Originally Posted by Empress Of Evil (Post 556003) The ebony she-cat sat by herself in the camp. This was what she did for basically every hour of every day now. No one wanted to talk to a traitor, let alone sit with one, and the ones who knew the truth couldn't risk being exposed. And then of course, Grousestar had made the decision to keep her in camp, refusing to let her patrol or hunt. As much as Auroraflame hated it, she could understand why the leader would do such a thing after what she had told him. Even after understanding his reasoning, the former deputy still had the urge to run and leap through the forest. She hated being confined like this. She needed to stretch her limbs and be able to experience freedom again. Thankfully, Doveflight, the clan's new deputy, had given her some freedom by convincing Grousestar to let her go to the gathering. While it had been a truly wonderful experience to be let out of camp, it hadn't lasted for long and she was becoming fidgety once again. She let her icy blue gaze roam the camp, watching her clanmates go about with their duties while she could do nothing but sit. She was going to get fat soon if she wasn't given the chance to be free. She'd probably forget how to walk eventually. And she had no idea when this punishment was going to end. Would Grousestar removed her punishment when the war ended? Would the war even end? The blood in her veins grew cold at the thought and her gaze hardened harshly. No! She had started something and even though she could no longer assist with the state she was in, she trusted Shinefang to continue this quiet rebellion. Auroraflame sighed. All she could do was sit back and watch everything unfold, powerless to do anything. She hated this so much. Auroraflame found her gaze wandering over to land on the figure to a familiar friend. Umbraice. She watched as he played with the kits, never allowing them to win in the end. She snorted aloud, not caring who heard her. Most would expect a warrior to allow the young kits to win, but apparently Umbraice didn't function like that. It was probably the most amusing thing she had seen in a while in this miserable life of hers. She kept her eyes trained on the tom as he moved away from the fresh kill pile, a bird now clamped in his jaws. Well, she didn't have anything better to do, and she needed to talk to someone, even if that someone was as peculiar as Umbraice. She rose to her paws and slowly padded over. "That was a bit mean. You should've let them win," she said bluntly as she approached him. Auroraflame had lost a considerable amount of her friendliness when she'd lost her position as deputy. She spoke with little emotion and didn't consider others emotions very much either. It's not like they would care about her feelings anyway.

If Auroraflame hadn't approached him, then Umbraice wouldn't even knew she was there. Most likely because it was like her depressing mood added to her shadowy appeal. As she approached him, Umbraice almost dropped the prey he had in his mouth, his short fur bristling for the smallest of moment. To think that a moon or so ago, she would had been greeting him with some friendly purr or something, but instead all he was getting was her rather moping attitude. He dropped his prey, ''Well, well, well,'' He purred himself, a little haughtily. ''Isn't it the lovely Auroraflame. Deciding to grace me with her beauty. How kind of you to say hello to me.'' He scoffed, his pale blue gaze rolled upward toward the sky for a moment, allowing her to take a gander at his sarcastic reply.

He grabbed his prey again in his jaws, purposely ignoring her words for as he padded away. He can somewhat tell that she would be following behind him. He wouldn't admit that he didn't mind. He could use the company. She didn't seem too busy any longer, with not being deputy and all. He had to remind himself that she must be taking her demotion pretty badly. In his defense, he felt secondhand shock for her losing her position. He would had done something to cheer her up, but Umbraice was rather a dunce in situations like this. He couldn't say something sweet without unintentionally causing himself to sound like an idiot. He took a few glances back at her before he found a comfortable spot to sit down. He bent down to drop the prey once again, and used his tail to pat the spot next to him, gesturing her to sit down.

