As We All Fall From Grace

[.:*Hawkstar*:.]

Bleak jumped slightly at Ash nudging him, allowing her nose to guide him away. "But..." He couldn't protest, Ash was having Scratch go along with it. Lowering his head some, the small tabby cat was ushered over to the back of the cave, resting his head down on the pile of moss before him. And as Scratch rested next to him, Bleak nuzzled closer, taking comfort in the soothing motion of that black tail down his spine.

Staring intently at his siblings' bodies, the golden tabby tom willed them into the world of awareness. He just wanted to see them open their eyes, but his refused to stay open themselves. He was too tired, too worn, too exhausted to stay up.

The harsh yellow orbs finally fluttered shut, the tom's breathing growing into the slow pattern of sleep...


Ash... I have to wake up... She might be hurt... She might be.. No.

Twig opened his eyes. They felt heavy, as did the rest of his body. His throat hurt. What had happened? Oh, yes. It was slowly streaming back to him. His father had attacked him, knocked him out. And it was black from there.

Blinking his eyes shut tightly, Twig snapped them open to their full span. Their yellow pits scanned his surroundings. The cave. Bleak's cave. He had been out in the field when attacked.

At least someone was still alive.

Do I dare try to move? Twig challenged himself, glancing down at his paws. He twitched them. They worked some. But his head felt so heavy...

No. He was going to do this. Bringing his paws up to his body, the spice-colored cat put them under his body and pushed off of his side. His head whirled, but he refused to lay back down. He was on his feet now, wobbling, stumbling.

His maw parted, saliva and blood stringing from his fangs as he voiced the name of the one who had brought his to the world of the waking. "Ash..."

[{Lunarstar}]

Ash's ear twitched at her name. It was faint, and she could have been imagining it, but she still got up and walked into the cave. And was immediately horrified. She ran to Twig's side and shoved him back down, not with enough force to hurt him. "Twig! No standing!" she muttered, grabbing a ball of wet moss and placing it in front of her mate's mouth. "Drink." she murmured, sitting back down beside him.

"Does your throat hurt? Do you want some poppy seeds? Hungry-- Oh! Bleak!" Ash quickly went to Scratch and nodded at him to wake up Bleak, then hurried back to Twig's side.

She bent down and trailed her nose around his cuts, looking for swelling or redness. They looked okay. She then realized something: Twig was awake. She pulled back and stared at him, looking for anything she had missed earlier, he looked well enough. "Twig!" Ash cried, face alight in pure elation and bliss. She pressed her nose against his muzzle and began to purr. He was alright. And if he was, the other ghosts would be too! "Oh Twig, I was so worried about you." she whispered, closing her eyes against the stinging feeling in her eyes. The threat of tears.

[.:*Hawkstar*:.]

Twig bit his tongue to hold back the yelp of pain as he was thrust back down. And after all his hard work. But, he still smiled weakly as his mate babbled on and on. He slowly took a lap or two from the moss before him, the cold water stinging his throat.

Lifting his head back up, Twig curled his paws underneath his body comfortably, nuzzling into Ash's shoulder. "I was worried for you, Ash," he admitted shyly. "I thought that my father would have..." His voice trailed off. Who knew speaking could be so hard? Wow. Now he could understand why Owl never liked to speak.

Purring like a motor, Twig closed his eyes, embracing the wondrous feeling of his love's touch. "I was so worried..."

And Like A Good Little Sister, I'll Ruin Your Romantic Moments.

"Owwww! That hurt!"

Shrill's silver tail thrashed once, stirring up dust along the cave floor. Her eyes were open, but she dared not move. She was just in pain. She had the right mind to stay down.

"Geez, if you were gonna be on our side in the end, why claw so hard?" The white cat growled, glaring at the Bengal she-cat from her nest. She flicked her tail at Twig in a silent greeting, receiving one in return a heartbeat later. Owl was still out.

Her expression softening, Shrill glanced over from Owl's body to Ash. "How's Owl? Is he gonna be okay?"

OOC:: Oh yeah... Bleak is sleeping like a rock. Scratch is gonna have troubles waking him. That's why all this happened first.

[{Lunarstar}]

Ash pulled away from Twig and returned to Owl's body. She cocked her head at the wound on his throat. "I think Owl will be fine...I can't say the same for his speech though. I don't know what another wound to the throat will do to him, for all I know he may not even be able to speak, or it won't affect him at all." Ash answered, inspecting the wound. It was doing fine.

She glanced at Shrill. "Are you okay?" she asked, knowing the other ghost was--

"Shrill? Twig? How are you guys doing this?" Ash asked, her thoughts returning to their solidity. "How are you staying solid for so long if you're so weak?" She stared at their solid pelts, remembered touching Twig, but remembering Twig tell her solidity wasn't something they could maintain very long.

