Dreamseeker didn't know how to react. Looking back at the others, she saw that they were just as surprised as well. Eclipse looked like he was realizing what she was thinking, and Skua just looked disturbed at the sight in front of him. He thought it was pitiful. How like him. She glanced back at Handsome, whose eyes remained focused on the pool at his paws.
"Depends what questions they need to ask," he growled.
How could she even go about this? Next to Eclipse, she was the best speaker among their group. Aardwolf was just there, and Skua would rather bite and scratch and freeze things than be diplomatic. She drew in a quick breath, pulling her wings even closer to her in an attempt to look small. "We come from the SkyWing Kingdom. Queen Ember's been assassinated, and we found out that RainWing venom was used to kill her," she murmured. Handsome's eye widened in surprise, his wings fanning out slightly. Dreamseeker quickly continued in the hopes that he wouldn't fly away like Hummingbird and Lemur did. "We didn't come to blame anyone. Stars, we didn't even come to cause any trouble. We just want to understand what happened. We know it's not the RainWings' faults. It's obvious you were taken advantage of."
Another long silence passed between them. Handsome's eye stared back at her, his cloudy pupil contracting as if in fear. Dreamseeker caught his mind racing, panicking, but there wasn't an image of a guilty dragon that she could think of. It was as if his racing thoughts skipped over the specific instance, whether on purpose or without realizing, and continued onward like a rushing river. No words left his maw.
"Forget it, Dreamy," came a familiar voice, "he's not going to tell you anything."
Dreamseeker's head snapped up to see the light green shape of Jaguar glide down from a branch. Her eyes glanced over Handsome and then Viper before she brought her gaze to their group. "I tell you to do one thing, and you lot specifically go against what I warned you about."
Handsome stared at Jaguar, his scales suddenly changing color. Instead of gray, they started to become a vibrant red. "You..."
Tension showed itself in the form of bristled fur and bared fangs. Jaystar and Wolfheart stood tall next to one another, speaking words of war. Ashenpaw's ears flattened against her head. What Tigershine said was true. How could they prove that DuskClan killed Russetfern? She jumped a little when Squirrelpaw suddenly appeared next to her. "Russetfern's dead. The medicine cat patrol from last night found him in the Moonbrook," she whispered to her sister. "Jaystar and Wolfheart say that Foxstar has to pay."
"I don't think you realize that what you're about to do is start a war." Tigershine's voice was uncharacteristically low and stormy. "If you choose to get your bee-brained revenge, then so be it. Medicine cats don't have a say in the ways of war. But realize you will be spilling the innocent blood."
Jaystar hissed. "Innocent blood has already been spilled, Tigershine. The proof rests at your paws!"
"I don't want there to be a war..." Ashenpaw murmured more to herself than to Squirrelpaw.
"Hey, so..." Stoatpaw had followed Squirrelpaw out of the apprentice den, "do ya think that Jaystar will make us warriors, now? So there's more warriors in BirchClan, and all."
Dreamseeker blinked when Viper interacted with the rather dull dragon as if there was nothing wrong. Judging from the way that his head was lurched down towards the water, and how low he held his shoulders and wings, there was something clearly off by this RainWing. She couldn't recall seeing a gray dragon flitting around the tribe; in fact, they were all brightly colored, like vivid lizards or poisonous frogs. Did that color mean something?
"Aardwolf, give me something shiny from your bag," Dreamseeker asked him kindly.
She waited for him to fumble through his belongings, and reached out a paw to take something shiny from his. It was a smooth desert stone the color of a garnet. Not necessarily a gem, but probably a mineral or something that had crystallized under the blistering sun and hot sands of the desert. Dreamseeker walked over to the sitting RainWing and approached his left side.
"Hi," she greeted as sweetly as she could. The RainWing's deep blue eyes remained focused on the water. They were nearly empty of emotion, which only deepened her concern. She held out the stone towards him in a tender fashion, hoping that if she coddled the stone carefully enough, it would peak his curiosity. "Have you ever seen anything like this before?"
The RainWing didn't say anything. There was a blink of his eye, and he gave her a sidelong glance. She noticed that his eye was slightly clouded, as if had poor vision. His face tightened as if in pain, his gray scales tinging a darker gray and purple. After a few long, tense moments, he arched his head to face her completely. What Dreamseeker saw nearly made her drop the stone in horror. The right side of Handsome's face was a mottled mess of pink, knotted flesh. The scars razed along the side of his muzzle and twisted the corner of his lips, revealing some of his teeth. The wound had even reached all the way down the right side of his neck, nearly reaching the top of his shoulder. His right eye-- or, well, where his right eye used to be-- was covered in bandages.
"No," he grumbled before he turned back to the water. "Go away, Viper."
