Post by Fireflake on Oct 14, 2019 6:53:35 GMT
"Cats of the Alliance!" Scorpio called out at sun-high. He held an altogether different energy than any other time he'd stood there in front of them all, but this was a different occasion. He felt as if it should have been held outside, over their bodies, but Hornet had been buried in a small family affair, and Scorpio had been unable to carry Split's bones much farther than just outside of MothClan's territory, where they found their hopefully-final resting place underground. So here he was, a dozen or so pebbles laid out in front of him, trying to summon the energy to offer a worthy goodbye for his fellow Alliance cats, his fellow council cats, she-cats he'd known from a young age.
Scorpio took a moment to right his slowly flattening ears. "Everyone, please gather for important rituals!"
A flash of anger gave him just the spur he needed to start. They had better come. I announced it yesterday. Scorpio waited as long as he could be expected to wait for something he didn't want to be doing in the first place, then stepped down from the stone and made his way to the pile of pebbles in front of it. "This is the Ritual of Farewells for Hornet and for Split, which they will share as they shared the position of the council before I joined them. I'm sure it's only a matter of time before I join them again."
With that cynical but softly-spoken remark, Scorpio sat behind the pebbles. He began to slowly separate them out again. "For those of you new to our ways," of which there are one, "this is a ritual to remember the lives of the Anti-Clan Alliance's recently deceased. A cat, or several cats, speak about the lives they led, and then we yowl loudly to bid their spirits farewell. Their stone piles will join the others, and we keep them to remember the cats by."
Scorpio flicked his tail to the piles already there and felt the life drain from him once more at the sight of his mother's. It was easily recognizable, the biggest, with nearly as many stones than these two put together. Her own ritual, conducted by his sister Artemis, was the last time Scorpio had seen it done. The only time he'd seen it done, in fact.
It was a few moments before he could speak again. The pebbles had been put into two almost-even piles now. "It's a sad day, to recognize the loss of two dedicated she-cats, but that's not what we're here to focus on. We should remember instead that they stuck with us to the end, and that they contributed everything they could to this group, including many new members and many clan kills."
A barbed edge crept into his voice as he spoke. If he could find a way to make this about their upcoming attack on MothClan, and not about grief, he was definitely going to. If he could use it as some sort of test to scout out the group's most loyal, even better. "Would anyone else like to say a few words for either, before I begin my own speeches?"