[*Beechstar*]

The black tom nudged Bleak as soon as Twig woke. His mate would be overjoyed.

And then Shrill woke up. Scratch bumped Bleak again, trying to wake him. He still hadn't woke up.

The black cat stood up and tapped Bleak with his paw. "Bleak, Shrill and Twig are awake. Wake up!"

OOC: Sorry Scratch's is short. I can't write much more without power-playing

The Bengal did as she was told to do with the wet moss. She then sat down and waited for any signs of life from the ghosts.

She jumped up and yelled for Ash as Twig awoke. The ghost had muttered Ash's name, but she wanted to be sure she would come to him.

When Ash came in she started talking to Twig, and then Shrill awoke. Persephone jumped to her side, but stepped away after the other she-cat spoke. She was sorry for what she had done, but didn't know if these cats would ever truly trust her.

The she-cat waited for Ash to answer Shrill last question. When Ash was finished talking, she pushed the wet moss forward and said, "Drink this."

OOC: Sorry so short... no muse..

[.:*Hawkstar*:.]

Shrill flicked her tail, lapping at the moss set before her. "Uh, I dunno," she meowed casually to Ash. "When our bodies take wounds that we didn't get in our living time, we turn solid until those wounds are healed. Simple, I guess." She shrugged. "So, we are kind of alive at the time."

Bleak stirred, flicking his tail. He was tired. Why couldn't he be left alone? But, then the words registered.

His siblings. Awake.

Rocketing to his paws, Bleak waited for his head rush to end before he took a good look around. Twig and Shrill were up. "Are they both okay?" Bleak asked his substitute mother.

Twig answered his baby brother. "We're both okay, Bleak. Just tired."

[{Lunarstar}]

Ash glanced down at Owl. When would he wake up? Then, remembering the ghosts could get injured and stay injured, a new question came to her. One she didn't want to ask.

"Um, Twig, Shrill, can you guys die? Like never come back, from a serious enough injury?" Ash asked, not looking away from the tear in Owl's throat. Her eyes stung as she thought about one of the ghosts actually leaving for good. She'd miss them terribly. Even Owl. It would be like the pain she felt losing Ruby, but it would be a fresh cut, and would sting much longer.

OOC: GAH! Museless.

[*Beechstar*]

Persephone almost gasped at Ash's question. That would be horrible if it could! She waited for Shrill or Twig to answer.

The black tom was relieved when Bleak awoke and shot to his feet. Scratch kept running his tail up and down Bleak's back, trying to comfort him.

OOC: Your muse-less?!

[.:*Hawkstar*:.]

Bleak felt his legs become weak at Ash's question, and he felt himself becoming sick at the thought of what could happen if the tortoiseshell was guessing right. Bleak had to sit as to not collapse. "That's silly," he meowed sternly, trying to convince himself more than the others. "They're already dead. They can't die again." His harshly colored eyes zipped to the conscious ghosts. "Right?" His mew held concern. Losing his brothers and sister to his own killing was one thing, but to have them torn away again because of him...

Shrill frowned, looking down at her paws. Her yellow gaze flicked up to her peppery-patterned brother, her eyes begging his to tell. She was strong in Latin, and that was used for communicating with vicious ghosts. She wasn't well-practiced in sappy English-tongue. "Twig, vos dico lemma(Twig, you tell them)," the she-cat meowed in her now natural tongue. "Commodo(Please)."

Twig sighed, dipping his head to his shying sister. He turned his yellow gaze back to his older brother -his idol- and felt pain pull like marionette strings at his heart."Yeah, we can die. And I mean die die," the tom-ghost began, his eyes never leaving his brother's body. "If a solid ghost sustains an injury by a living animal, we could become Disturbed if the wound is great enough. When we are Disturbed, well, Ash, you should know. We aren't ourselves any longer." The tom paused, blinking once. "We don't no anything but destruction. And English is no longer our language. We speak the dead language of Latin, no pun intended. Then, if we are injured severely again... poof."

The tom looked away from Owl's body. His heart was throbbing, sinking down into his belly. "Poof. Gone. Forever."

Bleak couldn't take it. His stomach flipped, and he turned away with a sickening wretch-like sound. everything that had been placed into the runt's belly tumbled from his mouth, splashing to the cave floor.

Shrill and Twig could understand why.

OOC:: There, nice and long. And I even translated Shrill's words for you.

