bury a friend & mallowlark

[Dandelionwish]

He'd been so stupid to even try and even stupider still to blurt out what happened without thinking as if WindClan would not take it as a great offense. But he didn't expect this level of warmongering, cats were dying and he supposed the brittle nerves that bound them all had finally frayed to snap and anything to get the blood pumping and zest for life back would be taken. Oh, SkyClan, he's so sorry. He never meant for this, he should have listened to his leader for once and not shown their weakness. Part of him recalls the brief stares of sympathy from the other medicine cats as he left, even Beesong who had dismissed him so often prior, but he could never condemn the velvet prophet his refusal. While he would never do the same in his circumstances, the infection that was Sootstar had so deeply reached into both their clans that locking it off to fester and die alone was an obvious path.
He's dragging his paws as he searches for the black-footed tom, he had seen him briefly staring at Sootstar's little prayer circle and it took every ounce of will in his body to not charge in and begin to scream at her that this was all her doing. If she was not the merciless and greedy tyrant that she was they could have obtained aid, but her remorseless actions were no better than the medicine cats who abandoned their apprentices in favor of their own indulgences. Dandelionwish lifts his head up, but not too high, with Mallowlark's white pelt it was hard to see him in the snow but finally he finds the other sequestered away from the camp's edge by the dark paws and off-color eyes.
He doesn't know what to say at first. He knows, if only vaguely, the white tom was friends with the SkyClan healer and while Dawnglare and he were not close he worries for the other tom all the same; he does not want blood shed like this, he worries WindClan will take this chance to deal SkyClan a heavy blow by taking their prophet.
"M...Mallowlark, I'm ssss...." He can't get it out before he's already crying again, so used to holding them back and keeping his head high that it hurts his chest now to let it go, "I didn't mean for this...."

@MALLOWLARK
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[MALLOWLARK]

It was perhaps no surprise that he'd been distracted ever since the raid patrol had been sent out. Dressed up in his grin, he was otherwise vacant- his thoughts occupied a make-believe land where he could watch was was happening, whose claws met, whose jaws snapped at what flesh. The image of Dawnglare struck against the ground, starlit fur bloodied in the worst way, was near-impossible to push out of his mind. But he had to have faith- he did have faith, deep in the drumbeat of his heart. The mother would not bless them and rip them apart under the same moon. She... she would protect Dawnglare, with whatever means she had.

In spiralling stupor, it was by some miracle that he even saw Dandelionwish coming; the bracken-hued tom seemed subdued as he stumbled over, sadness aswim in green and gold eyes. Though his smile did not waver, a message intended to be encouraging, a frown flickered in his silver gaze, darkening it. What- Dandelionwish, crying like this? It was a peculiar sight indeed. Not that he seemed impenetrably cheerful, but he'd always been friendly, smiley. To see him like this- well, it was odd. Unsettling. Sad.

"Hey, hey! It's..." His throat dried up, slightly. That ever-present fear, even when there was no good reason to have it! Oh, whatever goop it was in his heart that was making him think like this... fret... "It's not your fault, Dandelionwish! Oh, don't- don't cry!" If he cried too much it might turn contagious, and a sight that would be, two blubbering messes! If he collapsed into sobs, he couldn't- help, anymore.​

[ PENNED BY PIN ]​