''Those kits, yeah?'' Umbraice purred a laughter. Despite her monotonous attitude, Umbraice was far from thinking he was mean to the little kits. Sure, any other warrior or apprentice would probably let those cuties win. Their eyes alone were like a sneak attack. He would had swore that every time they wanted to win, they'd look at him with those large eyes and pouty faces. ''I beg to differ, Auroraflame. I let them win, where's the fun in the challenge?'' He gave her a long look, waiting for her to disagree and come up with a counter of her own. ''I'm teaching them to grow, ya'know. As long as they keep losing, they would want to practice. Practice makes perfect.'' It made sense to him...It was life, and it was about learning to grow. It was only a game of mossball, but it was good practice for young kits such as themselves. ''Who knows? The next time we play, they'll probably win.'' He started tearing into the scrawny bird, picking off the feathers. The worst part of the meal. ''Or, they won't. Because, between you and me, I'm the pro at mossball...among other activities.'' He smirked to himself, turning to wink at her. Part of him missed their little banters that they usually got into, but the way she was looking, she didn't seem like she wanted to hear a joke. Let alone, take one. Let alone, joke herself.

Originally Posted by Lonestar23 (Post 556285) She should’ve expected this. After all, it had been bound to happen sooner or later, but Asterflame just hadn’t thought it would be… now. She was still young, and she’d half-thought that she might never have kits, but that clearly wasn’t going to happen now. Pregnant. She was pregnant, with Bluespark’s kits. She wasn’t quite sure how to feel about it yet. Asterflame was still in shock, wondering how in the world she was supposed to deal with something like this. She’d heard that she would have some sort of instinct, telling her at least part of what to do, but it wasn’t kicking in now. If she didn’t learn soon, Asterflame was afraid that something would happen to her kits. Bluespark still didn’t know - she was waiting anxiously for him now, her tail curled around her paws, wondering how he would respond. He wanted kits, right? They’d talked about it and everything… it was just, things were different when the time actually came. Asterflame hoped that he would be happy about it. This was a start to having a real family, a normal family… normal. She almost laughed at the word. There was nothing normal about their situation, and she knew it. They’d grow up with parents who were only together because of some stupid promise, a half-aunt, and an uncle who Asterflame was crushing on. Or… she had been crushing on him. Hawthornheart was Alli’s mate now, and she had no right to think anything like that. She couldn’t bring herself to stop caring about him, but that didn’t mean she had to rub it in anyone’s face. Why couldn’t they have a happy, normal family too? Why couldn’t things just go back to the way they were before Bluespark and Hawthornheart had come into their lives? Everything was much, much less complicated back then. Change might be a part of life, but Asterflame was pretty sure this sort of drama wasn’t. She’d never heard of this happening to someone else… or at least, she couldn’t remember hearing anything like it before. --- Alabastersnow was happy. Not the fake, put-on-a-smile-and-pretend kind of happy, but a truly excited one. She was thrilled, actually. Things were turning out just the way she wanted. She and her mate might not be the most ideal couple, and she might not have his heart, but she controlled him. Or at least, she tried to. There was a significant lightness to Alabastersnow’s step as she entered the clearing, humming to herself as she shot flirtatious glances at the few toms who stared at her. Everyone should be staring at her. She was gorgeous, after all. The prettiest she cat of all. Why shouldn’t they stare at her? Spotting her sister - well, half sister, as proven by the differences in their appearances - Alabastersnow headed across the clearing to her, a friendly smile on her face. ”Good morning, Asterflame!” She greeted in a musical, sweet tone. Usually she wouldn’t have attempted conversation, but she was in a good mood. A good mood that went downhill just a little when she spotted her sister’s stomach. Either Asterflame had been eating too much fresh-kill lately (which was doubtful, not because she cared about her appearance, but because she cared about the Clan) or she was expecting. Bluespark’s kits. Alabastersnow hadn’t thought the two would last this long - the charade was driving her crazy. They weren’t any better than herself and Hawthornheart, not that they would ever admit it. And now they were expecting kits? What kind of a sick, twisted family would those poor young ones grow up in? Would they even grow up? Asterflame didn’t know the first thing about kits - even Alabastersnow probably knew more than she did. She kept her mouth shut, although she gave her half-sister a suspicious side glance. Something was just wrong here. Perhaps she was wrong. Maybe it was a trick of the light or something. Judging by Asterflame’s expression, and the muttered “morning, Alli” that she gave back, that was doubtful. Alabastersnow suspected she would figure out soon enough. @Brilliance