[{Lunarstar}]

Ash stared at Twig as he spoke, then her eyes switched over to Owl's still form. She pressed her nose to his fur, drawing in the warmth, the feel of life. She stood back up and cast Bleak a sympathetic glance. She didn't like this conversation any more than he did.

"How will we know if he's a Disturbed?" she asked, looking at her paws. She shuddered slightly at the memory of the Disturbed, and regretted adding Owl to the picture.

"And if he dies he'll just disappear?" Ash added, feeling her gut wrench at the thought of losing Owl. Even if she didn't care for him too much, she would never wish either of the possibilities on any cat. Ash shuddered, and left Owl's side, walking silently over to Twig. She sat beside him, her eyes filling with tears. She sent a silent prayer to the Stars, asking Ruby to let Owl live.

[.:*Hawkstar*:.]

Twig sighed, closing his eyes. "That's a question for Shrill. She has more experience with that race than Owl and me put together." His yellow gaze opened up to his little sister, who was staring reluctantly at the eldest brother.

"Yes," she murmured. "I do know more... Owl's body will begin to change if he is Disturbed. His wounds will be so great that they seem to have been done by something twice as large as what really did. That gash on his throat will be the thing you want to keep an eye on. If it starts to expand and he seems to be in pain, he's changing." She looked at her big brother with a pained expression. She couldn't stand the thought of losing him to the things that try to kill without reason. And Owl was the least fluent in Latin, and then it would become his natural tongue. "And when we die, we don't just poof. We fade, like the life drains from our bodies slowly. I don't know much after that, sorry..."

Twig gently ran his tail down Ash's spine in rhythmic strokes. His eyes were set on his gagging runt brother, but he spoke to everyone. "Owl will be okay. He's strong. And his wounds are holding up nicely. He'll be okay. All we can do is wait and rest up."

[*Beechstar*]

The tom nuzzled his mate after he threw up. Looking him in the eyes, he sent him looks saying, it's going to be ok. He let out a breath of relief when Twig said that Owl would make it. Rubbing against Bleak, Scratch took in his scent and clung to it.

The Bengal's face drooped into a frown as Twig and Shrill explained a lot of things. She watched as Bleak threw up, and felt sympathetic for him. Persephone knew how he felt, and thats exactly what she wanted to do, but held it down. They didn't need more to clean up.

OOC: Sorry so short

[{Lunarstar}]

Ash sighed heavily, the events of the day finally putting a weight on her back. She had been running on an adrenaline buzz all day, and she was in desperate need of sleep. She yawned and walked over to a corner of the cave. "Wake me up if he wakes!" she called to the others, dropping her head on her paws, her eyes already half closed. Ash was ready to lay their all night, asleep or not, just waiting for Owl to wake up. She was amazed how comfortable she was in a cave with three currently living ghosts, two gay cats, and the cat that tried to kill her. Well, she could do without Persephone.

OOC: mine's short, too... HAWKY! Wake Owl up! We're running out of muse!

[.:*Hawkstar*:.]

OOC:: Okay...

Bleak hung his head low, lightheaded from vomiting. He curled against Scratch, his eyes heavy. They would all wake when Owl did. He was sure of that. Closing his eyes, the small tabby tom fell like a rock into sleep.

Twig laid his head down on his paws and shut his eyes. He hadn't noticed how tired he was. After a moment or two, he was out like a light bulb.

Shrill relaxed, setting her head down on her paws. Her eyes watched Owl for as long as they could before she gave into the chains pulling her into sleep.

OOC:: Okay, the other cats are out before this part, okay? I'm just letting you all know.

Go back... Go back... Go back...

The violet eyes of a tomcat snapped wide open. Pain was flooding over his body, his throat, everything hurt. His jaws parted and he released a scream that reverberated throughout the cave that held the sleeping bodies of six others. His limbs thrashed, his heart racing, his fur fluffing out on his tail and upper flanks. His screams were powerful enough to the point that the wound on his throat began to split open once more, causing more pain and more thrashing.

He seemed to have an endless amount of adrenalin, his body flailing as if he had not been out like a light for a good portion of the night. his yowls for mercy and help seemed endless, just like his thrashes.

"Mercy! Mercy!" he cried, his throat throbbing with each cry. "Make it stop!"

[{Lunarstar}]

Ash was jolted awake by screaming. Owl's screaming. He was thrashing about wildly and screaming. Oh lord! He's becoming a Disturbed! she thought, running to his side. His wound looked like it had earlier, he looked like he had earlier.

"Are you okay, Owl?" she asked, bringing a ball of wet moss close to his face.

Dummy! she scolded herself. He's thrashing about in pain, obviously not alright.

OOC: Sorry. No muse at ALL. As Far As I Know is stealing all of my muse.