the dens clustered beyond the waterfall was where crowfeather and silvertongue had made their home, conceived their children, and it was where she had birthed the two. now one was lost and the other — silvertongue had not yet come to full acceptance of her limb's missing nature, that it was reality, that she could look as many times as she wished and the leg would not appear; she lay listless and fitful, but determined in all things to recover, to be more. to be whole. autumn leaves fluttered upon a breeze with winter in its spine; the glassblue eyes looked for
@Shadowpup, and then she uttered a crooning call for the girl, and she wished them to speak alone.
i have so much to explain to you.
Despite her attitude problem, Shadowpup had found enough self-resolve to stay silent as she hovered beside
@Ash Paw when the Star cared for Silvertongue. Multiple check-ups happened throughout the day and the girl was beginning to have some understanding of herbs and their healing properties. However, the precious information was almost lost on Shadowpup, whose mind was abuzz with emotion.
It was like a hundred bats flapped noisily in her brain. She wasn’t sure what to make of Silvertongue’s return. In many ways, she wished she could forget all the horrible things she had heard that night.
“Tia Plata, are you okay? Can I get you something?” she asked benignly as her head poked into the den where her birth-mother rested.
"i am all right, shadowpup. i only wanted to see you." she did not know that the girl had been there that night; she did not have a full comprehension of what exactly her daughter knew, but it was time that things half-obscured were given light. at least some. beyond shadowpup's shoulder, leaves drifted down to the carpet of viridian grass, and silvertongue drew strength from the beauty before she offered the young wolf a small smile. "i know that things lately have been confusing. i wanted to answer any questions you might have for me." any, her eyes emphasized.
Shadowpup crept closer to Tia Plata’s bedside, though she adverted her gaze uncomfortably. “See me?” the juvenile asked, cautious of her intentions.
Silvertongue explained and continued to speak.
Confusing.
Shadowpup’s eyes traced the line of Silvertongue’s haunch down to her stump as she gathered her thoughts.
“Papa said the same thing. That he would answer questions I had.” However, she had never asked anything of Crowfeather. The girl’s yellow gaze shifted to the other side of the den, still avoiding any contact. She felt horribly in the dark with the expectation to carry the burdens and mistakes of her parents.
“I know… that you’re my mom. My real mom.” Shadowpup shuffled her feet together.
She had gone looking when Silvertongue. Even evoked the word Mom, calling for her. But Silvertongue never answered.
“Why did you just… just leave?” Shadowpup asked as she felt the beginnings of anger begin to boil.
that revelation brought tears with stinging force to silvertongue's eyes, but she did not wipe them away as they began their fall. and silently she found it within herself to thank crowfeather for telling this to shadowpup. "because i was hurting, mi luciérnaga." her throat ached. "in order for me to explain, i must tell you from the beginning." and so, after a pause, silvertongue offered as honest a story to her hurting daughter as she was able. she did not describe the true nature of her role in akashingo, only that she had commanded the attention of those powerful. that she had loved crowfeather then and forever, and even when she was sent to blackwater, that she had fought her way up from the coast, surviving to find him in mereo. how she had loved him then, even though he had lost his leg, and how they had left the mountains to begin riverclan together. on the subject of germanicus, too, silvertongue was vague, refusing to connect the love of crowfeather to the man who had sold her. and so she did not tell shadowpup that it was he who had done it, only that crowfeather had found his heart in another, and that it was the shadow of a man from her past who had driven her away. "he told my companions in swiftcurrent everything about me, all that i had tried to leave behind. and crowfeather also, he was also told. so i ran away, shadowpup, and it was wrong. i simply could not bear the weight any longer, and i wanted to find the one who hurt me."
Shadowpup dug her claws into the dirt, her paws balled up into angry fists. Though the girl was hungry for knowledge, to know Silvertongue’s true machinations, she felt her narrow mind was already closed to reason. What could justify Tia Plata’s abandonment? Her deceipt?
And then the tale began. By the end, fat tears rolled down Shadowpup’s cheeks and she felt it was not her blood-mother who was her enemy, but the terrifically unfair and cruel world.
“I-it was wrong! S-selfish!” Shadowpup wailed, crying, as she threw herself into Silvertongue’s arms.
it was too much for a child to bear. silvertongue held that child and started to weep herself. "no, no, you only did not know, shadowpup, how could you? there was no way for you to know this. i only left, i left you behind. that is all you knew, mi dulce." a breath, shaking; it was too late to call her mother and too late to ask, and she did not want to ask for a title she had not earned. "i tried to keep you safe from it. that was the wrong thing to do, i know now. but you, you did nothing wrong, comprende?"
And then, as if she had a magic power, Tia Plata managed to concisely explain all the things Shadowpup had been feeling inside her heart. It was a wisdom, a perception, one only gained with life experience.
Her hot tears whet Silvertongue’s furs as she lifted siphoned away the feeling of culpability. A weak nod was all the girl could manage.
“Will you… leave again?” she wondered. Had that terrible chapter of Silvertongue’s life finally ended?
"i do not plan to leave again. i do not want to run anymore, shadowpup," silvertongue said directly, her voice even. "this is my home and i cannot be without you again, or riverclan, or ash paw." and it was true, and she meant its words entirely, and hoped her daughter would be able to now recover. maybe one day even she would gain the girl's trust once more.
Words. A tenuous promise, however sincere. Shadowpup’s ears rolled back and cupped her skull. She hoped what Tia Plata said would be true, and that she would never feel compelled to abandon her home for a memory ever again.
Yet the words ‘I don’t plan’ left room for the possibility of fate to come between them.
“O-okay,” Shadowpup agreed. She would stay with Tia Plata for a long while until the hour grew late. Only then, would she retreat to her secret place in Riverclan’s dark forest.