AND THE BAGPIPE CRIES [meeting 1]

wash the poison from off my skin

They didn't know what to think when he pranced through the clearing. 'Goatheart, Goatheart!' Their cheers as he trotted forward, his head high and his expression bright, the light of the warm sun dancing across his face. 'My deputy.' Elderstar would say, and he would bow excitedly, checky grin on his face as he turned to stare over his cheering clan and then it was like every night. Before him seemed to lose it's warmth, the chill, and the sun disappeared behind the clouds as the thunder cracked and the rain began to fall. 'Goatpaw, wait!' His mentor would meow, but his panick grows and as he nears the place where he knew she laid, he couldn't help it as the pain washed over him again, stronger then the last. Mouth gaping, he stared in horror, before him lay his mother, dying from a wound on her side, blood on the forest floor as the young tom moved forward, lumps in his throat, and he flew himself to the body of his dying mother and cried.


The yowl of his leader, Elderstar, awoke him then. His ears flicked both annoyed and thankful for the waking call. It was then he heard the sneeze of a fellow apprentice, Dustpaw and her brothers. Lifting his nose annoyed with their presence, he began to give himself a thorough wash - better to look proper and late, then messy and on time. His mother's voice rang in the back of his 'Goatpaw! You silly little kitten, you've forgotten your ears.' A smile, forced onto his face as the memory as he left the washing of his ears alone. No-one could understand the reality it would bring if he did it himself, he did believe he'd see his mother walking through the entrance, every morning like routine. But with a soft sigh, the tom watched as the other cats seemed to have left the den pretty empty. Gathering his own body, he lifted himself to his small paws and padded forth. He entered the gathering of cats just as Nightpaw spoke up about being named deputy. 

"Not very likely, shrimp. You would never last a day on the top of the tree."

His nose flaired annoyed as he plopped he stood beside the younger - newer apprentices, remembering them as kits. He didn't smile, nor did he care at that moment, but pulling pranks on those kittens had been the high light of his life. Shaking his pelt he sat down with an air of pride, lifting his nose to the younger cats. Being six moons older, a twelve moon old apprentice, and not even close to being made a warrior, the older tom didn't think two shakes about it. He was better then these cats at the very least, and no one would, or could say differently. Fluffing his short, light brown fur, he stared up at his leader with mild interest. Perhaps, moons ago he would of been as excited as the young apprentice beside him, but those days were long gone.

"The ancestors would eat you for dinner." 

A tease, rather rude and uncalled for, but still a teasing comment. Some part of Goatpaw, deep down buried beneath all his hate, sorrow and pain, was the tom he used to be - he knew this, perhaps others did too, but the tom couldn't help it if he lashed out before he thought. His mother had always told him he acted before he thought; and so why should he be any different here? With a quick lick to his chest to flatten the ruffled fur, he waited; ears errect and waiting. 'Perhaps it will be some cat worthy of the title. Not a pathetic cat like the last one.' He thought angrily, claws slipping from the comfort of his paws and digging into the ground.

show me how to be whole again

ooc; just mentioning, that 'on the top of the tree' is my way of saying 'top of the ladder'.
lyrics; castle of glass, linkin park.
tagged; nightpaw, dustpaw, elderstar,