- Aug 7, 2022
- 345
- 65
- 28
IF THE POINT'S TO NEVER DISAPOINT YOU, SOMEBODY'S GOT TO TELL ME WHAT TO DO
The day Quillstrike had been made a warrior, Blazestar had said that Starclan honored him for his bravery and fighting skills. They were the traits that had earned him his name, and every day since then he’d done everything he could to live up to the expectations placed on him from it. Therefore, predictably so, being injured and forced into light duty wasn’t ideal for a cat like Quillstrike. His apprenticeship had been spent beneath a mentor determined to forge him into something worthy of clan life, and where he’d fallen short socially he’d excelled in the realm of provider and protector- even if he wasn’t the most charismatic guy around.
Being unable to do those things had left him agitated and isolated in the months since his fall, frustrated over all the things he could no longer do while his shoulder healed. It’d driven a wedge between him and the cats he’d once called friends, and he’d fallen behind on a lot when it came to the personal matters of those around him. Stars, he couldn’t even name every face in the camp right now, which left a bitter taste in his mouth upon realizing just how careless he’d been. What if one of those cats was the next Kuiper?
Thistleback wasn’t around to put them down anymore, which meant Quill had to be.
Right now though, the chimera wasn’t allowed to do much more than walk around to help exercise his still-sore shoulder, which meant he was stuck on light duty for the next week until the last of the bruising cleared up. And while it wasn’t ideal it was at least a start to breaking the maddening nothing that his days had been beforehand.
Besides, it wasn’t as if he was entirely useless, even if he would prefer to be training or bringing in prey for the clan. One of the upsides to an apprenticeship under Thistleback - particularly the kind Quillstrike had, which was meant to be a punishment- was that the dark-furred tabby had gotten extremely good at mundane things. He could weave a nest better than most cats in the clan, could find and crack ticks without flinching at the taste, and was an expert at recognizing and repairing weak-points in the camp and den walls. Even his grooming skills were insanely good, in part thanks to his mate.
So, deciding he was tired of being useless, he’d gone out that morning with Beetleback and a few others to collect moss. His shoulder was a bit sore from the walking since it was his first venture out of camp, and he figured its be good enough ‘rest’ if he sat down in the nursery and freshened up some of the nests/checked on the walls to make sure there were no weak spots letting in the stuffy air or rain from the sudden thunderstorms.
”Hey, Butterflytuft.” he greeted in that dull tone of his as he stepped inside with his bundles of moss that an NPC was helping him carry. ”I brought some moss-”
He stopped short in surprise upon seeing another body in a second nest a short distance away, immediately recognizing the cream and white fur of Honeysplash, his ex-mate. That’s right- she’d been due for kits, he’d totally forgotten. Wasn’t even sure who their father was since he’d been avoiding everyone like the plague the last few moons, but a glance at the brood made it easy to guess. She always had been fond of Chrysaliswing.
He wasn’t sure what he felt at seeing her face to face like this, with no obvious buffer between them aside from Butterflytuft, but he found himself less bothered than angry. There was still a small part of him -his pride, he thought- that was bitter over having been so easily abandoned without a word by someone who once said to have loved him, but a bigger part of him was over it. He was happy now, and he wouldn’t change that for anyone.
But social situations were not his forte, and he had no idea what the etiquette was for this. Did he even care?
”Sorry, didn’t know you were here already.”
Did it sound kind of shitty simply because he was bad with inflection? Absolutely. Did he mean it that way? No. In reality, it was actually an attempt to assure her he hadn’t left her out on purpose. He wasn’t sure if she would recognize it as that though, and was quick to move on.
”Anyways, I’m stuck on light duty so I brought some moss to freshen up the nests and patch any holes in the den walls so the stuffy air doesn’t get in here.” he explained. Once, he’d been a frequent face to the queens and elders simple because his apprenticeship habits had carried over into warrior routines, but it’d been a while since he’d come through and it wasn’t as familiar to him as it once was. Hopefully his return -even if he as stuck on ‘light duty’- would remedy that.
OOC-Quill is attempting to find some normalcy in his routines now that he's clear for light duty/returning to activity, so here he is! Hello!!! <3 tag to @butterflytuft and @Honeysplash for interacting, but this is open to anyone who'd be int he nursery (Queens, kits, and visitors), and there's no need to wait for those tagged before replying :)
skyclan - male - 29 months (Feb 17th) - mated to Twitchbolt - a very tall, dark chimera tomcat with mismatched eyes and several scars. has bluejay feathers woven like spikes along his spine and neck.
