says they don't know about Hemlockstar, Talonstar if this isn't handled carefully we could be looking at War!"

Deepwater didn't need to tell her that twice. "Which way?" She began running alongside her Deputy, unaware of a pair of wide amber eyes watching her go with fear.

"We need to tell her" the owner of the eyes whispered, "I can see it! We need to warn her!"

But a much calmer voice soothed him, "You see what should happen, and in this case... although none of us want it, we need to let it happen."

They accosted Shiningwing at the fork where the mountain paths split, Talonstar swinging around him to block of the path that led down the mountain towards Nightclan.
"What are you doing!?" She hissed, glaring half in anger and half in shock at the oddly marked gray and white tom, a pair of burning eyes fixed on her own in response.

"So it's okay when you do something like this then? And the Clan just accepts it and moves on? We all accept your own little gifts from Starclan like that!?" Talonstar hadn't heard this much venom in Shiningwing's voice in a very long time.

"Shiningwing I'm sorry for how I treated you and Splashleaf when she first arrived, but the situation was completely different," she tried to stay reasonable.

"Because she was a Medicine Cat!?" He demanded, claws unsheathing.

"No! Because you already had a mate and a family you'd been betraying, you did more than just betray your Clan Shiningwing!" This was quickly spiralling out of hand, Talonstar was struggling to keep her own temper in check, and Shiningwing had already lost his.

"And you think I don't feel guilty for that!? Each and every day, my daughters are like strangers to me, Waspgaze won't talk to me and Owlmoon doesn't see me as anything! I hurt Solarstorm, I never wanted to do that, I tried to support her and Splashleaf, but we both knew that we were lying to ourselves. I love Splashleaf, and I wish I'd never let Solarstorm develop those same feelings for me, but what happened, happened!"

Talonstar growled, "and so what, you're a martyr now?"

The Deputy quickly moved between them, trying to diffuse the situation.

"Shiningwing I know how you feel, but this is not the answer, if it's true that Nightclan doesn't know - which I'm sure isn't true anyway, then we'll send Talonstar and Hemlockstar to explain it in the morning, and..."

"It is true, Owlmoon told me he overheard Jetblaze and Yewpatch talking" the tom interrupted, although some of the fight had gone out of him.

Deepwater nodded slowly, "then it'll be sorted, but not tonight."

It was starting to get dark now. The stars of Starclan shining down on them from a darkening clear sky, as if every eye was turned on them.

Then Talonstar spoke again, she just needed to get one more angry word out, "If your son doesn't see you as anything, why would he tell you anything so important?"

Shiningwing's eyes snapped back up at her, but he simply looked exhausted now. He let out a light 'hmph!' of annoyance, nodded his head to Deepwater and turned to skulk away down one of the other mountain paths.
Full of pride and stubbornness, Talonstar refused to watch him go, he could sulk all he liked, he'd be back.

Then she remembered.

"Shiningwing!" All her anger at the tom was forgotten as she bolted after him, only just steadying herself as she broke onto the Lightningclan Mountain Path. There was nothing but a high cliff on one side and a deadly drop on the other on this portion of the cliff, as well as places where it thinned so drastically from rock-slides that you had to leap across portions.

The tom stopped, thankfully not too far ahead, turning back to Talonstar, looking around with horror as if he wasn't quite sure how he'd gotten here.
Deepwater had arrived to, looking out fearfully at her brother from the last safe point of the path, just behind Talonstar.

A crack of lightning split the air above them, cutting through the sky sending the rain falling down from above. The path had already been slippery, but as the rain grew harder, it became almost impossible to see what was only a tail-length from your nose.
"Shiningwing come back" Talonstar called out to him over the grumbling thunder, "I'm sorry about what I said, I didn't mean it... well I did, but I didn't mean to say it all like that!"

She could just about make the tom out a short distance away from her, as she approached him slowly, trying to coax him to approach her and begin the journey back. At one point her paw slipped on the rock, causing her heart to leap into her mouth, but she managed to refind her balance.

