|☾ ☼ ϟ ≈ Skyclan: The Resilient and Tough |☾ ☼ ϟ ≈ ☁| ☼

Firefang helped bring Emberpaw down, breathing a sigh of relief as she reached safety. Thank StarClan she didn't fall. Now we just need Spiritstar to come back down. he thought, feeling nothing but confidence in his leader.

Jadefeather didn’t let go of Emberpaw until she was safely on the solid ground of the top of the cliff. She gave a deep exhale of relief, quickly licking the dust and pebbles from her daughter’s pelt. “Oh, Emberpaw, you had me worried sick! Are you hurt, why would you be all the way out here trying to climb this!”

“I-I’m sorry.” Emberpaw apologized shakily, sniffing in a breath. “I-I just thought I could make it, I… I won’t ever do it again, I’m sorry!” She promised.

Spiritstar breathed in relief hearing Skyflight's call. She kept her gaze upward, refusing to acknowledge the depth of the fall she had sustained in her youth. Spiritstar carefully climbed to the next ledge. When it shifted, her skipped a beat and she widened her stance. Spiritstar swallowed uneasily. That was close, she breathed slowly, and gradually shifted her weight so she could climb up with the others. Yet, the moment her front feet lifted and her weight shifted back, the ledge gave way.

The moment felt like a lifetime. Freefall caught Spiritstar and her mind rushed back to all those moons ago. She saw Cliffpaw's horrified face getting further and further away. The fear she felt back then returned tenfold. She knew what came next. The cold splash of the river below before everything went black. What if she forgot her Clan this time? What if she got swept further down the river? What if she never found out who she really was? Spiritstar blinked and Cliffpaw turned back to Jadefeather, Skyflight, and the other warriors. She realized then she was screaming, but she cut herself off to suck in a breath for the cold splash she knew would come.

But it never came.

Everything just went black.

~~~

Spiritstar hit a ledge at the bottom of Jagged Drop. A crack echoed up the rocks and the silver she-cat didn't move.

Skyflight watched in horror as Spiritstar's body hit the bottom of the cliff with a sickening crack. Her heart pounded, ears flat against her head. "J-Jadefeather, take Warblerpaw and Emberpaw back to camp. Quickwing, Firefang, we have to climb down and get her." she mewed shakily. She steeled her nerves before she carefully lowered herself down onto the cliff's face, determined to make it down to her leader.

"Hi, I'm Lolo. Yes, they had looked, Spiderbite and his grumpiness gave me some herbs to eat." Lolo said, letting a mreeow of laughter.

“Warblerpaw!” Jadefeather exclaimed, forcing herself to push down her own horror to try and shield the sight from the younger tom. She ushered, voice rattled but urgent. “Come, come with me, away from the edge, okay? She… she has nine lives, she… she’ll come back, okay? She will, she has to!” Jadefeather promised, trying not to feel her heart breaking as she heard Emberpaw’s panicked sobs at her side.

"Yes, everycat of your clan know me I guess. Before this accident..." Lolo confirmed and shook lightly her head.

"Not too much, I have a owner. At least I can go outside when she is not home!" Lolo adimited. Thinking on this, she'd remind Jumbo and her promise.

“Oh! Like a kittypet, then?” Nettlesting asked, though it was clear he wasn’t judgmental about it. If anything, he was utterly curious about it. “What’s it like having a twoleg? Are they loud, do they smell funny?” He asked, chattering off questions.

"It will be okay." Jadefeather murmured as soothingly as she could, as she ushered the two apprentices away from the cliff and back in the direction of camp. "It's okay-"

"I-It's all my fault." Emberpaw sobbed. "I didn't mean to- it wasn't supposed to happen, the cliffs weren't that loose! It should have been me who fell!"

"Don't say that!" Jadefeather exclaimed, leaning close to pull Emberpaw close to her with her tail. "Nobody deserves to fall, but you did not choose for this to happen. You should never have been here in the first place, but you did not ki-... you did not wish for that to happen." She glanced at Warblerpaw, nodding again. "Spiritstar will come back, she's... she's the strongest cat I know."

While the rest of the camp hushed and whispered and conversed about Emberpaw's daring climb and the patrol that ran after her, Withermist found himself enticed to sit at one of the sturdy ledges that made up the den walls in camp. He stared down from the top of the ledge, the strange feeling in his chest making him shudder every few minutes, though his eyes remained unblinking. He had done the same right after the Great Fire, watching Goldfire plummet from the cliffs to his death. Such an odd feeling then, as if a part of him had fallen, away into darkness. But. All of his dreams were dark and quiet, calming even in the empty cold. Withermist gave a raspy hum from his throat, a small and hollow noise. Something was wrong, and someone was falling. He just didn't know who, or why.

Poppyclaw paced around camp, quickly moving to make sure that Specklepaw wasn't running off and climbing cliffs like Emberpaw clearly had. The stern tom looked around sharply, taking note of Basilpaw, Wingpaw, Bumblepaw and Flyingpaw sitting near eachother. Surely Specklepaw wasn't far from her brothers.

Flarestorm slipped up to Briarpatch's side, assuring her. "It'll all be fine. They'll all come back, Emberpaw will get a moon's worth of chores, and nobody will climb the Jagged Drop again until they're assigned to do it when they're older. Easy peasy." He offered, wanting to calm his mate, who happened to be Emberpaw's mentor. "She's rambunctious, almost all cats her age are."

Poppyclaw's ear flicked sharply as he spotted Specklepaw dozing with Basilpaw, approaching the two apprentices with a gruff snort. "Hey. Did either of you know about this, with Emberpaw and Hawkpaw sneaking off?" He demanded firmly. Basilpaw shot up with a small gasp, the sight of the stern tom making him stiffen as he tried to look presentable. 

"Oh, Poppyclaw! That- what? We didn't-" He cleared his throat, his voice steadying. "We didn't know they even left..."

"I just wish Warblerpaw didn't run out there. Whatever happens, I can tell he's going to be frazzled about it." Flarestorm sighed, though he didn't blame the tom. If it was his mother out there, he would run there too. He focused back on Briarpatch. "You're right though. They're all great Warriors for a rescue patrol... are you doing okay? I don't want you to be too stressed." He mewed, genuine in his concern for her.

Quickwing had moved to the edge of the ledge to help Spiritstar up those last couple tail length. She had just been about to call down to her leader when the ledge gave way. Her voice died in her throat, all that came out being a chocked gasp. Quickwing watched her leader plummet, hitting the ground with a sickening crack.

It was like her paws moved before her brain did, hurrying forward to start the dangerous climb down Jagged Drop. The blood pounded in her ears echoed out the voices and cries of her clanmates above as she moved to quickly scale down the cliff. Her paws were on autopilot, carefully weaving their way down the precarious ledges to the body below. Her nerves from before steeled, she had a job to do and she couldn’t let fear stop her from reaching Spiritstar.

Specklepaw shook her fur out as she woke up a bit more, Poppyclaw's words sinking in. "Jagged drop? How stupid are they?" she mewed without thinking about it. She clamped her jaw shut after she said it, immediately embarrassed for saying something so brash in front of her mentor. "The sun was so warm this morning, Basilpaw and I thought it would be good to do a bit of basking. We must have fallen asleep."

Briarpatch flicked her tail, "I feel bad changing her mentor when she's so far into training, I can teach her for a little bit longer, but I don't think I'll make it to see her earn her name." she mewed with a sigh. "Spiritstar will have to choose another cat to finish out her lessons."