((Mistakes are in the Blood)) -- For Tuesday's Challenges

What’s the largest mistake you ever made?


Was it when you forgot to bring that one piece of prey in from the rain? What about that time you started a fight with the cat that hates you?


What’s the largest mistake you think I ever made?


My dear friend, I can tell you, that whatever the guess, you are wrong. My greatest mistake was wanting to include another in my life’s mission.


It was many years ago when I created my species greatest sickness. That was when I gifted us our own insanity.


“Come with me, Dream!” I said, eyes bright. I leaned into my mate’s side, gazing into his eyes.


Dream raised a playful eyebrow. “Excuse me? I think I’ve already seen the Ritual a hundred times. Why would I want to see that boring thing again?”


My eyes grew a little more serious. “I’m pretty sure that Tawnysky would want you there. After all, she just made a very important choice and having her family, adopted or otherwise, there will make it easier.”


Dream dipped his head. “Of course, I’m coming, feather-brain. I was just joking. You never get my jokes.”


I flicked my tail against his nose as I started to walk away, butterflies in my chest. “Make them funny, then.”


The grey, one-eyed tom padded after me, slipping through the ferns around the camp. “You seem nervous. Why is that? You’ve done this a thousand times.”


“That’s almost an accurate number at this point,” I put in. “What with me being immortal.”


But I turned to look back at him and frowned a little. “I’m just nervous because I want to ask you a question.”


“What?” Dream asked, skipping a few pawsteps ahead to catch up with my long tail. I had always moved faster than him and he always looked half amused that he had to keep up.


I took a deep breath, face flushing a little. “Can you preform the Ritual with me tonight?” The words came out in a rush. This was a serious thing. The Ritual meant that you were accepting my burden. Immortality. All the gifts and curses. It also meant that you would forever be part of my family. My group. Mine and Dream’s.


My mate and deputy looked a little surprised at my words. He knew that no one other than I had ever uttered the words that would change you. The gray tom opened his mouth, shocked that I had asked him. Why? He was my mate. Weren’t we supposed to share everything, even leadership abilities?


“Are you sure Tawnysky won’t mind?” his voice hinted that he only had her feelings in mind.


My answer didn’t even need to be thought out. “She’ll be fine with it.”


She’d been with us two years. We had taken her in from a faraway clan at six moons. She had wanted a clan name and we had given her one. Now she wanted to become part of my ‘clan’. A member forever.


I turned back and walked into camp, my long tabby fur bushed up in expectation. Dream padded up again, and this time he was the one to bump my side. “It will be fine,” he whispered to me. “It’s just like those clans making apprentices.”


Wrong. I thought. He was just saying that to reassure me. This, what I was doing, was called the Giving of the Gift, the Ritual. I always got nervous. What if the cat regretted the choice they had made? There was no going back. I had to be very sure that I saw that they didn’t really want this. If I made a mistake, then it would be forever.


A couple of cats looked my way. Glow gave me a smile that showed he was on my team. He was silently wishing me well and I noticed that his eyes were drawn to my fluffed-up fur. He winked at me, mouthing ‘Tawny will be fine.’ I gave him a smile in return, grateful that he knew his friend so well.


My mouth was dry as I stepped out of camp again, Dream still following me. We traveled up the tumbled stones that lead to the Ritual site. Tawnysky was already waiting at the top. She sat, her brown pelt flecked with black blending in with the stone she was sitting on. She looked over at me when she saw me approach, ears raising as she watched me climb the rocks. It wasn’t until I’d climbed onto the rock just above hers that I noticed that she had already found the rock prepared for the Ritual. Claw marks covered the rock, in patterns not even I knew the origin of. Dream took up a position on a rock just below Tawnysky’s. His face was one of consideration as he tried to remember the words I would use.


“Are you ready?” I asked Tawnysky, looking her in the eye. The she-cat’s gaze didn’t move from mine and she slowly nodded her head. “Yes, Rattlesnake. As much as I can be.”


