- Feb 28, 2024
- 45
- 12
- 8
𓆱 He’s been doing pretty good for the past few days, all things considered. He’s been eating and practicing his hunting crouch and… and pretending that everything is okay. Pretending to smile and flicker his tail to show everyone that he’s still happy. Even though he isn’t. His smiles look too sharp, too forced, and they don’t meet murky blue-brown eyes. His paws twitch and tremble at all times. His tail whips and lashes with too much force to be casual. And his… his laughing is getting worse and worse. It’s more frequent than ever before, happening anytime he thinks too hard about why Snowypaw left.
He’s not putting on a very good façade to begin with, but today it crumbles completely.
Frogs don’t taste the same without his black-and-white sister. This one tastes like dirt. His mouth feels too dry, and the lilac tabby’s perpetually-smiling expression shifts unconsciously into a deep frown as he eats. But still, he eats peacefully, until it happens. He doesn’t know what really triggers it, but the anger that’s been welling up inside him for days finally overflows. Before he knows it he’s hooking the frog’s dangly leg with a needle-sharp claw and flinging it a whisker’s length away from him. It flops limply into the dirt, and Branchkit glares at it as though it’s the problem. A clanmate, probably meaning well, nudges the frog back to him and asks what’s wrong with it, and the kit only continues to scowl at it.
Finally, the other cat asks if he’s okay, and Branchkit stands up fully, turning his glare upon them. "NO!" He shouts, voice rising to a high, squeaky pitch. The fur at his neck bristles out, a mane of spiked-out fur resembling the father he doesn’t know. "Leave me alone!" In the heat of the moment, a laugh tears itself forcibly from his throat, and tears cloud his vision. He wants them to go away. He wants to eat something else. He wants… "I want SNOWY!" Maybe if he screams and cries loud enough, his sister will hear him wherever she is.
He’s not putting on a very good façade to begin with, but today it crumbles completely.
Frogs don’t taste the same without his black-and-white sister. This one tastes like dirt. His mouth feels too dry, and the lilac tabby’s perpetually-smiling expression shifts unconsciously into a deep frown as he eats. But still, he eats peacefully, until it happens. He doesn’t know what really triggers it, but the anger that’s been welling up inside him for days finally overflows. Before he knows it he’s hooking the frog’s dangly leg with a needle-sharp claw and flinging it a whisker’s length away from him. It flops limply into the dirt, and Branchkit glares at it as though it’s the problem. A clanmate, probably meaning well, nudges the frog back to him and asks what’s wrong with it, and the kit only continues to scowl at it.
Finally, the other cat asks if he’s okay, and Branchkit stands up fully, turning his glare upon them. "NO!" He shouts, voice rising to a high, squeaky pitch. The fur at his neck bristles out, a mane of spiked-out fur resembling the father he doesn’t know. "Leave me alone!" In the heat of the moment, a laugh tears itself forcibly from his throat, and tears cloud his vision. He wants them to go away. He wants to eat something else. He wants… "I want SNOWY!" Maybe if he screams and cries loud enough, his sister will hear him wherever she is.
