[Empress Of Evil]

Originally Posted by Duskflight

Nightmare. Now that's something that Grousestar hasn't had in a very long time, he only ever had them when he was a kit and no one ever really knew why he had them. It wasn't like he ever had any traumatic experience right? He was never nearly killed, he never witnessed any violent deaths, he had a pretty calm, normal kithood and apprenticeship. Even as a warrior he never had them. Perhaps the nightmares were simply random, they had no meaning behind them and were to be soon forgotten just like most of his childhood. No one really asked and it was unsure if the leader himself remembered if there was a reason behind his night terrors. Or if he could even remember them at all.
Any sort of thought about a nightmare was far from his mind at the moment though, all he allowed in now was calming, optimistic thoughts. He could think about more stressful scenarios later, when he retired to his den, away from the prying eyes of his clan. Grousestar didn't want them seeing him stressed, unsure, not so cheery and optimistic. Then they might doubt his leadership just like they did when he was forced to take the spot of the missing Lemonstar. He was doing good now, at least he thought he was, and to make a happy clan, he needed to seem just that. Happy. Bright. Cheery. And essentially? He was.

The drone of the clan morning activities seemed to grow louder for a moment or perhaps he was losing concentration on the bird song. Swiveling his ears slowly, he would open his eyes to look up at the canopy to find that the bird was gone. What he was hearing was simply his own memory of birdsong. Blinking a bit in surprise, he would sit his upper half up slightly, allowing his jaws to gape wide in a yawn before clicking shut and his tongue absentmindedly swiping over his lips. He needed to go out for a walk in the territory soon, his paws were aching for a nice bout of running. That was always nice, calmed the nerves, cleared the mind. He still hadn't lost the energy he had when he was deputy, or really when he was younger in general, he could still very much run laps around any warrior here and not tire out. The thought of doing such a silly thing caused the leader to snort and smile a bit, his head shaking. And I would do it too!

Attention perking as he heard a familiar greeting, his emerald eyes searched for a moment before landing on the approaching deputy, a bright, cheery smile soon ensuing upon his lips. "Oh good morning Auroraflame! Nice seeing you here!"
The tom sat up a bit more, as if creating space for her beside him even though there was plenty of vacant space anyways, his tail tucking carefully against his side and his hind paws nicely tucked beneath him, front paws jutting out a bit.
"I'm doing quite great I'd say, perfect weather really for a nice day out on the territory. I hope you're doing the same?" Grousestar inquired with the same smile, gaze focused on her for a moment before he took her lead and laid his chin in his paws as well, a quiet purring sigh escaping him, another small breeze ruffling the fur along his spine. He loved being able to speak to his deputy when both of their schedules were free, it helped to get a bit of stress off of his chest.

Never before had she had a proper reason to experience a nightmare. Her childhood, apprenticeship and warrior-hood had been perfectly fine. It was only when she grew up a bit more that things became more serious for her. As a young warrior, she could jump into battle beside her siblings and then she would laugh about it afterwards. Now that she was different, she had to have a different mindset and consider the dangers of a battle. Leading the clan into battle alongside Grousestar meant that sometimes, the fate of the lives in SkyClan in their paws. If was her job to support the leader and stay by his side, no matter what happened. Every clan needed two leaders that were capable of working well together. But not every cat was that easy to get along with. Auroraflame was just glad that Grousestar made it very easy to get along with. When it came to socialising, do one wrong move to get on her bad side and the ebony she-cat wouldn’t be as friendly as she could be. The deputy was very easy to get along with, however her mind could be changed easily if you did one thing that she didn’t like. She was just very careful when she was choosing her friends and allies. But sometimes, you just had to do it. You had to forget about your suspicions and just put in a bit of trust, although that was much harder then it sounded.

As she was settling herself in, a soft breeze whipped past, batting coldly at her cheeks. She lifted her head slowly and gazed up at the sky. Her icy blue hues scanned the sky curiously. Although the canopy cover up most of the sky, she was still able to peek though the gaps that were scattered about. A small frown formed on her maw as she spotted a few dark clouds in the distance. Rain? How strange. I guess the forest could do with a bit of water, Auroraflame thought, although she couldn’t make the frown disappear at the thought. Although it would be refreshing for the forest and the streams could fill up a bit more, she hadn’t ever been a big fan of ran. She didn’t mind if it was just spitting, but she didn’t like it when rain poured down endlessly. The deputy had short fur, which meant that even though she would dry up quicker, she was more prone to catching a cold. But maybe she was wrong. Maybe it wouldn’t pour and hopefully, it was just sprinkle lightly. The clouds looked far away anyway, so she swished her tail in the air as if getting rid of the negative thoughts and she placed a small smile on her face in place of the frown.

When Grousestar spoke, the inky deputy felt her small growing wider. It was hard to not be happy around the leader. He just made it so hard to not be positive. Although Auroraflame normally liked to cover her emotions with a blank expression, she was happy to smile around the tabby tom. Happiness and laughter was contagious and it was very easy for the she-cat to catch on. The Bombay loved nothing more than to laugh and to make her clan mates laugh. Even if the laugh of someone was extremely weird, she loved hearing it none the less.
Auroraflame nodded in response. “I’m feeling wonderful!” She responded cheerfully. “The weather is quite nice, especially since Green-Leaf has finally settled in,” She continued, happiness flashing in her icy blue hues. Although New-Leaf was no doubt her favourite season, she still liked Green-Leaf quite a lot. “We might be expecting a bit of rain later,” She suddenly remarked, waving her tail in the direction of the gloomy clouds that were slowly edging closer.