That wasn’t a statement of hesitation, I noted. It was half with amusement, as if she was joking, and I gave her a swift smile. Her eyes showed a little concern in them, because I think it was directed at me and I wondered if every cat in my clan knew how seriously I took this. Enough so that they worried for me. I really needed to work on my acting.


“What do I do?” she asked, after a couple more seconds of hesitation. I looked over at Dream, wanting to include him. My mate gave a surprised sort of cough and then answered Tawnysky. “You just move to the center of the rock. Rattle- I mean we’ll take it from there.”


I nodded my head. The words came easily to my mouth, like they were made to be spoken by me. “Hanc potestatis tibi transfero quasi gentis mei sitis.” I waited, letting Dream cut in. He looked up at me, then added his own voice. His eyes sparked, like he could feel how important this was.


Tawnysky, on her rock, had closed her eyes. She was biting her lip, I noticed.


“Hoc donum et anathema tibi transfero ut onus meum conmunices. Laborem et dolorem tuum accipio ut meum accipias,” Dream continued, leaving the last sentence for me.


However, as I opened my mouth, a hiss of pain came from Tawnysky. I looked at her, worry in my voice as I spoke the last words. I… I didn’t know what was wrong, but couldn’t leave things half finished. That almost seemed… worse. Like it would break something. Maybe Tawnsky herself. “Quis alicui accidet omni et mei mortuo potestas mea eristis.”


What happens to one happens to all and upon my death you shall be my power.


As the last words left my lips, that was when it all happened. Tawnysky began to shake, her eyes flying open. Garbled words escaped her lips. “Hu-hu-hurts.”


No, I thought, claws digging into the rock as I leaned forward. No, no, no. This wasn’t supposed to happen. Pain was not part of the process.


Dream had already leaped off his rock and was at Tawnysky’s side at once. He licked her ear, trying to calm her. But she was shaking like a leaf, eyes wild. I leapt off the rock I was on as well, trying to balance myself beside the two other cats. I didn’t know what to do. I wasn’t even sure what had gone wrong.


Blood leaked from the corner of Tawnysky’s mouth. I could smell it. I think she had bitten her tongue. Dream looked over at me, eyes wide. Our brains were both numb, because even I couldn’t think of what to do. It took another full second of Tawnysky shaking against my side before I gasped the name I wanted.


“Newsong! Get Newsong!” Dream understood at once, bless him, and was off running to camp again. I pressed my body again Tawnysky, taking over the licking of her ears. “It will be alright,” I said, over and over, until I knew it was a lie. Nothing was right. I could almost sense what was happening to her. The power I had been gifting her, and I spat the word inside my head, was warring with the power that Dream had given. A sickness within her very power. Her spirit. I closed my eyes. There would be nothing that Newsong would be able to do, though he would try everything he could. This wasn’t something you would be able to fix with herbs.


Tawnysky’s shaking was slowly fading and her dead eyes were looking up at me. Her mouth opened, and another trickle of blood escaped the edges. “What’s happening?” she moaned.


I leaned into her shoulder, suddenly wishing to any powers that would listen that I could act. That I could lie with a silver tongue. She would see through whatever I said, I knew. So, all I did was kept her close. I held her close as the remaining light faded from her eyes and the shaking grew again. I didn’t know what I had created. I didn’t know what I had done. Why I had made this great mistake simply by wanting another to share in this moment. This moment that I had thought was special. That it was something that I could give.


Everyone creates their own undoing. I am immortal and Tawnysky will be immortal. But if one cannot die, then one may just as easily go insane. It had just happened sooner to this poor warrior. Years and years before it should have. Sickness. I had created a sickness.


Our powers come from blood. The blood of a family woven together by this Ritual. If one or more of use preform the Ritual, it mixes our powers. Mixed. I created Mixed Blood. Oh, stars, what have I done? What have I done to you, Tawnysky?


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Latin translation by ~Sapphire~