Blood of a Prophet

For the love of all that's good, please give me on this. If you're moderately confused, that's good, as long as you come out of this piece having somewhat of an understanding

➳➳➳➳➳┄┄※┄┄➳➳➳➳➳

➳➳➳➳➳┄┄※┄┄➳➳➳➳➳

sʏɴᴏᴘsɪs

a warrior is put on trial in regards to a tom cat she once loved, and his untimely death

ᴘʀᴏᴍᴘᴛ

"if only she knew then, what she knew now."

➳➳➳➳➳┄┄※┄┄➳➳➳➳➳

sᴛᴀᴛɪsᴛɪᴄs

Words

1490

Characters

8320

➳➳➳➳➳┄┄※┄┄➳➳➳➳➳

➳➳➳➳➳┄┄※┄┄➳➳➳➳➳

“Please, state your name, rank, and clan before the Court of Azura.”

“My name is Ashbee, and I am a warrior of StormClan.”

A cool composure. A small, calm intake of breath.

“And what was your relationship with Cypressmask?”

“Ashpaw, you lazy furball!” The ashen gray molly lifted her head, puzzled by the joking cry for her name, followed by an insult she shook off way too easily. All around her was a maze of woods, branchless sycamores and clumsy willows creating a mess of gnarled tree roots in the ground. She searched, her yellowish amber tinted eyes scanning for even the slightest movement to reveal her fake foe.

Suddenly, she felt the tom cat barrel into her and rolled to the side, springing up before his energy had even been replenished. “Who are you calling lazy? I’m trying to do my job! You’re supposed to be doing yours, Cypresspaw!” She tried to force a bubble of anger into her voice, but hated the odd, awkward taste of it rolling around her mouth. Ashpaw could never truly be angry at him. His adorably smaller orange tabby frame and wide, eager blue eyes were enough to subdue any sort of frustration she would ever find welling in her chest.

“I just wanted to stop by and say ‘I love you’ to my mate, is that so terrible?”

“He was a friend.”

“A friend. Please affirm the CoA that Cypressmask, deputy of SunClan, was your friend.”

“I affirm as such, Warden.”

“What was your friendship like, Ashbee?”

“Pardon?”

“Your friendship with Cypressmask. How did he act around you? Was he ever hostile? Abusive? Controlling?”

“Where are they? Don’t make me ask again!” A growl, suave and charming, yet eerily dangerous hung between two warriors. The owner of the voice, blue eyes wide and less innocent, was wild. His paws beat down the same grass, his prowling scaring away even the biggest of predators.

Ashbee was weak under his stare, but she couldn’t falter. “I don’t know who you’re talking about, Cypressmask.” Despite her weakness to him, her voice held solid and strong. She wished he would just look into her eyes and peer at the sorrow living there. Maybe then he would find reason, even if it was too late for those silly, dumb kits.

“He had his moments of anger, as any other cat, but I rarely saw it. He really was a sweet tom at heart. He only loved his kits.”

“Tell us about the kits.”

“He had them with a rogue named Sao, and there were three of them. Their names were Nutkit, Olivekit, and Perchkit. When they were young, they disappeared.”

“It is to our understanding, Ashbee, that you will later face trial for the disappearance of those kits as well. Would you like to comment on such accusations?”

The storm was approaching quickly, but the fluffy gray molly nudged the three kits along in the damp snow regardless, hope swelling in her lungs with the sight of the twoleg house in the distance. “Ashbee? Why are we going so far away from Cypressmask?” Perchkit piped up, a slight shakiness to his voice, indicting the cold was getting to him.

Ashbee suppressed the need to tell them the truth; their father was being driven mad, claiming they held the blood of the prophets in their bodies, that one of them could someday rise to save the clans from themselves. She hated him for it, just briefly. No kit should be forced to carry the expectations of a god on their shoulders.

They would be safer away from him.

“No Warden, I will let that trial come with no bias to my name.”

“I see. Let’s divulge for a minute. Is that alright with you?”

“I suppose.”

“What were your parents like, Ashbee?”

