Red Honey

Honey makes the world go round
✧ ⭒ ♦ ⭒ ♖ ⭒ ♦ ⭒ ✧

Honeyglow gave a soft snort, the kind that ruffled his whiskers more than anything. "Retire early? Stars above, Redpaw. Don't wish your life away." He shifted slightly, careful of his hip, and watched the apprentice play at melting pawprints in the cold earth. A familiar ache. He’d seen too many young cats wear that look - Palestar included.

"The cats that race ahead don’t always know where they’re going. Confidence can be as hollow as a windblown stump." His green eyes found Redpaw’s. "But the ones who stay, who listen and feel things deeply... they’re the ones who end up shaping a Clan. Quiet paws leave deeper roots."

His mouth twitched, the beginnings of a smile. "You’ll catch up to Duskpaw and Dazzlepaw in your own way, and your own time. But even if you didn’t I’d still choose your company over theirs any day. Maybe that's something."

The breeze picked up, and Honeyglow turned his face toward it. Still no scent of trouble. Still quiet. For now.

The stars are but cold fire, unfeeling and distant
. · ˚ ✧ · ˚ · ✧ ˚ · . 

The wind shifted subtle at first, like the flutter of a bird’s wing - carrying with it a scent that didn’t belong. Not earth or frost or clan cat fur. The trees at the edge of the hollow stirred, and from the underbrush erupted a blur of smoke and flame flecked fur.

She moved like a shadow splintering apart, her long tangled coat rippling with the force of her sudden lunge. Her golden eyes were wide, rimmed with a feral brilliance focused not on the apprentice, but on the elder reclined against the stone.

With a low snarl, Gemini threw herself forward and slammed into Honeyglow’s side, her weight behind her, claws unsheathed. The rock scraped loud beneath them as he was shoved off the ledge, taking a small tumble. The air split with the crunch of frost and a dull thud.

Gemini’s chest heaved, breath steaming. Her gaze darted toward Redpaw, but only briefly. Her focus remained fractured, flickering between reality and something else entirely. Her claws flexed, stained and uneven. She didn’t speak. Not at first. Then... "He looks like the others."

Whatever that meant.

She didn’t flee. Then, she streaked towards Honeyglow once more in a sudden lurch right as the elder stood shakily to his paws.

The stars are but cold fire, unfeeling and distant
. · ˚ ✧ · ˚ · ✧ ˚ · .

Gemini hadn’t even fully registered the apprentice...until the moment his weight struck her back. The blow staggered her. Her head snapped up, jaws parted in a silent snarl as her hind legs buckled slightly under the added force. Redpaw’s voice rang in her ears but it tangled with others, voices only she could hear.

She spun sharply, wild eyes widening as she twisted to throw the apprentice from her back. Her claws scraped the ground in a frenzied pivot, paws flinging dirt and slush in all directions. She lunged for Redpaw, only for her paw to slip in the icy mud. She faltered just long enough.

Below the hollow, Honeyglow was on his paws, limping, one foreleg tucked gingerly as he staggered through the underbrush with grim determination. His breath came in tight, shallow bursts, and pain flickered across his usually calm features. His paw was sprained and every step was a jolt of fire up his leg. But he didn’t stop.

"Palestar...I'll go, be safe!" He hissed under his breath, trotting painfully towards camp.

Gemini’s ears twitched sharply, her attention snapping toward the elder’s retreating form. Her jaw clenched, and something twisted in her eyes... She turned back to Redpaw, her breath hitching. Her voice dropped low, raw and bitter: "S-shouldn’t have touched me."

But she didn’t chase the elder. Not yet. Her claws dripped slowly into the frost-hardened soil, and her chest heaved...half battle lust, half confusion. Something in her twitched again and she reared, twisting her head around to try and bite down onto her attacker.

The stars are but cold fire, unfeeling and distant
. · ˚ ✧ · ˚ · ✧ ˚ · .

Gemini froze midbreath, her pupils pinpricks in pools of molten gold. For a split heartbeat, she looked stricken. Like a kit scolded for breaking something she hadn’t meant to touch. Her lip twitched, then curled, then split into a snarl.

"T-think I wanted this?" She shrieked, raw and ragged. He wriggled beneath her, smaller and scrappier, but she outweighed him and kept him pinned for a moment, her claws scrabbling at his flanks, trying to grip something solid as if tearing away his pelt might quiet the voices.

But her foot slipped on a splash of mud, and it gave him an opportunity for escape. Her long, smoke marbled fur streamed behind her as she hurled herself after him, snarling with every stride, crashing through low thickets in hot pursuit.

Brambles loomed ahead, dark and twisting - and Redpaw was heading right for them. Gemini didn’t care. She didn’t slow.

The stars are but cold fire, unfeeling and distant
. · ˚ ✧ · ˚ · ✧ ˚ · .

The brambles clawed at her face as she skidded to a halt. For a moment, Gemini didn’t move. She stood at the edge of the thicket, her chest heaving, long fur tangled with burrs and streaked with slush and blood. Her wide golden eyes stared into the mass of thorns...searching, twitching, trembling.

Redpaw was just out of reach. She could still see him curled at the base of the briar, ears pinned, blood trickling down his sides but the brambles barred her like jagged teeth. They tangled and twisted, keeping him caged where she couldn’t fit, couldn’t reach.

She took a step forward anyway. The thorns bit into her face. Her claws scraped at the outer edge of the thicket, dragging along the base where he’d disappeared. She sniffed the blood there. Then she dropped to her belly, crouched low and trembling with barely contained energy, eyes never leaving Redpaw’s. The voices in her head hissed and reeled and laughed and begged, but for now, he was the only real thing in the world. All she saw was blood matted fur, pinned ears, and the firelight of fear and defiance in his eyes.

The stars are but cold fire, unfeeling and distant
. · ˚ ✧ · ˚ · ✧ ˚ · .

Her ears twitched. But her golden eyes never wavered, locked on Redpaw’s shrinking form through the brambles. His hissing, his blood, the way he shook...she drank it in like prophecy. The thorns didn’t scare her. The pain didn’t matter. Nothing did except him and the flickering madness tying them together in that moment.

Until - "Redpaw!"

A flash of pointed striped streaked from the slope above, followed by the powerful thump of paws crashing down on wet earth. The undergrowth exploded in a flurry of motion as Palestar launched herself into the clearing, teeth bared, her eyes aflame. Behind her came Heronsong, her wiry form a blur of bristling smoke, and Clovershine, cream and lean. The scent of ShadowClan filled the air.

Gemini twisted, her breath catching in her throat, her ears flattening with the same shock as a startled crow. Her crouch snapped into a recoil as Palestar collided with her, claws slashing across her shoulder with a furious yowl.

The world cracked as cats fought.

With a hiss that bled into a breathless, disjointed growl, she turned and fled, crashing through the underbrush in a blur of dark fur and blood, vanishing into the trees...