Redemption. Water-lily had been so proud of that name. A name that symbolized the trials of their kithood and the trials of their apprenticeship. They had been a failure before. A falconcat so afraid of the ground, they wouldn't dare spread their wings. Looking up at their parent as fae gave them their warrior name had been the happiest moment in their life. Water-lilyredemption had never thought that they'd ever have to redeem themself again. They had thought... hoped, really, that the worst was behind them. They had their family. They had Wildfirelament again. Everything would be fine. The sun had seemed brighter that day, the leaf-fall wind softer, the world somehow less terrifying. But they had been wrong. Because Snugglebugstar had left. And fae had left Water-lilyredemption behind. All of faer transgressions seemed to press against Water-lily's shoulders, carving new anxieties deep into the brown-feathered warrior's chest. Redemption wasn't a reminder of their past successes. It was a reminder of all that they had inherited: their parents forbidden love, their chaos, the shame that Snugglebugstar had run from. Every time, Water-lily's mind would whisper that they weren't enough. That all they were... and all they would ever be in the eyes of Starclan and Falconclan alike... was a mistake. A pitiable one. But a mistake would always be a mistake, just as a cat couldn't change their fur. And yet… despite the tight coils of fear and shame wrapping around their chest, squeezing tightly against their heart, Water-lilyredemption refused to crumble. They couldn't. All they had ever wanted was to be good enough. Good enough to stand beside their friends. Good enough to stand with their family. Water-lilyredemption would live up to their name. Every twitching whisker, every breath, every heartbeat, they would follow the code. For their clan. For Wildfirelament. For Snugglebugstar. They would prove themselves more than the mistakes of their parents, more than the chaos of their past. They were a warrior. A falconcat. A redeemer. And no matter how impossible it seemed… they would not fail again. Because if they did… Water-lilyredemption didn’t know if they’d have the strength to pick up the pieces once more. ⇷———————༻❀༺———————⇸ I really need to do better at getting srps out on time. I keep writing them and then they just sit in my google doc forever because I procrastinate too long before posting em. Maybe in a million years after Wlily I'll just post em all in a big dump and call them non-canon or something lol. Anyways I drew the art in 30 minutes because I refuse to post something without a thumbnail. Its not good and I used an anti-ai filter that I hope works because Scratch updates suck. Hope you enjoyed reading.