The morning should have been quiet. She hadn't been planning on going on dawn patrol, and so she had expected a deep and comfortable sleep until her mentor decided to wake her up. What she didn't expect was to wake up to yowls coming from the camp clearing. Her eyes still blurry with sleep, she leapt to her paws and glanced around at the rather empty apprentice den. Her sister, Stoatpaw, was still curled in her nest. "Wh-what's going on?!" she mewed out in a panic. Despite the fact that Ashenpaw and her siblings were going to be warriors soon, she desperately hoped that another Clan hadn't come and attacked them. She didn't really like fighting, and besides, weren't they supposed to be at peace?
Stoatpaw simply shrugged and closed her eyes once again. "How should I know? Let the warriors handle it."
Ashenpaw couldn't help but glare at her as Stoatpaw readjusted herself in her nest and let out a loud yawn. Fine. If her sister wasn't going to go out there and figure out what was happening, then she would! The gray she-cat darted out of the apprentice's den, shaking out the leaves from her fur, before her sights rested on the gathering of cats in the middle of camp. Slowly and carefully, she padded over, attempting to look between the cluster of cats as she approached.
"Foxstar swore that DuskClan hasn't done anything. Who are we to say that they're the ones that killed Russetfern?" She heard Tigershine's mew over the sobs and growls of the other cats.
Ashenpaw felt her paws freeze to the ground. Russetfern was dead?
Braveleap's voice came next. "And what other explanation is there?" the tom roared above the voices. "All the Clans in the valley know how DuskClan is like. They can't be held to their word. They killed Russetfern, and lied to us in our faces about it!"
"But--"
"Braveleap is right." Jaystar, their leader, prowled towards their group. Ashenpaw caught sight of a dangerous fire in his eyes, one that made her fur stand on end. "DuskClan is responsible for poor Russetfern's death. And for the death of all of those we have lost in these past moons. Isn't it obvious?" he turned to look at everyone in the circle with a deep snarl. "They are the ones that have been killing these poor cats."
He released a long-held breath as soon as the cats started to move for the entrance. There would be no fighting today. Thank StarClan, Blackmoon turned his gaze up towards the half-moon that shone through the holes in the ceiling. It remained unobscured, even as Frostpaw murmured those dark words to Dew-whisker.
"I don't know," he heard the MistClan cat whisper to her apprentice. "I don't know..."
Blackmoon absentmindedly gathered Hawkpaw close to him as they made their way through DuskClan's caverns. Now, he could see cats poking their noses and heads out of the crevices in the walls, their eyes gleaming at them from the darkness of their coves. There were a variety of emotions he could see on their faces. Worry, fear, distrust, contempt, hate... they really didn't know what happened. All that they knew was that there were these cats with a body trudging through their territory. Would Foxstar tell them the truth of what happened..?
The previously jovial group of cats were dead silent as they marched back into MistClan camp. Dew-whisker shared a few brief words of comfort with Dawnwing and Tigershine before she and her apprentice disappeared into the reeds that marred their territory. When they made it back into BirchClan territory, Dawnwing and Tigershine, along with Addertongue and Braveleap, shared little to no words as well. Yet, they shared a similar worried and angered glint in their eye, along with unasked questions: what would happen next? Was DuskClan actually at fault? Were they lying?
Blackmoon didn't want talking among their small group, even as they re-entered their camp. As the early morning light touched the top of distant mountain peaks, Stonefoot and Shadeclaw split off from the main group and returned to the warrior's den to rest. He desperately wanted to speak with Emberstar and tell him what happened before he found out on his own terms, but... his muscles and bones ached a terrible amount, and he felt weighed down with grief. His stomach knotted as he glanced up at the fading stars. How he desperately wanted there to be an answer written among the lightening sky... but there was none, and the stars glinted back down at him, as if they teased him for wanting something so trivial.
"Let's get to our nests. Nothing's going to be solved if we're both exhausted," Blackmoon told his apprentice without looking at her. He limped past her and up the little slope leading to their den, lurched towards his side of the cavern, and collapsed into his nest in a tired heap. Sleep took him within moments.
Aardwolf's words ran true in her mind. It really did seem like they got lucky. They finally met another RainWing that was actually happy to help them rather than, for lack of a more sympathetic word, oblivious and uncaring. Her wings fanned out as she leapt to follow behind Viper, her eyes bright with interest. Perhaps this Handsome character would actually make light of what was going on around them rather than give them a half-smile and a nervous gaze.
They flew through the forest for a while. The troupe of dragons swerved around big trees laden with vines, flew over crooked branches, and passed several types of colored birds that Dreamseeker stared at with admiration. This place was truly a paradise, hidden away from open skies, extreme heat, or the freezing rain and cold. She felt a little jealous for the RainWings-- they could really flourish if they had the ambition to do so!
