Better Leader (Sprouting Thorns bonus chapter)
Myrtlewing was a master at keeping his composure.
If he had to act happy and respectful, he could do it while smiling ear-to-ear or bowing his head as low as the roots beneath the soil, no matter how viciously rage boiled in his lungs or in his limbs, begging him to scream, to slash, to do anything to release the quivering fury that was forced to keep hidden.
But now, as he collected burdock for Aldereyes’s wounds, he felt that wall that he was so good at keeping up began to slip.
He chewed the roots up with sharp bites, and Aldereyes flinched, though didn’t hiss, as he applied the meshy, stinging herbs into the wound on the side of Aldereyes’s neck.
“...and he called me a coward!” Aldereyes went on, claws working in and out of the ground in frustration.
Aldereyes had led a patrol near the Carrion Place, when one of the warriors–Echofoot–apparently got too close, and a group of rats jumped them. It was four cats against six rats, and in the fight, Aldereyes killed two of them.
Everyone else had killed one at most, but that didn’t matter to Aldereyes’s father. As far as Stormstar was concerned, Aldereyes ran away like a coward when a second wave of rats was coming for the group.
Myrtlewing resisted the urge to lash his tail at the memory.
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“You just let them chase you away?” Stormstar had demanded after the patrol informed him of the attack.
“It wasn’t worth the risk,” Aldereyes responded, eyes unable to meet Stormstar’s.
“You don’t think protecting your Clanmates is worth the risk?” Stormstar’s voice had been loud, ringing out throughout the entire camp so not one of their Clanmates were unaware of the lecture. All eyes had been on the two cats–on Aldereyes as he was being yelled at.
“That’s not what I mean–”
“What if the rats kept chasing you?” Stormstar questioned. “You would have led them right to your vulnerable Clanmates. Maplefall is expecting, did you know that? What if they had bitten her? You would be responsible!”
Maplefall, in the watching crowd, gasped.
Aldereyes’s ears flattened. His head was ducked so far, his chin almost met his chest.
Echofoot stepped forward. “He fought more bravely than any of us,” she told her leader nervously.
But Stormstar wasn’t convinced. He sniffed disdainfully. “He killed two rats when, by your account, a total of over twenty attacked you. And I am meant to be pleased?” He glared at his son. “You weren’t a hero. You only did what you could without putting yourself in real danger so that no one would question it when you ran away like a kit. I expect more from my son. Get those scratches seen to, then make yourself useful, preferably something that will make up for your cowardice.”
—---------
“That was three days ago,” Myrtlewing responded to his friend, “and I still have to give you herbs for the wounds. Echofoot, Blazepad, and Mossflake were cleared two days ago.” His gaze locked with Aldereyes. “You are NOT a coward.”
Aldereyes’s muscles loosened, relaxing slightly, though his claws continued to work and his teeth clenched together so tightly, Myrtlewing thought that one would snap out and strike him in the eye. “It doesn’t matter. Nothing I do will convince Stormstar of my strength, or bravery, or….or anything that will make him proud of me.”
“A father like him doesn’t deserve a son like you.”
Aldereyes snarled at nothing. “I do everything for him! I trained from dusk ‘til dawn and even at night, and I still train! I work patrol after patrol, catch more than any other warrior, I win more fights, I’ve been undefeated in training for moons! I’m the best warrior in this Clan, Stars, the best cat! But he still looks at me like I’m–...like he hates to call me his son.”
Myrtlewing couldn’t think of any comforting words, so he decided to speak his feelings. “He’s a vile mange-pelt,” he spat. “He’s probably bitter because he knows that he’s a leader, but his son, a warrior, is twice the cat that he’ll ever be. If anything, he’s the coward,” he went on when Aldereyes didn’t respond. “He goes on and on about fighting and protecting the Clan, but when was the last time he got his own paws dirty?”
Aldereyes bristled. “Because he’s the leader. He could flip a pebble and cats will call him great for it, but I’d have to move a boulder from here to Fourtrees to get a simple ‘good work’ from him.”
Myrtlewing nodded in agreeing anger. “He’s nothing without his title, and he knows it. Everyone knows it. That’s why he calls you a coward,” Myrtlewing realized. “And it’s why he does it in front of everyone–to make himself look better, and to make you look worse, so cats forget that his own son is a better warrior, a better cat, and a better leader than he’ll ever be. He should be proud. The fact that he’s not is on him, not you.”
Aldereyes stared, eyes wide. Then he cleared his throat and looked away. “I’m not a leader.”
Myrtlewing shrugged. “I’d still say you’d make a better one.”
“You think so?”
“Yes. Now, get out before you make the whole den stink!”
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@elementaldeityoffood Stormstar hater, he's some more fire for the flames!
