"When I go, I want to be a willow," she whispered, raking her claws across the ground where the leave litter was thickest and most drenched. Her tone was warm, even as blood pooled around her paws, and when she lifted her eyes to meet the Nirid warrior's own, they were kind.
The tom cat had never known a rumored Raven's Eye to be so gentle. Although the queen had fooled all of them, and perhaps her daughter would follow suit. Instead of picking a fight, the black tom cat slowly blinked, turned away, and shook his pelt as though to prepare for the task ahead.
Her voice cut through his resolve again; "What do you want to be when you die?"
The tom cat said nothing at first. He wasn't unfamiliar with the Kulai beliefs she held- in fact most Nirid creatures did believe their souls were entwined with the earth and thus would join with it. He just simply didn't have the patience to uphold a conversation with a cat he swore to kill.
For some long moments, nothingness swirled in the air in between them, so thick not even the magic blossoming under the molly's fur could find a way through. She took the silence as permission to breathe, accepting that maybe her time was over. Maybe this tom cat Mapledusk and Poplarstride had called Nighthollow really would be the one to steal her last words. He would capture them between his claws and end them with just as much hatred swimming in his eyes as when they first encountered each other.
"I think I wouldn't like to be on earth anymore; Not with the Raven's Eye watching me now. Killing you will still put a target on my pelt, Ashwillow."
She shuddered. He had said her name. Not Ashmoor, not Raven's Eye. Her name. And suddenly she wanted him to say it again, and again, and again. Though the gravity of his statement dragged her to the surface of their present, and only when Ashwillow blink did she see how deep his eyes went. She dipped her head, but kept her ears pricked forward. "I do not mean to kill you beyond the grave," she murmured. "But I promise you in Elmbrook's name that my death would be a gift to the Raven herself."
Nighthollow looked down at her with glaring resolution. "You cannot think of me so highly to suggest I let you live?"
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