The morning was beautiful, a compliment upon the skyline, and she wasn’t even allowed to be gazing upon it. “Ashkit! Why, I haven’t seen you in a while!” A friendly elder, Nookbay, greeted the exploring kit with a crinkle off his wrinkly face, gentle with her flighty nature. “How ridiculous a notion, as you are stuck in camp all the time.”

“I’d be lucky if my parents let me be an apprentice,” Ashkit replied, her tone semi joking with undertones of sincerity. After all, no cat she ever knew would keep their kits in the crowded nursery all day every day. “They’re always claiming I can’t go anywhere. Something to do with my blood and saving all the clans.”

“Not normal. I’m sure even you know that, Warden. I was rarely allowed to leave the nursery, because they believed I had powers that would one day save all the clans from themselves. It was only upon their death I was able to be apprenticed as a normal member of the clan.”

“Is this by any chance the same behavior Cypressmask exhibited towards his own kits?”

“Yes.”

“Is that why you stole them from the nursery?”

“I will let the trial come, Warden. I am on trial for something else here, am I not?”

“That you are. When was the last time you saw Cypressmask?”

The storm muffled the voices of two cats along the lining of the gorge, their voices akin to the call of a squirrel or mouse. Ashbee felt shaken yet confidently composed, even powerful, standing so close to such a traumatic drop with the cat she loved. So powerful that her chest ached.

“I loved you, you know. No matter what happens, know that I loved you,” Cypressmask said, authority dripping from his voice. She had nearly forgotten her soldier was a deputy now, but she had always wished he would see her as his equal rather than another of his pawns.

Ashbee ed her youth then- never being able to find the ability to be angry with the smaller tom. Now that anger and hotblooded fury fueled her body and kept her veins alive. She hated him. She hated him with everything she had. “It wasn’t enough. It was never enough! I saved those kits, I gave them a way out. You tracked them down and slaughtered every single one!” Ashbee yowled, pouncing upon him.

“The last time I saw him was the full moon.”

“I am the prophet! The court will exile you, execute you, if you dare lay your claws upon me!” Cypressmask yowled, scraping his claws against her belly in a desperate attempt to move her from above him.

She sneered, nearly victorious. “It will have been worth it!”

“The night of his death.”

A beat of silence fell over the clearing.

“Do you know how Cypressmask died?”

Ashbee held onto him with full force, snapping her jaws near his throat. At the last minute, she withdrew her head, peering down at him. “We could’ve been mates, like before,” she whispered, and for a moment she caught a glimpse of something in his eyes. “We could’ve raised those kits like they were our own. I would’ve pretended. I loved them so much.”

Cypressmask didn’t move, only lingered with his head against the rocky outcrop. “I loved them too. You have to believe that I loved them.”

“I believe the medicine cats announced that he had jumped off the gorge.”

“Why would he jump?”

“Maybe he thought that was the only way anyone would ever forgive him for what he had done.”

“Maybe so. I guess this signifies the end of this trial, Ashbee. Please state your final census.”

The molly leaped down from the branch, and approached the center of the clearing, observing the cats of the jury, watching her with narrowed eyes. She was not afraid of their judgement. Only herself.

“My name is Ashbee, and I am a warrior of StormClan.”

“I just want to be a warrior!”

“We won’t risk your safety!”

“I knew Cypressmask because he was once my friend.”

“I love you, Ashbee. I’m glad you’re my mate.”

“I love you too, Cypressmask.”

“The deputy of SunClan loved his kits, and I would’ve liked to believe he loved me too. When those kits went missing, he went mad. He killed innocent cats, including camp elders like Nookbay of StormClan as well as his own three kits, after deliberately tracking them down.”

“I always knew you’d be the best warrior there ever was, Ashbee.”

“Nookbay!”

“The error of his ways led to his demise. He saw his actions as unforgivable. I believe he threw himself off that gorge as penance. I believe his memory is not to be ed valiantly, but solemnly.”

“I loved you!”

“It wasn’t enough. It was never enough!”

“Even if I had killed him, my conscious would be clear. And if I had known on that gorge that he was the true prophet, destined to save our clans…”

“I am the prophet! The court will exile you, execute you, if you dare lay your claws upon me!”

“I would have killed him still.”

➳➳➳➳➳┄┄※┄┄➳➳➳➳➳

#featurethis

pls I just need lmao