Nightstar's Crown

Chapter 5

|| Chapter 5 ||
☫

"Night-rose," someone cooed warmly close to her ear.

She slowly opened her eyes a crack, staring blankly ahead of herself. Recognizing a dust of twinkling lights over the grass, Nightrose tensed a bit and jerked her head up. "Wh-where am I?" The warrior began nervously, hearing own voice echo quietly.

"Visiting." She whirled around and seemed to stop altogether. She couldn't believe what she saw before her. The dark tabby purred quietly, a light smile on his lips. "Hello again, fuzzball."

Nightrose quickly sprang to her paws and threw herself into his chest, breaking into an almost stuttering purr. "G-Geckospring!" She exclaimed, feeling tears well up and her face burn as she whimpered in both hysterics and excitement. "I thought I'd never see you again...!"

He chuckled gently, the timber of his voice warming her up. She felt like she was a kit again for a split second, only in a good way. "Well, I've been looking after you every day since," her former mentor told her. "You've gotten more and more beautiful with each day. I want to haunt the dreams of some of those cats, with those nasty looks they give you," he growled quietly. "Especially the toms..."

Nightrose stifled a giggle before something dawned on her. Straightening up, she surprised herself when she realized how much closer she'd gotten to his height. Geckospring had been a notoriously tall tom out of everyone while he was alive, and it added to his intimidating looks. Hardly anyone ever even tested him, let alone messed with him intentionally. In fact, after one particular incident, Nightrose had noticed she wasn't getting picked on as much with him as her mentor. Nasty looks? Sure. But no one other than the stupid (cough Leopardpaw) tried anything that might upset Geckospring. He was just that respected. "Wait...am I—?"

"No," Geckospring quickly assured her and gave her a fatherly type of lick over the forehead and around an ear. "You..were close to it...but you're only sleeping. Powderbelly was able to patch you up in her den in time, but you're very weak at the moment," he grumbled, discontent based on his frowning. "That's definitely one cat I intend to haunt after you wake up..."

"Huh? Powderbelly?" Nightrose furrowed her brow, tilting her head.

He blinked and stared at her incredulously before shaking his head fervently. "No, of course not! I mean Thornthroat," he said, growling his sister's name. His light green eyes fell a bit further down. "I can't believe she did that to you." Nightrose frowned in confusion before following his gaze and stiffening as she gasped quietly. There was a light glowing from what looked like a slash in her chest, a fizzling sort of spark faintly shimmering out from it. Lifting a leg, she ducked her head and found the slash stopped in the middle of her chest between her ribs, and then picked back up again a bit lower before abruptly curving over her right, over the rib cage and then tapering out just behind them on her flank.

Glancing at her inner leg again, she spotted the same sparkly appearance but much fainter. It didn't take much for her to put two and two together. "She...clawed me..."

Silence carried for a few beats. "You can't keep defending her," he murmured gently. "She may be your mother, but that doesn't mean anything by the way she's treated you." Nightrose's fur rose up, wanting to protest again. "That being said...I'm here to warn you, sweetheart..." Turning in surprise, she blinked and tilted her head in interest.

"Nettles will entangle a flower's bloom,
and carry its petals toward decay.
Follow the current for the nettles' dismay,
though many will fall for vindictive sake.
But this is what must be done so find strength in water,
and let this flower bloom just in time for the slaughter."