[open post -- winged and once-winged insects]

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad has collected every insect guide he could find in the mansion's library, and now he is camped out in a laboratory it seems to have created particularly for him and Susan -- the room has its own microscope, so that he can stop borrowing Claudius', and every single shelf is filled with glass habitats or mesh tents for keeping insects.

With his single-minded determination, he has filled many of them -- the tents house carefully potted foot-high milkweeds with tiny butterfly eggs affixed to their leaves, or potato plants he hopes will soon harbor potato beetles, or butterflies resting on the mesh. In the glass habitats there are millipedes, gleaming tenebrionid beetles, huge and bumbling scarabs, the dogbane leaf beetle Lancelot helped him capture, shiny blister beetles, leafhoppers in every shade of green, a pair of picasso bugs, an mantis he found in the greenhouse pretending to be an orchid flower.

Many of these insects stay only long enough to be identified and documented. Galahad and Susan between them take careful notes, make drawings, take pictures. When possible, they identify to species; more often, they identify genera or family, country of origin if they're lucky. Then they let their subjects go again. Neither of them has the time nor the inclination to feed and care for the immense diversity of insects living on the mansion's grounds. Potato beetles are one thing, but catching other tiny insects for the tiger beetles every morning is unsustainable. Galahad doesn't mind. Once he has a picture and the notes, the insect is saved, even if they don't see it again.

In the morning he trains with Lan Wangji, so it's an afternoon now when he's perched on a stool in front of the microscope, inspecting a chlaenius beetle to see whether it's possible to confirm a species. Unfortunately, these beetles are too fast and squirmy to put on a slide alive, so he's ethered it first. Now he's working diligently on his sketch, his pale head bowed as he studies the tiny body.

[Open especially to anyone who needs to be reassured that Galahad is back after the mod event and he's just fine now]

Comments

[onthewillowsthere]

"How did he disappoint them?"

[mothwingofriverclan]

"Well, he and Leafpool ran away, but they came to their senses and came back and broke up," Mothwing explains. "Perhaps it's understandable that it was awkward between them, since every cat knew about what a disaster it was. But he took a mate in his own clan, Nightcloud, and anyone could see he didn't love her. It was all for show, so he seemed like a proper clan cat. In my opinion, he should have just kept his head down and worked hard at being a good warrior and everyone would have forgotten in time. Well, except that he got Leafpool with kits, so that always would have been a problem..."

[onthewillowsthere]

"Did she have to take care of them by herself?" Single parenthood is less obscure as a concept to Galahad since he started reading romance novels, but he isn't sure about how the Clans feel about unwed mothers.

[mothwingofriverclan]

"Actually, she gave them to Squirrelflight, and Squirrelflight passed them off as her own. Squirrelflight’s Leafpool's littermate. No one but the two of them knew the kits were half-Clan until they were all grown cats. It was a horrible shock to them, and to Bramblestar as Squirrelflight’s mate. I was raised knowing that my mother wasn't a Clan cat, and my father wasn't from RiverClan, so I never had a pure Clanborn identity like that, but I imagine it was hard to have that shattered." Mothwing speaks with some sympathy, but there's a skeptical edge in her lashing tail.

Poor Hollyleaf, Jayfeather and Lionblaze, who had Leafpool as their mother and two loving foster parents. Mothwing's father was one of the worst villains the clans had ever seen.

[onthewillowsthere]

Privately, Galahad wasn't expecting there to be so many dramatic elements to these relationships, and he's looking forward to telling Claudius, who is very good at being shocked or amused or smug at the right moments, at raising his brows to say "Oh," or murmuring, "Indeed," and "Very observant," when Galahad offers his own thoughts instead of just retelling events exactly. "How did everyone find out?"

[mothwingofriverclan]

"I don't know how Hollyleaf--Leafpool's daughter--found out, but she announced at a Gathering of all four clans in front of everyone," Mothwing meows. "It was very dramatic."

[onthewillowsthere]

He can perfectly imagine Claudius' expeession at finding out Hollyleaf announced the truth of her parentage at a Gathering (Claudius would lay emphasis there, even if he had no knowledge of a Gathering beforehand -- he always knows what's significant and how to make it stand out). "Was everyone upset?"

[mothwingofriverclan]

"Oh, of course. She ran away right after that, and everyone thought she had died in a tunnel collapse."

[onthewillowsthere]

A tunnel collapse? the Claudius in Galahad's head drawls, in a perfect expression of shock.

"What happened next?"

[mothwingofriverclan]

"She was gone for a long time. Leafpool had to give up being a medicine cat for a little while, and Squirrelflight and Bramblestar broke up. Eventually, though, they got back together and had some kits of their own. And Leafpool was reinstated to medicine cat. Hollyleaf came back and died saving the Clans from the Dark Forest's attack."

[onthewillowsthere]

"When did you come here? What was happening?"

[mothwingofriverclan]

"I came here shortly after we defeated the impostor in Bramblestar's body, when Willowshine died. Things have been relatively peaceful, so I can only hope the clan is doing alright with Frostpaw. Hopefully, another clan sent a medicine cat to finish her training."

[onthewillowsthere]

He nods. "Thank you for telling me."

[mothwingofriverclan]

"Of course. It's all common knowledge, back home."

[onthewillowsthere]

After a few moments he says, "Do you still want to do a lesson?"

[mothwingofriverclan]

"Alright." Mothwing leaps down onto the floor. "Let's go outside, then."

[onthewillowsthere]

For his part, Galahad stands and caps the lens of the microscope so it won't get scratched, puts the beetle away in a little box, and grabs his messenger bag. "I'm ready."

[mothwingofriverclan]

Mothwing rubs comfortingly against his leg one last time, telling herself the touch is for him, not her.