private crematorium // sootspot

[cottonsprig]

"Ah!" Cottonpaw arches her back into the roof of the tunnel, the stretch inhibited by the space, yet a smile encapsulating her expression nonetheless, "I did begin to miss this..." she continues, though her thought trails off as she resumes her stance, following close behind her brother. She's not as close to him as she is Cloudedsky, but the grey furred femme still treasures the chimera nonetheless; even more when he indulges her like this.

"Thank you for taking me out," the young trainee hums, tapping his tail end with a paw to catch his attention, "With everything that's going on... the medicine den can get a bit stuffy. It's nice to escape a bit." Instinctively she casts her gaze upwards, though the packed dirt of the tunnel leaves her no room to see the stars. She hopes that whatever she says isn't considered blasphemous - to want a break should not be wrong... right? She finds her brother next, her only source of true judgement in the moment, before she tries to pick his brain.

"How're you feelin' about... it?" she asks, almost too unwilling to properly acknowledge the illness.​

 

[SOOTSPOT]

Sootspot could not claim complete happiness at the idea of Cottonpaw being down in the tunnels with him again. It was a dangerous place and, out of all of his clanmates, it was his siblings that distracted him the most. They had given so much to the clan, yet in return, had taken so much from himself. He had a duty as a brother and a Tunneler to care for them, he had desires as his mother's son to see them be made redundant in the emerald eyes of the Leader. For now, it was less of a balancing act between the two and more of a begrudging acceptance that loyalty to the family meant putting up with their idiosyncrasies. He listened to Cottonpaw's ramblings with the occasionally shifting ear, even when his gaze remained fixated on the narrow area surrounding them. "Naturally. It shall be even stuffier still come next moon," he reminded Cottonpaw with a wanton smile. "To carry kittens while training the clan's future medicine cat is..." An eye twitched, a deceptively jovial expression faltered. Then, just as surely as day turned to night, the pleasantries returned as he looked over his shoulder toward the apprentice. "You would do well to take time away while you still can."

Traitor council, traitor medicine cats, now, Cottonpaw spoke of an illness that only promised to get worse now that it had drawn first blood against a WindClan warrior. Wolfsong was going to same route as Dandelionwish, he feared. Should the call of a lupine be heard from the moors, he would know it was StarClan's first warning against the medicine cat. Sootspot stopped in his tracks, black paws scuffing the floor as he whipped around, lithe body like that of a polecat amidst the dark tunnels. "I think the kittypets should be forced to give reparations to all the clans they have infected. They have only killed weak-bodied moor runners so far, but that may change. It demands a reply, be it in herbs or blood." The chimera felt his gut twist at an idea - the death of strong WindClanners promised a StarClan that could rid itself of SkyClan's deceased. Perhaps being denied an afterlife was revenge enough, there was a fear of fading away that went unparalleled compared to other such phobias and he didn't see the other clans disagreeing with the idea when the kittypets had brought so much destruction.

He shook his head. Hypothesis, it was just a hypothesis, he wished not for a war with the ones who'd killed his mother and corrupted the very heavens themselves. Someone else could fight that war. "As for WindClan... I admit, I worry." Blasphemy hung on the tip of his tongue, carefully, he tried to find a way to word his next statement without inciting too much of it. "Should we grow sicker, you will be the only one capable of healing us, but Wolfsong would benefit keeping the knowledge you need to learn all to himself." Lest he be thrown aside once his usefulness had subsided. WindClan's fate could all dwell on one animal who'd soon face split loyalties. "Try to learn all you can from him about the disease before he devotes his time to his own kin. I may support you where possible." A promise he wasn't keen on keeping, not with how annoying Cottonpaw could be. All the same, he loved his little sister.
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