As long as Hawthornheart been around, he never exactly expected he'd make it to these moons. He was certain that being with Alli would prove that he was going to be dead soon. Or, he should had been dead quite a while ago. Was he happy being her mate? Definitely...definitely...not. He was a simple ghost in the flesh that appeared to be aloof more than anything, really. It got to the point Hawthornheart lost all his willpower and just did whatever to make her happy. Not because he wanted praise of any kind from her, but mainly because he would do anything - absolutely anything - to shut her up. Make her be quiet. Stop her nagging. Other days, he was surprised that his ears wasn't falling off from listening to her incessant rambling. He didn't even know if it was a good thing that often toms envied him for being with the alabaster feline. If they really knew that Alli's interior was made of molten lava, from the depths of the dark forest...then, they wouldn't even want her. Even now, as he was perched in a corner of the clearing, just finishing up small prey, he made out his mate, and the obvious look she was sending to some ogling eyes her way. Oddly, he didn't even feel jealous because this was what he expected. He only had glanced briefly towards Asterflame when Alabastersnow approached the blue-grey molly, but he didn't dare to stare at her for much longer than a second. Their friendship...this family was, indeed, weird. All types of messed up drama. How in the world he ended up in this web? He had no idea, but he was almost certain, within his cynical mind, that there was no way out. After he finished with his prey, he found himself slowly cleaning his fur. His wounds were mere scratches, and as his fur grew thicker during this season around, it hid his scars under his pelt.

~♥♥♥~

On the contrary, Bluespark felt something similar to how Alli was feeling. He wasn't extremely happy as one should be, but he was more mellow-minded than his usual sharpened ego self. He wasn't going around acting flirtatious since he had a mate of his own. And, quite so, little Asterflame was just such a charming dear that he held tight to his heart. Not to forget to mention, he kept a rather tight leash on her. Even when he wasn't around, he always threatened her that he could see whatever she was doing - that wasn't true. Yet, that wasn't the case. As long as she believe it was true, then he was good with it. The friendship that his mate and former best friend shared, he eliminated it to nonexistent. He didn't even like her staring at Hawthornheart for too long - let alone thinking of the foolish tom. Although, it wasn't hard to notice a shift in Hawthornheart's personality. The tom was more quiet, still with a snarky attitude, but he lessened himself around the others, always managing to come up with some excuse like he had to hunt or make dirt or he didn't get enough sleep last night. Even as he made his way across the clearing once he seen two of his favorite mollies, he noticed that Hawthornheart refused to come forward. Bluespark briefly wondered why in the world wasn't both mollies his. He could do that...right? At one point, Alli was almost his. That was still possible, right? Just steal her away from Hawthornheart, or part take in some scandalous affair under both their mates' noses. Honestly, Bluespark was shallow. He'd only keep Alli around because she was a pretty face. He had no emotional attachment to her like he had with Asterflame, as he liked to believe. Asterflame was his soul mate, and she was his. No one could tell him otherwise. He knew exactly how to care for her like a mate should...excluding all the minor skirmishes they got into, whether it was setting her straight into her place or overpowering an argument with her. He fluffed out his short pelt, shivering slightly from the cold as he trotted to the pretty mollies with a devilish grin written on his expression. He brushed himself around his mate, tail running along her flank as he sat down next to Asterflame, touching his snout to her nose. ''How are you, ladies?'' He smoothly purred. Even he had noticed the weight gain on Asterflame, but he didn't bother to ask about it. It went over his head of the possibilities. Maybe she just needed to lay off the food pile before she ended up looking like some plump kittypet?