Her thoughts were interrupted when they came upon a little opening in the forest. The ripple and splash of water reached her ears, and she perked up to see that they had arrived at said oasis. Her eyes widened at the sight of the large pool, dyed green by the color of the surrounding trees. A small waterfall arched over some mossy rocks at the top of the hill and splashed down into the pool, making the green mirror ripple with even more colors than usual. They glided down to the peaty floor, with Dreamseeker leaning over to look past Viper. Just as suspected, there was a dragon there. Though, unlike the other RainWings, his scales were grungy and gray, like overcasting clouds that threatened storms, or black ink diluted with water. He remained facing away from them, even as they approached, and Dreamseeker did not dare call out to him. It was better if Viper did the talking at first; this dragon just reeked of bad vibes.
Dreamseeker flushed with warmth when Viper complimented her wings. No one really said anything nice about her before, especially a total stranger. Suddenly much more timid than before, she pressed against Eclipse for support. "U-uhm, thanks," she murmured as she forced a smile onto her maw. The poor RainWing wasn't at fault for her shyness, and she hoped that she wouldn't think anything wrong about her. Her mind almost went to press along Viper's thoughts, but she stopped herself. No. There was no point in reading her mind. Not yet, anyway.
She perked up when Viper said she did know Handsome-- and pretty well, at that. Apparently, she also worked with Queen Ardent! This was a dragon that they couldn't afford to let slip away. They could learn so much from her. "Oh, thank you so much, Viper. It means a lot. Would you mind taking us to the waterfall? I don't think these guys would appreciate it if we got lost in the forest," Dreamseeker asked.
A very long, thick silenced passed between the two groups of cats. Blackmoon watched with apprehension as the DuskClan cats' muscles bunched together as if they were prepared to attack. His eyes flicked over to his apprentice, seeing that she was near the puffy white form of Frostpaw. Dew-whisker hovered above them, her ears flattened against her head as she glared at the cluster of cats near the entrance. Were this the moments before a fight? Should he prepare to fight as well?
"Whiteshadow, Darkwhisker," Foxstar's mew shattered the tense silence. "Escort these cats to the camp's entrance. There will be no meeting with StarClan tonight, if that wasn't obvious enough."
Blackmoon shuffled close to Dew-whisker and the two other apprentices as the two DuskClan cats stepped forward. A slender white tom glanced over at Willowcloud and Lavenderpaw with a strange, stressed look before he turned to the rest of them. "Let's get going, then." he told them in a firm but quiet meow.
The fur along his back began to rise, and he forced himself to flatten it before it was too noticeable. Foxstar's amber eyes glowed angrily from the mouth of the cave at Shadeclaw's and Stonefoot's words, her dark tail lashing once. "We have no part in this murder. While it's sad that this poor warrior was slaughtered so viciously, DuskClan cats don't go around killing others without reason to," her voice was cool and level-headed despite the fire in her eyes. "ThornClan seems to be fairly quick in laying the blame on someone else other than them. Not surprising."
"Hush," Blackmoon hissed towards the siblings, very much irritated. Instead of trying to solve the problem, they were only making things worse. They had to choose their words carefully here. "Foxstar, I'm sorry for those two. BirchClan is our neighboring Clan, and they've seen Russetfern grow up. They only act out due to the pain that they feel."
"There's no other explanation," Braveleap croaked out. His shuddering form stood tall near the stained Moonbrook, his tail sticking out straight above him as he bared his teeth at the DuskClan leader. "Russetfern's body is on your territory! How dare you for not taking the blame for it!"
It seemed like no matter how much anyone tried to comfort the tom, his rage continued to flare. Blackmoon glanced back at the DuskClan cats, who looked furious at the accusations. "How dare me? How dare me?" Foxstar's voice held a tinge of venom. "You come onto my territory to blame us for the death of your warrior! You have some nerve!"
Skua was about to open his mouth to answer his friend when another RainWing approached them. Almost immediately, he felt some sort of contempt towards this dragon; he expected her to be another brainless, scaly beast that only cared about what fruit there was to eat. Surprisingly, she showed some brains as she spoke. Skua forced himself to relax in her presence.
"Hi, Viper. I'm Dreamseeker, and this is Eclipse, Skua, and Aardwolf," Dreamseeker motioned to the rest of them with a careful wing. "It's very nice to meet you. We were just exploring the place and trying to get to know the RainWings of the tribe. I heard that there was a dragon named Handsome around here. Would you know anything about him?"
It was so difficult to not say anything. He clenched his jaw and forced himself to hold his tongue. If they were lucky, Viper would know something about this Handsome character.
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