"I-I'm scared" the tom whispered, frozen on the spot, eyes turning ever so slightly to look down at the dizzying drop below.

"I know, but you're not too far out, just a few careful pawsteps in my direction."

Shiningwing swallowed, but he nodded, and took one careful step, then another, then another, gaining his confidence back. It was okay.
Talonstar began backing slowly in the direction of Deepwater to give Shiningwing space to move, soon they'd both be back and safe.

But the rain had caused the rock to soften over the last few days, and this new burst had finished it off. The next step of path Shiningwing stepped on fell out beneath him. The tom let out a yell of fear as he fell, scrabbling at the slippery rock to try and get a hold.
Mind going blank as she moved, Talonstar lunged forwards, catching her back claws against the most secure rock they came in contact with, seizing Shiningwing's shoulders with her claws. The tom let out another howl, this time of one pain, but the force helped him to steady himself and catch a loose grip in the rocks.

Talonstar could see out of the corner of her eye now that Deepwater was making her way out to help them.

"Can you pull yourself up?" Talonstar called down, trying with all her might to pull the tom up a little more - but he was heavy, and Talonstar knew she wasn't strong enough to do it alone.

The tom strained his muscles, pushing down on the perch his claws were hooked into as much as he dared. But he wasn't going to make it. The ground was breaking up again beneath them. Talonstar had two choices she could make as the ground only a couple of tail-lengths away crumbled down into the abyss below.

Shiningwing could see it too, and he swallowed hard. "No, save yourself. I was an idiot I got myself into this, you have Kits that need you, a Clan that needs you, I'm not that important..."

First there was fear, then simple and calm serenity.

"You have a family too" she reminded him, "And when I received my nine lives I took on the duty to protect my Clan and everybody in it..."

The ground broke away only a tail-length from her.

"...The reason Leaders are given more than one life isn't because we're more important..." Although she was explaining this to Shiningwing, she'd only just realised it truly for the first time herself, "...it's because we're expendable." And with that she gripped Shiningwing by the scruff, forcing down all her strength as she managed to swing him up onto the safety of the rock closest to Deepwater. No sooner had his paws touched the ground, than the ground beneath Talonstar gave way.

"Talonstar!" Deepwater screamed, moving past her brother who was lying bleeding and terrified on the ground.

But Talonstar knew herself well enough to know that she wasn't just going to give up on life when there was still a chance. seizing the rock of the remainder of the path that thankfully seemed to be holding, she swung out dangerously into the emptiness of the air.

Her loyal Deputy reached down, trying to help her up, but Talonstar had fallen further down than Shiningwing had and was almost out of reach.

Of course she could stay hanging here, trying to reach for Deepwater's paw, but in doing so she was risking the path beneath her Deputy collapsing, then they'd all go down together.
"Deepwater" she called up, a small smile on her face.

The Deputy shook her head, "No, don't you dare!"



"Keep an eye on my Kits for me. Make sure they get good Mentors, and tell Hemlockstar.... tell him I'm sorry..." Then she released her hold on the cliff, falling down, down, down into nothing. The fall would claim all her remaining lives, she knew that, Starclan could only heal you so quickly, but hopefully it would be a quick death.

It must have been, because when her eyes next opened a silver tabby she-cat was holding out a paw to her.

"Talonstar" the silver tabby smiled, her eyes tearful with pride, "my little girl, your time is done now," Talonstar looked back over her shoulder at her body, up at the cliffs where she could just make out the dark forms of Shiningwing and Deepwater.
Then she looked forwards to her mother, and where just beyond Pitchspirit was standing with Lavenderkit, Melodykit and Wiltedkit, beyond them as the light grew brighter were Mistletoepaw and Hollypaw, beaming happily as she passed them, then at the end...

"Dad..." Talonstar ran forward as if she were a Kit again, greeting her father returning from a hunt or a patrol, tears streamed from her eyes as she embraced him.
"I'm so sorry" she sobbed, "You would have made a much better Leader than me..."

But the white tabby shook his head and smiled softly, "No, not at all, I couldn't be more proud of you."