[bailu]

| @poppy. |

- Hazelstorm -

Talk about her parents? Just thinking about them was painful enough, knowing tha she wouldn't see them again, at least not for moons and moons. The first response she gave was a despaired sigh.

Hazelstorm didn't trust this cat enough... so she was reluctant to talk about them. But looking up at Gorgespring, a powerful wave of sadness washed over Hazelstorm.
"My mother was Daisyleap and my father was Frecklesight," she began, in an emotionless, dried-out voice. She didn't trust herself to let emoton creep into her voice. She couldn't afford to collapse now, in front of this warrior.
"I was their only kit," she added, to clarify why she was alone in the world, without any of her family alive. "Daisyleap was the best mother I could have asked for. She... she protected me- and cared for me. She listened to my troubles and fed me when I was hungry. She-she never ignored me." Her voice caught and she paused, staring determinedly at the ground, not wanting to cry. Hazelstorm pressed her lips together, her head tilted down, avoiding Gorgespring's gaze. "My dad, Frecklesight, didn't live in the nursery with me and Daisyleap but he was kind and fierce. He told me stories of-of hunting and... and patrols, and about our leader too. He-he was the best too."

She looked up, her voice breaking, and met Gorgespring's eyes. Hazelstorm was still determined not to cry.
"That day the coyote invaded our camp, my father was killed by it," she continued quietly. "The coyote killed Frecklesight and Daisyleap leapt out to help drive it away. But she was overpowered by it. She was murdered trying to drive the coyote away from the camp."
It was all too much. The memory formed in Hazelstorm mind. Herself, tiny and mewling, crying out as Daisyleap fell, scarlet blood pouring from her neck. When the coyote went away at long last, Hazelstorm, Hazelkit back then, had been left an orphan at the age of three moons.
This time she couldn't hold it in anymore. She ducked her head, pressing her paws to her face, the crushing feeling she had felt that terrible day numbing her senses, settling in her inners. Hazelstorm had thought she'd recovered... but deep down, she knew she would never recover from it.